Dear learned ones,
I'm posting this query partly on behalf of my supervisor, Aaron Gurevich, who
is, unfortunately, rather limited in communicating and doing research due to his
blindness.
Since twenty years there has been a heated on-going discussion between two
Russian maitres, A. Gurevich and M. Batkin, of the question whether or not one
can speak of the "medieval personality." One of the points here is the quotation
that was interpreted differently by two sides:
Baptismate homo constituitur in ecclesia persona.
One side translates it as: "By/after the baptism one is established in the
Church as a person." Thus the argument is that the baptism makes human being a
full-fledged person/personality in the eyes of the Church.
Another opinion: "The baptism makes one a person belonging to the Church," that
is, by baptism man becomes Christian, with no idea of personality involved.
I personally believe that the first interpretation has more sense both
gramatically and from the common-sense viewpoint, since the second statement
sounds as a mere banality. However, I would like to ask your learned opinion
about the translation. I also need your help in establishing the context for
this sentence. I failed to find it either in the Cetedoc or in the PL.
Thank you in advance,
Elena Lemeneva
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