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Francis Gumerlock

Books and Articles on the Theology of Grace and Eschatology

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Early Christian Studies

New Books on the Theology of Grace

December 12, 2015 by Frank Leave a Comment

For our readers who are interested in the theology of grace in church history, this entry directs you to some new books and studies on the topic.  First, there is a doctoral dissertation by Thomas L. Humphries, Jr. entitled “That They May Learn What They Desire:  Latin Pneumatology from Cassian to Gregory the Great” (Emory University, 2011).  Most dissertations are available for purchase by Proquest.  This dissertation contains the most comprehensive study to date on the authorship of an ancient text which was used in the formation of the canons of the Council of Orange (529) called Chapters from Saint Augustine Transmitted Into the City of Rome.  On pages 88-92 and 123-135 Humphries shows that this text was written by the Scythian monks led by John Maxentius.

On Gottschalk of Orbais and the controversy over predestination in the ninth-century, Jenny C. Smith, now studying at the University of Notre Dame, wrote a master’s thesis on Gottschalk when she was attending Valdosta State University in Georgia.  It can be read on line at https://vtext.valdosta.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10428/1929/smith-jenny_thesis.pdf?sequence+1&isAllowed=y   Jonathan Dixon at the Queen’s University in Belfast has been working on a dissertation on John Scottus Eriugena’s Treatise on Divine Predestination.  I am not sure if his has been completed.  Connie L. Meyer’s Gottschalk:  Servant of God (Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2015) was recently published.  It provides English translations of two of Gottschalk’s poems that have not before appeared in publication.

On predestination in the late medieval and early modern periods, I recently came upon James L. Halverson’s Peter Aureol on Predestination, although it was published by Brill in 1998.  Guido Stucco’s The Catholic Doctrine of Predestination from Luther to Jansenius (Xlibris, 2014) presents the thoughts of obscure figures like Agostino Mainardi (c 1532) and Domingo Banez. The book also provides a 35-page English translation of the table of contents of Cornelius Jansen’s massive treatise Augustinus.  William of Auvergne’s Selected Spiritual Writings translated by the late Roland Teske and published by Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto contains his treatise “On Grace.”  It was written to “destroy the error of Pelagius who said…that the powers of our nature and our free choice were sufficient.” (p.63)

Several ancient and medieval Commentaries on Romans have recently appeared in English translations.  They include that of Origen translated by Thomas P. Scheck in Fathers of the Church Volume 103 & 104.  A two-volume English translation of Theodoret of Cyrus’s Commentary on the Letters of St. Paul was published in 2001 by Holy Cross Orthodox Press.  The translator was the late Robert Charles Hill.  Peter Abelard’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans was published in 2011 in the Fathers of the Church, Mediaeval Continuation series.  That same year Michael Scott Woodward’s translation of The Glossa Ordinaria on Romans was published in the TEAMS Commentary Series.  I was pleasantly surprised by the commentary on Romans 8 & 9 by Abelard and the Ordinary Gloss.

My hope is that in these you will find insights regarding the history of the theology of grace and hopefully also some food for the soul.

Merry Christmas 2015

Frank

Filed Under: Biblical Commentaries, Early Christian Studies, Medieval theology, Patristics, Reformed theology, Theology of Grace, Translated Texts Tagged With: Cornelius Jansen, Epistle to the Romans, Gloss Ordinaria, Gottschalk of Orbais, grace, Guido Stucco, John Maxentius, John Scottus Eriugena, Jonathan Dixon, Michael Woodward, Origen, Peter Abelard, Peter Auriol, predestination, Robert Charles Hil, Scythian monks, Thedoret of Cyrus, Thomas Humphries, Thomas Scheck

Grace for Grace, a new book on the Semi-Pelagian debate

August 21, 2014 by Frank Leave a Comment

The debatCAAAes in Christian history on the theology of grace have intrigued me for many years.  I was recently asked to contribute a chapter in a new book about the debates that happened after Augustine over his theology of grace.  The book is entitled Grace for Grace:  The Debates After Augustine and Pelagius and was published by Catholic University of America Press.
The Semi-Pelagian debates were a series of discussions on the dynamics of salvation between the years 426 and 529.  They include many issues and many players.  My chapter is on one episode in the early sixth century which involved bishops including Possessor, John Maxentius, and Fulgentius of Ruspe and of which even the emperor Justinian was well aware.

Around 518 John Maxentius and his Scythian monks found that some in Constantinople, led by Possessor, were teaching that personal faith and a good will have their origin in humans, and that when people exercise faith and a choice for Christ, God then rewards them with grace. They had a slogan, “It is of us to choose, but of God to help.”  Maxentius believed that they had the cart before the horse.  Faith, he taught, is a divine gift (Phil 1:29).  Concerning the choice to come to Christ, that too is done only because God’s grace precedes, enabling the person to choose rightly; for as the Apostle said, “It is God who works in you to do and to will of His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

Possessor, to support his view of how individual salvation works, used 1 Timothy 2:4 which says that God “wills that all men be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  Through letters, Maxentius appealed to Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe in North Africa; and Fulgentius responded at length, supporting Maxentius’ view.  This is the subject of my chapter entitled “Fulgentius of Ruspe on the Saving Will of God.”

Those interested in patristics, North African exegesis, the employment of classical rhetoric in early Christianity, church-state relations, Justinian, the Semi-Pelagian controversy, the extent of God’s saving will, and the doctrine of salvation, will find Grace for Grace a helpful tool containing the latest scholarship from a variety of experts in the field of early Christian studies.

See the Table of Contents.

To order a copy from Amazon, click here.

Filed Under: Biblical Commentaries, Early Christian Studies, Patristics, Reformed theology, Theology of Grace, Translated Texts Tagged With: 1 Timothy 2:4, Catholic University of America Press, classical rhetoric, doctrine of salvation, Fulgentius of Ruspe, John Maxentius, Justinian I, North African exegesis, Possessor, salvific will of God, Semi-Pelagianism, theology of grace

The Rapture in the Apocalypse of Elijah

August 13, 2014 by Frank 2 Comments

hotoffthepressesSome people claim that the teaching of a pre-tribulation rapture is a recent construction of John Nelson Darby, and has only been taught in the Christian Church for the past two hundred years.  In other
words, it is a novel doctrine whose historicity is questionable.  However, I came across an early Christian text, the Apocalypse of Elijah, which appears to have teaching similar to modern pretribulationism.

The Apocalypse of Elijah is a third century text from a group of millennarian Christians in Egypt.  Their document claims that when the Antichrist is persecuting the saints, Christ will have compassion on his people and send angels to carry them to the “holy land” where they will eat from the tree of life, wear white robes, and be safe from Antichrist’s wrath.  After that transport occurs, all sorts of catastrophes happen on earth, including the murder of the two witnesses.  Later, says the text, Christ returns with his saints and they reign on earth for a thousand years.
Rapture in the Apocalypse of Elijah, Gumerlock 1

In an article published by the journal Bibliotheca Sacra, I explain the provenance of the Apocalypse of Elijah, discuss its rapture passage, and compare and contrast its views with those of modern pretribulationists.  Regardless of your position on when those “who are alive…will be caught up… to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess 4:16-17), I hope you enjoy reading about this text, which, in my opinion, deserves a place in the discussion over the history of the pre-tribulation rapture teaching.

To read the article, click here.

Filed Under: Early Christian Studies, Eschatology, Millennialism, Patristics Tagged With: Antichrist, Apocalypse of Elijah, Bibliotheca Sacra, John Nelson Darby, Millennialism, Pre-tribulation rapture, Rapture

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