POUNDS OF FLESH Patristic Developments on the Body of Christ
A lawful but heavy recompense?
In the post-biblical period, Christian thinkers were tasked with the formulation of doctrine about who Jesus was and why he mattered. Syncretizing Greek and Hebraic ideas, the patristic era marked the foundational historical epoch in which Christians articulated often contentious ideas about the saving effect of God’s Incarnation in the world.
WHAT IS DOCTRINE? ?
WHY DOES DOCTRINE DEVELOP? ?
AN ANALOGY
PARENTS MUSIC RESOURCE CENTER
# Artist Song title Lyrical content 1 Prince "Darling Nikki" Sex 2 Sheena Easton "Sugar Walls” Sex 3 Judas Priest "Eat Me Alive" Sex 4 Vanity "Strap On 'Robbie Baby'" Sex 5 Mötley Crüe "Bastard" Violence/Language 6 AC/DC "Let Me Put My Love Into You" Sex 7 Twisted Sister "We're Not Gonna Take It" Violence 8 Madonna "Dress You Up" Sex 9 W.A.S.P. "Animal “ Sex/Language 10 Def Leppard "High 'n' Dry (Saturday Night)" Drug and alcohol use 11 Mercyful Fate "Into the Coven" Occult 12 Black Sabbath "Trashed" Drug and alcohol use 13 Mary Jane Girls "In My House" Sex 14 Venom "Possessed" Occult 15 Cyndi Lauper "She Bop" Sex
OUTCOME - 1996
CONSIDER …
DOCTRINE & PRACTICE 1. Driven by need 2. Driven by controversy 3. Driven by context 4. Rooted in faith
WHO DEVELOPS DOCTRINE? A living community
PATRISTIC ERA (100-600): NEEDS, CONTROVERSIES, CONTEXT, FAITH Jewish- Gentile Debate Standardization of T ext Sustainable leadership model Establishment of a creed Institutionalization of worship Transition from sect to imperial status
30-150 This is the period of foundation and formation of the Christian religion marked 1) by the teaching and ministry of Jesus, 2) by the teaching and preaching of Jesus’ disciples and the first converts, and 3) by the formation of the first domestic churches and communities from whom the New Testament writings come. This period witnessed 2 major crises. The first was the transition from Jewish Christianity into Christianity for Gentiles — Gentiles could become Christian without undergoing circumcision and following the Jewish laws. The second was the shift from an imminent understanding of the second coming to a delayed understanding of the future glory of God’s reign.
150-300 In this period, the infant Church was becoming acclimated to the broader Greco-Roman culture. Two major theological centers emerged, one in Antioch and the other in Alexandria, in which doctrines of the faith were beginning to be formed in the light of Greco-Roman philosophies. Great debates arose about the nature of God and Christ, which inspired the writings by the Apostolic and Apologist authors and which prompted the first synods (meetings of bishops). In these meetings orthodox (correct) doctrine began to be formulated. This was also the period of cruel and violent persecution of Christians by Roman authorities.
300-450 Emperor Constantine converts to Christianity in 312 and pursues Christianization of the empire. This begins the period of institutional Christianity.
WORKING INFLUENCES Monotheism Polytheism Christian Synthesis Personification of abstract qualities of God Philosophy Greek Hellenistic Judaism from Philo Demigods Latin
THEOLOGY OF THE CROSS – DEBATE THAT LEADS TO HERESY AND ORTHODOXY Gnostic Heresies — dualism and emanationism; these heresies suggest that God exists in a number of hierarchical levels, representing both good and evil principles. The divine being emanates lesser divine beings, who are responsible for creation. Jesus, a lesser deity, reveals special knowledge (gnosis) whereby people may return to the original godhead. Failure to articulate distinctions in the person of the Godhead — this tendency resulted in several doctrinal errors: 1) that God is so much a singular entity that Jesus can only be son by way of adoption; 2) that the divine persons are in fact only modes of one truly divine person – like Harrison Ford playing Indiana Jones, Han Solo, and Jack Ryan); 3) Patripassianism — that the Father actually suffered and died.
ONE MODEL - MODALISM
ANOTHER MODEL – ADOPTIONISM
ANOTHER MODEL – DIVINE HIERARCHY
BIG PROBLEM – ARIANISM
ARIAN CRISIS Picking up on the Alexandrian theology of Origen, the fourth century presbyter Arius began to preach that the Son was a unique creature whose existence was willed by the Father. The Son was not co-eternal with the Father. This teaching was probably an effort to preserve the uniqueness of the Father, which was a central concern in Alexandria. This somewhat popular theory created a heated debate that lasted from 318-325, when Constantine convened the council of Nicaea, at which time the language of homo-ousios was employed to express the consubstantiality of the Father with the Son. The Nicene solution was not immediately popular. Not only was it a non-biblical term, but it also seemed to slip into the modalist heresies which masked the distinctions between the persons of the Trinity.
ARIAN CRISIS Eusebius of Caesarea, ca. 340, for instance, insisted that the Son is only like the Father (homoios) — which position was affirmed at the Synod of Constantinople in 361. It was through the great efforts of Hilary of Portiers, ca. 367, and Athanasius, ca. 296-373, that the homo-ousian and homo-oisian parties were able to agree essentially that likeness and like substance referred to the same quality of relationship between the Father and Son. The language of Nicaea was again ratified at the 1 st Council of Constantinople in 381, along with the articulation that Jesus had a truly human soul (not just human flesh).
THE CREED See Handout
CONFIRMING NICAEA Athanasius in particular was ferocious in confirming the faith of Nicaea and is largely responsible for defining a theology of the incarnation. In his On the Incarnation , Athanasius drives home the point that if the Son had not truly become man — in all aspects of the human person including the soul — then the whole human person would not have been saved by His work. By the 5 th century, when Augustine takes up his masterwork De Trinitate , the language of one substance, three hypostases is taken for granted. He turns to an exploration of the inner life of the Trinity, where he argues that the threeness of God is rooted in the relations of begetting, begotten, and proceeding.
AND THEN, THE COUNCILS … Council of Nicaea in 325 — Jesus is homoousious with the Father in response to the Arian heresy First Council of Constantinople in 381 — Jesus has a human soul in response to the heresies of Logos- anthropos and Logos-sarx Council of Ephesus in 431 — there is only one person in Jesus and Mary is the Mother of God in response to the heresies of two-persons in Christ (Nestorianism) or no human soul in Christ (Apollinarianism) Council of Chalcedon in 451 — in Christ there are two natures hypostatically united in one person without confusion, change, division, or separation in response to Nestorianism and Monophysitism (one divine nature) Second Council of Constantinople in 553 — reaffirmed Chalcedon and rejected Nestorianism again. Third Council of Constantinople in 680-681 — affirmed that there are two wills in Christ as there are two natures in Christ
HOW DOES JESUS SAVE? IS IT A POUND OF FLESH OWED GOD? He saves by his Incarnation It is God’s plan for creation – related to the very being of God The Economic Trinity The Crucifixion cannot be understood apart from the Incarnation Neither can be understood apart from the Trinity This is God’s plan for creation from the beginning
DOCTRINE TODAY How is it developing? By whom? For whom? Is it Incarnational? Is it driven by the saving encounter with God? What extra or non theological influencers shape Christian teaching?
Recommend
More recommend
