Folia Theologica et Canonica 1. 23/15 (2012)
RECENSIONS
RECENSIONS 285 gious Studies. Her research were summarized in several publications, here we refer to those important books which support her experience in field of patristic theology: Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy: The Making of a Saint and of a Heretic (Oxford 2004); Leo the Great and the Spiritual Rebuilding of a Universal Rome (Leiden 2008); moreover can be also indicated one of her many articles because its theme: The Politics of Text and Tradition in the Council of Constantinople III (AD 680/1), in Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum 38 (2006) 35-54. Focusing on the Pre-Nicean period of the Church, she emphasizes that the 2nd and 3rd century patristic writers formed the theological basis of the independent internal life of the Church. These writings cannot call “disciplinary” works because the goal of the authors was basically the teaching or giving theological argumentation which obviously involved ecclesiological and disciplinary questions. The separation therefore of doctrine and discipline within these patristic works (which sometimes remained only in fragmented form) is impossible. Here must be indicated St. Ignatius of Antioch (|H0), St. Polycarp (1156), St. Justin (f 165), St. Theophilus of Antioch (the sixth bishop of Antioch), Melito of Sardis (second half of the 2nd century), St. Clement of Alexandria (fbefore 215), Origen (4253/254), Peter of Alexandra (f311), Lucian of Antioch (f312). The other internal sources of this early time the synods or councils, both were coming from the Roman law. Already in the second part of the 2l,d century there are information about these types of assemblies, however we have only indirect references to them. The eminent source of the 2nd and 3rd century councils is certainly the Historia Ecclesiae by Eusebius of Caesarea (f339). When the political conditions changed in the Roman Empire by the prosperous dispositions of Constantine the Great (i.e. Edict of Milan in 313) the Church rapidly improved her institutional system which was already fairly prepared by the above indicated authors, synods and councils. This means the dawn of that process (e.g., Council of Ancyra [314], Council of Neocesarea [314/319]) which concluded into the Council of Nicaea (325). The Second Chapter by Heinz Ohme analyzing the Eastern councils, however, the author uses also the patristic writers and their doctrinal and disciplinary concept in order to make more understandable the contents of the presented Eastern legislation up to the Council of Trull (Sources of the Greek Canon Law to the Quinisext Council (691/2): Councils and Church Fathers, 24-114). Professor Ohme is well known expert of the Eastern conciliar history. Perhaps his most famous publication is concerning the Collectio Trullana (i.e. Das Concilium Quinisextum und seine Bischofliste. Studien zum Konstantinopler Konzil von 692 [Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 56], Berlin-New York 1990). He teaches at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Theologische Fakultät and his research activity has a close bond to the Council of Trull (e.g., Concilium Quinisextum. Das Konzil Quinisextum. Griechisch-Deutsch, bersetzung und Einleitung [Fontes Christiani 82], Turnhout 2006), however in the last years he de-
