The Roles of Christ's Humanity in Salvation: Insights from Theodore of Mopsuestia (review)

Anticipated by two well-received monographs, The Soteriology of Narsai (Rome, 1973) and The Image of God in the Antiochene Tradition (Washington, 1999), both of which were completed by a substantial article in this journal (10 [2002]: 37–75) on "The Theological Ramifications of Theodore of Mopsuestia's Understanding of Baptism and the Eucharist," the present work announces the originality of the author's purpose by its very title. By claiming that the "insights of Theodore of Mopsuestia" in which Mc Leod is specially interested concentrate on "the roles (my emphasis) of Christ's humanity in salvation," the author frees his research from the metaphysical abstraction of conventional school christologies when discussing the classical debates of the fourth and fifth centuries. Instead of analyzing Theodore's theory of the unity of Christ's two natures only though a modernizing paraphrase of what Theodore himself or his adversaries said on that issue, as has been the custom among a few recent generations of historians of dogma, the author starts by a penetrating study of "Theodore's method of interpreting scripture" (20–57).

McLeod argues that Theodore "differed notably from Diodore, John Chrysostom, and Theodoret . . . in his unique interpretation of the image of God and the divine plerōma," and that "he did not consider the Christological question about the unity of Christ's human and divine natures from a philosophical perspective" (57). In particular, in Theodore's typology of Adam and Christ, his scriptural exegesis reveals the originality of his insight. The Pauline metaphor of Christ's body as church in stark contrast with Adam's body, meaning sinful humanity, prompted in Theodore a theory of salvation in which the principle of human freedom prevails over any idea of an original sin that vitiates nature itself. His notion of a salvific incorporation in Christ was essentially sacramental, based on his doctrine of baptism and the Eucharist, both being explained by him through a sound and a realistic interpretation of Pauline statements. The role of the Spirit in the existential experience of the salvation process is very well highlighted. Christ's human nature becomes a bond uniting the whole cosmic reality in a saved "body," namely Christ himself according to Colossians 15.20. Christ represents the plerōma of the saved members of the church and the cosmos as a whole. The author offers a nuanced analysis of that cosmic Christology in discussion with U. Wickert and others (110–23). Through his humanity Christ renders visible the mystery of divine Trinity. Precisely in his incarnate status he is "the visible image of the invisible God" (Col 1.13–20). Here I may note that in this regard Theodore's thought comes close to the teaching of Athanasius of Alexandria, his older contemporary. Contrary to Diodore, John Chrysostom, and Theodoret, Theodore also stresses that Christ, as the Image of God, incorporates believers of both sexes in his iconic supremacy. He affirms the equality of men and women as saved by their participation in Christ the Image of God (138–43).

Theodore's proper understanding of the christological mystery is set forth in chapters 6 and 7, the most significant section of the present study. The author insists on his singular purpose: "my approach is a functional, existential one" (145). Indeed, McLeod reformulates all the usual christological terms as Theodore himself defined them: the prosōpon of Christ is the joined manifestation of his divine and his human natures; "every perfect nature, if it is a truly existing being, has its own hypostasis, which in [my correction] turn has its own prosōpon"(150). But in Christ the "exact" union between the two natures results in a common prosōpon of both: "the Word has chosen to reveal himself together with Christ's human prosōpon in such a way that both inner natures can be recognized as present and...