RT Article
T1 What Is a Composite Hypostasis? Leontius of Jerusalem, Maximus the Confessor and the Nestorian Challenge
JF Scrinium
VO 18
IS 1
SP 122
OP 142
A1 Krausmüller, Dirk
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2022
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1827077360
AB At the Fifth Ecumenical Council the concept of a ‘composite hypostasis’ was enshrined in dogma. This implied that after the incarnation the divine and human natures had the status of parts that constituted a single whole. In order to make this concept intelligible a comparison was drawn with the human compound where two different natures, the soul and the body, formed one being. In the seventh century Maximus, the foremost Chalcedonian theologian of the time, came to the conclusion that the differences between the incarnated Word and a human individual were too great for a strict comparison to be useful. Yet he continued to defend the notion of composition. Indeed, his views on this point have been lauded as an important step in the development of doctrine. This article seeks to show that composition itself had become problematic, and that it was relentless Nestorian polemic that induced Maximus, and his contemporary Leontius of Jerusalem, to change their understanding of the concept.
K1 Nestorian
K1 Babai the Great
K1 John Maxentius
K1 Leontius of Jerusaiem
K1 Maximus the Confessor
DO 10.1163/18177565-bja10045