Three Monophysite Christologies (Oxford Theological Monographs) [Hardcover]

Roberta C. Chesnut (Author), Roberta C. Bondi (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 166 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press; First edition (April 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198267126
• ISBN-13: 978-0198267126
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,950,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genuine Alexandrine Christology of Three Orthodox Antiochians, November 5, 2005

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John Philoponus "Ortho Arbiter" (Nitria, Virtual Ortho America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Three Monophysite Christologies (Oxford Theological Monographs) (Hardcover)

"History cannot be the mistress or Judge of theology, but it may on occasion warn or assist theologians,..so the established findings of historians may be taken into account.." M. Knowles

Expressions Of Christology:

The medium in which Christianity was preached in the fifth and sixth centuries was mostly Greco-Roman in thought and culture, which tended to clash with the more Antiochene mixed culture that prevailed in novice Constantinople. In opposition to the teachings of Antioch, it was vitally important for those who held to the Monophysite position that Jesus not be thought of as having two separate persons (natures). It would have been agreed that Jesus was "out of two natures" (existing in a united one) but not "in two natures." It was thus Johannine Sarx-Logos thought of Alexanderia that, makes the Monophysite movement more than just a theological debate. Alexandrine Neoplatonic expression of the mystical nature of Christ is winning between some of the greatest western theologians (Martin Luther, A. von Harnack, and Karl Barth), and even of the most outstanding Roman Catholics who question the infallability of Leo I ( Rahner, Pannenberg, Schoonenberg, Kung, Cardinal Kasper & others)

Cyril's Advocate:

For Severus, Miaphysite bishop of Antioch, the distinction between the human and the divine in Christ is based on his understanding of 'nature' in the sense of the individual "the hypostatic union" or the "one nature of God the Word incarnate," he always means by a hypostases is one that cannot exist on its own. If one accepts the idea of the individual being composed of a body and soul, as Cyril used to explain, the body that cannot exist independently from the soul, is therefore non-self-subsistent. To the contrary the simply dwells in the body, experiencing the material world, but continues to exist after the body vanishes. Severus does not distinguish divine actions of the human in Christ, underlining Athanasius teachings. "In Christ, we do not speak of two operations: we do not say that 'the man wept,' 'God raised Lazarus from the dead,' but 'the Incarnate Word did it.'" The council of Ephesus confirmed that "We do not divide him into parts and separate man and God in him... Nor do we give the name Christ in one sense to the Word of God and in another to him that was born of the women."

Philoxenus Admixture:

Philoxenus of Mabbug, may seem to be in conformity with Chalcedon, but the author suspects a sense of mixture in his writings. He approached the hypostatic union from the viewpoint of Christ existence in a dual mode of being. For him, God is impassible, immortal, incorporeal, incomprehended, and man is corporal, changeable, and mortal. For God or man to be contrary, would thus cease being God or man. The divine Word, existing as God before the Incarnation, could not change nature, to assume manhood. The Word existed "naturally" as divine, and while incarnate into Jesus, a human, would still remain fully God. God, during the incarnation, however, becomes man, coming into another mode of being, by a miracle of His own power, existed simultaneously with the first. Philoxenus used common parallels to explain himself, Like Athanasius and Cyril's parallel to the Word being in "double being" is that of the bread and the wine in the Eucharist. The actual bread and wine remain by their nature bread and wine, but "in power" and "by a miracle" they become for the believer, the body and blood of Christ.

Jacob's Mystical christology:

Jacob of Sarug's mystical christology, is deeply entrenched in his thought that Christ's core reality is hidden presence of the Word disguised in Jesus, and revealed to believers. Christ belongs to the realm of the supernatural, and we are thus cut off from rational knowledge of God in Christ. Only faith (so also Love) can approach and know God, given to the simple (pure in heart). Jacob theology differs with his Miaphysite peers, and his christology seems wanting to the western mind of the eloquent author who judges his monophysitism is not whole, compared with Severus and Philoxenus.

Auther & Treatise:

Roberta C. Bondi is Professor of Church History, Emory University. She started her career in Oxford, with her D. Phil. thesis 1973 on three Monophysite Christologies, ended up focusing on Christian spirituality.

Her treatise explored and clarified christological terminology and philosophic basis which caused the schism of Chalcedon, due to the Janus infallibility complex, exposed and criticized by Severus genius contemporary John Philoponus