Robert Edwards’ monograph, a revised doctoral dissertation, is a sustained study of John Chrysostom's theology of providence. The author argues that for Chrysostom the biblical narrative or historia is fundamentally about divine providence. It serves as a means for consoling the suffering, demonstrating God's love for humanity as seen in creation and the incarnation. Edwards claims that the biblical narratives speak to God's character and human experience, and function as ‘pastoral therapies’ in Chrysostom's preaching. The narratives also serve as windows on to God's providential plan or arrangement of things (oikonomia prononias), through which Chrysostom's audience may correct their vision of events and thereby be consoled and led to virtue.
The book consists of six chapters. The first considers Chrysostom's vision of providence and narrative and sets the stage for exploring the joint themes of pronoia and historia found particularly in three works – The Consolation of Stagarius, Homilies on the Statues and On the Providence of God – which represent the core of this monograph.
The second chapter explores how divine and human activity interact in the course of history. Here Edwards draws attention to Chrysostom's reading of biblical narrative, focusing on the relationship between character and causation at both human and divine levels. The author argues that while Chrysostom does think about historicity from time to time, narrativity is central to his definition of historia. Further, biblical histories reveal both human and divine actions: the virtue of righteous human beings and the love and providence of God. Edwards notes that Chrysostom is concerned with teaching about both God's providence and what is up to us, as these are the very subject matter of historia. Divine grace and human faith both play a role, but God gives far more in this relationship: salvation in exchange for paltry human contribution.
The third chapter traces Chrysostom's use of narrative plots or structures. The author maintains that when Chrysostom employs exempla, whether to express human or divine activity, he very often clusters narratives together. Although Chrysostom can rely on individual exemplary characters, he commonly interprets biblical exempla in conversation with one another. Edwards helpfully observes that the narrative clusters that appear most frequently in Chrysostom's works demonstrate God's providential plan as characterised by philanthropy for those who suffer greatly in this life. They share a common structure that pivots on an important event: a change of fortunes from the worse to the better, which God brings about for his virtuous saints. The author helpfully compares Chrysostom's exegesis with that of Theodore of Mopsuestia, showing how Chrysostom's exegetical works reveal a ‘typological abundance – a superfluity of biblical correspondences’ in contrast to Theodore's reading of scripture (p. 90).
The fourth chapter focuses on proofs of providence and God's philanthropic character. Edwards argues that for Chrysostom the coherence of scripture is seen in recurring demonstrations of God's providence and love for humanity. The creation of the cosmos and the coming of Christ serve as particularly vivid demonstrations of God's providence. The author contends that salvation history is more accurately referred to, in Chrysostom's vocabulary, as ‘providence’ or ‘the divine economy’ (p. 125). In Chrysostom's perspective, ‘salvation history’ is distinctive, valuing the consistency of God's philanthrōpia over gradually unfolding covenants, historical ages or stages of revelation.
The fifth and sixth chapters identify two primary ways that the narratives of providence work together: to console and to build virtue. These chapters essentially consider the place of therapeia in Chrysostom's preaching and highlight scholarly works in conversation with the ancient medical-therapeutic tradition of assuaging the emotions and providing consolation. Most of the sixth chapter considers the exemplary characters of biblical narratives. The saints in scripture are to be emulated as those who have endured suffering, yielded to divine providence and triumphed in the angelic life. Edwards usefully highlights how Chrysostom's rhetorical education informs his reading of the biblical characters. The author pays particular attention to Chrysostom's use of comparison (synkrisis) and reflection (ethopoeia) as he offers a positive vision of suffering. For Chrysostom, the angelic life is the eschatological perfection that can be attained in the present, as seen in the lives of some living saints.
This book is an exemplary piece of scholarship on John Chrysostom's theology of providence and pastoral care. Edwards's judicious reading of Chrysostom pays close attention to comparative work to demonstrate that this patristic writer does not fit easily within established categories of the history of exegesis. The author's analysis of Chrysostom's typological interpretation as clustering of biblical episodes of divine providence together sheds new light on the Antiochene ‘school’, demonstrating a diversity of perspectives within it. Although such a reading does not focus on the typical christological framework of Old Testament foreshadowing and New Testament fulfilment, it can be a helpful way of discussing the coherence of Chrysostom's pastoral theology.
