The monastic Christology of Shenoute of Atripe

: scripture, tradition, and the person of Christ

Abstract

The Christology of Shenoute of Atripe has not been studied extensively. The few claims that have been made regarding Shenoute’s thought on the person of Christ aim to situate his Christology firmly within the Egyptian anti-Chalcedonian movement. Besides positioning Shenoute in the Egyptian anti-Chalcedonian movements, some academics have contended that Shenoute is strongly influenced by the Christology of Cyril of Alexandria (e.g., Stephen J. Davis) and Dioscorus of Alexandria (e.g., Aloys Grillmeier). This thesis evaluates Shenoute’s thought—and provides a closereading of the evidence—detached from this strong a-priori Cyrillian framing. Based on this evaluation, I contend that we have to conclude that neither of these theses hold. Shenoute has a high regard for the unity of Scripture and tradition; both cohere and affirm each other’s authority. This unity of the authoritative bodies of literature lays the groundwork for Shenoute’s general approach to Scripture and his method of explaining the Biblical text. Similarly, in Shenoute’s Christology, we do not find a particularly strong influence of one patriarch (i.e. Cyril). Rather, Shenoute’s Christology reflects an awareness of the broad Alexandrian tradition from Athanasius, through Theophilus of Alexandria to Cyril. Finally, Shenoute is not concerned with Christology as an academic exercise. His Christological thought is very much informed by and framed by his motivation to protect and preserve the history and praxis of his monastery: prayer and the Eucharist.

Date of Award	21 Jun 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	Mark Elliott (Supervisor)