I strongly agree with the thesis of this profound investigation. Against the claims of the majority of recent studies of Jerome, Hunt argues that Jerome was not merely a competent literary artist but also a skillful theologian:

Thomas Hunt succeeds in demonstrating that Jerome is a subtler theologian than many people realize. He sets up his engagement with Jerome's texts by articulating his method. Hunt finds Macherey's model of literary production (A Theory of Literary Production [Routledge, 2006]) fruitful for approaching late antique Christianity and Jerome in particular. The idea is that the critic's focus should not be on the intention of the author but on what the literary product reveals about the wider unrecognized conditions of its production. Hunt supports the shift of the focus of criticism away from the author and on to the reader (13). I believe the goal in some measure is to provide an alternative to Andrew Cain's approach to Jerome's writings, which focuses heavily on conjecturing about Jerome's intentions.

Hunt thinks that Jerome was a strong theologian precisely because he was consistent in presenting literary production as establishing human community and reflecting in some way the relationship between God and Creation (15). Ethics rather than metaphysics is viewed as the discursive ground for theology. The Christian self is founded as a site of ethical deliberation, beginning in the obligation to respond appropriately to that which is beyond language and the world. Thus, divine knowledge is found within the linguistic exchange between creatures. “It is in this concrete, material relationship that the divine is encountered, but the fallibility of human language also reveals humans’ vulnerability and creatureliness” (18). The introduction includes a succinct biography of Jerome.

Hunt devotes chapters 2 through 4 to a discussion of Jerome's commentaries on Titus, Philemon, and Eph. 1:10b. He finds that Jerome's thought resonates with late fourth-century debates about the nature of the material-temporal realm and its ontological status as the medium of revelation. Jerome argues that imitating the Incarnation structures the embodied behavior of Christians, orders the corporate life of the church, and determines the processes and effects of literary production. The Commentary on Ephesians envisages the act of literary production as one part of an ongoing mimetic chain, ordering the life of the Christian in imitation of Christ.

Chapter 5 discusses the use of Hebrew in Jerome's literary production. Chapter 6 explores the manner in which Jerome's Life of Hilarion works to confront its readers with the ethical responsibilities of reading and thinking about scriptural narrative. Jerome thinks that a full human life can only be realized by long-term ethical commitment in the face of life's ambiguity. Jerome is encouraging his readers to understand every moment as a moment of potential salvation.

I was impressed by chapter 7 and the discussion of Jerome's Commentary on Galatians, especially Gal. 2:11–14. Many treatments ignore the fact that Jerome bases his interpretation of the actions of the Apostles Peter and Paul on the idea that they are mimicking the order of the Incarnation itself, which is the assumption of a flesh that appears to be sinful but is, in fact, not. Hunt has a nice discussion of Origen's influence. When Augustine equates Jerome's term “pretense” with “lying,” he shows that he does not really understand what Jerome and Origen had meant.

In chapter 8, Hunt analyzes Jerome's critique of Jovinian. Jerome's Epistle 49 is a reflection on this controversy. Jerome shows his readers that his own use of 1 Cor. 7 closely parallels Paul's use of Old Testament passages. Hunt thinks that Jerome's defense of his exegesis attempts to turn allegations about lying and misrepresenting Christian teaching into a more general discussion about literary ethics and the way it shapes relationships between texts and readers. These are original and thought-provoking insights. Hunt dissents from Duval's vindication of Jerome's exegesis over Jovinian's. Over the years, I have become more and more receptive to this type of rehabilitative analysis that seeks to do greater justice to ancient “heretics.” For me, this applies to the “Orthodox” treatments of Origen, Eusebius, Rufinus, Jovinian, Pelagius, and Julian of Eclanum.

In chapter 9, Hunt discusses Jerome's Epistle 129 to Dardanus, a letter very seldom discussed, and also his work On Famous Men. In an interesting section, Hunt compares Jerome's words with Origen's fifth homily on Luke, where Zechariah's loss of words is a type, a mark on the history that reveals the ordering of events as the arena of God's action.

In the conclusion, Hunt restates his thesis that in antiquity learning was inherently an ethical education and mimetic. For Jerome, it is through reading the language of scripture that human beings come to know themselves as creatures. The Christian life is a response to this moment, an unfolding product of this literary encounter. A meeting with scripture is a meeting with the Word working in this world of time and matter. Jerome adheres to these ancient concepts and embeds literary production within a much wider economy of mimesis focused on the Incarnation.

To my mind, Hunt's book is a successful experiment in the application of modern literary approaches to an ancient theological writer. Theology and exegesis reap benefits from the resulting insights.