Byzantine Theology Research Articles

Book Review: Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes

Book Review: Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:The Transfiguration of Politics, by Paul LehmannMartin Niemöller: Briefe aus der Gefangenschaft Moabit, ed. by Wilhelm NiemöllerRealism versus Utopianism? Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian Realism and the Relevance of Utopian Thought FOR Social Ethics, by Ruurd VeldhuisContemplative Christianity: an Approach to the Realities of Religion, by Aelred GrahamThe Anchor Bible. Judges: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, by Robert G. Boling.Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends AND Doctrinal Themes, by John MeyendorffStaretz Amvrosy: Model for Dostoevsky's Staretz Zossima, by John B. DunlopLe problème de la population: une interpellation aux hommes de notre temps, dossier presented by Joseph MoermanEvelyn Underhill, by Christopher J. R. ArmstrongThe Transcendent Unity of Religions, by Frithjof Schuon

The Greek Commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle. In the Latin Translation of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln († 1253) by H. Paul F. Mercken

BOOK REVIEWS 408 longer and more cautious, but the quality of these first two efforts warrants hopeful anticipation of future work. LaSalle College Philadelphia, Pa. MICHAEL J. KERLIN The Greek Commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle. In the Latin T1·anslation of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (t 1253). Critical edition with an introductory study by H. PAUL F. MERCKEN. Vol. I. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973. Pp. XII+ 135* + 371. Guilders 108. This is the first volume of a three-volume edition of the Latin version by Robert Grosseteste of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (NE) plus several partial commentaries. Paul Mercken (Sarah Lawrence) has worked a long time on this important collection of ethical treatises. His excellent training and patient research at Louvain and Oxford are guarantees of the quality of scholarship evident in this book. The second and third volumes (Corpus Latinum Commentariorum in Aristotelem Graecorum) will be edited with the assistance of J. P. Reilly, Jr. (Yale) and will contain the last six books, plus scholia and indexes. Mercken published in 1964 (Brussels) a preliminary edition of the first two books of this collection, under the Flemish title, Aristoteles over de menselijke Volkomenheid (my review appeared in The Modern Schoolman XLIII, 1966, 198). The present volume adds two more books. Bishop Grosseteste perfected his knowledge of Greek in his mature years and seems also to have used the services of several Greek scholars in England to produce a number of Latin versions (many were revisions of earlier imperfect translations) of Greek works of science, philosophy, and theology. It is difficult to determine how much Grosseteste contributed personally to these translations and how much was done by assistants such as Robertus Graecus, Nicholas Graecus, John of Basingstoke, and possibly Adam Marsh. However, D. A. Callus, 0. P., who probably knew this field better than anyone, considered Grosseteste a very good Greek scholar-and Mercken agrees. At some point Grosseteste had procured a Greek codex of the NE, to which had been added several sets of annotations which formed a Greek commentary on all ten books. This collection is still extant in two Greek MSS at Oxford, where Mercken spent three years of research. Besides the text of Aristotle, the collection included a remarkable gloss on Books I and VI written by the Byzantine theologian, E\lstratius, who died in the 404 BOOK REVIEWS early twelfth century. Although he was learned in Aristotelian philosophy, especially logic, Eustratius' comments show him to have been a Christian Platonist in his personal convictions. The compiler of the collection filled the commentary gap with older Greek scholia on Books II, III, IV and V, probably dating from the end of the second Christian century. These anonymous glosses are inferior in quality to the work of Eustratius but historically of interest. So, this first volume prints a Latin version of NE, plus Eustratius on Book I, plus anonymous scholia on the next three books. Subsequent volumes will contain the main text and the anonymous scholia on Book V, commentaries by Michael of Ephesus (11th c.) on Books V, IX and X, another anonymous commentary on Book VII (possibly by a Greek physician (12th-early 13th c.) and finally a commentary on Book VIII by the Greek master, Aspasius, who taught in Athens at the start of the second century A. D. The whole compilation is important for the history of ethics, from classical, through Byzantine and Latin medieval scholarship. Grosseteste's translation of this gathering of moral treatises provided the only complete Latin text of NE, translated directly from the Greek, for thirteenth-century students at the universities and monastic houses of study. Aristotle's Ethics was eagerly studied all through this century. From the work of R. A. Gauthier, 0. P., and others, it now seems quite clear that there was never a version of NE made by William of Moerbeke, 0. P. Furthermore, the Bishop of Lincoln added his own notes (notulae) to these commentaries: they are printed within parentheses right in the text of Mercken's edition. Many of Grosseteste's comments are philological (after all, he was adapting Latin to a new terminology ), but some notes are longer and...

Some Aspects of the Influence of the Byzantine Maximos the Confessor on the Theology of East and West

That the seventh century Byzantine theologian Maximos the Confessor had an influence on the development of Western as well as Eastern theology is well known through the work of such scholars as Sherwood, Cappuyns, Dräseke, Gilson, and Altaner, for example, for the West, and of von Balthasar, von Ivanka, Grümel, Beck, Brilliantoff, Epifanovic, Hausherr, and Dalmais for the East. But although Maximos' works were apparently known throughout theentireperiod of Byzantine history, there remains a surprisingly great deal of research to be done to delineate the extent of his influence onspecificByzantine scholars and theologians such as Anastasius of the ninth century, Euthemius Zigabenos and Symeon the “New Theologian” of the eleventh, Nicetas Choniates in the twelfth, Patriarch Gregory of Cyprus and Pachymeres in the thirteenth, the Hesychasts Gregory Palamas and Nicholas Kabasilas and their opponents Nicephorus Gregoras and the Byzantine “Scholastic” John Cyparissiotes of the fourteenth, and, last of all, on the sixteenth century, post-Byzantine Bishop who lived in Venice, Maximos Margounios.

The Orthodox Church in Soviet Russia

CHRISTIANITY entered Russia from Byzantium. In the year 988, Prince Vladimir was baptized in the River Dnieper, with all the inhabitants of Kiev, and the pagan statues were destroyed. Thus was born the Russian Orthodox Church, and thus Byzantine theology, liturgical forms and church-state relationships were established as basic characteris tics of popular religion in Russia. Since this missionary enterprise took place at the height of the quarrel between the Patriarch of the East and the Pope of the West, the Russian Church and people inherited the Eastern Church's antagonism to Rome and the West and shared its isolation from the Renaissance, the Reformation and the rise of modern concepts of social Christian ity. Instead, the Russian Orthodox Church entered the twentieth century with the religious outlook developed no later than the Seventh Ecumenical Council, held in 787. The Russians claim with pride that the Orthodox Church is the true Church of the Apostles, the Scripture, the creeds and the canons accepted in the first seven Councils, and they look gingerly at all other churches, which, they say, separated from it at the time of the Great Schism. What is the present status of this Russian Orthodox Church in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics? Statistics are meager, but the Patriarchate has declared that there are now 22,000 churches, served by about 25,000 clergy. There are 73 diocesan bishops, 69 monasteries and convents, eight lower and two higher theological schools, with more applicants each year than class room seats. The Soviet census omits the item of religious affilia tion, and the Patriarchate has been persistently hesitant when asked about the total number of adherents; estimates run from 25,000,000 to 50,000,000 Orthodox faithful. It is easier to recon cile these figures with the impression held abroad that the Church has been driven underground when we remember that from 1918 to World War II the Communist Party's efforts to destroy the Church were violent and effective, but that the change in policy in 1941 has resulted in a significant resuscitation. It was Stalin who directed both the policy of destruction and the change.

L'Immaculée Conception dans l'Écriture Sainte et dans la Tradition Orientale by Martin Jugie, A.A. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS L'Immaculée Conception dans l'Écriture Sainte et dans la Tradition Orientale, by Martin Jugie, A.A., Rome, 1952; 477pp. Summarily, the author, the Reverend Martin Jugie, A. A., gives a rather comprehensive treatment of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in a chronological historical development, stressing the place of Holy Scripture and Oriental Tradition. In the preface, the Reverend Charles Balic, O. F. M., Director of the Bibliotheca Immaculatae Conceptionis tells us of the thesis proposed by the author: Mary existed in a particular state (status naturae reparantis) having the right to each and every preternatural gift of the state of innocence. The book itself is a chronological treatment of testimonies, both favorable and unfavorable , especially from the Scriptures and from Oriental Tradition. In treating of the Immaculate Conception in the Oriental Church from its origins down to the present time, this book is unique. The book itself is divided into three major parts. In the First Part is treated the Immaculate Conception in Holy Scripture and in the Oriental Tradition during the Patristic Period. In the Second Part, Byzantine Tradition from the Ninth to the Fifteenth Century is considered. The Third Part gives place to the Immaculate Conception in the Greco-Russian Church from the end of the Sixteenth Century up to the present day. Then follows a brief conclusion for the entire work. After a prologue, the author spends forty pages in treating of some preliminary questions. He discusses the notion of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the nature of original sin, the preternatural gifts and the state of innocence, the doctrine of original sin among the Greek Fathers, different methods of formulating the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and finally, the controversy in the Oriental Church on the Immaculate Conception previous to the Sixteenth Century. AU these points enumerated constitute the first chapter. In the second chapter the author treats of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in the Sacred Scriptures. He states the question, and then under separate headings investigates: Mary as all holy and always holy, Mary blessed as Jesus and always blessed, the Mother of God, the victory of the woman over the serpent, and Mary redeemed. In the conclusion to the second chapter. Father Jugie asserts that Scripture is ,,not completely silent on the dogma defined by Pius IX." Rather, Scripture has expressions which suggest this truth. In the third chapter, the original sanctity of the Mother of God in Oriental Tradition of the first five centuries is proposed. The most ancient tradition from the Council of Nicea to the Council of Ephesus and the Fathers of the Fifth Century are considered. 210 Book Reviews211 In the last chapter, after discussing the Immaculate Conception in the Byzantine Church from the Sixth to the Ninth Century in the fourth chapter, the doctrine of the Nestorian and Monophysite Churches on the Immaculate Conception is examined, in the fifth. Part Two deals with Byzantine Tradition from the Ninth to the Fifteenth Century. The two chapters of this Part include the Byzantine Theologians of the second half of the Ninth Century to the end of the Thirteenth (chapter one), and the theologians of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (chapter two). In the Third Part, the author is concerned with the Immaculate Conception in the Greco-Russian Church from the Sixteenth Century to the present day, in five chapters. Chapter One contains the Greek Theologians in the Sixteenth and the Seventeenth Centuries, both favorable and unfavorable. In the second chapter the Greek Theologians of the Eighteenth Century, and in the third chapter the belief of the Russian Church previous to the Seventeenth Century are examined. In the fourth chapter, the Immaculate Conception in Russia during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries is presented. The final and fifth chapter concludes by proposing the Russian Theologians of the Ninteenth and Twentieth Centuries. The work is summarized in a five page resume, with an index of proper names and table of contents appended. In this conclusion, the author states some resulting principles, in a synthesis of the work. Holy Scripture "in its literal sense, independent of the interpretation of certain Fathers, does not furnish us with explicit...

Origen, Eusebius, and the Iconoclastic Controversy

The Iconoclastic controversy was undoubtedly one of the major conflicts in the history of the Christian Church. It was not just a Byzantine conflict; the West was also involved in the dispute. It is true, however, that the West never followed the East in the theological argument, nor did it suffer all the implications and consequences of the Byzantine theology of the Icons. In the history of the Christian East it was, on the contrary, a turning point. All levels of life were affected by the conflict, all strata of society were involved in the struggle. The fight was violent, bitter, and desperate. The cost of victory was enormous, and tensions in the Church were not solved by it. The Church in Byzantium has never recovered again her inner unity, which had been distorted or lost in the Iconoclastic strife.

Saint Maximus the Confessor and the Byzantine Theology. (In Russian.) S. A. Epifanovic. Kieff. 1915. Pp. 138.

Saint Maximus the Confessor and the Byzantine Theology. (In Russian.) S. A. Epifanovic. Kieff. 1915. Pp. 138.