Der Ausgang des thearchischen Geistes

Dr. Theodoros Alexopoulos arbeitet derzeit als Stipendiat der Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung an der philosophisch-theologisch kommentierten Übersetzung der »Mystagogie des Heiligen Geistes« des Patriarchen Photius.

This book investigates three important works of the Christian literature from antiquity and the Byzantine Middle Ages: Photius' Mystagogie of the Holy Spirit, Konstantin Melitiniotes' Two Antirrhetici and Augustins' De Trinitate. All three offer a rich repertory to explain the complex Filioque-issue, which is very important for (till today not overcome) the division between the Latin-western and Greek-eastern church and theological tradition. In the first part attempt to state the photian argumentation and to examine its significance both in theological and in philosophical regard in order to gain more clarity about the orthodox objections against the Filioque. The same procedure is chosen in the second part of the work, which researches the two Antirrhetici ("objections") of Konstantin Melitiniotes (against the photian theological position), one of the most eager supporters of the church union between Rome and Byzanz in the Konstantinopel in the three tenth century. His writings have attracted little attention to today, particularly in the west. The third part examines the question whether the Filioque is rooted actually in the Trinitarian theological speculation Augustins and wether it is justified plausibly. On the basis of its Trinitarian central theological work "De Trinitate" all Filioque-proofs are collected and evaluated. In the fourth part the author gives his view on today's discussion on the Filioque-issue and touches on the central topic of the relationship between Theologia (God's being) and Oikonomia (God's self-manifestation in the course of the salvation history). The author focuses on the orthodox position, which does not allow analogical conclusions from the level of Oikonomia into the level of Theology (Innertrinitarian being).