Journey Into Divine Intimacy

Sir Steven Runciman’s The Great Church in Captivity: A Study of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eve of the Turkish Conquest to the Greek War of Independence is an amazing compendium of information about a place and time that few other books cover. Due to the scarcity of extent historical records kept by the Patriarchate itself, the author combed through “reports and accounts of foreign diplomats, churchmen, and travellers” in order to piece together the history of the Great Church, as the Greeks called the Patriarchate of Constantinople, after the fall of the city to the Ottoman Turks (viii). With thirty pages of bibliography (the majority of which are books not in English) and innumerable footnotes, the author’s meticulous scholarship shines throughout the book. The text is divided into two “books”. Book I Book I covers the conditions of the Great Church on the eve of the Turkish conquest. Chapter 1 provides a general background of the Orthodox Church, highlighting di...

Introduction The schism between the sees of Constantinople and Rome is the sad result of years of increasing estrangement. The year 1054 AD is memorable because it was then that the bishops of the respective sees excommunicated each other, but that event was really just a trough in a relationship whose troubles began centuries earlier. Furthermore, the exact ramifications of the event in 1054 took centuries to realize. This paper will first briefly explore the historical factors that led to their gradual estrangement and then drill down on the two doctrinal issues at the core of the schism: the papal claims of universal jurisdiction and the papal support of the filioque clause. Historical Factors In a sense, the gradual estrangement between Rome and Constantinople makes complete historical sense. In a day without the Internet and airplanes, the 850 miles between the cities made them worlds apart. There are four factors that especially contributed to the estrangement: distance, ...

Introduction The eighth and ninth centuries were a tumultuous time in the Byzantine Empire because of the iconoclast controversy. Beginning with the Chalce Episode of 726 AD under emperor Leo III and continuing with ebbs and flows until the final restoration of icons in 843 AD under emperor Michael III’s regent Theodora, the controversy led to the expropriation of property; the destruction of cultural artifacts; and the deposition, exile, excommunication, and abuse of people. This post will explore the historical background and development of the controversy up until the first restoration of icons in 787 AD. Historical Background The roots of the controversy lay in the marked intensification of the cult of the icon in the late sixth and seventh centuries. The earliest church used symbolic rather than figural representations in their art in order to avoid idolatrous associations. By the fourth century, there was a growing sense that material objects, such as the relics of martyrs,...

Introduction Alexandria and Antioch were the second and third most important cities in the Roman empire after Rome. Not surprisingly they also became centers of Biblical exegesis and theology in the early centuries of the Church. Throughout the Christological controversies of the first five centuries, the two cities were like poles representing two different approaches to the questions at hand. At the heart of the matter was the place that Greek philosophy could play in theology. On the one hand the Church leaders in the West and Asia Minor (including Antioch) distrusted Greek philosophy because of their battle with Gnosticism; on the other hand Church leaders in Alexandria followed in the footsteps of the Alexandrian Jewish philosopher Philo, who combined Plato and Judaism, by combining Plato and Christianity. This difference of approach combined with the simultaneous political rivalry for importance in the empire set the stage for a competition between the Alexandrian and Antiochia...

The institution of monasticism had a profound historical influence upon the whole Church--East and West. Although many contemporary Christians might be inclined to consider monasticism as, at best, culturally irrelevant in the modern world or, at worst, spiritually harmful, a look at its early development reveals that it certainly met a felt need of the time and still has the potential to speak positively to the world today. This paper will explore the three things: 1) the initial impetus behind monasticism, 2) its development in the East, and finally 3) its development in the West. The Initial Impetus Behind Monasticism From the time of the apostles until the end of the second century, the perpetual risk of persecution and martyrdom had the effect of keeping the Church relatively pure: Members of the Church were “experiential Christians” (Walker 94). The first half of the third century AD, however, was a period of considerable toleration toward Christianity. Although still illegal...

Introduction Many influences come to bear in the development of primitive Christianity. Understood initially as a sect of Judaism, Christianity was profoundly influenced by first-century Judaism. This post looks at the following elements of first century Judaism and their influence on Christianity: 1) the different sects of Judaism, 2) the institution of the synagogue, and 3) important contemporary philosophical or cultural movements. Different Sects of Judaism First century Judaism was divided into a number of sects reflecting different approaches toward the Law of Moses. We will look at these sects in order: the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Herodians. The Sadducees were those belonging to the aristocratic political party. High priests were drawn from the Sadducees. Although their origins trace back to the Maccabean movement of 167 BC that forcefully resisted the Hellenizing policies of the Seleucid kings, over time the Sadducees embraced Hellenism and became ma...

Introduction The words steward and sojourner encapsulate an important theme in the Old Testament. They inform both the attitude we should adopt and the behavior that we should exhibit toward everything in our purview, whether the land on which we live or the animals and other humans with which we co-inhabit that land. This post will explore three things from the Old Testament: 1) the basis for our identities as stewards, 2) the basis for our identities as sojourners and 3) our responsibilities as such. The Basis for Our Identity as Stewards In the ancient Near East, land usage was both patrimonial and communal. It was conceived of as entrusted by a deity to a person, and then his descendants as a whole had the right to use it. As such, it was not an absolute possession or property. Even the king of a city was conceived of merely as the locum tenens of the deity who was the city’s proper owner. Thus, the land surrounding the city was a patrimony from the deity to the monarch, w...

Introduction It is in the book of Genesis that a Biblical refrain first occurs: “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (50:24). This refrain shows up repeatedly in each of the books of the Pentateuch (especially concentrated in Exodus and Deuteronomy), in the Former Prophets (2 Kings 13:23), in the Latter Prophets (Jeremiah 33:26), as well as repeatedly in the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Its strategic placement both at the end of Genesis and at the end of the entire Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 34:4) gives the impression that the separate narratives of these three patriarchs can really be viewed as a single narrative from two perspectives: 1) the earth promised to them and 2) the Law that God requires to be obeyed on that earth (Tarazi 123-4). Besides these two themes, there is another important theme that recurs in all three narratives: the struggle to secure progeny. One might say that the patriarchal narratives are a case study in three different ways of relating to promised ea...

Introduction The liturgical life of nascent Judaism was structured around three readings, one from each of the three divisions of the Old Testament Scriptures: the Law ( torah ), the Prophets ( nebi’im ), and the Writings ( ketubim ) (Tarazi 157). Prophetic literature frequently includes polemics to demonstrate that Yahweh is the only true God and the deities of the nations are non-entities. The Law and the Writings, on the other hand, assume an equivalence between Yahweh and God (124). This shared assumption in the Law and the Writings reflects the fact that each represents a different approach in the post-exilic Jewish community’s attempt to redefine itself in the absence of a local kingdom. The Law is something that can be implemented anywhere that God’s people gather as a synagogue (121), but in its essence it is still linked with the particular realm of a deity and its monarch (123). Wisdom, which is a dominant theme in the Writings, on the other hand, is universal in nature eve...