9/14/20
Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church (The Complete Eight Volumes in One). Amazon Kindle Edition, 2014.
Volume 2, Ante-Nicene Christianity A.D. 100-325, “Chapter 13. Ecclesiastical Literature of the Ante-Nicene Age, and Biographical Sketches of the Church Fathers.” sec. 159-204.
§ 195. The Antiochian School.
Before we dig into the Antiochian School, a friend and scholar recently observed to me that citation of electronic books without real page numbers generally involves identification of the paragraph in which an idea or quotation is found, rather than using a location number based on the specific edition used. I’ll try to provide both a Kindle location number and a paragraph number within the section.
The Antiochian school of Theology, according to Schaff, was founded, not by Lucian and Dorotheus, but by “Diodorus, bishop of Tarsus (. A.D. 379-394), and Theodorus, bishop of Mopsuestia (393-428), both formerly presbyters of Antioch” (Schaff 2014, loc. 22897, par. 1). This school was not an institution, such as that of Alexandria, “but a theological tendency” (Schaff 2014, loc. 22897, par. 2). The emphasis was on grammatical and historical exegesis, in contrast to the allegorical work done in Alexandria. Schaff sees this as a positive development, as it curbs fanciful interpretive efforts. However, it can lead to other errors in interpretation (Schaff 2014, loc. 22907, par. 2).
Schaff appends a note to this section. In a dispute between Cardinal Newman and Cardinal Hergenröthen, Newman considered the Antiochian School to be responsible for Arianism (Schaff 2014, loc. 22912, par. 3). Schaff quotes Hergenröthen’s response at length, in German (Schaff 2014, loc. 22917, par. 4). In brief, Hergenröthen considers textual exegesis to protect the original understanding of the work better than allegorical interpretation.