Readings in Christian Thought By Hugh T. Kerr Abingdon Press Copyright © 1990 Abingdon Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-687-35547-1 Contents I. ORTHODOXY AND HERESY IN THE EARLY CHURCH, 1. Justin Martyr (c. 100-165), 2. Perpetua (c. 181-203), 3. Irenaeus (c. 130-202), 4. Tertullian (c. 160-c. 220), 5. Origen (c. 185-254), 6. Augustine (354-430), 7. John of Damascus (c. 614—c. 749), 8. The Ecumenical Creeds, II. SCHOLASTICISM AND MYSTICISM IN THE MIDDLE AGES, 9. Anselm (1033-1109), 10. Abelard (1079-1142), 11. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), 12. Peter Lombard (c. 1100-1160), 13. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), 14. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274), 15. Duns Scotus (c. 1264-1308), 16. William Ockham (c. 1300-c. 1349), 17. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), 18. Julian of Norwich (1342-1423), 19. Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471), III. REFORMATION AND POST-REFORMATION, 20. Martin Luther (1483-1546), 21. Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), 22. John Calvin (1509-1564), 23. Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575), 24. Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), 25. The Council of Trent (1545-1563), 26. Menno Simons (1496-1561), 27. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1643-1647), 28. John Woolman (1720-1772), 29. John Wesley (1703-1791), 30. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), IV. CREATIVE RELIGIOUS IDEAS IN THE MODERN AGE, 31. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), 32. Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), 33. David Friedrich Strauss (1808-1874), 34. Albrecht Ritschl (1822-1889), 35. Horace Bushnell (1802-1876), 36. John Henry Newman (1801-1890), 37. Fannie Barrier Williams (1855-1944), 38. Elizabeth Cody Stanton (1815-1902), 39. Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930), 40. William James (1842-1910), 41. Rudolf Otto (1869-1937), 42. Ernest Troeltsch (1865-1923), 43. Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), V. THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY, 44. Sören Kierkegaard (1813-1855), 45. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), 46. Karl Barth (1886-1968), 47. Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), 48. Georgia Harkness (1891-1974), 49. Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976), 50. Paul Tillich (1886-1965), 51. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), 52. Pope John XXIII (1882-1963), 53. Karl Rahner (1904-1984), 54. Thomas Merton (1915-1968), 55. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), VI. THE CONTEMPORARY QUEST, CHAPTER 1 ORTHODOXY and HERESY in the EARLY CHURCH It is both frustrating and fascinating to study the theological documents of the early period of the history of the Christian church. To the modern reader it is an era remote in time and place, and the issues which commanded most attention often seem obscure. Even the historical boundaries of the period are difficult to determine. Yet this was the formative age of organized Christianity, and it was during these first few centuries that the rudiments of Christian doctrine were formulated. Originally composed of a small band of Jewish disciples who proclaimed that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah, the Christian church developed first within the limited confines of Palestine. For the most part, however, Jews rejected the Christian claim about Jesus, and henceforth the church moved farther and farther away from Palestine, spreading into the wider and more diverse world of Greco-Roman civilization. The books of the New Testament provide practically all the information we have about the history, doctrine, life, and organization of the earliest or Apostolic church. In the book of the Acts and in Paul's epistles, problems of doctrinal definition were already beginning to absorb the attention of the first Christians. The earliest missionaries of the church ("apostle" means in Greek "one sent forth") were confronted with two major challenges. These arose when Christianity became a self-conscious religious movement, defining itself over against other cultures, traditions, and religions. The first challenge was internal, even inherited, for the Christians had to determine whether they belonged within the Jewish religious tradition, or whether they represented an entirely new departure. The second challenge was posed by the Greco-Roman world of speculative philosophy and practical politics. The theologians and administrators in the early church period were mainly concerned with these two major challenges of culture and thought, and much of the writing in this period was addressed to the issues resulting from this confrontation. Both challenges were resisted; yet each shaped and molded the church's thought for centuries to come. Christianity did not remain a Jewish sect, though it retained the Hebrew Scriptures as part of the Bible, the New Testament books being regarded as fulfilling ancient history and prophecy. Nor did Christianity relinquish its unique interpretation of Jesus as the Christ, even though Greek philosophy demanded a kind of rational defense which Christian theologians were not always willing to utilize. The Roman political establishment forced the amorphous church to adopt administrative structures for its own institutional organization. Coming out of Judaism with a deep sense of divine calling as God's chosen people, coupled with a sensitive spirit for individual and social righteousness, early Christianity proclaimed a gospel of love and redemption without fear or favor to all who would listen. The appeal often came through rational discourse and argument; sometimes it was exemplified through mystical experience and ethical action; frequently it issued in a martyr's death. The period of the early church begins within or immediately follows the New Testament itself; but it is not so easy to say when the era ends or merges into the early Middle Ages. Surely Augustine (d. 430) was the last and the greatest of the early church theologians, but the ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) pronounced a definitive judgment on the doctrine of the two natures of Christ, and therefore it very much belongs within this period. Even the Athanasian Creed, which summed up the disputes on the doctrine of the Trinity, falls within this early period, although the form in which it has come down to us is perhaps as late as the seventh or eighth century. Western, Latin, theology developed more rapidly than its Eastern, Greek, counterpart, and so John of Damascus (d. c. 750), the greatest of the Eastern Orthodox theologians, fits in the early church period because his views on Christ and the Trinity reflect the Augustinian-Athanasian pattern. So, somewhat arbitrarily as to the calendar, but accurate enough as to the development of Christian thought, we may stretch the period of the early church from post- Apostolic times, that is, after the New Testament, until the mid-eighth century A.D. Frustrating as this early church period may be in many ways, it is also a fascinating period of theological discussion and speculative dialectic. For five centuries and more, Christian thinkers sought to clarify how they understood the person of Jesus Christ. This task of definition required of them not only evangelistic zeal as they proclaimed the gospel to the faithful, but rational precision as they responded to the criticisms of opponents. What may astonish us as we look back at these controversial and confusing centuries is the highly sophisticated manner in which the early Christians argued with the best dialecticians of the day. In this verbal exchange, the record of which has been preserved for us in the voluminous writings of the early church thinkers, a serviceable technique for communicating the Christian faith was gradually devised. The word used to describe the theological technique of the earliest thinkers was "apology." The term was not understood in the sense of making an excuse or alibi, as though Christianity were something of which to be ashamed. The word reminded its hearers of Socrates' "defense" when on trial for his life, the graphic account of which Plato immortalized in the Dialogue known as the Apology. To make an "apology" for Christianity was to make a defense of it against those who denied its truth, reasonableness, or credibility. Those who wrote apologetic theology were known as apologists; they sought to vindicate Christian truth by demonstrating its intellectual as well as its religious and moral respectability. Three elements entered into the program of Christian apologetics: (1) a basic affirmation that Jesus Christ was the personification of God's truth; (2) a readiness to come to terms with and even appropriate the thought patterns of the particular people to whom the gospel was being presented; and (3) a rigorous dialectical debate in which the questions of the time were answered with doctrines of Christian faith. Since the Christian church in these formative years was eager to define its faith not only for itself but against its critics, the early church period is chiefly characterized as a time of controversy between orthodoxy and heresy. Orthodoxy (in Greek, "right opinion") was slowly and gradually achieved through the give-and-take of argument, scriptural interpretation, and the decisions of numerous ecumenical councils. Heresy was not always anti-Christian opinion but was often separated from orthodoxy by only a shade of meaning or emphasis. It was the contribution of the early thinkers to work out a definition of doctrinal orthodoxy which continued to serve as a norm for later theological discussion. The summary deposit of those definitions is contained in the great creeds and decrees of the earliest ecumenical councils. But the theology behind these formal decisions must be searched out in the writings of such thinkers as are represented in the following selections. It would be romantic and untrue to suggest that all the literature of this period deserves study or acclaim. Much of it is dull and uninteresting; not every thinker was a giant of faith or intellect; not all Christian apologists were of unimpeachable character; not everything written was in deathless prose. Mistakes were made, arguments were lost, words were wasted. The miracle of the early church is that so much was accomplished that endured.