The Lamb of God by Sergius Bulgakov

Author:Sergius Bulgakov
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2009-06-26T20:34:00+00:00

II. The Union of the Essences (the Communication of the Properties and the Theandric Action)

From the christological dogma of the hypostatic union of the divinehuman life, given the duality of the natures, wills, and energies, a series of questions follows concerning their interrelation. We already touched above upon the question of the progressive development of the God-Man, the question of His growth into a perfect man. If the divine nature in Christ is interpreted kenotically, the full reality of this development and growth must be accepted. Otherwise, the Incarnation loses its authenticity.21

But this particular question contains a more general one: What is the interrelation between the two essences in Christ in their hypostatic union, in the unity of Christ's life? Does the one exist in and for the other, or do they resemble liquids contained in vessels that are not in contact with each other and open only upward, in the direction of the one hypostasis? The possibility of such an answer is excluded by the christological definitions of the Fourth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils: Even though the natures are united without confusion, without loss of their autonomous being, they are also united without separation; as a result, they are in a relation of mutual influence and mutual penetration. This doctrine was generally accepted in the patristic writings as well, which established the "communication of properties" (perichoresis, communicatio idiomatum) of the two natures and the "theandric energy." The results of this doctrine are summed up by John of Damascus.22 Ignoring the insufficiency of his definitions, one can accept his general goal, expressed in the following words: "We do not say that the actions [in Christ] are separate, nor that the essences act independently of one another. Rather [we affirm] that each of them accomplishes what is proper to it with the participation of the other one, together with the other one. ForJesus Christ did not accomplish what is proper to man in the way that man usually accomplishes it, since He was not just man. Likewise, He accomplished what is proper to God not in the same way as God, since He was not just God, but God and man together" (book 3, ch. z9, c. io8o). In what precisely is this "togetherness" expressed, the "togetherness" of the essences and their mutual "participation" in each other's life, that is, the participation of the divine essence in the human essence and the participation of the human essence in the divine essence? Where can the possibility of such participation, its form and measure, be seen? Such is the immensely difficult question that follows directly from the Chalcedonian definition and that has not been answered by patristics; the failure to answer it has given rise to all the deviations in the direction of monophysitism.23

The general principle of the interrelation of the two natures in the one life of Christ, according to the Chalcedonian definition concerning their inseparability and inconfusability, is as follows. It is not the case that the divine nature was always

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