Description
Book SynopsisWas there a genuine theological consensus about Christ in the early Church? Donald Fairbairn''s persuasive study uses the concept of grace to clarify this question. There were two sharply divergent understandings of grace and christology. One understanding, characteristic of Theodore and Nestorius, saw grace as God''s gift of co-operation to Christians and Christ as the uniquely graced man. The other understanding, characteristic of Cyril of Alexandria and John Cassian, saw grace as God the Word''s personal descent to the human sphere so as to give himself to humanity. Dealing with, among others, John Chrysostom, John of Antioch, and Leo the Great, Fairbairn suggests that these two understandings were by no means equally represented in the fifth century: Cyril''s view was in fact the consensus of the early Church.
Trade Reviewthis is certainly an important work that warrants careful attention. * Anthony N S lane, The Journal of Theological Studies *
Table of Contents1. Grace and the central issue of the christological controversy ; 2. Christ as the uniquely graced man in Theodore and Nestorius ; 3. Grace as the sharing of divine communion in Cyril's early writings ; 4. God's own Son as the source of grace in Cyril's later writings ; 5. Grace as deepening communion with God in Cassian's monastic writings ; 6. Grace and the Saviour's personal subject in Cassian's De incarnatione Domini ; 7. Grace and the Logos' double birth in the early Church
