Vladimir Baranov - Amphilochia 231 of Patriarch Photius as a Possible Source on the Christology of the Byzantine Iconoclasts

Due to the objective lack of sources on the theology of the Byzantine Iconoclasts, any new source that we can find becomes very valuable. The paper explores Amphilochia 231 of Patriarch Photius in relation to the Iconoclastic Christology. In this chapter, Patriarch Photius presents two “wrong” Christological positions: in the Incarnation Christ assumed either a general human being or a particular human being. If the second position can be identified with Nestorianism, the first can be identified with the Christology of the Iconoclasts. The passage from the Definition of the Iconoclastic Council of Hiereia states that Christ assimilated from mankind “mere matter of human substance” which is not characterized as a hypostasis of its own. Following the concept of Christ’s general humanity, the Iconoclasts do not use the concept of the enhypostasized human nature of Christ who possesses his own depictable features according to the Iconodules. The corollary of the Iconoclastic Christology is that since Christ assumed general humanity, any portrait of Christ with particular features will be an arbitrary choice of an artist and an ultimate epistemological fault. This connection between Christology and epistemology is confirmed by the fragments of Photius’ contemporary, the Iconoclastic Patriarch John the Grammarian, who considers precisely the two positions presented by Photius from an epistemological viewpoint.