Metamorphosis of “Flesh” (Ambrose of Milan and the Rise of Western-Church Anthropology)

Abstract

What is the reason of the established perception of Christianity as a doctrine declaring body not only unimportant aspect of man, in contrast to incorporeal immortal soul, but also the fetters that are to be broken away from? The author attempts to answer this question through the analysis of the Biblical “flesh”, “soul” and “spirit”, which the Fathers and Doctors of the Church assumed to be identical to Greek and Latin notions. Thus, the notion of flesh in the Old and New Testaments may be used in their works as synonymous to body. As a result of such semantic metamorphosis, now and then implicit, the early Christian authors generate idea of man revealing traits of Greco-Roman anthropology, above all Platonism, i.e. the dualism of soul and body, as well as the negative attitude toward corporality. Which departs from the Biblical idea of man as an integral being made by the good Creator. The works of St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, Doctor of the Church, religious figure and one of the greatest advocates of Christianity, help us to understand the process of this exceptionally important semantic transformation.