Mystagogy and Cyrillian Orthodoxy: Christology as Fidelity to a Carnal Presence

Henry Chadwick’s contention that the “nerve-center” of Cyril’s Christology is the Eucharist reconfigures the urgency of his polemic against Nestorius: it is not a question of abstract doctrine, but of the mystery encountered in the liturgy. This contention has been corroborated by patrologists, but its theological implication has not been fully drawn – viz. that mystagogy is the basis of Cyrillian orthodoxy. When this implication is grasped, it entails that the orthodox doctrine of the “unity of Christ” concerns not merely the unity of the historical Jesus with the Logos, but the unity of the encounter with Christ: “mystical union” is not an addendum to the doctrine of the “hypostatic unity,” it is basic to it.