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Pope · Patristic

Pope St. Leo the Great

c. 400–461 · Roman theology of the papacy and the Incarnation

Doctor of the Church Latin

Doctor of the Church (declared 1754); pope 440–461.

Pope who turned Attila back from Rome, held the city together through the Vandal sack, and in his Tome to Flavian set out the doctrine of two complete natures in the one person of Christ, which the Council of Chalcedon (451) acclaimed: “Peter has spoken through Leo.” His sermons on the feasts and his letters assert with full clarity that Peter lives and judges in his successors.

Why he matters: He is the classic witness to the Petrine primacy as the Church understood it in the fifth century, and his Christological formula remains the Church's own; the Roman liturgy preserves prayers he composed.

Reading

  • The Tome of Leo (Letter 28, to Flavian)
    Pope St. Leo the Great · Chalcedon's Christology in a few pages.
    Journal
  • Sermons (on the Nativity and on St. Peter)
    Pope St. Leo the Great · “Christian, recognize your dignity.”
    Journal
  • Leo the Great
    Bronwen Neil · Introduction and selected texts.
    Journal

Documented positions

Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.

Settled teaching Its center Open question Beyond teaching, not condemned Condemned error
I

God and Being · What is, and whence it is.

How is God related to the world? Creation from nothing
Pantheism or emanation Creation from nothing
Is the world governed by purpose? Providence and final causes
Chance and mechanism Providence and final causes
II

Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.

Faith and reason: who has the last word? Fideism
Rationalism Fideism
Is truth objective? Objective truth
Relativism and pragmatism Objective truth
Who interprets revelation? Living Tradition and Magisterium
Private judgment Living Tradition and Magisterium
How should Scripture be read? Fundamentalist literalism
Critical reductionism Fundamentalist literalism
What is theology for? Between
A science ordered to knowing A wisdom ordered to loving
Does doctrine develop? Between
Always the same, in the same words A living development
Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift? A gift to be baptized
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem A gift to be baptized
III

The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.

Is there a spiritual soul? Immortal spiritual soul
Mind is brain Immortal spiritual soul
Is the body really you? Body–soul unity
Dualism Body–soul unity
Are you free? Free will
Determinism Free will
How fallen is human nature? Between
Totally depraved Basically good
The body and its desires Between
Contempt for the flesh Desire as its own law
Marriage, sex and the body's meaning Given by nature and grace
Given by nature and grace Defined by consent and identity
What is suffering for? A share in the Cross
An evil to be relieved A share in the Cross
IV

The Moral Life · Law, virtue, conscience and the good.

Is morality objective and knowable? Natural law
Relativism Natural law
Why is the good good? Eternal law (intellectualism)
Divine command (voluntarism) Eternal law (intellectualism)
Are some acts always wrong? Intrinsically evil acts
Consequentialism Intrinsically evil acts
Rules or character? Morality of virtue and beatitude
Morality of obligation Morality of virtue and beatitude
In doubtful cases Between
Rigorism Laxism
What is happiness? Beatitude in God
Earthly flourishing Beatitude in God
V

Grace and Salvation · How God saves, and whom.

How does grace move the will? Thomist (Bañezian)
Thomist (Bañezian) Molinist
How are we made right with God? Infused, transforming grace
Forensic imputation Infused, transforming grace
Who can be saved? Strict exclusivism
Strict exclusivism Indifferentism
What is salvation for? Deification
Pardon and escape Deification
Hell and hope The many are lost
The many are lost All will be saved
Would the Word have become flesh had Adam not sinned? Christ came to redeem sinners
Christ came to redeem sinners Christ was willed first (absolute primacy)
Where does your eye rest in Christ: His divinity or His humanity? Between
The eternal Word made flesh The man Jesus of Nazareth
VI

Church and Society · Authority, the state, wealth and the nation.

Church and state Social kingship of Christ
Laicism Social kingship of Christ
Where does authority come from? Authority from God
Social contract Authority from God
Reform or tradition? Guided by tradition
Remake by reason Guided by tradition
The nation and the Church Between
Nation or race first Nation does not matter
May a Christian take up the sword? Between
Never: the way of the Cross is nonviolence Yes: war can be just and sometimes a duty
VII

Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.

Liturgical development Receive and develop organically
Reconstruct and innovate Receive and develop organically
The procession of the Holy Spirit From the Father and the Son (Filioque)
From the Father through the Son From the Father and the Son (Filioque)
The office of Peter Universal and immediate primacy
Conciliarism Universal and immediate primacy
What do the sacraments do? Efficacious ex opere operato
Signs only Efficacious ex opere operato
When the Pope speaks Every word binds
Resist and judge Every word binds
Holy Orders and the Church's constitution A clerical Church
A clerical Church Reformable by the people
Should the faith take the forms of each culture it enters? One form everywhere
One form everywhere The Gospel in each people's own forms
What are the Eastern Catholic Churches? Between
Rites of the one Roman Church Sister Churches with their own rights and theology

A profile of your philosophical and theological leanings, measured against the settled teaching of the Catholic Church, East and West. It is a tool for examination and reading, not an instrument of judgment.

Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.