theologian
Theodoret of Cyrrhus
Antiochene bishop and theologian — author of an Ecclesiastical History from 320 to 428, a great body of pastoral letters, and dyophysite Christological treatises. Rehabilitated at Chalcedon after his earlier writings against Cyril of Alexandria; some of those writings (notably his Refutation of Cyril's Twelve Anathemas) were later condemned in the Three Chapters controversy at Constantinople II (553).
Life
Theodoret was born around 393 in Antioch and was educated in the Syrian monasteries near the city, where he encountered the great ascetics of the Syrian tradition whose lives he would later record. He became bishop of Cyrrhus (Cyrus) in Syria in 423 and governed a large diocese in modest circumstances, building roads and public baths, rebuilding the city's colonnades, and directing a vigorous pastoral ministry alongside a prolific theological output.
His exegetical works — commentaries on the prophets, the Psalms, and above all the letters of Paul — are among the finest products of the Antiochene tradition, characterized by sober attention to the literal and historical sense of the text. His Historia Religiosa (Religious History) is a gallery of Syrian ascetic biography and an incomparable witness to the extraordinary monastic culture of fifth-century Syria, whose figures — including Simeon the Stylite — he knew personally.
His Christology drew him into the Nestorian controversy, and he was condemned and deposed at the "Robber Council" of Ephesus in 449. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 reinstated him after he anathematized Nestorius explicitly. Some of his writings were later condemned in the "Three Chapters" controversy of the sixth century, complicating his memorial in the Eastern tradition. Nevertheless he is widely venerated for his pastoral and exegetical work; his feast falls on April 23 in some Orthodox calendars.
Traditions
Topics
Works in library
Readings and commentaries
Catena
Catena on the Acts of the Apostles
Commentary on Amos 3:6–8
Commentary on Amos 5:18–20
Commentary on Baruch
Commentary on Daniel
Commentary on Ezekiel
Commentary on Habakkuk
Commentary on Haggai
Commentary on Hosea
Commentary on Hosea 11:1–4
Commentary on Hosea 6:6–7
Commentary on Isaiah
Commentary on Joel
Commentary on Joel 1:11–12
Commentary on Jonah
Commentary on Malachi
Commentary on Micah
Commentary on Nahum
Commentary on Obadiah
Commentary on Psalm
Commentary on Psalms
Commentary on the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians
Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians
Commentary on the Psalm
Commentary on the Psalms
Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Commentary on the Song of Songs
Commentary on Zechariah
Commentary on Zephaniah
Compendium of Heretical Myths
Dialogue
Dialogue 2, the Unconfounded
Dialogues
Discourses
Ecclesiastical History
Epistles
Eranistes
In Cyril of Alexandria's Letter to Euoptius, Anathema
Interpretation of Hebrews
Interpretation of the Epistle to the Ephesians
Interpretation of the First Letter to the Thessalonians
Interpretation of the First Letter to Timothy
Interpretation of the Letter to Philemon
Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans
Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans.102
Interpretation of the Letter to Titus
Interpretation of the Second Letter to the Thessalonians
Interpretation of the Second Letter to Timothy
Letters
Lives of Simeon Stylites
On Divine Providence
On JEREMIAH
On Jeremiah 1. Argument
On the Incarnation of the Lord
Question 1, on 2 Chronicles
Question 33, on 2 Kings
Question 34, on 2 Kings
Question 48, on 2 Kings
Questions 7, on 1 Kings
Questions on 1 Chronicles
Questions on Exodus
Questions on First Chronicles
Questions on Genesis
Questions on Numbers
Questions on Ruth
Counter-Statements to Cyril's Twelve Anathemas
Theodoret's pre-Chalcedonian refutation of Cyril of Alexandria's Twelve Anathemas against Nestorius — one of the texts later condemned in the Three Chapters controversy at Constantinople II (553), though Theodoret himself was rehabilitated at Chalcedon.
Demonstrations by Syllogism
Brief logical demonstrations of the Antiochene Christological position — a compact companion to the Eranistes dialogues.
Dialogues (Eranistes)
Three Christological dialogues against Eutychian monophysitism — Theodoret arguing for the integrity of the two natures in Christ on the eve of Chalcedon.
Ecclesiastical History
Five books covering 320 to 428 — a third parallel history alongside Socrates and Sozomen, with distinctive material on the Antiochene tradition and on the controversies leading up to Ephesus (431).
Letters
One hundred and eighty-one letters from Theodoret's correspondence — pastoral notes, theological argument, requests to imperial officials, and the famous letters around the Robber Council of Ephesus and the rehabilitation at Chalcedon.