Golden Mouth: The Story of John Chrysostom--Ascetic, Preacher, Bishop

Golden Mouth: The Story of John Chrysostom-Ascetic, Preacher, Bishop. By J. N. D. Kelly. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998, 310 pp., $19.99 paper.

This is a paperback reissue of a biography first published in hardback in 1995 by Duckworth in the United Kingdom and Cornell University Press in the United States. Kelly was the Principal of Saint Edmund Hall, Oxford and University Lecturer in Patristic Studies. He is well known for his Early Christian Doctrines and his previous biography, Jerome: His Life, Writings and Controversies. This biography is built upon the Hensley Henson lectures given at Oxford in 1979-1980.

This is an excellent book. It is well written and should be helpful to any graduate divinity student. It will find its way into every Bible college and seminary library and would be a clear choice for a secondary text for any elective course on Chrysostom.

Kelly works through the life of John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) in chronological order from his youth in Antioch with its ascetic period followed by his initial development as a preacher. Later chapters cover his unexpected promotion to the Archbishopric of Constantinople and his career in the capital city, which showed both his strengths and weaknesses. He remained a great preacher but was very non-political in the way he castigated clergy who did not match his standards for rigor and alienated the political leadership with his criticisms of abused wealth. He also showed hospitality to refugee monks who had fled from Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria. This hospitality offended Theophilus who was looking for an excuse to move against John ever since he had been made Archbishop over Theophilus's choice. This conflict paved the way for John's condemnation at the Synod of the Oak in 403. He was exiled but recalled after a riot rocked the capital city. Theophilus quickly returned to Egypt. John was sent into his final exile after offending the royal couple with his continued condemnations of the abuse of wealth by the elite of the empire. Supporters visited him in exile, and he was sent further and further away from Constantinople. He died wandering with an escort of soldiers in eastern Anatolia. His body was returned in triumph to the capital city about three decades later.

Kelly concludes with three excellent appendixes. The second one on the early chronology of John's life works well with the relevant primary sources as well as previous secondary discussions and posits a workable timetable for John's early years. Kelly also includes two helpful maps of Antioch and Constantinople.

To those familiar with the usual Latinized form of Greek names, Kelly's partial break with tradition will delight the purist but frustrate others. John's mother Anthusa (Latinized) becomes Anthousa, Socrates becomes Sokrates, Secundus (John's father) becomes Sekoundos, etc. By Kelly's own admission Nicaea does not become Nikaia. A more accurate way of transliterating Greek names may be in our future, and Kelly wishes to move us along in this process.

The obvious question is: Will this work replace the current standard, Chrysostomus Baur's John Chrysostom and His Time (German original 1929/1930; English translation 1959)? Baur's ponderous two-volume work is more than 900 pages in the English translation, about three times the size of Kelly's. The quality of the English translation of Baur has been questioned as well. Also, the more than half-century that has elapsed between Baur and Kelly has seen many advances in Chrysostom scholarship. On one front, Baur had little more than Migne as a gateway into the Chrysostom corpus. In recent decades there has been a fairly steady stream of critical texts in the Sources Chretiennes series. The very important discovery of additional baptismal homilies by A. Wenger in 1955 at Mount Athos and their publication in 1970 was not available to Baur. Also, J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz's Barbarians and Bishops: Army, Church, and State in the Age of Arcadius and Chrysostom (Oxford, 1990) and other studies have further explicated the historical context of Chrysostom's life. The difficult context of the initial eastern and western division of the empire and both governments' relationship to Gothic mercenaries and invaders is becoming clearer.

Those who have Baur will need to add Kelly. Libraries supporting doctoral studies and specialists will need both. For the general historian or theologian, Kelly will provide excellent coverage of John's life and work.

In summary, this book is highly recommended. The less-costly paperback edition is welcomed.

R. A. Krupp

Western Seminary, Portland, OR

Copyright Evangelical Theological Society Dec 2000
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