Marcellus of Ancyra (ca. 285-374) was a controversial  figure in the Trinitarian debate after Nicaea. He has often been  written off as the odd heretic who misunderstood the teaching of the  Council of Nicaea and taught that the Godhead temporarily expanded  into a Dyad, and then into a Triad, but would, at the end of time,  contract once again to a Monad. In other words, he supposedly taught  that the Trinity was a temporary phenomenon. But, according to the  author of this volume, Marcellus was not primarily concerned with  speculation on the Trinity; rather his concern was with monotheism,  and with the full humanity of Christ.    Here, Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J., studies the so-called Arian  controversy of the fourth century from one well-defined angle:  Marcellus and his influence. The book shows that Marcellus, far from  being isolated, was part of a larger theological tendency. Among those  who sympathized with him were Athanasius of Alexandria, much of the  western church, and bishops in Asia Minor and Egypt.    Lienhard begins by studying Marcellus's life and the history of modern  scholarship on Marcellus. He then examines the Arian controversy in  terms of two theological systems in conflict, called "miahypostatic  theology" and "dyohypostatic theology," depending on whether a system  held that God is best called one hypostasis or two. Lienhard provides  a complete analysis of Marcellus's theology, using only the certainly  authentic works of his that survive, and traces the reactions to his  teaching-from those who remained sympathetic to him, to those who  rejected his theology outright, and finally to those who partially  accepted his theses.    This book is part of a larger project among scholars to reexamine and  rewrite the history of the Arian controversy in the fourth century.

Contra Marcellum: Marcellus of Ancyra and Fourth-Century Theology PDF

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