Humanity as a tool of the Word: The beginning of monothelite disputes and Aristotle’s interpretation in the 6th century

Abstract

The article examines the Christology of Theodore of Tharan, one of the first Monothelite theologians, in the context of philosophical teachings relevant to this time. An analysis of the surviving fragments from Theodore’s epistles shows that his writings contain four concepts that mark him as a follower of the peripatetic philosophical tradition: the source of movement for the soul-body composite is that which is beyond it; the soul is one in the sense that the vegetable, animal and rational souls constitute a single essence and their action is one; the soul is the instrument of the Word, and the body is the instrument of the soul; it is impossible for a mover to move when the mover (the source of its movement) is stationary. It is assumed that Theodore of Tharan hardly borrowed these concepts directly from Aristotle, dealing with either peripatetic or neoplatonic interpretations of the Stagirite. It is concluded that Theodore of Tharan sympathized with a point of view close to authentic Aristotelianism in the interpretation of Alexander of Aphrodisias — this is indicated by the closeness of his views to the latter’s teaching about the active mind, about the unity of the soul, about the relationship of the movable and the moving. However, the instrumentalism of Theodore of Tharan, referring rather to the Neoplatonic interpretation of Aristotle, indicates that there is no complete identity with the views of Alexander of Aphrodisias in his texts.