Cyprian the Bishop (review)

Cyprian is a pivotal figure for western Christianity, especially for ecclesiology and sacramental theology. Even non-scholars know his dictum "Outside the Church there is no salvation." But there have been no extended treatments of him as a theologian for many years. Michael Sage (Cyprian, Patristic Monograph Series 1) provided readers with insights into the politico-religious environment of third-century North Africa. Graeme Clark provided comments on Cyprian's letters (Ancient Christian Writers, vols. 43-44 and 46-47 and Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 3D). Now readers finally have a volume that exposes the theological genius of the bishop who developed the first western ecclesiology in the midst of persecution and schisms.

Burns has been steadily investigating what made Cyprian an effective bishop for the last decade. The fruit of his work is a detailed analysis of Cyprian's writings on the Church through the lens of cultural anthropology. Burns paints the portrait of a community fragmented into laxist, moderate, and rigorist (Novatianist) groups. Using the work of Mary Douglas on group identity and boundaries, he looks at "the social and cultural organization of the Christian community at Carthage" and "the cultural shifts in behavioral code, ritual practice, and cosmology which accompanied [the] structural changes" (12) of the 250s. He deals with the changes in Cyprian's ecclesiology, which developed from fighting first against the laxists during the Decian persecution and its aftermath and then against the rigorists during the initial stages of Valerian's persecution. While Burns' temporal divisions might be too clearly demarcated, the conceptual separation of Cyprian's battles helps the reader comprehend developments in Cyprian's ecclesiology.

Up to the time of persecution the Christians of Carthage had many ties outside the community, and, although the community was an intentional one, its boundaries were semi-permeable. Sins against other human beings could be forgiven through penance. Defection during persecution, however, raised the issue of the forgiveness of sins against God, especially by the clergy. Even before the Decian persecution died down, laxist clergy, bowing to pressure from repentant idolaters and rebelling against Cyprian's authority, offered easy return to the Church for the lapsi. Their reentry was guaranteed by letters of forgiveness from the confessors, some designating specific recipients and others of a more general sort. Their community had very permeable boundaries, and reentry for lapsi was granted without protracted penance or any penitential ritual but by the fiat of individual confessors rather than by the community and its episcopal leadership. Against the laxists Cyprian maintained a community with strong boundaries but with many different degrees of inclusion, from repenting sacrificati and libellatici to confessors and martyrs. Varying degrees of risk during persecution, from the wealthy who faced confiscation and exile to the humiliores who remained largely invisible to the State, merited different considerations in penance. A ritualized penitential discipline provided for the reentry of sinners and the protection of the Church from contamination by their sins.

The rigorists, on the other hand, lacked any penitential discipline and denied the possibility of reinclusion. They maintained that the Church could be sullied by returnees from idolatry. Against the rigorists Cyprian provided for semi-permeable boundaries. He denied that the sins of the lapsi would soil the Church. Rather, sacramental rituals protected the Church, cleansed the penitent, and provided the equivalent of a sonic fence, wounding those who tried to enter without repenting.

In a series of compact yet clearly articulated chapters, Burns explores the necessity of providing some ritual of inclusion, its efficacy, and the balance between unity and purity. He also provides a superb chapter on the unity of the episcopacy in which he makes clearer than any other author the relationships between various versions of De unitate ecclesiae.

The prose is dense but carefully argued with copious references to the works of Cyprian. Reinforcements of...