Christian Narratives of Creation

In recent decades, the study of literary representations of nature in Late Antiquity has seen renewed interest, stimulated also by the rise of ecocriticism, which encourages the reading of texts through new perspectives, attentive to the relationship between humans and the environment. This volume, arising from the international conference Creazione, uomo e natura nei testi cristiani della tarda latinità (L’Aquila, 12-13 December 2024), is part of the research project HUMAns in Nature. New Insights into Late Ancient Latin Texts in Light of an Ecocritical Approach (PRIN 2022-PNRR), developed in collaboration with the University of Milan. The essays collected in this volume investigate how Late Latin texts – both exegetical prose and poetry – represent the relationship between humanity and the natural world. They situate these representations within their historical and literary contexts, while also examining their relevance for contemporary ecological reflection. Within this reflection, the first book of the Bible assumes a pivotal role, not only as a foundational account of Creation, but also as a text that has been constantly reread and reinterpreted as the matrix of a vision of creation as a space of shared responsibility. The perspective offered by Late Antique Christian authors, resonating with contemporary reflections – among them the encyclical Laudato si’ – not only deepens the understanding of Genesis as a foundational narrative, a matrix of moral and theological meanings capable of renewal in multiple expressive forms, but also demonstrates how the Latin Christian tradition can still stimulate reflection on the interconnections between theology, ethics, and ecology.

Christian Narratives of Creation: Humanity, Nature and the Environment in Late Latin Antiquity (Stefania Filosini)

La creazione tra bene e male. Spunti dalla protologia lattanziana (Stefan Freund)
Sant’Ambrogio e la creazione (Carla Lo Cicero)
Ambrose’s (Non-Human?) Elephants (Paola Francesca Moretti)
Augustine’s Interpretation of the Creative Act (De Genesi ad Litteram, Book V) (Fabio Gasti)
Creation, the Metamorphosis of the Landscape, and Spiritual Renewal in the Natalicia of Paulinus of Nola (Fabrizio Bordone)
Una omnes gradiuntur humo: Humans in the Landscape of Prudentius’ Contra Symmachum (Biancamaria Masutti)
Genesis, Man and Nature in the Heptateuchos Poem (Luciana Furbetta)
The Creation of the World in the De providentia Dei by Pseudo-Prosper of Aquitaine (Amedeo A. Raschieri)
From Creation to the Flood: Man and Nature in the Metrum in Genesin (Stefania Filosini)
Nature and Man in the First Three Books of Avitus’ De spiritalis historiae gestis (Franca Ela Consolino)
Dracontius est-il, dans les Louanges de Dieu, un relais de l’interprétation ‘despotique’ du livre de la Genèse ? (Annick Stoehr-Monjou)
Lux and luminaria in the Biblical Poetry from Proba to Avitus (Alessia Prontera)
L’homme et le jardin d’Éden. Traditions exégétiques chrétiennes anciennes entre prose et poésie latines (Ilaria Ponti Grimm)
Progrès humain, invention des arts et nature dans la poésie latine chrétienne des IV^e et V^e siècles (Michele Cutino)

Index
The Authors