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  • Sophronius of Jerusalem and Seventh-Century Heresy. The Synodical Letter and Other Documents
  • Bronwen Neil
Sophronius of Jerusalem and Seventh-Century Heresy. The Synodical Letter and Other Documents. Translated and annotated by Pauline Allen. [Oxford Early Christian Texts.] (New York: Oxford University Press. 2009. Pp xiv, 245. $130.00. ISBN 978-0-199-54693-0.)

Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem (634–38/39) is less well known than his friend John Moschus or his disciple Maximus the Confessor, both of whom were Sophronius’s allies in the fight against the monoenergist heresy. Recent scholarship has begun to redress this imbalance, but attention has focused on Sophronius’s homilies and hagiographic works, leaving his dogmatic works largely neglected. The most important of these is Sophronius’s Synodical Letter, a lengthy exposition of his position on several doctrinal issues—including monoenergism—that was sent to other bishops of the pentarchy on his election to the see of Jerusalem in 634. The monoenergist heresy was a byproduct of the division caused by the Chalcedonian Definition of Faith between the churches of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine on the one hand, and Constantinople and Rome on the other, a rift that lingered well into the seventh century. The monoenergist formula of one energy or operating activity in Christ was invented in Constantinople in an attempt to bring the anti-Chalcedonian churches, particularly that of Alexandria, back into the fold. By June 633 it had been enshrined in the Pact of Union signed by Cyrus of Alexandria. This important text is translated here, along with eight others from a dossier that illuminates the unfolding of the monoenergist controversy and its development into monothelitism.

Over the past thirty years Allen has emerged as one of the leading scholars on the Christological controversies of the sixth and seventh centuries. In this volume she provides not only the first English translation of the documentary evidence pertaining to the monoenergist controversy of the 620s and 630s but also the first translation of the complete texts into any modern language. The introduction to the volume provides an expert summary of the development of the controversy, and its origin in the Council of Chalcedon and its aftermath. Allen emphasizes the close links forged between Sophronius’s circle and the Church of Rome in their struggle against Constantinople. This close relationship was temporarily destroyed by the intervention of Sergius of Constantinople, who corresponded with Honorius, bishop of Rome (625–38), on the subject of monoenergism. In his first letter to Sergius, Honorius demonstrated a spectacular lack of theological acumen with his coining of the phrase “one will” to describe Christ’s incapacity to act independently of the divine will, thus inadvertently instigating the new heresy of monothelitism. That important letter is translated here, along with the Ekthesis, Heraclius’s edict of 638, issued with the aid of Sergius of [End Page 321] Constantinople. The Ekthesis forbade any mention of the number of energies in Christ, while promulgating the “one will” formula. The documents in this volume are preserved in the Greek Acts of the Sixth Ecumenical Council of 680–81. The Greek text is taken from Riedinger’s excellent edition in the second series of the Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum. Some texts also appeared in a Latin version—including the two letters of Honorius which were originally composed in Latin—which was subtly different from the Greek. Allen skillfully elucidates the significance of such linguistic deviations in her commentary on the texts, and offers a careful and consistent rendition of the notoriously difficult Greek.

Sophronius died in March 638 or 639, after the storming of Jerusalem by the Arab caliph Omar. Readers searching for contemporary accounts of this watershed event or the fall of Jerusalem to the Persians in 614 will have to look elsewhere. The authors of these texts were focused solely on the theological travails of the period, although their political implications are drawn out fully in Allen’s introduction. The select bibliography of primary and secondary sources provides a basic reading list of all relevant materials. Four comprehensive indices assist the reader to navigate the contents with ease. This volume will be indispensable reading for students, historians, and theologians with...

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