The anti-Pelagian Christology of Augustine of Hippo, 396-430 / by Dominic Keech.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Keech, Dominic, 1983-

Series:

Oxford theological monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430.

Augustine.

Jesus Christ--History of doctrines.

Jesus Christ.

Pelagianism.

Physical Description:

xviii, 258 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Summary:

Evading established accounts of the development of doctrine in the Patristic era, Augustine's Christology has yet to receive the critical scholarly attention it deserves. This study focuses on Augustine's understanding of the humanity of Christ, as it emerged in dialogue with his anti-Pelagian conception of human freedom and Original Sin.

By reinterpreting the Pelagian controversy as a Western continuation of the Origenist controversy before it, Dominic Keech argues that Augustine's reading of Origen lay at the heart of his Christological response to Pelagianism. Augustine is therefore situated within the network of fourth and fifth-century Western theologians concerned with defending Origen against accusations of Platonic error and dangerous heresy. Opening with a survey of scholarship on Augustine's Christology and anti-Pelagian theology, Keech proceeds by redrawing the narrative of Augustine's engagement with the issues and personalities involved in the Origenist and Pelagian controversies. He highlights the predominant motif of Augustine's anti-Pelagian Christology: the humanity of Christ, 'in the likeness of sinful flesh' (Rom. 8.3), and argues that this is elaborated through a series of receptions from the work of Ambrose and Origen. The theological problems raised by this Christology-in a Christ who is exempt from sin in a way which unbalances his human nature-are explored by examining Augustine's understanding of Apollinarianism, and his equivocal statements on the origin of the human soul. This forms the backdrop for the book's speculative conclusion, that the inconsistencies in Augustine's Christology can be explained by placing it in an Origenian framework, in which the soul of Christ remains sinless in the Incarnation because of its relationship to the eternals Word, after the fall of souls to embodiment. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Recovering an Augustinian Christology 5

The character of Augustine's Christology 6

Issues of periodization and thematics 9

Dominant trajections in scholarship 12

The context of this study: the Pelagian controversy 14

Narratives of development and change: Augustine and Brown's lost future 20

Synopsis 25

2 Augustine and Origen: Fathers of Pelagianism 30

Augustine: a heretic; reluctant 31

Pelagius and Pelagianisms 37

Augustine's Pelagianism 40

Jerome, Rufinus, and the Origenist controversy 43

Augustine's dispute with Jerome 47

Augustine's library 52

Conclusion and foreword 68

3 A Divine Humanity in Sin's Likeness 70

Early theological anthropology 71

Early exegesis of Romans 8:3 81

The theological anthropology of the anti-Pelagian treatises 86

Romans 8:3 from 411 to 420 91

Julian of Eclanum and Semi-Pelagianism 98

Romans 8:3 and the works against Julian 101

Conclusion 104

4 Augustine, Origen, and the Exegesis of Romans 8:3 106

Ambrosiaster and the Massa Peccati 107

Ambrosiaster on Romans 8:3 115

Ambrose of Milan 117

Origen, Ambrose, and Augustine 121

De Consensu Evangelistarum (400) and Homily 28 123

Epistle 140 (De Gratia Novi Testamenti) (412) and Homily 14 124

Sermons 361 and 192 and the Commentarioli in Psalmos 127

Augustine and Origen's commentary on Romans 130

György Heidi and Augustine's secret library 134

Conclusion 140

5 Apollinaris Redux? Augustine and the Psychology of Christ 142

Julian and the issue of seeds 143

Julian's Christological critique 147

Augustine against Apollinaris 150

Overview 158

Christ's sensus humanus 160

The inner life of Christ: a human will? 177

Further proof? Christ's human knowledge 184

Conclusion 187

6 The Election of the Dominical Human: Augustine and the Unfallen Soul of Christ 190

Robert J. O'Connell and scholarship on the soul's origin 192

The origin of the soul in the Origenist and Pelagian controversies 196

A case of mistaken identities? Augustine and Christ, Dominicus Homo 208

Christ, incarnate by unmerited grace 222

The issue of lots: De Gratia Novi Testamenti and De Genesi ad Litteram 10 230

Conclusion 235.

Notes:

Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Universit of Oxford, 2010.

Includes bibliographical references (page [242]0-253) and index.

ISBN:

9780199662234

0199662231

OCLC:

805011161