Van Loon's Living in the Light of Christ discusses Cyril of Alexandria's mystagogy in the Festal Letters. Van Loon's working definition of the term mystagogy follows that of the Center for Patristic Research in the Netherlands. The Center's website says, “Mystagogy is regarded as a guided process of transformation, in which believers acquire an inner balance by a certain order of life, in that they become more receptive of God's being and operation, without losing touch with everyday life and the community of faith” (http://ls0091.uvt.nl/wordpress5/?page_id=15 accessed [7/30/2018]; cf. Loon, 23). As the Center supported van Loon's research (Preface), it is understandable why the author decided to follow this definition in his book.
The book comprises six chapters. Chapter 1, by way of introduction, discusses the Festal Letters (FL), the date of Easter, and the structure and the recurring themes of the FL. Van Loon gives a summary of some of the FL and provides a useful table with the letters’ numbers, their dates, length, and main themes. He begins Chapter 2 with a summary of his own examination of Cyril's definition of mystagogy, previously published in Paul van Geest, Seeing through the Eyes of Faith (Peeters, 2016, 37–53). Cyril's understanding of mystagogy has to do with teaching, education, and guidance, “leading someone else ever more deeply into the mystery of Christ” (24). “The aim of mystagogy is our salvation, our transformation to newness of life, our obedience to Christ. The sacraments have a role to play” but were not singled out by Cyril (25). The Triune God is the mystagogue, but through the Holy Spirit people become mystagogues. “Cyril refers to Moses, Old Testament prophets, the apostles, the Samaritan woman, the Church Fathers, bishops and priests, including himself, as mystagogues” (25). Mystagogy is connected to the mystery of Christ, so he devotes a whole section on the use of mystery in Cyril's FL. Van Loon's presentation suffers somewhat because, as he reminds the reader (23), the rest of the book follows the Center's definition of mystagogy rather than Cyril's.
Cyril considers the mystery of Christ to be at the heart of the Bible, so chapter 3 is devoted to Cyril's Old Testament hermeneutics. The chapter discusses notions of shadow, type, and riddle together with the ethical and cultic value of the law followed by an assessment of Jews and Judaism. For Cyril, Christ does not abolish the law, for it points to the economy of salvation and its fulfilment in him. Therefore, when the law is interpreted spiritually, it can teach us about Christ's mystery, which is the truth. Chapter 4 is devoted to the theme of prayer and fasting. Van Loon poses three questions that he attempts to respond to in this chapter: why should people pray and fast?; what does Cyril say about prayer and fasting?; and what are the methods used to motivate the faithful to pray and fast? Chapter 5 discuses virtue and love. The author argues that if Cyril's mystagogy aims at transformation leading to “a certain order of life,” then Cyril's exhortation to virtue belongs with mystagogy (87). Since classical writings have connected virtue with manliness, van Loon devotes a whole section on manliness and women. The final chapter focuses on the relationship with God. Freedom is necessary so that people can be held accountable for what they do or fail to do (126). A moral and responsible person requires free will for accountability. Free will is impaired but never lost. Through faith, baptism, and Christ's salvific work, Satan has no hold on humankind, and we can be free again.
Van Loon is very organized in his chapter structure. His chapters begin with an introductory paragraph that lists the questions or topics discussed. He systematically discusses each question under its own heading, and most of the time, each section ends with its own conclusion. A final summary reminds the reader of what has been covered throughout the chapter.
Van Loon's method of research is through meticulous word study. He constantly and heavily uses the digital library of Greek literature, the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG). For example, he began his study of mystagogy by consulting TLG (in 2011 and 2015) on the occurrence of the string mustag in the Greek corpus. He reports that 20% of the hits came from authentic works of Cyril of Alexandria (24). He goes on to compare the occurrence of such terms among other Greek writers. He meticulously analyzes each term's occurrence within its textual context. Then he presents to the reader the conclusion of his analysis.
Van Loon's previous book on Cyril, The Dyophysite Christology of Cyril of Alexandria (Brill, 2009), has significantly informed this work. He presented some of the chapters of the present work in various conferences. Chapter 4 was presented at the Center of Patristic Research in August 2014 and chapter 5 at the International Conference on Patristic Studies in Oxford in August 2015. As was noted, his study on Cyril's mystagogy in chapter 2 was published in van Geest, Seeing through the Eyes of Faith. The book reads like a collection of essays by one author discussing various aspects of the theme of mystagogy. Overall, his book is well organized and his research approach is methodical and clear. He made excellent use of TLG resources. He includes themes of interest to Cyril, such as living in virtue (chapters 4 and 5), free will (chapter 4), and biblical exegesis (chapter 3), since Cyril is primarily a biblical exegete.
