Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART ONE The Beginnings: The New Testament to Irenaeus
- PART TWO THE THIRD CENTURY
- PART THREE FOUNDATION OF A NEW CULTURE: FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CYRIL
- A LITERARY GUIDE
- B CONTEXT AND INTERPRETATION
- 37 Social and historical setting
- 38 Articulating identity
- 39 Christian teaching
- 40 Retrospect: interpretation and appropriation
- Bibliographies
- Index
- Map: The Roman Empire in the late fourth century AD"
- References
39 - Christian teaching
from B - CONTEXT AND INTERPRETATION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART ONE The Beginnings: The New Testament to Irenaeus
- PART TWO THE THIRD CENTURY
- PART THREE FOUNDATION OF A NEW CULTURE: FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CYRIL
- A LITERARY GUIDE
- B CONTEXT AND INTERPRETATION
- 37 Social and historical setting
- 38 Articulating identity
- 39 Christian teaching
- 40 Retrospect: interpretation and appropriation
- Bibliographies
- Index
- Map: The Roman Empire in the late fourth century AD"
- References
Summary
It has been argued (chapter 9) that the early Church was school-like, and that the importance of dogma or doctrina (both words which simply mean ‘teaching’) has its roots in that characteristic. Ancient religion was not ‘dogmatic’, but philosophy was. It has also been evident (chapters 9 and 19) that Christian teachers played a significant role, often like Justin Martyr without having any official institutional position, or alongside the hierarchy and with shifting relationships with it, as in the case of Origen. Whether or not the bishop of Alexandria appointed Origen head of a Catechetical School, the account of his educational activities in Caesarea suggests the formation of a school of Christian higher education, alongside regular homiletic activity as a priest within the Church for the whole spectrum of believers. Control of such semi-independent teachers was far from achieved prior to the fourth century.
The post-Nicene period can be seen as a time of tightening up, of a determined effort to achieve uniformity, and so establish the doctrines which form Christianity’s dogmatic core, thus shifting the nuance of those ancient words for ‘teaching’. The tendencies that produced this had long been around: councils of bishops already had the custom of meeting to exclude teaching they found at variance with the Christian tradition, and so teaching authority was already in the process of being transferred from scholars to the episcopate, particularly acting collectively. A strong assertion of the unity of truth had long accompanied the apologetic attack on the many different options (haereses) offered by philosophers, and this would drive the thrust towards uniformity.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature , pp. 464 - 484Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
References
and , eds, Christian Origins. Theology, Rhetoric and Community (London: Routledge, 1998).
Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004).
Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).
and , eds, Arianism after Arius. Essays on the Development of the Fourth-Century Trinitarian Controversies (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1993).
New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982).
‘Allegoria’ und ‘Anagoge’ bei Didymus dem Blinden, Patristische Texte und Studien
13 (1972).
Julian the Apostate (London: Duckworth, 1978).
Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
Studien zur Geschichte der Homöer. Der Osten bis zum Ende der homöischen Reichskirche (Tübingen: Mohr, 1988).
‘The Patrons of Pelagius: The Roman Aristocracy between East and West’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 21 (1970) (reprinted in ).Google Scholar
Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (London: Faber, 1972).
Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (London: Faber, 1982).
Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity. Towards a Christian Empire (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992).
Authority and the Sacred (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
The Rise of Western Christendom. Triumph and Diversity, AD 200–1000, The Making of Europe (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996).Google Scholar
The Making of a Heretic: Gender Authority and the Priscillianist Controversy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
Begotten, Not Made: Conceiving Manhood in Late Antiquity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).
and , eds, The Cambridge Ancient History, XIII: The Late Empire, A.D. 337–425 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).Google Scholar
‘Apatheia and Sexuality in the Thought of Augustine and Cassian’, St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly
45 (2001).Google Scholar
Geschichte des Papsttums, II (Tübingen: Mohr, 1933).
Christianity and Classical Culture (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957).
Paulinus Noster. Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, Oxford Early Christian Texts (2000).
‘Nature and the “Mode of Union”: Late Patristic Models for the Personal Unity of Christ’, in et al., eds, The Incarnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002).Google Scholar
‘Eunome l’arien et l’exégèse néo-platonicienne du «Cratyle»’, Revue des etudes grecques
69 (1956).Google Scholar
and , eds, Fifth-Century Gaul: a Crisis of Identity? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
ed. and trans., Neoplatonic Saints. The Lives of Plotinus and Proclus by their Students, Translated Texts for Historians
35 (2000).
Messalianismus und Antimessalianismus. Ein Beispiel ostkirchliche Ketzergeschichte (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998).
The Donatist Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952).
Der Ausgang des griechisch-römischen Heidentums (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1929).
Gnade als konkrete Freiheit. Eine Untersuchung zur Gnadenlehre des Pelagius (Mainz: Matthias-Grunwald-Verlag, 1972).
‘Le dossier des origines du messalianisme’, in and , eds, Epectasis. Mélanges patristiques offerts au Cardinal Jean Daniélou, (Paris: Beauchesne, 1972).Google Scholar
and , eds, Das Konzil von Chalkedon, 3 vols (Würzburg: EchterVerlag, 1951–4).
ed., Scolies ariennes sur le Concile d’Aquilée, Sources chrétiennes
267 (1980).
The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God. The Arian Controversy 318–381 (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1988).
The Spirit of God. The Exegesis of 1 & 2 Corinthians in the Pneumatomachian Controversy of the Fourth Century (Leiden: Brill, 1994).
Perfection in the Virtuous Life: a study in the relationship between edification and polemical theology in Gregory of Nyssa’s De Vita Moysis, Patristic Monograph Series 2 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Patristic Foundation, 1975).
Die Bibelepik der lateinischen Spätantike. Formgeschichte einer erbaulichen Gattung, Bd. 1 (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1975).
Communities of the Blessed. Social Environment and Change in Northern Italy, AD 200–400, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999).
‘Resistance to the Virginal Ideal in Late Fourth-Century Rome: The Case of Jovinian’, Theological Studies
48 (1987).Google Scholar
The Later Roman Empire, 284–602, 3 vols + maps (Oxford: Blackwell, 1964).
Early Christian Doctrines (London: Adam and Charles Black, 19602).
Constantius II. und die christliche Kirche (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977).
A History of Neo-Arianism, Patristic Monographs Series
8 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Patristic Foundation, 1979).Google Scholar
Kirche der Traditoren oder kirche der Martyrer?: die vorgeschichte des Donatismus (Innsbruck: Tyrolia, 1986).
Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
‘The “Arian” Controversy: Some Categories Reconsidered’, Theological Studies
48 (1987).Google Scholar
Contra Marcellum: Marcellus of Ancyra and Fourth-Century Theology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 1999).
‘Ousia and Hypostasis: The Cappadocian Settlement and the Theology of “One Hypostasis”’, in , and , eds, The Trinity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
‘Marcellus of Ancyra and the Councils of 325: Antioch, Ancyra, and Nicaea’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 43 (1992).Google Scholar
‘Marcellus of Ancyra, Defender of the Faith against Heretics — and Pagans’, Studia Patristica
37 (2001).Google Scholar
Apollinarius von Laodicea (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1969).
Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997).
‘Christianity and Dissent in Roman Africa: changing perspectives in recent work’, Studies in Church History
9 (1972).Google Scholar
Christianity in the Roman world (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974).
From Augustine to Gregory the Great (London: Variorum Reprints, 1983).
The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
‘Donatus, Donatism’, in , ed., Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999).Google Scholar
Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique (Paris: E de Boccard, 1938; with Retractatio, 1946).Google Scholar
Rome and the African Church in the Time of Augustine (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997).
ed., The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963).
ed., From Glory to Glory: Texts from Gregory of Nyssa’s Mystical Writings (New York: Charles Schribner’s Sons, 1961).
and , ‘Pelage et Pelagianisme’, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, histoire et doctrine
XII. 2 (1987).Google Scholar
‘Impassible Suffering? Divine Passion and Fifth-Century Christology’, Theological Studies
58 (1997).Google Scholar
and , eds, L’Évêque dans la cité du IVe au Ve siècle, (Rome: École française de Rome, 1998).
Pelagius: a Reluctant Heretic (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1988).
The Letters of Pelagius and His Followers (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991).
Das Konzil von Konstantinopel und sein Symbol. Studien zur Geschichte und Theologie des 2. Ökumenischen Konzils (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1965).
Ascetics, Authority and the Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978).
Gregory of Nazianzus. Rhetor and Philosopher (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969).
, On Roman Time. The Codex-Calender of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity, Transformation of the Classical Heritage
17 (Berkeley/Los Angeles/Oxford: University of California Press, 1990).
Two Ancient Christologies (London and New York: SPCK, 1940).
The Council of Chalcedon (London: SPCK, 1953).
, Das Konzilsidee der alten Kirche, Konziliengeschichte, Reihe B: Untersuchungen1 (Paderborn and Zurich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1979).
Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church: An Historical Introduction to Patristic Exegesis. English translation of Profilo storico dell’esegesi patristica (Rome: Augustinianum, 1981) by , , , and (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1994).Google Scholar
La Crisi ariana nel IV secolo, Studia Ephemeridis «Augustinianum»
11 (Rome: Institutum Patristicum «Augustinianum», 1975).
‘Working the Earth of the Heart’: The Messalian Controversy in History, Texts and Language to AD 431 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).
‘Ein enzyklisches Schreiben der Synode von Alexandrien (362)’, Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
79 (1988).Google Scholar
Didymel’ Aveugle et l’exégèse allégorique, son commentaire sur Zacharie (Nijmegen: Dekker & van de Vegt, 1977).
Hellenic Religion and Christianization c.370–529, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1993, 1995).
Eunomius of Cyzicus and the Nicene Revolution, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000).
Asterius von Kappadokien: Die Theologische Fragmente. Einleitung, Kritischer Text, Ubersetzung und Kommentar (Leiden: Brill, 1993).
‘The Syntagmation of Aetius the Anomean’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s.19 (1968).Google Scholar
‘Pelagianism in the East’, in , ed., The Making of Orthodoxy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).Google Scholar
Arius. Heresy and Tradition (London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1987; 2nd edn, revised with appendix, London: SCM, 2001).
‘The God of the Greeks and the Nature of Religious Language’, in and , eds, Early Christian Literature and the Greek Intellectual Tradition: Festschrift for R. M. Grant, Théologie Historique
53 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1980).Google Scholar
From Nicaea to Chalcedon (London: SCM, 1983).
‘The Rhetorical Schools and Their Influence on Patristic Exegesis’, in , ed., The Making of Orthodoxy. Essays in honour of Henry Chadwick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).Google Scholar
‘Exegetical Method and Scriptural Proof: the Bible in Doctrinal Debate’, Studia Patristica
24 (1989).Google Scholar
‘Paideia and the Myth of Static Dogma’, in and , eds, The Making and Remaking of Christian Doctrine: Essays in Honour of Maurice Wiles (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).Google Scholar
- 16
- Cited by