05 — The Later Strata

After the eleventh century the Synodikon ceased to be a document about iconoclasm and became a running conciliar register: the condemnation of John Italos in 1082 added the Church’s judgment on the limits of philosophical rationalism, and the councils of 1156–57 added her judgment on the Eucharistic sacrifice and the glorified humanity of Christ. This section treats both, together with the neighbouring twelfth-century chapters.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Contents

File Description
john-italos-and-the-eleven-chapters.md Italos, Psellos, and the school of philosophy; the trials of 1076/77 and 1082; the eleven chapters set out by content; what was condemned (pre-existence and transmigration, eternal matter and the Ideas, a resurrection in another body, the apokatastasis, the dissolution of miracle) and what was not — the seventh chapter’s precise distinction between studying Greek learning and believing it; the contested justice of the proceedings
soterichos-and-the-councils-of-1156-1157.md The question raised by the anaphora; Soterichos Panteugenos, Michael of Thessalonica, Nikephoros Basilakes, and Nicholas of Methone; the council of Blachernae, 12 May 1157; the settlement — Christ offers, the whole Trinity receives, and the daily sacrifice is the same sacrifice; why this rules out a transactional atonement; and the surrounding chapters against Eustratios and Leo of Chalcedon, on “My Father is greater than I,” against Constantine of Corfu and John Irenikos

What This Section Shows

Two structural facts emerge. The Synodikon becomes, after 1082, an open register — capable of receiving the Church’s judgment on any dogmatic question, not only on the icon. And the questions it receives in this period are exactly the ones that will return, transposed, in the fourteenth century: whether philosophy governs theology, and how the assumed humanity of Christ is related to the Godhead. Section 06 is the answer to both.

See Also