Ambrose (Early Church Fathers)) (ISBN 0415118425)

The Peoples Ambrose:
In this new Church Fathers series, Boniface Ramsey, a Dominican priest, presents selections from some of St Ambrose's key works, all of which are conveniently rendered into comfortable, contemporary English. To begin, Father Ramsey offers us a finely written fifty-page intro that will acquaint readers with all the essentials of Ambrose's life and times; he also hands us helpful chapter headings for every text available with exhaustive footnotes for further aid; and at last, he furnishes a complete critical catalogue of all St Ambrose's works, listing those reasoned to be genuine, doubtful, or utterly spurious. Of St Ambrose's writings, three of his treatises will be discovered here: (1) On Naboth (2) On Virgins and (3) On the Mysteries. One of his exegetical pamphlets is given, The Prologue to the Commentary on Luke, and four of his outstanding Hymns, are available in both the original Latin and the new English. And finally, the famous Letters Concerning the Altar of Victory are present within this compact edition. Yet on top of this, Father Ramsey places a valuable complement to this selection of works--he adds the very reliable account of the Life of St Ambrose written by Paulinus of Milan, a first-hand source for the time and an acquaintance of both Ambrose and Augustine. Now the overall estimate for Father Ramsey's Ambrose is a good one, since it readily makes a portion of the saint's writings accessible to general readers, namely those less likely to encounter Ambrose in the original Latin or in the older rigorous English translations. His choice of Ambrose's oeuvre, however, could certainly have been broadened a bit. It would have been a mark in the positive direction to have seen excerpts from On the Duties of the Clergy or On the Holy Spirit provided as well. But this might have proved too excessive for Father Ramsey's purpose--to display the many attributes of St Ambrose within a "limited number of pages." So in respect of the writings selected here and in the fashion they are presented, it would be an injustice to deem this book anything less than worthy of honor and good repute. For it should be regarded as priority seek and a privilege to possess. (Other volumes printed concern Irenaeus of Lyons and St Maximus the Confessor. Forthcoming volumes in this Church Fathers series will be on Origen and Gregory of Nyssa.)