Something to Consider Teachers

When the student forgets the content, what will remain? A good teacher expects a loss of memory, but not a loss of form. If your students forget the content, you are not a bad teacher. If your students are not being formed and shaped, however, that forgetting is pure tragedy.

Source: Students Will Forget What You Teach, But So What?

HT: Trenton D. Leach

The Lost Tools of Learning and Vocational Education

If you ever apply to teach at a private school that uses the classical model of education, you will be asked to read Dorothy Sayers’ essay “The Lost Tools of Learning” and write a response to it. Recently I took the time to re-read “The Lost Tools of Learning” and write down some reflections. 

Understanding of the Content
Dorothy Sayer’s “Lost Tools of Learning” serves as a metaphor to compare the state of modern education to the classical model of education, commonly called the Trivium. Sayer’s presents its three stages; Grammar, Dialectic (sometimes called Logic) and Rhetoric. The grammar stage focuses on memorization where the basics building blocks are given to the student, with language, namely Latin at its center. The Dialectic stage focuses on reason where such building blocks are considered and used in argumentation and debate, with Formal Logic at its center. The Rhetoric stage focuses on the students freedom of expression, in speaking and writing. This is best seen in the art of oration and presentation of a thesis and defense. It is here that Sayer’s does not provide a center to its stage, but allows for freedom depending on the student’s future aspirations.

Reflection of the Content
To realize that the British public education system was struggling in the 1940’s with actually being able to educate their citizens well and that there were those who were picking up on it who were outside of the education community is both a relief and a concern.  A relief in that you hear a fellow laborer voicing the same concerns you feel in your heart and a concern in that it was almost 70 years ago that this was voiced and there has been no adequate answer. My faith in the Lord, this speech, the gullibility of the American public in a vote for change, and a memory of a destroyed, hopeless, and uneducated Germany after WWI has awakened a passion in me to be a part of the education of my fellow Christians. May we all learn to think critically and answer logically so we can answer intelligently for the hope that is in us and dispel the myth of the hope that is thought to be found in “government.”

A Practical Application
Sayer’s mentions the Quadrivium at the beginning of her and near the end of addressing the Rhetoric stage in the Trivium. Sayer’s writes, “What this amounts to is that the ordinary pupil, whose formal education ends at 16, will take the Trivium only; whereas scholars will take both the Trivium and the Quadrivium. Is the Trivium, then, a sufficient education for life? Properly taught, I believe that it should be.” I think Sayer’s brings a question that classical educators should consider or maybe re-consider when dealing with a student’s future. Does the student plan to enter the world at the age of 18 or pursue higher education? Often teachers (and parents) assume their students will (and must) go on to college to pursue their future aspirations and vocation. Sayer’s reminds her readers that not every student will go one to pursue higher education. In a country where college education has increased tremendously over the past ten years, students need to seriously consider if their future aspirations and vocation require higher education or would specialize and vocational education meet their needs. Teachers in classical education, who often lean towards higher education should encourage students that career and technological education is as admirable as higher education when it comes to choosing one’s vocation. Imagine a classically trained mind molded to be used as an electrician or plumber, maybe even a heavy machine operator that will likely be compensated greater than yourself, a classical educator.

Abraham’s Clearer View of Christ’s Day

If the Messiah be anywhere symbolized in the Old Testament, he is certainly to be seen upon Mount Moriah, where the beloved Isaac, willingly bound and laid upon the altar, is a lively foreshadowing of the Wellbeloved of heaven yielding his life as a ransom. We doubt not that one great intent of the whole transaction was to afford Abraham a clearer view of Christ’s day; the trial was covertly a great privilege, unveiling as it did, to the patriarch, the heart of the great Father, in his great deed of love to men, and displaying at the same time, the willing obedience of the great Son, who cheerfully became a burnt offering unto God.

** Quote taken from C H Spurgeon, Christ in the Old Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG 1994), 39.

The Western Medieval Church and Portents of Decline

Key Points during this time

• The papacy of Innocent III marked the peak of papal power in the Middle Ages.
• The mendicant orders represented the latest wave of ascetic renewal in the thirteenth century, expressed in the careers of Dominic and Francis of Assisi, and in the priorities and impact of the movements they started.
• The intellectual revival of the eleventh and twelfth centuries culminated in the development in the thirteenth of the universities, a third force in Christendom alongside the empire and the priesthood.
• The career and legacy of the Dominican Thomas Aquinas constitute the crowning achievement of medieval Scholasticism; his project to synthesize Christian theology and Aristotelian thought was singularly influential in western Christian intellectual history.
• The Franciscan order produced scholars who preserved Augustinian emphases on divine illumination, mysticism, and love, providing a counterpoint to Aquinas: Bonaventure, Roger Bacon, and Duns Scotus.
• The Gothic art and architecture of the period emphasized harmony, verticality, space, and luminosity.

• In the face of diminishing popular confidence in the structures of the church, numerous lay religious movements arose in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, prompting the Roman Catholic Church to attempt various measures of control, including the Inquisition.
• The church and medieval structures of power struggled to cope with diverse religious elements in society, including Jews, the Cathari, expressions of vernacular theology such as the women’s Beguine movement, and expressions of female mysticism.
• In the face of the Mongol conquests, the missions and vitality of the church in central Asia and China was sharply reduced.
• The Second Council of Lyons met in 1274, ostensibly to further a project of reunion between West and East, but without lasting results.
• Effective pastoral care and worship were in serious decline in the thirteenth century, as eschatological speculation and fanaticism increased.
• In terms of its claims, the papacy of Boniface VIII marks the pinnacle of the development of medieval papal theory; in terms of actual effectiveness in the face of emerging national monarchies, it marks a period of grave decline.

Chapter Summary during this time

In several key areas, developments of the eleventh and twelfth centuries came to full fruition in the Western church of the thirteenth century. The papacy enjoyed the greatest measure of power and influence, best expressed in the accomplishments of pope Innocent III. He exercised a great deal of influence over major lay leaders, organized the Fourth Crusade, presided over the Fourth Lateran Council, and accommodated the emerging mendicant orders. These expressions of power matched the lofty claims he made concerning the role and authority of the papacy in society.

 In the thirteenth century, mendicant orders represented the latest wave of ascetic reform in the church. Emphasizing apostolic simplicity and resisting communal property, the mendicants exploited an increasingly urban society and monetary economy in order to establish highly influential orders. Dominic was a Spaniard whose followers (Dominicans) focused on preaching, the care of souls, combating heresy, and training in theology. Francis was the son of cloth merchant in Assisi. An early conversion experience led him to marry “Lady Poverty” and pursue a life of simplicity, and humility, preaching good news to the masses. Francis’ movement became very popular, also attracting women into a second order, the “Poor Clares,” and laypersons into a Third Order of people who sought to live by Francis’ ideals in secular life.

The intellectual revival of the Middle Ages culminated in the development of the universities in the thirteenth century. By organizing teachers and students into guild-like entities in such academic centers as Bologna, Paris, and Oxford, the universities became a third force in Christendom, alongside the empire and the priesthood. The presence of the mendicant orders and the availability of the entire corpus of Aristotle reinforced these developments. The greatest expression of Scholasticism in the universities was the person and work of Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican whose project to reconcile Aristotle with Christian theology made a deep impact on learning and Christian theology for centuries. By contrast, Franciscan scholars in the Augustinian tradition, like Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and especially Bonaventureemphasized divine illumination, mysticism, and love, providing a counterpoint to Aquinas’ Aristotelianism.

Lay piety in the thirteenth century was nurtured by devotion to the saints’ lives and Books of Hours. The contexts for Christian worship also changed, as Gothic art and architecture overtook the past Romanesque style. Gothic architecture emphasized harmony, verticality, space, and luminosity. The abbey church of St. Denis, the cathedrals of Chartres, Rheims, and Salisbury, and the striking design of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris exemplify the Gothic style. Stained glass was used to declare faith-forming narratives, and art that favored the suffering savior became more common. Mary was increasingly depicted as the queen of heaven, and the last judgment was depicted as an event offering salvation, not just condemnation.

In the wake of the dynamic developments of the twelfth-century, the thirteenth-century church saw numerous indicators of decline and difficulty. Among the most significant was the emergence of lay religious movements and vernacular theology, largely in response to the malaise of the institutional church. Groups such as the Humiliati and Flagellants appealed to those who sought more extreme expressions of piety. The Waldenses opposed the worldliness of the clergy, emphasizing poverty, vernacular scriptures, and public preaching. The emergence of women’s movements such as the Beguines, with distinctive female patterns of mysticism and religious experience, strained the church’s ability to acknowledge sincere piety on the one hand and cope with unusual forms of authority on the other. The presence of such diverse religious elements as the dualist Cathari (Albigensians) and influential Jews complicated the church’s struggle to find ways of dealing with the growing dissent without exacerbating the problems. The Inquisition was instituted to detect and punish heresy, and came under papal control in the thirteenth century.

The Byzantine emperor Michael Paleologus joined forces with pope Gregory X to attempt a reunion of East and West. Their aspirations culminated in the Second Council of Lyons (1274), though the council produced few tangible results. In central Asia and China, Mongol conquests sharply diminished the presence and impact ofChristian mission in those regions, and a brief period of renewal in the Syrian Orthodox church was followed by significant decline in vitality. The establishment of the “Solomonic dynasty” in Ethiopia (1270) ushered in a golden age of art and literature for the church in that realm.

Pastoral care and worship seemed particularly ineffective in the thirteenth century. The use of drama in worship and non-liturgical drama (e.g. Miracle Plays) were efforts to engage and instruct the laity in Christian belief and practice. Eschatological speculation and fanaticism flourished in the thirteenth century, inspired partly byJoachim of Fiore’s elaborate periodization of history and partly by the enthusiasm of “spiritual Franciscans,” who looked for the dawning of a new age and judgment against a corrupt church establishment. The Florentine magistrate Dante Alighieri made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1300; his disgust for the corruption of the papacy led him to write Divine Comedy, a poetic synthesis of the thirteenth century.

Although many looked to Celestine V as a potential savior, he was an ineffective pope. His ambitious successor Boniface VIII sought to counter the rising power of national monarchies by issuing a bull to limit the ability of lay leaders to exercise authority over clergy, and another, to state the unparalleled authority of the papacy. The latter bull, Unam sanctam, well summarizes the developed papal theory of the Middle Ages and even insists that salvation is contingent on submission to the pope. Yet Boniface’s efforts were largely ineffective, and shortly after his death the papacy was moved to Avignon, where it resided for nearly seventy years, under the influence of French monarchs.

The Papal Reform Movement, The Rise of Scholasticism, Monastic, Literary, Political, and Cultural Activities

Key Points during this time 

• The papal revival of the eleventh century climaxed in the papacy of Gregory VII.
• Conflict over lay investiture became the defining issue, expressing competing views of kingship and the proper relationship between church and state.
• Numerous factors help explain the significance of the conflict between King Henry IV of Germany and Pope Gregory VII over lay investiture, including the imperial and papal revivals, the church’s entanglement in feudalism, and politics in Germany and Italy.
• Through a display of penance, Henry IV gained a tactical victory over Gregory VII, but the papacy won the moral victory in securing the symbol of imperial humility before the pope.
• Multiple factors played into the development of the First Crusade, including the evolution of penance, changing views about the church’s role in warfare, the influence of Islam, the practice of pilgrimage, and a desire to reunite the church.
• Pope Urban II responded to the Byzantine emperor’s pleas for help by preaching the First Crusade, offering papal indulgences to crusaders and helping mobilize French nobles to lead the armies.
• Although the First Crusade contributed to the deterioration of many relationships, the capture of select targets brought western military rule to the Holy Land for a period. Knightly monastic orders arose to protect the conquered lands and safeguard pilgrims.

• The twelfth century saw an intellectual revival in medieval culture and the Western church, based on the kind of teaching and learning that occurred in cathedral schools.
• Scholasticism was based on confidence in human reason and used a dialectical method of disputation to engage authorities and arguments in order to resolve problems, particularly those connected to the philosophical question of universals.
• Scholastic methods and changing positions on the question of universals transformed the ways scholars engaged and debated such doctrines as the Eucharist, the incarnation, the church, and the atonement.
• Anselm of Canterbury and Peter Abelard are the most significant representatives of early Scholasticism, whose work and teaching shaped the assumptions, aims, and methods of intellectual inquiry in western culture for centuries.
• Church reform and renewal in the twelfth century was triggered largely by increased monastic vitality and new expressions of monasticism, the most influential of which was the Cistercian reform of Benedictine monasticism.

• The Cistercian leader Bernard of Clairvaux was the guiding spiritual influence of the age.
• A lasting synthesis between the monastic spirituality of Bernard and the dialectic methods of Abelard was achieved through the work of such luminaries as Hugh of St. Victor and Peter Lombard.
• Romanesque style combined Roman and Byzantine features with local elements, to shape the Christian art and architecture of the tenth through twelfth centuries.
• A growing preoccupation with saints, their sites, and their relics—and especially Mary—shaped the popular piety of western Christianity, along with developments in music and poetry.
• Rhythms of competition, antagonism, and cooperation continued to characterize church-state relations in the twelfth century, most evident in the relations between the papacy and emerging national monarchies. The Third Crusade was a failed expression of the impulse to cooperate.
• Key developments occurred in the national Eastern churches in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. 

Summary of events during this time

Pope Nicholas II (1058–61) was apparently the first pope to be crowned like a king or emperor, signaling strong development of the papal monarchy in the eleventh century. The eleventh-century papal reform reached its climax in Gregory VII, a staunch opponent of simony and advocate for church independence from lay control. Gregory VII’s ambitions to fortify a strong papacy were best expressed in his fight against lay investiture. Lay investiture was the bestowing of the symbols of spiritual office in the church by lay rulers. Due to the church’s continued entanglement in feudal society, lay investiture had become a normal practice, but Gregory VII rejected the view of church/state relations it implied; Gregory affirmed a view of kingship that kept it subservient to spiritual authority, and to the pope in particular.

Triggered by Gregory VII’s excommunication of certain advisors of Henry IV of Germany as “simoniacs” due to their lay investiture, pope and emperor exchanged condemnations, resulting in the pope’s excommunication of the emperor and the pronounced deposition of the pope by Henry’s clerics. The conflict culminated in an episode at Canossa in 1077, where Henry walked barefoot through the snow in an apparent effort to gain Gregory’s forgiveness. Grudgingly, Gregory declared Henry forgiven, after which Henry continued to behave as authoritatively as before. Gregory fled in exile, but through his efforts the papacy gained the potent symbol of an emperor humbled before the pope. A final settlement of the issue of lay investiture was reached by Henry V and Callistus II at the Concordat of Worms in 1122, a decision later ratified at the First Lateran Council of 1123.

Numerous factors helped form the background to the First Crusade, including developments in the sacrament of penance, the acceptance of a Christian’s participation in warfare, the expansion of the role of knights, the influence of Islam’s concept of holy war, the papalization of warfare, the practice of pilgrimage, and the desire to reunite the church. Prompted by the Byzantine emperor’s plea for help and a host of background factors, Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade at Clermont in 1095. A number of French nobles combined forces and set out in 1096, fighting to conquer Nicaea, Dorylaeum, Antioch, Edessa, and Jerusalem, which fell in 1099. They established Latin states and Latin patriarchs, securing key cities and routes for transit and pilgrimage. 

In many respects, the Crusades hindered relations between Christians and Muslims and even between the Eastern and Western churches, though they did promote a greater sense of unity in Western Europe, strengthened the papacy, and helped trigger an intellectual revival in Western Europe. Knightly monastic orders, such as the Knights Templar and the Hospitallers, combined the crusader warrior culture and the ideals of monasticism. They functioned to protect crusader interests in the Holy Land, to care for the sick and injured and to provide safe corridors of passage for pilgrims.

As learning moved from monastic environments to cathedral schools, an intellectual revival occurred in western culture, marked by the rise of Scholasticism. Focused at first on the interpretation of authoritative biblical and patristic texts, Scholasticism presumed a high confidence in the ability of human reason to acquire knowledge. Using the method of dialectical reasoning and collecting authorities and arguments on a question, Scholasticism sought to establish knowledge on the basis of reason alone. The scholars were particularly concerned with the question of universals and their relationship to particular things. Extreme realists (e.g. Anselm) held to the Platonic notion that universals have a real existence apart from and prior to individuals; nominalists (e.g. William Ockham) held that universals are merely inferences drawn from observation and have no real existence; moderate realists (e.g. Thomas Aquinas) held to the Aristotelian notion that universals are real but always exist in actual individuations.

Within the framework of Scholasticism, discussions about universals shaped the formulation of such basic Christian doctrines as those of the church, Trinity, incarnation, atonement, and Eucharist. In the second eucharistic controversy, Berengar taught against the popular belief of the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, on the basis of Aristotle’s understanding that the accidents of the bread cannot exist apart from the bread’s substance. Building on the counter arguments of Lanfranc, Cardinal Humbert, and others, Guitmund defended the popular view using the new scholastic methods, explaining that the substance of the bread was changed into the body and blood of Christ. This understanding of the transformation (transubstantiation) became official dogma of the Western church, confirmed in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215).

 Anselm of Canterbury is considered the “Father of Scholasticism” due to his attempts to demonstrate the doctrines of Christianity on the basis of reason. Although routinely at odds with the English royalty in his desire to assert the church’s independence, Anselm found opportunity to write major texts that influenced the shape of scholasticism and the adoption of its methods. Characterized as “faith seeking understanding,” Anselm’s approach brought him to argue the case for God’s existence in the Monologion and Proslogion, and to present a theory of the atonement in Cur deus homo: the satisfaction/sacrificial theory. Couched in contractual terms and using the categories of feudalism, the satisfaction theory became more popular than either Abelard’s moral-exemplary theory or the ransom theory of the church fathers, helping to secure the place of the Eucharist and penance as the main sacraments by which people understood and participated in the meaning of their Christian belief.

 Peter Abelard represents a further development in Scholasticism. A brilliant teacher in Paris, Abelard’s character, personality, and views made him highly controversial. He sought an even higher place for human reason than Anselm allowed, pursuing a program of “doubting in order to know,” and attacking perceived errors and inconsistencies in the thinking of others and in the traditions of the church. Abelard’s love affair with Heloise resulted in scandal that disrupted his academic career; his unconventional teachings, tinged with personal arrogance, brought him into conflict with Bernard of Clairvaux and the pope. Condemned at a council of Sens in 1140, Abelard was eventually reconciled to the church. In Sic et non, he arranged opposing quotations from the Bible and the church fathers on various questions, inciting controversy but also establishing Scholasticism’s favorite method of studying a problem. Abelard proposed a disciplined method by which to treat differences in texts, in Know Yourself he upheld the importance of motives in assessing ethics, and he presented the moral-exemplary theory of the atonement. But his influence was primarily that of a teacher, since many of his students came to be influential scholars and church leaders. Although in many respects the forerunners of modern academics, scholastic theologians did not distinguish sharply between philosophy and theology. Furthermore, they nearly all had an element of mysticism in them.

The twelfth century saw a kind of “renaissance” in many different facets of culture and Christian practice. An increase in conversions to the monastic life and new expressions of monasticism infused the church with fresh vitality. Groups such as the Camaldolese, the Carthusians, and the Premonstratensians emphasized radical expressions of austerity. The Augustinian Canons provided skilled and committed clergy for the cathedrals. Most influential of all were the Cistercians, a dynamic reform that sought to recapture primitive Benedictine monasticism through simplicity, hard work, and seclusion. Bernard of Clairvaux was the most important Cistercian leader. Bernard warned against the excesses of ostentatious art, ornate liturgy, wealth and the dangers of the new dialectic and an exaggerated confidence in human reason. Focusing on traditional theology and personal devotion, Bernard became the guiding spiritual influence of the age. He stressed humility, devotion to Mary, and a loving, mystical relationship with God.

Hugh of St. Victor and the teachers of St. Victor’s in Paris achieved a synthesis of the new dialectic and traditional personal spirituality. He composed the first medieval synthesis of theology, a Christocentric treatment of sacraments that underscored the sacramental nature of all creation. Peter Lombard pursued Hugh’s agenda further, yet in ways that relied even more deeply on Abelard’s dialectic. His Four Books of Sentences constituted a clear and systematic treatment of Christian doctrine. It won official approval and came to serve as the basic medieval textbook in theology. John Gratian’s Decretum became the standard treatment of canon law. Aristotle was more fully disseminated and integrated into Christian thought by Otto of Freising and John of Salisbury. Though female, the abbess Hildegard of Bingen effectively preached her prophetic visions of judgment and composed a number of influential writings. Arabic philosophers and Jewish thinkers made significant contributions to western learning in the twelfth century as well.

Romanesque style combined Roman and Byzantine features with local elements to produce a distinctive art and architecture. The buildings were solid, simple, and permanent. Sculpture and painting were abstract, solemn, and majestic. Sacred music became more complex due to the development of polyphony; vernacular poetry celebrated courtly love, both affirming and subverting social norms of virtue and gender. Canonizing saints became the prerogative of the pope in the twelfth century.Saints were central to popular piety, especially Mary, revered as the Queen of Heaven. The practice of pilgrimage grew alongside devotion to the stories of the saints and the power of their relics. Pious activities and good works were understood to impact positively a person’s experience of purgatory.

 Church-state relationships continued to be tense in the twelfth century, most evident in the ongoing rivalries between the papacy and the emergent national monarchies. Though led by strong, flamboyant rulers, and giving rise to many romantic tales, the Third Crusade was a failure, accomplishing little. A tragic indicator of the strained relationship between the state and the church was the assassination of Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, by king Henry II’s agents. As secular governments became better organized, the institutional life of the church did so as well. In the East, the Christian cultures of Georgia and Armenia reached new heights, the Serbians became staunchly Orthodox, Greek Orthodox scholars had significant accomplishment, and Eastern monasticism was revitalized. 

Understanding Eastern and Western Churches

Key Points of Understanding Eastern and Western Churches

• After the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, the Eastern church experienced a three-way split between the Church of the East (“Nestorians”), Chalcedonians, and Miaphysites/Henophysites, each with its key leaders and trajectory of later development.
• During the emperor Justinian’s reign, the empire experienced its first flourishing of Byzantine culture.
• Justinian sought to achieve unity in the empire, involving himself in the Theopaschite, Origenist, and Three Chapters controversies, without accomplishing lasting theological unity.
• Justinian’s Byzantine culture saw marked developments in law, reconquest of territories, architecture, liturgy, art, theology, and popular devotion.
• The monastic legacy of Benedict of Nursia and the “monkish papacy” of Gregory the Great combined to establish structures, practices, and expectations that would characterize ecclesial leadership through the Middle Ages.
• The great liturgies were formalized in the sixth–seventh centuries, with the result that several distinct families were in use in different areas.
• From the time of the barbarian invasions of the fifth century, Eastern and Western expressions of Christianity may be distinguished according to different theological emphases, organization, and engagement with society.

• The monotheletism promoted by church leaders and emperors as a means by which to accomplish unity was condemned in the Sixth Ecumenical Council, Constantinople III (680–81), defeated by a lasting reticence to revise Chalcedon and by the Christology typified in Maximus the Confessor.
• The rise of Islam and its dramatic spread in the seventh and eighth centuries transformed the shape of the empire, posed significant challenges to the church, and prompted a series of Christian responses.
• The iconoclasm sponsored by military emperors in the eighth and ninth centuries was refuted in the Seventh Ecumenical Council, Nicaea II (787), defeated by popular piety and by the incarnational theology typified in John of Damascus.
• The Photian Schism illustrates the complexities of Byzantine church politics and the growing differences between Byzantine and Roman expressions of Christianity and church.
• Middle Byzantine culture saw developments in monasticism, literature, liturgy, popular piety, art, and architecture that would characterize the Byzantine church from that period forward.
• Byzantine missionaries and missionaries from the Church of the East established Christianity in Moravia, Bulgaria, Russia, Central Asia, China, India, Korea, and Japan.

Summary of Events

Before Justinian came to power, in the aftermath of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, three different groups could be clearly distinguished in the Christian East.The Church of the East rejected Ephesus in favor of a stronger emphasis on the duality of Jesus Christ (“Nestorians”). The Chalcedonians adhered to the formulation of 451 and enjoyed a strong measure of imperial support. The Henophysites/Miaphysites (“Monophysites”) understood themselves to be more faithful followers of Cyril of Alexandria. They upheld an emphasis on Christ’s unity, rejecting Chalcedon and thereby prompting official repression. Each of the three streams experienced distinct processes of development, guided and informed by its own leaders. The Church of the East flourished in Persia and outside the Roman Empire. Within the empire, attempts on the part of emperors and church leaders to find a formulation that would satisfy Henophysites and Chalcedonians were ultimately unsuccessful.

Justinian’s rule (527–65) saw the first flowering of Byzantine culture, with major developments in law, art, liturgy, architecture, and theology. His efforts to regain lost territory brought Byzantine influence into Western provinces. In the face of continued disunity, Justinian got involved in several theological controversies, culminating in the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553), the result of which was the condemnation of the Three “Nestorian” Chapters. His efforts to reconcile Miaphysites were unsuccessful. Justinian’s time was marked by the construction of grand church buildings and monasteries, creative developments in art and liturgy, and the growth of Mariology. In the West, the career and influence of Benedict of Nursia (d. 540) supplied the foundation of Western monasticism for centuries. With papal support, the Benedictine style of monasticism, with its emphasis on stability, authority, and moderation, came to be adopted throughout Western Europe. Gregory the Great (590–604) brought monastic ideals to the papacy and established lasting patterns for the functioning of the papal office and the Roman church. Combining ascetic discipline and strong administrative capabilities, Gregory’s leadership was characterized by a strong sense of the need for pastoral care.

The great liturgies arose in the fourth-fifth centuries and were formalized in sixth-seventh centuries. A number of factors favored the use of fixed liturgies, and several different families developed in both Eastern and Western churches. More pronounced than liturgical differences were the deep differences between the Eastern Orthodox and the Western Roman Catholic churches. Partly due to the impact of barbarian invasions in the West, the two branches of Christianity proceeded along different trajectories, in theological emphasis, organization, and conceptions regarding the proper place of the church in its social context.

During the era of the great emperor Heraclitus, continuing efforts to unify Chalcedonian and Miaphysite Christians in the empire led to the proposal of monotheletism, emphasizing the unity of will in Jesus Christ. The view was ultimately rejected in the sixth ecumenical council, Constantinople III (680–81), at which the Christology of Maximus the Confessor was adopted instead, becoming deeply influential in Orthodox theology. The Roman church worked to affirm the orthodox legacy of monothelete-leaning Pope Honorius.

The rise of Islam was sudden and devastating to the Byzantine Empire and church. As a preacher of radical monotheism, Muhammad attracted many followers, who conquered large portions of Persian, Byzantine, and even Roman territory. Christian response to Islam shows a rapid process of development in thought and engagement. Certain militaristic Byzantine emperors adopted iconoclastic policies for the sake of purifying Christian practice, though the lengthy and difficult battle over the use of icons as objects of devotion resulted in the affirmation of icon veneration at the seventh ecumenical council, Nicaea II (787). John of Damascus’ incarnational theology prevailed, shaping Eastern Orthodox attitudes towards icons, religious art, and worship.

The Photian Schism resulted from the complexities of Byzantine church politics and conflicts between Orthodox and Roman churches. It illustrates the deepening differences between Byzantine and Roman expressions of Christianity and church. The Middle Byzantine period saw a dramatic flourishing of culture, expressed in Orthodox asceticism, church buildings, mosaic art, iconography, literature, and liturgy. In contrast to Roman missions, Eastern missionary efforts allowed churches to organize themselves along national or ethnic lines, in terms of language and polity. During the seventh–eleventh centuries, churches were established in many different regions, including Moravia, Russia, Hungary, India, China, Central Asia, Korea, and Japan.

Christological Controversies to Chalcedon (451)

Key Points During this time

• Each of the four ecumenical councils contributes a distinct piece to the Christian doctrine of the incarnation, functioning to preserve mystery within certain parameters.
• The Antiochene and Alexandrine theological traditions differed in significant ways, producing different interpretations of Nicaea that were difficult to reconcile and triggered widespread Christological controversy.
• The backgrounds and circumstances of the Christological controversies demonstrate the shifts occurring in how major religious conflict would be handled in the late empire. The consequences would include deposition of leaders and condemnation of entire traditions.
• The clash between Nestorius and Cyril in the Council of Ephesus (431), the results of which were played out further in the “Robber Synod” of 449 and the Council of Chalcedon (451), highlighted the terms of debate between the Word-flesh Christology of Antioch and the Word-man Christology of Alexandria.
• Chalcedon established a compromised definition, affirming the two natures (human and divine) in the one person of Jesus Christ.
• Chalcedon and its canons impacted the church’s understanding of the role of ecumenical councils, the relationship of monks to the ecclesial hierarchy, and underscored the tensions between Constantinople and Rome as prestigious sees.

Summary of events

The ecumenical councils of the early church sought to clarify Christian beliefs about God and Jesus Christ. In particular, the first four ecumenical councils affirmed both God’s essential unity and the Trinity; they affirmed the unity of Jesus in one person and his duality in two natures, human and divine. Ostensibly, the councils attempted to preserve a large degree of mystery in the Christian understanding of the divine, while guarding against apparently extreme positions. The Councils of Nicaea (325) and Chalcedon (451) are especially significant watersheds in the process—Nicaea laying the crucial groundwork, and Chalcedon culminating a lengthy process of discussion regarding the implications and boundaries of the Nicene formulation. The process involved numerous factors, including strong personalities, theological exploration through debate, specialized terminology, and the politics of church and empire; yet the church believed the power of God to be active in the process.

The process was complicated by diverse understandings of divinity and of Jesus Christ, especially those of the Antiochene tradition, typified by Theodore of Mopsuestia and Nestorius, and the Alexandrine tradition, typified by Cyril of Alexandria, Eutyches, and Dioscorus. These two traditions were distinct in a number of ways. As their representatives disputed the best ways to describe the incarnation, bishops and emperors alike felt compelled to achieve unanimity of belief. The ensuing controversies resulted in great difficulties, including imperial enforcement of orthodoxy, the depositions of bishops, the condemnation of dissenting branches of the church, and lasting estrangement between those branches. A broad consensus of belief was achieved by the Definition of Chalcedon (451), held by much of the church in East and West to be the definitive interpretation of Nicaea. Yet it was unable to contain those of a more miaphysite persuasion, who have been routinely called “monophysites;” and those with an even more striking dyophysite leaning (so-called “Nestorians”) had previously been alienated from the fold by the Council of Ephesus (431). Chalcedon was important not only dogmatically, but also had conciliar, monastic, and constitutional aspects that achieved lasting impact in the church.

The Church in the Fourth and Early Fifth Centuries: Monasticism, Expansion, Life, and Worship

Key Points during this time

• Under the influence of key leaders and through a variety of expressions, Christian monasticism shaped Christianity in significant ways.
• The fourth and fifth centuries saw one of the most significant periods in Christian missions, with major expansion occurring in Syria, Persia, Armenia, Georgia, and Ethiopia.
• Although Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the late fourth century, the Christianization of religious practices, moral behavior, and methods of rule was generally slow and gradual.
• In the aftermath of persecution, the cult of the saints, observing saints’ days, the veneration of holy sites, and pilgrimage became major expressions of Christian piety.
• In the fourth century Christian worship became more elaborate and the distinction between laity and clergy more pronounced. In particular, the sacraments of baptism, Eucharist, and chrismation received greater attention and significance.
• Practices of penance, ordination, and the church calendar became more formal and more complex during the fourth and fifth centuries.

Summary

Although some disciples of Jesus adopted lifestyles of rigorous discipline from the earliest times, the fourth century saw dramatic developments in Christian asceticism and the widespread growth of monasticism. Numerous tributaries of pagan, Jewish, and Christian origin influenced the shape of monasticism. The solitary expressions of anchorites and hermits, typified by St. Anthony of Egypt, grew alongside the communal monastic expressions of the cenobites, of whom Pachomius was an influential pioneer. A number of other early leaders contributed to the theory and practice of Christian asceticism, some of whom, like Basil of Caesarea in the East and John Cassian in the West, helped the mainstream church appreciate the contributions of monasticism to Christian culture and leadership.

Alongside and often assisted by the expansion of monasticism, Christian missionary efforts established churches in lands beyond its primitive range, including Syria, Persia, Armenian, Georgia, and Ethiopia. In some instances, it is apparent that Christians had been present in these environments long before the fourth century, yet the changed political and social location of the church in the Roman Empire facilitated the adoption of Christianity among the social elite outside the boundaries of Rome. These efforts saw the translation of the Bible and other sacred texts into local languages and the development of distinct forms of liturgy, belief, practice, and polity.

The dramatic growth of Christianity in the Roman Empire during the fourth and fifth centuries set the stage for an exchange of influence, in which the church impacted society and society impacted the church. Most emperors saw themselves as patrons of the church and sought to support the church and reform society according to Christian principles. Reforms in sexual ethics, the theater, and violent games were accompanied by the establishment of charitable institutions and provisions that discouraged paganism and limited Jews. Yet Christianity did not deeply impact fundamental economic structures or the often brutal practices by which the imperial office governed. The rigors of church discipline and moral standards relaxed, providing further impetus for the adoption of monasticism on the part of many believers who sought radical expressions of commitment to Christ.

With the end of persecution in the empire, monks and bishops came to be venerated alongside the martyrs as saintly exemplars. The cult of the saints grew to become a major expression of popular piety in the late antique church. Saints’ days, the building of martyria over saints’ tombs, the increased circulation of saints’ lives, and the veneration of relics all expressed enthusiasm for the saints as models and aids to faith and life. Pilgrimage to holy sites also became more common in the fourth and fifth centuries.

During this era, corporate worship practices became more elaborate, adapting to the changed circumstances of much larger congregations, an elevated social location, and worship spaces modeled on the basilica style. The outline of Christian liturgy took a form that would have lasting influence for centuries. Procedures associated with the sacraments of baptism, the Eucharist, and chrismation became more formal and complex. Catechetical and mystagogical texts from the period reveal a high degree of deliberate reflection on the meaning and significance of the sacraments and corporate worship for individual faith and in the life of the church. Alongside pastoral concerns, the need to confess orthodox belief about the incarnation shaped practices and theology. The church calendar, previously oriented largely around Easter and Pentecost, developed so that Epiphany, Palm Sunday, and the birth of Jesus (Christmas) were more prominent.

The Church in the Fourth Century: Doctrine, Organization, and Literature

Key Points during this time

• In the period following the Nicene council—and especially after Constantine’s death—the Arian controversy continued to create disunity in the fourth-century church, which saw many councils and at least four different major positions on the relation of the Father to the Son.
• Through the work of key figures like Athanasius and the Cappadocian Fathers, and the involvement of sympathetic emperors, Nicene orthodoxy came to be affirmed and generally accepted by the time of the Council of Constantinople (381).
• Throughout the fourth century, church organization became increasingly formal and its clergy more distinct in role and status from laypersons.
• The “great patristic century” (fourth–early fifth centuries) saw the production of great works of lasting influence on the part of several major writers and church leaders: in Greek: Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom; in Syriac: Ephraem the Syrian; and in Latin: Ambrose, Rufinus, and Jerome.

Summary
In the years following the Nicene council, the Arian controversy continued to create conflict in the church. Some felt that crucial positions had been betrayed, and the language by which consensus was supposedly achieved was open to varying interpretation. Hoping to achieve unity, Constantine sought to accommodate even some of those who had been condemned by the council; after his death, the division of his empire between his sons created further disruption, as they did not agree together on the Arian question. Throughout the fourth century, disputants settled into four major parties: the homoousians, who saw the Son as being of the same substance with the Father; the homoiousians, who saw them as being of similar substance; the homoeans, who would only go so far as to say that Father and Son are alike; and the anomoeans, who held that they are unlike. In a series of smaller councils, the Nicene Creed was repeatedly criticized, prompting its supporters to construct a coherent defense of its legitimacy and value.

Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria emerged as the most potent champion of Nicene orthodoxy through the middle years of the fourth century. His experience of enduring five exiles demonstrates the volatility of the period, as well as the role played by emperors in the conflict. Yet through his obstinate advocacy and his writings, he helped check the Arianizing positions and create support for Nicaea. In the last half of the fourth century, other church leaders and theologians—particularly the Cappadocians—helped consolidate support for Nicaea. Their efforts culminated in the Council of Constantinople (381), at which the Nicene position was affirmed. Theodosius I’s sponsorship of the council and his decree making Christianity Rome’s official religion (380) demonstrate the extent to which the empire would continue to be a major player in church affairs. Throughout the fourth century, church organization continued to become more formal and the roles and status of clergy more identifiably distinct.

The century and a half following Nicaea is the “Golden Age of Patristic Literature,” due to the number and quality of Church Fathers’ contributions to Christian thought. Although the various authors writing in Greek, Latin, and Syriac were diverse in personality and in the nature of their contributions, the literature they produced achieved a classic status within a short time and continued to inform Christian thought and practice for centuries. Despite the burgeoning growth of material in the Christian tradition, the Bible continued to take pride of place as the central resource for the Fathers and their heirs.