Meeting points and splitting paths: Macarian incarnational and pneumatological images and their reception in Diadochus of Photike and modern orthodox theology
Abstract
The author of the Macarian Homilies uses an intriguing vocabulary to refer to the Incarnation and the action of the Holy Spirit in human beings. The intimate articulation of divinity and humanity in Christ, as well as the encounter between the human soul (or heart) and divine grace, elicit images of mixing, mingling, and interweaving. On the other hand, the metaphor of the ‘spiritual wings’ or the ‘wings of the Spirit’ suggests an awareness of the duality between the material and the spiritual, standing at the crossroads of pneumatology and anthropology. This paper revisits Macarian vocabulary against the backdrop of Stoic and Platonic philosophy, as well as exploring Egyptian ascetic doctrines. It also analyzes and evaluates the reception of this vocabulary in Diadochus of Photike, a fifth-century Church Father contemporary with the Council of Chalcedon. The aim is to demonstrate how Diadochus distances himself from images of mixing in his account of the Incarnation, introducing important revisions to Christological vocabulary (especially in his ‘Sermon on the Ascension’), while adopting and adapting the metaphor of spiritual flight and expounding on its anthropological consequences (‘One hundred chapters’, Ch. 10, 56, 69). Finally, I investigate the echoes of Macarian vocabulary and Diadochus’ revisions in twentieth-century theological accounts on apophatic anthropology (André Scrima) and the work of grace in the deification (Myrrha Lot-Borodine). These two case studies will highlight new aspects of the modern reception of Macarian literature and the corrective nuances in Diadochus.
Date Issued
2026
Publication Type
Book Section
Subjects
Macarius
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Diadochus
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André Scrima
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Pneumatology
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Christology
•
Myrra Lot-Borodine
Language(s)
en
Book Title
Access(Rights)
restricted