Divine Self-Invention: Leontius of Jerusalem'S Reinterpretation of the Patristic Model of the Christian God
Queen's University of Belfast
Correspondence: dkrausmuller{at}hotmail.com
This article analyses the Trinitarian theology of the seventh-century theologian Leontius of Jerusalem. Leontius’ overriding concern was to demonstrate that the concept of composition, which seemed to entail change in the component parts, could be applied to the incarnation of the Word. However, in developing his argument he radically reinterpreted traditional Trinitarian theology. He not only reorganized the Trinity according to the christological model so that the relation between Father and Son mirrors the relation between Word and flesh but also turned it from a timeless framework, within which the event of the incarnation takes place, into the result of a previous act of divine self-constitution. Such reasoning became possible because Leontius conceived of God not in terms of being but in terms of action and will: God must act in order to be God in the true sense but at the same time he is not constrained by his own nature and can therefore reinvent himself whenever he wishes. Leontius’ model of God is not a complete innovation: the conceptual framework had existed for a long time. However, only after the radical deconstruction of the Patristic understanding of God with its careful balance between voluntaristic and ontological elements could it become the basis of Christian belief.