Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 38, No. 1, Jan.

ig8y

Short Notices

Enkrateia e antropologia. Le motivazioni protologiche della continenza e della verginita nel

cristianesimo dei primi secoli e nello gnosticismo. By Giulia Sfameni Gasparro.
(Studia Ephemeridis 'Augustinianum' 20.) Pp. 405. Rome: Institutum
Patristicum 'Augustinianum', 1984.
The author adds a sound book to the wealth of patristic scholarship coming out
of Italy. She aims to explore the relation between theories of continence and
interpretations of the biblical narratives of the origin of man, as they were known
in the early Christian centuries. There are other grounds on which sexual
abstinence might be based: dualism, the teaching of the Gospel on eunouchia for
the sake of the Kingdom, and the impending eschaton. But the ground most
elaborated is the Genesis text. Gasparro reviews first the radical encratism of such
as Tatian. This usually assumes that Adam and Eve fell into matrimony by
sinning, or into sinning by matrimony. Secondly the dualists are examined, such
as Marcion and gnostics, who attribute the positive creation of male and female
and their reproduction to the work of the inferior creator, diverting spirits from
their celestial destiny. Finally the longest section examines the moderate encratism
of the Fathers, both Latin and Greek. They mostly regard marriage as good, but
only in the context in which fallen mankind now finds itself. Before Adam's sin
in the garden modest continence was sustained, and if there was to be any
reproduction it was (at least in Gregory of Nyssa) angelic and sexless. The
Origenist tradition in fact postulates an angelic physical state before the sin of
Adam, but after the first spiritual fall, a state to which the saints are restored.
Present continence is an anticipation of that end and a sign of it, given only with
the new dispensation of the Gospel. There are of course many variations within
these three broad bands, and they are set out and documented clearly. This is
a valuable contribution to contemporary discussions of the nature and purpose
of sexual abstinence among Christians, and a worthwhile piece of patristic
research.
KING'S COLLEGE, STUART G. HALL
LONDON

Studies in Christian Antiquity. By Richard P. C. Hanson. Pp. xi + 394. Edinburgh:

T. & T. Clark, 1985. £16.95. ° 5 6 7 09363 8
Sixteen of the seventeen essays in this collection have appeared before, mostly in
obscure places. Despite Hanson's discouraging preface we shall surely welcome
the book in so far as we judge the pieces worthy of resurrection: several are classic
examples of the quality and style of scholarship we associate with Hanson's other
widely read works.
About half the essays are concerned with history and use of sources, while the
rest are more relevant to doctrinal issues. In each essay Hanson illustrates his topic
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