The Life-Giving Appropriation of the Flesh: St. Cyril of Alexandria on the Unity of Christ | Prof. Paul Gavrilyuk

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

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Summary

Professor Paul Gavrilyuk explores Cyril of Alexandria's Christology as a sustained meditation on majesty and lowliness, driven by the desire to probe the mystery of the hypostatic union in light of the Nestorian controversy.

This lecture was given on February 23rd, 2024, at Dominican House of Studies.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speaker:

Prof. Paul L. Gavrilyuk holds the Endowed Aquinas Chair in Theology and Philosophy in the Theology Department at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA (2013- present). His fields of expertise range from historical theology to philosophy of religion to ecumenical studies. He has contributed to the understanding of the early Christian doctrine of God, of modern Russian religious thought, and of Orthodox-Catholic dialogue. He is the founding president of the International Orthodox Theological Association and Rebuild Ukraine.

Keywords: Alexandria, Antioch, Christology, Cyril of Alexandria, Divine Impassibility, Hypostatic Union, Kenosis, Logos, Nestorius, Philippians 2:5-11

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.2	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:12.7	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.3	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at to mystic institute.org.
0:24.6	Now in the title of this conference, of our conference, there are two leading words,
0:29.6	Majesty and Lowliness.
0:32.6	Cyril of Alexandria's Christology may be viewed as a sustained meditation on these two words,
0:40.2	majesty and lowliness. It's a meditation driven by the desire to probe the mystery of the
0:46.4	hypostatic union. Cyril was not the first Christian author to approach this question. However, it is
0:53.1	precisely during Cyril's time in the first part of
0:56.1	the fifth century that the question presented itself sharper than before. The theological
1:02.0	controversies of the fourth century set the stage. To remind you, in 325, the Council of Nicaea
1:09.1	proclaimed the equality of the son of God with his divine father. During the Aryan25, the Council of Nicaea proclaimed the equality of the Son of God with his divine
1:11.9	father.
1:13.2	During the Aryan controversy, the humanity of Christ remained a relatively moot point.
1:19.4	During the second half of the 4th century, Apollinaris of Laodicea put forth a hypothesis
1:24.9	that the divine logos took upon himself of human body bereft of the rational soul.
1:31.0	Instead, the functions of the human mind were taken over by the divine mind.
1:35.1	The Cappadocian fathers responded by defending the integrity of Christ's humanity.
1:40.6	They argued that the fullness of Christ's humanity captured the intent of Scripture and was satirologically necessary.
1:47.6	As Gregory of Naziansis famously put the matter, the unassumed is unhealed, quote unquote.
1:54.3	To redeem the whole of humanity, Christ assumed our entire human nature, complete was the body and the rational soul.
	...

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