This book tells a theological story about the development of the Christian understanding of God from the second to the eighth century as witnessed by major theologians of the Christian tradition. Philosophers held that God could not change or suffer. Christian apologists in the second and third century defended belief in the Incarnation against philosophers with whom they shared a similar view of the divine being. Because of the astonishing insight of Athanasius in the fourth century, a shift occurred: unless Christ is divine we cannot be saved! The council of Nicea dogmatized this view. Another great Alexandrian, Cyril, argued that the Word made flesh truly experienced all things human, including suffering on the Cross. Because of the early influence of Platonism in Christian theology, these insights created a theological dilemma for the Fathers captured in various Christological heresies. Since the divine by nature cannot suffer, how are we to conceive of the Incarnation? Can the Son of God truly suffer? Can a suffering Logos be fully divine? In the West Tertulllian, then Augustine later raised similar questions. For Augustine, Christians believe in a deus humilis, a humble God unknown to philosophers. The story is finally brought to a resounding conclusion in the work of Maximus the Confessor who is the last and greatest patristic Christological writer. By carefully constructing an apophatic theology of Christ Maximus refutes the final Christological heresies and resolves the dilemma of divine suffering.

Joseph M. Hallman is Emeritus Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. He holds degrees from Marquette and Fordham Universities, and has written extensively on the Christology of the Fathers, especially on the question of divine suffering.