final Flashcards
Acts of Paul & Thecla
The Acts of Thecla (summary):
It is an Apocryphal(text after Bible, the word means that this stays away from the mainstream belief and specifically this act is subversive because women are able to bapitize themselves)
Thecla listens to Paul with her own opinion/wants
Paul’s message to Thecla:
Tells Thecla to wait for her Baptism, to not give in the temptation
Thecla refuse marriage and wants to stay with Paul, she baptisizes herself, kept her chastity and virginity
Could be considered as a Marthyn b/c
Potential from God
Willingness to die
Goes against family similar to Perpetula
Fights beast
Calls a marathon as a witness
Aphrahat
A covenanter who lived in the first half of the century
336-345: Demonstrations published in 3 stages
Believes anyone is a virgin/ascetic cannot reach Paradise
Resurrection does not begin at death/sleep but rather at baptism
At baptism (2nd birth), one received & is clothed in spirit of Christ (heavenly spirit)
At death, natural spirit stays w/ body & heavenly spirit does up according to its nature → goes up immediately bc it wants to be reunited with the divine
Natural spirit swallowed by heavenly spirit
Body becomes spiritual → individual is able to meet with Christ & receives praise for retaining their virginity
Monasticism
Comes from Monochos
alone , or solitary, one who withdrawals from society
Two forms:
Hermetic(largely alone, emphasis on the individual)
cenboitic(largely communal)
Antony
Written in 360 by Bishop Athanasius (egypt)
About Antony a man who was not educated, a monk that sells everything it has, goes out the desert and battles demons
Lives letting go of vices, sex, and food (Antonk is a perfect example of a monk– Monochos) (eat very little food and water, very little social contact, denies worldly persuits/education, becomes a citizen of heaven)
Becomes a perfect Christian:
Can performs miracles
Destroy demons
End of life becomes an angel on earth
Suggest that he goes out this path and others follow (teaches others and sees that Antony is a perfect Christian)
Antony starts a movement
Desert becomes a city
Emphasis on obedience (obey Antony as if you are obeying Christ)
Focuses on:
Things that belong to the monk (pray, fight demons, keep the soul pure, build the soul less of the mind)
Temptations (a training similar to an athlete, sharpen to become the perfect Chrisitian) from the demons
Improve and master the body of the soul
Doing things with the right attitude and not just doing the action
Inner peace
Mastering all this will allow them to tremendous wisdom, antony becoemes less antony and more like God in anthony
Miracles happen in the reading
Augustine
Author of confessions and the city of god
Shenoute
In Egypt
Example of Cenboitic leader (5,000-6,000 people of women and men different monastery b/c separate by gender)
Emphasis on group identity and rule following (if you trust that he is holy then you just have to listen to what they say to gain salvation)
Disobedience is the greatest sin, obeying the rule of the community (not individual prayer)
Dont eat or pray different from others
Everyone is the same, gain salvation by obeying the community = perfect life
Makes monks to sign an agreement (shall not steal, act in secret, shall not lie)
If disobey the agreement, body and soul will be destroyed
God job is correct and teach, so Shenoute would punish his monks in effort to change them, gets angry on their sinfulness
Aggresiviely make his monk follow his rule for them to be angels (heavy reliance of obedience(dictator/tyrant))
No one gets to be special, be humble but not too humble? Individuality is dead
Barsauma
Ascetic figure within Syriac Christianity
Brand of asceticism/hagiography: characterized by excessive mourning and extreme violence
EX: not lying down to sleep
Considered himself & his practice the best way to be Christian
Total rejection of all religious neighbors to the point of violence
Took an anti-Chacedonian approach (did not accept their definition)
Simeon Stylites
Ascetic figure within Syriac Christianity
3 distinct hagiographies written about him
Brand of asceticism: extreme pain, stood on top of a pillar for decades
Committed to deprivation of human needs, especially in regards to food → throws himself into prayer instead
Complete alienation from the world
Powerful healer
Theodoret → wrote his hagiography while Simeon was still alive
Askesis
Exercise, training(for some goal)
Think of two ways:
Positive – adding something
Ex: 100 pushups as an athlete
Negative – take away something
Ex: food, wate, sleep
Askesis/Asceticism is not necessarily Chirsitan (what reason/what goal is done)
For Christians what it meant and what goals of Asceticism
No true beginning of Asceticism (earliest evidence is in Egypt)
Cenobitic
Largely communal (ex: desert living all together)
A figure/leader is name Pachomius and Shenoute
Eremitic
(largely alone, emphasis on the individual)
Monachos
Monochos
alone, or solitary, one who withdrawals from society
Example is Antony
Athenagoras
Material link between resurrection & the body
Bodies are changing all the time
Argued that all body parts are necessary for God’s judgment
All parts of our body are involved in how we live, so they should also be involved in God’s ability to judge (resurrection of the flesh)
Confessions (Confiteri)
397-401 CE
Confession of sin & faith: praise for God
Audience: servi dei → fellow monks
Depicts himself as a great sinner (stealing pears bc it was enticing due to being forbidden) in desperate need of God’s grace
Grace
Emphasis on Grace being sovereign & free & an important part of Augustine’s realization & belief in God
Confessions:
It looks at all the sine he did in life, and how god guides and forgives him to convert to Christianity, everyone needs grace since everyone is mediocre in life
The City of God:
heavenly world needs of grace??
City (Civitas)
Rather than physical boundaries → referring to association of people bound together by similarities
City of God
Crucially the multitude of people bound in association by the love of God → same origin, worship same God, obeys the same laws, etc.
- Predestine to live w/ God
- Standard of Spirit
- Self-contempt for love of God
- Devotion to God
- Living out God’s will
Earthly City
-Devil
-Standard of flesh
-Self-love reaching point of contempt
-Pursue goods of their own mind/body
-Human standards
-Lifts its own head in glory
Constantine
The First Council of Nicaea was created under his rule, made Christianity the main religion in Rome, created Constantinople (conncils talk about the relationship of God and Jesus)
Council of Chalcedon
451 CE
Essentially continues the debate between Nestorius and Cyril
Latin West accepted definition, East still divided
Council of Ephesus
431 CE
How can we explain the union of the divine & the human in the incarnation?
If Jesus is God, how can we explain his suffering?
Who is Mary the mother of? What was the being to which Mary gave birth to?
Cyril
Bishop of Alexandria 412-444 CE
Ideas win over Nestorius
Strongly influenced by Athasius’ ideas & Origen
Argues if it is not God that’s incarnate, salvation is ineffectual (incarnation was a restorative act designed to save humanity, reconstruct human nature bc it had fallen into existential decay)
Double man schema - troubling the Eucharist bc it’s supposed to be the flesh of Christ and not just man
Only 1 creative subject → cannot split Christ into 2
Process of Christ taking on human form was so that Jesus/God could suffer for salvation
Nestorius
Bishop of Constantinople from 428-431 CE
Thought the term Theotokos improperly suggested that Mary was the mother of God. He also thought that Anthropotokos suggested that Christ is a man.
Proposed Christokos instead
If Jesus is incarnate, then the Holy Spirit & God are also incarnate (bc they’re all of the same substance) (this is a no-no to Nestorius)
Argued that Christ is the single Prosopon (observable character of the divine)
Christ has two natures: the divine & human (not of the same essence but united by love & the same Prosopon → by grace)
Does not take well to the idea of a suffering God
Impassibility (Apatheia)
Inability to suffer
Did God suffer? Can God suffer?
Christokos
Mother of Christ
Theotokos
God-bearer, mother of God
Anthropotokos
Mother of man
Council of Nicaea
325 CE
How is Jesus divine while also maintaining the immutability of God?
What is the relationship between the uncreated logos & Jesus?
How do we reconcile biblical traditions that demand both distinction & unity of a monotheistic God?
Is Arius orthodox? What is orthodox (right belief)?
Homousios terminology
