586

Ibid., IV, 18. 5.

587

Compare A. Benois, Apostolate in the Second Century, Verbum Caro, 58, 1961, pp. 173-84.

588

The problems that gave rise to the use of the term "logos" as "word" in relation to Christ in the early Church show how dangerous it is to use the concept of "word" written or spoken in Christology. As a reaction against Sabellianism and Arianism, the Fathers were forced to completely deny any association of these two senses of the word "logos," and thus determined to replace the concomitant meanings of the spoken or written word exclusively with the meaning of "person." See, for example, Eusebius' "Evan." 5.5 and especially in Athanasius "Against the Arians", 2.35 and in Cyril of Alexandria "On the Right Faith..."6. In the Sirmianskos Creed (351), anathematis is given to those who call the Logos of God "Endiaphetos" or "Profoikos".

589

It is interesting to note how the Christological controversies of the early Church correlated with the Eucharist. See, for example, H. Chadwick, "The Eucharist and Christology in the Nestorian Controversy," Journal of Theological Studies 2, 1951, 143-64.

590

In the Orthodox liturgy, this is indicated by the fact that the readings from the Bible are placed in the doxological context of the "Trisagion", which is sung before them. This is clearly intended to show that the word of God comes to the Church not simply from the past as a book or a fixed canon, but mainly from the eschatological reality of the Kingdom, from the throne of God, which at this moment of the liturgy is occupied by the bishop. That is why such reading is traditionally sung, and not just read didactically. (Today, some Orthodox priests, apparently not realizing this, do not sing the Gospel readings, but read them as prose in order to make them more understandable and thus edifying!).

591

E. Schlink, The Coming Christ and Church Traditions, 1961, has developed a remarkable assessment of the doxological nature of the doctrine. The contrast between the "kerygmatic" and "doxological" kinds of theological statements that is found in this book points precisely to the need for a synthesis of "historical" and "eschatological" approaches to apostolic succession.

592

Jude 3.