ii j os ii io$ s s i

the glory (0 4 ! ) which reveals him as judge, not in the humiliation (0 4

! ) of one who is judged.""'
It is clear from this that Augustinian thought had entered the discussion
and led to confusion and tragic misunderstanding. What Prochoros
must have pointed out is that the narrative of the Last Judgement makes
sense only if we imagine all participants, not only the saved, as seeing
their judge. In that sense all will have a vision of God, but of course, not
all will have a beatic vision. Prochoross opponents would not accept
that distinction. For them it was scandalous to speak of vision in such an
ambiguous way. The patriarchs letter of condemnation even omits
Prochoross clarifying distinction, as becomes clear from Prochoross own
words extant in his autograph, which read, in addition to what the
patriarch had paraphrased:
What has to be added, of course, is that, obviously, the wicked will not see the
form ( ! ) of the Son according to which he is equal to the Father.""(
Here Prochoros clearly distinguishes between the judgement in which
Christ is seen in his glory by the wicked as well as by the blessed, and the
beatic vision of the blessed in heaven. But implied in this statement is
another important distinction. What Prochoros is saying here is that even
the blessed in heaven will see God only in their capacity of being his
creatures. They will not participate in his divine nature in the same way
as Christ. The light in which they see God is created. In that respect they
have more in common with the wicked in hell than with God. This is not
just a very Augustinian but a generally orthodox notion, although
Augustine has given the whole idea a new twist through his extended
reections on the fate of the damned, which is not present in the eastern
tradition. It has to be seen in relation to his notion of divine grace and
human freedom, or indeed God and Man as competing forces and entities.
Not unlike Pelagianism, Augustinianism therefore stood for the de-
velopment of ideas such as human emancipation, secularisation, the
solidarity of the human race in the miseries of history and the eschaton,
and the question whether God has not abandoned humanity, or humanity
God. But these were tendencies which only in the later Middle Ages
developed into full-blown concepts. Augustine himself, in spite of the
dierences between eastern and western theology already in his lifetime,
stood for a worldview not unlike that of the Greek Fathers of his time; and
generally the tendency to distinguish sharply between God and creation
is also inherent in the eastern tradition. It was one of the driving forces
behind the Nicene movement and again behind the movement that stood
""' Prochoros Kydones : U
W
bersetzung von acht Briefen (introduction), 1; cf. PG cli. oA1-
B8; Candal, El libro iv de Pro! coro Cydonio, i6, lines 1o16.
""( Prochoros Kydones : U
W
bersetzung von acht Briefen (introduction), 1; cf. Cod. Vat. gr.
6o, fo. i11r, lines 1o.