This is lecture 13 in title three theologians two emphras and a church council You can tell from the title on trying to get a number of things together in this lecture Important items that we need to look at by the fourth century Rome was the most important church in the West by Constantinople Most important church in the East was in some ways even more important than Rome at this point The three theologians that we're going to talk about today are the great capitals who come from a land very close to Constantinople the two emphras Of course ruled in the Capital the new capital of the Roman Empire which after Constantine was Constantinople and the second ecumenical council took place in Constantinople So as far as geography is concerned today, we're looking at events and people Who lived their lives and events that took place in and around the great city of Constantinople One of those Theologians that we will study is Gregory of Nazionsis and as we begin we'll use words of a prayer We sometimes use as a hymn from this ancient Eastern church father Gregory of Nazionsis Let us pray O light that new no-done that shines to endless day all things in earth and heaven are lustered by thy ray No eye can to thy throne as in nor mine thy brightness comprehend In supplication meet to the i-bendony O Christ Wind I'll shout come in love remember me and in thy kingdom by thy grace grant me a humble servants place Thy grace, O father give I humbly the implore and let thy mercy bless thy servant more and more All grace and glory be to thee from age to age eternally Amen We speak of the great capidotions capidotia was an area on the black sea not far from Constantinople in Asia And these men one of whom was Gregory of Nazionsis and a woman sister of Gregory Macrina These are great people who lead the church in many ways during the 4th century I think we would think of the 4th century as the golden age of Greek or Eastern orthodoxy Because we have Athanasius We have the capidotions and we have John Chrysostom Great preacher of Constantinople we will look at in the next lecture So as The Greeks the Eastern orthodox even today think about the golden age of their church They are likely to focus almost certainly will focus on the 4th century as the golden age in the western church On the Roman Catholic side is probably the 13th century And Thomas Aquinas and the great medieval theologians particularly Thomas Aquinas of the 13th century And on the Protestant side in the west it certainly is the 16th century The time of Luther and Calvin But for the eastern church even today It is the 4th century And honored and revered names in the eastern church Continue to be the names of these capidotions There were two brothers one name Basel and the other of Gregory We speak of Basel as Basel of Caesarea since he spent part of his ministry there And was bishop of that city and Gregory his brother as Gregory of Nissa Gregory was born in 335 that puts him Just 10 years after the great council of Nissa And Gregory is the fellow who gives us that unforgettable account of the way in which every day 4th century life was perneated with theology particularly discussions about The issues raised at Nissa Everyone had an opinion it seems Gregory says about constant to noble garment sellers money changers food vendors They are all at it If you ask for change they philosophize about the begotten and the un begotten If you inquire about the price of bread the answer is that the father is greater And the son inferior If you say to the attendant is my bath ready he tells you that the son was made out of nothing I quoted some of that last time but we get all of that from Gregory Gregory for a long time seemed to drift through life with not much focus or aim Without either a career or much religion But He eventually found a very deep faith and became a theologian. He is really a kind of poet Theologian When you read the theology from Gregory Gregory of Nissa it is hard to know whether you're reading theology or poetry One of his books is called a life of Moses And it's a very intriguing book not only about Moses but about a lot of other things too He said Moses entered the darkness and then saw God in it It's language like that that makes me describe Gregory. It's not only theologian but a poet Basil who was Gregory's older brother That's six years older than Gregory had a good friend whose name was also Gregory So we have to call him Gregory of Nasiances to separate him from the other Gregory Basil and this Gregory met as students in Athens where they were studying together And then later they lived together as monks in Kampadocia Basil as we've already seen wrote the rule for monasteries That is still the standard rule for monasteries in the Orthodox world today as The rule of Benedict of Nursia is the standard rule for Monastic life in the west Basil and Gregory had an older sister whose name was Macrina Was actually Macrina who did a lot to shape The faith and the callings of her two brothers And she too wrote books on theology Her brother Gregory wrote The life of Macrina in which he tells about this remarkable woman who was his sister Macrina founded monastery is just as her brother Gregory did Well, that's a bit of a biographical sketch of these four people We could call the great capitals and it just Summarize very briefly some of the themes in their writings one of the Important themes that comes through and reading the capitals is the mystery of the godhead Now Nasiah had already happened and had given us words to use when we think about the Trinity which was itself a new word One guide in three persons Homo Useas begotten not made all these words now come into Orthodoxy as important descriptions of the doctrine of God But most theologians and certainly the capitals insisted on the fact that these words don't Don't empty the godhead of its mystery It's simply point to parameters that we must hold to in understanding Orthodox teaching about God, but the mystery of God the depth of God the mystery of the Trinity is still there There was one four-century theologian Not very important, but the man whose name was unanimous Who taught that we can just about know everything that can be known about God But people did not follow him The idea that the godhead is still full of mystery and that we know God not in his essence, but in his works and in his revelation became the prevailing view both east and west, but particularly in the east The emphasis on the mystery and the hiddenness of God becomes very central to the thinking of the eastern theologians so much so that apophatic theology as it's called or theology of darkness or negative theology becomes a very important aspect of eastern theology We'll look at that later Eastern theology is going to always insist that people in the west know too much and that we should have stopped long before we did in attempting to probe into the depths of the mysteries of the godhead but the idea of the mystery of the godhead and the importance of protecting that from curiosity That idea is clearly set forth in the quotations from Gregory of Nissa and Gregory of Nazionzes in the syllabus A great contribution of the cathodotions was to help the church now that it had focused on the person of Christ in his relationship to the father to help the church begin to think about the Holy Spirit because the council of Nissa really doesn't say much about the Holy Spirit it just says and we believe in the Holy Spirit focus was on the Homo Useas of the son and the father and the Holy Spirit was a firm as an object of faith but not explored more fully but so we come to the writings of the cathodotions particularly the writings of Basel of Caesarea who wrote a book called on the Holy Spirit We see the church beginning to think now of exactly how does the Holy Spirit relate to the other two persons of the godhead and the writings of the cathodotions help to prepare for the decision of the second ecumenical council of Constantinople in 381 that the Holy Spirit is of the same substance as the father and the son Another contribution and a very important one of the cathodotions was to begin to help the church think about the person of Christ We will come soon to see that after the doctrine of the Trinity it was the doctrine of Christ that agitated the church different heresities developed Finally the consensus of the church was reached at the council of Calcadon in the year 451 but so much of the background for that comes from the writings of these cathodotions Gregory of Nazionsis for instance wrote that which he has not assumed he has not healed but that which is united to his godhead is also saved That sentence insists on the full humanity of Christ as a guarantee of our salvation It's interesting that in terms of satireology Athanasius wrote if Christ is not God we're not saved was one of the important points of his book on the incarnation of the divine word Christ is not God we're not saved because it takes God to save us and so the doctrine of the deity of Christ is tied to satireology and Gregory agrees with that but adds also as I'm sure Athanasius would have agreed with him if Christ is not man we're not saved So the church begins to move toward a better understanding of the necessity for the full deity of Christ but also for the full humanity of Christ that idea those two ideas brought together will find their classic expression in the middle ages in the writing by St. Enselm, Kardeus Homo, by the godman but certainly the writings of the cathodotions help prepare the way for calcidon which did affirm the true and complete humanity of Christ One other aspect of the lives of the cathodotions that I would like to mention is their care for the needy
Basel was called Basel the Great A lot of people in church history are called the Great and I've always been curious as to how they got that name. Sometimes later historians say well this person was very important so we'll now start calling him the Great or important figures in the contemporary world we'll look upon certain individual as great and so he is called the Great but Basel was called the Great not by the Great in the mighty but by the poor in the needy he was called the Great Basel the Great by the people who lived in Caesarea because he was so concerned about them to found hospitals and orphanages and houses for the poor shortly before becoming bishop of Caesarea he gave away much of his inheritance in fan and relief and then served food to the destitute because the poor people who said this is a great man and from that point on this man Basel has been called Basel the Great his friend Gregory of Nazionsis wrote a book called on the love of the poor which he supported Basel's soup kitchens by asking the rich to express their gratitude to God in gracious giving to the poor without prejudging the needy so with the cathedotians you have theology, poetry, social concern, mixed in intriguing ways where we need to also think today about the emphras we know that Constantine became a Christian baptized on his deathbed but he legalized Christianity in the Roman world and everything changed but Constantine died in 337 and there was a period of great agitation and confusion after his death because he had three sons all of whom wanted to be emperor and for a while the empire was divided among the three sons eventually one of the three Constantius became the sole emperor and when Constantius the son of Constantine died in the year 361 he was succeeded by a close relative whose name was Julian now we always add something to Julian's name Julian the apostate because this man is born in a Christian family grew up as a Christian by 20 was 20 years old that was 10 years before he became emperor when he was 20 years old he publicly renounced Christianity and converted to paganism well you see a lot of people converting from paganism to Christianity but here's a man going the other way from Christianity to paganism why did he do that well as one church historian has explained it Christianity apparently fell apart for Julian when he realized the contradiction between the words of Constantine's sons and their actions the sons of Constantine were all professing Christians as their father had been but they did not act like it in fact these sons of Constantine sold to it that all of Julian's family was assassinated because there was a kind of claim to the throne from that side too and so to protect their own succession they simply did away with Julian's parents and relatives a wonder he did not think much of Christianity when he saw professing Christians acting that way it's a sad story because one tiny bright spot about it though and that is according to tradition Julian as a baby was saved because some Christians took him and hid him so these other Christians would not him killed him as they would if they could but he grew up to despise Christianity and he worked very hard to try to overthrow it and to reestablish the old synchrotism that had ruled before the Christians even wanted to bring Judaism into this he thought to be fine to rebuild Jerusalem and rebuild the temple and Jehovah as part of the Roman pantheon along with all the other gods and goddesses he worked very hard to try to accomplish his aim but he found it extremely difficult and this is the bright part of the story as far as Christianity is concerned because he said these Christians he called them Galileans in Pius Galileans the problem with trying to overthrow Christianity is that these Christians are so much involved in good works now that was in contradiction to what he saw in the family of Constantine but he could see now that all Christians were not like those Christians he said they not only take care of their poor and they take care of our poor as well they not only provide law then concern and food and care for Christians but they take care of those who aren't Christians and that set him back in his attempt to try to overthrow Christianity well in the providence of God Julian the apostate was not an emperor very long just about two years
he died in battle in 363 he was fighting the Persians Persians were the most formidable opponent of the Romans during the 4th century was one reason that Constantine moved the capital east to Constantinople in order to be closer to the eastern border of the empire to try to keep the Persians out but it was difficult and Julian was engaged in battle actually leaving his army against the Persians when he was mortally wounded and died according to tradition on his last moment life on the battlefield he cried out while he has conquered oh Galilean sure that he said that but certainly it was true because soon after Julian dies the empire goes right back again with the next emperor to what it was before Julian that is Christianity protected Christians able to freely worship we need to think of one other emperor in the 4th century really the three big names in the 4th century are Constantine Julian and Theodosius their other emperors but those are the important ones
Theodosius became emperor in 379 and we have with Theodosius another important change Constantine had simply legalized Christianity Theodosius establishes it it now becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire and the only official religion of the Roman Empire so by the time we come to Theodosius at the end of the 4th century the tables are totally turned the getting of the century Christians were outlawed and persecuted by the end of the century Christians Christianity is established and the pagans are being persecuted Theodosius destroyed the pagan temples and pass laws against heresies so it was not only necessary to be a Christian but to be an orthodox Christian and with Theodosius we move into the period that we could call Christendom in which state and religion are very closely allied and laws will prohibit the practice of other religions or even heretical expressions of Christianity this extends all the way down into the time of the Reformation and the Yon so three wonderful theologians for with Makrina two emperors one who tries to destroy Christianity the other who perhaps in trying to totally protect Christianity did more to damage it than Julian did because that coming together of church and state is going to have serious repercussions in the years to come and the second ecumenical council it's important to know these early church councils I see a was the first 325 and the second is the council of Constantinople in 381 was called by Theodosius the Emperor and the issue the main issue that was discussed there was the deity of the Holy Spirit the council of Nysia as I said it simply added the words and we believe also in one Holy Spirit but had not explained further how the Holy Spirit relates to the Father and the Son it's at the council of Constantinople that we get these very familiar words words that often appear in what we use sometimes in our churches as the Nicene Creed but when we use the Nicene Creed today it's not the Creed of Nysia of 325 but it's the expanded version of 381 it's the Creed of Nysia and Constantinople and it includes these words the Holy Spirit the Lord the giver of life who proceeds from the Father who with the Father and the Son is together worshiped and together glorified that was intended to say and it does say although people will continue to add to it in various ways it does say that the church applies the concept of Homousius now to the Spirit as it had already applied that concept to the Son it also adds or uses the word proceeds to describe the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Father remember that at Nysia part of that Creed was that the Son is begotten of the Father and I said when we were talking about that that I think that really serves to show the distinction between the Father and the Son because of course it doesn't mean made he is eternal he is equal to the Father but that word begotten which can conjure up other ideas in our mind is used by the early church at Nysia to simply say the Son is not the Father the word that is used now for the Holy Spirit to make that distinction is the word proceeds the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father these words do not indicate differences in the divine essence but simply help us to understand something of the distinction among the divine persons the relationship at which they stand to each other I've said that our commonly used Nysine Creed is the Creed that is affirmed at Constantinople there is another Creed and it's easy to get these confused because this is called the Athenation Creed you may have heard of the Athenation Creed it's also known by its opening words in Latin Quit Coon Quit Fult whoever wishes to be saved shall this start and the Athenation Creed
according to Jay Indy Kelly expert on early Christian Creed the Athenation Creed he says we know two things about it for sure one it was not by Athenaceous and two it was not a Creed well it was not by Athenaceous it bears his name but the Athenation Creed comes much later probably composed in the fifth or the sixth century by some highly skilled theologian maybe in France or in Spain it's composed in Latin and it's not really a Creed in the sense that it is a short summary it's a longer summary it's the kind of technical summary of the teaching of the councils and the church in the first five centuries it also has a very negative tone to it and I see a and Constantinople insist on orthodoxy but the Athenation Creed begins with warnings against apostasy or heresy in other words in the usual way in which it's said begins this way whoever wants to be saved should have bought all whole fast to the two Christian faith and then often in the way it's used with a response people would say whoever does not keep this faith whole and pure without a doubt will perish eternally it goes back and forth this way but with many warnings against not holding two nice scene orthodoxy not saying that in the sense that I think that's a bad thing but there is a different tone here from the more positive and perhaps more joyful descriptions of the teaching of the doctrine of Christ and the Holy Spirit in the earlier statements from Nicaea and Constantinople the grass withers flower fades but the word of our God will stand forever how were the pagans persecuted in the time of theodosius mainly in the destruction of their temples which could sometimes cause riots so you could understand the pagans would resist this sort of thing as the emperor would order the destruction of a temple in Greece or out in Egypt when there was resistance the arm of the state came down pretty heavy on the pagans so pagans were killed in those clashes with armed authorities it was not a kind of persecution of the pagans just like the persecution of Diocletian or the Roman emperor's before Christianity was accepted so some physical death as a result of clashes with the police but more and more pagans found themselves like Christians did earlier in the century shut out of public office or disadvantaged in some ways it's rather strange isn't it we can start the century one way and end it the other way but as we go through the rest of the the middle ages the the laws against heresies will get tougher and tougher finally Justinian will close the philosophical schools in Athens that's a big important landmark in this whole history that we'll look at comes in the sixth century when the emperor says no more studying philosophy in pagan settings so Christianity begins to more and more dominate the whole of life
yes between the death of Julian and the accession of theodosias there was an emperor just after Julian whose name was Joven J.O.V.A. in and he restored everything to what it was back under constantias the son of Constantine so with Julian there's just a little kind of two-year break there in which the emperor is not Christian and he is attempting very strongly to cause the empire to revert to paganism but only that two-year period after that all the way up as long as we can go with emperors after a while there are no more emperors in Rome while the emperor the main emperor is ruling in Constantinople at this time there's a kind of sub-empura in Rome kind of a junior emperor holding together what's happening in the western part of the empire but without a lot of power actually into that Roman daikyum the pope will step and gain a lot of temporal power not just spiritual power but temporal power because the pope becomes the most important figure in the west after the Roman emperor has moved a long way away to the city of Constantinople somebody else said yes was there Christian response to the pagan persecutions in other words were Christians saying don't do this yes there was response we'll see that Ambrose the great bishop in Milan even rebuked an emperor for persecuting the Jews so there were some Christians who did not approve fortunately we know that some raised their voices and protests against the persecution of Jews and pagans I expect even Ambrose would not have opposed the idea of laws requiring Christian commitment but he did not want physical persecution against those who did not follow those laws but for the most part it's accepted Christians are on top now they like it it's a lot better than being persecuted and so you get more and more that kind of Christian nominal state which is going to be such a problem to us because it's hard to separate that from the real church real Christianity everything that goes by the name of Christian is not Christian you know when it's certainly true in church history and especially from now on we have to think when I say Christian you understand that I don't always mean born again devout Bible loving Calvinist or whatever you want to say they are the word becomes generalized and for that reason despise by a lot of people and for some proper reasons not just for wrong reasons okay you want to leave five minutes early I don't why don't we do that