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The Christological Controversy

Posted Monday, January 07, 2008 by Charlie Trimm
Categories: TheologyChurch History  

The last book was centered around the Christological controversy. Similar to the other volume, it opened with an historical overview and then without further comment presented the works of the major players in the debate, such as Melito, Irenaeus, Origen, Apollinaris, Theodore, Nestorius, and Cyril.

Several of the writings contained interesting points. Melito’s thoughts on the Passover intrigued me for reasons other than Christology.  His homiletics shown through brilliantly with such examples as the Egyptian man who claimed that he was third born, so that the angel of death would not kill (but the angel knew he was lying, so his plan did not work) (36). Melito says that “the events which happen are unimportant apart from their character as parables and as preliminary sketches” (37), a comment which sounds almost modernistic liberal, as he argues that the historicity of the events do not matter. Athanasius remarked that the phrasing “he bore” (Matthew 8:17) is important: if it was simply “he cured”, then it would simply be someone from the outside doing something to us, and would leave us to sin again, instead of fundamentally taking care of the problem (89-90).

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