Fathers of the Church – serie

St.Cyril of Alexandria is best known for his role in the Christological disputes of the fifth century. In recent years, however, scholars have turned their attention to Cyril the exegete. Cyril wrote extensive commentaries on nearly every book of the Bible; in fact, two-thirds of his extant corpus is devoted to biblical interpretation. Yet, despite this strong interest in Cyril as theologian and biblical interpreter, his activity as the Patriarch of Alexandria remains obscure. Doctrinal treatises and biblical commentary reveal little of the daily pastoral duties that occupied Cyril during his years as leader of one of ancient Christianity's most important sees. This new translation of Cyril's ""Festal Letters"" will help fill these gaps. Twenty-nine in all, these letters cover all but three of Cyril's years as bishop. In Alexandria, festal letters functioned primarily as a vehicle for announcing the beginning of Lent and the proper date for the celebration of Easter. They also served an important catechetical purpose by providing the patriarch with an annual opportunity to present his flock with a pastoral version of the theological issues that found more formal and complex expression elsewhere. Thus, Cyril's ""Festal Letters"" offer the modern reader a glimpse into the issues that Cyril himself considered important enough to proclaim to the entire diocese and a sample of how he prepared these ideas for reception by a less sophisticated audience. These letters illuminate other aspects of the ancient church in Alexandria, including that church's complex relationship with the Jews and other religious groups, as well as the ways in which the ascetical movement wound its way into the patriarch's pastoral program. In short, Cyril of Alexandria's ""Festal Letters"" provides modern readers with a rare opportunity to enter the daily reality of the church in ancient Alexandria.

Jerome's Commentary on Galatians is presented here in English translation in its entirety. The introduction and notes situate the Commentary in its historical, exegetical, and theological contexts and also provide extensive coverage of ancient and modern scholarly debates about the interpretation of Paul's epistle.

When the writing of Latin biblical commentaries was still in its infancy, a young bishop from Poitiers, in Gaul, penned a passage-by-passage exposition on the Gospel of Matthew. It is the first of its kind to have survived almost completely intact. Published now for the first time in English translation, Hilary’s commentary offers a close look at Latin theology and exegesis before the Nicene Creed was considered the sole standard of orthodoxy. Likely the earliest of Hilary’s writings, this commentary has none of the polemic against the “Arians” that figured so prominently in most of his later works. Nonetheless, there exists in this text an oft-stated concern with those who interpreted the Incarnation as grounds for construing Christ as only a man rather than professing Christ as God and man. Other noteworthy features of the commentary include Hilary’s interest in the relation between Law and Gospel and his articulation of a Pauline-based view of justification by faith. In his view, the importance of the Law before the Gospel was indisputable and necessary. For Jews, it was considered the way of redemption. With the advent of Christ, it became an eschatological guide directing all future believers into the grace that comes by faith. Hilary’s emphasis on God’s righteousness conferred on a helpless race represents a far more pronounced application of Paul’s thought than in any previous Latin writer.

This translation makes available for the first time in English one of the most significant Old Testament commentaries of the patristic period. St. John Chrysostom's extant works outnumber those of any other Father of the East; in the West, only Augustine produced a larger corpus. Of Chrysostom's more than 600 exegetical homilies, however, only those on the New Testament have previously been translated into English.The Genesis homilies, his richest Old Testament series, reveal a theologian, pastor, and moralist struggling to explain some of the most challenging biblical material to his congregation in Antioch. He admonishes them to "apply yourself diligently to the reading of Sacred Scripture, not only when you come along here, but at home," encourages spiritual discourse, and frequently envisages them leaving church reminiscing on the day's sermon. While critical exegetical details go without mention and Chrysostom was limited to the Greek version of the Old Testament in his studies, his oratory has been judged golden and his theology profound. He was a preacher satisfied with commenting on Scripture with his moral purpose always to the fore.Chrysostom studied the Scriptures with Diodore of Tarsus, a distinguished exegete known from fragments of his commentaries on Genesis and Psalms, and a polemic style developed from his pastoral concern to protect his congregation from the dangerous influences of fourth-century Antioch. Most importantly, he shared the Antiochene school's insistence on the literal sense of Scripture and their unwillingness to engage in allegorical interpretation. As such, his Genesis homilies constitute a milestone in the history of biblical interpretation.This first of several volumes on Genesis contains homilies 1-17, delivered in Antioch before Chrysostom moved to Constantinople in 398. Robert C. Hill's thorough introduction highlights Chrysostom's significance as a scriptural commentator and provides the basis for an interesting comparison with modern commentators, such as Von Rad and Speiser.

Origen composed at least thirty-two books of a commentary on the Gospel according to John, at the request of St. Ambrose of Milan. Of these, only nine books are extant in almost complete form, although we have selections of others persevered in other collections of the works of Origen. The commentary proceeds verse by verse, and is particularly notable for its emphasis on the spiritual meaning of the Gospel.This volume contains books 1,2,6, and 10, and fragments of books 4 and 5. Origen's main interest is the allegorical interpretation of the Gospel according to John, which makes this an important work in the study of Origen's mystical thought. A secondary interest is the refutation of Valentinian gnosticism. According to Eusebius, Ambrose had been a Valentinian before his conversion by Origen, and Origen refers to the Gnostic writer Heracleon regularly throughout the commentary in order to refute his views.Although the refutation of Heracleon may have been a stimulus for the composition of this work, Origen moved beyond this goal in order to present a commentary on the Gospel which would appeal to the growing number of educated Christians who wanted a scientific exegesis. The author's writing covers a wide range of historical, theological, philosophical and etymological topics, all focused on this Gospel of "spiritual food." "We might dare to say," Origen says as he begins his commentary, "that the Gospels are the first-fruits of all Scriptures, but that the first-fruits of the Gospels is that according to John. How great must be our understanding, that we may be able to understand in a worthy manner the word which is stored up in the earthen treasures of paltry language." The Spirit-led exegete can thus draw out of the words and symbols a higher level of insight. This "spiritual gospel" is the reality of which Christ's acts were symbols; it is the secrets hidden in the mysteries of Christ's words.

Apologist is the English translation of two of Chrysostom's treatises, written about 378 and 382, aimed at provoking the divinity of Jesus Christ.In Discourse in Blessed Babylas and Against the Greeks, Chrysostom responds to specific attacks on Christianity by such philosophers as Porphyry, using historical narrative and the arguments of fulfilled prophecies to prove Christ's divinity. Chrysostom relates the story of St. Babylas, bishop and martyr, who defended the Church against an evil emperor and whose relics produced sobriety at Daphne and silenced the oracle of Apollo. Although a product of Christianized sophistic rhetoric, the discourse on Babylas furnishes interesting new material on the development of the veneration of relics and church-state relations in the third and fourth centuries. Schatkin's translation is based on her critical edition prepared for Sources Chrétiennes.The Demonstration Against the Pagans that Christ Is God is one of Chrysostom's earlier works and one of his basic contributions to apologetics. Chrysostom argues for Christ's divinity in the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and in Christ's own prophecies--particularly those on the phenomenal growth of the Church--to provide proof of a power that can be only divine. Harkins' translation is based on the unpublished critical edition of Norman G. McKendrick.

No other part of the Hebrew Scriptures, aside from the Psalter and sections of the prophet Isaiah, captured the interest and aroused the attention of the early Church as did the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis. Augustine of Hippo, the early Latin Church's profoundest scholar, devoted three treatises to these chapters. The first two — On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees and his Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis — are early works. The third and longest — The Literal Meaning of Genesis — was produced at the height of Augustine's maturity and has been ranked with his Confessions, The Trinity, and The City of God. The range, depth and genius of Augustine's thought, which begin to appear in the two earlier writings, are on full display in the third. This volume brings these three works together for the first time in English and provides a valuable and comprehensive introduction to each one.

Marius Victorinus, a contemporary of St. Ambrose and one who had considerable influence on St. Augustine—he has been styled "an Augustine before Augustine"—is an important Fourth-Century Neoplatonist. Before his conversion to Christianity Marius Victorinus wrote commentaries on works of Cicero and translated Aristotle's tracts on logic and some Neoplatonic books into Latin.After his conversion, probably A.D. 354, he turned his vast learning to the composition of theological treatises in refutation of Arianism and the errors of Ursacius and Valens expressed in the Creed of Sirminum (357) as well as those of Basil of Ancyra and of the Homoeans in the credos of Sirmium and Rimini in 359.The Theological Treatises on the Trinity contain the following: two letters, one from Candidus the Arian to the Rhetor Marius Victrorinus and the addressee's reply. Both documents are quite probably literary devices helping to bring into sharp focus the matters under discussion. These are followed by four books Against Arius, a short treatise demonstrating the necessity of accepting the term homoousios (of the same substance), and three Hymns, mostly in strophic structure, addressed to the Trinity and explaining the names and functions of the divine Persons in salvation history. In the Treatises Marius Victorinus adopts, in addition to the then traditional arguments, Neoplatonic concepts—adapted probably from Porphyry—to present a systematic explanation of the Trinity. Posthumous influences of the Treatises are discernible in works of Alcuin.The present translation is made from the latest critical text and has profited greatly from the vast erudition of Pierre Henry and Paul Hadot.