Athanasius of Alexandria: A Pillar of Orthodoxy

An outline of the theological significance of the life and work of Athanasius of Alexandria.

The One Empire of Rome according to Eusebius of Caesarea

All must wonder if they consider and reflect that it was not by mere human accident that the greater part of the nations of the world was never before under the one Empire of Rome, but only from the time of Jesus. For his wonderful sojourn among men synchronized with Rome’s attainment of the acme of power…Since that day the Jewish people have become subject to the Romans, the Syrians likewise, the Cappadocians and the Macedonians, the Bithynians and Greeks, and in a word all other nations who are under Roman rule. And no one could deny that the synchronizing of this with the beginning of the teaching about our Savior is of God’s arrangement, if he considered the difficulty of the disciples’ taking their journey, had the nations been at variance one with another and not mixing together because of varieties of government. But when these were abolished they could accomplish their projects quite fearlessly and safely, since the supreme God had smoothed the way before them and subdued the spirit of the more superstitious citizens under the fear of a strong central government.
One of Eusebius’ works has to do with the “One Empire of Rome” and how it was for a purpose that God ordained that the timing of events with the unity of the empire and the disciples journeys to the people. Without this divine intervention, the running into a one empire the apostles’ travels would not have been as successful and possibly not carried out. God had a hand in Constantine’s work as he did in this event in history to carry out his divine plan.

Constantine and the Christian Empire

Cyprian’s thoughts about his conversion

Cyprian of Carthage and the North African Church

Tertullian and Western Theology

An Outline of an Article done by Gerald L. Bray, “Tertullian and Western Theology” in Woodbridge, Great Leaders, 49-54.
I. Background
A. Born in modern Tunis in North Africa
B. Sometime after A.D 150
C. Middle class family
D. Well educated in:
1. Literary
2. Legal
3. Philosophical
4. Greek
E. Died sometime after 212
II. Private Life and Occupation
A. Married
B. Possible that his wife died young
C. Nothing else is known about this area
III. Monasticism
A. He was drawn to this life
B. Selective on the use of their writings
C. Concentrated on the holiness writings
D. He saw this as a movement that advocated his teaching
IV. Tertullian’s Apologetics
A. The Apology – a long treatise in which he dissects pagan religion in order to point out its irrationality
B. Strong insistence on the power of baptism that he refused any remedy for post baptismal sin
C. Opposed infant baptism
D. The Soul- in which he shows himself to be pro-Stoic and anti-Platonsit in his general philosophical outlook.
E. He reached a point that the Eastern Church didn’t get to until the 451’s
V. Pastoral Writings
A. Exhortation to the Martyrs to Stand Fast in the Face of Persecution
1. Constant theme of Tertullian’s life
2. Often appealed to the examples of heroism set by the ancient Romans, rather than Biblical figures
B. Treatises that Deal with Matters of Personal Spirituality
1. Wrote with great sensitivity about suffering, prayer
For more reading on him and also many of Tertullian’s works (this could keep you busy for years) http://www.tertullian.org/

Montanism

Early Monasticism

Asceticism is the practice of rigorous and often added practices then the average Christian. They often find solitude and abstaining or changing from normal practices by Christians. They take the act of marriage to be something to abstain from and add frequent times for prayer and solitude. Some extreme Asceticist’s will keep from eating but two meals a week and when he did it was bread and water, that which is necessary to stay alive.
The New Testament has two views on this subject. There are times in the New Testament, that have been held to encourage asceticism but it was for good reason and is not required of the Christian. In the Scriptures Christ says, “There are some who are eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God”, but this is specifically for people who can withstand it. On the other hand, the New Testament strongly criticizes some types of asceticism. Paul argued that it wasn’t wrong to marry and consume unclean meat. The Old Testament also has some say on the subject of Asceticism and the Jews had traditions that followed some of those writings.
There is speculation as to where the origins of monasticism began but the first monks were people who withdrew to the desert in Egypt or Syria. Often times these “retreats” were only temporary, and may have been for the purpose of to running from persecution; often they became permanent. The first Hermit-like man recorded was, Antony, who lived form 256–356 who was a Coptic peasant from Egypt. However, in the late fifth century, monasticism seems to have taken root in Ireland in a form which owed much to the Egyptian pattern The extreme inflexibility of Irish hermits, and the arrangement of cells within an outer boundary wall, both reflect Egyptian inspiration.
The routine of the hermits or recluses was to spend long periods in prayer and meditation, enriched by reading of the Scriptures that were many times “mechanical”, or involved short set formulas. Fasting was an important ritual to these devoted men.
Monasticism came out of Eastern Christianity. Then a Communal monasticism began by a man, Pachomius, who would fight extremism. Followers would prove their devotion by standing outside the monastery door for several days and memorizing parts of the Bible. A man that would influence this movement began to incorporate the monastic communities more closely with the church. This man was Basil the Great, and believed the bishop should have ultimate authority over a monastery. Another man that influenced Asceticism was Cassian. This man was the West’s inspirational writer on monasticism. He wrote detailed instructions for monasteries and served to endorse the monastic society widely. His writings were in great detail and covered subjects such as clothing, the form of monastery services, and also explored the temptations that a monk had to fight. He was detailed down the last writing.
For more information on Monasticism i found a good cite: http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/monasticism/

The Epistle to Diognetus

At the end of the 2nd century this unknown written does an amazing job of answering 3 questions.
#1 Who is God? Dealing with Theology Proper.
#2 What is the difference of Christianity and Greek and Jewish cultures? Dealing with Ethics.
#3 What is the race of man and the mode of living a Christian life to be in this world? Dealing with History.
You can read this letter which was written to an unbeliever (Diognetus) answering these three questions, describing a beautiful picture of the glory of God.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/diognetus-roberts.html
or http://www.ccel.org/ccel/richardson/fathers.x.i.ii.html

The Gnostics

A Gnostic is a person who stressed that people could be saved through knowledge or some call it “secret” knowledge. Gnosticism is shown throughout Christian writings of the second century, and some would classify it as perverting the Christian faith. They teach a sharp contrast in God and say that the creation was a direct result from the fall of wisdom, and creation is basically evil.
Since some believed that salvation depended completely on the knowledge of one’s ‘spiritual’ nature, they believed in indulging themselves in lusts of the world. Gnosticism enjoyed great success in history, especially in the reaches of Christianity. Not only was it successful but it offered explanations of the evil and confusion of the world and the human race.
In 1946 a bundle of twelve Coptic codices and fragments was discovered near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, and these writings have shed new light on the Gnostic belief, and convictions. Some of the important writings include, The letter of Rheginos, which stated that the resurrection was not a physical event; The Gospel according to Thomas, which has sayings attributed to Jesus; The Gospel according to Philip, which includes many sacraments, including baptism, anointing with oil and the ‘wedding chamber’. When talking about Gnostic leaders, one would mention the names, Simon Magus( the magician from Acts 8), and Irenaus, who developed the idea that Christ, fully man as well as fully God, retraced the steps of Adam, with a different result. He stated that because “Christ passed through every age of life, all humanity shares in his sanctifying work”. Although he had some theology pertaining to Mary, he based a lot of his teachings on the Scriptures
For more information: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gnostics.html and http://www.gnosticteachings.org/

God, Time and History

I have been reading through a book called, Introduction to the History of Christianity, ed. Tim Dowley. I will be liseting several summaries over sections, and chapters dealing with the Acient Chruch History period of 90 A.D – 500 A.D.

Cicero, an early Roman writer said, “not to know what took place before you were born’ was ‘to remain forever a child”. This relates to one’s knowledge in life and knowledge of the spiritual journey. History in essence was one man, that man being God, and His Holy Son, Jesus Christ. Christianity is a religion based upon history; the early Christians bled and died for what we hold so freely, the gospel. The Gospel itself is dependent on history, for it was in the long ago that a Savior was born to alter history for the rest of time. In order to understand this concept it is important to bring to mind the quote by Herbert Luethy, “Consciousness of the past alone can make us understand the present.” In order for us to partake of the richness of this Christian journey we must look back in history to the Cross, and the glorious Resurrection and see what was done for our sinful souls.As mentioned before Christianity is based upon history and the events in history, but a trap that Christians have fallen into is picking and choosing which history had God’s divine fingerprint placed on it. They wonder if a holy and righteous God could be involved in events as ugly as The Holocaust, or the Black Death, but accept his wonderful blessings upon the Great Revival, or people’s lives like Mother Theresa. A holy man in history that knew too well of the good and bad times was Job. He tells his wife in chapter 2 verse 10, “…Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” He knew that looking back on history God was good, all the time. We do not know why God chooses to put certain parts of history in His plan, but many Christians need to come to the realization that we will know someday when we are with Christ. We may not know what God has planned but we do know that the Scriptures coincide with history or “tradition”. The word tradition has become a word with a negative connotation, leading to putting tradition over the Holy Bible. In reality in ancient times this word was, “regarded principally as an interpretation and unraveling of Scripture”. It has come to be that too many Protestants have embraced an unnecessarily negative attitude to tradition, and have failed to implement in their faith a study of the story of the church. It was stated that in one sense church history is the story of the struggle to keep, the Holy Spirit, the people of God and human organization together as one flowing part of history. Christianity does not need to fight against history but embrace the one who holds history in the palm of his hands.