st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
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1<br />
The<br />
THE GREEK CHURCH IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 39<br />
what more akin to their own central doctrine <strong>of</strong> the<br />
unity <strong>of</strong> the Godhead and thus an additional<br />
;<br />
party,<br />
and a mo<strong>st</strong> important one, was brought into the<br />
<strong>st</strong>rife.<br />
The monothelete 1<br />
controversy, or that which turned<br />
upon a single will in Chri<strong>st</strong>, was an afterswell <strong>of</strong> this<br />
<strong>st</strong>orm. It arose from the endeavours to carry out<br />
the monophysite principles to their logical conclusion.<br />
If in man, it was argued, who has a single human<br />
nature, though consi<strong>st</strong>ing <strong>of</strong> soul and body, there is<br />
but one will, which we may call the human will, and<br />
one energy, or active exercise <strong>of</strong> that will, so in Chri<strong>st</strong>,<br />
who had a single nature, though both God and man,<br />
there mu<strong>st</strong> needs be in like manner but one will and<br />
one energy or operation. The unrivalled flexibility<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Greek language, and the ready way in which<br />
it lends itself to the formation <strong>of</strong> compound words,<br />
while it undoubtedly renders discussion easier, may<br />
have to answer for some <strong>of</strong> the confusion <strong>of</strong> thought<br />
in which the combatants were <strong>of</strong>ten involved. When<br />
it was found that Dionysius the Areopagite had used<br />
the term theandric, to express the working <strong>of</strong> Chri<strong>st</strong>,<br />
so convenient a word was gladly borrowed ;<br />
and it<br />
was doubtless felt to be an easier task to maintain<br />
the unity <strong>of</strong> Chri<strong>st</strong> s will, or operation, when a term<br />
which looked single, though really double, had been<br />
met with to denote it.<br />
The subject began to be actively debated about<br />
term monothelete is said to be fir<strong>st</strong> met with in the<br />
writings <strong>of</strong> St. John <strong>of</strong> Damascus. Of course the subject,<br />
conveniently summed up in that word, had been debated<br />
earlier.