Theology – Christianity
vinces, as described by Eusebius.”
Christianity: as state religion, the Ecumenical Councils, and the
Rise of Monasticism
End of Persecution: The persecution of the Christians ended at
the time of the Emperor Galerius who gave the Edict of
Toleration in 311 A.D., thereby granting an imperial assurance of
safety, respect and independence in the conduct of the Christian
faith
Christianity Won: It was Galerius’ dying wish through an edict
that “formally ended the persecution, freed imprisoned
Christians and restored Christianity
Roman Oppositions: But there were authorities who still
insisted that Christians must pay homage to the Roman gods
Anti-Christians: Inscription from Arycandia in Lycia preserves
the petition of the provincial councils of Lycia and Caria
demanding the ‘atheists’ (Christians) should be made to sacrifice
or be expelled from their midst
- The same tone was adopted by the councils of Nicomedia,
Antioch, and Tyre
- At Damascus, the military commander rounded up prostitutes
and coerced them to confess to having witnessed disgraceful
scene in Christian churches
Killing of Christians: The savage outbreak of killing between
November 311-January 312 deprived the Christians in the East
of some of their foremost leaders”
Persecution Resumed: It seemed like persecution was not yet
fully subdued. Christians re-experienced the horror of
persecution and at the same time, the gift of martyrdom
Edict of Toleration
- But through an edict, Constantine who with Licinus, gave the
persecution its final and definitive halt in 313 A.D., right after
defeating Maxentius in October 312
- the edict of Milan: “…it is our pleasure that all restrictions
which were previously put forward in official pronouncements
concerning the sect of the Christians should be removed and
that each one of them … may endeavor to practice its precepts
without any fear or danger…”
- “ We, Constantine and Licinus the Emperors… are of the
opinion that among the various things which could profit men…
was to be found the cultivation of religion; we should therefore
give both the Christians and to all others the free facility to
follow the religion…”
- After a thousand lives had been slaughtered for the conviction
which they paid by their blood, the Christians felt that their
prayers were finally answered and their faith triumphed against
the evil of persecution
What is the Motivation?
- But we may ask this question: What prompted Constantine to
issue such a degree? Was it religiously or politically motivated?
Constantine: A political opportunist or religious hero?
- Constantine was criticized by some as a shrewd political
strategist who used Christianity for his self-serving intentions
- Accordingly, he used such religion to expand the territory and
power of the Roman Empire, multiplied the number of his army
and exploited the Christian teachings to control and regulate the
behaviors of his subjects
Historical Events
1. Time of war & the vision: Constantine’s victory over the
Emperor Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge on October 312
2. Edict of Milan: Decree of unrestricted freedom to the
Christians
3. Devotion and conversion: He speaks of the “Christian God”
as our God (famulum Dei)
- His obedience to “the will of God” was absolute
Time of War & the Vision
- Constantine started his journey to Christianity when he
received the vision “with a cross of light inscribed “in hoc (signo)
- The victorious emperor had his soldiers marked the Chi-rho
monogram on the shields before the historic war
- Constantine’s victory over the Emperor Maxentius at the
Milvian Bridge on October 312
Edict of Milan
- proclaimed by Roman Emperors Constantine and Licinius
bestowed tolerance for Christianity and other religions
- the decree also granted full independence of pagan religions to
practice their worship
- But as Constantine progressed in his reign as the head of the
Roman Empire, his strong inclination towards Christianity was
gradually revealed
- Constantine instructed the proconsul of Africa, Anulinus, to see
that the Catholic Church in North Africa received back in Toto
the possessions forfeited in the persecutions, even if these were
now in the hands of private citizens
- At the same time, he wrote to Anulinus, the proconsul,
instructing him that the clergy “in the Catholic Church over which
Caecilian presides, were to be granted immunity from state
burdens.”
Devotion and Conversion
- Constantine’s personal devotion to the Christian religion
became more pronounced
- An increase of Christian infrastructure and monetary favor was
also noticeable
- There was “the gift of his wife Fausta’s palace on the Lateran to
the Church in 313
- Followed by the grant of lands to various churches in Rome, in
c. 322 by the building of monumental church in honor of St.
Peter
- Great privilege was given to the clergy of the Christian
Churches in the form of immunity granted from the financial
burdens of municipal administration
- Bishops were assigned jurisdiction the same validity as that of
magistrate. Clergy were being recognized as civic as well as
religious leaders and accorded a corresponding status.”
- May 11 330: two months before his 25th anniversary as
Augustus, he dedicated the new capital Constantinople
- He forbade the offering of sacrifices in the pagan temples
that had been erected there
- There was to be no idolatrous worship and no pagan festival
- While the Christians, who only consisted one -fifth ( 1 / 5 ) of
the empire’s population at that time, were enjoying full imperial
vindication in the practice of their worship
Is it sincere?
- No matter how great the words and works of Constantine
towards Christianity, some historians remained doubtful
regarding his sincere conversion to Christian faith, which only
took place on his deathbed
Great Ecumenical Councils
- While Constantine bestowed the Church with so much
temporal privilege, peace and power, it was not immune from
internal threats to her unity
- The Church encountered differences of interpretations
pertaining to its dogma and doctrines
- ecumenical council: literally a council drawn from the whole
wide world or a meeting of all the bishops of the inhabited world
(in Greek, oikumene)
- In order “to deliberate ecumenical councils of the 4th century
were primarily focused on Christological heresies - a dispute
pertaining to the person and identity of Jesus Christ
Claim of Arius: Arianism
- Arius: a priest at Alexandria, preached that the Jesus Christ is
God’s foremost creature and creator of all the others, but He is
not of the substance of God the Father and not eternal
- The Son is a creature, created in time by the Father and then
used by the Father in the creation of the world
- Thus Christ was neither God nor a human being
- Rather, he was less than God but more than human
- He was a kind of composite intermediary being
Council of Nicea
- Arius disturbed the unity of the Christians and sowed the seed
of confusion
- He managed to convince a few believers and went around
continuously teaching his belief on Jesus being subordinate to
the Father
- The First Ecumenical Council of Nicea, which was attended “by
230 bishops” condemned Arius as a heretic and affirmed its faith
in Jesus as equal to the Father in the famous Nicene Creed of
325 A.D
- Through the council, “the bishops added the adjectives
homoousios in speaking of the Son of God; that is to say that the
Son is of the same substance (ousia) with the Father or
consubstantial with him
- The Council affirms Jesus as fully divine, eternal, not made
and truly human
- Athanasius: the bishop of Alexandria, was responsible for the
partial defeat of Arianism
- He was considered as “the greatest of the 4th century
defenders of 1st Council of Nicea
1st Council of Constantipole (381 A.D.)
- Even with the fruits of the Council of Nicea, heresies still
persisted
- Another controversy came up because of this question: If he
Jesus Christ was “very God,” how could he be “true man?”
- Apollinaris of Laodicea “denied the full humanity of Jesus
saying that the rational soul in him had been replaced by the
divine Logos.”
- Therefore, making Jesus “incapable of sin because he did not
have a human soul which was capable of sin and error.”
- Richard McBrien further explains: “How can God become a
human being without ceasing to be God except by taking the
place of the mind in a human being?” Apollinaris asked
- Emperor Theodosius I: declared Christianity as the official
religion of the Roman Empire, appointed a new bishop of
Constantinople → Gregory of Nazianzus
- The Council of Constantinople indeed re -affirmed Nicea and
condemned Apollinarianism and Arianism.”
Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.)
- After the achievements of the councils at Nicea and
Constantinople, a new question assailed the church authorities
and divided its leaders
- Nestorius: patriarch of Constantinople, “divided the two
natures in Christ, one divine and the other human and each has
its own personal manifestation
- Nestorius conceded that she [Mary] was Christ -bearer
(Christotokos) but not the “Mother of God” (Theotokos) as it
was “called by both Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea
- Cyril: bishop of Alexandria, attacked the claims of Nestorius
- An intelligent theologian who is faithful to Nicea
- Cyril worked to emphasized the unity of divine and human in
Christ” and strongly argued that the title Theotokos for Mary is
“permissible.”
- The Council of Ephesus condemned the views of Nestorius
and declared Mary as Theotokos
Council Chalcedon
- “Jesus is a blend of God and man” → theology fail
- Dissatisfied with the previous declarations on the person of
Christ, Eutyches, a monk from Constantiople, “asserted that,
although there were 2 natures before the union of the
Incarnation, there resulted only 1 nature, the divine, after the
union
- “Christ’s human nature was completely absorbed by the divine
nature.”
- Such new heresy was termed as “monophysitism, the
doctrine of one nature in Christ.”
- human nature → human-divine mixture ← divine nature
- Since heresy deliberately and clearly violated the teachings of
the previous councils, “Flavian, the bishop of Constantinople had
Eutyches condemned and excommunicated.”
Rise of Monasticism
- monks: They were the best keepers of the Church at a time
when Christianity was bombarded with worldly concerns and
immersed with mundane desires, earthly allurements of power,
prestige and privilege
3 Varieties of Early Monastic Life:
- categories given by Richard Cronin
1. Eremitical monks: The word eremitical is from the Greek
word eremos which means solitary
- It was thought that “St. Anthony (251 -356), the Father of
Monasticism chose to live in a life of solitary existence in the
desert of Egypt, of celibacy and of self-mortification
- He was later, was followed by at least five thousand monks.
2. Cenobitical monks: From the Greek word koinobion
meaning convent)
- In contrast to the solitary life of the eremitical monastics, the
cenobitical monks lived with their fellow monks in a community
under the guidance and leadership of an abbot
- While personal prayer and work can be pursued, this group set
a common time of prayer, work and various communal activities
- They still practice the vows of poverty and celibacy with the
addition of the pledge of obedience to their superior or abbot for
an orderly communal life
3. Stylites monks: Strange but true, the stylites (from the Greek
word, stulos, meaning pillar) made their sincere act of penance
by living at the top of a pillar
- Among the Stylites, according to Richard Cronin, “St. Simeon
Stylites was the most famous. He lived at the top of a sixty foot
pillar for forty-three years
- The whole day was spent in prayer and intercession.”
Conclusion:
- We have come to understanding and appreciation of the
Church’s growing of her faith in Jesus
- Greater enlightenment through the declaration of the
ecumenical council
- Our generation is so blessed to enjoy the fruit of the labor from
those councils
- today we simply need to read, listen and understand the
knowledge and wisdom handed unto us
- Greater understanding of Jesus, leads us to a greater love for
our Lord
- The monks made their mark in history, convinced that the
calling of a Christian is to seek poverty, purity and holiness,
enable us to admire their dedication and inspires us in our own
struggle for contentment with our worldly desires
- We are again once reminded to consciously and continually
decide for our faith
- We do not need to be stylite monk to carry that out and be holy