Christ in Eastern Christian Thought

Over the next several days I wanted to walk through a book with you in a chapter-by-chapter manner. It is a book that I have found exhilarating and insightful, enriching and challenging - all at once. Christ in Eastern Christian Thought is a book by John Meyendorff that is all these things. Here’s all the technical information:

Meyendorff, John. Christ in Eastern Christian Thought. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1975. 248 pages. ISBN 0-913836-27-3. [View Table of Contents]

The historical approach to the discussion, of what many Westerners would want to discuss under the systematic rubric of Christology, is at once exigent and refreshing. It is exigent because Western minds have been largely taught to think in purely systematic categories¹ and this book is not a systematic approach to Christology; however, it is very Christological. It is refreshing because at the center of this historical work is Christ, his Spirit working out illumination in His people, the Church.

To get the most out of this exercise together, I want to preface with this summary of ideologies that will be critical to have down so that you may benefit most from Fr. Meyendorff’’s work.

Summary of Ideologies

• Nestorianism: The belief that Christ existed as two persons (divine and human) not as God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever (Gk. θεάνθροπος).
• Monophysitism: Comes from the Greek μονο- (mono-), meaning “one”” and ‑φύσις (-fusis), meaning ““nature””. This is the belief that Christ possessed only one nature not two. There are several variations and degrees of Monophysitism and these are outlined below.
• Arianism: An early 4^th century controversy that most basically taught that the Father and the Son were not co-eternal. Jesus was divine but created and thus inferior, ontologically speaking, to the Father.

Facets of Monophysitism

• Eutychianism: Christ had two natures, but his human nature was swallowed up by the divine as ““a drop of honey in the sea.”
• Apollonarianism: Christ had a human body (i.e., a ““living principle””) but not a rational soul (Gk. νους). The rational soul of normal humans had been supplanted by the Divine Logos.
• Cyril of Alexandria: A very important Church Father who was Monophysite but certainly not Eutychian (Meyendorff, p. 37). The Fifth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon vindicated him in 533 (not to be confused with the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD). Chalcedon (533) would condemn Eutyches but would clearly not disavow Cyril.

I look forward to sharing with you the many nuggets of gold that I have found in Meyendorff’’s work. My bias is that of a Presbyterian and so my criticisms will likely reflect that; however, my prayer is that they would be most charitable and honoring to Christ and Fr. Meyendorff, from whom I have learned much.

Table of Contents

1. Christology in the Fifth Century
2. Chalcedonians and Monophysites
3. The Origenist Crisis of the Sixth Century (1 of 2)
   The Origenist Crisis of the Sixth Century (2 of 2)� �Snapshot of Problems with Origen
4. “God Suffered in the Flesh” (1 of 2)
   “God Suffered in the Flesh” (2 of 2)
5. Pseudo-Dionysius (1 of 2)
   Pseudo-Dionysius (2 of 2)
6. The Spiritual Writers: Salvation, Asceticism, and Deification (1 of 2)
   The Spiritual Writers: Salvation, Asceticism, and Deification (2 of 2)
7. The Cosmic Dimension of Salvation: Maximus the Confessor
   Excerpt on Humanity before the Fall
8. An Effort at Systematization: St. John of Damascus
9. Vision of the Invisible: The Iconoclastic Crisis
10. Christology in Late Byzantium
11. Conclusion

N.B. I hope to have links from this table of contents as the chapter discussions are published on this blog.

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¹ If you have read my blog much you will know that I am very partial to the Dutch/Continental flavor of Reformed theology which does a good job of balancing the historia salutis with the ordo salutis.