First Christian Theologians

292 Pages·2004·23.526 MB·English

by  G.R. Evans

The First Christian
Theologians
An Introduction to Theology in
the Early Church
Edited by
G. R. Evans
• A
'-II Blackwell
Publishing
© 2004 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
except for editorial material and organization © 2004 by G. R Evans
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First published 2004 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
4 2007
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The first Christian theologians: an introduction to theology in the early
church / edited by G. R Evans.
p. em. - (The great theologians)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-631-23188-9 (alk. paper) - ISBN 0-631-23187-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Theology-History-Early church, ca. 30-600. 2. Theology, Doctrinal
History-Early church, ca. 30-600 3. Fathers of the church. I. Evans, G. R
(Gillian Rosemary) 11. Series.
BT25.F57 2004
230'.U-dc22
2003022141
ISBN-13: 978-0-631-23188-2 (alk. paper) - ISBN-13: 978-0-631-23187-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)
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Contents
Preface vii
Notes on Contributors xi
List of Abbreviations xv
Introduction G. R. Evans 1
Part I THE BIBLE
1 The First Christian Writings John W Rogerson 15
2 The Interpretation of Scripture Frances Young 24
Part II THE CHURCH
3 The Early Idea of the Church Stuart G. Hall 41
4 The Early Church in the World G. R. Evans 58
5 The Imperial Ecclesiastical Lawgivers Clarence Gallagher) SJ 65
Part III RIvAL TRADITIONS: CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
AND JUDAISM
6 Philo of Alexandria David T. Runia 77
7 Christian Theology and Judaism Paula Fredriksen and Judith Lieu 85
Part IV RIvAL TRADITIONS: CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AND
SECULAR PHILOSOPHY
8 Christian Theology and Secular Philosophy John M. Rist 105
9 Justin Martyr Eric Osborn 115
10 Irenaeus of Lyons Eric Osborn 121
11 Clement of Alexandria Eric Osborn 127
12 Origen Rowan Williams 132
v
Contents
13 Tertullian Eric Osborn 143
14 The Hermetica G. R. Evans 150
Part V THE MATURING OF EARLY CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
IN EAST AND WEST
15 Athanasius and the Arian Crisis Rowan Williams 157
16 The Cappadocians Morwenna Ludlow 168
17 Pseudo-Dionysius and Maximus the Confessor Janet P. Williams 186
18 The Syriac Tradition David G. K. Taylor 201
19 Ambrose Boniface Ramsey 225
20 Jerome G. R. Evans 234
21 Augustine of Hippo G. R. Evans 238
22 Eutyches, Nestorius, and Chalcedon G. R. Evans 243
Conclusion: The End of an Era? G. R. Evans 248
Consolidated List of Sources 251
Index of References 260
General Index 267
vi
Preface
Christianity began with a person, known to history as Jesus Christ. His teaching and
example, his death by crucifixion, his disciples' confidence that he had been resur
rected, and their perseverance in "spreading the Gospel" he had taught them, had
an impact so immense that it gave birth to a "world religion" which has survived
two thousand years. Ifhis followers were right in believing that Jesus was the Son of
God, that is scarcely surprising. This volume cannot address itself to that great
question. It is concerned more modestly with the processes by which Christianity
survived the end ofJesus' life on earth, formed itself into a coherent body of beliefs,
and spread throughout the ancient world. It seeks to tell a story remarkable enough
in itself and with incalculable long-term consequences for the history of the
world.
The first Christians were not consciously theologians. They were disciples, follow
ing Jesus. Some of them became apostles, missionaries. The "faith" they were preach
ing was first and foremost an act of trust and commitment to a person. Nevertheless,
making that act of faith soon came to involve adherence to a set of propositions.
Those who came to be baptized affirmed their faith in words. For this purpose a
baptismal "creed" was used, which was probably the ancestor of what we now know
as the Apostles' Creed. This was on the face of it a short and simple list of points,
but it did not long remain a simple matter to know what it meant, for people began
to ask questions. That can already be seen to be happening in the Acts of the
Apostles, and throughout the Epistles of the New Testament.
The earliest of our authors are as conscious as the later ones that they are working
within a body of thought and belief which has been handed to them, and that they
in their turn are handing it on. Continuity in, and faithfulness to, "tradition" in this
literal sense of "handing on" is a concern of all the early councils of the Church.
Again and again the bishops meeting express their unanimous agreement with the
decrees of previous councils.
It is from the "questions" that a written Christian theology evolved. Every Chris
tian writer in these pages was addressing matters which threatened to become con
troversial, or required clarification so that there might be no stumbling blocks to the
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Preface
faithful. The individual "journey of the soul to God" might or might not include
engagement with that debate, for we do not hear from the :vast majority of ordinary
Christians of these early centuries. But those we do hear from were busily arguing,
and it is their contribution which forms the matter for this book.
This first volume in a series about the Christian theologians has to negotiate a
passage through the most crucial period of this tentative early development of
Christian thought. What is "early Christian"? What authors among the vast throng
who wrote on themes of concern to Christians is it appropriate to include in a book
on "early Christian theologians"?
The notion that there could be a body of especially weighty Christian writing
lay behind the Church's gradual acceptance and "approval" of the books which
came to make up the Bible. The use of the label "patristic" to denote other writings
of the early Christian centuries came much later. The word "Fathers" was used at
first almost exclusively to refer to a quite different body of authoritative figures,
the patriarchs of the Old Testament. Then it came to be used for bishops who
met in council. Thus the formula of the council of Chalcedon in 451 was said to
be "in agreement with the Holy Fathers." Only slowly did "Father" come to seem
an appropriate term for the early author who mayor may not be a bishop, but
whose writings are recognized to constitute an important contribution to Christian
understanding. Augustine (d. 430) speaks of Jerome (d. 420) as a "father" in this
sense.
Jerome himself was instrumental in encouraging the habit of thinking of certain
writers as the "fathers." He wrote a book "On Famous Men" (De viris illustribus),
listing Christian authors who could be trusted and respected. Gennadius of Marseilles
continued Jerome's work late in the fifth century, adding about a hundred names,
mainly writers of the fifth century, and drawn from both the East and the West.
Gelasius I, Pope from 492 to 496, issued a decretum "On books to Qe received and
books which should not be received." He begins with the books of the Old and
New Testaments "on which the catholic Church was founded" (fundata est) by the
grace of God. There is a list of those whose writings are approved or merely not
prohibited. There is a list of those writings which should be avoided because they
contain teachings which are -heretical. This is an extensive catalogue, including,
once more, Eastern as well as Western writers. The papal approval of these names by
Gelasius lent the names on the list added authority. A series of writers became
"Fathers" in this way. The last of the line in the West was perhaps Bede; the chrono
logical boundary is not so easy to draw in the East, and wherever we attempt to set
the dividing line it will include authors who are covered not in this volume but in
the next in the series, The Medieval Theologians.1 There are to be found Augustine of
Hippo, Gregory the Great, and Bede himself.
This is a book about the earliest individual Christian theologians and those who
entered into dialogue with them. It is also about the complexity of the process
by which a "Christian theology" came into existence. The reader will notice that
several names have a place in more than one context. The formation of the system
of thought which was to give articulation to the "faith in a person" with which it
all began, proved to be the work of centuries and of many, many minds. It became
bound into the intellectual, social, and political life of the age, and eventually
Vll1
Preface
decisively formed it. Our authors were taking part in the great European and
Middle Eastern colloquy which ultimately made the ancient world into the mod
ern world.
GRE
Note
1 The Medieval Theologians, ed. G. R. Evans (Blackwell, 2001).
ix

Notes on Contributors
G. R. Evans is Professor of Medieval Theology and Intellectual History at the
University of Cambridge. She is the author of numerous books in the fields of
patristic, medieval, and ecumenical history and theology, including Augustine on
Evil (1983), Anselm (1989), Problems ofA uthority in the Reformation Debates (1992),
The Church and the Churches (1994), Law and Theology in the Middle Ages (2002),
and Philosophy and Theology in the Middle Ages (repr. 2003). Published by Blackwell,
G. R. Evans is also the author of A Brief History of Heresy (2003), and the editor of
The Medieval Theologians (2001) and The First Christian Theologians (2004).
Paula Fredriksen is the William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Scripture in the De
partment of Religion, Boston University. Educated at Oxford University in theology
(1974) and at Princeton University in ancient Mediterranean religions (1979), she
has published Augustine on Romans (1982), From Jesus to Christ (1988; 2000), Jesus
of Nazareth, King of the Jews (1999), and, together with Professor Adele Reinhanz,
Jesus, Judaism, and Christian Anti-Judaism: Reading the New Testament after the
Holocaust(2002). Her most recent study, Augustine and the Jews, will be published
in 2004.
Clarence Gallagher, SJ was lecturer in canon law at Heythrop College, London and
at the Gregorian University, Rome, subsequently Dean of the Canon Law Faculty,
and then Rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome. He is at present tutor in
canon law at Campion Hall, Oxford University and lecturer in canon law in Lon
don. His publications include Canon Law and the Christian Community: The Role of
Law in the Church According to the Summa Aurea of Cardinal Hostiensis (1978), and
Church Law and Church Order in Rome and Byzantium: A Comparative Study
(2002), as well as a series of articles on canon law and ecclesiology.
Stuart G. Hall graduated in Classics and Theology at Oxford and entered the
priesthood in the Church of England. Academic service in Birmingham and Not
tingham culminated in the Chair of Ecclesiastical History at King's College London
xi
Notes on Contributors
from 1978 to 1990. After retirement he served as priest in the Scottish Episcopal
Church from 1990 to 1998 and is an Honorary Professor of Divinity in the Univer
sity of St. Andrews. Among his publications are an edition of Melito of Sardis
(1979), and Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church (1991).
Judith Lieu is Professor of New Testament Studies at King's College London. She
has also previously taught at Macquarrie University, Sydney. She was educated at
the Universities of Durham, Oxford, and Birmingham. Her publications include The
Second and Third Epistles of John (1986), The Theology of the Johannine Epistles
(1991), Image and Reality: The Jews in the World of the Christians in the 2nd
Century (1996), and Neither Jew nor Greek: Constructing Early Christianity (2002).
Morwenna Ludlow is the A. G. Leventis Departmental Lecturer in Patristics at
Oxford University. She has a special interest in Gregory of Nyssa and his interpreta
tion by later theologians and has also written on patristic and modern eschatology.
Eric Osborn is Honorary Professor at La Trobe University and Professorial Fellow at
the University of Melbourne. He was educated at Melbourne and Cambridge (Ph.D.
1954, D.D. 1977); he has taught at Queen's College, University of Melbourne
(1958-87) and briefly at the universities ofStrasbourg, G6ttingen, and Rome and at
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His books include Ethical Patterns in Early Chris
tian Thought (1976), The Beginning of Christian Philosophy (1981), The Emergence
of Christian Theology (1993), Tertullian: First Theologian of the West (1997), and
Irenaeus of Lyons (2001). Some of these have been translated into French or Ger
man. His chief interest is the interaction of biblical and philosophical ideas in early
Christian thought.
Boniface Ramsey received his doctorate in theology at the Institut Catholique, Paris.
Most recently he was a full professor at Seton Hall University, New Jersey. He
is the editor of the series The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st
Century, for which he is also translating a volume. Among his publications are
Beginning to Read the Fathers (1985), as well as annotated translations of the ser
mons of Maximus of Turin, The Institutes and The Conferences of John Cassian, and
a selection of works of Ambrose of Milan.
John M. Rist is Professor Emeritus of Classics and Philosophy at the University of
Toronto and currently Visiting Professor at the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum,
Rome. He was educated at Trinity College Cambridge and was Regius Professor of
Classics in Aberdeen from 1980 to 1983 and Visiting Professor at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem in 1995. His publications (mostly on ancient philosophy,
patristics, and ethics) include Eros and Psyche (1964), Plotinus: The Road to Reality
(1967), Human Value (1982), The Mind of Aristotle (1989), Augustine: Ancient
Thought Baptized (1994), and Real Ethics (2001).
John W Rogerson is Emeritus Professor of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield.
He studied in Manchester, Oxford, and Jerusalem before teaching in Durham, and
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