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51 Cards in this Set
- Front
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What is history, why should we study it, and how should it be done? |
History is telling truth about the past as best we can. The truth can be known, however imperfectly and with a certain degree of difficulty depending on the evidence provided. Studying history delivers us from hubris and connects us to the past. It can show us how we can confess a holy catholic, apostolic church - giving us a sense of our family history. It explains to us how we got to where we are now, who we are, and why believe what we believe. It can also relativize contemporary claims and slow romanticism. |
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What are the epochs and what questions did they ask? |
The epochs of church history are Christian Antiquity (Christ's Ascension to 1650 [Death of Descarte] ), Modernity (1650-1914 [WWI] [E], 1789-1968 [U]), and Post/Late/LiquidModernity (1914 and 1789 until present). The question of Christian Antiquity was concerned with what God has said through the extrinsic authority of the inspired word of the Apostles. The question of Modernity was concerned with whether God had truly said what the Apostles had written, allowing the intrinsic authority of self (the self to be the measure of all things) to be decisive. The question of Post/Late/Liquid Modernity was concerned with authority itself: who cares, who's asking and why - as a result of Relativism. |
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What did Walter Bauer argue and how can his view be criticized? |
Walter Bauer argued in his work Orthodoxy & Heresy in Earliest Christianity (1934) that orthodoxy is arbitrary and Gnosticism preceded Christianity suggesting that Christianity emerged from Gnosticism. However, his view may be criticized in light of particular evidence. Primarily, evidences strongly suggest that there was no developed Gnosticism until the 2nd century. The Coptic texts are dated in the 2nd century. The Persian text, from which Bousset's formulates his Gnostic Redeemer Myth from Persian Zoarastrianism is from the 9th century. And the suggestion that Philonic Judaism was Gnostic is an incorrect classification because though all Gnostics are Ontological Dualists (OD), not all OD are Gnostic. Ultimately, Bauer's theory seeks unambiguous evidence that does not exist and commits a great a priori. Methodology of viewing Religion naturalism.
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How should we describe the formation of the canon? |
The formation of the canon was neither a mechanical nor magical process. It was an organic developmental process. Contrary to Roman Catholicism, there is no evidence that suggests that the church bestowed canonical status to the Scripture. The authoritative Scripture was recognized by the Apostolic fathers who were able to distinguish between NT and post-apostolic writings (ex. Tatian's Diatesseron in 2nd century, Irenaus [150-160], Melito of Sardis [OT]). It was not mechanically formed based solely on external criteria nor was it suggested to have magically drop out of the sky like the origin claims of other religious texts.
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Did the early church create the canon at a council? Why or why not? |
There is no early church council that distinguished canonical books for certain. Though certain councils in the fourth century (Canon 60 - Council of Laodicea in mid 360's) may have distinguished between canonical and non-canonical books, stronger evidence from early church fathers such as Irenaeus (c.150-160) suggests that the canon was mainly formed and already recognized by the 2nd century. The 4th century councils may have been decisive but they were not creative of the canon. The evidence of the canon in the early church suggests that they gradually perceived marks of apostolicity and inspiration.
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What is heresy? |
Heresy (2 Peter 2:1) defined broadly is a doctrinal or moral error. It may be more narrowly defined as that which contradicts the catholic faith as defined by the catholic creeds (Apostles', Nicene, Chalcedon, Athanasian). In any case, it is distinct from mere error.
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What is Gnosticism and why was it a problem for the early church? |
Gnosticism was a corruption of Christianity defined by a variety of loosely related movements and persons with common themes and interests. It was characterized by salvation from the created world through secret knowledge imparted through mystical revelation. It may also be associated with beliefs such as radical ontological dualism, polytheism, and ethical schizophrenia. It caused many problems in the early church because it produced heretical doctrines which contradicted the teachings of Scripture ecumenically held by the church. Denies good creation taught in Scripture.
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With which philosophical schools did the early church interact and to what effect? |
The early church interacted with various philosophical schools such as Platonism (also middle and neo), Stoicism, and Epicureanism. As early as Paul (Acts 17:18), we see these schools in existence. Some early church fathers, like Origen, as well as many heresiarchs of the church were influenced by these philosophical schools. Since they also may have contributed to Gnostic beliefs, there were church fathers like Irenaeus who opposed their influence in the church.
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Marcion |
Marcion was a son of a bishop in Asia minor in the 2nd century (d. c. 160). He came to Rome and was influenced by Gnosticism. He was excommunicated and started his own sect teaching the antithesis of love and law - claiming the gospel was love but no wrath. He rejected the OT (Yahweh) and only accepted Pauline Epistles and created his own canon. Influence until 450. |
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Montanus |
Montanus lived in the 2nd century (c. 156). He taught that there was continued revelation and claimed to see apocalyptic visions. He was essentially a prototype of the Pentecostal church (glossolalia), claiming to be either the Holy Spirit or a mediator of the Holy Spirit. He believed in two classes of Christians: those with spiritual gifts and those without. He was a chilliast, looking for a literal thousand year reign. He was also a rigorist, opposed to second marriages and lax church discipline. He was condemned in 200. |
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Sabellius |
Sabellius in the 3rd century taught modalist monarchianism: that (the One) God has different appearances or manifestations. Modalist Monarchianism suggests that God has successive modes of being. |
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Paul of Samosata |
Paul of Samosata lived in the 3rd century. He was the bishop of Antioch, but was deposed in 268. He taught dynamic monarchianism: that the one God granted his divine power to Jesus, adopting Christ as his son, thus he denied the Son's co-eternality and consubstantiality with the Father. |
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Novatian |
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Arius |
Arius was a popular ascetic presbyter in Alexandria in 4th century (c. 336). He is most notable for the heresy of subordinationism (c. 319), "There was when the Son." He was a primary topic of discussion in the First Council of Nicea in 325, where he was opposed by Athanasius.
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Nestorius |
Nestorius (c. 351- c. 451) was a monk in Antioch and the Patriarch (Archbishop) of Constantinople. In reaction to the monophysite error, he was accused Christ was two persons and not two natures (divine and human at once). He denied the title Theotokos for Mary, suggesting that the eternal God could not be born. He was condemned by Celestine and the Roman council in 430, then deposed in the Council of Ephesus in 431.
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Eutychus |
Eutychus (c. 378 - c. 454) was a presbyter at Constantinople. He opposed Nestorius, but was condemned himself for conflating the two natures of Christ into one (monophysitism). He denied the consubstantiality of Christ's humanity with ours. Though deposed but later acquitted in 449, Leo repudiated in 450, he was deposed and exiled by Chalcedon in 451. Still influential in E Church. Lutheran v Reformed
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Pelagius |
Pelagius (c. 380 - c. 410) was a British-born ascetic moralist. He denied Adam's federal headship and the doctrine of original sin. He claimed that everyone is like Adam (posse peccare, posse non peccare), that free will allows us to choose whether to sin or not to sin. He also conflated nature and grace teaching... He was opposed by Augustine and was condemned by the Councils of Carthage (412, 416, and 418), the Council of Ephesus (431). Pelagianism continued to be refuted by various councils and Confessions to follow well into the Reformation.
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1 Clement |
The First Epistle of Clement (c. 94 - 110) is a first/second century letter addressed to the Christians in the city of Corinth. The author was responding to a schism in the Corinthian church. It is one of the earliest extant Christian documents outside of the canonical New Testament.
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Ignatius |
Ignatius was a pastor in Antioch in the early 2nd century. En route to Rome, where he met his martyrdom, he wrote a series of letters. His seven letters have been preserved as an example of very early Christian theology addressing topics such as ecclesiology, the sacraments, and the role of bishops.
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Polycarp |
Polycarp was a 2nd century (c. 69 - c. 155) bishop of Smyrna. He opposed Marcion and the Gnostics. He was a quartodeciman, meaning he held that Easter should be observed in connection to Passover. His sole surviving work is his epistle to the Philippians. Polycarp is said to have been a student of the Apostle John - he may be considered the link between the apostolic and post-apostolic church.
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Didache |
The Didache is an anonymous early Christian treatise dated in the late first/early second century (c. 110?). It addresses Christian ethics (Jewish Two-Way Pattern), rituals such as baptism and the Eucharist, and church order.
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Shepherd of Hermas |
The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian literary work of the mid-late second century. It was widely popular and well regarded by Christians in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It contains apocalyptic/eschatological visions and moralistic commandments. Ultimately it can be considered prima facie evidence that antiquity does not always equate with orthodoxy. |
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Epistle to Diognetus |
Ad Diognetum is a letter from the mid-2nd century. It is a treatise that attempts to persuade someone (a pagan enquirer) to Christianity by describing Christian worship while distinguishing it from Judaism and paganism. It contains a clear Christian soteriology. Though it was discovered late, it is generally considered to be a second century text. If so, it is one of the earliest examples of Christian apologetic writing.
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Simon of Samaria |
Simon of Samaria was mentioned by Irenaeus as the "first heretic." He is believed to have been an ontological dualist. He is also mentioned by Justin Martyr, who claims he was worshipped as a god. He is believed to have been an influence to Gnosticism through Menander who then influenced Basilides the Gnostic.
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Modal Monarchianism |
Modal Monarchianism is a heresy that considers God to be one person appearing and working in the different "modes" of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The chief proponent of modalism was Sabellius. (See Sabellius)
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Dynamic Monarchianism |
Dynamic Monarchianism is a heresy that holds that Christ was a mere man, miraculously conceived, but constituted the Son of God simply by the infinitely high degree in which he had been filled with divine wisdom and power. This view is has an adoptionist Christology - that divine power was bestowed upon Christ, suggesting that he did not eternally possess divine nature.
(See Paul of Samosata) |
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Who were the two great apologists of the 2nd century? |
Justin Martyr (c. 100 -165)
and Irenaeus (c. 130-200)
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Justin Martyr |
Justin Martyr (c. 100-65) was a pagan philosopher who was converted to Christianity. He defended the faith against Trypho (c. 130) and established a school in Rome. He was a covenant theologian (diatheke) and held to Logos Christology (Christ = universal rational principle), which was clever but slightly problematic. |
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Irenaeus |
Irenaeus (c. 130-200) was a bishop of Lyon in the 2nd century. He is best known for his work Adversus Haereses or Against Heresies (c. 180) wherein he defends Christianity against Gnosticism. He was a chilliast and a covenant theologian who believed in the federal headship of Adam and Christ. Connection to Polycarp, student? |
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Clement of Alexandria |
Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 - 215) was a Christian theologian in the 2nd and 3rd century who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. He was influenced by Platonism and Stoicism and attempted to synthesize Christianity with Middle Platonism. In opposition to Gnosticism, he describes Christianity in Gnostic terms. He argued that the Plato stole from Moses (universal rational principle).
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Origen |
Origen (c. 185 - 254) was a Christian scholar in 3rd century in Alexandria. He may be characterized as a wild-eyed allegorizer who was influenced greatly by Middle Platonism. He was a zealous ascetic that was ultimately condemned in 553 for holding beliefs contradictory to the apostolic writing. He was brilliant, but confused.
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Apollinarianism |
A view proposed by Apollinaris of Laodicea (d. 390) that Jesus could not have had a human mind; rather, Jesus had a human body and lower soul but a divine mind. It is a type of monophysitism - Jesus only had one nature, most likely in reaction to Arianism.
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Docetism |
A heresy that claims that Jesus only seemed or appeared to be human - that his human form was an illusion. It was unequivocally rejected at the First Council of Nicaea in 325.
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Monophysitism |
Monophysitism Still influential in Eastern church. (See Eutychus) |
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Monothelitism |
Monothelitism is the view that Jesus Christ has two natures but only one will. It was a developed out of the monophysitism position of Christological debate and was condemned as heresy in the 7th century.
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Montanism |
Montanism was an early Christian movement of the late 2nd century. It was a prophetic movement that believed in new apocalyptic revelations and called for a reliance on the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit, holding to a more conservative personal ethic. Parallels have been drawn between Montanism and modern-day movements such as Pentecostalism. (See Montanus)
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Athanasius (in Alexandria) |
Athanasius (c. 296-373) was a 4th century bishop of Alexandria whose life was a series of exiles and returns. He was a Christian theologian, a Church Father, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism.
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Homoiousians |
A homoiousian was a member of 4th-century theological party which held that God the Son was of a similar, but not identical, substance or essence to God the Father. They can be considered Semi-Arians, believing in three hypostases (substances).
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Homoousians |
A homoousians, in the 4th-century Arian controversy, was a person who held that God the Father and God the Son are of the same substance. This was consistent with the Nicene/Orthodox belief of one hypostasis (substance).
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Homoians |
A homoian was a member of 4th-century political party in the Arian controversy that attempted to reconcile the two opposing sides (homousians and homoiousians).
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The Cappadocians |
Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330 - 395)
- The Orator Basil the Great (c. 330 - 379) - The Administrator Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329 - 389) - The Facilitator of the Council of Constantinople (381) The Cappadocian Fathers are Basil the Great (c. 330–379), who was bishop of Caesarea; Basil's younger brother Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330–395), who was bishop of Nyssa; and a close friend, Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329–389), who became Patriarch of Constantinople. |
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Tertullian (Montanist?) |
Terullian (c. 160 - 225), a prolific early church author, was foundational for Western Church/Theology (Trinitarian). He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He is most well-known for his brilliant rhetoric: "What hath Athens to do with Jerusalem? We have no need for Zeno's porch. We have Solomon's." The claim that he was a Montanist does not provide clear evidence. Neither Cyprian nor Eusebius mention anything about Tertullian's Montanism. |
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Cyprian |
Cyprian (d. 258) in the 3rd century was a bishop of Carthage, which had become a position of regional oversight over many local churches, indicating developmental signs of the Episcopal system. He disagreed with the bishop of Rome on the issue of the lapsed and confessors during the persecutions. Cyprian's letter to Rome provides strong evidence that the hierarchical view of the Roman episcopos was not universally accepted, and can be considered a small step away from the perspicuity and and primacy of Scripture. When the Christians were blamed for the plague in 252, Cyprian organized relief efforts.
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Ambrose |
Ambrose (c. 339 -397) was a bishop of Milan in the 4th century. He was made bishop by popular acclaim, was an opponent to Arianism, and was most notable for his role in Augustine's conversion. He is considered one of four traditional “Doctors of the Church” (Augustine, Gregory the Great, Jerome). |
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Jerome |
Jerome (c. 345 - 420) was a priest, confessor, theologian and historian in the late 4th/early 5th century. Having lived in the wake of Constantinianism, he was one of the first to experience Christianity as an accepted religion and the church as a recognized institution. His most notable work was his Latin translation of the Bible, the Biblia Vulgata (Vulgate Bible), which would become the common bible for almost next thousand years. He is regarded to be one of the greatest scholars of theancient church. |
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Augustine |
Augustine (c. 354 - 430) was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. Prior to his conversion, having been influenced by Cicero, he was a Manichaeist. After hearing a series of sermons by Ambrose, he picked up a Bible, read it, and was converted. He became the bishop of Hippo in 391. His early works differed from his later works. His writing opposed Donatists and Pelagians (including semi-Pelagianism).
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Apostles' Creed |
The Apostles' Creed is early statement of the Christian faith which recognizes objective truths and claims that must be believed and confessed. It was first called the "Apostles' Creed" by Ambrose and was based on the theological understanding of canonical Scripture. The issue of the "descended" (descendit competing with sepultus) portion appeared in Rufinus's writing in c. 390. The Formas Receptus in c. 570 contains both sepultus and descendit. |
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Did the Nicenes simply repeat biblical formulae to defeat the Arians? Why or why not? |
No. They utilized extra biblical language articulated proper biblical interpretation. Biblicism creates formal agreement but not particular agreement.
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How is the Constantinopolitan distinct from the Nicene? |
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed was adopted at the Second Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople in 381 as a modification of the original Nicene Creed of 325. It differs in a number of respects, both by addition and omission, from the creed adopted at the First Council of Nicaea. The most notable differences include the constabstantiality of the Holy Spirit and the title "Lord and Giver of Life." Other changes the phrase "proceeding from the Father" and the omission of anathema at the end. |
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Council of Ephesus |
The Council of Ephesus (431 AD), the confirmed the original Nicene Creed, and condemned the teachings of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople that the Virgin Mary may be called the Christotokos, "Birth Giver of Christ" but not the Theotokos, "Birth Giver of God". |
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Definition of Chalcedon |
The Definition of Chalcedon was adopted at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The Definition defines that Christ is 'acknowledged in two natures' opposing the monophysite heresy. Christ has two consubstantial natures - divine and human at one time in the same person. |
