4.22 TS – Systematising the Byzantine Exegetical Tradition: Commentaries, Homiletics, and Dogmatic Thought in Komnenian Byzantium

The codification of cultural and theological knowledge constitutes a defining feature of Byzantine intellectual life, exemplified in earlier centuries by the Excerpta Constantiniana and the Metaphrastic Menologion. In the twelfth century, this impulse took on renewed urgency and a distinctly programmatic character, fostering a systematic reorganization of sacred learning. The movement unfolded both at the imperial centre and provincial ecclesiastical milieus and across the Byzantine periphery producing major exegetical and dogmatic compendia alongside comprehensive homiletic collections for the Sunday and festal lectionary. These developments coincided with a marked flourishing of scriptural exegesis and the construction of extensive dogmatic arsenals. This Thematic Session situates this multifaceted codification project within its broader cultural and political milieu, examining parallel strategies of compilation, doctrinal positioning, identity formation, and rhetorical construction. Particular attention is given to the exegetical programme of figures such as Theophylact of Ohrid and the negotiation between written commentary and oral–performative traditions; the emergence of lectionary-based homiliaries, exemplified by the publication of the so-called Xiphilinian Homiliary; the systematization of heresiological and dogmatic traditions in the great Komnenian panoplies—Euthymios Zigabenos’ Dogmatic Panoply, Andronikos Kamateros’ Sacred Arsenal, and Niketas Choniates’ Treasury of Orthodoxy. By bringing these strands into dialogue, the session seeks to refine our understanding of how twelfth-century Byzantium fashioned new modes of authoritative discourse, transforming inherited patristic and exegetical traditions into increasingly structured repositories that shaped Orthodox identity, liturgical practice, and political ideology in the Komnenian era and beyond.