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In the Christian world of the fourth century, the family of St. Gregory of Nyssa was distinguished for its leadership in civic and religious affairs in the region of the Roman Empire known as Pontus. Cardinal Newman, in an essay on the trials of St. Basil, refers to the family circle which produced these two eminent Fathers as 'a sort of nursery of bishops and saints.' From St. Gregory's life of his sister, St. Macrina, a work included in this volume, we learn of the fortitude of the three preceding generations. On her death-bed, St. Macrina, recalling details of their family history, speaks of a great-grandfather martyred and all his property confiscated, and grandparents deprived of their possessions at the time of the Dioceltian persecutions. Their father, Basil of Caesarea, a successful rhetorician, outstanding for his judgment and well known for the dignity of his life, died leaving to his wife, Emmelia, the care of four sons and five daughters. St. Gregory praises his mother for her virtue and for her eagerness to have her children educated in Holy Scripture. After managing their estate and arranging for the future of her children, she was persuaded by St. Macrina to retire from the world and to enter a life common with her maids as sisters and equals. This community of women would have been a counterpart of the monastery founded nearby by St. Basil on the banks of the Iris River. In a moving scene, St. Gregory tells of his mother's death at a rich old age in the arms of her oldest and youngest children, Macrina and Peter. Blessing all of her children, she prays in particular for the sanctification of these two who were, indeed, later canonized as saints. Newman notes the strong influence of the women in the family, and in one of his letters, St. Basil gives credit to his mother and his grandmother, the elder Macrina, for his clear and steadfast idea of God.

In a relatively short life time St. Basil (ca. 330-379) bequeathed to posterity a rich literary heritage. He intended the nine homilies on the Hexaemeron, probably delivered extemporaneously, to be an explanation of the literal meaning of the biblical account of creation. As a matter of fact these homilies show us a person who had mastered the philosophical and scientific knowledge of his times and applied it to his explanations of Sacred Scripture. St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, admired this work of St. Basil so much that he imitated it in his own Hexaemeron and even inserted Latin translations of Basil's work. The Latin translations of these homilies of St. Basil that were made within a generation after the saint's death bear witness to their popularity and importance. The homilies on the Psalms presented here in translation differ considerably in their methodology from the homilies on creation. Influenced by the scriptural interpretations given by Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea, Basil stresses the allegorical meaning of the psalms without, however, totally disregarding the literal meaning. Patristic scholars are fairly well agreed that the homilieson the Psalms antedate the homilies on creation which were probably delivered after Basil had become bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia.

This volume presents several treatises of St. Cyprian (200/10?-258) in translation. To Donatus (Ad Donatum) is a monologue written shortly after Cyprian's baptism in 246 in which he extols his spiritual rebirth in the sacrament of baptism. Literary criticism has come to view this treatise as a model for St. Augustine's Confessions. The Dress of Virgins (De habitu virginum) written in 249 is addressed to women ("flowers in the Church's garden") who have dedicated their lives to God's service. In this treatise on virginity Cyprian warns these women against seeking finery and the pitfalls of worldliness.The Fallen (De lapsis), written in 251, deals with the problems encountered in reconciling with the Church those who had defected during the time of persecution. These problems were acute especially after the Decian persecution. The Unity of the Catholic Church (De unitate ecclesiae), written very likely in 251, is directed in the first place against the Novatian schism. This treatise contains the famous words: "He cannot have God for his father who does not have the Church for his mother."The Lord's Prayer (De oratione dominica) is as the title indicates a commentary on the Our Father. Many of its words and phrases remind one of Tertullian whom Cyprian admired greatly. To Demetrian (As Demetrianum) is a vigorous defense of Christianity against pagan calumnies. Mortality (De mortalitate) written perhaps in 252 or later has often been described as being a pastoral letter of a bishop to comfort and console his flock during a time of trial and tribulation.Work and Alms (De opere et eleemosynis) is a treatise that may have been written in 252 or even later. It is a warm and heartfelt exhortation of a bishop to his flock encouraging them to do good works. The Blessing of Patience (De bono patientiae), written sometime during the year 256, has frequently been described as a sermon delivered during the controversy over the validity of heretical baptism in northern Africa.Jealousy and Envy (De zelo et livore) like the preceding treatise greatly resembles a sermon delivered on the topic in the title. It was probably written between 251 and 257. To Fortunatus (Ad Fortunatum), a work replete with quotations from Scripture to encourage a Christian in time of persecution, was probably written between 253 and 257. In its original Latin this treatise is an important witness to the text of the Bible before St. Jerome's revisions. That Idols are not Gods (Quod idola dii non sint) is a relatively unimportant work when judged on the basis of its content. Modern patristic scholars seriously doubt its authenticity.

When the writing of Latin biblical commentaries was still in its infancy, a young bishop from Poitiers, in Gaul, penned a passage-by-passage exposition on the Gospel of Matthew. It is the first of its kind to have survived almost completely intact. Published now for the first time in English translation, Hilarys commentary offers a close look at Latin theology and exegesis before the Nicene Creed was considered the sole standard of orthodoxy.

St. John Chrysostom's Discourse Against Judaizing Christians are eight homilies or sermons with a unifying theme: the correction of certain abuses in a fourth-century Christian community. Judged by modern tastes the Discourses may seem lengthy, and Chrysostom himself admits that they taxed his energies when he complains of having become hoarse. In Antioch of the late fourth century two highly divisive forces contributed to deteriorating Judaeo-Christian relations: very successful Jewish proselytizing, and Christian Judaizing. Both activities profoundly disturbed a vigilant leader and eloquent preacher such as Chrysostom was.These Discourses, frequently interrupted by applause from the audience, present in their historical context one facet of the deteriorating relations. Antedating Chrysostom by some two centuries, emerging views that the Jews were a people cursed and dispersed in punishment for their unbelief and deicide were gaining credence; witness some statements by Irenaeus in Lyons and Tertullian in northern Africa. In the course of time certain passages of sacred Scripture began to be reinterpreted, when occasion presented itself, in such a way as to endow the polemics with divine authority. A simplistic view of the complex problem of anti-Semitism raised the cry, almost a century ago, that the Church nurtures hatred against the Jews and at the same time protected them from the fury she had unleashed. However, on October 28, 1965 Vatican Council II issued a decree: Declaration on the Church's Attitude Toward Non-Christian Religions (cf. Acta apostolicae sedis 58 (1966) 740-44). Therein the Council officially re-affirmed the common religious patrimony of Jews and Christians. It clearly rejected any alleged collective guilt of the Jewish people for the death of Christ and their alleged rejection of God.

A highly educated imperial official of northern Italy, Ambrose famously received baptism shortly before his consecration as Bishop of Milan in 373. This collection of translated letters has been arranged in categories according to the recipients: to emperors, to bishops, to priests, to his sister (a consecrated virgin), and to laymen, in addition to synodal letters. Two of his letters to his sister, Marcellina, are a useful source for examining Ambrose's management of church-state relations.

During the years between the Council of Nicaea (325) and the Council of Constantinople (381), imperial opposition to Nicene theology sent several of its supporters into exile. One of these supporters was Hilary, the Bishop of Poitiers. Begun during its author's exile (356-360), Hilary's De Trinitate provides a comprehensive discussion of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son: they are consubstantial, co-eternal, and fully equal. This work was a trailblazer in its day because, apart from Tertullian's relatively brief remarks on the Trinity, it is the earliest study of Trinitarian doctrine in the Latin language.

St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan A.D. 373-397, enjoyed a great contemporary reputation for his sermons and homilies, to whose eloquence St. Augustine of Hippo himself gives witness. But, while we have from Augustine hundreds of sermons in virtually their original form, Ambrose's pulpit oratory has not come down to us as delivered. However, Ambrose would often recast his sermons as treatises, and seven of these are presented in this volume. These works are mainly an exegesis of many parts of the Bible, particularly of portions of Genesis, Deuteronomy, Job, and the Song of Songs (on which Issac, or the Soul is in large part a commentary). The Psalms make their echo on nearly every page, as do the Gospels. In special contexts, two apocryphal writings receive attention, IV Esdras and IV Machabees. Ambrose's primary interest is in the moral sense of the Scriptures, and he attains his results through insistent allegorical interpretation. Detailed indices of subjects and of Scripture citations facilitate consultation of Ambrose's thinking on the moral and scriptural problems upon which he, in his time, thought it important for Christians, lay and clerical, to be informed.

St. John Chrysostom delivered nine homilies on repentance in Antioch of Syria sometime between 386 and 387. This volume presents Chrysostom's homilies on repentance and includes a sermon on almsgiving that he preached in Antioch during the winter months in 387.

This second and final volume of the letters of St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria (412-444), takes up in medias res the great Christological controversy about the term Theotokos and the events which lead up to its resolution at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Defending the doctrines of the Trinity and the Person of Christ in the Alexandrian tradition of St. Athanasius these letters reveal Cyril's brilliant theological acumen and deep personal faith. Letters 51 to 61 are concerned with the question of John of Antioch and the bishops who, with him, supported Nestorius in the tradion of the Antiochene School, set up a rival council, and this went so far as even to depose Cyril. Of this group Letters 50 and 55 are exceptional for their theological content. Letter 66 to 74 deal with the extension of the Nestorian heresy by eastern bishops who, although they agreed to the deposition of Nestorius and the anathemas against him, began to uphold the ideas of his teachers Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia. Letters 77 to 79 and 85 are purely administrative and, as such, are noteworthy examples of Cyril's patriarchy. Letter 89, an exegetic explanation of the punishment of Cain, is a partial copy of letter 260 of St. Basil. Three letters are spurious; 86 and 87, which deal with the date of Easter, and 88, a supposed letter from Hypatia to Cyril. Perhaps the most unusual letter is 96, a breve or catalog of treasures sent from Alexandria as bribes to the imperial court at Constantinople, not an uncommon practice it would seem since Cyril writes about it quite openly. The translator has appended five letters to the corpus. The first four are addressed to Cyril and are important for the light they shed on the Nestorian controversy. The last, an alternate version of letter 85 translated from the Latin text, contains a response to the synod at Carthage concerning the date of Easter, different in the two versions.

Written during the time when the Roman Empire was crumbling, Augustine's De civitate Dei tackles the questions raised by the decline of the political and social order. Here, in Books One through Seven (of the total of twenty-two books in this monumental work), Augustine examines the history of the Roman Republic and Empire. Though based on a false religion and a lust for domination, the rise of Rome was nevertheless ordained by God's providence.

This volume contains the translation of the six concluding books of The City of God. Book 17 briefly reviews significant events in the history of the chosen people down to the birth of Christ and calls attention to the prophecies that are fulfilled in Christ In summarizing the contents of the first 17 books Augustine shows in book 18 that there is a unifying theme running through the voluminous work: a comparison in the origin, development and progress of the earthly city and the city of God. A synchronizing of events in Jewish history with those in secular history brings this book to a close. Book 19 begins with a discussion of philosophical questions, e.g., the definition of the supreme good and the conditions for a just war, and concludes with an explanation of the differences between the earthly city and God's city and refutation of Porphyry's attacks on Christianity. Augustine himself says that he plans to discuss in book 20 the day of final judgment and to defend its reality against those who deliberately disbelieve in it. This purpose involves a consideration of Antichrist, the coming of Elias before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, the millennium mentioned in the book of Revelations, the new heaven and the new earth. The second last book discusses in some detail the kind of punishment that the Devil and those belonging to the earthly city are to endure. Reflections on hell, the nature of eternal torments and the unquenchable fire where the worm does not die bring this book to a close. The last book, book 22, treats the eternal blessedness of the city of God

In the autumn of A.D. 388, St. Augustine returned from Italy to northern Africa. Here in his native Thagaste he assembled a monastic community. When the brethren found their leader Augustine in a rare moment of leisure, they had no misgivings about putting questions to him on a variety of topics which he answered from the store of his vast knowledge. These questions together with the answers were later collected and assembled in a random order (ractions ). The English translation presented here affords the reader a rare opportunity to glimpse some of the topics that interested members of a community that eventually gave the early Church four bishops: Alypius of Thagaste, Severus of Milevis, Profuturus of Citra, and Possidius of Calama. Even though St. Augustine intended no specific sequence in this collection, four broad categories in the question and answer literary form are discernible. One category serves as Christian apologetic, e.g., against Arian and Manichaean errors. The second presents Augustine in the role of exegete of selected passages from both the Old and New Testaments. The third and fourth categories, containing the greater number of questions and answers, show Augustine the philosopher and theologian, a person of towering intellectual stature in western Christianity and one of the important "Founders of the Middle Ages." Though formulated between the years A.D. 388 and 395/97 and presented from the viewpoint of Neoplatonists, many topics, e.g., the cause of evil, sin and freewill, still have great relevance for the modern reader.

St. Augustine (354-430), greatest of the Church Fathers, continues to exercise a unique and profound influence upon the intellectual history of the West after more than fifteen hundred years. Pioneer in the theology of Grace and in a psychological understanding of the Trinity, his impact upon subsequent theological speculation, Protestant as well as Catholic, has been unrivaled. The timeless and timely character of his teaching is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the documents of the Second Vatican Council where the African Bishop is cited more frequently than any other Father or Doctor of the Church. "Founder of Christian philosophy", his principles and method have largely inspired the rise of such diversified currents of contemporary thought as existentialism, philosophic spiritualism, and personalism. The three works included in the present volume range over a period of some forty years, from Augustine's days as a neo-convert and priest to the closing years of his life as Bishop, and offer representative examples of his rich and versatile genius as Christian pedagogue, philosopher, and theologian.

The Catholic and Manichaean Ways of Life is, like the Contra academicos (386) and the works of St. Augustine's later life against the Donatists and other heretics, the refutation of a redoubtable adversary whom he is determined to overthrow for the protection of his fellow Christians. Even a rapid glance at its contents is sufficient to show its character as a polemical work in which he contrasts one religious view of God, man and the world with another. In the first book, we are provided with a treatise on Christian morality, written, we must always bear in mind, by one received into the Church not two years before. It establishes that God is the Supreme Good. It shows the meaning of unions with him in charity. It explains the four cardinal virtues in terms of love, and particularly in terms of the love of God. Finally, it holds up for our admiration and emulation the Christian virtues of the religious, clergy, and laity. The way of life of the Catholic Church thus portrayed by Augustine embodies in his view a lofty ideal, but one that is livable by individuals in all states of life and in various stages of progress in virtue. The second book describes and refutes the teaching of the Manichaeans on the nature and origin of evil, their false ascetical practices, and their doctrines concerning the three symbols of the mouth, the hands, and the breast. In conclusion, Augustine denounces, on the basis of personal knowledge of first-hand reports, the scandalous conduct of the members of the Manichaean elect. Throughout this book, he is concerned, nor merely to expose the errors and excesses of the sect, including the shameful behavior and hypocrisy of certain of its leaders, but the absurdities and even depravity to which men are led by a way of life that is essentially unlivable. Whatever may be claimed for the austerities of the more sincere and ascetic members of the Manichaean sect, a religion that corrodes human nature and castigates its natural functioning as evil, cannot be good. Such is St. Augustine's ultimate judgment upon Manichaeanism, and he expresses it with eloquence and invective.

Ten of the twelve homilies of St. John Chrysostom presented here were delivered at Antioch over a period of several years beginning in A.D. 386. The final two homilies were delivered in 398 after Chrysostom became patriarch of Constantinople.All but one of the homilies aim at refuting the Anomoeans, heretics who revived the most radical tenets of Arius and blatantly claimed that man knows God in the very same way that God knows himself. Chrysostom's refutations and instructions to the faithful are based on the Scriptures rather than on human reasoning. He departed from this series of refutations only in the sixth homily, which he delivered on December 20, 386, again at Antioch. It consists of a panegyric of St. Philogonius, bishop of Antioch ca. A.D. 319-23, who before his episcopal ordination had led a very exemplary life, practiced law and contracted a marriage that was blessed with a daughter. In addition to their theological content, these homilies contain many other points of interest. On one occasion, people applauded the speaker and were very attentive to the homily but then left the church so that when Christ is about to appear in the holy mysteries the church becomes empty (Hom III.32; Hom VII.2). During another homily, pickpockets plied their trade so that Chrysostom urged "let no one come into the church carrying money" (Hom IV.46). Chrysostom also indicates that people kept talking to one another at the sacred moment when Christ becomes present (Hom IV.36). He also mentions that chariot races often proved more enticing than going to church (Hom VII.1). Finally, valuable information on fourth-century Eastern liturgies is found in Hom III.41, 42, and Hom IV.32.

This volume of the Homilies of Saint Jerome contains fifteen homilies on Saint Mark's Gospel, Homilies 75-84. In general, as in Volume 1, Morin's text has been followed as reproduced in the Corpus Christianorum, series latina 78.The editors of the Corpus have added two homilies, one delivered on the Feast of the Epiphany from the Gospel of our Lord's baptism and on Psalm 28, edited by B. Capelle; the other on the First Sunday of Lent, edited by I. Fraipont. In the present volume, they are Homilies 89 and 90.Dom Germain Morin, as noted in the Introduction of Volume 1 of this translation, discovered fourteen homilies, providing a second series on the Psalms, in four Italian Codices dating from the tenth and fifteenth centuries. He examined with great care their probable identity with, or relationship to, the lost homilies of Saint Jerome catalogues in De viris illustribus 'on the Psalms, from the tenth to the sixteenth, seven homilies.' There is more work to be done and many problems to be resolved, however, before this identification can be established with certitude. This chief obstacle is that of chronology. The De viris illustibus was written in all probability in 392-393, whereas the homilies appear to have been written in 402, the date determined by the study of Dom Morin. Other scholars, as U. Moricca, A. Penna, G. Grützmacher, give 394 and 413 as the earliest and latest dates, respectively, for all the homilies.There is question also whether the Septuagint or the Hebrew Psalter was in the hands of Jerome when he wrote or preached the homilies on Psalms 10 and 15. They seem, in fact, to have been written rather than delivered, for he speaks of readers rather than hearers. They differ from the regular series of sermons in their greater erudition, more sophisticated language, many Greek expressions, and variations from the Hexapla. The closing doxology so characteristic of the other sermons is missing in them. They are much longer, and Jerome speaks of certain details as if he had already explained them. On the whole, they give evidence, too, of greater care in preparation.

St. John Chrysostom delivered his Homilies on Genesis sometime between A.D. 385 and A.D. 388, while yet a priest at Antioch. In the homilies in this volume, the last of three, Chrysostom concludes his examination of the lives and virtues of the Old Testament patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph as recounted in the last three chapters of Genesis. Known for his eloquent preaching, Chrysostom delivered these final twenty-two homilies after Pentecost. His motive for examining the accounts of the lives of the patriarchs is to show how the just forebears of the Israelites, in a time when both the law and the Gospel were yet unpreached, were able to live Christian lives with only simple trust in God and the balanced, almost ingenuous manners of antiquity. His interest in the events and characters of Genesis is largely moral, even moralistic; he tends to see Scripture as hagiography. His style of commentary, although not really thorough exegesis, arises out of his deep conviction of the divine inspiration of Scripture--hence the habitual attention to detail, "not idly or to no purpose" being his frequent comment on the precision of the text.As an exegete, Chrysostom may seem disappointing to those grounded in the methods of modern biblical scholarship, since he largely ignores any sense of Scripture other than the literal and is generally unaware of how to resolve difficulties and appreciate subtleties that a knowledge of the original text would provide. However, what lacks in scientific accuracy he more than compensates for with his earnest practice of pastoral care.This final volume of the homilies includes a general index and an index of biblical citations, the latter indicating the rich scriptural diet Chrysostom's congregation--who came daily for his homilies--enjoyed.

His zealous and intrepid defense of the orthodox faith and his contribution to handling the external affairs of the Eastern Church were by no means the whole service to which St. Basil the Great devoted his considerable talents. His life both exemplified and shaped the ascetical movement of his time. After renouncing a brilliant career as rhetorician, he traveled widely, studying the various forms of asceticism practiced in Eastern Christendom. On his return, he retired in the year 358 to a place near Neocaesarea to put into practice the best of what he had seen, and there disciples soon joined him. When his friend Gregory of Nazianzus visited him there in 358, he began to write his Rules and other works that have had great importance in promoting and regulating the common life of monasticism. This life, regulated and freed from excess, as an expression of the law of charity was to be the monk's path to union with God. Basil's concept of the monastic ideal, socially directed and moderate without being lax, became the fundamental concept of Greek and Slavonic monasticism, and it influenced St. Benedict in legislating for Western monasticism.The ascetical writings of St. Basil contained in this volume, addressed to both monks and laymen, are of prime importance for understanding the role their author played in the Church of the fourth century and, through his influence, still plays today.

The Homilies on St. John's Gospel come from the period in which Chrysostom attained his greatest fame as pulpit orator, the years of his simple priesthood at Antioch (386-397). This was the peaceful period in Chrysostom's life that preceded his elevation to the episcopacy as patriarch of Constantinople (398), wherein adverse imperial and ecclesiastical reaction to his program of moral reform led to his deposition, banishment, and all by martyr's death (407). The 88 Homilies, which date from about 390, work systematically through the text of St. John's Gospel and thus form a commentary upon it. In his exposition Chrysostom reflects his youthful Antiochene training in the interpretation of Holy Scripture through his emphasis upon the literal or historical meaning of the sacred text. The exposition focuses sharply on practical morality and thus often supplies telling information about fourth-century life and times. The homilies show the flowering of Chrysostom's intensive study of rhetoric and are especially commendable for their command of imagery. The first 47 Homilies carry Chrysostom's commentary through Chap. 6.54-72; the remaining 41, extending the commentary through to the end of the Gospel, are contained in Vol. 41 of this series.

The English translation of two of Chrysostom's treatises, written about 378 and 382, aimed at provoking the divinity of Jesus Christ. In Discourse in Blessed Babylas and Against the Greeks, Chrysostom responds to specific attacks on Christianity by such philosophers as Porphyry, using historical narrative and the arguments of fulfilled prophecies to prove Christ's divinity.

St. John of Damascus (ca. 675-749) is generally regarded as the last great figure of Greek Patrology. Outstandingly important for his support of images in the Iconoclastic Controversy, this priest-monk of St. Sabbas near Jerusalem is known also for his treatment of Christian morality and asceticism (the Sacred Parallels), for a small but precious group of powerful sermons, and even for verse contributions to the Greek liturgy. His reputation rests mainly, however, on one of his latest writings, the Fount of Wisdom. This relatively brief work is called by the late Fr. Chase, its new translator, "the first real Summa Theologica"; and its most significant section was in fact known, in Latin translation, to Peter Lombard and St. Thomas Aquinas.The first part of the Fount of Wisdom, "Philosophical Chapters" ("Dialectica"), goes back to Aristotle mainly and, through Maximus the Confessor, to Plato. Epiphanius is the chief source of Part Two, with its exposition of 103 heresies. The third and most important section of the work, "On the Orthodox Faith," is a comprehensive presentation of the teaching of the Greek Fathers on the main doctrines of Christianity, especially the Trinity, Creation, and the Incarnation. But what emerges is not a compilation but rather a synthesis, marked by originality in the mode of treatment and by a remarkable clarity of expression. In all three of its parts the Damascene's Fount of Wisdom is "an indispensable aid to the study of the Greek Christian tradition."

This translation makes available for the first time in English one of the most significant Old Testament commentaries of the patristic period. St. John Chrysostom's extant works outnumber those of any other Father of the East; in the West, only Augustine produced a larger corpus. Of Chrysostom's more than 600 exegetical homilies, however, only those on the New Testament have previously been translated into English.The Genesis homilies, his richest Old Testament series, reveal a theologian, pastor, and moralist struggling to explain some of the most challenging biblical material to his congregation in Antioch. He admonishes them to "apply yourself diligently to the reading of Sacred Scripture, not only when you come along here, but at home," encourages spiritual discourse, and frequently envisages them leaving church reminiscing on the day's sermon. While critical exegetical details go without mention and Chrysostom was limited to the Greek version of the Old Testament in his studies, his oratory has been judged golden and his theology profound. He was a preacher satisfied with commenting on Scripture with his moral purpose always to the fore.Chrysostom studied the Scriptures with Diodore of Tarsus, a distinguished exegete known from fragments of his commentaries on Genesis and Psalms, and a polemic style developed from his pastoral concern to protect his congregation from the dangerous influences of fourth-century Antioch. Most importantly, he shared the Antiochene school's insistence on the literal sense of Scripture and their unwillingness to engage in allegorical interpretation. As such, his Genesis homilies constitute a milestone in the history of biblical interpretation.This first of several volumes on Genesis contains homilies 1-17, delivered in Antioch before Chrysostom moved to Constantinople in 398. Robert C. Hill's thorough introduction highlights Chrysostom's significance as a scriptural commentator and provides the basis for an interesting comparison with modern commentators, such as Von Rad and Speiser.

Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop of the Holy City in the middle of the fourth century, delivered eighteen catechetical lectures during Lent to his candidates for baptism at Easter; actually, there were nineteen including the preliminary instruction, or Procatechesis. An earlier volume of the Fathers of the Church series contains the preliminary material and the first twelve lectures. The present volume contains Catechetical Lectures 13-18 and Cyril's five Mystagogical Catecheses, which, delivered during the week after Easter, describe and explain the rites of Baptism, Chrismation, and Eucharist, all of which Cyril's newly baptized adult listeners have just experienced. In addition, this volume includes Cyril's only extant sermon (on the paralytic of John 5) and a letter to the newly crowned Emperor Constantius, in which Cyril interprets the apparition of a shining cross in the sky over Jerusalem.

As significant as his contribution was to history, Leo the Great had an even greater impact on theology. Pope Leo developed the most explicit and detailed affirmations known up to that time of the prerogatives enjoyed by successors if St. Peter. This volume presents the first English translation of the complete sermons.

The letters of St. Basil, three hundred and sixty-eight in number, which comprise the most vivid and most personal portion of his works, give us, perhaps, the clearest insight into the wealth of his rich and varied genius. They were written within the years from 357, shortly before his retreat to the Pontus, until his death in 378, a period of great unrest and persecution of the orthodox Catholic Church in the East. Their variety is striking, ranging from simple friendly greetings to profound explanations of doctrine, from playful reproaches to severe denunciations of transgressions, from kindly recommendations to earnest petitions for justice, from gentle messages of sympathy to bitter lamentations over the evils inflicted upon or existent in the churches.As may be expected, the style in these letters is as varied as their subject matter. Those written in his official capacity as pastor of the Church, as well as the letters of recommendation and the canonical letters, are naturally more formal in tone, while the friendly letters, and those of appeal, admonition, and encouragement, and, more especially, those of consolation, show St. Basil's sophistic training, although even in these he uses restraint. He had the technique of ancient rhetoric at his fingertips, but he also had a serious purpose and a sense of fitness of things. To St. Basil's letters can be ascribed the qualities he attributed to the heartily approved book written by Diodorus, which qualities may be summed up as fullness of thought, clearness, simplicity, and naturalness of style. He himself disapproved of a too ornate style and carefully avoided it. His early education, however, had trained him for the use of rich diction and varied and charming figures, and, when the occasion warranted it, he proved himself a master in their use.Whether we look at them from an historical, an ecclesiastical, or a theological point of view, the letters are an important contribution.

Clement of Alexandria, a scholar who flourished around the turn of the third century, devoted this work to instructing Christian converts on the nature of the Christian life. Another of his books, the Protreptikos, was intended as an outreach to pagans, and this book, the Paidagogos (called here Christ the Educator), was to serve as a guide to Christian living for baptized individuals who were still young in the faith. A sober lifestyle of moderation and self-restraint should characterize every Christian, and Clement's thinking on ethics reveals the influence of Stoic philosophy.

This is the second volume of the letters of Bishop Basil of Caesarea in the Fathers of the Church series (Letters 186-368). It includes the correspondence from the year 374 until the end of his life in 379, as well as his undated letters and some letters of dubious or spurious authorship. The majority of this collection consists of authenticated letters, many of which Basil has devoted to the details of church discipline as well as to theological questions and to his own self-defense against the informal accusations of heresy that he suffered.

Titus Flavius Clemens Alexandrinus (ca. A.D. 150-215) wrote the Stromateis, possibly the third work in his trilogy--the Protrepticus, the Paedagogus, and the Stromateis--to direct Christian Gnostics toward the third stage of philosophy--gnosis. For Clement the only true gnosis was that which presupposed the faith of the Church, that is, apostolic and divinely revealed. But for Clement the ideas of Greek philosophy were also a divine gift to mankind. All of his writings reflect this reconciliation of faith and knowledge.The full title of the Stromateis is Miscellanies of Notes of Revealed Knowledge in Accordance with the True Philosophy, and the word stromateis itself means a kind of patchwork quilt. Clement describes the work as a somewhat unorganized collection of flowers or trees that have grown together naturally. Of the eight books some are fragmented or incomplete, but all show Clement as philosopher, theologian, and biblical commentator.Books One to Three in this volume all revolve around the relation of Christian faith to Greek philosophy. In Book One Clement defends a philosophy as given by God, a "preparation paving the way for him who is perfect in Christ" (Strom. 1.5.28). In Book Two he defends faith against the philosophers as the way to truth. Book Three explores the question of Christian marriage or true gnosis, while refuting the religious and moral principles of the false gnosis, that is, fornication and adultery. Within this book is a unique and beautiful exposition of "two or three gathered together" as husband, wife, and child.Books One to Three of the Stromateis establish Clement's fundamental theology--a harmony of faith and knowledge that places Greek philosophy at the service of faith, which is, to Clement, more important than knowledge. Articulated in allegorical exegesis rather than literal interpretation, this interplay of philosophy and religion was the hallmark of the School of Alexandria. There Clement studied with Pantaenus and succeeded him as head of the school of catechumens. In order to establish the persecution of Septimius Severus, he took refuge in Cappadocia, where he died in A.D. 215, leaving his vast writings, his firmly held tenet that Greek philosophy and faith were not irreconcilable, and his method of allegorical interpretation to his student Origen, who formed it into a system.Clement's works, however, remain for scholars today the first examples of Christian scholarship--writings that harmonize Christian doctrine and secular philosophy--enriched by his own comprehensive knowledge of early Christian literature and secular education. This is the first English translation based on the new critical editions in SC (1951) and GCS (1972).