Dr. Han-luen Kantzer Komline is Professor of Church History and Theology at Western Theological Seminary. Her first book is Augustine on the Will: A Theological Account (OUP). Her current project is on tradition and innovation in early Christian theology.
This book provides a framework for Augustine's understanding of will, an aspect of his thought th... more This book provides a framework for Augustine's understanding of will, an aspect of his thought that has proven to be both essential and inscrutable. On the one hand, the Augustinian will is everywhere. It comes up constantly both in Augustine's thought and in the massive literature engaging it. The will is impossible to avoid in almost any treatment of any aspect of his thinking, whether theological, philosophical, psychological, or political, because it is at the heart of his understanding of the human person and therefore vital to his understanding of such diverse topics as grace, freedom, the image of God, and moral responsibility. On the other hand, Augustine's understanding of the will resists direct examination. With the exception of an early treatise on free choice, Augustine never devoted a work to exploring the will in a programmatic way. Likewise, while the Augustinian will is constantly invoked in secondary literature, it rarely receives analysis in its own right.
Han-luen Kantzer Komline demonstrates that Augustine's view is "theologically differentiated," comprising four distinct types of human will, which correspond to four different theological scenarios. Augustine's innovation consists in distinguishing these types with a detail and clarity unprecedented by any thinker before him. This account of the Augustinian will gives a comprehensive picture of the development and mature shape of Augustine's thinking on this vital yet perennially puzzling topic.
This paper brings the thought of John Calvin into dialogue with Erich Przywara's Analogia Entis i... more This paper brings the thought of John Calvin into dialogue with Erich Przywara's Analogia Entis in order to reboot the Reformed-Catholic dialogue on the analogy of being, which Karl Barth has tended to dominate. The paper begins by distilling from Analogia Entis, and explicating, nine key principles that express Przywara's understanding of the analogy of being (Part I). It then turns to the relationship between God and creation expressed in Calvin's Institutes 1.1–5, demonstrating that in these crucial opening chapters Calvin explicitly affirms his own version of each of these nine principles save one, which he explicitly endorses elsewhere in the Institutes (Part II). Based on this analysis, the paper proposes that the relationship between Calvin and Przywara ought best to be viewed as one of dissimilarity amid greater similarity and that Calvin be retrieved as a fruitful resource for Reformed-Catholic détente on the issue of ontology.
This essay surveys Barth's reception of Augustine. I first discuss the big picture, presenting s... more This essay surveys Barth's reception of Augustine. I first discuss the big picture, presenting statistics on how often Barth cites Augustine, discussing the works in which his engagement with Augustine is concentrated, and considering which Augustinian works Barth favors and why. I then turn to Barth's debts to Augustine, considering Augustine's influence on Barth's doctrine of the trinity, pneumatology, doctrine of election, theological anthropology, and doctrine of grace. I argue that Barth's doctrine of election is Augustinian. In the third part of the paper I address Barth's criticisms of Augustine. Finally, I step back to compare these two theologians in terms of the style, development, and spiritual posture of their theologies.
This essay provides an overview of the doctrine of predestination in the Early Church, demonstrat... more This essay provides an overview of the doctrine of predestination in the Early Church, demonstrating that Origen and Augustine represent two major but contrasting trajectories, but also that eastern and western versions of the doctrine do not neatly fall into line behind these two thinkers. The essay analyzes sources and analogs for early Christian views in Judaism, Gnosticism, and the Christian Scriptures. It discusses Greek views of predestination, arguing that many thinkers, despite common expectations to the contrary, developed the doctrine positively. The essay analyzes the treatment of predestination in Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and John of Damascus. The essay also assesses Latin views of predestination, including the following figures: Tertullian, Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose of Milan, Ambrosiaster, Jerome, Augustine, John Cassian, Faustus of Riez, Prosper of Aquitaine, Fulgentius of Ruspe, Caesarius of Arles, Leo the Great, and Boethius. The essay then considers reception of early Christian accounts of predestination in the medieval and early modern periods, ending with Karl Barth. In sum, the essay shows that the doctrine of predestination was far from latent outside of Augustine and the Reformation. Leading theologians addressed the theme in both East and West and saw it as an integral to the core of Christian belief.
The essay also provides a historiography and bibliography on predestination in the Early Church.
This theological reading of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead brings out some similarities between an u... more This theological reading of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead brings out some similarities between an unlikely pair: Augustine of Hippo and Robinson's literary creation John Ames. In Gilead, John Ames undergoes an Augustinian saga of the heart whereby he experiences a metamorphosis through four heart conditions: wholeheartedness, heart failure, heartburn, and cardiac rest. These transformations make him a microcosm of the four states of the human person associated with Augustine. Just as Augustine's theology illuminates many of the themes and scenes of Gilead, John Ames of Gilead illustrates many of the insights at the heart of Augustine's story of humanity in relation to God: beauty, humility, mercy, sin, forgiveness, and grace.
Time and again during the Pelagian controversy, Augustine appeals to Ambrose’s Commentary on Luke... more Time and again during the Pelagian controversy, Augustine appeals to Ambrose’s Commentary on Luke for support. Careful investigation of these appeals shows that Ambrose provided key building blocks for, though not the blueprints of, Augustine’s thinking about God’s impact on the human will. Thus it is mistaken to assume either that Augustine’s teaching on God’s impact on the human will was entirely novel in the Christian tradition, an accusation already levied against him by critics in his own time, or that his view merely repackaged earlier traditions in a more provocative way. Augustine’s teaching on God’s impact on the human will creatively combined/repurposed elements he found in Ambrose for use in “new” construction.
Beginning in the second phase of the Pelagian controversy, Augustine repeatedly refers to Cyprian... more Beginning in the second phase of the Pelagian controversy, Augustine repeatedly refers to Cyprian’s little work on the Lord’s Prayer to defend his perspective on grace. In this text, Augustine claims, one finds an unambiguous precedent for his controversial teaching. The following article assesses the validity and significance of Augustine’s appeal to Cyprian. First, I show that this appeal offered obvious strategic advantages, which may help to explain why Augustine cited Cyprian by name more than he did any other author from the early church, excepting only the apostle Paul. I next turn to evaluate the material basis for Augustine’s appeal to Cyprian, showing that Cyprian does indeed support Augustine’s case against a more “Pelagian view of grace in three major areas. Finally, I argue for the possibility that Cyprian’s work influenced Augustine’s mature thinking on grace. In sum, this article show the crucial importance of Cyprian’s On the Lord’s Prayer for Augustine’s view of grace, which courses through the heart of his theology. Augustine is no David who takes on the “Pelagian” opposition alone. Like David, however, he does pluck a lethal set of stones from a stream that has worn them smooth. Augustine’s stream flows from Cyprian.
Augustine affirms a distinct human will in Christ, in addition to the divine will Christ shared a... more Augustine affirms a distinct human will in Christ, in addition to the divine will Christ shared as one of the Trinity, in a number of places in his corpus. Taken together, these texts illustrate that Augustine consistently affirmed Christ’s possession of a human will from the early years of his ministry, when his Exposition of Psalm 100 was recorded, until the very last few years of his life, when he penned Contra Maximinum. How he understood Christ’s human will to relate to Christ’s divine will, however, developed considerably over time. Ultimately, Augustine came to anticipate Maximus not only by virtue of the fact that he affirmed a human will in Christ, but also by virtue of how he characterized this human will.
This article constructs two responses to Moltmann's critique of Barth's doctrine of divine freedo... more This article constructs two responses to Moltmann's critique of Barth's doctrine of divine freedom in Trinity and the Kingdom, a first on the basis of Barth's programmatic treatment of divine freedom in II/1 of the Church Dogmatics and a second on the basis of Bruce McCormack's reading of Barth's doctrine of election. It shows why the Barth of II/1 must dismiss Moltmann's concern for the priority of God's loving relationship to the world while Barth as interpreted by McCormack can accommodate it. Finally it observes the significance of this twofold defense for mapping Barth onto the terrain of modern theology.
Revue d’études augustiniennes et patristiques, 2012
In a number of his writings, from his exposition of Psalm 100, thought to stem from Augustine’s m... more In a number of his writings, from his exposition of Psalm 100, thought to stem from Augustine’s ministry as priest, to his disputation with Maximinus in the last few years of his life, Augustine refers to a distinctly human will of Christ made manifest in his agony in Gethsemane. How he describes this human will, however, evolves in several ways. In a first phase of his teachings on the subject, running roughly from 395-414, Augustine tends to associate Christ’s human will with other human wills that are in tension with God’s will and explicitly connects Christ’s human will with his wish to let the cup pass, though not with the fiat that follows in the gospel accounts. Later in his career, in contrast, Augustine tends to underline the distinctiveness of Christ’s human will with respect to the sinful human will of Adam, and shows a greater interest in connecting Christ’s human will with his submission to the will of the Father in Gethsemane. Thus, despite differences in terminology, Augustine’s mature view of Christ’s human will does show some parallels with that of Maximus; the development of his own thinking on this issue thus represents an overlooked anticipation of a development often assumed to have happened only over a period of centuries, which intervened between fathers like Athanasius, Marcellus of Ancyra and Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor.
David Kelsey develops a theological anthropology in Eccentric Existence whose structure proves di... more David Kelsey develops a theological anthropology in Eccentric Existence whose structure proves distinctly Reformed, though in a methodologically innovative way. Precisely this "Reformed" structure serves to open up ecumenically fruitful dimensions to his constructive proposal. After providing in broad strokes a sketch of the dense yet expansive theological anthropology advanced in Eccentric Existence, this essay homes in on a key image Kelsey implements to represent the shape of his account of human being, namely the image of the triple helix, by introducing its methodological underpinnings and basic structure. It then uses this image as a lens by which to bring into focus the unique location of Eccentric Existence in the larger contexts of Kelsey's work and the Reformed and ecumenical Christian traditions.
This essay explores finite humanity’s relationship with the revealed infinite God, taking David B... more This essay explores finite humanity’s relationship with the revealed infinite God, taking David Bentley Hart’s portrayal of finitude in The Beauty of the Infinite: Aesthetics of Christian Truth as its entry point. First, it analyzes Hart’s characterization of finitude with respect to other themes in Hart’s theological scheme. It then evaluates this characterization both in terms of internal consistency and as symptomatic of certain issues in Hart’s theology. Finally, it suggests a way for Hart’s articulation of finite human participation in the infinite God to be clarified. This clarification solves several significant problems in Hart’s theological system
This book provides a framework for Augustine's understanding of will, an aspect of his thought th... more This book provides a framework for Augustine's understanding of will, an aspect of his thought that has proven to be both essential and inscrutable. On the one hand, the Augustinian will is everywhere. It comes up constantly both in Augustine's thought and in the massive literature engaging it. The will is impossible to avoid in almost any treatment of any aspect of his thinking, whether theological, philosophical, psychological, or political, because it is at the heart of his understanding of the human person and therefore vital to his understanding of such diverse topics as grace, freedom, the image of God, and moral responsibility. On the other hand, Augustine's understanding of the will resists direct examination. With the exception of an early treatise on free choice, Augustine never devoted a work to exploring the will in a programmatic way. Likewise, while the Augustinian will is constantly invoked in secondary literature, it rarely receives analysis in its own right.
Han-luen Kantzer Komline demonstrates that Augustine's view is "theologically differentiated," comprising four distinct types of human will, which correspond to four different theological scenarios. Augustine's innovation consists in distinguishing these types with a detail and clarity unprecedented by any thinker before him. This account of the Augustinian will gives a comprehensive picture of the development and mature shape of Augustine's thinking on this vital yet perennially puzzling topic.
This paper brings the thought of John Calvin into dialogue with Erich Przywara's Analogia Entis i... more This paper brings the thought of John Calvin into dialogue with Erich Przywara's Analogia Entis in order to reboot the Reformed-Catholic dialogue on the analogy of being, which Karl Barth has tended to dominate. The paper begins by distilling from Analogia Entis, and explicating, nine key principles that express Przywara's understanding of the analogy of being (Part I). It then turns to the relationship between God and creation expressed in Calvin's Institutes 1.1–5, demonstrating that in these crucial opening chapters Calvin explicitly affirms his own version of each of these nine principles save one, which he explicitly endorses elsewhere in the Institutes (Part II). Based on this analysis, the paper proposes that the relationship between Calvin and Przywara ought best to be viewed as one of dissimilarity amid greater similarity and that Calvin be retrieved as a fruitful resource for Reformed-Catholic détente on the issue of ontology.
This essay surveys Barth's reception of Augustine. I first discuss the big picture, presenting s... more This essay surveys Barth's reception of Augustine. I first discuss the big picture, presenting statistics on how often Barth cites Augustine, discussing the works in which his engagement with Augustine is concentrated, and considering which Augustinian works Barth favors and why. I then turn to Barth's debts to Augustine, considering Augustine's influence on Barth's doctrine of the trinity, pneumatology, doctrine of election, theological anthropology, and doctrine of grace. I argue that Barth's doctrine of election is Augustinian. In the third part of the paper I address Barth's criticisms of Augustine. Finally, I step back to compare these two theologians in terms of the style, development, and spiritual posture of their theologies.
This essay provides an overview of the doctrine of predestination in the Early Church, demonstrat... more This essay provides an overview of the doctrine of predestination in the Early Church, demonstrating that Origen and Augustine represent two major but contrasting trajectories, but also that eastern and western versions of the doctrine do not neatly fall into line behind these two thinkers. The essay analyzes sources and analogs for early Christian views in Judaism, Gnosticism, and the Christian Scriptures. It discusses Greek views of predestination, arguing that many thinkers, despite common expectations to the contrary, developed the doctrine positively. The essay analyzes the treatment of predestination in Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and John of Damascus. The essay also assesses Latin views of predestination, including the following figures: Tertullian, Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose of Milan, Ambrosiaster, Jerome, Augustine, John Cassian, Faustus of Riez, Prosper of Aquitaine, Fulgentius of Ruspe, Caesarius of Arles, Leo the Great, and Boethius. The essay then considers reception of early Christian accounts of predestination in the medieval and early modern periods, ending with Karl Barth. In sum, the essay shows that the doctrine of predestination was far from latent outside of Augustine and the Reformation. Leading theologians addressed the theme in both East and West and saw it as an integral to the core of Christian belief.
The essay also provides a historiography and bibliography on predestination in the Early Church.
This theological reading of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead brings out some similarities between an u... more This theological reading of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead brings out some similarities between an unlikely pair: Augustine of Hippo and Robinson's literary creation John Ames. In Gilead, John Ames undergoes an Augustinian saga of the heart whereby he experiences a metamorphosis through four heart conditions: wholeheartedness, heart failure, heartburn, and cardiac rest. These transformations make him a microcosm of the four states of the human person associated with Augustine. Just as Augustine's theology illuminates many of the themes and scenes of Gilead, John Ames of Gilead illustrates many of the insights at the heart of Augustine's story of humanity in relation to God: beauty, humility, mercy, sin, forgiveness, and grace.
Time and again during the Pelagian controversy, Augustine appeals to Ambrose’s Commentary on Luke... more Time and again during the Pelagian controversy, Augustine appeals to Ambrose’s Commentary on Luke for support. Careful investigation of these appeals shows that Ambrose provided key building blocks for, though not the blueprints of, Augustine’s thinking about God’s impact on the human will. Thus it is mistaken to assume either that Augustine’s teaching on God’s impact on the human will was entirely novel in the Christian tradition, an accusation already levied against him by critics in his own time, or that his view merely repackaged earlier traditions in a more provocative way. Augustine’s teaching on God’s impact on the human will creatively combined/repurposed elements he found in Ambrose for use in “new” construction.
Beginning in the second phase of the Pelagian controversy, Augustine repeatedly refers to Cyprian... more Beginning in the second phase of the Pelagian controversy, Augustine repeatedly refers to Cyprian’s little work on the Lord’s Prayer to defend his perspective on grace. In this text, Augustine claims, one finds an unambiguous precedent for his controversial teaching. The following article assesses the validity and significance of Augustine’s appeal to Cyprian. First, I show that this appeal offered obvious strategic advantages, which may help to explain why Augustine cited Cyprian by name more than he did any other author from the early church, excepting only the apostle Paul. I next turn to evaluate the material basis for Augustine’s appeal to Cyprian, showing that Cyprian does indeed support Augustine’s case against a more “Pelagian view of grace in three major areas. Finally, I argue for the possibility that Cyprian’s work influenced Augustine’s mature thinking on grace. In sum, this article show the crucial importance of Cyprian’s On the Lord’s Prayer for Augustine’s view of grace, which courses through the heart of his theology. Augustine is no David who takes on the “Pelagian” opposition alone. Like David, however, he does pluck a lethal set of stones from a stream that has worn them smooth. Augustine’s stream flows from Cyprian.
Augustine affirms a distinct human will in Christ, in addition to the divine will Christ shared a... more Augustine affirms a distinct human will in Christ, in addition to the divine will Christ shared as one of the Trinity, in a number of places in his corpus. Taken together, these texts illustrate that Augustine consistently affirmed Christ’s possession of a human will from the early years of his ministry, when his Exposition of Psalm 100 was recorded, until the very last few years of his life, when he penned Contra Maximinum. How he understood Christ’s human will to relate to Christ’s divine will, however, developed considerably over time. Ultimately, Augustine came to anticipate Maximus not only by virtue of the fact that he affirmed a human will in Christ, but also by virtue of how he characterized this human will.
This article constructs two responses to Moltmann's critique of Barth's doctrine of divine freedo... more This article constructs two responses to Moltmann's critique of Barth's doctrine of divine freedom in Trinity and the Kingdom, a first on the basis of Barth's programmatic treatment of divine freedom in II/1 of the Church Dogmatics and a second on the basis of Bruce McCormack's reading of Barth's doctrine of election. It shows why the Barth of II/1 must dismiss Moltmann's concern for the priority of God's loving relationship to the world while Barth as interpreted by McCormack can accommodate it. Finally it observes the significance of this twofold defense for mapping Barth onto the terrain of modern theology.
Revue d’études augustiniennes et patristiques, 2012
In a number of his writings, from his exposition of Psalm 100, thought to stem from Augustine’s m... more In a number of his writings, from his exposition of Psalm 100, thought to stem from Augustine’s ministry as priest, to his disputation with Maximinus in the last few years of his life, Augustine refers to a distinctly human will of Christ made manifest in his agony in Gethsemane. How he describes this human will, however, evolves in several ways. In a first phase of his teachings on the subject, running roughly from 395-414, Augustine tends to associate Christ’s human will with other human wills that are in tension with God’s will and explicitly connects Christ’s human will with his wish to let the cup pass, though not with the fiat that follows in the gospel accounts. Later in his career, in contrast, Augustine tends to underline the distinctiveness of Christ’s human will with respect to the sinful human will of Adam, and shows a greater interest in connecting Christ’s human will with his submission to the will of the Father in Gethsemane. Thus, despite differences in terminology, Augustine’s mature view of Christ’s human will does show some parallels with that of Maximus; the development of his own thinking on this issue thus represents an overlooked anticipation of a development often assumed to have happened only over a period of centuries, which intervened between fathers like Athanasius, Marcellus of Ancyra and Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor.
David Kelsey develops a theological anthropology in Eccentric Existence whose structure proves di... more David Kelsey develops a theological anthropology in Eccentric Existence whose structure proves distinctly Reformed, though in a methodologically innovative way. Precisely this "Reformed" structure serves to open up ecumenically fruitful dimensions to his constructive proposal. After providing in broad strokes a sketch of the dense yet expansive theological anthropology advanced in Eccentric Existence, this essay homes in on a key image Kelsey implements to represent the shape of his account of human being, namely the image of the triple helix, by introducing its methodological underpinnings and basic structure. It then uses this image as a lens by which to bring into focus the unique location of Eccentric Existence in the larger contexts of Kelsey's work and the Reformed and ecumenical Christian traditions.
This essay explores finite humanity’s relationship with the revealed infinite God, taking David B... more This essay explores finite humanity’s relationship with the revealed infinite God, taking David Bentley Hart’s portrayal of finitude in The Beauty of the Infinite: Aesthetics of Christian Truth as its entry point. First, it analyzes Hart’s characterization of finitude with respect to other themes in Hart’s theological scheme. It then evaluates this characterization both in terms of internal consistency and as symptomatic of certain issues in Hart’s theology. Finally, it suggests a way for Hart’s articulation of finite human participation in the infinite God to be clarified. This clarification solves several significant problems in Hart’s theological system
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Han-luen Kantzer Komline demonstrates that Augustine's view is "theologically differentiated," comprising four distinct types of human will, which correspond to four different theological scenarios. Augustine's innovation consists in distinguishing these types with a detail and clarity unprecedented by any thinker before him. This account of the Augustinian will gives a comprehensive picture of the development and mature shape of Augustine's thinking on this vital yet perennially puzzling topic.
The essay also provides a historiography and bibliography on predestination in the Early Church.
Han-luen Kantzer Komline demonstrates that Augustine's view is "theologically differentiated," comprising four distinct types of human will, which correspond to four different theological scenarios. Augustine's innovation consists in distinguishing these types with a detail and clarity unprecedented by any thinker before him. This account of the Augustinian will gives a comprehensive picture of the development and mature shape of Augustine's thinking on this vital yet perennially puzzling topic.
The essay also provides a historiography and bibliography on predestination in the Early Church.