patristic literature

Body of literature that comprises those works (excluding the New Testament) written by Christians before the 8th century.

It refers to the works of the Church Fathers. Most patristic literature is in Greek or Latin, but much survives in Syriac and other Middle Eastern languages. The works of the Apostolic Fathers contain the earliest patristic literature. By the mid-2nd century, Christians wrote to justify their faith to the Roman government and to refute Gnosticism. In the 4th and 5th centuries, Augustine of Hippo and others laid the foundation for much of medieval and modern Christian thought. Significant patristic authors include Justin Martyr, Origen, Tertullian, Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Ephraem Syrus (306?–373), St. Jerome, Theodore of Mopsuestia, St. Cyril of Alexandria (с 375–444), St. Maximus the Confessor (с 580–662), and Pope Gregory I.

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▪ Christianity

Introduction

      body of literature that comprises those works, excluding the New Testament, written by Christians before the 8th century AD.

      Patristic literature is generally identified today with the entire Christian literature of the early Christian centuries, irrespective of its orthodoxy or the reverse. Taken literally, however, patristic literature should denote the literature emanating from the Fathers of the Christian Church, the Fathers being those respected bishops and other teachers of exemplary life who witnessed to and expounded the orthodox faith in the early centuries. This would be in line with the ancient practice of designating as “the Fathers” prominent church teachers of past generations who had taken part in ecumenical councils or whose writings were appealed to as authoritative. Almost everywhere, however, this restrictive definition has been abandoned. There are several reasons why a more elastic usage is to be welcomed. One is that some of the most exciting Christian authors, such as Origen, were of questionable orthodoxy, and others—Tertullian, for example—deliberately left the church. Another is that the undoubtedly orthodox Fathers themselves cannot be properly understood in isolation from their doctrinally unorthodox contemporaries. Most decisive is the consideration that early Christian literature exists, and deserves to be studied, as a whole and that much will be lost if any sector is neglected because of supposed doctrinal shortcomings.

The ante-Nicene period

      During the first three centuries of its existence the Christian Church had first to emerge from the Jewish environment that had cradled it and then come to terms with the predominantly Hellenistic (Hellenistic Age) (Greek) culture surrounding it. Its legal position at best precarious, it was exposed to outbursts of persecution at the very time when it was working out its distinctive system of beliefs, defining its position vis-à-vis Judaism on the one hand and Gnosticism (a heretical movement that upheld the dualistic view that matter is evil and the spirit good) on the other, and constructing its characteristic organization and ethic. It was a period of flux and experiment, but also one of consolidation and growing self-confidence, and these are all mirrored in its literature.

The Apostolic Fathers (Apostolic Father)

      According to conventional reckoning, the earliest examples of patristic literature are the writings of the so-called Apostolic Fathers; the name derives from their supposed contacts with the Apostles or the apostolic community. These writings include the church order called the Didachē, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (dealing with church practices and morals), the Letter of Barnabas (Barnabas, Letter of), and the Shepherd of Hermas, all of which hovered at times on the fringe of the New Testament canon in that they were used as sacred scripture by some local churches; the First Letter of Clement (Clement, First Letter of), the seven letters that Ignatius of Antioch (d. c. 110) wrote when being escorted to Rome for his martyrdom, the related Letter to the Philippians by Polycarp (Polycarp, Saint) of Smyrna (d. c. 156 or 168), and the narrative report of Polycarp's martyrdom; some fragmentary accounts of the origins of the Gospels by Papias (fl. late 1st or early 2nd century AD), bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, Asia Minor; and an ancient homily (sermon) known as the Second Letter of Clement. They all belong to the late 1st or early 2nd century and were all to a greater or lesser extent influenced (sometimes by way of reaction) by the profoundly Jewish atmosphere that pervaded Christian thinking and practice at this primitive stage. For this reason alone, modern scholars tend to regard them as a somewhat arbitrarily selected group. A more scientific assessment would place them in the context of a much wider contemporary Jewish-Christian literature that has largely disappeared but whose character can be judged from pseudepigraphal (or noncanonical) works such as the Ascension of Isaiah, the Odes of Solomon, and certain extracanonical texts modeled on the New Testament.

      Even with this qualification the Apostolic Fathers, with their rich variety of provenance and genre (types), illustrate the difficult doctrinal and organizational problems with which the church grappled in those transitional generations. Important among these problems were the creation of a ministerial hierarchy and of an accepted structure of ecclesiastical authority. The Didachē, which is Syrian in background and possibly the oldest of these documents, suggests a phase when Apostles and prophets were still active but when the routine ministry of bishops and deacons was already winning recognition. The First Letter of Clement, an official letter from the Roman to the Corinthian Church, reflects the more advanced state of a collegiate episcopate (episcopacy), with its shared authority among an assembly of bishops. This view of authority was supported by an emergent theory of apostolic succession in which bishops were regarded as jurisdictional heirs of the early Apostles. The First Letter of Clement is also instructive in showing that the Roman Church, even in the late 1st century, was asserting its right to intervene in the affairs of other churches. The letters of Ignatius (Ignatius of Antioch, Saint), bishop of Antioch at the beginning of the 2nd century, depict the position of the monarchical bishop, flanked by subordinate presbyters (priests) and deacons (personal assistants to the bishop), which had been securely established in Asia Minor.

      Almost more urgent was the question of the relation of Christianity to Judaism, and in particular of the Christian attitude toward the Old Testament. In the Didachē there is little sign of embarrassment; Jewish ethical material is taken over with suitable adaptations, and the Jewish basis of the liturgical elements is palpable. But with Barnabas the tension becomes acute; violently anti-Jewish, the Alexandrian author substitutes allegorism (use of symbolism) for Jewish literalism and thus enables himself to wrest a Christian meaning from the Old Testament. The same tension is underlined by Ignatius' polemic against Judaizing tendencies in the church. At the same time all these writings—especially those of Ignatius, Polycarp, and Papias—testify to the growing awareness of a specifically Christian tradition embodied in the teaching transmitted from the Apostles.

      Almost all the Apostolic Fathers throw light on primitive doctrine and practice. The Didachē, for example, presents the Eucharist as a sacrifice, and I Clement incorporates contemporary prayers. II Clement invites its readers to think of Christ as of God, and of the church as a preexistent reality. The Shepherd of Hermas seeks to modify the rigorist view that sin committed after baptism cannot be forgiven. But the real key to the theology of the Apostolic Fathers, which also explains its often curious imagery, is that it is Jewish-Christian through and through, expressing itself in categories derived from latter-day Judaism and apocalyptic literature (depicting the intervention of God in history in the last times), which were soon to become unfashionable and be discarded.

The Gnostic writers (Gnosticism)

      Hardly had the church thrown off its early Jewish-Christian idiosyncrasies when it found itself confronted by the amorphous but pervasive philosophical-religious movement known as Gnosticism. This movement made a strong bid to absorb Christianity in the 2nd century, and a number of Christian Gnostic sects flourished and contributed richly to Christian literature. Although the church eventually maintained its identity intact, the confrontation forced it to clarify its ideas on vital issues on which it differed sharply from the Gnostics. Chief among these were the Gnostics' distinction between the unknown supreme God and the Demiurge (identified with the God of the Old Testament) who created this world; their dualist disparagement of the material order and insistence that the Redeemer became incarnate in appearance only; their belief in salvation by esoteric knowledge; and their division of humanity into a spiritual elite able to achieve salvation and, below this elite, “psychics” capable of a modified form of salvation and “material” people cut off from salvation.

      Among the leading 2nd-century Christian Gnostics were Saturninus and Basilides, reputedly pupils of Menander, a disciple of Simon Magus (late 1st century), the alleged founder of the movement; they worked at both Antioch and Alexandria. Most famous and influential was the Egyptian Valentinus, who acquired a great reputation at Rome (c. 150) and founded an influential school of thought. Basilides and Valentinus are reported to have written extensively, and their systems can be reconstructed from hostile accounts by Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and other orthodox critics. The Gnostics generally seem to have been prolific writers, and as they needed their own distinctive scriptures they soon created a body of apocryphal books patterned on the New Testament. It was a Syrian Gnostic convert, Tatian, who compiled (late 2nd century) the first harmony of the four Gospels (the Diatessaron)—a single gospel using the material from the Gospels; and an Italian Gnostic, Heracleon (2nd century), who prepared the earliest commentary on the Gospel According to John (extracts from it were preserved by Origen). Epiphanius (Epiphanius of Constantia, Saint) (c. 315–403) preserved a Letter to Flora, by the Valentinian Gnostic Ptolemaeus (late 2nd century), supplying rules for interpreting the Mosaic Law (the Torah) in a Christian sense; and another disciple of Valentinus, Theodotus (Theodotus The Gnostic) (2nd century), published an account of his master's system that was excerpted by Clement of Alexandria.

      Almost the entire vast literature of Gnosticism has perished, and until recently the only original documents available to scholars (apart from extracts such as those already mentioned, which were preserved by orthodox critics) were a handful of treatises in Coptic contained in three codices (manuscript books) that were discovered in the 18th and late 19th centuries. The most interesting of these are Pistis Sophia and the Apocryphon of John, the former consisting of conversations of the risen Jesus with his disciples about the fall and redemption of the aeon (emanation from the Godhead) called Pistis Sophia, the latter of revelations made by Jesus to St. John explaining the presence of evil in the cosmos and showing how mankind can be rescued from it.

      Since 1945, however, this meagre store has been richly supplemented by the discovery near Najʿ Ḥammādī, in Egypt on the Nile about 78 miles northwest of Luxor, of 13 codices containing Christian Gnostic treatises in Coptic translations. Among these, the Jung Codex (named in honour of the psychoanalyst Carl Jung by those who purchased it for his library) includes five important items: a Prayer of the Apostle Paul; an Apocryphon of James, recording revelations imparted by the risen Christ to the Apostles; the Gospel of Truth, perhaps to be identified with the work of this name attributed by Irenaeus to Valentinus; the Epistle to Rheginos, a Valentinian work, possibly by Valentinus himself, on the Resurrection; and a Tripartite Treatise, probably written by Heracleon, of the school of Valentinianism. The other documents from the Najʿ Ḥammādī library include the Gospel of Thomas, a collection of sayings and parables that are ascribed to Jesus; the Apocryphon of John, which represents the first chapter of Genesis in mythological terms; and writings ascribed to Philip, Mary Magdalene, Adam, Peter, and Paul.

      A figure of immense significance who is often, though perhaps mistakenly, counted among the Gnostics was Marcion, who after breaking with the Roman Church in 144 set up a successful organization of his own. Teaching that there is a radical opposition between the Law and the Gospel, he refused to identify the God of love revealed in the New Testament with the wrathful Creator God of the Old Testament. He set forth these contrasts in his Antitheses, and his adoption of a reduced New Testament consisting of the Gospel According to Luke and certain Pauline epistles, all purged of presumed Jewish interpolations, had an important bearing on the church's formation of its own fuller canon.

The Apologists (Apologist)

      The orthodox literature of the 2nd and early 3rd centuries tends to have a distinctly defensive or polemical colouring. It was the age of Apologists, and these Apologists engaged in battle on two fronts. First, there was the hostility and criticism of pagan society. Because of its very aloofness the church was popularly suspected of sheltering all sorts of immoralities and thus of threatening the established order. At a higher level, Christianity, as it became better known, was being increasingly exposed to intellectual attack. The physician Galen Of Pergamum (129–c. 199) and the Middle Platonist thinker Celsus, who followed the religiously inclined form of Platonism that flourished from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD (compare his devastating Alēthēs logos, or True Word, written c. 178), were only two among many “cultured despisers.” But, second, orthodoxy had to take issue with distorting tendencies within, whether these took the form of Gnosticism or of other heresies, such as the so-called semi-Gnostic Marcion's rejection of the Old Testament revelation or the claim of the ecstatic prophet from Phrygia, Montanus, to be the vehicle of a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Christianity had also to define exactly where it stood in relation to Hellenistic culture.

      Strictly speaking, the term Apologists denotes the 2nd-century writers who defended Christianity against external critics, pagan and Jewish. The earliest of this group was Quadratus (Quadratus, Saint), who in about 124 addressed an apology for the faith to the emperor Hadrian; apart from a single fragment it is now lost. Other early Apologists who are mere names known to scholars are Aristo of Pella, the first to prepare an apology to counter Jewish objections, and Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis, said to be the author of numerous apologetic works and also of a critique of Montanism. An early apology that has survived intact is that of Aristides, addressed about 140 to the emperor Antoninus Pius; after being completely lost, the text was rediscovered in the 19th century. The most famous Apologist, however, was Justin (Justin Martyr, Saint), who was converted to Christianity after trying various philosophical schools, paid lengthy visits to Rome, and was martyred there (c. 165). Justin's two Apologies are skillful presentations of the Christian case to the pagan critics; and his Dialogue with Trypho is an elaborate defense of Christianity against Judaism.

      Justin's attitude to pagan philosophy was positive, but his pupil Tatian could see nothing but evil in the Greco-Roman civilization. Indeed, Tatian's Discourse to the Greeks is less a positive vindication of Christianity than a sharp attack on paganism. His contemporary Athenagoras of Athens, author of the apologetic work Embassy for the Christians and a treatise On the Resurrection of the Dead, is as friendly as Justin to Greek culture and philosophy. Two others who deserve mention are Theophilus Of Antioch, a prolific publicist whose only surviving work is To Autolycus, prepared for his pagan friend Autolycus; and the anonymous author of the Letter to Diognetus (Diognetus, Letter to), an attractive and persuasive exposition of the Christian way of life that is often included among the Apostolic Fathers.

      As stylists the Apologists reach only a passable level; even Athenagoras scarcely achieves the elegance at which he obviously aimed. But they had little difficulty in refuting the spurious charges popularly brought against Christians, including atheism, cannibalism, and promiscuity, or in mounting a counterattack against the debasements of paganism. More positively, they strove to vindicate the Christian understanding of God and specific doctrines such as the divinity of Christ and the resurrection of the body. In so doing, most of them exploited current philosophical conceptions, in particular that of the logos (Word), or rational principle underlying and permeating reality, which they regarded as the divine reason, become incarnate in Jesus. They have been accused of Hellenizing Christianity (making it Greek in form and method), but they were in fact attempting to formulate it in intellectual categories congenial to their age. In a real sense they were the first Christian theologians. But the same tension between the Gospel and philosophy was to persist throughout the patristic period, with results that were sometimes positive, as in Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa, and sometimes negative, as in the radical Arians Aëtius and Eunomius.

      As the 2nd century advanced, a more confident, aggressive spirit came over Christian Apologists, and their intellectual and literary stature increased greatly. Clement of Alexandria (Clement of Alexandria, Saint), for example, while insisting on the supremacy of faith, freely drew on Platonism and Stoicism to clarify Christian teaching. In his Protreptikos (“Exhortation”) and Paidagōgos (“Instructor”) he urged pagans to abandon their futile beliefs, accept the Logos as guide, and allow their souls to be trained by him. In interpreting scripture he used an allegorizing method derived from the Jewish philosopher Philo (Philo Judaeus), and against Gnosticism he argued that the baptized believer who studies the Scriptures is the true Gnostic, faith being at once superior to knowledge and the beginning of knowledge.

      The critique of Gnosticism was much more systematically developed by Clement's older contemporary, Irenaeus (Irenaeus, Saint) of Lyon, in his voluminous Against Heresies. While countering the Valentinian dualism that asserted that spirit was good and matter evil, this treatise makes clear the church's growing reliance on its creed or “rule of faith,” on the New Testament canon, and on the succession of bishops as guarantors of the true apostolic tradition. Irenaeus was also a constructive theologian, expounding ideas about God as Creator, about the Son and the Spirit as his “two hands,” about Christ as the New Adam who reconciles fallen humanity with God, and about the worldwide church with its apostolic faith and ministry, a concept that theology was later to take up eagerly.

      More brilliant as a stylist and controversialist, the North African lawyer Tertullian was also the first Latin theologian of considerable importance. Unlike Clement, he reacted with hostility to pagan culture, scornfully asking, “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” His Apology remains a classic of ancient Christian literature, and his numerous moral and practical works reveal an uncompromisingly rigid moral view. Although later becoming a Montanist himself (a follower of the morally rigorous and prophetic sect founded by Montanus), he wrote several antiheretical tracts, full of abuse and biting sarcasm. Yet, in castigating heresy he was able to formulate the terminology, and to some extent the theory, of later Trinitarian and Christological orthodoxy; his teaching on the Fall of Man, aimed against Gnostic dualism, in part anticipates Augustine.

      Roughly contemporary with Tertullian, and like him an intellectual and a rigorist, was Hippolytus (Hippolytus of Rome, Saint), a Greek-speaking Roman theologian and antipope. He, too, had a vast literary output, and although some of the surviving works attributed to him are disputed, it is probable that he wrote the comprehensive Refutation of All Heresies, attacking Gnosticism, as well as treatises denouncing specifically Christian heresies. He was also the author both of numerous commentaries on scripture and (probably) of the Apostolic Tradition, an invaluable source of knowledge about the primitive Roman liturgy. His Commentary on Daniel (c. 204) is the oldest Christian biblical commentary to survive in its entirety. His exegesis (interpretive method) is primarily typological—i.e., treating the Old Testament figures, events, and other aspects as “types” of the new order that was inaugurated by Christ.

Late 2nd to early 4th century

      Meanwhile, a brilliant and distinctive phase of Christian literature was opening at Alexandria (Alexandria, School of), the chief cultural centre of the empire and the meeting ground of the best in Hellenistic Judaism, Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism. Marked by the desire to present Christianity in intellectually satisfying terms, this literature has usually been connected with the catechetical school, which, according to tradition, flourished at Alexandria from the end of the 2nd through the 4th century. Except for the brief period, however, when Origen was in charge of it, it may be doubted whether the school was ever itself a focus of higher Christian studies. When speaking of the school of Alexandria, some scholars claim that it is better to think of a distinguished succession of like-minded thinkers and teachers who worked there and whose highly sophisticated interpretation of Christianity exercised for generations a formative impact on large sectors of eastern Christendom.

      The real founder of this theology, with its Platonist leaning, its readiness to exploit the metaphysical implications of revelation, and its allegorical understanding of scripture, was Clement (c. 150–c. 215), the Christian humanist whose welcoming attitude to Hellenism and critique of Gnosticism were noted above. His major work, the Strōmateis (“Miscellanies”), untidy and deliberately unsystematic, brings together the inheritance of Jewish Christianity and Middle Platonism in what aspires to be a summary of Christian gnosis (knowledge). All his reasoning is dominated by the idea of the Logos who created the universe and who manifests the ineffable Father alike in the Old Testament Law, the philosophy of the Greeks, and finally the incarnation of Christ. Clement was also a mystic for whom the higher life of the soul is a continuous moral and spiritual ascent.

      But it is Origen (c. 185–c. 254) whose achievement stamps the Alexandrian school. First and foremost, he was an exegete (exegesis) (critical interpreter), as determined to establish the text of scripture scientifically (compare his Hexapla) as to wrest its spiritual import from it. In homilies, scholia (annotated works), and continuous commentaries he covered the whole Bible, deploying a subtle, strongly allegorical exegesis designed to bring out several levels of significance. As an apologist, in his Contra Celsum, he refuted the pagan philosopher Celsus' damaging onslaught on Christianity. In all his writings, but especially his On First Principles, Origen shows himself to be one of the most original and profound of speculative theologians. Neoplatonist (Neoplatonism) in background, his system embraces both the notion of the preexistence of souls, with their fall and final restoration, and a deeply subordinationist doctrine of the Trinity—i.e., one in which the Son is subordinate to the Father. For his spiritual teaching, with its emphasis on the battle against sin, on freedom from passions, and on the soul's mystical marriage with the Logos, his Commentary on Canticles provides an attractive introduction.

      Origen's influence on Christian doctrine and spirituality was to be immense and many-sided; the orthodox Fathers and the leading heretics of the 4th century alike reflect it. Meanwhile, the Alexandrian tradition was maintained by several remarkable disciples. Two of these whose works have been entirely lost but who are reported to have been polished writers were Theognostus (Theognostus Of Alexandria) (fl. 250–280) and Pierius (fl. 280–300), both heads of the catechetical school and apparently propagators of Origen's ideas. But there are two others of note, Dionysius of Alexandria (Dionysius of Alexandria, Saint) (c. 200–c. 265) and Gregory Thaumaturgus (Gregory Thaumaturgus, Saint) (c. 213–c. 270), of whose works some fragments have survived. Dionysius of Alexandria wrote on natural philosophy and the Christian doctrine of creation but is chiefly remembered for his dispute with Pope Dionysius (reigned 259–268) of Rome on the correct understanding of the Trinity. In this Dionysius of Alexandria is revealed as a faithful exponent of Origen's pluralism and subordinationism. Gregory Thaumaturgus left a fascinating Panegyric to Origen, giving a graphic description of Origen's method of instruction, as well as a dogmatically important Symbol and a Canonical Epistle that is in effect one of the most ancient treatises of casuistry (i.e., the application of moral principles to practical questions).

      If Origen inspired admiration, his daring speculations also provoked criticism. At Alexandria itself, Peter, who became bishop in about 300 and composed theological essays of which only fragments remain, attacked Origen's doctrines of the preexistence of souls and their return into the condition of pure spirits. But the acutest of his critics was Methodius of Olympus (d. 311), of whose treatises The Banquet, exalting virginity, survives in Greek and others mainly in Slavonic translations. Although indebted to Alexandrian allegorism, Methodius remained faithful to the Asiatic tradition (literal and historical) of Irenaeus—who had come to France from Asia Minor—and his realism and castigated Origen's ideas on the preexistence of souls, the flesh as the spirit's prison, and the spiritual nature of the resurrected body. As a writer he strove after literary effect, and Jerome, writing a century later, praised the excellence of his style.

      Latin (Latin literature) Christian literature was slow in getting started, and North Africa has often been claimed as its birthplace. Tertullian, admittedly, was the first Christian Latinist of genius, but he evidently had humbler predecessors. Latin versions of the Bible, recoverable in part from manuscripts, were appearing in Africa, Gaul, and Italy during the 2nd century. In that century, too, admired works such as I Clement, Barnabas, and the Shepherd of Hermas were translated into Latin. The oldest original Latin texts are probably the Muratorian Canon, a late 2nd-century Roman canon, or list of works accepted as scripture, and the Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs (180) of Africa.

      The first noteworthy Roman Christian to use Latin was Novatian, the leader of a rigorist schismatic group. His surviving works reveal him as an elegant stylist, trained in rhetoric and philosophy, and a competent theologian. His doctrinally influential De trinitate (“Concerning the Trinity”) is basically apologetic: against Gnostics it defends the oneness and creative role of Almighty God, against Marcion it argues that Christ is the Son of God the Creator, against Docetism (the heresy claiming that Jesus only seemed the Christ) that Christ is truly man, and against Sabellianism (the denial of real distinctions in the Godhead, viewing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three successive modes of revelation) that in spite of Christ's being fully divine there is but one God. His rigorous moralism comes out in his On Public Shows and On the Excellence of Chastity (both once attributed to Cyprian); in On Jewish Foods he maintains that the Old Testament food laws no longer apply to Christians, the animals that were classified as unclean having been intended to symbolize vices.

      A much greater writer than Novatian was his contemporary and correspondent, Cyprian (Cyprian, Saint), the statesmanlike bishop of Carthage. A highly educated convert to Christianity, Cyprian left a large corpus of writings, including 65 letters and a number of moral, practical, and theological treatises. As an admirer of Tertullian, he continued some of his fellow North African's tendencies, but his style is more classical, though much less brilliant and individual. Cyprian's letters are a mine of information about a fascinating juncture in church history. His collections of Three Books of Testimonies to Quirinus, or authoritative scripture texts, illustrate the church's reliance on these in defending its theological and ethical positions. A work that has been of exceptional importance historically is On the Unity of the Catholic Church, in which Cyprian contends that there is no salvation outside the church and defines the role of the Roman see. His To Demetrianus is an original, powerful essay refuting the allegation of pagans that Christianity was responsible for the calamities afflicting society.

      Three writers from the later portion of this period deserve mention. Victorinus of Pettau was the first known Latin biblical exegete; of his numerous commentaries the only one that remains is the commentary on Revelation, which maintained a millenarian outlook—predicting the 1,000-year reign of Christ at the end of history—and was clumsy in style. Arnobius The Elder (converted by 300) sought in his Adversus nationes (“Against the Pagans”), like Tertullian and Cyprian before him, to free Christianity from the charge of having caused all the evils plaguing the empire, but ended up by launching a violent attack on the contemporary pagan cults. A surprising feature of this ill-constructed, verbose apology is Arnobius' apparent ignorance concerning several cardinal points of Christian doctrine, combined with his great enthusiasm for his new-found faith.

      By contrast, his much abler pupil Lactantius (c. AD 240–c. 320), like him a native of North Africa, was a polished writer and the leading Latin rhetorician of the day. His most ambitious work, the Divine Institutes, attempted, against increasingly formidable pagan attacks, to portray Christianity as the true form of religion and life and is in effect the first systematic presentation of Christian teaching in Latin. The later On the Death of Persecutors, now generally recognized as his, describes the grim fates of persecuting emperors; it is a primary source for the history of the early 4th century and also represents a crude attempt at a Christian philosophy of history.

The post-Nicene period

      The 4th and early 5th centuries witnessed an extraordinary flowering of Christian literature, the result partly of the freedom and privileged status now enjoyed by the church, partly of the diversification of its own inner life (compare the rise of monasticism), but chiefly of the controversies in which it hammered out its fundamental doctrines.

       Arianism, which denied Christ's essential divinity, aroused an all-pervasive reaction in the 4th century; the task of the first two ecumenical councils, at Nicaea (Nicaea, Council of) (325) and Constantinople (381), was to affirm the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. In the 5th century the Christological (Christology) question moved to the fore, and the Council of Chalcedon (451), completing that of Ephesus (431), defined Christ as one person in two natures. The Christological controversies of the 5th century were extremely complex, involving not only theological issues but also issues of national concerns—especially in the Syrian-influenced East, where the national churches were called non-Chalcedonian because they rejected the doctrinal formulas of the Council of Chalcedon.

      Involved in the 5th-century Christological controversy were many persons and movements: Nestorius, consecrated patriarch of Constantinople in 428, and his followers, the Nestorians, who were concerned with preserving the humanity of Christ as well as his divinity; Cyril (Cyril of Alexandria, Saint), patriarch of Alexandria, and his followers, who were devoted to maintaining a balanced emphasis on both of the natures of Christ, divine and human; Eutyches (c. 378–after 451), a muddleheaded archimandrite (head of a monastery) who affirmed two natures before and one nature after the incarnation; the Monophysites, who (following Eutyches) stressed the one unified nature of Christ; and the moderates and those who sought theological, ecclesiastical, and even political solutions to this highly complex doctrinal dispute, such as Pope Leo I. It was a time when the Alexandrian and Antiochene theological schools vied with each other for the control of the theology of the church. In the Syrian East the Antiochene tradition continued in the schools of Edessa and Nisibis, which became centres of a non-Greek national renaissance. The issues of grace, free will, and the Fall of Man concerned the West mainly. Meanwhile, old literary forms were developing along more mature lines, and new ones were emerging, including historiography, lives of saints, set piece (fixed-form) oratory, mystical writings, and hymnody.

The Nicene Fathers

      A seesaw struggle between Arians and orthodox Christians dominated the immediate post-Nicene period. Arius himself, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and other radicals occupied the extreme left wing, carrying Origen's views on the subordination of the Son to what became dangerous lengths. Apart from a few precious letters and fragments, their writings have perished. On the extreme right Athanasius, Eustathius of Antioch (Eustathius of Antioch, Saint), and Marcellus of Ancyra (strongly anti-Origenist) tenaciously upheld the Nicene decision that the Son was of the same substance with the Father. Again, the writings of the two latter figures, except for scattered but illuminating fragments, have disappeared. Most churchmen preferred the middle ground; loyal to the Origenist tradition, they suspected the Nicene Creed of opening the door to Sabellianism but were equally shocked by Arianism in its more uncompromising forms. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260–c. 340) was their spokesman, and for decades the eastern emperors supported his mediating line.

      Eusebius is chiefly known as a historian; his Ecclesiastical History, with its scholarly use of documents and guiding idea that the victory of Christianity is the proof of its divine origin, introduced something novel and epoch-making. But he also wrote voluminous apologetic treatises, biblical and exegetical works, and polemical tracts against Marcellus of Ancyra. From these can be gathered his theology of the Word, which was Origenist in inspiration and profoundly subordinationist and which made the strict Nicenes suspect him as an ally of Arius. Such suspicions were unjust, for he upheld Origen's doctrine of eternal generation (i.e., that the Word is generated outside the category of time) and rejected the extreme Arian theses. His influence can be studied in the works of Cyril of Jerusalem (Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint) (c. 315–386?), whose Catecheses, or introductory lectures on Christian doctrine for candidates for baptism, exemplify a pastoral type of Christian literature. Though critical of the Arian positions, Cyril remained reserved in his attitude toward the Nicene theology and at several other points showed affinities with Eusebius.

      Athanasius (Athanasius, Saint) (c. 293–373) bestrides the 4th century as the inflexible champion of the Nicene dogma. He had been present at the council, defending Alexander, the theologian-bishop of Alexandria from 313 to 328, who had exposed Arius; and after succeeding Alexander in 328 he spent the rest of his stormy life defending, expounding, and drawing out the implications of the Nicene theology. His most thorough and effective exposition of the Son's eternal origin in the Father and essential unity with him is contained in his Four Orations Against the Arians; but in addition he produced a whole series of treatises, historical or dogmatic or both, as well as letters, covering different aspects of the controversy.

      It would be misleading, however, to delineate Athanasius exclusively as a polemicist. First, even in his polemical writings he was working out a positive doctrine of the triune God that anticipated later formal definitions. His Letters to Bishop Serapion, with their persuasive presentation of the Holy Spirit as a consubstantial (of the same substance) person in the Godhead, are an admirable illustration. Also his noncontroversial works, such as the relatively early but brilliant apologies Discourse Against the Pagans and The Incarnation of the Word of God; the attractive and influential Life of St. Antony, which was to give a powerful impulse to monasticism (especially in the West); and his numerous exegetical and ascetic essays, which survive largely in fragments, sometimes in Coptic or Syriac translations, should not be overlooked.

The Cappadocian Fathers

      Although Athanasius prepared the ground, constructive agreement on the central doctrine of the Trinity was not reached in his lifetime, either between the divided parties in the East or between East and West with their divergent traditions. The decisive contribution to the Trinitarian argument was made by a remarkable group of philosophically minded theologians from Cappadocia—Basil (Basil the Great, Saint) of Caesarea, his younger brother Gregory of Nyssa (Gregory of Nyssa, Saint), and his lifelong friend Gregory of Nazianzus (Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint). Of aristocratic birth and consummate culture, all three were drawn to the monastic ideal, and Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus achieved literary distinction of the highest order. While their joint accomplishments in doctrinal definition were indeed outstanding, each made a noteworthy mark in other fields as well.

      So far as Trinitarian dogma is concerned, the Cappadocians succeeded, negatively, in overthrowing Arianism in the radical form in which two acute thinkers, Aëtius (d. c. 366) and Eunomius (d. c. 394), had revived it in their day, and, positively, in formulating a conception of God as three Persons in one essence that eventually proved generally acceptable. The oldest of Basil's dogmatic writings is his only partially successful Against Eunomius, the most mature his essay On the Holy Spirit. Gregory of Nyssa continued the attack on Eunomius in four massive treatises and published several more positive dogmatic essays, the most successful of which is the Great Catechetical Oration, a systematic theology in miniature. The output of Gregory of Nazianzus was much smaller, but his 45 Orations, as well as being masterpieces of eloquence, contain his classic statement of Trinitarian orthodoxy. Basil's vast correspondence testifies to his practical efforts to reconcile divergent movements in Trinitarian thinking.

      Basil is famous as a letter writer and preacher and for his views on the appropriate attitude of Christians toward Hellenistic culture; but his achievement was not less significant as a monastic legislator. His two monastic rules, used by St. Benedict and still authoritative in the Greek Orthodox Church, are tokens of this. Gregory of Nazianzus, too, was an accomplished letter writer, but his numerous, often lengthy poems have a special interest. Dogmatic, historical, and autobiographical, they are often intensely personal and lay bare his sensitive soul. On the other hand, Gregory of Nyssa, much the most speculative of the three, was an Origenist both in his allegorical interpretation of scripture and his eschatology. But he is chiefly remarkable as a pioneer of Christian (Christianity) mysticism, and in his Life of Moses, Homilies on Canticles, and other books he describes how the soul, in virtue of having been created in the divine image, is able to ascend, by successive stages of purification, to a vision of God.

      A figure who stood in sharp contrast, intellectually and in temperament, to the Cappadocians was their contemporary, Epiphanius (Epiphanius of Constantia, Saint) of Salamis, in Cyprus. A fanatical defender of the Nicene solution, he was in no sense a constructive theologian like them, but an uncritical traditionalist who rejected every kind of speculation. He was an indefatigable hammer against heretics, and his principal work, the Panarion (“Medicine Chest”), is a detailed examination of 80 heresies (20 of them pre-Christian); it is invaluable for the mass of otherwise unobtainable documents it excerpts. Conformably with Epiphanius' contempt for classical learning, the work is written in Greek without any pretension to elegance. His particular bête noire was Origen, to whose speculations and allegorism he traced virtually all heresies.

Monastic literature

      From the end of the 3rd century onward, monasticism was one of the most significant manifestations of the Christian spirit. Originating in Egypt and spreading thence to Palestine, Syria, and the whole Mediterranean world, it fostered a literature that illuminates the life of the ancient church.

      Both Anthony (Anthony of Egypt, Saint) (c. 250–355), the founder of eremitical, or solitary, monasticism in the Egyptian desert, and Ammonas (fl. c. 350), his successor as leader of his colony of anchorites (hermits), wrote numerous letters; a handful from the pen of each is extant, almost entirely in Greek or Latin translation of the Coptic originals. Those of Ammonas are particularly valuable for the history of the movement and as reflecting the uncomplicated mysticism that inspired it. The founder of monastic community life, also in Egypt, was Pachomius (Pachomius, Saint) (c. 290–346), and the extremely influential rule that he drew up has been preserved, mainly in a Latin translation made by Jerome.

      Though these and other early pioneers were simple, practical men, monasticism received a highly cultivated convert in 382 in Evagrius Ponticus. He was the first monk to write extensively and was in the habit of arranging his material in groups of a hundred aphorisms, or “centuries,” a literary form that he invented and that was to have a great vogue in Byzantine times. A master of the spiritual life, he classified the eight sins that undermine the monk's resolution and also the ascending levels by which the soul rises to wordless contemplation. Later condemned as an Origenist, he was deeply influential in the East, and, through John Cassian, in the West as well.

      Side by side with works composed by monks there sprang up a literature concerned with them and the monastic movement. Much of it was biographical, the classic example being Athanasius' Life of St. Antony . Sulpicius Severus (c. 363–c. 420) took this work as his model when early in the 5th century he wrote his Life of St. Martin of Tours, the first Western biography of a monastic hero and the pattern of a long line of medieval lives of saints. But it was Palladius (c. 363–before 431), a pupil of Evagrius Ponticus, who proved to be the principal historian of primitive monasticism. His Lausiac History (so called after Lausus, the court chamberlain to whom he dedicated it), composed about 419/420, describes the movement in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor. Since much of the work is based on personal reminiscences or information received from observers, it is, despite the legendary character of many of its narratives, an invaluable source book.

      Finally, no work so authentically conveys the spirit of Egyptian monasticism as the Apophthegmata Patrum (“Sayings of the Fathers”). Compiled toward the end of the 5th century, but using much older material, it is a collection of pronouncements of the famous desert personalities and anecdotes about them. The existing text is in Greek, but it probably derives from an oral tradition in Coptic.

The school of Antioch (Antioch, School of)

      Antioch, like Alexandria, was a renowned intellectual centre, and a distinctive school of Christian theology flourished there and in the surrounding region throughout the 4th and the first half of the 5th century. In contrast to the Alexandrian school, it was characterized by a literalist exegesis and a concern for the completeness of Christ's manhood. Little is known of its traditional founder, the martyr-priest Lucian (Lucian of Antioch, Saint) (d. 312), except that he was a learned biblical scholar who revised the texts of the Septuagint and the New Testament. His strictly theological views, though a mystery, must have been heterodox, for Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and other Arians claimed to be his disciples (“fellow Lucianists”), and Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, who denounced them, lists Lucian among those who influenced them. But Eustathius of Antioch (Eustathius of Antioch, Saint), the champion of Nicene orthodoxy, is probably more representative of the school, with his antipathy to what he regarded as Origen's excessive allegorism and his recognition, as against the Arians, of the presence of a human soul in the incarnate Christ.

      It was, however, much later in the 4th century, in the person of Diodore of Tarsus (c. 330–c. 390), that the School of Antioch began to reach the height of its fame. Diodore courageously defended Christ's divinity against Julian the Apostate, the Roman emperor who attempted to revive paganism, and in his lifetime was regarded as a pillar of orthodoxy. Later critics detected anticipations of Nestorianism (the heresy upholding the division of Christ's Person) in his teaching, and as a result his works, apart from some meagre fragments, have perished. They were evidently voluminous and wide-ranging, covering exegesis, apologetics, polemics, and even astronomy; and he not only strenuously opposed Alexandrian allegorism but also expounded the Antiochene theoria, or principle for discovering the deeper intention of scripture and at the same time remaining loyal to its literal sense.

      In stature and intellectual power Diodore was overshadowed by his two brilliant pupils, Theodore Of Mopsuestia (c. 350–428/429) and John Chrysostom (Chrysostom, Saint John) (c. 347–407). Both had also studied under the famous pagan Sophist rhetorician Libanius (314–393), thereby illustrating the cross-fertilization of pagan and Christian cultures at this period. Like Diodore, Theodore later fell under the imputation of Nestorianism, and the bulk of his enormous literary output—comprising dogmatic as well as exegetical works—was lost. Fortunately, the 20th century has seen the recovery of a few important texts in Syriac translations (notably his Commentary on St. John and his Catechetical Homilies), as well as the reconstruction of the greater part of his Commentary on the Psalms. This fresh evidence confirms that Theodore was not only the most acute of the Antiochene exegetes, deploying the hermeneutics (critical interpretive principles) of his school in a thoroughly scientific manner, but also an original theologian who, despite dangerous tendencies, made a unique contribution to the advancement of Christology. His Catechetical Homilies are immensely valuable both for understanding his ideas and for the light they throw on sacramental doctrine and liturgical practice.

      In contrast to Theodore, John was primarily a preacher; indeed he was one of the most accomplished of Christian orators and amply merited his title “Golden-Mouthed” (Chrysostomos). With the exception of a few practical treatises and a large dossier of letters, his writings consist entirely of addresses, the majority being expository of the Bible. There he shows himself a strict exponent of Antiochene literalism, reserved in exploiting even the traditional typology (i.e., treatment of Old Testament events and so forth as prefigurative of the new Christian order) but alert to the moral and pastoral lessons of his texts. This interest, combined with his graphic descriptive powers, makes his sermons a mirror of the social, cultural, and ecclesiastical conditions in contemporary Antioch and Constantinople, as well as of his own compassionate concern as a pastor. Indefatigable in denouncing heresy, he was not an original thinker; on the other hand, he was outstanding as a writer, and connoisseurs of rhetoric have always admired the grace and simplicity of his style in some moods, its splendour and pathos in others.

      The last noteworthy Antiochene, Theodoret Of Cyrrhus (c. 393–c. 458), in Syria, was also an elegant stylist. His writings were encyclopaedic in range, but the most memorable perhaps are his Remedy for Greek Maladies, the last of ancient apologies against paganism; and his Ecclesiastical History, continuing Eusebius' work down to 428. His controversial treatises are also important, for he skillfully defended the Antiochene Christology against the orthodox Bishop Cyril of Alexandria and was instrumental in getting its more valuable features recognized at the Council of Chalcedon. He was a scholar with a comprehensive and eclectic mind, and his large correspondence testifies to his learning and mastery of Greek prose as well as illustrating the history and intellectual life of the age.

The schools of Edessa and Nisibis (Nisibis, School of)

      Parallel with its richer and better-known Greek and Latin counterparts, an independent Syriac (Syriac literature) Christian literature flourished inside, and later outside (in Persia), the frontiers of the Roman Empire from the early 4th century onward. Aphraates, an ascetic cleric under whose name 23 treatises written between 336 and 345 have survived, is considered the first Syriac Father. Deeply Christian in tone, these tracts present a primitive theology, with no trace of Hellenistic influence but a firm grasp and skillful use of scripture. Edessa and Nisibis (now Urfa and Nusaybin in southeast Turkey) were the creative centres of this literature. Edessa had been a focus of Christian culture well before 200; the old Syriac version of the New Testament and Tatian's Diatessaron, as well as a mass of Syriac apocryphal writings, probably originated there.

      The chief glory of Edessene Christianity was Ephraem Syrus (Ephraem Syrus, Saint) (c. 306–373), the classic writer of the Syrian Church who established his school of theology there when Nisibis, its original home and his own birthplace, was ceded to Persia under the peace treaty of 363, after the death of Julian the Apostate. In his lifetime Ephraem had a reputation as a brilliant preacher, commentator, controversialist, and above all, sacred poet. His exegesis shows Antiochene tendencies, but as a theologian he championed Nicene orthodoxy and attacked Arianism. His hymns, many in his favourite seven-syllable metre, deal with such themes as the Nativity, the Epiphany, and the Crucifixion or else are directed against skeptics and heretics. His Carmina Nisibena (“Songs of Nisibis”) make a valuable source book for historians, especially for information about the frontier wars.

      After Ephraem's death in 373, the school at Edessa developed his lively interest in exegesis and became increasingly identified with the Antiochene line in theology. Among those responsible for this was one of its leading instructors, Ibas (d. 457), who worked energetically translating Theodore of Mopsuestia's commentaries and disseminating his Christological views. His own stance on the now urgent Christological issue was akin to that of Theodoret of Cyrrhus—roughly midway between Nestorius' dualism and the Alexandrian doctrine of one nature—and he bluntly criticized Cyril's position in his famous letter to Maris (433), the sole survivor (in a Greek translation) of his abundant works; it was one of the Three Chapters anathematized by the second Council of Constantinople (553).

      The frankly Antiochene posture typified by Ibas brought the school into collision with Rabbula, bishop of Edessa from 412 to 435, an uncompromising supporter of Cyril and the Alexandrian Christology. As well as writing numerous letters, hymns, and a sermon against Nestorius, Rabbula translated Cyril's De recta fide (Concerning the Correct Faith) into Syriac and also probably compiled the revised Syriac version of the four Gospels (contained in the Peshitta) in order to oust Tatian's Diatessaron. On his death he was succeeded by Ibas, who predictably exerted his influence in an Antiochene direction.

      Another eminent Edessene writer was Narses (d. c. 503), who became one of the formative theologians of the Nestorian Church. He was the author of extensive commentaries, now lost, and of metrical homilies, dialogue songs, and liturgical hymns. In 447, when a Monophysite reaction set in, he was expelled from Edessa along with Barsumas, the head of the school, but they promptly set up a new school at Nisibis on Persian territory. The school at Edessa was finally closed, because of its Nestorian leanings, by the emperor Zeno in 489, but its offshoot at Nisibis flourished for more than 200 years and became the principal seat of Nestorian culture. At one time it had as many as 800 students and was able to ensure that the then prosperous church in Persia was Nestorian. On the other hand, Philoxenus Of Mabbug, who had studied at Edessa in the second half of the 5th century and was one of the most learned of Syrian theologians, was a vehement advocate of Monophysitism. His 13 homilies on the Christian life and his letters reveal him as a fine prose writer; but he is chiefly remembered for the revision of the Syriac translation of the Bible (the so-called Philoxenian version) for which he was responsible and which was used by Syrian Monophysites in the 6th century.

The Chalcedonian Fathers (Chalcedon, Council of)

      From about 428 onward Christology became an increasingly urgent subject of debate in the East and excited interest in the West as well. Two broad positions had defined themselves in the 4th century. Among Alexandrian (Alexandria, School of) theologians the “Word-flesh” approach was preferred, according to which the Word had assumed human flesh at the Incarnation; Christ's possession of a human soul or mind was either denied or ignored. Antiochene theologians, on the other hand, consistently upheld the “Word-man” approach, according to which the Word had united himself to a complete man; this position ran the risk, unless carefully handled, of so separating the divinity and the humanity as to imperil Christ's personal unity.

      Apollinarius the Younger (Apollinaris The Younger) (c. 310–c. 390) had brilliantly exposed the logical implications of the Alexandrian view; although condemned as a heretic, he had forced churchmen of all schools to recognize, though with varying degrees of practical realism, a human mind in the Redeemer. His writings were systematically destroyed, but the remaining fragments confirm his intellectual acuteness as well as his literary skill. The crisis of the 5th century was precipitated by the proclamation by Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople—pushing Antiochene tendencies to extremes—of a Christology that seemed to many to imply two Sons. Nestorius held that Mary was not only Theotokos (“God-bearing”) but also anthropotokos (“man-bearing”), though he preferred the term Christotokos (“Christ-bearing”). In essence, he was attempting to protect the concept of the humanity of Christ. The controversy raged with extraordinary violence from 428 to 451, when the Council of Chalcedon hammered out a formula that at the time seemed acceptable to most and that attempted to do justice to the valuable insights of both traditions.

      A number of theologians and ecclesiastics either prepared the way for or contributed to the Chalcedonian solution. Three who deserve mention are Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Proclus of Constantinople, and John Cassian (Cassian, Saint John). The first was probably responsible for drafting the Formula of Union (433) that became the basis of the Chalcedonian Definition. Proclus was an outstanding pulpit orator, and several of his sermons as well as seven letters concerned with the controversy have been preserved; he worked indefatigably to reconcile the warring factions. Cassian prepared the West for the controversy by producing in 430, at the request of the deacon (later pope) Leo (Leo I, Saint), a weighty treatise against Nestorius.

      But much the most important, not least because they approached the debate from different standpoints, were Cyril of Alexandria (Cyril of Alexandria, Saint) and Pope Leo the Great. Cyril had been the first to denounce Nestorius, and in a whole series of letters and dogmatic treatises he drove home his critique and expounded his own positive theory of hypostatic (substantive, or essential) union. He secured the condemnation of Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus (Ephesus, councils of) (431), and his own letters were canonically approved at Chalcedon. A convinced adherent of the Alexandrian Word-flesh Christology, he deepened his understanding of the problem as the debate progressed; but his preferred expression for the unity of the Redeemer remained “one incarnate nature of the Word,” which he mistakenly believed to derive from Athanasius. Leo provided the necessary balance to this with his famous Dogmatic Letter, also endorsed at Chalcedon, which affirmed the coexistence of two complete natures, united without confusion, in the one Person of the Incarnate Word, or Christ.

      In patristic literature, however, the interest of both Cyril and Leo extends far beyond Christology. Cyril published essays on the Trinitarian issue against the Arians and also commentaries on Old and New Testament books. If the former show little originality, his exegesis marked a reaction against the more fanciful Alexandrian allegorism and a concentration on the strictly typological significance of the text. Leo, for his part, was a notable preacher and one of the greatest of popes. His short, pithy sermons, clear and elegant in style, set a fine model for pulpit oratory in the West; and his numerous letters give an impressive picture of his continuous struggle to promote orthodoxy and the interests of the Roman see.

Non-Chalcedonian Fathers

      The Chalcedonian settlement was not achieved without some of the leading participants in the debate that preceded it being branded as heretics because their positions fell outside the limits accepted as permissible. It also left to subsequent generations a legacy of misunderstanding and division.

      The outstanding personalities in the former category were Nestorius and Eutyches. It was Nestorius whose imprudent brandishing of extremist Antiochene theses—particularly his reluctance to grant the title of Theotokos to Mary, mother of Jesus—had touched off the controversy. Only fragments of his works remain, for after his condemnation their destruction was ordered by the Byzantine government, but these have been supplemented by the discovery, in a Syriac translation, of his Book of Heraclides of Damascus. Written late in his life, when Monophysitism (monophysite) had become the bogey, this is a prolix apology in which Nestorius pleads that his own beliefs are identical with those of Leo and the new orthodoxy. Eutyches, on the other hand, an over-enthusiastic follower of Cyril, was led by his antipathy to Nestorianism into the opposite error of confusing the natures. He contended that there was only one nature after the union of divinity and humanity in the Incarnate Word, and he was thus the father of Monophysitism in the strict, and not merely verbal, sense.

      After the Council of Ephesus in 431 the eastern bishops of Nestorian sympathies gradually formed a separate Nestorian Church on Persian soil, with the see of its patriarch at Ctesiphon on the Tigris. Edessa and then Nisibis were its theological and literary centres. But a much wider body of eastern Christians, particularly from Egypt and Palestine, found the Chalcedonian dogma of “two natures” a betrayal of the truth as stated by their hero Cyril. For the next two centuries the struggle between these Monophysites and strict Chalcedonians to secure the upper hand convulsed the Eastern Church. Among the Monophysites it produced theologians of high calibre and literary distinction, notably the moderate Severus Of Antioch (c. 465–538), who while contending stoutly for “one nature after the union” was equally insistent on the reality of Christ's humanity. His contemporary Julian of Halicarnassus taught the more radical doctrine that, through union with the Word, Christ's body had been incorruptible and immortal from the moment of the Incarnation.

      In the 7th century, inspired by the need for unity in the face of successive Persian and Arab attacks, an attempt was made to reconcile the Monophysite dissenters with the orthodox Chalcedonians. The formula, which it was thought might prove acceptable to both, asserted that, though Christ had two natures, he had only one activity—i.e., one divine will. This doctrine, Monothelitism (Monothelite), stimulated an intense theological controversy but was subjected to profound and far-reaching criticism by Maximus the Confessor (Maximus the Confessor, Saint), who perceived that, if Christians are to find in Christ the model for their freedom and individuality, his human nature must be complete and therefore equipped with a human will. The formula was condemned as heretical at the third Council of Constantinople of 680–681.

The post-Nicene Latin (Latin literature) Fathers

      Latin Christian literature in this period was slower than Greek in getting started, and it always remained sparser. Indeed, the first half of the 4th century produced only Julius Firmicus Maternus, author not only of the most complete treatise on astrology bequeathed by antiquity to the modern world but also of a fierce diatribe against paganism that has the added interest of appealing to the state to employ force to repress it and its immoralities. From Africa, rent asunder by Donatism, the heretical movement that rejected the efficacy of sacraments administered by priests who had denied their faith under persecution, came the measured anti-Donatist polemic of Optatus of Milevis, writing in 366 or 367, whose line of argument anticipates Augustine's later attack against the Donatists.

      Much more significant than either, however, was Gaius Marius Victorinus, the brilliant professor whose conversion in 355 caused a sensation at Rome. Obscure but strikingly original in his writings, he was an effective critic of Arianism and sought to present orthodox Trinitarianism in uncompromisingly Neoplatonic terms. His speculations about the inner life of the triune Godhead were to be taken up by Augustine.

      Three remarkable figures, all different, dominate the second half of the century. The first, Hilary of Poitiers (Hilary of Poitiers, Saint), was a considerable theologian, next to Augustine the finest produced by the West in the patristic epoch. For years he deployed his exceptional gifts in persuading the anti-Arian groups to abandon their traditional catchwords and rally round the Nicene formula, which they had tended to view with suspicion. Often unfairly described as a popularizer of Eastern ideas, he was an original thinker whose scriptural commentaries and perceptive Trinitarian studies brought fresh insights. The second, Ambrose (Ambrose, Saint) of Milan, was an outstanding ecclesiastical statesman, equally vigilant for orthodoxy against Arianism as for the rights of the church against the state. Both in his dogmatic treatises and in his largely allegorical, pastorally oriented exegetical works he relied heavily on Greek models. One of the pioneers of Catholic moral theology, he also wrote hymns that are still sung in the liturgy.

      The third, Jerome (Jerome, Saint), was primarily a biblical scholar. His enormous commentaries are erudite but unequal in quality; the earlier ones were greatly influenced by Origen's allegorism, but the ones written later, when he had turned against Origen, were more literalist and historical in their exegesis. Jerome's crowning gift to the Western Church and Western culture was the Vulgate translation of the Bible. Prompted by Pope Damasus, he thoroughly revised the existing Latin versions of the Gospels; the Old Testament he translated afresh from the Hebrew. His historical and polemical writings (the latter full of sarcasm and invective) are all interesting, and his rich correspondence supremely so. As a stylist he wrote with a verve and brilliance unmatched in Latin patristic literature.

      The two foremost Christian Latin poets of ancient times, Prudentius and Paulinus of Nola (Paulinus Of Nola, Saint), also belong to this half-century. Both used the old classical forms with considerable skill, filling them with a fresh Christian spirit. Prudentius' work is both the finer in quality and the more wide-ranging; in his Psychomachia (“The Contest of the Soul”), he introduced an allegorical form that made an enormous appeal to the Middle Ages. Paulinus is also interesting for his extensive correspondence, much admired in his own day, which kept him in close touch with many leading Christian contemporaries.

      All these figures are overshadowed by the towering genius of Augustine (Augustine, Saint) (354–430). The range of his writings was enormous: they comprise profound discussions of Christian doctrine (notably his De Trinitate, or On the Trinity); sustained and carefully argued polemics against heresies (Manichaeism, a dualistic religion; Donatism; and Pelagianism, a view that emphasized free will); exegesis, homilies, and ordinary sermons; and a vast collection of letters. His two best-known works, the Confessions and The City of God, broke entirely fresh ground, the one being both an autobiography and an interior colloquy between the soul and God, the other perhaps the most searching study ever made of the theology of history and of the fundamental contrast between Christianity and the world. On almost every issue he handled—the problem of evil, creation, grace and free will, the nature of the church—Augustine opened up lines of thought that are still debated. The prose style he used matched the level of his argument, having a rich texture, subtle assonance, and grave beauty that were new in Latin.

      In part recovered in recent years, the works of Pelagius (fl. 405–418) show him to have been a writer and thinker of high quality. Early in the 5th century, when the monasteries of southern Gaul became active intellectual centres, Vincent of Lérins (Vincent of Lérins, Saint) and John Cassian published critiques of Augustine's extreme positions on grace and free will, proposing the alternative doctrine called semi-Pelagianism, which held that humans by their own free will could desire life with God. This in turn was criticized by able writers like Prosper of Aquitaine (Prosper of Aquitaine, Saint) (c. 390–c. 463) and the celebrated preacher Caesarius of Arles (Caesarius of Arles, Saint) (470–542) and was condemned at the Council of Orange (529). Cassian, however, a firsthand student of Eastern monasticism, is chiefly important for his studies of the monastic life, based on material collected in the East. The rules he formulated were freely drawn upon a century later by St. Benedict of Nursia (Benedict of Nursia, Saint), the reformer of Western monasticism, when Benedict composed his famous and immensely influential rule at Monte Cassino.

      The 6th century marks the final phase of Latin patristic literature, which includes several notable figures, of whom Boethius (Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus) (480–524), philosopher and statesman, is the most distinguished. His Consolation of Philosophy was widely studied in the Middle Ages, but he also composed technically philosophical works, including translations of, and commentaries on, Aristotle. Beside him should be set his longer-lived contemporary, Cassiodorus (c. 490–c. 585), who, as well as encouraging the study of Greek and Latin classics and the copying of manuscripts in monasteries, was himself the author of theological, historical, and encyclopaedic treatises. Also notable is Venantius Fortunatus (Fortunatus, Venantius) (c. 540–c. 600), an accomplished poet whose hymns, such as “Vexilla regis” (“The royal banners forward go”) and “Pange lingua” (“Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle”), are still sung. Finally, Gregory the Great (Gregory I, Saint) (c. 540–604) was so prolific and successful an author as to earn the title of Fourth Doctor of the Latin Church. Although unoriginal theologically and reflecting the credulity of the age, his works (which include the earliest life of St. Benedict) made an enormous appeal to the medieval mind.

Later Greek Fathers

      The closing phase of patristic literature lasted longer in the Greek East than in the Latin West, where the decline of culture was hastened by barbarian inroads. But even in the East a slackening of effort and originality was becoming perceptible in the latter half of the 5th century. A clear illustration of this is provided by the practice of substituting chain commentaries composed of excerpts from earlier exegetes and anthologies of opinions of respected past theologians for independent exposition and speculation.

      Yet the picture was not altogether dim. In the strictly theological field, Leontius Of Byzantium (d. c. 545) showed ability and originality in reinterpreting the Chalcedonian Christology along the lines of St. Cyril with the aid of the increasingly favoured Aristotelian philosophy. Two other writers, very different from him and from each other, revived in the late 5th and early 6th centuries the brilliance of past generations. One was the figure who called himself Dionysius (Pseudo-Dionysius The Areopagite) the Areopagite (c. 500), the unidentified author of theological and mystical treatises that were destined to have an enormous influence. Based on a synthesis of Christian dogma and Neoplatonism, his work exalts the negative theology (God is understood by what he is not) and traces the soul's ascent from a dialectical knowledge of God to mystical union with him. The other is Romanos Melodos (fl. 6th century), greatest hymnist of the Eastern Church, who invented the kontakion, an acrostic verse sermon in many stanzas with a recurring refrain. The sweep, pathos, and grandeur of his compositions give him a high place of honour among religious poets.

      With Maximus the Confessor (Maximus the Confessor, Saint) and John of Damascus (John of Damascus, Saint) the end of the patristic epoch is reached. Maximus was a major critic of Monothelitism; he was also a remarkable constructive thinker whose speculative and mystical doctrines were held in unity by his vision of the incarnation as the goal of history. Writing early in the 8th century, John was chiefly influential through his comprehensive presentation of the teaching of the Greek Fathers on the principal Christian doctrines. But in constructing his synthesis he added at many points a finishing touch of his own; his writings in defense of images, prepared to counter the Iconoclasts (those who advocated destruction of religious images, or icons), were original and important; and he was the author of striking poems, some of which found a place in the Greek liturgy.

The character of the heritage

      For 400 or 500 years, when secular culture was slowly but steadily in decline, the patristic writers breathed new life into the Greek and Latin languages and created Syriac as a literary medium. Even when the period came to an end, the halt was really only a temporary pause until the impulses behind it could force other outlets. The literature of the later Byzantine Empire looked back to and drew nourishment from the golden centuries of the Fathers, while Latin Christian letters experienced more than one renascence in the Middle Ages.

      The range and variety, too, of the literature are impressive. Its overwhelmingly theological concern necessarily imposed understandable but serious limitations, but, when these have been allowed for, the Christian writers must be acknowledged to have been remarkably successful at molding the traditional literary forms to their new purposes and also at improvising fresh ones adapted to their special situations. Aesthetically considered, patristic literature contains much that is mediocre and even shoddy, but also a great deal that by any standards reaches the heights. And it has a unique interest as the creation of an immensely dynamic and far-reachingly important religious movement during the centuries when it could dominate the whole of life and society.

Additional Reading

The most important texts on the Church Fathers are Bertold Altaner, Patrology (1960; originally published in German, 1938); F.L. Cross, The Early Christian Fathers (1960); and Johannes Quasten, Patrology, 3 vol. (1950–60, reprinted 1983), continued by Angelo Di Berardino (ed.), Patrology: The Golden Age of Latin Patristic Literature from the Council of Nicea to the Council of Chalcedon (1986; originally published in Italian, 1978). Other works include Hans von Campenhausen, The Fathers of the Greek Church (1959, reissued 1963; originally published in German, 1955), and The Fathers of the Latin Church (1964, reprinted 1969; originally published in German, 1960); Frances M. Young, From Nicaea to Chalcedon: A Guide to the Literature and Its Background (1983), on the chief Greek Fathers from 325 to 451; and Boniface Ramsey, Beginning to Read the Fathers (1985). See also the volumes in the series “Message of the Fathers of the Church” (1983– ).The Rev. John N.D. Kelly

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