The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter VI Saint Benedict and Gregory the Great
In the chaos of the wars in the sixth and succeeding centuries it was the Church that preserved what was left of the Roman culture.
Monasticism began in Egypt and Syria in the fourth centuries. St. Anthony, the first of the hermits was born in Egypt in 250 AD. His rigorous asceticism was popular and attracted many copycats.
Monasticism sprang up in Syria around the same time and the Greek speaking world saw monastic organizations flourish because of St. Basil (circa 360 AD).
Monasticism began outside of the Church hierarchy and the work of St. Athanasius was what reconciled the clergy to the monks. St. Jerome promoted the movement and St. Augustine introduced it to Africa. St Martin of Tours set it up in Gaul and St. Patrick set everything up in Ireland. St. Columba founded the monastery of Iona in 566.
"There seem to have been nuns before there were monks - as early as the middle of the third century. Some shut themselves up in tombs" (Russell, 377).
The Western tradition of monasticism owes much to St. Benedict, founder of the Benedictine Order. In 520 AD he founded the monastery at Monte Cassino. Benedict brought order to the ascetic way of life.
Benedict died in 543 and his monastery was sacked by the Lombards, but afterwards the monks returned and Monte Cassino became a place of scholarship that greatly aided the West in later years.
Benedict has been described as a miracle worker and that he wounded his body so he could cure the wounds of his soul.
"His fame being spread abroad, the monks of a certain monastery, whose abbot had lately died,
besought him to accept the succession. He did so, and insisted upon observance of strict virtue, so
that the monks, in a rage, decided to poison him with a glass of poisoned wine. He, however,
made the sign of the cross over the glass, whereupon it broke in pieces. So he returned to the
wilderness" (Russell, 379).
Benedict also faced an assassination attempt from a wicked priest. When the poisoned loaf he sent to Benedict was taken away by a crow at Benedict's command the priest sent seven naked women to tempt Benedict. For fear of the temptation being too much for the younger monks Benedict left the monastery. When news that the wicked priest had died a jubilant young monk went and told Benedict the news and said it was safe to come back. Benedict went back but mourned for the dead priest and imposed a penance on the monk who had gleefully related the news.
Gregory the Great, the powerful pope was born in Rome around 540 to a rich, noble family. After a bright start to a political career Gregory turned himself over to God and became a Benedictine monk.
"Gregory, owing partly to his personal qualities and partly to the prevailing anarchy, was able to assert successfully an authority which was admitted by ecclesiastics throughout the West, and even, to a lesser degree, in the East. He exerted this authority chiefly by means of letters to bishops and secular rulers in all parts of the Roman world" (Russell, 382).
Gregory also wrote Book of Pastoral Rule that gave practical advice to Bishops and elevated the papacy to authority and the church in authority over the state.
Gregory was hostile to secular learning and the Church retained that hostility until the 11th century under Pope Sylvester II.
Gregory wrote many letters that show him stern with both secular authorities and other bishops. However, he was much more deferential when dealing with the Emperor, even in dealing with Phocas who murdered his way to power in a brutal way.
Missionary work was crucial at the time of Gregory and much of the barbarian population of the West either converted from paganism or from Arian Christianity during the time. Gregory was particularly concerned with re-Christianizing England that had been nominally Christian under the empire but was lately overrun by pagan Angles and Saxons.
"The period we have been considering is peculiar in the fact that, though its great men are inferior
to those of many other epochs, their influence on future ages has been greater. Roman law,
monasticism, and the papacy owe their long and profound influence very largely to Justinian,
Benedict, and Gregory. The men of the sixth century, though less civilized than their predecessors,
were much more civilized than the men of the next four centuries, and they succeeded in framing
institutions that ultimately tamed the barbarians. It is noteworthy that, of the above three men, two
were aristocratic natives of Rome, and the third was Roman Emperor. Gregory is in a very real
sense the last of the Romans. His tone of command, while justified by his office, has its instinctive
basis in Roman aristocratic pride. After him, for many ages, the city of Rome ceased to produce
great men. But in its downfall it succeeded in fettering the souls of its conquerors: the reverence
which they felt for the Chair of Peter was an outcome of the awe which they felt for the throne of
the Caesars.
In the East, the course of history was different. Mahomet was born when Gregory was about thirty
years old." (Russell, 387).
Showing posts with label Athanasius. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Athanasius. Show all posts
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Orthodoxy and Heresy
(Originally written November 12, 2006 in Book 11)
Heresy and Orthodoxy
Gradual Emergence of Orthodoxy
The Jesus Movement became a world religion through the ideas of orthodoxy, holiness, apostolic ideal and catholic universalism.
The orthodoxy of the early church developed by attacking individual doctrines deemed heretical. The forensic ability and dialectical skill of the Fathers had more to do with the formation of orthodoxy more than the merit of doctrines.
By the fourth century the outlines of orthodoxy had been drawn, but the orthodoxy was not yet in full effect.
The Gnostic Heresy
Gnosticism states that salvation is acquired through knowledge, not faith.
Gnosticism believed that there was one Supreme Being and This Being created larger supernatural beings. (One of these was YHWH).
These lesser beings are in rebellion against the Absolute god and hold man hostage. Christ descended to save man. Salvation comes to those who have a divine spark that enables the to understand the knowledge given to them.
The Knowledge which led to salvation was a secret knowledge. Plato used the term, but meant a public objective knowledge, whereas Gnostics meant a suprarational knowledge.
Gnosticism attempted to synthesize all the Neoplatonist and mystery cults into one unified entity. This obviously offended the catholic church.
The Gnostics interpreted every scripture as allegory, which also offended Christian sentimentalities.
Syncretism was a major component of Gnosticism. Christianity's method of rejecting all other views, rather then synthesizing then proved to be a lasting one.
The Arian Heresy
Arianism focused on the problem of a Triune Godhead. How could a monotheistic religion have three Gods?
Aries, the founder claimed that Jesus was the logos of God, but was not equal with God the Father. Jesus was a created entity.
Christ was the first creation who later became Incarnated.
Athanasius, the preeminent anti-Arian claimed that God and Christ are of the same substance. But to avoid another heresy (Patripassianism, which claimed God the Father was crucified) he held that the Father and the Son, through the same substance, were distinct persons. Catholicism concluded that God is three in one and how that is is simply a mystery that must be accepted.
Aries was a bit of a rationalist attempting to resolve the issue of three as one in the Godhead.
Tertullian, contra to Arius was completely against any rational attempt to understand the divinity.
He held that any attempt to understand was a mark of weak faith.
The Arian Heresy marks the Church's subversion of reason. The Church would face no controversy so long as man deprecated their ability.
The Pelagian Heresy
The Pelagian Heresy came from the Judaic conception of omnipotence and omniscience.
Both Arius and Pelagius believed they were teaching Christian Orthodoxy and both had some evidence on their side.
Pelagius preached free will in man and stated Paul's mysticism led men to be slothful in Christian living and making excuses for the vices Paul preached against.
If God is all powerful and all knowing man has no fee will. If man has no free will God is unjust for blaming us for sin. Pelagius believed free will was necessary for responsibility.
Pelagius was deemed a heretic, but the Pelagian heresy has reemerged numerous times in the history of the Church.
The Manichean Heresy
Mani tried to resolve the problem of evil. It was regarded as heretical because they employed reason and not the authorities to come to their conclusions.
Manicheanism was dualistic. God was all-good, but not all powerful. Satan created the physical world.
Mani and Christ were prophets went from God to free men from the evil of the body. Manicheanism was thus, very, very ascetic.
The Albigensian heresy in the late Middle Ages was a rearticulation of the Manichaen heresy.
Relation of faith to Reason
Athanasius called the Trinity a mystery that must be accepted as faith, but to appeal to the pagan masses and to confound heretics, Christianity needed a systematic theology. The relationship between faith and reason was critical in forming this theology.
Greek and Christian views contrasted
God is the primary, almost exclusive object of concern in Christianity. In Greek philosophy the concern was to give an account of man's relation to nature.
The shift in emphasis changed all of philosophical thought.
Christianity aimed at perfection, thus were constantly subject to failure.
Christianity is too pessimistic to the modern mind, but Greek philosophy is too naive and optimistic. The major goal of philosophy since the Renaissance is to find a mean between the two.
The methodology of Christian philosophy had to be radically different from the Greek. Exegesis became a large part of philosophy.
Heresy and Orthodoxy
Gradual Emergence of Orthodoxy
The Jesus Movement became a world religion through the ideas of orthodoxy, holiness, apostolic ideal and catholic universalism.
The orthodoxy of the early church developed by attacking individual doctrines deemed heretical. The forensic ability and dialectical skill of the Fathers had more to do with the formation of orthodoxy more than the merit of doctrines.
By the fourth century the outlines of orthodoxy had been drawn, but the orthodoxy was not yet in full effect.
The Gnostic Heresy
Gnosticism states that salvation is acquired through knowledge, not faith.
Gnosticism believed that there was one Supreme Being and This Being created larger supernatural beings. (One of these was YHWH).
These lesser beings are in rebellion against the Absolute god and hold man hostage. Christ descended to save man. Salvation comes to those who have a divine spark that enables the to understand the knowledge given to them.
The Knowledge which led to salvation was a secret knowledge. Plato used the term, but meant a public objective knowledge, whereas Gnostics meant a suprarational knowledge.
Gnosticism attempted to synthesize all the Neoplatonist and mystery cults into one unified entity. This obviously offended the catholic church.
The Gnostics interpreted every scripture as allegory, which also offended Christian sentimentalities.
Syncretism was a major component of Gnosticism. Christianity's method of rejecting all other views, rather then synthesizing then proved to be a lasting one.
The Arian Heresy
Arianism focused on the problem of a Triune Godhead. How could a monotheistic religion have three Gods?
Aries, the founder claimed that Jesus was the logos of God, but was not equal with God the Father. Jesus was a created entity.
Christ was the first creation who later became Incarnated.
Athanasius, the preeminent anti-Arian claimed that God and Christ are of the same substance. But to avoid another heresy (Patripassianism, which claimed God the Father was crucified) he held that the Father and the Son, through the same substance, were distinct persons. Catholicism concluded that God is three in one and how that is is simply a mystery that must be accepted.
Aries was a bit of a rationalist attempting to resolve the issue of three as one in the Godhead.
Tertullian, contra to Arius was completely against any rational attempt to understand the divinity.
He held that any attempt to understand was a mark of weak faith.
The Arian Heresy marks the Church's subversion of reason. The Church would face no controversy so long as man deprecated their ability.
The Pelagian Heresy
The Pelagian Heresy came from the Judaic conception of omnipotence and omniscience.
Both Arius and Pelagius believed they were teaching Christian Orthodoxy and both had some evidence on their side.
Pelagius preached free will in man and stated Paul's mysticism led men to be slothful in Christian living and making excuses for the vices Paul preached against.
If God is all powerful and all knowing man has no fee will. If man has no free will God is unjust for blaming us for sin. Pelagius believed free will was necessary for responsibility.
Pelagius was deemed a heretic, but the Pelagian heresy has reemerged numerous times in the history of the Church.
The Manichean Heresy
Mani tried to resolve the problem of evil. It was regarded as heretical because they employed reason and not the authorities to come to their conclusions.
Manicheanism was dualistic. God was all-good, but not all powerful. Satan created the physical world.
Mani and Christ were prophets went from God to free men from the evil of the body. Manicheanism was thus, very, very ascetic.
The Albigensian heresy in the late Middle Ages was a rearticulation of the Manichaen heresy.
Relation of faith to Reason
Athanasius called the Trinity a mystery that must be accepted as faith, but to appeal to the pagan masses and to confound heretics, Christianity needed a systematic theology. The relationship between faith and reason was critical in forming this theology.
Greek and Christian views contrasted
God is the primary, almost exclusive object of concern in Christianity. In Greek philosophy the concern was to give an account of man's relation to nature.
The shift in emphasis changed all of philosophical thought.
Christianity aimed at perfection, thus were constantly subject to failure.
Christianity is too pessimistic to the modern mind, but Greek philosophy is too naive and optimistic. The major goal of philosophy since the Renaissance is to find a mean between the two.
The methodology of Christian philosophy had to be radically different from the Greek. Exegesis became a large part of philosophy.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
St. Benedict and Gregory the Great (A)
(Originally written July 22, 2006 in Book 5)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter VI - St. Benedict and Gregory the Great
The monastic movement, the rise of the papacy, and the conversion of the Barbarians were the greatest achievements of the Church in the 6th and succeeding centuries.
Monasticism was began in both Egypt and Syria simultaneously in the 4th century.
Monasticism initially had two forms:
1) Hermitage (solitary)
2) Monasteries (communal)
The communal form is what conquered the Christian world.
Syrian monks were more ascetic than others.
St. Basil (360 AD) introduced monasticism in Greek-speaking nations.
St. Athanasius brought the Church and monasticism together.
St. Jerome promoted monasticism. Augustine introduced it to Africa. St. Martin of Tours introduced it to Gaul. St. Patrick introduced it to Ireland.
Monasticism initially caused disorder in the Church.
St. Benedict was the founder of the Benedictine Order and the Benedictine Rule. He was born in 480 to a noble family and founded Monte Cassino in 520. Benedict stabilized monasticism and created order.
Pope Gregory the Great was a Benedictine and wrote about St. Benedict.
Gregory was born in 540 into a rich and noble Roman family. He became prefect of Rome in 573 but turned to religion.
He went to Constantinople from 579-585 as a Papal official in the Eastern Empire's imperial court. Gregory became Pope in 590 and faced political turmoil, ecclesiastical turmoil (simony and corrupt bishops) Arianism, and a reversion of England back to Paganism.
As Pope Gregory consolidated and asserted dominance to the Pontiff.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter VI - St. Benedict and Gregory the Great
The monastic movement, the rise of the papacy, and the conversion of the Barbarians were the greatest achievements of the Church in the 6th and succeeding centuries.
Monasticism was began in both Egypt and Syria simultaneously in the 4th century.
Monasticism initially had two forms:
1) Hermitage (solitary)
2) Monasteries (communal)
The communal form is what conquered the Christian world.
Syrian monks were more ascetic than others.
St. Basil (360 AD) introduced monasticism in Greek-speaking nations.
St. Athanasius brought the Church and monasticism together.
St. Jerome promoted monasticism. Augustine introduced it to Africa. St. Martin of Tours introduced it to Gaul. St. Patrick introduced it to Ireland.
Monasticism initially caused disorder in the Church.
St. Benedict was the founder of the Benedictine Order and the Benedictine Rule. He was born in 480 to a noble family and founded Monte Cassino in 520. Benedict stabilized monasticism and created order.
Pope Gregory the Great was a Benedictine and wrote about St. Benedict.
Gregory was born in 540 into a rich and noble Roman family. He became prefect of Rome in 573 but turned to religion.
He went to Constantinople from 579-585 as a Papal official in the Eastern Empire's imperial court. Gregory became Pope in 590 and faced political turmoil, ecclesiastical turmoil (simony and corrupt bishops) Arianism, and a reversion of England back to Paganism.
As Pope Gregory consolidated and asserted dominance to the Pontiff.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Christianity during the first four centuries
(Originally written July 16, 2006 in Book 5)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter II - Christianity during the first four centuries
Christianity began as reformed Judaism.
Russell states that St. James and St. Peter wanted it to remain this, but St. Paul changed all that.
Gnosticism played the halfway between Pagan philosophy and Christianity by honoring Christ, but not the Jewish elements of Christianity. Later on Manichaeism played the same role. Manichaeism combined Christian and Zoroastrian elements. It believed evil was only in matter and good was only in spirit. It condemned the eating of meat and all sex.
Gnostics and Manichaeans flourished until the government became fully Christian.
Gnostic views (Docetic Gnosticism) passed over into orthodox Islam.
Christians became hostile to Jews early on. Jewish theology was simple. Christian theology became complex as it was hellenized. Christian theologians attempted to synthesize Greek thought and the Scriptures. It happened haphazardly until Origen.
Origen (185-254 AD) lived in Alexandria. Like his contemporary Plotinus, he was a puppy of Ammonius Saccas (the considered founder of Neoplatonism).
Origen stated nothing is fully incorporeal except God: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
He believed the stars to contain souls and that the sun was capable of sin.
He believed in soul and nous like Plotinus did.
He believed that all souls were created initially at creation and entered bodies later in time. Ultimately all souls were destined to become nous and wholly submissive to Christ. Even the Devil will eventually submit to Christ.
In spite of being considered a Church Father, Origen was condemned for four heresies:
1) The Platonic view of souls being preexistent
2) The human nature of Christ, as well as the Divine nature existed prior to the Incarnation
3) At the resurrection man's bodies will be transformed into purely ethereal bodies
4) All men and even demons and Satan will eventually be saved.
Origen defended Christianity in two ways:
1) He stated that by using reason one necessarily comes to the conclusions spelled out in the Gospels.
2) The prophecies being fulfilled and the miracles being worked by Christ proved he is obviously God.
The Church government developed gradually over the years. Then it exploded as Christianity was legalized by Constantine the Great.
The bishops gained power through wealth prior to Constantine. Then when Christianity was legalized bishops were given administrative and judicial power by the State.
Russell's underhanded attack on Christianity compares Christian 'intolerance' to the "advantages of intolerance in propaganda" used by Hitler (Russell, 330).
Inconsistency? Russell calls the Jews stubborn to Greek influence, yet credits the Greeks with teaching the Jews resurrection of the spirit.
Christian morality was legendary before Constantine. "Their sexual ethics had a strictness that was rare in antiquity" (Russell, 332). This helped Christianity spread.
Constantine used the Christian underground hierarchy to stabilize the Empire. In doing so it spread Christianity. Constantine demanded unity in Christianity, hence the Nicea ecumenical council and the Nicene Creed.
Orthodox Christianity fought against heresies, like Arianism for a longtime.
Athanasius (297-373) was the champion of Orthodox Christianity.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter II - Christianity during the first four centuries
Christianity began as reformed Judaism.
Russell states that St. James and St. Peter wanted it to remain this, but St. Paul changed all that.
Gnosticism played the halfway between Pagan philosophy and Christianity by honoring Christ, but not the Jewish elements of Christianity. Later on Manichaeism played the same role. Manichaeism combined Christian and Zoroastrian elements. It believed evil was only in matter and good was only in spirit. It condemned the eating of meat and all sex.
Gnostics and Manichaeans flourished until the government became fully Christian.
Gnostic views (Docetic Gnosticism) passed over into orthodox Islam.
Christians became hostile to Jews early on. Jewish theology was simple. Christian theology became complex as it was hellenized. Christian theologians attempted to synthesize Greek thought and the Scriptures. It happened haphazardly until Origen.
Origen (185-254 AD) lived in Alexandria. Like his contemporary Plotinus, he was a puppy of Ammonius Saccas (the considered founder of Neoplatonism).
Origen stated nothing is fully incorporeal except God: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
He believed the stars to contain souls and that the sun was capable of sin.
He believed in soul and nous like Plotinus did.
He believed that all souls were created initially at creation and entered bodies later in time. Ultimately all souls were destined to become nous and wholly submissive to Christ. Even the Devil will eventually submit to Christ.
In spite of being considered a Church Father, Origen was condemned for four heresies:
1) The Platonic view of souls being preexistent
2) The human nature of Christ, as well as the Divine nature existed prior to the Incarnation
3) At the resurrection man's bodies will be transformed into purely ethereal bodies
4) All men and even demons and Satan will eventually be saved.
Origen defended Christianity in two ways:
1) He stated that by using reason one necessarily comes to the conclusions spelled out in the Gospels.
2) The prophecies being fulfilled and the miracles being worked by Christ proved he is obviously God.
The Church government developed gradually over the years. Then it exploded as Christianity was legalized by Constantine the Great.
The bishops gained power through wealth prior to Constantine. Then when Christianity was legalized bishops were given administrative and judicial power by the State.
Russell's underhanded attack on Christianity compares Christian 'intolerance' to the "advantages of intolerance in propaganda" used by Hitler (Russell, 330).
Inconsistency? Russell calls the Jews stubborn to Greek influence, yet credits the Greeks with teaching the Jews resurrection of the spirit.
Christian morality was legendary before Constantine. "Their sexual ethics had a strictness that was rare in antiquity" (Russell, 332). This helped Christianity spread.
Constantine used the Christian underground hierarchy to stabilize the Empire. In doing so it spread Christianity. Constantine demanded unity in Christianity, hence the Nicea ecumenical council and the Nicene Creed.
Orthodox Christianity fought against heresies, like Arianism for a longtime.
Athanasius (297-373) was the champion of Orthodox Christianity.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Ecumenical Councils
(Originally written March 17, 2006 in 3 Subject)
Christological Controversies (100-325 AD)
Ebonites (Jewish Sect)
Modalism - anti-Trinitarian doctrine
Praxeas - identifies Father and Son as one (patripassianism)
Tertullian's response to patripassianism: "Praxeas has put to flight the Paraclete and crucified the Father!"
Paul of Samosata: Christ has homoousion (same substance) as God, but not is not a second person, an anti-Trinitarian doctrine
The First Four Ecumenical Councils (325 - 451 AD)
1. Council of Nicea (325 AD)
Arius (Arianism)
- "There was a time when Christ was not"
-Jesus the first of God's creation
-"Like" substance, but not the same as the Father
-Homoiousion with the father, not homoousion
Athanasius (Bishop of Alexandria)
-Christ has homoousion with the father
-This is where the phrase "one iota of difference" comes from
2. Council of Constantinople (381 AD)
-Appollinarius (Apollinarianism)
-supports homoousion, but denies that Christ has a human mind/spirit
Athanasius and Apolinarius were allies against Arianism, but Athanasius opposed Apollinarius
Gregory of Nazianzus- "What Christ has not assumed he has not healed; it is what is united to His Deity that is saved"
The verdict of the Council of Constantinople is that Christ is both divine and human
3a. Council of Ephesus (431 AD)
-Monophysite & Nestorian Heresies
- mono = one, physis = nature
-Monophysite Christology - Christ is one person with one nature
-Key issue is salvation
-Resolution - one person, two natures
-Mary is hailed theotokos "mother of God", contrary to the Nestorian claim of "mother of Christ"
3b. Robber Synod at Ephesus (449 AD)
-Monophysites out maneuvered by Leo I, bishop of Rome & other orthodox bishops
-Emperor Theodosius II then convenes 135 bishops who excommunicate Pope Leo I
-A year after Theodosius II is dead and the new emperor sides with Pope Leo I
4. Council of Chalcedon (451 AD)
-Council was moved to Chalcedon for security reasons
-More than 600 bishops in attendance
-Pope Leo I emissaries state "vere deus, vere homo"
-Eastern Bishops agree
-Result: Doctrine of hypostatic union becomes the orthodox view of the Person of Christ (Nicene Creed, article 2)
Christological Controversies (100-325 AD)
Ebonites (Jewish Sect)
Modalism - anti-Trinitarian doctrine
Praxeas - identifies Father and Son as one (patripassianism)
Tertullian's response to patripassianism: "Praxeas has put to flight the Paraclete and crucified the Father!"
Paul of Samosata: Christ has homoousion (same substance) as God, but not is not a second person, an anti-Trinitarian doctrine
The First Four Ecumenical Councils (325 - 451 AD)
1. Council of Nicea (325 AD)
Arius (Arianism)
- "There was a time when Christ was not"
-Jesus the first of God's creation
-"Like" substance, but not the same as the Father
-Homoiousion with the father, not homoousion
Athanasius (Bishop of Alexandria)
-Christ has homoousion with the father
-This is where the phrase "one iota of difference" comes from
2. Council of Constantinople (381 AD)
-Appollinarius (Apollinarianism)
-supports homoousion, but denies that Christ has a human mind/spirit
Athanasius and Apolinarius were allies against Arianism, but Athanasius opposed Apollinarius
Gregory of Nazianzus- "What Christ has not assumed he has not healed; it is what is united to His Deity that is saved"
The verdict of the Council of Constantinople is that Christ is both divine and human
3a. Council of Ephesus (431 AD)
-Monophysite & Nestorian Heresies
- mono = one, physis = nature
-Monophysite Christology - Christ is one person with one nature
-Key issue is salvation
-Resolution - one person, two natures
-Mary is hailed theotokos "mother of God", contrary to the Nestorian claim of "mother of Christ"
3b. Robber Synod at Ephesus (449 AD)
-Monophysites out maneuvered by Leo I, bishop of Rome & other orthodox bishops
-Emperor Theodosius II then convenes 135 bishops who excommunicate Pope Leo I
-A year after Theodosius II is dead and the new emperor sides with Pope Leo I
4. Council of Chalcedon (451 AD)
-Council was moved to Chalcedon for security reasons
-More than 600 bishops in attendance
-Pope Leo I emissaries state "vere deus, vere homo"
-Eastern Bishops agree
-Result: Doctrine of hypostatic union becomes the orthodox view of the Person of Christ (Nicene Creed, article 2)
Monday, February 13, 2006
Notes on the Trinity
(Originally written February 13, 2006 in book 23)
1) "The son has a beginning but, but God has no beginning" Who said this?
-Arius
2) The Hebrew name of God (YHWH) is a form of what verb?
-To be
3) Which of the following is a communicable attribute of God?
-Justice
God is an infinite, personal God
That which is infinite is incommunicable
That which is person is communicable
There is a religious/philosophical tendency to base system on one of these traits. Christianity, Judaism and Islam fit a personal-infinite god.
Eastern traditions tend to stress the infiniteness of god, but not the personableness of god. i.e. Buddhism, Hinduism
Western Traditions tend to stress the personality of god, not the personality. i.e. North American and South American Indian religions
Hebrew word Abba is a diminutive word "Ab" Father Ba
God chose to condescend to become our father
Why God must be a Trinity
In order for God to be the God of the New Testament he must be perfect he must be love, he must be merciful.
God must be Triune to be perfect
- Perfect delight in himself
- Exact image in view for God to be able see himself as perfectly there must be at least two person in God
- This image is the Son (Hebrews 1:3)
- Less than perfect self delight is an unrighteous God
To be love:
-Love relationship requires persons
- From the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit of love
- God is love, love is not God
- God: Diversity within unity
(Lewis' view)
To be merciful:
- Perfect self-delight means there are no need of other things which means:
- God does not need us
- Therefore God is free to love us unconditionally
A Faith for all Season, Chapter 3 continued
The council of Constantinople of 381 declared Jesus as "begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father" (Dorman, 55).
Prior to the incarnation of Jesus God the son was coequal and coeternal with God the Father (Orthodoxy and Athanasius' view)
Arius taught that the son was the first and most glorious thing that God the Father created. Son was created by Father and not the same substance.
Augustine's On the Trinity is the framework for Western theology on the Trinity. In it he stressed both the diversity and the unity of the trinity.
Western Christianity used Augustine's stress on the unity of the Godhead whereas the Eastern tradition followed Origen's emphasis on diversity.
The most significant part of Augustine's work on the Trinity is that it emphasizes the relationship between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to each other as coequals.
1) "The son has a beginning but, but God has no beginning" Who said this?
-Arius
2) The Hebrew name of God (YHWH) is a form of what verb?
-To be
3) Which of the following is a communicable attribute of God?
-Justice
God is an infinite, personal God
That which is infinite is incommunicable
That which is person is communicable
There is a religious/philosophical tendency to base system on one of these traits. Christianity, Judaism and Islam fit a personal-infinite god.
Eastern traditions tend to stress the infiniteness of god, but not the personableness of god. i.e. Buddhism, Hinduism
Western Traditions tend to stress the personality of god, not the personality. i.e. North American and South American Indian religions
Hebrew word Abba is a diminutive word "Ab" Father Ba
God chose to condescend to become our father
Why God must be a Trinity
In order for God to be the God of the New Testament he must be perfect he must be love, he must be merciful.
God must be Triune to be perfect
- Perfect delight in himself
- Exact image in view for God to be able see himself as perfectly there must be at least two person in God
- This image is the Son (Hebrews 1:3)
- Less than perfect self delight is an unrighteous God
To be love:
-Love relationship requires persons
- From the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit of love
- God is love, love is not God
- God: Diversity within unity
(Lewis' view)
To be merciful:
- Perfect self-delight means there are no need of other things which means:
- God does not need us
- Therefore God is free to love us unconditionally
A Faith for all Season, Chapter 3 continued
The council of Constantinople of 381 declared Jesus as "begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father" (Dorman, 55).
Prior to the incarnation of Jesus God the son was coequal and coeternal with God the Father (Orthodoxy and Athanasius' view)
Arius taught that the son was the first and most glorious thing that God the Father created. Son was created by Father and not the same substance.
Augustine's On the Trinity is the framework for Western theology on the Trinity. In it he stressed both the diversity and the unity of the trinity.
Western Christianity used Augustine's stress on the unity of the Godhead whereas the Eastern tradition followed Origen's emphasis on diversity.
The most significant part of Augustine's work on the Trinity is that it emphasizes the relationship between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to each other as coequals.
Friday, February 3, 2006
Notes on the Formation, Interpretation and Composition of Scriptures
(Originally written February 3, 2006 in Book 23)
A Faith for all Season
Chapter 2 - The Need for Holy Scripture
Originally, God created a perfect world in this perfect world there was no distinction between special and general revelation. God's words and God's works (creation) were together. God's works (man) rebelled gains God's words. God could no longer be in the presence of His works because of their sinfulness and neither could God's word. Thus, each is still full of general revelation (God's works) but special revelation (His words) are nowhere to be found. Salvation can not be provided by general revelation, special revelation is needed. God provide that special revelation: the Scriptures and Jesus Christ.
Scripture as the Word of God
Theologians throughout history have affirmed what Jesus said: that scripture was and is the word of God (John 10:35)
The Church's belief of scripture as the word of God's is closely linked with the doctrine of divine inspiration of Scripture.
The doctrine of divine inspiration of Scripture comes from 2 Timothy 3:16-17. All Scripture is inspired by God. The NIV translates it as "God-breathed" The Greek in this passage uses the word "theopneustos" (literally God + Breath)
2 Peter 1:20-21 confirms that the authors were not simply inspired to write something; but the words themselves were inspired by God. No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation for the prophecy never had its origin in the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Both Paul and Peter were referring to Scripture as the Old Testament, but applying to the New Testament is justified by 3 things:
1) Jesus saw his mission and message as in accordance with the Old Testament
2) Jesus made his apostles agents of divine revelation inspired by the Holy Spirit
3) Jesus stated that future believers would come to faith through the apostolic word
The Scripture is useful in two ways:
1) Doctrine
2) Practice
The Scripture can be used to accomplish 4 Things:
1) Teaching: the idea of proclaiming the truth
2) Rebuking: the idea of combating doctrinal error
3) Correction: the act of leading someone away from an ungodly lifestyle (this is about ethics, not doctrine)
4) Training in righteousness: helping people lead godly lives
The Scriptures make the man of God complete
Nobody profits from understanding the Scriptures if they do not accept and follow them.
Sometimes the words verbal and plenary are used to describe the traditional Christian doctrine of Biblical inspiration
Verbal, Plenary Inspiration
Plenary means full, therefore "plenary inspiration" is full inspiration
"Verbal inspiration" is the idea that the words of Scripture are the exact words God wanted written.
Most Christians do not believe that God dictated to the writers. He allowed them to keep their personalities and styles in their books. God dictating is what Islam believes is the origin of the Qu'ran.
Some Christians believe that God inspired feelings and ideas in the writers. This takes in account for the differing styles in the books. This view however states that the Bible is only quantitatively superior to other works.
The historic consensus of theology is qualitatively superior to other works.
Modern Protestants take the Scriptures as both the word of God and the words of men. This view is that God supervised the writing to get what he wanted said written, but allowed the human authors to keep their humanity and individuality in their work.
Modern Alternatives to Verbal, Plenary Inspiration
Karl Barth: a 20th century Swiss theologian
In his "Church Dogmatics", Barth acknowledges only Jesus Christ as special revelation.
According to Barth's view the Bible is not special revelation and there is no general revelation. The only way God reveals himself is through Jesus Christ.
Revelation only occurs through the risen Jesus Christ living inside of Christian.
Barth denies that the Bible is the "word of God". He states that the Bible can only become the word of God when Jesus Christ uses it to convict us.
Barth believed that knowledge of God was beyond any man's capabilities.
Barth's form of theology is Dialectical theology.
Dialectical theology is when God comes to us as the One who is beyond comprehension and he judges anyone who attempts to comprehend him.
However, Barth changed his views later in life. He states that God can actually be known, but not because man is capable of knowing him. Man can know God because God bridged the gap between humanity and God through Jesus Christ.
In Barth's view the Bible, while not revelation in and of itself, is a witness to revelation in the person of Jesus Christ.
Another school of modern theology bases their beliefs, not on the revelation being in Jesus Christ, but in the belief that the revelation of God comes from the historical events of God's redemption.
Scripture, in this view, is ancient writer's attempts of documenting God's saving acts and those acts' impacts on our lives.
As in the case with Barth's theology, revelation does not lie in the text of the Scripture, but in the "encountered results of what God did for them" (Dorman, 25).
This view holds that the Scriptures are the writers' interpretation of the significance of God's actions. In this view, we are not competed to believe what God did, only what his actions did to impact the writers.
Another modern theology is a partial-inspiration theory. There are various forms of this theory.
This view states that all Biblical statements that deal with spiritual matters are true and from God, but statements regarding historical matters are not necessarily accurate.
The partial inspiration theory does attempt to link the text of the Bible with special revelation.
This view states that the Bible can in fact be erroneous, but is still important on matters of faith.
The Historical events of the Bible are regarded as parables and allegories is the partial-inspiration theory.
The Interpretation of Scripture
Allegory - "the expression through symbolic figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human conduct or experience" (Dorman, 27)
The idea that readers of Scripture must reinterpret the events recorded in them as allegories is rooted in the Greek philosophy of dualism.
According to this dualistic theory, historical events and realities, including the language, are mere images or shadows of the divine realities.
Ancient Judaism and Christianity believed, contrastingly, that God had in fact spoken and acted at specific instances in history. Jesus Christ is the prime example of this.
It is because this belief that the early church generally avoided interpreting the Scriptures allegorically.
During the second century A.D. some of the Church had trouble seeing the connection between God in the Old Testament and Jesus Christ. Marcion is a prime example of this.
Marcion believed that the Bible showed two gods:
1) the Old Testament was a warlike, judgmental deity
2) The New Testament god was kind and loving.
Because of his view of two differently described, Marcion rejected the Old Testament as Scripture and purged the gospel of any Jewish tradition.
Origen considered some of the descriptions of God in the Old Testament as cruel and sub-Christian, but refused to reject the Old Testament like Marcion. He instead removed the offensive passages by interpreting them allegorically.
Origen held that not every Christian was capable of finding the spiritual or allegorical meaning of the text. He believed that this spiritual interpretation was given to the apostles who passed it on to the teachers of the Holy Church. This laid the way for the Catholic view that only its teaching office was able to interpret.
Origen's spiritual interpretation came from two sources:
1) The Holy Spirit was the author of Scripture
2) An influence of Dualism, passed on to him by Philo, who had allegorized the Old Testament in order to synthesize it with Greek philosophy.
Origen held that the literal meaning of the text was inferior to the spiritual meaning because the literal meaning came from the human writer and the spiritual came from the Holy Spirit.
The Antiochean school of theology was opposite to the theology of Origen. They held that the primary meaning of Scripture was its literal, historical sense.
The works of Lucian (of Antioch) set the tone for the Antiochean interpretation of Scripture. Lucian sought to interpret the Scriptures through its Semitic perspective rather than through a Greek philosophical one.
Theodore, a later Antiochean, saw that the literal approach unified a record of God's redemptive work in time, whereas the allegorical method saw it as a collection of timeless truths.
The Antiochean school did not have any lasting effects on theology because of two reasons:
1) Lucian, its founder was also seen as the founder of Arianism. Arianism was a heresy that denied the full divinity of Christ.
2) Nestorious was found to be a heretic. Nestorious was taught by Theodore and therefore Theodore and the entire Antiochean School was condemned as well.
Because of the condemnation of the Antiochean School, one form or another of allegorical interpretation was held by the Church for the next 1,000 years.
The end of allegorical total domination came with the Protestant Reformation.
Luther stated that unless the text is plainly demands us to interpret it allegorically, it is to be interpreted literally, otherwise Scripture is a worthless fable.
Luther's approach to a more literal based interpretation of Scripture was called the grammatical-historical exegesis (exegesis is a fancy word for interpretation).
Luther stressed the perspicuity of Scripture. This basically means that the Bible is clear enough for any reasonably informed person to understand it.
Luther's emphasis on the literal interpretation of the Scriptures opened the doors to new theological insight which were previously shut by the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. It also, unfortunately opened the doors to a terrible form of interpretation, the "historical-critical" method.
During the 18th century history was defined by the Rationalists (an Enlightenment Philosophical offshoot) as a closed continuum of cause and effect. Basically, it denied any possibility for miracles. The "historical-critical" method was born out of this view. It declared that the miracles in the Bible were actually myths of the Bible. This method turned Jesus into a human teacher of ethics and denied him of any supernatural being.
This view of Jesus came under attack by late 19th century theologians. These theologians were ironically trained in the "historical-critical" method. They stated that the Gospels were written in such a way that it was impossible to separate a non-miraculous Jesus from a supernatural Christ.
The "historical critical" method seeks to find the meaning of Christ behind the Biblical texts.
The allegorical approach used by Origen sought to find the meaning of Christ above the Biblical text.
The literal approach used by the Antiochean school and the Reformers sought to find the meaning of Christ with the Biblical text.
The historical-critical method denies that Scripture is the word of God.
The Authority of Scripture
Christians have sought to confirm the authority of Scriptures in four ways:
1) The presuppositional approach
-This states that we know the Bible is the word of God because it claims to be.
-God is the author
-This approach does not give any criteria that can distinguish its claims to being divine revelation from the claims of other texts being of divine revelation, like the Qu'ran
-Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so
2) The Ecclesiastical Approach
-Christians can know Scripture is the word of God because the Church says it is (this is the Roman Catholic approach)
-It is true that the New Testament grew out of the very life of the Church
-Jesus loves me this I know for the Church it tells me so
3) The Spiritual Approach
- This view holds that the ecclesiastical approach places the Church above the Bible
- The inner witness of the Holy Spirit affirms the authority of Scripture
- Absolute assurances of the authority of Scripture can only come from God
- Jesus loves me this I know for the Spirit tells me so
4) The Evidentialist Approach
-There are many convincing proofs that Jesus Christ rose from the dead
-belief in the Bible comes from faith in Christ
-This view holds that the Bible is a generally historically accurate document
-It holds that the evidences from the Bible when combined with reasonable argument establishes that Jesus Christ was crucified, died, buried and rose from the dead beyond a reasonable doubt
-It holds that Jesus' resurrection proves He is the son of God and as such he is trustworthy in all he says
-Jesus trusted the Scriptures we should to
-Because of this we are obliged to follow Jesus and put our whole trust in the Bible as the word of God
The four categories of the authority of Scripture can be placed in two:
1) Fideism
2) Evidentialism
Fideism is based on the term faith, when faith means belief not related to knowledge. The presuppositional, ecclesiastical and spiritual approaches are all fideism.
Evidentialism bases faith upon evidences available to all people. It takes the seriously the historical nature of divine revelation. It refuses to confine knowledge of God to a subjective experience.
All four approaches agree that Scripture is the Church's rule of faith and practice.
The Sufficiency of Scripture
Protestant Reformers believed that the Scripture was alone sufficient while the Roman Catholic Church stated extra-Biblical teachings could be incorporated into Christian dogma.
Roman Catholicism holds that the same spirit which inspired the Scripture still inspires the teaching office of the Church (who they believe is the only fit persons to interpret Scripture).
Their non-Biblical dogmas must meet "apostolic" criteria to be included. There are two criteria it can meet:
1) Any oral tradition whose origins can be traced back to the apostles qualifies
2) The authoritative pronouncements of the ecclesiastical teaching office, whose origin (according to Catholicism) goes back to the apostle Peter qualifies
Protestants believe that only Scripture is apostolic in nature.
The apostles were more than filled with the spirit, they were commissioned by Christ as agents of revelation.
The Protestant definition of "apostolic" is based on the apostle's unique eyewitness experience of Christ's life, death and resurrection gave them the sole authority to write authoritative works to be included in the Scriptures.
The Formation of the Canon
The early church considered the Hebrew Scriptures as the Canon. The need for Scripture that witnessed to Jesus Christ became an issue in the middle of the second century.
It had become more difficult to separate genuine historic oral tradition concerning Christ from the pure myths of Christ.
The need for a church sanctioned canon became more apparent after Marcion produced his canon of some of Paul's letters and the Gospels (purged of any Jewish influence)
The Muratorian Canon is the earliest known list of books which were considered Christian Scripture appeared around AD 200.
In the first half of the third century Origen traveled extensively and recorded which books were considered as Scripture by the various local churches.
He categorized these books three ways:
1) Undisputed
2) Disputed
3) False
The letters of Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were categorized as undisputed.
2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, Hebrews, James and Jude were categorized as disputed.
The false category included all of the heretical gospels.
Athanasius, the most influential theologian of his day, recorded all 27 books included in todays New Testament in a letter in 367 AD.
The Council of Carthage, in 407 AD affirmed todays canon.
The Reformation saw Luther exclude the Apocrypha from the Old Testament Canon. Thus, the Roman Catholic Bible has nine more books in it than the Protestant one. Luther excluded these because the Jewish Scriptures did and he believed that Jesus and his disciples held the Jewish Scriptures as authoritative.
A Faith for all Season
Chapter 2 - The Need for Holy Scripture
Originally, God created a perfect world in this perfect world there was no distinction between special and general revelation. God's words and God's works (creation) were together. God's works (man) rebelled gains God's words. God could no longer be in the presence of His works because of their sinfulness and neither could God's word. Thus, each is still full of general revelation (God's works) but special revelation (His words) are nowhere to be found. Salvation can not be provided by general revelation, special revelation is needed. God provide that special revelation: the Scriptures and Jesus Christ.
Scripture as the Word of God
Theologians throughout history have affirmed what Jesus said: that scripture was and is the word of God (John 10:35)
The Church's belief of scripture as the word of God's is closely linked with the doctrine of divine inspiration of Scripture.
The doctrine of divine inspiration of Scripture comes from 2 Timothy 3:16-17. All Scripture is inspired by God. The NIV translates it as "God-breathed" The Greek in this passage uses the word "theopneustos" (literally God + Breath)
2 Peter 1:20-21 confirms that the authors were not simply inspired to write something; but the words themselves were inspired by God. No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation for the prophecy never had its origin in the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Both Paul and Peter were referring to Scripture as the Old Testament, but applying to the New Testament is justified by 3 things:
1) Jesus saw his mission and message as in accordance with the Old Testament
2) Jesus made his apostles agents of divine revelation inspired by the Holy Spirit
3) Jesus stated that future believers would come to faith through the apostolic word
The Scripture is useful in two ways:
1) Doctrine
2) Practice
The Scripture can be used to accomplish 4 Things:
1) Teaching: the idea of proclaiming the truth
2) Rebuking: the idea of combating doctrinal error
3) Correction: the act of leading someone away from an ungodly lifestyle (this is about ethics, not doctrine)
4) Training in righteousness: helping people lead godly lives
The Scriptures make the man of God complete
Nobody profits from understanding the Scriptures if they do not accept and follow them.
Sometimes the words verbal and plenary are used to describe the traditional Christian doctrine of Biblical inspiration
Verbal, Plenary Inspiration
Plenary means full, therefore "plenary inspiration" is full inspiration
"Verbal inspiration" is the idea that the words of Scripture are the exact words God wanted written.
Most Christians do not believe that God dictated to the writers. He allowed them to keep their personalities and styles in their books. God dictating is what Islam believes is the origin of the Qu'ran.
Some Christians believe that God inspired feelings and ideas in the writers. This takes in account for the differing styles in the books. This view however states that the Bible is only quantitatively superior to other works.
The historic consensus of theology is qualitatively superior to other works.
Modern Protestants take the Scriptures as both the word of God and the words of men. This view is that God supervised the writing to get what he wanted said written, but allowed the human authors to keep their humanity and individuality in their work.
Modern Alternatives to Verbal, Plenary Inspiration
Karl Barth: a 20th century Swiss theologian
In his "Church Dogmatics", Barth acknowledges only Jesus Christ as special revelation.
According to Barth's view the Bible is not special revelation and there is no general revelation. The only way God reveals himself is through Jesus Christ.
Revelation only occurs through the risen Jesus Christ living inside of Christian.
Barth denies that the Bible is the "word of God". He states that the Bible can only become the word of God when Jesus Christ uses it to convict us.
Barth believed that knowledge of God was beyond any man's capabilities.
Barth's form of theology is Dialectical theology.
Dialectical theology is when God comes to us as the One who is beyond comprehension and he judges anyone who attempts to comprehend him.
However, Barth changed his views later in life. He states that God can actually be known, but not because man is capable of knowing him. Man can know God because God bridged the gap between humanity and God through Jesus Christ.
In Barth's view the Bible, while not revelation in and of itself, is a witness to revelation in the person of Jesus Christ.
Another school of modern theology bases their beliefs, not on the revelation being in Jesus Christ, but in the belief that the revelation of God comes from the historical events of God's redemption.
Scripture, in this view, is ancient writer's attempts of documenting God's saving acts and those acts' impacts on our lives.
As in the case with Barth's theology, revelation does not lie in the text of the Scripture, but in the "encountered results of what God did for them" (Dorman, 25).
This view holds that the Scriptures are the writers' interpretation of the significance of God's actions. In this view, we are not competed to believe what God did, only what his actions did to impact the writers.
Another modern theology is a partial-inspiration theory. There are various forms of this theory.
This view states that all Biblical statements that deal with spiritual matters are true and from God, but statements regarding historical matters are not necessarily accurate.
The partial inspiration theory does attempt to link the text of the Bible with special revelation.
This view states that the Bible can in fact be erroneous, but is still important on matters of faith.
The Historical events of the Bible are regarded as parables and allegories is the partial-inspiration theory.
The Interpretation of Scripture
Allegory - "the expression through symbolic figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human conduct or experience" (Dorman, 27)
The idea that readers of Scripture must reinterpret the events recorded in them as allegories is rooted in the Greek philosophy of dualism.
According to this dualistic theory, historical events and realities, including the language, are mere images or shadows of the divine realities.
Ancient Judaism and Christianity believed, contrastingly, that God had in fact spoken and acted at specific instances in history. Jesus Christ is the prime example of this.
It is because this belief that the early church generally avoided interpreting the Scriptures allegorically.
During the second century A.D. some of the Church had trouble seeing the connection between God in the Old Testament and Jesus Christ. Marcion is a prime example of this.
Marcion believed that the Bible showed two gods:
1) the Old Testament was a warlike, judgmental deity
2) The New Testament god was kind and loving.
Because of his view of two differently described, Marcion rejected the Old Testament as Scripture and purged the gospel of any Jewish tradition.
Origen considered some of the descriptions of God in the Old Testament as cruel and sub-Christian, but refused to reject the Old Testament like Marcion. He instead removed the offensive passages by interpreting them allegorically.
Origen held that not every Christian was capable of finding the spiritual or allegorical meaning of the text. He believed that this spiritual interpretation was given to the apostles who passed it on to the teachers of the Holy Church. This laid the way for the Catholic view that only its teaching office was able to interpret.
Origen's spiritual interpretation came from two sources:
1) The Holy Spirit was the author of Scripture
2) An influence of Dualism, passed on to him by Philo, who had allegorized the Old Testament in order to synthesize it with Greek philosophy.
Origen held that the literal meaning of the text was inferior to the spiritual meaning because the literal meaning came from the human writer and the spiritual came from the Holy Spirit.
The Antiochean school of theology was opposite to the theology of Origen. They held that the primary meaning of Scripture was its literal, historical sense.
The works of Lucian (of Antioch) set the tone for the Antiochean interpretation of Scripture. Lucian sought to interpret the Scriptures through its Semitic perspective rather than through a Greek philosophical one.
Theodore, a later Antiochean, saw that the literal approach unified a record of God's redemptive work in time, whereas the allegorical method saw it as a collection of timeless truths.
The Antiochean school did not have any lasting effects on theology because of two reasons:
1) Lucian, its founder was also seen as the founder of Arianism. Arianism was a heresy that denied the full divinity of Christ.
2) Nestorious was found to be a heretic. Nestorious was taught by Theodore and therefore Theodore and the entire Antiochean School was condemned as well.
Because of the condemnation of the Antiochean School, one form or another of allegorical interpretation was held by the Church for the next 1,000 years.
The end of allegorical total domination came with the Protestant Reformation.
Luther stated that unless the text is plainly demands us to interpret it allegorically, it is to be interpreted literally, otherwise Scripture is a worthless fable.
Luther's approach to a more literal based interpretation of Scripture was called the grammatical-historical exegesis (exegesis is a fancy word for interpretation).
Luther stressed the perspicuity of Scripture. This basically means that the Bible is clear enough for any reasonably informed person to understand it.
Luther's emphasis on the literal interpretation of the Scriptures opened the doors to new theological insight which were previously shut by the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. It also, unfortunately opened the doors to a terrible form of interpretation, the "historical-critical" method.
During the 18th century history was defined by the Rationalists (an Enlightenment Philosophical offshoot) as a closed continuum of cause and effect. Basically, it denied any possibility for miracles. The "historical-critical" method was born out of this view. It declared that the miracles in the Bible were actually myths of the Bible. This method turned Jesus into a human teacher of ethics and denied him of any supernatural being.
This view of Jesus came under attack by late 19th century theologians. These theologians were ironically trained in the "historical-critical" method. They stated that the Gospels were written in such a way that it was impossible to separate a non-miraculous Jesus from a supernatural Christ.
The "historical critical" method seeks to find the meaning of Christ behind the Biblical texts.
The allegorical approach used by Origen sought to find the meaning of Christ above the Biblical text.
The literal approach used by the Antiochean school and the Reformers sought to find the meaning of Christ with the Biblical text.
The historical-critical method denies that Scripture is the word of God.
The Authority of Scripture
Christians have sought to confirm the authority of Scriptures in four ways:
1) The presuppositional approach
-This states that we know the Bible is the word of God because it claims to be.
-God is the author
-This approach does not give any criteria that can distinguish its claims to being divine revelation from the claims of other texts being of divine revelation, like the Qu'ran
-Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so
2) The Ecclesiastical Approach
-Christians can know Scripture is the word of God because the Church says it is (this is the Roman Catholic approach)
-It is true that the New Testament grew out of the very life of the Church
-Jesus loves me this I know for the Church it tells me so
3) The Spiritual Approach
- This view holds that the ecclesiastical approach places the Church above the Bible
- The inner witness of the Holy Spirit affirms the authority of Scripture
- Absolute assurances of the authority of Scripture can only come from God
- Jesus loves me this I know for the Spirit tells me so
4) The Evidentialist Approach
-There are many convincing proofs that Jesus Christ rose from the dead
-belief in the Bible comes from faith in Christ
-This view holds that the Bible is a generally historically accurate document
-It holds that the evidences from the Bible when combined with reasonable argument establishes that Jesus Christ was crucified, died, buried and rose from the dead beyond a reasonable doubt
-It holds that Jesus' resurrection proves He is the son of God and as such he is trustworthy in all he says
-Jesus trusted the Scriptures we should to
-Because of this we are obliged to follow Jesus and put our whole trust in the Bible as the word of God
The four categories of the authority of Scripture can be placed in two:
1) Fideism
2) Evidentialism
Fideism is based on the term faith, when faith means belief not related to knowledge. The presuppositional, ecclesiastical and spiritual approaches are all fideism.
Evidentialism bases faith upon evidences available to all people. It takes the seriously the historical nature of divine revelation. It refuses to confine knowledge of God to a subjective experience.
All four approaches agree that Scripture is the Church's rule of faith and practice.
The Sufficiency of Scripture
Protestant Reformers believed that the Scripture was alone sufficient while the Roman Catholic Church stated extra-Biblical teachings could be incorporated into Christian dogma.
Roman Catholicism holds that the same spirit which inspired the Scripture still inspires the teaching office of the Church (who they believe is the only fit persons to interpret Scripture).
Their non-Biblical dogmas must meet "apostolic" criteria to be included. There are two criteria it can meet:
1) Any oral tradition whose origins can be traced back to the apostles qualifies
2) The authoritative pronouncements of the ecclesiastical teaching office, whose origin (according to Catholicism) goes back to the apostle Peter qualifies
Protestants believe that only Scripture is apostolic in nature.
The apostles were more than filled with the spirit, they were commissioned by Christ as agents of revelation.
The Protestant definition of "apostolic" is based on the apostle's unique eyewitness experience of Christ's life, death and resurrection gave them the sole authority to write authoritative works to be included in the Scriptures.
The Formation of the Canon
The early church considered the Hebrew Scriptures as the Canon. The need for Scripture that witnessed to Jesus Christ became an issue in the middle of the second century.
It had become more difficult to separate genuine historic oral tradition concerning Christ from the pure myths of Christ.
The need for a church sanctioned canon became more apparent after Marcion produced his canon of some of Paul's letters and the Gospels (purged of any Jewish influence)
The Muratorian Canon is the earliest known list of books which were considered Christian Scripture appeared around AD 200.
In the first half of the third century Origen traveled extensively and recorded which books were considered as Scripture by the various local churches.
He categorized these books three ways:
1) Undisputed
2) Disputed
3) False
The letters of Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were categorized as undisputed.
2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, Hebrews, James and Jude were categorized as disputed.
The false category included all of the heretical gospels.
Athanasius, the most influential theologian of his day, recorded all 27 books included in todays New Testament in a letter in 367 AD.
The Council of Carthage, in 407 AD affirmed todays canon.
The Reformation saw Luther exclude the Apocrypha from the Old Testament Canon. Thus, the Roman Catholic Bible has nine more books in it than the Protestant one. Luther excluded these because the Jewish Scriptures did and he believed that Jesus and his disciples held the Jewish Scriptures as authoritative.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)