The Church Fathers · c. 407
On the Providence of God
Ad eos qui scandalizati sunt
John Chrysostom · c. 347 – 407
What it is
Written in exile for those whose faith his own downfall had shaken. If a bishop can be deposed by intrigue and the church left to men who bought their sees, where is providence? Chrysostom answers that God's government is not legible from inside a single lifetime, and that scandal is a wound taken by the one who takes it.
Why it lasted
A theodicy written by the man the disaster happened to, while it was still happening — and the last substantial thing he wrote before dying under escort.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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