Early Christian Studies Research Articles

The Byzantine Christ: Person, Nature, and Will in the Christology of St. Maximus the Confessor (review)

Reviewed by: The Byzantine Christ: Person, Nature, and Will in the Christology of St. Maximus the Confessor David Bradshaw Demetrios Bathrellos The Byzantine Christ: Person, Nature, and Will in the Christology of St. Maximus the Confessor Oxford Early Christian Studies New York: Oxford University Press, 2004 Pp. 228 + xii. $98. Although the ancient christological debates culminate in the work of St. Maximus the Confessor, until now there has been no monograph devoted specifically to Maximus's Christology. This work neatly fills that gap and in doing so provides a helpful introduction to some of the knottier issues of patristic theology. The book begins with a review of the debates leading up to and following the Council of Chalcedon. Bathrellos treats this familiar material well, correcting [End Page 286] where necessary what he sees as inaccuracies in the prevailing scholarship. He defends the two Leontioi (Leontius of Byzantium and Leontius of Jerusalem) against charges that they were less than orthodox, observing that Leontius of Byzantium explicitly affirms a human will in Christ and that both authors attribute to Christ a human as well as a divine energy. The second chapter examines Monothelitism. Bathrellos takes issue with those scholars (such as Tixeront and Jugie) who have argued that the Monothelites did not actually mean to deny a human will in Christ but merely saw Christ's human will as wholly passive with respect to his divine will. The issue is tricky because the Monothelites did not distinguish, as did Maximus, between the faculty of will, its exercise, and its object, so their precise meaning is often hard to determine. Nonetheless, Bathrellos thinks it is clear that Patriarch Sergius meant to deny a human faculty of will in Christ and that the same is true of Pope Honorius inasmuch as he endorsed Sergius's views without qualification. (As Bathrellos observes, the fathers of the Sixth Ecumenical Council "took for granted that [Honorius] was a heretic and anathametized him, as they also took for granted that to be a pope and a heretic at the same time does not constitute a contradiction in terms" [79].) As for the sources of Monothelitism, Bathrellos sees them as lying partly in the Monophysitism but partly also in a revival of the Apollinarian notion that a truly human will in Christ would necessarily be in conflict with his divine will. The remaining chapters treat Maximus's own Christology. Maximus builds on the work of the Leontioi in affirming both that the single personal subject present in the Incarnation is the Logos and that at the level of nature ("what," rather than "who") this single personal subject is composite. The attempt to work out this position in detail gives rise to a number of interesting questions. Bathrellos argues that Maximus denies human inclination (gno\me\) and choice (prohairesis) in Christ not in order to exclude the actual exercise of Christ's human will but because he sees these terms as implying ignorance, deliberation, and the capacity for evil. Scripture often speaks of Christ's will as being thwarted, and this is, for Maximus, a clear sign that his human will is at work. The question then is how, given that two faculties of will are active, they necessarily converge in a single decision. Should we think of them as working more or less in parallel (Tixeront) or, instead, of the human will as subordinate to the divine will (Jugie)? Bathrellos argues that neither of these views is adequate and that precisely because the human will is that of the Logos, it is moved directly by the Logos (and not by the divine will per se) without any violation of human self-determination. The author also discusses at length monoenergist formulas such as the "new theandric energy" spoken of by Dionysius the Areopagite. Notoriously, Maximus originally was willing to give such formulas an orthodox reading but then rejected them. Bathrellos argues that the shift was a result of the need to conciliate the hard-line Dyothelites of Italy and Sicily and did not represent a real change in Maximus's thinking. Although this is probably correct, I would have liked to have seen more discussion of the underlying theological issues...

The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition, Oxford Early Christian Studies– By Norman Russell

The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition<i>, Oxford Early Christian Studies</i>– By Norman Russell

The Irrational Augustine, by Catherine Conybeare

<i>The Irrational Augustine</i>, by Catherine Conybeare

A Century with the Sitz im Leben. From Form-Critical Setting to Gospel Community and Beyond

The German expression Sitz im Leben celebrates 100 years of use in Biblical scholarship and continues to evoke scholarly attention and discussion. The growing interest in the social factors behind the formation of early Christian groups and their identities has its background in this century old notion. Gerd Theißen has repeatedly expressed the conviction that the sociological study of early Christianity is a way of shedding light on and expanding it.

Studies in Early Christianity

Studies in Early Christianity

New Testament Studies – Preventing or Promoting a Humane Society?

In a brief overview of the power of religious ideas in church and society, it is shown that the New Testament not only constitutes Christian identity but as a master narrative also contributes to the moral formation of society. Faith, based on particular interpretations of these texts, moves minds and money and shapes society. Th e nature of New Testament Studies is investigated in that light. It is argued that critical New Testament Studies, which grew out of the centuries long maintenance of orthodoxy and the impact of the scientific revolution, are still dominated by exegesis of the twenty seven books but their most significant feature, it is pointed out, is the absence of the revolution in historical consciousness in both mainstream Western and African New Testament scholarship. Th ree case studies, historical Jesus research, the New Testament and the gay issue and finally the reading of ordinary people are used to evaluate whether current New Testament Studies are actually promoting or preventing the development of a humane society. It is argued that in all cases the absence of historical consciousness contributes to serious shortcomings in these studies. In the final section an apology for an interdisciplinary constitution of New Testament and Early Christian Studies within the humanistic tradition is offered as a resistance against its isolation in the Human Sciences and as a betterment of a humane society.

Martin Laird, . Gregory of Nyssa and the Grasp of Faith: Union, Knowledge, and Divine Presence. Oxford Early Christian Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. xi+240 pp. $95.00 (cloth).

Martin Laird, . <i>Gregory of Nyssa and the Grasp of Faith: Union, Knowledge, and Divine Presence</i>. Oxford Early Christian Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. xi+240 pp. $95.00 (cloth).

Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian controversy. The making of a saint and of a heretic. By Susan Wessel. (Oxford Early Christian Studies.) Pp. xiv+365. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. £60. 0 19 926846 0

Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian controversy. The making of a saint and of a heretic. By Susan Wessel. (Oxford Early Christian Studies.) Pp. xiv+365. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. £60. 0 19 926846 0 - Volume 58 Issue 1

Rod, Line and Net: Augustine on the Limits of diversity

Augustine of Hippo is especially appropriate for the theme of this volume. He is acknowledged as a Father and Doctor of the Church, that is, as an authoritative Christian writer from the early centuries of the Church, and as a major theologian. Patristics, the study of the Fathers, used to be where it all started in terms of Church teaching: wherever possible, doctrines and practices were traced back to the Fathers. In the last half-century of early Christian studies there has been much more emphasis on ecclesiastical history, on the intellectual and political detail of a specific historical context. So patristics is where it all starts in that we can see Church leaders working out their responses to problems and tensions that recur through the history of the Church. In the case of Augustine, there is an unusual range of evidence from his own sermons and letters and theological treatises, and from records of Church councils in Roman Africa from the years when he was bishop (395 to 430). On the older model of patristics, Augustine was taken as the source for some of the most extreme forms of Church discipline. His writings were conflated to produce coherent ‘Augustinian’ doctrine. Phrases and sentences, images and speculation, were taken out of context to be used for purposes he never envisaged. On the newer model of early Christian studies, we can trace Augustine’s reflections about when and how to discipline people who appear to be rejecting the fundamental Christian principles, love of God and love of neighbour.

THE OTHER CONFESSIONAL HISTORY: ON SECULAR BIAS IN THE STUDY OF RELIGION

ABSTRACTThe rejection of confessional commitments in the study of religion in favor of social‐scientific or humanistic theories of religion has produced not unbiased accounts, but reductionist explanations of religious belief and practice with embedded secular biases that preclude the understanding of religious believer‐practitioners. These biases derive from assumptions of undemonstrable, dogmatic, metaphysical naturalism or its functional equivalent, an epistemological skepticism about all truth claims of revealed religions. Because such assumptions are so widespread among scholars today, they are not often explicitly articulated. They were overtly asserted by Emile Durkheim in his Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), however, and are implicit in the claims of two other thinkers influential in the study of early modern Christianity in recent years, namely Clifford Geertz and Michel Foucault. The use of such theories in the history of religion yields secular confessional history, parallel to traditional religious confessional history only with different embedded metaphysical beliefs. If scholars want to understand religious persons such that the latter would recognize themselves in what is said about them, rather than impose their own metaphysical convictions on them, then they should reject metaphysically biased reductionist theories of religion no less than confessional religious assumptions in the practice of their scholarship. Instead, a study of religion guided not by theories but by the question, “What did it mean to them?” and which is particularized in metaphysically neutral ways offers a third alternative that avoids confessional history, whether religious or secular. When carried out consistently for multiple traditions, such an approach can reconstruct disagreements that point beyond description to historical explanation of change over time.

A Twofold Solidarity: Leo the Great's Theology of Redemption. By J. Mark Armitage. Pp. xiv + 228. (Early Christian Studies, 9.) Strathfield, NSW: St Pauls Publications in Association with the Centre for Early Christian Studies, 2005. isbn 0 9752138 2 2. Paper $44

A Twofold Solidarity: Leo the Great's Theology of Redemption. By J. Mark Armitage. Pp. xiv + 228. (Early Christian Studies, 9.) Strathfield, NSW: St Pauls Publications in Association with the Centre for Early Christian Studies, 2005. isbn 0 9752138 2 2. Paper $44

The life of Maximus the Confessor. Recension 3. Edited and translated by Bronwen Neil and Pauline Allen. (Early Christian Studies, 6.) Pp. ix+212. Strathfield, NSW: St Pauls Publications/Banyo, QLD: Centre for Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University, 2003. 0 9577483 5 3

The life of Maximus the Confessor. Recension 3. Edited and translated by Bronwen Neil and Pauline Allen. (Early Christian Studies, 6.) Pp. ix+212. Strathfield, NSW: St Pauls Publications/Banyo, QLD: Centre for Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University, 2003. 0 9577483 5 3 - Volume 57 Issue 2

Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy: The Making of a Saint and of a Heretic by Susan Wessel, Oxford Early Christian Studies, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, Pp. 380, £63 hbk.

New BlackfriarsVolume 87, Issue 1008 p. 201-202 CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA AND THE NESTORIAN CONTROVERSY: THE MAKING OF A SAINT AND OF A HERETIC by Susan Wessel, Oxford Early Christian Studies, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, Pp. 380, £63 hbk. Denis Minns, Denis MinnsSearch for more papers by this author Denis Minns, Denis MinnsSearch for more papers by this author First published: 20 February 2006 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0028-4289.2006.0139c.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume87, Issue1008March 2006Pages 201-202 RelatedInformation

Products, Processes, and Practices: A Non-Reificatory Approach to Collective Memory

In order to assess the generality of the collective memory concept and to underwrite discussion of its applicability to studies of early Christianity, this essay traces the development of “collective memory” from its origins in the crucible of the modern nation-state and as a tool for the disciplines that address that social form—mainly sociology and contemporary history. On that basis, the paper outlines a “practice” approach to collective memory, emphasizing the multiplicity and variability of mnemonic practices and products.

DAVID T. RUNIA and GREGORY E. STERLING (eds): The Studia Philonica Annual. Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, vol. XIII: In the Spirit of Faith: Studies in Philo and Early Christianity in Honor of David Hay, and vol. XV: Laws Stamped with the Seals of Nature: Law and Nature in Hellenistic Philosophy and Philo of Alexandria. (Brown Judaic Studies, 332 and 337.)

DAVID T. RUNIA and GREGORY E. STERLING (eds): The Studia Philonica Annual. Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, vol. XIII: In the Spirit of Faith: Studies in Philo and Early Christianity in Honor of David Hay, and vol. XV: Laws Stamped with the Seals of Nature: Law and Nature in Hellenistic Philosophy and Philo of Alexandria. (Brown Judaic Studies, 332 and 337.) 304 pp. (vol. XIII), 199 pp. (vol. XV). Providence: Brown University, 2001 (vol. XIII) and 2003 (vol. XV). - Volume 68 Issue 3

Prayer and spirituality in the early Church, III: Liturgy and life. Edited by Bronwen Neil, Geoffrey D. Dunn and Lawrence Cross. Pp. x + 412 + 13 plates. Virginia, QLD: Centre for Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University, 2003. A$38.50 (paper) 0 9577483 8 8

<i>Prayer and spirituality in the early Church,</i> III: <i>Liturgy and life</i>. Edited by Bronwen Neil, Geoffrey D. Dunn and Lawrence Cross. Pp. x + 412 + 13 plates. Virginia, QLD: Centre for Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University, 2003. A$38.50 (paper) 0 9577483 8 8

The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica. By Hamilton Hess. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. xii + 279 pp. $80.00, £50.00 cloth.

The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica. By Hamilton Hess. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. xii + 279 pp. $80.00, £50.00 cloth.

The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica (review)

Reviewed by: The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica H. A. Drake Hamilton Hess The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica Oxford Early Christian Studies Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 Pp. xii + 279. $80. When this book inaugurated the Oxford Theological Monographs series in 1958, its title was The Canons of the Council of Sardica, A.D. 343: A Landmark in the Early Development of Canon Law. The repositioning of title and subtitle indicates the primary change in this new edition. Whereas the first edition began [End Page 250] with a discussion of the historical and textual issues surrounding the composition and survival of the canons of Serdica, this material is now preceded by a new Part I that adds almost 100 pages of new text to the volume. Here Hess demonstrates how, through the twin pressures of schism and recalcitrant clergy, meetings that were originally deliberative in nature, seeking to resolve local issues through open discussion and consensus, were transformed into legislative assemblies (44). The transformation is reflected in the meaning of the Greek κανων, which by the end of the fourth century had changed from "custom" to "conciliar enactments" (77). The three chapters in Part II, "Serdica: the Council and its Canons," contain lightly revised versions of chapters of the former Part I dealing with the background to the Council, historical and textual problems, and transmission of the text. As in the first edition, the book closes with a final part, "Studies in Interpretation," in which the canons are individually analyzed after being re-sorted under four general headings: "The Appointment of Bishops," "The Translation of Bishops and Other Clergy," "The Appeal Canons," and "Episcopal Visits to the Imperial Court." In this edition Hess has added Greek text to the Latin and provided an English translation for both. Obviously, more has changed in this edition than the spelling of Serdica (or of Ossius—formerly Hosius—of Cordoba). But in important ways this book remains very much what it was when it first appeared. In the intervening half century, the burgeoning field of Late Antiquity has developed a more sympathetic understanding of the eastern bishops who withdrew from the synod and of the political machinations on both sides. Hess's concentration on the canons causes him to give short shrift to such ambiguities; in his study, right and wrong positions are always easy to discern. This said, the virtues of Hess's approach are many. The author argues that Serdica was a pivotal moment in the process of conciliar transformation.1 The western bishops there set out deliberately to create an avenue of appeal for clergy who believed themselves victims of politically motivated synods and to rein in the ambitions of others who sought to remove themselves to more prestigious sees. The effect of these decisions, in the West at least, was decisive (111). The 20–25 Serdican canons (the number varies in different mss.) are notoriously confusing and even contradictory, and previous scholars had created even more problems by trying to resolve the problems by claiming primacy for either the Greek or Latin versions of the text. Hess argues instead that the two versions are equally valid. He demonstrates that the canons originated as "stenographic records" reflecting a process by which a formal proposal (relatio) is followed by suggested resolutions (sententiae) and a summary of the issue by the presiding bishop (64). He is particularly judicious in analyzing the canons that specify appeal to the bishop of Rome (3bc. 4, 7 and 17 in the Latin text). Whereas theological positions have guided much previous analysis, Hess's philological and historical approach leads him to conclude that (1) the three canons involved are not separate but "three phases of the [same] verbal process" (180), and (2) the "Serdican formula represents a stage of development towards the notion of papal jurisdiction," but such jurisdication had not yet been articulated (188). Hess's much-expanded bibliography shows that he has kept abreast of important [End Page 251] new scholarship concerning argumentation and decision-making in Late Antiquity, such as Richard Lim's Public Disputation, Power and Social Order in Late Antiquity (Berkeley, 1995). But...

Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption. By Stephen J. Shoemaker. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. xvi + 460 pp. $140.00 cloth.

Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption. By Stephen J. Shoemaker. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. xvi + 460 pp. $140.00 cloth.

Review: Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church, volume 3: Liturgy and Life

Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church, volume 3: Liturgy and Life Bronwen Neil Geoffrey D. Dunn Lawrence Cross x + 412 13 plates. Strathfield, NSW St Pauls Publications in association with the Centre for Early Christian Studies 2003 0 9577483 6 8 PaperAUS$38.50/$45