Horka, Róbert [100%] : Curiositas ductrix: Die negative und positive Beziehung des hl. Augustinus zur Neugierde. In: Studia Patristica. - Leuven : Peeters, 2013, pp. 601-609. ISBN 978-90-429-3003-2. [16th International Conference on Patristic Studies. Oxford, 8.-12.8.2011]. NOTE: also in Spanish: Augustinus. Revista trimestral publicada por los Agustinos Recoletos. San Agustín en Oxford (No.9). – Roč. 60, č. 236-239 (2015), s. 211-221.

NOTE: A paper in German language. This study will present the role of curiosity in the thinking of Augustine. Originally he sees it as a problem, as this element has misled the first human beings to sin. The serpent in paradise has misused the woman’s curiosity, resulting in her blindness towards God’s commandment. Hence, curiosity arouse desire and desire gave birth to sin. On the other hand, Augustine thought, curiosity can be a help for human beings, as it attracts catechumens towards baptism. Augustine refers to the disciplina arcani and repeatedly hints at the curiosity of catechumens in his sermons. Especially their ignorance of sacraments should make them curious to undergo baptism. This interplay is real masterpiece of Augustine: that the very same curiosity that leads humans to sin also makes them search and find salvation. The publication is a practical consequence of the active engagement (with M. Andoková we are 1st participants from SR) in the International Patristic Conference, which has been held every four years in Oxford since 1951. Two years after this paper was published, South American colleagues expressed interest in translating the article to Spanish. I return occasionally to theme of curiosity as a positive value in St. Augustine, because a plethora of publications analyse curiosity as a negative quality, but no one analyses it as a positive phenomenon. I have since retrieved my research in this field into two more articles.

Andoková, Marcela [50%] ; Horka, Róbert [50%]: The Chronology of Augustine's Tractatus in Iohannis evangelium 1-16 and Enarrationes in psalmos 119-133 Revisited. In: Vox Patrum. – Lublin (Poľsko) : Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II.. Instytut Historii Kościoła i Patrologii. – ISSN 0860-9411. Year 39, N. 72 (2019), pp. 149-170.

NOTE: In present article ass. prof. Marcela Andoková and I would like to contribute to the recently proposed solution to certain questions related to the chronology of the two series of Augustine’s homilies, i.e. Tractatus in Iohannis Evangelium 1-16 and Enarrationes in Psalmos 119-133, especially in those points where the present solutions appear to be rather vague. Moreover, it focuses on some key points of the chronology: the dating of Tractate 7 at a pagan festival, the so-called dies sanguinis, proposed by La Bonnardière, then the synchronization of Tractates 1-16 with the parallel series of Enarrationes in Psalmos 119-133, and, finally, the re-evaluation of the year of the delivery of both series of homilies, dated between the years 406/407 or 407/408. Our argumentation is based, first and foremost, on the principle similar topic means similar liturgical time thanks to which we can place Tractates 10-12 of the Commentary on John’s Gospel right before the beginning of the Lenten season. Consequently, it enables us to include Tractates 13-16 in Augustine’s preaching activity during the Lenten season until as late as the beginning of the Easter Octave. Finally, these findings help us outline the new synchronised chronology of the two series of Augustine’s exegetical homilies for both the years 406/407 and 407/408. Both. M. Andoková and I, have already published partial conclusions of this forthcoming study in our previous papers and announced its comprehensive treatment. However, this has only now come about. The last comprehensive treatment of the topic of the temporal succession of Augustine's homilies was done in the 1970s by A.-M. La Bonnardière, and since then all the experts (including D. Milewski) have stated that the chronology has its shortcomings, but they say no more to the matter. Therefore we have very carefully worked on a new chronology which eliminates the vast majority of these shortcomings.

Horka, Róbert [100%]: Die psalmenüberschrift: τω Δαυιδ als grundlage für Augustinus' christliche interpretation von Psalmen. In: Acta Universitatis Carolinae : AUC Theologica. – ISSN 1804-5588. – ISSN (online) 2336-3398. Year 9, N. 2 (2019), pp. 149-162.

NOTE: A paper in German Language. In his Psalm commentary (Enarrationes in Psalmos) and especially in his interpretation of the Psalm headings, Augustine presents the complete theology of the Christian reading of the Psalms. Of course, Augustine uses the text of the Psalms translated from LXX to Latin. The interpretations of the headings form a very important and comprehensive part of his comments so that it becomes obvious that it is definitely an extensive subject. The Greek heading: τῷ Δαυιδ (ipsi David) is in 57 psalms of the LXX, so it is a very common mention. Augustine considers king David to be above all a model (typus) of Christ. Furthermore, through the grammatical analysis of these headings – namely the objective and subjective meaning of the dative – he forms a complete exegesis and theology of the Psalms for Christians. This view was a basis for the further generations of Christians, especially in the Middle Ages and for the monks, to consider the Psalms as Christian literature. The publication is an example of the comparative advantage of my academic work in two fields at once: classical philology and Catholic theology. Indeed, Augustine's sermonic interpretation of the most used psalm title, ipsi David, reckons with multiple syntactical levels of reading this text. The whole text therefore required a purely philological treatment, but the results of such an analysis had to be interpreted theologically. Only such a binary skills made it possible to take the investigation of this phenomenon to a new level of knowledge.

Horka, Róbert [100%]: Paradox as an expression of the inexpressible in Sedulius' Paschal Song. In: Barnés Antonio, Kučerková, Magda (eds.) : The figurativeness of the Language of Mystical Experience. Particularities and Interpretations. Brno: Masaryk University 2021, pp. 135-148. ISBN 978-80-210-9997-5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5817/CZ.MUNI.P210-9997-2021-13.

NOTE: In the middle of the Fifth century, a relatively mysterious Christian poet, Sedulius, wrote his epic composition named Paschal Song. In terms of contents, it is notably a description of Christ’s miracles according to the four Gospels. The poet is facing the reality of something that transcends the common human experience – according to what was defined by the Council of Ephesus and Chalcedon regarding the real divine and human nature of Christ. For such reason, even his poetical language is adapted, in order to describe something that contravenes common reality. A useful and suitable means for reaching this purpose is the frequently employed paradox. The reader/listener can get closer to the indescribable, unprecedented, and inexpressible mysterious nature of Christ. In this way, the author creates a very specific and elegant mystic – and his epic composition becomes a meditative text. The article is an example of how poetic figures can be used to capture what cannot be described by direct narrative. Sedulius then shows how one can find the semantic field not in the words, but between them, and especially if it is an oxymoron, a whole new semantic formation is created by combining them, which helps to describe what cannot be expressed in any other way, e.g. a mystical experience.

Marcela Andoková (50%), Robert Horka (50%): Persuasive Function of Sound Figures in Augustine’s Homilies on the Psalms of Ascents and their Translation into modern Languages. In: Vox Patrum, roč. 43, č. 85 (2023), s. 149-166.

NOTE: Augustine’s sermons and exegetical homilies have been recently studied by modern scholars not only from the point of view of their contents but also their rhetorical form. This is true especially in those cases where we deal with authentic speeches reflecting the language culture of his audience. One of the most characteristic features of Augustine’s homiletic style is antithetic parallelism which occurs frequently in his homilies on Psalms and results from the author’s own way of thinking. Here we do not deal that much with the biblical parallelism of thought, present in the Hebrew poetry, particularly in Psalms, prophetic speeches, etc., but rather with that which was introduced in Greek by Gorgias, i.e., parallelism of words and sentence structure (parallelismus membrorum). Antithetic parallelism is often accompanied by rhyme (Gr. homoioteleuton) or by assonance. This phenomenon might be observed already in Indo-European poetics but in the rhetorical context of Augustine’s anti-Donatist preaching it serves quite different purposes. By using these and other sound figures (like alliteration, repetition, anaphora, epiphora, etc.) the bishop of Hippo wants not only to please his audience but also to instruct them and, first and foremost, persuade them to return to the Catholic church. Does he use these figures spontaneously imitating the folk culture of his audience, or is he constantly aware of their persuasive force? These and other related questions have already captured attention of several Augustinian scholars of the last decades, so in the present paper we would like to contribute to this foregoing discussion focusing mostly on the persuasive aspect of selected sound figures occurring in Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos 119-133. Moreover, our aim is to show to which extent they were a part of bishop’s thoroughly considered plan of his homilies, and finally we would like to point out the importance of preserving at least some of these figures in modern translations of Augustine’s homilies.

Marcela Andoková [50%], Róbert Horka [50%]: Colloquial Speech or a Literary Work? How to Deal with Methodological Difficulties in Translating Augustine’s Homilies In: Konštantínove listy. Year 16, N. 2 (2023), pp. 186-198. SCOPUS. WOS CC

NOTE: A paper in Slovak language. The aim of this article is to define some methodological principles regarding the translation of Augustine’s exegetical homilies from Latin into the Slovak language with the view of the needs of modern recipients. In order to pursue this goal, we have analysed the corpus of Augustine’s Homilies on John’s Gospel (Tractatus in Iohannis Euangelium 1-16) which reflect the real speech of his contemporaries. While doing so we take into consideration not only the contents of homilies but also their formal aspect that very often attracted the hearer’s attention more than the contents itself, and so had both aesthetic and didactic functions at the same time. The proposed methodological principles can thus help translators to make accessible authentic Latin speech in a target language with the use of stylistic means, mainly some figures of speech which facilitate the process of remembering preacher’s message. Moreover, in order to demonstrate what effect this formal aspect of Augustine’s homilies had on his hearers, we have prepared sound records of Augustine’s selected homilies in the Slovak language illustrating his preaching art. The major contribution of the article is thus the new approach toward formal aspect of Augustine’s homilies which has not been dealt with systematically so far in Slovakia.

HORKA, Robert [100%]: A double homage to Sedulius as an example of late-antique synthesis of poetic genres. In: BALEGOVÁ, Jana, BRODŇANSKÁ, Erika, eds.: Hortus Graeco-Latinus Cassoviensis IV. Košice: FiF UPJŠ 2024, pp. 132-149.

NOTE: A paper in Slovak language. Sedulius's poetic work belonged to both the canon of lyric and epic school authors in the Middle Ages, but even during Late Antiquity his poems were considered valuable. The laudatory epigrams bear witness to this. Among them, a pair of poetic formations from the 5th century stands out as a jewel, most often attributed to the unknown authors Belisarius and Liberius, of whom we know nothing except that they are the presumed authors of this pair of poems. We have therefore attempted to reconstruct, at least hypothetically, the circumstances of their composition. In our paper we also present the first Slovak translation of these poems, which are a synthesis of several poetic genres, a typical sign of Latin poetry in late antiquity. Both examples present a hexametric strophe framed by a dedicatory acrostic and telestic. As a result, they provide a complex audiovisual aesthetic experience, appealing to both the ear and the eye at the same time.

HORKA, Róbert [100%]: St. Augustine: The Commentary on the Gospel of John. 1st Part: Joh 1 – 4. Bratislava: RKCMBF UK 2022. 288 p. ISBN 978-80-88696-87-2.

NOTE: A book in Slovak language. It consists of two parts. The first one is an introductory study, which describes both the author of the commentary and his work, as well as the time and place of its writing, the structure, the textual tradition and other significant moments that belong to it and that needed to be pointed out. The second part of the book is the first Slovak translation of Homilies 1-16, which form the first part of Augustine's commentary on the Gospel of John, supplemented by a triplet of notes (biblical, classical, textual) and a name and subject index.

Horka, Róbert [100%]: Antique Latin Christian Poetry. Undergraduate textbook. Bratislava : Univerzita Komenského Rímskokatolícka cyrilometodská bohoslovecká fakulta, 2020. 125 p. ISBN 978-80-88696-80-3.

NOTE: A textbook in Slovak language. It is the first academic textbook of ancient Christian poetry in Slovakia. It contains a historical description of the origin and development of Christian poetry in the Latin-speaking West, the gradual development of lyric genres, especially the liturgical hymn, the gradual development of epic genres, especially the biblical epic, excerpts from the works of each author in Slovak translation, and many other facts. The sphere of research on Christian writings and poetry, quite exceptionally, was neglected in Slovakia for a long time. The textbook aims to overcome this handicap. With the exception of translators of liturgical hymns, Janko Silan and Gorazd Zvonický, no one has devoted himself to it so far. In an attempt to fill this lacuna, therefore, I have compiled at least a brief guide that can take interested readers through the fascinating world of the origins of Christian poetics. This is a book that can have a broader scope than just the study of Catholic theology. Protestant theologians, with whom we share this chapter of history, can also reach for it, as well as classical philologists or students of Slovak language, especially those with a focus on studies of translatology.

Marcela Andoková [50%], Robert Horka [50%]: Persuasive Function of Sound Figures in Augustine’s Homilies on the Psalms of Ascents and their Translation into modern Languages. In: Vox Patrum, Year 43, N. 85 (2023), pp. 149-166. SCOPUS.

NOTE: Augustine’s sermons and exegetical homilies have been recently studied by modern scholars not only from the point of view of their contents but also their rhetorical form. This is true especially in those cases where we deal with authentic speeches reflecting the language culture of his audience. One of the most characteristic features of Augustine’s homiletic style is antithetic parallelism which occurs frequently in his homilies on Psalms and results from the author’s own way of thinking. Here we do not deal that much with the biblical parallelism of thought, present in the Hebrew poetry, particularly in Psalms, prophetic speeches, etc., but rather with that which was introduced in Greek by Gorgias, i.e., parallelism of words and sentence structure (parallelismus membrorum). Antithetic parallelism is often accompanied by rhyme (Gr. homoioteleuton) or by assonance. This phenomenon might be observed already in Indo-European poetics but in the rhetorical context of Augustine’s anti-Donatist preaching it serves quite different purposes. By using these and other sound figures (like alliteration, repetition, anaphora, epiphora, etc.) the bishop of Hippo wants not only to please his audience but also to instruct them and, first and foremost, persuade them to return to the Catholic church. Does he use these figures spontaneously imitating the folk culture of his audience, or is he constantly aware of their persuasive force? These and other related questions have already captured attention of several Augustinian scholars of the last decades, so in the present paper we would like to contribute to this foregoing discussion focusing mostly on the persuasive aspect of selected sound figures occurring in Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos 119-133. Moreover, our aim is to show to which extent they were a part of bishop’s thoroughly considered plan of his homilies, and finally we would like to point out the importance of preserving at least some of these figures in modern translations of Augustine’s homilies.

Horka, Róbert [100%] : Curiositas ductrix: Die negative und positive Beziehung des hl. Augustinus zur Neugierde. In: Studia Patristica. Leuven : Peeters, 2013, s. 601-609. ISBN 978-90-429-3003-2. 

Citation: [n1] TIMOTIN, A.: Trois théories antiques de la divination: Plutarque, Jamblique, Augustin. Leiden: Brill 2022, s. 318. ISBN 978-90-04-50736-4.

Horka, Róbert: St. Ambrose's Hymns Aeterne rerum Conditor and Deus Creator omnium. In: Acta facultatis theologicae Universitatis Comenianae Bratislaviensis, Year 8, N. 1 (2011), pp. 70-103.

Citation: [n1] Štauberová, Karolína: Fleat pro te Mater Ecclesia. Images of the Church in Ambrose’s Treatise De paenitentia. In: Acta Universitatis Carolinae Theologica, Year 12 (2022), N. 1, p. 69. Scopus.

Andoková, Marcela [50%]; Horka, Róbert [50%]: The Chronology of Augustine's Tractatus in Iohannis evangelium 1-16 and Enarrationes in psalmos 119-133 Revisited. In: Vox Patrum. Year 39, N. 72 (2019). ISSN 0860-9411 . 

Recension: [n1] Jérémy Delmulle et al.: Bulletin augustinien pour 2019 et compléments d’années antérieures - In: Revue d’études augustiniennes et patristiques. Roč. 66/1 (2020), s. 493; Scopus.

Horka, Róbert [100%]: On Grace and the Free Will. In: St. Augustine (Augustinus Aurelius) : Christian teaching. On Grace nad the Free Will. Prešov : Petra, 2004, pp. 171-217. ISBN 80-89007-44-9. (=Biblitoheca Antiqua Christiana vol. 4)

Recension: [o6] Škoviera, Daniel: Historický časopis. Year 52, N. 3 (2004), pp. 574-575. AHCI.

Horka, Róbert [100%]: Venantius Fortunatus: Life of St. Martin. Bratislava: RKCMBF UK 2019. 154 p [8,1 AH]. ISBN 978-80-88696-77-3.

Recension: [n3] Viktor Wintner: Róbert Horka: Venancius Fortunátus: Život svätého Martina. In: Studia theologica. Year 25, N. 2 (2023), pp. 215-217.

VEGA č. 1/0514/19: Title of project: The Poetics of Mystical Experience and the Literary Forms of Mystagogy. Duration: 01/2019 - 12/2021. Project manager: doc. Mgr. Magda Kučerková, PhD. As a researcher I approached to project at 1. 1. 2020. URL: https://www.smal.ff.ukf.sk/sk/o-vyskume/poetika-mystickej-skusenosti-a-literarne-podoby-mystagogie.

VEGA č. 1/0801/20: Title of project: Formal and material analysis of spoken Latin in Late Antiquity on the basis of preaching activity of Aurelius Augustinus. Duration: 01/2020-12/2022. Project manager: Mgr. et Mgr. Marcela Andoková MA, PhD. I'm a researcher in project.

VEGA č. 1/0386/24. Title of project: Carmina Seduliana. The first Slovak translation, edition and critical study to Sedulian literary work. Duration: 01/2024 - 12/2026. Project manager: doc. Mgr. Róbert Horka, PhD.