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Prof To Study Expert On Early Heresies

March 6, 2012

Calvin College history professor Young Kim has been awarded a Fulbright Research Grant that will allow him to study and write a book on the life and work of Epiphanius of Salami, the late 4th-Century bishop of Cyprus who was an expert on early-church heresies.

As part of his research, the historian from the college in Grand Rapids, Mich., will travel during the 2012 academic year to Salami in Cyprus, according to a feature story written by Myrna Anderson of Calvin College Communications.

In Cyprus, Kim plans to learn more about Epiphanius, whose text Panarion, which is Greek for Medicine Chest, cautions against many heresies and yet also contains autobiographical information on Epiphanius.

The Panarion, says Kim, “embodies in written form his self-constructed public persona — as the defender of orthodoxy, the scourge of heretics.”

Panarion is also seen as a manual in which Epiphanius describes the beliefs and pactices, as well as refutes, 80 heresies, including those of the Manichaeans, the Origenists, various Gnostic sects and the different derivations of non-Nicene theology.

Kim, a specialist in late Roman history, believes the fourth century, the Constantinian era, is one of the most important in church history for articulating the basic doctrines of the Christian faith.

The Fulbright Program offers grants to study, teach and conduct research for U.S. citizens to go abroad and non-U.S. citizens to come to the United States.