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4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting selection, August 31, 2001
This review is from: Early Latin Theology: Selections from Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose and Jerome (Library of Christian Classics) (Paperback)
Note: This review relates to the original work, publ. 1956. I presume the paperback is a photographic reprint.
415 pages, publ. 1956. A series of works with prefaces are translated with limited notes, mostly historical or giving the scripture references. Here are the contents:
Tertullian: De praescriptione haereticorum (with selections from Irenaeus, Adv. Haer, and Tertullian, De Pudicitia, as appendices); De idololatria.
Cyprian: De unitate; letter 33 (on the lapsed); letters 69 & 73 (on the baptismal controversy)
Ambrose: Letter 10 (on the council of Aquileia, AD. 381); letter 17 (on the altar of victory); letters 20 & 21 (on the struggle over the basilicas); letter 24 (Ambrose and Maximus); letters 40 & 41 (on the synagogue at Callinicum); letter 51 (on the massacre at Thessalonica); letter 57 (Ambrose & Eugenius); letter 63 (the episcopal election at Vercellae)
Jerome: Letters 14 (To Heliodorus), 15 (To Pope Damasus), 52 (To Nepotianus), 107 (To Laeta), 108 (To Eustochium) and 146 (To Evangelus).
This review will concentrate on the material by Tertullian.
Dr. Greenslade gives an excellent modern translation of the important text, De praescriptione, and indeed I bought the book for this alone, as it is the most modern English version of this work. The editor, in common with most others, rejects the CSEL text of Kroymann as too arbitary, and so based his translation on an eclectic text of his own selection. Occasionally one may quibble at some of the text choices made - in 40, 4, following Kroymann and the Corpus Cluniacense he omits the name of Mithras, presumably as a gloss, although it is present in the Agobardinus, and included by Rigalt and Oehler. It is unfortunate that the critical text of Refoule seems to have come to hand too late to be more than mentioned in the preface. But it is a good translation, and carries much of the force of Tertullian's work for the general reader, and the notes will inform but not stifle.
The selections added are interesting; De pudicitia lacks any English translation other than the elderly Ante-Nicene Fathers one, and an unpublished version by Gosta Claesson, abandoned in favour of his magnum opus, the Index Tertullianeus. As such, it is useful to have even such scraps as these.
The 1890 CSEL 20 text is used for De idololatria. This translation does not have the sparkle of the former; probably reflecting the less polished nature of the work. It is a useful work; but there is now a more modern version by J.H. Waszink etc which supercedes it.
The selections from other authors on other subjects did not spark my interest, and indeed I have been unable to find the time to read most of them. These suffer from the lack of any clear theme to the selections.
In summary, a useful volume of good clear modern translations.
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