Cyril of Alexandria's Critique of "Jewish" Parental Sin

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Abstract

Original sin was one of the contentious issues that stood at the heart of the Catholic- Pelagian debate in the early 400's. In recent years, patristic scholars have sought to uncover Cyril of Alexandria's (376-444 CE) position on this central Catholic teaching. This essay proposes that scholars have overlooked an important indicator of Cyril's view on this matter, that is, his multi-paged critique of the theological doctrine of parental sin that appears in his Commentary to the Gospel of John (9:1-3). I will argue that just as the debate over parental sin played an explicit and central role in the Augustinian-Pelagian debates on original sin, so too the debate over parental sin could shed some light on Cyril's attitude toward original sin.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)221-241
Number of pages21
JournalMedieval Encounters
Volume28
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Keywords

  • Augustine
  • Bible
  • Cyril
  • original sin
  • parents
  • rabbis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • Language and Linguistics
  • History
  • Religious studies
  • Linguistics and Language

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