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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Study Guide for Exam 3 BIBL 260 Church History I Olson Chapter 9: Alexandrians Argue about the Son of God. 1. What did Eusebius declare about the victory of Constantine at the Milvian Bridge? Eusebius, who saw Constantine as a great hero, compared Maxentius to Pharaoh and Constantine to Moses and declared the victory an act of God. 2. What did the Edict of Milan do? Edict of Milan, which officially declared imperial toleration of Christianity (313). From then on he promulgated a series of edicts that restored property to Christians and gradually began to favor Christians and Christianity over other religions. He never did make Christianity the official religion of the empire, however, and he remained Pontifex Maximus, or high priest, of the official pagan religion of the empire until his baptism just before his death in 337. 3. Olson names four important events that occurred during the reign of Emperor Constantine. Describe these events. a. First, as already noted official persecution lifted and being Christian— at least in name— became popular and prudent. Hordes of unconverted pagans flooded into Christian churches merely to gain status in the eyes of the imperial court and the bureaucracy under Constantine. b. Second, Constantine left Rome and built a “new Rome” in the East as the new imperial capital of the empire. He chose the city of Byzantium (today’s Istanbul in Turkey) and renamed it after himself: Constantinople. Throughout his life one of his main projects was to build the most beautiful city the world had ever seen and place at its center his own great palace and cathedral. c. Third, the most divisive schism the Christian church had ever experienced broke out within it during Constantine’s reign. It began in Alexandria and spread to the rest of the empire with special impact in the Greek-speaking Eastern half. It became known as the Arian controversy, and it lasted in stages throughout most of the century. Constantine and his heirs became embroiled in the controversy, taking various sides at different times. d. Fourth, the church held its first ecumenical (universal) council to settle doctrinal and ecclesiastical conflicts: the Council of Nicaea in 325. Constantine called it and presided over it. The formal and official orthodox doctrine of the Trinity was hammered out at the council and expressed in a creed known generally as the Nicene Creed but officially as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. (Its final version was written at the Council of Constantinople in 381.) It eventually became the universal statement of faith of Christendom and remains so for most branches of Christianity. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 1
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 4. What did Lucian of Antioch emphasize about Jesus? How did this affect his view of the Incarnation? he tended to emphasize the humanity of Jesus Christ rather than his deity and tried to find a way to explain the incarnation of God in Christ without making Jesus himself God or falling back into Paul of Samosata’s adoptionist heresy. that God the Father was actually crucified and died on the cross because Jesus Christ (according to the modalist way of thinking) actually was the Father incarnate! 5. Why did Lucian hate and fear the heresy of Sabellianism? to the idea implicit in Sabellianism that God the Father was actually crucified and died on the cross because Jesus Christ (according to the modalist way of thinking) actually was the Father incarnate! 6. What two things did Origen affirm about the Logos? What was the purpose of his second assertion? Origen strongly affirmed an equality of the Logos with God the Father. Without any doubt Origen believed that the Logos is God’s eternal emanation, shooting forth like a ray of the sun from God and sharing eternally in his glorious nature. On the other hand, Origen also affirmed a subordination of the Logos to the Father in order to account for his mediatorship between the immutable divine nature of God and the corrupt world of nature and history. The Logos, according to Origen, is somehow less than the Father, although he never explained exactly what that means. 7. What did Greek philosophy assume about divinity, and how did this affect the early fathers’ view of God? assumed that divinity is ontologically perfect in such a way that any change at all is impossible for it and improper to attribute to it. Thus God, being divine and therefore absolutely perfect, cannot experience change because to change is always to change either for the better or for the worse, and in either case God would not be God if he could change. 8. Explain the meaning of apatheia and the implications of the incarnation for this Greek idea. 143 Absolute static perfection— including apatheia, or impassibility (passionlessness)— is the nature of God according to Greek thought, and nearly all Christian theologians came to agree with this. 9. What did Arius begin to teach about the Logos? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 2
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Arius and his followers exploited the argument that if Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the Logos and if the Logos is divine in the same sense that God the Father is divine, then God’s nature would be changed by the human life of Jesus in time and God would have suffered in him. But that is impossible. Therefore the Logos who became incarnate in Jesus Christ must not be fully divine but rather must be a great and exalted creature. 10. Explain the Arian slogan “there was [a time] when the Son was not.” Referring to the “generation,” or “begetting,” of the Son by the Father, he wrote that the Son is equal with God the Father “because this generation is as eternal and everlasting as the brilliancy which is produced from the sun. For it is not by receiving the breath of life that He is made a Son, by any outward act, but by His own nature.” And Origen declared of the Logos that “there was not [a time] when He (the Son) was not.” 11. What did Bishop Alexander of Alexandria believe was the problem with Arianism (as well as with the thought of Paul of Samosata)? Alexander accused Arius of teaching that the Logos could have fallen like Satan. He accused Arius also of repeating the adoptionist heresy of Paul of Samosata in a slightly more sophisticated form. The reason Paul’s Christology had been condemned by a synod in 268 was that it had denied the deity of Jesus Christ and rejected the Trinity. Arius’s Christology did the same even if it affirmed a preexistence of the Logos as a great heavenly being— something the bishop of Samosata did not affirm. According to Alexander the difference was slight. In either case God himself has not united with humanity and therefore we are not saved (divinized) by the union. Our very salvation is at stake, Alexander argued. 12. Why, according to Arius, would the Incarnation be impossible if the Logos was divine? Arius and his followers exploited the argument that if Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the Logos and if the Logos is divine in the same sense that God the Father is divine, then God’s nature would be changed by the human life of Jesus in time and God would have suffered in him. But that is impossible. Therefore, the Logos who became incarnate in Jesus Christ must not be fully divine but rather must be a great and exalted creature. 13. What view of salvation did Arius assume? Arius was assuming a view of salvation that emphasized freely conforming to God’s moral standards. 14. How is salvation effected in the orthodox thought of that day? How was the Arian scheme of salvation different? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 3
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Thus an important difference between the two Alexandrians was that “salvation, for orthodoxy, is effected by the Son’s essential identity with the Father— that which links God and Christ to creation is the divine nature’s assumption of flesh. Salvation for Arianism is effected by the Son’s identity with the creatures— that which links Christ and creatures to God is conformity of will.” 15. What did Arius affirm about the divinity of the Father? How is this different from what he affirmed about the Son (or Logos)? Arians— affirmed a kind of Trinity made up of three “divine” beings (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), only one of whom is truly God. He continued in his profession of faith to affirm unequivocally that only the Father is “without beginning” and that the Son, though a great creature who shares many of God’s attributes, did not exist before he was begotten by the Father. 16. Name the two key elements of Arius’ thought about the Father and the Logos. 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 that we can emulate; and if he was God, then salvation would not be something he could accomplish. 17. Alexander’s summary of Arian thought reads like a modern day group. What modern day group’s main distinctive doctrine reads like Arianism? the main distinctive doctrine of the modern-day Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, which is more popularly known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses (pg 147) 18. Why did Alexander charge that Arius damaged the “immutability” of God? If the Son of God is truly God, then God cannot be immutable as all believe him to be because the Son changed through entering into history and suffering in the flesh of Jesus Christ. Alexander turned the tables on Arius and charged that he in effect denied the immutability of the Father by saying that he was not always Father but only became so by creating a son. 19. Why did Alexander react so vehemently to Arius’ teaching? The simple answer is that they perceived it as threatening salvation itself. (149) 20. What makes Christianity and the gospel unique among monotheistic religions? The status of Jesus Christ in relation to God had always been assumed by Christian leaders and thinkers. Jesus Christ is in some sense God, and that is what makes Christianity and its Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 4
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 gospel unique compared to other monotheistic religions such as Judaism and monotheistic philosophies such as Platonism and Stoicism. 21. How was Arianism more subtle than other forms of “Adoptionism”? They would readily condemn adoptionism, but the subtle subordinationism of the Son of God in Arius’s teaching was more difficult to portray in black-and-white terms. The twenty-eight Arian bishops believed they had every chance of convincing the majority and perhaps even the emperor of the soundness of their position. 22. Around what scandal did the apostolic faith of early Christianity revolve? How does this play out in salvation? apostolic faith of early Christianity revolved around the scandal of the deity of Christ. The reason Christians held on to it tenaciously in the face of pagan ridicule and Roman persecution as well as all kinds of attempts to water it down was that it was the linchpin of the gospel. If it were removed in any way, then the hope for eternal participation in God’s own life and for forgiveness and restoration to the image of God would fall apart. The gospel itself would be wrecked. Olson Chapter 10: the Church Responds at the Council of Nicaea. 1. What is this meeting in Nicaea acknowledged as, and by whom? Orthodox and Catholic— came to acknowledge this meeting in Nicaea in 325 as the first ecumenical council of the church. 2. What did the Emperor Constantine make clear in his opening remarks? Constantine made abundantly clear in his opening remarks that he intended to serve as the “bishop of the bishops” and guide and direct the deliberations to a satisfactory conclusion. 3. What did Nicaea declare about the bishops of Rome and Alexandria? Also the bishop of Alexandria was declared to be a “patriarch” over the bishops of surrounding regions of North Africa, and the bishop of Rome was declared the rightful honorary head of the bishops of the West. 4. What was the main reason for holding the Council of Nicaea? To settled the Arian controversy, and that was what most of the bishops wanted to hear about first and foremost. 5. What did Modalism do in regard to the Trinity? Explain what this implied. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 5
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 It reduced Father, Son and Holy Spirit to three modes or aspects of God and implied patripassianism— the idea that the Father suffered on the cross. 6. What did the Arian bishop, Eusebius of Nicomedia, emphasize about the Son of God? Emphasizing that he is a creature and not equal with the Father in any sense. 7. What was the only way to make clear that Arian subordinationism was heretical? to use extrabiblical terminology that clearly spelled out the unity of Father and Son as equal within the Godhead. 8. Explain the extrabiblical term homoousios. the compound word homoousios— made up of the Greek words for “one” and “substance”— was accepted by the majority of bishops to describe the relationship of the Son of God to the Father. They are “one substance,” or “one being.” The language is reminiscent of Tertullian’s earlier Latin phrase una substantia. 9. What was the Nicene Creed patterned after, and what article was missing (included in later versions)? did not include the third article on the Holy Spirit and the church. That would be added later by the second ecumenical council at Constantinople in 381. The Nicene Creed (known also simply as “Nicaea”) was patterned after the Apostles’ Creed, adding wording to make clear that Arianism is wrong: 10. Why was the distinction “but not made” important in the Nicene Creed? The phrase “begotten not made” is an excellent example of the extrabiblical wording that Alexander insisted was necessary to rule out Arianism. Begotten is a biblical word for the Son of God. The Gospel of John uses it frequently. But not made is never to be found attributed to the Son of God in Scripture. The distinction, however, is all-important. If the Son of God is “made” or “created,” then he is not truly God. Scripture affirms that he is divine and salvation requires that he be divine. 11. What did this Creed do for the Great Church, and to what did it leave the door open? All in all, the creed nailed down orthodoxy for the Great Church against Arianism while leaving the door open to Sabellianism. 12. Attached to the Creed was an “anathema.” What did this anathema do for the first time? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 6
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Attached to the end of the creed itself was an “anathema”— a brief statement of the heresy being denounced: “But as for those who say, There was [a time] when He [the Son of God] was not, and, before being born He was not, and that He came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the Son of God is of a different hypostasis or substance, or is created, or is subject to alteration or change— these the Catholic Church anathematizes.” 3 The emperor made unmistakably clear that this meant Arius was deposed and condemned as a heretic. He was to be exiled together with any bishops who supported him. For the first time a Christian heretic was condemned and punished by a secular ruler for nothing more than believing and teaching the wrong doctrine. 13. At which council did the final condemnation of Arianism “stick”? That final and definitive condemnation of Arianism that truly “stuck” was at the Council of Constantinople in 381. 14. Two factors make the distinction between a local synod and an “ecumenical” council like Nicaea very clear. What were these two factors? First, the Council of Nicaea was called and presided over by an emperor. There was a central presiding authority with real power. Earlier councils (synods) were called by a bishop and the only authority their declarations carried was authority of persuasion. Second, the Council of Nicaea was a universal council in the sense that all the bishops in apostolic succession and in fellowship with the other bishops of the Great Church were invited to participate. That only 318 of approximately 500 bishops attended did not count against the council’s universality. 15. When was the Council of Nicaea finally recognized as the first “ecumenical” council? It was not until 451 that a universal council at Chalcedon finally and definitively decided that the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople (381) had in fact been the first two truly ecumenical councils of the church to the exclusion of several others. 16. Name the first four “ecumenical” councils and describe their importance to the Great Church and even to most Protestants, today. The four ecumenical councils that even Protestants generally regard as having some special authority for Christian doctrine are Nicaea I (325), Constantinople I (381), Ephesus I (431) and Chalcedon (451). 17. Of what were these four ecumenical councils a logical extension? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 7
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 The Great Church eventually decided that four ecumenical councils of the early church had been held and that their decisions and actions were to be considered binding on all Christian clergy. Generally, emperors enforced this decision with the advice and guidance of leading bishops of major sees who were known as “patriarchs.” This entire process of governing the church doctrinally was, of course, a logical extension of Cyprian’s ecclesiology. Cyprian had envisioned synods of bishops ruling the church’s affairs, but once a Christian emperor was in place— something Cyprian had not even imagined— it was logical that leading bishops would look to him to enforce decisions made by ecumenical councils. 18. How many “ecumenical” councils do the Eastern Orthodox Churches recognize? How many does the Roman Catholic Church recognize? How many do most Protestant groups recognize? The Eastern Orthodox churches recognize seven ecumenical councils, though there is some debate among its leaders about the exact nature of the seventh. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes twenty-one ecumenical councils, with the most recent one being Vatican II, held from 1962 to 1965. The magisterial Protestant denominations such as major Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican (Church of England, Episcopalian) denominations recognize only the first four as having any special authority, and even they are considered subordinate to Scripture. How do the Eastern Orthodox Churches regard the first seven councils in terms of tradition? 19. Many “free churches” deny the authority of the Nicene Creed. What do they formulate instead? These denominations— including many Baptists, Pentecostals, Mennonites, Churches of Christ and many more in the so-called free-church tradition— consider the church to have fallen away from its true nature sometime in the first few centuries after the apostles. 20. What do you suppose is the major difference between how the free churches regard what they formulate, and how the Eastern Orthodox Churches regard the Nicene Creed? Emperor involvement— Emperor Constantine presided over an ecumenical council and enforced its doctrinal decisions. But that was just the beginning of the great controversy over the Son of God and the Trinity. It was meant to end the Arian controversy, but instead it really served as a catalyst for it. The explosion took place after the bishops left the council in 325. They began to reflect on what it had accomplished and corresponded among themselves about it. Soon it became clear that the language of the creed it had promulgated was ambiguous and, like Scripture itself, could be interpreted in various ways— some of them heretical. Constantine became convinced that the council had not finished its work and that it had, in fact, written the wrong wording into the creed. He wanted to take it all back and rewrite it. One little man stood in his way. For a time it was Athanasius against the world. Olson Chapter 11: Athanasius Stubbornly Keeps the Faith. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 8
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 1. Why did Athanasius spend one-third of his tenure as Bishop of Alexandria in exile? He spent approximately one-third of that time in forced exile due to his steadfast defense of the key terminology of the Nicene Creed in the face of imperial opposition. With good reason he has come to be known as the “saint of stubbornness” because of his uncompromising opposition to anything that smacked of Arianism— even when emperors threatened his life. 2. Why should all Christians thank Athanasius? all Christians have Athanasius to thank that the theology of Jehovah’s Witnesses is not the “orthodoxy” of most of Christen dom. 3. Why was Athanasius perceived by many bishops to be a “controversialist”? He was perceived by many other bishops and by several emperors as an inflexible and single- minded controversialist who refused to compromise theologically for the sake of ecclesiastical unity. 4. What was the “context” of Church and state from about CE 340 to 380? “During the middle decades of this century, from 340 to 380, the history of doctrine looks more like the history of court and church intrigues and social unrest.” 4 Emperor after emperor switched back and forth from Arianism to orthodoxy to semi-Arianism and back to orthodoxy. One emperor, Julian, was a convert to paganism from Christianity and attempted to return the empire to its pagan roots with no success. But to Athanasius, Julian was less a threat to Christian truth than those emperors who waffled on the doctrine of the Trinity and sought compromises with the Arians, whom he regarded as the forces of the antichrist. Athanasius reminds one of an early Martin Luther. Like the sixteenthcentury Protestant Reformer, he faced into the wind of social and doctrinal conflict and turmoil and stood his ground for truth. Luther’s axiom “Peace if possible, but truth at any cost!” could have been Athanasius’s as well. 5. What two things had the Nicene Creed and council failed to explain? The creed and council had failed to explain the correct distinction between Father and Son and had neglected the Holy Spirit almost altogether. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 163). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . 6. How could Sabellians and Arians react to the doctrine of the Nicene Creed? The Sabellians could claim the whole event as a victory for their interpretation of the Trinity, and the Arians could agree and use that to condemn it. 7. What did Athanasius demand that Arius do, before he would restore him as a presbyter? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 9
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 In 332 Constantine declared Arius restored as presbyter in Alexandria and ordered the new bishop to accept him back into communion there. Athanasius refused unless Arius would affirm homoousios as describing the relation between Father and Son. Arius would not. Athanasius rejected him and ignored the emperor’s pleas and threats. As a result Athanasius was exiled by Constantine to the farthest outpost of the Roman Empire in the West— the German city of Trier. 8. Why was Athanasius exiled to the city of Trier? Athanasius refused unless Arius would affirm homoousios as describing the relation between Father and Son. Arius would not. Athanasius rejected him and ignored the emperor’s pleas and threats. As a result Athanasius was exiled by Constantine to the farthest outpost of the Roman Empire in the West— the German city of Trier. 9. Who was Bishop of Alexandria during Athanasius’ exile? Athanasius remained the only recognized bishop of Alexandria. The bishops of Egypt and the presbyters and people of Alexandria refused to replace him, and he remained their beloved bishop even in exile. 10. What became the basis for the acceptance of monasticism for Christians throughout the empire? Athanasius wrote a book titled The Life of Anthony, and it became the basis for acceptance of monasticism among Christians throughout the empire. 11. Olson discounts Constantine’s conversion (not all writers do). What two things does Olson cite for this? Constantine lived as a pagan and died as an Arian. Hardly an admirable curriculum vitae for “the first Christian emperor”! 12. What did the Emperor Constantius believe about the theological term homoousios ? He came to believe that the term homoousios— ironically, suggested and enforced by his father, Constantine— should be replaced in the Nicene Creed with homoiousios, which means “of a similar substance” and would be acceptable to the semi-Arians and even many trinitarians. If accepted, the new terminology would have made orthodox the belief that the Son and the Father share a “similar substance” or a “like being” instead of the belief that they are of the same substance or being. 13. What is the meaning of homoousios and how is the meaning of homoiousios different? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 10
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 homoiousios, which means “of a similar substance” and would be acceptable to the semi- Arians and even many trinitarians. If accepted, the new terminology would have made orthodox the belief that the Son and the Father share a “similar substance” or a “like being” instead of the belief that they are of the same substance or being. 14. What was the fundamental issue about the gospel that made Athanasius so stubborn? The change would have ruled out a Sabellian interpretation of the Trinity by making clear that the Father and the Son are not identical. But it would also have opened the door to an Arian subordinationist interpretation by implying that perhaps the Son is not God in the same way that the Father is God. For him “the fundamental issue is that only very God can unite a creature to God” 5 and “salvation is not… possible through an hierarchical chain, from the Father through an intermediate Son to creatures. 15. What did Athanasius say about an “intermediary” in salvation? an intermediary separates as much as he unites creatures with the Father.” 16. Explain, in Olson’s terms, the difference between the terms homoousios and homoiousios. the difference between homoousios and homoiousios is the difference between the divine and the creaturely. One says that the Son is God. The other says that the Son is like God. If a being is God, then saying he is like God is entirely wrong. If a being is only like God, then declaring him to be God would be heresy if not blasphemy. 17. How many times was Athanasius exiled for his stubborn adherence to the faith? In all, Athanasius endured five exiles: “Seventeen years, out of forty-six as bishop, Athanasius had spent in exile. Politics and theology had ever intermingled. So Athanasius lived, defending his understanding of the Catholic faith, as declared at Nicaea.” 18. Athanasius’ synod in Alexandria took a new step in proposing an explanation of the Nicene doctrine. What was this explanation? The synod took a new step that would be crucial in the success of the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity at the Council of Constantinople in 381. Aided by his friends the Cappadocian fathers (Basil and the two Gregories), Athanasius proposed and the synod accepted an explanatory statement that declared the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to be three distinct but not separate hypostases of the one God. 19. How did Athanasius and his synod understand the term hypostasis ? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 11
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Suffice it to say for now that hypostasis (of which hypostases is the plural) is a Greek word that could either mean “individual subsistence” (like a person) or else “common substance” (like human nature). In other words, it could be synonymous with ousia (substance) or not. If not, it generally meant the particular thing or individual example (subsistence) of a common substance or species. This was clearly the intended meaning at Athanasius’s Alexandrian synod in 362. 20. What was Tertullian’s famous phrase? una substantia, tres personae. 21. Athanasius’ work De Incarnatione ( On the Incarnation of the Word ) was and is a Christian classic. a. What is the topic of De Incarnatione? It is a book about the necessity of a real incarnation of God in humanity for human salvation b. What does De Incarnatione stress? It stresses the deity of Jesus Christ. c. What model of salvation does De Incarnatione assume? It assumes the traditional deification or divinization model of salvation that goes back at least to Irenaeus and perhaps further back in the history of theology . d. What was one of Athanasius’ major aims in writing De Incarnatione ? One of Athanasius’s main aims in the work was to make clear that the Son is begotten but not made. 22. Against the Arians is Athanasius’ deconstruction of radical subordinationism. What is the main message of Against the Arians ? The message is the same as that contained in On the Incarnation of the Word but expressed negatively by deconstructing radical subordinationism. The main message is that “the Logos is not a creature but is of one substance with the Father,… because only so is our salvation fully realized and guaranteed.” 23. What did Emperor Theodosius do in regard to the Christian religion? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 12
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 It was Theodosius who called the second ecumenical council at Constantinople where the Nicene Creed was strengthened and finally adopted as the binding universal creed for all Christians. It was also Theodosius who declared orthodox, catholic Christianity the one and only official religion of the Roman Empire. Athanasius did not live to see the fruit of his life’s work. 24. Athanasius uses three lines of reasoning to prove the ontological unity of the Father and the Son. Explain the “metaphysical” line of reasoning. The first line of reasoning Athanasius used to support the equality of Son with Father is metaphysical. The heart of the argument is that if the Father is God, then the Son must be God as well, for otherwise the Father would have changed in becoming Father. If there was a time when the Son was not, then there was a time when the Father was not a father. For him, the Son is part of the definition of God as Father, and “God’s offspring is eternal, for His nature is ever perfect…. What is to be said but that, in maintaining ‘Once the Son was not,’ they rob God of His Word, like plunderers, and openly predicate of Him that He was once without His proper Word and Wisdom, and that the Light was once without radiance, and the Fountain was once barren and dry.” 9 For Athanasius, denial of the eternal deity of the Son of God was a serious offense against the Father: “This assault upon the Son makes the blasphemy recoil upon the Father.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 168). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 25. What did Athanasius teach by using the analogy of the sun and its radiance? If the Son of God is the express image of the Father and his radiance and light— all of which Scripture clearly teaches— then he has always existed with the Father even if he is “begotten” of him: “But God is not as man, as Scripture has said; but is existing and is ever; therefore also His Word is existing and is everlasting with the Father as radiance of light…. Hence He is God also, as being God’s Image, for ‘the Word was God,’ says Scripture.” 26. Athanasius may have gone too far in saying that the Logos “used” a human body. What does this seem to do? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 13
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 In order to preserve the Son’s true deity equal with the Father’s, he felt he must rescue him from any taint of creatureliness in his incarnation. He frequently referred to the incarnation as the Lagos’s use of a human body. In On the Incarnation of the Word he said that even during the earthly life of Jesus Christ, the Logos (or Son of God) “was not bound to His body, but rather was Himself wielding it, so that he was not only in it, but was actually in everything, and while external to the universe, abode in His Father only.” 12 Later christological heretics would appeal to Athanasius’s theology at this very point, and the church would have to ignore the fact that the venerable Alexandrian bishop seemed to disconnect the deity and humanity of Christ from one another. 27. Athanasius uses three lines of reasoning to prove the ontological unity of the Father and the Son. Explain the “soteriological” line of reasoning. For him, the whole point of theology was to preserve and protect the gospel, and the gospel is about salvation. The kernel of his reasoning here is that if the Son of God is not “truly God” in the same sense as the Father, then salvation as re-creation is impossible. Only God can undo sin and bring a creature to share in the divine nature: 28. Athanasius assumed the traditional idea of theosis or “deification.” What is the human problem, according to the idea of theosis, and what was Athanasius’ solution? the human problem was death because of sin, and the solution was deification by means of humanity and divinity being joined in the incarnation. 29. How does Olson define “deification” as Irenaeus developed it? partial participation in God’s own immortal energy and life Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 169). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 30. While Athanasius relied on Scripture, he knew that heretics can twist the Scripture. The ultimate argument had to come back to the gospel of salvation in Jesus. What did this mean for Athanasius? The gospel is about salvation through Jesus Christ, and if Jesus Christ was not God and human, then he could not bring the two together. Salvation would then ultimately be reduced to living a good moral life (Christian moralism) or else gaining some secret knowledge (gnosticism) or merely having one’s sins forgiven but being left in the same fallen and corrupt condition as before. 31. There is a problem with Athanasius’ Christology. What question does Athanasius leave unanswered? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 14
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 The question is how Jesus Christ could accomplish the work of salvation if only his body or flesh was truly human and the divine Logos— the Son of God— remained immutable and impassible and even outside of the body throughout Jesus’ life and death? Is this then a real incarnation? Did the Son of God actually experience birth, suffering and death? Athanasius’s answer is that he only experienced such creaturely things through the human body that he took on. The Son of God was himself in no way limited or diminished or hindered or caused to change or suffer through the incarnation. 32. Athanasius uses three lines of reasoning to prove the ontological unity of the Father and the Son. Explain the “revelational” line of reasoning. In order for Jesus Christ to be the true revelation of God and not merely another image or prophet as so many already were, he had to be God. Athanasius’s reasoning here was that only God can truly reveal God: “If the Son is not one with God even as God the Father is, he cannot truly and genuinely reveal the Father.” 17 Many events and persons had already come to reveal messages about and from God, but Jesus Christ is the self-revelation of God and not merely another messenger of God. Olson Chapter 12: The Cappadocian Fathers Settle the Issue. 1. What did the Council of Constantinople (381) do concerning the Trinity, and what did this mean to the Great Church? Trinity as worked out by Athanasius and his friends the Cappadocian fathers as the orthodox and catholic dogma binding on all clergy of the Great Church. From the council onward, denial of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity as spelled out in the Nicene Creed has been considered by all major branches of Christianity (including most Protestants) as heresy and possibly even apostasy (loss of status as a Christian, if not loss of a state of grace). Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 173). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 2. What does Olson cite as a common modern misunderstanding about the process by which the doctrine of the Trinity was settled? that all of it represents a kind of ivory-tower speculation by professional theologians who had nothing better to do and simply wanted to ignore mystery and rationalize Christian belief. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 173). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 3. If the Cappadocian father's were not trying to rationalize their way to understanding the Trinity, then what were they trying to do? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 15
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 they were trying to protect the mystery of the gospel and the God of the gospel from false rationalization. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 174). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . 4. What were the Arians and Sabellians trying to do in regard to the mystery of the Trinity? attempting to make Christian belief too simple and too intelligible to human intellect by rejecting the mystery of God as one substance (being) and three distinct subsistences (persons). Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 174). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 5. Name the three great Cappadocian fathers. Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 174). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 6. Define the "work" of the three great Cappadocian fathers. The work of the three great Cappadocian fathers, then, “consisted in clarifying, defining, and defending trinitiarian doctrine” 3 and in “systematizing the faith of the church and expounding it with as much logical clarity as is possible” 4 so that heresies could be exposed for what they were and the entire church could understand, accept and unite around the orthodox faith. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 175). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 7. What did the Eunomians claim regarding Trinitarianism? Eunomianism claimed with some persuasive success that full Trinitarianism denied the unity and immutability of God and was a disguised form of paganism— all arguments made in modern times by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 175). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 8. Cappadocian theology was an attempt to interpret the central term homoousios . On what one essential and central point did Cappadocian theology converge? God is one ousia and three hypostases. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 175). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 9. Describe Basil of Caesarea’s life and education. What contributed to his repetition for spirituality and to his death? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 16
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Basil attended the best school of Greek culture and philosophy in the world at Athens. There he met and became a lifelong friend of Gregory of Nazianzus, who was the same age as him and was also from a wealthy Christian family of Cappadocia. Attending the Platonic academy with them was a future emperor— Julian— who turned his back on Christianity and during his brief reign (361-363) attempted to return the empire to paganism. Basil was baptized and ordained in 357 and shortly afterward began visiting the hermit monks and nuns of the caves and small monasteries of the Cappadocian wilderness. Under his sister’s influence, he renounced his family wealth and his legacy as eldest son of the family and founded his own monastery. His life of extreme asceticism contributed to both his poor health and his reputation for spiritual greatness. In 370 the great Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea (in Cappadocia) died and Basil was appointed to succeed him. Caesarea was a major center of church life in the Eastern empire and so Basil became an archbishop over bishops of smaller sees. One of his major concerns as bishop was to counteract the influences of Arianism— especially its Eunomian form— and Sabellianism. Even before becoming archbishop, Basil had written a major critique of Arianism in five books entitled Against Eunomius. Besides his theological efforts on behalf of Nicene orthodoxy, Basil gained a great reputation as an able church administrator, monastic leader and spiritual counselor. He traveled widely in the Eastern empire and wrote numerous epistles to bishops, emperors and presbyters of churches attempting to persuade and even coerce them if possible to reject heresy and accept orthodoxy as he saw it. He worked tirelessly to bring about a new ecumenical council that would ratify the acts of Nicaea and put an end to the Arian heresy and strife it had caused. To this end he appointed bishops he could trust to help. Two he pressed into service were his friend Gregory of Nazianzus and his younger brother Gregory of Nyssa. Neither one distinguished himself as a great bishop in the same way Basil did, but both helped influence Christendom toward final and formal adoption of trinitarian orthodoxy. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 176). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 10. One of Basil’s most important works was on the Holy Spirit. What is notable about this treatise? It was the first whole treatise on the person of the Holy Spirit by a Christian leader or theologian and greatly influenced the eventual revision of the Nicene Creed to include more about the third person of the Trinity. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 177). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 11. Basil wrote against the “pneumatomachians” (“those who fight against the Spirit”). What did they teach about the Holy Spirit, and what did Basil teach in response to this? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 17
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 denied the equality of the Spirit with Father and Son. This was a subordinationism of the Spirit and resulted in a “binity” 6 rather than a Trinity for those who adopted it. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 177). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Basil plumbed the depths of both Scripture and worship in order to establish the third distinct person, or hypostasis, of the Godhead as “truly God” and equal with the Father and the Son. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 177). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 12. Briefly describe the life and career of Gregory of Nazianzus. He was born in 329 or 330 and died well after Basil in about 391. Like his friends Basil and Gregory of Nyssa, Nazianzen was raised in a wealthy Christian family in Cappadocia. His father was the bishop of Nazianzus, and his mother, Nonna, was influential in his conversion to Christianity. After his studies in Athens with Basil, Gregory was ordained to the priesthood in 364. In spite of Basil’s constant pestering and even occasional attempts at manipulation, Gregory resisted the appeal of monasticism— possibly because of a romantic attraction, although whether he ever married is unknown. At that time and place in church history, priests and bishops could be married; monks could not. That is still the rule in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 177). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 13. Gregory studied the writings of the Platonists and Neo-Platonists, as well as Scripture. What message did Gregory take from these pagan philosophers? Gregory soaked in their message about the absolute unity, spirituality and transcendence of God and sought to combine the best of it with his Christian reflections on the Trinity and attributes of God. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 179). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 14. In what way are Gregory of Nyssa's theological writings different from the other two Cappadocian fathers? Gregory of Nyssa’s theological writings make greater and more profound use of Greek philosophy than do those of the other two Cappadocian fathers. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 179). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 15. Gregory of Nyssa borrowed from Greek philosophy in order to explain the unity of God's being in harmony with the threeness of persons. Explain the meaning of the Platonic "forms," and explain how this helps Gregory understand God's ousia and “persons.” Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 18
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 For him, a “nature” (ousia) is like a Platonic “form”— a real universal that binds many individual things together. God’s nature or essence, then, is like the form of human nature, and the form of human nature is like God’s own substance. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 180). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 16. What did the three Cappadocian fathers work to establish as the orthodox belief? Their overall thrust and purpose unified— to establish once and for all the great mystery of the threeness and oneness of God as Christian orthodoxy. More specifically, their common mission and goal was to destroy Arianism and Sabellianism and establish as orthodox the belief that God is one infinite and incomprehensible essence (ousia) shared equally by three distinct but never separate identities, or persons (hypostases). In the process of reaching this common goal the three Cappadocians carved out somewhat distinctive emphases and sometimes went off on tangents of their own that turned out to be important. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 180). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 17. What did the Eunomians argue about the Son? The Eunomians subordinated the Son of God to the Father, arguing that the Father’s very essence is “unbegottenness.” Since the Son is begotten, he cannot be equal with the Father and cannot be considered God. The Eunomians were radical Arians. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 181). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 18. What did the pneumatomachians argue about the Spirit? The pneumatomachians (also known as Macedonians) subordinated the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son, arguing that the Spirit is a created being— a force from God sent from the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 181). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . 19. Basil responded to the Eunomians with four main arguments. What did Basil declare about God’s essence? First, he scoffed at Eunomius’s claim to have grasped God’s very essence. God’s essence, Basil declared, is incomprehensible because God is holy and his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 181). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 20. What did Basil say about the analogy to human “begetting”? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 19
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Basil presented against Eunomius was his denial of the subordinationist analogy between divine begetting (generation) and human begetting. That is, just because human begetting is always in time and always implies a kind of inferiority of being of the begotten to the one who begets (infant to parent), that is no reason to draw the conclusion that God’s begetting a Son necessarily implies inferiority of the latter to the former. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 181). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 21. What did Basil assert about eternity and generation? Basil went to great lengths to demonstrate logically that a generation (process of being begotten) can be eternal by appeal to analogies such as the sun’s rays— a favorite of trinitarian church fathers. The rays of the sun are as old as the sun itself. There never was a time when the sun existed without its rays (radiance). Yet the sun generates (begets) its radiance. So the Father eternally generates the Son of God, and the Son of God is eternally begotten of the Father. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 181-182). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 22. How did Basil respond to the idea that the Son of God is a creature? then humanity is still without a true revelation of the divine. In the case of a personal being such as God, only the personal being himself can reveal himself. If Jesus Christ is not God, then God is not yet self-revealed. If Jesus Christ is merely a creature— however exalted— then humanity still does not have a true revelation of the face of God. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 182). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 23. Against the pneumatomachians, Basil appealed to Scripture. What two passages does Olson highlight from Basil’s work, and what did Basil mean by them? Against this argument Basil appealed to Scripture— especially Jesus’ commandment of baptism at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: “If… the Spirit is there conjoined with the Father and the Son, and no one is so shameless as to say anything else, then let them not lay blame on us for following the words of Scripture.” 12 He also appealed to examples in the book of Acts where the Holy Spirit is said to be the only one who knows the things of God (Acts 5: 9). He pointed out that even the pneumatomachians worshiped the Holy Spirit in their divine liturgies together with the Father and the Son, which would be blasphemy if he were not God. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 182). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 24. What did Basil point out about the way the pneumatomachians worshiped? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 20
BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 pneumatomachians worshiped the Holy Spirit in their divine liturgies together with the Father and the Son, which would be blasphemy if he were not God. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 182). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 25. What did Basil argue about salvation? Basil turned to Christian experience of salvation and argued against the subordinationists of the Spirit that since the Holy Spirit effects our salvation, he cannot be anything but God. Only God can save: salvation itself depends on there being one divine essence or substance (ousia) and three distinct but equal sharers in it (hypostases). 26. What did Basil point out about the honor and dignity of the Holy Spirit? In Scripture as in worship as in personal Christian experience, the Holy Spirit is always associated with them as sharing equal honor and dignity, and equal honor and dignity imply equal nature. One cannot be ontologically subordinated to the others without that impinging on the honor and dignity and glory of all the persons of the Godhead. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 183). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 27. What did the subordinationists argue about the three hypostases of the Trinity? The subordinationists and Sabellians argued that the whole idea of three equal persons (hypostases) necessarily implies three different natures, or substances (ousia). Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 183). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 28. Explain the distinction between ousia and hypostasis using Basil's illustrations of three men and of the rainbow. ousia (substance) and hypostasis (subsistence, person) Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 184). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 29. Olson asserts that Basil's view of ousia and hypostasis has some problems. Explain the two problems, that of "synonyms" and that of "form." Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 21
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 For one thing, the two terms could be understood as synonyms. Hypostasis was sometimes used instead of ousia in Greek culture for “substance.” That is why Basil and the Gregories went to great pains to explain what they meant by hypostasis. For another thing, the only way in which the distinction could help make the case they wanted to make was if everyone thought like they did— as Platonists. For them, substance was a kind of Platonic form— a real universal in some sense “above” individual things. The Platonic form or universal “red,” for example, was conceived to be real and in some sense higher and greater than individual red things. Basil and the two Gregories all thought along those lines about ousia, or substance. Human nature is a real thing— a real universal in which individual human people participate, and it is what makes them human. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are only not three Gods (tritheism) if their common substance— divinity— is conceived as somehow more real and “higher” than the individual persons that they are. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 185). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 30. Explain the difference between Basil's view of hypostasis as "person" and the modern view of the "self." If a modern reader approaches this distinction with the modern, Western mindset that to be a “person” is to be an individual “self” in the sense of being self-actualized over against other persons, the tritheistic implications cannot be avoided. While the English word person is normally used to translate hypostasis in this context, it is not really a perfect translation because of the cultural baggage it carries. To the ancients— as to many people in non-Western cultures today— person did not mean “individual, self-actualized center of free will and conscious activity.” Person was in some sense individual, but always in community as well. When Basil referred to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as “three persons” (three hypostases), he meant that they are relations within the one Godhead that is an infinite, transcendent and perfectly simple (unified) being. Their community is thought of as in some sense more real than their individuality. That way of thinking is often foreign to modern Western people who tend to elevate individuality over community. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 185-186). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 31. What problem tends to come up when we use the modern sense of "person" in speaking of the Trinity? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 22
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 The difference between a modern view of person as an individual and not a substance… Modalism could come into play 32. If the hypostases of the Trinity are inseparable, indivisible, and yet not identical in every way, what is the main difference between them, according to Olson? For Basil (as for the Gregories) the hypostases, or persons of God, are inseparable and indivisible and yet not identical in every way. The main difference is source. The Father has no source. The Son and Spirit find their sources in the Father in different ways. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 186). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 33. What point did Gregory of Nazianzus especially drive home about being and time? Any being that has a beginning in time must be a creature, and if a creature, different only in degree from other creatures. Thus if either the Son or the Spirit began to be in time, he is creaturely and therefore in the same “rank” with humans (even if existing before them) and therefore unable to save, for “if He is in the same rank with myself,” Gregory asked, “how can He make me God, or join me with Godhead?” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 186). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 34. Explain Gregory of Nazianzus’ "social analogy" of the Trinity. Gregory used a social analogy to explain this: just as Adam, Eve and Seth (the first three humans) were one human family and shared the exact same nature and yet were three distinct identities, so Father, Son and Holy Spirit constitute one divine family sharing the same glory and essence and yet are distinct persons. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 186-187). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 35. Explain Gregory of Nazianzus’ understanding of "relationships," and how he explained the Trinity in terms of relationships. Be sure to include concepts of "consciousness" and "will" in your explanation. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 23
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Gregory’s great contribution was to introduce into the stream of Christian thought that very idea— the ontological reality of relationships. The three persons of God, then, are not to be understood as individual selves, as independent centers of consciousness and will (which would amount to a “committee analogy”), but rather as real interdependent relationships within one community of being and substance. Thus for Gregory, “the characteristic of the Father is that of not being begotten;… that of the Son is being begotten;… and that of the Spirit is procession…. With these terms, Gregory gave further meaning to the characteristic formula of the three Cappadocians: one ousia and three hypostases.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 188). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 36. How did Apollinarius explain the divinity of Jesus Christ? According to Apollinarius, Jesus Christ was divine in that the eternal Logos— Son of God— took the place of a rational soul in him. His body and animating soul (life force) were human, but his spirit (mind, consciousness) was not. It was divine. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 188-189). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 37. Explain the problem with this "God in a bod" approach to Christology. “God in a bod”— an omniscient being inhabiting a creaturely body and using it as a vehicle without actually becoming human and experiencing human limitations and sufferings. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 189). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 38. Explain what the idea of theosis , or "divinization," never means, according to Olson. never means that humans can actually cross the divine creature divide. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 189). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 39. What was the incarnation designed to do, then, in salvation, and why did Gregory insist that Christ's humanity must be a complete humanity? the incarnation is to bring humans to the same status as the humanity of Jesus Christ. His humanity— as Irenaeus had explained long before Gregory wrote— is the very same humanity Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 24
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 that Adam had and that bore the image of God and was destined to share in God’s glory in a creaturely way. Christ restored that lost potential, and that is what Scripture means when it describes him as the “first born among many brothers” and our example and when Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 15 that we will be like him in the resurrection. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 189). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 40. Gregory of Nyssa may have been highly influenced by Neo-Platonism. How does this surface in Gregory’s understanding of God’s nature? Gregory argued that God’s essence is so transcendent and incomprehensible that the only way in which humans can even begin to describe it is negatively— by declaring what it is not God’s nature or essence is utterly mysterious— but we can at least describe it by stripping away improper creaturely characteristics. Thus God’s essence is infinite (not limited), impassible (incapable of suffering), incomprehensible (not able to be defined). This is known in the history of theology as “negative theology” and came to have a great deal of influence on later theologians both East and West. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 190-191). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 41. How does “negative theology” seek to understand God? — by declaring what it is not God’s nature or essence is utterly mysterious— 42. What do some find dissatisfying about “negative theology”? Others were often dissatisfied with it because it seems to imply a distant God with whom it would be difficult to have any kind of reasonable relationship. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 191). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 43. How does Gregory define evil; what is evil, what is it not, and what is evil’s source? the source of all evil in the world is not God (or in Neo-Platonism “the One”) but humans’ misuse of free will in turning away from spiritual toward material things. But evil is not a Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 25
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 substance or even matter. It is the absence or lack of goodness, which is an aspect of being itself. God is the fullness of being and therefore perfectly good. God is perfectly good and therefore the fullness of being. Being and goodness are inseparable. For Gregory, evil was literally “nothingness”— the emptiness of being and goodness where they were intended to be. Evil is to good as darkness is to light. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 191). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 44. In what important way does Gregory’s thought turn away from Neo-Platonic thought? the entire physical world, including bodies, as unconscious emanations of the One (their concept of God) that have gotten so far from their source that they have become a prison for spirits. Gregory did not have such a negative view of physical reality or human bodies. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 191). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 45. What charge leveled by heretics did Gregory’s work attempt to overcome? Gregory’s contribution to trinitarian thought lies in his attempt to overcome the charge of tritheism leveled against it by its enemies— both Arians (such as Eunomius) and Sabellians. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 191). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 46. If different actions make Peter, James, and John three separate beings, and if God is one being, then what must be true of the actions of the three hypostases of the Trinity? Then Gregory delivered the truth about God illustrated by the coins: “The Father is God; the Son is God; and yet by the same proclamation God is One, because no difference either of nature or of operation is contemplated in the Godhead.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 192). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 47. If the three hypostases of the Trinity are not three Gods, then what are they, according to Gregory of Nyssa? If God is one being— one substance— and not three Gods, then the three persons (hypostases) must always act together in all things, and therein lies the key to the doctrine of the Trinity for Gregory. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 192). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 48. What did the people of the Latin West think about the language of ousia and hypostasis, and why? in the Latin West no clear distinction between ousia and hypostasis was recognized— both were translated into Latin as “substance.” It appeared to many in the West, then, as if the Eastern Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 26
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 theologians and bishops were reveling in contradiction when they affirmed one ousia and three hypostases. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 193). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . 49. Another problem in the Cappadocian’s thought is ambiguity. What do their “analogies” emphasize, and what do their “abstract explanations” emphasize? Their analogies tend to emphasize Threeness. Thus they are often treated as the source of the modern “social analogy” of the Trinity that sometimes seems to border on tritheism. But their abstract explanations tend to emphasize oneness. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 194). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 50. What is the “main” criticism of the Cappadocians, leveled especially by modern theologians? The main criticism leveled against the Cappadocians, especially by modern Christian theologians, is that they reveled too much in speculation about the immanent Trinity (the inner- trinitarian relations in eternity), while the New Testament restricts itself to the economic Trinity (the three persons active in salvation history). Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 194). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 51. What is the problem with an exclusive focus on the “economic” Trinity? exclusive focus on the economic Trinity can also be a problem. It leaves unanswered the important question about the divine background of this saving activity of three divine persons in eternity. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 194). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 52. Explain the “whats” and the “whos” as they relate to both Christ and the Trinity. ‘In Christ there are two “what’s” and one “who”; in God there are three “who’s” and one “what.” In other words, the key to unlocking— but not destroying— the mystery of both the Trinity and the person of Jesus Christ is the distinction between whatness and whoness. Three Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 27
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 “who’s” can be one “what” so long as they are inseparable and function together. Two “what’s” can exist in one “who” (Jesus Christ) so long as they are intimately united wholely and inseparably in him. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 194-195). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Olson Chapter 13: The Schools of Antioch and Alexandria Clash over Christ. 1. One of the chief differences between Alexandria and Antioch was in their approach to biblical interpretation (hermeneutics). What was Philo's problem with literal interpretation, and what do they hope to do by using allegorical interpretation? The Alexandrian pattern had been established in the time of Christ by the Jewish theologian and biblical scholar Philo, who believed that the literal and historical references of the Hebrew Scriptures were of the least importance. He sought to discover and explicate the biblical narratives’ allegorical or spiritual meaning. In other words, many passages of the Hebrew Bible seemed to be about one thing, while— according to Philo— they really referred to something else. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 202). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 2. What did Alexandrian Christian scholars tend to find when they read the Prophets? They tended to find hidden references to the Logos and heavenly, spiritual existence everywhere. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 203). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 3. Olson describes Paul's treatment of Hagar and Sarah as "allegory." Describe how Olson defines "allegory." An Old Testament character corresponds to a spiritual and theological reality in a very direct way so that one gets the impression that such correspondence— Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 203). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 4. What did Theodore of Mopsuestia refuse to do in biblical interpretation? He refused to impose New Testament or Greek philosophical meanings as the main references on narratives that clearly were describing historical events. Olson, Roger E... The Story of Christian Theology (p. 203). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 28
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 5. Which city promoted "historical-literal-grammatical" interpretation, and where do we see the influence of this model? Antioch 6. Which city promoted "allegorical-spiritual" interpretation? When and where do we see the influence of this model? Alexandria 7. What did each city emphasize about Christ, and what difficulty or problem lurked behind each emphasis? Thus Alexandrian and Antiochene theologies diverged at their very roots— biblical interpretation. The Antiochene historical-literal-grammatical method is the more influential one in modern, Western Christianity, whereas the Alexandrian allegorical-spiritual method tended to dominate much early Christian thinking and remained a powerful influence throughout the middle Ages in both the East and the West. The differing mindsets regarding Scripture and its meaning set the stage for Christological conflict, as we will see. Alexandria tended to emphasize the divinity of Jesus as a spiritual gem hidden within the shell of his humanity. Docetism— denial of Christ’s true humanity— lurked in the background of Alexandrian theology and was a constant danger in both its biblical scholarship and its Christology. The physical, historical, creaturely dimensions of both Scripture and the incarnation were scandals to many Alexandrians and they sought ways to minimize them without demonizing them as the Gnostics had. The Antiochenes faced their own dangers. So captivated were they by the historical, literal realities of both the revelation in Scripture and in Jesus Christ that they had trouble doing full justice to the divinity of each. Olson, Roger E... The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 203-204). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 8. What prior commitment colored Alexandrian Christology? Their basic approach to the person of Jesus Christ was colored by this prior commitment, as we have already seen with Origen and Athanasius. According to one leading modern scholar of Alexandrian thought, “Their fundamental thought, as their soteriological ideas are carried over into Christology, is that if our nature is to be filled with the divine life, the divine Logos must so unite it to himself, and make it his own, that in him is effected a real unification… of Godhead and manhood.” Olson, Roger E... The Story of Christian Theology (p. 204). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 29
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 9. What did this prior commitment cause the Alexandrians to emphasize about the humanity and divinity of Christ? Thus, Alexandrian thought about salvation emphasized the necessity of intimate unity of divine and human in Christ such that the divine can transform human nature. Therein lay the problem. The typical Alexandrian approach was to say that in Jesus Christ a “wonderful exchange” took place so that our fallen human nature was healed by the perfect divine nature of the Logos in such a way that the Lagos’s divine nature was untouched by creaturely limitations or imperfections. Olson, Roger E... The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 204-205). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 10. What did both Alexandrians and Antiochene's agree upon concerning salvation in Christ? What did they both firmly reject? Both agreed that one major aspect of salvation involves deification or divinization— healing human nature so that it shares in some of the divine aspects or characteristics such as immortality. They also agreed on the essential difference between human and divine natures. Both Alexandrians and Antiochenes firmly rejected any idea of a “metamorphosis” of the human into divinity or of the divine into humanity. However, the Antiochenes were much more concerned than were the Alexandrians with the human role in salvation. While Alexandrians would affirm that the human person needs to receive God’s healing power through the sacraments by free choice, the Antiochenes drew that all-important role of human free choice in salvation right back into the incarnation itself. The humanity of Jesus had to have free moral agency in order to achieve salvation for us. Olson, Roger E... The Story of Christian Theology (p. 205). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 11. What did the Antiochene's insist that the humanity of Jesus had to have in order to achieve salvation for us? Thus, Alexandrian thought about salvation emphasized the necessity of intimate unity of divine and human in Christ such that human nature can be transformed by the divine. Olson, Roger E... The Story of Christian Theology (p. 204). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 12. In what way did the Antiochene's view salvation as a "moral-ethical accomplishment"? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 30
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Antiochenes saw salvation as a wonderful moral-ethical accomplishment wrought by a human being on our behalf through uniting his will with that of the divine Logos. Of course, at least after Paul of Samosata’s adoptionism was declared a heresy, all the Antiochenes would affirm very strongly that the actual accomplishment of our salvation was a work of the Son of God in and through the man Jesus. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 205). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 13. Describe the Alexandrian "Word-flesh Christology." What did this mean for the human nature ( ousia or physis ) of Christ? That is, the Logos (Word) of God took on human flesh without actually entering into human existence in its fullness. The humanity of Jesus Christ was “flesh”— body and soul. Apollinarius put the finishing touches on that Christology by denying any active human intellect and will in Jesus Christ. Instead of emphasizing the unity of the divine and human in Jesus Christ, the Antiochenes emphasized the distinction of the two natures (physes) in him. This was both to protect the holy otherness of the Lagos’s divine nature over against everything creaturely and to emphasize the integrity of the human nature as able to obey God actively and not passively as a mere instrument. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 206). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 14. Describe the Antiochene "word-man Christology”; what does this mean for their view of the person of Christ? Word-man Christology in which the humanity of Jesus Christ was not passive but active and was a whole and complete human person. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 206). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 15. Describe the Alexandrian reaction to the Christology of Diodore of Tarsus. How did the Antiochene's respond to this? Diodore of Tarsus went so far as to talk about Jesus Christ as “two sons”— the Son of God and the Son of David. 2 The Alexandrians were appalled at Diodore’s Christology because to them it sounded so much like the old adoptionist heresy that had thrived in Antioch years earlier. It seemed to them a frank denial of the real, ontological union of God and humanity in Jesus Christ. The Antiochenes argued back that if Jesus Christ was one nature and not two, then how was he “truly divine” and “truly human”— consubstantial with both God and humanity? Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 206). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 31
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 16. At the heart of these differing Christologies lay differing views of salvation. Describe the Alexandrian view of salvation and the Antiochene view, in contrast. At the heart of this disagreement over Word-flesh versus Word-man Christologies lay differing views of salvation. According to the Alexandrian view, full salvation depends on a real incarnation but not on a full and true human nature exactly like ours. Above all, it did not have to have its own independent center of intellect, action and will. The humanity of Jesus Christ could be and was an impersonal human nature. According to the Antiochene view, full salvation depends on a real incarnation but not on an intimate union of humanity and divinity that would threaten their real distinction, and the real incarnation must include a fully personal human nature. Jesus Christ had to be a man just like any other man— just like Adam!— although without sin. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 206-207). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 17. Describe the view of Christ taught by Apollinarius of Laodicea. His only error, according to orthodox Alexandrians and even Gregory himself, was that he denied the human rational soul (nous) of Jesus Christ and replaced it in him with the Logos. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 207). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 18. Two things drove Apollinarius to see Christ as a divine spirit within the human body. What was it about salvation and about the human will that drove Apollinarius to his conclusion? For him as for most Alexandrians, salvation as deification was only possible if the whole of Christ is thoroughly controlled by the divine will and power. If he had a human rational soul, or mind/ spirit, he might have sinned and resisted the call of the Logos on his life, and that would imply no true incarnation. Furthermore, if he had a human rational soul, or mind/ spirit, there would be two centers of consciousness, action and will in Jesus Christ— one divine and one human— and that is a false or incomplete union of divinity and humanity. Only a true natural union— two natures coming together in one person as one nature— can amount to an incarnation where the divine permeates and heals the human. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 207-208). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 32
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 19. The greatest early defender of the Antiochene God-man Christology was Theodore of Mopsuestia. Three concerns dominated Theodore’s Christology. List these concerns, and explain what the problem was behind each concern. the immutability of the Logos, the freedom of the will in Jesus Christ and the reality of Jesus’ human life of struggle and achievement. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 208). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 20. Although Theodore even used the phrase "one person" to describe Christ, whose theology did the Alexandrians accuse Theodore of being like, and why? Unlike his predecessor Diodore, Theodore did not speak of “two sons,” but he did seem to think of Jesus Christ as a kind of compound person. Alexandrians argued that the only difference between this Christology and Paul of Samosata’s was that the latter saw the human person Jesus being assumed into a special relationship with God the Father as his special Son at his baptism. Theodore simply saw the union of a human person and a divine person as beginning at Jesus’ conception and growing throughout his lifetime. In both cases, Alexandrians argued, the incarnation amounts to an adoption of a human by God rather than a true “becoming flesh” of a divine person. As the Council of Constantinople adjourned and the bishops departed for their home sees, the differences and resentments between Alexandria and Antioch were just beginning to boil. An Alexandrian hero— Apollinarius— had been condemned but the basic Word-flesh Christology had not. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 209-210). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Olson Chapter 14: Nestorius and Cyril Bring the Controversy to a Head. 1. How is the term theotokos properly translated, and what does this remind Orthodox believers? The title itself means “bearer of God” or “God-bearer.” Sometimes Theotokos is translated as “mother of God,” but that is not the preferred translation. Although both Eastern Orthodox and Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 33
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Roman Catholic traditions highly revere Mary, the Theotokos title is really a pointer to belief in Jesus’ true divinity. When Mary gave birth to her little boy, she gave birth to God. Empire reminds Orthodox believers that Christ is God. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 211). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 2. Whom did the Emperor Theodosius II persecute in Constantinople? The appointment of Nestorius was a severe blow to Alexandrian dreams of domination. Furthermore, both the emperor and the patriarch tended to persecute any and all Christians in Constantinople who favored the Alexandrian theology. They treated Alexandrian clergy and theologians as if they were closet Apollinarians just waiting to revive that heresy. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 212). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 3. Olson states that Cyril of Alexandria is suspected of being a bridge between two heresies. Which two heresies are these? What formula of Cyril’s contributed to the growth of one of these heresies? His reputation is somewhat sullied by two factors. First, he almost certainly sent spies to Constantinople to lurk in the shadows of the great cathedral and attempt to catch Nestorius (and anyone else from Antioch) in heresy. He had his eyes on the seat of power occupied by the Antiochene theologian. Second, Cyril is suspected of being a bridge between two heresies even though his own Christology was basically sound and received affirmation from two great ecumenical councils. The two heresies he seems to have bridged are Apollinarianism before his time and monophysitism afterward. The latter heresy arose after Cyril’s death and represented an intense and uncompromising form of his own theology, especially his formula of Christ as “one nature.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 212-213). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 4. Why did Nestorius argue against calling Mary the theotokos ? What was Nestorius not denying by this teaching? Christians must not refer to Mary as “God-bearer” because it is wrong to give the name “God” to one who was two or three months old. The problem was not veneration of Mary. The problem was, according to Nestorius, confusion of the two different natures of Jesus Christ. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 34
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Nestorius argued that divine nature cannot be born any more than it can die. Divine nature is immutable, impassible, perfect and incorruptible. Nestorius was not denying the deity of the Son of God. He was not Arian or subordinationist in any sense. He agreed wholeheartedly with the Nicene trinitarian theology of equal divinity and glory of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The problem was that he believed so strongly in the divinity of the Logos, or Son of God, that he resisted any attribution to him of creaturely characteristics or experiences. Nestorius also was not denying the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. For him, the Virgin Mary gave birth to the man Jesus Christ, who was from the moment of his conception intimately united with the eternal Logos of God. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 213). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . 5. What did Nestorius assume about divinity and humanity, and what did Nestorius fear would be denied if we call Mary the theotokos ? The incarnation is a mutual indwelling of two persons— the eternal Son of God and the mortal human Jesus. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 216). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 6. Cyril suspected that Nestorius’ Christology was a subtle form of this heresy. Cyril considered Nestorius’s Christology a sophisticated form of adoptionism, just as Nestorius considered Alexandrian Christology a sophisticated form of Apollinarianism. The placards drew attention, and people in Constantinople began to gossip about Nestorius’s flawed orthodoxy. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 214). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . 7. What did Antiochene theologians like Nestorius emphasize in their Christology? How did Cyril challenge this? the humanity of Jesus Christ while attempting to do justice to his divinity as well. Nestorius was faced with the challenge of Cyril and his followers: “How can you say that Jesus Christ is consubstantial (homoousios) with God and with humans if you say that he was completely human?” His own challenge to Cyril and the Alexandrians was to ask, “How can you say that Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 35
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Jesus Christ is both truly God and truly human if you deny that he was the union of two different natures?” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 215). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 8. Nestorius could not conceive of something about human nature ( physis ). What was this? He could not conceive of a human nature (physis) without a person (prosopon) attached to it. A basic axiom of Nestorius’s thought was that real humanity cannot exist at all without a specific human individual person who is the center of the human nature. Prosopon (person) and physis (nature) go together in both humanity and divinity. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 215). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 9. In trying to preserve the integrity of both realities in Christ, what did Nestorius have to affirm? that Nestorius had to affirm that Jesus Christ was two persons. Theodore had not gone so far, even though his conceptuality implied it. Building on Theodore’s idea of the incarnation as the Logos “assuming a man” and as a man being “assumed by the Logos,” Nestorius argued that the incarnation is a mutual indwelling of two persons— the eternal Son of God and the mortal human Jesus. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 215-216). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 10. Nestorius affirmed that the incarnation was a mutual indwelling of two persons. Explain what this meant about Jesus Christ. that Nestorius had to affirm that Jesus Christ was two persons. Theodore had not gone so far, even though his conceptuality implied it. Building on Theodore’s idea of the incarnation as the Logos “assuming a man” and as a man being “assumed by the Logos,” Nestorius argued that the incarnation is a mutual indwelling of two persons— the eternal Son of God and the mortal human Jesus. To that union we assign the name Jesus Christ, or just Christ, and consider the Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 36
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 union itself as a “person” in the compound or corporate sense. Thus, for Nestorius, “in Jesus Christ, God has united the divine prosopon to a human nature— but this in no way destroys the two natural prosopa [persons], which correspond to each of the two ‘complete natures’ or hypostases which are united in Christ.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 215-216). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 11. How did Nestorius explain the unity of the person ( prosopon ) of Jesus Christ? for Nestorius, “in Jesus Christ, God has united the divine prosopon to a human nature— but this in no way destroys the two natural prosopa [persons], which correspond to each of the two ‘complete natures’ or hypostases which are united in Christ.” Nestorius’s solution lay in positing a special kind of union that he called synapheia. In Latin it has been translated conjunctio, and thus in English Nestorius’s idea has traditionally been called a “conjunction.” Jesus Christ was a conjunction of divine nature-person and human nature-person: eternal divine Logos and human person Jesus in intimate union. In his view “the unity of prosopon is based on the fact that the prosopon of the Logos makes use of the prosopon of Christ’s manhood as an instrument, an organon. The whole is the union of the two natures, of an invisible and a visible element.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 216). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 12. What is the key similarity between Nestorianism and Adoptionism, according to Olson? The key similarity lay in the fact that in both adoptionism and Nestorianism the Son of God never actually enters into human existence. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 216). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 13. Explain Cyril's theological principle of the communicatio idiomatum. Christological principles— the communicatio idiomatum, or “communication of attributes.” According to Cyril, if Jesus Christ was truly the Word incarnate— God in flesh— then it must be theologically correct to attribute to him all the glory and majesty and power of deity, as well as to the Son of God who became human all the weakness and mortality and suffering of humanity. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 217). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 37
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 14. Why did Nestorius reject this principle? Nestorius adamantly rejected this. For him, this was one of the main advantages of his conjunction idea of the incarnation. It made it possible to say that Jesus Christ is both truly God and truly human without mixing them. He wanted to be able to say that the God person of the union worked the miracles and the human person suffered. Divinity cannot suffer and humanity is incapable of altering the course of nature. Obviously two different persons were in him doing these things. But they always did them together. He was horrified by Cyril’s communicatio idiomatum idea and automatically rejected it as Apollinarian. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 217). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 15. Explain the difference between the Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity and Nestorius’ doctrine of Christ in terms of persons and natures. The difference, though, is that the hypostases (persons) of the Trinity share a common ousia (nature), whereas the two physeis (natures) of the Nestorian Christ have different prosopa (persons) attached to them. That throws a stronger difference into the equation. In the case of the union that makes up Christ, the divine one is eternal and omnipotent, while the human one is mortal and weak. Their “union” cannot be as strong as that between the persons of the Godhead. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 217). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 16. In the end, what turns out to be true of Christ if we accept Nestorius’ doctrine? In the end, in spite of his valiant attempt to explain how a conjunction of two persons could count as one person (prosopon), his Christ turns out to be two individuals and not one. The Son of God did not truly experience human existence “in the flesh” but only “through association with the man.” Cyril was right to criticize Nestorius’s Christology as little more than warmed- over and dressed-up adoptionism. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 38
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 218). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 17. Cyril's Christology seems ambiguous. What was Cyril's unique contribution to Christology? Cyril’s unique contribution to Christology is the doctrine of the hypostatic union— at least in its basic outlines. This becomes the Great Church’s foundation for explaining and expressing the mystery of the incarnation of God in Christ. In a nutshell it means that the subject of the life of Jesus Christ was the Son of God who took on himself a human nature and existence while remaining truly divine. In other words, according to Cyril, there was no human personal subject in the incarnation. The hypostasis (personal subsistence) of Jesus Christ was the eternal Son of God who condescended to take human flesh through Mary. Mary, Cyril argued, gave birth to God in flesh. That is the essence of the incarnation. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 218). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 18. What did Cyril recognize about the human Jesus? However, in order to avoid “dividing the person” in Nestorian fashion, Cyril also emphasized the unity of the subject or person in Christ so that only the divine Logos is truly personal and active in him. The result is that for Cyril either Christ did not have a human personal center of consciousness and will or else it was inactive. The humanity appears anhypostasia— impersonal. But it is still more than a mere body and animal life force. The human nature of Jesus Christ included every aspect of true humanity— body, soul, spirit, mind, will. It just did not have any independent or autonomous personal being over against the Logos. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 218-219). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 19. What did he emphasize about the divine Logos, and what was the result of this? “God the Logos did not come into a man, but he ‘truly’ became man, while remaining God.” 4 He completely rejected the conjunction idea of union and replaced it with hypostatic union— union of two realities in one hypostasis or personal subject— the Logos. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 219). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 20. Explain Carroll's concept of the "hypostatic union,” and what this meant for Jesus after the incarnation. So strong was the union of humanity and divinity in the one hypostasis of the Logos, Cyril argued, that one must speak of “one nature after the union.” In other words, even though it is Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 39
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 possible conceptually to think of Christ’s humanity and divinity as two distinct physeis, or natures, in reality their union in the incarnation made them to become “one nature.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 219). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 21. The Council of Ephesus condemned two Christological heresies: Apollinarianism and Nestorianism. What else was accomplished at the Council of Ephesus? The Council of Ephesus, generally regarded as the third ecumenical council of Christendom, did not promulgate any new creed, but it did endorse a belief and bind it on all Christians. It is a dogmatic formula taken almost word for word from Cyril’s letters to Nestorius: “One and the same is the eternal Son of the Father and the Son of the Virgin Mary, born in time after the flesh; therefore she may rightly be called Mother of God.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 220). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Olson Chapter 15: Chalcedon Protects the Mystery. 1. Prior to the Council of Chalcedon, on what did everyone agree? Jesus Christ’s importance was as Savior of the world. Everyone agreed that in order to accomplish salvation he had to be truly God and truly human. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 222). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 2. The disagreement was about the nature of the God-man. What was the issue that lay beneath the surface of this disagreement? Beneath the surface, wrangling over proper terminology for describing his person and being lay vastly different ideas of salvation. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 222). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 3. Olson states that Antiochene Christology could easily lead to an impression. What was this impression, and to what false gospel does this lead? could easily lead to the impression that Jesus Christ accomplished salvation by being a godly human person and cooperating perfectly with the divine Logos who assumed him. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 223). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 40
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 4. What different underlying view of salvation does Alexandrian Christology manifest? In this view, what does Christ due to save us? Alexandrian Christology manifested a different underlying view of salvation. Jesus Christ is the divine Savior as the Logos of God, not as a human person. Yes he had to have both divinity and humanity in order to accomplish salvation as the mediator between the two. But the saving operation in and through him was an activity of the Logos healing the wounds of sin and death in the humanity that becomes the new humanity for all who participate in him by faith and through sacraments. The Alexandrian soteriological emphasis was on grace rather than on human achievement. This should not, however, be misunderstood through the lens of later theological debates. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 223-224). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 5. What did the Alexandrian view of salvation emphasize, according to Olson? The Alexandrian soteriological emphasis was on grace rather than on human achievement. This should not, however, be misunderstood through the lens of later theological debates. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 224). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 6. All of the parties in this debate believed in the role of human free will. What question about free will was still unsettled in the Alexandrian doctrine? The question whether Jesus Christ himself had a human free will, however, was still unsettled. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 224). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 7. Olson credits Dioscorus with renewing the doctrinal war. What did Dioscorus reject and what did he affirm about Christ? Apollinarian Christology by affirming a human soul and mind of Christ, Dioscorus also completely rejected talk of two natures of Christ as unavoidably Nestorian and insisted on the formulas “one incarnate nature of the divine Logos” and “after the union, one Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 225-226). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 8. What did Eutyches affirm about the process of incarnation? What did Eutyches refuse to affirm? While it is difficult to ascertain exactly what Eutyches’ teaching about Christ was, it is clear that he went a step beyond the language of Cyril and affirmed of the process of incarnation that it Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 41
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 involved “two natures before the union (of God and humanity) but only one nature after or as a result of the union.” he refused to affirm that Christ was consubstantial with us humans, which appeared to the Antiochenes as a clear rejection of the faith of Nicaea, which had declared Jesus Christ both truly human and truly divine. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 226). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 9. Olson records a saying attributed to Eutyches about Christ's humanity. What was this saying? “There! See we told you what Alexandrian Christology would lead to— rejection of Christ’s very humanity.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 226). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 10. Olson states that the "specter of outright Docetism" loomed when Eutyches taught Christology. Define "Docetism." Docetism /dō sē tiz m, dōsi-/ I. noun the doctrine, important in Gnosticism, that Christ's body ˈ ˌ ə ˈ was not human but either a phantasm or of real but celestial substance, and that therefore his sufferings were only apparent. The New Oxford American Dictionary (Kindle Locations 154604-154606). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition. 11. What did Eutyches teach about the nature of Jesus from the moment of conception? Jesus Christ was a hybrid of humanity and divinity— a single divine-human nature— that mixed together and mingled the two natures so that the human nature was overwhelmed and swallowed up by the divine. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 227). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 12. With whom did Dioscorus want to provoke a confrontation? How did Dioscorus ensure that things would go his way at the Council in Ephesus? With Antioch’s leaders and even with the patriarch of Constantinople himself. Hired an Egyptian Gang of Thugs Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 42
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 228). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 13. What did the monks, led by Dioscorus, do to the patriarch of Constantinople? Dioscorus arrived with his gang of heavily armed monks and quickly took control of the entire council. Eutyches’ formula “two natures before the union; one nature after the union” was approved as orthodox, and the leading Antiochene representative Theodoret of Cyrus and other so-called Nestorianizers were condemned as “contenders with God” and deposed from their positions as church leaders. Some of the Alexandrian bishops and many of the monks present called for them to be burned. Flavian condemning Eutyches and charting out orthodox Christology. Flavian tried to read the letter from the pope, but Dioscorus’s monks attacked and beat him up so badly that he died shortly afterward. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 228). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 14. What was at stake at the end of the "Robber Synod" in Ephesus? the faith of Nicaea itself was at stake. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 229). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 15. How did Emperor Theodosius II respond to Pope Leo? Theodosius finally responded to Leo’s appeal in 450. He refused all of Leo’s demands and especially refused to call a new council to replace the Robber Synod as fourth ecumenical council. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 229). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 16. What did the Empress Pulcheria do for Bishop Flavian? Pulcheria and Marcian began the process of reversing the terrible acts of the Robber Synod of 449. They had Flavian’s body brought to Constantinople from Ephesus and buried with full honors in the great cathedral of Hagia Sophia—“ Holy Wisdom”— that stood at the center of the capital city. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 230). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 17. What did the Council of Chalcedon declare about Dioscorus and his cronies? the bishops voted to depose Dioscorus as patriarch of Alexandria and exile him together with the ringleaders of the infamous Ephesian synod. The empress and emperor ratified their decision. Dioscorus was immediately sent into exile in the desert. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 43
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 230-231). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 18. How did the letter of Pope Leo I, called Leo's home , influence the Council of Chalcedon? a new formulary of faith was agreed upon based heavily on language and concepts in Leo’s Tome and Cyril’s letters to Nestorius and John of Antioch. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 231). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . 19. What did the bishops wish to make clear about the Formulary (or Definition) of Chalcedon? The bishops wanted to make absolutely clear that the new Formulary of Chalcedon (more often known as the Definition of Chalcedon) was not a new creed but an interpretation and elaboration of the Nicene Creed of 381. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 231). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 20. How did the Chalcedon define the nature and person of Christ? How does this relate to the Latin father Tertullian? The ancient faith of Tertullian was accepted in the East: Jesus Christ as one person of two natures or substances. Just as Nicaea and Constantinople had declared God three whos and one what, so Chalcedon declared Jesus Christ one who and two whats. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 232). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 21. Identify the two groups that did not accept the Definition of Chalcedon. What did they believe instead of the Chalcedonian Definition? Significant portions of the churches of Syria and regions east of Syria (Persia and Arabia) refused to accept the new statement and split off from the Great Church to form their own separate Nestorian churches. They developed their own traditions and beliefs and isolated themselves from orthodox and catholic Christendom. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 232). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 22. Olson says that the Definition of Chalcedon was not meant to be esoteric or philosophical. What did the Definition attempt to do? Fact it is simply an attempt to express and protect the mystery of the incarnation against distortions Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 44
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 233). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 23. Olson states that the Definition of Chalcedon attempts to preserve what is right and deny what is wrong about Alexandrian and Antiochene thought. Explain what was right and wrong for each. It clearly affirms with moderate Antiochene theology the real humanity of Jesus Christ and his two natures. But it states that the two natures are not to be divided or separated and that each nature— in its full integrity— is held together in one person. Antiochene Christology is right in what it affirms— two natures of the God-man— but wrong in what Nestorius denied— the unity and integrity of the person of Jesus Christ. Chalcedon also clearly affirms, against extreme Alexandrian Christology, that the two natures of Christ must not be confused (mingled or mixed) or thought to change through their intimate hypostatic union in the Logos. Alexandrian Christology is right in what it affirms— one person of Christ who is the Son of God— but wrong in what Eutyches denied— the completeness and integrity of the distinct natures of humanity and divinity even in their union in Jesus Christ. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 233). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 24. Olson defines the “four fences” of Chalcedon. Define how these fences protect the mystery of the Incarnation. The real heart of the Chalcedonian Definition is what is known as the four fences of Chalcedon —“without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.” These four phrases serve as “fences” around the mystery of the hypostatic union— Christ’s two full and complete natures in one person. “Without confusion, without change” protect the mystery from the heresy of Eutychianism and from monophysitism, which try to preserve the unity of person by creating a hybrid— tertium quid (third something)— out of divinity and humanity. “Without division, without separation” protect the mystery from the heresy of Nestorianism, which tries to emphasize the distinction between the humanity and divinity by tearing them apart into two different persons. The definition is saying, So long as you do not violate one of these fences, you may express the mystery of the incarnation in many different ways. All the definition really does is express and protect a mystery. It does not explain anything. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 233-234). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 25. What did both Leo and Cyril affirm about the person and nature of Jesus Christ, particularly about his consciousness and will? When we read their letters carefully, we find that both of them conceived of the person of Jesus Christ as the eternal Logos of God who condescends to take upon himself a human nature that has no particular existence of its own (so not a human person). It is an impersonal human Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 45
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 nature. The personal center of consciousness will and action is the Logos, the eternal Son of God. Leo and Cyril also seem to have considered the divine person and nature of the Logos unaffected by his assumption of a human nature in his existence as Jesus Christ. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 234). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 26. What is the “Achilles heel” of the Chalcedonian Definition, according to the historian Maurice Relton? “For both Leo and for Cyril it is the unlimited Logos Who is the centre of the God-man. It follows that, in the Incarnate Christ, His Divine Nature, having undergone no change, is incapable of suffering, and remains unchangeable and unalterable through all the experiences He undergoes in His Incarnate life.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 234). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 27. If the subject of the union -- the divine Logos -- his understood as unaffected by its union with humanity, then what two things might be true? If the subject of the union— the divine Logos, Son of God— is understood as unaffected by the union with humanity, then either the union of the two natures is being undermined or the human nature is being made passive and abstract. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 235). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 28. Martin Luther, the reformer, embraced both Nicaea and Chalcedon as landmarks of Christian doctrine. What idea from the Chalcedonian era did Martin Luther reject? Reformation in the sixteenth century, Martin Luther embraced both Nicaea and Chalcedon as respected landmarks of Christian doctrine and at the same time rejected belief in divine impassibility and attributed creaturely experiences to the Son of God in his incarnate state. For Luther it is no scandal to say “God was born” and “God suffered and died” and “God was Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 46
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 crucified” and really mean it as more than mere figures of speech. Luther carried the communicatio idiomatum to its logical conclusion— something apparently neither Leo nor Cyril nor their orthodox and catholic interpreters did. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 235). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 29. What idea did Luther carry to its logical conclusion? What did this allow Luther to affirm? Luther carried the communicatio idiomatum to its logical conclusion Olson Chapter 16: Fallout from the Conflict Continues. 1. Why was the ambiguity of the doctrine of the hypostatic union unsettling to many Eastern Church leaders? The ambiguity of the hypostatic-union doctrine was unsettling to many Eastern church leaders who sought complete intelligibility in theology or who had vested interests in promoting an Alexandrian or Antiochene interpretation. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 236-237). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 2. Olson tells us that theological problems consumed the Latin West from the late forth to the late seventh centuries. What was this great controversy, and what was its special focus? about the nature of salvation and especially whether the human person who is being saved plays any role in the process or whether its accomplishment is completely a work of God. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 237). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 3. Why were many Eastern Church leaders willing to receive the British monk Pelagius? Many Eastern church leaders thought that his teaching about sin and salvation was not as bad as Augustine and other Western theologians claimed. Nevertheless, they were willing to sacrifice him at the Council of Ephesus in 431 to please the bishop of Rome and get his support for the condemnation of Nestorius. In the outcome of the history of theology, East and West agreed that Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 47
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 both Nestorius and Pelagius were heretics and that their teachings were not only unorthodox but damnable errors that undermined gospel itself. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 237). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 4. Describe the Donatist beliefs about the Church. What did the Donatists desire? The Donatists insisted that the catholic and orthodox Great Church represented by the pope in Rome and the patriarchs of the East and linked with imperial power was apostate because many of its leading bishops had lapsed under persecution before Constantine and then been restored under him. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 238). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. The Donatists wanted a pure church untainted by traitors and immoral leaders, even ones who had repented and been restored through penance. They were moral and ecclesiastical rigorists who harked back to Tertullian and Cyprian. They had their own bishops and cathedrals and schools in the early fifth century, and try as they might, the Western bishops could not seem to stamp them out or bring them into the fold of the Great Church without the help of emperors. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 238). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 5. Describe the concept of caesaropapism. How did the Emperor Constantine establish this pattern? In the East the Roman emperors from Constantine onward tended to dominate the bishops and patriarchs. This method of church government has come to be known as caesaropapism, that is, “Caesar is pope.” The pattern was established by Constantine, who declared himself “bishop of all the bishops” and “the thirteenth apostle” at the Council of Nicaea in 325. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 238). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 238). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 6. Why were both Leo I and Gregory I called "the Great"? These two bishops have gone down in the annals of church history with the title “the Great” in part, at least, because they exercised power over both church and state. In many ways they Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 48
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 functioned as emperors when no single office or person stood above the fray of barbarian battles and cultural dissolution in the West. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 239). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 7. How did the Western Church differ from the Eastern Church about secular rulers? 239 the East after Chalcedon were virtually ignored by the West, which had its own all-consuming issues to deal with. The Eastern debates over the nature of Christ also came heavily to involve Byzantine emperors and especially the greatest one of all: Justinian. Unfortunately, many Western Christians— both Roman Catholic and Protestant— know little or nothing about the post-Chalcedonian christological controversies in the East, while Eastern Orthodox Christians are steeped in the concepts and terminology of those debates. Without any doubt, greater understanding between Western and Eastern Christians could be achieved if both sides came to know the other’s theology better. A major mark of Eastern Christian thought is its struggle against the threats of monophysitism and iconoclasm. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 239). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 8. Why was the Council of Chalcedon a political failure? because “no sooner had the bishops departed from Chalcedon than dissentients began to give voice to their indignation.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 239). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . 9. Why did many bishops begin to feel dissatisfied with the Chalcedonian Definition? They wanted to remain in the Great Church, connected with the emperor and patriarchs, but they felt that the Chalcedonian Christology was being interpreted wrongly. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 240). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 10. What question was left unresolved in many Church leaders minds? “What constitutes a complete manhood [humanity]? What is the minimum which it must retain if it is to be called complete? If the Logos had become the Ego of the manhood, in what sense could the manhood be said to have retained all its parts?” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 240). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 11. What idea to the Alexandrian bishops want to push, and what was their question about the person of Christ? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 49
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 “What constitutes a complete manhood [humanity]? What is the minimum which it must retain if it is to be called complete? If the Logos had become the Ego of the manhood, in what sense could the manhood be said to have retained all its parts?” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 240). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 12. Olson tells us that the bishops and theologians of the East tended to fall into three main groups after Chalcedon. Describe the dyophysites and state what they wished to prevent above all. Who was their hero? Actually the bishops and theologians of the East tended to fall into three main groups after Chalcedon. First, there were the strict dyophysites. (A dyophysite is one who believes in the two natures as radically distinct from one another while rejecting Nestorius’s talk of two persons after the union.) These tended to be moderate Antiochenes who saw Chalcedon as a victory for the old Christology of Theodore of Mopsuestia, the theological hero of Antioch. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 240-241). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 13. Describe the moderate Monophysites. Who were their heroes? What idea if they wish to promote? A second party within the Great Church after Chalcedon were the moderate monophysites, who regarded Cyril as their great dead hero (even though he had slipped by allowing talk of two natures in his compromise with Antioch in 433) and Severus of Antioch as their living hero and main theologian. Not all monophysites lived in or around Alexandria. Monophysitism had invaded the very heart of Nestorian country— Antioch itself! Severus and his monophysite allies (most of whom were centered around Alexandria or lived in Constantinople) wished to promote Cyril’s communicatio idiomatum idea of the incarnation and even tried to reinterpret Chalcedon so that the incarnation could be regarded as “one nature after the union.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 241). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 14. What did the moderate Monophysites argue for concerning the divinity and humanity of Christ? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 50
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 that “if there are two natures [in Christ], there are also necessarily two persons; but if there are two persons, there are also two Christs.” 8 But the moderate monophysites rejected Eutychian mingling of divinity and humanity in Christ and argued for “one composite nature” of divinity and humanity through the hypostatic union. The distinction between the natures was to be kept while the union was to be emphasized. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 241). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 15. Describe the Neo-Chalcedonians. Who was their hero? What did these neo- Chalcedonians wish to find? The third post-Chalcedonian party was the neo-Chalcedonians, and their hero and victor became someone named Leontius. There is great confusion in church history about his identity. Some consider Leontius of Byzantium the person who worked out the officially approved interpretation of Chalcedon known as the enhypostasia principle. Others say the person who did that was a different Leontius— of Jerusalem. Here we will follow the tradition of considering the person who led the Great Church toward a solution at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 Leontius of Byzantium. The neo-Chalcedonians wished to find a compromise between the moderate Antiochenes (dyophysites) and moderate Alexandrians (monophysites) while rejecting the radical wings of both parties. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 241-242). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 16. What needed to be transcended in a conceptual leap in order to settle the dispute? somehow all the known categories of being (physis, ousia) and personhood (prosopon, hypostasis) had to be transcended in some great conceptual leap to a new category. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 242). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 17. Who were the two leading Monophysites of the post-Chalcedonian era? The two leading monophysites in the post-Chalcedonian period were Severus of Antioch and the bishop of Alexandria, Timothy Aelurus. They and their cohorts were able to sway Emperor Zeno (476-491) to favor monophysitism for a time. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 242). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 18. What did the most important Monophysite book affirm and argue about the humanity and divinity of Christ? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 51
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 The Lover of Truth, and in it he strongly affirmed the real humanity and divinity of Christ while arguing that these coalesce into a single composite nature because of their union in the person of the Word or Son of God: Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 242-243). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 19. The leading Monophysites argued against the classical interpretation of Chalcedon on three grounds. Explain the three grounds of their criticism. First, the Definition had excluded the one and only formula that could successfully prevail against Nestorianism: “one incarnate nature of the divine Logos.” Second, the Definition had neglected to mention the hypostatic union or communicatio idiomatum. Third, it had excluded the confession “out of two— one.” Finally, when their moderate attempts to sway opinion toward their interpretation of Chalcedon failed, the leading monophysites openly repudiated it and Timothy Aelurus pronounced anathema against it: “As for us, we conform to the doctrine of the divine Scriptures and of the holy Doctors of the Church. We anathematize those who speak of two natures or of two ousiai [substances] in respect of Christ.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 243). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 20. How did the Emperor Justinian the great resolve the Monophysite controversy? Like the first Byzantine emperor, Constantine, he considered it his duty to keep the church united in doctrine as well as in polity. So one of his first acts was to require all Christian bishops throughout the empire to adhere strictly to Chalcedon. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 244). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 21. What theologian did Justinian adopt and promote? Leontius of Byzantium, who had been working away quietly in both Jerusalem and Constantinople between 529 and 536. Justinian had appointed him to call and preside over conferences of leading orthodox theologians to carve out a new concept of the hypostatic union that would remain fully consistent with the Chalcedonian Definition while at the same time bridging the gap between the moderate monophysites and dyophysites. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 244). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 22. What was the conceptual leap that Justinian found eminently helpful in defending Chalcedon against its detractors? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 52
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Leontius achieved a conceptual leap that Justinian found eminently helpful in defending Chalcedon against its detractors: the principle of the enhypostasia of the human nature of Christ in the divine Word. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 245). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 23. Describe the solution offered by Leontius of Byzantium for the problem that every person required its own hypostasis. Leontius’s proposed solution was not an addition to the Nicene faith as interpreted by Chalcedon. All enhypostasia involves is an interpretation of Chalcedonian Christology that helps overcome the strenuous objections of Alexandrians and Antiochenes, even if the more obstinate advocates of both parties refused to give in and accept it. The important point is that neither Leontius nor Justinian nor the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 considered it in any way going beyond Chalcedon. Rather, with the enhypostasia principle Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 246). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 24. Describe the three ways in which any two beings or realities may be united, according to Leontius of Byzantium. First, they may be merely juxtaposed side by side and closely related to one another as in a friendship or a marriage. This is how the Nestorians conceived the incarnation— humanity and divinity as two natures and two persons cooperating together. Second, they may be blended into a “third something”— a hybrid— so that out of their union a new nature appears that is a mixture of the two. That is how the Eutychians and radical monophysites conceived the incarnation— humanity and divinity as one personal entity that is a mixture of two natures, but neither one fully. Finally, “two things may be so united that their distinct natures subsist in a single hypostasis.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 245-246). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 25. What can the Christology of Leontius of Byzantium accommodate, and how can he claim that the divine Logos is still incapable of suffering? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 53
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Leontius’s Christology can accommodate the communicatio idiomatum so that both divine and human characteristics can be attributed to the divine Logos who formed the personal center of Jesus Christ. As Jesus Christ, he— the Word— both suffered and conquered death. Nevertheless, in this scheme it is still possible to say that divinity is incapable of suffering (impassible) by claiming that Jesus Christ only suffered “in his humanity.” Also it is possible to say that humanity is whole and complete and being healed by the saving incarnation because the human nature of Jesus Christ had everything essential to a human nature. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 246-247). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 26. What is the fundamental truth to which orthodox Christians -- both Eastern and Western -- must return? According to the doctrine of the hypostatic union as interpreted and affirmed by the fifth ecumenical council, “while one may embark on the mental process of seeing in their reality the two natures of Christ, one must always return to the fundamental truth that he is one Person, the Logos made man, to whom belong both divine and human properties, and whose are all the actions and sayings reported of him in Scripture, whether divine or human.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 247). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 27. What heresy arose out of the question about whether Christ had one or two wills? Nevertheless, the great heresies of gnosticism, adoptionism, Arianism, Sabellianism (modalism), Apollinarianism, Nestorianism and Eutychianism (monophysitism) had to be overcome, and that was a long and convoluted theological process. Would that it could have been simpler. Some systematic theologians argue that virtually every heresy of two thousand years of Christianity can be boiled down to one of those mentioned above. If that is true, then their defeat was essential even if it involved great confusion, some scandal, and highly technical debates and doctrinal formulas. If any one of the heresies mentioned had won the day and become the consensus of Christians worldwide, the result would have been a serious loss for the gospel. God works in mysterious ways— even through emperors such as Cyrus in the Old Testament era and Constantine and Justinian in the early church— to preserve truth. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 249). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 28. Olson states that if any one of the great heresies -- Gnosticism, Adoptionism, Arianism, Sabellianism, Apollinarianism, Arianism, Nestorianism, or Eutychianism -- had one the day, the result would have been a serious loss for the gospel. Reflect on how each one of Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 54
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 these heresies would have harmed the gospel, had it won the day rather than Chalcedonian orthodoxy. Olson Chapter 17 1. With whom did the Great Church identify in the East and in the West? Donatism. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 265). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 2. What major defection did the Western Church suffer the fourth and fifth centuries? In the West the Donatist schism in North Africa developed its own fellowship of bishops and congregations and was only overcome by the power of the state forcing its adherents back within the fold of the Great Church or into exile and underground. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 251). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 3. When did the “Great Schism” occur, and what events signaled the division? The great schism between East and West came officially and finally in 1054 when the patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople excommunicated one another. But in fact that had happened before. After 1054, however, the breach was never healed. From that time on, at least for nearly a millennium, there would be two major branches of Christianity, each claiming to be the one true apostolic church both catholic and orthodox. Most readers will recognize these two great traditions by the names Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. However, each tradition considers itself the continuation of the church of the apostles that was born on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Each one considers the other a schism away from the one true holy catholic and orthodox church. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 252). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 4. What do both the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches consider themselves? Each tradition considers itself the continuation of the church of the apostles that was born on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Each one considers the other a schism away from the one true holy catholic and orthodox church. 5. What is the visible sign of this attitude? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 55
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 A visible sign of this attitude is refusal of eucharistic fellowship. Members of the churches of Rome who look to the bishop of Rome as pope and “vicar of Christ” are not to partake of the Eucharist, or Lord’s Supper, with members of the Eastern Orthodox family of churches. Members of the Eastern Orthodox family of churches (Greek, Russian, Romanian, etc.) are not to partake of the sacrament with members of the church of Rome. While each side acknowledges the other as Christian, they do not consider each other true churches of Jesus Christ. They are schisms in their rival’s eyes. Each claims that the other broke the peace and unity of the body of Christ at least in 1054 if not earlier. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 252). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 6. How do views about Augustine of Hippo differ in the Eastern Church from the Western Church? 7. Describe Augustinus Aurelius in terms of language, Bible, and culture. he did not speak or read Greek. He read both the Bible and the earlier church fathers in rather poor Latin translations. He was steeped in the Latin traditions of thought and lived his whole life within the sphere of influence of Rome. For some reason his influence became pervasive in Western Christianity in his own lifetime and semiofficial within a few decades after his death. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 253). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 8. On what part of Augustine’s theology will Olson focus? we will focus on those aspects of Augustine’s theology that more directly contributed to the East- West split and that came to shape the distinctive theology of salvation in the West that Eastern Christians find troubling. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 254). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 9. In what way does Augustine bridge two eras? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 56
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Augustinianism introduced into the stream of Christian thought something called monergism— the idea and belief that human agency is entirely passive and God’s agency is all-deter mining in both universal history and individual salvation. Many people already know a part of this as “predestination” and automatically link it with the sixteenthcentury Protestant Reformer John Calvin. However, the broader perspective is Augustine’s monergistic ideas of providence and salvation in which God is the sole active agent and energy, and humans— both collectively and individually— are tools and instruments of God’s grace or wrath. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 255-256). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 10. What two issues does Olson identify as the “main issue” in Augustine’s theology? the nature of the church, the sacraments and their validity, and the relationship between church and state. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 265). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 11. What did Augustine introduce into Christian thought? Augustinianism introduced into the stream of Christian thought something called monergism— the idea and belief that human agency is entirely passive and God’s agency is all-deter mining in both universal history and individual salvation. Many people already know a part of this as “predestination” and automatically link it with the sixteenthcentury Protestant Reformer John Calvin. However, the broader perspective is Augustine’s monergistic ideas of providence and salvation in which God is the sole active agent and energy, and humans— both collectively and individually— are tools and instruments of God’s grace or wrath. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 255-256). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 12. Explain Augustine’s idea of monergism in terms of providence and salvation. the idea and belief that human agency is entirely passive and God’s agency is all-deter mining in both universal history and individual salvation. 13. Explain the early Church idea of “synergism.” Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 57
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Christian theology before Augustine tended to assume a view of the God-world relationship called synergism— the idea and belief that God’s agency and human agency cooperate in some way to produce both history and salvation. Of course, orthodox Christians have always believed that God’s power and grace are supreme, but pre-Augustinian theologians almost all assumed that God allows humans some degree of freedom to make certain crucial decisions. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 256). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 14. What does Augustine’s autobiography, the Confessions , reveal? Augustine’s Confessions reveals a great deal about his childhood, family, youth, early struggles, mental and physical health, conversion, theological development and life as a leading churchman in North Africa. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 256). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 15. Why was Augustine attracted to the Manicheans at first? Augustine was attracted to them for some time because they seemed intellectual and offered answers to life’s ultimate questions that seemed to the young student superior to Christianity’s or traditional paganism’s Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 257). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 16. Explain the Manichean “dualistic theology.” the Manichaeans believed in two eternal and equally powerful forces of good and evil locked in endless combat. Like gnostics they attributed evil to matter— the creation of the evil principle— and good to spirit created by the good God of heaven. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 257). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . 17. Olson records two life-transforming experiences for Augustine. The first was Neo- Platonism. Explain the two ideas that Augustine took from Neo-Platonism. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 58
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 These convinced him that there could be an infinite spiritual reality that is not material, and this was one quandary that had stopped him from accepting Christianity. Neo-Platonism also provided him with an insight about evil similar to that discovered and taught by Cappadocian father Gregory of Nyssa: evil is not a substance but the absence of the good. Augustine had come to believe that Christianity and biblical religion in general could not answer the problem of evil. If God is all-powerful and perfectly good, why is there so much evil in the world God created out of nothing? Did not God have to create evil, then? Does that not make God the author of evil? Neo-Platonism— a pagan philosophy— gave him one of the most important keys to unlock the door that opened onto his mother’s religious faith. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 257). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 18. What was the second life-transforming experience that Augustine had? insight about evil similar to that discovered and taught by Cappadocian father Gregory of Nyssa: evil is not a substance but the absence of the good. Augustine had come to believe that Christianity and biblical religion in general could not answer the problem of evil. If God is all- powerful and perfectly good, why is there so much evil in the world God created out of nothing? Did not God have to create evil, then? Does that not make God the author of evil? Neo- Platonism— a pagan philosophy— gave him one of the most important keys to unlock the door that opened onto his mother’s religious faith. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 257). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 19. What did Ambrose prove to Augustine? Ambrose was noted for his great courage in confronting the emperor after he had ordered thousands of Greeks slain in a senseless and vindictive massacre. He was also noted for his impressive homiletical skills, and Augustine began lurking in the back of the Christian cathedral in Milan to hear him preach. Eventually the message preached by Ambrose began to sink in and convince Augustine that he had been wrong about Christianity. He had too easily dismissed it as a religion for weak and silly people with no sophistication. Ambrose proved that one could be intellectual, articulate and courageous and be a Christian. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 257-258). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 20. What did Augustine’s conversion involve? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 59
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 instantly, as the sentence ended— by a light, as it were, of security infused into my heart— all the gloom of doubt vanished away. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 259). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 21. How did Augustine interpret the sung phrase “take up and read”? To read the Bible. 22. What did Augustine try to do right after his conversion, and what did he do after he returned to North Africa? Tried to live a life as a monk; in prayer, meditation, etc. pg 259 23. What was Augustine “virtually forced” to receive in 391? Ordination 24. What did Augustine demonstrate about the Manichean religion? That is was based on myths and filled with contradiction. Pg 259 25. What did Augustine provide to counter the growing influence of the Donatists? Provided theology of church life and sacraments that overwhelmed them. Pg 260 26. How did Augustine’s theology regarding free will change from his early thought to his later thought? He believed humans did have free will and could act in different ways. Pg 264 27. How did Augustine come to regard faith in his controversy with Pelagius? He developed his own theology of human depravity and God’s sovereignty and grace. Pg 269 28. According to Olson, Augustine was willing to change his theology. What shaped Augustine’s thinking? To what authority did he submit his thinking? Augustine constantly allowed his thinking to be shaped by the needs of the moment under the authority of the Word of God. his thinking was shaped by the need to combat Manichaeism Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 261). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 60
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 29. What did Augustine use as a weapon against the Manicheans? First, his thinking was shaped by the need to combat Manichaeism. Against that cult he launched an all-out apologetic assault in which he used Neo-Platonism as an ally and weapon. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 261). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 30. What distinctive views did Augustine develop in his debate with Pelagius and his followers? his own distinctive views about human depravity and God’s sovereignty. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 261). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 31. How is Manichaeism like some cults today in regard to young people? because they claim to provide better answers to life’s ultimate questions than are offered by “traditional organized religion.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 262). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 32. What was the doctrine of the Manicheans on the subjects of evil and the human spirit? Manichaeism taught that matter is evil or the source of evil and at the same time held forth no conception whatever of a nonmaterial, spiritual reality. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 262). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 33. What two ideas, used in his book Concerning the Nature of the Good, did Augustine draw from Neo-Platonism? Explain these ideas. he drew on the Neo-Platonic ideas of the ontological unity of being and goodness and of evil as the privation of both in order to explain the Christian concept of God as Creator and how that is consistent with the existence of evil. In other words, he showed how one does not have to posit the existence of two equal forces or principles in the universe (dualism)— one good and one evil — in order to explain evil. According to Augustine, evil is not a nature or a substance but the corruption of God-created good nature: But how can a good nature created by God go wrong and become evil? This Augustine answered with both a metaphysical and a moral argument. He explained that any nature created ex nihilo — out of nothing— is automatically less than God and is therefore less than absolutely metaphysically perfect and is open to possible corruption. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 263). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 61
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 262). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 34. In attempting to answer the question of how an originally good nature can go wrong, Augustine developed a metaphysical and a moral argument. a. Explain Augustine’s metaphysical argument regarding natures. This Augustine answered with both a metaphysical and a moral argument. He explained that any nature created ex nihilo— out of nothing— is automatically less than God and is therefore less than absolutely metaphysically perfect and is open to possible corruption. Only God’s nature is absolutely incorruptible. Also, human nature possesses the gift of freedom, which can be misused in favor of a lesser good than the one God assigned it to seek and follow. This is the true source and origin of the corruption and absence of good we call evil— the misuse of free will: “Sin is not the striving after an evil nature, but the desertion of a better, and so the deed itself is evil, not the nature which the sinner uses amiss. For it is evil to use amiss that which is good.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 263). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. b. Explain Augustine’s moral argument regarding evil. the only truly evil thing is an evil will, and it is not really a “thing” at all. Evil is actually a nothingness. Free will is not evil. The occasion for it to sin is not evil. Only the actual misuse of the will that makes it an evil will is evil. For this there is no explanation or cause. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 263). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. c. What, then, is the only truly “evil” thing? the actual misuse of the will that makes it an evil will is evil. d. In what specific ideas did Augustine disagree with the Neo-Platonists? Augustine strongly disagreed with Neo-Platonism about the personal nature of God and about the creation of the world. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 264). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 35. Even though God is infinite, omnipotent, and free from every defect, what is inevitably a possibility in any creation? God is infinite, absolutely omnipotent, perfectly spiritual and free from every defect metaphysical or moral. But evil as the privation of the good is inevitably a possibility in any Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 62
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 creation and especially in one that includes morally free and responsible created agents such as angels and human beings. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 264). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 36. According to Olson, the Donatists were not intellectuals. What characterized the Donatists, and in what tradition were they rooted? Donatism and its churches tended to be moral purists rather than intellectuals. They were Christians deeply rooted in the tradition of Shepherd of Hermas and Tertullian, and they believed that bishops who had sinned or cooperated with persecuting Roman authorities were not true Christian bishops and the men they ordained to priesthood were not true Christian priests. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 265). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 37. What did the Donatists believe about the bishops who either sinned or cooperated with the Romans during the persecutions? What did the Donatists believe about the priests ordained by such bishops? they believed that bishops who had sinned or cooperated with persecuting Roman authorities were not true Christian bishops and the men they ordained to priesthood were not true Christian priests. 38. The Donatist issue was purity. What did the Donatists believe was the nature of the true Church? Donatism in North Africa, three main issues immediately came to the fore as the crucial ones in the controversy: the nature of the church, the sacraments and their validity, and the relationship between church and state. According to the Donatists, it is a congregation of the saints, on earth as in heaven, and for that reason it will always be a tiny remnant.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 265). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 39. What was Augustine’s vision of the Church? Universal Church, spread throughout the world and containing within itself both good and evil until the final separation of the Last Day. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 63
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 265). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 40. Explain Augustine’s theology of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. How does Augustine’s concept of Christ influence his view of the sacraments? Augustine reflected on the nature of the sacraments and developed the view that was eventually adopted by the Great Church both catholic and orthodox. According to Augustine’s sacramental theology, sacraments such as baptism and the Eucharist, or Lord’s Supper, convey grace ex opere operato, which is loosely translated “by virtue of the act itself.” In other words, the power and validity of the sacrament rest in Christ’s holiness, and the priest who administers it is only an instrument of Christ’s grace: Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 266). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 41. What qualifies a priest or a bishop to perform valid sacraments? Augustine’s view of the sacraments is based upon the conception of Christ, the high priest without sin, who is the sole giver of sacramental grace because to Him alone belongs the power of conferring it, but who administers it by human agents. What these administer is the baptism of Christ, whose sanctity cannot be corrupted by unworthy ministers, any more than the light of the sun is corrupted by shining through a sewer. 13 In this view, then, the priest and the bishop are able to administer sacraments that are efficacious in imparting grace and transforming lives so long as they are properly ordained in apostolic succession. A baptism performed by a self- appointed priest with no valid ordination would not be a sacrament. But a baptism performed by an immoral or heretical priest with valid ordination and in communion with the Great Church would be a true sacrament. That is the meaning of ex opere operato. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 266). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . 42. Explain Augustine’s theology of “baptismal regeneration.” According to Augustine, children are born guilty of Adam and Eve’s sin and are corrupt from birth. Baptism is necessary to wash away that guilt, heal that corruption and introduce a person into the life of salvation within the church. This belief about baptism is known in theology as “baptismal regeneration.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 267). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 43. Augustine stressed both God’s grace and God’s power in salvation. What did Pelagius say would happen if Augustine’s view was accepted by the Church? If Christians became convinced that they could not be continent (abstaining from immorality) unless God gave them that gift, then it should not surprise anyone if they practice incontinence. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 64
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 That was Pelagius’s argument. Pelagius then composed On Nature, a book which condemned Augustine’s view and argued that humans can live sinless lives through their “natural endowments” and are responsible to do so. This was the catalyst that set off the great controversy over original sin, free will, and grace that consumed the Western church off and on for over a hundred years and echoes down through the subsequent centuries. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 267-268). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 44. What did Pelagius argue in his book On Nature ? On sin, free will, and grace: On Nature and On Free Will. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 268). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 45. Pelagius was fundamentally a Christian moralist. What did Pelagius believe about grace? he viewed part of grace as a human person’s natural equipment and part as the divine revelation of God’s will through the law. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 268). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 46. When Pelagius denied the doctrine of “original sin,” what idea did Pelagius deny, specifically? If sin in the sense of guilt that condemns is inevitable, he argued, then how can we be held responsible for it? And why not simply relax and sin more if it is inevitable? And if any good that we can do is always a gift of God, why blame people if they sin while waiting for the gift of goodness to arrive? Pelagius denied original sin, he was denying Augustine’s view of original sin, but not as clearly was he denying the view of original sin common in the Eastern churches. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 269). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 268-269). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 47. According to Pelagius, why do humans sin? He did believe that we are all born into a world corrupted by sin and we all tend to sin due to the bad examples shown us by our parents and peers. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 65
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 269). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 48. What did Pelagius believe about the Christian life? Any baptized Christian can simply choose to follow God’s will all of the time and never need any further special enabling from God to live sinlessly. that a Christian person can be without sin if he or she wishes. A baptized infant can and really should live so that he or she never needs to beg God for forgiveness. Forgiveness is there if one stumbles and falls into sin or even if one sins willfully, but Pelagius considered that unnecessary if a person would live rightly by free will according to the light given in God’s Word and in conscience. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 270). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 269). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition . 49. Pelagius argued that sinless perfection must be possible apart from “special assisting grace.” Why did he argue for this, or what would be true about God if this were not possible? he could claim that he was only arguing that sinless perfection apart from special assisting grace must be a possibility or else it would be unjust for God to demand it and hold humans accountable for not achieving it. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 270). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 50. Besides Pelagius idea of sinless perfection, what other idea did Augustine attempt to refute? What was the only idea that he would allow in salvation? Augustine ended up attempting to refute not only Pelagius’s alleged heresy of sinless perfection apart from assisting grace but also all forms of synergism. By the end of his life and career, Augustine would allow only his own monergism as the basis of an orthodox doctrine of salvation. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 271). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 51. Augustine’s entire soteriology flows from two beliefs. State these two beliefs. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 66
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Augustine’s entire soteriology flows from two major beliefs: the absolute and total depravity of human beings after the Fall, and the absolute and total power and sovereignty of God. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 271). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 52. What was Augustine’s view of humanity as a whole, and of infants born to Christian parents? infants born of Christian parents are born guilty and entirely corrupt by Adam’s sin and the fallen nature inherited from him. Contrary to Pelagius and most theologians of the Eastern churches, then, Augustine believed that all humans except Christ himself are born not only corrupt, so that sin is inevitable, but also guilty of Adam’s sin and deserving of eternal damnation unless they are baptized for the remission of sins and continue in that grace through faith and love. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 271-272). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 53. We might better call Augustine’s doctrine of “original sin” a doctrine of “original guilt.” Augustine’s use of the Old Latin Bible probably contributed to this. Explain how. a very poor Latin translation of Romans that mistranslated the verse to read in quo omnes peccaverunt, or “in whom [that is, Adam] all sinned.” In other words, when Augustine read Romans 5: 12, he saw the message that death spread to all humans beings inasmuch as all sinned in Adam. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 272). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 54. How can one break free from one’s “seminal identity” in Adam? What happens if one sins again? That connection may be temporarily broken by baptism, but it returns immediately when a person sins again after baptism and must be broken again by repentance and sacramental grace. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 272). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 55. Augustine thought that one might eventually enjoy unbroken fellowship with God. What is the only way that this could come about, according to Augustine? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 67
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Augustine believed that this process of transforming grace could include genuine progress so that a person might actually come eventually to enjoy a life of unbroken fellowship with God virtually free of the condemnation and corruption of original sin, but such a life would be entirely a work of God’s grace and in no way a product of human effort or free will apart from assisting grace. Furthermore, even such a saint would produce children both guilty and corrupt and in need of baptismal grace to enjoy their own fellowship with God. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 272). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 56. Explain Augustine’s understanding of free will and sin, both before Adam fell and afterward. Augustine argued, fallen humans are not free not to sin: “A man’s free will,” he wrote against Pelagius, “avails for nothing except to sin.” 23 Before Adam’s disobedience, he had the power not to sin. His condition then was posse non peccare: it was possible not to sin. After the disobedience and because of it, Adam’s condition and that of all his posterity except Jesus Christ became non posse non peccare: not possible not to sin. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 272-273). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 57. Augustine argued that two conclusions may not be drawn from his thought. What did Augustine deny could be concluded from his thought on the issue of sin, and on the issue of free will? First, he denied that his view implies any absolute necessity of sin. Sin and evil are products of the misuse of freedom and are not metaphysically necessary. Once the first human pair disobeyed, however, sin became inevitable in their own lives and in the lives of their posterity. Augustine insisted on a distinction between necessity and inevitability. Even now— long after Adam’s transgression— sin is inevitable but not necessary. The other wrong conclusion Augustine denied is that his view implies complete loss of free will. Augustine argued that human beings retain free will even after the Fall. But that free will is conditioned by sin so that it is always turned toward disobedience unless God’s grace intervenes and turns the will in another direction. Even in choosing to sin— which is inevitable— the human being born of Adam’s race is choosing freely. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 273). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 58. How did Augustine define the idea of “free will”? How is this different from the way most others define “free will”? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 68
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Augustine defined free will simply as doing what one wants to do. For him, “In brief, then, I am free with respect to any action (or that action is in my power) to the extent that my wanting and choosing to perform that action are sufficient for my performing it.” 24 Just so long as a person does what she wants to do, her action is “free.” This is quite different, of course, from defining free will as “ability to do otherwise,” which is probably the view Pelagius and his followers held. For Augustine, people are free to sin but not free not to sin. That is because they want to sin. The Fall has so corrupted their motives and desires that sinning is all they want to do apart from God’s intervening grace. Thus they are sinning “freely.” Pelagius and his followers would almost certainly reject this idea of free will and argue that a person is only truly free if he could either sin or not sin. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 273). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 59. What was it about Augustine’s view of God that brought him to define free will in such a counterintuitive way? He gave us a strong clue in On Grace and Free Will when he discussed the sovereignty of God in relation to human decisions and actions: “For the Almighty [God] sets in motion even in the innermost hearts of men the movement of their will, so that He does through their agency whatsoever He wishes to perform through them.” 25 In other words, for Augustine God alone is the all-determining reality and whatever happens, including human sins, must be rooted in his sovereign will and power. In order for humans to be responsible, they must have free will in their sinning. But in order for God to be sovereign, every event must be under his control, for “if we maintain that the will of a human being is not in God’s power but is controlled wholly by the person, then it is possible for God to be frustrated. And that is just absurd.” 26 The only solution is to define free will as doing what one wants to do. But for Augustine God is the source of those wants. In whatever happens God’s will is being done. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 273-274). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 60. If a person controls completely her own will, what did Augustine say could happen (which he thought of as “absurd”)? in order for God to be sovereign, every event must be under his control, for “if we maintain that the will of a human being is not in God’s power but is controlled wholly by the person, then it is possible for God to be frustrated 61. Augustine believed that grace was absolutely necessary for any truly good decision or action. Olson gives two reasons for this. Explain these reasons. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 69
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Grace then is absolutely necessary for any truly good decisions or actions of any fallen human person. Augustine argued this against Pelagius and his followers on several counts. First, humans are so utterly depraved that unless God gives them the gift of faith by grace, they would never even think to do anything good. In his own words, “the Spirit of grace, therefore, causes us to have faith, in order that through faith we may, on praying for it, obtain the ability to do what we are commanded. On this account the apostle himself constantly puts faith before the law; since we are not able to do what the law commands unless we obtain strength to do it by the prayer of faith.” 27 Any other view, he argued, would weaken belief in our depravity and in the sole sufficiency of God’s grace, including Christ’s death on the cross. That is his second reason for insisting that grace is the sole cause of anything truly good that we do. If anyone could obtain any measure of righteousness by nature and free will alone, apart from supernatural assisting grace, then Christ died in vain: “If, however, Christ did not die in vain, then human nature cannot by any means be justified and redeemed from God’s most righteous wrath— in a word, from punishment— except by faith and the sacrament of the blood of Christ.” Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 274). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 62. Olson states that “if” three certain things are true, then there is only one natural conclusion that one can draw. What conclusion about both sin and salvation must one draw, if these three things are true? If any good thing humans can do is a gift of God, and if every desire of the human will is a work of God, and if God is the all-determining reality, then the only natural conclusion that one can draw is that God sovereignly predestines everything that happens, including both sin and evil on the one hand, and salvation and righteousness on the other hand. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 274). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 63. What two ideas (named by later generations of theologians) did Augustine affirm in his On the Predestination of the Saints ? “unconditional election” and “irresistible grace.” That is, God chooses some out of the human mass of perdition to receive the gift of faith by grace and leaves others to their deserved damnation. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 274). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 64. How did Augustine treat the idea of “autonomy” in creatures? Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 70
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 Augustine constantly insisted that God— and God alone— is the ultimate cause of all things. He left no room for creaturely autonomy to thwart the will of God. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 275). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 65. How did Augustine answer the charge that (within his view) God is the source of evil? Would this make God evil or even the author of evil? Augustine would have none of it. He only stated that God permits evil and never attributed evil itself to God’s causation. Why does God permit evil? He explained: “Although, therefore, evil, in so far as it is evil, is not a good, yet the fact that evil as well as good exists, is a good.” 32 But if the fact that evil exists is good, and if God is the source of all goodness (which Augustine could not deny), then does it not inexorably follow that God is the source of the existence of evil? Yes. But only in the sense that he permits it. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 275). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 66. What does T. Kermit Scott say is the key to understanding Augustine? Augustine scholar T. Kermit Scott is quite correct that in the final analysis the key to understanding Augustine is his obsession with the absolute and unconditional power of God. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 275). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 67. If God is the source of evil inclinations, even if he “permits” them, then one of two things is probably true. Name these two alternatives. If God is not their source and cause, then there is something in the universe that is outside of God’s control. Merely “permitting” evil inclinations is not the same as directing and controlling them. But if God is their source and cause, then either they are not so evil after all (because they serve a higher good) or else God himself is not so good after all. Augustine came right up against the ultimate questions raised by his monergism and flew into mystery. Apparently he could not conceive of a self-limitation of God’s power such that God could allow free creatures to do what is against his own perfect will. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (pp. 275-276). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 68. Augustine apparently could not conceive of a particular idea about God and creatures. Explain what Augustine apparently could not conceive. Apparently he could not conceive of a self-limitation of God’s power such that God could allow free creatures to do what is against his own perfect will. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 71
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BIBL 260 Church History I Study Guide for Exam 3 69. One of Augustine’s contributions to Trinitarian theology is the “psychological model.” Explain this model. psychological model in which God’s unity is compared with the unity of a human person and God’s threeness is compared with three aspects of human personality such as memory, understanding and will. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 276). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 70. Explain Augustine’s view of the Church as he expressed it in his work The City of God. Augustine explained that from a Christian perspective, no human civilization is God’s kingdom. Human civilizations rise and fall but God’s kingdom lasts forever. God’s kingdom is the church, and by God’s grace and power, it will eventually replace the earthly kingdoms in the heavenly city after Christ returns. Until then it is a hidden kingdom of a fundamentally spiritual nature and exists whenever and wherever God’s will is being done among people. Olson, Roger E.. The Story of Christian Theology (p. 276). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Revised 07/11/2015 All Rights Reserved 72
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