Homilies and Hymns, Volume 2

who is in a position to describe the prodigies worked in him! When other bishops came near him, they considered themselves as mere pupils; and philosophers, subtle in reasoning, were before him as students. Every knotty and difficult problem stopped with him, and he explained it before inquirers and made it as clear as the light of the sun.''

Mingana commenting on Theodore says: . . . "This is not the place to write the history of Theodore, nor to give a full list of his works, some of which have partially survived in their Greek original or East Syrian translation. He seems to have been the most profound thinker and independent inquirer of the Fathers of the Church in the golden age of Christianity: the fourth and fifth centuries.''

Thus, Mingana himself repudiates the statements made in his said introduction, namely, that the so-called "Nestorian theology'' was introduced into the Church of the East, which he refers to as the "Eastern Church,'' by the adherents of Patriarch Nestorius, or that the Ephesian-Chalcedonian formula under the pseudo-title "Catholicism'' used by the author, was the established theological faith of the Church of the East, before or immediately after these councils or indeed of the West.

To the contrary, he acknowledges that both Diodore and Theodore were universally recognized as the great Orthodox Fathers of the Church. In confirmation of this he quotes two distinguished Greek historians, and the fact that Cyril of Alexandria and his associates dared not condemn St. Theodore because even the Churches in Syria, though then under Byzantine rule and domination, continued to profess his teaching and revere his memory.

Mingana has therefore himself repudiated his former allegations and thus no further comment is necessary.

FAITH AND DOCTRINE

Any doctrine therefore which is contrary to the Scriptures is considered erroneous and heretical.

This doctrine has been briefly but fully summed up in the following hymn of praise composed by Mar Bawai the Great in the sixth century A.D.:

"One is Christ the Son of God, worshipped by all in two natures; In His Godhead begotten of the Father without beginning before all time; in His humanity born of Mary; in the fulness of time, in a body united; neither His Godhead is of the nature of the mother, nor His humanity of the nature of the Father; the natures are preserved in their Qnumas essential hypostases/individual identities in one person of one Sonship. And as the Godhead is three substances in one nature, likewise the Sonship of the Son is in two natures, one person, so the Holy Church has taught.''