Christian Heritage

destroyed by Romans

zealots; far left

Christian gnostic reading of creation; part of Roman Christian community; rejected O.T. as foreign to Christianity; YHWH=demiurge of Gnosticism; below father revealed by Jesus; favored Luke and loved Paul

Hebrew canon closed

Herod built Masada, the Jewish fortress

They had ousted their leader
Clement chastised them; lack of continuity with authority

Bishop of Carthage, lapsed vs. confessor, question of baptism and martyred by Emperor Decius.

dualism, focused on : light vs. dark, good vs. evil, gnostic tendencies (OT rejection; spirit > body)

Father of Christian monasticism; anchoritic and araminic

council of nicea= there was when he was not

Ended Christian persecution w/ Edict of Milan ‘toleration.’ Secured total power in West and centered his empire in Constantinople.

“The Great Persecution” , goal was to recreate the old Roman Empire by destroying churches and forbidding worship. Created tetrarchy.

derived a rule for monks that they had to spend their days in prayer, worship and labor while in their separate cells. Peace and order were the greatest virtues, community was to work together to attain spiritual goals. His community would become the model for most later Christian monastatic communities.

threatened Augustine’s community, commanded allegiance of the people, and concerned for doctrines of the church. Affirmed purity over universality: true church must be unstained, drew upon Cyprian, person over office, and unworthy priest/bishop = unworthy baptism. Considered more people traitors and pretended to hand over sacred scripture. Rejected at Ephesus and disappeared with the rise of Islam.

established toleration of Christianity

first council; constantine was the chair; Athanasius, Eusebius and Arius; E. was condemned by the council; Arius = "there was when he was not" homoosias; Athanasius = homoiosias

Est:
date of easter
consecration of bishops
what to do with lapsed members

Start of the Nicene Creed - only the father and son, holy spirit has not come into play yet

Cappadocian father
close friend of Basil and Gregory of Nyssa

‘Basil of Caesarea’ greek bishop, opposed Arianism and followers of Apollinaris of Laodicea. Father of communal monasticism.

fourth crusade slaughtered Byzantine rulers and sacking of the city; would be reconquered in 1261; only shadow of former glory; exiled leaders remained afar – why never recovers; would only regain power as a cultural icon

her younger brothers Basil the Great and Saint Gregory of Nyssa; She had a profound influence upon her brothers with her adherence to an ascetic ideal.

Mother of Augustine, highly influenced him. Always a Christian, husband was a Greek Pagan, she pestered him to convert since his youth.

Cappadocian father
Basil's younger brother

Most significant theologian of the West influenced by Paul, Cicero and Monica (his mother). Emphasized grace and election, confessions, own experience with original sin through pears. Became a Christian 3 yrs after Council @ Constantine and within 7 years he was bishop of Hippo – a struggling Catholic community. Wrote the City of God; battled with Donatism. Original sin: human beings, after the fall of Adam and Eve, permanently broken by sin. Baptism remits original sin, believers can then choose to do good, passed down sexually. Predestination.

Well regarded British monk, affirmed complete free will, human beings choose good, resisted Augustine’s emphasis on God’s majesty. Rendered humans being puppets , no responsibility for reality.

temple in Constantinople, largest place of worship for Christianity at the time

opposes Nostorious, Mary shouldn’t be called the God Bearer; he thought the relationship with the son and the father were like "wine and water"

homoiosias affirmed; Nicea affirmed; Theodosius called council; Cappadocian fathers come into play: Basil, Gregory's and Macrina; they were the first to bring up the trinity= one substance with three different persons

His teachings included a rejection of the long-used title of Theotokos ("Mother of God") for the Virgin Mary, and were understood by many to imply that he did not believe that Christ was truly God. However, Nestorius actually was concerned that the "Theotokos" cult was dangerously close to venerating Mary as a goddess; This brought him into conflict with other prominent churchmen of the time, most notably Cyril of Alexandria, who accused him of heresy. Nestorius sought to defend himself at the First Council of Ephesus in 431, but instead he found himself formally condemned for heresy by a majority of the bishops and subsequently removed from his see. He proposed Anthropotikos.

Jerome's translation of the Greek Bible into Latin

Christians blamed for fall of Rome

City of God written shortly after by Augustine

both one nature and two natures were rejected; Cyril favored the one nature and Nestorius was in the middle of both sides - anthropotokos

nothing really solved at Ephesus

concluded question of nature of God is not completely mixed or
completely separate.

God is one substance and three persons; and Jesus is just as much human as he is divine

converts to catholic Christianity – begins Merovingian dynasty

Alexandrian Father, logos greeek concept of the governing principle of the universe. Logos connected human beings with God.

restored by Justinian

8th century, devastated Byzantine Empire (bubonic plague), left Constantinople and most Syria in ruins; paved way for Muslim conquest

Most significant Eastern theologian; pastoral advice for every facet of life; emphasized theosis; a supporter of Jesus’s will; lost his right hand and tongue b/c he wouldn’t renounce his beliefs.

• God starts the universe like a clock and lets it go
• God doesn’t intervene in our lives
• Makes revelation unnecessary
• Hyper emphasis on reason

rejects Islamic invasion; begins (Pepin does) Carolingian dynasty; Pepin runs Byzantines out of Italy, returns (gives) the lands to Pope Stephen II; sets up papal states of Italy; built magnificent churches – seeds of later European cathedrals; sees himself as 2nd Constantine; began manuscript copying initiative

The breaking of images; a religious controversy of the 8th century; Byzantine emperor attempted but failed to suppress icon veneration.

loves Roman Christianity; presents as quintessential Roman ruler; crowned by Pope Leo III; Pope bows to Charlemagne at his coronation; concerned for theological issues

Persian Muslim; Neoplatonic commentator on Aristotle’s work

student of Peter Abelard; author of Four Books of Sentences; 7 sacraments

response to rediscovery of Aristotle and rise of the university

Spanish Muslim; vast commentaries on Aristotle; called by Thomas Aquinas ‘the Commentator’

a Spanish priest and founder of the Dominican Order.

Son of wealthy merchant; affirmed all created thingssupports tradition of Catholicism; supports Protestant theological emphases; middle way between both; results in Anglicanism;

a monk of Mount Athos in Greece and later the Archbishop of Thessaloniki known as a preeminent theologian of Hesychasm. The teachings embodied in his writings defending Hesychasm against the attack of Barlaam are sometimes referred to as Palamism, his followers as Palamites. Palamas is venerated as a Saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

protected Luther for political and religious reasons; elector of Saxony (German territory); education – founded University of Wittenberg; sought counsel of major humanist figures – Erasmus; pius – collected relics; profound sense of justice

was a German Dominican preacher known for selling indulgences.

Greatest humanist; reintroduced Greek writers to the west; published Greek NT in 1516; emphasized spiritual practices of early church; rejected popular piety – relics and monasticism; Prince of Humanists; debate with Luther on the nature of free will

studied theology under Adolf von Harnack/Karl Holl; influenced by Karl Barth; against liberal theology; God’s revelation no part of human life; dedicated to ecumenical movement church

He was a leading theologian of his day who is now best known as the spokesman for Catholic opposition to the teachings of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation

Trained to be a lawyer (mid class wealth); father grieved by his rejection of legal training; thunderstorm; understood monarchy as attempt at purity – unstained by the world and others; joined Augustinian; gifted monastic – sent to preach and teach at a university; over scrupulous/sins; significant problem with the nature of salvation; believed grace was a free gift and works are return gifts to God

• More humanist than Luther/Calvin
• Affirmed transformative power of education
• More extreme in reformation than Luther
• Removal of images
• Concerned for parish ministry
• Parallel reading of Bible
• Differed from Luther; not mentioned = rejected
• Luther: what contradicts must be rejected
• Emphasized general public education for all social classes in Zurich
• Elevated spiritual over material
• Rejected church music
• Zwingli’s disciple became extreme
• Live as close to Bible as possible
• Split off to form Anabaptist movement

• Courtly life, solider of romance
• Wounded; became a ‘soldier for Christ’
• Mission = persuade those under the ‘banner of Satan’ to ‘banner of Christ’
• Embraced eremitical life – ‘lonely life’
• Mystical life
• Learned spiritual moderation
• Devoted to Thomas á Kempis’s The Imitation
• Most popular book in Christianity history
• Especially popular w/ monks
• Kept journal of spiritual insights
• The Spiritual Exercises
• Developed Jesuits

• Rescued Anabaptist movement
• Consistently pacifist
• Mennonites
• Homestead heritage

• Sections of English church desire greater reformation
• Draw from Calvin’s reformation of Geneva
• Call for greater discipline/purity

• Organizing force behind the Reformation
• Received finest education
• Studied under renowned humanists at the time
• Describes early experience of being “converted”
• Writes Institutes of the Christian Religion
• First reformed systematic theology
• Critical awareness of theology
• Elevates the Bible itself → contrary to Luther
• God’s Glory
• Double predestination
• Falls between Luther and Zwingli on the Eucharist
• Distinction between reality and sign
• Geneva
• Exile
• Calvin wants to excommunicate unrepentant sinners
• Provokes power
• Finally able to go to Strasberg
• Return
• Gov’t changes in Geneva
• Calvin possesses political power
• Cultivates Geneva as personal theocracy

16th-century schism within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. It was sparked by the 1517 posting of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals, leadership and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led to the creation of new national Protestant churches.

"re-baptizers"; developed from Zwingli's Bible study; major break with idea of imperial Christianity; push for equality with women in church roles; Movement rescued by Menno Simons; became Mennonites; have bad rep b/c the rejected infant baptism which would invalidate many that were baptized at birth

• Society of Jesus
• Missional order
• Emphasized hierarchy/order
• Based on military
• Complete obedience to Church
• Emmisaries of the papacy
• Virulently hostile to Protestantism
• Allied w/ nuns for female education
• Stressed secondary and university education
• Created middle class
• Missional and educational arm of church in new world

• Official response to Protestantism (1545-1563)
• Notable results
• Rejected Luther’s translation of NT into German
• Demanded use of Latin vulgate
• St. Jerome’s translation
• Wouldn’t change until 20th century
• Rejects Luther’s anti-catholic reading
• Church is only interpreter of scripture
• Reaffirmed infant baptism
• Rejected justification by faith for faith formed through love
• Justification as extrinsic and overpowering vs. justification as formation of what is already present
• Does grace overwhelm nature or does it perfect nature
• Promoted Aquinas
• Culminates in 19th/20th century w/ “neo-thomism”
• Birth of modern catholic theology/church

was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648), which is sometimes considered a response to the Protestant Reformation. The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort composed of four major elements:
• Ecclesiastical or structural reconfiguration
• Religious orders
• Spiritual movements
• Political dimensions

supports tradition of Catholicism; supports Protestant theological emphases; middle way between both; results in Anglicanism; defined in 39 Articles

• Negotiated relative peace (1648)
• Not positive peace; resignation of political/religious division
• Simply avoiding conflict
• Southern Europe and Ireland – Catholic
• Northern Europe – Protestant

Major figure of Moravian group

• Concerned for ‘vital practical religion’
• Transformed heart
• Affirmed free will vs. puritan predestination
• Emotion
• Emphasized sanctification
• Justification the saving act; sanctification the purifying act
• The process of becoming holy
• Could lose salvation through not repenting sins
• Controversial
• Direct communication w/ God
• Field preaching –lay people could preach
• Biblical interpretation laicized
• Luther and Calvin argued laity should read text
• Anglican and Wesleyan communities split after Wesley’s death

• Major preacher of the Great Awakening
• Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God – most popular sermon
• Concerned with eschatological times
• Wrote hymns

• Attracted vast audiences for his sermons
• Interant preacher
• Espoused conversion of the heart
• Destabilized the American south
• Anglican communions in the south prioritized reason/order
• In response to revivalism
• Emphasized deism
• Emotional responses subverted this impulse

• Massive conversions in New England
• Jonathan Edwards
• George Whitfield
• Emotional responses
• Popular among slaves

another response to rationalism and deism; more to human beings than logic/info; characterized by feelings; not necessarily pietism; not religiously dogmatic; universe= organic; not mechanical; unpredictable, changing and life-giving; embodied theologically in Friedrich Schleirmacher; absolute dependence; surrender; unity of pietism and rationalism → w/o the sterility of strict rationalism, w/o the devotional excess and dogmatism of pietism

posits supremely moral Jesus; sin + alienation from spiritual 'family', Christian with no Christ

historian concerned for historical Jesus, openly connected with social gospel, historical critical appropriation of the Bible, get rid of the dogmatic 'husk' to get a spiritual 'kernal'

clause that reserves membership and/or right of residence solely for members of the “Aryan race” and excludes from such rights any non-Aryans, particularly Jews in Germany and Austria

a Swiss Reformed theologian. Barth is often regarded as the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century.

pentecostal, brought role of women in the spotlight

a renewal movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

a Peruvian theologian and Dominican priest regarded as the founder of Liberation Theology

designated to confessing church, against Christian church - Bonhoeffer

mid 20th century
sought a return to Catholic theology to its original purity of thought and expression. Advocated ressourcement

a political movement in Catholic theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in relation to a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions. Term coined by Gustavo Gutierrez