The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886Various
History
The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886
Various
Periodicals
Ignatius of Antioch: Men of old loved to find in his name (or its
Syriace quivalent, Nurono, [Greek: youra = phyr], _fire_) a prescience
of the torch of divine love which blazed in him. The fancy may pass, if
etymologically unsound; for Ignatius, 'the Inflamed,' was a true child
of the fiery East. Contrast him and his letters with St. Clement of Rome
and his Epistle to the Corinthians. Nothing is more notable in the Roman
'than the calm equable temper,' the 'sweet reasonableness.' He is
essentially a _moderator_. On the other hand, impetuosity, fire,
strong-headedness, are impressed on every sentence in the Epistles of
Ignatius. He is by his very nature an _impeller_ of men. Both are
intense, though in different ways. In Clement, the intensity of
moderation dominates and guides his conduct. In Ignatius it is the
intensity of passion--passion for doing and suffering--which drives him
onward. In Clement we listen to the voice of a judge delivering calmly
his sentence from his throne; in Ignatius we
'are startled by the ringing cry of the trumpet-call--sharp,
stirring, penetrating--sounding for the battle. The fire of
the hot East bursts in, like a sun, strong and impassioned;
a vivid personality, in flame with love, flashes in upon
the world, quivering as a sword of the cherubim; a rhetoric
in which the rapid, electric thought breaks out of the
strained and formless chaos of the _imagination_, as
lightning out of the rolling and dark thunder-cloud; a
theology, which, by the intense passion of metaphor, forces
an almost violent entrance into the secrets of the Most
High; a morality which can carry forward into the heights of
holiness the madness of faith, the extravagance of zeal, the
recklessness of enthusiasm, the audacity of love, dragging
them into the service of Christ at the chariot-wheels of
God's triumph--such are the characteristics of Ignatius of
Antioch.'[65]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account