Grace and Christology in the Early Church [Paperback]

How did the early Church understand the relation between grace, salvation, and the person of Christ? Donald Fairbairn's persuasive study shows that, despite intense theological controversy, there was in fact a very strong consensus in the fifth century about what salvation was and who Christ needed to be in order to save people. This consensus can serve as a standard by which to judge the varied pictures of Christ which coexist in the contemporary Church.

1. Grace and the central issue of the christological controversy
2. Christ as the uniquely graced man in Theodore and Nestorius
3. Grace as the sharing of divine communion in Cyril's early writings
4. God's own Son as the source of grace in Cyril's later writings
5. Grace as deepening communion with God in Cassian's monastic writings
6. Grace and the Saviour's personal subject in Cassian'sDe incarnatione Domini
7. Grace and the Logos' double birth in the early Church

An interesting and provocative work of scholarship...Fairbairn has done an excellent job expanding on the considerable body of scholarship arguing for a new narrative describing the ancient christological controversy. --Journal of Religion

Donald Fairbairn is Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Missions at Erskine Theological Seminary, South Carolina