Franciscan Studies

BOOK REVIEWS Patrology by J. Quasten. Vol. I The Beginnings of Patristic Literature. Westminister, Md. The Newman Press, Utrecht-Brussels Spectrum Publishers , 1950. Pp. XVIII-349. The first volume of a projected new manual of Patrology contains a general introduction to Patrology (pp. 1-22) and the literature of the first two centuries (23-313), arranged under eight headings: The beginnings of liturgical formulas and canonical legislation (23-39); the Apostolic Fathers (40-105); the beginnings of Christian romance, folk stories and legends (106-157) and of Christian poetry (158-175); the first Acts of the martyrs (176-185); the Greek Apologists (186-253); the beginnings of heretical (254-277) and anti-heretical literature (278-313). Indexes follow (315-349). That means, this volume roughly corresponds to the first volume of Bardenhewer, while following the plan of Altaner. How many volumes this new Patrology will include and how the matter will be distributed is not indicated as yet; but we understand (see p.l) that the work will conclude with the so-called last Fathers, Gregory or Isidore for the West, and John Damascene for the East. Quasten has a twofold purpose: 1) to bring the reader into closer contact with the latest Patristic literature in general, and the English publications on the various topics in particular, thus avoiding the disadvantages of manuals in translation to which the (Catholic) English-speaking public has been accustomed, and 2) to arouse interest in the writings of the Fathers by quoting excerpts in English (Preface VII-VIII). We whole-heartedly admit that these principles are reasonable: they simply are deduced from a great need felt in the Catholic American milieux of ecclesiastical learning. Of course, a praiseworthy purpose or principle in not all. Let us see how it is carried out. The general outline of the volume is good: the order of the chapters is logical, as also their internal arrangement, usually; the choice of the Patristic texts in most of the cases is perfect; the literature up to the summer of 1949 is rather complete; the English publications, as announced, are more frequently referred to than in a Bardenhewer, Puech, Cayré or Altaner (at least in his former edition). In detail we have many objections against this volume. We do hope that the author will not mind if we indicate some of them in plain words: perhaps our remarks will somehow be helpful for the redaction of the next volumes, and for an eventual new edition of the first one. First, the section on the History of Patrology (1-5), is to be completed, and that we think will require that some paragraphs be re-written. The history of Patrology is not simply identical with the history of Patrology in the Western, and later, the Catholic Church. Quasten writes (p. 2): "Thrqugh more than a thousand years all historians of ancient Christian literature regarded De viris illustribus as the basis of all their studies, and 111 112BOOK REVIEWS their sole endeavor was to write continuations of this great work" (the emphasis is ours, except for the quoted work of Jerome). The history of Patrology as described by Quasten gives more or less the impression that the phrase quoted corresponds to reality. But, in Greek literature we have a Photius and a Suidas, who did not at all intend to complete Jerome; Suidas , perhaps, intended to complete Hesychius of Miletus; in Syriac literature , too, still in those thousand years of Jerome's supremacy, there exists an Ebedjesu Bar Berika, who, in his Catalogue of all the ecclesiastical Books, gives plenty of information on Patristic writings, but who did not even know, it seems, of the existence of Jerome's De viris inlustribus, since he quotes only the Book of the Paradise, viz., Jerome's De viris sanctorum Pairum. A consequence of this fact is, of course, that the reader will not find in Fabricius' Bibliotheca ecclesiaslica, as Quasten says, "a complete edition of all historians on ecclesiastical literature from Jerome to Trithemius" (p. 4). In the same context the De viris illustribus is described as the first history of Christian theological literature, "the basic source for the history of ancient Christian literature" and...