Category: On the Unity of Christ
Cyril of Alexandria on the Death of Christ
This is a quote taken from Cyril of Alexandria’s On the Unity of Christ that seems appropriate for Good Friday:
“…the Only Begotten Word of God has saved us by putting on our likeness. Suffering in the flesh, and rising from the dead, he revealed our nature as greater than death or corruption. What he achieved was beyond the ability of our condition, and what seemed to have been worked out in human weakness and by suffering was really stronger than men and a demonstration of the power than pertains to God.”
While we may rightly speak of the death of Christ having legal and substitutionary provisions–and this is precious to us–we must not forget that part of redeeming creation so that we could be resurrected meant dying as one of us so that we can live as he.
Disliking Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria
I admit I have only just begun reading about Cyril of Alexandria, and I am currently reading his famous work On the Unity of Christ (trans. John A. McGuckin), but am I alone in thinking that while he appears to have been a great theologian he was also a political monster? He was in constant conflict with pagans and Jews. He had mobs of monks striking fear into the hearts of his opponents. He seems to have supported the murder of a female philosopher as the final defeat of “idolatry” in Alexandria. He was part of the disposal of two bishops of Constantinople–John Chrysostom and Nestorius–partially for legitimate reasons but also in part because he feared Constantinople overshadowing Alexandria.
All that being said, do we have any Cyril scholars out there who can tell me why I should like this man (other than his defeat of Nestorianism)?
