2025.01.01 | Dragos Andrei Giulea. Antioch, Nicaea, and the Synthesis of Constantinople: Revisiting Trajectories in the Fourth-Century Christological Debates. Studies in the History of Christian Traditions, 200. Brill, 2024. 309 pp.
Review by Ched Spellman, Cedarville University.
In this monograph, Dragoș Andrei Giulea undertakes an ambitious revisioning of the intellectual landscape of the fourth-century theological debates. Challenging traditional narratives and building on recent scholarship, Giulea maps the complex interplay of ideas that shaped this pivotal era in Christian thought. By positioning the Council of Constantinople (381 CE) as a culmination of earlier theological paradigms—specifically those emerging from Antioch (268 CE) and Nicaea (325 CE), Giulea offers a fresh perspective on the development of Trinitarian and Christological doctrines.
A key strength of Giulea’s work is its methodological precision. Giulea clarifies and shows the value of consistently employing careful definitions of notions like “theological grammar” and intellectual “trajectory.” Traditional analysis focused almost exclusively on theological claims as a way to navigate the teeming labyrinth of third and fourth century debates. Giulea builds on and sharpens recent research that accounts for a broader array of philosophical and social factors. In particular, Giulea focuses on specific technical terms, the patterns of usage among certain groups, and the metaphysical commitments that are embedded in a given pattern of use (i.e., a “grammar”).
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Biblical and Early Christian Studies 