Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия (Dec 2020)
Apostle Paul vs. Aristotle: polemics with the ancient philosophical tradition in ''Viae Dux'' by Anastasius of Sinai
Abstract
This article discusses the views of Anastasius of Sinai concerning the place that Classical Ancient philosophical legacy should occupy in dogmatics and dogmatic polemics with his main Christological work Viae Dux used as a source of the material. The article analyses the introductory section of the treatise where Anastasius of Sinai compares certain points of philosophical knowledge with points of the Christian faith and comes to the conclusion about the irrelevance of terminology and concepts of philosophy to Christology and Triadology. He proposes similar views throughout the treatise and emphasises that all major heretic mistakes are rooted in fondness for pagan philosophy. Particularly negative infl uence on the Christian thought had Aristotle with his doctrine of identity of nature and hypostasis. It is this doctrine, he believes, that underlies Monophysitism. It is shown that Anastasious of Sinai was insuffi ciently familiar with texts of Ancient philosophers. In most cases, when he refers to a certain philosophical statement, his source can be established only approximately. The article suggests that the sources of his views about philosophy were probably Christian adaptations of commentaries on Aristotle of the Neoplatonic school of Alexandria. The article also raises the question of the reasons for such a negative attitude of Anastasius of Sinai to Ancient philosophy; this attitude implies not only cautious interaction with it, which is typical, for example, of Leontius of Byzantium, Theodore of Raithu, Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus, but also a radical critique of philosophical knowledge. Preliminary explanation is that the reason for this is the fact that the Monophysite theological tradition of the 6th — 7th centuries was to a greater extent dependent on Aristotle than Chalcedonian. In any case, the place of Viae Dux by Anastasius of Sinai in the late East-Christian theological tradition is unique. It is characterised by a desire to minimise the infl uence of the Ancient philosophical tradition on Christian theology. He proposes a system of work with theological concepts that would be independent of the “Hellenic” tradition.
Keywords
