Theology 4: Church History Midterm Review

Covenant

A solemn agreement between God and his people

Creates a sacred relationship

Providence

God's plan for protection of all creation

Apostle

Early follower of Jesus

One who is sent

Grace

Free and undeserving gift of God's loving and active presence in our lives

Council of Jerusalem

1st church council

Called to resolve the growing controversy over whether or not Gentile Christians would have to observe Jewish law

Pillars of the Church

Peter and Paul

Peter

All bishops throughout church history are considered successors of him

Paul

Prior to his conversion, he was an active persecutor of early Jewish Christians

Apostle to the Gentiles

Born in Tarsus (modern day Turkey)

Canon

Collection of books the Church recognizes as the inspired Word of God

Martyrdom

Suffering of death because of ones beliefs

Stephen

First Christian martyr

Nero (54-68 AD)

First century emperor who blamed Christians for a devastating fire in Rome that he likely started

Martyred Peter and Paul

Trajan (98-117 AD)

Second century emperor who ruled that Christianity was punishable by death if discovered, but did not persecute them

Septimius Severus (193-211 AD)

Late second century emperor who sought to establish a single religion for the empire and decreed death for anyone who converted

Constantine (306-377 AD)

Emperor who legalized Christianity

Edict of Milan

Grants religious toleration/legalization throughout the Roman empire

Ends persecution

Signed in 313 AD

Arianism

Teaches that the Son is less than fully divine

Magisterium

Churches living teaching office

Diocletian (284-305 AD)

Late third century emperor who initiated the worst and most widespread persecution of Christians

Apologist

Someone who speaks or writes in defense of someone or something

Ignatius of Antioch

Early Christian writer

Martyrdom by wild beasts under Trajan

7 letters written during his time in prison

Metamorphosis

Change of form

Krypsis

Greek word meaning "veiling" refers to the hiddenness of God's majesty and divinity in the incarnation

Persona

Mask

Face or character that a speaker shows his or her audience

Messiah

Anointned one

Religion-Meaning in Roman Empire

The state only recognized religious traditions that were ancient

Principate Era

Christian persecution was local and sporadic

Dominate Era

Christian persecution was widespread and systematic

Catacombs

Underground cemetery

Gnosticism

"Gnosis"

Taught that salvation was achieved through secret knowledge alone

Dokein

Greek term meaning to seem or appear

Docetism

Taught that Jesus was only apparently, but not truly human

Practical implications made early Christian martyrs look foolish

Marcionism

Taught that God does not act in both creation and redemption

Endorsed a di-theistic system

Cyril of Alexandria

5th century patriarch defends Christian Orthodoxy, Against Nestorianism

At the council of Ephesus

Arius

Heretic who taught that the Son is not of the same substance of the Father

Athanasius

Deathless

Defended the teaching that the Son is Consubstantial with the Father at the Council of Nicaea

Ambrose

4th century Bishop of Milan who influenced Augustine's conversion to Christianity

Augustine

Most important Church Father who wrote in Latin

Works include: City of God and the Confessions

Jerome

Principally responsible for the vulgate; the translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin

Council of Nicaea

Council that first expressly clarified that the Son is Consubstantial with the Father

Council of Ephesus

Council that rejected Nestorianism

Council of Chalcedon

Council that affirmed that Christ is made "without division, without separation, without change, and without confusion"

Rejected Eutychianism

Consubstantial

Sharing the same divine substance, essence or nature

Logos

Title of Jesus Christ

Greek word that means "word"

Hypostatic Union

Union of divine nature and human nature in the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God

Theotokos

Greek word applied to Mary meaning "God Bearer"

Justinian

6th century Byzantine emperor whose legacy included the reform and codification of Roman Law

Unity of Number

Mathematical unity

Not a way to describe God's unity

Unity of Essence

God's love is a unity of essence and God's concrete unity is the trinity

Homoousios

Greek term that means "of the same substance"

Valentianism

Taught that there are no distinctions in God (no Father, no Son)

Modalism

Taught that the persons of the Trinity are not eternally subsistent, but instead appear temporarily in different modes

lex orandi, lex credendi

Law of prayer is the law of belief

Nestorianism

Taught that the Christ's human nature and divine nature are separate and divided

Nestorius (386-450 AD)

Influential Monk from Antioch

Denied Mary as the Theotokos

Category of Person

Who one is (being and actions)

Category of Nature

What one has (having)

Eutychianism

Taught that Jesus' divine nature overwhelmed his human nature

Eutyches

Taught that Jesus' humanity was like "a drop of honey in an ocean of divinity"

Monophysitism

An alternate name for Eutychianism

Communicatio Idiomatum

Latin phrase referring to mutual charing of divine nature and human nature in Jesus christ

Donatism

Taught that a sacrament is valid if and only if the human minister is morally worthy

Pelagianism

Taught that salvation can be achieved thought the effort of finite human persons

Iconoclast

Breakers of images

Iconodule

Reversers of images

Latria

Worship (God alone)

Dulia

Reverence (Icons, Relics, Saints)

Second Council of Nicaea

Council that condemned Iconoclasm

Benedict

6th century Italian Monk

Shaped Monastic life with prayer, work and study

Ora et Labora

Prayer and work

Cenobite

Monks who live in a community

Abbot

Referring to the superior spiritual leader of a Monastery

Benedict of Nursia

Wrote the Rule

Founded a famous Monastery in Monte Cassino, Italy

Cyril and Methodius

Ninth-century Byzantine missionaries (brothers) to the Slavs whose development of Cyrillic script made it possible to write Slavic languages.

Cluny

Historic town and former powerful Benedictine Abbey in Burgundy, France

Mendicants

Meaning "beggars"

Refers to members of a religious order that rely on charity for support

St. Francis of Assisi

Italian saint who founded the Franciscan order of friars; treated all creatures, including animals, as spiritual brothers and sisters; born to wealthy merchant family and willingly gave up a life of comfort

Franciscans

Religious order known as the "Friars Minor"

Friars Minor

Another name for the Franciscans

San Damiano

St. Francis received a famous revelation from the cross in this church

St. Dominic de Guzman

Priest who founded Dominican Order

Dominicans

Religious order known as the "Black Friars"

Black Friars

Another name for the Dominicans

Cathars

A 12th century heretical movement

Believing in a pure spirit world vs a corrupt material world by a lesser god

Rejects Catholic sacraments, material wealth, and the physical Church

Transient Causation

Movements from the outside

Processes like motion end outside of the cause and do not tend to its flourishing

EX: a rocks movement

Immanent Causation

Movements from within

Processes like growth and nutrition end with the cause and tend to its flourishing

EX: digestion

Opposition of Polarity

One term does not cancel out the other

Opposition of Contradiction

One term necessarily cancels out another

University of Bologna

First University to be chartered or founded in 1088

Lateran Council IV

A Church Council in the Medieval era that defined the doctrine of transubstantiation

Transubstantiation

The bread and wine (during the Eucharist) changing into the actual body and blood of Christ

Ontological Argument

Anselm's natural theology argument

Uses a priori reasoning

Starts from the very definition or concept of God as a perfect being, to conclude God must exist in reality, not just the mind, because real existence is a perfection

Cosmological Argument

Aquinas' natural theology argument for God from created being

Reasoning that the universe's existence requires an uncaused, necessary first cause (God) to explain why something exists rather than nothing, often focusing on motion, causation, or contingency in the universe

Natural Object

Functions like growth are intrinsic to them (humans)

Artifact

Do not grow or develop by themselves (desk)

Essence

Denotes what a thing is

That by which something exists

Capacity for Immanent Causation or self perfective activity

Existence

Denotes that a thing is