The Complementarity of Spiritual Values according to the Chalcedonian Dogma

Starting from the dogmatic formulation of the Synod of Chalcedon, and correlating references to the Holy Fathers (John of Damascus, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory Palamas, Leontius of Byzantium, Irenaeus of Lyon, Theodor of Studion, Athanasius of Alexandria, Cyril of Alexandria, Leo the Great, Cabasilas) with modern theology (Stăniloae, Lossky, Barth, Schmemann, Brunner, H. U. von Balthasar, O. Clément, Nissiotis), this paper highlights the essential complementarity of the Chalcedonian dogma. It analyses the implications of the complementarity of the two natures – divine and human – inconfusedly joined within the unique Hypostasis of the Son of God incarnated. It discusses the relevance of the Chalcedonian definition of man as a “bipolar” person, realised in the communion of the divine with the human (on the verticality and the horizontality of existence), both for theology, and as a basis for ecumenical dialogue. The divine kenosis grounds the bipolarity of the human as a theandric vocation: we are created in the “image of the Image”, in order to achieve the likeness unto Him. Hence the specificity of Orthodox anthropology – which is not merely that of man, but of the Man- God, of God’s humanity.