Orthodox Readings of Aquinas

549 Pages·2016·22.39 MB·English

by  Marcus Plested

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OXFORD
Orthodox Readings of Aquinas
Marcus Plested
CHANGING PARADIGMS IN HISTORICAL AND SYSTTMATIC THEOLOGY
CHANGING PARADIGMS IN HISTORICAL
AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
General Editors
Sarah Coakley Richard Cross
CHANGING PARADIGMS IN HISTORICAL
AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
General Editors: Sarah Coakley (Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity,
University of Cambridge) and Richard Cross (John A. O’Brien Professor
of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame)
This series sets out to reconsider the modern distinction between ‘historical’
and ‘systematic’ theology. The scholarship represented in the series is
marked by attention to the way in which historiographic and theological
presumptions (paradigms’) necessarily inform the work of historians of
Christian thought, and thus affect their application to contemporary
concerns. At certain key junctures such paradigms are recast, causing a
reconsideration of the methods, hermeneutics, geographical boundaries,
or chronological caesuras which have previously guided the theological
narrative. The beginning of the twenty-first century marks a period of such
notable reassessment of the Christian doctrinal heritage, and involves a
questioning of the paradigms that have sustained the classic ‘history-of-
ideas’ textbook accounts of the modern era. Each of the volumes in this
series brings such contemporary methodological and historiographical
concerns to conscious consideration. Each tackles a period or key figure
whose significance is ripe for reconsideration, and each analyses the implicit
historiography that has sustained existing scholarship on the topic.
A variety of fresh methodological concerns are considered, without
reducing the theological to other categories. The emphasis is on an
awareness of the history of ‘reception’: the possibilities for contemporary
theology are bound up with a careful re-writing of the historical narrative.
In this sense, ‘historical’ and ‘systematic’ theology are necessarily conjoined,
yet also closely connected to a discerning interdisciplinary engagement.
This monograph series accompanies the project of The Oxford Handbook
of the Reception of Christian Theology (OUP, in progress), also edited by
Sarah Coakley and Richard Cross.
RECENT SERIES TITLES
Calvin, Participation, and the Gift
The Activity of Believers in Union with Christ
J. Todd Billings
Newman and the Alexandrian Fathers
Shaping Doctrine in Nineteenth-Century England
Benjamin J. King
Orthodox Readings
of Aquinas
MARCUS PLESTED
OXFORD O
H
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UNIVERSITY PRESS 1
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OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, 0X2 6DP,
United Kingdom
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Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Marcus Plested 2012
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2012
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 978-0-19-965065-1
Printed in Great Britain by
MPG Books Group, Bodmin and King’s Lynn
For Mariamni,
Who gave me a son as this book went to press
Acknowledgements
This has been very much a Princeton project. My initial researches
were conducted during the Spring Semester of 2008 at the Center of
Theological Inquiry (CTI). I am most grateful to CTI for its provision
of an exceptionally stimulating environment for theological endeav­
our. The bulk of the work was carried out as the George William
Cottrell, Jr. Member of the Institute for Advanced Study (I AS) in the
academic year 2010-11. IAS is an academic Elysium without par and
it was perfectly exhilarating to work in the company of so many
prodigiously talented scientists, mathematicians, and historians.
I am particularly grateful to Caroline Bynum for graciously mentor­
ing those of us in the medieval history section of the School of
Historical Studies. The librarians and support staff of IAS were always
exceptionally helpful. Thanks are also due to the Institute for Ortho­
dox Christian Studies and to its Principal, David Frost, for being
willing to grant me extended bouts of research leave in short succes­
sion. Likewise to the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Cam­
bridge for a grant towards .the cost of the index which was prepared
by Johannes Borjesson. Elements of this book have been presented at
the American Academy of Religion, Fordham University, Princeton
University, the University of Notre Dame, IAS, CTI, Holy Cross
Greek Orthodox School of Theology, and the Institut St-Serge. Dis­
cussion following these papers has invariably been to the betterment
of this book. Thanks also to those scholars who have read and
commented on portions of this book: Brian Daley, Thomas Guarino,
Nadieszda Kizenko, and Assaad Kattan. Philip Steer read through the
text with a careful eye for infelicities of style and language. My editors,
Richard Cross and Sarah Coakley have also, together with the Press’
anonymous readers, provided some invaluable suggestions and
advice. The remaining errors are of my own devising.
Cambridge
6 August 2012
Feast of the Transfiguration
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Table of Contents
Abbreviations xi
Introduction: 1354 and all that 1
PARTI GREEK EAST AND LATIN
WEST: AN EXERCISE IN
MULTIPLE PERSPECTiyE
1. Thomas Aquinas and the Greek East 9
■ 1.1 A New Image of Thomas 11
1.2 Aquinas and the Greek Fathers ' 15
1.3 Aquinas and the Latin-Greek Schism 21
1.4 Conclusion 27
2. Gregory Palamas and the Latin West 29
2.1 Palamas and Augustine 29
2.2 Theological Methodology in Palamas:
A Scholastic Inheritance 44
2.3 Palamas and the Latin-Greek Schism 58
2.4 Coda: Palamas and Aquinas 60
PART II BYZANTINE READINGS
OF AQUINAS
3. The First Phase 63
3.1 Demetrios Kydones 63
3.2 Prochoros Kydones 73
3.3 John VI Kantakuzene 84
3.4 Theophanes of Nicaea 89
3.5 Neilos Kabasilas 96
3.6 Nicholas Kabasilas 100
4. Further Readings 108
4.1 Detractors 108
4.2 Devotees 115
x Table of Contents
4.3 Joseph Bryennios and Makarios Makres 120
4.4 Mark of Ephesus 124
4.5 George (Gennadios) Scholarios 127
PART III OTTOMAN ERA AND
MODERN ORTHODOX READINGS
OF AQUINAS
5. Responses to Thomas in the Early Modern Period 137
5.1 The Greek World 139
5.2 The Russian World 169
6. Readings of Aquinas in Modern Orthodox Thought 177
6.1 Imperial Russia 1812-1900 178
6.2 Greek Orthodox Theology 1821-1960 184
6.3 Pavel Florensky and Sergius Bulgakov 188
6.4 The Rise of the Neo-Patristic Paradigm 193
6.5 East and West in Modern Orthodox Thought 204
6.6 Beyond Dichotomy? 214
7. New Perspectives 220
7.1 A Byzantine Thomas 222
7.2 Towards an Orthodox Re-appropriation of Aquinas 224
Bibliography . 229
Main Bibliography 229
Thomas and Thomism: A Select Bibliography 252
General Index 257
Index Locorum 273