Quodvultdeus of Carthage: The Creedal Homilies (Ancient Christian Writers, No. 60) - Hardcover

Thomas M. Finn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809105721 ISBN 13: 9780809105724

Publisher: The Newman Press, 2004

Synopsis

This volume in the Ancient Christian Writers series offers a first-time translation and commentary of the Latin Creedal Homilies of Quodvultdeus, a younger contemporary, friend, and correspondent of St. Augustine. Quodvultdeus delivered these homilies on the Sunday before Easter for three successive years in the mid-430's. Their directly intended audience was candidates selected for Easter baptism―the special class of catechumens called the electi who were engaged in the long process of conversion―and the faithful. Deeply influenced by the theology and rhetoric of Augustine, the homilies provide an invaluable window on the fifth-century church in Carthage and Roman north Africa, including her views on Judaism and paganism as well as on her internal dynamics, debates, and strife. The homilies focus on the nature, meaning, and effect of the liturgy of baptism in the process of conversion to a living Christianity. From the homilies, the reader learns who the candidates were, why they sought a new religious life, what they expected from Christianity, what was expected of them, and how the baptismal liturgy transformed and initiated them into the church's life. The homilies confirm and advance what can be learned from St. Augustine and his predecessors―not to mention his other North African contemporaries and successors―about conversion as well as the extensive and complex liturgy of baptism. †

About this title

About the Author

Thomas Macy Finn is Chancellor Professor of Religion Emeritus of the College of William and Mary. He received a License in Sacred Theology and a Doctorate in Patristics from the Catholic University of America. In his numerous books and articles on early Christian liturgy and baptism, Dr. Finn has specialized in the nature, form, and function of Christian ritual in conversions; for over three decades, he taught the worlds of early and medieval Christianity. He is also the recipient of grants from the College of William and Mary, the National Endowment of the Humanities, and the National Council on US and Arab Relations.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Newman Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809105721
• ISBN 13: 9780809105724
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160