Augustine to Justinian—Late 3^rd-6^th Centuries

 

Augustine of Hippo (354-430)—perhaps the single-most influential doctor of the Church until the 13^th century

a.       Born in Thagaste in North Africa to a pagan father and a Christian mother (Monica)

b.      Educated as a Christian, but abandoned most of his early training to pursue philosophy and pleasures

a.       While a student at Carthage (note that he is a student there during some key events in Christian doctrinal history), he studies rhetoric (the art of speaking well/public argument)

                                                                           i.      Takes on a mistress at this time

                                                                         ii.      Begets a son, Adeodatus

b.      Eventually pursues philosophy as a means to truth—Monica hopes that this will spur him to Christianity

c.       Turns to the sect of the Manichees

                                                                           i.      Manicheism is dualistic faith arising out of 3^rd c. Persia; world is both light and darkness, good/spiritual and evil/material

                                                                         ii.      God was creator of light, Satan was creator of darkness

                                                                        iii.      All of the universe contains both light and darkness

                                                                       iv.      Jesus one of many teachers sent to point the way out of the mixing of light and darkness, which would be salvation

d.      Stays with the Manichees for 9 years, then becomes disillusioned with their simplicity and some of their sexual immorality

e.       Moves from Carthage to Rome, then to Milan

                                                                           i.      Becomes involved in Neoplatonism

1.      philosophy that sought the reunion of man with the One God, source of all being

2.      reunion to be accomplished through rigorous academic discipline and study and contemplation

3.      evil is merely a moving away from the One God, not matter

a.       movement away from the One God is movement away from truth and good

b.      evil, then, could be the absence of good

                                                                         ii.      Monica persuades Augustine to hear Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, preach

1.      Augustine is moved by Ambrose’s eloquence and substance of his teaching

2.      Augustine realizes he cannot any longer object to Christianity’s teachings and that he cannot simply pick and choose elements of the faith—it was all or nothing

3.      Augustine convicted by his own incontinence, especially in light of the holy chastity of various monks he came in contact with “Lord, give me chastity, but not too soon.”

4.      Continues to follow Ambrose’s teachings and example, witnesses the conversion of a prominent Neoplatonist and takes up the study of the New Testament

                                                                        iii.      Experience in the Garden

1.      Hears a child’s voice say “Take up and read”

2.      Picks up a New Testament scroll, turns to Romans 13 “Not in reveling or drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.” (“Give what you command, O God, and command what you will.”)

3.      Conversion experience leads to peace for which he had been searching since his college days “Our hearts are restless, O God, until we find our rest in Thee….”

4.      He and his son are baptized

                                                                       iv.      Monica convinces him to send away his mistress

                                                                         v.      Augustine, Monica and Adeodatus and some friends head to North Africa to join a monastery—Monica dies en route, Adeodatus soon after arrival

1.      Went to Hippo one day, was ordained priest

2.      Eventually became bishop of the city until his death

Augustine’s Conflict with the Manichees

 

Disputed with the Manichees over Scriptural authority, free will, and origins of evil

            God created the world good.  It was the fall of man that brought about evil, the absence of good.

            Since God created both light and goodness, God is in some sense responsible for the origin of evil and darkness (goodness and light can be removed, in other words)

            Evil developed from the exercise of free will by the angels and human beings

                        God created goodness and light; he also created the will

                                    The will chooses to do only what it wants to do

                                    Free will creatures want to, and did, choose to turn away from God (see the elements of Neoplatonism creeping through)

 

Augustine’s Conflict with the Donatists

 

Augustine’s doctrine of the Church bears Neoplatonic elements, as well

            --The true Church (the Church Triumphant) is pure and holy, but

            --The Church in the present world (the Church Militant) is a mixture of both pure and impure, holy and unholy

                        --This mixture of purity and impurity must be tolerated until such time as Jesus returns in victory

                        --Note the contrasts between Augustine and the Donatists’ idea of a pure church

                        --Augustine would question the Donatists’ ability to discern when a priest was really pure or not; there would be no solid proof of purity, and thus no assurance of salvation, if sacramental effectiveness depended on priestly purity

                                    --Priestly purity as a requirement of sacramental efficacy would also hinge salvation on the effort of mere human beings—salvation by works instead of by grace

            Augustine’s view of the sacraments as invisible signs of the workings of God’s grace

                        --Sacramental effectiveness depended not on mere human effort or purity; grace alone made them effective, and the priestly ministers were mere vessels

                        --Therefore, sacraments wrought grace ex opere operato (by virtue of their having the proper matter (water, bread/wine, oil, etc.) and form (priestly consecration)

                        --Understanding of the significance of the sacraments could only be found in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church

            --Donatists were destroying the unity of the catholic Church, and thus diminishing the fullness of Christian life that could be experienced only in the catholic Church

                        “Compel them to come in…” (Augustine borrows this phrase from Luke 14:23 in the parable of the wedding banquet.  The master in the story orders that everyone be brought in, by whatever means, in order to fill up the space available at his banquet table.  Augustine uses it as a justification of (limited) force to bring the Donatists back into the orthodox fold.)

                                    Augustine’s Theory of Just War

1.      must be led by the proper authorities

2.      must be aimed at restoring peace and upholding justice

3.      must be motivated by love, not malice

4.      must be reasonable likely to succeed

5.      must be fought with the aim of benefiting society

 

Augustine’s Conflict with the Pelagians

 

Pelagius was a strict/austere British monk (d. c. 420) who taught that human free will meant that human beings could will not to sin

            --Adam’s fall was not the beginning of a long line of sinful human beings

            --People far removed from the original fall were not condemned to sin, save by their own choice to continue to sin

            --No truly sinful/depraved people, just sinful acts

            --Jesus is a new example, replacing the example of Adam

Augustine counters Pelagius’ arguments with a strong doctrine of original sin and of grace.

            --Pelagians misunderstand the depravity of humanity and the power of evil, the absence of good in this present world

            --The Fall of Adam condemned the entire universe, including humanity, to a distortion of its original intents and purposes

            --Exercise of free will did not extend to being able to choose to do something entirely good in and of itself; human choices always had a hidden motive of wanting to serve themselves (Pride and Lust are the basis of all sin, for Augustine)

            --Thus the whole of humanity is sinful in fact as well as in acts, and could not escape sin but by grace extended from God to man

                        --Predestination—By grace, God chose some to be saved and others not to be; human actions had no bearing on God’s divine decision

                        --When God chooses to save someone, his offer of grace to them is irresistible.

                        --God is in control of all that happens; everything is orchestrated by God and known by God and ordained of God

                        --Grace enables an improvement in behaviour and attitude, but never in this life will bring someone to the point of perfection, turned completely toward the good.

                        --Perfection will come only in the City of God

            --Augustine’s positions against the Pelagians are accepted by the Church about 100 years later, but..

                        --The Universal Church rejects radical predestination and irresistible grace

                        --Augustine’s doctrines resurface during the Reformation in full force

 

Augustine’s Controversy with the Pagans

 

Roman Empire falls (in the West) in 410—Rome is sacked by Germanic tribes from the north

            --Pagans blame Christians for Rome’s downfall to these barbarians

Augustine writes his City of God from 412-426 to combat pagan criticisms of Christians

            --contrasts earthly city (the state) with the heavenly city (the Church)

            --the former is built on selfishness, the latter on love of God

            --both state and church would co-exist, but only the Church would remain constant, while empires and kingdoms came and went in cycles

            --state is to be endured (it had a proper place of service to the society) while the Church was to instruct to state in the ways of God and the heavenly city (this is in contrast to the position taken in the East that the emperors were superior to the bishops)

 

Fifth Century Events and Personages

 

Council of Ephesus in 431 condemns Nestorianism

            --Nestorius was patriarch of Constantinople, who in 428 preached a sermon at the cathedral in Constantinople against referring to the Virgin Mary as Theotokos (Mother of God, or God-Bearer)

                        --Theotokos is a term used from early in the Church’s history, or at least from the 3^rd or 4^th century.  By Nestorius’ time, it was commonplace

            --Nestorius instead prefers the term Christotokos (Christ-Bearer), implying that the person to whom Mary gave birth was something less than God, which seems quasi-Arian or adoptionistic

            --Nestorius had come in conflict with Cyril of Alexandria (part of a widening division between Antioch and Alexandria over theological matters)—Cyril’s Christology becomes basis of Chalcedonian orthodoxy, though it is ambiguous

                        --Futility on the part of Cyril to convince  Nestorius to change => former to appeal to Rome for help

                        --Roman bishop denounces Nestorius and urges his deposition

                        --Cyril uses the pope’s response as a tool to urge emperor to call an ecumenical council to officially condemn Nestorius’ teachings

            --Council at Ephesus condemns Nestorius’ two-person/two-nature Christology (there is not a complete union between the divine person and the human person in Jesus Christ, nor of the divine and human natures in his person)

                        --Council also affirms the creed of Nicaea and Constantinople

            -Nestorius and his followers hold a rival Council at Ephesus and condemn Cyril

 

Council of Chalcedon in 451 has to work out what is the nature of Christ

            --The result is an affirmation of Nicene Christianity, affirmation of Mary as Theotokos, and the development of the doctrine of hypostatic union in the nature of Christ

                        --Hypostasis = personal subsistence

                        --Therefore hypostatic union refers to the union of the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ in one person, distinct and inseparable, “without confusion, change, division, or separation”)—the divine and human natures in Christ are not separate; Jesus Christ is both fully human and fully divine, and anyone who says otherwise is anathematized

            --Chalcedon also affirmed the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed

            --Also affirmed the status of Constantinople as “the New Rome”, giving the patriarch of Constantinople a position in the Church second only to the Roman bishop

                        --Leo I, though he is one of only a few Western bishops present at the Council, and though he is believed to be highly influential in the statement of the hypostatic union, refuses for two years to accept Chalcedon because of this grant of “New Rome” status to Constantinople

 

 

Emperor Justinian (527-565)

            Attempts to reconquer the lands of the West that had been conquered by the Germanic tribes—succeeds in taking Italy, North Africa, and parts of S.E. Spain

            --Rest of Europe remains in Gothic hands (mostly Arian in religion)

            --Persians begin to attack the Eastern Empire from the east

            --Eventual threat to the empire was too great to allow much concentration on the West—The West is abandoned once and for all by the Eastern emperors after Justinian’s death

 

            Byzantine culture thrives under Justinian

                        --Greek-Christianity and Near Eastern customs merge in the empire

                        --Architectural achievements such as the Hagia Sophia

                        --The Justinian Code—codification of ancient Roman laws and their basic principles; creation of absolute government in the East

                                    --symphonia between Church and State—Church took care of ecclesiastical matters/spiritual matters, while the state took care of political matters

                                                --universal belief that the empire was under the protection of God and Mary, that the emperor was the anointed of God, and the imperial accomplishments were portents of divine favor

                                                --imperial power is used to persecute pagans and infidels and heretics—even some efforts to forcefully bring Jews into the orthodox Church