scholarly journals Jan Chryzostom objaśnia "Hymn o miłości" [1Kor 13] (In I Epistolam ad Corinthios hom. 33-34)

Vox Patrum ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 291-315
Author(s):  
Jan Iluk

In 1CorHom, edited in the autumn and winter of 392 and 393 AD, John Chrysostom found a natural opportunity to return to his numerous utterances on the role of love in the lives of people. Obviously, the opportunity was the 13“ chapter of this Letter - The Song of Love. Among his works, we will find a few more smali works which were created with the intention of outlining the Christian ideał of love. Many of the contemporary monographs which were devoted to the ancient understanding of Christian „love” have the phrase „Eros and Agape” in their titles. In contemporary languages, this arrangement extends between sex and love. Both in the times of the Church Fathers (the 4th century AD) and currently, the distance between sex and love is measured by feelings, States and actions which are morę or less refined and noble. The awareness of the existence of many stops over this distance leads to the conviction that our lives are a search for the road to Agape. As many people are looking not so much for a shortcut but for a shorter route, John Chrysostom, like other Church Fathers, declared: the shortest route, because it is the most appropriate for this aim, is to live according to the Christian virtues that have been accumulated by the Christian politeia. There are to be found the fewest torments and disenchantments, although there are sacrifices. Evangelical politeia, the chosen and those who have been brought there will find love) - as a State of existence. In the earthly dimension, however, love appears as a causative force only in the circle of the Christian politeia. Obviously, just as in the heavenly politeia, the Christian politeia on earth is an open circle for everyone. As Chrysostom’s listeners and readers were not only Christians (in the multi-cultural East of the Roman Empire), and as the background of the principles presented in the homilies was the everyday life and customs of the Romans of the time, the ideał - dyam] - was placed by him in the context of diverse imperfections in the rangę and form of the feelings exhibited, which up to this day we still also cali love. It is true that love has morę than one name. By introducing the motif of love - into deliberations on the subject of the Christian politeia, John Chrysostom finds and indicates to the faithful the central force that shaped the ancient Church. This motif fills in the vision of the Heavenly Kingdom, explains to Christians the sense of life that is appropriate to them in the Roman community and explains the principles of organised life within the boundaries of the Church. It can come as no surprise that the result of such a narrative was Chrysostonfs conviction that love is „rationed”: Jews, pagans, Hellenes and heretics were deprived of it. In Chrysostonfs imagination, the Christian politeia has an earthly and a heavenly dimension. In the heavenly politeia, also called by him Chrisfs, the Lord’s or the

Vox Patrum ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 245-258
Author(s):  
Juliusz Jundziłł

The paper is a preliminary outline of the history of views on the teaching of speech to children in ancient thinkers, especially Aristotle, Romans from the times of Republic and Empire, as well as the Church Fathers, especially Western, inclu­ding Augustine in order to determine what John Chrysostom wrote and said on that subject. All the above-mentioned were not really interested in teaching speech to infants and children but in the physiology of this phenomenon (especially Aristotle) and creating the most favorable environment for the shaping of speech through the selection of nannies and child minders. There were no attempts, as Augustine aptly wrote, to teach speech consciously; it was the child himself that had to associate the sound with its material, meaningful background through ob­servations and repeating experiences. What is more, both moral philosophers and Church Fathers described in a friendly manner (also Chrysostom) talking to chil­dren using a special, childlike language since it pleased and still pleases adults, although spoils the way children speak. The Classic Antiquity, which took care about the proper speech and promoted (like Church Fathers) rhetoric in everyday life and science, forgot about the basics, the process of creating speech, which re­sulted from depreciation of the first stage of children’s life, condemned to contacts with slaves – nannies. It was only the school age that stirred up stronger emo­tions but, as some moral philosophers wrote, children already had speech defects, among others, because of parental consent for the language deprivation.


Author(s):  
Emma Mason

This chapter locates Rossetti in the context of the book’s ecotheological argument, which traces an ecological love command in her writing through her engagement with Tractarianism, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the Church Fathers, and Francis of Assisi. It establishes her Anglo-Catholic imagining of the cosmos as a fabric of participation and communal experience embodied in Christ. The first section reads Rossetti in the context of current Victorian ecocriticism, which underplays the role of Christianity in the development of nineteenth-century environmentalism. The next sections question critical readings of Rossetti as a reclusive thinker and argue instead for an educated and politicized Christian for whom indifference to the spiritual is complicit with an environmental crisis in which the weak and vulnerable suffer most. This introduction also refers to the wider field of Rossetti studies and introduces her reading of grace and apocalypse as a major contribution to the intradiscipline of Christianity and ecology.


Numen ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kocku von Stuckrad

AbstractIn late antiquity astrology held a key position among the accepted and well-reputed sciences. As ars mathematica closely connected with astronomy, it made its way into the highest political and philosophical orders of the Roman Empire and became the standard model of interpreting past, present, and future events. Although this is widely acknowledged by modern historians, most scholars assume that the application of astrological theories is limited to the 'pagan mind,' whereas Jewish and Christian theology is characterized by a harsh refutation of astrology's implications. As can easily be shown, this assumption is not the result of careful examination of the documentary evidence but of a preconceived and misleading opinion about the basic ideas of astrology, which led to an astonishing disregard of Jewish and Christian evidence for astrological concerns. This evidence has been either played down - if not neglected entirely - or labeled 'heretic,' thus prolonging the polemics of the 'church fathers' right into modernity. After having reviewed the biases of previous research into monotheistic astrology and its crucial methodological problems, I shall propose a different approach. Astrology has to be seen as a certain way of interpreting reality. In this regard it is the very backbone of esoteric tradition. I shall sketch the different discourses reflected in some late antiquity's Jewish and Christian documents. It will be shown that the astrological worldview of planetary and zodiacal correspondences was common to most of the sources. Examples will be presented for illustrating different adoptions of this attitude, namely the discourse of cult theology, the magical and mystical application of astrological knowledge, the debates concerning volition and determinism, and, finally, the use of astrology for political and religious legitimization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 1379-1396
Author(s):  
L. R. Frangulyan ◽  
V. V. Shtefan

The 24 elders are the biblical image that is found only in the Book of Revelation of John the Apostle. They surround the throne of God and are endowed with certain attributes of glory. In the Ancient Church this image was interpreted in different ways. This article presents the first Russian literary translation of Coptic text signed as Encomium in honor of the 24 elders. The translation was carried out from the edition, which was published with the Italian translation in 1977 by Antonella Maresca. The author of Encomium is declared Proclus of Cyzicus, who later became the Patriarch of Constantinople. However, this is a pseudo-attribution, namely, this hierarch did not write this Encomium, and its real author remains unknown. The Italian translator divides the text into 33 paragraphs, and in the preface to Coptic edition highlights the four parts of Encomium. Two of them, dedicated to John Chrysostom and the exegetical interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis, seem to be interpolations. But after analyzing the entire narrative it is possible to say that these parts are embedded in the narrative. Also the features of the Coptic veneration of the 24 elders, which are reflected in Encomium, are discussed in the introduction to Russian translation. In particular, the bodiless nature of the 24 elders. Their unknown origin is emphasized several times in Encomium, the priestly role of these elders in the Kingdom of Heaven is also noted. It can be stated that the author of Encomium in the first two parts acts as a storyteller-historian of the Church, conveying information about John Chrysostom, and in the last two as an exegete. The image of 24 elders in Eastern traditions is a little studied topic and acquaintance with the Coptic tradition thanks to the translation of this Encomium opens up opportunities for comparative studies.


2011 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Pak-Wah Lai

By the time Augustine read the Life of Antony in 386, the biography had already become an international best seller in the Roman Empire. Translated twice into Latin and read in places as far off as Milan and Syrian Antioch, the Egyptian Life also proved to be a significant influence upon hagiographical writing in the late fourth century, the most notable example being the Lives of St Jerome. Consequently, scholars have often taken it to represent the dominant paradigm for sainthood in fourth-century Christianity and the centuries that followed. But is this assumption tenable? The Life of Antony would in all likelihood be read only by the educated elite or by ascetic circles in the Church, and was hardly accessible to the ordinary Christian. More importantly, hagiographical discourse in the fourth century was not restricted to biographies, but pervaded all sorts of Christian literature. This is certainly the case with the writings of St John Chrysostom (c. 349—407), who often presents the Christian monk as a saintly figure in his monastic treatises and his voluminous homilies. Indeed, what emerges from his writings is a paradigmatic saint who is significantly different from that portrayed in the biographies, and yet equally influential among his lay and ascetic audiences. To be sure, Chrysostom’s monastic portraits share some common features with that provided by Athanasius’s Life. Nevertheless, there are also stark differences between the two, and these are the focus of this paper.


2021 ◽  
pp. 117-132
Author(s):  
Gilles Dorival

The role of the Septuagint in the building of the Christian identity during the first Christian centuries is more important than it is generally said. The word ‘testament’ or ‘covenant’, for example, comes from the Septuagint, via the New Testament. The Greek and Latin liturgies are filled with references to the Septuagint. The same is true in the case of the Christian spirituality: for instance, the concept of the Christian life as a migration comes from the Septuagint. The Christian hermeneutics is indebted to the Greek Bible: even if knowledge of the allegorical method comes from the Greek philosophers (and Philo), support could be found for it in the verses of the Greek Bible. Finally, the theological vocabulary of the Christians was founded upon the Greek Bible. For instance, in the case of the doctrine of the Trinity, the word ‘person’ comes from the Septuagint. Furthermore, some passages of the Greek translation gave rise to theological interpretations which are not possible on the grounds of the Hebrew text. In Gen 1:2, the Septuagint reads ‘the earth was invisible and unorganized’ and this came to be quoted both in support of the creation of matter ex nihilo. In Exod 17:16, where the Hebrew has a difficult hapax legomenon, the Greek speaks about the ‘hidden hand’ with which the Lord makes war against Amalek; this ‘hidden hand’ played a role in the Christian doctrine of the Logos, which is hidden in the Old Testament.


2018 ◽  
pp. 17-47
Author(s):  
Timothy Matovina

Readers of Miguel Sánchez’s Imagen de la Virgen María, which contained the first published account of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s acclaimed apparitions to the indigenous neophyte Juan Diego, rarely recognize that he was trained in the theology of the church fathers, particularly in the writings of Saint Augustine. Interpretations of Sánchez have ranged from positivist condemnations for his lack of historical documentation to laudatory praise for his defense of pious tradition to emphases on his criollo patriotism as expressed through his adulation of Guadalupe and the baroque culture of New Spain. This chapter assesses Sánchez’s work as well as the origins and formative phase of Guadalupan devotion over the century preceding his publication. It illuminates the influence of patristic thought and theological method on Sánchez, as well as the frequently ignored but foundational role of his theology and that of the church fathers on the Guadalupe tradition.


1994 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. C. Frend

Thus Gibbon opened the thirty-seventh chapter of the History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, a lengthy chapter devoted to the twin topics of ‘the institution of monastic life’ and ‘the conversion of the northern barbarians’. The connection between the history of the Roman Empire and the Christian Church was indeed indissoluble. The Church was destined to follow the pattern of the empire by gradually degenerating as it grew in strength from original purity in the life of Christ and the Apostles to become a corrupt and baleful influence on the fortunes of secular society. Looking back over twenty years of research and writing (1767–87) he wrote near the beginning of his final chapter, ‘In the preceding volumes of this History, I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion and I can only resume in a few words, their real or imaginary connection with the ruin of ancient Rome.’ He goes on to list ‘potent and forcible causes of destruction’ by barbarians and Christians respectively. As he finally laid down his pen on 27 June 1787 at Lausanne, he concluded with a sentence whose strict accuracy has sometimes been doubted: ‘It was among the ruins of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised twenty years of my life, and which, however inadequate to my wishes, I finally deliver to the curiosity and candour of the public.’ The date of this decision was 15 October 1764. Here we survey briefly the role of ‘religion’, i.e. Christianity in the ruin of the Roman Empire.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 375-388
Author(s):  
Piotr Szczur

This article considers the subject of spiritual warfare led by monks as the “sol­diers” of Christ. Author of the article analyzed two John Chrysostom’ homilies (69 and 70) from the series Homily on the Gospel according to St. Matthew. First, he emphasizes the important role of the monasticism in the life and thought of John Chrysostom already from the beginning of his literary activity. Then, on the basis of sources, he shows the monks as a “spiritual army” of Christ, who are stay­ing at the hermitage instead of at a military camp, and instead of arms have ascetic practices. This spiritual army of Christ refers more splendid victory than the crack troops of the Roman Empire army, because the battle with the demons is far more difficult than fighting with people. In the final part of the article pointed out the profile of pastoral teaching of John Chrysostom, who encouraged all Christians to take spiritual warfare as the monks.


2020 ◽  
pp. 661-670
Author(s):  
Tomasz Pawlikowski

"e modern social doctrine of the Catholic Church supports all of the abovementionedviews with the exception that it treats some of its elements as theso-called “signs of the times” in which the creators of these views lived andwrote. "erefore, we cannot say that they became somehow time-barred. "eyhave entered the tradition of the social doctrine of the Church. Similarly, onecannot reasonably claim that the basic theses of the socio-political theoriesof Saint Augustine or Saint "omas Aquinas are obsolete in philosophical terms.At the most, one can disagree with them or try to correct them. Nevertheless, itseems that there are no better analyses of the nature of authority and its originfrom God. Considering these issues from the perspective of historical applicationsof the theories, especially the one coined by St. "omas, it is impossible notto notice the significant analogies of the reflections of Doctor Angelicus and theidea of a “nobles’ democracy” implemented in the First Polish Republic threehundred years later. It is also difficult to believe that a$er the creation of thescientific community of the Jagiellonian University in the fi$eenth century, theydid not affect the minds of Polish politicians at a time when the foundationsof this democracy were formed. Moreover, it seems that these considerationswere widely applied in the centuries-old process of crystallizing other modernand contemporary democratic system.


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