LEONTIUS OF BYZANTIUM

LEONTIUS OF BYZANTIUM, theologian (?-ca. 543). Leontius was a court theologian during the reign of Justinian (q.v.). Possibly a disguised adherent of Origen-or more accurately of Evagrius of Pontus-he was a key contributor to the terminology that allowed the Emperor to attempt his clarification of Chalcedon at the Fifth Ecumenical Council (qq.v.) in 553. The essential terminological innovation Leontius had a hand in fashioning was the term enhypostasis (literally, “en-personed”). Behind this word lay considerable thought on the meaning of “person.” Leontius assisted in distinguishing more clearly between two words, “nature” and “person” (physis and hypostasis), which had lain at the root of the furor over Chalcedon. As a result of his and others’ work, the Fifth Council could speak more clearly than the Fourth about the unity of Christ’s person, specifically that the subject of all attributions concerning Christ is the Second Person of the Trinity (q.v.). The Word of God’s humanity is “enhypostatized” in Him. Leontius’s and offical Orthodoxy’s Christology (q.v.) is therefore “asymmetric.” The Lord’s hypostasis is one, the hypostasis of the Word, while his natures are double, human and divine.