Augustine's early theology of image : a study in the development of pro-nicene theology

337 Pages·2016·2.4 MB·English

by  Boersma

Augustine’s Early Theology of Image
OXFORD STUDIES IN HISTORICAL THEOLOGY
Series Editor
David C. Steinmetz, Duke University
Editorial Board
Irena Backus, Université de Genève
Robert C. Gregg, Stanford University
George M. Marsden, University of Notre Dame
Wayne A. Meeks, Yale University
Gerhard Sauter, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Susan E. Schreiner, University of Chicago
John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame
Geoffrey Wainwright, Duke University
Robert L. Wilken, University of Virginia
EMPIRE OF SOULS THE REFORMATION OF SUFFERING
Robert Bellarmine and the Christian Pastoral Theology and Lay Piety in Late
Commonwealth Medieval and Early Modern Germany
Stefania Tutino Ronald K. Rittgers
MARTIN BUCER’S DOCTRINE CHRIST MEETS ME EVERYWHERE
OF JUSTIFICATION Augustine’s Early Figurative Exegesis
Reformation Theology and Early Modern Michael Cameron
Irenicism
MYSTERY UNVEILED
Brian Lugioyo
The Crisis of the Trinity in Early Modern England
CHRISTIAN GRACE AND PAGAN VIRTUE Paul C. H. Lim
The Theological Foundation of Ambrose’s
GOING DUTCH IN THE MODERN AGE
Ethics
Abraham Kuyper’s Struggle for a Free Church
J. Warren Smith
in the Netherlands
KARLSTADT AND THE ORIGINS John Halsey Wood Jr.
OF THE EUCHARISTIC CONTROVERSY
CALVIN’S COMPANY OF PASTORS
A Study in the Circulation of Ideas
Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed
Amy Nelson Burnett
Church, 1536-1609
READING AUGUSTINE IN THE Scott M. Manetsch
REFORMATION
THE SOTERIOLOGY OF JAMES USSHER
The Flexibility of Intellectual Authority in
The Act and Object of Saving Faith
Europe, 1500-1620
Richard Snoddy
Arnoud S. Q. Visser
HARTFORD PURITANISM
SHAPERS OF ENGLISH CALVINISM,
Thomas Hooker, Samuel Stone, and Their
1660-1714
Terrifying God
Variety, Persistence, and Transformation
Baird Tipson
Dewey D. Wallace, Jr.
AUGUSTINE, THE TRINITY,
THE BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION
AND THE CHURCH
OF WILLIAM OF ALTON
A Reading of the Anti-Donatist Sermons
Timothy Bellamah, OP
Adam Ployd
MIRACLES AND THE PROTESTANT
AUGUSTINE’S EARLY THEOLOGY
IMAGINATION
OF IMAGE
The Evangelical Wonder Book in Reformation
A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene
Germany
Theology
Philip M. Soergel
Gerald P. Boersma
Augustine’s Early
Theology of Image
A Study in the Development
of Pro-Nicene Theology
z
GERALD P. BOERSMA
1
1
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© Excerpt(s) from PARADISO by Dante, translation copyright © 1984 by Allen
Mandelbaum. Used by permission of Bantam Books, an imprint of Random House,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Boersma, Gerald P.
Augustine’s early theology of image : a study in the development of pro-Nicene theology /
Gerald P. Boersma.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–025136–9 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo.
2. Image of God—History of doctrines—Early church, ca. 30-600. I. Title.
BR65.A9B593 2015
231—dc23
2015012842
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan, USA
To Mom and Dad
Quella circulazion che sì concetta
pareva in te come lume reflesso,
da li occhi miei alquanto circunspetta,
dentro da sé, del suo colore stesso,
mi parve pinta de la nostra effige:
per che ’l mio viso in lei tutto era messo.
Qual è ’l geomètra che tutto s’ affige
per misurar lo cerchio, e non ritrova,
pensando, quel principio ond’ elli indige,
tal era io a quella vista nova:
veder voleva come si convenne
l’ imago al cerchio e come vi s’ indova;
—Dante Alighieri, Paradiso XXXIII
That circle-which, begotten so, appeared
in You as light reflected-when my eyes
had watched it with attention for some time,
within itself and colored like itself,
to me seemed painted with our effigy,
so that my sight was set on it completely.
As the geometer intently seeks
to square the circle, but he cannot reach,
through thought on thought, the principle he needs,
so I searched that strange sight: I wished to see
the way in which our human effigy
suited the circle and found place in it-
—Trans. Allen Mandelbaum
Contents
Preface xi
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
PART ONE
I. Hilary of Poitiers 19
Image in the Anti-Monarchian Writings 20
I. Tertullian 20
II. Novatian 27
Hilary’s Development of Anti-Monarchian Image
Theology 31
Hilary’s Image Theology in the Nicene Context 36
Image as a Christological Term (Col. 1:15) 39
Image as an Anthropological Term (Gen. 1:26) 46
II. Marius Victorinus 51
Substance and Image: Aristotle’s Legacy 52
I. Form and Matter 54
II. Act and Potency 58
III. The Cipher of Appropriation 60
Christ as Imago Dei 64
The Human Person Secundum Imaginem 72
I. Human Psychology 75
II. The Participatory Image 81
viii Contents
III. Ambrose of Milan 87
The Imago Dei as a Spiritual Reality 89
I. Image Christology 90
II. Image Anthropology 95
The Embodied Imago 102
I. Paul and the Body 105
II. Plotinus and the Body 108
The Moral Imperative of the Imago Dei 112
I. Sequi Naturam 114
II. Apatheia 116
III. Cosmetics and Virginity 118
IV. Transvalued Desires in De officiis 124
Conclusion 129
PART TWO
IV. The Plotinian Image 135
Participatio, Imago, Similitudo 136
Interlude: Plotinus, Porphyry, and Augustine’s Platonic
Sources 141
The Plotinian Image 144
The Challenge of Emanation 153
The Philosophy of Image in the Soliloquia 159
V. Proteus and Participation 165
The Preface to Book II (Contra Academicos 2.1–2.3) 166
I. Wisdom 167
II. Truth 169
III. Philosophy 173
Proteus (Contra Academicos 3.5.11–3.6.13) 176
The Platonic Image and the Incarnation
(Contra Academicos 3.17.37–3.20.45) 183
VI. The Analogical and Embodied Imago Dei 189
Analogia, Aequalitas, and the Imago 191
Aequalitas in Victorinus and Augustine 203
The Body and the Imago Dei 207
00-Boersma-Prelims.indd 8 06/11/15 9:17 PM
Contents ix
I. Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 2:7 209
II. “Male and Female He Created Them” 213
III. The Inner and Outer Man 217
Conclusion 221
VII. The Ascent of the Image in De vera religione 224
The Plotinian Metaphysic of Image 228
Intellectual and Moral Obstacles to the Ascent
of the Image 234
The Necessity of Grace in the Ascent 243
Ascent to the Holy Trinity 247
Conclusion 252
Epilogue: The Imago Dei in De Trinitate 254
Image as Dynamic Relationality 255
The Body and the Imago Dei 257
In the Image and Likeness of God 259
Conclusion 263
Bibliography 267
General Index 297
Scripture Index 317