Patristics
ABOUT USPatristics
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Michael J. Hollerich
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999.
Eusebius of Caesarea (d. 339), bishop, church historian, and biographer of Constantine, is the major Christian witness to the Constantinian settlement. Despite his importance, his biblical exegesis has not received the attention it deserved. His Commentary on Isaiah, rediscovered in nearly complete form only this century, was written shortly after the Council of Nicaea in 325 and the unification of the empire under Constantine. It is, thus, an important witness to Eusebius' thinking on the Bible, the Church, and the empire at a critical moment in his life and in the history of Christianity.
The book is a comprehensive assessment of the Commentary's methods and ideas. It examines how the new situation influenced Eusebius' reading of Isaiah, especially as revealed in his treatment of Judaism and Jewish exegesis. It also proposes that the commentary's focus on the 'godly polity', meaning above all the Church and its clergy, is a valuable corrective to interpretations of Eusebius' theology based too exclusively on the Constantinian literature.
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The Suffering of the Impassible God: the Dialectics of Patristic Thought.
Paul L. Gavrilyuk
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
The book provides a major reconsideration of the notion of divine impassibility in patristic thought. The question whether, in what sense, and under what circumstances suffering may be ascribed to God runs as a golden thread through such major controversies as Docetism, Patripassianism, Arianism and Nestorianism. It is commonly claimed that in these debates patristic theology fell prey to the assumption of Hellenistic philosophy about the impassibility of God and departed from the allegedly biblical view, according to which God is passible. As a result, patristic theology is presented as claiming that only the human nature of Christ suffered, while the divine nature remained unaffected. The author argues that this standard view misrepresents the tradition.
In contrast, Gavrilyuk construes the development of patristic thought as a series of dialectical turning points taken to safeguard the paradox of God's voluntary suffering in the flesh. For the fathers the attribute of divine impassibility functioned in a restricted sense as an apophatic qualifier of all divine emotions and as an indicator of God's full and undiminished divinity. The fathers at the same time admitted qualified divine passibility of the Son of God within the framework of the incarnation.
The author shows that the Docetic, Arian and Nestorian alternatives represent different attempts at dissolving the paradox of the incarnation. These three alternatives are alike in that they start with the presupposition of God's unrestricted impassibility. The Docetic view proposes to give up the reality of Christ's human experiences. The Arian position sacrifices Christ's undiminished divinity. The Nestorian alternative isolates the experiences and sufferings of Christ's humanity from his Godhead. In contrast to these alternatives, the mind of the church succeeded in keeping God's transcendence and undiminished divinity in tension with God's intimate involvement in human suffering. It is precisely because God's divinity and transcendence are never lost in suffering that the incarnation becomes a genuine act of divine compassion, capable of transforming and healing human condition.
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For the Joy Set Before Us: Augustine and Self-Denying Love.
Gerald W. Schlabach
Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001.
Age-old debates over self-love and self-denial continue in the Christian community. Many regard self-love as incompatible with the self-sacrifice of Christ. Others, especially feminists and liberation theologians, contest the notion that self-sacrifice is the test of authentic Christian love. The resolution to this dilemma, argues Gerald Schlabach, lies with St. Augustine.
In this engaging book, Schlabach examines how Augustine reconciled self-love and self-denial in a unified Christian love. He demonstrates the crucial role that continence played in Augustine's teaching. It is much more than an attitude toward sexuality. Rather, it is the operative mode of Augustinian caritas.
Addressing historical theology, contemporary Christian ethics, feminism, and pastoral considerations, Schlabach traces the role that self-denial played in Augustine's teaching. He argues that an integration of self-love and self-denial enables us to distinguish true Christian self-denial from mere victimization and that the good we seek when we love -- whether directed toward neighbor, enemy, or self -- is not self-serving but rather a participation in a mutual relationship with God and His creation.
Through this critical retrieval of Augustine's thought, Schlabach shows that self-denial is meaningful only when ordered to a higher good, as when Christ endured the suffering of the cross. He demonstrates practical applications of how charity working through continence can maintain right self-love and proper self-denial in our daily lives, and proposes that Christian self-sacrifice is the willing acceptance of a good derived from working on behalf of others.
