Chapter XIX.—Concerning the theandric energy.

When the blessed Dionysius792    Dionys., Epist. 4, ad Caium. says that Christ exhibited to us some sort of novel theandric energy793    See Severus, Ep. 3, ad Joann. Hegum.; Anastas., Sinait. Hodegus, p. 240., he does not do away with the natural energies by saying that one energy resulted from the union of the divine with the human energy: for in the same way we could speak of one new nature resulting from the union of the divine with the human nature. For, according to the holy Fathers, things that have one energy have also one essence. But he wished to indicate the novel and ineffable manner in which the natural energies of Christ manifest themselves, a manner befitting the ineffable manner in which the natures of Christ mutually permeate one another, and further how strange and wonderful and, in the nature of things, unknown was His life as man794    Max., Dial. cum Pyrrh., and lastly the manner of the mutual interchange arising from the ineffable union. For we hold that the energies are not divided and that the natures do not energise separately, but that each conjointly in complete community with the other energises with its own proper energy795    Leo, Epist. 1 ad Flav.. For the human part did not energise merely in a human manner, for He was not mere man; nor did the divine part energise only after the manner of God, for He was not simply God, but He was at once God and man. For just as in the case of natures we recognise both their union and their natural difference, so is it also with the natural wills and energies.

Note, therefore, that in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, we speak sometimes of His two natures and sometimes of His one person: and the one or the other is referred to one conception. For the two natures are one Christ, and the one Christ is two natures. Wherefore it is all the same whether we say “Christ energises according to either of His natures,” or “either nature energises in Christ in communion with the other.” The divine nature, then, has communion with the flesh in its energising, because it is by the good pleasure of the divine will that the flesh is permitted to suffer and do the things proper to itself, and because the energy of the flesh is altogether saving, and this is an attribute not of human but of divine energy. On the other hand the flesh has communion with the divinity of the Word in its energising, because the divine energies are performed, so to speak, through the organ of the body, and because He Who energises at once as God and man is one and the same.

Further observe796    Perhaps from Joann. Scythop., bk. viii.; cf. Niceph., C.P. Antirrh., III. 59. that His holy mind also performs its natural energies, thinking and knowing that it is God’s mind and that it is worshipped by all creation, and remembering the times He spent on earth and all He suffered, but it has communion with the divinity of the Word in its energising and orders and governs the universe, thinking and knowing and ordering not as the mere mind of man, but as united in subsistence with God and acting as the mind of God.

This, then, the theandric energy makes plain that when God became man, that is when He became incarnate, both His human energy was divine, that is deified, and not without part in His divine energy, and His divine energy was not without part in His human energy, but either was observed in conjunction with the other. Now this manner of speaking is called a periphrasis, viz., when one embraces two things in one statement797    Max., Dogm. ad Marin., p. 43.. For just as in the case of the flaming sword we speak of the cut burn as one, and the burnt cut as one, but still hold that the cut and the burn have different energies and different natures, the burn having the nature of fire and the cut the nature of steel, in the same way also when we speak of one theandric energy of Christ, we understand two distinct energies of His two natures, a divine energy belonging to His divinity, and a human energy belonging to His humanity.

Περὶ τῆς θεανδρικῆς ἐνεργείας

Ὁ μακάριος Διονύσιος «καινήν τινα θεανδρικὴν ἐνέργειαν» φήσας τὸν Χριστὸν «ἡμῖν πεπολιτευμένον», οὐκ ἀναιρῶν τὰς φυσικὰς ἐνεργείας μίαν ἐνέργειαν ἔκ τε τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης καὶ τῆς θείας γεγενημένην φησίν_ οὕτω γὰρ ἂν καὶ μίαν φύσιν εἴποιμεν καινήν, ἐκ θείας τε καὶ ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως γεγενημένην: «ὧν γὰρ ἡ ἐνέργεια μία, τούτων καὶ ἡ οὐσία μία» κατὰ τοὺς ἁγίους πατέρας_, ἀλλὰ θέλων δεῖξαι τὸν καινὸν καὶ ἀπόρρητον τρόπον τῆς τῶν φυσικῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐνεργειῶν ἐκφάνσεως τῷ ἀπορρήτῳ τρόπῳ τῆς εἰς ἄλληλα τῶν Χριστοῦ φύσεων περιχωρήσεως προσφόρως καὶ τὴν κατὰ ἄνθρωπον αὐτοῦ πολιτείαν ξένην καὶ παράδοξον καὶ τῇ φύσει τῶν ὄντων ἄγνωστον καὶ τὸν τρόπον τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἀπόρρητον ἕνωσιν ἀντιδόσεως: οὐ διῃρημένας γάρ φαμεν τὰς ἐνεργείας οὐδὲ διῃρημένως ἐνεργούσας τὰς φύσεις, ἀλλ' ἡνωμένας, ἑκάστην μετὰ τῆς θατέρου κοινωνίας ἐνεργοῦσαν τοῦθ', ὅπερ ἴδιον ἔσχηκεν. Οὔτε γὰρ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα ἀνθρωπίνως ἐνήργησεν (οὐ γὰρ ψιλὸς ἦν ἄνθρωπος) οὐδὲ τὰ θεῖα κατὰ θεὸν μόνον (οὐ γὰρ ἦν γυμνὸς θεός), ἀλλὰ θεὸς ὁμοῦ ὑπάρχων καὶ ἄνθρωπος. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τῶν φύσεων τὴν ἕνωσιν καὶ τὴν φυσικὴν διαφορὰν ἐπιστάμεθα, οὕτω καὶ τῶν φυσικῶν θελημάτων τε καὶ ἐνεργειῶν.

Ἰστέον τοιγαροῦν, ὡς ἐπὶ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ποτὲ μὲν ὡς ἐπὶ δύο φύσεων τὸν λόγον ποιούμεθα, ποτὲ δὲ ὡς ἐφ' ἑνὸς προσώπου, καὶ τοῦτο δὲ κἀκεῖνο εἰς μίαν ἀναφέρεται ἔννοιαν: αἱ γὰρ δύο φύσεις εἷς ἐστι Χριστός, καὶ ὁ εἷς Χριστὸς δύο φύσεις ἐστί. Ταὐτὸν οὖν ἐστιν εἰπεῖν: Ἐνεργεῖ ὁ Χριστὸς καθ' ἑκατέραν τῶν αὐτοῦ δύο φύσεων, καὶ «ἐνεργεῖ ἑκατέρα φύσις ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ μετὰ τῆς θατέρου κοινωνίας». Κοινωνεῖ τοίνυν ἡ μὲν θεία φύσις τῇ σαρκὶ ἐνεργούσῃ διὰ τὸ εὐδοκίᾳ τῆς θείας θελήσεως παραχωρεῖσθαι πάσχειν καὶ πράττειν τὰ ἴδια καὶ διὰ τὸ τὴν ἐνέργειαν τῆς σαρκὸς πάντως εἶναι σωτήριον, ὅπερ οὐ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ἐνεργείας ἐστίν, ἀλλὰ τῆς θείας. Ἡ δὲ σὰρξ τῇ θεότητι τοῦ λόγου ἐνεργούσῃ διά τε τὸ ὡς δι' ὀργάνου τοῦ σώματος τὰς θείας ἐκτελεῖσθαι ἐνεργείας καὶ διὰ τὸ ἕνα εἶναι τὸν ἐνεργοῦντα θεϊκῶς τε ἅμα καὶ ἀνθρωπίνως.

Εἰδέναι γὰρ χρή, ὡς ὁ ἅγιος αὐτοῦ νοῦς καὶ τὰς φυσικὰς αὐτοῦ ἐνεργεῖ ἐνεργείας, νοῶν καὶ γινώσκων, ὅτι ἐστὶ θεοῦ νοῦς καὶ ὅτι ὑπὸ πάσης προσκυνεῖται τῆς κτίσεως, καὶ μεμνημένος τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς αὐτοῦ διατριβῶν τε καὶ παθῶν, κοινωνεῖ δὲ ἐνεργούσῃ τῇ τοῦ λόγου θεότητι καὶ διεπούσῃ καὶ κυβερνώσῃ τὸ πᾶν, νοῶν καὶ γινώσκων καὶ διέπων οὐχ ὡς ψιλὸς ἀνθρώπου νοῦς, ἀλλ' ὡς θεῷ καθ' ὑπόστασιν ἡνωμένος καὶ θεοῦ νοῦς χρηματίσας.

Τοῦτο οὖν δηλοῖ ἡ θεανδρικὴ ἐνέργεια, ὅτι ἀνδρωθέντος θεοῦ ἤγουν ἐνανθρωπήσαντος καὶ ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη αὐτοῦ ἐνέργεια θεία ἦν ἤγουν τεθεωμένη καὶ οὐκ ἄμοιρος τῆς θείας αὐτοῦ ἐνεργείας καὶ ἡ θεία αὐτοῦ ἐνέργεια οὐκ ἄμοιρος τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης αὐτοῦ ἐνεργείας, ἀλλ' ἑκατέρα σὺν τῇ ἑτέρᾳ θεωρουμένη. Λέγεται δὲ ὁ τρόπος οὗτος περίφρασις, ὅταν τις δύο τινὰ διὰ μιᾶς περιλάβῃ λέξεως. Ὥσπερ γὰρ μίαν τὴν τετμημένην καῦσιν λέγομεν καὶ τὴν κεκαυμένην τομὴν τῆς πεπυρακτωμένης μαχαίρας, ἄλλην δὲ ἐνέργειάν φαμεν τὴν τομὴν καὶ ἄλλην τὴν καῦσιν καὶ ἄλλης καὶ ἄλλης φύσεως, τοῦ μὲν πυρὸς τὴν καῦσιν, τοῦ δὲ σιδήρου τὴν τομήν, οὕτω μίαν τοῦ Χριστοῦ θεανδρικὴν ἐνέργειαν λέγοντες δύο τὰς ἐνεργείας νοοῦμεν τῶν δύο φύσεων αὐτοῦ, τῆς μὲν θεότητος αὐτοῦ τὴν θείαν καὶ τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἐνέργειαν.