Ebook: The Patristic Period

Originally produced in Italy, this book on the first through seventh centu­ ries begins a monumental history of Catholic theology. The second and largest volume, covering the eighth to fourteenth centuries, will have two parts, while the third will cover the period from the Council of Trent to the twentieth century. This series focuses on theological method ralher than the history of dogma or significant theologians. Method is interpreted broadly in an aware­ ness that theological work is done in a historical and cultural setting. The book discusses the complex relationships between early Christian thinkers and the late antique religious, literary, and philosophical culture in which they lived. Attention is also paid to the influences of prayer, liturgy, pastoral care, and ethics on theological reflection. Theology is understood as reasoned reflection on the revelation embodied in Scripture in light of human experience, so biblical interpretation and the relationship of faith and reason are discussed. Most chapters, including the extensive contributions of Basil Studer, manifest a Catholic theological perspective. Some contributors, such as Eric Osborn, approach the material more as secular cultural historians.
The work is encyclopedic in character and scope. Although the index is brief and not very informative, readers will appreciate the detailed ten-page table of contents and Angelo Di Berardino's thirty-page chronological tables. Each chapter concludes with a useful bibliography, and the 105 pages of notes yield many fascinating insights. Part 1, chapter 1, by Prosper Grech, traces the beginnings of Christian theological reflection in the New Testament docu­ ments. He observes that the starting point is not these documents as such but the apostolic kerygma as a response to the Christ event. Significantly, he concludes that “even if the Church had not had the New Testament, it would still have had its creed" (39), together with the theological questions and reasoned efforts to resolve them that constitute the subject matter of Christian reflection on the faith. Chapters 2 and 3, by Eric Osborn, concern the second century. They discuss challenges of Graeco-Roman culture and responses of Christian apologists, and methods of attack on heresy and defense of truth. Osborn begins with one of the best brief sketches of Graeco-Roman culture I have ever read. His main focus, however, is the character and importance of philosophical argumentation in the theological reflection of tire period. Chap­ ter 3, on Clement and Origen of Alexandria, is by Henri Crouzel, who is well known for the unsurpassed depth, breadth, and extent of his studies of Origen. He provides a clear and insightful discussion of this great theologian's approaches to knowledge of God, philosophy, and Scripture, discusses the controversies surrounding his teachings, and defends him against his critics.
Chapters 5 through 7, by Manlio Simonetti, explore the shadowy history of theological reflection in East and West during the third century, from which very few writings have survived. Because of the sparsity of evidence, he endeavors to identify major figures, key ideas, and issues debated but is unable to study theological methods in detail. Chapter 8, by Angelo Di Berardino, is about Christian apocryphal literature. It shows how these texts express theological convictions through descriptions of religious experience and divine revelations and through narratives, prayers, and apostolic dis­ courses.
Part 2. titled "Theology in the Imperial Church (300-450)," by Basil Studer, is the heart of the volume and is practically a book in itself. It presupposes the author's earlier study of the substantive theological issues in The Trinity and the incarnation and supplements it through extensive discussion of theological methods and their roots in Graeco-Roman culture. He provides an analytical survey of the culture's political institutions, education, rhetorical forms, literary genres, and philosophical schools and ideas, and he assesses their Christian utilization and transformation. He then discusses biblical canon and interpretation, and the emergence of patristic, conciliar, and (somewhat anacmonistically) papal authority. Then lie considers the emergence of theo­ logical reflection and doctrinal formulation as a synthesis of biblical thought. Studer is also the author of all but one chapter of part 3, where he shows how activities discussed in part 2 continue into the fifth through seventh centuries and traces three further developments, the conscious awareness of patristic tradition, the beginnings of scholastic method, and finally the influence of monastic spirituality. Thus the work of this erudite Benedictine, ’whose spirit informs the whole volume, ends on an appropriate note. His chapters mani­ fest a magisterial breadth of vision and a mastery of telling details. They are adorned with a balance and grace that show his scholarly labors to be deeply rooted in the spirituality of his order. He often finds interesting parallels between Greek and Latin fathers, and he attends to both in a balanced way.
Pari 3, chapter 1, by Lorenzo Perrone, is not about method as such but is a clear and informative description of Greek Christological discussions between the Councils of Chalcedon in 451 and Constantinople in 553, complex material that is not well enough known. However, he has a Western bias. He believes that during the century in question the distinctive insights of the Antiochene "two natures" Christology were largely lost in the East. Unfortunately, he stops short of discussing Maximus the Confessor, the greatest theologian of the seventh century, whose work, while affirming Cyril's insights, establishes a new theological synthesis based on the dogma of Chalcedon. Regrettably Maximus only merits one paragraph in this volume, though it comes appropri­ ately in Studer's concluding discussion of monastic theology (486-87).
Altogether this is an excellent book and should be of interest to nonsperial- ists and specialists alike, though it presupposes some knowledge of patristics. One regrets a few errors that could cause confusion. In part 3, chapter 1, the Monoplwsile theologian Severus is named as patriarch of Alexandria instead of Antioch (444), Theodoret of Cyrrbus is called Theodotus (450), and Basil of Caesarea is said to have written a book Against the Nestorians (453). Could this have been Basil of Cilicia? Not surprisingly references to women in this work are few, but curiously two of the rare female late antique cultural figures appear as men. The Latin poet Proba is called "he" (278), and the Neoplatonic philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria is called "Hypatius" (307) [review of Nonna Verna Harrison in Church History, vol. 67, no. 4, Dec. 1998, p. 745].