Publications of Perczel, I.

Perczel I. The earliest Syriac reception of Dionysius. In: Coakley S, Stang C, editors. Re-thinking Dionysius the Areopagite. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell; in press/forthcoming. p. 27-42.

Project for Preserving the Manuscripts of the Syrian Christians in India

In Kerala, South India, one finds many thousands Syriac, Malayalam, Malayanma, Kolezhuttu, Vattezhuttu manuscripts of older and more recent date, all belonging to the autochthonous communities of the St Thomas Christians, a seven million-strong minority group that has lived organically incorporated into the local Hindu society for almost two thousand years. Because of the humid, tropical climate and other factors, these manuscripts are greatly endangered. The present complex international project, based on cooperation between Indian, German, Hungarian and American institutions, aims at saving these manuscripts both in their content and in their physical reality.Its means are as follows: as a first step, the tasks of digitising and describing the manuscripts are undertaken; as a second step, an organised electronic data-base is established and the most important manuscripts are published in facsimile editions, together with their respective scholarly descriptions; in the third stage of the process, the data obtained are used for clarifying many an obscure point of the history of Christianity in Kerala, as well as for publishing, translating and interpreting the newly discovered texts. The new information issuing from the treatment of the Indian Syrian manuscripts sheds light not only on local history, but also on the communication network that has linked, over the centuries, this minority to all branches of the Syrian Christians living in a diaspora all over the Middle East.This is an open-ended project, the keywords of which are preservation, access and recycling. Thus, besides preservation, by means of open-access electronic publications, it makes the manuscripts accessible for the wider scholarly community. At the same time, the benefits resulting from the publications are returned to the proprietors, on the condition that they spend the proceeds on the conservation of the original manuscripts, in their physical reality.

Perczel I. Four apologetic church histories from India. The Harp : a review of Syriac and Oriental studies. 2009;24:189-217.

The earliest Syriac reception of Dionysius

This essay examines the earliest Syriac reception of the Corpus Dionysiacum in the first decades of the sixth century. This reception is earlier than the standard Greek reception and moves us closer, I hypothesize, to the original text and context of the CD than do the subsequent Greek edition and commentaries of John of Scythopolis. The principal texts associated with the earliest Syriac reception all betray the influence of “Origenism,” which, I argue, reflects the original milieu of the author of the CD. I conclude this essay with some thoughts on how an acknowledgement of the Origenism of the CD complicates our understanding of “orthodoxy” and “heresy” during this period.

Perczel I. Szent Tamás keresztényei Indiában. In: Jóga – India világa. Ursus Libris; 2006. p. 140-55.
Perczel I. Language of religion, language of the people, languages of the documents: the legendary history of the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala. In: Bremer E, editor. Language of religion, language of the people : medieval Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Vol 11. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag; 2006. p. 387-428. (MittelalterStudien; vol 11).
Syriac manuscripts from Malabar. Vol 1. Perczel I, editor. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press; 2005.
Ancient and medieval philosophy. Vol 1. Perczel I, Forrai R, Geréby G, editors. Leuven: Leuven University Press; 2005.
Perczel I. A philosophical myth in the service of religious apologetics: manichees and origenists in the sixth century. In: Schwartz Y, Krech V, editors. Religious Apologetics Philosophical Argumentation. Vol 10. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck; 2004. p. 205-36. (Religion in philosophy and theology; vol 10).

The Christology of Psuedo-Dionysius : the Fourth Letter in its idirect and drect text traditions in: Le Muséon

The present study aims at a complex investigation into the meaning and the text of the Fourth Letter of Pseudo-Dionysius. For this endeavour it uses methods pertaining to the history of philosophy, the history of theology, philology, text criticism, the study of text transmission, and Quellenforschung. The result is a reinterpretation of the text and meaning of the Fourth Letter and, per consequent, of the stance of Pseudo-Dionysius in the contemporary Christological debates. Thus, besides providing a new edition of the Greek text of the Fourth Letter, it also reconstructs the essential elements of Dionysius’ Christological doctrine, showing that it is an artful blend composed of the Neoplatonist exegesis of the third and fourth hypotheses of Plato’s Parmenides, of the Origenist theory of the Incarnation elaborated by Evagrius of Pontus, and of the Christological doctrine of Theodore of Mopsuestia. It also shows the importance of the indirect text tradition of the Dionysian Corpus for a critical study of its direct text transmission.

Odigitria könyvek

Le Christ dans la théologie byzantine – Hungarian translation Imrényi, T., Perczel, I., Szegedi, I.,

Perczel I. God as Monad and Henad: Dionysius the Areopagite and the Peri Archon. In: Perrone L, editor. Origeniana octava : Origen and the Alexandrian tradition ; Origene e la tradizione alessandrina : papers of the 8th International Origen Congress, Pisa, 27-31 August 2001. Leuven: Leuven University Press; 2003. p. 1193-209.
Odigitria könyvek. Perczel I, editor. Budapest Hungary: Osiris; 2002.
Perczel I. Notes sur la pensée systématique d’Evagre le Pontique. In: Girardi M, Marin M, editors. Origene e l'alessandrinismo cappadoce : III-IV secolo : atti del 5. Convegno del Gruppo italiano di ricerca su "Origene e la tradizione alessandrina", Bari, 20-22 settembre 2000. Vol 28. Bari: Edipuglia; 2002. p. 277-97. (Quaderni di "Vetera Christianorum"; vol 28).

A New Testimony from India to the Syriac Version of Pseudo-Dionysius (Pampakuda, Konat Collection, MS. 239)

Examines a manuscript of the Syriac version of Pseudo-dionysius which was found at the Konat Library in Pampakuda. Description of the manuscript; Contents of the manuscript; Analysis of the Greek translation of the manuscript.

Perczel I. Syriac manuscripts in India: the present state of the cataloguing process. The Harp : a review of Syriac and Oriental studies. 2002;15:289-98.
Perczel I. Pseudo-Dionysius and Palestinian Origenism. In: Patric J, editor. The Sabaite heritage in the Orthodox Church from the fifth century to the present. Vol 98. Leuven: Peeters; 2001. p. 261-82. (Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta; vol 98).
Perczel I. Saint Symeon the New Theologian and the theology of the divine substance. Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 2001;41(1-2):125-46.
Perczel I. Once again on Dionysius the Areopagite and Leontius of Byzantium. In: oiadjiev T, Kapriev G, Speer A, editors. Die Dionysius-Rezeption im Mittelalter. Tunrhout: Brepols; 2000. p. 41-85.
Perczel I. Sergius of Reshaina’s Syriac translation of the Dionysian Corpus: Some preliminary remarks. In: Baffioni C, editor. La diffusione dell'eredità classica nell'età tardoantica e medievale : filologia, storia, dottrina. Roma: Edizioni dell'Orso; 2000. p. 79-94.
Perczel I. Forewrod and hommage to Edmund Schütz. Annual of medieval studies at CEU. 2000;6:209-10.
Perczel I. Pseudo-Dionysius and the Platonic theology. Proclus et la théologie platonicienne : actes du Colloque International de Louvain (13 – 16 mai 1998) en l'Honneur de H. D. Saffrey et L. G. Westerink. 2000:491-532.
Perczel I. A kútnál. Budapest Hungary, H: Atlantisz; 1999.
Perczel I. Le pseudo-Denys, lecteur d’Origène. In: Bienert WA, Kühneweg U, editors. Origeniana septima : Origenes in den auseinandersetzungen des 4 jahrhunderts. Leuven: Leuven University Press; 1999. p. 673-710.
Perczel I. Mankind’s common intellectual substance: a study in the Letters of Saint Antony and his Life by Saint Athanasius. In: Nagy B, Sebők M, editors. The man of many devices, who wandered full many ways ... : Festschrift in honor of János M. Bak. Budapest Hungary, H: CEU Presss; 1999. p. 197-213.
Perczel I. "Ébrentigrise alvarák" Bevezetés Molnár Zoltán verseihez. In: Az utolsó előtti mosoly. Versek. Marosvásráhely: Mentor; 1997. p. 5-11.
Perczel I. Denys l’Aréopagite et les hénades de Proclus. Diotima: Review of Philosophical Research. 1995;23-25:71-6.
Az ókori irodalom kiskönyvtára. Horvath J, Perczel I, editors. Budapest Hungary, H: Európa; 1986.