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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 Cappadocian Fathers and the Holy Spirit 18 Feature: Christian Building Blocks: The Books Belonging to Canonical Scriptures 22 LECTURE 5 Theotokos: Mary as the Mother of God 24 LECTURE 6 Saint Augustine and the Beauty of Confession 28 Feature: Christian Building Blocks: Formulating the Creeds of the Faith 32 LECTURE 7 Pope Leo the Great and Humanity’s Newness in Christ 34 LECTURE 8 Monks, Missions, and the Rise of Christendom 38 Suggested Reading from David 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 Jesus 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. Ignatius of Antioch’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 gods 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.

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