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The Pneumatology of Saint Cyril of Alexandria in Accordance with the 5Th Century Holy Fathers’ Teaching

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The Pneumatology of Saint Cyril of Alexandria in Accordance with the 5Th Century Holy Fathers’ Teaching The Pneumatology of Saint Cyril of Alexandria in Accordance with the 5th Century Holy Fathers’ Teaching Rev. CONSTANTIN BĂJĂU University of Craiova, Faculty of Orthodox Theology Saint Cyril, the patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, is one of the most distinguished personalities of early Christianity. His vast work complies with the theological exigencies of the 4th-5th centuries, especially in the domain of Christology and Pneumatology that he competently and seriously dealt with thus contributing to the establishment and formulation of Christian teachings. His dedication in the field of theology was equally fruitful in the field of missionary/pastoral activity as he confesses in one of his preaches: “Egypt used to be crammed with temples and alters… Now all these are gone. The Egyptians have now become Christ’s followers”.1 At that time, the fight against and constant confrontations with the Arian heretics and later on with the Pneumatomachi had got to a climax. It is well known that after Nestorius acceded to the patriarchal position in Constantinople, on 10 April, 428, Saint Cyril started his fight against the Nestorian heresy. His opposition stemmed from the conviction that a heretic holding the position of an ecumenical Patriarch represented a great danger for the entire Orthodoxy. He had been preoccupied with fighting the Arian and Pneumatomachian heresies even before this event, explaining the Holy Scripture and opposing the numerous heretics in Alexandria. As it is well known from his tumultuous life, even though Saint Cyril had suffered many wrongs from the heretics, he did not cease to oppose the heresies that were permanently evolving into new heresies. If the condemnation of Arianism at the first Ecumenical Council (381) encouraged the rise of the fighters against the Holy Spirit, called Pneumatomachi, the consequent condemnation of the Pneumatomachi, at the Second Ecumenical Council, gave free vent to heresy once again, but this time it was directed against the Son of God, and bore the name of Nestorianism. The work entitled On the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity cannot be included among his polemical works, for the Holy Father aims at presenting, in an affirmative form, the theme of the consubstantiality of the Son and the Father and the consubstantiality of the Spirit with the other two Hypostases 1 Priest MATEI PÂSLARU, Sfântul Chiril, patriarhul Alexandriei şi filozoafa Hypatia (Saint Cyril, the Patriarch of Alexandria and Hypatia the Philosopher), in Mitropolia Banatului, year XX, no. 7-9/1970, p. 504. 78 of the Holy Trinity. This great Alexandrine Father’s firm position in establishing the Christian dogma made Reverend Professor Dumitru Stăniloae focus upon the above mentioned work. He praised Saint Cyril’s effort of explaining the correct meaning of the Holy Scriptures in a logical and subtle manner, and his attempt to facilitate the understanding of the deep significance of our salvation through the work of the Holy Spirit, consubstantial with the Father and the Son.2 In order to understand the Holy Father’s teaching we need to draw attention to the evolution of theological studies up to the moment before the appearance of the above mentioned work. The teaching on the Holy Spirit before Saint Cyril of Alexandria Didymus the Blind also wrote a treatise entitled On the Holy Spirit, where he speaks about His essence, stating that: “This being is the most non- corporeal, the most immaterial, the uncomposed… thinking about it as the highest thing possible”,3 in the attempt to distinguish Him from the rest of the materially engendered existences. Saint Athanasius the Great wrote the famous “Letters to Serapion, Bishop of Tmuis”, where he rises against the Pneumatomachian heresy. He also teaches on the Holy Grace, understood as a power that is being communicated to us, the people, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Our participation to the divine grace comes through the love of the Father.4 The Holy Spirit is thus indivisible and active participant in this work. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem participated in the Second Ecumenical Council, when the Church, through his voice, as a remarkable theologian and hierarch, condemned the error of the fighters against the Holy Spirit. His teaching is formulated and can be found in his Catecheses delivered in Jerusalem, which are an expression of what the Church used to teach the candidates wishing to receive the Baptism. This Holy Father also bequeathed us the Symbol of faith of the Church of Jerusalem that confirms his orthodoxy. 2 SAINT CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, Writings, Third Part, On the Holy Trinity, in the collection Fathers and Writers of the Church (Romanian abbreviation PSB), volume 40, translation, introduction and notes by Reverend Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, PhD, The Biblical and Missionary Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Bucharest, 1994, p. 8. 3 Reverend Professor IOAN G. COMAN, Sensul ecumenic al lucrării Sfântului Duh în teologia Sfinţilor Părinţi (The Ecumenical Meaning of the Holy Spirit’s work in the Holy Fathers’ Theology), in OrtoIdoxia, no. 2/1964, p. 223. 4 Magistrand VASILE BRIA, Contribuţia Sfântului Atanasie la fixarea dogmei hristologice (Saint Athanasius’ Contribution to the establishment of Christologic dogma), in Ortodoxia, year XIII, no. 2/1961, p. 302. 79 We have to look for the origins of the Pneumatomachian heresy among the Arians who also denied the eternal and divine essence of the Holy Spirit, considering Him lesser than the Father and the Son, a being engendered by the Son, serving both Father and Son. The fact that the First Ecumenical Council condemned the Arians without correcting any of their teachings on the Holy Spirit somehow encouraged the Pneumatomachi in their heresy.5 The arguments brought by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem are primarily scriptural. He places the Spirit above creation, above the angels and the celestial armies, and he maintains the impossibility of knowing the essence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is distinct from the other Trinitarian Persons but He exists within the Trinity. The Holy Father speaks about His works in the world and about the salvation of humankind. The Catecheses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem prove the “redeeming care towards the human beings of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, showing that Their work is “one, indivisible and of the same essence”.6 Saint Ambrose of Milan. In 381, when the Second Ecumenical Council was being held in Constantinople and when the Pneumatomachian heresy was condemned, Saint Ambrose of Milan was writing his treatise On the Holy Spirit, a work in three books addressed to Gracian and inspired by the work of Saint Basil the Great or of Didymus the Blind.7 This distinguished Holy Father of the Western world also adheres to the solidarity of ecumenical Christianity. Consequently, the Great Father of the western world treated the relationship between the Holy Spirit with the other two hypostases of the Holy Trinity, bringing arguments for His consubstantiality with the other Two Persons and thus proving His divine power. He also formulates his teaching on the divine attributes of the Spirit: the consubstantiality with the Father and the Son, His spirituality, omnipresence, eternity, immutability, almightiness, alknowingness, wisdom, holiness, righteousness and His kindness. For Saint Ambrose the Holy Spirit is the “river” that flows from God’s throne, a river whose water is “tasted by he who believes in God”, the author of our spiritual birth and the One that makes us Sons of God. That is 5 Reverend GHEORGHE A. NICOLAE, PhD Candidate, Învăţătura despre Sfântul Duh în Catehezele Sfântului Chiril al Ierusalimului (The Teaching on the Holy Spirit in the Catecheses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem), in Studii Teologice, year XIX, no. 5-6/1967, p. 302. 6 IBIDEM, p. 303-307. 7 Reverend Magistrand MIRCEA NIŞCOVEANU, Învăţătura Sfântului Ambrozie despre Sfântul Duh (Saint Ambrose’s Teaching of on the Holy Spirit), in Studii Teologice, series II, year XVI, no. 7-8/1964, p. 459. 80 why we owe Him the same honour and dignity as to the other two hypostases of the Holy Trinity.8 He connects the faith in the divinity of the Holy Spirit to the faith in the Father and the Son when he states: “Whoever denied the Holy Spirit denied both God the Father and the Son”.9 The most obvious proof is the fact that the sin committed against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.10 Saint Basil the Great. It is a well known fact that the First Ecumenical Council did not discuss the problem of the Holy Spirit which was tackled in fact by the Homiousious heretics, a group of moderate Arians lead by Eustace of Sebasta. They gave the third Person of the Holy Trinity the name of a “ministering spirit equal to the angels” and were considered promoters of the Pneumatomachian heresy. Even if, initially, Basil the Great was a friend of Eustace’s when the heretic statred to promote his erroneous ideas, the communion between the two simply stopped. In spite of all this, the Holy Father’s reserved attitude towards Eustace cast suspicions upon him. These are the circumstances in which he wrote his work On the Holy Spirit, released on 7 September 374 and which represented the starting point of the discussions carried on by the Second Ecumenical Council (381),11 eliminating all the suspicions formulated by the evil-minded people. In this seminal work, the Great Cappadocian Father highlights the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, based on scriptural and logical arguments. He shows the divinity of the Holy Spirit, relying on His names in the Holy Scripture and in the Holy Fathers’ unwritten tradition, on the sameness of dignity (homotimy) with the Father and the Son, as well as on His part in knowing God.12 Nobody else spoke in this way about the works of the Holy Spirit, which he compares to the benefices of the sun.
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