Cette recherche entend analyser les productions eschatologiques byzantines et arabes rédigées pendant les deux premiers siècles après la naissance de l'Islam. L'expansion soudaine des troupes islamiques, a été interprétée par les Chrétiens d'Orient surtout selon une optique apocalyptique; une grande partie des sources en grec et en syriaque compte l'invasion soudaine des Arabes parmi les signes de la fin des temps. Dans la narration eschatologique la conquête arabe devient une tribulation éphémère avant la victoire finale du bien; cette vision de l'histoire fournit ainsi des éléments d'espoir et d'encouragement à la résistance des Chrétiens assujettis. À cette fin, les conquêtes musulmanes ont été assimilées à des figures eschatologiques de la précédente production apocalyptique juive et chrétienne: leur avènement a été perçu comme une punition pour les péchés des Chrétiens, et ainsi les caractéristiques des bêtes apocalyptiques ou quelles des hordes de Gog et Magog ont été attribuées aux nouveaux conquérants. Les événements choquants de ces années ont été ainsi inclus dans une vision sotériologique, et dé-historicisés par la médiation fondamentale mise en œuvre par le discours apocalyptique. Les prophéties d'affranchissement ont en outre développé une figure messianique "nationale" et humaine: le «Dernier Empereur», le souverain grec vainqueur des Arabes avant la descente de Jésus Christ. De même, entre les conquérants musulmans, après la chute soudaine des Sassanides, la production eschatologique a été consacrée à la représentation apocalyptique de l'ennemi byzantin: des pics de pression eschatologique sont détectables dans les oeuvres eschatologiques musulmanes en même temps que les deux sièges de Constantinople de 674-678 et 717-718; un grand nombre des traditions (aḥādīth) a été dédié à la prédiction de la chute de la ville; souvent dans la tradition eschatologique musulmane la conquête de Constantinople est le dernier événement avant le jugement final, ou le prélude au royaume chiliastique du Mahdī, le souverain juste décrit dans la grande production des aḥādīth musulmane. Les craintes d'une campagne de reconquête byzantine ont été sublimées dans les traditions musulmanes, qui représentent cet événement comme une fitna (tribulation) temporaire avant la victoire de l'Islam; dans ce cas également, par conséquent, la peur de l'ennemi est annulée par la dé-historicisation religieuse, qui donne un nouveau sens aux événements par l'intermédiaire du discours apocalyptique. La principale collection de traditions eschatologiques musulmanes est le Kitab al-Fitan (Livre des tribulations) de Nu'aym b. Hammad rédigé avant l'année 844. Cette collection, qui comprend plus de deux mille traditions séparées par chapitre, est l'une des rares œuvres de collection organisée par une division thématique, et est probablement la plus ancienne parmi celles qui existent aujourd'hui. J'ai effectué une traduction des principales narrations eschatologiques contenues dans cette œuvre. / In my research I analyse the eschatological productions, both Christian and Muslim, written in the two centuries after the birth of Islam. In works such as the Syriac apocalypses of Pseudo-Methodius and Pseudo-Ezra the sudden expansion of Muslim troops was mainly perceived by Eastern Christians as an apocalyptic trial, a sign of the End of Time. On the Muslim side, the main eschatological aḥādīth collection, the Kitab al-Fitan by Nu’aym b. Hammad (d. 844) shows the existence of a vital apocalyptic production which rose in correspondence to times of internal and external strife. The first part of my work deals with the use of these apocalyptic texts as historical sources, by analysing the so-called ‘vaticinia ex eventu’ (the genuine historical narrations concealed in the eschatological texts by the use of pseudonymia and isnad backdating) to shed light on some of the main events of the Arab-Byzantine conflict (e.g. the still debated chronology and size of the Arab sieges of Constantinople). In a second part I survey some of the main themes common to both of these eschatological productions (such as the depiction of the enemy, the development of messianic figures, the role of Jerusalem in the end-time, etc.); the use of a comparative perspective bears a fundamental theoretical contribution, by highlighting the presence of direct references between the different traditions, but also by underlining the common processes of eschatological production and development. Some other remarks deal with the contemporary use of these traditions, made by both Muslim and Christian fundamentalists, who look for a “prophesied roadmap” to read the current world events.

L'Histoire Ecclésiastique de Grégoire Bar ‘Ebroyo (1225/6-1286 apr. J.-C.), auteur syro-orthodoxe et maphrien de l’Est, a depuis longtemps été reconnue comme une source historique inestimable pour l’histoire de l’Antiquité tardive et médiévale du Moyen-Orient, mais elle a reçu une attention limitée du monde scientifique en tant qu’œuvre de littérature à part entière, et n’a jamais fait l’objet d’une monographie. En outre, l’Histoire Ecclésiastique n’est encore et toujours seulement accessible que par l’intermédiaire d’une édition du 19e s., qui est simplement une reproduction diplomatique d’un manuscrit du 16e s. Bien que la Chronique de Bar ‘Ebroyo, dont l’Histoire Ecclésiastique forme la seconde partie, soit le seul ouvrage historiographique en syriaque préservé dans plus d’un seul manuscrit, sa riche tradition manuscrite n’a jamais été examinée. Le but de cette thèse doctorale est tout d’abord de fournir une étude philologique et historiographique de l’Histoire Ecclésiastique. Plus particulièrement, je propose une analyse de a) la tradition manuscrite et de la transmission du texte, b) de la relation avec la tradition du genre de l’histoire ecclésiastique, c) l’étude des sources. Cette étude s’accompagne d’une nouvelle édition de texte et d’une traduction anglaise. / The Ecclesiastical History of Gregory Bar ‘Ebroyo (1225/6-1286 A.D.), Syrian Orthodox author and maphrian of the East, has long been recognized as an invaluable historical source for the history of the Late Antique and Medieval Middle East but it has received limited scholarly attention as a work of literature in its own right, and it has never been made the object of a book-length study. Moreover, the Ecclesiastical History is still available only via a 19th century edition, which is basically a diplomatic reproduction of a 16th century manuscript. Although Bar ‘Ebroyo’s Chronicle, of which the Ecclesiastical History forms the second part, is the only Syriac historiographical work preserved in more than one manuscript, its rich manuscript tradition has never been examined. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a first philological and historiographical study of the Ecclesiastical History. More particularly, I propose an analysis of a) the manuscript tradition and the transmission of the text, b) the relation with the tradition of the genre Ecclesiastical History, c) the study of the sources. This study is accompanied by a newly established text and an English translation.

La présente thèse étudie à la fois les réalités de la présence chrétienne en Mésopotamie ainsi que l’image que les chrétiens se sont données d’eux-mêmes. Installé sur les rives du Tigre et de l’Euphrate, le christianisme de l’empire perse s’est diffusé à l’ombre d’un pouvoir non chrétien, comme dans l’empire romain. Toutefois les destinées des deux christianismes, celui d’Occident et celui d’Orient, se sont séparées lorsque l’empire romain est devenu chrétien. Les chrétiens de la Mésopotamie sassanide ont dû alors osciller entre l’hostilité franche du pouvoir et les périodes de tolérance jusqu’à la chute de la dynastie au milieu du VIIe siècle. Le christianisme mésopotamien fut caractérisé par une forme de diversité à la fois linguistique et religieuse, marqué par la porosité avec les autres groupes, contre laquelle les autorités religieuses n’ont cessé de délimiter des frontières claires. Il s’est progressivement étendu à l’ensemble des couches de la société sassanide, jusqu’aux élites dirigeantes, et jusqu’aux campagnes. Alors, une production littéraire et historiographique d’ampleur a contribué à la formation d’un portrait cohérent et linéaire dans la documentation syro-orientale dominante, issue de l’Église de l’Est. Ailleurs, des mémoires divergentes des chrétiens de Perse nous sont parvenues. / This dissertation looks at both the realities of the Christian presence in Mesopotamia and how the Christians constructed their own image. Established on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Christianity during the Persian Empire it developed under a shadowy non-Christian power, as with the case with the Roman Empire. However, the fate of Western and Eastern Christianities diverged when the Roman Empire became Christian. In Sasanian Mesopotamia, the treatment of Christians wavered between direct hostility from Zoroastrian power and periods of tolerance, until the fall of the dynasty in the middle of the 7th century. A form of linguistic and religious diversity characterized Mesopotamian Christianity. The lines between Christians and the other communities were narrow, which caused religious authorities to draw clear boundaries between Christians and non-Christians. Christianity expanded into the whole Sasanian society, including the peasantry and ruling elites. Therefore, after the 5th century, there was a large proliferation of East-Syrian literature and historiography, which had a key role in the development of the dominant Christian image within the Church of Persia. However, other literary traditions passed down different views of the Christians of Sasanian Mesopotamia.

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The 'postmodern challenge' is increasingly felt in the 'end of modernity' to which Gianni Vattimo refers. The West and the world has hitherto been dominated by what Andrew Gamble characterises as the Modern or Western Ideology. But the validity of that worldview and its associated ways of thinking, going back to the 'Enlightenment' and beyond, has come to be radically questioned. It is within this context that the work and thought of CS Lewis is examined. Although Lewis is generally recognised, and regarded himself, as conservative and even reactionary, there is a paradoxical quality to his conservatism, the elements of which coexist with features which might be regarded as liberal and as radically socialist respectively. Similarly, his commitment to the religious and cultural tradition of Western Europe co-exists with a vehement anticolonialism. A paradoxical association of postmodermism with 'premodernity' has been widely noted in Buddhism and, by Derrida, in Eastern Christian theology. This thesis seeks to demonstrate that a paradoxical postmodernism is evident in the thought of Lewis. One source suggested for this is his interest in Eastern Christianity. Another is identified as the influence on Lewis of the opposition of Romanticism to 'Enlightenment' modernity. But Lewis's own engagement with modernity is also shown to be significant. Two broad trends in postmodernism are discussed. The affinities of Lewis's thought with the nihilistic tradition of postmodernism, going back to Nietzsche, is traced with regard to issues such as rationalism, science, the autonomy of the subject, and authorship. But the ambivalent relationship of Lewis to spiritually-oriented, affirmative postmodernism, and particularly Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy, is also analysed. The crucial role of Scholasticism in the development of Western thought is investigated in a comparison of Steiner's views with the Christian position of Lewis. It is concluded that there are grounds to regard Lewis as. 'prophet of postmodernism', and he is compared with Nietzsche and Pope John-Paul II in this regard. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

The 'postmodern challenge' is increasingly felt in the 'end of modernity' to which Gianni Vattimo refers. The West and the world has hitherto been dominated by what Andrew Gamble characterises as the Modern or Western Ideology. But the validity of that worldview and its associated ways of thinking, going back to the 'Enlightenment' and beyond, has come to be radically questioned. It is within this context that the work and thought of CS Lewis is examined. Although Lewis is generally recognised, and regarded himself, as conservative and even reactionary, there is a paradoxical quality to his conservatism, the elements of which coexist with features which might be regarded as liberal and as radically socialist respectively. Similarly, his commitment to the religious and cultural tradition of Western Europe co-exists with a vehement anticolonialism. A paradoxical association of postmodermism with 'premodernity' has been widely noted in Buddhism and, by Derrida, in Eastern Christian theology. This thesis seeks to demonstrate that a paradoxical postmodernism is evident in the thought of Lewis. One source suggested for this is his interest in Eastern Christianity. Another is identified as the influence on Lewis of the opposition of Romanticism to 'Enlightenment' modernity. But Lewis's own engagement with modernity is also shown to be significant. Two broad trends in postmodernism are discussed. The affinities of Lewis's thought with the nihilistic tradition of postmodernism, going back to Nietzsche, is traced with regard to issues such as rationalism, science, the autonomy of the subject, and authorship. But the ambivalent relationship of Lewis to spiritually-oriented, affirmative postmodernism, and particularly Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy, is also analysed. The crucial role of Scholasticism in the development of Western thought is investigated in a comparison of Steiner's views with the Christian position of Lewis. It is concluded that there are grounds to regard Lewis as. 'prophet of postmodernism', and he is compared with Nietzsche and Pope John-Paul II in this regard. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

The master's thesis "The Greek Catholic Parish of St. Clement in Prague - Development and Identity" presents the history of Greek Catholic Church in relationship to the history of the church as a whole and to the matters of Eastern and Western Christian traditions up to the reunification of the Latin Church with several Eastern Churches in the form of so-called Unions. The thesis also familiarizes readers with the development and impact of these unions. This also describes the identity and traditions of the Greek Catholic Church, consisting in the tradition of Eastern Christianity fully united in communion with the Catholic Church (chapter 1). Following the general introduction into the matter, the thesis focuses on the circumstances of the parish origin, its development and life in the course of history and in context of the Czech church history in the 20th century. The next milestone described in the thesis is the year 1989 and subsequent changes (chapter 2). Furthermore, the thesis presents the organization of the Greek Catholic Church in the region of contemporary Czech Republic and its development up to the present state (chapter 3). The final part of the thesis shows the contemporary practice of pastoral work in close interconnection with the national and cultural diversity of the parish...