Vigiliae Christianae Supplements Online, Supplement 2021

Texts and Studies of Early Christian Life and Language

Series:  Vigiliae Christianae Supplements Online, Volume: 2021
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Vigiliae Christianae Supplements Online publishes scholarly translations, commentary and critical studies of texts and issues relating to early Christianity.

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Tracing the Narrative of Christian Maturation
In Rhetoric and Scripture in Augustine’s Homiletic Strategy, Michael Glowasky offers an account of how Augustine's pastoral concerns shape the rhetorical strategy in his Sermones ad populum. While it has been widely recognized that Augustine draws on classical rhetoric in his sermons, how his use of rhetoric in his Sermones relates to his pastoral theology has yet to be addressed. Through careful examination of Augustine’s preaching practice, this book provides the most comprehensive account of Augustine’s homiletic strategy in his Sermones to date. As such, it helps us better appreciate the value of the Sermones ad populum as a work in its own right, while at the same time advancing our understanding of Augustine as a preacher, teacher, and pastor.
An Ancient Invitation to Ecclesial Hermeneutics
In Tyconius’ Book of Rules Matthew R. Lynskey explores the church-centric interpretation of ancient biblical exegete Tyconius in his hermeneutical treatise Liber regularum. Influential within his Donatist tradition and the broader context of early North African Christianity, Tyconius wrote one of the earliest works on exegetical theory and praxis in Latin Christianity.
By investigating five key concepts undergirding Tyconius’s theology of church, Lynskey demonstrates how Tyconius’ ecclesiology shaped his hermeneutical enterprise. Through careful readings and close analysis of Liber regularum, this study seeks to describe Tyconius’ exegesis on its own terms, reflecting on notable historical, theological, formational, and missiological implications of his ecclesial exegesis as it concerns the ancient and contemporary church.
In this volume, Costache endeavours to map the world as it was understood and experienced by the early Christians. Progressing from initial fears, they came to adopt a more positive view of the world through successive shifts of perception.
This did not happen overnight. Tracing these shifts, Costache considers the world of the early Christians through an interdisciplinary lens, revealing its meaningful complexity. He demonstrates that the early Christian worldview developed at the nexus of several perspectives. What facilitated this process was above all the experience of contemplating nature. When accompanied by genuine personal transformation, natural contemplation fostered the theological interpretation of the world as it had been known to the ancients.
Scholarly Traditions and Rhetorical Aims in the Homilies on Genesis
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To what extent and to what purposes did John Chrysostom engage previous models of Biblical exegesis? In this systematic study of his Homilies on Genesis, new light is shed on the precision of his adaption of works by Basil, Origen, Eusebius of Emesa, and Eusebius of Caesarea, findings set against a wider ‘web’ of parallels with various other exegetes (e.g. Ephrem, Diodore, Didymus). The cumulative picture is a network of shared knowledge across geographical and ecclesial boundaries which served as creative cache for Chrysostom’s discourses. With the metaphors of textual obscurity and word-depth, he prioritized name and word interpretations as a means of producing multiple layers of ethical evaluation.
In this volume, Chungman Lee offers a concise yet thorough evaluation of the contemporary discussion on the filioque and the remaining issues still at stake. Lee examines the trinitarian theologies of Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine of Hippo, as representative of, respectively, the eastern and western patristic traditions. He demonstrates that they share similar ideas on the monarchy of the Father and on the role of the Son in the procession of the Holy Spirit, notwithstanding their slightly different expressions and perspectives. As such, the present study seeks to work towards a common patristic foundation for reconciliation between East and West on the problem of the filioque.
Proceedings of the 14th International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (Paris, 4-7 September 2018)
Gregory of Nyssa’s Homilies on the Our Father are the second explanation of this central prayer of Christian worship in Greek Antiquity. Composed at the end of the 4th century, these five homilies offer a spiritual and pastoral commentary of the Pater Noster. The present volume, edited by Matthieu Cassin (Paris), Hélène Grelier-Deneux (Paris) and Françoise Vinel (Strasbourg), offers introductory materials, a new English translation, the first edition of the 15th century Latin translation by Athanasios Chalkeopoulos, together with five studies that form a commentary for the different homilies, and nineteen shorter contributions on various aspects of the text. The contributors envisage the text according to exegesis and theology, but also to philosophy, rhetoric and history of Christian communities.
Son authenticité, ses sources et son exégèse allégorisante
The Hexaemeron of Anastasius of Sinai (late 7th-early 8th c.) expounds the creation account and the Adam and Eve story as foreshadowing the mystery of Christ and the Church, an idea that goes back to Origen and beyond. The commentary remained unpublished in Greek until 2007, received only scattered attention, and has been often considered as apocryphal. In this book, the first of its kind in any language, Dimitrios Zaganas firmly establishes its authenticity, investigates its genesis and date, offers detailed analysis of its numerous sources, and studies its distinctly allegorical approach to Genesis 1-3. Several emendations of the Greek text are suggested in the appendix.

L’Hexaemeron d’Anastase le Sinaïte (fin VIIe–début VIIIe s.) traite du récit de la création et de l’histoire d’Adam et Ève comme préfigurant le mystère du Christ et de l’Église, une idée qui remonte à Origène et au-delà. Le commentaire est resté inédit en grec jusqu’en 2007, n’a reçu qu’une attention distraite et a été souvent considéré comme apocryphe. Dans cet ouvrage, le premier consacré à l’Hexaemeron, Dimitrios Zaganas établit fermement son authenticité, examine sa genèse et sa datation, propose une analyse détaillée de ses nombreuses sources et étudie son approche clairement allégorique de Genèse 1-3. Dans un appendice sont proposées plusieurs corrections au texte grec.
Clément d’Alexandrie (150-215 Ap. J.-C.) est l’un des penseurs les plus brillants des premiers siècles chrétiens. Son enseignement, tout autant pétri de la Bible que de la pensée grecque, nous révèle la nature des débats aux premières heures de l’expansion du christianisme. Ce livre aborde un sujet peu étudié à ce jour, à savoir sa pensée sur l’Église. C’est pourtant un sujet récurent de ses ouvrages, où il réfléchit longuement sur l’Église à partir de l’être et la mission du Logos divin. L’analyse du discours de Clément sur l’Église permet donc de revisiter les intuitions principales de sa christologie tout en apportant un éclairage sur sa perception de l’identité chrétienne à une époque où celle-ci est encore en construction.

Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-215) is one of the most brilliant thinkers of the early Christian centuries. His teaching, steeped as much in the Bible as in Greek thought, reveals to us the nature of the debates in the early days of the expansion of Christianity. This book deals with a subject little studied to this day, namely his thoughts on the Church. Yet it is a recurring subject in his works, where he reflects at length on the Church from the point of view of the being and the mission of the divine Logos. Analysis of Clement’s discourse on the Church therefore makes it possible to revisit the main intuitions of his Christology while shedding light on his perception of Christian identity at a time when it is still under construction.
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