Title: Sophronius of Jerusalem and seventh-century heresy : the synodical letter and other documents /
Authors: Sophronius, approximately 560-approximately 638.; Allen, Pauline, 1948-
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 2009
Subjects: Sophronius, Teachings.; Christian heresies History; Monenergism.; Schism Eastern and Western Church Sources.
Abstract: Poet, hagiographer, dogmatician, homilist, and liturgist, Sophronius was a well-traveled monastic with close ties to Rome and an unrivalled knowledge of the workings of the anti-Chalcedonian churches, revealed in his Synodical letter. He despatched this epistle to other church leaders when, at an advanced age, he became patriarch of Jerusalem in AD 634. The letter was read at the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680/1, and provided the only sustained rebuttal of the monoergist doctrine, later used by eastern emperors and church leaders as a political strategy to unite Christians in the early Byzantine empire. Pauline Allen provides the first complete annotated translation of the letter in English along with other translated documents of the time which illustrate the progress of the debate and its political and ecclesiastical repercussions in the first half of the seventh century.
Contents: pt. 1. Sophronius and his Synodical letter. After Chalcedon : an overview -- Sophist, monk, patriarch -- The context of the Synodical letter -- Content and style of the Synodical letter -- Gender and function of Synodical letters -- pt. 2. The text and its transmission : text and translation. Introduction -- Trinitarian profession of faith -- Christological profession of faith -- Profession of faith in creation -- Councils -- Heresiologies -- Conclusion -- pt. 3. A monoenergist dossier : texts and translations. 1. Cyrus, first letter to Sergius -- Sergius, first letter to Cyrus -- Cyrus, Announcement, pact of union, or Nine articles of faith -- Cyrus, second letter to Sergius -- Sergius, second letter to Cyrus -- Sergius, first letter to Honorius -- Honorius, first letter to Sergius -- Honorius, second letter to Sergius -- Ekthesis of the emperor Heraclius.