Church History Tuesday: Development of Theology

After Constantine legalized Christianity and there was a large influx of people into the Christian religion; there was the need for official theology and a development of the theology already in place.  Emperor Constantine tried to facilitate this development of an official theology, because he understood the need for order within the Church.  One way he tried to help with this was by convening a meeting between all the bishops of the Church at the time; this was known as the Council of Nicea.

The Council of Nicea met in 325.  The Council met to discuss several issues, one of which ended up taking over most of the meeting.  On the schedule was the date of Easter, the Meletian schism, the validity of baptism by heretics, the status of the lapsed, discuss canon law, and to discuss the theology of the priest Arius.  Once the meeting was underway, Eusebius of Nicomedia stood up with 22 other bishops to read the theology of Arius.  Some of the bishops who had supported Arius changed their mind when they actually heard the theology read.  However, some bishops still supported him and the arguments went on for two to three months.  At one point Arius himself was brought in to defend himself.  Nicholas of Myra was so offended by Arius’ statements on the divinity of Christ, that he actually slapped Arius across the face.  He had his bishops robes striped from him and was put in jail.  That night in a dream Jesus and Mary appeared to Nicholas asking why he was in jail.  He replied he was in jail, “Because of my great love for you.”  At this Jesus gave him the Gospel book and Mary gave him bishop robes.  He was released the next day at the command of Constantine.  At the end of the Council, the Arians were defeated, mostly; their beliefs lived on and would have to be dealt with for years to come.  But the orthodox Church, had an answer to the problem of the Arians, they came up with a creed (professing the beliefs of orthodox Christians).  This was known as the Nicene Creed (which is different than what we call the Nicene Creed today, it is less developed).  Many believe the Creed was developed by Eusebius of Caesarea, the bishop of Caesarea and Palestine, based on the baptismal creed from his diocese.  At the end of the meeting Constantine decreed that anyone who did not agree with the Creed would be exiled.  Arius and two bishops did not agree with the Creed and were thus, exiled; however, several bishops endorsed the creed, but stated their disagreement with certain parts.  The biggest example of this can be seen in Eusebius of Nicomedia, who was Constantine’s cousin and bishop; who swayed the Emperor away from the orthodox bishops to the Arian stance.  After Constantine there were two Arian Emperors.

The Nicene Council set the precedence of the Ecumenical Council of the Church, when all bishops would gather together in one place to decide the important issues of the Church.  There have only technically been seven Ecumenical Councils (although some churches will say there were more or less, these other councils were either only regional or only involved one church, such as the Roman Catholic Church).  At many times theology would be developed or approved in the Ecumenical Councils and debates would be decided.  Of course most theology would develop outside the Councils and would be accepted by the Church as it spread to different areas, much like the canonization of the Biblical texts.  Most of the time a bishop or priest would write a letter or a book and explain how they understood some theological principle.  These books or letters would be passed around and bishops would agree with the writings and would copy the text, thus preserving them.  Ones that were not agreed with would not be copied or would have responses pointing out the problems and these responses might get copied, thus preserving them, and the Church’s theology would grow from this too.  If it needed to be dealt with like the Arian controversy it would, but usually in local synods, not Ecumenical Councils.  In these ways the Church developed her theological stance on issues and developed how it understood the Triune God.

Monastic Monday: Monastic Vows/Practices Part 6: Prayer

I have previously talked about the Liturgy of the Hours (you can find that post here), but in this post I want to talk about prayer more generally.  All monks and nuns pray.  It is the most important thing that they do.  They do other things of course and many of the other things they do are very helpful and meaningful, but none are as important as prayer.  A Franciscan Friar might feed the hungry, cloth the poor, or preach to the downtrodden; but he does nothing unless these actions are focused through the lenses of prayer.  A Benedictine nun might teach children, write a book, or encourage others on the spiritual path; but unless she starts every day and action with a time devoted to God in prayer, none of these actions will produce a harvest of one hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.  These actions even without prayer are good actions and can be seen as an act of prayer/type of prayer.  I am simply trying to show how important a dedicated time of prayer is.

Some Christians might criticize monastics for praying the liturgy of the hours, without understanding that monks and nuns, pray these hours in addition to their personal prayer time.  The liturgy of the hour is simply a way to call the monastic back to prayer throughout the day.  Reminding them to pray on their own throughout the day, but at times when they might get caught up in other rhythms; the bells ring and they stop their work and walk to the chapel to turn to God.  After they leave they go out remembering God and saying prayers in their heart until they are lost in work or thought, and then are pulled out again by the ringing of the bell.  Some masters might be able to split their attention between their work and prayer.  Or they might constantly have a breath prayer on their mind or passing through their lips.

But all of us are beginners on the path of prayer, some might be further along, but we are all beginners and most of us are constantly starting again, down this path.  True masters of prayer are those who never rest too long on the side of the road.  Many of us will at some point get to where the path is too hard to continue on and will be unable to move on to different types of prayer, and will have to stay where we are.  While we are there we can look off to see some further along the path and might be able to make out little pieces of their encouragement or instructions and this might be enough to get us a little further on the path, or it might sound too foreign to us or we might be unable (for several reasons) to put their advice into action.  Sometimes we might find a person who has gone further along the path but has come back down to help or lead others along the path, these great men and women are wonderful and are truly saints, for they long to see others have what they have received.  They want to see others experience the beauty and love of God.  We could think of them as a woman in a wedding dress, before the wedding service is about to start, seeing a child fall in the mud and disregards her dress and the service to crawl into the mud to comfort and help the child out of it.  The groom of course has no regard or concern for the dress, because he sees what kind of mother his bride will be and is proud of her for helping the child.  I believe this is the way Jesus sees those who travel back down the path to help others along the path.  Others have described this as those who stand at the door ushering others through, after they have already been through the door and have come back through to help others.

So the point is monks pray and some of them come back down the path to help us but all of them walk along the path and cannot help but pray, both in the liturgy of the hours and in their private personal prayer time.

Saints Friday: St. Mark the Evangelist

Next Thursday (April 25^th) we celebrate the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, author of the Gospel According to Mark.  Mark’s Gospel is thought to be the first of the Gospels written, which Sts. Matthew and Luke used as the framework for their Gospels.  Little is actually known of Mark, but he does appear in the Acts of the Apostles and he is mentioned in two of St. Paul’s letters.

Mark was present for many events of the early church.  After’s St. Peter’s miraculous escape/rescue from prison in Acts 12 he went to Mark’s mother’s house, where several members of the church were gathered to pray.  Mark also accompanied Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch after they brought the gift from Antioch to the churches in Judea.  Mark also joined Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, but left them early, returning to Jerusalem.  When a second missionary journey was purposed Barnabas suggested they take Mark with them, but Paul thought he was unreliable.  The disagreement was so sharp that Paul and Barnabas went on their own journeys, Barnabas taking Mark and Paul taking Silas.  Mark makes no other appearance in Acts.

Paul does, however, mention him in his letter to the Colossians, naming him as a fellow Jew and worker for the Kingdom of God.  In his second letter to Timothy, Paul says, Mark is very useful to him for ministry, and asks Timothy to bring Mark with him when he comes to him.

Peter, in his first letter to the Church, mentions Mark as his son.  It is probable that he means son in the spiritual sense here.  Papias a Christian writer from the 2^nd century states, Mark acted as Peter’s interpreter.  He also says that Mark wrote down what Peter said (not in the same order), thus composing the Gospel.  So it is likely that Mark also traveled with Peter for a time, probably near the end of Peter’s life; since Mark was with Peter in Rome when he wrote his longer letter to the Church.

There are rumors surrounding Mark as well.  Many believe that Mark might have been present at the arrest of Jesus as the boy, clothed in a linen cloth, who was disrobed when trying to escape capture.  This is believed to be Mark because who would know this detail about the arrest, and include it in the story other than the person to whom it happened?  Tradition says after Peter’s death Mark left Rome and traveled to preach in Alexandria and Egypt and eventually suffered martyrdom.

In the Church Mark’s Gospel is usually associated with a lion.  Based off the four living creatures around the throne in Revelation (lion, man, ox, and eagle).  Mark is associated with the lion because it starts with John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness, much like a lion roaring.  This has been applied to the Gospels as early as the 800s if not earlier.

The Church views Mark as a saint because he wrote about the life of our Lord Jesus and lived out a life devoted to our Lord Jesus.  His idea to write down the life and miracles of our Lord, based on the preaching of St. Peter was the first of its kind.  His Gospel Gives the Church a solid starting point for the remembrance of our Lord’s deeds and actions.  The Gospel ends at the perfect place to start preaching and teaching about the Lord’s Resurrection, almost as if it was meant to be read to a group by someone already a Christian to continue the teaching at the end of the book, allowing someone to actually preach the good news to a crowd instead of just reading it (Note: I am referring the earliest manuscripts which end at Mark 16:8).

Prayer: Almighty God, awaken in us a love for the story of the life of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Allow us to take from his preaching and miraculous deeds, a sense of awe and the scope of your power.  Give us hearts that want to explain your great love for the world to others, as you gave your servant St. Mark.  Allow us to like him explain the life, Passion, and Resurrection of your Son to all those we meet, who need to hear about your great love for them.  We pray that you would send to us the same Holy Spirit who directly Mark’s mind, mouth, and hand in composing your story.  We ask this through your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.  Amen.

Monastic Monday: Monastic Vows/Practices Part 5: Conversion of Life

This practice is a very difficult one to just sum up and put a neat little bow on, saying this is how you do it go have fun.  This looks different for each person; it is the process of changing everything in your life to reflect the majesty and glory of God.  It is each day trying to choose the option that makes you look more like Jesus.  It is positioning yourself so that the Holy Spirit moves through you into the lives of those around you.  It is a way of life that invites the Godhead into yourself, to change you and shape you, so that your actions reflect the work and service of God.

This idea of Conversion of Life has been debated over the last 50 years or so, some believing that it was merely St Benedict’s way of saying be conformed into the life of a monk, taking on chastity, obedience, and poverty.  But as “simple” as the Rule is, I do not think our father made it that simple.  I think he wanted the monk to change his life not to conform to the Rule or the life of the monk, but to the life of God.  The life of the monk is to focus on God, an ordered life helps with that, but having an ordered life is not the goal of the monk.  Just as much as having a kid, did not make me a dad, it made me a father.  Playing with my daughter, getting down on the floor, teaching her, changing her diapers, caring for her, those things make me a dad.  It is the same for the monk, saying the Psalms, wearing a habit, or living in a monastery does not make someone a monk.  Praying the Psalms, being obedient, loving God, showing love and hospitality in the monastery, and changing your whole life around make one a monk.

So how do you convert your life to allow more room for God?  I am not sure how you do it, for me, it is prayer, daily listening/contemplative prayer.  Being active in church, serving in the church; praying throughout the day; and reading the Bible daily, these are some ways that I find converting my life to let God fully move through me. So really I think the way to practice Conversion of Life is a hit and miss process, trying to find what works for you.  If Lectio Divina really works for you, then do it.  If you cannot really do contemplative prayer without losing focus, then do not practice it very often.

Question: How do you allow God to move through you?

Bible Study Wednesday: John 6

Today’s Lectionary reading comes from John 6:27-40.

Jesus starts off telling the people not to work for the food that perishes, but for food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give them.  Alright so I guess we should all quit our day jobs, and start working for Jesus, because he will give us bread for the eternal life.  I do not think this is what Jesus is saying and neither do the crowds.  In fact reading what I wrote above just sounds silly.  There is no way to quit our jobs and just work at living a perfect Christian life.  Even those among us who work as: priests, pastors, monks, missionaries, etc. they all still have to work and do things that take up their time that are not pursuing God.  Granted a lot of their work is based on pursing God, but not all of it.  But the crowd asks the same question we do, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”  Jesus answers them by pretty much saying, believe in me.  We can all do this in any line of work that we have, we can believe in Jesus.  The important thing to remember is God is right where you are, he is not out there somewhere.  This is an important thing to remember, when you are sitting down to dinner, chatting with your co-workers, speaking with a customer service rep, or feeding the dog, God is right there with you.  Really believing in Jesus is about learning to recognize him around you and in your mundane activities throughout the day.

The crowd then starts to ask Jesus about how he is going to prove that is from God.  They bring up Moses giving them manna in the wilderness.  Jesus talks to them about this a little bit pointing out the type of bread God gives to the world.  They want this bread.  Jesus answers them “I am the bread of life.”  This is one of Jesus’ “I am” statements, modeled off of what God says to Moses when he asks who he should say sent him to the Hebrews.  He said “I AM WHO I AM.”  He promises that those who come to him and who believe in him will not be hungry or thirsty.  He will also never drive away any one who comes to him, who believes in him.  So we do not have to fear being driven away from God or Jesus not helping us if we come to him.  He will comfort us, help us, heal us, Father us, and keep us.  This will continue on and we will not have to worry about the Resurrection, he will rise us up on the last day.  We have our hope in the Lord Jesus and in his resurrection.

Church History Tuesday: The Impact of Constantine

I do not really want to spend a lot of time talking about Constantine since the last few posts have dealt with him in some ways.  However, the importance of who Constantine is and what he did for the Church cannot be overlooked.  He did more than just end Christian persecution.  He also had a lot to do with defining Christian beliefs, not that he defined what Christians believed, but he did get bishops together to talk about what Christians believed.

Another aspect that changed for all Christians was the worship of the Church.  Before Constantine some churches had been built around the graves of martyrs or in out of the way places.  The worship service was simpler.  When Christians were allowed to express their faith they started to add things to their worship, such as incense, processionals, and choirs.  The bishops also started to dress up, wearing special garments for the service.  Some Christians might think of all these things as ruining the simplicity of the worship service before Constantine.  However, I would suggest that with the freedom to worship as they liked the Christians developed these things not to appease the Emperor but to express their own faith and devotion to God.  The bishops still had control in the church and even if they might want to express thanks and loyalty to the Emperor they did not have the change their services to do this.  Constantine might have seen himself as over the bishops in some respects but he did not feel this way when it came to the issue of theology.  Liturgy and worship experience is a huge expression of theology.  As we say in the Anglican Church, we are what we pray.

“Official Theology” was another development that started under Constantine.  This was really more of Constantine allowing Christians to develop Christian doctrines which they could all agree on.  So really Constantine made the Church catholic (universal).  Christians had the same desire to see all Christians united under the same beliefs.  For so long church leaders could only communicate through letters or visits with neighboring regions.  However, Constantine in order to better organize Christianity’s belief systems brought all bishops (or their representatives) together in one place to discuss what beliefs were crucial to the Christian faith.  We call this meeting the Council of Nicea, which met in 325.  The bishops came together to discuss jurisdiction and the bishop’s power, they discussed the dating of Easter, and several other smaller matters.  However, what was meant to be one small matter about the beliefs of a priest from Alexandria became a large focus of the meeting.  I will discuss Arius’ beliefs in a different post.  But for now we can say that they were heretical and so many were led astray by them, the Nicene Creed was written to combat this heresy.  The Nicene Creed as it is commonly known in most churches today is not the actual Nicene Creed.  What most churches recite today is the Nicene- Constantinopolitan Creed, which has its bas in the original Nicene Creed, but has some statements flushed out a bit more.

So the unity of the Church and a basic set of beliefs can be said to be the impact of Constantine on the Church.  He did not do a whole lot directly in the Church, but he allowed for drastic changes to be implemented by the bishops of the Church.

Church History Tuesday: The Great Persecution before the Peace Part 3

Last week, we learned about the edicts of Diocletian.  We also learned about the political chaos which racked the Roman Empire in the early 300s.  When we left off last week Galerius had just passed an edict ending the persecution of Christians.  However, five days after he passed the edict he died.

So after Galerius’ edict regarding the release of Christians, most prisons opened their doors and many tortured Christians poured out of them.  The Empire was now divided among Licinius, Maximinus Daia, Constantine, and Maxentius.  The first three recognized each other’s office, but they all saw Maxentius as a usurper.  Constantine, who had previously stayed out of much of the political maneuvering, decided to make a change.  He gathered his army in Gaul and marched on Rome, Maxentius’ capital.  Maxentius made the mistake of gathering his army outside the city walls and was defeated by Constantine.

It was before this battle at Rome that Constantine either had a vision or a dream, in which a voice from heaven spoke to him.  Wither it was a vision or a dream, does not really matter, Constantine obeyed and had all his soldiers place the symbol on their shields and standards.  The symbol was what looked like the Greek letters chi (χ) and rho (ρ), superimposed over each other, which are also the first two letters in the word Christ.  The voice told him “in this you shall conquer.”  Some point to this as the beginning of Constantine’s conversion, which was really a very long process.

With Maxentius defeated and dead, Constantine became the sole ruler of the western half of the Empire.  Soon after his victory at Rome, he met with Licinius at Milan and together they declared that the persecution of Christians should end.  Along with that all their churches, cemeteries, and other properties should be returned to them.  This is commonly known as the Edict of Milan (313 AD) and it is usually pointed to as the time Christian persecution ended.  However, Galerius’ edict was much more important and did a lot more for Christians.  Even after the Edict of Milan, Maximinus Daia’s persecution of Christians continued.  However, through several processes which I will discuss later Constantine became the sole emperor of the Empire and Christian persecution stopped entirely.

So this marks the beginning of the peace of the Christian Church.  The Church would face some local persecutions but it would not be an Empire sponsored or wide persecution.  This is a very big deal for a new religion, which asked for a lot of exceptions to the rules.  The Christians wanted to be given a lot of the same breaks the Jewish religion was given.  The Romans were alright with giving the Jews breaks because they were such an ancient religion and had firm traditions (they loved tradition).  However, when the Christians tried to ask for the same breaks, the Jews denied that they were part of their religion, while the Christians held to the stance that they came out of the Jewish religion.  So they were not given the same breaks, such as sacrificing to the Emperor, freedom of worship, and some tax breaks.

This post ends a major chapter in Christian History.  After this time, the Church is no longer persecuted and it will have an influx of members, because it is no longer an outlawed religion.  So some of their beliefs must be defined and polished for a larger audience.  This will start a great process of theological development in the Church.

Monastic Monday: Guest Post

Today, I have posted on a different blog about Stability.  Sarah Carey has posted on my blog before and I have returned the favor for her.  As you will remember Sarah is in South Korea for the year teaching English.  Sarah noticed in her own life and in many of her fellow Fulbright Scholars, most of them are not sure what they are going to do after their year.  I address this issue and stability at her blog.  You can find it here.

Saints Friday: St. Perpetua and Her Companions

St. Perpetua and Her Companions are some of the most well-known martyrs of the early Church.  Their feast day is next Thursday March 7th. Their story is touching and heroic.  The main character in the martyrdom is St. Perpetua; she was a young woman from a wealthy family, a recent widow, and a new mother.  Her companions were Felicitas (a slave), Revocatus (a slave), Saturninus, and Secundus.  Their story is important and remembered because of Perpetua’s visions leading up to her martyrdom.  She was given visions of her martyrdom including her fight with Satan in the arena and a vision of heaven.  Perpetua was also only a catechumen (not baptized) at the time of her arrest.

After sometime in prison, they were brought before the court for a hearing.  Perpetua’s father was there and pleaded with her to denounce Christ and come home.  She refused to give up her faith and left her future up to God.  After this meeting she was given a vision of her younger brother who died unbaptized at the age of seven.  She was that he was doing well and his disfigurement was reduced to a scar.  Before meeting with her father she was given a vision telling her she would be martyred.  Later she was also given another vision of her fighting with an Egyptian in the arena.  She interpreted this vision as meaning; she would not fight only with the wild beasts in the arena, but with Satan, but she would overcome him.  This was important for future generations of martyrs and Christians.

Felicitas was pregnant at the time of her imprisonment and was worried she might not be martyred because she was pregnant.  However, the day before the others were to be martyred she gave birth and was able to join them.  So this situation is extremely foreign to much of the Christian world today.  The idea that someone would be worried about not being martyred is so odd to our culture.  The virtue of martyrdom has been quite downplayed in our culture.  We might hear about martyrdom and persecution somewhere else, but we do not experience it in a real way.  Remembering the martyrdoms of the past and being informed about the martyrdoms happening right now might help us with this.  Also knowing how the ancient church viewed, discussed, and theologized martyrdom is important now, it reminds us what the cost of following Christ can really be.

I would suggest going back and reading my posts on Imitators of Christ, which I posted in May of 2012.  They will help you understand how the early Church viewed martyrdom and why it was and is so important.

Spiritual Formation Thursday: Lectio Divina

Used with permission, by Eugenio Hansen, OFS

Today I would like to talk about the ancient prayer practice of the Church, Lectio Divina (Divine Reading).  The Church has used this prayer practice since the early Church.  Origen of Alexandria is believed to have been the first to make this practice popular.  St. Ambrose of Milan also practiced it and taught it to St. Augustine of Hippo.  The Desert Fathers also used the practice and it has been used by monks and nuns since then.  St. Benedict made it a common practice in his monasteries.  It is a form of meditative/contemplative prayer.  But it is a little more focused or guided than just contemplative prayer.  I have found this practice extremely helpful and very productive.

There are four common steps to Lectio Divina, I usually like to add a primer step, just to get myself to the place where I can pray and listen to the Lord.  I think the primer step is just as important as the other steps.

Primer: Take a minute or two to just prepare your heart for some time with the Lord, clear your mind of all the things that you need to do in the day or have done. Sit in a relaxing place. Maybe write down your worries or things you need to do as a way of getting them off your mind before focusing on the Lord.

First: Lectio (Read). Read a passage until you come upon a word that jumps out at you. This might be a word or phrase that God has put on your heart or just some word that sticks out that God is trying to educate you about.

Second: Meditatio (Mediate).  Mediate on the word or phrase. In this step no thoughts or material is off limits, think about the word or phrase, look it up in a dictionary, look up the verse it is in in a commentary, think about it. Chew on the word; think about all its aspects, meanings, what it stirs up in you. Chew on the word like a cow chews its cud, get all the important information from it that you can or feel is necessary; but just sit with it thinking on it and studying it.

Third: Oratio (Prayer). Pray about the word; ask the Lord what he is trying to tell you with this word. Does this remind you of someone you need to pray for or a situation you need to pray about? Ask God where this word is touching your life today. Ask God if there is anything that he wants you to change or do in response to the word. Ask God if he is inviting you to change in any way in response to the word. No prayer is off limits in this time, let the Spirit led you to pray about whatever comes into your mind and heart.

Fourth: Contemplatio (Contemplation). This is a time to try and clear your mind and just sit with the Lord. Clear away your words and just sit in the presence of the Lord. Let him love you and minister to you and possibly speak to you. This is a time where he might answer your questions you asked in prayer or he might just minister to you in silence with his presence. This is a time to rest and relax, in some cases to escape from the day or prepare for the day.

So I hope you enjoy this practice, let me know in comments if you use it and if you think it was a good practice.