Ryan Strickler: Memory and Authority in the Seventh-Century Christological Controversies

The seventh century is well known for the theological controversies of monenergism and monotheletism. Much work has been done to examine the evidence used by both sides of these controversies, including prooftexts and florilegia, especially as they were employed in the sixth ecumenical council in 680/1. Less work has been done to examine the manipulation of cultural memory, particularly memory of canonical fathers, ecumenical councils, and even contemporary synods and recently deceased clergy and emperors, to promote particular perspectives on the question of the number of energies and wills in Christ. This paper explores the manipulation of memory by proponents and the opposition as found in extant evidence, particularly the letters of the patriarchs Sergius and Pyrrhus of Constantinople, the corpus of Maximus the Confessor, the acts of the Lateran Synod of 649, and the sixth ecumenical council of Constantinople in 680/1.