The Mirror, the Qnoma, and the Soul: Another Perspective on the Christological Formula of Babai the Great
Various reasons have been suggested for the addition of “two qnome” to the traditional Antiochene christological formula (two natures in one person) of the Church of the East. These reasons can be found in wide-ranging fields that are often intertwined. Primarily, linguistic differences have caused...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2015
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| In: |
Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum
Year: 2015, Volume: 19, Issue: 2, Pages: 331-366 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Babai The Great ca. 6./7. Jh.
/ Hypostatic union
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| IxTheo Classification: | KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity NBF Christology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Various reasons have been suggested for the addition of “two qnome” to the traditional Antiochene christological formula (two natures in one person) of the Church of the East. These reasons can be found in wide-ranging fields that are often intertwined. Primarily, linguistic differences have caused much confusion, since qnoma was a term often used as a Syriac translation of the Greek term hypostasis, some circles almost identifying qnoma with “person,” and others aligning the term with “nature.” Further reasons derive from Church history, logic, epistemology and politics. Such motives will be discussed in this paper in connection with the challenges Babai encountered. After a short description of various aspects of Babai’s Christology and some contemporary sources, it will be argued that another motive has been hitherto neglected: ascetic mysticism. This new perspective focuses on the asceticism of the monks, which was aimed at finding the highest truth and required the purification of the individual soul. Sometimes, the soul was not only associated closely with the human qnoma, but also compared to a mirror that might reflect the light of Christ, just as Christ was considered to be the perfect representation of God. This might have resulted in an intrinsic motive of the monks to recognize an individual human qnoma in Christ, and might therefore have been an additional motive for their spiritual leader Babai to defend the two-qnome doctrine. It probably also worked the other way around: an integration and elaboration of the two-qnome doctrine in ascetic mysticism also was a means to gain more general acceptance of the doctrine. |
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| ISSN: | 1612-961X |
| Contains: | In: Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/zac-2015-0021 |