The book under review presents the results of the 2015 conference of the Patristische Arbeitsgemeinschaft. As patristics is the study of church history in antiquity, it is more than welcome that the Patristische Arbeitsgemeinschaft decided to address the two constituent parts of its field of study ‘church history’ in two successive conferences. After the 2013 conference had discussed the first part, ‘history’ (M. Wallraff [ed.], Geschichte als Argument, Leuven 2015), now, the second part, ‘Church’, comes under scrutiny.
The volume consists of eleven essays, which discuss various aspects of ‘Church’ in late antiquity. It opens with a programmatic essay by Peter Gemeinhardt, ‘Was ist Kirche in der Spätantike? Einheit und Vielfalt – Anspruch und Wirklichkeit’ (pp. 1–34). The author tackles two important questions: what is the Church (in late antiquity), and why is it important to ask this question in the first place? For Gemeinhardt, reopening the quest for the Church in antiquity as a topic in its own right is vital for patristics as a field of studies in between theology and classics. However, this is possible only, when ‘Church’ is no longer used as an umbrella term to delineate the field of studies itself. Otherwise, its meaning is taken for granted rather than discussed. Therefore, he suggests replacing the phrase ‘church history’ by ‘history of Christianity’. This way the term and its meaning are free to become objects of research again. To examine its meaning he proposes to hold together two different elements: theory (what is the Church: the introspection of ancient church writers) and practice (what does the Church do: teaching, ethics, etc.) as well as unity (the Church) and diversity (the Churches). Using the work of J. Hermelink as heuristic guidance, Gemeinhardt addresses different characteristics of ‘Church’: organisation (‘Organisation’ [pp. 17, 21–4]; offices, confessions, etc); default settings (‘Institution [institutum = custom, teachings; pp. 17–18, 24–8]; apostolic teaching etc.); interaction (‘Interaktion’ [pp. 18, 28–30], fellowship, koinonia, etc.); and orchestration (‘Inszenierung’ [pp. 18–19, 30–1]; worship, prayer etc.).
Stefan Rebenich, ‘Kirche in der Spätantike: Koexistenz, Konkurrenz und Konflikt’ (pp. 35–56), takes a close look at conflicts within the Christian Church of the fourth and fifth centuries. As a heuristic tool he applies G. Simmel's ‘Soziologie des Streites’ in order to examine theological pluralism and its foundations (pp. 37–42), possibilities and limits for coexistence and the function of competition and conflict (pp. 42–9), and the importance of orthodoxy and heterodoxy for communication within the Church (pp. 49–54). Simmel's distinction between two forms of contention, direct conflict (‘Konflikt’) and indirect competition (‘Konkurrenz’) allows for a better understanding of the dynamics and outcomes of various debates. Rebenich concludes that the success of the Church is to a very large degree based on theological competition, which drove the development of teaching and practice.
To turn to the various other contributions: Achim Arbeiter, ‘Die Kirche als Gebäude im Kontext der antiken sakralen Topographie: Inszenierung und Repräsentanz’ (pp. 57–81), surveys various church buildings in the cities of the Roman empire. Among other things he is able to show how strongly embedded within the cities Christianity was from early on, even architecturally.
Liuwe H. Westra, ‘Katholizität in der Spätantike: die Kirche als Stütze des Reiches’ (pp. 83–99), examines the meaning of catholicity in writings of two emperors, Constantine and Julian. Westra stresses that even in the fourth century an organic meaning of ‘catholicity’ was still in the forefront. A ‘catholic Church’ is universal in the sense that it aims at reaching all of humanity. Both Constantine and Julian embraced this understanding of ‘catholicity’, although they used it in different contexts and with different aims. For Constantine the Church was ‘catholic’, therefore it could become a pillar of the empire uniting a large part of its population. For Julian the one and highest God was ‘catholic’, not the Church. Therefore, he rejected universalising Christian claims for their own tribal deity.
Carmen Cvetković, ‘Greek thought in Latin language: Niceta of Remesiana's view of the Church’ (pp. 101–16), discusses the Confession of Faith of Niceta of Remesiana with a special emphasis on his view of the Church. She is able to show that Niceta is dependent on Cyril of Jerusalem and that he serves as a mediator of Eastern theological thinking in the Latin West.
Thomas Graumann, ‘Synodale Praxis und administratives Handeln in der Spätantiken Kirche: einige Schlaglichter’ (pp. 117–43), takes a look at the records of the Council of Chalcedon. He focuses especially on the importance of ecclesiastical bureaucracy and of economic considerations for the regulation of conflicts like the one between two competing Ephesian bishops, Bassianus and Stephen.
Katharina Greschat, ‘Der Zauber des Anfangs: Asketische Konzeptionen von Kirche im spätantiken Gallien’ (pp. 145–62), surveys various responses to the execution of Priscillian of Avila. She focuses especially on the competing ascetic concepts of Sulpicius Severus, Cassian and Salvian of Marseille.
Christoph Birkner, ‘Kirche und Kellion: zum Verständnis von “Kirche” bei Kyrill von Scythopolis’ (pp. 163–76), discusses conceptions of the Church in the hagiographic writings of Cyril of Scythopolis.
Nicholas Marinides, ‘Begriffliche Bilder der Kirche als Ideal und Realität bei zwei griechischen Autoren des siebten Jahrhunderts’ (pp. 177–91), examines the ecclesiological thinking of Antiochus of Mar Saba and Anastasius Sinaites.
Ovidiou Ioan, ‘Das Kirchenverständnis der Kirche des Ostens im 7. Jahrhundert’ (pp. 193–206), takes a look at the changes and challenges that the Syrian Churches encountered during the seventh century as a result of the Byzantine-Sasanian wars and the rise of Islam and inner-Christian conflicts. He introduces the answers given to those developments by two important churchmen, ĪšōʿJahb iii and Mahōzē ʾArēwan.
Martin Hein, ‘Die Anfänge des Christentums und die evangelische Kirche heute’ (pp. 207–22), closes the volume with an engaging theological essay. He argues two interrelated points. First, that Protestant Churches are not new Churches which came into existence during the Reformation, but rather Churches of old which went through the Reformation (p. 207), and second, not least because of this continuity, he calls for a Protestant ‘patrology’ (‘Patrologie’, pp. 208, 219) to complement ‘patristics’. The aim is to learn, through a historically informed reading, from the Church Fathers how to ‘do Church’ in specific contexts.
This is a stimulating and thought-provoking collection of essays offering important methodological considerations as well as detailed case studies.
