I have just uploaded a series of papers to site on academia.edu. If you are signed into academia.edu, you will be able to download these free of charge.
Titles include:
A survey of the christology of Theodore of Tarsus in the Laterculus Malalianus
Christ’s Restoration of Humankind in the Laterculus Malalianus, 14
I hope you find these helpful.
You are invited to read my recent article in the Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture, entitled
PRELIMINARY ENQUIRIES INTO THE PLACE OF THE LATERCULUS MALALIANUS AMONG THE CHRONICLES OF LATE ANTIQUITY
and to return to this site to comment.
Check it out by clicking on the title, below:
As much time as we have spent looking at the details of Theodore’s biography, our real purpose here is to examine what it is he contributed to the formation of a distinctive church in this land. Before continuing, though, I would ask you to take note of my use of the word ‘contribution.’ I am not suggesting that, as inspiring a figure as I believe Theodore to be, he single-handedly established, created, or otherwise shaped the character of the British Church. It is more helpful, rather, that we think about Theodore’s contributions as something like ingredients added in baking. Whatever it is I will be proposing he put in, the result is a more appealing product than might have been the case without. Having said that, as you will shortly be shown, the ingredients Theodore did add were exotic indeed.
Lecture for the Wales & Marches Catholic History Society, Cardiff
9 June 2007
‘Theodore of Tarsus and the formation of a distinctive British Church, 668-690’
Before launching into today’s discussion of Theodore of Tarsus, let me begin by expressing my thanks to Daveth Frost for asking me on your behalf, and to all of you for having me speak this [morning] on a subject that is of immense importance to me. I trust you know what you have got yourselves in for, as I consider Theodore of Tarsus to be one of the most remarkable figures in the history of the British Church, but also one of the least represented. This means, of course, seeing as you are a captive audience, it is inevitable in the course of this talk that I should make up for all Theodore’s inadequate coverage, and give you as much information as I possibly can, without regard for the clock. So you better make yourselves comfortable.
Theodore of Tarsus got some well-deserved exposure this past Saturday, at a meeting of the Wales and Marches Catholic History Society.
I hope to post the text of the address on this site by the end of the week.
How the Church has historically determined doctrine is a poignant question, especially as it relates to such issues as Mary’s role in salvation, Papal authority, apostolic succession, and the nature of the Eucharist. This would equally apply to soteriological matters. When we ask the question, however, we soon discover that it is not enough to make singular and direct appeal to any one source, be it Scripture alone, the pious actions of the Church at a given point in history, or the witness of a solitary Father. Rather, as Jaroslav Pelikan makes clear, there must be a consensus among the Fathers of the Church, in concert with Sacred Scripture, by which we can be sure that doctrine is true.
The true and authentic consensus was that which reflected the mind of the Catholic and Universal Church […]. Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem, a contemporary of Maximus, summarized this idea of patristic consensus in a similar way: “An apostolic and ancient tradition has prevailed in the holy churches throughout the world, so that those who are inducted into the hierarchy sincerely refer everything they think and believe to those who have held the hierarchy before them. For…all their running would be in vain if an injustice were to be done to the faith in any respect” (Soph. Ep.syn. (PG 87:3149-52). Sophronius’s formula, “an apostolic and ancient tradition,” did not mean that everything “ancient” was therefore automatically “apostolic.” All the orthodox theologians knew that in some instances “antiquity means foolishness.” Even Irenaeus had erred in teaching the idea of the millenium. But while all that was ancient was not apostolic or orthodox, all that was orthodox had to have been apostolic and was therefore ancient. True doctrine, as Theodore of Studios was to assert, was “the excellence of the apostles, the foundation of the fathers, the keys of the dogmas, the standard of orthodoxy,” and anyone who contradicted it, even if he were an angel, was to be excommunicated and anathematized.
from J. Pelikan, The Spirit of Eastern Christendom, 600-1700 (The Christian Tradition series, Vol. 2), University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1974, p. 22.
The following passage represents the primary theological interest, and the sort of hermeneutics which Theodore of Tarsus brought to bear on his examination of the life of Christ. A soteriology of restoration (recapitulation) dominates the text, while the clearly Irenaean (albeit commonly used) motifs of First Eve-Second Eve/First Adam-Second Adam, virgin earth-Virgin Mary are employed to introduce it. This segues into an unexpected use of number-theory and gestational analysis, the purpose of which is to reconcile the number of years it took Zerubbabel to restore the Jerusalem Temple (46) with some aspect of the life of Christ, thereby showing Christ to be the ultimate Restorer. In her commentary on the text, Jane Stevenson informs us that the exegesis of John 2:19 (in Evangelio ait) is shared with Theodore of Mopsuestia. Ideas we might expect from Theodore of Tarsus, especially in light of the biographical information we are now aware of, are certainly evident in this passage.
Hoc namque loco licet inspicere quicquid pertulerit Christus salus et redemptio nostra, omnia gesta esse in homine pleno cum Deo. Nam quod Christus per angelum Virgini nuntiatur, ad evacuandum consilium serpentis ad Evam in paradiso. Quod autem de Virgine natus est, propter protoplastum Adam, quam de virgine terra et impolluta ad suam fecit imaginem; qui cum suadente diabolo mortis incurrisset exitium, a solo Domino Christo rerum reparatore et conditore ejus corporis et animae, per immortalitatem Christi, restauraretur domicilium. Quod autem decimi mensis limitem tetigisset in Virginis utero, id est dies VI supra mense nono perficiens, quod nullus ex filiis hominum tangit metrum nascendo per semen, nisi solus Christus verus Filius Dei et hominis sine semine natus ex virgine; ita ut fiant dies in una collectione constricti CCLXXVI, qui fiunt allegorice vel per typicam quaestionem; quod ipse affatus in Evangelio ait: Solvite templum hoc, et ego in tribus diebus suscitabo illud. Sed Judaei ignorantes capitulum rationis, protulerunt testimonium veritatis, et ita Domino respondentes aiunt: XL et VI annos aedificatum est templum hoc, et tu in tribus diebus suscitabis illud? Ille autem, inquit evangelista, dicebat de templo corporis sui, cujus dispensationem adprehendere nequiverunt Judaei, ideoque numerum annorum aedificationis templi, quod veri templi formam gerebat, Domino protulerunt: quem numerum non sub Salomone conditore ejusdem templi, sed sub Zorobabel, qui et Esdras, restauratore contigisse perlegitur; eo quod gentes, quae in circuitu erant, opus praepedibant. Nam Salomon annis VII complevit opus aedificii templi Domini.
I’m not sure where I came across this, but for those who do not have access to Migne’s Patrologia Latina or Patrologia Graeca, it seems that many of the volumes can actually be located by using the Google ‘book search’. The instructions I printed from the Internet are as follows:
‘To locate volumes of the Patrologia Graeca on Google Books, use the search “cursus completus series” (without the quotes). To get volumes of the Patrologia Latina as well, leave out the term “series”. NB: It is important to sepcify “full view”, otherwise nothing much comes back….
‘I find that the online displayed copies often seem to be missing pages; but the PDF available for download for them all does not.’
Due to time constraints, it has been more than two weeks since I last added anything significant to ‘East to West’. More material should be posted this week, but in the meantime, I will simply draw your attention to the slightly updated bibliography on Theodore of Tarsus.
None of the bibliographies posted here can pretend to be exhaustive, and so it is with secondary sources on Theodore of Tarsus. Since the mid-1990s, a great number of references to Theodore have appeared in academic sources, at least partly due to the work of Bernard Bischoff, Michael Lapidge and Jane Stevenson. Significantly, alot of these references have appeared in discussions surrounding the proliferation of the Syriac Christian tradition, and more particularly, the work of Ephrem the Syrian.
East to West 