Preaching to Seneca: Christ as Stoic Sapiens in Divinae Institutiones IV
Lactantius's Divine Institutes is a conversation with many partners. His affinity for Stoic thought in general, and Seneca in particular, is especially pronounced. Throughout the Institutes we find a delicate back-and-forth between Lactantius's claim of a novel philosophy centered on the C...
| Published in: | Harvard theological review |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
[2018]
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| In: |
Harvard theological review
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Lactantius, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus 250-317, Divinae institutiones
/ SenecalRhetor, Lucius A. 55 BC-40
/ Jesus Christus
/ Wise person
/ Stoa
/ Apologetics
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| RelBib Classification: | KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity NAB Fundamental theology NBF Christology TB Antiquity VA Philosophy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Lactantius's Divine Institutes is a conversation with many partners. His affinity for Stoic thought in general, and Seneca in particular, is especially pronounced. Throughout the Institutes we find a delicate back-and-forth between Lactantius's claim of a novel philosophy centered on the Christian Gospel and his attraction to-and dependence on-the pagan philosophy he hoped to supplant. This interplay is distinctly relevant to Lactantius's portrayal of the figure of Jesus in Institutes IV. In this paper, I argue that Lactantius shapes his story of the nature and work of Jesus in part to give an answer to a primary Stoic question: where is the sapiens? Indeed, the figure of the sapiens, the "Stoic sage," had presented something of a problem for the Stoa: Stoic cosmology demanded he exist while Stoic history had failed to find him. By Seneca's time, a resigned acceptance of the absence of such figures of incarnate wisdom was commonplace; the figure of the sapiens had begun to fade away into the realm of theory, separated from imperfect human practice. In redressing this concern, Lactantius portrays his Christ: the true sage and exemplum, wisdom and virtue incarnate. In short, to Seneca's resignation, Lactantius offers a rebuke and a corrective by a clever re-shaping of both Christian and Stoic expectation. |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4517 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0017816018000263 |