This handbook is an important contribution to scholarship on early Christian thought. But that is only half its contribution. It is in equal measure a formidable argument for situating what is usually called ‘early Christian theology’ within the larger domain of ‘ancient philosophy’, most broadly conceived. The two – the ‘early Christian theological’ and the ‘ancient philosophical’ – must never be partitioned. Though they are indeed profoundly opposed, this opposition takes place on the same contested field, and that field is simply ‘ancient philosophy’. Or so, more or less, is the thesis of the handbook.
The relation of Christian ‘theology’ to ancient ‘philosophy’ has not been helped by the use of two nouns – ‘theology’ and ‘philosophy’ – to talk about what is in fact a common intellectual endeavour. Although ‘theology’ has become the name for the domain wherein thinking about ‘god’ (and related matters) takes place, ‘theology’ was not the word ancient thinkers – Christians included – used to describe what they were doing when wondering about matters divine (for more on this, see G. Maspero's chapter on the Trinity). In the ancient world, theorising about ‘god’, and about all aspects of the divine society, was a philosophical activity. And in so far as thinking about the divine also entailed questions of cosmology (or, for the Stoic: logic, physics and ethics), such intellectual work was also, we might say, a matter of science. Insinuating that ‘theology’ belongs to some other intellectual realm is an error. It obscures the fact that Christian claims about god and the world were serious philosophical interventions within ancient philosophical conversations. Such Christian claims were simply a res in philosophia (‘a matter of philosophy’), as Cicero would characterise the matter (On the Nature of the Gods 1.1).
Following the important introduction by Edwards, which presents the thesis and rationale of the volume, the rest is divided into four sections: (1) ‘Themes’; (2) ‘Doctrines’; (3) ‘Schools’; (4) ‘Individuals’. Edwards’ agenda is to exhibit how ‘philosophy was an intrinsic element in early Christian thought’ (p. 1). ‘Intrinsic’ is the key word. Christian thought, and therefore Christian practice, was fundamentally philosophical and thus belonged to that ancient world of rival ideas and ways of living. This is the argument threaded through the subsequent chapters. What repeatedly emerges are the numerous dynamic and confrontational ways in which Christian thinkers engaged or critiqued ancient philosophical conversations and, of course, also creatively and critically usurped them. As Edwards states, ‘there could be no clearer manifestation of the Greek spirit in Christian thought than to set up a new philosophy which professed to explode the errors of the others while securing the ends for which they were established’ (p. 5). À la P. Hadot, most chapters also highlight how Christian philosophy was – as ancient philosophy was – much more than an alternative system of thought within a marketplace of ideas. It was in fact one of the most striking instantiations of philosophy as a ‘way of life’. Alongside the likes of Platonists, Stoics and Cynics, Christian philosophy entailed new, and therefore rival, ways of being in the world.
The handbook, with its 47 chapters, is hefty (656 pages of rather small print), and so I cannot comment on every entry. I will simply note moments that best illustrate the aims of the volume. I found the first section on ‘Themes’ (Chapters 2–9) the most successful of the four in illustrating the complex and creative possibilities of Christian interaction with alternative philosophical traditions. P. Van Nuffelen presents ‘Christian thinkers as adopting and adapting views current in imperial philosophy’ (p. 16). J. Zachhuber's chapter on physis takes a different route, contending that Christian reasoning about nature was largely ‘an autonomous philosophy’ (p. 27). While certainly related to prior and current philosophical questioning, Christian philosophising about physis was still ‘remarkably independent’ (p. 27). I.L.E Ramelli's chapter on time and eternity was one of the most interesting in the volume. If the argument is correct, a failure to understand Greek philosophies of eternity had disastrous consequences, particularly in the Latin tradition, for Christian thinking about the afterlife. D.M. Burns's chapter on providence and evil returns to the ways in which ancient Christian thought was able ‘to appropriate and innovate the thought of the Platonists in novel ways’ (p. 77). And yet, ‘early Christian philosophers were also deeply interested in developing their own ideas concerning the providence of the God of Israel in tandem with the biblical texts they read and contested’ (p. 69). It is worth emphasising, as many chapters do, that the independence in much Christian thinking was primarily a consequence of the usual mode of their philosophical labour, which was commentary on scripture.
The section on ‘Doctrines’ is the shortest (Chapters 10–13). The particularities (or peculiarities!) in Christian thinking are sharpened in this section. As G. Maspero maintains in an entry on the Trinity, Christian trinitarian thought was certainly a species of that most ancient and vexing metaphysical question of ‘the one and the many’. But it developed within the particularity presented by the person of Jesus of Nazareth and his relationship with his father, the ‘one God’ of Israel. The metaphysical question for Christians thus becomes: what does the inclusion of Jesus within the category theos (e.g. John 1:1–3; 20:28) mean for the ‘one God’ revealed in Jewish scriptures (Deuteronomy 6:4), a oneness reaffirmed in core Christian writings (1 Corinthians 8:6)? In other words, how is a Christian to define ‘oneness’ philosophically given the ostensible plurality required by the Father–Son relation? As strange as such a question may have seemed to non-Christian philosophers, trinitarian thinking can ‘be understood in all its ontological significance only against the background of the metaphysical parabola which led from the classical age to the philosophy of the later period’ (p. 131). The other chapter of special note in this section is S. Douglass's on biblical hermeneutics. Ancient Christian philosophy was fundamentally exegetical and so always bound up with culturally available reading practices.
The third section on ‘Schools’ (Chapters 14–25) is more descriptive. This is not a complaint, but a note that this section (and the final one) are perhaps less intellectually creative, but not necessarily less useful, particularly for students. J.S. O'Leary's chapter, ‘Socrates and Plato in the Fathers’, is obviously essential for the book, given the massive influence of Platonic traditions within the development of Christian doctrine. The chapter traces the wide range of ways in which Platonic traditions were castigated by some ‘fathers’, but then also ‘sublated’ (as O'Leary puts it) by others, which is to say acculturated and repurposed within various systems of Christian thinking. The luminary of the latter is Origen, who happily absorbs Platonic ideas while also proffering Christian solutions to Platonic problems (pp. 196–9). Edwards's chapters ‘Aristotle and his School’ and ‘Christian and Stoics’ are likewise crucial for a number of Christian ideas. Aristotle in particular informs several central dogmas, such as the Trinity, christology and conceptions of time. This sketch recapitulates themes from prior chapters. M. Reasoner's chapter, ‘Cynics and Christians’, is noteworthy and exemplifies an important emphasis that resurfaces in several chapters. Previous comparative scholarship misconceived similarities between Cynics and Christians as naïve dependence. A related error was the assumption that similar behaviour required similarity in thought. Reasoner is wise to insist that even when one allows for interesting surface similarities, it remains the case that ‘the Cynics’ foundation and goals for their behaviors were significantly different from the Christians’ foundations and goals for similar-appearing behavior’ (p. 247). C. O'Brien's chapter, ‘Middle Platonists and Pythagoreans’, is also right to stress that any ensemble of similarities one might find shared by Middle Platonists, Pythagoreans and Christians ‘should not blind us to the very real differences which existed between them’ (p. 288). K. Corrigan also appreciates how a common practice among rival traditions, such as contemplation, ‘paradoxically most distinguishes Christian philosophy and yet simultaneously relates it profoundly to the pagan practice of philosophy itself’ (p. 294). S. Klitenic Wear is a bit more contrastive: ‘Hellenic and Christian Neoplatonism are not two sides of the same coin’; rather, there are ‘profound ontological differences, making Christianity unique’ (p. 321). If one is bothered by ‘unique’, insert ‘weird’.
The last section, ‘Individuals’ (Chapters 26–47), is the longest of the book. The chapters contain much introductory material about the various individuals. Because of this, it feels more like a conventional handbook. This is not to suggest it is lacking in quality. Many of the chapters will be useful for students and scholars in search of entry-level information. Rather than try to cover even a few selections from this section, I will simply note that key themes of the handbook are maintained. The individual explorations of these various Christian thinkers further underscore the variety of ways in which ancient Christian philosophers interacted with alternative philosophical traditions. They established their systems of thought as serious philosophical alternatives in the ancient contest of ideas. These chapters also show, with the vividness of the personalities presented, how this contest was never just about ideas. What was at stake for early Christian philosophers and their non-Christian rivals was the authenticity of a way of life in the world – and perhaps also beyond it.
Two final notes: first, Edwards is to be commended for bringing together such a substantial collection (in both size and importance) and for producing an edited handbook that sustains a particular (and much needed) thesis about Christianity and ancient philosophy across the whole of the volume. Edwards's own contribution is also worth noting, since he is himself responsible for 10 of the 47 chapters and so approximately 20% of the final product. Second, readers will notice some unevenness in formatting and approach. One chapter has 272 footnotes. Other chapters have none. Some chapters have only short bibliographies. Some long. Some subdivide bibliographies in varying ways. Some do not. Some offer simply suggestions for further reading. I raise this matter of presentation in order to praise it. There is sometimes editorial wisdom in allowing authors to present their material as they feel most appropriate.
