The Pastoral-Performative Function of Scripture in Jerome's Consolation Letters

This paper examines how Scripture functions in two of Jerome's consolation letters. While Jerome does use Scripture as a source for theological assertions, this does not explain the sheer quantity and detail in his citations from Biblical texts. I argue that these texts serve a pastoral-performative function to alleviate grief in his recipients by inviting them to the shared activity of Biblical study. The process of reading and reflecting on Scriptural texts itself serves to console the grieving recipients. The texts refocus attention from a loved one's death to Scriptural difficulties, mediate Jerome's presence as a fellow student of the Bible, and model how working through Scripture for oneself conveys a deeper consolation than simply being told what each text 'means.' Since consolation requires more than a clever argument, attention to the extra-semantic dimension of these texts is vital to understand them.