While presenting the ‘Source of Christian Faith’

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1.
The Life of John Chrysostom
2.
John Chrysostom's Sympathy
3.
Date of writing
4.
structure
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6.
Sympathy's Views on Sympathy and Marriage
7.
The place of Sympathy among the works of John Chrysostom

sympathy

Subject index
Bible Index

Towards excellence in compassionate living
Praise of John Chrysostom!

About this series

This series is the result of the 『Ancient Christian Literature Translation Project』, which received government subsidies from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and has received approval for further publication and sales from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, the supporting project and copyright holder.
We have selected authoritative modern patristic texts faithfully translated into English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and other languages ​​and translated them into beautiful and accurate Korean.
These books, which touch on the origins of the church, will help you understand not only the Bible but also the 'Holy Tradition' more deeply.
Since patristic literature is a common Christian heritage that must be preserved and nurtured by Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Protestants, I believe that this effort to return to its source will contribute steadily to the movement for spiritual unity.

About 『Sympathy』

『The Virginity』 is a work written by John Chrysostom, who lived as a priest, bishop, monk, prophet, and martyr in Antioch and Constantinople in the latter half of the 4th century. It is a work that praises the excellence of his ascetic life in the face of the aversion to virginity at the time.
In 381, after returning to Antioch after his ascetic life and being ordained a deacon, John felt the need to teach the correct way to live as a virgin to the 'extreme ascetics of Antioch', 'Christians who opposed virginity', and 'virgins who were pursuing or already living a virginal life', and he commented on 1 Corinthians 7 of the Apostle Paul.
However, he wrote with the attitude of a preacher trying to persuade the audience rather than an expositor, and the valuable result of this is 『Sympathy』.
Here, John uses the rhetorical technique of the Sophists, who imagine a hypothetical interlocutor and respond to his objections, as a tool of persuasion.

The view of marriage in 『Pity』 may seem unfamiliar to modern readers, but this is likely due to the gap between the 4th-century Antiochian church and the 21st-century church.
The beauty and holiness of marriage as a symbol of the union between God and humanity, and its aspect as a sacrament, are difficult to find, especially when marriage is seen as an obstacle to union with God.
This is an overly negative argument for encouraging people to choose sympathy, but it would be a criticism from a modern perspective that does not take into account the times.
One literary technique in the time of John Chrysostom was to list the disadvantages of marriage, the opposite of virginity, in order to praise virginity.

On the other hand, this treatise is a lengthy commentary on 1 Corinthians 7, but it also provides a glimpse into the kind of person John was and his thoughts at the time when he decided to abandon his life in the wilderness and devote himself to pastoral work in Antioch.