Jerome and Augustine on wealth and poverty in Psalms 107–150

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Jerome and Augustine on wealth and poverty in Psalms 107–150
 
Creator Allen, Pauline Kritzinger, Jacobus P. K.
 
Subject Patristic Studies Augustine; Jerome; wealth; poverty; almsgiving; Psalms
Description The purpose of this article was to compare Jerome’s and Augustine’s sermons on the fifth book of the Psalms with regard to their views on the rich and the poor. After a brief consideration of the different audiences of Jerome and Augustine, we focused on their attitudes to wealth and poverty, and almsgiving and its relationship to eschatology. In both Jerome’s and Augustine’s commentaries we were confronted with problems regarding the nature of the collections, the composition of the audiences, and a lack of overlap between the two works, but it was possible to discern congruences and differences in their exegesis. In their preaching on poverty and riches, both homilists associated Judas with the devil and wealth. With regard to the identification of Christ and the poor, Jerome offers a somewhat uneasy exegesis in explaining that Christ stands at the right hand of the pauper, although the Lord himself is rich. Augustine mentioned the identification of Christ and the poor a few times in Enarrationes in Psalmos and framed the poverty of Christ within the body of the church, emphasising the common humanity of his congregation. In his sermons, mainly delivered to monks, Jerome advocated total renunciation. Augustine made more allowances for human frailty, advocating partial and gradual dispossession. The Songs of Ascent provided both our authors with the opportunity to consider the place of almsgiving in an eschatological context.Contribution: We investigate the views of two prominent Latin fathers on wealth and poverty in their sermons on Psalms 109–150. The focus on wealth and poverty is evident. Judas is identified with the rich and Christ with the poor, placing Christ and riches against each other in an either/or position.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2021-08-31
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Literary Analysis
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v77i1.6805
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 77, No 1 (2021); 9 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6805/19567 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6805/19568 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6805/19569 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6805/19570
 
Coverage — Early Christian —
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Pauline Allen, Jacobus P.K. Kritzinger https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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