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Selected Themes from Biblical through Medieval History
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Overarching theme: “As you pray [and experience], so you believe.”
Early Christian doctrine grew out of common Christian experiences, practices,
and ways of speaking, especially those of prayer and worship. At the center of this
worship was the reading scriptures and professing common beliefs (creeds). This helped
Christians to make sense of their transforming experience of Jesus. While doctrine arises
out of experience, belief can also shape subsequent experience.
I. Resurrection
At the Center of Roman Catholicism
Denise and John Carmody argue that “the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection” is
at the center of Roman Catholicism as well as all other branches of Christianity. “[W]hat
made Jesus the Christ, the anointed Messiah, and convinced his followers of his divinity
was God’s turning the defeat of his death into an astonishing victory, God’s raising him
from the dead . . .” (Carmody, 1).
What was the source of the earliest Christian proclamations of the resurrection of Jesus?
Early followers of Jesus experienced him as alive in a new way after his death and
burial. In the earliest scriptural proclamation of the resurrection, St. Paul indicates that
what was handed on (traditio) to him from these early followers was that Christ died for
our sins, was buried, was raised on the third day, and appeared to his followers. William
Portier argues that this was a “creedal formula, probably of liturgical origin” (Portier,
333). In other words, the followers of Jesus had been using this language, as well as
language that Jesus is Christ and Lord, in their worship. They were professing the beliefs
that best reflected their experience of Jesus. St. Paul and the early Christians would have
understood the meaning of “Jesus was raised from the dead” in terms of Jewish
conceptions of the resurrection of the dead.
What did Jesus was “raised from the dead” mean for early Christians?
1. God dramatically and decisively affirmed the way of life that Jesus preached and
lived. The reign of God (a new creation and the work of salvation) had decisively
begun. A new age had dawned and will ultimately eclipse the old age.
2. Transformed mode of existence on the part of Jesus. Jesus has been transformed
from one mode of existence (in the old age) to another mode of existence (in the
new age). Early Christian witness resists precise delineations of Jesus’ new,
transformed mode of existence (suggesting its inexhaustible mystery). This
existence is both bodily and spiritual (but not reducible to either). Most
importantly, Jesus’ transforming union with God continues beyond death and so
proved stronger than death
3. In order to truly recognize the resurrected Jesus one must be transformed by the
same faith that Jesus preached and God affirmed. In short, one must undergo a
metanoia (radical conversion) and learn to follow the way and Spirit of Jesus.
(i.e., discipleship). One must learn to respond to God’s call as Jesus did.
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Selected Themes from Biblical through Medieval History
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The Resurrection helps to give rise to the Church.
In Hebrew Scriptures the antecedents of the resurrection take the form of a
“communal hope” involving the restoration of Israel. In the New Testament, Paul
and others speak of the new Israel as “the Body of Christ.” This is a community of
humanity, including Gentiles (non-Jews), who participate in the transformed reality of
the risen Christ. In other words, the church is the community of those seeking to
follow the transforming way of Jesus. Tradition hands this way over from one
generation to the next.
Catholic tradition maintains that we are saved by our membership in the
transforming Body of Christ. In other words, “we are saved in community.”
II. Scripture, Christology, and the Trinity
The Ecumenical Councils can be viewed as significant indicators of the life of the
church both past and future. The central questions of these councils during early church
history included:
1) “What writings are sacred?” (The Scriptural Canon or official list of sacred
writings),
2) “Who is Jesus?” (Christology) and, eventually and more broadly,
3) “Who is God?” (Theology of the Trinity).
As a general rule, Catholic Christianity characteristically takes a BOTH/AND
approach that seeks to hold different sides in proper tension. For example, “What
writings are sacred?” Rather than simply the Pauline letters and a gospel (Marcion), it
affirms both the Old Testament and the New Testament with the former read in terms of
the latter. Similarly, “Who is Jesus?” Jesus is both fully human and fully divine.
Consider the metaphor of the tension in a rope pulled firmly by two sides
Fully Human
Fully Divine
Heretical understandings of Jesus Christ tend to pull too hard on one of these two ends of
the rope without sufficient weight on the other end. The result is a loss of the vital
tension of the central Christian doctrine of the incarnation. Finally, “Who is God?”
Rather than being only Father, or only Son (Jesus), or only Spirit, God is Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit.
Bible [ta biblia—the books]
Ë The books that provide the authoritative witness to God’s selfcommunication as experienced, celebrated, used in prayer, and
taught in the living tradition of the church.
-> The Bible is a privileged moment in the living tradition passed on from
generation to generation by the church.
Ë The Bible guides the church and the church carries the living tradition
of which the Bible is a part.
(Biblical) Canon
A. Canon [kanon—reed, measuring rod, rule, or model] an agreed upon and authoritative
list of books accepted as sacred, inspired scripture.
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Selected Themes from Biblical through Medieval History
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B. Formation of the Canon
The Christian canon was formed out of the Spirit led life of the church, i.e., the
living traditions of Judaism and Christianity. According to the U.S. Catholic Bishops “the
church produced the New Testament, not vice versa. The Bible did not come down from
heaven, whole and intact, given by the Holy Spirit.” (111) Instead the Bible developed
out of the experience and faith of Israel and the early Christian Church.
Criteria for selection included widespread use and importance in the prayer,
worship, teaching, and way of life of early Christians. In the ongoing conversation of
early Christian tradition practical controversies arose about what texts to use in common
worship and what parts of Christian faith must be maintained in the face of Roman
persecution of Christians. Heresies and persecutions pushed the many local churches to
unify themselves structurally into a more defined communion of churches. A
clarification of the canon paralleled this clarification of social structure. The canon took
shape in response to persecutions as well as heresies of persons such as Marcion and the
Gnostics. Early Christians developed the canon to serve as a standard for measuring
authentic and inauthentic writings and views. While the views of Bishops and church
leaders were important, these views could not contradict the faith and practice of the local
churches.
Synoptic
A. Synoptic [syn-with + optic-see; synoptic--to see together or with one view]
B. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because
they share the same general account of the sequence of Jesus’ life (and the two later
writers apparently consulted the earliest of these three gospels) and appear to have
used the same source materials (written or oral collections of Jesus’ teachings).
The Gospel of John departs to varying degrees from this common
sequence and the common source materials.
Heresies: Marcionism, Gnosticism, Arianism, and Nestorianism
1) Marcionism. Marcion was a second century Christian from Asia Minor. His
father was a Christian Bishop and he became a wealthy merchant and shipbuilder
in that region. Marcion proposed a scriptural canon (official list of sacred
writings) that excluded the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures) entirely and
included one of the gospels (probably Luke) and many of the Pauline letters. His
proposal to separate Christianity entirely from its roots in Judaism was rejected
and he formed his own church. The choice to reject Marcion’s canon stimulated
Christians to choose a Christ centered reading of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Christians came to call these scriptures the “Old Testament.” [The canons of the
Hebrew Scriptures (39 books) and the Old Testament (46 books) differ.] Now
Christians recognized a new religious reality, Christ, in Scriptures that Jews
continued to read as referring to some other figure or reality yet to be fulfilled.
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Gnosticism.
1. Gnosticism was a second century movement that claimed that the true
teachings of Christ were presented in secret to select apostolic figures.
2. Knowledge needed for salvation was secret.
3. Iranaeus, the bishop of Lyons, argued that “apostolic tradition” or the true
faith of the apostles and matyrs provides the standards for distinguishing
Christian faith and practice from heresies. Apostolic tradition consisted of
the gospels, and basic organizational structures present throughout early
Christian churches (e.g., Bishops as leaders and the biblical canon) by
which the gospel was handed down.
4. In short, the sacred writings that guide the life of the church together with
the church communities that select and interpret these writings mutually
constitute the “apostolic tradition.” The faith and tradition that lives (is
handed over) in the Christian churches is a standard for the true faith and
teachings of the apostles.
2) Arianism. Arius, a priest from Alexandria, interpreted the Gospel of John as
explicitly and radically subordinating Jesus Christ to the Creator. John’s Gospel
speaks of Jesus as the Word (Logos) and the Son of God the Father. Using
Platonic categories Arius interpreted the
a) Father as the UNCREATED ONE, eternally indivisible and unchanging
b) Son as the Father’s perfect CREATURE, not eternal, a composite of two
natures that lies somewhere in between the human and the divine.
As a sort of intermediary between the Creator and creation, the Son/Logos dyad is
less than the Father. The Son is radically other than and not fully united the
Father. For Arius, Jesus Christ can be called God only derivatively (by special
participation in the one true God) but is NOT fully or truly God. The ecumenical
councils rejected Arianism as heresy.
Arguments for Arianism:
a) Strict monotheism (affirmed in both Christian scriptures and tradition) would be
compromised if the Son were considered to be fully or truly divine.
b) The Gospel of John allows for an interpretation that subordinates the Son to the
Father: Jesus states “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28).
Arguments against Arianism:
a) If Arius is correct then Christians are idolators. To worship Jesus Christ as Lord
of all is to worship a creature rather than its Creator.
b) In effect Arius proposes two different levels of gods: eternal Creator vs. created
Son. As a result, Arius falls into polytheism. The eternal God creates a half-god.
c) How can a creature (Arius’s Son) transform humanity and save it from death?
Only the Creator could do this. This contradicts Christian claims to have
experienced such transformation in the person of Jesus
3) Nestorianism. Nestorius maintained that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was not “the
bearer of God.” At the time of his birth Jesus was only human and not divine.
Later, the man Jesus freely chose to accept a union with divinity offered by the
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Selected Themes from Biblical through Medieval History
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Father. The Word descended upon the man Jesus and he became divine.
Humanity and divinity became united in Jesus. In general, Nestorius tended to
emphasize the humanity of Jesus more heavily than his divinity. The ecumenical
councils rejected Nestorianism as heresy.
Arguments for Nestorianism:
c) If Jesus was born with a pre-existing condition of divine/human union, then he
was not free to accept this union. If Jesus was not free just as all humans are, then
he was not fully human.
d) Whatever is not assumed (i.e., actually taken on by Christ in his life) is not saved.
If Jesus did not assume the same condition of human freedom as all other humans,
then he did not save the most crucial dimension of humanity, i.e., human freedom.
e) If Jesus is to be a realistic moral model for humans, then he must be born into the
same humanity as all of us. The already divine/human Jesus could only live such
an extraordinary life because he was divine from the start.
Arguments against Nestorianism:
a) As Nicea already affirmed, Jesus is one in being/reality/substance with the Father.
This means that Jesus is whatever God is. If Mary is the mother of Jesus then she
is also the mother of God.
b) Nestorius implies that there are two sons: the son before vs. after union with the
divine. There is only one Son and he is eternally one. This real, personal unity of
the divinity and humanity of Christ cannot be something added to Jesus the man.
c) If Nestorius is correct, then it seems that a creature (Jesus the man) can become
God. The Christian God is uncreated. A creature cannot become uncreated.
Orthodox Doctrine Resulting from the Ecumenical Councils of NiceaConstantinople, Ephesus, & Chalcedon
2. Orthodox Christology. The ecumenical councils condemned the heresies
discussed above and affirmed that
a) The one Lord Jesus Christ is at once both fully human and fully divine. In Christ
there is an indivisible and unchanging unity of two natures: human and divine.
Because this unity is “without confusion,” Christ’s divine nature does not swallow
up or eclipse his human nature (as the monophysite heresy).
b) Jesus Christ is one in being/reality/substance with the Father. Christians profess
Jesus as “eternally begotten” from the same reality (homoousios) as the Father.
The Son is NOT created or made. Rather, the Son is whatever the Father is.
3. Orthodox Trinitarian Monotheism. Christians experience Jesus as one with the
Father and as one with the Spirit that Jesus sent to his followers.
a) They worship one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Alternatively stated,
they profess one God in three interdependent persons or relations present in the
interdependent divine movements of creation, redemption, and sanctification.
b) The union of the three persons of the trinity is a complete union of ultimate love.
For this reason, “ultimate reality is communal rather than individualistic” (192).
The origin and highest meaning of human life is to participate in the love shared
among the persons of the trinity. Humans do so by loving the least of Jesus’
brothers and sisters as Jesus did. In other words, by participating in the Reign of
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God’s way, Christians share in the Body of Christ or the community of humanity
transformed and united by Jesus’ Spirit.
The early followers of Jesus displayed considerable diversity and fluidity in their
understandings of Jesus. In some instances, there arose a practical need to resolve
disputes that called into question the core elements of the way of Jesus. While not
immune to political pressures from the Roman Empire, the Bishops consistently look to
following as the primary criteria for resolving disputes among local churches:
1. The language of scripture, and
2. The common experiences of transformation and worship of Christians, i.e., how
local churches expressed this experience in their creeds and in liturgical practices
III. Establishment
The early followers of Jesus considered themselves followers of Judaism.
However, as they decided to allow gentiles (non Jews) to become Christians (without
requiring circumcision or following all Jewish dietary laws) and so to practice Judaism in
new ways they were largely excluded from Jewish synagogues and eventually became a
separate religious movement arising out of Judaism. For the first three centuries of
Christianity, the Roman Empire took stances toward Christianity that varied from violent
persecution to relative tolerance provided Christians did not interfere with civil order.
Many of the early followers of Jesus, e.g., Peter and Paul, became martyrs when they
were put to death for professing Christian beliefs. Other Christians were faced with the
choice of taking the official oath to the gods of the Roman Empire or being killed (or
perhaps facing lesser punishments). Christian responses to such oaths varied from
martyrdom to taking the oath (and perhaps crossing their fingers). The martyrs became
central to Christian liturgy and imagination. They were models of how to follow the way
of Jesus and even became saints. The communion of saints views these martyrs as
powerful, holy figures who can intercede with God on behalf of other Christians.
In 313 Roman Emporer Constantine issued an order (called the “Edict of
Constantine or the Edict of Milan) to all Roman provincial governors for religious
toleration, including freedom of worship for Christians. He also ordered the return of all
confiscated church property and thereby recognized the church as a legal entity capable
of owning property. Constantine, although not baptized until just before his death,
considered himself a Christian from relatively early in his rule. His legislation
consistently granted favored treatment to Christianity—even subsidizing the building of
churches. “The establishment” refers to Constantine’s establishment of Christianity as a
favored religion of the Roman Empire. More broadly it can also refer to the subsequent
strengthening of the position of Christianity as favored by the state of later rulers of
Christian areas. Question for exam preparation: How did this favored status change
Catholic Christianity?
You should reflect on how, in your discussion of the relations among these
selected themes, you might bring in topics listed on the first page of each chapter from
Carmody. For example, in explaining why Christians rejected Marcionism as heretical
what role did “The Jewish Heritage” as described by Carmody play? Be prepared to cite
examples from Carmody.