Seven Exegetical Works

by Ambrose of Milan

Publisher:

Catholic University of America

, 1972

Overview

St. Ambrose was an archbishop of Milan and one of the most influential figures of the fourth century. He is one of the four original Doctors of the Church and Latin theologians. His writings had a direct influence on St. Augustine, and his intense ecclesiastical awareness expanded and reinforced the Church’s sacerdotal ministry and the high standards of Christian ethics. He furthered fourth-century Mariology, Christology, and soteriology, and allegedly ended Arianism in his diocese, Milan. These volumes of his collected and translated writings bring the intensity of his ancient rhetoric back to the present, allowing us an unusually full glimpse at the early church.

Key Features

• Useful for study of the early church
• Allows readers to observe the exegetical approach of Saint Ambrose
• One of 127 published volumes in a well-respected series on the Church Fathers

Contents

Top Highlights

“, in sending his son to his brothers to see if it was well with the sheep,¹ foresaw the mysteries of the Incarnation” (Page 192)

“‘May you become thousands of myriads and may your seed possess the cities of their enemies.’⁷ Therefore the Church is beautiful, for she has acquired sons from hostile nations. But this passage can be interpreted in reference to the soul, which subdues the bodily passions, turns them to the service of the virtues, and makes resistant feelings subject to itself. And so the soul of the patriarch Isaac, seeing the mystery of Christ, seeing Rebecca coming with vessels of gold and silver,⁸ as if she were the Church with the people of the nations, and marveling at the beauty of the Word and of His sacraments, says, ‘Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.’⁹ And Rebecca, seeing the true Isaac, that true joy, and true source of mirth, desires to kiss him.” (Page 15)

“Enos’ successor called upon God in hope and so is thought to have been transported.¹¹ And so only that man seems to be ‘man’ who puts his hope in God. Moreover, the clear and truthful sense of the passage is that one who puts his hope in God does not dwell on earth but is transported, so to speak, and cleaves to God.” (Page 11)

“‘Go forth in the tracks of the flocks and pasture your kids beside the tents of the shepherds.’^{24” (Page 21)}

“What does it mean, then: ‘Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth’? Think upon the Church,¹⁰ in suspense over many ages at the coming of the Lord, long promised her through the prophets. And think upon the soul, lifting herself up from the body and rejecting indulgence and fleshly delights and pleasures, and laying aside as well her concern for worldly vanities. For a long time now she has desired to be infused with God’s presence and has desired, too, the grace of the Word of salvation, and has wasted away, because he is coming late, and has been struck down, wounded with love as it were,¹¹ since she cannot endure his delays.” (Page 15)

Product Details

• Title: Seven Exegetical Works
• Author: Ambrose of Milan
• Series: The Fathers of the Church
• Volume: 65
• Publisher: Catholic University of America
• Print Publication Date: 1972
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Pages: 494
• Era: era:nicene
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Theology › Early works to 1800
• ISBNs: 0813200652, 081321355, 9780813200651
• Resource ID: LLS:SVNXGTCLWRKS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:59:16Z

About Ambrose of Milan

Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose (c. between 337 and 340 – 4 April 397), was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He was one of the four original doctors of the Church.