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Missions, Theology and Liturgy. East and West. The Germanization of Western Europe: “Franks”. Merovingian Franks . Clovis (466-511), a Frank, married a Burgundian princess who insisted he become Catholic.
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Missions, Theology and Liturgy East and West
Merovingian Franks • Clovis (466-511), a Frank, married a Burgundian princess who insisted he become Catholic. • After winning a battle, he converted in 496 and supported missionaries. He also forced conversions among the Franks and those he conquered. • Germanic Gaul became Christian and began the fusion of Germanic and Roman culture. • Clovis is the first “French” King.
St. Patrick (385-461), Apostle to the Irish • Patrick was a missionary among the Irish Celts. • Native Welsh (Maewyn), former slave, 12 years in Gaul. • Monasticism was a dominant feature of Irish Christianity since the population was almost entirely rural. They preserved classical learning in the western world and promoted education (e.g., influencing even England at York where schools flourished) • Irish monks evangelized Scotland, Burgundy, Switzerland and northern Italy.
Conversion of England • After the fall of Rome, England was overrun by pagan Saxons, Angles and Jutes between 450-500. • Irish monks evangelized in England (primarily northern), but also Augustine of Rome was sent by Pope Gregory I in 597. He converted Ethelbert (560-616; a Jute), King of Kent, in 601 and established the bishopric of Canterbury (later center of the English church). • Celtic and Augustinian (Roman) Christianity had their differences and this created tension.
Resolution to Side with Rome • Celtic Church older with own traditions • Existed in Scotland, Northern England and Ireland • Emphasized monasticism and learning • Roman and Celtic missionaries “compete” for English Northumberland. • King Oswy of Northumberland called synod • Synod of Whitby (664) • Oswy decided for Roman based on the “Petrine Thesis” (Roman primacy).
Boniface, Apostle of Germany • Boniface (675-754), Anglo-Saxon from southern England, pioneered missionary work among the Saxons of Hesse. • He was ultimately appointed Archbishop of Mainz. • He was martyred while preaching among the pagans in Frisia.
Carolingian Franks • Pope Zacharias (741-752) approved the plan of Pepin the Short to seize the throne for himself after the last Merovingian died. • Pope Stephen II (752-757) appealed to Pepin for help against the Germanic Lombards and the Byzantine Empire. • Pepin conquered Italy and received the title of “father-protector of the Romans”. He gave the Papacy the lands the Pope claimed in Italy (“the Papal States”), which was called the “Donation of Pepin.” • The document entitled “Donation of Constantine” appeared which gave the Pope of Rome jurisdiction over the whole of the western church unhindered by the emperor.
Charles the Great (768-814) Creates an empire 53 military campaigns Crowned emperor 800 Rules well Appoints own household staff Primitive law: ordeals Creates feudal army Builder Weights and Measures Generous to church, but master of church
Charlemagne (742-814) • Pacified the Saxons in Germany, extended the border to the Danube in eastern Europe, pacified the Lombards in Italy and crossed the Pyrennes into Spain. • When Pope Leo III (795-816) was forced out of Rome by local nobles, Charlemagne arranged his return. In Rome, December 25, 800 A.D., Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the “Holy Roman Empire.”
Carolingian Renaissance • 600 years before the Italian Renaissance, it successfully merged Germanic and Greco-Roman cultures into “Christian Europe.” • Alcuin of York (740-804), one of Charlemagne’s scholars at Aachen (near Cologne), taught at a palace school. The net effect was higher educational and moral standards for clergy. Education was popularized in France. • Alcuin established the basic liberal arts educational philosophy: • Elementary disciplines: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic (logic) • Advanced disciplines: arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy • Highest discipline: theology
Alcuin of York Appointed head of Charlemagne’s Palace School Aix-la-Chapelle (780-790)
Carolingian kings of France not competent after division Invasion of Vikings Carolingian kings unable to protect people Paris withstood the onslaught (888) Normans invade and settle in north Rollo first Duke of Normandy 933 Normandy strongest area in France Lords ask Hugh Capet to be king 987 Son of Eudes’ brother Robert Beginning of Capetian Dynasty
Two Kingdoms Emerge • Frankish (French) Kingdom: Hugh Capet (987-996). • German and Saxon Kingdom: Otto the Great (936-973). Otto continued the legacy of the “Holy Roman Empire” as he sought to control Italy as part of his territory.
Otto I, 936-973 • Makes Germany great • Establishes authority • Dreams of re-creating Roman Empire • Builds up alliances • Uses middle class as civil service • Puts down revolt of nobles • Defeats Magyars at Lech 955
Germany Becomes Empire • 962 Otto crowned emperor • Son married to Byzantine princess • Church is weak • Otto deposes 2 popes, elects 2 • Otto meddles in Italian affairs • Otto re-creates Carolingian Empire
Papacy and Frankish Empire • Frankish/German Emperors control the Papacy • Popes tortured, killed, desecrated • 48 popes, 880-1046 • Most were immoral, incompetent • Deliberate strategy of German emperors
Diminished Empire after Justinian • Germanic Lombards invade and conquer Italy • Visigoths retake previously lost parts of Spain. • Slavs (primarily Bulgars) take Balkan provinces except Thrace • Arabs take Africa and the east (including Jerusalem) except for Asia Minor
Significance of Byzantium • Strengths: • Geography encourages trade • Impregnable city of Constantinople • Strong imperial personalities, autocracy • Hellenistic culture and religiously united (except for some Christian “heresies”—the monophysites) • Weaknesses: • Problems with Succession (2/3 killed) • Isolated, Separatistic • Cultivated luxurious, pleasure-seeking culture
Significance of Byzantium • Language and Literature • Preserved Greek, including Bible MSS. • Half of literature was theological • Based education on Greek classics • Preserved Greek culture while the West was overrun with “Barbarian” cultures • Influence on Slavic Culture • the West was overrun with “Barbarian” cultures • Gave them religion, alphabet, art, architecture • Christian Slavic nations looked to Byzantium for leadership
Byzantium and the West • Had territories in Italy till 1100. • Substantial commerce between Constantinople, Venice and other Italian cities. • Preserved Roman law and Greek culture for the West to rediscover
Slavic Missions: Cyril & Methodius • Invited by the Prince Ratislav to Moravia in 862 • The brothers led Moravia into Christianity, and their disciples evangelized the Bulgars and other Slavs. • Moravia ultimately came under Roman Catholic control but the influence of the brothers continued among the other Slavs.
Cyril and Methodius • They created a written language for Slavonic—provided Slav churches with alphabet, translations of creeds, liturgies and texts (“Old Church Slavonic”). • Unlike the West where Latin was the only liturgical language, the East had from the beginning used the language of the people for liturgy. • The Cyrillic alphabet, developed in the 10th century, was based on their old alphabet and language.
The Primary Chronicle Vladimir again called together his vassals and the elders. The Prince announced the return of the envoys who had been sent out, and suggested that their report be heard. He commanded them to speak out before his vassals. The envoys reported: "When we traveled among the Bulgars, we saw how they worship in their temple, called a mosque, while they lounge about slackly. Bulgarians bow, sit down, and look here and there as if possessed. There is no happiness among them, but instead only sadness and bad smells. Their religion is not good. Next we went among the Germans. We saw them performing many ceremonies in their temples, but we saw no glory there. Then we went on to Greece. The Greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we did not know whether we were in heaven or on earth. On earth there is no such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We know only that God lives there among men, and that the Greek service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. We cannot forget that beauty. Once he has tasted sweetness, no man is willing to settle for bitterness.
Conversion of Rus • Vladimir, the prince of Rus, invited Byzantine teachers to Kiev in 988. • All Russians were commanded to be baptized in order to stay in favor with the Prince. • Vladimir married the sister of the Byzantine Emperor in 989.
Russian History • Russian Christianity was centered in Kiev from 988 to 1240 when Mongols burned Kiev to the ground. • The center of Russian Christianity moved to Moscow in the 14th century when in the 1380s Mongols (Tartars) were first defeated by Muscovite princes. • Moscow becomes the Patriarch of Russian Christianity in the late 14th century.
Pope Innocent I (401-417) • The western Emperor Honorius had moved his government to Ravenna. • Innocent I was Pope when Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410. • Innocent I took the opportunity to extend his authority in both political and theological contexts. • He confirmed the decisions of the North African churches against Pelagianism as he sided with Augustine. • He took on political and judicial functions in the city of Rome, especially the absence of imperial authority.
Pope Leo I (the Great), 440-461 • Leo centralized western ecclesial government and located juridical power in Rome. • Leo also led the city politically and was praised for dissuading Attila the Hun from sacking Rome in 452. • Stressed the priority of Rome in the universal government of the church, especially as he sought to maintain jurisdiction over Illyricum. • Leo is sometimes regarded as the “first Roman Pope” since he stressed his universal responsibility for the church based on Petrine supremacy and his rights as the successor of Peter.
Gregory I (the Great, 590-605) • Born of aristocratic Roman family • Comes with political, diplomatic experience • Papal ambassador to Constantinople • Roman official then monk, then Pope • Sends Augustine to England as Missionary
Gregory I (the Great) • Takes over the political rule of city of Rome • (Helps when Rome besieged) • Works for high morals in church • (Encouraged monks to be faithful to their vows) • Uses family home as a church; Did not want titles or honor • Developed idea of Purgatory; emphasized penance over grace • Encouraged idea of Communion as literal body & blood • Wrote and collected songs: Gregorian Chants; Prolific writer
John of Damascus (676-752) • From an Arab Christian family, he became a monk in 717 in Palestine. He was later ordained a priest as well. • Ealier in his life he was an administrative official under the Khalif (Caliph). • His Arabic name was Mansur (the victor) and also received the title Chrysorrhoas (gold-pouring) due to his eloquence. • He lived through periods of persecution from the Iconoclastic Emperor Leo and the Khalif Ahlid II (who killed leading Christian bishops).
John of Damascus • His theological works are still foundational in many Orthodox seminaries. • His most significant book is “The Fountain of Knowledge” which consists of three parts. • Theological Method (Aristotle’s Dialectic) • “Of Heresies” • “Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.” • The latter embodies the finished result of theological thought in the early Greek church. • Some of his hymns are still used such as “The Day of Resurrection”
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) • Born near Aquino, Italy. • Sent to study at a monastery at the age of five, and then studied at the University of Naples for six years. • He joined the Dominicans at the age of 17 and he went to study at Cologne, Germany under Albert the Great (Magnus) as well at the University of Paris.
Teaching Career • Receiving his Doctor of Theology from the University of Paris, he began teaching. He traveled extensively between Paris and Rome. • He devoted himself to preaching and writing, even refusing the archbishopric of Naples and refusing to be the abbot of Monte Cassino. • He stopped writing his Summa Theologiae in December 1273 after a mystical experience: "I cannot go on...All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me."
Summa Theologia • Systematic Christian Theology • Not accepted at first • Complex, vast, ordered system • Used Aristotle’s dialectic.
Aquinas’ Five Proofs for God • There is a gradation of things to the greatest, which produces all that are less, the cause of all goodness and perfection • Observation of nature shows a governance by which it operates to achieve maximum good that show design rather than chance and point to an intelligent being by whom all natural things are directed to their end.
Aquinas’ Five Proofs for God • There has to be a first cause of change that is not changed by anything • There has to be a first efficient cause of everything in order for there to be intermediate and ultimate causes, for nothing can be the efficient cause of itself • There has to be something which cannot not exist for anything to exist, for what has the potential not to exist cannot begin to exist
Liturgical Mystical Transformation Relational Communal Contemplative Intellectual Rational Reconciliation Legal Individual Deductive Reasoning East and West:Theological Orientations Contrasted
John Climacus (579-649) “Do you imagine plain words can precisely or truly or appropriately describe the love of the Lord…and assurance of the heart? Do you imagine that talk of such matters will mean anything to someone who has never experienced them? If you think so, then you will be like a man who with words and examples tries to convey the sweetness of honey to people who have never tasted it. He talks uselessly. Indeed I would say he is simply prattling.” (The Ladder of Ascent, step 25).