Abstract
This volume investigates the baptismal catecheses of Ambrose of Milan, especially as they appear in his works Explanatio Symboli, De Sacramentis, and De Mysteriis. These three writings attributed to Ambrose, the bishop of Milan (340-397), represent a vital tes- timony in the history of Christian institutions and liturgy.
Thanks to their content, it is possible to approach the idea of the process of Christian initiation during the Late Antiquity in the Latin part of the Roman Empire and especially in Northern Italy. The shared characteristic of these writings is the theological method used to provide instruction of the newcomers to Christianity who let themselves be baptized and that is called the mystagogical method.
This mystagogy was part of the religious training in the ancient Church that intended to bring the faithful to a fuller perception of God that transcends the human ability to express and grasp this reality with a technical language. Mystagogy is presented as a fully developed method of theology that should bring men and women to the relationship to God who remains active in the history of humanity and of every man and woman.
Firstly, the book focuses on the author and his work: it presents a brief sketch of Ambrose's life and activity as a bishop. Particular attention is given to the problem of the authenticity of the De Sacramentis.
Secondly, the baptismal preparation in Milan at the end of the fourth century is explained, starting with the entry into the catechumenate and ending with the last rites celebrated by the candidates for baptism, especially with the traditio symboli, as witnessed by the Explanatio Symboli and other Ambrose's writ- ings. Thirdly, the baptismal rites of the Easter night, including the Baptism and Eucharist are discussed.
This part aims to present the liturgical rite in order to provide the historical and theological background for the commentary of the three writings in the latter part of the book. After discussing Ambrose's exegesis of the Lord's prayer, as present in the De Sacramentis, the study finally closes with the theological discussion of the mystagogical method present in Ambrose's œuvre.
In this way, the relationship of the mystagogy to the biblical exegesis of ancient authors is mainly discussed. It is documented that both the exegesis of the Bible and the mystagogy follow the same idea of the manifestation of the invisible realities through the visible ones or the spiritual meaning in the letter of the biblical text.
The central part of the book consists of the Latin text of the three Ambrose's works that follows the edition of O. Faller in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum series (vol. 73), and of the Czech translation of these texts with an extensive commentary, linked with the study in the first part of the book.
It is the first complete translation of Ambrose's catecheses into Czech, although parts of these texts have already been translated and the text of the De Mysteriis was published in 1937 in a journal no longer readily available to the public. It is hoped that the new translation will be especially useful to the historians, historians of art, theologians, philosophers, and other scholars.
Various problems of the text are discussed in the commentary. The volume also contains a biblio- graphy and indices of Biblical quotations and of other ancient sources, a general index, and an index of modern authors.