Basil of Caesarea’s debate with Eunomius of Cyzicus in the early 360s marks a turning point in the fourth-century Trinitarian controversies. It shifted focus to methodological and epistemological disputes underlying theological differences. This monograph explores one of these fundamental points of contention: the proper theory of names. It offers a revisionist interpretation of Eunomius’s theory as a corrective to previous approaches, contesting the widespread assumption that it is indebted to Platonist sources and showing that it was developed by drawing upon proximate Christian sources. While Eunomius held that names uniquely predicated of God communicated the divine essence, in response Basil developed a “notionalist” theory wherein all names signify primarily notions and secondarily properties, not essence.
Ephrem the Syrian was one of the founding voices in Syriac literature. While he wrote in a variety of genres, the bulk of his work took the form of madrashe, a Syriac genre of musical poetry or hymns. In Bible and Poetry in Late Antique Mesopotamia, Jeffrey Wickes offers a thoroughly contextualized study of Ephrem’s magnum opus, the Hymns on Faith, delivered in response to the theological controversies that followed the First Council of Nicaea. The ensuing doctrinal divisions had tremendous impact on the course of Christianity and led in part to the development of a uniquely Syriac Church, in which Ephrem would become a central figure. Drawing on literary, ritual, and performance theories, Bible and Poetry shows how Ephrem used the Syriac Bible to construct and conceive of himself and his audience. In so doing, Wickes resituates Ephrem in a broader early Christian context and contributes to discussions of literature and religion in late antiquity.
In Imitations of Infinity, Michael A. Motia places Gregory of Nyssa at the center of a world filled with Platonic philosophers, rhetorical teachers, and early Christian leaders all competing over what and how to imitate. Their debates demanded the attentions of people at every level of the Roman Empire.
Studying the early church can feel like entering a maze of bishops, emperors, councils, and arcane controversies. This book introduces early Christian theology by focusing on one particularly influential figure, Basil of Caesarea (ca. AD 330-378). It views Basil against the backdrop of a Roman Empire that was adopting Christianity. In Basil's day, Christians were looking for unity in the teaching and practice of their faith. This study acquaints the student with Basil's brilliant--and often neglected--theological writings. In particular, Saint Basil's reflections on the Trinity emerge from these pages as fascinating and illuminating testimonies to the faith of early Christians.
Guilds and conferences have grown up around historical theology, yet no volume has ever been dedicated to the definition and illustration of the method undergirding historical theology. This volume both defines and illustrates the methodology of historical theology, especially as it relates to the study of early Christianity, and situates historical theology among other methodological approaches to early Christianity, including confessional apologetics, constructive theology, and socio-cultural history. Historical theology as a discipline stands in contrast to these other approaches to the study of early Christianity. In contrast to systematic or constructive approaches, it remains essentially historical, with a desire to elucidate the past rather than speak to the present. In contrast to socio-historical approaches, it remains essentially theological, with a concern to value and understand the full complexity of the abstract thought world that stands behind the textual tradition of early Christian theology. Moreover, historical theology is characterized by the methodological presupposition that, unless good reason exists to think otherwise, the theological accounts of the ancient church articulate the genuine beliefs of their authors. The significance of this volume lies in the methodological definition it offers. The strength of this volume lies in the fact that its definition of the historical method of studying theology is not the work of a single mind but that of over twenty respected scholars, many of whom are leaders in the field. The volume begins with an introductory essay that orients readers to various approaches to early Christian literature, it moves to two technical essays that define the historical method of studying early Christian theology, and then it illustrates the practice of this method with more than twenty essays that cover a period stretching from the first century to the dawn of the seventh.
The Contra Eunomium is probably Gregory of Nyssa’s most challenging work with regards to his theological and philosophical thought, and one that continues to draw the deeper attention of contemporary scholars. This volume devoted to Contra Eunomium I constitutes, in a certain way, a new version of the Proceedings of the 6th International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (1988). It offers a revised English translation of Contra Eunomium I by S. G. Hall, accompanied by twenty-two supporting studies from a broad range of philological, philosophical, and theological perspectives. These studies include a selection of the most relevant papers of the 1988 Proceedings, supplemented with new contributions that explore relevant issues developed by contemporary research.
Motivated by the longstanding need to retrieve the classical doctrine of the Trinity, theologian Matthew Barrett brings together over forty Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox scholars in one ecumenical volume, demonstrating that Nicene orthodoxy can endure in the modern world and unite the church catholic.
How can finite creatures know an infinite God? Retrieving key insight from Scripture and patristic, medieval, and modern theologians, Ronni Kurtz offers a rich analysis of divine incomprehensibility. While our language cannot capture the full mystery of God, we can learn to speak of God faithfully, truthfully, and prayerfully.
Divine Simplicity engages recent critics and address one of their major concerns: that the doctrine of divine simplicity is not a biblical teaching. By analyzing the use of Scripture by key theologians from the early church to Karl Barth, Barrett finds that divine simplicity developed in order to respond to theological errors (e.g., Eunomianism) and to avoid misreading Scripture. The volume then explains how divine simplicity can be rearticulated by following a formal analogy from the doctrine of the Trinity in which the divine attributes are identical to the divine essence but are not identical to each other.
The self-emptying of Christ, proclaimed in the letter to the Philippians 2:7, remains a much-debated topic in modern theology and exegesis. The Interpretation of Kenosis from Origen to Cyril of Alexandria brings the insights of Greek Christianity to the understanding of kenosis to illustrate that new dimensions of the topic open up when it is examined in the historical era of early Christianity. Origen of Alexandria showed that his understanding of kenosis allowed him to resist overly confining understandings of divine immutability, yet retain the conviction that the immutable Word's self-emptying calls the Christian believer to awe and wonder. Gregory of Nyssa found in kenosis a way to emphasize the Son of God's embrace of all of human life, including historical development. Cyril of Alexandria, finally, the term kenosis more than anyone else in Greek-speaking Christianity. It was a theme across all major eras and genres of his writing, from scriptural exegesis to doctrinal disputes, including those about the divinity of the Son and the natural union of the Son with human reality. Cyril found in kenosis an anchor point for two themes: first, that the strangeness and shocking quality of the term kenosis reminds the believer that God's categories always stretch beyond human "who emptied himself?" can only be answered by a single-subject Christology that proclaims the kenosis of the Word. This book opens and closes with chapters relating early Christian teaching on Christ's self-emptying to modern scripture scholarship and to concerns of feminist systematic theology.
