In the three books of his Contra Rufinum, a work dating back to his mature period (401-402), Jerome (ca 347-420) fought against his erstwhile friend turned rival, Rufinus: the two Latin monks, one settled in Bethlehem, the other in Jerusalem, had come to confront each other on such issues as the timeliness and ways (translation, commentary...) of transmitting an Oriental heritage to the West, Greek (in particular the works of Origen ca. 185-ca. 253], whose Peri Archon they both translated in competition) as well as Jewish (the biblical hebraica veritas which Jerome...

This volume contains the first complete publication of the collection of Coptic literary manuscripts now in the A.S. Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, Moscow. The collection formed in 1870-1908 by Vladimir Golenischev is of great value since it covers almost the entire field of early Christian literature in Egypt and substantially aids to fill up serious lacunae in many well-known literary works, to say nothing of the texts hitherto unknown. Important is also the fact that Coptica Golenischeviana largely derives from the library of St. Shenoute's monastery at Sohag, this virtual National...

This book treats a decisive phase in the theological history of the fourth century AD. When in 360 the 'Arians' Aetius and Eunomius maintained the difference in essences between the Father and the Son and the created nature of the Holy Spirit, the theologians of Nicaean orthodoxy were challenged to develop a theory of the Homousia of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost which paved the way to the Trinitarian doctrinal decisions of the Council of Constantinople in 381.
The two books Adversus Eunomium IV-V probably form the first literary reaction to the 'Neo-Arians' and set the tone for the...

The Ugaritic Baal Cycle offers a translation and the first commentary on the Ugaritic Baal Cycle. The longest and most important religious text from ancient Ugarit, the Baal Cycle witnesses to both the religious worldview of Ugarit and the larger background to many of the formative religious concepts and images in the Bible. The volume treats introductory matters such as date, order and continuity of the tablets, the history of interpretation, and finally a new proposal for the interpretation of text drawing on the insights of previous views as well as newer evidence. The commentary...

This study deals with Clement of Alexandria's interpretation of evil and free will in the context of the rising Christianity, the influence of Near Eastern and Greek thought on him, his differences from St. Augustine, and how his interpretation affected the rise of the Eastern Christian thought.
The book also treats briefly the subject of man's personal aim in life perceived by Clement as the supersession of his nature. Failure to realize this personal aim in life leads to alienation from God, and death.
The moral dilemma of Clement's interpretation of evil as failure of life's aim is...

Using a contra-cultural model of social interaction, this book examines the interaction between Pagan and early Christian constructions of social order focussing on the Imperial Cult as it developed, together with shared metaphysical assumptions, "pari passu" with Church Order.

These proceedings present the first English translation of Gregory's Homilies on the Beatitudes by Stuart Hall, accompanied by a thorough commentary by Anthony Meredith, Andreas Spira, Francoise Vinel, Lucas Mateo-Seco, Thomas Bohm, Karl-Heinz Uthemann, Claudio Moreschini, and Robert Wilken. Eight more contributions by Monique Alexandre, Peter Bruns, Judith Kovacs, Salvatore Lilla, Friedhelm Mann, Alden Mosshammer, Elias Moutsoulas, and Lucian Turcescu focus on further general and particular topics of the homilies as their eschatology, the meaning of the word makarios in all of...

The Paedagogus of Clement of Alexandria is almost completely preserved almost completely in a single manuscript, the famous Codex Arethae, copied in the second decade of the tenth century for Arethas, the Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. The text was copied from an exemplar in poor shape, to the extent that the codex (P) is full of textual corruptions. Most of the first book of the Paedagogus is lost in P. For this part the author had to rely on two old apographs of P. The only extant critical edition of the text was provided by Otto Stahlin in 1905. Although in later...