The Golden Age II: Antioch, Alexandria, and the West

The second movement of the golden age: John Chrysostom and the Antiochene exegetes (with Theodore of Mopsuestia as the school’s problem case), Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological collision of the two schools — and the Latin Fathers of the same era: Ambrose, Jerome with his temper treated honestly, Hilary “the Athanasius of the West,” and the Augustine question, summarized both-sides as an intra-Orthodox discussion.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Overview

While the Cappadocians settled the Trinity, two exegetical-theological cultures matured that would collide over Christ: Antioch, attentive to the literal-historical sense of Scripture and the completeness of Christ’s humanity; Alexandria, attentive to the unity of his person and the divine subject of all his acts. The first file follows that axis — Chrysostom, the Antiochene school’s saint; Theodore of Mopsuestia, its condemned doctor; Cyril, Alexandria’s champion at Ephesus. The second file crosses to the Latin West of the same decades — Ambrose, Jerome, Hilary — and gives the contested Eastern reception of Augustine in a deliberately balanced summary. All figures with collections are deferred; Jerome and Theodore, who have none, receive their fullest treatment in this repository here.

Files in This Section

File Description
chrysostom-cyril-and-the-antiochenes.md The two exegetical schools; Chrysostom — preacher, liturgy, exile; Diodore, Theodore of Mopsuestia (the problem case condemned in 553), Theodoret; Cyril of Alexandria, Ephesus 431, and the mia physis formula’s Apollinarian pedigree
the-latin-fathers-and-the-augustine-question.md Hilary of Poitiers; Ambrose of Milan; Jerome — the Vulgate, the quarrels, the temper, and why the East venerates him anyway; the Augustine question: his Eastern reception summarized with both intra-Orthodox positions named

See Also