Diodore the Theologian
Pronoia in his commentary of Psalms 1-50
By (author) Benjamin Wayman
A fresh proposal for the role of theology in Diodore’s exegesis of Psalms 1-50. “[T]his work, then, makes a general contribution [to the study of the patristic period], as well as a specific one to the study of Diodore. It marks a new stage in efforts to understand this church father and provides a solid basis for further investiga
This study examines the role of theology in the biblical commentary of a fourth-century pastor and teacher. The notion that theology and scripture are inextricably connected in early Christian thinking has become a scholarly commonplace in contemporary patristic scholarship. But the nature of the connection has been less than clear, particularly with respect to the commentary on Psalms 1-50 (ca. 372) composed by Diodore of Tarsus (d. ca. 394). Despite the fact that Diodore identifies pronoia (providence) as the central doctrinal theme of the Psalms in his Prologue to the Commentary, scholars have largely overlooked Diodores engagement with pronoia in his exegesis of the Psalms. This study argues that a specific account of pronoia supplies Diodores primary theological framework for interpreting the Psalms by generating the questions he asks of the text and shaping his view of other themes in the Psalms. For Diodore, pronoia is more than a theme he identifies in the Psalms. Rather, the nature of God’s pronoia is for Diodore the main doctrinal question posed by the Psalter, to which his exegesis of the Psalms provides the answer. That answer, then, is a view of pronoia which can be described as cooperative, reciprocal, and immanent.
Benjamin D. Wayman is assistant professor of religion at Greenville College. He holds the Ph.D. in historical theology (early Christianity) from Saint Louis University and the M.Div. from the Divinity School at Duke University.
- By (author) Benjamin Wayman
Other Titles in this Series
Bonds and Boundaries among the Early Churches
Community Maintenance in the Letter of James and the Didache
Volume 29
The Discovery of the Individual
Post-Chalcedonian Christological Debates and the Dawn of Scholasticism in Early-Byzantine Thought
Volume 68
Late Antique Calendrical Thought and its Reception in the Early Middle Ages
Proceedings from the Third International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe, Galway, 16-18 July, 2010
Volume 26
Meditations of the Heart: The Psalms in Early Christian Thought and Practice
Essays in Honour of Andrew Louth
Volume 8
The Anthropology of St Gregory Palamas
The Image of God, the Spiritual Senses, and the Human Body
Volume 38
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
From Topography to Text
The Image of Jerusalem in the Writings of Eucherius, Adomnan and Bede
Volume 30
Early Medieval Ireland and Europe: Chronology, Contacts, Scholarship
Festschrift for Daibhi O Croinin
Volume 14
Tabernacle, Table, Ark, and Text
Richard of Saint Victor on the Interpretation of Scripture
Volume 67
‘Vigilemus et Oremus’
The Theological Significance of 'Keeping Vigil' in Rome from the Fourth to the Eighth Centuries
Volume 42
The Easter Controversy of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Its Manuscripts, Texts, and Tables
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Science of Computus, Galway, 18-20 July, 2008
Volume 10
Analogical Identities
The Creation of the Christian Self: Volume 2: Self-catholicization, Meta-narcissism, and Christian Theology
Volume 57
Seeking the Face of God
The Reception of Augustine in the Mystical Thought of Bernard of Clairvaux and William of St Thierry
Volume 11
My God, my God why have you abandoned me
The experience of God's withdrawal in late antique exegesis, Christology and ascetic literature
Volume 43
Similar Books
A Companion to Christianity and Sport in Europe and North America (19th-21st centuries)
Volume 1: Western and Eastern Europe
A Connecting Polemic in the Medieval Mediterranean
The Correspondence of Leo III and ʿUmar II
Volume 6
Apocrypha, Magic, Liturgy
The Multiple Identities of Coptic Prayers in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Creating the Woman in Antiquity
Proceedings of the 16th Melammu Workshop, Innsbruck, 2–3 June 2022
Volume 13
Cultic Kisses
Fruitful Encounters Between Deities and Humans. Festschrift for Angelika Berlejung on the Occasion of Her 65th Birthday
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
De/colonizing Theologies
Glocal Histories, Contemporary Challenges, Theoretical Reflections
Volume 4
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius