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The Doctrine of Hypostatic Union As a Viable Inspiration

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The Doctrine of Hypostatic Union As a Viable Inspiration Journal of Moral Theology, Vol. 5, No. 2 (2016): 81-98 Catholic Theology of Post-Conflict Restorative Justice: The Doctrine of Hypostatic Union as a Viable Inspiration Rev. Raymond Aina, MSP HE HYPOSTATIC UNION IS HARDLY INVOKED in Catholic so- cial ethics, unlike the apparently more arcane doctrine of Trinity, Which appears more popular for both the Church and T public theologians. Yet, from the doctrine of the hypostatic union, humans can recognize that God encounters humans and beck- ons them on toWards full reconciliation Without destroying What de- fines them as humans. Rather, God unites them With himself. That “mode of being” should be Christians’ critical contribution to the pub- lic as inspired from their distinctive ethics. This theology of restorative justice must be relational, full of dependence, kenosis and “paradox.” The presence of “paradox” in this theology is not necessarily a moral failure, because tension arising from competing Wills Will alWays be With us. It is not regrettable, so long as they do not Wander off the telos (God’s reign in the world). Accordingly, Catholic Social Teach- ing/Thought needs to acknowledge the promise of the “hypostatic un- ion” as a more viable theological analogue in the Church’s theology of reconciliation. Before proceeding With this thesis, it is imperative to offer the basis for this doctrine as a primary theological analogue. THE DOCTRINE OF HYPOSTATIC UNION AND RECONCILIATION In the search and desire for reconciliation With humanity, God paid attention to the other, even if different. By opting for relationality in the concrete sense (hypostatic union), for the sake of reconciliation, God accepted limitation. It offers a message that timeless and tangible, even if hypostatic, union is possible. In other Words, radical otherness in a reconciled union of qualitative differences is possible.1 Brian Da- ley, a church historian from the Western tradition, argues With Leon- tius of Byzantium’s explication. According to Leontius, the union of the two spheres of realities “is more unitive than one of completely 1 Stephen Davis, Daniel Kendal and Gerald O’Collins, “Preface,” in The Incarnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God, ed. Stephen Davis, Daniel Kendal and Gerald O’Collins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), ix-x. 82 Raymond Aina divided things, yet richer than one of completely confused things; it does not make the elements united completely the same as other, nor completely different.”2 HoWever, this mode of union, being a paradox, Was difficult to state clearly Without ambiguities. For instance, Cyril of Alexandria spoke of the hypostatic union as the Word clothed in human flesh, i.e., a cosmetic change, Without anything substantially happening to it. This may be seen as a peripheral attachment. Thus the core remains— poWerful and divine—While the other at the periphery Was simply an unavoidable element needed for an end. Irenaeus and Tertullian had their oWn ambiguous explanations of the hypostatic union. Chalcedonian Confession and Renewal of Mode of Being Human The ambiguities noticed in the Christological controversies during the patristic period eventually led to the Chalcedonian confession that the belief in the unity of the tWo natures Was based on communicatio idiomatum.3 The unity of human and divine natures in the person of the incarnate Son is similar to the unity of three persons in one God. Thus, it Was appropriate that the same terminology used to explain the unity of the Trinitarian persons (communicatio idiomatum) Was used to explain the unity of the tWo natures in one person of the incarnate Son. Communicatio idiomatum implied proportional interchange of properties, i.e., the divine took up human property; the human took up divine property in mutual exchange in proportion to its human nature. This interchange of properties did not dissolve the distinction of the tWo natures.4 The caution With Which communicatio idiomatum was used shoWed that interchanged properties for the sake of reconciliation did not dissolve, and should not dissolve, differences.5 Perhaps, it Was 2 Brian Daley, “Nature and the ‘Mode of Union’: Late Patristic Models for the Per- sonal Unity of Christ,” in The Incarnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God, ed. Stephen Davis, Daniel Kendal and Gerald O’Col- lins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 167. 3 The Chalcedonian confession on the unity of the human and divine properties in the incarnate Son of God is enunciated thus in the Council’s Definition of Faith: “One and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only-begotten, acknowledged in tWo natures which undergo no confusion, no change, no division, no separation; at no point Was the dif- ference betWeen the natures taken aWay through the union, but rather the property of both natures is preserved and comes together into a single person and a single subsist- ent being; he is parted or divided into tWo persons, but is one and the same only - begotten Son, God, Word, Lord Jesus Christ” (Council of Chalcedon, “Definition of Faith” in Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils—Vol. I: Nicaea I to Lateran V, ed. Norman Tanner [Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1990], 86). 4 Gerald O’Collins, Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 185. 5 O’Collins, Christology, 161-8, 191. Hypostatic Union as a Viable Inspiration 83 meant to highlight the unique paradox of the hypostatic union: some- thing incommunicable, deeply rooted in divine sphere of reality, at the moment of kenosis, joined with human sphere of reality and the out- come was Jesus Christ, the God-man.6 The hypostatic union as “[t]he most unlikely truth”7 appeals to the human heart and conscience.8 This unlikely truth is the Work of grace, and the human heart perceives that grace is needed for human co-belonging. This holistic co-belonging is a pilgrimage; We may never reach it, but it is achievable. On the Whole, it is safe to state With Sarah Coakley that the Chal- cedonian confession has proved very successful in “regulating lan- guage about Christ.”9 Chalcedon made it possible to envision an anal- ogy of one actor Whose actions reveal tWo natures, like one nation act- ing in such a Way that distinct entities that make up the union are re- vealed. For instance, in communication and language our distinctness is revealed Without any identity suppressed.10 It is necessary to bear in mind that the issue about the hypostatic union during the patristic period Was not really on the tWo natures (di- vinity and humanity). No one Was denying these realities. The issue was the “mode of union,” i.e., the manner by which separate spheres of realities joined in the person confessed as the Son of God. This is the great mystery of the Christian faith. Hence, the task for the fathers was to investigate the mode and the outcome. The leading question could be framed thus: “how can we conceive the mode of union which produced the complex reality called Christ as a person?”11 Daley, in my opinion, brings home to non-systematic theologians the Whole debate on the meaning of ousia (nature; substance) and hy- postasis (person) and the “how.” Ousia (nature; generic) means “what exists,” while hypostasis (person) means “a particular living being.” Accordingly, the hypostatic union changes the manner of the Logos’ being human “in a way that sets before us the new ‘manner of being’ that is the pattern of our redemption.”12 Although the overriding argu- ments favor some form of substantial relational union (e.g. Cyril of Alexandria; Maximus the Confessor; John of Damascus) over and 6 Daley, “Nature and the ‘Mode of Union’,” 167. 7 Marguerite Shuster, “The Incarnation in Selected Christmas Sermons,” in The In- carnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God, ed. Stephen Davis, Daniel Kendal and Gerald O’Collins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 380. 8 Shuster, “The Incarnation in Selected Christmas Sermons,” 378. 9 Sarah Coakley, “What Does Chalcedon Solve and What Does it Not? Some Reflec- tions on the Status and Meaning of the Chalcedonian ‘Definition’,” in The Incarna- tion: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God, ed. Ste- phen Davis, Daniel Kendal and Gerald O’Collins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 161. 10 O’Collins, Christology, 193-4. 11 Daley, “Nature and the ‘Mode of Union’,” 167. 12 Daley, “Nature and the ‘Mode of Union’,” 187. 84 Raymond Aina above a mere moral/spiritual union (Nestorian position), the mode of union is clearly relational, and one that happened “due solely to divine grace and favour.”13 This, therefore, is the core of the hypostatic union. It is about the relationship betWeen God and humans. The relationship is so unique because it is so unequal: humans are totally dependent on God for their personal and generic being. Nevertheless, at the same time, through the hypostatic union, Christians recognize that God, as expression of graciousness and gratuitousness, has set a particular hu- man person (Christ) “freer than any human before him to be what all of us are created to be—sons and daughters of God, created in God’s image and likeness.” 14 In this sense, therefore, the union “renews” hoW to be With individualities. Hence, life, love, and grace revealed in the hypostatic union transform previous manifestations of evil in the human community, like death, lies, hatred, and Wickedness.15 Consequently, through God’s graciousness and gratuitousness, hu- manity is revealed in its fullest possible perfection because the hypo- static union clearly reveals that sinlessness is not equivalent With be- ing non-human.16 At the same time this union concretely reveals the unknoWable nature of God.
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