God Visible: Patristic Christology Reconsidered

by Brian E Daley

God Visible: Patristic Christology Reconsidered considers the early development and reception of what is today the most widely professed Christian conception of Christ. The development of this doctrine admits of wide variations in expression, understanding, and interpretation that are as striking in authors of the first millennium as they are among modern writers. The seven early ecumenical councils and their dogmatic formulations were crucial facilitators in defining the shape of this study. Focusing primarily on the declaration of the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, Brian E. Daley argues that previous assessments that Christ was one Person in two natures - the Divine of the same substance as the Father and the human of the same substance as us - can sometimes be excessively narrow, even distorting our understanding of Christ's person. Daley urges us to look beyond the Chalcedonian formula alone, and to consider what some major Church Fathers - from Irenaeus to John Damascene - say about the person of Christ.

Genres: Theology, Religion

320 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Ethan Zimmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to patristic christology by one of the best in the field. Clear, engaging, well-argued, and insightful. While theological debates may seem obscure and irrelevant to some, I think Daley shows through his engagement with many different early church figures that what we have to say about Christ is absolutely related to what we have to say about everything else. Good for scholars and non-scholars alike.

[Toby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this really is a find: a scholarly, yet readable book on patristic theology: a paradox almost as indescribable as the Word-Flesh God-Man that is the subject of the study. For those of us who struggled through chapters of J.N.D. Kelly's monumentally dry, yet exhaustive, study of the first 500 years of Christian theology, God Visible - albeit dealing with only one aspect of the field - is a welcome relief.

The first chapter, in which Daley sets out the scope of the study and engages with a few other writers does not seem to bode well, having the characteristics of the internal academic conversation that blight so many such books, but it picks up marvellously from there in. Each chapter outlines the particular Christological approach or controversy that leads up to the Chalcedon formula of 451 and then takes us briefly beyond that to the iconoclasm crisis of the seventh and eighth centuries. The chapters are an appropriate length with helpful subdivisions and the leading thinkers are briefly introduced before their contributions are outlined and assessed. I don't think I've read a clearer chapter on the, still murky, controversies of the Alexandrians and the Antiochians. The chapter on Maximus the Confessor and John of Damascus, frequently forgotten from teaching because post-Chalcedon was also helpful.

Not that anyone can really make Greek theological thought of the early centuries comprehensible to modern minds. What are we to make of Maximus' thought that 'God is one substance, three hypostases: a try-hypostatic singleness of substance and consubstantial triad of hypostases; a monad in a triad and a triad in a monad; a monad by its structure of substance or being, but not by synthesis or conflation or confusion of any kind; a triad by the structure of how it exists and concretely comes to be, but not by separation or alienation or any kind of division..." which makes the Chalcedon definition a contender for the Plain English Award. Nor is John of Damascus' super-substantial substance much better.

Daley helpfully sums up some key questions that the controversies ask of us: (1) how do we speak of God; (2) how do we study Scripture; (3) how does God save us; and (4) what is the relation between God and the created order. The book addresses these questions extremely well.

[James Gillis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few of the most important conclusions at the end of Daley’s impressive account of early patristic christology: 1. Christology is about God—his nearness to man through the incarnation; 2. It is about the world in relationship to God; 3. Metaphysical categories are always used analogously of God and humanity; 4. (!) the incarnation is a mode of the Son of Gods being (Maximus/Sinai/pt.3); 5. Christ himself is the beginning of salvation; and fittingly, 6; Christ the mystery

Turns on 3&4

[Graham Hoppstock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great great work.