Chris Gousmett on Patristic Eschatology

The following Ph.D. thesis is now available on-line:

Chris Gousmett, "Shall the Body Strive and Not be Crowned? Unitary and instrumentalist anthropological models as keys to interpreting the structure of Patristic eschatology," PhD. Thesis, University of Dunedin, NZ, 1993.

My thanks to Dr Gousmett for reformatting his thesis and allowing me to place it on-line.

Abstract:

It is possible to discern a structure underlying the myriad details of Patristic eschatology through the use of two anthropological models, a unitary model, which sees the person as a unity of body and soul, and an instrumentalist model, which locates the person in the soul, which uses the body as its instrument. This latter view makes possible a judgement and entry into the appropriate eschatological state immediately after death, while the unitary view requires the resurrection to occur first. Some who held a unitary view (notably but not exclusively the Syrians) thought that the soul slept until the resurrection, while others held that the soul experienced pleasure or pain in anticipation of their future rewards or punishments to be received after the judgement.

The unitary anthropology is correlated with a positive assessment of bodily life, including marriage and sexuality, and (particularly during the first few centuries) expectation of life on a renewed earth in the eschaton following a millennium of peace.

The decline in millennialism, rise of asceticism, and glorification of virginity and denigration of marriage, as well as an eclipse of the centrality and significance of the resurrection of the body, are correlated with an instrumentalist view. Bodily life was often seen negatively, as the occasion, if not the source, of sin, and even innocent bodily gratification was shunned as a hindrance to the communion of the soul with God.

There is no direct correlation with the frequent contrast between the “resurrection of the body” and the “immortality of the soul” and the structures of Patristic eschatology. Many who held to a unitary anthropological model thought the soul immortal (although earlier Patristic writers rejected this concept), but also stressed that eschatological life also required the immortalisation of the body through its resurrection.

Those who held to an instrumentalist anthropological model mostly thought the soul was innately immortal, and provided sophisticated philosophical arguments for this view. However, it was the idea that the person was located in the soul, with the body as its instrument, that is the determining characteristic for the structure of their eschatology.

These ideas provide the background to the interpretation of Psalm 1:5, which in conjunction with John 3:18 was taken to mean that neither the saints nor the obdurate wicked would face the judgement on the last day. Others took Psalm 1:5 to mean that the wicked would not be judges, as they were wont to do during life. While there is no direct correlation between these interpretations of Psalm 1:5 and the two anthropological models discussed, it is not possible to understand the reasons for these interpretations without considering the influence of these models on Patristic eschatology.

Patristic anthropology and eschatology was shaped by the synthesis between pagan thought and Christian thought. The negative assessment of bodily life can be traced to pagan influences, and the consequences are considerable even today. Only by repudiating the method of synthesis can an authentically Christian anthropology and eschatology be developed.

Graham Keith on Patristic Views on Hell (2 parts)

The following articles are now on-line in PDF:

Graham Keith, " Patristic Views on Hell - Part 1," The Evangelical Quarterly 71.3 (1999): 217-232.

Abstract:

In this period the doctrine of the last things was yet to be worked out in detail. Apart from the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment, no orthodox consensus was established. With such a climate Origen tried to extend the church’s teaching. He tied the traditional idea of a final judgment to God’s long-term strategy for the restoration of souls (or intelligences) after they had declined from the contemplation of God. In the process he produced a speculative and controversial pic­ture which revolved round the willing subjection of all things to God. All God’s judgments were essentially corrective. This meant that Origen at least considered the possible salvation of the devil and his an­gels. But his treatment did leave several inconsistencies. This was prob­ably of more use to the church than a systematised dogmatic statement, because it focussed the mind of the church on certain key issues on which it had to work out a biblical consensus.

Graham Keith, "Patristic Views on Hell - Part 2," The Evangelical Quarterly 71.4 (1999): 291-310.

Abstract:

In his approach to the doctrine of Hell Augustine was influenced in part by a desire to address pagan doubts about the scientific possibility (d a body being in a state of everlasting torment. But an even greater concern was prompted by various pleas within the church to tone down the Scriptural evidence for an eternal Hell. Augustine believed that if any of these pleas were accepted, dire pastoral consequences would be involved.

Alongside his response to the various critiques of Hell, Augustine laid much stress on the seriousness of Adam’s original sin. He also rejected the Platonist view, effectively endorsed by Origen, that all divine punishments are essentially corrective. Augustine felt no need to give a detailed rationale for God’s justice, which he saw as a datum of revelation and a matter of faith for the believer. It was, however, a weak­ness in Augustine (and the patristic period generally) that he was content to work with a model of divine anger which stripped it of any passionate element. This foreclosed the possibility of tying God’s wrath more closely to the outworking of God’s justice.

Graham Keith on the Use of Allegory by Origen and Augustine

The following article is now on-line in PDF:

Graham Keith, "Can Anything Good Come out of Allegory? The Cases of Origen and Augustine," The Evangelical Quarterly 70.1 (1998): 23-49.

The subject of allegorication interpretation is essential to anyone studying the hermeneutics of the early church fathers. Graham Keith's article provides a helpful introduction to two of allegory's most famous proponents.

Abstract:

Though allegory is regarded with suspicion in churches today, it was enthusiastically embraced by many in the early church, including Origen and Augustine, the subjects of this paper. Origen believed not only that an allegorical interpretation was demanded by inconsistencies and absurdities in the literal text of Scripture, but that Scripture itself enjoined this hermeneutic. It was God’s way of stimulating believers to a maturer faith and discipleship. The rule of faith gave a framework in which error could be avoided.

Augustine shared Origen’s respect for the church’s traditional teaching. He differed, however, in the essentially aesthetic qualities he found in allegory. This was a technique he believed would give added pleasure to any worthwhile work of literature. He was also happy to accommodate a variety of suitable meanings in some passages of Scripture since he felt that human words were limited and sometimes obscure.

With their use of allegory, Origen and Augustine raise the question how do particular passages of Scripture set in a specific time and environment relate to the things that are unseen and eternal? They did, not, however, provide a suitable rationale to justify the various connections they made through allegory between diverse parts of the Bible.

Chris Gousmett on Augustine's Teaching on Creation and Miracles

The following article is now available in PDF:

Chris Gousmett, "Creation Order and Miracle According to Augustine," The Evangelical Quarterly 60.3 (July 1988): 217-240.

This article was particularly helpful to me when I was doing research on the early church's understanding of Genesis 1-11, so I am pleased to make it available here.

Gerald Bray on the Theology of Tertullian

The following book is now available online in PDF:

Gerald L. Bray, Holiness and the Will of God. Perspectives on the Theology of Tertullian. Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1979. Hbk. ISBN: 0551055936. pp.179.

Contents

Preface
1: Past and Present
2: The Man and his Times
3: The Nature of Holiness
4: The Pattern of Authority
5: The Holy Life
6: Epilogue
Notes [now included as footnotes in each chapter]
List of Tertullian's Work's
Bibliography
Index

My thanks to Professor Bray for his kind permission,

Nigel Scotland on Signs and Wonders in the Early Church

The following article is now on-line in PDF:

Nigel Scotland, "Signs and Wonders in the Early Catholic Church 90-451 and their Implications for the Twenty-First Century," European Journal of Theology 10.2 (2001): 155-168.

It is refreshing to find a good academic defence for the continuance of spiritual gifts after the Apostolic Age and this one is probably the best I have read. Given my own experience with Ellel Ministries I found myself agreeing heartily with Dr Scotland's comments about its founder.

Those wanting to read further on this subject should look out for the following title when it appears:

J. Stafford Wright on The Canon of Scripture

The following article is now online in PDF:

J. Stafford Wright, "The Canon of Scripture," The Evangelical Quarterly 19 (1947): 93-109.

Stafford Wright describes for the formation of the Protestant 66-book biblical canon.

F.F. Bruce on Victorinus of Pettau's Commentary on Revelation

The following article is on-line in PDF:

F.F. Bruce, "The Earliest Latin Commentary on the Apocalypse," The Evangelical Quarterly 10.4 (Oct. 1938): 352-366.

This is one of FFB's earliest articles and his first for The Evangelical Quarterly. It provides a helpful discussion of Victorinus' Commentary.

H.P.V. Nunn on Hermas' Shepherd, Clement of Rome & Ignatius

The following article is now on-line in PDF:

H.P.V. Nunn, "The Background of the Epistle of Clement of Rome," The Evangelical Quarterly 18.1 (Jan. 1946): 39-45.

H.P.V. Nunn, "The 'Shepherd' of Hermas," The Evangelical Quarterly 18.2 (April 1946): 109-122.

H.P.V. Nunn, "The Epistles of Ignatius," The Evangelical Quarterly 18.4 (Oct. 1946): 262-272.

Good articles providing introductions to the Apostolic Fathers and their writings are hard to find, so I was very pleased to find these.

Trevor A. Hart on the Two Soteriological Traditions of Alexandria

The following article is now on-line in PDF:

Trevor A. Hart, "The Two Soteriological Traditions of Alexandria," The Evangelical Quarterly 61.3 (1989): 239-259.

This article deals with Clement of Alexandria and Athanasius. It concludes:

What distinguished Athanasius from the Alexandrian catechetical and apologetic tradition which formed his inheritance was a profound recognition of the bankruptcy of hellenic thought as a framework within which to proclaim and expound the becoming of God in the incarnation. This was a message which could only meet with resistance from hellenism, and which as such had to be proclaimed over against it. To seek to accommodate the Greek philosophical framework would have been to concede in advance the ground upon which one stood as a Christian theologian. If we can learn anything from comparing these two traditions in Alexandrian theology, therefore, it is the ever-present danger inherent in any attempt to commend Christianity to its cultured despisers. What we must never forget is that it is precisely insofar as the gospel is a scandal to human wisdom that it confronts men and women in all its relevance. To the extent that we seek to lessen that scandal, therefore, we hinder rather than aid its cause. There can be no question as to the responsibility of Christian theology to address unbelief in every age. The real question remains, however, as to the most appropriate form of that address. It may well prove to be the case that far more is to be lost in seeking to deal with unbelief on its own terms than is ever to be gained.