Divine Providence and Biblical Narrative in the Thought of John Chrysostom

Throughout his works John Chrysostom interprets and renarrates biblical narratives in an effort to console his audience. This dissertation argues that he did so because biblical narrative (historia) is the primary place in which divine providence (pronoia, kēdemonia) is revealed to humanity. Providence is a consolatory doctrine because it speaks of God’s activity, which is characterized by love for humanity (philanthrōpia) and is ordered to salvation. Biblical narratives of the saints therefore provide not only moral exemplars but also demonstrations of God’s love and providential care. When Chrysostom carefully reads narratives side by side—in clusters—he discerns common narrative structures or patterns that demonstrate God’s habits of providentially caring for humanity. These narrative habits of God’s salutary, providential work recur throughout all of history and can therefore also be discerned in the lives of Chrysostom’s audience. The recurrence of God’s providential actions throughout biblical history also reveals a larger point: that God’s providence is neither episodic nor interventionist, but is continual and consistent throughout all of history; Chrysostom is not interested in delineating ages of salvation history, or a history of covenants, but instead in showing his audience how providence operates according to the same love for humanity throughout all time, to the same end of salvation—no matter how at odds events might seem with one another. Finally, scripture’s narratives of providence, from creation to the incarnation, and now in the life of the church, also put forward figures who have trusted in divine providence. Scripture therefore not only contains continual proofs of providence, but also examples of saints who have had success in yielding to providence. These demonstrations of both divine activity and ideal human activity serve as therapies for Chrysostom’s audience to move forward virtuously. Furthermore, in his reading of human and divine action, Chrysostom applies narratological interpretations to scriptural narratives, learned in the course of his education, which he readily adapts to his own understanding of biblical poetics and theology.