Creştinismul ca factor de disoluţie şi de agregare în opera lui Ioan Hrisostom
Christianity as a Factor of Dissolution and Aggregation in the Works of John Chrysostom

Summary/Abstract: In a polemical and engaged manner, John Chrysostom often evoked in his ho¬mi¬lies and exegeses two of Christianity’s multiple facets: on the one hand, its role in undermining and breaking down the traditional values (social, family, moral, cultural, religious) of antique communities, and, on the other hand, its constructive ability to transform and bring together these communities around new values, to create new identities, to shape new behaviors. The first part of contribution makes known the domains whose existence was undermined by Christianity (state, communities, ethno-religious groups, juridical and political entities, socio-political and professional categories, family, kinship, civil law, customs, habits, traditional religion with its entire underlying structure) and the lexicon employed by John Chrysostom for underlining the subversive action of the new religion. The second part of this study concerns the opposite phenomenon: the ways by which Christianity – once established as official – reconstruct the unity and identity of communities around new values, practices and behaviours in the works of John Chrysostom: the constant emphasis on the Christian identity of Antioch; implementing a true peri-urban sacred topography, closely linked to the urban one, and the celebration of feasts, particularly of martyrs, in the churches of the khôra; the constant instructing of the believers to avoid profane gatherings and areas, particularly the theatre and the hippodrome; the incessant advice to the public to constantly attend church, not only at holidays, and not to leave until the mass in done; the sustained study of the Scriptures, as a weapon “against pagans, and against Jews, and against many heretics”; finally, to embrace a conduct between believers guided by the two fundamental values of Christianity: love and peace.

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