Council Of Chalcedon Research Articles

Book Review: Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History

Designed to be comprehensive in its scope, this set covers major religious events from remote prehistory (ca. 60,000 BC) to the highly contemporaneous (AD 2014). Taken together, the editors have done an admirable job in choosing topics to cover and in compiling a highly readable, informative, and thought-provoking compilation. The first volume covers the period of prehistory to AD 600 and includes entries for topics as diverse as the first burials that indicate a belief in an afterlife found in Shanidar Cave, Iraq (ca. 60,000 BC), the discovery of the oldest human-made place of worship at Göbekli Tepe in modern Turkey (tenth millennium BC), the ritual use of alcohol (ca. third millennium BC), the founding of Buddhism (sixth to fourth centuries BC), the Roman conquest of Judaea in 63 BC, the conversion of Saul (Saint Paul) in AD 34, the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, and the papacy of Gregory the Great (reigned AD 590–604). Volume 2 covers from AD 600 to 1450, thus encompassing the Middle Ages in the West, the rise of Islam in the Middle East, the growth of Christian monasticism, the crusades, the development of the first universities in Europe, and the lives of Joan of Arc and Jan Hus. The final volume covers from 1450 to the present, starting with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks and ending with the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) in 2014.

Plurality of Self: Buddhist Anthropology and the Two Natures of Christ

AbstractThe union of divine and human in Jesus Christ was codified at the Council of Chalcedon. However, while this position makes good theological sense, in terms of soteriology, it remains a conceptual problem. How do two distinct entities combine into a single entity without the loss of their respective distinctiveness? This article recommends a move from a Greek metaphysic of “substance” to a Buddhist understanding of selfhood as emptiness. By understanding the self as an interweaving of multiple energies, rather than a fixed substance, Chalcedonian Christology can retain its soteriological integrity with a more helpful conceptual understanding of how two may become one.

The Constancy and Development in the Christology of Theodoret of Cyrrhus by Vasilije Vranic

[...]he participated in the Council of Chalcedon in 451 only as an accuser of Dioscorus, being barred from the deliberations that produced the council’s famous Definition. Only after its promulgation was Theodoret’s case heard; the condition of his restoration was anathematization of Nestorius, to which he acquiesced. [...]Chalcedon exonerated Theodoret as orthodox, an action that would trouble later generations. [...]the union of divine and human in Christ cannot take place at the level of substance or nature—as there is an infinite difference between the uncreated and created natures—but only at the level of personal existence.

The Armenian Catholic Church in the Middle East – Modern History, Ecclesiology and Future Challenges

Although a small minority of Armenians accepted the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451), and continued to do so, it was not until 1742 that a separate Armenian Catholic hierarchy was established, centred in Lebanon. The Second Vatican Council and developments in Ecumenism brought the role of all the Eastern Catholic Churches under scrutiny. The tension that sometimes existed not only with the Orthodox but also with Latin-rite Catholics and even among themselves was acknowledged as counter-productive to Christian witness in the Middle East. Although there were sizable communities in the Diaspora, it was only after the demise of the Soviet Union that large numbers of Armenian Catholics began to emerge from obscurity, perhaps creating a dilemma for the Patriarchate as to its future. Other concerns also preoccupy the Patriarchate: the nature of its jurisdiction, discomfort in its relations with the Holy See, crisis in vocations and the continuing haemorrhaging of communities in the Middle East, the vast territories involved in caring for the faithful in the Diaspora, the language of the Liturgy, the threat of absorption into majority cultures and that ancient forms of worship and tradition may not survive under pressure, even in the Diaspora.

Świętość w czasach podbojów islamskich. Męczennicy chrześcijańscy z Gazy z VII wieku

The article focuses the story of the martyrdom of 60 Christian soldiers in Gaza who were executed for their refusal to convert to Islam during the Muslim inva­sion of Palestine. It is a final episode of varied Christian history of that region. Christian history of Gaza appears as complex and fascinating. In this region in the 4th century paganism was still strong but the monastic life developed in the vicinity of Gaza. Literary sources annotated the anti-Chalcedonian resistance of monastic circles in the wake of the council of Chalcedon. Christian history of the Gaza region ended dramatically with the Arab conquest in the 7th century. Just at that time a group of Christian soldiers refused the offer of the commander of the winners Muslims. The narrative of their martyrdom was preserved in a Latin translation of a Greek original. According to the text of the Passio, the Christian soldiers were executed in two groups: at Jerusalem and at Eleutheropolis. Bi­shop Sophronius of Jerusalem intervened in favor of these Martyrs and comforted them. He also gained the palm of martyrdom. The Passio in two different Latin recensions reveals a relatively neglected aspect in the history of the Holy Land during the period of heightened religious tension.

The Orthodox Church in the Arab World, 700–1700: An Anthology of Sources ed. by Samuel Noble and Alexander Treiger (review)

The Orthodox Church in Arab World, 700-1700: An Anthology of Sources. Edited by Samuel Noble and Alexander Treiger. [Orthodox Christian Series.] (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. 2014. Pp. x, 375. $35.00 paperback. ISBN 978-0-87580-701-0.)The Christian communities of West Asia are in news almost daily, as they live out latest bleak episode in their long history. Thanks to obdurate sadism of so-called Islamic State, for some of them it could be their last. This history is almost unknown in West, as are culture and distinctive beliefs of these communities or their stirring experiences of living under Muslim rule and devising means to survive.In early centuries after Christ, Christians in Eastern provinces of Roman Empire developed doctrines along their own lines, particularly concerning nature of Christ. When early church councils prescribed mode in which his humanity and divinity came together, significant numbers in East vehemently dissented. Then, just as main points of doctrinal difference had been identified, these Eastern provinces were overrun by new power of Islam. From seventh century onward Eastern Christians continued as client communities, experiencing pressure to convert, adverse social and economic relations, and sometimes active persecution. The story of how they survived and rallied, and particu- larly how they responded to challenge of Islam, deserves a full telling. Equally, theologies they worked out in context of strict monotheism promoted by Muslims include masterpieces of apologetic that show both continuity with patristic precedents and also responsiveness to questions and criticisms they met on a daily basis.The main Christian communities that have continued for most of their history under Islam are commonly known as Nestorians, Jacobites (Copts, in Egypt), and Melkites. As Islamic rule became established, and Arabic became normal language of conversation and scholarly writing, so they moved from their former languages of Greek and Syriac (a form of language that Jesus had used) to Arabic. In this new context they had to find new idioms and terminologies, as well as a new logic in which to express their beliefs. The results, although definitely recognizable as descendants of their patristic forebears, show sensitivity to new context set by Islamic religious discourse. Exploring their theological world is a stimulating and instructive experience. This book goes some way to make this possible.Recognizing impossibility of covering whole range of surviving writings from 1300 years of Christian religious thinking expressed in Arabic, two editors decided to bring together selected works from first millennium of Melkite tradition, those churches that remained loyal to Christological formula defined at Council of Chalcedon in 451 and endorsed by emperor (hence their name Melkite, the king's followers). They have collected writings from twelve Arab authors, many translated expressly and a few others taken from earlier publications, to present a sample of how this church continued in conditions where communication with Byzantine mother church and its culture was no longer practicable, and where Christian authors fashioned distinctive explanations and arguments to answer questions from other denominations and from Muslims alike.The book starts with a relatively brief but surprisingly comprehensive introduction in which Melkite Church and something of its culture are set out. …

Book Review: The Making of Modern English Theology: God and the Academy at Oxford, 1833–1945

The Making of Modern English Theology: God and the Academy at Oxford, 1833-1945. By Daniel Inman. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2014. xii + 334 pp. $34.00 (paper).Of the many High Church Anglicans associated with the University of Oxford during the period covered by this excellent book, the two best-known groups wrote the Tracts for the Times (1833-1841) and Lux Mundi (1889). In a book developed from his Oxford doctoral dissertation, Daniel Inman paints a fascinating contrast between the two groups' impact on the institutional approach to theology at Oxford.Here John Keble, John Henry Newman, and Edward Bouverie Pusey are depicted as the forces of Oxford conservatism. Above all, Pusey's longevity as Regius Professor of Hebrew (fifty-four years, more or less the period covered in the book's first two chapters) was a brake on internal reform at the university. Pusey also became the chief spokesman against the external reforms made by the government. The Tractarians held that the university was a seminary of the Church of England, so all undergraduates should be required to learn the rudiments of religion in order to attain a BA and tutors should guide their students in the practical appropriation of the Christian faith. The academic study of theology, by contrast, should be left to those in holy orders pursuing the higher degrees of BD and DD. To make theology the stuff of competitive examination at an undergraduate level was, according to Pusey, to degrade the holiness of the subject matter. Even when Pusey was forced to introduce a School of Theology in 1869, to go alongside the other schools such as Modem History in providing curricula and competitive exams for undergraduate study, he ensured a conservative curriculum and exams. Historical study, for instance, was to end with the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and the Bible was not to be treated historically. When the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, William Bright, proposed adding a course on the Reformation, Pusey rather hyperbolically said the work of my whole life was here undone (p. 148). Inman perhaps understates the age-old story of a younger generation at odds with an older generation, which explains both Newman's fervor in the 1830s for a new model of tutorship (for the practice of which he was fired as tutor by his mentor, Edward Hawkins) and Pusey's resistance to change in the 1870s from his mentee, Bright.Inman shows that, in spite of many twists and turns along the way (such as Essays and Reviews and the reforms of other British universities), until the First World War a succession of High Church professors and the votes of clergy alumni in the university's Convocation preserved the state of affairs at Oxford that Pusey promoted. The postmortem influence of Pusey seems so great, in fact, that as late as 1913 the clergy alumni in Convocation conclusively rejected the proposals for reform made by the High Church successors of Pusey. For more than twenty years after Lux Mundi, its editor Charles Gore was Bishop of Oxford and its contributor Henry Scott Holland was Regius Professor of Divinity at the university. The Lux Mundi group (discussed in chapter 3) decided that the reform of university theology must come from the High Church professors themselves if it was to appeal to the clergy alumni. The proposals that were rejected sought to ease denominational restrictions on studying theology at Oxford, and to promote the study of all the religious phenomena of humanity, even non-Christian religions (p. …

Jan-Markus Kötter.Zwischen Kaisern und Aposteln: Das Akakianische Schisma (484–519) als kirchlicher Ordnungskonflikt der Spätantike.

The Acacian Schism pitted the see of Rome against that of Constantinople for more than three decades (484–519). The schism started when Acacius of Constantinople accepted the so-called Henotikon of the Emperor Zeno, which sought to reunite the churches after the Council of Chalcedon. To Rome it meant a dangerous devaluation of the Fourth Ecumenical Council and the acceptance of heretics as orthodox. The schism ended with a compromise: Constantinople embraced the theology of the West as the basis of orthodoxy, whereas Rome accepted Constantinople as only second to itself. The schism has often been understood as one in the many battles about the legacy of Chalcedon and as a sign of the estrangement of East and West. This book by Jan-Markus Kötter, a reworked version of his 2011 Frankfurt PhD thesis, proposes to understand it as a conflict about the nature and organization of the Christian Church. To this end, he develops a theoretical model, which identifies three areas of potential conflict in the ancient church: dogma, hierarchy, and empire. If the first two were already operative before Constantine, conflict about the relation to the empire only becomes a theme when there is a “Reichskirche.” This term has often been understood as meaning a church under tutelage of the Roman Empire (for a critique of that idea, see Steffen Diefenbach, “Constantius II. und die “Reichskirche”—ein Beitrag zum Verhältnis von kaiserlicher Kirchenpolitik und politischer Integration im 4. Jh.,” Millennium 9 [2012]: 55–122), but Kötter proposes to understand it in a descriptive sense, namely as the coexistence of church and Christian Empire. The Acacian Schism should then be understood as a conflict about the correct organization of the church: whereas Rome founded its claims on its apostolic origins, Constantinople claimed leadership in the Eastern Church by virtue of being the residence of the emperor. In Kötter’s model, both sees represent two opposite poles, one that stakes its claim on the autonomy of the church, and another that relies on imperial, not ecclesiastical, arguments for its claims. If often expressed in sociological terms, Kötter’s approach can be said to shift our understanding of the Acacian Schism away from a purely dogmatic understanding (as a conflict about orthodoxy and heresy) to an ecclesiological one: which church represents the ideal Christian community? In this way, he follows an approach first introduced by Philippe Blaudeau (most recently, Le siège de Rome et l’Orient 448–536: étude géo-ecclésiologique [2012], which includes much of the same material). Just like Blaudeau, Kötter avoids focusing on just the two main players and restores agency to the sees of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. The thirteen chapters in the book offer two things: on the one hand, a narrative of the schism, and, on the other, a structural analysis of the aims and strategies of the various players involved. The narrative is clear and will be a point of reference for years to come. The analysis sometimes has a tendency to repeat things said earlier in the narrative. This is unavoidable given the set-up of the book, but it would have been a good idea to shift the exposition of the model from the very end to the beginning. A consequence of Kötter’s approach is that one learns little about the internal developments in the various sees. There may be too much focus on competition among the patriarchs at the expense of a discussion about how they addressed different constituencies within their bishoprics. A more prominent look at these local dynamics would have enriched the book. Kötter, however, succeeds in showing how the overarching aims of each see remain remarkably constant. His intention to offer a model sometimes leads him to some disputable over-generalizing statements. I would, for example, quarrel with the idea that apostolicity presupposes an ahistorical view of the world, according to which Rome’s position would be due to a once-and-for-all decision by God, whereas Constantinople’s position does more justice to human history. Apostolicity is, in fact, a choice for another point of reference, internal to the history of the church, and for a focus on distant origins. It is, moreover, a strong factor in the production of history, as a look at apocryphal stories shows. I therefore fail to see why it would have to be tied up with a “static perception” of history (194 n. 619). Such considerations do not subtract substantially from the value of this book. It is one of the few works available that goes beyond musing about the structural instability of the church in Late Antiquity and seeks to explain it.

Su tre Scholia teopaschiti di Giovanni di Scitopoli al de divinis nominibus

John of Scythopolis, the first scholiast of the Corpus Dionysiacum, played a role in the debates that took place after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and contributed in an original way to the development of Christological dogma in preparation for the Council of Constantinople II in 553. In particular, he uses the theopaschite formula both in its so-called “Alexandrian” version as well as in that attributed to the Scythian monks. Several instances of the formula occur in three of his Scholia on Dionysius’s De divinis nominibus and show both his concentration upon the hypostasis of the Word as well as his identification of Christ with the Lovgoç. In this way, he looks for a new via media within Christological doctrine that truly can be called “Neo-chalcedonian.”

Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint by David Potter

Reviewed by: Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint by David Potter Mihaela L. Florescu David Potter, Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2015) 277 pp. David Potter has written Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint as part of the Women in Antiquity series, edited by Ronnie Ancona and Sarah B. Pomeroy. David Potter’s book is as much a story of Mediterranean politics in the ancient world as it is the love story between Justinian, the son of peasants, and Theodora, a former actress and as such considered a person of ill repute, that rose from humble beginnings to become Emperor and Empress of the mighty Byzantine empire. Together they were one of the most famous couples of the ancient world, known for their piety and for championing the downtrodden. Theodora’s story starts with that of her family. They were what one might term circus folk. Her mother was an actress and her father was a bear keeper, ursarius. These were considered prestigious occupations in the 6th century Byzantine world Theodora inhabited. The family was considered upper middle class in Constantinople, the Byzantine capital where they lived. Actors and actresses, and bear trainers, too, were a vital part of the entertainment provided the Roman masses as part of the horse races at the Hippodrome. In ancient Rome, there were four main rival circus factions that played in the Hippodrome against each other, racing and taunting, but in Constantinople, the new Rome, there were but two, the Blues and the Greens. The factions were fiercely competitive towards one other, claiming they had a monopoly on the “right thinking.” Inter-factional violence was not uncommon. The factions weren’t mere teams of sport. They were veritable institutions. Their heads were compensated as well as high-ranking palace officials. They had their neighborhoods or districts where their supporters lived. An alliance with a faction could make or break a government. Their spy networks alone were worth much value. Emperors were known to micromanage the factions’ affairs in order to exert control over these institutions. The factions’ role was not only to entertain. In a system where the wealthy few controlled most of the resources, going to see a spectacle made people happy. The factions functioned as a lever to maintain the social order. [End Page 320] Along with the church, the factions were important means of controlling the population. But who controlled the factions and the church? Different types of people surely, but nevertheless, the networks of power were interconnected in the Byzantine world. The ultimate authority rested with the emperor and the empress. In Theodora’s case, she held a lot of power of her own. Leaders were thought to derive their ability to rule due to their piety. They were supposed to be closer to God than mere mortals and so they could steer their people on the righteous path. Church officials, especially the ascetic, pious ones, derived their power along the same lines of thought. A point of acute contention and the reason for a lot of factionalism was the split between the Chalcedon and the Anti-Chalcedonians’ viewpoints of Christianity. The Council of Chalcedon, which took place in Western Europe in ad 451, gave birth to a fierce doctrinal debate. The Chalcedonians believed Christ had a human aspect that suffered on the cross while the Anti-Chalcedonians believed that Christ was a unity, his divinity indivisible. The Anti-Chalcedonians, which Theodora supported, saw themselves as the pure brand of the church, shunning privilege, embracing the ascetic life, and helping the downtrodden. In practical terms this meant that the anti-Chalcedonians tended to be people who were outside the established political system. The 6th century was a time in transition, when social and economic mobility was more apparent than any other time in the Roman Empire. It was a time when an actress could become an Empress and a saint. In 521–522, her acting career behind her, Theodora moved to the province of Pentapolis, in modern-day Libya, as concubine to an older powerful man who was to govern the province. There, she gave birth to a daughter, but the father abandoned the young family. This is where...

The Catholic-Oriental Orthodox Dialogue: Achievements and Hopes

The author focuses on the six Oriental Orthodox Churches that did not receive the Christological teachings of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and have not been in full communion with the rest of the Christian world since that time. The article briefly describes the individual churches and their present situation, identifies certain characteristics of those churches, and then focuses on the achievement of the international dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox that has been in progress since 2004. It concludes with reflections on the prospects for the reestablishment of full communion and the role the Bishop of Rome might play among these reconciled churches.

Zagadnienie personalizmu w "Protreptyku" Klemensa Aleksandryjskiego

The article presents the outline of the pagan and Christian ancient anthropo­logy that is interested in its relations to the cosmology. The antique philosophers describe a man as the microcosmos which belongs to the macrocosmos. Accor­ding to Aristotle’s metaphysics and the henological metaphysics, the human being occupies the lower place in the hierarchy of the universe. The Christian thinkers, based on the Bible and the Tradition, show the human being as God’s creature made according to the image and similitude of his Creator. The Church Fathers know the Jewish and gnostic anthropologies and they make a polemic on their doctrinal issues. Investigating the patristic anthropology is possible to apply the prosopography exegesis that underlines the interpersonal dialogue. That method indicates three levels of mutual relationships: the analogical and iconic one, the dyadic and dialogical level and the triadic one. The Church Fathers creating the metaphysics of person change their research from the cosmology to the theology and the anthropology. Justin investigates the personalist logos-anthropology. Ire­naeus of Lyon and Tertullian of Carthage show the personalist soma-anthropology. Clement of Alexandria elaborates the very interesting concept of the personalist eikon-anthropology that describes the human person as the divine Logos’ image, the living statue, in which dwells the divine Logos and the beautiful instrument fulfilled by God with the spirit. Origen of Alexandria, the Cappadocian Fathers and other Christian thinkers who examine that issue, will use Clément’s personal­ist eikon-anthropology in their future investigations. That concept helps to define the solemn Christological doctrine of Council of Chalcedon.

A New Edition of the Medieval Councils

Conciliorum oecumenicorum generaliumque decreta: Editio critica. General Councils of Latin Christendom: From Constantinople IV (869/870) to Lateran V (1512-1517). \Corpus Christianorum Conciliorum oecumenicorum generaliumque decreta. Edited by Istituto per le scienze religiose Bologna; Giuseppe Alberigo and Alberto Melloni, editors. 3 vols. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006-13)]. Vol. II. 2013. Pp. 1450. euro740,00. ISBN 978-2-503-52527-3.Vol. II, tome 1: General Councils of Latin Christendom from Constantinople IV to Pavia-Siena (869-1424). Edited by Antonio Garcia y Garcia, Peter Gemeinhardt, Georg Gresser, Thomas Izbicki, Atria Larson, Alberto Melloni, Jurgen Miethke, Kenneth Pennington, Burkhard Roberg, Riccardo Saccenti, and Philip Stump. 2013.Vol. II, tome 2: From Basel to Lateran V (1431-1517). Edited by Frederick Lauritzen, Nelson H. Minnich, Joachim Stieber, Harald Suermann, and Jurgen Uhlich. 2013.The first volume of the COGD, published in 2006, ended with the Second Council of Nicaea (787). This breaking point has a programmatic character, for the editors are of the opinion that Nicaea II had been the last council. From that moment, as indicated in the title of volume II/l, there are only The General Councils of Latin Christendom. This formulation covers the basic problem of the entire enterprise.First of all, the editors do not provide a clear definition of what constitutes an ecumenical council. unexpressed and undiscussed idea that underlies the volume is that an council (assuming a constitution of the Church based on the concept of Pentarchy) requires the participation of all five patriarchates, where old Rome, even while the first, is to be considered only one of the five. This implies that the Church was seen to be congruent with the understanding and boundaries of the Roman Empire, or vice versa. It thus seems to have totally escaped the editors that with this concept, they were excommunicating all of Oriental Christianity. Thus those who did not follow the Council of Chalcedon remain excluded, for they separated themselves not on the basis of Christological differences with the imperial Church but from a desire to be independent from the Empire. And thus from this conception of Pentarchy derives the first pseudo-wording (oecumenicorum generaliumque) in the title of the edition. If one does not wish to start from this point, then one should say so clearly and distinctly. Thus, one should not use the Catholic terms oecumenical and council, but speak of them all more generally as church meetings.But with this arrives already the second, equally thorny problem-i.e., the selection of the councils. Which of the numerous synods should be included in the volume? Was the choice based on comprehensible criteria? editors owe an answer to this question. Nevertheless, the term council should be clearly distinguished from the term used in the first volume. reviewer has treated this problem at length.1 Specifically, before this background, there is the problem of how to assess the two Photian synods of 869/70 and 879/80. In particular, these two synods should not be considered Latin (!) councils, for in both cases they were affairs of the church of Constantinople. Another striking feature is that each of the two is called Concilium Constantinopolitanum IV. Equally surprising is the inclusion in this collection of the Pisan Council of 1409. Surely it has been claimed at times that it acted as a council. Indeed, it should not be overlooked that not only the whole obedience of Benedict XIII-including Spain, Portugal, a considerable portion of France, and Scotland-had not attended but also the followers of Gregory XII in Italy and Germany. So, how can one call general such a fragmentary assembly just when it was about to reunite the two broken parts of the Church? Consequently, neither the Photian synods nor the Pisan Council of 1409 found a place in the previous editions of the COD. …

Doing Gender Justice as a Mission Imperative

Announcement of the kingdom of God The gospel of Luke describes John the Baptist going throughout Jordon, proclaiming a baptism of repentance: "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight'" (Luke 3: 4-5). When the people ask John, "What then should we do?" John doesn't moralize, but responds proactively: "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?" He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you." Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages." (Luke 3: 11-14) In other words, to prepare the path for God's kingdom is to actively do justice and destroy the consequences of the sin. What we have in the words of John the Baptist is an expression of Christological eschatology, i.e. the kingdom of God is going to be given to us as a gift, but at the same time we have been called to "make the path smooth" in our acceptance of the gift. In that sense, eschaton is God-human endeavour, the kingdom that we're awaiting from God is anticipated and expressed in history through the praxis of human beings that should iconize the new eon. In Gustavo Gutierrez's words, "The hope which overcomes death must be rooted in the heart of historical praxis; if this hope doesn't take shape in the present to lead it forward, it will be only an evasion, a futuristic illusion." (1) Christological eschatology means one important thing: it is divine-human synergy, just as Christ has divine-human nature as defined by the ecumenical council of Chalcedon. It isn't a communist utopia in which heaven on earth will be brought about by the proletariat, or a utopia of Zealots during the time of Jesus that human will is capable of bringing kingdom of God. We sometimes forget this truth and make ourselves passive in history through the expectation that God will do everything exclusively. We forget sometimes that "from the very beginning Christianity was socially minded. The whole fabric of Christian existence is social and corporate. All Christian sacraments are intrinsically 'social sacraments,' i.e., sacraments of incorporation ... To build up the church of Christ means, therefore, to build up a new society and, by implication, to re-build human society on a new basis." (2) The New Testament reveals the kingdom of God as a new mode of relationship, a new quality of life. The kingdom is proclaimed when the sick and the poor are healed, when the dead are resurrected, when the disenfranchised are accepted, when abundance of food is offered to many, when justice, love, peace, harmony, and solidarity rule (Matt. 4:23, 5:10, 25:34; Luke 9:2, 9:12-18; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 6:9). Let's look at the words from the beginning of the liturgy in the Orthodox Church: "Blessed is the kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Through these opening words, the liturgy is supposed to open up toward the eschatological kingdom, "a progressive movement towards the fullness of the kingdom of Christ, toward His cosmic and historical triumph." (3) The kingdom of God should be manifested in all of its social implications through historical limitations. It means that the liturgy should not reflect a patriarchal mode of relationship, the degradation of women,4 * disregard of lay people/ and inaccessibility for the sick and elderly. Primacy should be given to these issues that collide with the values of God's kingdom. Genesis 3:16 argues that man should rule over woman, but this verse comes as a consequence of the sin--the fall. This verse only expresses how the male-female relationship has been lived or conducted in our communities where the ideology of men rules, and not God's given/original order. …

Two Major Attempts to Articulate an Authentic Role for Christ’s Humanity in Salvation

This paper cites selected works of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Karl Rahner as examples of a functional approach to Christology. While presuming the presence of a metaphysical unity in Christ, they centre their attention upon how Christ as man is related to and freely acts together with God the Word in their unity and also how Christ as man serves as the prime image of God, the recapitulating bond of the universe, and the singular saving mediator for all creatures. These approaches, similar but different, give flesh to the Council of Chalcedon’s christological formula that proclaims, from a human point of view, two pivotal unities in Christ: a metaphysical and, what can be interpreted as, a ‘functional’ unity.

The Apocryphal Legitimation of a “Solomonic” Dynasty in the Kǝbrä nägäśt – A Reappraisal

The present study constitutes an attempt to reevaluate the ideological function of the Kǝbrä nägäśt as an apocryphal production extolling the nobility and orthodoxy of early 14th-century “Solomonic” élites. In this regard, the Kǝbrä nägäśt can be considered as the Ethiopian response to the religious and political propaganda of the Syriac Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius and related literature. The arguments recently made in favour of a 6th-century date for an hypothetical original kernel of the Kǝbrä nägäśt are also reexamined and reinterpreted. The mention of the “glory of David” in the inscription RIÉ 195 II: 24 is not a reference to the Davidic/Solomonic origins of the kings of Aksum but part of a biblical citation, Isaiah 22:22–23, here for the first time correctly identified, while the connection between the recently published MḤDYS’s gold coin and the council of Chalcedon is too speculative and aleatory to be of any use. The glorious memories of 6th-century Ḥimyaritic wars provided but the point of departure for the elaboration of the traditions to be much later creatively recycled in the Kǝbrä nägäśt.

Christ in Christian Tradition. Volume 2, Part 3: The Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch from 451 to 600. By THERESIA HAINTHALER in continuation of the work of ALOIS GRILLMEIER.

Dr Hainthaler continues here the great work of scholarship initiated by Alois Grillmeier. It was conceived in response to the commemoration of the Council of Chalcedon in 1951. The master himself writes and the editor contributes in large measure with substantial assistance from Luise Abramowski and Tanios Bou Mansour. Andrew Louth gives a trim and helpful foreword to the English translation. As the work has expanded over the years so has its method and scope. Much more appears now of background to an analysis which remains focused on Christology in the strict sense: the interpretation of Christ in terms of ‘nature’, ‘person’, and the like. Some space is allowed to spirituality and religious feeling as distinct from ‘doctrine’, but not much. Small elements of narrative figure now in analyses which follow geographical confines. We are, I would think inevitably, presented with Christology by area, for incipient national churches now begin to mark themselves out christologically in relation to the state church. Inevitably too the politics of geographically and socially defined areas has to be given due place, with the result that the history of Christology has now almost become history tout court. When we are informed properly and usefully about Arab phylarchs and what constituted an ‘Arab’, or about what was studied at a Syrian seminary cum institute of education we are removed a fair distance from the history of doctrine in pristine purity: and, I would add, pleasingly so, since there is a numbing repetitiveness about the arguments as of a sound track in a loop.

The Historical Erudition of the Compiler of “The Word on the Council of Chalcedon”

The article focuses on a literary monument presenting Christological debates of the 5th century and the circumstances of the Fourth Ecumenical Council (the Council of Chalcedon), its sources, and the history of dissemination in the Slavic manuscript tradition. It introduces a list of forty-two East Slavic manuscripts of the 15‒17th centuries, including The Word on the Council of Chalcedon, a work on the history of Christianity and its dogmas. In thirty-nine of the manuscript copies, the literary monument serves as an introduction to the Slavic translation of Pope Leo the Great’s Tome to Archbishop Flavian of Constantinople (451), confirmed by the Fourth Ecumenical Council as an essential document of dogma. Judging by the provenance of the manuscript sources, in the 15‒17th centuries The Word on the Council of Chalcedon, along with the translation of Pope Leo’s Tome, were widely read and copied in the monasteries and churches of Moscow, Volok Lamsky, Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky, and Novgorod Veliky, as well as those of northern Russia. As its first researcher, O. M. Bodianskii, showed in 1848, the Slavic translation of the pope’s Tome was made from Greek by the monk Feodosii (“Theodosius the Greek”) in the 12th century. However, the attribution of The Word on the Council of Chalcedon to the same translator remains to be proved. The present work shows that the anonymous compiler of The Word on the Council of Chalcedon was well aware of the church history of the 5th century, remembering many historical details he would most probably have come across in Greek rather than in translated Slavic sources. On the other hand, several historical mistakes made by the compiler suggest that he lacked the texts necessary to verify the facts and had to rely on his memory, which occasionally failed him. Nevertheless, despite occasional factual errors and a compilative narrative structure, The Word on the Council of Chalcedon is in some ways more informative than many Byzantine chronicles.

Le Siege de Rome et l'Orient (448-536): Etude geo-ecclesiologique. By PHILIPPE BLAUDEAU.

This is a hard read. The title Le Siège de Rome et l’Orient (448–536) indicates the framework in space and time: relations between the papacy and Eastern Christendom from shortly before the Council of Chalcedon until the early years of the emperor Justinian. The subtitle Étude géo-ecclésiologique is more complex, as the author acknowledges. How did the theological controversies of the period impact upon relations between the major sees of the period, principally the patriarchates of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, and how have these ecclesiological aspects been evaluated? The book, therefore, concerns the ecclesiological dimensions of theological controversies both at the time of these controversies and subsequently. It is essentially the author’s habilitation thesis (p. vii). The introduction (pp. 1–11) is best read first, where the complex programme of the work is outlined. The Council of Chalcedon in 451, which forms the core of the study, resulted in a notable extension of papal authority. Blaudeau is surely correct on this point. It was the first ecumenical council at which the pope (still then normally called bishop of Rome, but I continue with ‘pope’ for convenience) made a major contribution beyond giving assent to the proceedings. Pope Leo’s ‘Tome’ was singled out for praise by the council and it impacted upon the council’s doctrinal statement. Partly due to Leo’s initiative, papal authority grew within the Christian community.

Roger Haight's Controversial Theology

Controversy over Haight’s theology looks at three issues: First, the meaning of the word “symbol” in “Jesus symbol of God.” Haight denies “undialectically” that “Jesus is God” pointing out what was said by the Council of Chalcedon (451), but opponents claim that it is Haight’s reductionist avocation of Edward Schillebeeckx’s neo-Thomist classic, Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God (1963) that says Jesus points to God but he is not God. (Lakeland 2007). The second is Luke Timothy Johnson’s contention that Haight is advocating that “historical change and contingency” trumps “revelation and doctrinal authority.” Third, Haight’s embrace of religious pluralism and denying the superiority of Christianity thus denying the need to convert from other religions to Christianity and making Christianity no more than an option of religious beliefs moving into speculative theology and questioning the validity of Christianity. (Lakeland 2007).