‘Knowledge of God is at once a divine gift and yet an intellectual and spiritual practice that requires training and effort’ (p. 213). This paradoxical theological epistemology, argues Alex Fogleman, is the foundational understanding of religious knowledge in Early Church catechesis: through catechism, the training of converts before and after baptism, Christians learned ‘what it means to know and encounter God’ (p. 2). This excellent study of early Christian initiation explores the relationship between knowledge and pedagogy to demonstrate broad continuity in Christian conceptions of theological epistemology in catechetical literature in the ancient Church.
Methodologically, Fogleman’s approach is unique in several ways. First, the works surveyed throughout the book are from ‘a wide variety of literary genres – sermons, letters, testimonia, treatises’ used to teach ‘those who were soon approaching baptism or had recently been baptized’ (p. 14). Second, the scope of the study spans the scholarly gap between multi-regional surveys and works on a single figure: it is a regional study that provides ‘both depth and breadth’ (p. 14). Thus, Fogleman focuses on works written in North Africa and Italy from the late second century to the middle of the fifth century. Special attention is given to the changes in ecclesiological structures in these places and times, particularly the transition from the ‘school model age’ to the ‘centralised monoepiscopate’, and the shifts between pre- and post-Constantinian catechesis. While this approach gleans stimulating results, the method employed has slight limitations, especially in the availability of historical data in this region – there is a dearth of catechetical literature between Cyprian of Carthage and Ambrose of Milan, which means one of the most epochal shifts in Christian history is largely left unevaluated through a lack of extant sources, a not uncommon problem for historical studies. Third, his focus on epistemology is focused on ‘social and experiential structures of knowledge’ (p. 8) rather than modern questions about warranted belief. This approach argues that an ‘understanding of what it means to know God is inseparable from how one actually comes to know God’ (p. 10) for early Christian teachers.
The first chapter, ‘Classical and Christian precedents for catechesis’, broadly discusses teaching and knowledge in Graeco-Roman education – how philosophy was meant to be a ‘comprehensive “way of life” aimed at eudaimonia and spiritual transformation’ (p. 19). Many Christian leaders received this type of education and often employed classical paideia for their own ends. Memory plays a special role, here, as the ‘foundation of creative thought and action’ (p. 24). Next, early Christian pedagogical training is discussed, especially in the New Testament, early Christian texts such as the Didache and Shepherd of Hermas, and various ‘school-like’ communities, namely the Valentinians, Marcionites and Justin Martyr. These communities are interested ‘in expressing how the knowledge of God is transmitted through rituals that employ physical, material signs’, which become ‘key features of early Christian catechesis’ (p. 45). The next three chapters examine Irenaeus, Tertullian and the texts associated with the Hippolytan school, when catechesis was nascent. In each of these, the polemical context is used to explain part of the emphasis of each author, though one should not imagine these ancient figures’ catechetical teaching to be reactionary. In contrast to Valentinian exegesis, for example, Irenaeus draws attention to ‘the harmonious nature of creation, which revealed and enabled the praise of creation’s divine artist’ (p. 61), which entails ‘learning to envision creation’s receptivity to divine grace’ (p. 68). Tertullian distinctly emphasises the ‘simplicity of material rituals and practices as commensurate with the kind of divine power that engenders spiritual knowledge’ (p. 69), which is granted through a sort of familial knowledge – Christians ‘know God as a father rather than only as a creator’ (p. 75). The Hippolytan school demonstrates a commitment to the notion of hidden knowledge, while simultaneously showing they have nothing to hide: ‘These works present knowledge of God as immediate and accessible through the Spirit’s manifestation of the Word; yet they also present access to divine knowledge as something restricted based on disciplined moral and spiritual formation’ (p. 113).
In the following chapter, ‘Cyprian of Carthage and ecclesial knowing’, Fogleman marks one of the aforementioned shifts in ecclesial structures. While Tertullian was an educated lay person discussing baptism, ‘it became imperative that baptism be linked with the office of the bishop’ (p. 117) by the time of the later Carthaginian. The solidification of the monoepiscopate shaped theology and discourse concerning baptism and knowledge of God. In opposition to the Novatianists, Cyprian emphasises the baptismal waters and catechetical process as related to church unity: ‘his writing reveals the tight connection emerging between baptism in the true church and saving knowledge in the confession of the triune God … Knowledge of God appears through the Spirit’s quickening in baptism – a baptism that is only found in the church united by bishops and the confession of faith’ (p. 133). As the Novatianists are schismatics according to Cyprian, they ultimately reject the Holy Spirit and thus the triune God.
In the next four chapters, which investigate post-Constantinian catechesis, Fogleman highlights ‘lines of continuity more than discontinuity’ (p. 135) to make one of his main arguments: that the transition to a Roman state church structure did not fundamentally alter how catechesis was taught and received, as least in connection to theological epistemology. Ambrose of Milan, explored in the sixth chapter, teaches an epistemology which centres the ability to see with the heart rather than the eyes: before baptism, catechumens ‘only viewed the rites through the “eyes of the body, with human perception”, a mode of vision that can only perceive the visible elements of the ritual’ (p. 150). But, after entering the baptismal pool, their senses take on a ‘spiritual or noetic faculty’, which is ‘able to perceive the invisible and eternal power of the sacraments’ (p. 150). This includes a distinctly pro-Nicene vision of the triune God. Four figures are succinctly discussed in the following chapter, ‘“Cosmological and apophatic knowing”: Zeno of Verona, Gaudentius of Brescia, Rufinus of Aquileia and Peter Chrysologus’. Zeno and Gaudentius especially ‘show catechumens how Christianity reveals the true meaning of time and the natural order’ (p. 155), appropriating pagan nature symbols for the purposes of showing a ‘particularly Christian understanding of the natural world … The Christian rituals not only displaced pagan practices, but also unlocked true knowledge of God and the world’ (p. 163). Rufinus and Chrysologus ‘exemplify the way in which apophatic motifs could be deployed in catechetical contexts to structure Christian knowledge’ (p. 155). Peter, in particular, ‘emphasizes the sharp distinctions between heavenly and earthly knowledge, contrasting worldly reason and Christian faith … however, Peter re-connects earthly and heavenly knowledge by emphasizing the Christian’s deified participation in Christ through baptism’ (p. 169). Like their earlier counterparts, these writers discussed how to view creation properly in light of baptismal knowledge, but did so in connection to the changing religious and theological landscape.
Chapter viii investigates Augustine’s theology, with a particular focus on his understanding of the love of God in his catechetical works. Memory plays a central role for Augustine here, in accordance with his Platonist epistemology of illumination, insofar as ‘memorizing the creed is not simply a practical strategy for learning the faith. It is the means by which catechumens are enabled to love God’ (p. 191). Finally, Fogleman discusses the catechetical sermons of Quodvultdeus of Carthage and an anonymous author from the mid-fifth century. While these figures are heavily indebted to Augustine, they deployed his epistemology ‘within an apocalyptic environment characterized by a more immediate sense of the end of the world’ (p. 205), thus highlighting the cosmic conflict between the pagan world and Christianity. Fogleman concludes with a summary of his findings, a proposal for paths forward in research, and several constructive thoughts.
This study is rich, detailed and insightful in its elucidation of the history of early initiation, especially in its careful attention to historical and theological factors impacting and motivating the writings of the Early Church. Fogleman convincingly demonstrates the continuity in Christian teaching concerning knowledge of God through baptism without flattening out the unique contributions of the figures under discussion. The centre of this teaching is the incarnation of Christ: ‘In God’s assumption of human flesh, we can know the transcendent God within the world of space and time without collapsing the creator-creature distinction. More than simply a doctrine to be believed, the incarnation constitutes a mode of attending to the world, to oneself, and to God’ (p. 214). While varied in emphasis, these Early Church writers all maintained this basic epistemology in catechesis.
Knowledge, faith, and early Christian initiation will be of interest for historians of religion, historical theologians and systematic theologians interested in the intersection of Christian knowledge with church practice. It touches on a variety of important questions, provoking historical and theological reflection, with relevance for both the academy and the Church.
