The interaction between rhetoric and preaching is evident in St. Augustine in his sermons ad populum or sermons to his congregation. He expresses himself with care with the aim of achieving true spiritual progress in his hearers. Their reactions encourage him to make an attentive use of the rhetoric resources his authoritative experience has given him, and to exploit any possible means of raise his level of discourse. Signs of agreement from his congregation indicate an ongoing relationship with them. At (...) any rate Augustine, in his preaching, is happy to make the best possible use of his rhetorical powers and leave the rest to God. The formation of a long-standing congregation requires him to go beyond customary limits so as to become a notable model of a Christian orator. (shrink)

Ministers of the Church, whose characters were well defined in the second half of the fourth century, were more and more identified as the perfect believers. In the texts of John Chrysostom several models of “spiritual man” emerge on the basis of his personal experience and the evolution of his works: the monk, the presbyter, and the bishop. One notes that the relation of the Church to secular institutions is of greater importance in the works of Chrysostom, paying as he (...) does particular attention to the autonomy of the Church. In an original way he refrains from criticizing political institutions, preferring to express a balanced view. He holds that a coexistence with political authorities is possible, and he urges a moral conver-gence with them. Ecclesial ministries find a more solid basis in the Chrysostom’s complex and sometimes pained statements, both in their ideal expressions and in their concrete effects on the society of the fourth century. (shrink)

In the mystagogical catecheses of the fourth century, the term “faith” defines significantly the condition both of the catechumens and of the initiates at the end of their itinerary. The believer reaches the condition of “faithful” thanks to the support of the community, through an experience involving several ascetical aspects. For both eastern and western preachers, contact with the mystery during the liturgy leads to a particular expression of faith: through an existential break in the catechumen’s experience, baptism determines the (...) full adhesion of every believer to the profession of the faith of the community. (shrink)

The interpretations of the Pauline expression spiritual body can be indicative to verify the relations between Origen and the Antiochene tradition. After shortly examining such a definition in works of both the contexts, this article summarizes the exterior characteristics of the spiritual body. Are respectively dealt with: its link to the earthly body, the transformation process that led to it. Noticeable analogies have emerged in the importance given to the physical sphere; Antiochene writers, particularly John Chrysostom, gibe however more importance (...) to moral differences between individual bodies, partly negating theories about a material replacement of particles and collocating the spiritual body in a more detached view, that the seed metaphor doesn't express yet completely. The culture after Origen is oriented to a generalized condemnation of chair, in a more static and not gradual view of the body conditions; but the basic role of Origenian thought about body consistence and transformations is evident. (shrink)