Modern usage of the word “tradition” has so many meanings, and to some persons such negative and to others such positive connotations, that careful definition is required. A number of works in the 1950s and 1960s established the early Christian use of the words for and concept of tradition.¹ The passage of time perhaps justifies a fresh examination of the evidence that in addition introduces some texts not in the usual repertoire.

Actual word usage does not support the modern distinction between Scripture and tradition, nor the identification of tradition with unwritten transmission. This study aims at comprehensive coverage of...

Hans Lietzmann was certainly correct when he said that the emergence of the New Testament canon was among the most complicated problems in all of church history.¹ Hans von Campenhausen was no less correct when he said that apparently irresolvable questions in church history should be assessed as historiographical problems and not merely as historical problems.² The exceptional difficulty experienced in attempting to reconstruct the history of the New Testament canon arises not only from a critical paucity of primary sources but also from a superabundance of conflicting secondary literature. In this article, in alignment with the above sage advice,...

Fifty years ago William Schoedel noted the rhetorical structure of Adversus haereses. Within that structure, book 1 included both the exordium and the narratio.¹ This indicated a thoughtful and selective structure to Adv. haer. 1 in continuity with ancient topoi and models of argument and the need to question certain source analyses of Irenaeus’s first book.² Taking note of Schoedel’s insights on structure, and those of others, while also profiting from and engaging studies which have challenged aspects of both the originality and structure of Adv. haer. I, I wish to revisit the question of how we should understand the...

Prosper of Aquitaine, John Cassian, and Vincent of Lérins were involved in the first stage of the controversy over the doctrine of grace that began in the late 420s in southern Gaul—the Augustinian conflict.¹ The conflict originated with the reception of Augustine’s doctrine of grace, namely predestination. Prosper and a few others—the Augustinians—defended his doctrine, while Vincent, John Cassian, and other doctores Gallicani opposed it.² This paper is an examination of the ways in which Prosper, Cassian, and Vincent argued for their respective positions. All three appealed to the rule of faith, claiming that Scripture and the...

Contra Marcellum: Marcellus of Ancyra and Fourth-Century Theology is the work in English to which all those seeking to understand either Marcellus’s theology or his place in later fourth-century controversy must turn first.¹ Its merits only become clearer the better one knows the subject.

The range of the book (supplemented by a series of articles which treat some of its key arguments in more detail) is particularly impressive.² It touches with quiet understanding a considerable spread of material, having something to add to our understanding of every decade of the Arian controversy.³ It pronounces on points of fierce dispute with...

Over the past twenty years, I have been seeking the roots of the unique Christology of Apollinarius of Laodicea, whom Pope Damasus condemned in Rome in 377 for denying that the Incarnate Word possessed a human soul. My research on the one trinitarian treatise securely attributed to Apollinarius, the Kατ̀α Mέρος Πίστις revealed that Apollinarius was significantly influenced by the anti-Marcellan tradition of trinitarian theology that Eusebius of Caesarea initiated in the late 330s with the publication of his works the Contra Marcellum and the Ecclesiastical Theology.¹ All scholars of this period owe a debt of gratitude to the research...

Distinguished people, in any age, often defy categorization. Meletius, one of several competing bishops of Antioch during a time of prolonged schism in the 360s and 370s, was apparently regarded even in his own time as a bright and attractive Church leader whose theological allegiances were hard to pin down.¹ What the fifth-century Church historian Sozomen says of the hardline “Neo-Arians’” estimate of Meletius, at the beginning of his episcopal career in the late 350s, probably expressed the feelings of other parties of the time as well: they thought of him as “possessed of great and persuasive eloquence, of excellent...

At least since the time of the Council of Trent, session 4, April 1546, the Catholic Church has taught that the truth and discipline of the faith” is contained in written books and traditions without writing” and that God is the author of” all the books of the Old and New Testament . . . and the traditions themselves pertaining to faith and morals, as dictated orally by Christ or by the Holy Spirit and preserved in the Catholic Church by continuous succession” (DS 1501). Following the Council of Trent, the First Vatican Council, and the Second Vatican Council, the...

“What is in the creed was already in Scripture”—Joseph Lienhard captures succinctly the essential link Augustine persistently insisted upon between the rule of faith and Scripture.³ On the one hand the rule of faith provides the sure guide for reading the Scriptures:

Some other person may produce a better interpretation [he is commenting upon Psalm 74:9, “For in the Lord’s hand is a cup of pure wine, full of a mixed drink”], for the obscurity of the scriptures is such that a passage scarcely ever yields a single meaning only. But whatever interpretation emerges, it must conform to the...

Augustine’s primary explanation of the process of redemption is usually identified as a forensic analysis which addresses the rights of the devil. This theory was proposed early, middle, and late in his writing career and with little significant change. Its presentation twice in his On the Trinity conferred upon it a certain prominence and insured that it would be given full consideration by his students.¹ Anselm would later reject it on the grounds that the rights of the devil—as this notion had been developed in the time since Augustine proposed it—was a fiction which would not stand up...

In De beata vita2.10 Augustine speaks with his companions at Cassicia cum about happiness, its quest and its attainment. His mother, Monica, plays an important role at this point in the dialogue:

Then I [Augustine] spoke again: “We wish to be happy, do we not?”

No sooner had I said this, than they agreed, with one voice.

I asked: “In your opinion, is a person happy who does not possess what he wants?”

They said: “By no means.”

[I said:] “What? Everyone who possesses what he wants is happy?” At this point our mother [Monica] said: “ If he wishes...

Expressions of the rule of faith such as this from Hermas begin with the profession of faith in the singularity of God and in his role as Creator. As Tertullian expresses it, “This is the rule of faith . . . that there is one God who is none other than the Creator of the world from nothing.”² The effect of this anti-Marcionite confession was twofold: that the world was created ex nihilo meant that it was not divine, in not some emanation or “offspring” (probolê) of God as the Gnostics had claimed; secondly, it was, nonetheless, good. Marcion had,...

John Carroll University has an endowed chair, the Walter and Mary Tuohy Chair in Interreligious Studies, which brings to the campus distinguished scholars to give classes and public lectures on a topic of ecumenical or interreligious interest. The public lectures, which are usually six in number, are intended for a general audience and are open to all interested people in the Greater Cleveland area. The university arranges for publication of the lectures.

In the 1994–95 academic year the holder of the Tuohy Chair was Joseph T.Lienhard, S.J., who spoke about the formation of the New Testament canon. The lectures...

In an epilogue to the English edition of F.-W. von Herrmann’s Augustine and the Phenomenological Question of Time, Jeremiah Hackett expresses what he takes to be the proper relationship between contemporary philosophers and the tradition from which they come.¹ In essence, the task of the contemporary philosopher is to appropriate the thought of the ancient world and accommodate it to our own time. By appropriation Hackett may mean either of two things—he is not clear: (1) an occasion to philosophize oneself in light of that ancient author, or (2) an accommodation of ancient authors to contemporary problems and contemporary...

Discerning and applying the “rule of faith” has never been an easy task, a reality, in large part, explained by the fact that in separating truth from error one is dealing not only with diverse understandings of the Christian mystery, but also with the men and women who hold these beliefs. Simply put, there is a very human element to this search for divine truth. For in separating orthodoxy from heresy one also separates “Fathers of the Church” from heresiarchs, whose fate (in this world and the next) is often determined by this designation. The Church Fathers become saints and...

It is an honor for me to contribute to the Festschrift for Father Joseph Lienhard. Although I am not an alumnus of Fordham University, I am personally grateful to him for the mentoring he has provided to me at my own request. I first became acquainted with him through the North American Patristics Society. Father Lienhard has given me incisive scholarly criticism and feedback both on my dissertation and on my translation projects and introductions. His advice has included memorable one-liners that have significantly affected my approach. I cherish this man as a Christian gentleman and a scholar who combines...