Chrysostom's Homilies Research Articles

Speaking for and against the Imperial Portrait Statue in Late Antiquity: Libanius's Orations 19–22 and John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Statues (387 C.E.)

Abstract: In the city of Antioch-on-the-Orontes in 387 c.e., statues of the emperor Theodosius I and his family were destroyed by a crowd angered by a recent tax increase, resulting in a series of imperial punishments enacted upon the city. In the months after the event, two prominent residents, the pagan author Libanius and the Christian priest John Chrysostom, wrote (in the case of Libanius) and preached (in the case of Chrysostom) in response to the destruction of the statues and the ensuing punishments. This article focuses on the varied understandings of the power and presence of imperial portraits written into Libanius's and Chrysostom's texts. In contrast with Libanius's traditional understanding of the statue as a surrogate for the venerable subject it represented, Chrysostom instead argues that the living human is superior to the lifeless statue, as we are created "in the image of God" by the supreme artist himself. By marshaling Neoplatonic ideas and pagan critiques of statuary, as well as Christian doctrine, Chrysostom seeks to convince his congregants and later readers still attached to the imperial statue cult that the faithful, rather than graven images, are what matter. Writing in a period in which Christianity was ascendant, and in which some cult statues of the pagan gods were targeted for destruction, Chrysostom's homilies provide a unique window into late fourth-century conceptions of portrait statues, which though different from statues of divine subjects were potentially problematic sites of animation and veneration. Read closely against each other, Libanius's and Chrysostom's texts supplement our understanding of the factors behind the subsequent decline in the production and display of portrait statues, as well as changing ideas about three-dimensional representation in a Christian empire.

Raising the Roof in Cædmon's Hymn

Raising the Roof in <i>Cædmon's Hymn</i>

The Eucharist and the Life of Christ in the Preaching of John Chrysostom

The Eucharist and the Life of Christ in the Preaching of John Chrysostom Kenneth J. Howell When Jean Daniélou penned an article on the symbolism of baptismal rites in early Christianity in a rather obscure and short-lived French journal, he could not foresee how ubiquitously the opening sentence would be quoted. The content of this quotation, however, stands on its own merits as a succinct yet insightful unification of diverse aspects of the Christian faith: The Christian faith has only one object, the mystery of Christ died and risen. But this unique mystery subsists under different modes. It is prefigured in the Old Testament; it is accomplished historically in the earthly life of Christ, it is contained in mystery in the sacraments, it is lived mystically in souls, it is accomplished socially in the Church, it is consummated eschatologically in the heavenly kingdom. Thus, the Christian has at his disposal several registers, a multi-dimensional symbolism, to express this unique reality. The whole of Christian culture consists in grasping the links that exist between Bible and liturgy, Gospel and eschatology, mysticism and liturgy. The application of this method to Scripture is called spiritual exegesis, applied to liturgy it is called mystagogy. This consists in reading in the rites the mystery of Christ, and in contemplating beneath the symbols the invisible reality.1 [End Page 791] In speaking of a method, Daniélou brought to the fore an approach to the Church Fathers which sought to capture the diverse aspects of a given figure's theology by showing, such as how scriptural interpretation related to sacramental theology and liturgy. Daniélou himself was deeply immersed in the writings of Gregory of Nyssa and possessed a wide acquaintance with the Greek-speaking East.2 Years later, Daniélou would again turn his attention to liturgical details in his introduction to John Chrysostom's homilies on the incomprehensibility of God, where he explicated Chrysostom's invocation of the liturgy to argue against the Anomeans.3 Both his programmatic and descriptive work suggests wide possibilities of demonstrating significant linkages between scriptural exegesis and sacramental theology. Eastern authors, both ancient and modern, acknowledge the liturgy of the Church as the centerpiece of the Christian faith.4 The Eucharist naturally holds pride of place in that centerpiece because it establishes the existence of the Church. Without the Eucharist, the Church could not be what it is or is intended to be.5 Accordingly, one would expect numerous discussions of the Eucharistic mystery in the Greek Fathers, especially in the large corpora of figures like John Chrysostom and Cyril of Alexandria. [End Page 792] And yet, as Jaroslav Pelikan pointed out, there was no treatise devoted to the Eucharist in the ancient Church in a manner similar to the various Trinitarian or baptismal treatises. The fact that the Eucharist was never controversial in the same way that the Trinity or the Incarnation was may account for this lacuna.6 It would be misguided, however, to conclude that the Greek Fathers did not have much to say about the Eucharist. John Chrysostom, for example, wrote more about the Eucharist than any other Eastern Father.7 While the Antiochene Father never devoted a treatise to the Eucharist as he did to the priesthood, his voluminous sermons are filled with discussions of the sacrament. He is rightly celebrated as one of the great three hierarchs in the Eastern churches, not the least because he never tired of placing the Eucharist front and center. There has been scant Anglophone attention paid to the theology of the Eucharist in the writings of John Chrysostom over the last one hundred years.8 Although Chrysostom's Eucharistic doctrine has received some recent attention,9 many modern Western authors continue to focus on his rhetoric and biblical interpretations.10 A second possibility is the sheer [End Page 793] difficulty of accessing his ideas because his discussions of the Eucharist are scattered throughout a wide-ranging variety of his homilies.11 A third factor is more telling. Most histories of Eucharistic doctrine, at least in the West, have focused largely on the problems of the Real Presence of Christ and the...

The distribution of ?? in John Chrysostom's homilies Adversus Iudaeos

This article analyses the distribution of the modal enclitic άν in the homilies Adversus Iudaeos by John Chrysostom. The main question is whether άν has narrow syntactic scope (i.e. belongs to the verb syntactically) or wide syntactic scope (i.e. belongs to the clause syntactically). I argue that the clues provided by its distribution (mainly its tendency towards P2 position) seem to point in the direction of the wide scope analysis.

Paul and Christian Identity-Formation in John Chrysostom's Homilies De Laudibus Sancti Pauli Apostoli

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study is to investigate the dynamics between Paulinomorphism (becoming like Paul) and Christian identity-formation in John Chrysostom's (347–407 C.E.) De laudibus sancti Pauli apostoli. Chrysostom understands Christian identity-formation as a type of Paulinomorphism. The discursive operation of Paulinomorphism is most clearly manifested in Chrysostom's homilies De laudibus sancti Pauli apostoli, and operates by means of four interrelated discourses, namely: a) transformation and mimesis; b) virtue and masculinization; c) the zealotic, and; d) medicalization. The four discourses are delineated and critically discussed in this study.

Claiming Corporeal Capital: John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Maccabean Martyrs

ABSTRACTThis study examines John Chrysostom's homilies On the Maccabees specifically from the perspective of martyrdom as corporeal discourse. Chrysostom focuses mostly on the martyr-mother and the last of the seven sons. Along with the discourse of maternality and the maternal body, a contrary meta-discourse of masculinity is promoted that overrides the feminine weaknesses of maternality. In typical androcentric and patriarchal fashion, Chrysostom has the Maccabean martyr-mother deny her maternal corporeal knowledge, and implements a potent andromorphism in the reconstruction of her corporeality and self-definition. Central to this endeavour is the application and promotion of a new scopic economy, a new way of looking with spiritual eyes. The last son's martyrdom, being voluntary and suicidal, is valued by Chrysostom, since the mother acts as a catalyst for his death. Chrysostom strategically succeeds in claiming this corporeal capital for the wider programme of reconstructing martyrdom in late antique Christianity.

Les violences chrétiennes contre les synagogues dans l’Empire romain, pendant le confit entre Théodose et l’usurpateur Maxime (386-388 apr. J.C.)

In 388, the destruction of the synagogue located in the Roman fortress of Callinicon, an Osrhoene's city situated on the left bank of the Euphrates, was not an isolated fact. At the same time, another synagogue was burnt in Rome, while in Antioch the Jewish community was under attack from the Meletian Church through John Chrysostom's homilies Against the Jews. These acts of violence occurred between 386 and 388, at the time of the conflict between Theodosius and the usurper Maximus, both of them from Nicene, or just after this conflict, in a context of Nicene build-up and heightened Christian intolerance. The confiscation of the «Maccabean synagogue« in Antioch took place probably between 388 and 390-391. This anti-Jewish violence that the emperors didn't want started in cities where the Jewish communities were powerful and influential, and probably seen as rival by the Church authorities, and especially in the cities where the hegemonic local Church aimed to assert its authority, after a schism or in order to hasten the end of a schism, as it was the case in Rome and Antioch. However, in the 4th century and no more at the beginning of the 5th century, Christian anti-Jewish violence was not similar to persecution as it was sporadic in spite of the constant animosity of the Nicene Church authorities towards the Jews.

Two Introductions to Scripture: James Kugel and the Possibility of Biblical Theology

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)Two Introductions to Scripture: James Kugel and Possibility of Biblical Theology ... JAMES L. KUGEL. How to Read Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now. New York: Free Press, 2007. Pp. xiv + 819.There are few scholars of whom one can say that they have fundamentally changed an academic field. To contribute to a field, to alter how we look at this issue or that text, to refine or critique a particular technique of analysis - these are normal marks of a successful academic career. Transforming very nature of a field is another sort of accomplishment altogether. Over past three decades, James Kugel has done both: not only has he contributed to academic study of Bible but he has transformed how we define it. Through his work in early biblical interpretation, Kugel has helped to open up a facet of biblical scholarship whose near absence from academy only a few decades ago seems now to defy explanation. How can it be that so few scholars for most of twentieth century attended to way Bible was read by communities that shaped what came to be Judaism and Christianity? Why did scholars so long view what Kugel has called the pre-Bible1 - that is, oral and written traditions that were redacted to form biblical books, along with ancient Near Eastern traditions they drew upon- as sole legitimate object of inquiry, while interpretive works that explained and moved forward from Bible were largely ignored? After all, reality of many texts of pre- Bible - J and Dtr2 and Hosea B - is a matter of speculation, while Book of Jubilees and Chrysostom's homilies on Genesis and 40Pesher Nahum actually exist.Kugel has spent his scholarly career attempting to rectify this situation. He has analyzed interpretive techniques and evolution of exegetical motifs in Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament, historical and philosophical compositions by ancient Jews, patristic literature, and rabbinic texts. He elucidates process of interpretation in these works, taking what often seemed to modern readers baffling, random, and somewhat mad and rendering it intelligible, closely connected to text, and very clever. Even more importantly, Kugel demonstrates that those early interpreters are real authors of Bible as it came to function in Judaism and Christianity. The Bible is, after all, more than sum of its parts. While parts, composed by scribes and poets, psalmists and prophets, sages and priests, reflect cultural world of ancient Israel, it is whole that formed, and forms, religious world of Jews and Christians. That whole is by definition postbiblical, product not only of editors who put it into its current configuration but of early interpreters who established ways of reading it that endured from before rise of Christianity well into Middle Ages and to some degree to present day. Those interpreters, Kugel teaches us, made collection into what Western culture knows as Scripture. Further, Kugel shows, interpretive traditions dating to three or four centuries before and after rise of Christianity constituted a shared heritage, reaching across lines that divided between and within Judaism and Christianity.Of course, Kugel is not only scholar to attend to these issues. Already a century ago Louis Ginzberg began to show that interpretive traditions of pseudepigrapha, rabbis, and Church Fathers displayed an impressive degree of commonality. The growth of these traditions and interpretive methods they used were impressively described by two unrelated Heinemanner, Isaac and Joseph. Isac Leo Seeligmann and Alexander Rofe established that a single body of scribal practices and concerns formed biblical and postbiblical literature. The continuity of inner-biblical exegesis and postbiblical exegesis, along with techniques of both, received expert treatment from Michael Fishbane, Yair Zakovitch, and Avigdor Shinan. …

Identity: The Indigent and the Wealthy in the Homilies of John Chrysostom

AbstractIn this article, identity theory is applied to a selection of John Chrysostom's homilies in order to investigate the identities being created, negotiated and modified in his commentary on the 'poor'. It is proposed that his discourse on the poor and almsgiving seeks overwhelmingly to negotiate identities for the wealthy within his Christian community, rather than for the poor. These identities are considered through Chrysostom's use of imagery, his commentary on behaviour, and his emphasis on the benefits provided both by the poor and almsgiving. Furthermore, it is argued that in these homilies Chrysostom sought to mediate Christian identities for the wealthy that complemented rather than opposed those operating in the wider non-Christian, Greco-Roman world.

The Theological Interpretation of Scripture: Classic and Contemporary Readings

Acknowledgements. List of Contributors. Introduction. Part I: The Contexts of Theological Interpretation: 1. Spiritual Understanding: Henri de Lubac, S. J. (French Jesuit Theologian, 1896-1991), Translated by Luke O'Neill. 2. The Superiority of Pre-Critical Exegesis: David C. Steinmetz (Duke University). 3. The Story-Shaped Church: Critical Exegesis and Theological Interpretation: George Lindbeck (Yale University). 4. Feminist Theological Hermeneutics: Canon and Christian Identity: Claudia V. Camp (Texas Christian University). 5. The Bible and African Americans: An Outline of an Interpretative History: Vincent L. Wimbush (Union Theological Seminary in New York). 6. The New Testament and the Nicene Dogma: A Contribution to the Recovery of Theological Exegesis: David S. Yeago (Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary). Part II: Theological Interpretations of Select Biblical Texts: Exodus 3: 7. Selections from Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Moses: Translated and introduced by Joseph W. Trigg (Rector, Christ Church, Port Tobacco Parish, La Plata, Maryland). 8. Selections from Nicholas of Lyra's Commentary on Exodus: Translated and introduced by Corrine Patton (University of St Thomas). 9. Three Postcritical Encounters with the Burning Bush: Peter Ochs. 10. Exodus 3: A Theological Interpretation: Terence E. Fretheim (Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary). 11. Exodus 3: Summons to Holy Transformation: Walter Brueggemann (Columbia Theological Seminary). Isaiah 52-53: 12. Selections from Theodoret of Cyrus's Commentary on Isaiah: Translated and introduced by Angela Russell Christman (Loyola College, Maryland). 13. Selections from John Calvin's Sermons on Isaiah: Translated and introduced by Kathryn Greene-McCreight (Yale College). 14. Speech and Silence in the Servant Passages: Towards a Final-Form Reading of the Book of Isaiah: Tod Linafelt (Georgetown University). 15. Selections from I, He , We, They: A Literary Approach to Isaiah 53: David J. A. Clines (University of Sheffield). 16. Engaging Metaphors: Suffering with Zion and the Servant in Isaiah 52-53: Beverly J. Stratton (Augsburg College). Matthew 5-7: 17. Selections from John Chrysostom's Homilies on Matthew: Translated and Introduced by Robin Darling Young (The Catholic University of America). 18. Selections from Martin Luther's Sermons on the Sermon on the Mount: Translated and Introduced by Mark S. Burrows (Andover Newton Theological School). 19. Righteousness from the Inside: The Transformative Spirituality of the Sermon on the Mount: Brian K. Blount (Princeton Theological Seminary). 20. Selections from The Cost of Discipleship: Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Theologian, Pastor in the Confessing Church in Germany, Martyr, 1906-45). 21. The Sermon on the Mount as Radical Pastoral Care: Richard Lischer (Duke University). Romans 9-11: 22. Selections from Augustine's Propositions from the Epistle to the Romans and To Simplician - on Various Questions: Introduced by Peter Gorday (Georgia Association for Pastoral Care). 23. Selections from Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on Romans: Translated and Introduced by Eugene F. Rogers, Jr. (University of Virginia). 24. Romans 10:4 and the 'End' of the Law: Paul W. Meyer (Princeton Theological Seminary). 25. Divine Initiative and Human Response: E. Elizabeth Johnson (New Brunswick Theological Seminary). 26. Figure and Ground in the Interpretation of Romans 9-11: Neil Elliott (The College of St Katherine). Index.

Kardinal Jean Jouffroy († 1473): Leben und Werk by Claudia Märtl

BOOK REVIEWS95 how he set out to achieve these and thus how he differed from earUer writers and his own contemporaries. SpecificaUy Cannara was writing after the spUt had occurred at the CouncU of Basel and that CouncU had charged Eugenius IV with heresy.As other papalists were doing, Cannara strove to estabUsh the immunity of the pope against that charge.What is new is his response to and his way of dealing with the classical texts which said that the pope could not be judged by anyone unless he deviated from the faith. EarUer writers squirmed around these texts with a variety ofcommentary, e.g., that the pope who became a heretic was ipsofacto setfdeposed and so no longer pope, or that one had to work through a long and detaUed analysis of what the charge of heresy meant (formal vs. material heresy). Cannara wUl have none ofthis; he simply asserts a mutual exclusivity in the two parts of the classical text.The pope could not be judged by anyone because he was above the Church, subject only to God,Who bestowed on him a special grace that precluded him from ever being deviant in faith. By a wave of his magical wand of argumentation Cannara asserted that it was impossible for a pope to be devius a fide. Thus the pope had absolute immunity and stood above and apart from the Church which depended totaUy on him.What about the long, voluminous earlier tradition that others had struggled with? History that was inconvenient could simply be ignored, denied, or misinterpreted out of existence.Whatever did not fit, was not.This was a nice neat Line of argumentation . Priigl has done a service presenting this tract and providing an edition of the text which is worthy of reflection and critical analysis. Thomas E. Morsissey State University ofNew York College at Fredonia KardinalJean Jouffroy (f 1473):Leben undWerk. By Claudia Märtl. [Beiträge zur Geschichte und Quellenkunde des Mittelalters, Band 18.] (Sigmaringen : JanThorbeckeVerlag. 1996. Pp. 397. DM 108.) Jean Jouffroy's career reflects the competing aspirations that marked the ecclesiastical vocation in the fifteenth century. Born into a Burgundian mercantUe famUy, he joined the Benedictine Order, studied canon law at the University of Pavia (where he also encountered the famed ItaUan humanist Lorenzo VaUa), then during the CouncU of Ferrara-Florence (1438-39) entered thefamilia of Francesco Condulmer, the influential nephew of Pope Eugenius IV From this point on,his advance in the ranks ofthe Church proceeded rapidly, culminating in his gaining the red hat in 1461 . Given neither to personal austerity nor to the cloistered life of prayer, he lived a highly pubUc career, emerging as a skillful papal diplomat and wealthy church administrator, becoming Bishop of Arras (1453) and subsequently of Albi (1462), and then Abbot of Saint-Denis (1464). In many ways an ambitious and worldly careerist (even labeled as avaricious by Pope Pius II), whose legal 96BOOK REVIEWS training faciUtated both his diplomatic activities and his abUities to function as a curial insider, he nonetheless was a highly cultured prelate who became an important practitioner of the new humanist oratory at the papal court and an influential patron ofhumanistic learning. He acquired an extensive classical and patristic library, including manuscripts of recent humanist translations of Chrysostom and other Church Fathers, and he commissioned Francesco Griffolini , the humanist from Arezzo, to provide Latin translations of Chrysostom's Homilies on 1 Corinthians and Homilies on John. Jouffroy's own writings (the author usefuUy provides in an appendix a complete chronological Usting of titles, including manuscript data and relevant scholarly studies) include an oration in praise of St. John the EvangeUst, deUvered before the papal court on that saint's feast day (December 27) in 1438; the funeral oration for Pope NicholasV (1455); and a dialogue, De dignitate cardinalatus (1467/68), which in response to the accusations of an anonymousfraticelli sympathizer justifies the Uturgical splendor ofthe papal court (including Pope Paul IFs controversial use of the triple tiara at papal Masses) as imparting rightful dignity and authority to the papal see. Yet Jouffroy's life was less Rome-centered than that of many other Renaissance cardinals. Early in...

The Text of Acts in Chrysostom's Homilies

This paper presents the results of my research into the scriptural text which St. John Chrysostom used as the basis of his Homilies on Acts. These results give a good indication of the text-type of Acts known to Chrysostom and, as a corollary, provide evidence bearing on the textual tradition of the Homilies themselves.

The Use of the Optative Mood in the Works of Gregory of Nyssa. By G. W. P. Hoey. Pp. xviii + 127. St. John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Statues: a study of their rhetorical qualities and form. By Sister Mary A. Burns. Pp. viii + 123. St. Basil and Monasticism. By Sister Margaret G. Murphy. Pp. xix + 112. Washington:

The Use of the Optative Mood in the Works of Gregory of Nyssa. By G. W. P. Hoey. Pp. xviii + 127. St. John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Statues: a study of their rhetorical qualities and form. By Sister Mary A. Burns. Pp. viii + 123. St. Basil and Monasticism. By Sister Margaret G. Murphy. Pp. xix + 112. Washington:

Saint John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Statues, a Study of Their Rhetorical Qualities and Form. Mary Alvania Burns

<i>Saint John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Statues, a Study of Their Rhetorical Qualities and Form</i>. Mary Alvania Burns