- All history is His story.
- We must work to differentiate between civilization and Christianity.
- The past is a “foreign country.” – hermeneutics emic vs. etic
- Persecution of Christian during the reign of Domitian (81-96 A.D) came to forefront in Asia Minor where the imperial cult was centered.
- Persecution resulted in two significant literary productions: apologetics and martyrdom.
- Heresy promoted doctrinal systematization.
- Irenaeus important for representing orthodox reaction to heresy (Against Heresies).
- Tertullian’s writings tell us much about alternative understandings of Christianity.
- Origen produced the first systematic theology.
- Claims against Christians included obstinacy, disloyalty, atheism, cannibalism, incest.
- Philosophers such as Celsus, Galen, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius argued that Christians were “weaklings”, irrational, gullible, and fanatics.
- Persecution was sporadic but “always present as a possibility.”
- The early church fathers gave us a rich theological inheritance, but were not immune to error.
- Irenaeus – Trinitarian, fought Gnosticism, but also apostolic succession, emphasis upon tradition, priority of Roman bishop
- Perhaps the most influential second century apologist was Justin Martyr. Others included Tatian, Athenagorus, Thophilus and Minucius Felix.
- The Logos was prominent in apologetic literature (a) The Logos as the reason or wisdom of God, (b) the Logos as God’s spoken word, (c) the Logos as immanent in the world, (d) the Logos as the revealed word of God in the prophets, (e) the incarnate Jesus.
- Martyrdom literature took three forms, letters, passions, and acts.
- “Beginning with Constantine, the church entered imperial history in such a way that one cannot deal with the secular history of the fourth century without discussing the church and cannot deal with the religious history without considering the state.”
- Arius believed that, “Thee was when Christ was not” — that Jesus was the first and highest of God’s creations – a god.
- Arianism was addressed at the Council of Nicea, called by Constantine in 325.
- The council adopted the word homoousious to describe Christ’s relationship with the Father.
- The first four ecumenical councils were Nicea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451).
- The fourth century dealt with the Trinitarian conflict. The fifth century with the Christological controversy.
- Apollonarianism = the belief that the divine Logos replaced the human soul/spirit of Jesus.
- Nestorianism = Christ exists as two natures, the man Jesus and the divine Son of God, or Logos, rather than as a unified person.
- Eutychianism = Monophysitism – only one nature of Christ, the human nature overcome by the divine nature.
- Ebionites – Denied the full deity of Christ (As the Christ, he functioned as God on earth)
- Docetism – Appeared to be a man
- Eutychianism – Human nature became absorbed into the God nature such that
- Monarchianism/Seballianism – Modalism
- Adoptionism – man in the beginning but adopted as the Son of God and became deity
- Kenoticsm – God became less God to become man, he set aside part of his deity
- We must watch out for language games – equivocation
- Constantine moves capital in 330
- The Eastern Empire becomes seat of power and wealth
- Roman bishop left as single most powerful person in the West
- By the end of the 4th century barbarians serious problem in the west (Visgoths, Huns, etc)
- After the sacking of Rome in 410, Christian views of society and history were put forth, including the most prominent which was Augustine’s City of God.
- Compare Augustine’s Two Cities with Genesis 4-5.
- Other important works of Augustine which we will discuss include his Confessions, and On the Trinity,
- Augustine – bridge between ancient world and Middle Ages
- Roman bishop won primacy over other bishops
- When imperial throne falls into the hands of the barbarians in 476 people look to the Roman bishop for political leadership as well as spiritual leadership
- Western civilization was created in medieval Europe (institutions, mentalities, struggles, books, etc.) No more Roman Lake.
- Spontaneous mission work in 4th & 5th centuries
- “Medieval history, from one point of view, is the story of the movement of the centre of gravity of civilization from one side of the Alps to the other.”
- “The movement of the centres of civilization from south to north and from east to west during the medieval centuries involved a change from the empires of Rome, Byzantium, and the Arabs, empires of vast geographical extent and great military power but which were relatively loosely controlled.” Creation of new societies.
- Christians among the Britons by the end of the second century.
- When Roman missionaries came England in 6th century they found three distinct expressions of Christianity (1)Romano-British Christians in the South, (2) Irish Christians, and (3) Celtic Christianity.
- Boniface evangelizes Teutonic tribes occupying modern Germany
- In the East, political stability achieved through reducing taxes and trimming expenses. (common vision)
- Syriac speaking Christians took gospel to Persian where there was interest in medicine, philosophy, advanced education.
- Persians make peace treaty with Justinian in 532
- Justinian had eyes on Africa and Italy
- 539 Khosru declares War on “Rome”
- Bubonic plague, Slavs, Goths keep Eastern empire from “glory” – Justinian’s reign relentless, austere quality
- Persia becomes stronger than at any time since Darius I
- Time of weak leadership makes susceptible to be conquered.
- In the sixth century many Arabs had converted to Christianity, but most continued to worship tribal deities.
- Mohammad lived 570-632.
- Ten years = 65 raids or campaigns
- Eventually becomes powerful enough to take Mecca, destroys idols, establishes Islam
- Islam means “submission.”
- Muslim means “one who submits.”
- The century of Muslim expansion is traditionally dated as 632-732.
- By 650 his Muslims had overrun the Persian empire, taken Syria, Egypt, and Palestine
- Western empire makes gains in the North through evangelism.
- Missionary task included making sure converts would be loyal to the pope.
- Emperors in Constantinople thought the church should be subordinate to the ruler of the state.
- Pope seeks ally
- Frankish rulers
- Rulers of new empire were Teutons rather than Romans
- Franks had accepted the Roman culture
- Clovis (466-510) had unified the Franks and conquered most of what would be modern France
- Franks accepted Christianity in 496 and became bulwark of papal power in Western Europe
- Eastern Empire barely hold its own against Muslims
- 718 Eastern empire under Leo the Isaurian stops Muslim advance
- Charles Martel stopped the advance of Islam in Spain in 732.
- Muslims, influenced by Greek culture, set out to build a splendid Arabic civilization centered in Bagdad
- Eastern Influence Diminishes (North African church disappears, Egypt and Holy Land lost to Muslims, Roman bishop has been growing stronger and stronger)
- The Franks “snatched western Europe from decline and brought a brief cultural revival” when Charlemagne crowned as true successor to the Roman empire.
- Charlemagne had Augustine’s City of God read to him every night and it was his inspiration for a Frankish-Roman empire.
- Charlemagne saw “missions” as part of a military strategy.
- By the time of the new millennium (1000) almost all of Europe was “officially” Christian.
- Charlemagne was crowned by Pope Leo III on Christmas day of 800, but intentionally avoided having the Pope present when control was passed to his son (816).
- “The Constitution romana (824) spelled out relations of emperor and pope. The emperor had supreme jurisdiction, while the pope as a local ruler was to exercise ordinary judiciary and administrative power in his territories. The pope was to be chosen by the Roman people without constraint. The emperor was to confirm his election, and before his consecration he was to take an oath of loyalty to the emperor. The pope had the right to crown and anoint the emperor.
- Henry III, German emperor, was the last emperor able to dominate the papacy. Deposed three rival popes and installed his own.
- Excommunication of Henry IV by Gregory VII in 1076.
- Pope Boniface VII: Unam Sanctum (1302)For when the Apostles say: ‘Behold, here are two swords’ [Lk 22:38] that is to say, in the Church, since the Apostles were speaking, the Lord did not reply that there were too many, but sufficient. Certainly the one who denies that the temporal sword is in the power of Peter has not listened well to the word of the Lord commanding: ‘Put up thy sword into thy scabbard’ [Mt 26:52]. Both, therefore, are in the power of the Church, that is to say, the spiritual and the material sword, but the former is to be administered _for_ the Church but the latter by the Church; the former in the hands of the priest; the latter by the hands of kings and soldiers, but at the will and sufferance of the priest.
- Erastians –
- Calvin –
- Luther –
- Anabaptists –
- What Does the Bible Say? Deut 17:8ff
- 1 Samuel 13
- 2 Chronicles 26:16-21
- Luke 20:22ff
- First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
- Aristocracy = weakness, meritocracy = strength
- Six things that lead to cultural change: war, politics, religion, migration, economics, education.
. No fancy graphics or flashing lights but the information is well-balanced and useful. It is presented by Timothy George of Beeson Divinity School. It runs about $25 from Amazon but it is well worth it. Topics include:
might be a better direction for someone looking for information in a print format.
