Physicalist Soteriology In Hilary Of Poitiers

In Physicalist Soteriology in Hilary of Poitiers, Ellen Scully presents Hilary as a representative of the “mystical” or “physical” trajectory of patristic soteriology and outlines the theological ramifications of Hilary’s conviction that all humans are contained in Christ’s incarnate body.

While he is more commonly known for his Trinitiarian works and theology, this study assesses mid-fourth-century bishop Hilary of Poitiers' view of the human condition. Isabella Image shows that the Commentary on Psalm 118 is more closely related to Origen's than previously thought. Image explains how his articulations of sin, body and soul, the Fall and the will all parallel or echo Origen's views in this work, but not necessarily in his Matthew Commentary. Hilary has a doctrine of original sin ('sins of our origin', peccata originis), which differs from the individual personal sins and for which we are individually accountable. He also articulates a fallen will which is in thrall to disobedience and needs God's help, something God always gives as long as we show the initiative. Hilary's idea of the fallen will may have developed in tangent with Origen's thought, which uses Stoic ideas on the process of human action in order to articulate the constraints on purely rational responses. Hilary in turn influences Augustine, who writes against the Pelagian bishop Julian of Eclanum citing Hilary as an example of an earlier writer with original sin. Since Hilary is known to have used Origen's work, and Augustine is known to have used Hilary's, Hilary appears to be one of the stepping-stones between these two great giants of the early church as the doctrines of original sin and the fallen will developed. The Human Condition in Hilary of Poitiers not only identifies Hilary's anthropological thought, but also places it in the current of theological development of the fourth century. It considers reception of Origen in the mid-fourth century, before the criticisms of Epiphanius and the debates in the Egyptian monastic communities. This work also contributes to understanding of the tradition from which Augustine received his doctrine of original sin.

The place of Hilary of Poitiers in the debates and developments of early Christianity is tenuous in contemporary scholarship. His invaluable historical position is unquestioned, but the coherence and significance of his own thought is less certain. In this book, Jarred A. Mercer makes a case for understanding Hilary not only as an important historical figure, but as a noteworthy and independent thinker. Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality offers a new paradigm for understanding Hilary's work De Trinitate. The book contends that in all of Hilary's polemical and constructive argumentation, which is essentially trinitarian, he is inherently developing an anthropology. The work therefore reinterprets Hilary's overall theological project in terms of the continual, and for him necessary, anthropological corollary of trinitarian theology- to reframe it in terms of a "trinitarian anthropology." The coherence of Hilary's work depends upon this framework, and without it his thought continues to elude his readers. Mercer demonstrates this through following Hilary's main lines of trinitarian argument, out of which flow his anthropological vision. These trinitarian arguments unfold into a progressive picture of humanity from potentiality to perfection.

The practice of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist allow Christians to read Scripture in the context of the church and in unity with the Trinity. Charles Meeks argues here, however, that over the centuries since the Reformation, Protestant expressions of the church have often allowed the sacraments to assume a minor role that has led to a weakening of Protestant ecclesiology and a disconnection of these ancient rituals from the gospel. To unpack this reality, Meeks relies on the work of fourth-century bishop Hilary of Poitiers and modern theologian Robert W. Jenson to examine the relationship between the sacraments and Scripture, the Trinity, and the church. With Hilary, he retrieves a hermeneutic that starts from the interdependence of the sacraments with all aspects of Christian life, especially the way one reads Scripture, formulates theology, and understands what the church is and is not. With Jenson, Meeks applies this hermeneutic to the modern church in an appeal to recover a premodern sense of God’s relationship to time, and thus how the church relates to God through Word and Sacrament.

Oliver B. Langworthy examines the interaction of soteriology and pneumatology in Gregory of Nazianzus' thought. He shows that this interaction, Gregory's soteriological pneumatology, is a coherent, significant, but under-examined area of Gregory's thought. His study engages in a chronological treatment of a wide range of Gregory's prose and poetic works. This allows for the particular character of Gregory's soteriological pneumatology to emerge, notably his emphasis on the experience of the Spirit. The result is a more complete and nuanced picture of Gregory's theological investment in a divine and "truly holy" Spirit that is operative in the salvation of the believer.

This bestselling reference tool has been a trusted resource for more than 25 years with over 165,000 copies sold. Now thoroughly updated and substantially revised to meet the needs of today's students and classrooms, it offers cutting-edge overviews of key theological topics. Readable and reliable, this work features new articles on topics of contemporary relevance to world Christianity and freshened articles on enduring theological subjects, providing comprehensive A-Z coverage for today's theology students. The author base reflects the increasing diversity of evangelical scholars. Advisory editors include D. Jeffrey Bingham, Cheryl Bridges Johns, John G. Stackhouse Jr., Tite Tiénou, and Kevin J. Vanhoozer.

"Contributors to this volume refute the widely held perception that the doctrine of deification primarily belonged in the Eastern Church, and that the Western Church reduced the rich biblical and Greek patristic understanding of salvation to a narrow view of redemption. To the contrary, these essays provide evidence of the wide-ranging use of deification themes in major Latin patristic sources, showing that deification was a native part of early Latin theology that was consitently and creatively employed"--