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Ausgabe: | Oktober/2022 |
Spalte: | 952-953 |
Kategorie: | Kirchengeschichte: Alte Kirche, Christliche Archäologie |
Autor/Hrsg.: | Gounelle, Rémi [Ed.] |
Titel/Untertitel: | La Bible dans les catéchèses des IVe–Ve siècles. |
Verlag: | Turnhout: Brepols Publishers 2020. 221 S. m. 4 Abb. = Cahiers de Biblia Patristica, 21. Kart. EUR 40,00. ISBN 9782503588957. |
Rezensent: | Mark W. Elliott |
Cahiers de Biblia Patristica is a series that has been going since 1987, built around the proceedings of conferences at Strasbourg (Protestant yet decidedly ecumenical) and which seems to have found a new lease of life, not least through the support of the publisher Brepols. This volume sees five experts engaged to offer full treatments on the bible in the catechetical writings of Cyril of Jeru-salem (Sébastien Grignon), Ambrose (Aline Canellis), John Chrysostom (Gullaume Bady), Gregory of Nyssa (Matthieu Cassin), and Augustine (Matthieu Pignot): one would be pushed to think of a better team for the task. The preface expresses regret that a final piece on Theodore of Mopsuestia turned out not to be realisable.
Whereas Origen wanted to explain scripture, Cyril of Jerusalem allowed scripture to speak, thus celebrating revelation in its scriptural voice. There is not so much dogmatic accomplishment in the Prebaptismal Catecheses as there is rhetorical skill and subtlety (epideictic), that serves to convert in a thorough way. There is less polemic for its own sake (except to correct basic mistakes like literalism) than it is a positive reinforcement of Christian identity in a summons to love God. Exegesis appears in order to expand the range of the bible’s impress. Proof texts function as witnesses to the mysteries of the faith and to inculcate praise, as Grignon illustrates with the particular example of Catechesis 13 on the Cross.
One finds certain texts otherwise unknown in Ambrose’s works in his catechetical Easter sermons, such as Jn 6:41 where the eucharist is the location of the power of Christ’s passion, but also passages from Exodus 12–15 and Ps 79. Canellis notes that there is a marked use of the Hexapla and much reliance on Origen also for the mystical interpretation of the Song of Songs, although again Cant 5:1 is given a eucharistic slant, in the De mysteriis and De sac-ramentis collections alike. Through Origen the chief NT texts are Pauline (or perhaps just as much »Hebrews«) for interpreting the OT. Following Didymus Psalm 51’s »washing« is figurative, but of the sacrament of baptism in particular.
Guillaume Bady offers a finely researched piece whose carefulness does not exclude some clear lines. These sermons interrupted to flow of Chrysostom’s continuous preaching through biblical books, were delivered during Holy Week. The symbol of blood and water which poured from Jesus’s side (Jn 19:34) is best understood as a symbol of the eucharistic mystery: as with Ambrose this emphasis is understandable from the sacramental and liturgical context of the work. But whereas in Cyril and Ambrose the accent is on moral interpretation and only subsequently mystical, with John it is the other way round: mystagogy comes first. As with Ambrose, it is the Apostle Paul whose presence dominates, not least his Eph 5:31–32. The Revelation of John, while not canonical at Antioch is at least alluded to, and Chrysostom also liked to paraphrase and splice scripture. All in all, the bible, which is presented as something whose content is already well known, works to deepen the message but does not provide the core, for which credal doctrine suffices. Biblical passages support although sometimes help to link to the next point. Those preparing for baptism are given a »first bath« in Scripture.
Likewise for Gregory of Nyssa’s famous Catechetical Oration, as Matthieu Cassin expertly shows us, biblical; texts are used to reinforce doctrinal points and thus there is little exegesis as such. Relatively speaking, Nyssa’s work is light on biblical reference, as a BiblIndex search quickly shows. The work is an introduction to the Christian faith along the lines of am explanation of God and his relation to the world, followed by a treatment of human nature and its place in the divine economy. It is more philosophical than »biblical Christian« in content and tone, which leads Cassin to conclude that the audience is one of catechizers who will be directing their sermons to those who are not yet converts, the »pre-catechized« as it were. The bible does make more of an appearance in the closing section, where the subject matter is the sacraments and the Chris-tian life in the church, which are less matters for speculation and dialectic, and more for »on the ground« experience.
Lastly the essay on Augustine’s De catechizandis rudibus (403–404), a response to a request by clergy (principally Deogratrias a deacon at Carthage) who charged not so much with pre-baptismal instruction but encouraging affiliates to seek baptism (com-petentes). The bible does seem to be centre-stage, for the great bishop was trying to get his colleagues set young believers up with the bible as a friend for life In doing this it is less about detailed biblical passages, more about re-telling the bible’s great narrative outlines: actual citations are far less than one would expect, as Pignot details with help from G. Madec’s edition for the Bibliothèque Augustinienne. Part of Augustine’s aim was to encourage catechetical sermons to use biblical stories, but with allegory to make the point, where necessary, and to show the poverty of a Manichean literalist interpretation of the OT. The work is principally ecclesiological in its teaching, for discerning the high value of belonging to the church, which is like the primary doctrine for these neophytes. In distinction to his colleagues at Milan and Antioch, it’s less about baptism as about fearing and loving God before and after baptism.
A rich collection of five superb essays and at quite an affordable price.