The Creedal Homilies: Conversion in Fifth-Century North Africa

Publication Data: New York, NY/Mahwah, NJ: The Newman Press, 2004
Format: hardcover
Number of Pages: x + 137
Dimensions (l × w × h): 22.2 cm × 14.6 cm × 1.5 cm
Additional Information: dust jacket
ISBN: 0‒8091‒0572‒1

   
Quodvultdeus of Carthage
Translation and Commentary by Thomas Macy Finn

No. 60 of Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation

“The subject at hand[...]is the three creedal homilies now convincingly assigned to Quodvultdeus, De symbolo 1, 2, and 3. For centuries they were assigned to Augustine, which is where they can be found in Migne’s Patrologia Latina (40.337–68). The text followed for translation in this volume, however, is the critical edition published by R. Braun in volume 60 of the Corpus Christianorum, series Latina in 1976. [...]The creedal homilies were delivered on Sunday morning a week before Easter—perhaps before three successive Easters in the mid-430s. The setting of all three was a pivotal set of initiation rites enacted during the vigil the night before (Saturday): scrutiny, renunciation of Satan, and the profession of the baptismal creed. The target audience was those about to be baptized, the competentes, those who were seeking baptism together. [...T]hey were the pivotal rites of the Lenten catechumenate[...].”
—“Introduction: The Creedal Homilies and the Catechumenate”

CONTENTS

Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
   Quodvultdeus
   The Creedal Homilies and the Catechumenate
      The Homilies
      The Catechumenate
   Traditio Symboli
   The Pivotal Rites
   The Audience
   Religious Turmoil
      Jews and Judaism
      Pagans and Paganism
      Heretics
   The Scriptures
   Translation
The First Homily on the Creed
   Introduction
   The Pivotal Rites
   The Creed
The Second Homily on the Creed
   Introduction
   The Pivotal Rites
   The Creed
The Third Homily on the Creed
   Introduction
   The Pivotal Rites
   The Creed
Notes
Bibliography
Subject Index