Copyright © 2018 John Allen Dearing III All Rights Reserved. the Southern
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Copyright © 2018 John Allen Dearing III All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation or instruction. WILL NOT RETURN VOID: THE USE OF SCRIPTURE IN EVANGELISTIC WRITINGS IN THE GREEK PATRISTIC TRADITION __________________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary __________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________________ by John Allen Dearing III December 2018 APPROVAL SHEET WILL NOT RETURN VOID: THE USE OF SCRIPTURE IN EVANGELISTIC WRITINGS IN THE GREEK PATRISTIC TRADITION John Allen Dearing III Read and Approved by: __________________________________________ Timothy K. Beougher (Chair) __________________________________________ Adam W. Greenway __________________________________________ Michael A. G. Haykin Date ______________________________ To my loving, supportive wife, Andrea, and our children Jack, Charis, and Lizzy. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE . vi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION . 1 Development of Evangelistic Writing in the Ancient Church . 6 Statement of the Problem . 9 Definitions . 12 Research Methodology . 15 2. THE USE OF SCRIPTURE IN THE EVANGELISTIC WRITINGS OF JUSTIN MARTYR . 19 Biography . 20 Justin’s Theology of Scripture . 25 Examination of Justin’s Use of Scripture in Evangelism . 38 Conclusion . 42 3. THE USE OF SCRIPTURE IN THE EVANGELISTIC WRITINGS OF ORIGEN . 43 Alexandrian Thought in the Time of Origen . 44 Biography . 45 Origen’s Theology of Scripture . 51 Origen’s Use of Scripture in Against Celsus . 64 Conclusion . 70 4. THE USE OF SCRIPTURE IN THE EVANGELISTIC WRITINGS OF ATHANASIUS . 71 Alexandrian Thought in the Time of Athanasius . 72 iv Chapter Page Biography . 74 Athanasius’s Theology of Scripture . 78 Athanasius’s Use of Scripture in His Apologetic Writings . 88 Conclusion . 94 5. THE USE OF SCRIPTURE IN THE EVANGELISTIC WRITINGS OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM . 96 Biography . 98 John Chrysostom’s Theology of Scripture . 102 John Chrysostom’s Use of Scripture in His Apologetic Writings . 122 Conclusion . 131 6. THE USE OF SCRIPTURE IN THE EVANGELISTIC WRITINGS OF JOHN OF DAMASCUS . 132 Biography . 135 John of Damascus’s Theology of Scripture . 139 John of Damascus’s Use of Scripture in His Apologetic Writings . 146 Conclusion . 151 7. CONCLUSION . 152 Status of Contemporary Evangelical Evangelism . 152 Greek Patristic Evangelism in the Midst of Trials . 160 The Greek Patristic Fathers’ Approach to Modern Evangelism . 163 Areas of Future Research and Study . 163 Conclusion . 164 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 166 v PREFACE Without the support and encouragement of many around me, this dissertation would not have been possible. I would particularly thank my supervisor, Dr. Timothy K. Beougher, who was the first to encourage me to pursue a Ph.D., and who has been a constant source of encouragement throughout the process. I also thank my committee members, Dr. Adam Greenway and Dr. Michael Haykin, who have both been instrumental in this process. I express my gratitude to the people of Aurora Springs Baptist Church and Excelsior Springs Baptist Church, who have kindly extended to me a great deal of time and encouragement as I have pursued this degree. I thank Wes and Katy Tappemeyer, who have generously provided me with a place to stay in Louisville while pursuing this degree. I express special appreciation to my wife and our children, who have encouraged me through this process. Without their help, this dissertation would have been impossible. John Dearing Excelsior Springs, Missouri December 2018 vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION When one considers the early Christian church, one is immediately struck by the exponential growth that the church experienced. When recounting the events surrounding the resurrection of Christ, Paul writes, He [Christ] appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. (1 Cor 15:5-8) From this passage, one is given a starting number of at least five hundred Christians at the time of Christ’s resurrection. From this point, the church of Jesus Christ grew rapidly. According to Acts 2, three thousand more converts were added to the church soon after the ascension of Christ. These converts “from every nation under heaven” were likely instrumental in the spread of Christianity to every corner of the Roman Empire, which saw the establishment of at least forty five Christian churches in the empire by AD 100.1 Due to a lack of Roman census data giving a record providing the religious inclinations of its citizenry, it is difficult to determine exactly how many people converted to Christianity in the patristic period, though some suggest that the church’s pace of growth increased throughout the period.2 Rodney Stark holds to Erwin Goodenough’s3 suggestion that at the time of the Edict of Milan in AD 313, there were over six million Christians in 1 F. Van der Meer and Christine Mohrmann, Atlas of the Early Christian World (London: Nelson, 1959), 2. 2 Robert L. Wilken, The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 65-66. 3 Erwin R. Goodenough, The Church in the Roman Empire (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1931), 87. 1 the Roman Empire, constituting 10 percent of the general population and suggesting that the early church grew at the incredible rate of 40 percent per decade.4 Perhaps the greatest estimation of the number of Christians in the Roman Empire by the fourth century is L. von Hertling’s figure of fifteen million,5 though this figure is considered high by most historians.6 The inevitable question one must ask when considering the early church’s rapid rate of growth is, “How did it happen?” Traditionally, church historians have attributed the rapid rise of Christianity to the outworking of the Holy Spirit, as manifested through the mass conversions of various people groups. This position was first voiced by Eusebius of Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical History and has continued to be advocated by scholars such as Ramsay MacMullen in his Christianizing the Roman Empire.7 Modern historians frequently look to other possible causes for the rapid spread of Christianity. Some, such as W. H. C. Frend, attribute the spread of Christianity to the existence of the widespread Hellenistic Jewish Diaspora, which preceded the spread of Christianity.8 Others argue that Christianity spread because of its ideological superiority. N. T. Wright asks, “Why 4 Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 7. Stark comes to this number through statistical inference as opposed to an existing historical record. He dismisses the number of Christians recorded in the biblical record and instead supposes that there were one thousand Christians in the year AD 40. Stark gives no reasoning for this number, but it gives him a starting point to begin his calculations. As noted, he then cites Goodenough’s figure of six million Christians as his ending point. From this, he calculates that the early church grew at a rate of 40 percent. Stark notes that this figure is plausible to him due to the fact that many “new religions,” such as Mormonism, tend to have a similar rate of growth early in their history. 5 L. von Hertling, “Die Zahl der Christen zu Beginn des vierten Jahrhunderts,” Zeitschrift fur Katholische Theologie 58 (1934): 245-64. 6 Michael Grant, The History of Rome (New York: Faber and Faber, 1978), 241. 7 See Eusebius, The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus, Bishop of Cesarea, in Palestine, book 2, chap. 3, trans. Christian Frederic Cruse (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991), 37; and Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire: A.D. 100-400 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984), 29. 8 W. H. C. Frend, The Rise of Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 89. 2 then did early Christianity spread? Because early Christians believed that what they had found to be true was true for the whole world. The impetus to mission sprang from the very heart of early Christian conviction.”9 Rodney Stark, a sociologist by trade and training, has become an influential voice in understanding the early church due in large part to his methodology of “contribut[ing] to studies of the early church [through] better social science—better theories and more formal methods of analysis.”10 Drawing from this methodology, Stark contends that a number of sociological factors contributed to the rise of Christianity.11 The first major sociological factor Stark considers in the establishment of the church is the class basis of early Christianity.12 Citing Engels, Deissman, Troeltsch, and Goodenough, Stark notes that many historians have focused upon Christianity’s acceptance among the lower classes of Roman society. Drawing from new research from scholars such as E. A. Judge, Stark argues that Christianity’s acceptance by the middle and upper classes of Roman society cemented its position as a legitimate religion as these converts provided the financial, intellectual, and social standing needed to merge into the mainstream of Roman society. A second sociological factor that Stark examines is the Apostolic Church’s mission to the Jews.13 Stark argues that the mission was a short-term failure, leading the church to adopt a wider horizon and begin establishing churches among Gentile populations and allowing Christianity to be viewed as a distinct religion by the Romans. 9 N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), 360.