St. Cyril of Alexandria's Metaphysics of the Incarnation (Studies in Church History)

Cyril of Alexandria is one of the major intellectuals of the early Byzantine Christian world. His approach to Christ is at the core of the classical Christian tradition, however, because his works were not translated into English in the post-Reformation environment, the precise implications of his "science of Christ" have been extensively misunderstood. This work seeks to reposition Cyril in the precise philosophical context to which he belonged, seeking, as he did, for a deliberate bridge-building between ecclesiastical biblical presuppositions and the semantic terms central to the Late Antique philosophical Academy, with which he understands the Church must communicate. This book seeks to lay bare the fundamental philosophical axioms of Cyril’s metaphysics of the Incarnation. To illuminate this, it investigates the fifth-century curriculum of metaphysical studies as followed in the academies of both Alexandria and Athens. Common to both Cyril and his Hellene contemporaries are the terms of theological speculation prevalent in the Commentaries on the __Parmenides__. This monograph applies the schema of theological analysis offered by the Commentators to Cyril’s metaphysics of the Incarnation to see how well it accounts for the precise terms of the Incarnational doctrine posited by Cyril. This study also endeavors to expound and evaluate the many previous (and heavily conflicting) scholarly accounts of Cyril’s intellectual agenda. It outlines various cognitive gaps associated with the macro arguments of the different positions, which by and large have underestimated Cyril’s philosophical acumen and ignored his own immediate academic context. Cover 1 Table of Contents 9 Acknowledgments 13 Abbreviations 15 Introduction 19 Chapter One: Incarnation, Incomplete Substantial Change, and Unification through Mixture 53 1.A. Harry Wolfson and the Philosophical Underpinning of Patristic Thought 53 1.A.1. The Church Fathers’ Account of the Incarnation 54 1.A.2. Three Types of Physical Union in Aristotle according to Wolfson 58 1.A.3. Other Types of Physical Union 60 1.A.4. The Union of “Predominance” and Its Place in Cyril’s Metaphysics of the Incarnation 62 1.B. Aristotle’s Account of Mixture in the De Generatione et Corruptione 1.10 and 2.7 64 1.B.1. An Orthodox Conception of Mixture 64 1.B.2. An Alternative Conception of Mixture 69 1.B.3. Questions and Ἀπορίαι of Mixture: Some Clarification 70 1.B.4. Atypical Mixtures and Their Status 78 1.C. A Critical Re-Assessment of Wolfson’s Interpretation of Aristotle and Cyril 81 1.C.1. Wolfson’s Assessment of Aristotle’s Mixture 81 1.C.2. Wolfson’s Assessment of Aristotle’s Mixture in Cyril’s Conception of the Incarnation 85 1.D. A Further Development of the Conception of Mixture in the Peripatetic, Stoic, Platonist Traditions and Their Relevance to the Subject 93 1.D.1. Alexander of Aphrodisias on Mixture 93 1.D.2. The Stoic Account of Mixture 97 1.D.3. Cyril’s Use of the Analogy of Fire and Iron 101 1.D.4. Mixing Natures and Mixing Qualities: The Notion of Communicatio Idiomatum: McGuckin and Wolfson 105 1.D.5. Mixing Matter with Qualities: Plotinus’ Account of Mixture 110 1.D.6. Unification without Disintegration and Separation 118 Chapter Two: Incarnation and the Conception of Inherence 123 2.A. Ruth Siddals and the Conceptual Grounds of Cyril’s Metaphysics of the Incarnation 123 2.B. The Status of Christ’s Humanity 145 2.B.1. Cyril’s Primary Christological Model: One “in” Another 145 2.B.2. A Corollary of the Primary Model: Communicatio Idiomatum 150 2.B.3. Cyril’s Secondary Christological Model; One “in” Another: The Order Reversed 151 2.B.4. An Alternative Version of the Secondary Model: Two “in” One 157 2.C. The Nature of Unity 159 2.C.1. The Being of the One and Accidental Unity 159 2.C.2. Aristotle’s Conception of Unity/Oneness 161 2.D. Accidental Change and Its Significance 167 2.D.1. Nestorius and the Category of Relation: Accidental Change 167 2.D.2. Cyril and the Notion of Change 170 2.E. Conclusion: The Problematic Aspects of Siddals’ “Model” 177 Chapter Three: Coming-to-Be without Change: Soul Uniting with Body 179 3.A. Preliminary Notes 179 3.B. Plotinus on the Integral Unity of the Soul 184 3.B.1. Preamble 184 3.B.2. The Mode of Presence 191 3.B.3. Identity 192 3.B.4. The Attribution of Names and the Mode of Soul-Body Connection 194 3.C. Cyril on the Integral Unity of the Word 195 3.C.1. Preamble 195 3.C.2. Identity: “One out of Both” 196 3.C.3. Two in Contemplation and One in Reality 198 3.C.4. The Notion of Indivisibility 200 3.C.5. The Assignment of Names: Cyril’s Syllogism 202 3.C.6. The Categories of Acting and Being Acted Upon and Their Application to the Intelligible Natures 205 3.C.7. Suffering and the Mode of Connection between the Soul and Body 207 3.C.8. The Soul-Body Analogy and the I-Conditions 211 3.D. Cyril’s Philosophical and Rhetorical Arsenal 212 3.D.1. Analogies, Rhetoric, and Philosophy 212 3.D.2. Cyril’s Christological Terms and Formulas 216 3.D.3. I-Conditions and their Significance 219 Chapter Four: The Parmenides and the Structure of Cyril’s Metaphysics of the Incarnation 221 4.A. The Parmenides: General Notes 221 4.A.1. The Fifth Century Educational Curriculum and Patterns of Thought 221 4.A.2. The Parmenides: Its Subject, Content, and Relevance to Cyril’s Thought 224 4.A.3. The Second Hypothesis of the Parmenides: Its Scope and Content 230 4.A.4. The “in-Relation-to” Qualification 233 4.A.5. General Notes on the Second Hypothesis 236 4.B. Late Antique Exegesis of the Second Hypothesis 240 4.B.1. Iamblichus 241 4.B.2. Syrianus and Proclus 245 4.C. Cyril’s Metaphysics of the Incarnation 249 4.C.1. Names and Essences: What Is Christ? 249 4.C.2. The Πρὸς Qualifications 250 4.C.3. The Word as a Whole Made of Parts: The Imposition of Structure 251 4.C.4. Deductions and the Allocation of Characteristics to the Word 252 4.D. The Second Hypothesis of the Parmenides and Cyril’s I-Conditions 268 4.D.1. Radical Difference of Natures 268 4.D.2. Separation 268 4.D.3. One and the Same out of Both 271 4.D.4. Divisibility of the Unified 272 4.D.5. Other Conditions 274 4.E. The Chalcedonian Definition and Its Correspondence with Cyril’s Metaphysics 274 Epilogue 277 Notes 279 Bibliography 327 Name Index 339 Subject Index 343 St. Cyril of Alexandria's Metaphysics of the Incarnation seeks to reposition its subject in the precise philosophical context to which he belonged, seeking, as he did, for common ground between ecclesiastical biblical presuppositions and the semantic terms central to the Late Antique philosophical Academy.