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Recensione: P.C. CHRISTOU, Hetlenike patrologia. Tomas B': Grammateia tes periodou ton diogmon. (Christianike grammatologia, 2, B')

Then he studies in part IV (p. 349-456) the Apostolic Fathers, in part V (p. 457-522) the martyrological literature and in part VI (p. 523-632) the works of the Apologetes. The montanistic and monarchianic literatures are considered in part VII (p. 633-648), their orthodox counterparts in part VIII (p. 649-756). The Alexandrian school, especially Clemens of Alexandria and Origen, is studied in part IX (p. 757-928), the writers of the Asiatic regions (Palestine, Antiochia, Minor Asia) in part X (p. 929-993). The ten parts are subdivided in chapters, to each of which the Author adds a list of the relative text editions and studies. As he finished already in 1972 the overall redaction of the present volume, these bibliographical lists only exceptionally mention items which did appear after that date. The volume, very well printed on glazed paper, is enriched by 34 illustra­tions of ancient monuments and codices. It is closed by an index (p. 995-1002) both of the ancient writers or works and of the various subjects treated.

This volume  of  the  Greek  Patrology  of  Prof.   Christou  commands great respect  and  merits   serious   consideration.   It  is   less   voluminous and more  modern  and  readable   than   the   classic   History   of   ancient christian literature of Adolf von Harnack (4 volumes, Leipzig 1893-1904). In its serene presentation of the matter and its narrative philological and theological exposition it resembles more the Patrology of Johannes Quasten (3 volumes, Utrecht-Brussels 1949-1959) than the instructive and abridging Patrologie of Berthold Altaner and Alfred Stuiber  (eighth edition, Frei-burg-Basel-Wien 1978). The general  outlook of the volume  is  in accor­dance with the ecclesiological standpoints of the Greek Orthodox Church. So the Author begins  the book with  the  statement   (p.  9):   « The  cult society, which was founded by the disciples of Jesus, was not an uniform one, but constituted an unique, typically loose, complex of independent communities ». He states (ibid), that the apostle Paul liked to bind these communities together by means of a common tie with Jerusalem, the cradle of Christianism, but that, after the persecution of the Jews against Paul and the destruction of Jerusalem rendered impossible the realisation of this ideal, the local churches saw themselves as Greek « cities [poleis] » in the classic sense of this word. To us this theory on the beginnings of Church order seems weak, not only because the cities in Greece in the first times of Christendom were far from being « administratively, econo­mically and politically self-sufficient », as the Author suggests, but also because the major cities of the Empire, such as Rome, Alexandria, Corinth, Thessalonica and other, were completely interwoven with and dependent ugon the structures and traffics of the Roman  Empire, which had its only effective and true center in Rome.

Notwithstanding  this  and some  other reserves, which  concern not only the rather closed Greek Orthodox theology of the Author, but also his not sufficiently justified, at times sweeping confidence in the trustwor­thiness of his sources, especially of the Ecclesiastical History, attributed to Eusebius of Caesarea, we recommend this volume to every scholar desirous to augment his knowledge of the doctrines of the Fathers and of their interpretation in modern Orthodox thought. Certainly the bibliographical notices, added at the end of the chapters, are not always free of errors and misprints,  but  they  are  in  general  very  useful,  also  because  the Author  signalizes   several  works   originating  from   the  Greek,  Slavonic, Rumanian, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish areas, which in similar manuals are often neglected. Particularly useful might prove not only the tables of contents, which the Author gives of the single patristic works, but also the lists of apocryphal literature (p. 205-207), of gnostic documents, preserved in the Chenoboskion (Nag Hammadi) and other codices (p. 116-118), and of the most important antignostic works (p. 118-120). It finally seems  noteworthy  that  the  Author  meritoriously  interpretes   Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 3, 3, 2 in the sense:  « All Christians, who are coming to Rome, ought to see to it, that they go to the community, which maintains the tradition  from  pope  Linus   till  Eleutherus,  and  not  to   the  flourishing conventicles  of the heresiarchs »  (p.  650;   cf.  p.  707).  But we  think he should emphasize at  this  point  that  Irenaeus  sees  these  Christians as representatives of local Christianities seeking for help from that Roman Church, which conserved the relics and the tradition of the two principal Apostles and Martyrs.