Compitum

Isabella Image, The Human Condition in Hilary of Poitiers. The Will and Original Sin between Origen and Augustine, Oxford-New York, 2017.

Éditeur : Oxford University Press
256 pages
ISBN : 9780198806646
65 £

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.

1: Introduction
Hilary of Poitiers: Life and Afterlife
Hilary's Context: Between Origen and Augustine
Modern Scholarship on Hilary's Theological Anthropology
Methodology: Comparing Hilary's Commentaries
Research Questions
2: Hilary's Commentary on Psalm 118
Introduction
Jerome on Hilary's Psalm Commentaries
Textual Witnesses to Origen on Psalm 118
Case Study: Ps. 118.17-24 (strophe 'gimel')
Analysis: Hilary's Translation Technique
Adaptation of Theology
Conclusion
3: Body and Soul
Introduction
Literature Review
Body and Soul in the Psalms Commentaries
Body and Soul in Commentary on Matthew
Hilary's Influences
Discussion
4: The Human as Imago Dei
Introduction
Current Scholarship
IImago as Expression of our Creation and Progression
Hilary Adopting Origen? Imago Theology in the Psalms Commentaries
Hilary Rejecting Origen? The Lost Image
Conclusion
5: The Fall
Introduction
The Fall Narrative
First Cause of the Fall
Some Effects of the Fall
Conclusion
6: Constraint (1): Voluntas
Introduction
Hilary's Articulations of the Will
Voluntas before Augustine
Discussion
Conclusion
7: Constraint (2): Thought and Passions
Introduction
Passions and Emotions
Hilary and Stoic Ideas of Mental Processes
Cogitationes
A Difference from Stoic Thought: apatheia
Discussion
8: Original Sin
Introduction
The Sinful State: Creation or Fall?
The 'Sins of our Origin'
Transmission by Birth
Baptism
Conclusion
9: Hilary Between Origen and Augustine
Introduction
Hilary's Anthropology
Hilary's Usage of Origen
Augustine's Usage of Hilary
Closing Remarks
Appendix I: The 'Anthropological Household' (Hilary, InMt 10.23-24)
Appendix II: Third strophe of Ps118 (gimel: v17-24) Comparison of Commentaries of Origen, Hilary and Ambrose
Bibliography

Source : Oxford University Press