# JND Kelly: Jerome



## RamistThomist (Sep 30, 2017)

When you cross Jerome's brutal satire with JND Kelly's dry wit, the result is overwhelming. Jerome's gifts were in style and work ethic and not really in profound thought. Even where he is atrociously wrong, he cannot help but be entertaining. 

Jerome struggled with the passions and he hints some of those were sexual in nature (cf Letter 22.7). Unlike other monks who engaged in more bodily deprivations, Jerome found deliverance in learning a new language: Hebrew (Kelly 50, quoting letter 125).

Besides his translations and commentaries, Jerome's key legacy to the church is his collection of letters. In them we see his response to a wide variety of pious practices. And Jerome's response is usually the same: study Scripture, commit to celibacy, and if you aren't on his good side, you get called names. It's funny, though.

Other aspects of his life were tragic. The fallout with Rufinus was unnecessary, since neither of the men held to Origen's heresies and both of the men acknowledged his spirituality.

This book isn't as key as Kelly's bio on Chrysostom, simply because Chrysostom is a much more important individual. Still, a wonderful biography.

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