Dualist Heresies in the History of South-East Europe (9th–15th century)
Dualist Heresies in the History of South-East Europe (9th–15th century)

Research Project by Georgi Minczew, University of Lodz (PI)

Overview

An international research project financed by the National Science Centre (Poland), and realized by an interdisciplinary team of scholars from the University of Lodz (Faculty of Philology, Ceraneum Centre, Faculty of Philosophy and History: Georgi Minczew, Zofia A. Brzozowska, Anna Maciejewska, Małgorzata Skowronek, Teresa Wolińska, Jan M. Wolski), in cooperation with foreign partners from universities and academic institutions in Bulgaria (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences: Ivan Biliarski, Mariana Tsibranska-Kostova) and Italy (Ca’Foscari University of Venice: Antonio Rigo). 

This project is devoted to four basic dualist teachings in the Byzantine-Slavic world: Manichaeism, Messalianism, Paulicianism, and Bogomilism. The dependence of the last three ones on the heterodox religious system by Pers Mani provides the basis to define Bogomilism as a “neo-Manichaean heresy,” “medieval Manichaeism” and extend the concept to include: Messalianism and Paulicianism. The rejection of certain stereotypes concerning the appearance, spreading, cosmology, ecclesiology, liturgical practice, and social teaching of the aforementioned heresies is related to the edition and analysis of new unknown Greek and Slavic sources. This interdisciplinary project requires the use of methods relevant to the historical, philological, and cultural sciences. It refers to the methods of classical textology, linguistic analysis, and historical criticism of the sources.

The implementation of this project will bring tangible results:

- development of a reliable scientific monograph, which will be the first comprehensive elaboration of the issue in the Polish humanities;

- preparation of an anthology of Polish translations of source texts, which may be a starting point for Historians and Philologists-Slavists for further studies;

- partial results of the research will be presented at conferences and in scientific articles intended for publication in recognized international scientific journals.