THEOLOGY

The First 500 Years The Fathers, Councils, and Doctrines of the Early Church

David Meconi, S.J.

LECTURE GUIDE

Learn More www.CatholicCourses.com TABLE OF CONTENTS

Lecture Summaries

LECTURE 1 The Purpose and Persons of Patristic Thought 4

LECTURE 2 The Church under Persecution 8

Feature: Christian Building Blocks: The Nature of the Church 12

LECTURE 3 Constantine, Conversion, and Councils 14

LECTURE 4 The and the Holy Spirit 18

Feature: Christian Building Blocks: The Books Belonging to Canonical Scriptures 22

LECTURE 5 : Mary as the Mother of 24

LECTURE 6 Augustine and the Beauty of Confession 28

Feature: Christian Building Blocks: Formulating the Creeds of the Faith 32

LECTURE 7 Leo the Great and Humanity’s Newness in Christ 34

LECTURE 8 Monks, Missions, and the Rise of Christendom 38

Suggested Reading from Meconi, S.J. 42

2 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. THEOLOGY The First 500 Years David Meconi, S.J. The Fathers, Councils, and Doctrines of the Early Church

Fr. David Meconi, S.J., D.Phil. Oxon. Saint Louis University, Missouri

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Father David Meconi, S.J., entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1992. He credits the Jesuits at Marquette University for introducing him to the beauty of the Church Fathers and to the power of St. Augustine in particular. Father Meconi holds his Doctorate in Philosophy from Oxford University, England and a Pontifical Licentiate in Greek and Latin Patristic Theology from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He currently teaches as Assistant Professor of Patristic Studies and serves as the Undergraduate Director of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. Father Meconi is the author of: • Catherine Doherty: Essential Writings (Orbis Press, 2009) • Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward: Spiritual Writings (Orbis Press, 2010) • The One Christ: St. Augustine’s Theology of Deification (Catholic University of America Press, 2013) • The Restless Heart: The Life and Thought of Saint Augustine (Ignatius Press, forthcoming) His articles have been published in Lay Witness, National Review, Distributist Review, and National Catholic Register. Father Meconi is also the editor of Homiletic and Pastoral Review and co-editor of Cambridge University’s Companion to Augustine. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Augustinian Studies, International Philosophical Quarterly, New Oxford Review, and other scholastic journals.

Learn More 3 The First 500 Years David Meconi, S.J. Lecture 1

The Purpose and Persons of Patristic Thought

The beginnings of Christ’s Church involved the development of Sacred Scripture, the ways we began to worship, the attacks Christians had to endure, the way they prayed, and how they came to think about God, humanity, and the world. Understanding our beginnings not only helps us deepen our knowledge of the faith, but also assists us in our own search for holiness. Patristic theology gives us insights into the beginnings of the most intellectually rich religion in the ancient world and of all time; it brings The Fathers were the im- us into the only creed that professes that right mediate inheritors of the here in this time and place God himself became teachings of Christ through human, became one of us, and in so doing trans- the Apostles; we study formed the entire human condition. Also, study them because they laid of the Church Fathers is particularly important down the very foundation to a Christian’s growth in holiness because it is of the Church. here that the Lord Christ communicated his revelation to the world for all time. Why did theology develop the way it did? What shaped the way the seed of the Church sprouted? When the earliest band of Christians gathered in the upper room of an otherwise unknown home in Jerusalem after their Messiah was seen ascending into heaven, they received the indwelling of his Holy Spirit within them. Much of the ensuing dialogue between the Apostles, their successors, and the people to whom they ministered was common and ordinary, but another dimension of this conversation inevitably

4 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. became technical and doctrinal, pre- cise and weighty. We study patristic theology, therefore, because—as C. S. Lewis once quipped—we cannot intelligently join a discussion at eleven o’clock that began at eight o’clock! The Christian story is the very essence of such an organic conversation, a conversation St. Augustine calls “ever ancient—yet ever new.” This story developed the way it did due to two major reasons: one inter- nal and the other external. Internally, the truths of Christianity demand The Vine and Its Branches sustained reflection and precision. In becoming human, God invites us to “Beloved, although I was making every apply our minds and hearts to under- effort to write to you about our common salva- standing in Christ, not only to who he tion, I now feel a need to write to encourage is, but also who we have the potential you to contend for the faith that was once for to be. Christ could have been a bit all handed down to the holy ones” (Jude 1:3). more straightforward if he simply Catholicism is like a seed God himself wanted to inform us of who he was. planted deep within the human condition that He could have stood before all is slowly growing and developing in time and those in Galilee and proclaimed defin- throughout every vineyard of this globe—but itively: “I am the Second Person of the it is essentially still that same seed, now more Trinity, the eternally begotten Word widely grown, more fully blossomed, bearing in whom all things have been made each day more and more fruit. who for your salvation descended into the virginal womb of Mary hypostati- cally uniting my divine personhood to humanity so as to communicate my divine life to all human persons,” but he didn’t.

Learn More 5 No, he gives us glimpses into who he is and into his relationship with his Father and the Spirit. He knew ancient Jewish Monotheism, and so the new Christian understanding of the Trinity had to come together slowly. He there- fore grants us brief insights into his sacred humanity and into his incarnate divinity. That is what the history of theology really is: the ongoing answer to Christ’s question to Peter and thus to his whole Church—“Who do you say that I am?”

6 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. The Purpose and Persons of Patristic Thought Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think Jesus chose to commission fallible humans to trans- mit his message across the world? Wouldn’t it have been better if he had just remained on earth and done it himself? 2. Do you think St. ’s calls for fidelity to the bishop re- mains valid today? What dangers faced the early Christian community and why was this obedience to the bishop so important? In what way is the situation in our own times the same or different? 3. What do you think it meant to be a Christian in the first few centu- ries? What was at stake? Why would someone risk becoming Chris- tian? Would you risk it?

Notes:

Learn More 7 The First 500 Years David Meconi, S.J. Lecture 2

The Church under Persecution

Early in Church history, Christian thinking is a very Greek undertaking. Rather rapidly, however, the Church begins to convert the Roman impe- rial classes, moving in and taking by grace the empire’s major cities, including the eternal city, Rome. In her growth, the Church inevitably met fierce opposition. The apparent weakness of Christ was something that the Romans simply could not fathom. How could a God deign to rely on a woman for his existence in this world; how could the Almighty dwell within a womb; and, above all, The earliest period of how could God die such a disgraceful death before Church history was shaped such a peasant crowd? St. Paul was right: the Cross by persecution, which will always be a scandal and a folly. led at least one Father to Yet we should point out that Christians were comment, “The blood of not mocked for worshipping God, but rather for Christ’s martyrs is the seed refusing to worship the pagan Roman and of the Church.” goddesses. The Romans certainly could have made room for the Christian God in their pan- theon, if the first Christians would have allowed them, but our Christian ancestors were rightly very, very, stubborn! Christ alone is God, and only he can be worshipped—this claim of Christ’s exclusivity is what cost Christians their lives. Traditionally, it is St. Stephen who is known as the first martyr. In the early Church, this pouring of one’s own lifeblood was seen as a form of bap- tism. But as dramatic as the early stories of Chris- tian persecution are, after a while it was no longer enough to be considered a Christian; the Romans

8 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. had to trump up the charges, and so they devised the most heinous crimes they could think of: incest and canni- balism. We were accused of Thyestean banquets because we believe that we in fact consume the Body and Blood of our Lord, as Christ so instructed us; we were accused of incest because we do best to only marry our own brothers and sisters in Christ. And so we did, and so we continue to do! One of the first respondents to these Roman accusations was a The Eternal Logos philosopher turned Christian by the name of Justin, known to us today as We have been taught that Christ is the Justin Martyr. Justin caught onto the first-born of God, and we have declared above Gospel message of John’s stressing that He is the Word—the logos—of whom Christ as the eternal logos, the reason every race of men were partakers; and those of all existence, and thus used that who live in accord with logos are Christians, image to appeal to his detractors’ love even though they have been thought of wisdom. atheists; as, among the Greeks, Socrates and Following Justin come nine other Heraclitus, and men like them; and among brilliant apologists of the second cen- the barbarians, like . . . . So too, those tury whose works are fairly straight- who lived before Christ, and lived without forward. These apologists attempted reason, were wicked and hostile to Christ, and to get their ideas into the mind of the persecuted those who lived reasonably. Roman emperor, thus appealing to his supposed love of wisdom and power (Justin Martyr, 1 Apology 47) in order to put an end to the persecu- tions. One prominent figure of the second century is of Lyon. Irenaeus encountered what we today call “Gnosticism.” He comprised a

Learn More 9 very lengthy work called “Against This body of literature centered Heresies” in which he not only around three main subjects: the recalled the Gnostic leaders and proper understanding of the Bible systems of the late first and second as formed by sacred tradition; the centuries but also provided the bishop as symbolic of authentic Christian antidote to these wild Christian unity; and finally, the systems of thought. manner of Christian worship and At this time, another and more prayer. In other words, we under- serious threat arose; the tide was stand early Christianity by asking changing as entire philosophical three questions: What books schools were now targeting Chris- belong in the Bible, and how are tianity. As the pagan attacks against they to be understood? To whom the Church became more system- must I be obedient as one who rep- atic and sophisticated, however, resents for me Christ himself? And so also did Christian thinkers. For finally, how am I to conduct myself onto this volatile stage strode one as a worshipping and prayerful fol- of the Church’s greatest minds, Ori- lower of Christ? gen. Origen was the first Christian In answering these questions, to attempt a systematic presenta- the early Christian community tion of the faith. His greatest work, came to develop what Irenaeus first On First Principles, attempts to called the “rule of faith,” a kind of provide a coherent account of the living measuring rod by which the nature of God, creation and the fall Church determined what books of humankind, salvation in Christ, belonged in the Bible. The “rule of and the end times—while at the faith” also included valid liturgi- same time faithful to the two great cal expressions and the wisdom of pillars of truth: Sacred Scripture trustworthy theologians, martyrs and Sacred Tradition, the only and who set an inspirational sources for expositing true Chris- example of Christian life. Under tian doctrine. the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Forced by persecution to the bishops, through prayer, study always refine her thinking and and local Church councils, came to expression of truth, the Church build up this “rule of faith” in a way gradually produced a large body that formed and solidified the living of literature aimed at explaining tradition of the Christian witness. Christian truth and disproving pagan claims against Christians.

10 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. The Church under Persecution Discussion Questions

1. While Marcion’s plan to separate the Old Testament from the New was condemned as heresy, his ideas still survive to this day—many will admit to picturing the God of the Old Testament as a wrathful God, and the God of Jesus in the New Testament as an all-loving God. How should we reconcile these clashing caricatures? 2. With the Apologists, we see the first attempts at a broad-sweeping rational defense of the Christian faith. Why is it important to demonstrate Christianity’s rationality? Is this only important to do in the face of persecution? Or is it a perennially important task?

Notes:

Learn More 11 Christian Building Blocks: The Nature of the Church

The Church’s identity is perhaps the first question addressed by the earliest Christians. Matters such as how communities should gather, who should have communal author- ity, and how the sacraments were to be rightly performed were the concerns of Jesus’ first followers. The most important factor in this devel- opment was the idea of one bishop ruling over one flock, one episcopus who could trace his ordination back to the Apostles themselves and who was charged with preserving the one, true faith and thereby exhorting his flock to holiness. Here are three excerpts from early writings addressing exactly how a theology of the Church was being developed.

Ignatius of Antioch (d. 107), Letter to the Ephesians 4–6:

Wherefore it is fitting that you should run together in accordance with the will of your bishop, which thing also you do. For your justly renowned presbytery, worthy of God, is fitted as exactly to the bishop as the strings are to the harp. Therefore in your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung. It is profitable, therefore, that you should live in an unblameable unity, that thus you may always enjoy communion with God. I reckon you happy who are so joined to him as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is to the Father, that so all things may agree in unity! Let no man deceive himself: if any one be not within the altar, he is deprived of the bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two possesses such power (cf. Matthew 18:19), how much more that of the bishop and the whole Church! He, therefore, that does not assemble with the Church, has even by this manifested his pride, and condemned himself. For it is written, God

12 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. resists the proud. Let us be careful, then, not to set ourselves in opposition to the bishop, in order that we may be subject to God. We ought to receive every one whom the Master of the house sends to be over his household (Matthew 24:25), as we would do him that sent him. It is manifest, therefore, that we should look upon the bishop even as we would upon the Lord himself.

Irenaeus of Lyons (d. c. 200), Against Heresies III.3.2:

Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; [we do this, I say,] by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inas- much as the tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere.

Cyprian of Carthage (d. 258), The Unity of the Church §6:

The spouse of Christ cannot be defiled, she is inviolate and chaste; she knows one home alone . . . and whoever breaks from this Church and enters on an adulterous union, cuts himself off from the promises made to the Church; and he who has turned his back on the Church of Christ shall not come to the rewards of Christ; he is an alien, a worldling, an enemy. You can- not have God for your Father if you have not the Church for your Mother.

Learn More 13 The First 500 Years David Meconi, S.J. Lecture 3

Constantine, Conversion, and Councils

For more than two-hundred and fifty years after its birth, Christianity was an impermissible religion, held in suspicion by those in power. For the most part the Christians were tolerated, but on occasion they offered the Roman Empire an excuse to flex its muscles and try to prove to itself that the old ways were not passing. Towards the beginning of the fourth century, there were a few final attacks against the Christians, but by the year A.D. 300, the Empire was well above ten percent Christian. Just as important, more and more converts were coming The Church survived ex- from the aristocratic echelons of high Roman ternal persecutions, only to society. The more learned, the more well-connected, face the internal threats of and the more wealthy Romans are coming to Christ! Novatian’s rigorism, which The Church not only promised eternal life deprived sinners of absolu- in Christ, but also asked men and women to be tion, and Arianism’s denial faithful to one another; protected women against of Christ’s divinity. the patriarchy of Rome; made room for the poor and most vulnerable in honoring the divine image within them; and gave people an opportunity to have a personal friendship with the divine and not just a contractual connection with a distant, favor- granting power. Given the number of conversions away from the state religion, some setbacks within the Roman government, wars, and a few bad years of food shortages, in the year A.D. 249, shortly after his election, the Emperor Decius ordered all within the empire to offer prayers and sacrifices for divine blessings upon Rome. With this edict came the

14 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. first ever empire-wide persecution of the Church, and the ordering of all Christian adults to sacrifice to the gods and goddesses of Rome. The year A.D. 250 was significant: was martyred in Rome; the theologian Origen died because of the cruel torture he endured during this persecution; and the Roman priest Novatian began a separate church, setting himself up as an antipope. After the true pope, Fabian, was martyred, the Roman clergy elected Cornelius to The Divine Dilemma the Chair of Peter. Novatian, however, an influential Roman presbyter, wanted One of St. Athanasius’s greatest insights answers a more strict and authoritarian leader the question: Why did the Son of God have to and broke off from the Church, thus come to earth to die? beginning the “Novatian schism.” Novatian began a heretical When God the Father created, he made two tendency within the early church seemingly contradictory promises: which we today call “rigorism”, or the 1. “You are made in my image will be like “church of the pure”, because he strictly me—you will live forever, joyful, incorrupt- maintained that any Christian who ible and immortal.” succumbed during persecution and 2. “If you sin and turn away from me, death sacrificed to pagan gods should not be will enter my good creation.” allowed back into the Church. Even the great bishop and saint of this time, When mankind did sin and death entered the of Carthage, had to be purified world, how could God still keep his first prom- of some rigorism. ise? Athanasius says we can imagine the Son, Despite his tendency to be overly saying: “Father, let me go, that way you can keep harsh with sinners, Cyprian wrote both promises: they can live forever and death brilliantly on the need for Church unity will enter the world, but it won’t be their death, and what to do with sinners who lapsed. it will be mine.”

Learn More 15 Another North African theologian, unity of the Trinity, Constantine Tertullian, described the Church as called the first major church council, domina mater ecclesia—our matron what we call the first “ecumenical and mother Church and Origen of council,” in the year 325 at Nicaea, Alexandria highlighted her as the Turkey. As any believing Christian sponsa Christi—the bride of Christ. knows today, we profess what the Christianity offered the pagan world Fathers of Nicaea declared to be a a place for not only their intellects but more accurate and precise way of also their affections, because fostering understanding the Son of God: “God a personal relationship with Christ from God, Light from Light, true opens one’s heart to the whole world. God from true God…consubstantial Rome was not going to change with the Father.” easily, however. While Christians Despite the work of the Council sought peace, Rome reared up of Nicea, Arius’s theology was the one last time in what we call “The fourth-century hot-button issue, and Great Persecution” incited by the it divided the empire. Constantine’s Emperor Diocletian around the successors tended to move back year 300. But after Constantine and forth between Arianism rose to power, giving credit for and Catholicism. In fact, only 34 his ascension to the God of the years after the Council of Nicea, Christians, he almost immediately St. wrote that, “the whole set out to let the Christians worship world has groaned and marveled to without fear. A new chapter in find itself Arian.” However, God’s Church history had begun. Church prevailed against even the Soon after Constantine legalized Arian heresy, in large part thanks Christianity with the Edict of to the efforts of great saints like Milan in 313, a priest named Arius Athanasius. He was a North African began causing doctrinal trouble bishop with a truly Catholic mind, in the Church. Arius’s theological whose close reading of Scripture instincts were good: he set out and whose courage against so much initially to preserve the unity and doctrinal opposition translated into the transcendence of the Godhead. teachings that guide us still. Above However, he failed tragically by all, it was surely Athanasius’s love claiming that the Father and Son of Christ that sustained him and so differ in nature, instead of only in many other foundational teachers of relationship. To address Arius’s the 4th century. popular belief which divided the

16 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. Constantine, Conversion, and Councils Discussion Questions

1. The Edict of Milan granted legal status to Christianity, allowing Chris- tians to own property and to practice their religion freely without fear of persecution. How do you think this changed the dynamic of a religion that had been, up to that point, an illegal society operating under the fear of persecution? 2. We discussed today several different theological conceptions of the person of Christ. Why does it all matter so much? Why is Arius wrong? What is at stake here? 3. As was noted in the lecture, Arius felt his position was supported by Scripture—and even was able to provide passages that seemed to sup- port his view of the person of Christ. How do we know that Arius’s interpretations of Scripture are wrong and that Athanasius’s are correct, for example? What is the relationship between Tradition, Authority, and Scripture? 4. How did the Edict of Milan change the relationship between Church and State? What did it mean for Christianity suddenly to have a Chris- tian as emperor? Notes:

Learn More 17 The First 500 Years David Meconi, S.J. Lecture 4

The Cappadocian Fathers and the Holy Spirit

The mystery of Christ’s incarnation demands that he is both God and human, both fully divine and fully a man—like us in all things but our sinfulness. This mystery was debated again at the end of the fourth century, but this time with regard to the Holy Spirit. In the fourth century, Church Fathers known collectively as the “Cappa- docians”—, his brother , and —mark the definitive conclusion to so much of the theological wrangling of the second and third centuries. Sts. Basil of Caesarea, As fellow scholars in Athens and good Gregory of Nyssa, and friends, Basil and Gregory from Nazianzus used Gregory of Nazianzus Greek philosophy and rhetoric to elucidate preserved the mystery of Christian truths. Interested in monastic life, Basil relationship and union in began a small monastic community and drew up the Trinity at the Council his own rule, which is still used today in many of Constantinople. religious houses. Later, he was made a priest and then a bishop of all of Cappadocia. Basil composed many important works: On the Holy Spirit; his Hexameron or commentary on the days of creation; and his essential Against Eunomius, wherein he combats the last vestiges of the Arian tendency to subordinate the Son to the Father. Also, Basil opened up some of the first Christian hospitals and used his role as bishop to care for the outcast and weak of society. Basil’s younger brother, Gregory, did not fol- low his brother to Athens for school but stayed closer to home, studying only in Cappadocia.

18 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. Regardless, of the three Cappado- cian fathers, Gregory of Nyssa is the most mystical and sophisticated. Gregory proved a pivotal presence at the Council of Constantinople in 381 and produced a massive number of writings: a very early treatise On Virginity; his beautiful commentary on creation, On the Making of Man; his Great Catechism; a life of his sister Macrina; and The Life of , an extended allegory of how the soul’s The Power of the Holy Spirit ascent upward to God is foreshad- owed in the events of Moses’s life. “By the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, Overall, Gregory emerges as the most led back to the Kingdom of heaven, and learned Father in Greek philosophy adopted as children, given confidence to call and the most eloquent in explaining God ‘Father’ and to share in Christ’s grace, Christian truths. called children of light and given a share in The second Gregory of Nazianzus eternal glory.” had the heart of a poet and of a con- templative satisfied with his prayers (Basil, On the Holy Spirit 15.36; CCC 736) and the simplicity of the monastic life. He produced some of the most beau- tiful Christian poems we have, as well as theological orations that solidify so much later thinking on the nature of God and important treatises to help future generations think rightly about the dual natures of Jesus Christ. If any single thought captures the essence of these three theolo- gians’ doctrine, it would be in how each made the most of the interplay

Learn More 19 between the essential unity of God in who they are: their relationships and the dynamic love of the three define them wholly. The writings divine persons of God. Basil and of Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and the two Gregories applied the con- Gregory Nyssen show the impor- cept of sharing one nature with the tance of God as a relationship of Holy Spirit as the divine and eternal persons who are so entirely loving bond between the Father and the that they long to give themselves to Son. Speculation and controversy the other. over the Trinity came to a close Basil emphasized the role of by the next ecumenical council, the Holy Spirit as the one person Constantinople I in 381, led by the of the Trinity who unites us back Cappadocians, which has since to God the Son, and in doing so been labeled “The Cappadocian makes each of us into a son or Settlement.” daughter of the same Father. The The Cappadocian fathers settled Cappadocians were also very the official definition of the Trin- insistent that God became human ity as “one nature, three persons,” so humans could become like stressing the simultaneous “unity” God. Gregory Nazianzen wrote of God with God’s “alterity” or the the strongest lines exhorting us to perfect interaction of the three become other Christs for the salva- divine persons. Opponents to tion of the world. He also taught this belief were modalists—who that the Christian has the vocation maintained that any distinction in to become like God in the same God was wholly transitory, so in the measure that God became a man. beginning God revealed himself as Consistent throughout all of these a Father and then with the incar- theories is that the entire work God nation as a Son but now only as achieved in the incarnation of the Spirit—and tritheists, who believed Son, Jesus Christ, came to be only in three different Gods. because one creature, one woman, So, in stressing “one nature, freely said “yes” to the Father three persons,” the Cappadocians and offered herself to the Spirit’s uncovered an amazing truth: each overshadowing. Mary is the humble person of the Trinity is one hun- bridge between heaven and earth, dred percent reliant upon another; the one who says “yes” to God. yet, as distinct persons, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit differ not in what they are but only

20 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. The Cappadocian Fathers and the Holy Spirit Discussion Questions

1. As was noted in the lecture, St. Basil encouraged people to make use of the truth they found in non-Christian sources in order to aid the mission of Christianity. Later, in the Middle Ages, Hugh of St. Victor would agree with this sentiment, arguing that Christians should, as far as they are able, omnia disce—learn everything. Basil and Hugh shared the idea that all truths point, in some way, to the Truth—Jesus Christ. Do you think this is right? How can learning disciplines other than theology inform us about God and allow us to preach the Truth to the nations in a more effective way? 2. The Cappadocians stressed above all else the relational nature of the Godhead. What is the role of community in the Christian life and how does this relate to the loving relationship between the persons of the Trinity? 3. The language of deification can be jolting at first—surely we aren’t supposed to become literally gods, right? In what respects are we called to be divinized? In what respects does God remain truly other than us, even in the life to come? Notes:

Learn More 21 Christian Building Blocks: The Books Belonging to Canonical Scriptures

Canon is the Greek word for “mea- suring stick” and it usually refers to the “canon of scripture,” i.e., what books belong in the Bible as divinely inspired and which are to be set aside as non- canonical, as helpful for teaching truth and refuting error. Yet the develop- ing “canon” in the early Church always referred to the interplay between Sacred Writ and Sacred Tradition—how to understand the Scriptures in light of the Church’s teaching and practices. Accordingly, canon is that “rule of faith” by which Christian readings of Scripture were deemed true or not, as well as whether liturgical practices were judged valid or not. As the Christian community grew and developed, such universal criteria with which to judge orthodox from heretical became more and more necessary. The early Christians had to make sense of Scripture in light of Tradition, not the other way around. It is even written in 1 Timothy 3:15 that the Church, not Scripture, is the “pillar and foundation of truth.” Regarding the more particular “canon of scripture”—which books belong in the Bible—St. Irenaeus provides an early, albeit not totally correct, list at the turn of the third century. It is not until the fourth and fifth centuries, however, that we begin to have more accurate listings of which books belong to the Sacred Scriptures and which must be dismissed as apocryphal.

One of the oldest and most accurate lists we have comes in St. Athanasius’s Festal Letter 39 written in A.D. 367. In that letter, the great Bishop of Alexandria offers the first complete list of the New Testament books that are now consid- ered canonical. He also lists the majority of the books from the Catholic Old Testament, only omitting a few deuterocanonical books.

22 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. But it is really with St. and his On Christian Doctrine II.8.12 written circa A.D. 396, that we are offered some principles for evaluating which books are to be considered inspired and thus canonical:

But let us now go back to consider the third step here mentioned, for it is about it that I have set myself to speak and reason as the Lord shall grant me wisdom. The most skillful interpreter of the sacred writings, then, will be he who in the first place has read them all and retained them in his knowledge, if not yet with full understanding, still with such knowledge as reading gives—those of them, at least, that are called canonical. For he will read the others with greater safety when built up in the belief of the truth, so that they will not take first possession of a weak mind, nor, cheating it with dangerous falsehoods and delusions, fill it with prejudices adverse to a sound understanding. Now, in regard to the canonical Scriptures, he must follow the judg- ment of the greater number of Catholic churches; and among these, of course, a high place must be given to such as have been thought worthy to be the seat of an apostle and to receive epistles. Accordingly, among the canonical Scriptures he will judge according to the fol- lowing standard: to prefer those that are received by all the Catholic churches to those which some do not receive. Among those, again, which are not received by all, he will prefer such as have the sanction of the greater number and those of greater authority, to such as are held by the smaller number and those of less authority. If, however, he shall find that some books are held by the greater number of churches, and others by the churches of greater authority (though this is not a very likely thing to happen), I think that in such a case the authority on the two sides is to be looked upon as equal.

Learn More 23 The First 500 Years David Meconi, S.J. Lecture 5

Theotokos: Mary as the Mother of God

The ecumenical Council of Ephesus took place in the year 431 to answer questions about the relatedness of Christ’s two natures. The union of Christ’s natures became a “hot button” issue because the very influential Bishop of Constantinople, Nestorius, denied the unity of natures in Christ by proposing a “two-subject Christology” wherein the divine subject was conjoined to the human subject. This understanding kept him from calling Mary the Mother of God, which Christians At the Council of Ephesus, had been doing for centuries. He rejected the the Church emphatically term Theotokos, which means “God bearer,” an and definitively declared ancient title attributed to Mary as “Mother of that Mary is truly the God.” Even more seriously, Nestorius’s logic Mother of God; she is the forced him to claim that it was only the human Mother and Model to all Christ who suffered and died for us, not the Christians. Word himself. In response, the Bishop of Alexandria, Cyril, spent much of his later years writing about and clarifying doctrine on this division of Christ’s natures. Cyril claimed that, if we do in fact worship a man, regardless how united to divinity he may be, we are idolaters, anthropolaters, and cannot be sure that the one we worship is always God. Cyril’s greatest work, On the Unity of Christ, set out to argue that, in the person of Christ, the divine and human natures must be “hypostatically” united as a person. Cyril’s formula won the day, teaching that Jesus Christ is

24 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. one divine person who, at the “yes” of Mary, united humanity to himself in and through the womb of his mother and now eternally acts as one person in two natures. With this understanding of Christ that was definitively claimed at Ephesus, and with Cyril’s many writings in hand, the Council Fathers declared Nestorius a blasphemer against Christ. Other affairs were also handled at Ephesus—namely, the Church Coucil’s official declaration Saint Irenaus on Mary of Mary’s title as the “Mother of God. as the New Eve: Jesus is a divine person who has united himself fully to human nature. “Even though Eve had for a He is one person with two natures, husband, she was still a . . . . By and since Mary is truly his mother, disobeying, she became the cause of she is also rightly to be approached death for herself and for the whole and addressed as the Mother of God. human race. In the same way, Mary, A woman does not give birth to though she also had a husband, was still disembodied natures, but to a person, a virgin, and by obeying, she became and Mary’s child is God himself. What the cause of salvation for herself and for is to keep her from being therefore the the whole human race. . . . The knot of Mother of God? Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s The Fathers were fairly uniform obedience. What Eve bound through her in their gratitude for and honoring unbelief, Mary loosed by her faith.” of Mary. Athanasius has no problem calling upon Mary as the Mother of (Against Heresies 3, 22) God, and Ephrem of Syria comes to his Marian devotion separately from all the linguistic wrangling and theological disputes within

Learn More 25 the Roman Empire. As a poet, that she offers him her soul and her Ephrem takes a common image, body. In each, Christ becomes alive the sun meeting the eye, and uses and available to all who come to it to explain how the Light from Mary. St. Jerome quipped, “Death Light, the Son, has met Mary and through Eve, Life through Mary,” made her radiant, sanctified, and and St. preached transfigured. that “Christ was born of a woman Ephrem’s correct reading of so that just as death came through a scripture and the tradition as he woman, so through Mary, life might knew it allowed him to see Mary’s return.” Lastly, the great theologian bodily integrity as a key component Proclus, the main celebrant of the to the Church’s teaching. Mary is, Masses at the Council of Ephesus, and remains, a virgin, dedicated proclaimed: solely to God in both body and “It is holy Mary who has soul, knowing no other lover and gathered us here. . . . She is the thus able to be wholly God’s, in purest fleece with the rain from reality and in symbol. As the grave heaven . . . the maid and mother, was sealed, so is Mary’s womb: the virgin and our heaven, the only one holding in death and the other bridge between God and men, the bringing forth life. Mary is the awe-filled loom of the Incarnation new reality, the new order, the new . . . whereof the weaver is the Mother of all. Holy Ghost—the spinner who Such Marian devotion was overshadowed her from on high: not limited to the East. The Latin Adam’s old covering of skin served Fathers also expanded on Mary as as the wool, and her undefiled Mother of God. St. writes, flesh proved to be the thread and “It was through a virgin that flesh the immeasurable grace of the was linked to God.” St. Augustine one who wore it, and this one, the saw in Mary the mother of every Word who entered her ear, was the Christian, the face and the model artisan of it all.” of Christ’s people and his bridal Church. He honors Mary rightly as Mother and Model because he sees her, not as an autonomous deity, but as the first Christian. Mary is the first and best hearer of the Word, so in love with the Word

26 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. Theotokos: Mary as the Mother of God Discussion Questions

1. It has been said that all authentic Marian devotion points back to the mys- tery of Christ. How is this apparent in the writings of the Fathers? 2. Why is it important to affirm the hypostatic union in Christ over and against conceptions of Christ that would see him merely as the union of a divine person and a human person? 3. Part of the outrage against Nestorius’s rejection of the term “Theotokos” was due to the fact that this title for Mary was so ancient and widespread. What role does Tradition play here in guiding the minds of the faithful?

Notes:

Learn More 27 The First 500 Years David Meconi, S.J. Lecture 6

Saint Augustine and the Beauty of Confession

As the Church continued to grow, Christians wanted to acknowledge the great and founda- tional thinkers who helped formulate so much important doctrine. In consequence, four great Latin-speaking and four great Greek-speaking theologians were named Church Fathers. In the West, the four recognized Church Fathers were St. Ambrose, who challenged and defeated both heretical Arian leaders as well as pagans who Next to the Apostle Paul, wanted to revive the ancient Roman deities; St. St. Augustine of Hippo is Augustine, the great Bishop of Hippo in North perhaps most responsible Africa; St. Jerome, who translated both the Scrip- for helping the Church tures and the liturgy from Greek into Latin; and formulate doctrines on St. Gregory the Great, whose pontificate was so grace, the sacraments, and important and unique that it is sometimes used how God works in the hu- man soul. to mark the end of the patristic era. The recog- nized Eastern doctors were the Cappadocian Fathers St. Basil of Caesarea and St. Gregory of Nazianzus, St. Athanasius, and St. John Chrysos- tom, a renowned preacher and bishop of Con- stantinople at a time when that city faced much political and social upheaval. Yet, of all these men, none has drawn as much attention as St. Augustine of Hippo. It can be said that Augustine took the “scenic route” to sanctity. Despite the prayers of his holy mother, Monica, Augustine spent most of his youth loving and being loved, falling into pagan religions like Manichaeism, and pursu- ing a worldly position as a court orator. While

28 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. employed in Milan, Augustine encountered a new philosophy— Neoplatonism. He adopted Neopla- tonism’s teaching that God is pure spirit and that evil is not an active force separate from the good, but is instead simply the absence of the good. For the first time, Augustine saw that Christianity was not only reasonable, but also actually true. He resigned from the imperial court and presented himself to Bishop Ambrose, St. Augustine on Concupiscence his model and mentor, for baptism. Augustine returned to North “When I was making up my mind to serve Africa and was ordained a priest the Lord my God at last, as I had long since and was later elevated to bishop. His purposed, I was the one who wanted to follow preaching was so attractive and his that course, and I was the one who wanted insights into the Christian myster- not to. I was the only one involved. I neither ies so erudite and helpful that people wanted it wholeheartedly nor turned from it rarely left him alone. He spent most wholeheartedly. I was at odds with myself, of his day adjudicating cases between and fragmenting myself. This disintegration Christians and settling disputes was occurring without my consent, but what within his diocese, and he spent most it indicated was not the presence in me of a of the night responding to letters mind belonging to some alien nature but the and crafting doctrinal essays with punishment undergone by my own. In this, the hope of clearing confusion and and this sense only, it was not I who brought it answering theological questions. In about, but the sin dwelt within me as penalty the end, Augustine left us an amaz- for that other sin committed with greater ing total of about one hundred books, freedom; for I was a son of Adam.” three hundred letters, and six hundred sermons. Of all Augustine’s contribu- (Confessions III.10.22) tions to theology, these two stand out most brilliantly: first, the human

Learn More 29 person as the primary place where life over to him. And the more one God reveals himself and, second, becomes like God, the more one the intimate relationship between becomes his or her truest self. Love Christ and his Church—especially unites while sin divides, and the how Jesus’ love alone has the power more we put on Christ, the more to transform us. integrated we become. On the other In his autobiography, Confessions, hand, the more we freely sin, the Augustine wrote about realizing that more divided our hearts become total and unflinching union with and the more fragmented our lives God alone can satisfy the human turn out. Each of us has one life to soul. The hallmark of Augustine’s offer the Lord, and the entire point theology is how everything revolves of Augustine’s pastoral life is to help around this interaction between a us offer God something beautiful, God who is paradoxically closer to something purposeful. his creature than man is to himself, Augustine so beautifully and a creature who is gloriously preached that love not only binds made to become one with God—but the Church together but also sadly finds other loves just as allur- transforms each of us into love. He ing. For Augustine, evil is choosing knew that if we love God we shall lesser over higher goods, choosing become God, but if we love the lower loves when infinite love is earth, we shall become mere earth. offered. In his theological treatise, Love is the Holy Spirit poured into City of God, Augustine explains our hearts, and love never fails to there are two cities because there are elevate and to change us. Just as the two loves: the love of God and the Spirit’s eternal nature in the Trinity City of God, and the love of self and is to unite the three persons, the the City of Man. Spirit’s in salvation history is Augustine realized how deeply also to unite persons—to Christ torn he was between loving God and to the Church. and loving God’s creatures. But he St. Augustine’s writings are also realized the power of grace, of always fresh in insight and chal- God himself dwelling within the lenge. He knew that loving and soul. Augustine coined the term being loved is our one desire, and “original sin,” stressing human he exhorts each of us to order our collaboration with God’s grace and loves aright so we may love God the affective realization of being truly by loving all else in him. called by God to offer one’s whole

30 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. Saint Augustine and the Beauty of Confession Discussion Questions

1. One of Augustine’s key insights is the notion that love is unitive while sin is divisive—and that this is true not only within communities, but also within the human person. This raises the question of where true communities and true friendships can exist. Can a band of thieves have a real sense of community or real friendships amongst them- selves? What is missing? And what do you think the components of a true friendship would be for Augustine? 2. In the Confessions (and elsewhere), Augustine articulates the diffi- culty involved in properly ordering one’s loves: love of God must rank higher than love of worldly goods. What does this mean, practically speaking? Should we entirely dissociate ourselves from the world in order to focus solely on God? Or is Augustine calling for a proper stewardship of worldly goods, used only out of love of God? 3. In Augustine’s theology a paradox seems prevalent: the more we give ourselves over to Christ, to grace, the more we become free and the more we become ourselves. How does this make sense? Notes:

Learn More 31 Christian Building Blocks: Formulating the Creeds of the Faith

Creeds have always been a part of the Christian faith. While the term comes from the Latin verb credere— ”to believe”—the ancient term for the creed itself was “symbol” because the basic elements of Christianity were being “thrown together” in one suc- cinct statement. The early Christians sought to formulate creeds by which they might teach the Faith, as well as expect the content of that Faith to be adhered to by anyone seek- ing full membership in the Church. While Scripture itself possesses many creeds inchoately (e.g., Deut. 6:4; 1 Cor. 15:3–7; Phil. 2:6–11) the first creeds recited were meant for adult converts at the moment of Baptism. Here, for example, is St. ’s description of an adult baptism around the year 215:

When each of them to be baptized has gone down into the water, the one baptizing shall lay hands on each of them, asking, “Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?” And the one being baptized shall answer, “I believe.” He shall then baptize each of them once, laying his hand upon each of their heads. Then he shall ask, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and died, and rose on the third day living from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the Father, the one coming to judge the living and the dead?” When each has answered, “I believe,” he shall baptize a second time. Then he shall ask, “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Church and the resurrection of the flesh?” Then each being baptized shall answer, “I believe.” And thus let him baptize the third time. (Apostolic Tradition §21)

32 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. From such baptismal creeds, varying from region to region but essen- tially the same in content, came conciliar creeds, beginning with the Council of Nicaea in 325. This creed aimed to ensure that all believing Catholics would now confess with clarity and accuracy that the Son of God was truly of the same substance (consubstantial) with the Father against the Arian view that the Father alone was truly God. Such formulations were necessary because heretics like Arius had his own scriptures and bishops to support his position. Who was to determine the correct interpretation of any one pas- sage? Creeds thus arose to guide Christians’ reading and understanding of the levels of truth found within Scripture.

Take, for example, Arius’s reading of Scripture, using Proverbs 8:22— “The Lord begot me, the beginning of his works, the forerunner of his deeds of long ago”—interpreted as meaning the Son is a work, however “first” before the rest of creation, but still separate from the Father’s very being. Arius thus used Scripture to contend that the Son is not true God. In response, the Council Bishops at Nicaea under the direction of the stalwart St. Athanasius declared definitely:

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.

In this way, the Church under the direction of the Holy Spirit came to develop creeds which captured the proper way to make Scripture “fit” with what the Church received from Jesus to be true about the nature of God, the purpose of human life, and the beauty of the Catholic faith to bring all into the eternal life of the Trinity.

Learn More 33 The First 500 Years David Meconi, S.J. Lecture 7

Pope Leo the Great and Humanity’s Newness in Christ

The Council of Chalcedon, the fourth ecumenical council, held in 451, is the last council universally recognized as doctrinally binding by all mainstream Christian denominations. Chalcedon insists on the “two natures” of Christ, defining the interaction between Jesus’ divinity and humanity. The Council was convened to combat the monk Eutyches and his teaching that the divine nature of the Son of God overwhelmed the human nature assumed in Mary’s womb. As the Successor of Chalcedon builds on earlier teachings of Peter, Pope Leo the Great Church Fathers, insisting Christ is consubstantial presided over the Council on two accounts: against Arianism, the Son is of Chalcedon, which de- eternally of the same substance with his Father, clared Christ’s human and and against Eutyches, the incarnate Son is now divine natures are with- also consubstantial with his human Mother and out confusion, change, therefore with all of us. He is both fully God and division, and separation. fully human—like us in all things but sin. We often make the mistake of thinking Mary and Jesus, who are without sin, cannot really relate to what it means to be human. Good Christian theology, however, has always seen Jesus and Mary as the most truly human. This is precisely what Chalcedon wanted to teach: Jesus is a divine person but once incarnate he is also fully human, the divine and human natures existing perfectly in unison, fully in harmony with one another. Chalcedon taught

34 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. that there are four ways of imagining this union of Christ’s natures: they are without confusion, change, division, or separation. These four adverbs insist on the total unity and full cooperation between our Savior’s eternal divinity and assumed humanity. The natures in Christ are always and everywhere distinct: one is never in isolation from the other. The Declaration of the Council Stemming from this unity is the of Chalcedon “communication of idioms,” which says that whatever we attribute to “Following the holy Fathers, we unani- Christ’s divinity we can say of his mously teach and confess one and the same humanity and vice versa. Thus, what Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect we cannot do is ascribe seemingly in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same human functions only to Christ’s truly God and truly man, composed of rational human nature, or attribute majestic soul and body; consubstantial with the Father acts only to his divinity—it is the as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as person who acts, not the nature. to his humanity; ‘like us in all things but sin.’ He Presiding over the Council was begotten from the Father before all ages of Chalcedon was Pope Leo the as to his divinity and in these last days, for us Great. In his Tome, Leo briefly and and for our salvation, was born as to his hu- brilliantly insists on the “two nature” manity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Christology and shows how these We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, two natures interact. He argues that and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged the savior of the human race must in two natures without confusion, change, be simultaneously a God who can division or separation.” save as well as a human who can communicate his life to all who come (CCC 467) to him. Acting in perfect unison, divinity is not changed in its descent into humanity, and humanity is not consumed by its union with divinity:

Learn More 35 each acts in perfect communion not by the conciliar decisions of with the other nature, yet it is the other churches, but has received Word who performs every act as the primacy by the evangelic voice both God and man. Divinity pure of our Lord and Savior, who says: and simple could never suffer, ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I could never become anything; yet will build my Church.’ . . . The first united with the human nature see, therefore, is that of Peter the offered him by Mary, now the apostle, that of the Roman Church, divine Son is born, crucified, and which has neither stain nor blemish buried. Thus, we have a God who nor anything like it.” saves us not from the outside, but Around 430, the great Western from within our very condition. monk John Cassian writes, “That Christ defeats death as we are, great man, the of disciples, fighting for us as one of us and not that master among masters, who from a distant heaven. wielding the government of the As seen at Chalecedon, Pope Roman Church possessed the Leo settled both doctrinal and principle authority in faith and liturgical disputes in the early in priesthood. Tell us, therefore, Church. This has always been the we beg of you, Peter, prince of Catholic claim: that the Bishop of Apostles, tell us how the Churches Rome, the successor of Peter, is must believe in God.” And Pope preserved from teaching error when Leo himself understood well it comes to matters essential to the that “the Lord desired that the salvation of the Christian people. In sacrament of this gift should Against Heresies, Irenaeus explains pertain to all the apostles in such that “the faith preached to all . . . a way that it might be found comes down to our time by means principally in the most blessed of the successions of the bishops.” Peter, the highest of all the Cyprian in North Africa apostles, wanting his gifts to flow proclaims, “On Peter [Christ] builds into the entire body from Peter the Church, and to him he gives the himself.” It was the divine mystery command to feed the sheep, and of God saving humans as a human although he assigns a like power to that Leo preached and lived so all the apostles, yet he founded a well. He was a teacher of teachers single chair [cathedra].” In the next and a servant to all. century, Pope Damasus decrees that, “The holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront

36 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. Pope Leo the Great and Humanity’s Newness in Christ Discussion Questions

1. Based on this lecture, what was the role of the Pope in the early Church? 2. It is often said that the orthodox or true and right position on a particu- lar issue is the mean between two opposing heresies. How is this true in the case of Nestorianism and Eutycheanism? 3. In this lecture, it was noted that the deposit of faith, received from Christ through the Apostles is never altered or added to. How, though, do historical events allow this deposit to be articulated in a fuller way?

Notes:

Learn More 37 The First 500 Years David Meconi, S.J. Lecture 8

Monks, Missions, and the Rise of Christendom

It was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first called Christians, and it was from Antioch that those same Christians were recognized as Catholics, a term meaning “global,” “universal.” From their beginnings the followers of Christ knew they were given the mandate by Jesus himself to “make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:18–20). Thus, the Church’s mission is to make Christ known in all All the Church’s doctrines cultures, throughout all parts of the world. are rooted in the Patristic The Church sent apostles throughout the Era; today, we are all Roman Empire to give all people a new way of recipients of the organic life, to teach them how God has come to earth. development begun by This aim to convert the nations was successful the Fathers’ theological in large part because of the care that Christians insights and conciliar decisions. showed for society’s weakest members. Women in particular made up a major demographic when we look at the history of conversions. As Christians, women could actively participate in worship; motherhood was now elevated to something holy, with Mary as the supreme and very visible example; virginity allowed a woman to maintain a certain control over her life in a way that the pagan world could never allow; Christian widows were revered members of any local parish; and in Christian tribunals, women were given infinitely more respect and autonomy than anywhere else.

38 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. The best of early mission work stressed how the divine had already been at work in those places where virtue was sought and truth was honored. In fact, Pope Gregory the Great wrote to missionary that he “should by no means destroy the temples of the gods but rather the idols within those temples. . . [purify] them with holy water, place altars and relics of St. Augustine on Being Catholic the saints in them. Seeing that their places of worship are not destroyed, “In the , there are many the people will banish error from their other things which most justly keep me hearts and come to places familiar and in her bosom. The agreement of peoples and dear to them in acknowledgement and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her worship of the true God.” authority, begun with miracles, nourished by When pagan persecutions began hope, enlarged by love, established by age. to cease and Christianity became The succession of priests keeps me, from the more familiar, “red martyrdom”—the very see of the Apostle Peter, to whom after his outpouring of one’s life-blood—was resurrection the Lord entrusted the feeding of replaced by “white martyrdom,” the his sheep, right up to the present episcopacy. pouring out of one’s life by heroically Finally, the very name “Catholic” holds me in following Christ through celibacy, the Catholic Church, for it was not without poverty, and obedience. Some sought reason that this Church alone, among so many to pour out their life for Christ heresies, obtained this name so that, although without the sword, and they fled to the all heretics want to be called Catholic, no her- sand. These first monks and nuns—the etic would dare to point to his own basilica or and — house when some stranger asked him where extended the Church’s life enormously the Catholic Church was to be found.” and were best known for their total self-renunciation and unwillingness to (Against the Epistle of Manichaeus called be defeated by hunger, sleep, or sloth Fundamental, §4).

Learn More 39 of any kind. For centuries these men image and love of God, and these and women dwelt in remote caves or early iconographers argued that in shelters. Some of the more eccentric becoming visible, Christ now allows saints lived on top of columns or on us to imagine the divine, to actually high platforms. see God! While these Syrian and Egyptian One of the great defenders of monks lived heroic lives of virtue, icons and praying with relics was scattered across the Mediterranean St. , who argued deserts, Benedict of Nursia was in that the Son of God’s incarnation Italy composing a Rule to gather changed everything, and now disparate monks together into a not only should we honor God in living community centered around matter, but also we have the divine common prayer, liturgy, and manual mandate to do so. We surround labor. Benedict’s Rule revolutionized ourselves with images of the holy religious life in the West by placing because the holy has now become all who sought solitude and prayer imaginable and visible in Jesus under one abbot and into one Christ. Beauty heals and elevates the community. Benedict sought to human soul, and by gazing upon make concrete the abstract, and these icons of God and his children, make flesh the otherwise spiritual. we humans are lifted to pray, Before the legalization of reminded that we are surrounded Christianity, the places where the by a cloud of witnesses. faithful gathered were understated, It is difficult to settle the date muted, and not exclusively Christian for the end of this patristic epoch, places of worship. As Christianity but we are certainly the recipients grew, however, in both official civil of the era’s theological insights and recognition and in intellectual and conciliar decisions. We are members aesthetic complexity, art forms also of the same body, the same teaching, developed, reflected in hymnody, the same Lord. We have received the poetry, and architecture. Artistically same baptism and fed on the same rich depictions of Christ, however, Lamb. We have drunk from the were not always welcomed, hence same chalice. Let us then evermore the “iconoclast controversy,” which unite ourselves in thought, word, debated worship by means of figures and deed to Jesus Christ through his or “graven images.” However, icons first and faithful followers. were the ways many artists prayed and tried to convey their own

40 The First 500 Years / David Meconi, S.J. Monks, Missions, and the Rise of Christendom Discussion Questions

1. Is Christianity charged with opposing worldly culture or with transform- ing it? Are these two (opposing and transforming) necessarily contrary? 2. In what ways does Christian art speak to the reality of the Incarnation? How has God’s coming in the flesh changed/elevated the way we view the world? 3. The rise of monasticism came on the heels of growing acceptance of Christianity within the Roman Empire and was spurred on by a desire to seek out a type of martyrdom—death to self out of love of Christ. An interesting fact about these early monks is that while they often sought an isolated hermetic lifestyle, the Christian community was drawn to them, seeking spiritual guidance and wisdom. What does this say about the na- ture of vocation within the Christian community? Is one’s vocation solely for the good of that individual? Or does it have the power to transform the whole Church? Notes:

Learn More 41 Suggested READING If you would like to learn more about the Fathers of the Church, apologetics, or Christian doctrine, Father David Meconi, S.J. recommends:

Behr, John. The Nicene Faith. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004.

Boersma, Hans. Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry. W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2011.

Chadwick, Henry. Augustine of Hippo: A Life. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Dulles, Avery Cardinal. A History of Apologetics. Ignatius Press, 2005.

Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Creeds. 3rd ed. Longman, 1989.

Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Doctrines. 5th ed. Continuum, 2000.

de Lubac, Henri. Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man. Ignatius Press, 1988.

de Lubac, Henri. History and Spirit: The Understanding of Scripture According to Origen. Ignatius Press, 2007.

Meconi, David. The One Christ: St. Augustine’s Theology of Deification. Catholic University of America Press, 2013.

O’Keefe, John, and R.R. Reno. Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.

Wilken, Robert L. The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God. Yale University Press, 2003. ABOUT CATHOLIC COURSES Catholic Courses produces college-level courses on the Learn More most important topics from the Catholic intellectual tradition. Through an extensive selection process, we find the Church’s most distinguished professors to teach relevant, faithful, and engaging lectures. Catholic Courses feeds your mind and your soul, helping you Learn More about Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Professor: Father David Meconi, S.J., D.Phil. Oxon. Graphic Design: Christopher Pelicano Editors: Sarah Laurell and Jonathan Torres Special thanks to Kevin Gallagher, Bruck, and Kathleen Moore.

IMAGE CREDITS Page 19: Courtesy Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.

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The First 500 Years The Fathers, Councils, and Doctrines of the Early Church

Based on the Church Fathers, Father Meconi discusses the development of doctrines in the Early Church. Even though faithful Christians always be- lieved in the hypostatic union between Christ’s divine and human natures, it took almost five hundred years for the Church to officially formulate that belief into doctrine, while it took nearly four hundred years to declare Mary as the “Theotokos”: the true Mother of God. The Fathers of the Church not only helped write the words to define what Catholics have believed for millennia, they debated about these doctrines to clarify them under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If you want to know why we believe what we believe, then start at the beginning, with the Fathers of the Church.

Fr. David Meconi, S.J., D.Phil. Oxon. Saint Louis University, Missouri Father David Meconi, S.J., holds his Doctorate in Philosophy from Oxford University, and a Pontifical Licentiate in Greek and Latin Patristic Theology from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He currently teaches as Assistant Professor of Patristic Studies at Saint Louis University. His books include Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward: Spiritual Writings (Orbis Press, 2010) and The One Christ: St. Augustine’s Theology of Deification (Catholic University of America Press, 2013). He is the editor of Homiletic and Pastoral Review, and his articles have appeared in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Augustinian Studies, International Philosophical Quarterly, and New Oxford Review.

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