The Rise of Christian Theology and the End of Ancient Metaphysics
Patristic Philosophy from the Cappadocian Fathers to John of Damascus
Patristic Philosophy from the Cappadocian Fathers to John of Damascus
It has rarely been recognized that the Christian writers of the first millennium pursued an ambitious and exciting philosophical project alongside their engagement in the doctrinal controversies of their age. The Rise of Christian Theology and the End of Ancient Metaphysics offers, for the first time, a full analysis of this Patristic philosophy. It shows how it took its distinctive shape in the late fourth century and gives an account of its subsequent development until the time of John of Damascus. The book falls into three main parts. The first starts with an analysis of the philosophical project underlying the teaching of the Cappadocian fathers, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus. This philosophy, arguably the first distinctively Christian theory of being, soon became near-universally shared in Eastern Christianity. Just a few decades after the Cappadocians, all sides in the early Christological controversy took its fundamental tenets for granted. Its application to the Christological problem thus appeared inevitable. Yet it created substantial conceptual problems. Parts two and three describe in detail how these problems led to a series of increasingly radical modifications of the Cappadocian philosophy. In part two, Zachhuber explores the miaphysite opponents of the Council of Chalcedon, while in part three he discusses the defenders of the Council from the early sixth to the eighth century. Through this overview, the book reveals this period as one of remarkable philosophical creativity, fecundity, and innovation.
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This book is an intense and detailed examination of the development of Christian theology between the Cappadocian Fathers and John of Damascus. This was a period that the resolution of Trinitarian issues and rise and fall of Christological issues. The author, Johannes Zachhuber, is a professor of Theology at Oxford, who brings an encyclopedic knowledge of the history and the philosophical issues into the discussion. Along the way, he introduces us to the theological players, such as Gregory of Nyssa. John the Grammarian, Severus of Antioch (St. Severus for the Monophysites), and John of Damascus (“the Damascene”) in a way that give reality to people who are either unknown or only vaguely known.
This is not a work for the faint-hearted. Having some background in Aristotelian metaphysics is essential, and, even then, for amateurs like myself, the fine distinctions between nature, physis, ousia, enhypostaton, prosopon, hypostasis, idiotes, and other concepts is taxing. However, since I approached this mostly as history, I found the discussion interesting. This review will favor that perspective. There are other reviews of the text that explain the philosophical elements that are vague to me. https://www.academia.edu/101676467/Review_of_J_Zachhuber_The_Rise_of_Christian_Theology_and_the_End_of_Ancient_Metaphysics
Zachhuber starts with Cappadocian Fathers, the brothers Basil of Caesarea and Gregory, and their friend, Gegory of Nazianzus. The Cappadocians were active in the late Fourth Century. Basil died on January 1, 379. His work was carried on by his brother and friend.
The issue for the Cappadocians was the relationship of the Persons of the Trinity. Previous efforts at this had proven problematic. Origen was very influential but offered an explanation that lessened the Son:
Origen argued for a slight but important distinction between the two divine persons: the Father, he suggested, was God in the fullest and most proper sense of the word; the source of all being including the Son.32 The Son thus received his divinity by derivation from that source. He was god, but not ‘the' God. He was not a rival or competitor of the Father. He was not, for example, entirely simple without any participation in the plurality of the created world which explains why he, not the Father, became directly involved in salvation history and, specifically, the Incarnation.
Zachhuber, Johannes. The Rise of Christian Theology and the End of Ancient Metaphysics: Patristic Philosophy from the Cappadocian Fathers to John of Damascus (p. 21). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.
Zachhuber notes that the “crucial ontological subordination of the Son to the father functioned as a door opener to more radical Arian positions.” After the Council of Nicea (325 AD), Origen's explanation was seen as incompatible with orthodoxy. Orthodoxy adopted the Athanasian position that the Father and the Son were Homooousias, i.e. of the same substance. The opposition position proposed by Arius was “Homoiousias,” meaning “of a similar substance.” Homoiousians appealed to the authority of Origen, but the authority of Origen was something that the orthodox tradition did not want to entirely repudiate.
This is a long review. Please visit my Medium page for the rest of the review.
https://medium.com/@peterseanEsq/christian-theology-christian-metaphysics-the-long-and-winding-road-f25641ae7075
