Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Life, Works and Thought (Fr. George Florovsky)

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

 

By Fr. George Florovsky

 

I. Life.

There is much about Cyril's life which still remains unclear, and even during his lifetime he was regarded with doubt and suspicion. He was born about 315 in Jerusalem or its environs, and it not precisely known when he entered the clergy. By 348 he a deacon and in that year during Lent and on Holy Saturday delivered his famous Catechetical Lectures (divided into the introductory Procatechesis; eighteen Catecheses; and five Mystagogical Catecheses). Sometime between 348 and 351 he be me bishop of Jerusalem. Cyril's elevation was questioned by Jerome and Rufinus, and it has long been the subject of controversy because he was probably consecrated by Acacius of Caesarea and Patrophilus of Scythopolis; that is, by prelates whose orthodoxy was doubtful. In a letter addressed to Pope Damasus Cyril had to prove to the fathers at the council of Constantinople in 382 that his installation was legal and according to canon law (Theodoret, Historia ecclesiastica 5.9).

About 355 Cyril and Acacius quarreled over the precedence and jurisdiction of their respective metropolitanates. They probably disagreed on dogmatic matters as well. Cyril was deposed, and under pressure he withdrew first to Antioch and then to Tarsus. There he became a supporter of the homoiousians and sat with them at the council of Seleucia in 359. The council reinstated him as bishop of Jerusalem, but in the next year he was exiled again and returned only during the reign of Julian in 362. In 367 under Valens he was again forced to leave Jerusalem until 378, and nothing is known of his life during this period. In 381 Cyril participated at the Second Ecumenical Council. He died in 387. These few facts are all that is definitely known about his life.

The difference of opinion regarding Cyril is understandable in of the religious controversies which raged during his life . Cyril supported the anti-Nicene movement, first as a "Eusebian" and then as a "homoiousian," and this would be enough make his orthodoxy questionable. He sided with Meletius in Antioch, which explains why Jerome regarded him with such extreme suspicion. However, the testimony of the fathers at the Council of 382 dispels all doubt: "At various times he greatly struggled against Arianism." Theodoret later refers to him as a "defender of the apostolic faith."

 

The Theology of the Cross and the Theology of Glory - (Theologia crucis-Theologia gloriae): Part 2 of 4

...continued from part one.

1. Father George Florovsky on the Theologia crucis and Theologia gloriae

It is commonly assumed that, in counterdistinction from the West, Eastern theology is mainly concerned with Incarnation and Resurrection and that the “theology of the Cross”, theologia crucis, has been under-developed in the East. Indeed, Orthodox theology is emphatically a “theology of glory”, theologia gloriae, but only because it is primarily a “theology of the Cross”. The Cross itself is the sign of glory. The Cross itself is regarded not so much as a climax of Christ's humiliation, but rather as a disclosure of Divine might and glory. “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” Or, in the words of a Sunday hymn, “it is by the Cross that great joy has come into the world”. On the one hand, the whole oikonomia of Redemption is summed up in one comprehensive vision: the victory of Life. On the other, this oikonomia is related to the basic predicament of fallen man, to his existential situation, culminating in his actualized “mortality”, and the “last enemy” is identified, accordingly, as “death”. It was this “last enemy” that had been defeated and abrogated on the tree of the Cross, in ara crucis. The Lord of Life did enter the dark abyss of death, and “death” was destroyed by the flashes of His glory. This is the main motive of the divine office on Easter Day in the Orthodox Church: “trampling down death by death”. The phrase itself is significant: Christ's death is itself a victory, Christ's death dismisses man's mortality. 

The Theology of the Cross and the Theology of Glory - (Theologia crucis-Theologia gloriae): Part 1 of 4

The Theology of the Cross and the Theology of Glory 
(Theologia crucis-Theologia gloriae)

Introduction

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

On the occasion of the feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross, we must see the great value of the Honorable Cross in relation to the Resurrection of Christ.

And this is because in Orthodox theology, the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ are closely connected, or as it is called, the theologia crucis with the theologia gloriae, and they cannot be separated. That is, it cannot be maintained that the Cross of Christ is a simple historical event and the Resurrection of Christ is an eschatological event, because this is a great theological error.

Previously, it was argued that Western theology is based more on the Cross with the theory of the atonement of divine justice through the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, which is why the Orthodox Church is the Church of the Resurrection.

Athenagoras of Athens: Life, Works and Thought (Fr. George Florovsky)

Athenagoras of Athens 

 

By Fr. Georges Florovsky    

Athenagoras of Athens, the most lucid and eloquent writer among the Apologists, was most probably a pagan who converted to Christianity. Bossuet considered him the author "of one of the finest and earliest Apologies of the Christian religion." Almost nothing is known of his life except that he was an Athenian and considered himself "a Christian philosopher." St. Photius held that he was the same Athenagoras to whom Boethos, the Platonist, dedicated his work On Difficult Expressions in Plato (Bibl. Cod. 154 f.). He is mentioned by Methodius in De resurrectione (I, 36) and by Philip Sidetes in his lengthy Χριστιανική Ιστορία. About 177 Athenagoras wrote his Plea Regarding Christians — πρεσβεία περι των χριστιανών. Α second work, On the Resurrection of the Dead — περί αναστάσεως νεκρών — has been attributed to him and he was most probably the author.