Guest Lecturer, Professor Garry Trompf FAHA

On Wednesday 27 May 2015, the College was privileged to host Emeritus Professor Garry Trompf, FAHA (Studies in Religion, the University of Sydney) as a guest speaker for the course units H7110A History of the Early Church and H8510A The Early Church. Prof. Trompf is former lecturer of Church History at St Andrew’s. He has contributed articles to the College’s journal, Phronema. He also presented at last year’s Patristic Symposium on St Dionysius of Alexandria’s Panegyric to Galerius as a ‘Foretaste of Eusebian Panegyricism’ (the article for which will appear in Phronema 30:2, to be published later this year). Prof. Trompf’s lectures were on Church and State relations from the first to the fourth century AD. The following reflections are by Mario Baghos (Associate Lecturer in Church History):

“I was out of my league in introducing Prof. Garry Trompf to my history class last night; firstly because from 2013-14 I tutored and lectured as his assistant for this course, and secondly because of the venerable status of this world-renowned scholar. So, in a spirit of gratitude, I introduced Prof. Trompf to a course that was formerly his, and with considerable charm and verve the esteemed scholar took us on a journey into the precarious situation of the Church within the hostile – and later accommodating – Roman Empire in the first four centuries AD. In the first part of his lecture, the Professor outlined the ‘overtures’ made by the Church to Rome in Luke-Acts, before turning to Apologists such as Minucius Felix who attempted to demonstrate the role of providence within the Empire itself by highlighting the co-incidence between the birth of Christ and the reign of the emperor Augustus. The Professor also mentioned the intermittent persecution of the Church by the empire, and elaborated upon the rapprochement between Church and State sought by bishops such as St Dionysius of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea.

In the second part of his presentation, the Professor outlined the problems that would arise from the relationship between the Church and State, such as the tensions between the Church’s pacifist stance and the Empire’s inherent militarism. This distinction between the Church and State is augmented by the fact that although the State – especially from the reign of Constantine onwards – would intervene in Church affairs, nevertheless the latter would develop its own internal governance, independent from the empire, in the form of councils and their canons. Despite the intermingling of Church and State from the fourth century onwards, Professor Trompf pointed to the ‘silence and stillness’ of the saints as transcending the problems that would often result from this relationship.

Many thanks to Prof. Trompf for these exciting lectures, and to the students for their attentiveness and insightful questions. We look forward to his return in Semester 2!”