Justification In Marius Victorinus’ Pauline Commentaries: "Sola Fide, Solo Christo," And "Sola Gratia Dei" -- By: Dongsun Cho

Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 11:1 (Spring 2014)
Article: Justification In Marius Victorinus’ Pauline Commentaries: "Sola Fide, Solo Christo," And "Sola Gratia Dei"
Author: Dongsun Cho


Justification In Marius Victorinus’ Pauline Commentaries:
Sola Fide, Solo Christo, And Sola Gratia Dei

Dongsun Cho

Dongsun Cho is Assistant Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Introduction

Alister McGrath claims in his magnum opus, Iustitia Dei, “Justification was simply not a theological issue in the pre-Augustinian tradition …. To be sure, he [Paul] is honoured and quoted, but—in the theological perspective of the west—it seems that Paul’s great insight into justification by faith was forgotten.”1 For McGrath, Augustine is the first Latin theologian who presents a meaningful doctrine of justification, although Augustine’s doctrine of justification is similar to the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification and does not anticipate the Reformers’ instantaneous and declarative justification based on imputed and alien righteousness.2 According to McGrath, no one can find an antecedent of the Reformational understanding of justification among the church fathers prior to and even in Augustine.

Recently, however, some Protestant scholars have attested to a meaningful development of a patristic doctrine of justification by faith prior to Augustine. Thomas Oden, in The Justification Reader; Nick Needham, in “Justification in the Early Church Fathers”; and Daniel H. Williams, in “Justification by Faith: A Patristic Doctrine” and “Hilary of Poitiers and Justification by Faith,” show that some patristic exegetes indeed held to justification by faith apart from human, meritorious works.3 Williams attributes McGrath and other Protestants’ failure to recognize an early, patristic

doctrine of justification by faith to their “outmoded view that post-apostolic Christianity was corrupted by the vagaries of Hellenism.”4 The three scholars’ common observation of the ancient writers’ teaching of sola fide does not necessarily indicate their agreement concerning how much theological affinity may exist between the ancient writers and the Reformers on justification.

Oden proposes a provocative thesis that there is substantial textual evidence of the theological “consensus” with regard to sola fide between patristic writers and the Reformers.5 The popular assumption that the early church quickly departed from the doctrine of...

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