Book contents
- Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation
- Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Initiation
- 2 Knowledge of the Real
- 3 Simplicity and Power
- 4 Hiddenness and Revelation
- 5 The Harbor on High
- 6 Training the Senses
- 7 Catechesis in Late Antique Italy
- 8 The Memory of Christ
- 9 North African Catechesis after Augustine
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Training the Senses
Ambrose of Milan and Visual Knowing
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2023
- Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation
- Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Initiation
- 2 Knowledge of the Real
- 3 Simplicity and Power
- 4 Hiddenness and Revelation
- 5 The Harbor on High
- 6 Training the Senses
- 7 Catechesis in Late Antique Italy
- 8 The Memory of Christ
- 9 North African Catechesis after Augustine
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
While Ambrose of Milan was a major actor on the ecclesiastical and political stage of late antiquity, he was also a devoted catechist and theologian. This chapter focuses on how Ambrose trained the spiritual senses of catechumens throughout Lenten and Eastern catechesis. In Lenten sermons on the patriarchs, Ambrose focused on baptism as a death to physical ways of seeing. In Holy Week sermons (On the Hexameron and Explanatio symboli), he sought to restructure catechetical knowledge by offering pro-Nicene accounts of God and creation. In mystagogical sermons (De mysteriis and De sacramentis), he gave neophytes instruction on how to perceive the spiritual meaning of the Christian rites.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation , pp. 134 - 154Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023