This book is the fifth installment in a collection of documents that began to appear nearly 100 years ago; the collection constitutes Band III/Teil I (part one of the third volume) of the well-known “Athanasius Werke” edition of the works of Athanasius published by De Gruyter. A brief account of the history of this edition is needed to appreciate the significance of this fifth fascicle; besides, this history is not well-known to Anglophone readers.[1]
Eduard Schwartz was the original impetus for the entire project of Band III/Teil I and indeed became its champion and chief animator in its early stages. Since the early twentieth century, Schwartz had contended in his many studies that a proper history of fourth-century Christianity could be written only if the relevant documents—imperial letters and laws, episcopal letters, synodal dossiers, expositions of faith, reports about events, and so forth—were first collected, edited, and elucidated with historical and theological commentary. His idea started to come to a fruition of sorts in 1929 when Kirsopp Lake and his student Robert P. Casey, both at the time teaching in the United States, approached the Kirchenväter-kommission of the Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin with a proposal for a new critical edition of the works of Athanasius. At this time Adolf von Harnack was the head of the commission and for various reasons was steadfastly opposed to the project. But when Harnack died in 1930, the membership of the commission changed and thus also the prospects of the proposed edition: Eduard Schwartz joined the commission and Hans Lietzmann became its head. Both were quite keen on the proposed American-German project, and so the “Athanasius Werke” edition was born.
Three Bände (volumes) were planned, assigned to scholars according to the nature of their interest in Athanasius. The Americans were put in charge of Band I, containing the theological and dogmatic writings of Athanasius. The Germans were given oversight of Band II, containing the historical and apologetic works of Athanasius, and Schwartz successfully argued for a Band III, containing documents pertaining to the history of Athanasius. Lietzmann entrusted the editing of the second and third volumes to his student, Hans-Georg Opitz. As he began his work on Band III/Teil I, Opitz used existing document collections compiled by Schwartz and carried on an extensive correspondence with Schwartz about the project (and other matters).[2] Soon Opitz altered the original plan and expanded the scope of Band III/Teil I so that it included documents pertaining not only to the history of Athanasius but also to the history of the Arian controversy until 381. The first two Lieferungen of Band III/Teil I (fascicles of approximately 40 pages each) were published in 1934 and 1935, covering the Arian controversy from its origins to the immediate aftermath of the Council of Nicaea (ca. 333).[3] Between 1934 and 1941 Opitz also published seven Lieferungen of Band II.
But then the project stalled. Schwartz died in 1940, Opitz in 1941 (while serving in the German military during World War II), Lietzmann in 1942, and Lake in 1946. After the war, Walther Eltester took over Band II and Wilhelm Schneemelcher Band III. Schneemelcher’s 1949 Göttingen Habilitation continued Opitz’s plan, covering the years 328 to 337, but it was never published. In 1953 Schneemelcher assumed responsibility for Band II as well, and at some point after this his student Martin Tetz was put in charge of Band I. (For various reasons Lake and Casey had never produced anything for Band I.) For many years, however, the Athanasius Werke edition was dormant; not a single Lieferung was published after 1941.
Yet it was never completely abandoned and eventually it was revived through the energy, efforts, and expertise of a new generation of scholars, now sponsored by the Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. In 1996 the first Lieferung of Band I, which was still overseen by Tetz, appeared. Since then five more Lieferungen have been published, in 1998, 2000, 2010, 2016, and 2021. (Dietmar Wyraw assumed sole responsibility for Band I in the early 2000s; Tetz died in 2017.) In 1999 Schneemelcher turned over the editing of Bände II and III to a team of researchers based at Erlangen University under the direction of Hanns Christof Brennecke and Annette von Stockhausen. (Schneemelcher died in 2003.) The eighth and final Lieferung of Band II, as well as the introduction to the entire Band, finally appeared at long last in 2006.
As for Band III, the Erlangen team did not simply continue Opitz’s plan but completely reimagined the entire project. They sharpened its focus so that it was focused exclusively on the theological and ecclesio-political controversies over the Trinity, omitting material pertaining to other controversies (e.g., the Melitian) or to Athanasius’s personal disputes. They expanded its chronological scope (since 381 was no longer considered the “end” of the Arian controversy), so that it would conclude with the early seventh century conversion of Lombards from Arianism to Catholicism. They abandoned the term “Urkunden” for the documents collected in the series because of its narrow juridical sense in favor of the more comprehensive term “Dokumente,” in order to include a wider selection of letters, synodal dossiers, statements of faith, reports about events, and so forth. While Opitz had presented each document in its original language without any translation and only minimal commentary, the Erlangen team decided to provide a brief but information-packed introduction to each document, summarizing scholarship on its historical context and date, its textual transmission, and the edition used as the source for the text that was printed. In cases where an older edition had to be used as the basis for printed text, the editors consulted the manuscript(s) and corrected the older edition accordingly (e.g., Feder’s edition of Hilary’s Collectanea antiariana Parisina). When a document was extant in multiple versions, the editors reconstructed an Urtext on the basis of the textual traditions. Each document is accompanied by a text critical apparatus and a translation into German. In each case the translation is annotated with references, cross-references, and other notes of a historical, theological, and exegetical nature. All in all, the reimagined project is far more methodologically sound and thus far more useful for scholars than Opitz’s two fascicles.
Lieferungen 3 and 4 of Band III/Teil I appeared in 2007 and 2014, covering, respectively, the years 335-345 and 345-362.Lieferung 5 of Band III/Teil I, reviewed here, covers the years 362 to 380 and deals with the emergence of pro-Nicene orthodoxy in the East and West, ending with Emperor Theodosius’s edict Cunctos populus. The documents included in the third and fourth Lieferungen mostly pertained to various synods held between 335 and 362, and while synods and the texts associated with them continue to play a role in the fifth Lieferung, they are no longer the main focus. Rather, the texts included in this fascicle provide documentation for key theological events, conflicts, and developments: Basil of Caesarea’s exchange of letters with Apollinarius of Laodicea (Dok. 70), the schism in Antioch (Dok. 73), the dispute between Hilary of Poitiers and Auxentius of Milan (Dok. 74), the development of the Eunomian church (Dok. 75), the activities of the Homoiousians in 360s (Dok. 77), the disputes in which Germinius of Sirmium was involved (Dok. 78), efforts to achieve church unity (Dok. 80 and 83), the controversy between Basil of Caesarea and Eustathius of Sebasteia over the Holy Spirit (Dok. 81), disputes between Old- and Neo-Nicenes (84), and imperial laws (Dok. 86 and 91). All of these materials allow for wider and richer perspectives on the theological debates of the era, outside the confines of synods and their processes.
The letters of Basil feature prominently in Lieferung 5; there are twenty letters of which Basil is either the author or the recipient. Also noteworthy in Lieferung 5 is Dok. 73.4, a fragment of a letter of Athanasius preserved only in Coptic that is part of the dossier of texts for the schism in Antioch; this is the first time a Coptic text has been included in Band III. Furthermore, two texts in this Lieferung are newly edited by von Stockhausen based on the manuscripts. The first is a theological statement of the Eustathians in Antioch from 363/364 (Dok. 73.6); the second is the so-called “synodal letter” of Amphilochius of Iconium (Dok. 85). A regrettable omission, however, is the Altercatio Heracliani cum Germinio, a text that was not included in the dossier of texts associated with Germinius of Sirmium (Dok. 78) because the editors maintain that the text is more literary than documentary, by which I take them to mean that whatever verbatim record of the actual debate remaining in the text has been effaced by literary elaboration. While that point can be conceded, this document still provides a valuable witness to Trinitarian thinking and polemics in the 360s and thus was worth including. Furthermore, since the most recent edition of this text is from 1883,[4] a new edition of this short text by the editors would have been very welcomed by the scholarly community.
One reason why the focus of this Lieferung may have shifted away from synods is that there were no “major” synods or councils in this period of lasting import as there had been prior to 362 or would be after 380. Moreover, there is a dearth of documentation for the noteworthy synods that did occur. Accordingly, this Lieferung helpfully gathers together what little documentation there is for these synods, which consists mostly of reports about them extracted from the ecclesiastical historians Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. Of particular usefulness is Dok. 77 which contains ten distinct documents about various Nicene-leaning Homoiousian synods in the 360s, mostly reports about them, charting an important shift in theological thinking.
In sum, Lieferung 5, just as Lieferungen 3 and 4, is an essential collection of documents assembled according to the finest philological principles and executed with meticulous expertise. As with Lieferungen 3 and 4, Lieferung 5 continues to realize Schwartz’s vision for the study of the fourth century Christianity from more than a century ago.
Notes
[1] On the history of the Athanasius Werke project, see Hanns Christof Brennecke, Uta Heil, Annette von Stockhausen, and Angelika Wintjes, Athanasius Werke Band III/Teil 1: Dokumente zur Geschichte des Arianischen Streites, Lieferung 3 (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 2007), v-viii; and Hanns Christof Brennecke and Annette von Stockhausen, “Die Edition der „Athanasius Werke“,” in Helmut Neuhaus (Hrsg.), Erlanger Editionen. Grundlagenforschung durch Quelleneditionen: Berichte und Studien, Erlanger Studien zur Geschichte 8 (Erlangen/Jena: Palm und Enke, 2009), 151–171.
[2] Annette von Stockhausen, “Einblicke in die Geschichte der »Athanasius Werke«. Die Briefe Hans-Georg Opitz’ an Eduard Schwartz,” in Annette von Stockhausen und Hanns Christof Brennecke (Hrsg.), Von Arius zum Athanasianum. Studien zur Edition der »Athanasius Werke«, Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 164 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010), 207–304.
[3] Athanasius Werke Band III/Teil 1: Urkunden zur Geschichte des arianischen Streites 318-328, Lieferung 1-2 (Berlin und Leipzig: De Gruyter, 1934-1935).
[4] C. P. Caspari, Kirchenhistorische Anecdota (Oslo, 1883), 131-147, reprinted in A. Hamman (ed.), Patrologiae Cursus Completus Series Latina, Supplementum i (Paris, 1958), 345–50.