"Протоиерей Иоанн Мейендорф. Byzantine Theology " - читать интересную книгу автораand an extensive training in patristic theology.
In all his writings, Photius remains essentially a university professor. In philosophy, his main interests are logic and dialectics; hence, there is his very clear predisposition to Aristotle rather than to Plato. In theology, he remains faithful to the positions and problematics of the early councils and Fathers. His love for ancient philosophy does not lead him to any tolerance toward a man like Origen whose condemnation by the Fifth Council he accepts without reservation,7 or like Clement of Alexandria in whose main writing the Hypotyposeis Photius found the "impious myths" of Platonism.8 His extensive erudition often provides us with detailed critical analysis of and exact quotations from authors about whom we should know nothing without his notes. The Christological controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries in particular attracted Photius' attention. Despite his predilection for Antiochian exegesis and for theologians of the Antiochian school,9 he remains rigorously faithful to the Cyrillian exegesis of the Council of Chalcedon, which prevails in Byzantium under Justinian, and devotes long and, for us, precious attention to some of its important spokesmen.10 On other theological issues, Photius remains in very formal agreement with traditional patristic and conciliar positions. But he does not seem to accept fully or to understand the implications of the absolute apophaticism of a Gregory of Nyssa, and his doctrine of God in relation to creation seems to approach the Latin Scholastic concept of the actus furus.11 But careful analysis of Photius' thought would be required to assert his exact position anti-Palamites of the fourteenth century against the real distinction between essence and "energy" in God maintained by Palamas and endorsed by the councils of the period.12 In addition, his devotion to secular learning and his liberal use of oikonomia made him during and after his lifetime rather unpopular in monastic circles. In one aspect, Photius obviously dominated his contemporaries and the Middle Ages as a whole: his sense of history, of historical development, and of tradition. This sense is apparent in every codex (chapter) of the Library. Thus in analyzing the book of a priest Theodore, who defended the authenticity of the Dionysian writings, Photius carefully lists the arguments against authenticity and concludes with the simple statement that the author "tries to refute these objections and affirms that in his opinion the book of the great Dionysius is genuine."13 Even if, on other occasions, Photius takes Dionysian authenticity for granted, the passage just cited clearly shows Photius' intellectual honesty in acknowledging the impossibility of explaining the way in which Dionysius can foretell "traditions, which grew old only gradually in the Church and took a long time to develop."14 This acknowledgement of the development of tradition and also of a possible and legitimate variety in ecclesiastical practices and rules plays a significant role in Photius' attitude toward Pope Nicholas I and toward the Church of Rome. Accused by the pope of having been elevated from the lay state to the patriarchate in six days, a practice forbidden in Western tradition but never formally opposed in the East, Photius writes, "Everyone |
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