• Register
  • Login
    •   polish   English
    Published: 2024-10-081
    Vol. 66 No. 2 (2024)

    When the polemic opponent does not fear God and feels no shame before people: the image of the adversary in “Lithos”

    Viviana Nosilia

    https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7295-1580
    https://doi.org/10.36124/rt.2024.14

    Abstract

    This article is devoted to the rhetorical strategies used by the authors of the famous polemical treatise “Lithos abo Kamień...” (Kyiv 1644). In it there is an extraordinary amount of invectives against the adversary – Kasijan Sakovyč, author of the treatise “Epanorthōsis abo Perspectiwa” (Cracow 1642). These invectives were intended to discredit the opponent in the eyes of the readers and were not uncommon in the early modern era, not only in Poland but in all Europe. Despite the practice of rei publicae litterarum, as A. Naumow has already shown, polemicists also drew inspiration for invectives from the Bible and the patristic tradition. This article discusses and organises the various types of ad personam arguments that the authors of “Lithos” resorted to. In this way, a fairly wide range of means of dignifying a rival and the expediency of using outlandish expressions in creating a negative image of the opponent are revealed.

    Keywords:

    Kasijan Sakovyč, interconfessional polemics in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Petro Mohyla, “Epanorthōsis abo Perspectiwa”, “Lithos abo Kamień”, rhetorical organisation, old-Polish polemic treatises, Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, Ruthenian Orthodoxy, Uniate Church in the Ruthenian lands, Roman-Catholic Church in the Ruthenian lands

    Download files

    Citation rules

    Nosilia, V. (2024). When the polemic opponent does not fear God and feels no shame before people: the image of the adversary in “Lithos”. Theological Yearbook, 66(2), 341–372. https://doi.org/10.36124/rt.2024.14

    Cited by / Share

    Licence