Online lecture

Norman Russell

FROM CHALCEDON BACK TO NICAEA:

JOHN OF DAMASCUS’ SOLUTION

FOR THE CHRISTOLOGICAL IMPASSE OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY

Wednesday, May 28, 2025, 7 pm Athens time

The last event of the “Time for action” series for 2025 will take place on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at 7 pm Athens time (EEST). Norman Russell, an Honorary Research Fellow of St Stephen's House, University of Oxford, will present the topic “From Chalcedon back to Nicaea: John of Damascus’ solution for the Christological impasse of the eighth century.” The lecture will be in Greek, and it will be moderated by Dimitrios Moschos, Professor in the Faculty of Theology of the University of Athens. The link for attending via the Zoom platform is https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88321271994

John of Damascus’ “Dialectica”, and even his anti-Jacobite polemical texts, are not simply intended to provide Chalcedonians with dialectical arguments with which to demolish their opponents. They contain constructive proposals for overcoming entrenched theological positions by appealing to the Trinitarian theology of Nicaea, an ecumenical council accepted by all sides in the post-Chalcedon debates. The key figure here is Maximus the Confessor, who provides John with a Christological term, “perichoresis”, which John in turn applies to the Trinity. Once perichoresis is accepted as a Trinitarian term faithful to Nicaea, it provides a model by which to understand the interrelationship of the two natures in Christ. For additional support, John also develops the rare terms “enousion” and “enhypostaton”, correlating Nicene Trinitarian theology with Chalcedonian Christology in a new way.

Norman Russell, an Honorary Research Fellow of St Stephen’s House, University of Oxford, is Professor of Patristics and Byzantine Theology of the Istituto Teologico Ortodosso ‘Santa Eufemia di Calcedonia’ of the Orthodox Exarchate of Italy, and Visiting Professor of the Oriental Orthodox “Agora of Alexandria” University of Vermont. He is the translator of John of Damascus’ “On the Orthodox Faith” in the Popular Patristics series of St Vladimir's Seminary Press (2022), which will shortly also be issuing his translations of the “Dialectica” and “On Heresies”.