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Overview
For centuries Ignatius of Antioch has been underestimated by his admirers and vilified by his critics. Scholars tend to view him as either a careless epistolographer and lesser theologian, or a manipulative ecclesiastical politician seeking to gain sympathy for himself and support for his agenda. Critics feel that he departed dangerously from the pure Pauline gospel of justification by faith and veered off into "early Catholicism," if not gnosticism. Learning Christ represents a thorough reevaluation of Ignatius as author and theologian, demonstrating that his seven authentic letters present a sophisticated and cohesive vision of the economy of redemption. Gregory Vall argues that Ignatius's thought represents a vital synthesis of Pauline, Johannine, and Matthean perspectives while anticipating important elements of later patristic theology. Topics treated in this volume include Ignatius's soteriological anthropology, his Christology and nascent Trinitarianism, his nuanced understanding of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and his ecclesiology and eschatology. Methodologically, Learning Christ can be situated among recent attempts to recover a genuinely theological approach to early Christian texts within the perspective opened by modern historical-critical research. It aims to interpret Ignatius's thought in a manner that is authentically rooted in the communicative intention embodied in the text of his letters, while avoiding the historicist reduction of their significance to its hypothetically reconstituted contextual meaning. Vall argues that we can learn a great deal from Ignatius both about the content of revealed truth and about how to do theology.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780813234786 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Catholic University of America Press |
| Publication date: | 09/03/2021 |
| Pages: | 400 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
GREGORY VALL is professor of theology at Ave Maria University.
Read an Excerpt
LEARNING CHRIST
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH & THE MYSTERY OF REDEMPTION
By GREGORY VALL
The Catholic University of America Press
Copyright © 2013 The Catholic University of America PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8132-2158-8
CHAPTER 1
SCRIPTURE AND ECONOMY
The Philadelphia Incident
Led through Asia Minor in the summer of A.D. 113 on the way to his martyrdom in Rome, Ignatius of Antioch stopped in the city of Philadelphia (modern Alasehir, Turkey), where he was allowed to visit the local church and its bishop. During his stay Ignatius found that some members of the community had fallen under the sway of teachers who were "interpreting Judaism" to them, that is, marshaling exegetical arguments for a Judaized form of Christianity. It is not clear exactly which Jewish practices these teachers were insisting on, but circumcision does not seem to have been one of them (Phld. 6:1). Possibly they were convening a weekly assembly on the Sabbath to rival the "one eucharist" that was celebrated with the authority of the "one bishop" each Sunday. In any case, they were "schismatics" who had caused a "division" in the community with their "evil doctrines," and this brought them into inevitable conflict with the bishop of Antioch. Writing to the Philadelphians from Troas some weeks after his visit, Ignatius recalls what seems to have been a brief and inconclusive dialogue between himself and some members of this Judaizing faction.
I exhort you to do nothing out of factiousness but according to the learning of Christ. For I heard some say, "If I do not find it in the archives, I do not believe it in the gospel." And when I said to them, "It is written there," they answered me, "That is the question." But to me Jesus Christ is the archives. The inviolable archives are his cross, death and resurrection, and the faith that comes through him. It is by these, through your prayers, that I wish to be justified. (Phld. 8:2)
The "archives" or "original documents" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) to which the Philadelphian Judaizers appealed as their final authority were the Jewish Scriptures or Old Testament (presumably in Greek translation), while "the gospel" here probably refers to the Christian proclamation as represented by whatever combination of authoritative written texts and oral traditions was circulating in Asia Minor in the early second century, along with Ignatius's own teaching. For those who "interpreted Judaism," the more ancient sacred writings of Israel trumped the novelties of the gospel. While in Philadelphia Ignatius "did [his] part as a man constituted for unity" to secure the community's submission to the three-tiered hierarchy of bishop, presbyters, and deacons, insisting above all that the Philadelphians "do nothing apart from the bishop." But when the Judaizers were unable to find this and other elements of Christian teaching in the Old Testament, they felt justified in rejecting them.
Ignatius must have found himself in an awkward position in Philadelphia. He was filled with anxious concern for his own episcopal see in Syrian Antioch, which for the time being had to manage without a visible shepherd (Rom. 9:1), and he may have had no way of knowing how he would be received by the churches in Asia Minor. Philadelphia was the first stop on Ignatius's itinerary of which we have any knowledge, and his letter to that church contains several hints that the reception he had there was not unanimously enthusiastic. He found it necessary to come to the defense of the godly but taciturn bishop of Philadelphia, who appears not to have had the full cooperation of his flock. There was an inherent tension in this situation. Were Ignatius to assert his own authority too forcefully, he would appear to be meddling and thus would undercut the authority of the local bishop, the very thing he earnestly wished to promote.
Ignatius himself was a man of few words, or at least he aspired to be so, and as a matter of principle he would have been reticent to speak with anyone whom he considered to be promoting a false doctrine. But the situation in Philadelphia was delicate and required tact. The Judaizers had made inroads into the community, winning adherents, and Ignatius sincerely hoped for their repentance (Phld. 3:2, 8:1). When he heard their axiom—"If I do not find it in the archives, I do not believe it in the gospel"—he responded with a single Greek word: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ("it is written [there]"; 8:2). By this technical term Ignatius probably meant that the truth of Christ could in fact be established from a proper exegesis of the "archives." In responding so briefly, Ignatius was probably exercising emotional restraint, wishing to avoid the heat of anger and the exacerbation of an already tense situation. As he says in the same context, "Where there are division and anger, God does not dwell" (8.1). But, rightly or wrongly, Ignatius's interlocutors probably sensed an insult in his curt and elliptical reply. Their riposte likewise consisted of a single Greek word: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (literally, "it lies before"), which idiomatically means, "That is just the question." In other words, the Judaizers challenged Ignatius to show them exactly where "it is written."
As far as we know, the conversation ended right there. Some scholars suppose that Ignatius backed off because he was not especially skilled in the Christological exegesis of the Old Testament and could not in fact demonstrate his point. In other words, the Judaizers had called his bluff. According to Paul J. Donahue, "Ignatius could not win his exegetical argument with his opponents, so he changes the rules." By identifying Jesus Christ as the archives, "he appeals to a higher, more decisive standard." I disagree with the low opinion of Ignatius's exegetical ability presupposed in this comment, as well as with the insinuation that he was engaging in evasive tactics of argumentation. Near the end of this chapter and at various points throughout the volume I shall demonstrate that Ignatius's use of the Old Testament, while circumscribed, is learned and sophisticated. Donahue is, however, correct when he says that Ignatius "appeals to a higher, more decisive standard." Whether Ignatius attempted on the spot to demonstrate his point exegetically or not, at least by the time he wrote Philadelphians he recognized that the real issue lies at a deeper level than mere exegesis. His considered response to the Judaizers' axiom shifts the ground of the debate to the level that we would call fundamental theology: "But to me Jesus Christ is the archives. The inviolable archives are his cross, death and resurrection, and the faith that comes through him" (8:2).
According to John J. O'Keefe and R. R. Reno, Ignatius's assertion may strike modern readers as "profoundly unsatisfactory" because of the way it seems to forestall any real exegetical discussion. Moreover, they maintain that to "equate" a person with a text is "obscure, to say the least"; whatever point Ignatius is making by this statement is made "opaquely." Indeed, they find Ignatius's entire narration of the incident "cryptic." Nevertheless, O'Keefe and Reno are quite confident that they know just what Ignatius means when he says that "the archives are Jesus Christ." He means very simply that "knowing the identity of Jesus Christ is the basis for right reading of the sacred writings of the people of Israel." Put even more simply, "The cross, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and 'the faith that came by him,' provide the interpretive key" to the Old Testament.
According to this interpretation, Ignatius is making a very simple point but has expressed himself rather poorly. I propose instead that he is making a profound point and has expressed himself well, albeit tersely. Ignatius would, no doubt, agree that knowledge of Jesus Christ is essential to the correct interpretation of the Scriptures of Israel. But in this passage of Philadelphians he is not really concerned with interpretive strategies. His claim that "Jesus Christ is the archives" is not simply another way to say that Christ is the hermeneutical key to the Old Testament. William R. Schoedel (echoing Donahue) is closer to the mark when he says that here "Ignatius appeals to an even higher authority" than Scripture itself. In other words, Ignatius subordinates Scripture to the person and work of Jesus Christ, who is God's definitive revelation.
I would like to advance this point one step further and suggest that Ignatius is, in effect, affirming an analogical relation between Christ and Scripture (here, the Old Testament). According to Ignatius, Jesus Christ is the preexistent Logos through whom God has "manifested himself " in human history (Magn. 8:2), "the mouth that cannot lie, by which the Father has spoken truthfully" (Rom. 8:2), and the "one teacher" whose words and deeds are "worthy of the Father" (Eph. 15:1). Put simply, he is "the knowledge of God" (17:2). Among those realities that can be called [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Jesus Christ is the prime analogate. He alone is Word of God in a definitive and unqualified sense, while Scripture is the "word of God" by virtue of its economic participation in the mystery of Christ. "Scripture is the word of God that bears witness to God's Word" and that "only has meaning in relation to Christ's words, acts and being."
Ignatius's subordination of Scripture to the person and work of Christ by no means entails "a denigration of scriptural authority." On the contrary, it indicates Scripture's proper place and vital role within the economy of redemption. Ignatius understands the life of Christ to constitute the fundamental "mystery" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) by which "our only teacher, Jesus Christ" has enabled us to believe in the true God and come to eternal life (Magn. 9:1). The principal moments of the Christ event—especially the incarnation, death, and resurrection—are the "mysteries" by which "God was manifesting himself humanly" (Eph. 19:1–3). In the chapters to follow, I hope to unfold what Ignatius means by "mystery." For the moment, it is important to recognize that, according to Ignatius, the Old Testament prophets did not simply foresee the coming of Christ but participated in his mystery proleptically. As Peter Meinhold correctly notes, they were partakers in the events of salvation by the grace of the Holy Spirit. For Ignatius "the primary reality is not the holy Book but the saving facts of Christianity, in which the authors of the Old Testament participated through Spirit and grace."
When the Old Testament Scriptures are taken up into the life of the church, therefore, the prophets proclaim the gospel of Christ to us with great immediacy, while they themselves are seen to be "saints worthy of love and worthy of admiration ... numbered together with us in the gospel of the common hope" (Phld. 5:2). When Ignatius says that "Jesus Christ is the archives," he is not using a clumsy expression that seems to equate a person with a text. Rather, he is employing analogical language in order to affirm a relationship of economic participation. The Jewish Scriptures are appropriately called [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ("archives") because they are ancient and possess great authority by virtue of containing authentic revelation of the one true God. But these qualities are possessed supremely and transcendently by Jesus Christ, who "was with the Father before the ages" and came into the world as God's final and definitive self-manifestation (Magn. 6:1). Within the economy of redemption Scripture derives its authority and revelatory character from Christ and plays a subservient but vital role (in conjunction with the sacraments, the rule of faith, the hierarchy, and other elements of ecclesial life) in the mediation of the definitive revelation, which is Christ. Naturally, Ignatius would not have conceptualized the matter in this way. I am using later precisions in an attempt to get at what is incipient and densely expressed in the formulation of Philadelphians 8:2.
To be more precise, Israel's Scriptures are subordinate to Jesus Christ in two respects. First, as we have already seen, he is the Word, whereas they consist of "words about the Word." But second, they are subordinate inasmuch as they contain the old covenant, whereas Christ's coming into the world inaugurates a new covenant. At first glance, this second contrast would appear to be of relatively little significance for Ignatius, who seems to treat Israel's prophets as full-fledged Christians who happened to live a few centuries before Christ's historical advent. Moreover, when the Philadelphian Judaizers argue on the premise that Israel's Scriptures have more authority than the gospel precisely because they are old, Ignatius does not immediately offer the counterclaim that the gospel is superior to the ancient Scriptures precisely because it is new. Instead, he subordinates the Old Testament to the person and event of Christ, and thereby implicitly subordinates all "words about the Word" to the Word itself. Presumably this would include the words of the gospel in its oral and written modalities. On the other hand, Ignatius does make a qualitative distinction between the Old Testament and the gospel in the very next chapter of Philadelphians. Even as he extols the "beloved prophets" of Israel, he notes that "the gospel possesses a distinct advantage," namely, "the advent of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, his passion, and the resurrection" (Phld. 9:2). Within the economy of redemption, then, the words of the gospel have a more intimate relationship to the person and life of the incarnate Word than do the words of Israel's Scriptures. This theoretical privileging of the gospel over the Old Testament is, moreover, matched by Ignatius's praxis. His knowledge of books and traditions that will eventually be canonized in the New Testament plays a far more pervasive and significant role in his theology than does his use of the Old Testament.
Ignatius and the Economy
The present volume aims to be a theological exploration of the economy of redemption, based on a historical exegesis of the letters of Ignatius of Antioch. At the heart of the economy, as Ignatius views it, is God's self-manifestation in Jesus Christ, who is the preexistent Word of God and humanity's "one teacher" (Eph. 15:1). All other elements of the economy hover around this central mystery and participate in it. We have already seen how this is the case with Sacred Scripture. It is also true of the episcopacy and of Ignatius's own ministry as bishop, epistolary theologian, and would-be martyr. Nothing is more fundamental to Ignatius's self-understanding than his sense of participating in the redemptive mystery of Jesus Christ.
I am interested, then, in what Ignatius can teach us about the economy of redemption, and I am interested simultaneously in what he can show us about being a theologian. The sort of theological praxis that Ignatius models for us does not attempt to detach itself from the economy of redemption in order to examine it at arm's length. The theologian reflects upon and attempts to illuminate the divine economy as that in which he or she participates. One important aspect of Ignatius's participation in the mystery of the incarnate Word is his handling of the written word—that is, of the texts that later came to be canonized in the two testaments of the Christian Bible. Throughout this volume, therefore, we shall pay particular attention to the way Ignatius interprets and utilizes Sacred Scripture. But the fundamental object of our inquiry remains the divine economy itself.
By way of laying out a broad theological framework for the elaboration of our topic, we might think in terms of a series of binary distinctions visualized as a descending and ascending staircase (see figure 1 above). As noted in the introduction, these are classic distinctions from the theological tradition and do not represent Ignatius's conceptual horizon as such. The schema as a whole is my own.
At the top of the stairs to the left is the most fundamental distinction, namely, between "theology" and "economy," that is, between the eternal mystery of God ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) and his master plan in its temporal execution ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). Here it is important to recall that God's ad extra activity is based on who he is in se and constitutes his self-revelation. There is thus a real ontological bond between theology and economy.
Moving down to the second level, we note that the economy, which is a kind of divine "condescension" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), consists in two distinct though inseparable orders: creation and redemption. In this pair too, the second element is, according to its own manner, founded on the first element, even as it reveals the latter's ultimate end and brings it to that end, according to the axiom, "Grace presupposes nature and perfects it" (gratia supponit naturam et perficit eam).
Next, descending to a third level on our schema, the order of redemption manifests itself in two distinct but intrinsically connected phases: old covenant and new covenant. The first of these comprises the historical approaches of Yahweh to Israel, which are partial in nature and occur in a variety of modalities ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), while the second consists of God's definitive act of self-revelation and redemption in his Son (Heb 1:1–4). We can distinguish, therefore, between many imperfect, provisional vetera and a single, transcendently superior novum (cf. Is 43:18–19). In important respects this "new thing" presupposes, fulfills, and perfects the "old things." It gathers them up into itself and in so doing discloses their true end. Moreover, the novum already lies hidden in the vetera. The relationship between the two covenants is, therefore, quite complex.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from LEARNING CHRIST by GREGORY VALL. Copyright © 2013 The Catholic University of America Press. Excerpted by permission of The Catholic University of America Press.
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