What were the historical and cultural processes by which Cyril of Alexandria was elevated to canonical status while his opponent, Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, was made into a heretic? In contrast to previous scholarship, Susan Wessel concludes that Cyril's success in being elevated to orthodox status was not simply a political accomplishment based on political alliances he had fashioned as opportunity arose. Nor was it a dogmatic victory, based on the clarity and orthodoxy of Cyril's doctrinal claims. Instead, it was his strategy in identifying himself with the orthodoxy of the former bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius, in his victory over Arianism, in borrowing Athanasius' interpretive methods, and in skilfully using the tropes and figures of the second sophistic that made Cyril a saint in the Greek and Coptic Orthodox Churches.
Author(s): Susan Wessel
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 308
Cover Page......Page 1
Title Page......Page 4
ISBN 0199260460......Page 5
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 8
CONTENTS......Page 12
ABBREVIATIONS......Page 14
Introduction......Page 16
I The Tapestry of Cyril’s Episcopacy from Egypt to the Imperial City......Page 28
1 Confrontation in the Early Episcopacy......Page 30
2 Political Alliance and the Onset of Controversy......Page 89
3 The Reception of Nicaea......Page 127
4 The Meeting of the Council......Page 153
II The Rhetoric of the Nestorian Debates......Page 196
Introduction......Page 198
5 Rhetorical Style and Method in the Conciliar Homilies of Cyril......Page 205
6 The Rhetorical and Interpretative Method of Nestorius......Page 251
III Cyril Emerges as a Saint in the Byzantine Church......Page 268
7 From a Tentative Resolution to the Renewal of Controversy (ad 431–451)......Page 270
Epilogue......Page 311
APPENDIX The Homilies that Cyril of Alexandria Delivered in Ephesus During the Summer of 431......Page 318
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 335
INDEX (with page links)......Page 370
