College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Summer job

Religious studies professor receives National Endowment for the Humanities summer stipend
In Rome during the late 4th century, a writer produced the first complete Latin commentary on the Pauline Epistles, as well as an extensive set of Questions on the Old and New Testaments.

And although the name of that author is unknown, David Hunter, Monsignor James A. Supple Chair of Catholic Studies and professor of religious studies, says his work is monumental.

"This particular writer is important although no one knows who he was," Hunter said. "But his commentaries and writings have had an enormous impact and influence on Christianity."

Hunter says the writings of the author (he has been called the "Ambrosiaster," i.e., "pseudo-Ambrose," a name coined by the Renaissance humanist Erasmus), contain some of the earliest references to celibacy of priests in what is now the Catholic Church. Ambrosiaster discussed issues ranging from pagan religion to Judaism to the role of women in the Church and society.

The writings were created during a time of extraordinary change in the Roman Empire when Ambrosiaster witnessed the emergence of the Church of Rome to a position of prominence.

"Ambrosiaster is one of the more important, though lesser-known figures among the Christian Latin writers of late antiquity," Hunter writes. "As an early interpreter of the apostle Paul, he pioneered the revival of interest in Paul's letter that was a distinctive feature of Christianity in the West at the end of the 4th century."

To date, no English translation of the Ambrosiaster's work has been produced. Hunter says that Italian is the only modern language into which some of the Ambrosiaster's work has been translated.

That will begin to change this summer, when Hunter begins to produce the first English translation of the biblical commentaries written in Latin.

Hunter is the recipient of a $5,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) summer stipend for his research project, "Ambrosiaster, Commentary on the Pauline Epistles: A Translation."

"The commentaries should be of interest to a large number of scholars of the humanities," Hunter said. "Simply making these texts more accessible will be an important contribution to the humanities in the English-speaking world."

He is one of two Iowa State and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences professors to receive the NEH summer stipend. Brett Bowles, assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures, was awarded a summer stipend for his project "Filmed News, Politics and Public Opinion in France, 1940-44."

Summer stipend grants provide individuals with an opportunity to pursue research in the humanities that contributes to scholarly knowledge or to the public’s understanding of the humanities.

Hunter is working with three other international religious studies scholars in translating the Ambrosiaster's works. Hunter, who is serving as the editor of the project, will translate Ambrosiaster's commentaries on 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians.

The complete translation of the Pauline commentaries will appear in a text and translation format in the series, Writings from the Greco-Roman World, published in the United States by the Society of Biblical Literature and in Europe by E.J. Brill (Leiden).

Ambrosiaster has been a research subject of Hunter's for more than a decade. He has published several articles that deal with his writings and will have entries on Ambrosiaster in the forthcoming New Westminster Dictionary of Church History and the Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature.