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  1. Home
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  3. The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature
  • Cited by 17
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
March 2008
Print publication year:
2004
Online ISBN:
9781139053846
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521460835
Collection:
Cambridge Histories - Religion
Subjects:
Classical Studies, Classical Literature, Religion, Theology
Information

Book description

The writings of the Church Fathers form a distinct body of literature that shaped the early church and built upon the doctrinal foundations of Christianity established within the New Testament. Christian literature in the period c.100–c.400 constitutes one of the most influential textual oeuvres of any religion. Written mainly in Greek, Latin and Syriac, Patristic literature emanated from all parts of the early Christian world and helped to extend its boundaries. The History offers a systematic account of that literature and its setting. The works of individual writers in shaping the various genres of Christian literature is considered, alongside three general essays, covering distinct periods in the development of Christian literature, which survey the social, cultural and doctrinal context within which Christian literature arose and was used by Christians. This is a landmark reference book for scholars and students alike.

Reviews

'In sum: this is a fine and important book, with excellent essays.'

Source: Church Times

‘As no-one can keep abreast of every aspect of the discipline, this volume will be useful even to specialists who may not be fully aware of developments outside their immediate field of interest. … this is a most useful book which will be of great help to anyone who needs a guide to part or all of the period which it covers.'

Source: Evangelical Quarterly

'… the most exhaustive treatment of early Christian literature in quite some time, and is an indispensable reference work.'

Source: Religious Studies Review

'The Cambridge History of early Literature is a first-rate work of Scholarship. it will be a welcome addition to those handy reference shelves and may well bump some works that are already there to a lower place.'

Source: Scottish Journal of Theology

'The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature is a first-rate work of scholarship. it will be a welcome addition to those handy reference shelves and may well bump some works that are already there to a lower place.'

Source: Journal of SJT

'There are three standard approaches to the study of ancient Christianity. One is historical, another is theological, and finally a third approach is literary. … The present Cambridge history masterfully integrates these three approaches into one volume, which its editors rightly hope will become 'a standard work of reference.' It is indeed a superb volume, which as its title indicates surveys early Christian literature from its beginnings up to the middle of the fifth century.'

Source: Gregorianum

'This volume will certainly stand both as a statement of the progress made so far in this field and as a prospectus for future …'

Source: Journal of Theological Studies

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Contents

Page 2 of 2

Contents
  • 22 - Arnobius and Lactantius
    pp 259-265
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Rhetoric was the core of ancient education. Lactantius and Arnobius were both professors of rhetoric; indeed, though neither mentions the other in his surviving works, Arnobius taught Lactantius. Arnobius compares the gods who regulated the practicalities of life in a Roman city to an elevated conception of divinity which owes as much to classical philosophy as it does to Christianity. Romans distinguished between religio, what was done to sustain the relationship between Gods and men, and sapientia, the knowledge of matters human and divine. Lactantius opined that pagan religio lacked any connection with ethics; it subordinated the spiritual to the physical and was concerned merely with matters of ritual. Lactantius lays out the united religio and sapientia of Christianity in seven books: the first three demonstrate the falseness of pagan cult and philosophy, the latter four true wisdom and the religion of the One God, its duties and rewards.
  • 23 - Eusebius and the birth of church history
    pp 266-274
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Eusebius was born in the early 260s, probably in Caesarea, which was to be the centre of his activities for most of his life. Three events profoundly shaped Eusebius' life and activity. The first was his encounter with Pamphilus. The second great event that affected Eusebius' life was the toleration of Christianity, and indeed the growing imperial patronage of the Church, in the years following Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge in 312. Eusebius became bishop of Caesarea soon after; his was an episcopate that experienced the dramatic change in the relationship between the Christian Church and imperial authority. The third event was his encounter with the Emperor Constantine himself, and his finding himself commissioned to compose a panegyric for his tricennalia. The apprenticeship with Pamphilus marked everything that Eusebius wrote; Eusebius emerged as a man of wide reading and great scholarly erudition. Eusebius' other works of history are his encomia of the emperor.
  • 24 - The fourth-century Alexandrians: Athanasius and Didymus
    pp 275-282
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Fourth-century Alexandrian theology is more or less summed up in the writings of two theological giants, Athanasius and Didymus. Athanasius' earliest work, his two-part Against the Pagans and On the Incarnation, stands in the apologetic tradition. The most important ascetic work ascribed to Athanasius is the Life of Antony. The importance of the Life of Antony lies not only in the early witness it furnishes of desert monasticism, but also in the fact that it became the archetype of the saint's life, perhaps the most popular Christian literary genre for the next thousand years. The authenticity of Didymus' dogmatic writings is still contested. On the Holy Spirit is certainly authentic, as is a brief, and acephalous, treatise Against the Manichees. His defence of the deity of the Holy Spirit develops the argument of his bishop, Athanasius, but with much greater serenity: it is mainly concerned with expounding relevant biblical passages.
  • 25 - Palestine: Cyril of Jerusalem and Epiphanius
    pp 283-288
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Jerusalem was raised to patriarchal status, in return for Juvenal's compliance with imperial orthodoxy, at the Council of Chalcedon and the real development of Palestinian monasticism belongs to the fifth century with the foundations of St Euthymius and St Sabas, the heroes of Cyril of Scythopolis' Lives of the Monks of Palestine. Jerusalem was marginal to the theological currents of the fourth and fifth centuries, and though it became a geographical focus for the controversy over Origenism, this was largely because of the presence in the Holy Land of Jerome and other Latins, who can hardly be classed as Palestinian, even though Jerome spent almost half his long life there. Cyril's main literary work is a collection of Catechetical Homilies. In the 390s Epiphanius was instrumental in fomenting the Origenist controversy in Palestine, and securing the support of Jerome, once an admirer of the great Alexandrian.
  • 26 - The Cappadocians
    pp 289-301
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The grouping together of Basil of Caesarea, with his friend, Gregory of Nazianzus, and his brother, Gregory of Nyssa, as the 'Cappadocian Fathers' is a product of modern scholars, who have regarded as significant the family links, geographical locality and common theological commitment they perceived in them. Theodosius was committed to Nicene orthodoxy and soon invited Gregory of Nazianzus to Constantinople, a largely Arian city, to be orthodox pastor in the Church of the Resurrection. He preached eloquently in defence of Nicene orthodoxy, his sermons there including the five theological orations to which he owes his title 'the Theologian'. The writings of Basil the Great can be divided into several categories: ascetic works, dogmatic works, homiletic works, letters, and a liturgy. Gregory of Nyssa seems to have been the Cappadocian for the twentieth century. There are a large number of dogmatic works, the most important of which is his Against Eunomius.
  • 27 - Fourth-century Latin writers: Hilary, Victorinus, Ambrosiaster, Ambrose
    pp 302-317
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The middle to later years of the fourth century witnessed a remarkable proliferation of Christian Latin literature, especially in Italy and Gaul. One of the great lights of the Gallic Church, Bishop Hilary of Poitiers was born early in the fourth century and became bishop around the year 350. Among Hilary's earliest writings is a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, the first Latin commentary on Matthew to have survived in its entirety. Hilary's major theological work was the twelve books now known as De Trinitate. The writings from Marius Victorinus' Christian period include a series of anti-Arian treatises and hymns, and the first Latin commentary on the Pauline Epistles. Ambrosiaster' is the name coined by Erasmus to refer to the author of the first complete Latin commentary on the thirteen Pauline Epistles, ascribed in most manuscripts to Ambrose. Ambrosiaster's commentary on Paul influenced later Latin commentators, among them Augustine and Pelagius.
  • 28 - Jerome and Rufinus
    pp 318-327
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Jerome obliged all future historians of Christian literature by compiling the first chronological list of Christian writers and their works, beginning with St Peter and ending with himself. Much of Jerome's entry in the De Viris Illustribus is devoted to works of biblical scholarship published or undertaken after his move to Bethlehem in 386, broadly divisible into the three categories of translation, exegesis, and aids to study. Classical literary theory taught that writers should seek to out do their predecessors in particular genres. Jerome generalized the principle, conceiving an entire anti-literature based on Scripture. Jerome's biblicism is the other side of his classicism. For many years Jerome of Stridon and Rufinus, a native of nearby Concordia in northern Italy, led parallel lives. Rufinus was as keen to associate the figure of the martyr with the office of Christian writer as Jerome had been, but is content as a rule to leave the association implicit.
  • 29 - Augustine
    pp 328-341
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Aurelius Augustinus was born on 13 November 354 at Thagaste in the Roman province of Numidia, North Africa. A stream of sceptical epistemology long remained an element in Augustine's mind; it is reflected in the discussion of time in Confessions II. Disbelief in human capacity to grasp profound truth, however, is never far distant from a turning to divine revelation and authority. On that path, during his time as city professor of oratory at Milan, he became converted to Neoplatonism through a Platonic group in the city, some of whom were Christians. In January 391 Augustine visited the harbour town of Hippo Regius intending to found a monastery. The importance of Augustine's numerous anti-Manichee writings, intended to vindicate his own renunciation of dualist heresy. Pelagius' criticisms reached Augustine and were felt to constitute a negation of everything presupposed in the Confessions in which he had stated his case for being a Christian.
  • 30 - John Chrysostom and the Antiochene School to Theodoret of Cyrrhus
    pp 342-352
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Antioch was a centre of learning, especially in rhetoric: according to Libanios, professor of rhetoric in Antioch from 354, Athens and Antioch 'held aloft the torch of rhetoric', Athens for Europe and Antioch for Asia. Diodore was a native of Antioch where he learnt his theology, though he had also studied rhetoric at Athens. John Chrysostom came to be ranked with St Basil the Great and St Gregory the Theologian as one of the universal teachers of the Church. The learned ninth-century patriarch of Constantinople, Photius, praised him for the clarity and purity of his style, his brilliant fluency. One of John's most interesting works is his treatise On Priesthood, written 390/1 and beginning with an account of his early years and a defence of his flight from ordination by Bishop Meletios of Antioch. Like John, Theodore was born in Antioch and studied there, having Libanios as his teacher of rhetoric, and Diodore as his ascetical and theological master.
  • 31 - Cyril of Alexandria
    pp 353-357
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Cyril was born around 375-80 in Alexandria, where he probably received his education, and he may have spent some time as a monk, though this is disputed. Though a great deal of Cyril's exegetic work is lost, much remains. On the Pentateuch there are two complementary works: Adoration and Worship in Spirit and in Truth and his Glaphyra. The former is a dialogue in which Cyril provides interpretation of various texts from the Pentateuch, presented in a thematic order. The Glaphyra discusses much the same texts in a continuous exposition, treating the texts in their biblical order. The writings from the period of the Nestorian controversy onwards are dominated by his opposition to Nestorianism. They include, however, Against the Godless Julian, a massive refutation of the apostate emperor's attack on Christianity. The anti-Nestorian writings take a variety of forms. Many of them are letters: to Nestorius himself, to Acacius, bishop of Melitene, to Eulogius, to Succensus, and others.
  • 32 - Hagiography
    pp 358-361
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Lives of the saints became one of the most popular forms of Christian literature: indeed for some periods of the Middle Ages, both in the East and the West, the literary sources are dominated by the hagiographical. The origin of the notion of the saint in the cult of the martyrs had a marked effect on the genre of the saint's Life. The saint's Life, is concerned to depict one whose closeness to God is a source of power, manifest in miracles, not just the miracles worked by the saint during his lifetime, but also the miracles he continues to work through his earthly remains: his relics. The vast majority of saints' Lives is monastic: the Life of St Antony is an important piece of monastic literature, as well as the archetypal saint's Life; there are several versions of the Life of St Pachomius: another early monastic saint's Life is the Life of Paul the Hermit by Jerome.
  • 33 - Ephrem and the Syriac Tradition
    pp 362-372
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Three major bodies of writing in Syriac survive from fourth century: Aphrahat's twenty-three Demonstrations, Ephrem's extensive writings in both prose and poetry, and the anonymous guide to the spiritual life entitled The Book of Steps. The most important figure of early Syriac literature is the theologian poet Ephrem, most of whose life was spent as a deacon serving the church in Nisibis. Ephrem's prose works fall into three categories, the Prose Refutations, the commentaries, and works written in artistic prose. A number of biblical commentaries have a strong claim either to be by Ephrem himself, or to represent his teaching or that of his immediate followers. These include two Old Testament commentaries, on Genesis and on Exodus, which are of particular interest for the many parallels with Jewish exegetical tradition. The fifth century was to witness a major change in the character of Syriac literature, as it came more and more under the influence of the Greek-speaking world.
  • 34 - The literature of the monastic movement
    pp 373-381
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The traditional story of the rise of monasticism as a fourth-century phenomenon associated par excellence with the Egyptian desert, is a Catholic legend, which, unlike many others, was reinforced, rather than questioned, by Protestant scholarship, happy to regard monasticism as a late, and therefore spurious, development. The literature falls into two categories: the literature of those monastic movements of the fourth century condemned as heretical; and literature that is eccentric to the geographical hegemony of Egypt in the traditional literature. The Life of St Antony, almost certainly by Athanasius of Alexandria, is the model, not only for all monastic Lives, but for the genre of the saint's Life itself. Instructional literature obviously includes monastic rules: those of Pachomius, Basil, Augustine, and, for Palestine, what can be discerned of the rules of Chariton and Gerasimus. The most important monastic literature of an instructional kind is the writings of Evagrius and John Cassian.
  • 35 - Women and words: texts by and about women
    pp 382-390
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The oldest known artistic work of literature by a Christian woman to survive intact is the Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi by a fourth-century noble woman commonly identified as Faltonia Betitia Proba. In the sixth century, the noble woman Anicia Juliana cited Eudocia's model in the elegant epigram she produced for inscription in the Church of Hagios Polyeuktos in Constantinople, a rare and sumptuous joining of literary and visual arts. The Christian literature by and about women surviving from late antiquity presents people with substantial evidence that the women authors whose names represent the tip of an iceberg. Aristocratic women sometimes obtained the same classical education as men; women of lesser means could still attain a high level of learning, particularly in Bible and other Christian literature, especially in convents where women were clearly expected to cultivate such learning as a part of their religious formation.
  • 36 - Conciliar records and canons
    pp 391-396
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter provides two ways of reaching decisions in primitive Christianity, the council and the authority of the individual apostle, both of which ground the authority for any decision in apostolicity. The production of canons really got under way in the fourth century. Canons were not only issued by councils. In the fourth century especially, and occasionally later, canons were issued by individual bishops on their own authority. Almost invariably these canons were issued in response to requests for guidance from other bishops, and imitate imperial rescripts. Canons and conciliar records survive because they were gathered into collections put together to provide a legal basis for the functioning of the Church of the Empire. In late antiquity such a legal basis fulfilled the dual function of providing practical rules and holding up an ideal, the ideal here being that of the 'apostolic' Church.
  • 37 - Social and historical setting
    pp 397-413
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The main directions in the Church's development had been established in the first three centuries of its existence. The Church entered the fourth century with a set of beliefs and an organizational structure which gave it a recognizable identity. The Constantinian revolution gave a huge new impetus to the Church's spread and to the growth of its public importance. Christianity was becoming a way to prestige; conformity could pay. Christians came gradually to occupy public office and to achieve prominence at the imperial courts. Until the end of the century, however, Roman society remained very mixed. The new social relations of the fourth-century Empire brought greater mobility and provided opportunities for the advancement of new men. Political, cultural and religious exclusiveness merged to give rise to a new sense of Romania which was synonymous with civilization and Christianity. By the middle of the fourth century Christianity had gone a very long way in assimilating the dominant culture of pagan Romans.
  • 38 - Articulating identity
    pp 414-463
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter explores some ways in which Christian belief and some key aspects of Christian identity were articulated and formed from around AD 300 to 451. It displays the character of the interactions between Christian groups and the imperial authorities by considering two disputes which demonstrate the internal problems caused by emergence from the threat of persecution. These were the Melitian and Donatist disputes. In the last century a number of attempts have been made to treat the dispute as a conflict between the provincial 'nationalism' or 'regionalism' of the Donatists, who were striving to preserve an indigenous form of Christianity, and the imperial authorities desire to impose a universal form of Christianity under closer imperial control. In these disputes, internal Christian debate was prompted by changing relations with the non-Christian world. The most important doctrinal controversy of the fourth century concerned Christians' understanding of God, of the nature of Christ and of the very character of salvation.
  • 39 - Christian teaching
    pp 464-484
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The fourth century sees a great cultural shift which both retains something of the school-like character of early Christianity and yet leaves no room for the semi-independent Christian philosopher or exegete. The character of the catechetical lectures that are extant demonstrates that the old anti-heretical thrust of the rule of faith remains crucial in the exposition of the creeds. Education in grammar and rhetoric would continue to be based on the traditional literature, now regarded as 'pagan' in an increasingly Christianized society, treated as useful but not true. The Christian way remained an education, a paideia, a training and discipline, moral, intellectual and spiritual. Christian teaching characterized human life and history as a journey, as progress under the guidance of the Spirit, even justifying some doctrinal developments in these terms as well as spiritual insights. The Christian tradition is clearly rooted in educational practice, and in this period retained something of its legacy as a teaching institution.
  • 40 - Retrospect: interpretation and appropriation
    pp 485-494
  • View abstract

    Summary

    In the eighteenth century, John Wesley took up the study of ancient Christian literature in Oxford. Wesley provides a clear example of how the Fathers have been valued, particularly as providing a hermeneutic of Scripture. The medium of language is both transparent and opaque; interpretation is vital. The standard analyses of figures of speech, logic and grammar were borrowed to enable exegesis. Gregory of Nyssa insisted that a literal interpretation of 'Son of God' was false if it implied physical begetting; yet God condescended to use human language and expressed the truth as nearly as possible in this inadequate medium. Christian discourse was fundamentally intertextual. The writings of the New Testament constantly quote, mirror or allude to the Jewish Scriptures. Postmodern critical theory enables a new appreciation of a body of literature whose features have often seemed alien to the modern world.

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