Nestorian Temptation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Forced to choose between Nestorianism and Monophysitism, Karl Rahner once wrote, \u201cI would prefer to be an orthodox Nestorian.\u201d Aaron Riches, who quotes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/06\/nestorian-temptation-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nestorian Temptation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Forced to choose between Nestorianism and Monophysitism, Karl Rahner once wrote, \u201cI would prefer to be an orthodox Nestorian.\u201d Aaron Riches, who quotes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/06\/nestorian-temptation-2\/\" \/>\n<meta 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{"id":18195,"date":"2016-06-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2976"},"modified":"2016-06-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T00:00:00","slug":"nestorian-temptation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/06\/nestorian-temptation-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Nestorian Temptation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

F<\/span>orced to choose between Nestorianism and Monophysitism, Karl Rahner once wrote, \u201cI would prefer to be an orthodox Nestorian.\u201d Aaron Riches, who quotes this comment (Ecce Homo<\/em><\/a>, 9), thinks it a revealing admission. But not surprising: \u201cOn the one hand, it is a sign of the historical resilience of the Nestorian temptation. On the other hand, it signals a deep correspondence between Nestorian logic and some of the constitutive false dualisms of modernity\u201d (11).<\/p>\n

On the latter, he elaborates: \u201cwithout establishing any genealogical link, we can say that modernity is broadly \u2018Nestorian,\u2019 if we take the term Nestorian as descriptive of the normative mode of conceiving the relation of unity and difference, transcendence and immanence, God and the world. According to David L. Schindler, it has become characteristic of the implied metaphysical vision of modernity since Descartes to presuppose that \u2018if x is truly distinct from y, x must just so far share nothing in common with y.\u2019 Real difference here \u2018precludes a priori<\/em> any unity between x and y that is inclusive, precisely qua unity<\/em>, of real difference between x and y.\u2019 Here, \u2018difference\u2019 is essentially contrastive and competitive such that an ontological \u2018union\u2019 of x and y can only occur if either x is absorbed into y or vice-versa, or a mutual blending of x and y results in z, a tertium quid<\/em>. In other words, as with Nestorian logic, so with modernity, the difference of x and y is only safeguarded by separatio<\/em>, a strict autonomy that ensures that no intimacy crosses the basic parallelism whereby each thing remains distinct from its opposite, the one juxtaposed against the other\u201d (11). Modernity thus conceived is a refusal of perichoresis.<\/p>\n

According to Riches, though, the Nestorian temptation has deeper historical roots. It is \u201ca perennial temptation of Latin dogmatic theology itself. While Byzantine theology became resolved in a Cyrillian manner against every trace of the homo assumptus<\/em> theory, Latin theology remained in this regard more dogmatically vague, even at times preferring aspects of homo assumptus <\/em>Christology.\u201d He offers two reasons for the Nestorian inclination of Latin theology: Because of its split from the East, it \u201ctended to receive, only with reticence, the magisterial authority of the post-Chalcedon council of Constantinople II \u201d and \u201cduring the mediaeval period,in the \u2018largely Greekless West,\u2019 the disappearance of the textual evidence of the so-called Christological councils from Ephesus to Constantinople II effectively erased for a time the precise dogmatic formulations and standard by which the homo assumptus<\/em> doctrine was excluded.\u201d Thus Lombard could offer homo assumptus<\/em> as an acceptable \u201copinion.\u201d Because of this \u201cthe homo assumptus <\/em>doctrine and its variants were left to grow roots in the soil of some areas of Latin theology\u201d (11-12).<\/p>\n

Riches sees analogies between this tendency in Christology and the notion of natura pura<\/em>: \u201cThe integrity of nature . . . is safeguarded by its natural perfectibility in se, and so in a manner essentially \u2018separable\u2019 from the order of grace. The convertibility of the doctrine of natura pura<\/em> with a quasi-Nestorian logic of separatio<\/em> lies in the way proponents of natura pura<\/em> insist on deriving the \u2018species\u2019 of human creatures wholly from the \u2018proximate, proportionate, natural end\u2019 of a \u2018purely natural\u2019 human nature, fully divested from the history of salvation\u201d (13, quoting Stephen A Long).<\/p>\n

Riches\u2019s account isn\u2019t all critical. Thomas emerges as a hero: \u201cAs the first Latin mediaeval theologian to quote directly from the conciliar documents of Ephesus, Chalcedon, Constantinople II, and Constantinople III, Thomas\u2019s staggeringly important ressourcement<\/em> led him to a decisive judgment against what he perceived as a widespread factual Nestorianism within Lagin theology.\u201d He worked to \u201cconfirm his Cyrillian doctrine of Christ\u2019s single divine esse<\/em>\u201d which led to \u201ca rich theology of theandric synergy\u201d (16).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"