Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy: The Making of a Saint and of a Heretic

by Susan Wessel

Overview

What were the historical and cultural processes by which Cyril of Alexandria was elevated to canonical status while his opponent, Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, was made into a heretic? In contrast to previous scholarship, Susan Wessel concludes that Cyril's success in being elevated to orthodox status was not simply a political accomplishment based on political alliances he had fashioned as opportunity arose. Nor was it a dogmatic victory, based on the clarity and orthodoxy of Cyril's doctrinal claims. Instead, it was his strategy in identifying himself with the orthodoxy of the former bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius, in his victory over Arianism, in borrowing Athanasius' interpretive methods, and in skilfully using the tropes and figures of the second sophistic that made Cyril a saint in the Greek and Coptic Orthodox Churches.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199268467
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/30/2004
Series:	Oxford Early Christian Studies
Pages:	380
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Susan Wessel is Assistant Professor of Greek Patristics, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

IntroductionI. The Tapestry of Cyril's Episcopacy from Egypt to the Imperial City1. Confrontation in the Early Episcopacy2. Political Alliance and the Onset of Controversy3. The Reception of Nicaea4. The Meeting of the CouncilII. The Rhetoric of the Nestorian Debates5. Rhetorical Style and Method in the Conciliar Homilies of Cyril6. The Rhetorical and Interpretive Method of Nestorius7. From a Tentative Resolution to the Renewal of Controversy (431 to 451 AD)Epilogue