CHRISTIAN AND NEOPYTHAGOREAN CYNICISM. - The existence of Christian c. is attested by Giuliano l'Apostana (Or., VI and VII), who combats them, by s. Agostino (De civ. Dei, XIX, 19), and by s. Gregorio di Nazianzo, who had bitter experience of them in the person of Massimo d'Alessandria. According to a report by s. Girolamo (De vir. illustr., 127), this Massimo is none other than the Erone d'Alessandria whose praise is woven in the twenty-fifth oration of s. Gregorio; but the name was altered by another hand so as not to place the Saint in contradiction with what he had related concerning his false friend in the Contra Maximum and the De vita sua. Sallustio (fifth century), in whom all the most characteristic features of earliest Cynicism reappear, is instead a Neoplatonic Cynic.
Christian and Neoplatonic Cynicism
BIBL.: For the sources and detailed bibliography, cf. Überweg, I, pp. 159-70, 6264. For the fragments see F. W. A. Mullach, Fragmenta philosophorum Graecorum, II, Parigi 1860, pp. 359-395; a collection of the principal fragments down to Enomao in German translation is found in W. Nestle, Die Sokratiker, Jena 1923, pp. 9-151; in Italian V. R. Mondolfo, Il pensiero antico, Roma 1920, pp. 156-63, and P. Lamanna, Antologia filosofica, I, Firenze 1945. General treatments: J. Bernays, Lucian u. die Kyniker, Berlino 1879; J. R. Asmus, Gregor van Naz. u. sein Verhältniss zum Kynismus, in Theol. Stud. u. Krit., 67 (1894), pp. 314-39; A. Caspari, De Cynicis qui fuerunt aetate imperatorum Romanorum, Chemnitz 1896; J. Geffeken, Kynika u. Verwandtes, Heidelberg 1909; R. Helm, in Pauly-Wissowa, XII, coll. 3-24.
Cite this article
“CINISMO CRISTIANO E NEOPITAOORICO.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III (1949), p. 981. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/cinismo-cristiano-e-neopitaoorico.