Grillmeier - Christ in Christian Tradition - Грильмайер - 4 тома

 

In spite of significant monographs on the subject, post‑Chalcedonian christology of the patristic period still cries out for a comprehensive elucidation and exposition. Numerous editions of sources, though these are still far from being complete, now make available the traditions of the old Oriental Churches. Yet in Western writing on the history of doctrine these traditions are discussed only too briefly or passed over completely. Hence the lack of a comprehensive exposition of post‑Chalcedonian christology is felt all the more keenly. In order to establish an overall view of the demands and the possibilities of a general sketch of the period from 451 to ca 8oo, a sketch which even at this time must still remain provisional, we have included in Part One a comprehensive section entitled Ad Fontes, which we find reveals in surprising fashion the structure of post‑Chalcedonian christology. Here it is shown how strongly the discussion about the great Synods of the early Church, those of Nicaea and Ephesus, but most of all about that of Chalcedon, promoted for the purpose of argument the rise of the literary genres of proof or their application to christology. For this reason we have ventured the sub‑title: 'Formengeschichte of the Chalcedonian and post‑Chalcedonian sources'. Practically all the forms of theological argumentation which one had previously found practised especially in the Western Scholasticism of the Middle Ages are already present in the time from 400 to 800, and not only in the Byzantine Church, but just as much in the old Oriental, anti‑Chalcedonian patriarchates. The West could also learn 'method' from the East. In order to make manifest the conclusion that we have reached, we shall present the analysis of sources unabridged, not for readers in a hurry, but for interested researchers and students. This is also intended to stimulate them to supply corrections and supplements to what has been offered.

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CHRIST IN CHRISTIAN TRADITION - VOLUME TWO - From the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590–604) - Part Two - The Church of Constantinople in the sixth century

 

Probably in no other early church mission field outside the 'fertile crescent' — that land corridor used by peoples and armies of the East heading toward the Mediterranean and the West — do we find such peculiar geographical and cultural conditions for the proclaiming of the gospel of Jesus Christ as in the long stretch of the Nile valley from the Delta to the source of the Blue Nile near Lake Tana in the Ethiopian highland. Reaching south from the world‑famous metropolis of Alexandria on the Mediterranean with its advanced culture was a seemingly interminable river landscape with a narrow green strip on each bank and immensely vast desert beyond; there were resident fellahin, wandering nomads and growing monastic colonies of various kinds. Millennia looked down on those first messengers of Christianity — long before the arrival of Napoleon's soldiers.

 

Pyramids and mighty temple complexes in great number from Giza to Philae, the gateway to the Sudan, were the symbols and citadels of the ancient Egyptian religion; they were to be captured not by armies, as in the new world at the beginning of the modern period, but by itinerant aposdes and thus quite peacefully, apart from intervention by Byzantine officials and isolated attacks by bands of monks armed with sticks in the fourth and fifth centuries. Beyond Egypt was Nubia with its three kingdoms, whose Christian culture first received proper attention with the building of the Aswan High Dam, only to disappear again to a large extent under the waters of the Nile. As difficult as the Blue Nile's passage from Ethiopia to Khartoum was the path of the missionaries in the opposite direction. From the Red Sea, however, there was an easier access to the Axumite Empire. Thus to an increasing extent, from the fourth century on, a tremendous stretch of land of the most varied kind was united by the one river in the one faith in Jesus Christ.

 

In this volume we will attempt, as a kind of a spiritual expedition, to follow the path of the gospel and explore the unity and diversity of the faith along the Nile during the period from the fourth or fifth century until the penetration of Islam. The struggle between the two religions, begun in the seventh century, still continues today.

 

In regard to Egypt, newly available sources can be evaluated christologically for the first time. For this I am indebted to the Coptic specialists Prof. Tito Orlandi and Prof Dr Hans Quecke SJ, of Rome. With his advice and interest, the latter has accompanied the creation of this work from the beginning. It has also been influenced by personal contacts with the leading representatives of the Old Oriental Orthodox Church of Alexandria in the course of lengthy ecumenical dialogues in Vienna and Cairo. May the present work become a contribution to mutual understanding.

 

I also owe a large debt of gratitude to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, which for years has included the work in progress in its research programme. This enabled my academic colleague Dr Theresia Hainthaler to make available also for this volume her precision in research and her technical and editorial capability with the computer. Beyond the work as a whole, her special contributions are noted at various places in the book.

 

Frankfurt am Main

Aloys Grillmeier SJ

11 February 1990