Matters of Concord

Christ’s two operations and two wills…were the main subjects of the Third Council of Constantinople (681), an ecumenical council of the Catholic or Orthodox Church well before the gradual parting of ways between Rome and Constantinople solidified into permanent schism. For ancient and medieval theologians, the significance of great Christological questions revolved around the belief that orthodoxy is larger than mere intellectual assent. Liturgical orthodoxy, doctrinal orthodoxy, and orthopraxis (orthodox living) formed one integrated, unalterable Christian faith. Accordingly, Maximus [the Confessor], Thomas [Aquinas], and their pre-modern co-believers contended that the dogmas of Christ’s operations and wills are matters of eternal life and death. This historical fact, combined with the reality that the same dogmas remain in place for most of the world’s Christians today, should direct modern theological sensibilities toward them not as superfluous but, rather, as part and parcel of all theology of the Incarnation. For the many differences that the Latin and Greek Christian traditions have developed since Maximus’s life, his teachings ought to be embraced as living matters of concord.