"Протоиерей Иоанн Мейендорф. Byzantine Theology " - читать интересную книгу автора

and 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
on this point. In any case, his authority was invoked by the Byzantine
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