Alberto Nigra: John of Scythopolis as a Precursor of John Damascene in the Theological Development towards Trinitarian Perichoresis: A Hypothesis

John of Scythopolis, the first scholiast of the Corpus Dionysiacum, played a role in the Christological debates that took place after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and contributes in an original way to the development of Christological dogma in preparation for the Council of Constantinople II in 553. Yet, John was not only a Neo-Chalcedonian theologian, but in his Scholiato the Areopagite he also deals with Trinitarian theology. Among his original contributions in commenting on this aspect in Pseudo-Dionysius’s thought, the Scythopolitan interpretsthe“mutual interpenetration” of Trinitarian hypostases – expressed bysuch formulations asἐνἀλλήλαις/ἐνἀλλήλοις(DNII, 4; MTIII) –,by introducing the verbχωρέωand the substantiveχώρησις. Moreover, John connects this “mutual interpenetration”, which in the Areopagite is fundamentally “static”, with a certain idea of “movement” (δοκεῖκινεῖσθαι) of the divine nature. In this way, while he uses neither the compound nounπεριχώρησιςnor the corresponding verbπεριχωρέω, and although he does not connect Trinitarian meaning of perichoresis with its Christological use, the Scythopolitan may be considered part of the history of the development of this theological doctrine, which has its roots in the Cappadocians’ Trinitarian thought and its classical demonstration in John Damascene’s writings.