Shaping christology in a hermeneutical context: Theodore of Mopsuestia's endeavor in face of contemporaneous challenges

This study shows how Theodore of Mopsuestia's exegetical enterprise, engendered by the impetus to respond to the main theological crises of his late 4^th -century generation, led him to further develop the loose-union christology inherited from his master, Diodore of Tarsus. Moreover, the polemical dynamic of Theodore's thinking resulted in a bold and consistent portrait of Christ's development and a gradual realization of the dignity potential pertaining exclusively to his humanity. This development is characteristically presented in Theodore's Commentary on John, surviving in Syriac, as reflecting a progressive dynamic in the mode of conjunction between humanity and divinity in Christ. It is argued that this idea - seemingly unprecedented and indicative of Theodore's original genius - is elaborated and applied by him in a hermeneutical framework as part of the battle over the 'correct' understanding of the constitutive acts and sayings of Jesus.