The book provides a detailed and well written presentation of the often confusing events connected with the Council of Ephesus (431AD) and has two chapters analyzing the theology of Cyril and Nestorius. There is also a good selection of hard to find writings by Cyril and his contemporaries (over 150pp). The author works to offset the generally negative modern outlook on Cyril and to make understandable the very high esteem in which this important Church Father and his theology were held by much of the Early Church.

I found McGuckin's book very interesting, readable, and informative.

Cyril of Alexandria is probably one of the most underappreciated saints in the West, and this book goes a long way to show his importance, especially in the area of Christology. McGuckin does a great job in Chapters 2 and 3 explaining both Nestorius' and Cyril's conflicting theologies. He takes the at times subtle and at times downright confusing debates of the early 5th century and explains them in such a way as to be understandable to the modern reader. Note, however, that this is not an intro book to these topics, McGuckin does assume the reader has a basic understanding of the issues involved before he delves more deeply into them.

The reason I am giving this book 4 stars instead of 5, however, is due to Chapter 4, in which McGuckin writes about the ecumenical reception of Cyril's work after his death, especially at Chaldedon. I understand that he is an Orthodox priest, and as such, will have a different perspective of Chalcedon than most in the West. However, I felt this Chapter was simply reactionary: he simply found every opportunity to denigrate Pope Leo's (very important) contribution to Chalcedon, and to act like Leo's Tome was basically inconsequential to the proceedings. While it may be true that Leo's contribution is overstated at times in the West, McGuckin seems to be more interested in attacking the West's perception than he is of simply recounting the actual history in an objective manner.

For a book on such a heavy subject the book is remarkably well written, readable and enjoyable. McGuckin does a very fine job of interweaving history and theology, keeping the political and dogmatic dramas in balanced perspective. I am a novice in this area so I cannot judge whether McGuckin's conclusions are correct, but the work seems to be fair and scholarly. He clearly writes from an Eastern Orthodox and pro-Cyril perspective but presents material that causes difficulties for his views as well. Of particular interest is his finely nuanced discussion of the complicated role of the Pope in this early chuch controversy.