Abstract: The idea of citizenship (politeuma) was a useful way for the Cappadocian Fathers to talk about identity, and thus about belonging. A prestigious and long-running discourse in Christian and non-Christian culture, it was connected to notions of loyalty to a homeland (patris) or city (polis), and to membership in a community (politeia). These could be both temporal and local on the one hand, and spiritual and universal on the other. Both implied certain differing relationships between the individual and the community, and thus could be causes of t...
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