Athanasius of Alexandria (c.295-373) is one of the greatest and most controversial figures of early Christian history. His life spanned the period of fundamental change for the Roman Empire and the Christian Church that followed the conversion of Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor. A bishop and theologian, an ascetic and a pastoral father, Athanasius played a central role in shaping Christianity in these crucial formative years. As bishop of Alexandria (328-73) he fought to unite the divided Egyptian Church and inspired admiration and opposition alike from fellow bishops and the emperor Constantine and his successors. Athanasius attended the first ecumenical Council of Nicaea summoned by Constantine in 325 and as a theologian would be remembered as the defender of the original Nicene Creed against the 'Arian' heresy. He was also a champion of the ascetic movement that transformed Christianity, a patron of monks and virgins and the author of numerous ascetic works including the famous Life of Antony. All these elements played their part in Athanasius' vocation as a pastoral father, responsible for the physical and spiritual wellbeing of his congregations. This book offers the first study in English to draw together these diverse yet inseparable roles that defined Athanasius' life and the influence that he exerted on subsequent Christian tradition. The presentation is accessible to both specialists and non-specialists and is illuminated throughout by extensive quotation from Athanasius' many writings, for it is through his own words that we may best approach this remarkable man.

Activity and Participation in Late Antique and Early Christian Thought is an investigation into two basic concepts of ancient pagan and Christian thought. The study examines how activity in Christian thought is connected with the topic of participation: for the lower levels of being to participate in the higher means to receive the divine activity into their own ontological constitution. Torstein Theodor Tollefsen sets a detailed discussion of the work of church fathers Gregory of Nyssa, Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, and Gregory Palamas in the context of earlier trends in Aristotelian and Neoplatonist philosophy. His concern is to highlight how the Church Fathers thought energeia (i.e. activity or energy) is manifested as divine activity in the eternal constitution of the Trinity, the creation of the cosmos, the Incarnation of Christ, and in salvation understood as deification.

Paul and the Gentile Problem provides a new explanation for the apostle Paul's statements about the Jewish law in his letters to the Romans and Galatians. Paul's arguments against circumcision and the law in Romans 2 and his reading of Genesis 15-21 in Galatians 4:21-31 belong within a stream of Jewish thinking which rejected the possibility that gentiles could undergo circumcision and adopt the Jewish law, thereby becoming Jews. Paul opposes this solution to the gentile problem because he thinks it misunderstands how essentially hopeless the gentile situation remains outside of Christ. The second part of the book moves from Paul's arguments against a gospel that requires gentiles to undergo circumcision and adoption of the Jewish law to his own positive account, based on his reading of the Abraham Narrative, of the way in which Israel's God relates to gentiles. Having received the Spirit (pneuma) of Christ, gentiles are incorporated into Christ, who is the singular seed of Abraham, and, therefore, become materially related to Abraham. But this solution raises a question: Why is it so important for Paul that gentiles become seed of Abraham? The argument of this book is that Paul believes that God had made certain promises to Abraham that only those who are his seed could enjoy and that these promises can be summarized as being empowered to live a moral life, inheriting the cosmos, and having the hope of an indestructible life.

The fourth-century Cappadocian Fathers (Basil of Caesarea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus) are famous primarily for their contributions to Trinitarian theology. Scholars have also been interested in the Cappadocians' experiments in communal asceticism, which had a lasting impact on Christian theology and monastic vocation. Vasiliki Limberis has discovered a hitherto untold element in the history of these seminal figures. Simply stated, for the Cappadocians all aspects of Christian life were best communicated, understood, and indeed lived, through the prism of martyr piety. Limberis shows that the cult of the martyrs was absolutely central to the formation of Christian life for them and the laity. The local martyr cults were so powerful that the Cappadocians promoted their own kin as martyrs. This ensured that their families, soon after their deaths, would be imitated by the local people, and in future generations they would be honored as saints by all. Limberis documents the rich variety of ways the Cappodocians made use of the martyrs. Of particular interest are the complex rituals of the panegyris, a yearly celebration that honored the martyrs, creating social ties that spanned class barriers. Building projects also honored the martyrs, housed their loved ones, and created sacred space in their communities. Limberis calls attention to the pivotal roles played by the mothers and sisters of the Cappadocians in promoting martyr piety and examines the importance in their lives of material vehicles of sanctity such as eulogia breads and holy oil, and practices such as fasting, vigils, vows and prayers. The Cappadocians were of the generation that bridged the Church of the martyrs and the Church triumphant of the Roman state. This book shows how they reshaped martyr piety to suit the needs of this changing landscape, and made it the basis of a new understanding of Christian identity.

Gregory of Nazianzus, a 4th-century bishop of Constantinople, receives relatively little attention from modern Western scholars, yet he is one of the most influential theologians in the history of Christian doctrine. Many modern Christians understand their religious beliefs through ideas originally expounded by Gregory, yet probably would not recognize his name. As an advocate for the conceptual understanding of the Trinity, Gregory set precedents for the way his fellow and future Christians would perceive and worship God. Holding that Jesus was both fully divine and fully human, Gregory added new complexity to Christianitys grasp of the mysterious relationship between the Son and the Father. He also explored the nature of the Holy Spirit by means of scriptural analysis, both in the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. Gregorys enlightening revelations resonate throughout the varied religious landscape of Christian creed, cult, and code. Christopher A. Beeley examines Gregorys doctrine of the Trinity in the full range of his theological and practical vision of the Christian life. Beeley examines and analyzes Gregorys teachings on the purification, illumination, and limitations of the theologian; the saving work of Christ within the context of Gregorys understanding of salvation; the place of the Holy Spirit in the work of the Trinity; and the Trinitarian purpose of pastoral ministry. This book combines expansive coverage of Gregorys works with meticulous close-readings and analyses to impart new interpretations in the areas of Christology, Pneumatology, and Christian ministry.

In this study, Ramsay MacMullen steps aside from the well-worn path that previous scholars have trod to explore exactly how early Christian doctrines became official. Drawing on extensive verbatim stenographic records, he analyzes the ecumenical councils from A.D. 325 to 553, in which participants gave authority to doctrinal choices by majority vote.
The author investigates the sometimes astonishing bloodshed and violence that marked the background to church council proceedings, and from there goes on to describe the planning and staging of councils, the emperors' role, the routines of debate, the participants' understanding of the issues, and their views on God's intervention in their activities. He concludes with a look at the significance of the councils and their doctrinal decisions within the history of Christendom.

This book deals with Bible translation and its development from Antiquity to the Reformation. Helen Kraus compares and analyses those translated passages in Genesis 1-4 that deal with the male-female dynamic, tracing linguistic and ideological processes and seeking to determine the extent of interaction between contemporary culture and translation. In response to the challenge of late 20th-century 'second wave' feminist scholarship, Kraus considers the degree and development of androcentricity in these passages in both Hebrew and translated texts. The study is therefore something of a hybrid, comprising exegesis, literary criticism and reception history, and draws together a number of hitherto discrete approaches. After an introduction to the problems of translation, and exegesis of the Hebrew text, five translations are examined: The Septuagint (the first Greek translation, thought to date from the 3rd century BCE), Jerome's 4th-century CE Latin Vulgate version, Luther's pioneering German vernacular Bible of 1523, the English Authorized Version (1611), and the Dutch State Bible (1637). A brief study of contemporary culture precedes each exegetical section that compares translation with the Hebrew text. Results of the investigation point to the Hebrew text showing significant androcentricity, with the Septuagint, possibly influenced by Greek philosophy, emphasizing the patriarchal elements. This trend persists through the Vulgate and even Luther's Bible - though less so in the English and Dutch versions - and suggests that the translators are at least partly responsible for an androcentric text becoming the justification for the oppression of women.

After resolving to become a Catholic Christian, Augustine spent a decade trying to clarify his understanding of 'contemplation,' the interior presence of God to the soul. That long struggle yielded his classic account in the Confessions. This study explores Augustine's developing understanding of contemplation, beginning with his earliest accounts written before his baptism and ending with the Confessions. Chapter One examines the pagan monotheism of the Roman Platonists and the role of contemplation in their theology. Augustine's pre-baptismal writings are then considered in Chapter Two, tracking his fundamental break from pagan Platonism. Chapter Three then turns to Augustine's developing understanding of contemplation in these pre-baptismal texts. Chapter Four concentrates on Augustine's thought during the decade after his baptism in 387, a period that encompasses his monastic life in Thagaste, and his years first as a presbyter and then as a bishop in Hippo Regius. This chapter follows the arc of Augustine's thought through these years of transition and leads into the Confessions, giving a vantage point to survey its theology of contemplation. Chapter Five concentrates on the Confessions and sets its most famous account of contemplation, the vision at Ostia from Book IX, into a larger polemical context. Augustine's defence of his transcendental reading of scripture in Confessions XII is analysed and then used to illuminate the Ostian ascent narrative. The book concludes with observations on the importance of Augustine's theology of contemplation to the emergence of Christian monotheism in late antiquity.

There are few texts as central to the mythology of Jewish literature as the Garden of Eden and its attendant motifs, yet the direct citation of this text within the Hebrew Bible is surprisingly rare. Even more conspicuous is the infrequent reference to creation, or to the archetypal first humans Adam and Eve. There have also been few analyses of the impact of Genesis 2-3 beyond the biblical canon, though early Jewish and Christian interpretations of it are numerous, and often omitted is an analysis of the expulsion narrative in verses 22-24. In Remembering Eden, Peter Thacher Lanfer seeks to erase this gap in scholarship. He evaluates texts that expand and explicitly interpret the expulsion narrative, as well as translation texts such as the Septuagint, the Aramaic Targums, and the Syriac Peshitta. According to Lanfer, these textual additions, omissions, and translational choices are often a product of ideological and historically rooted decisions. His goal is to evaluate the genetic, literary, and ideological character of individual texts divorced from the burden of divisions between texts that are anachronistic ("biblical" vs. "non-biblical") or overly broad ("Pseudepigrapha"). This analytical choice, along with the insights of classic biblical criticism, yields a novel understanding of the communities receiving and reinterpreting the expulsion narrative. In addition, in tracing the impact of the polemic insertion of the expulsion narrative into the Eden myth, Lanfer shows that the multi-vocality of a text's interpretations serves to highlight the dialogical elements of the text in its present composite state.

Scholars of Gregory of Nyssa have long acknowledged the centrality of faith in his theory of divine union. To date, however, there has been no sustained examination of this key topic. The present study fills this gap and elucidates important auxiliary themes that accrue to Gregory's notion of faith as a faculty of apophatic union with God. The result adjusts how we understand the Cappadocian's apophaticism in general and his so-called mysticism of darkness in particular. After a general discussion of the increasing value of faith in late Neoplatonism and an overview of important work done on Gregorian faith, this study moves on to sketch a portrait of the mind and its dynamic, varying cognitive states and how these respond to the divine pedagogy of scripture, baptism, and the presence of God. With this portrait of the mind as a backdrop we see how Gregory values faith for its ability to unite with God, who remains beyond the comprehending grasp of mind. A close examination of the relationship between faith and mind shows Gregory bestowing on faith qualities which Plotinus would have granted only to the `crest of the wave of intellect'. While Gregorian faith serves as the faculty of apophatic union with God, faith yet gives something to mind. This dimension of Gregory's apophaticism has gone largely unnoticed by scholars. At the apex of an apophatic ascent faith unites with God the Word; by virtue of this union the believer takes on the qualities of the Word, who speaks (logophasis) in the deeds and discourse of the believer. Finally this study redresses how Gregory has been identified with a `mysticism of darkness' and argues that he proposes no less a `mysticism of light'.

In its twelfth volume this text examines a number of Patristic texts and early Christian documents from a feminist perspective."The Feminist Companion to Patristic Literature" is the twelfth volume in the "Feminist Companion to the Bible and Early Christian Literature" series. Presenting cutting-edge studies by both established scholars and new voices from diverse cultures and contexts, the series not only displays the range of feminist readings, but also offers essential readings for all students of the New Testament and early Christian literature.This volume examines a number of Patristic texts and early Christian documents from a feminist perspective including "Clement of Rome", "Clement of Alexandria", the "Christian Martyr" and the "Gospel of Thomas". The contributors include: Barbara Bowe, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, Denise Buell, Virginia Burrus, Elizabeth Castelli, Elizabeth Clark, Kathy Gaca, Robin Jensen, Ross S Kraemer, Carolyn Osiek, Carolyn Osiek, and Theresa Shaw. It is suitable for libraries; academics; postgraduates and upper level undergraduates.

Evagrius of Pontus (c.345-399) was one of the most prominent figures among the monks of the desert settlements of Nitria, Sketis, and Kellia in Lower Egypt. Through the course of his ascetic writings he formulated a systematic presentation of the teaching of the semi-eremitic monks of these settlements. The works of Evagrius had a profound influence on Eastern Orthodox monastic teaching and passed to the West through the writings of John Cassian (c.365-435).

Augustine's dialogue De libero arbitrio (On Free Choice) is, with his Confessions and City of God, one of his most important and widely read works. It contains one of the earliest accounts of the concept of 'free will' in the history of philosophy. Composed during a key period in Augustine's early career, between his conversion to Christianity and his ordination as a bishop, it has often been viewed as a an incoherent mixture of his 'early' and 'late' thinking. Simon Harrison offers an original account of Augustine's theory of will, taking seriously both the philosophical arguments and literary form of the text. Relating De libero arbitrio to other key texts of Augustine's, in particular the City of God and the Confessions, Harrison shows that Augustine approaches the problem of free will as a problem of knowledge: how do I know that I am free?, and that Augustine uses the dialogue form to instantiate his 'way into the will'.

In this innovative study, Joshua D. Garroway offers a revised account of the origin of the all-important Christian word "gospel," yielding significant new insights into the development of early Christian history and literature. Long thought to have originated on the lips of Jesus or his disciples, "gospel" was in fact coined by Paul midway through his career to describe his controversial new interpretation of Jesus' death and resurrection. For nearly a decade after the crucifixion, the thoroughly Jewish Jesus movement demanded circumcision and Law observance from Gentile converts. Only in the early 40s did Paul arrive at the belief that such observance was no longer necessary, an insight he dubbed "the gospel," or good news. The remainder of Paul's career featured clashes with authorities over the legitimacy of the gospel, debates that continued after his death in the writings of Mark, Matthew, and Luke-Acts. These writings obscured the original context of the gospel, however, and in time the word lost its specific association with Paul and his scandalous notion of salvation outside the Law.

Maximus the Confessor and his Companions provides the first English translations of seven documents from the seventh century which recount the legal trials, banishment, and deaths of the monk Maximus the Confessor, his disciples and friends, and Pope Martin I. The background to these documents is formed by Byzantine imperial religious policy, radical change in the Byzantine empire, Arab and Persian attacks, and the close ties which existed between Maximus and his followers and the West.

This book examines ideas of spiritual nourishment as maintained chiefly by Patristic theologians -those who lived in Byzantium. It shows how a particular type of Byzantine frescoes and icons illustrated the views of Patristic thinkers on the connections between the heavenly and the earthly worlds. The author explores the occurrence, and geographical distribution, of this new type of iconography that manifested itself in representations concerned with the human body, and argues that these were a reaction to docetist ideas. The volume also investigates the diffusion of saints' cults and demonstrates that this took place on a North-South axis as their veneration began in Byzantium and gradually reached the northern part of Europe, and eventually the entirety of Christendom.

This latest comprehensive work on Simon Magus lends new impetus to the investigation of Early Christianity and questions surrounding the origin and nature of Gnosticism. Major contributions of this study include: (1), a departure from the traditional exegesis of Acts 8, 5-24 (the first narrative source of Simon), and the later following reports of ancient Christian writers; (2), an overview of the literature of Graeco-Roman antiquity to determine the contribution of "magic" and "the Magoi" in the development of perceptions and descriptions of Simon; and (3), the inclusion of social science explanation models and modern estimations of "identity," in a creative approach to questions surrounding the phenomenon of Simon.

Jerome's Epitaph on Saint Paula (Epitaphium Sanctae Paulae) is one of the most famous writings by one of the most prolific authors in all of Latin antiquity. Composed in 404, it is an elaborate eulogy commemorating the life of Paula (347-404), a wealthy Christian widow from Rome who renounced her senatorial status and embraced a lifestyle of ascetic self-discipline and voluntary poverty. She used her vast inherited fortune to fund various charitable causes and to co-found with Jerome, in 386, a monastic complex in Bethlehem which was equipped with a hostelry for Christian pilgrims. The Epitaphium is one of the core primary texts on female spirituality (both real and idealized) in Late Antiquity, and it also is one of Jerome's crowning literary achievements, yet until now it has not received the depth of scholarly analysis that only a proper commentary can afford. This book presents the first full-scale commentary on this monumental work in any language. Cain accesses a very extensive array of ancient sources to fully contextualize the Epitaphium and he comprehensively addresses stylistic, literary, historical, topographical, theological, text-critical and other issues of interpretive interest, including relevant matters of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin philology. Considerable effort also is expended on extricating the elusive Paula of history from the sticky web of Jerome's idealized hagiographic construct of her. Accompanying the commentary is an introduction which situates the Epitaphium in the broader context of its author's life and work and exposes its various propagandistic dimensions. The critical Latin text and the facing-page translation will make the Epitaphium more accessible than ever before and will provide a reliable textual apparatus for future scholarship on this key Hieronymian writing.

No period of history was more formative for the development of Christianity than the patristic age, when church leaders, monks, and laity established the standard features of Christianity as we know it today. Combining historical and theological analysis, Christopher Beeley presents a detailed and far-reaching account of how key theologians and church councils understood the most central element of their faith, the identity and significance of Jesus Christ. Focusing particularly on the question of how Christ can be both human and divine and reassessing both officially orthodox and heretical figures, Beeley traces how an authoritative theological tradition was constructed. His book holds major implications for contemporary theology, church history, and ecumenical discussions, and it is bound to revolutionize the way in which patristic tradition is understood.

The Suffering of the Impassible God 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. Paul L. Gavrilyuk argues that this standard view misrepresents the tradition. In contrast, he 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. Gavrilyuk 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; while 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 the human condition.

J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz compares the personalities and the respective careers of two of the greatest of the early Christian Fathers, Ambrose and John Chrysostom. While the statesmanlike Ambrose ended his life as a pillar of the Western establishment, Chrysostom, the outspoken idealist, died in exile. However, their views and ideals were remarakably similar: both bishops were concerned with the social role of the Church, both were determined opponents of what they called the Arian heresy, and each attracted a dedicated following among his urban congregation. This similarity, Liebeschuetz argues, was due not to the influence of one on the other, but was a consequence of their participation in a Christian culture which spanned the divide between the Eastern (later Byzantine) and Western parts of the Roman Empire. The monastic movement figures throughout the book as an important influence on both men and as perhaps the most dynamic development in the Christian culture of the fourth century.

Edward Adams challenges a strong consensus in New Testament and Early Christian studies: that the early Christians met 'almost exclusively' in houses. This assumption has been foundational for research on the social formation of the early churches, the origins and early development of church architecture, and early Christian worship. Recent years have witnessed increased scholarly interest in the early 'house church'. Adams re-examines the New Testament and other literary data, as well as archaeological and comparative evidence, showing that explicit evidence for assembling in houses is not nearly as extensive as is usually thought. He also shows that there is literary and archaeological evidence for meeting in non-house settings. Adams makes the case that during the first two centuries, the alleged period of the 'house church', it is plausible to imagine the early Christians gathering in a range of venues rather than almost entirely in private houses. His thesis has wide-ranging implications.

The modern scholarly verdict about the Confessions has been nothing short of sensational. This work documents the story of 20th-century criticism and praise for Augustine's classic, an ancient text that has grown in stature like few other Western classics. Disciplines such as psychology, literature, and religion, plus many others, all claim it as their own. The first chapter of this study puts modern Confessions scholarship into historical context. The other chapters are devoted to autobiographical studies, literary influences, philosophical interpretations, psychology, spirituality, and theological themes. Of interest to scholars and students in many disciplines. At the end of the 19th century a new critical spirit of inquiry and scholarship helped to change how we think about religious texts. The new criticism uncovered problems with Augustine's Confessions; he may have dramatized events concerning his conversion to Christianity, for example. Yet, this work has proved to be relevant in the 20th century like few other ancient texts. That such variegated attention has been devoted to it is testimony to Augustine's enduring legacy. His stature in Western civilization is of the first order, comparable to Homer and Virgil, Plato and Aristotle, Moses and Paul.

The Macarian writings are among the most important and influential works of the early Christian ascetic and mystical tradition. This book offers an introduction to the work of Macarius-Symeon (commonly referred to as Pseudo-Macarius), outlining the lineaments of his teaching and the historical context of his works. The book goes on to examine and re-evaluate the complex question of his relationship with the Messalian tendency and to explore the nature of his theological and spiritual legacy in the later Christian tradition. In so doing the book also offers substantial treatments of the work of Mark the Monk, Diadochus of Photice, Abba Isaiah, and Maximus Confessor. It stands therefore not only as an exploration of the teaching and legacy of Macarius-Symeon but also as a chapter in the history of the Christian spiritual tradition.

Christianity is commonly held to have introduced an entirely new and better morality into the ancient world, a new morality that was decidedly universal, in contrast to the ethics of the philosophical schools which were only concerned with the intellectual few. Runar M. Thorsteinsson presents a challenge to this view by comparing Christian morality in first-century Rome with contemporary Stoic ethics in the city.
Thorsteinsson introduces and discusses the moral teaching of Roman Stoicism; of Seneca, Musonius Rufus, and Epictetus. He then presents the moral teaching of Roman Christianity as it is represented in Paul's Letter to the Romans, the First Letter of Peter, and the First Letter of Clement. Having established the bases for his comparison, he examines the similarities and differences between Roman Stoicism and Roman Christianity in terms of morality.
Five broad themes are used for the comparison, questions of Christian and Stoic views about: a particular morality or way of life as proper worship of the deity; certain individuals (like Jesus and Socrates) as paradigms for the proper way of life; the importance of mutual love and care; non-retaliation and 'love of enemies'; and the social dimension of ethics. This approach reveals a fundamental similarity between the moral teachings of Roman Christianity and Roman Stoicism. The most basic difference is found in the ethical scope of the two: While the latter teaches unqualified universal humanity, the former seems to condition the ethical scope in terms of religious adherence.