This morning as I was in my private library (a.k.a. the bathroom) I was reading once again The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire By Gibbon.
I got to the council of Ephesus and now that I am converting to Orthodoxy, I read it in a different light. It seems to me that Gibbon basically drew it as a theological version of the Sharks vs. the Jets (for those who are familiar with West Side Story).
My meaning is that Cyril and Nestorius each brought their gang and that Cyril won out. Almost as if Nestorius' group had been bigger/better that he would have won out.
I'd like thoughts on this. Was Gibbon right in your view or was his view jaded?
PP
Well, from a historian's perspective, Gibbon might have a very good argument. Historians don't assume divine intervention in history -- well, historians at most research universities don't.
But from a divine perspective, things might be a bit more complicated.
