To Theodore After His Fall

John Chrysostom (c. 347-407)

Written when both author and recipient were young students in Antioch around 369 to 372, these two letters address Theodore of Mopsuestia after he abandoned the ascetic life for a romantic attachment to a woman named Hermione. Chrysostom argues from Scripture, reason, and the logic of eternity that no fall is beyond recovery, that despair is itself a weapon of the devil, and that the terrors of hell and the glory of the resurrection are more real than any present pleasure. They are the earliest surviving pastoral letters of Chrysostom, remarkable for their urgency and for the theological seriousness they bring to what might seem a merely personal crisis.

2 hrs total · 24 chapters