This program reviews the period in which Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond.  Since my first review also included an overview of the whole Bible, you'll find this program shorter than the unit 1 review.  We'll conclude with a review of key places in the imperial church.  For the map review, you'll need Map 2 at the end of your syllabus; if you don't have it handy, please don't begin the review until you can locate it, so you can follow along as I remind you of some key persons and events associated with each place. 

    This program correlates with chapters 12-27 of volume 1 in The Story of Christianity, by Justo L. González (San Francisco:  Harper, 1984).  The photo above shows a copy of Codex Vaticanus Latinus, a beautifully illustrated ancient manuscript of the New Testament.  This copy was originally given by Pope John Paul II to Dr. Donald English, a former President of British Methodism.  It was donated to the World Methodist Museum at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, in August 2005.  In the picture above, the codex is held by Dr. Fred Kellogg; Dr. George Freeman, General Secretary of the World Methodist Council (E&H '69); and Dr. David St. Clair, pastor of Chilhowie United Methodist Church (E&H '73).

BACKGROUNDS  

    During the period of the early church, Christians often faced persecution because of their beliefs.  But after the 300's A.D., persecution was rare.  Instead, the church became part of the "establishment" and cooperated with government officials in affairs of both church and state.  This dramatic change came about gradually, but it was accelerated by the work of one ruler:  Constantine.  He saw Christianity as good not only for himself, but also for all his people.  Constantine thus enabled the church to thrive throughout the Mediterranean world, supported legally and financially by the Roman Empire.

MONASTICISM

    Not all Christians, however, felt comfortable with the church's alliance with wealth and power.  We can trace an ascetic strand in the Christian faith all the way back to the early church (remember the Montanists?).  A twenty-year-old Egyptian in the third century, Anthony, felt like the rich young ruler who had tried to find out from Jesus how he could attain the "good life."  But instead of turning away from strict requirements, the rich young Egyptian named Anthony sold all that he had, gave it to the poor, and set out to follow Jesus.  He is considered the founder of the monastic movement in Christianity.  Although Anthony sought closeness to God in private prayer and meditation, he attracted groups of followers who built small huts out in the Egyptian desert near him.  This was the earliest Christian community of ascetics.  We call it a monastery.  The prefix mon- means "loner," since each monk or Brother followed a solitary religious quest, even while living with others.  The corresponding term for a community of nuns or Sisters is convent.  

    The emphasis on aloneness was even stronger among other ascetics whom we call hermits (literally meaning "desert people").  They carefully avoided creating monasteries, although some hermits were willing to be spiritual guides for pilgrims who came to seek their advice.  Hermits were highly respected, but their path was never as influential as the monastic way, due especially to the efforts of another Egyptian named Pachomius.  He brought real organization to the monasteries, basing his strategy on his military experiences.  Pachomius' major contribution was a Rule:  a set of guidelines to enable monks to live together in harmony.  Pachomius' Rule was so effective that it was expanded and improved by later monastic leaders such as Augustine and Benedict.

THE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS

    Throughout this period, Christians were formulating some of the basic beliefs which we still hold.  The process was not simple; a committee didn't just sit down and decide on the central teachings of the church.  Rather, there were lots of discussions and debates, sometimes quite heated and lasting for years, even over what we might consider minor issues.  Out of those debates, a series of meetings established the central tenets of the faith which are accepted by Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Christians today.  Those meetings are identified as Ecumenical Councils, held at various times from the 300's to the 700's A.D.  Christians generally agree that seven councils can be identified as ecumenical.  The word ecumenical (from the Greek oikoumene, meaning "the whole inhabited earth") refers to the entire Christian world from which representatives to these council were drawn.  With the fragmentation of the church, it's no longer possible to have a truly ecumenical council.  Maybe someday . . .!

    In recent years, some ecumenical meetings have been sponsored by various groups, but they have not had the authority of those early church councils.  The Ecumenical Councils determined the beliefs which were considered catholic (with a little c, meaning "universal") or orthodox (with a little o, meaning "right belief").  One important result of the work of the councils was a statement of faith defining orthodox belief in God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  That statement of faith is called a creed, because it begins with the Latin credo, "I believe." 

    What was the name of the creed that grew out of the work of the Ecumenical Councils:  Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, or Fulton Creed?  Not the Apostles' Creed, although it is a statement of belief in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  As we've seen, it was originally a set of questions and answers for persons about to be baptized.  But it was developed a century earlier; a different creed was developed in the 300's A.D. 

    The statement of faith which came out of the Ecumenical Councils was the Nicene Creed.  Its first edition was developed at the Council of Nicea, which was convened by Emperor Constantine.  The creed was refined by the Council of Constantinople and became even more widely used than the Apostles' Creed.  The United Methodist Hymnal contains both great creeds and several others as well.  The most distinctive and significant affirmation of the Nicene Creed is that Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine, "of the same essential Being" as God the Father.

ORIGEN

       The origin of Origen, a great Christian teacher and scholar, was in Alexandria, Egypt.  He went to a Christian school founded by Clement of Alexandria, learned quickly, and soon became a teacher in it.  His special interest was in interpretation of the Bible.  In Alexandria, the philosophy of Plato was highly respected.  You remember Plato's teaching that earthly realities are manifestations of eternal realities known as Ideas or Forms.  Origen applied this concept to biblical stories and teachings, developing a "key" to interpret the deeper meanings of any biblical passage.  This allegorical method requires a lot of study and reflection.  Origen felt that although any passage can be interpreted literally, a mature Christian can go beyond that simple approach to the highest levels of truth, through allegory.  

JEROME

    Another scholar-teacher was the dedicated ascetic Jerome.  His special interest was in sharing scholarly study of the Bible with an erudite group of Christian women in Rome.  Led by an aristocratic widow named Paula and later by her daughter Eustochium, the group explored all kinds of interpretations of biblical passages -- exegetical, linguistic, allegorical, and spiritual.  Their commitment to chastity linked them with the ideals of nuns, although they did not form an order.  Eventually a number of them settled in a convent in Bethlehem, where they continued to study the Bible under Jerome's guidance.  I visited Bethlehem in summer 2000 and saw in the Church of the Nativity this beautiful mosaic of Jerome, Paula, and Eustochium:

    Jerome produced a Latin translation of the Old Testament which wasn't simply a revision but was based on the original Hebrew.  It was called the Vulgate, from vulga, meaning "common" or "ordinary," because Jerome translated the Old Testament not into sophisticated or flowery language, but into common Latin that ordinary people could understand.  Eventually the New Testament would be translated too, and the Vulgate became the authorized Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.  It remained the most widely used Latin translation up until modern times.

AUGUSTINE

    Augustine, a scholar who had a tremendous impact on the church, lived about the same time as Jerome.  He grew up in north Africa, nurtured by his devout Christian mother Monica.  But Gus rebelled against Monica's faith and led a wild and wooly life -- even worse than Wooly the Mammoth who lives over in Saltville!  In his later years, when he wrote his Confessions, Augustine looked back at his youth.  He remembered especially one sin which he had committed as a young man, and about which he still felt guilty.  Can you guess what it was? 

    It was not smokin' in the boys' room, although Augustine did run around with a motley crue.  Tobacco was smoked only by Native Americans at that time, and Augustine wrote that people couldn't exist on the other side of the world; they would fall off the bottom.  So he never went to America and never smoked. 

    Nor was Augustine's great sin peekin' through the knothole in Grandpa's wooden leg.  Monica kept Augustine from becoming a voyeur. 

    He identified in his Confessions a more serious sin:  he stole a bunch of pears, not because he was really hungry, but just out of pure-dee old meanness, because he felt like it.  Later Augustine felt so bad, and he realized that his sin was concupiscence:  the craving for pleasure which can never be fully satisfied.  By the way, Buddhism also identifies this as the root cause of human misery.

    Gus had an affair with a woman for many years, but he never really committed himself to her, even after they had a child.  He explored various philosophical and religious movements.  Deep down inside, Augustine knew that something was missing in his life.  He searched for years before he discovered what was missing:  God.  When he gave his whole life to God, he found the true satisfaction of his longing. 

    After being baptized, Augustine poured himself into studying and writing about the Christian faith.  He shared not only vivid descriptions of his feelings of mystical closeness to God, but also his feelings of isolation and despair.  He didn't pretend that his life as a Christian was one long mountaintop experience; he had "dark nights of the soul" even long after his conversion.  

    Augustine found in the writings of Paul, especially his epistle to the Romans, a principle which became central in his theology to indicate that God has a plan for our lives.  That principle is called predestination.  In his City of God, Augustine used Platonic philosophy to show how God's ideal plan for humanity (the City of God) is mirrored imperfectly in our human society (the Earthly City).  He also showed how God chooses a group of people, the Elect, to be part of his eternal kingdom, the City of God.  God's predestination of them is purely an act of grace -- unconditional love -- not based on merit or good deeds.  Over a thousand years later, this concept became a central part of the teachings of John Calvin and Presbyterianism. 

    Augustine became a bishop in the city of Hippo in north Africa.  He established there a monastery for men and a convent for women, with his sister Perpetua in charge of the convent.  

THE NEW ORDER

    The monastic movement also made its way to Ireland.  Monasteries under the leadership of Patrick helped to civilize the barbarian Irish, providing centers for education, scholarship, and missions.  We've studied the fascinating story of Patrick's years as a slave, his escape, and his work as a great missionary to the Irish.  Convents also affected Irish life, through the leadership of Brigid, an outstanding woman who like Patrick was eventually declared a saint.  She once wove a cross out of rushes that became the symbol of Irish Christianity.  Brigid's monastic center at Kildare provided guidance for a network of convents all over Ireland with thousands of nuns.  She was even the abbess of one double monastery for both men and women who chose to live under her guidance!  Brigid's name is still popular for Irish babies.  

    Like Augustine and his sister Perpetua, another team of siblings was very close to each other.  Benedict and his twin sister Scholastica grew up in the little Italian town of Nursia, near Rome.  After several years of solitary cave vigils, Benedict emerged to establish a chain of Benedictine monasteries.  Today that order is formally known as the Order of St. Benedict (O.S.B.). 

    On a mountain in southern Italy named Monte Cassino, once sacred to pagan deities, Benedict founded a monastery, and Scholastica founded a convent.  You remember Pachomius' Rule.  Benedict had an even better understanding of human nature.  His Rule balanced the spiritual life and common-sense work objectives so effectively that it became the basis for the Rules of many monastic orders.  You probably remember the Latin motto of the Benedictines, which shows this balance clearly.  You may recite that motto now.

    As a good Emory & Henry person, you just can't help saying, "Macte virtute!"  You even start to hum the alma mater.  You see that motto, meaning "increase in excellence," in the college seal high on the library whenever you go there to study.  Benedict believed in setting aside time for monks and nuns to study, too -- but his motto was a little different.

    I just heard you mutter under your breath, "Sic semper tyrannis."  That's the motto that you see on the Virginia state flag in front of Wiley Hall, when you come to class.  The state seal, designed by George Wythe, shows Virtue as a warrior, standing over the body of a dictator whom she has slain.  "Thus always to tyrants" shows how Virginians feel about dictators.  Benedict didn't feel that his monasteries would have problems with tyrannical abbots.  Think of another Latin motto.

    "Novus ordo seclorum."  Oh, you're trying still another seal!  Look in your billfold and find a $1 bill.  On the Great Seal of the United States, beneath the pyramid, you'll see this motto representing the ideals of the patriots who established American democracy:  "a new order of the ages."  It's a quotation from Virgil, not Benedict.  One more try; remember that Benedict wanted to provide a balance between religious activities and everyday work that must be done for the community.

    Yes!  "Ora et labora" = "pray and work."  This motto shows the basic approach of Benedict, who divided each monk's or nun's day into appropriate time slots for worship and for productive labor.  Benedictine training helped to develop many notable church leaders over the years!

    I should also mention the work of illumination that was done by members of monastic Orders.  Artistic creativity yielded beautiful pages in manuscripts of the Bible, such as these pages from a copy of a medieval Latin manuscript at the World Methodist Museum in Lake Junaluska:

    About the time that Benedict died, Gregory was born.  He prepared himself for a civil service career in Rome and was a very capable municipal official.  But he turned out to be even more successful as Pope, so much so that he is often called "Gregory the Great."  Gregory made the papacy a vehicle for progress in affairs of both church and state.  This was important, because barbarian invasions and the decay of the western Empire had brought Roman civil government to a state of near collapse. 

    Pope Gregory also saw the need for missions to the barbarians.  He sent a team of monks to convert the barbarian Angles of Angle-land (England), and their mission was so successful that Canterbury became a major Christian center.  The head of the mission team was named Augustine.  To distinguish him from Augustine of Hippo, the great theologian of two centuries earlier, we use the name Augustine of Canterbury for the missionary to Angle-land.

    Now please open up your syllabus to Map 2, so you can follow the course of our second flight to cities significant for the Christian faith during this unit.

UNIT 2 MAP REVIEW: 
THE SECOND FLIGHT OF THE Wasp

    This is your captain, Fred Kellogg, speaking.  Welcome back to Wasp Airlines!  Our flight will take us through many of the places important for the story of Christianity during the period which we could call “The Imperial Church.”  Bon voyage!

    Our second trip begins in the town of Thagaste, in north Africa.  Which Latin Christian was born and raised here?

    Augustine.

    Yes, Augustine's parents, Monica (a devout Christian) and Patricius (a pagan), raised their son in Thagaste.  The Thagaste Trojans, his home-town team, played against the Wasps.  Augustine’s student years are portrayed in the documentary film about him, “Animal House.”

    The next point on our itinerary is Hippo, also in the Latinized area of north Africa.  What do you think Hippo is best known for:  flower children, horses, or bishop?

    Flower children.

    Maybe you're thinking of hippies like Fred Kellogg, who was in college during the '60s.  A few flower children made their way to Emory, but none got to Hippo.  Is Hippo best known for its horses or its bishop?

    Horses.

    You know your Greek!  Hippos is the Greek word for "horse."  Potamos is the Greek word for "river."  So a hippopotamus is a river horse.  But Arabian horses were better known than north African horses.  You remember that the founding fathers of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were raised by wolves and taught dancing by Kevin Costner.  The founding fathers of Hippo were raised by a horse named Mr. Ed, and that's where the town got its name.  But it is more famous for something else.

    Then it must be the bishop!

    Yes, to distinguish the Augustine who grew up in Thagaste from another Augustine who went to England as a missionary, we usually identify the north African bishop as Augustine of Hippo and the missionary to England as Augustine of Canterbury.  Augustine of Hippo wrote some of his greatest works here, including his Confessions, with a beautiful and moving account of how he became a Christian.

    Our flight will bypass Libya, since we're not sure how Muammar Qadaffi feels about Wasps.  Let's touch down in Alexandria; Nile Delta Airlines will let us land there.  Alexandria should make us feel right at home, since it is a great intellectual center like Emory.  Look -- there's the equivalent of Wiley Hall:  the Museum, or Temple of the Muses.  Can you name an Alexandrian Christian theologian who has been inspired by the Muses to find rich new insights into scripture?

    I can do better than just one -- I can name four:  Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius, and Amma Syncletica..

    Great!  The allegorical school of biblical interpretation and philosophy of religion acknowledges Clement of Alexandria as a great teacher and Origen as his greatest student, who also became a teacher.  We studied the beautiful allegorical approach to the Song of Songs and other biblical passages which Origen developed. 

    We also learned how Bishop Athanasius was a well-known intellectual leader from Alexandria; we saw him taking a leading role in the First Ecumenical Council in Nicea.  Of course that reminds us of Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and Arius, a minister from Alexandria who held some views about the relationship of humanity and divinity in Jesus Christ that were considered unorthodox.  You remember that Arius was declared a heretic by the Council. 

    Lorraine Abraham shared with us some of the sayings of Amma Syncletica, one of the famous Desert Mothers from Alexandria.

    Right!  I feel that we're in a real fringe area now -- we're almost off the map.  Let's go to the center of the world, the navel of the universe.

    Emory?

    No, Emory will become the center of the world in 1836.  But remember that we are in the period of early Christianity, long before 1836.  I'm talking about the Holy Land, known as Israel or Palestine.  Let's visit a seminary and see if we can sit in on some classes.  We've already been to Emory in Atlanta, which has a good contingent of E&H alumni as well as some Braves.  And we know that several Dukes will take over parts of the Holy Land during the Crusades, but I don't think that any of the Dukes will establish a seminary here, like the one in North Carolina.  Ah, here's one in Caesarea, and some day it will be excavated by a team from Duke! 

    I remember that Origen was ordained in Caesarea, and when he left Alexandria, he settled down in Caesarea to spend the rest of his life teaching and writing scholarly books.

    On our first trip we visited Antioch, because we had studied the story of its courageous bishop, Ignatius.  Since then we’ve learned something else about Antioch.  What was it . . . ?

    I believe that the Didache, which has such beautiful descriptions of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, was written right here in Antioch for use in the churches of Syria.  You remember that the great "pillar saints," hermits such as Simeon Stylites, lived in the desert of Syria.  Jerome went to Antioch for a time.  He got sick there and had a feverish dream in which he was told that he was not really a Christian but a disciple of Cicero, because his heart was in studying great classical writings like those of Cicero.  Later he went out into the desert and lived in a cave, meditating, praying, and learning the Syriac language.

    Of course – that’s it!  Next on our itinerary is the city of Ephesus. You know that Ignatius wrote a letter praising Bishop Onesimus of Ephesus, a runaway slave who had been converted by Paul in prison.  In 431 A.D., a great meeting of the church, known as the Third Ecumenical Council, was held there.  It tried to resolve some controversies within the church.  In order to eliminate heresy, the Council excommunicated one person.  Hmmm...was it Arius?

    No, Captain Fred, Arianism was condemned at the First Ecumenical Council, which was held in Nicea.  The Ephesus Council deposed another heretic, not Arius.  Maybe it was Reiffius.

    No, I don't think anyone is quite sure about his heresies, except that they have something to do with the eschatological interpretation of baseball. 

    Could it be Dawseyius who was convicted of heresy at the Third Ecumenical Council?

    No, his heresy involves worshipping a soccer ball as a graven image, but he’s never been convicted.  It was Nestorius who was excommunicated by the Council of Ephesus.  The Nestorian heresy, somewhat like the Arian heresy, was in not being willing to accept the full humanity AND full divinity of Jesus Christ.  Nestorius and his followers also refused to accept the term theotokos, "Mother of God," for the Virgin Mary, because he believed that Christ's human nature was born from Mary, but his divine nature was not.  The Third Ecumenical Council reaffirmed the Nicene formula that Christ is fully human and fully divine, and it endorsed the understanding of Mary as Mother of God.  The council declared Nestorius to be a heretic and removed him from the episcopacy.  Because Nestorius attributed his views to his religion teachers in Antioch, he was sent into exile with them in Antioch!  But that was not the end of the Nestorians.  They took their form of Christianity to other parts of the world, even as far away as China.

    Since you mentioned Arius, could we go on up to the site of the council where his theology was debated?

    That’s a good idea – let’s fly up to Nicea!  While the Council of Ephesus was important, the First Ecumenical Council, held in Nicea in 325 A.D., was much more crucial.  The Nicene Creed which grew out of this council is recited in churches around the world as a summary of basic Christian beliefs.  The key word in this creed defines the relationship between the Son and the Father.  Please don't say, "It's all Greek to me!"  What is that word?

    Homoousios!

    Right!  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is homoousios -- "of the same substance" as God the Father.  Nicea was also the location of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, in 787 A.D.  Since seven is a biblical number of completeness, and since the major understandings of the Trinity and the nature of Christ were settled, these seven councils are seen as defining the essential teachings of the Christian faith.  Later councils would be seen by many Christians not as "ecumenical" but as called to deal with issues peculiar to one particular branch of Christianity.

    I remember that the Seventh Ecumenical Council dealt with the debate between the iconodules who honored paintings of saints and the iconoclasts who opposed icons because of the commandment against worshipping images.  Which side won?  

    The iconodules – a very important decision, especially for the Orthodox Churches, which give icons a prominent role in worship! 

    Not far from Nicea is Chalcedon, where the Fourth Ecumenical Council was held in 451 A.D.  Like other councils, it dealt with Christological controversies and other matters being disputed by Christians.  This time there was a group of Christians known as Monophysites, because they emphasized Christ's divine nature as having so transformed his human nature that he was seen as being only (mono-) divine in nature (physis).   The Council of Chalcedon reaffirmed the homoousios doctrine of Nicea, insisting that Christ was fully human as well as fully divine.  One person was especially important in formulating the Chalcedonian theology.  Let me think:  his name starts with L...

   Lewis, and his lion Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia?

    No -- the person who gave us the basic Chalcedonian theology which shapes our understandings in the 21st century had the name of the Latin word for "lion."

    Leo!

    Yes!  Pope Leo, the Bishop of Rome, came armed with his Tome.  It provided a solid basis for the deliberations at Chalcedon.  If you go to seminary or graduate school, you too may write a tome which will set forth your basic understandings.  Perhaps you'll be another Leo!

    We've talked about the Third (Ephesus), First and Seventh (Nicea), and Fourth (Chalcedon) Ecumenical Councils.  How about the Second Ecumenical Council?  For that, we'll fly to Constantinople.  This city has changed names a couple of times.

    So it’s like the way Abingdon was once known as Wolf Hills because a band of wolves came out of a cave and attacked Dan'l Boone's dogs, near where the modern Cave House craft shop is?

     Right!  In its earliest period, the city was known as Byzantium, and its later empire would be known as the Byzantine Empire.  Constantine preferred to call it Constantine's polis ("city").  In Turkish, the name is abbreviated to Istanbul. 

    In 381 A.D., Emperor Theodosius convened the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople.  What we know as the Nicene Creed should actually be called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, since the statement was refined by this council.  Constantinople was also the site for the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils.

    From Constantinople we fly to Dalmatia.  I wonder what it was like for Jerome to grow up here . . .   He must have had a pet dog, maybe one like my dog Rascal.

    Look – the descendants of Jerome’s dog are coming out to the airplane to greet us, barking and wagging their tails.  There must be 101 Dalmatians!  Jerome must have learned Latin well in Dalmatia, because he later used it as the basis for one of the greatest translations of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek.  That Latin translation was of course the Vulgate.

    Well, maybe we don’t want to stay in Dalmatia.  I miss the mountains of southwestern Virginia.  Let’s go across the Adriatic Sea to Monte Cassino in southern Italy.  Ah, here's a great mountain monastery.  If you answer this question right, perhaps you will be permitted to take the vows of a monk or a nun:  who founded the monastery at Monte Cassino?

    Donald Trump.

    You're fired!  I suspect that you gave the wrong answer just because you don't want to live a life of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability.  The correct answer is Benedict, and Monte Cassino is the mother of all Benedictine monasteries.  Here Benedict developed his great Rule which would be the foundation for so many other monastic Rules.  

    The other monastic center is of course Ireland – we’ll make it our last stop on this trip.

    Faith and begorra, this place reminds me of good old Irish names like Kellogg and Patrick.

    Hey, don't you remember?  We learned that Patrick wasn't Irish at all, but British!  He was just a great missionary to the Irish.

    That's right -- it was Brigid who was Irish, and she made her monastic headquarters in Kildare.  It's a beautiful place!  We can even pick up souvenirs at the “Irish Cokesbury” for our friends back home!

    Of course.  But now we've gone as far west on the map as we can.  It's time to go back home, so you can take a good old Irish Kellogg test over this unit!  I hope that you've enjoyed this trip to key sites in the period of the imperial church. 

    This is the end of the review program on the Imperial Church.  As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.  If you would like, you can send me e-mail: fkellogg@ehc.edu

To look at one of my other syllabi or to review a unit in a different course, go to my Home Page.

To review a different unit in this course, go directly to one of the following:

    Unit 1, The Early Church
    Unit 3, Medieval Christianity

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Last updated:  October 30, 2007