On the 13th of February, André Vieira Antunes defended, at the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, his dissertation, within the scope of the Doctorate in Religious Studies, with the title “Church and Empire in the Chronography of Teófanes Confessor: The interpretation of history in the time of the iconoclastic crisis”.

At the center of the work, he presents a translation into Portuguese of a text in medieval Greek on the “Chronography of Theophanes Confessor”, dating from the 9th century AD. C., accompanied by the respective historical and theological context of the period and what is referred to as the Iconoclastic Crisis. If this is usually exposed in brief lines as a cultural and pastoral issue – the rejection or acceptance of the cult of icons –, the several decades of conflicts that opposed the imperial authorities of Byzantium with monastic communities and believers place this problem in a broader panorama. , as André was able to demonstrate.

The student is a researcher, translator and also responsible for the Communitas Bracarensis project, an open school of Latin and Greek, which provides face-to-face and online courses, according to the living language learning method.

The project had the guidance of professors from the Catholic University of Portugal – Braga Regional Center José Carlos Miranda and Manuel Summares and was scored, by the jury, with the best possible classification: 20 out of 20.

The editorial publication of the presented study is expected shortly and that the author, with proven evidence in the field of teaching and dissemination of classical languages, will also continue to generate knowledge in the area of the History of Christianity.