The Practical Christology of Philoxenus of Mabbug by David A. Michelson (review)

For those readers of early Christian literature who are more familiar with the renowned theologian-poets of the Syriac tradition such as Ephrem or Jacob of Sarug, it may come as a surprise to discover that the Syriac author whose extant writings are the most extensive among early Syriac authors is the fifth/sixth-century bishop of Mabbug, Philoxenus. Against the bishop's estimated half a million extant words, the present monograph seems rather slim by comparison, yet nonetheless offers what is certainly the most significant and incisive treatment of his contribution to late ancient Christianity in the East.

In place of "merely" studying the christological doctrines held by the bishop, the author rightly insists upon a more holistic and contextualized view of Philoxenus's battle against his opponents, those who had accepted the imperial diktat known as the Chalcedonian definition. For Michelson, Philoxenus's battle was not in the first place one for the soul of orthodoxy, but was rather part of a wider struggle for the acquisition of divine knowledge through ascesis and the praxis of the sacraments of the church, a "practical Christology" (6). It is this starting-point and assumption that makes this study different from previous work on the subject, especially the foundational 1963 monograph of André de Halleux.

The first two chapters of the book set out the overview and the approach that Michelson feels to be most appropriate in treating of Philoxenus's life and work. The illuminating third chapter attempts to uncover the principal influences on Philoxenus's notions of divine knowledge and its acquisition, which according to Michelson are to be located above all in Ephrem, who offered an "anti-speculative theology of wonder"; in Basil, whose anti-Eunomian works in particular provided "exhortations to theological humility"; and in Evagrius, whose controversial work is co-opted to explain not just the ascetical theory of the Syrian bishop (a long recognized line of tradition) but even his theological epistemology and hence Christology too (27). This is a vital contribution to uncovering the multifaceted roots of Syriac theology, demonstrating its dependence upon a variety of lines of Greek tradition, while also examining the new directions into which Philoxenus was able to cultivate that ancient trunk.

In an attempt partially to plug a gap in the scholarship, Michelson inserts a useful study of the nature of three main texts of the expurgated Evagrius, namely Praktikos, Gnostica, and Kephalaia Gnostica. This is an important task as yet incomplete. Syriac Evagrianism needs to be considered quite apart from the study of its eponymous founder and involves research into redaction processes, manuscript production and distribution, and the variable influences of "Evagrianism" on the Syriac churches and ascetical traditions. Michelson shows us that Philoxenus's reception of Evagrius was not all positive—indeed, his ideas are often quoted without direct attribution, while specific mention of his name is used rather in the context of warning against extremist speculative theologies. Thus, we need to understand better the role that Philoxenus himself played in this reception process. The book only very briefly delves into this question of the origins of the "expurgated" Evagrius, whether Philoxenus himself might not actually be its originator (as Antoine Guillaumont) or whether he found it readymade (as John Watt). This is a not inconsequential question, since it concerns whether or not Philoxenus was even aware that what he read as Evagrius was only one among a number of contested versions. It also begs the question of whether he may not have been fully aware that what he passed on as Evagrius was not in fact Evagrius.

Chapter Four discusses the bishop's ways of reading Scripture and his polemical interactions with the dyophysite tradition in this regard. Michelson usefully labors the point that Philoxenus's polemics were not merely concerned with the correct doctrine of Christ, nor with this or that interpretation of a biblical logion, but rather with the general approach to Scripture and...