A Novel Use of the Body-Soul Comparison Emerges in Neochalcedonian Christology

Comparing the union of Christ's two natures to the body-soul union in a human being was a typical way among patristic authors to conceive the Incarnation. I argue that a novel use of the comparison emerged among Neochalcedonian theologians, esp. Leontius of Byzantium and Maximus Confessor. Thei...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review of ecumenical studies, Sibiu
Main Author: Wood, Jordan Daniel 1986- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: [publisher not identified] [2019]
In: Review of ecumenical studies, Sibiu
IxTheo Classification:KAD Church history 500-900; early Middle Ages
NBE Anthropology
NBF Christology
Further subjects:B Nestorianism
B Maximus Confessor
B Neochalcedonian Christology
B Miaphysitism
B Human Person
B Anthropology
B Leontius of Byzantium
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Summary:Comparing the union of Christ's two natures to the body-soul union in a human being was a typical way among patristic authors to conceive the Incarnation. I argue that a novel use of the comparison emerged among Neochalcedonian theologians, esp. Leontius of Byzantium and Maximus Confessor. Their novelty lay in the concurrent refinement of the nature-hypostasis distinction required by Chalcedon. That refinement - particularly the shift from conceiving natures as self-subsistent to subsistent only in hypostases - opened unprecedented ways to make the anthropological comparison. Now there was a new, univocal tertium comparationis between Christ and the human being: in each case it's a hypostasis alone that makes two distinct natures really one. Neochalcedonian novelty supports the broader thesis that post-Chalcedonian Christology had profound impact on philosophy (cf. Johannes Zachhuber). In this case, Neochalcedonian Christology granted far greater insight into the fundamental mystery of the human person.
ISSN:2359-8107
Contains:Enthalten in: Review of ecumenical studies, Sibiu
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.2478/ress-2019-0027