05: The Church at War - Part I

Last week we considered a brief period of time (300-450). This week we’ll fast forward from those four councils, in 451 to 1054. We are covering six hundred years – a huge chunk of history.

I’ve tried to boil it down to the sort of ‘hot spots.’ What we’ll do is to move through these six hundred years but will only drop down in a few places to see what’s going on and get a sense for how things are changing over this period.

If you were to sum up the 20th century, for example, what would you talk about as regards things that shaped the world?

Probably the two world wars. Even though in number of years total they were only about 10% of the time, they had an outsized influence on the entire century.

There are two themes we’ll look at:

One we talked about last week – the relationship between church and state. As we saw, Constantine made Christianity legal in 313 with the Edict of Milan. As a result, a tight relationship developed between church and state that hadn’t existed before, because before that Christianity was by and large a persecuted religion. So we’ll see how church and state worked together, how they wrestled for authority.

Second, we’ll look at the relationship between the East and West. In 451, there is one united Christian church at Chalcedon. Six hundred years later, it is split into two divisions – East and West.

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THE FOURTH & FIFTH CENTURIES

Barbarian Invasions, Augustine & Pelagius

We are going to start with the Mediterranean world in the fifth century.

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Note a couple key cities – Rome and Constantinople. Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330 A.D. This is an important shift. However, the unity under Constantine wasn’t constant and there are often two emperors going forward one in the west at Rome and one in the east at Constantinople.

How many of you have heard barbarians invaded Rome and that’s why the empire fell apart? That’s really only partially true. It wasn’t an “invasion” as much as it was a migration and Rome did not fall as much as part of it, the western part, gradually faded away.

In the late 4th century, barbarian tribes who lived outside the frontier of the Roman Empire, facing pressure from nomadic peoples like the Huns, began asking to be admitted to the empire. They were looking for land and for safety. They would serve in the Roman army in exchange for land within the frontiers of Rome. Those who did this were called foederati. They were non-Roman barbarians but serving in Rome’s military.

In 382 A.D., a group of these barbarians, the Visigoths, were officially recognized by Rome and given residency. They served in the Roman army throughout the 380s and 390s. Eventually they became such a force in the army that many of the Roman generals were barbarian foederati.[i]

Two of these powerful generals were Stilicho, a Vandal and Alaric, a Visigoth. And it’s really the Vandals and the Visigoths that end up being the end of the Western Empire.

Long story short, they were rivals for a while, but Stilicho became too powerful for his own good and was executed by the emperor Honorius in 408 A.D. But it turns out, Stilicho was also kind of keeping Alaric in check. Two years later, Alaric invades Italy and in 410 A.D. sacks the city of Rome.

You could ask, how was he able to do that? Where were the mighty legions of Rome?

We’ll to quote Pogo, we have met the enemy and he is us. Alaric and his men to a large extent were the army.

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This event shook Romans to the core. They’d never imagined that the City of Rome itself could be captured. This was the event that sparked Augustine to write his major work “The City of God.” He wrote it in response to those who blamed the city’s fall on having abandoned the Roman gods. Augustine, instead, said that nations and empires come and go according to the ordination of God. He pointed out that all nations are temporary and the only one that can be counted on to last is the City of God.

“So it falls out that in this world, in evil days like these, the Church walks onward like a wayfarer stricken by the world's hostility, but comforted by the mercy of God. Nor does this state of affairs date only from the days of Christ's and His Apostles' presence on earth. It was never any different from the days when the first just man, Abel, was slain by his ungodly brother. So shall it be until this world is no more.” - Augustine, City of God.

This was just the first of many trials for Rome. It was sacked a second time in 455 A.D. by the Vandals who by then ruled North Africa. It was during this attack that the gold tables, lampstands and other articles taken from Herod’s temple in 70 A.D. when Titus destroyed the city 400 years earlier were taken away. [ii]

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The city of Rome had not been able to feed itself from the grain fields in its vicinity since about 200 B.C. For six-hundred years they’d relied on a unified empire and a good system of distribution to import grain from other places, primarily North Africa which was the breadbasket of the western empire. Now with the Vandals in control of that region, the grain pipeline was cut. The population of Rome, which had once been upwards of a million people, began to decline. By the time Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 A.D. there are probably only about thirty thousand inhabitants left. People actually were living in the Coliseum. There must have been kind of a dystopian feel to the city.

So, this was the twilight of the Roman Empire in the West. The central government, who by the time Alaric sacked the city in 410 A.D. had already moved from Rome to the city of Ravenna in northern Italy, lasted only a few more years until 476 A.D. when the last emperor Romulus Augustus was overthrown by a Germanic tribal king named Odovacer or Odoacer.

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Romulus was only fourteen at the time and had reigned less than a year. He began to reign on October 31, 475 and was deposed on September 4, 476 when his father, Orestes, serving as regent, was killed by Odovacer. Romulus didn’t fare badly, Odovacer granted him a substantial annual income for life and an estate near Naples. He’s believed to have died around 511 A.D., so he lived as a private citizen about 35 years.

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Odovacer swore allegiance to Emperor Zeno in Constantinople but in reality, deferred to him for nothing so was essentially the King of Italy. Though the people living then in Italy probably did not recognize it at the time, this is the event historians use to mark the end of the Roman Empire in the West.

Historian Peter Brown says:

“The ‘Decline and Fall’ affected only the political structure of the western provinces of the Roman Empire: it left the cultural powerhouse of Late Antiquity – the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East – unscathed.” [iii]

So, in the East (Constantinople), the emperor remained in power and the central government remained strong. So, we have a major political & geographic division that developed between West and East. The West is decentralized, and the East is centralized. The Roman Empire is strong in the East, weak to nonexistent in the West.

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This, of course, had implications for the church.

Theology and things like church structure and governance began to be pursued along two separate tracks. And really in some ways from two separate mindsets.

In broad terms, the western church tends to take a more rational approach to theology and the eastern church tends to take a more mystical approach. Now, rather than coming together to reconcile theological differences as had been done in the ecumenical councils, these two tracks developed independently of each other.

For example on the issue of soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, the western church tended to view salvation as forensic. Meaning

….justification, instead of being an efficient act changing the inward character of the sinner, is a declarative act, announcing and determining his relation to the Law and justice of God. (Charles Hodge, Justification Is a Forensic Act). - Charles Hodge

Mankind has rebelled against God and incurred a sin-debt which must be paid. Christ came to earth, lived the perfect life we could not live and then died as our substitute to declare us righteous. We do not become righteous in-and-of ourselves but are declared so by God.

The eastern church tended to view salvation, all of salvation, including justification, as a process of becoming more like God, something they call “theosis” or “deification.” To be clear, they are not claiming human beings can become God. They say that:

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Deification

the traditional teaching received its definitive formulation in the work of St *Gregory Palamas, who held that man can be united with the Divine energies, though not with the Divine essence.

Now, I went to the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to understand what’s meant by “Divine energy” and, having read it, I’m still not sure.

This is accomplished as man cooperates with the work of the Holy Spirit throughout life. (Orthodox booklet)

We, of course, are heirs of the western church far more than the eastern so...

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AUGUSTINE & PELAGIUS

Our theological foundation today – what we understand about soteriology – has been influenced by Augustine's teaching, so his debate with Pelagius which is what we’ll talk about next.

Pelagius was a British monk. He was born in 354 A.D., the same year as Augustine. Pelagius denied that man is born with a sinful nature. He taught that every person was capable of sinning or not sinning. Rather than seeing all men (and women) as tainted by Adam’s sin, Pelagius believed we all start out like Adam did, in a pristine state able to either sin or not sin – it’s up to us. We each have the opportunity to fall or not to fall. The Fall of Adam didn’t poison the whole human race.

Sin is thought of as a habit that we pick up. We are not, in our nature, evil and prone to sin. We are born good, or at the very least neutral.

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The controversy began when Pelagius saw a prayer by Augustine:

"Grant what Thou commandest, and command what Thou dost desire."

Pelagius was put off by Augustine’s assertion that we can only obey God if he gives us the ability to do so. He believed it was unjust of God to demand something of his creatures that they did not, in and of themselves, have the ability to do.

What are the implications of that for the gospel?

All we need to be saved is the law of God. We just need to know the rules so we can follow them. There’s really no need for regeneration of the Holy Spirit because man is capable on his own of obeying God.

On the other side, you have Augustine, also born in 354. He was a bishop in Hippo in North Africa. Augustine vehemently disagreed with Pelagius and they had an ongoing feud over this. Augustine looked at scriptures like Romans 3, Matthew 15:19, John 8:34, and concluded that we are by our nature sinful and apart from a work of God will choose to remain so.

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For Augustine, our sin nature is not something we can change. It’s not a habit or addiction that we can break through a twelve-step process or something like that. Dealing with our sin requires more than the law. It requires the sacrifice of Christ.

So what’s really what’s at stake here?

If Pelagius is right, then Jesus’ death on the cross is unnecessary, because all we need is to know what God’s law says so we can do it.

Pelagianism knocks the legs out from under the gospel and the atonement, because why did Jesus have to die to give me a list of rules?

Pelagianism was condemned as heresy in the Council at Ephesus in 431 A.D. But a form of this takes root in the western church, known as Semi-Pelagianism. Semi-Pelagian soteriology doesn’t say we are born good and learn to sin but what it does say is that we humans must, and can, take the first step towards God and that we cooperate with him in our justification. It holds that we take that step, and God then responds with his grace. We’re not responding to God’s grace, His grace is a response to us. According the the Dictionary of Christian History, semi-pelagianism...

Pocket Dictionary of Church History: Over 300 Terms Clearly and Concisely Defined Semipelagianism

held that grace was crucial in salvation but that the initial steps toward Christian faith were to be taken by “free” human will. God would respond, in this view, by offering more grace, and thus a synergistic salvific process would ensue.

You can see the important difference. In Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism, we are the ones who initiate things whereas Augustine sees God and God alone as the initiator in justification (As does Paul). In Semi-Pelagianism, which will become orthodox Roman Catholic theology, the grace of God is ‘merited’ by what we do.

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Augustine, however, believed we cannot take that step, that, as Ephesians 1 says, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. God, in his grace, must call us to himself. That’s the difference. If you want to frame them up in theological categories, Augustine is arguing for what we call ‘monergism,’ and Semi-Pelagianism argues for ‘synergism.’ Think of ‘synergy’ – i.e. ‘working together,’ man and God working together in the process of justification. Augustine believed in ‘monergism’ – that is, one direction, only by the grace of God as he calls us to himself. We are the passive agents. It is a question of human agency. According to monergism (Augustine), we are totally passive, and God is totally active – in justification.

In the end, though Augustine is considered one of the most important Church Fathers by the Roman Catholic Church, his views on soteriology were rejected at the Synod of Orange in 529 A.D., almost exactly 100 years after Augustine’s death which affirmed:

As a result of Adam’s trespass, both death and sin were transmitted to all of his descendants

Man’s will has been so vitiated by original sin that he can only love God if prompted and assisted by grace.

Baptismal grace enables all Christians with the help of Christ to do what is necessary for salvation.

In every good action, even the first impulse comes from God.

Only to be rediscovered around a thousand years later by the reformers.

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THE SIXTH & SEVENTH CENTURIES

East and West take different tracks, The Rise of Islam

Let’s now leap forward to the sixth century. I know we’re covering a lot of ground here. I think an interesting way to compare East and West in the sixth century is to look at two principal figures. In the East you have Emperor Justinian, and in the West, you have Pope Gregory. They both earned the suffix “the great.”

With Justinian the Great we have an example of Caesaropapism.

With Gregory the Great we have an example of Papal monarchy.

This ends up being another of the major differences between East and West. In the East the church is subordinate to the state. In the East, the state was believed to be the only community established by God and it embraced the whole life of man. Therefore, the visible representative of God was not a priest or a pope but the emperor.[iv]This is why there is still such a strong national element in Orthodoxy (Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, etc.).

In the West at this time the church kind of is the state in the absence of a strong central government – which we’ll talk about more in a minute. As time goes on and European states begin to be established, this pattern will continue with Papal authority viewed as superior to state authority. Despite that, there continued a distinction between church and state in the west that did not exist in the east. This is, again, why we refer to the Roman Catholic Church and not the Spanish Catholic Church or the English Catholic Church.

First, however, we’re going to look at a huge cultural shift in the ancient world - the rise of Islam.

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THE RISE OF ISLAM

Mohammed was born in 570 A.D. When he was about 40, he retreats to a cave to meditate. While he meditates, he claims to be visited by the angel Gabriel and to receive a new revelation from God. In this initial revelation Gabriel tells him that he, Mohammed, is a prophet of Allah. After that he claimed to have received many other revelations that over time become the Qur’an. Mohammed could neither read nor write but is said to have memorized each of the revelations and repeated them back to a scribe. Mohammed begins to preach his new, monotheistic religion in Mecca and obtains a few converts.

At the time, Arabia is polytheistic. Each tribe has its own god. The authorities of Mecca are not on board with the monotheism that Mohammed argues for. Much like the silver smiths of Ephesus in Paul’s day, they are worried Mohammed’s teaching will cut into their livelihood. They persecute him, running him out of down. He travels to the city of Medina and gathers a whole lot of followers there, returns to Mecca in 630 with a huge army, and conquers the city. From there, he spreads out, conquering most of the Arab world. Mecca and Medina remain the two holiest cities in Islam to this day, by the way.

Mohammed dies in 632. After his death, there was a dispute over who should take his place as caliph. From this dispute came the two main branches of Islam that still exist today. Those who wanted Mohammed’s father-in-law, Abu Bakr, to rule became Sunnis. Those who thought the position should go to Ali, Mohammed’s son-in-law, became Shiites. The vast majority of Muslims (90%) are Sunnis.

Within ten years, these Sunni followers of Islam take Syria, Palestine, and Persia. Within a hundred years, they have conquered Egypt, the rest of North Africa, southern France, parts of Spain, and they’re laying siege to Constantinople, which is the capital of the Roman Empire. This is all within the first hundred years after Mohammed’s supposed vision – an amazing feat. Historian Will Durant says:

“The explosion of the Arabian Peninsula into the conquest and conversion of half the Mediterranean world is the most extraordinary phenomenon in medieval history.” [v]

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They were finally stopped from conquering all of Europe in 732 A.D. when Charles Martel (the hammer) stopped them at the Battle of Tours in what is now southern France. Their incursion into Western Europe is stopped basically saving the Christian west from being overrun by Islam.

This had enormous implications for the church. When the dust settled on the Islamic conquests, the ancient seats of Christianity, cities such as Jerusalem, Antioch, Damascus, Alexandria and Carthage, were under Islamic rule. In North Africa, Christianity all but disappeared.

Robert Wilken says:

“In the eleventh century, the population of Asia Minor was almost wholly Christian. By the sixteenth century, Muslims constituted 92 percent of the population.” [a]

Up until this point, Christianity had developed mainly in the area around the Mediterranean Sea but now, at least in the West, it’s locus would move to a north / south axis which included Britain, France and Italy with Constantinople increasingly isolated from the Western church.[vii]

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[i]Transformation of the Roman Empire, Paul Freedman, p.14 [ii]The Age of Faith, Will Durant, p. 41 [iii]The World of Late Antiquity, Peter Brown, p. 19 [iv]Church History in Plain Language, Bruce L. Shelley, p.147 [v]Durant, p. 155

[a] Christianity Face to Face with Islam, Robert Louis Wilken, p.14 [vi]Tabletalk Magazine, April 2016, p. 8 [vii]The Story of Christianity, Justo Gonzalez, p.250