John of Damascus and the use of the letters of Paul in his writing An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith
Eirini ARTEMI
Published in Manifestations of the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Adam, Christology, John Damascenes, Moses, Orthodox Faith, Paul’s theology, Son of God.
In this paper, we are going to present how John Damascenes used the Pauline Literature to make the treatise An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, mainly the part of Christology. John uses the Pauline epistles in order to speak about the Deity. God gives us the ability to know Him through a mirror. John uses more texts from Paul's epistles than texts of other Church fathers. The passages from epistles are the base for the development of John's dogmatic teaching and arguments. So, by this way, we will reach to the conclusions that the main points in the teaching of John's this work are the some of the main points in the theology of St. Paul mainly. The sin of Adam, and each one’s personal sins, all men are sinners and in need of redemption. In order to save mankind, God sent his Son into the world, born of a woman. Christ communicates his grace and justifies all who believe in him, and are baptized. Christ's grace includes the sending of the Holy Spirit, which constitutes the believer as an adopted child of God. Jesus is the fulfilment of all the prophecies of the Old Testament, and has established a New Covenant to replace that of Moses; therefore, Christians are not bound by the ceremonial and dietary laws, and circumcision, contained in the Law of Moses. This insight of Paul made Christianity into a religion open to all people.
The Christ and the History: a dialectical perspective of the Christological quarrels
José Pedro LUCHI, Helio Pedro Pretti PERIM
Original title: O Cristo e a História: uma perspectiva dialética das querelas cristológicas
Published in Art, Criticism and Mysticism
Keywords: Christology, Councils, Dialectic, Incarnation, Katabasis.
This research atempts to trace the progress of the historical and theological comprehension of the Person of Christ by exposing the positions risen before Nicea, as well as those developed during the first four ecumenic councils, in order to investigate the competence of the formulae throughout achieved. Two major works will be of aid to this quest, namely The Ecumenical Councils, by the historian Hubert Jedin, and The Incarnation of Christ, by the philosopher and theologian Hans Küng, which assumes the dinamics of the Hegelian dialect all along his work. The concepts of katabasis and anabasis, both borrowed from the mythological analysis tradition, will be summoned to the actual research and resignified by their new usage in the Judaeo-Christian theodissey. Concepts whose meanings are broadly urdestood in the Christian context like kenosis, incarnation and humanization will also be utilized. The research will climax in the Council of Chalcedon, the one in which the ultimate definition of Christ’s nature was arranged. It’s formula is crucial to understand the relationship between Jesus, God and man in the subsequent medieval thought.
The Christological nobility of animals in the medieval Bestiary: the Lion and the Unicorn examples
Pedro Carlos Louzada FONSECA
Original title: A nobreza cristológica de animais no bestiário medieval: o exemplo do Leão e do Unicórnio
Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Christology, animal symbolism, medieval bestiary.
This article examines aspects of creation and development of the medieval bestiary, and its moral and doctrinal significance for medieval Christianity. In the development of the study, an analytical and interpretative exam is done in relation to some animals which are considered noble due to their outstanding Christological symbolism, namely the lion and the unicorn.
