Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies

Prof Bronwen Neil

College of Human Sciences
School of Humanities
Department: Biblical and Ancient Studies
Research Fellow
E-mail: Bronwen.neil@mq.edu.au

Qualifications

  • BA Hons (University of Queensland, Australia)
  • MATR (Durham, UK)
  • PhD (Australian Catholic University, Brisbane)

Fields of academic interests

  • Early Christian Greek and Latin literature,especially:
    • Letters and homilies;
    • Early Byzantine history;
    • Studies in Late Antiquity;
    • Historical theology;
    • Ancient dream interpretation.

Field of Specialisation

  • Relations between the eastern and western churches (4th c. to 9th c.);
  • Papal letters;
  • Hagiography.

Books

  • B. Neil and P. Allen, Letters on Church Conflicts (500-700 CE) (Washington DC: CUA Press, under review).
  • With P. Allen. The Greek and Roman Letter in Late Antiquity. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, forthcoming (under contract).
  • B. Neil and P. Allen (intro and trans), The Letters of Gelasius I: Micromanager and Pastor of the Church of Rome, Adnotationes 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014) 266 pp. 50% Neil.
  • B. Neil, Leo the Great, The Early Church Fathers (London—New York: Routledge, 2009).
  • B. Neil and P. Allen, Crisis Management in Late Antiquity (410-590 CE): A Survey of the Evidence from Episcopal Letters, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 121 (Leiden: Brill, 2013)
  • P. Allen, B. Neil and W. Mayer, Preaching Poverty in Late Antiquity: Perceptions and Realities, Kirchen- und Theologiegeschichte 28 (Leipzig: EVA, 2009).
  • B. Neil, Seventh-Century Popes and Martyrs: The Political Hagiography of Anastasius Bibliothecarius, Studia Antiqua Australiensia 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006).
  • B. Neil and P. Allen, The Life of Maximus the Confessor – Recension 3, Early Christian Studies 6 (Sydney: St Pauls, 2003).
  • P. Allen and B. Neil (introd. and trans.) Maximus the Confessor and his Companions: Documents from Exile, Oxford Early Christian Texts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
  • P. Allen and B. Neil, Scripta Saeculi VII Vitam Maximi Confessoris Illustrantia, Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca 39 (Turnhout – Leuven: Brepols, 1999)
  • (with K. Simic) (eds) Memories of Utopia in Late Antiquity: Rewriting Texts and Landscapes (London: Routledge, under contract).
  • (with E. Anagnostou Laoutides) (eds) Dreams, Memory and Imagination in Byzantium, Byzantina Australiensia 23 (Leiden: Brill, 2018).
  • (with A. Brown) (eds) Byzantine Culture in Translation, Byzantina Australiensia 21 (Leiden: Brill, 2017).
  • (with P. Allen) (eds), The Oxford Handbook to Maximus Confessor (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). Reissued in paperback, 2017.
  •  (with P. Allen) (eds) Collecting Early Christian Letters: From the Apostle Paul to Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
  • W. Mayer and B. Neil (eds), Religious Conflict from Early Christianity to Early Islam, Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 121 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013). Reissued in paperback, 2016.
  • (with L. Garland) (eds), Questions of Gender in Byzantine Society (Abingdon: Ashgate, 2013).
  • (with M. dal Santo) (eds), The Brill Companion to Gregory the Great (Leiden—Boston: Brill, 2013).
  •  (with G. D. Dunn and L. Cross) (eds) Prayer and Spirituality 3: Liturgy and Life, proceedings of the international conference Prayer and Spirituality, Melbourne, 10-14 July 2002 (Sydney: St Pauls, 2003).

Edited books:

  • (with K. Simic) (eds) Memories of Utopia in Late Antiquity: Rewriting Texts and Landscapes (London: Routledge, under contract).
  • (with E. Anagnostou Laoutides) (eds) Dreams, Memory and Imagination in Byzantium, Byzantina Australiensia 23 (Leiden: Brill, 2018).
  • (with A. Brown) (eds) Byzantine Culture in Translation, Byzantina Australiensia 21 (Leiden: Brill, 2017).
  • (with P. Allen) (eds), The Oxford Handbook to Maximus Confessor (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). Reissued in paperback, 2017.
  • (with P. Allen) (eds) Collecting Early Christian Letters: From the Apostle Paul to Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
  • W. Mayer and B. Neil (eds), Religious Conflict from Early Christianity to Early Islam, Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 121 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013). Reissued in paperback, 2016.
  • (with L. Garland) (eds), Questions of Gender in Byzantine Society (Abingdon: Ashgate, 2013).
  • (with M. dal Santo) (eds), The Brill Companion to Gregory the Great (Leiden—Boston: Brill, 2013).
  • (with G. D. Dunn and L. Cross) (eds) Prayer and Spirituality 3: Liturgy and Life, proceedings of the international conference Prayer and Spirituality, Melbourne, 10-14 July 2002 (Sydney: St Pauls, 2003).

Book chapters:

  • ‘Introduction to Dreams, Memory and Imagination in Byzantium’, in B. Neil and E. Anagnostou Laoutides (eds) Dreams, Memory and Imagination in Byzantium, Byzantina Australiensia 23 (Leiden: Brill, in press), 1-11.
  • ‘Dream Portents in Early Byzantine and Islamic Chronicles’, in B. Neil and E. Anagnostou Laoutides (eds) Dreams, Memory and Imagination in Byzantium, Byzantina Australiensia 23 (Leiden: Brill, in press), 000-000
  • ‘Gelasius’ Theory of Law at the End of the Fifth Century’. In N. Lenski and J. van Drijvers (eds) Shifting Frontiers XII: Transformation in the Fifth Century (Bari: Edipuglia, in press).
  • ‘Christian and Pagan Dream Theory in Maximus the Confessor’, in Late Antique Philosophy and Eastern Christianity, ed. K. Parry (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).
  • ‘Dream interpretation and its application in religious traditions: From early Byzantium to contemporary fundamentalism’. In G. van der Heever (ed.), Christianity and Conflictual Culture (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).
  •  ‘Gelasius I’. In P. Reynolds (ed.) First Millennium Western Law and Christianity, Law and Christianity Series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, in press).
  •  “Visions, Female Sexuality, and Spiritual Leadership in Byzantine Ascetic Literature of the Sixth and Seventh Centuries.” In M. Moore (ed.) Gender in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, in press).
  • ‘Leo Magnus’. In Latin Preaching in the Patristic Era: Sermons, Preachers, Audiences, (New History of the Sermon), eds.  Shari Boodts, Gert Partoens, Johan Leeman. Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2018), 327-46.
  •  ‘Apocalypse then: dreams and visions in Byzantine apocalyptic in the context of conflict’. In Heather Jackson and Elizabeth Minchin (eds) Materiality and Text: Essays on the Ancient World in honour of G.W. Clarke, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology and Literature (Uppsala: Astrom Editions, 2017), 349-358.
  • ‘Papal Letters and Letter Collections’. In C. Sogno, B. Storin and E. Watts (eds), Late Antique Letter Collections. An Introduction and Reference Guide. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2017) 449-466.
  •  ‘Conclusion: Translating Byzantium in the New Millennium’, in A. Brown and B. Neil (eds), Byzantine Culture in Translation, ByzAus 21 (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 256-265.
  • ‘The Resurrection of the Body in Leo the Great’s Ascension and Pentecost Homilies’. In Richard Bishop, Johan Leemans and Hajnalke Tamas (eds) Preaching After Easter: Mid-Pentecost Ascension and Pentecost in Late Antiquity, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 136 (Leiden: Brill, 2016) 373-385.
  •  ‘Leo the Great’s Paschal Homilies: A Brief History of Salvation’. In P. F. Beatrice and B. Pouderon (eds) Pascha nostrum Christus. Essays in Honour of Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap, Théologie historique 123 (Paris: Beauchesne, 2016) 277-290.
  • ‘"Silence Is Also Annulment": Veiled and Unveiled Speech in Seventh-Century Martyr Commemorations’. In H. Baltussen and P. Davis (eds), The Art of Veiled Speech. Self-Censorship from Aristophanes to Hobbes (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015) 233-250.
  •  ‘Crisis in the Letters of Gelasius I (492-96): A New Model of Crisis Management?’. In G. D. Dunn (ed.) The Bishop of Rome in Late Antiquity (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015) 155-74.
  • ‘Divine Providence and Gnomic Will Before Maximus’. In P. Allen and B. Neil (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Maximus Confessor (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) 235-249.
  • ‘Dream Interpretation and Christian Identity in Late-Antique Rome and Byzantium’. In W. Mayer and G. D. Dunn (eds) Shaping Christian Identity from the Roman Empire to Byzantium, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 132 (Leiden: Brill, 2015) 321-341.
  • ‘Continuities and changes in the practice of letter-collecting in Late Antiquity’. In B. Neil and P. Allen (eds) Collecting Early Christian Letters: From the Apostle Paul to Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015) 3-17.
  • ‘De Profundis: The Letters and Archives of Pelagius I of Rome (556-561)’. In B. Neil and P. Allen (eds) Collecting Early Christian Letters: From the Apostle Paul to Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015) 206-220.
  • ‘Regarding the Empress on the Throne: Representations of Irene’. In B. Neil and L. Garland (eds) Questions of Gender in Byzantine Society (Abingdon: Ashgate, 2013), 113-131.
  • ‘An Introduction to Questions of Gender in Byzantium’, in Neil and Garland, Questions of Gender, 2013, 1-10.
  •  ‘The Papacy in the Age of Gregory the Great’. In B. Neil and M. dal Santo (eds) The Brill Companion to Gregory the Great (Leiden—Boston: Brill, 2013), 3-27.
  •  ‘The Earliest Greek Understandings of Islam: John of Damascus and Theophanes the Confessor’. In W. Mayer and B. Neil (eds), Religious Conflict, (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013), 215-228.
  • ‘A Crisis of Orthodoxy: Leo I’s Fight against the “Deadly Disease” of Heresy’. In D.C. Sim and P. Allen (eds), Ancient Jewish and Christian Texts as Crisis Management Literature.  ThematicStudies from the Centre for Early Christian Studies, Library of New Testament Studies 445 (London-New York: T&T Clark Continuum, 2012) 144-158.
  • ‘Leo the Great’s Preaching on Sun Worship’. In W. Kinzig and U. Volp (eds) Rituel und Liturgie in der alten Kirche (Leuven: Peeters, 2011), 127-40.
  • (with P. Allen), ‘The Poor in Psalms: Augustine’s Discourse on Poverty in Enarrationes in Psalmos’. In C. Harrison, A. Casiday and A. Andreopoulos (eds) Meditations of the Heart. Essays in Honour of Andrew Louth, Studia Theologiae Traditionis (Turnhout: Brepols, 2011) 181-204.
  • ‘From Tristia to Gaudia: the exile and martyrdom of Pope Martin I’. In J. Leemans (ed.) Martyrdom and Persecution in Late Antique Christianity, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 241 (Leuven: Peeters, 2010), 179-194.
  • ‘The Politics of Hagiography in Ninth-Century Rome’. In C. Bishop (ed.) Text and Transmission in Medieval Europe (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007) 58-75.
  • ‘Towards Defining a Christian Culture: the Christian transformation of classical literature’. In A. Casiday and F. Norris (eds) Cambridge History of Christianity vol. 2: Constantine to c. 600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) 317-342.
  • W. Mayer with B. Neil, JohnChrysostom. The Cult of the Saints (New York: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2006) 265-280.
  • ‘The Introduction of Old Church Slavonic to the First Bulgarian Empire: the rôle of SS. Cyril and Methodius’. In B. Janssens, B. Roosen, and P. Van Deun (eds) Philomathestatos. Studies in Greek Patristic and Byzantine Texts Presented to Jacques Noret for his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 137 (Leuven: Peeters, 2004) 455-473.

Journal articles

  • ‘Addressing Conflict in the Fifth Century: Rome and the Wider Church’, Scrinium (2018).
  • ‘The Theotokos as Selective Intercessor for Souls in Middle Byzantine Apocalyptic’, Analogia 1 (2016): 29-39.
  • (with D. Luckensmeyer) B. Neil, ‘Reading First Thessalonians as a Consolatory Letter in Light of Seneca and Ancient Handbooks on Letter-Writing’, New Testament Studies 60.2 (2016) 31-48.
  • ‘Studying Dream Interpretation from Early Christianity to the Rise of Islam’, Journal of Religious History 40.1 (2016) 17-39.
  • ‘Theophanes Confessor on the Arab Conquest: The Latin Version by Anastasius Bibliothecarius’, in Colloque Théophane / The Chronicle of Theophanes: Sources, Composition and Transmission, Proceedings of the Paris Colloquium, 12-14 September 2012, eds. F. Montinaro and M. Jankowiak, Travaux et mémoires 19.1 (2015) 149-158.
  • ‘Death and the Bishop of Rome. From Hormisdas to Sabinian’, Scrinium 11 (2015) 109-121.
  •  ‘Dreams in Synesius of Cyrene as a Pathway to the Divine’, Phronema 30.2 (2015) 19-36.
  • ‘Dreams and Dream Interpretation in Fifth-Century Alexandria: Dreams as an Approach to God’, Patristica 18 (2014) 103-20 (in Japanese).
  • ‘Divine Providence in Gregory of Nyssa and his Theological Milieu’, Phronema 27/2 (2012) 35-51.
  • ‘Crisis and Wealth in Byzantine Italy: the Libri Pontificales of Rome and Ravenna’, Byzantion 82 (2012) 279–303.
  • (with P. Allen), ‘Displaced Persons: Reflections for Late Antiquity on a Contemporary Crisis’, Pacifica 24 (2011) 29-42.
  • ‘Models of Gift Giving in the Preaching of Leo the Great’, Journal of Early Christian Studies 18:2 (2010) 225-259.
  • ‘Blessed is Poverty: Leo the Great on Almsgiving’, Sacris Erudiri 46 (2007) 143-156.
  • ‘The Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John’, Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association 2 (2006) 183-193.
  • ‘Exploring the Limits of Literal Exegesis: Augustine’s reading of Gen 1:26’ Pacifica 19 (2006) 144-155.
  • ‘”The Blessed Passion of Holy Love”: Maximus the Confessor's Spiritual Psychology’, Australian E-Journal of Theology, Issue 2, February 2004, http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/ejournal/aejt_2/bronwen_neil.htm
  • ’”It is I who am a man, you who are women”: Sayings of the Desert Mothers’, Women Church. An Australian Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 35 (2004) 11-15.
  • ‘The Cult of Pope Clement in Ninth-Century Rome’, Ephemerides Liturgicae 117 (2003) 103-113.
  • ‘Rufinus’ translation of the Epistola Clementis ad Jacobum’, Augustinianum 43 (2003) 25-39.
  • ‘The Western Reaction to the Council of Nicaea II’, Journal of Theological Studies ns 51 (2000) 533-552.
  • ‘Anastasius Bibliothecarius’ Translations of Two Byzantine Liturgical Commentaries’, Ephemerides Liturgicae 114 (2000) 329-346.
  • ‘The Lives of Pope Martin I and Maximus the Confessor: Some Reconsiderations of Dating and Provenance’, Byzantion 68 (1998) 91-109.

Professional positions, fellowships & awards

  • Council member, Australian Academy of Humanities, 2018-
  • Editorial board, Vigiliae Christianae and Supplements series (Leiden) 2015-
  • Editorial board, Sacris Erudiri (Leuven, Belgium), 2015-
  • Elected Fellow, Australian Academy of Humanities, 2014-
  • Editorial board, Phronema (Sydney), 2012-
  • Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Treasurer (2005-2007), President (2009-), Books manager (2017-)
  • Australasian Society for Classical Studies, Executive: ACU Representative (2000-2005), Treasurer (2018-)
  • Alexander Von Humboldt-Stiftung Fellowship, Bonn (2008)
  • Australian Early Medieval Association executive committee (2008-2009)
  • International editorial board of Early Christian Studies monograph series (2006-)
  • Ephemerides Liturgicae consultative committee (2007-)
  • Affiliate, Center for the Study of Early Christianity, Catholic University of America, Washington DC (2005-2009)
  • ARC Early Career Research Award: Political hagiography in ninth-century Rome. (2001-2005)
    • International Commission on English in the Liturgy, Australian Team (2003-2005)

Projects

  • 2017-2018       Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (Level 3). FF140100226

Dreams, Prophecy and Violence from Early Christianity to Early Islam. $843000. Sole investigator.

Summary: The project aims to uncover the common roots of Christian and Islamic dream interpretation. It will reveal common themes in dream literature from pagan and Jewish antiquity to early Christianity and early Islam, and show how dreams and prophecy have been used to increase religious control, and to justify violence since Late Antiquity.

With its focus on an ARC-targeted research area - Understanding Culture and Communities - the project will benefit Australia by building intercultural understanding between contemporary Jews, Christians and Muslims. It will stress the common cultural roots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by uncovering the crucial role of dreams and prophecy in increasing the authority of religious leaders, and the use of dreams to justify inter-religious violence.

  • 2017-2019       Australian Research Council Discovery Project 170104595

Memories of Utopia: Destroying the Past to Create the Future. Lead CI. CI P. Allen, CI W. Mayer. PI: Chris de Wet, UNISA. $396 500.

Summary: This project aims to examine the evidence for competing utopian ideologies in early Christianity, which was a prelude to the later clash with Islam from the seventh century onward. Evidence from pagan-Jewish-Christian conflicts in Late Antiquity (300-650 CE) shows that violent destruction of the past is not exclusive to fringe religious groups. These past conflicts are relevant for understanding the conflict in the Middle East, precisely because analysis of the sources shows that, in intra- and inter-religious conflicts in Late Antiquity in this same geographic region, violent destruction of the past was a propensity in mainstream religion.

  • 2014-2016       Australian Research Council Discovery Project 140101909

Negotiating Conflict through letter writing in the seventh century, an era of crisis. Lead CI. CI Allen. $155 000.

Summary: Greek and Latin letters of the seventh century show how bishops and emperors of Rome and Constantinople negotiated their claims to universal and local authority in the course of religious conflicts, and how they attempted to resolve bitter cultural and political divisions through diplomacy.

  • 2010-2012 Australian Research Council Discovery Project

Crisis management in Late Antiquity: The Evidence of Episcopal Letters. CI B. Neil and CI P. Allen.

  • 2006-2008 Australian Research Council Discovery Project

Poverty and Welfare in Late Antiquity. Lead CI: P. Allen; CI B. Neil and CI W. Mayer.

Other

Bronwen Neil is Professor of Ancient History at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, and a Research Fellow in the Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies, UNISA.