Grace and Christology in the Early Church

by Donald Fairbairn

Overview

Was 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191531279
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	03/07/2003
Series:	Oxford Early Christian Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Donald Fairbairn is Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Missions at Erskine Theological Seminary, South Carolina.

Table of Contents

1. Grace and the central issue of the christological controversy2. Christ as the uniquely graced man in Theodore and Nestorius3. Grace as the sharing of divine communion in Cyril's early writings4. God's own Son as the source of grace in Cyril's later writings5. Grace as deepening communion with God in Cassian's monastic writings6. Grace and the Saviour's personal subject in Cassian's De incarnatione Domini7. Grace and the Logos' double birth in the early Church

Editorial Reviews

"An interesting and provocative work of scholarship...Fairbairn has done an excellent job expanding on the considerable body of scholarship arguing for a new narrative describing the ancient christological controversy. "—Journal of Religion

From the Publisher