John Chrysostom: On Almsgiving and the Therapy of the Soul

In recent years, there has been significant scholarly focus on John Chrysostom’s appropriation of ancient philosophical therapy, but relatively little attention has been devoted to his use of this medicalized discourse in relation to almsgiving. Adopting an interdisciplinary research between Greco-Roman philosophy and social ethics in early Christianity, Junghun Bae pursues a giver-centered analysis which has largely been ignored in the previous research. He argues that for Chrysostom almsgiving is one of the most powerful remedies for healing sick souls. The concept of Christianized soul therapy is a new key framework for understanding his approach to almsgiving holistically and has the potential to offer a new reading of the discourse on almsgiving in late antiquity.