Theology of St. Cyril of Alexandria: A Critical Appreciation, The

The Theology of St. Cyril of Alexandria: A Critical Appreciation. Edited by Thomas G. Weinandy and Daniel A. Keating. London and New York: T&T Clark, 2003. xv + 269 pp. $60.00 (cloth).

The Theology of St. Cyril of Alexandria: A Critical Appreciation is an impressive collection of essays. As several of the contributors observe, interest in Cyril has tended to focus on his Christological writings and the role he played in the controversies of the 43Os. This book goes some way to changing that. The authors deal with the wide range of Cyril's writings and his theological concerns. The Cyril who emerges is one whose theology is characterized by genius and who was deeply committed to the well-being of the church. We see that there is continuity between his early doctrinal thinking and his later; the encompassing and dynamic nature of his theology is made plain. Young, in a study of the place of Mary in Cyril's pre-controversy exegetical writing, shows that fundamental to his reading of Scripture was an overarching narrative, in which were held together "in a single pattern the divine story of incarnation and the human story of Fall and Redemption" (p. 65). Cyril defends this fundamental narrative movement "against the apparent fragmenting analysis of a Nestorius" (p. 67). His defense ofTheotokos is grounded in the narrative and enhanced by his conviction of the necessity of Maiy for humanity's appropriation of the divine life through Christ. Boulnois, in a summary account of her magisterial Le paradoxe trinitaire chez Cyrille d'Alexandrie, shows that in his under-studied writings on the Trinity, Cyril worked out an understanding of divine unity that "is not simple, but paradoxical and differentiated, since it integrated the notion of distinction into itself" (p. 110). An advance upon the Trinitarian thought of Athanasius and the Cappadocians, it is a conception of the doctrine that maintains "a continuity between theology and economy" (p. 105). Although it is not appropriate to attempt to analyze his thinking about the Spirit in terms of the later Latin-Greek debate, Cyril went further than any of his predecessors in affirming the Spirit's dependence on the Son. Daley, writing on the Spirit, maintains that it is Cyril's emphasis on the immediacy of God, an emphasis that would set him on a collision course with the Antiochenes, which drives his thinking about the Spirit. Cyril's purpose is to affirm the divinity of the Spirit and "to reflect on the significance of the Spirit's personal presence, as the gift of both Father and Son, in the believer and the Church" (p. 117). Later Eastern and Western theology would have been well served had they followed his lead. Weinandy, for the sake of maintaining "the truth of the incarnation" (p. 54), gives a vigorous defense of the coherence of Cyril's use of the phrase "one nature" to describe the union of the two natures, and argues that Cyril did in fact see the reality of Christ's human nature as essential to Christ's salvific efficacy.

Wilken, in an essay on Cyril's interpretation of the Old Testament, argues that it is Christ who is the aim (skopos) in Cyril's reading of the Bible; Keating contends that in Cyril's concept of divinization, both the physical and the monil are taken into account, and that Cyril did not obliterate the distinction between humankind and God; and O'Keefe looks at Cyril's eschatology in relation to his understanding of incorruption, his anti-Origenism, and the Incarnation. McGukin gives a sympathetic account of Cyril as bishop and pastor, pointing out that there was a need for bishops of the period to exercise power and discipline within and beyond their dioceses-this was nowhere more true than in fissiparous Egypt-and that that was wholly in accord with contemporary expectation. Russell addresses Cyril's enduring influence, both in the period following Chalcedon and beyond, and in the context of the modern discussion of the doctrinal problems dividing the Chalcedonian from the non-Chalcedonian churches.

The essays in this volume require the reader to engage seriously with Cyril as a theologian and person of the church. It is highly recommended to the generalist and the specialist alike.

PETER WIDDICOMBE

McMaster University

Hamilton, Ontario

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Summer 2004
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