Constructing Antichrist: Paul, Biblical Commentary, and the Development of Doctrine in the Early Middle Ages (review)

This handsome volume grew out of a dissertation written under Bernard McGinn, master mentor of many students of medieval theology. The title presents it as a study of the "doctrine"of Antichrist, that enigmatic figure of the apocalyptic tradition that kept the imagination of theologians, preachers, and common people busy for centuries. McGinn himself has interpreted the antichrist theme socio-theologically as "two thousand years of the human fascination with evil."Hughes's study moves in a different direction. On the assumption that Christian doctrine is based on biblical texts and their interpretation, the author follows step by step and with impressive learning the history of just one particular biblical text which is of prime importance for all antichrist lore and speculation, Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians—not just its famous second chapter but the entire letter. With this approach he joins the growing number of scholars, especially medievalists, who are taking up the history of biblical exegesis as a field of research that can throw new light on the history of Christian thought. Methodologically, Hughes is aware that working in this field stretches the skills of the historian to the limits, analytically as well as synthetically. He proceeds with great caution and knows the importance of being open to surprises. The surprise in this case is that the early and medieval commentaries do not reflect the burning contemporary concerns of an age when apocalyptic emotions and fears reached new peaks time and again. As the author explains, medieval commentators saw Paul primarily as a teacher, not as a prophet, and tried to extract coherent doctrine from the text, not predictions of their own contemporary situation. Hughes finds two major strands in the early exegesis of the letter: an apocalyptic realism that considers Antichrist as an individual figure, tyrant or deceiver, whose appearance will be part of the actual events at the endtime, and a spiritual interpretation, typical of the Latin tradition, which reflects on interior dangers in the individual soul and speaks of a communal "body of antichrist"in contrast to, but also within, the Church, the "body of Christ" throughout history. Major representatives of the former strand are the Ambrosiaster, Pelagius, and Theodore of Mopsuestia (in Latin), of the latter Tyconius, Augustine, and Gregory the Great. The author himself is uneasy with the term "spiritual" for the Tyconian-Augustinian interpretation; "spiritual" exegesis refers to the anagogical function of the biblical text. "Metaphorical" or "figurative" may be better choices. Hughes shows that early medieval interpreters do not choose between these two options but hold them together as parts of the one normative tradition of Bible and Fathers. He is at his best in the presentation of the Carolingian authors. The sections on Rabanus Maurus and especially Haimo of Auxerre are masterpieces of careful source analysis and authoritative textual/contextual reading. The eleventh-century authors (Lanfranc, Bruno) whose Pauline commentaries have not found much interest to date, will need more work; here Hughes's bold deductions are less convincing because the textual basis presents him with problems. The diachronic survey of the material ends with the Glossa ordinaria and Peter Lombard, whose exegetical work Hughes sees correctly at the transition point to a new form of scholastic commentary. Throughout the book, the introductions to each exegete, which show the author in full command of the literature in the field, are particularly valuable. Together they form a helpful roadmap of the state of scholarship on the medieval interpretation of Paul and could be used as such by anyone planning to venture into this relatively unexplored territory. More than that, Hughes's competent investigation of one short letter in its entirety demonstrates that the exegetical history of the Pauline Epistles is a gold mine for the historian of Christian doctrine. One can only wish that he will find imitators, equally enthusiastic prospectors who will...