st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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God
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38 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
down, that even
meditation can only be regarded as
the way to truth, without being ever able to reach it ;
nay, that unconditioned Being, or the Godhead,
cannot be grasped by thinking, or science, but only
by intuition." Hence, when theologians, reared in
such an atmosphere of thought, approached the sub
ject of the Incarnation, it was to be expected that
they would regard it more or less exclusively in
one particular light. And so it came to pass. The
ineffable, incomprehensible, transcendent union of
natures : such was the language in which they pre
ferred to speak of this mystery. The supernatural
side of it,
the absolute oneness of the divine and
human in Christ, was that which had the most
attraction for them. They carried this so far as to
transfer the terms appropriate to the divine essence
to the human nature in Christ, and the converse.
Gradually, such expressions as, "God has suffered
for us/ was crucified for us," and, above all,
Mary, the Theotokos, or Mother of God," became
recognised watchwords of the party. Cyril of Alex
andria, who died in 444, may be taken as a repre
sentative of the cause in its earlier stage. The
decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, summoned by
the Emperor Marcian in 451, served only to exas
perate the Monophysite party, who considered them
too indulgent to Nestorianism ;
and scenes of vio
lence and bloodshed followed, both at Alexandria
and Jerusalem, and in the capital itself. The Ma
hometans, though professedly hostile to Christianity
in any form, were naturally more inclined to be in
dulgent towards a phase
of it which appeared some-