Journey Through Christian Theology

With Texts From The First To The Twenty-First Century

William P. Anderson

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9780800696979
• eBook ISBN:
  9781451420319
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Highly accessible introductions to five periods precede brief introductions to and texts from more than fifty key thinkers. The texts highlight perennial themes and questions in Christian tradition, especially the meaning and importance of Jesus, challenges to the institutional church, tensions of faith and reason, spirituality, and the Christian quest for social justice. The new edition, half again as large as the original, adds significant work from the Cappodocian Fathers and the Christological controversialists, the Franciscan tradition, the Radical and English reforms, and deeper coverage of twentieth-century theologians.
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Part One

THE EARLY CHURCH

The Apostolic Fathers and the Apologists

A late seventeenth-century thinker described a group of early Christian writers, including such persons as Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp, as the “Fathers” who flourished in the times of the apostles. Thereafter these writers have been commonly known and referred to as the apostolic fathers. Today the literature ascribed to this period is somewhat extended and includes such additional works as the Epistle to Diognetus, the Didache, and others.

These writings have some common characteristics. They are: (1) relatively short, (2) preserved for the most part in very few manuscripts, (3) most likely limited in terms of literary quality, and (4) all generally problematic, in the sense that they all belong to a period in the life of the church for which the records are rather sketchy.

For the religious thinker and for the historian, it is only accidentally that these writings form a unity. In some ways, they may be compared to old and very dear pieces that one might find in an attic or antique shop. Many times, these pieces do not seem to be of much value or significance, and yet, at the same time, they are intriguing. Upon examination, we discover that they are in their own way attractive, even though through the centuries many have tried to tinker with them, either naively to protect them or intentionally with the purpose of deceiving readers.

The apologists are a second, later group of important early writers. In this anthology, we shall focus on Justin Martyr, probably the most noted of them all. In turning from a person such as Ignatius of Antioch, with his great desire to be one with Jesus of Nazareth in martyrdom, to a person such as Justin Martyr, the apologist, we enter a new and different world. Justin was a philosopher, a man who had reflected seriously on the meaning of the Christian faith and who undertook to demonstrate the validity of that Christian faith to outsiders and to vindicate the right of the Christian community and its faith to exist without persecution. To Justin, and to other apologists as well (for example, Athenagoras of Athens and Aristides), Christianity was not simply a harmless religious phenomenon; it was a belief system that contained the very best of the elements of Roman civilization and all the best of the empire. To the mind of the philosophically oriented Christian such as Justin, Christianity and the empire were ideal “soul mates”—if only the empire could understand this reality. Rather than being subversive, as they were accused of being, Christians were ideal Roman citizens. Christian ideas, far from being irreconcilable with Greek philosophy, were the apex of Greek thought. Indeed, Justin saw Christianity as the fulfillment of his Platonism, the completion of his intellectual journey, the key to his understanding of life, which, after all, is one of the functions of philosophy. In the works of the apologists, we find numerous references to great ancient thinkers such as Homer, Sophocles, Socrates, and Plato. Their use of Logos made it possible to connect Christian thought to Greek philosophy. The apologists saw Greek philosophy as incomplete without Christianity. And thus Christianity, for better or worse, became intellectual.

The issues addressed by the apologists and the answers they offered may differ significantly from the issues that face us in the modern world. Yet there is much of an apologetic nature that occurs today. Theology must continue to defend its right to exist among academic disciplines. Now it is not usually governments that make religion run the gauntlet, but the descendants of the intellectual traditions of ancient Greece, the more recent intellectual communities that in fact originated in, or were at least spawned by, theology, for example, some of the modern empirical sciences.

Establishing Doctrine

Other significant figures we shall meet in the early church include: Irenaeus of Lyons, Tertullian, Origen of Alexandria, Arius, Athanasius, Augustine of Hippo, Pseudo-Dionysius, and John Scotus Erigena. We will also examine the creeds produced by the first ecumenical councils, at which fundamental issues were addressed. Although not satisfying everyone, the councils’ work provided a theological base for Christian doctrine still in place to this day.

Theologians and philosophers of the early Christian community, such as Justin, not only defended Christianity against the Greeks, Romans, and Jews but also sought to protect the community from itself, from modification and heresy within the faith. One such person was Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons. Irenaeus, as a defender of the faith, took on an early formidable foe: Gnosticism, which was a serious threat to the integrity and unity of the emerging church from within its own boundaries. Gnosticism, in part a “mystery rite,” in part philosophy (or perhaps better put—theosophy), seemed to be eclectic, synthetic—a little bit of everything. It claimed a special saving knowledge (gnosis), available only to initiates, and while doing so was quite divisive and destructive. It was not that the early Christians rejected knowledge outrightly; they rather asserted that the apostolic tradition was the only true knowledge.

Gnosticism

In the second century, Gnosticism became both a friend and a foe to Christianity. Those who saw it as an ally did so because it also spoke of God, human beings, creation, and redemption—all major components of the Christian faith. Those who distrusted it, however, saw it as dangerous because, being partly Christian and partly non-Christian, it was capable of seducing the believer. Such deception was far more critical than outright disbelief or skepticism.

Fundamentally, Christian Gnosticism may be said to have at least four principles: (1) the God of the Hebrews is an evil god: this god has disappointed our messianic hopes and aspirations; the Hebrew Scriptures, which present this god, must therefore be rejected; (2) the visible world is evil: this is a world created by the evil god; (3) the God of Jesus of Nazareth is good: this God is completely hidden until revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, who becomes a semi-mythical redeemer of universal or cosmic proportions; (4) the spiritual world is good: it is the creation of the good God who has been revealed (to the Gnostic) in Jesus of Nazareth.

In the early church, there were literally dozens of different Gnostic communities—for example, the Nicolaitans, the Cerinthians, the Basilideans, the Satornalians, the Carpocrations, and the Valentinians, to name just a few.

Expanding Theological Discourse

On the North African continent, at approximately the same time as Irenaeus, we find Tertullian. Tertullian was the first important theologian to write in Latin rather than Greek, which, up to this time, had been the predominant language of the church.

Often referred to as the father of Latin theology, Tertullian set the course for later Western theological terminology. His scathing attacks against the Roman state, pagans, Jews, and heretics are marked by a vivid and direct literary style that explodes with puns, satire, and all kinds of devastating polemical verbal blasts. His argument in favor of Christianity was as simple as it was clear: it was God’s truth handed down by the apostles. All later doctrines were obviously false and must therefore be rooted out and destroyed. The creed, or “Rule of Faith” (regula fidei), was the norm by which heresy was to be judged, and Christians who were tempted into other doctrines only showed that they never really believed correctly in the first place.

Origen of Alexandria stands in grand style among the early theologians and was arguably the very first systematic theologian of the Christian era. Following the Gnostics of the second century and preceding Plotinus (c. 204–70) and Mani (c. 216–75), Origen was a defender of orthodoxy and by rational temperament and ecclesiastical discipline in no way inclined toward heretical fancies of the Gnostic varieties. When it came to his own attempt at integrating scriptural revelation with independent reason and intuition into a coherent and persuasive whole that meant to embrace the totality of things, all of his care could not prevent him from producing a system that the later church would find necessary to condemn. He is, nevertheless, one of the most important, most prolific, and most interesting figures in all of Christian history.

In the fourth century, a new epoch in the history of Christian thought began. The Emperor Constantine, in 313, transformed the fortunes of the Christian church by turning it from a persecuted to a tolerated and finally to a favored community. One of the consequences of becoming what we may call “a department of the State” was that the fourth century became an era of great thinkers in the church for the simple reason that the energy expended in defense of the church against outsiders and devoted to martyrdom, that is, to apologetics, refuting accusations of those outside of the Christian community, could now be channeled to different ends. Thus, some great theologians and philosophers of religion emerged, such as Arius, Athanasius, and Eusebius of Caesarea. Still other Christians gave themselves over to meditation and contemplation and flocked to the deserts of Egypt.

There was also a negative side to the state sponsorship of Christianity. First, mass conversions to the now-favored church detracted from the vitality, the depth, and the moral life that had persisted in the time of persecution. There are, of course, parallels to this in the churches of today. Religious faith just simply became easier. Second, when a religious body receives the blessing of government, it also runs the risk of receiving undesired interference or condemnation from that government. Sometimes government will favor one theological position over another; at other times it will interfere in the internal functions of the church itself and by so doing will fuel theological controversy with political dimensions. In the twentieth century, we have clearly seen this in the case of Nazi Germany, with the Reformed, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic churches caving in to political pressure, and in the former Soviet Union, with the capitulation of the Russian Orthodox Church. In this early period, we shall be looking at some texts from the pens of Arius and Athanasius, as well as the major creedal formulations that have remained with the church as normative criteria for doctrine to this very day.

KEY TERMS

Anakephalaiosis (Recapitulation)

Apokatastasis

Apologetics

Apostolic Tradition

Docetism

Gnosticism

Homoousios

Incarnation

Logos

Logos-Christology

Orthodoxy

Regula Fidei

Unbegotten

SELECTED SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Aulen, Gustaf, Christus Victor, English translation (New York, 1961)

Bettenson, Henry, Documents of the Christian Church (New York, 1961)

Bettenson, Henry, The Early Christian Fathers (Oxford, 1961)

Chadwick, Henry, The Early Church (New York, 1977)

Gonzalez, Justo L., A History of Christian Thought, 3 volumes, revised edition (Nashville, 1987)

Kelly, J. N. D., Early Christian Doctrines (New York, 1961)

Kelly, J. N. D., Early Christian Creeds (London, 1960)

Leith, John, H., editor, Creeds of the Churches, revised edition (Atlanta, 1973)

McGiffert, A. G., A History of Christian Thought, volume 1 (New York, 1932)

1. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH (75–110)

Ignatius, second bishop of Antioch during the reign of Emperor Trajan (98–117), was a unique personality. While functioning as leader of this early Christian community at Antioch, he was condemned for his faith and sentenced to death by imperial Rome. He was to be sport for the Roman citizenry at the Colosseum, offering his body to the infamous lions. While on his way to execution, he sent letters to other Christian communities from which we may derive useful information about this infant church and the living faith experiences of its leaders and ordinary believers. These letters were sent to Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Philadelphia, and Smyrna; to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna; and to Rome. The five cities were Christian communities that had sent representatives to greet him as he passed through on his way to execution.

These letters have some of the most fiery, emotional statements to come out of the early church. They reflect without any doubt the total commitment of Ignatius not only to the church, but, more importantly, to Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. There were several issues of importance to Ignatius, as a leader in this relativ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part One: The Early Church
• Part Two: The Arian Crisis
• Part Three: The Cappadocians
• Part Four: The Fifth-Century Christological Controversies
• Part Five: Later Developments
• Part Six: A Ninth-Century Controversy—the Eucharist
• Part Seven: The Middle Ages
• Part Eight: The Reformation Era
• Part Nine: A Roman Catholic Response
• Part Ten: The Modern Period
• Part Eleven: The Later Modern Period
• Part Twelve: The Contemporary Period
• Afterword
• A Brief Glossary of Theological Terms
• Index