pope gregory the great

The Church Fathers, pt (vi).  From ‘The Story of Christian Theology’, Olsen, (IVP).

Roman Catholicism consider him to be one of the 4 great doctors of the church (with Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine).  In a time of weak Empire, Gregory provided authority; he contributed great missionary effort to Britain and others.  He was significant not for his originality but for his influence.  

He created a hybrid of Augustine and Cassian – he read Augustine through Cassian.  In emphasising God’s sovereignty and man’s sin, he sounded Augustinian; in emphasising Christian discipleship and responsibility, he sounded Pelagian.  This created a balance of warning and comfort:

Even the predestination itself to the eternal kingdom is so arranged by the omnipotent God that the elect attain it from their own effort.

He also said that preaching involved two tasks: comforting the afflicted, and afflicting the comfortable.  

Essentially he was a synergist: he believed that Christ didn’t fulfill everything, and so penitential acts of self-sacrifice were needed.  This undermined assurance, or security, about salvation.  Luther was taught Gregory’s version of Augustinianism and was plagued by guilt.

augustine v. pelagius

The Church Fathers, pt (v).  From ‘The Story of Christian Theology’, Olsen (IVP).  

What role do humans play in their own salvation?

 

Augustine: none.  Grace is all sufficient; God chooses and imparts grace and faith.  (Monergism)

Pelagius: humans contribute – even to the point that grace is unnecessary to assist (works righteousness; close to synergism – popular in East – but not quite the same).  

Pelagius was condemned in 418 and this was confirmed by the Council of Ephesus in 431, but not in favour of Augustine; a middle ground was sought.  This gave birth to semi-pelagianism, led by John Cassian and his monks.  Cassian & co considered the differences to create a viable alternative to monergism and Pelagianism.  It became widely accepted by medieval Roman Catholicism, though on paper the church denied it (be careful here, however, of accusing Roman Catholicism of works righteousness – there is a careful nuanced difference). 

Semi-Pelagianism: one can only be saved by grace, but it can begin by a step toward God in the heart; ie.

Take one step towards God and he’ll come the rest of the way toward you.

This was condemned in 529 for being too close to Pelagianism.  There is uncertainty as to whether Cassian believed this himself.

augustine

The Church Fathers, pt (iv).  From ‘The Story of Christian Theology’, Olsen, IVP.  

Prolific writer, influential theologian, great beard.

Prayed for by Monica, learned in rhetoric and neo-platonism, converted under Ambrose, became Bishop of Hippo.

3 major debates:

(i) apologetics against Manichaeism, regarding the nature of good and evil

(ii) tackling Donatism, regarding the church and the sacraments

(iii) tackling Pelagius, regarding original sin, free will, and grace.  

big words in the trinitarian debate

Wayne Grudem’s definition of the Trinity, and the alternatives:

“There is one God…”

v. pluralism

“… in three persons…”

v. modalism (Sabellius)

“…who are all fully God.”

v. subordinationism/Arianism, or adoptionism (Paul of Samosata) 

athanasius ‘on the incarnation’: a summary

The Church Fathers, pt (iii).  Taken from ‘On The Incarnation’ by Athanasius.  

See ‘Athanasius: the most important gospel defence ever’  for the historical background to his argument.

1. Creation and the Fall

Man was created by God in his image: 

For God is good—or rather, of all goodness He is Fountainhead, and it is impossible for one who is good to be mean or grudging about anything. Grudging existence to none therefore, He made all things out of nothing through His own Word.

Man was given one place and one rule:

But since the will of man could turn either way, God secured this grace that He had given by making it conditional from the first upon two things—namely, a law and a place. He set them in His own paradise, and laid upon them a single prohibition. 

Man through rebellion was corrupted, to return to non-existence:

For the transgression of the commandment was making them turn back again according to their nature; and as they had at the beginning come into being out of non-existence, so were they now on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again. 

 

2. The Divine Dilemma.  3 problems:

(i) Man wasn’t created for corruption and non-existence.  But God couldn’t go back on his word of judgement.  What was the solution?  Not mere repentance.  Only the Word of God.

athanasius: the most important gospel defence ever

The Church Fathers, pt (ii).  From ‘The Story of Christian Theology’ by Olson.  

Athanasius (the “Black Dwarf”) succeeded his teacher Alexander as Bishop of Alexandria.  He was controversial in his time, and Luther’s axiom could be applied to him: “Peace if possible, but truth at any cost!”

The Council of Nicaea in 325 meant to end the Arian controversy, but was a catalyst for more dispute.  The ambiguous language of its Creed led to various sides claiming it a victory for themselves.  In particular, a controversial subject was the use of the word homoousios (meaning ‘cosubstantial’) to describe the relationship and divinity of the Father and Son.  

Constantius (son and successor of Constantine), desiring of peace, seeked a compromise by suggesting replacing the word with homoiousios, meaning ‘of a similar substance’, ie. not identical (to combat Sabellianism) but possibly not the same (to appease the Arians).  This was acceptable to many.  Athanasius, however, refused.  

Despite the difference in the words being only one letter, Athanasius knew that the theological difference was huge; one meant the Son was God, the other meant the Son was like God.  Athanasius saw that, for the sake of salvation, the Son needs to be God and not just be like God.  As a result, Athanasius suffered 5 exiles – 17 years out of his 46 as bishop; but he stood his ground, in possibly the most important defence of the gospel ever.  

arius v. alexander: a fight for the gospel

The Church Fathers, pt (i).  From ‘The Story of Christian Theology’ by Olson (IVP).  

In the 4th century, the dispute between the world’s two major theological schools (Alexandria and Antioch) started to simmer.  The dispute originated over Origen, who was in two minds about the nature of Jesus: on the one hand, he believed Jesus was equal with the Father, but on the other hand subordinate to the Father.  Alexandrians and Antiochenes both claimed to be in true agreement with Origen, but emphasised different sides (equality/divinity and subordination/humanity respectively).  There was, however, agreement over the nature of God’s immutability, which stemmed from Greek philosophical thought.  

Arius, educated in Antioch but teaching in Alexandria, challenged Bishop Alexander on his teaching of the divinity of the Logos (the Son of God, who took on human form in the person of Jesus Christ).  Arius accused Alexander of promoting Sabellianism and denying Jesus’ humanity.  Arius captured the public imagination and the dispute led to public marches (with banners stating ‘There was when the Son was not!’) folk songs and even riots on the street, with mobs on his side who probably didn’t understand the theological issues at stake.  

The two key elements of Arius’ thought about God and the Logos are these: First, God is by nature removed from creatureliness, and if the Logos became human in Jesus Christ, he must be a creature.  Second, salvation is a process of being joined with God by grace and free will, and if Jesus communicates salvation to us, it must be something he accomplished by grace and free will in a manner we can emulate; and if he was God, then salvation would not be something he could accomplish.

Alexander needed to respond, and did so with a Synod in 318 (where 100 bishops condemned Arius’ stance), and in argument.  He argued along the line of immutability, and thus undermined one of the main Arian arguments; he argued that if there was a time when the Son was not, then there was a time that the Father was not a father, and so by claiming this you are undermining God’s immutability.  

Arianism was such an issue to Alexander because he saw how important the deity of Christ was to salvation.  Only if Jesus is fully God and fully man are we saved, and Arianism was denying the former.  

The dispute was also, however, an issue to the Emperor Constantine.  He hoped that Christianity would be the glue to hold his shaky Empire together, and yet its leaders were divided.  So he sought to solve it and stepped in, by arranging the first ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325.  Arguably it caused more dispute than it resolved, and resulted in Athanasius making what has been described as the most important defence of the gospel in the history of the world…

the apostolic fathers: didache, the shepherd of hermas

Part 5 of … on Historical Theology.  Taught by Mike Reeves for the UCCF staff study programme.  Listen to the talks here

Didache

Didache = teaching, ie “the teaching of the apostles” though not really.

We knew this writing existed but didn’t have a copy until 1873, when it hit the headlines and made the front pages of the papers, because it came from about 100AD and gives a detailed discussion of life, practice, and beliefs in the apostolic churches.  There were big expectations of what it might say.

the apostolic fathers: ignatius, polycarp, the martyrdom of polycarp

Part 4 of … on Historical Theology.  Taught by Mike Reeves for the UCCF staff study programme.  Listen to the talks here

 

Ignatius

The most colourful character in this period.  Bishop of Antioch, in Syria.  Know virtually nothing about him until he explodes on the scene a few weeks before his persecution.  In Antioch there was a citywide persecution, and he and some other Christians are arrested and deported to Rome to be thrown to wild beasts.  On route from Antioch, Ignatius under armed guard writes seven letters to the churches he passes through.  The letters are clearly written quickly, by a man under considerable strain.  Yet they are the last words of a man with only a few weeks to live – so are fascinating to read.  As he wrote he had three concerns:

the apostolic fathers: papius, 1 clement

Part 3 of … on Historical Theology.  Taught by Mike Reeves for the UCCF staff study programme.  Listen to the talks here

 

 

Papius

The Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor.  Supposedly, a disciple of the apostle John, perhaps his scribe who wrote out the gospel of John.  Wrote Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord – 5 vol.  In second centuries, very highly esteemed, but quickly went out of favour, but then mostly everyone believed in pre-millennial, literal millennium.  Later derided.  Eusebius 3^rd 4^th cent – “Papius was a man of exceedingly little intelligence.” 

Why valuable today?  He shows us how important oral tradition was for his generation.  When we read his fragments, there are thousands of oral traditions going round of what Jesus said and did.  Some are weird.  Some sound credible.  According to Papius, oral tradition was valued in its day possibly even more than written accounts.  You could probe, test it, interact with it.  So Papius is a key source of info on oral traditions like these: