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This very useful monograph has been prompted by the joint statements issued by the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox theologians who have been meeting, at first unofficially and then officially, since the early 1960s. In examining these statements Hans van Loon was struck by their miaphysite presentation of Cyril of Alexandria's Christology, which was at variance with his own reading of Cyril. He therefore set himself the task of investigating the key terms physis, hypostasis, ousia and prosopon in Cyril's writings up to the end of 430, not only as an exercise in historical theology but also with the aim of contributing to current ecumenical dialogue.
He begins with a chapter on Cyril's use of logic which establishes some helpful facts. Since the work of Labelle, Siddals and Boulnois, there has been general agreement that Cyril was familiar with Aristotelian methods of argument. He was certainly more skilful in his handling of logic than de Durand, for example, would allow. He is able to apply Aristotle's teaching on predicables to the doctrine of God, and discusses categories and their characteristics with confidence. But he does make mistakes, believing, for example, that 'like' and 'unlike' are relatives. He appears to be not quite the master of logic that some have claimed. However, as van Loon shows, he did advance in knowledge between the Thesaurus and Contra Julianum.
In the next chapter van Loon rapidly surveys the terms ousia, physis, hypostasis and prosopon. Ousia is equivalent to a reality which...