The purpose of this article is to examine John Chrysostom’s view of Paul as founder of churches. The article is written in dialogue with the research done by James Hanges on Paul as a founder-figure. The study argues that by the fourth century, especially in the works of Chrysostom, we a have a vision of Paul as founder of the church that has become interwoven with the very substance of the (orthodox) church’s subjectivity – a very different dynamic that was present in the first two centuries at least. Being a Christian, being part of the church, for Chrysostom, also means embodying something of the subjectivity of Paul. Paul was more than a hermeneutical bridge between the Old and the New Testament. Paul and Paulinomorphism became the very language of ecclesiastical power, a rhetoric with an impetus on correction, discipline and social protection. The fourth-century Chrysostomic reconstruction of Paul, the founder of churches and the church, operated as a central discursive formation in the reproduction of Christian identity. The appellations of Paul as builder, physician and father formed part of an interconnected web of power-language with the capacity to ramify group boundaries and also to pathologize heretical groups. The power-language of Paul also sustained orthodox Christian identity in its curative and corrective measures.
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Amirav Hagit “Chrysostom, John.” Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 2012 5
Bonner Stanley F. Education in Ancient Rome: From the Elder Cato to the Younger Pliny 1977 Berkeley University of California Press
Bradley Keith R. Discovering the Roman Family: Studies in Roman Social History 1991 Oxford Oxford University Press
De Wet Chris L. “Paul and Christian Identity-Formation in John Chrysostom’s Homilies De laudibus sancti Pauli apostoli.” Journal of Early Christian History 2013 3 2 34 47
Foucault Michel Marchetti Valerio & Salomoni Antonella Burchell Graham Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974–1975 2003 London Verso
Gleason Maud W. Making Men: Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome 1995 Princeton Princeton University Press
Hanges James C. Paul, Founder of Churches: A Study in Light of the Evidence for the Role of “Founder-Figures” in the Hellenistic-Roman Period 2012 Tübingen, Germany Mohr Siebeck
Mitchell Margaret M. The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation 2002 Westminster John Knox Press
Nathan Geoffrey S. The Family in Late Antiquity: The Rise of Christianity and the Endurance of Tradition 2000 London Routledge
Pervo Richard I. The Making of Paul: Constructions of the Apostle in Early Christianity 2010 Minneapolis Fortress Press
Roth Ulrike Thinking Tools: Agricultural Slavery Between Evidence and Models 2007 Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement London Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Salzman Michele R. The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman Empire 2004 Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press
Sandwell Isabella Religious Identity in Late Antiquity: Greeks, Jews and Christians in Antioch 2007 Cambridge University Press
James C. Hanges, Paul, Founder of Churches: A Study in Light of the Evidence for the Role of “Founder-Figures” in the Hellenistic-Roman Period (Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2012).
Mitchell, Heavenly Trumpet, 381–439; Mitchell has pointed out how Chrysostom has been sketched as a ‘Paul’ in several iconographical traditions. We also have the famous legend of Chrysostom, first documented by George of Alexandria, which tells the story of Chrysostom’s aide Proklos who saw Chrysostom writing at his desk with a spectre of Paul providing Chrysostom with interpretative assistance; Mitchell, The Heavenly Trumpet, 488–508, esp. 489.
Translation: Mitchell, Heavenly Trumpet, 470; Greek text: SC 300:242–244: ᾿Επεὶ καὶ τὸν ἰατρόν, ὅταν ἴδῃς νῦν µὲν καίοντα, νῦν δὲ τρέφοντα, καὶ νῦν µὲν σιδήρῳ χρώµενον, νῦν δὲ φαρµάκῳ, καὶ ποτὲ µὲν ἀπάγοντα σιτίων καὶ ποτῶν, ποτὲ δὲ ἐπιτρέποντα τούτων ἅδην ἐµφορεῖσθαι τὸν κάµνοντα, καὶ ποτὲ µὲν περιβάλλοντα πάντοθεν, ποτὲ δὲ αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον τὸν διαθερµανθέντα κελεύοντα φιάλην ὁλόκληρον ἐκπιεῖν ὑδάτων ψυχρῶν, οὐ καταγνώσῃ τῆς µεταβολῆς, οὐδὲ τῆς συνεχοῦς µεταστάσεως• ἀλλὰ τότε µάλιστα ἐπαινέσεις τὴν τέχνην, τὰ δοκοῦντα ἡµῖν ἐναντία εἶναι καὶ βλαβερὰ µετὰ τοῦ θαρρεῖν προσάγουσαν ὁρῶν, καὶ τὸ ἀσφαλὲς ἐγγυωµένην. Τοῦτο γὰρ ἀνὴρ τεχνικός. Εἰ δὲ ἰατρὸν ἀποδεχόµεθα τὰ ἐναντία ταῦτα ποιοῦντα, πολλῷ µᾶλλον τὴν Παύλου ψυχήν, οὕτω τοῖς κάµνουσι προσφεροµένην, ἀνακηρύττειν δεῖ. Καὶ γὰρ τῶν τὰ σώµατα ἀρρωστούντων οὐκ ἔλαττον οἱ τὰς ψυχὰς νοσοῦντες δέονται µηχανῆς καὶ µεταχειρίσεως• κἂν ἐξ εὐθείας αὐτοῖς προσίῃς, πάντα οἰχήσεται τὰ τῆς σωτηρίας αὐτῶν.
See Michel Foucault, Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974–1975 (ed. Valerio Marchetti and Antonella Salomoni; trans. Graham Burchell; London: Verso, 2003), 140–143.
Translation: Mitchell, Heavenly Trumpet, 453; Greek text: SC 300:164: Καὶ ὡς ἄν τις διατεθείη πατὴρ περὶ παῖδα φρενίτιδι κατεχόµενον – ὅσῳ γὰρ ἂν ὑβρίζηται καὶ λακτίζῃ χαλεπῶς ὁ κάµνων, τοσούτῳ µᾶλλον αὐτὸν ἐλεεῖ καὶ δακρύει –, οὕτω κἀκεῖνος τῇ τῶν δαιµόνων ὑπερβολῇ τῶν ταῦτα ἐπαγόντων αὐτῷ τὴν νόσον στοχαζόµενος, πρὸς πλείονα κηδεµονίαν διανίστατο.
Stanley F. Bonner, Education in Ancient Rome: From the Elder Cato to the Younger Pliny (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 37–38.
Michele R. Salzman, The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman Empire (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004), 175.
Geoffrey S Nathan, The Family in Late Antiquity: The Rise of Christianity and the Endurance of Tradition (London: Routledge, 2000), 143–144.
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The purpose of this article is to examine John Chrysostom’s view of Paul as founder of churches. The article is written in dialogue with the research done by James Hanges on Paul as a founder-figure. The study argues that by the fourth century, especially in the works of Chrysostom, we a have a vision of Paul as founder of the church that has become interwoven with the very substance of the (orthodox) church’s subjectivity – a very different dynamic that was present in the first two centuries at least. Being a Christian, being part of the church, for Chrysostom, also means embodying something of the subjectivity of Paul. Paul was more than a hermeneutical bridge between the Old and the New Testament. Paul and Paulinomorphism became the very language of ecclesiastical power, a rhetoric with an impetus on correction, discipline and social protection. The fourth-century Chrysostomic reconstruction of Paul, the founder of churches and the church, operated as a central discursive formation in the reproduction of Christian identity. The appellations of Paul as builder, physician and father formed part of an interconnected web of power-language with the capacity to ramify group boundaries and also to pathologize heretical groups. The power-language of Paul also sustained orthodox Christian identity in its curative and corrective measures.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 272 | 51 | 4 |
Full Text Views | 176 | 3 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 39 | 9 | 2 |