Page "Cyril of Jerusalem" Paragraph 7

ground of the Eastern Fathers, as in the emphasis he lays on the freedom of the will, the autexousion ( αὐτεξούσιον ), and his imperfect realization of the factor so much more strongly brought out in the West: sin.

To him sin is the consequence of freedom, not a natural condition.

The body is not the cause, but the instrument of sin.

The remedy for it is repentance, on which he insists.

Like many of the Eastern Fathers, he has an essentially moralistic conception of Christianity.

His doctrine of the Resurrection is not quite so realistic as that of other Fathers ; but his conception of the Church is decidedly empirical: the existing catholic Church form is the true one, intended by Christ, the completion of the Church of the Old Testament.

His interpretation of the Eucharist is disputed.

If he sometimes seems to approach the symbolic view, at other times he comes very close to a strong realistic doctrine.

The bread and wine are not mere elements, but the body and blood of Christ.