Textual Transmission and the Construction of Spiritual Authority : The Early Reception of Jerome of Stridon
Göransson, Elisabet LU
and Pålsson, Katarina
LU
(2025)
In Religions
16(11).
- Abstract
The life of Jerome of Stridon (d. 419/420), who was regarded as a father of the church and one of the most important authorities in the Middle Ages, has often been depicted as highly controversial: In modern reconstructions, Jerome is typically described as an outsider, constantly involved in controversies and frequently criticized and questioned by his contemporaries. This begs the question of how Jerome could have received such an esteemed reputation during the following centuries. While it has been acknowledged in previous scholarship that Jerome had an extensive reception in the Middle Ages, a comprehensive study of the transmission of his works in the first centuries after his death has not been undertaken. Likewise, the mechanisms... (More)
The life of Jerome of Stridon (d. 419/420), who was regarded as a father of the church and one of the most important authorities in the Middle Ages, has often been depicted as highly controversial: In modern reconstructions, Jerome is typically described as an outsider, constantly involved in controversies and frequently criticized and questioned by his contemporaries. This begs the question of how Jerome could have received such an esteemed reputation during the following centuries. While it has been acknowledged in previous scholarship that Jerome had an extensive reception in the Middle Ages, a comprehensive study of the transmission of his works in the first centuries after his death has not been undertaken. Likewise, the mechanisms involved in constructing an image of Jerome as an authority of exegesis and asceticism and as a defender of orthodoxy are yet to be studied. Combining philological and historical approaches, the present article seeks to contribute to Hieronymian scholarship by studying the reception of Jerome during his lifetime and during the first centuries after his death, taking into account two different but interrelated aspects of this reception: First, an analysis of manuscripts will answer questions concerning the transmission of Jerome’s texts. Secondly, the article will consider the earliest reception of Jerome’s works and how this was managed by Jerome himself, in collaboration with his friends and patrons, in addition to how he was commonly referred to and described during the first decades after his death. The article examines how these aspects of reception contributed to the creation of an image of Jerome, and an interpretation of his work that would become important in medieval Christianity.
(Less)
- author
- Göransson, Elisabet
LU
and Pålsson, Katarina
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-11
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Augustine of Hippo, Jerome of Stridon, late antique religious polemics, manuscript traditions, religious authority, textual culture
- in
- Religions
- volume
- 16
- issue
- 11
- article number
- 1459
- publisher
- MDPI AG
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105023081724
- ISSN
- 2077-1444
- DOI
- 10.3390/rel16111459
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2025 by the authors.
- id
- e3389440-134c-4782-978c-ebc1b5e24657
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-22 13:45:32
- date last changed
- 2026-01-22 13:45:49
@article{e3389440-134c-4782-978c-ebc1b5e24657,
abstract = {{<p>The life of Jerome of Stridon (d. 419/420), who was regarded as a father of the church and one of the most important authorities in the Middle Ages, has often been depicted as highly controversial: In modern reconstructions, Jerome is typically described as an outsider, constantly involved in controversies and frequently criticized and questioned by his contemporaries. This begs the question of how Jerome could have received such an esteemed reputation during the following centuries. While it has been acknowledged in previous scholarship that Jerome had an extensive reception in the Middle Ages, a comprehensive study of the transmission of his works in the first centuries after his death has not been undertaken. Likewise, the mechanisms involved in constructing an image of Jerome as an authority of exegesis and asceticism and as a defender of orthodoxy are yet to be studied. Combining philological and historical approaches, the present article seeks to contribute to Hieronymian scholarship by studying the reception of Jerome during his lifetime and during the first centuries after his death, taking into account two different but interrelated aspects of this reception: First, an analysis of manuscripts will answer questions concerning the transmission of Jerome’s texts. Secondly, the article will consider the earliest reception of Jerome’s works and how this was managed by Jerome himself, in collaboration with his friends and patrons, in addition to how he was commonly referred to and described during the first decades after his death. The article examines how these aspects of reception contributed to the creation of an image of Jerome, and an interpretation of his work that would become important in medieval Christianity.</p>}},
author = {{Göransson, Elisabet and Pålsson, Katarina}},
issn = {{2077-1444}},
keywords = {{Augustine of Hippo; Jerome of Stridon; late antique religious polemics; manuscript traditions; religious authority; textual culture}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{11}},
publisher = {{MDPI AG}},
series = {{Religions}},
title = {{Textual Transmission and the Construction of Spiritual Authority : The Early Reception of Jerome of Stridon}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel16111459}},
doi = {{10.3390/rel16111459}},
volume = {{16}},
year = {{2025}},
}