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Claudia Rammelt Ibas von Edessa: Rekonstruktion einer Biographie und dogmatischen Position zwischen den Fronten Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 106 Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008 Pp. x + 344.
Bishop Ibas of Edessa (435-457) probably is best known to modern students of church history as the author of the Letter to Mari. Even after Ibas's death this document constituted a major point of contention in the christological controversies surrounding and following Chalcedon (451). Yet Ibas's impact upon the christological struggles of the fifth and sixth centuries was significantly more prominent than a simple correspondence could tell. Despite the relative lack of primary sources dealing either with his person or his Christology, Claudia Rammelt's revised dissertation explores with some care and in great detail the story of Ibas's life, his standing in the diocese of Edessa, as well as the reception of his person and teachings in the context of fifth- and sixth-century church politics.
Rammelt organizes her discussion into seven main chapters, which in turn are subdivided into numerous sections. An expansive bibliography offers the reader useful orientation. A fuller index would have been welcome. Chapter One briefly acquaints the reader with the primary sources available, the status quaestionis regarding research...