Thomas Cattoi: Composite salvation: divine subjectivity and human agency in John Damascene’s De Fide Orthodoxa

The purpose of this paper is to
explore John Damascene’s understanding of Christ’s divine subjectivity in De Fide Orthodoxa, and to argue that
John’s qualified appropriation of earlier notions of composite hypostasis provides
him with an adequate conceptual framework to present Christ’s salvific work as
the joint outcome of divine and human agency.

 This
paper will initially chart the genealogy John’s notion of Christ’s composite
hypostasis, starting from its roots in Leontios’ Contra Nestorianos et Eutychianos, and continuing with Maximos the
Confessor’s reflection on Christ’s divine and human agency. John’s notion of Christ’s
subjectivity preserves Leontios’ dialectic of simplicity and composition, but
in line with Maximos’ Quaestiones ad
Thalassium, the source and ground of Christ’s agency are located in the
Logos’ divine hypostasis, which remains “forever united with Father and the
Spirit” even as it assumes “the characteristics (ἰδιώματα) of human nature” (De Fide Orth., III, 7).

 Subsequently,
the paper will address John’s understanding of the co-operation of divine and
human agency in the work of Christ. While De
Fide Orthodoxa argues that Christ’s divinity and humanity share the same
principle of subjectivity, the fact that the eternal Logos assumes a human mode
(τρόπος) of existence ensures that
our common human nature can fully co-operate in the work of redemption. In this
way, the absence of a distinct center of human subjectivity is what actually guarantees
our humanity’s full involvement in the mystery of salvation.