Mystagogy, a bishop's instruction to the newly baptized on the meaning of the Sacraments, emerged as a form of fourth century Christian catechesis which involved the experience of the liturgy, the explanation of the mysteries through typological interpretation, and it included the tacit conveyance of an “articulated worldview.” This worldview was that of the Platonist-Christian synthesis. This patristic worldview hinged upon a foundational assumption of the sacramental participation of the created world in the eternal; it hinged upon a sacramental ontology. This thesis seeks to highlight the ways in which this sacramental ontology is expressed and imparted to the catechumens throughout Theodore of Mopsuestia’s mystagogical teachings. This investigation will explore examples from within Theodore’s general Christology and from his mystagogy which reveal the dynamic presence of this ontology, and also the unique emphases towards which Theodore, as a fourth century Antiochene thinker, is inclined.
