Julian von Aeclanum: Studien zu seinem Leben, seinem Werk, seiner Lehre und ihrer Uberlieferung (review)

Comprehensive is perhaps the best word to describe Lössl's detailed and well-documented study of the life, work, and teaching of Julian of Eclanum. With the most recent monographs about Julian being the books by Albert Bruckner (1897) on Julian's role in the Pelagian controversy, Alberto Vaccari (1915) on Julian's commentary on Job, and Gilbert Bouwman (1958) on Julian's commentary on the minor prophets, this Habilitationschrift (Münster, 2001) fills a long standing chasm in research on Julian.

After introducing the reader to the present state of the research in his first chapter, Lössl dedicates chapters 2 and 3 to biographical data on Julian including the place and date of his birth, his family background and youth, and his marriage. A major source of information is the Epithalamium (Carmen 25) written by Paulinus of Nola for Julian and his wife, Titia, on the occasion of their marriage.

The major issue in chapter 4 is the tension between voluntarism and determinism in the thought of Julian. Lössl sides with both Bruckner and François Refoulé in finding an Aristotelian rather than Stoic influence on Julian in the development of his understanding of human free will. However, he holds that Refoulé went too far in asserting that an Aristotelian movement, suppressed during the Pelagian controversy, existed in Italy during the fourth century.

Julian's concept of God as both creator of the universe and sustainer of the natural order brings Julian into direct conflict with Augustine, who considers concupiscence evil. According to Julian, concupiscence is for baptized and unbaptized alike a good in the form of a bodily desire, whose moral control lies under the soul.

The exegesis of Julian, the subject of chapter 5, reflects the influence of Theodore of Mopsuestia and is thoroughly Antiochene. Rather than explaining Antiochene exegesis merely as literal vis-à-vis the allegorical exegesis of the Alexandrians, Lössl, following Bouwman, prefers to see Antiochene exegesis as a rational and logical mode of thought in contrast to the associative and mystical methodology of Alexandrian exegesis. In this context, literal versus allegorical is a symptom of the Antiochene theoria, which for Julian is a rational hermeneutical principle whereby, for example, the raptus of the prophets may be reduced to the ratio of the exegetes. Under the influence of the early Augustine, Julian's exegesis of Paul is thoroughly anti-Manichaean. Lössl (201-46) presents a detailed and valuable analysis of each specific Pauline passage commented upon by Julian.

In chapter 6 Lössl turns his attention to Julian's participation in the historical events of the Pelagian controversy. Having come from an old Christian family renowned for ecclesiastical service, Julian enhanced his ancestry even further by his relationship through marriage to the Aemilius family in Beneventum. His excellent secular education in the spirit of the genuine renaissance taking place in Rome during the fourth century including training in logic, grammar, and the natural sciences, gave him the intellectual capacity to be a formidable foe of Augustine.

Julian was ordained bishop around 416 by Innocent I. Pelagius, Caelestius, and their teaching were condemned in 418, and Julian's engagement on their behalf led only to his own condemnation and exile. He took refuge with Theodore in Mopsuestia and subsequently with Florus and other Pelagian friends in Constantinople. Finally, he was condemned by the council of Ephesus in 431. Julian apparently spent a long old age in Sicily as a village teacher and died sometime before 455.

As the title of his book indicates, Lössl deals with the Überlieferung of Julian's works. While not a major theme, textual issues are also treated, especially in chapter 1 and throughout the work at the appropriate places. Noteworthy is the author's...