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"The ancient author of these poems (teaching songs) is St. Ephrem the Syrian (ca. 307-373), a native of the city of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, who became the Christian bishop of Edessa (Urfa in modern Turkey). The original language is classical Syriac. This volume presents English translations of four complete cycles of St. Ephrem's teaching songs: On the Holy Fast, On the Unleavened Bread, On the Crucifixion, and On the Resurrection. These liturgically oriented songs provide information about the celebration of Lent and Easter (Pascha) in the Syriac-speaking churches of northern Mesopotamia in the fourth century. Also they represent some of the oldest surviving poetry composed for these liturgical seasons, expressing ancient Christian theology in symbolic language that is rich in biblical allusions"--

The twenty-three discourses presented in this volume have a long textual history that ascribes them to St Gregory the Illuminator of Armenia (d. 328), a prevalent view that lasted through the nineteenth century. The discourses include many of the Eastern Fathers' favorite theological themes.

Hans Urs von Balthasar places Origen of Alexandria ""in rank... beside Augustine and Thomas"" in ""importance for the history of Christian thought,"" explaining that his ""brilliance"" has captivated theologians throughout history. This brilliance shines forth in his nine extant homilies on Isaiah.

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 2012 Dr Marina Marin Pradel discovered that a thick 12th-century Byzantine manuscript, Codex Monacensis Graecus 314, contained twenty-nine of Origen's Homilies on the Psalms. This translation seeks to convey, as faithfully as possible, Origen's categories of thought.

These sermons by Ambrose of Milan (340-397 AD) provide a window into the preaching and scriptural exegesis of the legendary bishop, whose exposition of the Old Testament was instrumental in the conversion of Augustine of Hippo and in the development of Latin theology.

Presents one of the most fascinating, fantastical, and enigmatic pieces of literature to survive from the patristic period. In both its Greek original and Rufinus's Latin translation it was one of the most popular and widely disseminated works of monastic hagiography during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

The translation of the commentary of Cyril of Alexandria (ca. 376-444) on the Pentateuch, known as the Glaphyra, or ""elegant comments"", is now completed by this second volume. Volume two presents his comments on Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, along with indices for the entire work.

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 is the first English translation of the last two theological works of Eusebius of Caesarea, Against Marcellus and On Ecclesiastical Theology. Long overlooked for statements at odds with later orthodoxy, even written off as heretical, recent scholarship has demonstrated the tremendous influence these texts had on the Greek theological tradition in the fourth century.

The Exposition of the Apocalypse by Tyconius of Carthage (fl. 380) was pivotal in the history of interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Tyconius interpreted John's visions as figurative of the struggles facing the Church throughout the entire period between the Incarnation and the Second Coming of Christ.

Although the eighty-two Letters in this volume do not themselves specifically state when they were written, the research of modern scholars leads to a fairly firm conclusion that they were composed over a span of approximately ten years, 386-405. On a basis of internal evidence, it seems that the first twenty letters date from a period prior to Augustine's priestly ordination. The addressees represent a fair cross section of society in the late fourth and early fifth centuries of our era. Bishops and priests, however, outnumber other contemporaries. Widely varied in subject matter, some of the letters deal with theological, polemical, exegetical and ecclesiastical topics, other offer moral and spiritual guidance, while still others discuss philosophical questions and touch on historical events. A surprising amount of information pertains to the life, customs, and abuses in the Church in northern Africa at this period. As one would suspect at this period in Augustine's life, the errors of the Pelagians and Donatists do not escape notice. In these Letters the modern reader can acquaint himself with some of the interests and thoughts of two towering figures that have influenced western civilization: St. Jerome and St. Augustine.

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 but 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.

This translation makes available nineteen orations by the fourth-century Cappadocian father Gregory of Nazianzus. Most are appearing here in English for the first time. These homilies span all the phases of Gregory's ecclesiastical career, beginning with his service as a parish priest assisting his father, the elder Gregory, in his hometown of Nazianzus in the early 360s, to his stormy tenure as bishop of Constantinople from 379 to 381, to his subsequent return to Nazianzus and role as interim caretaker of his home church (382-83). Composed in a variety of rhetorical formats such as the lalia and encomium, the sermons treat topics that range from the purely theological to the deeply personal.

St. Justin Martyr is known as the outstanding apologist of the second century. While the Apostolic Fathers like St. Clement of Rome, and St. Ignatius of Antioch had addressed members within the Christian fold, St. Justin is considered to be the first prominent defender of the Christian faith against non-Christians and the enemies of the Church.

This volume completes the first English translation of Rufinus's Latin version of Origen of Alexandria's Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans and contains Origen's detailed exegesis of Romans 6:12-16:27. Origen's much neglected Commentary, which stands out in splendid isolation at the fountainhead of Greek and Latin exegesis, is now completely accessible to English readers.

It cannot be said that poetry, in a literary sense, truly prospered in Christian surroundings. However, the greatest of the Latin Christian poets was Aurelius Prudentius, who was born in any one of the three cities: Tarragona, Saragossa, and Calahorra. Prudentius has a technical skill surpassing that of the other Christian Latin poets.

St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria for thirty-two years in the first half of the fifth century, was a great champion of the faith against heresy; he opposed Novatianism, Neoplatonism, and Judaism. His principal struggle, however, was with Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople. Cyril vehemently defended the application of the word Theotokos, which means 'Godbearer', to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Nestorius, representative of the Antiochene theological school, held that the Blessed Virgin was the mother only of the humanity of Christ. This great Christological controversy and the Council of Ephesus that was convened in 431 to resolve it provide the subject matter for the entire collection of letters in this volume. Letter 1 is Cyril's response to a group of monks under his jurisdiction who ask for guidance in the Nestorian debate. His remarks take us straight to the heart of the matter: "Therefore, I am amazed if some should question at all whether the Holy Virgin should be called the Mother of God." Through Letter 32 we are involved with the controversy and its development down to and including the Council of Ephesus. Letter 4, addressed to Nestorius, has been called the dogmatic letter, and the Council of Ephesus approved it as maintaining the teaching of Nicaea. Letter 17 is considered an epitome of Cyril's faith. Along with twelve anathemas it condemned Nestorius in the name of the synod convened by Pope Celestine in Rome and later was added to the Acts of the Council of Ephesus Letters 33 to 50 concern the question of John, Bishop of Antioch and a personal friend of Cyril through a longstanding correspondence. When John and his bishops arrived at Ephesus, they set up a rival council and issued a decree of deposition and excommunication against Cyril and Memnon, Bishop of Ephesus. After the Council of Ephesus it was Cyril's task to reconcile the Antiochene bishops who had formed the Conciliabulum with John to restore peace to the Churches in the East. Letter 39 reveals his joy in achieving this reconciliation and in regaining his friendship with John. Together with Letters 4 and 17, Letter 39 has been called ecumenical. Letter 41 is exegetically important for its long discussion of the work "scapegoat," and Letter 45, which contains Cyril's famous formula, for it's doctrinal and theological content.

Origen composed at least thirty-two books of a commentary on the Gospel according to John, at the request of St. Ambrose of Milan. Of these, only nine books are extant in almost complete form. This volume contains books 1, 2, 6, and 10, and fragments of books 4 and 5.

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.

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.

The present volume completes the presentation of the homiletic works of Caesarius begun in 1956. Following upon the "Admonitions" and the sermons on Scripture contained in the first two volumes, Volume III presents the seasonal sermons, those on feasts of saints, and six addressed to monks. There is added the translation of a sermon published in 1953 and known only by title to Dom G. Morin, upon whose edition (1937-1942) these volumes are based. An Appendix supplies additional notes relating to the sources of the sermons contained in Volumes I and II, as well as the Indices to all three volumes.As in the translation contained in Volumes I and II (FC 31, 47) moral counsel predominates. The sermons preached to the monks show a Caesarius who accommodates to those especially dedicated Christians an appeal for the avoidance of vices and the pursuit of virtue that more commonly he directs to layfolk. His fervid exhortation is not without its message to those men and women of today who will hear it.

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).

Augustine's Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees and On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book represent the first two of five explanations of the beginning of the Book of Genesis that he undertook between 388 and 418. In the first, a commentary on Genesis 1-3, Augustine counters the ignorant and impious attacks against Scripture by the Manichees, with whom he was a "hearer" for nine years. The second would have been a hexaemeron, a commentary on the six days of creation, but, as Augustine admits, his inexperience in scriptural exegesis collapsed under the weight of the burden, "and before I finished one book, I gave up the labor that I could not sustain."Although Augustine agrees that many things in Scripture may seem absurd to the unlearned, he holds that they can produce great pleasures once they have been explained. It was this tenet, realized in his spiritual rather than corporeal interpretation of Scripture, that led him to counter the impious attacks the Manichees used to attract those who sought a more intellectual understanding of God over and against an anthropomorphic view. Augustine's brilliant assimilation of Christian revelation and the intellectual faith of the Neoplatonic circle around Ambrose in Milan gave rise to his "spiritual" interpretation of Genesis 1-3 in the Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees. In On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book, Augustine succeeds in presenting an ad litteram interpretation for twenty-five verses before arriving at the difficult verse on man's having been made to God's image and likeness. At this point he breaks off because, in the words of John O'Meara, "it either tended to blasphemy or could not be reconciled with the Catholic faith." Perhaps because he later writes that he considers his literal attempt to interpret Genesis a failure, the texts herein translated have become today, in light of modern scriptural studies, fascinating and invaluable examples of Augustine's developing thought on significant philosophical and theological issues in the interpretation of Genesis.

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.

Biographical data on Lactantius are meager. In his catalogue of illustrious men St. Jerome informs us that Lactantius studied under Arnobius. Accepting an imperial invitation Lactantius taught rhetoric at Nicomedia but relinquished this professorship after the outbreak of the Diocletian persecution. In 317 Constantine summoned Lactantius to Trier to supervise the education of his son Crispus. The principal work of Lactantius is the Divine Institutes (Divinae institutions) which was written over a period of years (304-313). It is an apologetic work in seven books which bear the following titles: On False Religion, The Origin of Error, On False Philosophy, True Wisdom and Religion, Concerning Justice, On True Worship, and On the Blessed Life. From the viewpoint of literary criticism the diction of these books flows gently and pleasantly and is so reminiscent of the style of Cicero that Lactantius has frequently been styled the "Christian Cicero". This encomium can be traced back to the days of St. Jerome who wrote in a letter to Paulinus the Presbyter that Lactantius' works were like rivers of "Tullian eloquence" that demolished pagan beliefs.

This volume contains seven works of the zealously ascetical Christian writer of third-century Carthage, Tertullian. The first five works, composed during his Catholic period, offer detailed, strict instruction on Christian conduct, demeanor, and dress, as well as exhortations to persevere. Participation in the pagan entertainments of Roman society is ruled out. The final two essays in the volume are products of Tertullian's Montanist years, that is, his final phase. In them he rejects absolutely any possibility of Christians in public service, whether military or civil, as well as any attempt to escape from persecutors.

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.