Smoky Mountain Bible Institute
(Est. 2009) Lesson #86
As I
mentioned last month, throughout history the church has taken the best works of
all the church fathers and used them to better teach and project the faith into
the world around them. Much of what they
wrote still guides us today. Over time the church continues to add the best of
each past Christian generation to its vast written and musical data base to
teach the faith in worship, word and sacrament in multiple cultures and
languages.
As we enter
a discussion on the Post Nicene Fathers,
it would be helpful to have a little information on the relationship
between the Eastern and Western parts of civilization and the church at the
time. There were multiple kingdoms because the Roman empire was divided from
286 to 337 and again for the last time in 364. The western half of the Roman
empire collapsed in 476, while the Eastern half, also known as the Byzantine
empire, didn’t fall until 1453. Primarily due to the geography of the kingdoms,
the church fathers of the time are
called East and West. The Christian church functioned as one Holy Catholic
(universal Christian) Apostolic Church in those multiple kingdoms at first, but
during the time of the seven Ecumenical councils, 325 to 787, there started to
be small differences in how the faith was believed and taught and confessed in
the regions. This became even more pronounced with the Post Nicene Fathers,
discussed here in two groups, the East and the West.
East
John Chrysostom (374-407)
made bishop of Constantinople in 398, Gregory
of Nazianzus (330-390) Gregory of
Nyssa (330-394) & his brother Basil
(329-379). The two Gregory’s were instrumental in clarifying Trinitarian
doctrine and Basil (with a short ‘a’ sound not a long one like the herb) wrote
one of the first sets of monastic rules in 370. Cyril of Alexandria (376-444) helped the church come to grips with
a number of Christological controversies.
West
Ambrose (340-397)
Bishop of Milan, wrote “Savior of the Nations Come” a favorite Advent hymn (LSB
332). Ambrose is also a great example of speaking the truth to power; he stood
with his congregation, barricaded in the church at Milan, rather than hand it
over to the emperor. He also excommunicated Emperor Theodosius (379-395) for a
massacre of 7000 people in Thessalonica, readmitting him after he repented. Jerome (345-420) was the primary
translator of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin, known as the Vulgate
(382-405) Agustine (354-430) Bishop
of Hippo (Algeria) published “City of God” in 427. He is also gets credit for
our current numbering system of the 10 commandments.
There are
many other early church fathers who also provided the church with a wealth of
valuable writings and insights into the Christian faith. Some other key dates
during the 4th and 5th centuries are: 311 the Edict of
Milan recognizes and tolerates Christianity; 330 Constantinople becomes the capital
of the East; 367 in an Easter letter, Athanasius lists the 27 books of the New
Testament Canon; 380 in the Edict of Thessalonica, Christianity becomes the
state religion of the Roman Empire; 410 Alaric the Goth sacks Rome; and in 451
Attila the Hun attacks Italy. In the latter half of the 5th century
the “Goths & Vandals” Germanic tribes of the north, have started expanding
their territories to the south and that leads to the sack of Rome in 455 and
the fall of the western empire in 476. The Vandals (the eastern Germanic
tribes) began a persecution of Christians in 478.
Next month
we will spend some time discussing those 7 Ecumenical councils from 325 to 787.
Till next month Pastor Portier
