Conflicting Anthropologies in the Christological Discourse at the End of Late Antiquity: The Case of Leontius of Jerusalem's Nestorian Adversary
In his treatise Contra Nestorianos Leontius of Jerusalem reproduces excerpts from a Nestorian treatise which contend that the Chalcedonian understanding of the incarnation as a composition subjects Christ's divinity to universal ‘laws of compound beings’. These ‘laws’ are illustrated with the h...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Published: |
2005
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| In: |
The journal of theological studies
Year: 2005, Volume: 56, Issue: 2, Pages: 415-449 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In his treatise Contra Nestorianos Leontius of Jerusalem reproduces excerpts from a Nestorian treatise which contend that the Chalcedonian understanding of the incarnation as a composition subjects Christ's divinity to universal ‘laws of compound beings’. These ‘laws’ are illustrated with the human being as a compound of the interdependent parts body and soul. In chapter 51 the author contrasts the belief in a ‘sleep of the soul’ that concurs with this monistic anthropology with the concept of a sentient afterlife which is based on a dualistic anthropology. The former position is presented as scriptural and rational while the alternative is denounced as a Manichaean myth. To support this claim the author creates a nexus between sentient afterlife and outlawed pre-existence whose proponents, the Origenists, had also been deemed non-Christian and irrational. Thus he can build on an existing anti-Origenist consensus and insinuate that he merely continues the cleansing of Christianity. Comparison with Philoponus’ Arbiter reveals the function of this polemic within the Christological debate: the Nestorian exploits similarities between the use of the anthropological paradigm by Nestorians and by ‘neo’-Chalcedonians and an anthropological controversy that pitted mainstream Christians against Origenists in order to denigrate his opponents as crypto-pagans. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4607 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of theological studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jts/fli102 |