Julian of Eclanum

Julian of Eclanum (* around 386 in Puglia , † around 455 in Sicily ) was Bishop of Aeclanum and leading theologian of Pelagianism .

Life

Born as the son of the southern Italian bishop Memorius, Julianus married Titia, daughter of Bishop Aemilius of Benevento, around 403 . He began his church career as a lecturer and deacon in his father's congregation. Already 417 he became Pope Innocent I (also written Eclanum, Aeculanum, Eclana, Eculanum) Bishop of Aeclanum in Apulia appointed. As one of 18 Italian bishops, he refused to sign the Epistola Tractatoria , written by his successor Pope Zosimus in 418 , by which the teachings of Pelagius were condemned, and was therefore deposed by Emperor Honorius and had to leave Italy in 421.

How Julian came into contact with Pelagianism can no longer be determined from the sparse sources . In general, his life and his writings can almost only be reconstructed from the information and quotations in the writings of his opponents - above all Augustine . In any case, the traditional quotes suggest that he was one of the most important Latin stylists among Christian theologians.

After his exile from Italy he was accepted for some time by Theodor von Mopsuestia , who probably sympathized with him, but felt compelled to support his condemnation by the emperor and the pope. Julianus' later attempts to have the condemnation of Pelagianism lifted when a new Pope took office failed and only led to further condemnations by Celestine I , Sixtus III. and Leo the great .

For a time Julian was supported by Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople and Emperor Theodosius II , but this ended abruptly when Marius Mercator published a Commonitorium de Caelestio , a critique of Pelagianism dedicated to the emperor. Julianus had to leave Constantinople at the instigation of the Pope. In 431, the condemnation of Pelagianism by the Council of Ephesus effectively nullified any further support.

Sources are sparse and uncertain over the last decades of his life. Julianus may have turned to southern Gaul, where later a semi-Pelagian direction was widespread, and eventually died as a teacher in Sicily around 454/455.

theology

Julianus was the first to try to summarize, systematize and think through the teachings of Pelagius and Caelestius , which until then had been presented rather unsystematically in individual writings and sermons, but should agree with the above-mentioned founders of Pelagianism in all essential points. In the area of ​​the doctrine of grace and original sin , his numerous writings made him the most important theological adversary of Augustine , whom he accused of “ Manichaeism ”, which for Julianus consisted in Augustine seeing evil in human concupiscentia , i.e. in human nature . For Julian, on the other hand, sin is a matter of human will, who is free to allow sin or to abstain from it ( admittendi peccati et abstinendi a peccato possibilita [s] ).

This fundamental freedom of will, which first makes man into God's image, cannot be lost even through sin, because sin does not change the natural constitution of man ( naturae status ), but only the constitution of his merit before God ( meriti qualitas ). For Julianus Augustine's doctrine of original sin is a contradiction in terms, since with this doctrine God becomes the author of evil. The grace of God therefore does not work in election and predestination , but in the physical and spiritual gifts of man, who, however, is responsible for his own salvation. With the help of the divine will of salvation, man - even the heathen! - Fulfill all the commandments and thus achieve eternal bliss by using one's free will.

Julian's thinking tries to protect the image of man in ancient philosophy against Augustine's “new teaching”. The fact that Augustine's anthropology was able to prevail in the Latin realm of the church had far-reaching consequences for the history of Western Christianity in the Middle Ages and modern times.

swell

• Michaela Zelzer (Ed.): Aurelii Augustini contra Iulianum opus imperfectum I-III (= CSEL 85.1). 1974. * MJ d'Hont, L. de Coninck (Eds.): Iuliani Aeclanensis expositio libri Iob. Tractatus prophetarum Osee Ioel et Amos. Operum deperditorum fragmenta (= CCh.SL 88). 1977
• Marii Mercatoris commonitorium lectori adversum haeresim Pelagii et Caelestini vel etiam scripta Iuliani , ACO 1.5 pp. 11-19
• Theodori Mopsuesteni expositionis in psalmos Iuliano Aeclanensi interprete in latinum versae quae supersunt , CCh.CL 88A.

literature

• Bengt Alexanderson: Quelques idées sur le texte et l'interprétation des œuvres de Julien d'Éclane Expositio libri Iob et Tractatus prophetarum Osee, Iohel et Amos, avec des remarques sur le texte et l'interprétation des commentaires de Jérôme sur les Douze Prophètes. University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden 2011 ( online ).
• Albert Bruckner : Julian from Eclanum. His life and teaching (= texts and investigations, vol. 15,3a), Leipzig 1897.
• Albert Bruckner: The four books of Julian von Aeclanum to Turbantius (= New Studies for the History of Theology and the Church, Vol. 8), 1910.
• Kurt Flasch : Nature or grace - Augustine von Hippo against Julian von Aeclanum , in: Kampfplatz der Philosophie, Frankfurt a. M. 2008, pp. 11-41.
• Adolf Jülicher : Iulianos 12 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume X, 1, Stuttgart 1918, Col. 19-22.
• Mathijs Lamberigts: Recent Research into Pelagianism with Particular Emphasis on the Role of Julian of Aeclanum , in: Augustiniana 52 (2002), pp. 175-198.
• Josef Lössl: Julian of Aeclanum. Studies on his life, his work, his teaching and its tradition , Leiden / Boston / Cologne 2001.
• Alister McGrath : Divine justice and divine equity in the controversy between Augustinus and Julian of Eclanum , in: The Downside Review, Vol. 101 (1983), pp. 312-319.
• Yves de Montcheuil : La polémique de saint Augustine contre Julien d'Éclane d'après l'Opus imperfectum, in: Recherches de science religieuse, Vol. 44 (1956), pp. 193-218.
• Uta Ranke-Heinemann : Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. Catholic Church and Sexuality. From Jesus to Benedict XVI. Expanded paperback reissue. Heyne, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-453-16505-2 .
• Andreas Urs Sommer : The end of ancient anthropology as a probable case of contextualist philosophy historiography: Julian von Eclanum and Augustin von Hippo , in: Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte , Vol. 57 (2005), Issue 1, pp. 1–28.
• Francois-Joseph Thonnard: L'aristotélisme de Julien d'Éclane et de Saint Augustin, in: Revue d'Etudes Augustiniennes et Patristiques , Vol. 11 (1965), pp. 296-304 ( digitized ).
• Carl Weyman : Analecta XVI. Marius Mercator and Julianus von Æclanum , in: Historisches Jahrbuch, vol. 37 (1916), p. 77 f.
• Carl Weyman: The commentary on Job by Julianus von Æclanum , in: Theologische Revue , Vol. 15 (1916), pp. 241–248.

Web links

• Literature by and about Julianus von Eclanum in the catalog of the German National Library