Hippolytus Between East and West: The Commentaries and the Provenance of the Corpus

Who was Saint Hippolytus? The answer has eluded historians for centuries. This is the first in-depth analysis of the 'Hippolytus question' in English for over a hundred years. It suggests that this writer, so influential on Western liturgical practice in the twentieth century, is best viewed as a writer of the East.
Who was the Church Father Hippolytus? The answer to this question has eluded scholars for centuries. His true identity was unknown even to Eusebius, the church historian, in the 4th century and to subsequent writers of the ancient Church. Yet his corpus was largely preserved through the early centuries and influenced numerous theologians and exegetes, including Origen, Ambrose, and Jerome Using ancient, Byzantine, and modern sources, this study charts the growth of the Hippolytus question from its inception to the present day. It traces how early speculations led to the formation of various traditions of a prolific and controversial writer. Drawing on leading scholarship of the 20th century, it untangles millennia of theory and points to the evidence of the Asian roots of the great biblical commentator known as Saint Hippolytus. It suggests that this writer, so influential on the rethinking of western liturgical practice in the 20th century, is best viewed as a scion of the East.