ABSTRACT
While Cyril, the formidable bishop of Alexandria from 412–444, is remembered chiefly for his triumphs in dogmatic controversy, his philosophical presuppositions are visible throughout his work against Julian the Apostate and occasionally in his other writings. He shares the Platonic understanding of God as the first principle who is defined most properly by privative terms; his cosmology (with its associated doctrine of providence) blends the Timaeus with Genesis insofar as they are compatible; his notion of human freedom assumes the hegemonic role of intellect and even in his Christology he can utilise both Stoic and Platonic teaching on the impassibility of the higher soul.
