Christology of the Later Fathers General Editors John Baillie (1886-1960) served as President of the World Council of Churches, a member of the British Council of Churches, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Dean of the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. John T. McNeill (1885-1975) was Professor of the History of European Christianity at the University of Chicago and then Auburn Professor of Church History at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Henry P. Van Dusen (1897-1975) was an early and influen- tial member of the World Council of Churches and served at Union Theological Seminary in New York as Roosevelt Professor of Systematic Theology and later as President. THE LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN CLASSICS Christology of the Later Fathers Edited by EDWARD R. HARDY PhD In collaboration with CYRIL C. RICHARDSON ThD, DD © 1954 The Westminster Press Paperback reissued 2006 by Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmit- ted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For infor- mation, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Cover design by designpointinc.com Published by Westminster John Knox Press Louisville, Kentucky This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39.48 standard.© PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. ISBN-13: 978-0-664-24152-0 ISBN-10: 0-664-24152-2 GENERAL EDITORS' PREFACE The Christian Church possesses in its literature an abundant and incomparable treasure. But it is an inheritance that must be reclaimed by each generation. THE LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN CLASSICS is designed to present in the English language, and in twenty-six volumes of convenient size, a selection of the most indispensable Christian treatises written prior to the end of the sixteenth century. The practice of giving circulation to writings selected for superior worth or special interest was adopted at the beginning of Christian history. The canonical Scriptures were themselves a selection from a much wider literature. In the Patristic era there began to appear a class of works of compilation (often designed for ready reference in controversy) of the opinions of well-reputed predecessors, and in the Middle Ages many such works were produced. These medieval anthologies actually preserve some noteworthy materials from works otherwise lost. In modern times, with the increasing inability even of those trained in universities and theological colleges to read Latin and Greek texts with ease and familiarity, the translation of selected portions of earlier Christian literature into modern languages has become more necessary than ever; while the wide range of distinguished books written in vernaculars such as English makes selection there also needful. The efforts that have been made to meet this need are too numerous to be noted here, but none of these collections serves the purpose of the reader who desires a library of representative treatises spanning the Christian centuries as a whole. Most of them embrace only the age of the Church Fathers, and some of them have long been out of print. A fresh translation of a work already 9 10 GENERAL EDITORS PREFACE translated may shed much new light upon its meaning. This is true even of Bible translations despite the work of many experts through the centuries. In some instances old translations have been adopted in this series, but wherever necessary or desirable, new ones have been made. Notes have been supplied where these were needed to explain the author's meaning. The introductions provided for the several treatises and extracts will, we believe, furnish welcome guidance. JOHN BAILLIE JOHN T. MGNEILL HENRY P. VAN DUSBM CONTENTS PREFACE ........ 13 GENERAL INTRODUCTION: Faith in Christ, Theology, and Creeds . .15 General Bibliography ..... 39 ATHANASIUS [Edited by the Editor) . .41 Introduction to Athanasius .... 43 Bibliography ....... 52 On the Incarnation of the Word {Translated by Archibald Robertson) ..... 55 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS {Edited by the Editor) . 111 Introduction to Gregory of Nazianzus . .113 Bibliography . .126 The Theological Orations (Translated by Charles Gordon Browne and James Edward Swallow) . 128 Letters on the Apollinarian Controversy {Trans- lated by Charles Gordon Browne and James Edward Swallow) . .215 GREGORY OF NYSSA {Edited and Translated by Cyril C. Richardson) ....... 233 Introduction to Gregory of Nyssa . 235 Bibliography ....... 251 An Answer to Ablabius: That We Should Not Think of Saying There Are Three Gods . 256 An Address on Religious Instruction . 268 11 12 CONTENTS DOCUMENTS ........ 327 Documents Illustrating the Christology of the Ecu- menical Councils {Edited and Translated by the Editor) ....... 329 I. The Letter of Arius to Eusebius of Nicomedia . 329 II. The Confession of the Arians, Addressed to Alexander of Alexandria .... 332 III. The Letter of Eusebius of Caesarea Describing the Council of Nicaea .... 335 IV. The Creed of Ariminum. .... 341 V. Summary of the Tome of Constantinople, 381 . 343 VI. Dogmatic Letters of Nestorius and Cyril of Alexandria ...... 346 VII. The Formula of Union of 433 . 355 VIII. The Tome of Leo {Translated by William Bright) . 359 IX. The Chalcedonian Decree .... 371 X. Extracts from Leontius of Byzantium . 375 XI. The Anathemas of the Second Council of Constantinople (Fifth Ecumenical) . 378 XII. The Statement of Faith of the Third Council of Constantinople (Sixth Ecumenical) . 382 INDEXES 387 PREFACE The material included in this volume represents the formula- tion of historic Christian convictions on the Person of Christ in the period of the Ecumenical Councils. Major works are in- cluded by three authors who are important as well for their central position in the stream of tradition as for the significance of their own contributions. The Introduction and series of Documents will, it is hoped, be sufficient to indicate the questions which the ancient Church at large faced in this field, as it saw them, and the answers which it gave, in its own terms. For Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Leo it has seemed best to reprint, with new notes and some slight corrections, careful translations of the last century. The works of Gregory of Nyssa, and most of the Documents, appear in new versions; the combination of reprints and new translation produces some variations in method, but this may in part correspond to the various influences (Biblical, learned, and popular) which give a certain variety to patristic Greek. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Richardson for his contribution to this volume, and to the General Editors for their guidance and suggestions. Berkeley Divinity School. EDWARD ROCHIE HARDY. General Introduction: Faith in Christ, Theology and Creeds OD WAS IN CHRIST RECONCILING THE WORLD • unto himself" (II Cor. 5:19). In these simple words G Paul expressed the central Christian conviction which Christian theology ever since has labored to preserve, to defend, and as far as possible to understand. Ever since the fifth century we have been accustomed to consider that the central problem of Christology is how to maintain the true humanity of the Saviour without obscuring the affirmation that God was indeed acting in Christ. The first four Christian centuries faced rather a different problem in the intellectual definition of the faith— to assert the true deity of the God who acted in Christ without obscuring the ancient faith of Israel that "the Lord our God, the Lord is one" (Deut. 6:4, R. S. V., margin). By the end of the second century the possible alternative solutions had been explored. Holding firm to the unity of God, or, as that age would have said, to the divine monarchy, one might say that Father and Son are merely two appearances of the same subject—-two parts (prosopa, personae, as in dramatis personae) assumed by the same simple being. This is modalism, com- monly known from the name of one of its conspicuous repre- sentatives as Sabellianism. Or one could adopt the opposite course and say that God the Father, and he only, is God in the true sense. Then the Word who was known on earth was another, a second and subordinate, divine entity—theos kai kurios heteros—as Justin Martyr1 rather carelessly says, although that phrase would not mean for him quite what it does for us. Arius later formalized this subordinationism. But this is dangerously close to polytheism, and it might be safer to say that the 1 Dialogue with Trypho, 56. 15 l6 CHRISTOLOGY OF THE LATER FATHERS eternal Word is simply an attribute of God, or an aspect of his working, and that in these last days he spoke supremely through Jesus as he had in old times spoken through prophets and sages. This was the view that was attributed to Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch. None of these positions was formally excluded by the Church's "rule of faith" as it existed in the third century, in various local forms of creeds taught to catechumens in pre- paration for their baptism in the threefold name. The Old Roman Symbol, known to us in a later form as the Apostles' Creed, is an excellent case in point. In the late second century converts at Rome were asked in the baptismal rite, "Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?" and "Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God . .?"2 By the end of the third century the second phrase probably read as we now know it, "his only Son our Lord," thus excluding any tendency to reduce Jesus to the rank of one among many.