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Chapter Five |
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Fourth and Fifth
Centuries |
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I. |
Introduction: Theology developed over a period of time primarily when the early began to question what the early writers had written about this Jesus, the Son of God and how were future generations of Christians to view him. The first confessions of faith come directly from the New Testament; i.e., liturgies of baptism and eucharist. But the early church had to explain things that seemed incompatible; i.e., how could God be unique and at the same time Father and Son? How could a man who was born, lived and died, be God, let alone a God who was by definition beyond all change? Theology attempts to answer these questions. This began the work of the early councils of the church. Every Sunday we proclaim the Nicene Creed, but this creed did not evolve from a peaceful exchange of ideas, but through heated arguments between people, cultures, regions, exiles from the church, bloody skirmishes and interventions by Roman army and police. | ||||
| A. | How can Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit be God? | ||||
| See Handout #64 | |||||
| See Handout #65 | |||||
| See Handout #66 | |||||
| 1. | The beginning of the Arian crisis--from the second century onward the Church had to deal with the biblical notion of monotheism and the baptismal profession of faith in a Trinitarian godhead. | ||||
| a. | Arius, a strict and highly respected priest from a parish in Alexandria, wanted to safeguard the position that God was unique, a being who alone had no beginning. If God was a Father, then at some point he had to begot his Son. So the Son had a beginning. He was not of the same nature as the Father and therefore was subordinate to Him. Prov.8:22; John 14:28. | ||||
| b. | Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, disagreed with Arius' theology. He said the Son (Logos) of God had existed from all eternity and equal to God. If the Logos Word were not fully God, man could not be fully divine, because it would not have been God who became incarnate in a man. Arius was not to be moved and was excommunicated in 318 A.D. He was an influential priest of the East and publicly went around proclaiming his theology in public meetings, writings and songs. | ||||
| c. | Constantine said it was only a matter of words and called all of the bishops together to settle the matter. | ||||
| See Handout #67 | |||||
| See Handout #68 | |||||
| See Handout #69 | |||||
| 2. | The Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.)--this was to be the first new institution in the church, an ecumenical, worldwide, council. 300 bishops from the East and Greek background and only a few from the West. Constantine wined and dined them all, from the lowliest who suffered under the persecutions to those who were high and mighty. Most of them confirmed the condemnation of Arius. They made the statement of faith in the creed and at the request of Constantine added the adjective homoousios in speaking of the Son of God; i.e., the Son is the same ousia, the same substance, as the Father. This means absolute equality with the Father. This council also set the date for Easter that would be adopted by Rome and Alexandria. Restrictions were imposed on priests living with their wives. Some bishops wanted to impose celibacy on priests at this time, but the Council rejected this notion. | ||||
| 3. | A troubled half-century--the decision about the word homoousios in the creed was rejected by many because it was not to be found in scripture. Many bishops in the East rejected the council's decision to add the word to the creed while those in the West remained loyal to the council. Constantine changed his mind and sided with the bishops of the East and the fighting between the bishops of the East and the West intensified. Constantius, Constantine's son in 351 A.D. sided with Arianism and the early church was showing signs of being split. | ||||
| See Handout #70 | |||||
| See Handout #71 | |||||
| See Handout #72 | |||||
| 4. |
The Council of Constantinople (381) and the resolution of the crisis--through the theological discussions the words became clearer with the same meanings and the distinction between ousia (substance) and hypostasis (person) lent itself to the recognition of the equality of the Father and the Son in one substance, but distinct as two persons. Then the question of the Holy Spirit being God arose. St. Basil, bishop of Caesarea, (370-379 A.D.) said yes, it is the same substance as the Father and the Arians said no it isn't. The two emperors: Gratian in the West and Theodosius in the East; decided to put an end to the theological quarrels once and for all. |
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| a. | Peace returns--In 380 A.D. Theodosius made Christianity the state religion. He convened a council of the Eastern bishops and affirmed the Nicene Creed adding in the statement about the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified. In the eighth century the bishops from Rome added filioque (who proceeds from the Father and the Son) and this eventually led to the split between the Eastern and Western churches in the eleventh century. Gratian called his own council of bishops from the West and Arianism was stamped out entirely from the empire. | ||||
| II. | How are God and Man united in Jesus Christ? | ||||
| A. | The beginning of the christological controversy--once the controversy over the Father, Son and Holy Spirit was settled the next question to arise was how could Jesus be the Son of God and still be a human being. Apollinarius, bishop of Laodicea, Syria 310-390 A.D., thought that he had the answer by saying that Jesus had the flesh and the spirit of a human being, but in Jesus the place of the spirit was taken by the Word. So Jesus was incapable of sin because he had no soul. If Christ had no soul, man's will cannot be saved became the argument and Apollinarius; was condemned. | ||||
| 1. |
Unity and distinction--about 428 A.D., Nestorius, was concerned that theotokos; i.e., the Mother of God, was not in scripture and so Mary could only be the mother of the man Jesus. St. Cyril opposed him arguing that Jesus' unity in nature was one in the same. Emperor, Theodosius II, called a council at Ephesus in November 430 A.D. |
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| See Handout #73 | |||||
| 2. | The Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.)--St. Cyril, who did not always act in saintly ways, convened the council on June 22, 431 A.D. Nestorius was condemned as a new Judas, a heretic and theotokos, the mother of God, had triumphed. | ||||
| a. |
The dogma of Ephesus?--the only real dogma to come out of this council was the condemnation of Nestorius and the reaffirmation of the Council of Nicaea was upheld. Jesus was the Son of God and the Son of Mary, the Word of God had been made flesh and been made man. |
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| See Handout #74 | |||||
| 3. | Further controversies leading up to the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.)--the two natures of Christ was disputed by several bishops including Eutyches, an old monk from Constantinople. | ||||
| a. |
The robber Synod of Ephesus-- Theodosius II, a friend of Eutyches, convened a council of only supporters of Eutyches and the Bishop of Rome, Leo. Leo did not speak Greek and Eutyches and his followers, a group of unruly monks, out shouted him. This stormy council ended with a brawl. |
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| b. | The Council of Chalcedon--Marcian, the emperor, sent a legate representing Leo, the bishop of Rome, to preside over the council in 451 A.D. This was the first time a bishop of Rome was to preside over a council and what emerged was the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed that stated emphatically that: Christ is one person in two natures. This became the basis for christology from then on. | ||||
| 4. |
The first separated churches and the consequences of the christological differences-- this last council did not bring peace to the churches from the East and West and schisms occurred. |
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| a. |
Within the frontiers of the empire--the imperial government began to impose (orthodoxy) the 'right doctrine' of Chalcedon upon its territories. Many territories rejected it in order to show their cultural and religious independence from the Greek imperialism of Constantinople. Egypt chose Monophysitism as did the Chalcedonians. Syrians did the same. Chalcedonians were now known as melkites |
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| b. | Beyond the empire--in 486 A.D., at the synod of Ctesiphon, Nestorianism became the religion of the Persian empire. The infighting continued throughout the various empires all the way up to China. | ||||
| III. | The Organization of the Church and Church Unity | ||||
| A. | The councils did not just come together to settle disputes, but gave bishops the opportunity to meet one another and compare their different traditions and cultures. | ||||
| 1. | The Bishops and Metropolitans--church became organized on the model of the Roman empire politically, administratively and economically. The bishop was the head of the community in a city. Each city had a province and the bishop of the capital of a province, metropolis, and he became known as the metropolitan. He confirmed and installed bishops in his province. This is found in Canon 4 of Nicaea. This canon points to a collegial method for the election of a bishop. | ||||
| See Handout #75 | |||||
| See Handout #76 | |||||
| See Handout #77 | |||||
| 2. | The origin of the five patriarchates--since the earliest of times, it was the episcopal sees which played a special role in the church. These were the original evangelization points of the apostles: Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage. They played a bigger role in the church than just their provinces because of where they were situated; i.e., calling councils, appointing bishops etc... These larger provinces were called dioceses. The bishop of Constantinople held a higher position of honor than did the bishop of Rome. The See of Jerusalem thought that it should be included as one of the highest ranking of dioceses and thus was added. Thus the five patriarchates were: Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, Rome and Jerusalem. In that order of supremacy. | ||||
| 3. | The Assertion of the primacy of Rome--we cannot speak about the position of Pope in our present day church until the sixth century. It was a term commonly used by bishops denoting the role of father. The Bishop of Rome had always held a special place of importance in the church because of Peter and Paul being present there and the fact that it was the capital of the Roman empire. On the other hand, the Bishops of Rome intervened in the life of the other churches when they were requested to do so by other bishops; Clement of Rome called the church of Corinth to order in 96 A.D.; in 190 A.D. Victor excommunicated the bishops who did not celebrate Easter on the same day as Rome; Stephen of Rome criticized Cyprian for baptizing heretics etc... On the other hand all of the Eastern churches always held Rome as a special place of honor. They appealed to Rome in most cases; i.e., the Arian crisis and the christological disputes. | ||||
| See Handout #78 | |||||
| 4. | The Holy Father--The bishops of Rome viewed the rise of Constantinople with fear and would cause the decline of Rome which in turn would bring the decline of the church. In the fourth century, because of their primacy in the church and the succession from Peter, they gave themselves the title 'apostolic see'. And the expression of decisions made at the Council of Chalcedon "Peter has spoken through Leo" gave the bishop of Rome primacy of the church. Leo recognized his right and duty to control the whole church as Peter's successor with the other bishops only to 'share in his pastoral concern, but not in the fullness of his power'. Leo became the bishop of bishops, the source of episcopal authority. | ||||
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Handouts |
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| 64 | Confrontation of Doctrines--the fight begins as to who is right about Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and God. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 65 | The Thalia (banquet) of Arius--the first heretic and heresy. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 66 | Constantine's point of view on quarrels over dogma. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 67 | The First Ecumenical Council, Nicaea, 325 A.D. A mixed bag of glitz and glamour not appreciated by all bishops at all times. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 68 | The Nicene Creed. A proclamation that led to the split between the churches of the East and West. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 69 | Bishop Paphnutius and the married life of the clergy, at the Council of Nicaea. That says it all. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 70 | The Council of Constantinople (381 A.D.) The Spirit of God, a tongue in cheek chastising by St. Gregory. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 71 | Theology in the streets. Gregory laments over the ignorance of the masses regarding God. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 72 | Squabbling among bishops. Gregory tried in vain to unite bishops. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 73 | The Council of Ephesus according to a historian of the time. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 74 | Dogmatic definition of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 75 | The canons of the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 76 | The canons of the Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 77 | Canon 28 of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
| 78 | Church organization and links between churches. The Bishop of Rome has inherited the promises made to Peter. | ||||
| See Full Text | |||||
