Aristotelian Biology and Christian Theology in the Early Empire

This conference will explore the conceptual interplay between Aristotelian science and Christian theology during the 1st century BC, with a special interest in questions like:

• How did Aristotelian philosophy influence the theology of the early Christian church, and how did the latter’s theological precepts reinterpret the conceptual framework of the former?
• In what respect is Aristotle’s hylomorphic analysis of the natural world aligned with the theological debate on the relation between the body and the soul?
• Did Aristotelian science inform or in some way impact the church’s position on the process of generation and bodily “ensoulment”, the role of the spiritual in the material world, and the question of immortality?