The Primacy of Peter-Review

The Primacy of Peter: Essays in Ecclesiology and the Early Church by John Meyendorff

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Although this book is a collection of essays by Eastern Orthodox writers, it is useful for Protestants who are rediscovering their family history, namely the history of the Church. The Orthodox churches have preserved many ancient traditions. We should seek to understand them, at the least, and not dismiss them out of hand. There is also much valuable information for countering the claims of Roman Catholics. The Orthodox claim to be “catholic,” but not Roman. There is a plethora of misinformation about Romanc Catholicism, and the authors in this volume write in an irenic and sympathetic tone. They sincerely desire unity among all Christians, and not mere platitudes about “catholicity.” For some, “catholicity” seems to mean that we can all just affirm the Apostle’s Creed, and then go our separate ways. This is not what “catholicity” meant to the Church Fathers, nor do I believe the Apostles would be pleased with our reductionism. Lastly, for those of us in the CREC, I believe this book contains gems of insight into the importance of the “local church,” and how the primacy of the local church relates to “catholicity.” Highly recommended for the stout of heart!

View all my reviews >>

St. Basil on Worship

St. Basil – “If the ocean is beautiful and worthy of praise to God, how much more beautiful is the conduct of this Christian assembly, where the voices of men, women, and children, blended and sonorous like the waves that break upon the beach, rise amidst our prayers to the very presence of God.” (Frederick Morgan Padelford, Essays on the Study and Use of Poetry by Plutarch and Basil the Great, Yale Studies in English 15 [1902] pp. 33-43.)

A Wonderful Image

Wonderful quote from Dorotheus of Gaza, a mystic from the 6th century.  As she imagined, “ the world as a circle on the ground at whose center was God, she wrote, ‘Leading from the edge to the center are a number of lines, representing ways of life.  In their desire to draw near to God, the saints advance along these lines to the middle of the circle, so that the further they go, the nearer they approach one another as well as God.  The closer they come to God, the closer they come to one another” (Judith Dupre, Churches, 156). 

(I just finished Churches for a study I’m doing for our local church.  It’s a great coffee-table book.  It’s huge, and you can get it cheaply on Amazon.  You need huge pictures to get some sense of what the magnificent churches of Christendom look, and feel, like!)

The Church Fathers Knew the Bible!

The Fathers quoted Scripture constantly.  Bruce Metzger notes: “so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament.”[1]

We might criticize some of the father for this or that doctrinal oddity, but we should respect their deep knowledge, and reverance for, the Scriptures. 

---

[1] Meztger, The Text of the New Testament, 3^rd ed., 86, qtd. in Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible, 106.

Tertullian on Sleep and the Soul

Interesting theology of sleep (as a typology of death) – A Treatise on the Soul, chap. 43:

 

If you receive your instruction from God, (you will find) that the fountain of the human race, Adam, had a taste of drowsiness before having a draught of repose; slept before he laboured, or even before he ate, nay, even before he spoke; in order that men may see that sleep is a natural feature and function, and one which has actually precedence over all the natural faculties. From this primary instance also we are led to trace even then the image of death in sleep. For as Adam was a figure of Christ, Adam’s sleep shadowed out the death of Christ, who was to sleep a mortal slumber, that from the wound inflicted on His side might, in like manner (as Eve was formed), be typified the church, the true mother of the living. This is why sleep is so salutary, so rational, and is actually formed into the model of that death which is general and common to the race of man.  God, indeed, has willed (and it may be said in passing that He has, generally, in His dispensations brought nothing to pass without such types and shadows) to set before us, in a manner more fully and completely than Plato’s example, by daily recurrence the outlines of man’s state, especially concerning the beginning and the termination thereof; thus stretching out the hand to help our faith more readily by types and parables, not in words only, but also in things. He accordingly sets before your view the human body stricken by the friendly power of slumber, prostrated by the kindly necessity of repose immoveable in position, just as it lay previous to life, and just as it will lie after life is past: there it lies as an attestation of its form when first moulded, and of its condition when at last buried-awaiting the soul in both stages, in the former previous to its bestowal, in the latter after its recent withdrawal. Meanwhile the soul is circumstanced in such a manner as to seem to be elsewhere active, learning to bear future absence by a dissembling of its presence for the moment. We shall soon know the case of Hermotimus. But yet it dreams in the interval. Whence then its dreams? The fact is, it cannot rest or be idle altogether, nor does it confine to the still hours of sleep the nature of its immortality. It proves itself to possess a constant motion; it travels over land and sea, it trades, it is excited, it labours, it plays, it grieves, it rejoices, it follows pursuits lawful and unlawful; it shows what very great power it has even without the body, how well equipped it is with members of its own, although betraying at the same time the need it has of impressing on some body its activity again. Accordingly, when the body shakes off its slumber, it asserts before your eye the resurrection of the dead by its own resumption of its natural functions.  Such, therefore, must be both the natural reason and the reasonable nature of sleep. If you only regard it as the image of death, you initiate faith, you nourish hope, you learn both how to die and how to live, you learn watchfulness, even while you sleep (emphasis added).[1]

---

[1] http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.iv.xi.xliii.html

Pseudo-Scholarship & Opportunities to Evangelize

Darrell Bock has good observations and advice on how to deal with the all the media hype about the “latest-greatest Jesus”.  The bottom line is that all the interest in works like The Da Vinci Code and the tomb of James, “the brother of Jesus” present a wonderful opportunity to evangelize.  The problem is that most Christians don’t know enough history to combat the silliness of Hollywood or the one-sided scholarship of much Jesus research.  Tolle lege–take up those church history books and read!  The fields are ripe for a harvest!

We Exist for the Love of God

The medieval mystic, Julian of Norwich (circa 1373), claimed to see a series of visions, all related to the “Divine Love.”  While much of it is medieval nonsense, there are some gems: “And he showed me more, a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, on the palm of my hand, round like a ball.  I looked at it thoughtfully and wondered, ‘What is this?’  And the answer came, ‘It is all that is made.’  I marvelled that it continued to exist and did not suddenly disintegrate; it was so small.  And again my mind supplied the answer, ‘It exists, both now and forever, because God loves it.’  In short, everything owes its existence to the love of God,” (Revelations of Divine Love, chap. 5).

Academic Mission Opportunity

I came across an exciting mission opportunity for academics. This organization sends Christian teachers into other countries, finding positions for them in secular universities. A quote on their home-page says it all:

“The university is a clear-cut fulcrum with which to move the world. Change the university and you change the world,” declared Dr. Charles Malik, former president of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.

The Gnostic Next Door

I’m almost done reading Irenaeus’s massive Against Heresies, an exhaustive refutation of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism, and a classic defense of orthodox Christian belief.  It took about a year (though I deliberately took it slow).  Some of it is quite tedious, and I often wondered if the pain was worth it.  But, Gnosticism is alive and well, from the Gospel of Thomas, to Joseph Campbell.  More surprisingly, there are actually Gnostic Catholic churches out there!  Go get a copy of Irenaus–there could be a Gnostic right next door.

Living Stones & Historical Irony

Going through my journal of my trip to Italy (5 years ago), I remembered a bit of history which is fascinating and ironic:  the evil Emperor Nero had a fantastic “Villa of Gold” built for himself but, after he died, Titus (I think) destroyed it.  Ancient Romans had a tidy custom of wiping out the monuments of evil rulers.  Titus (I think) then used the stones from Nero’s villa to build the Colosseum.  When the Church finally conquered Rome, stones were plundered from the Colosseum to build St. Peter’s Basilica.  Apparantly, Bernini even used some of the stones to build the magnificent altar.  So the stones which witnessed Christian martyrs torn to shreds eventually became part of the earthly center of the Western church. 

1 Peter 2:5, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

(The choir I was touring with sang during a Mass in St. Peter’s.  Quite an amazing experience.  I can relate to the emissaries from Russia who saw Hagia Sophia for the first time and decided to convert to Christianity because it looked like heaven on earth.  Our architecture really does express our worldview.)

Ascension and the Lord’s Supper

The Ascension of Christ is essential to our understanding of the Lord’s Supper.  Of course, most of what happens to us at this Table remains a mystery, but we can say a few things, given what we know about Christ.  We know that Christ is in heaven, seated at the Father’s right hand.  We also know that Jesus Christ still has a resurrection body.  Many Christians have never thought about this, but it is true.  John says that we don’t know what the resurrection will be like, but we know that we will be like Jesus (1 Jn. 3:2).  And we know that Jesus had a real body that Thomas could touch and feel.  Jesus ate and drank after his resurrection.  This table prepares us for heaven.  Revelation tells us that heaven will be the wedding feast of the Lamb.  We will eat and drink with Jesus in heaven.  We are eating and drinking with him now, in the Church.  But, we often assume heaven will be less than what we know now.  We think we’ll float around, playing harps.  But, what if heaven is an eternal banquet with tastes and pleasures that would make your mind explode now?  Perhaps, when Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding at Cana, he was bringing a little bit of heaven to earth.  Whatever heaven will be, we must guard against the gnostic heresy, which says our bodies are not important to our salvation.  Christ came to save the world, including our bodies.  In the Ascension, Christ took a human body back up to heaven.  Things have changed at the center of the universe.  We can’t go back.  A grand and glorious party is coming.  Don’t be left behind.  If you’ve been baptized, and are not under church discipline, then you are already wearing the wedding garments, and you need to come to this party.

Ascension Day

Thursday was Ascension Day.  Most of American Evangelicals do not know that.  And this is quite ironic.  We just celebrated Mothers’ Day.  Woe to you if you forgot this Most Holy Day!  Memorial Day is coming up.  Most of America has some exciting plan for Memorial Day.  Maybe a few people will actually visit the graves of our fallen soldiers.  But, Ascension Day?  Isn’t that Roman Catholic?  Well, it also happens to be one of the days the Reformers celebrated.  Ascension Day celebrates the ascension of our Lord and Savior back into heaven.  Jesus Christ was the God-Man.  He was God, who became Man, in order to take mankind back into the heavenly places with him.  You see, Jesus did not ascend alone.  As the Head of the Church, our Head ascended back into heaven.  And the location of the head affects the location of the body.  If the head is under water, the body spazzes for a while, and then dies.  But if the head is above the water, the body can be totally under water.  In the same way, if our head were still submerged in this sinful world, we would soon be shark-food.  But, since our Head is at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, we are filled with life, and we kick sharks in the face.  Where our Head is makes all the difference in this world, and the next.  So, let’s reclaim this wonderful Feast Day of the Church.  Our Lord is risen, Amen!  But the glory doesn’t stop there.  Our Lord is ascended into heaven.  Glory!  Hallelujah!  Because he ascended into heaven, we, too, will ascend into heaven.  Blessed be the name of our risen and ascended Lord.  But, we are not fit for heaven while we cling to this sinful life.  So, let us confess our remaining sins to Almighty God …

Irenaeus on Sacramental Realism

Irenaeus seems to argue from sacramental realism to Christological realism.  In other words, because the sacraments are real, Christ’s human body was real.  He argues this way against Marcion: “Moreover, how could the Lord, with any justice, if He belonged to another father, have acknowledged the bread to be His body, while He took it from that creation to which we belong, and affirmed the mixed cup to be His blood?” (Against Heresies, IV.23).

Company of the Fathers

If you’re like me, you already spend too much time on the internet.  While I profess loyalty to the church fathers, it’s hard to actually get around to reading them.  The Company of the Fathers is managed by a classical Protestant scholar and teacher, and provides a schedule for reading through Schaff’s multi-volume collection of the fathers.  We’re jsut starting vol. 3 (Tertullian), so there’s time to catch up!  Plus, it’s all on-line at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, if you’re one of those strange people who can actually read important stuff on the web.

Turretin and Catholicity

Reading Turretin’s “Preface to the Reader” in his Institutes (vol. 1) reminded me of Thomas Oden’s committment to unoriginaltiy: “For since each of the oldest things is most true, no description of better stamp can be given especially in sacred argument than that something has less novelty.  Old is best here and that which goes back to earliest antiquity… Let other books then, be commended by their novelty.  I do not want this statement to justify mine,” (xli-xlii).  One could brush this off as chronological snobbery, or an empty rhetorical claim to continuity with antiquity, but I think we should give Turretin (and the other reformers) their due and recognize their genuine concern to preserve cathol

Avery Dulles on the Ministry

Thus far, I’ve thouroughly enjoyed Avery Cardinal Dulles’s Models of the Church.  If all Roman Catholics (and Protestants!) were as even-handed as he is, we might actually make some real progress towards reform and true catholicity.  I found his remarks on the ministry interesting:

“The New Testament usage cannot be decisive for our terminology today, if only because the structure of ministry seems to have been different in different communities … A curious fact about the New Testament is the absence of any precise indication as to whether there were officers specially designed for cultic functions.  The term ‘priest’ (hiereus) is not applied to any particular class of persons within the Christian community, though the entire Christian community is designated as a ‘priestly people’ (1 Pt. 2:9).  A historical study of the development of Christian ministry would probably show that the Church in every age has adjusted its structures and offices so as to operate more effectively in the social environment in which it finds itself,” (153).

What Dulles highlights is (1) the lack of crystal-clear governmental directives in the NT, (2) the variable nature of church government in history, (3) and, most interestingly, he stays away from “divine right” polemics. 

For me, as a “reformed Catholic,” the question is this: why do we accept and believe the Church’s decisions in determining the canon of Scripture, in the dogmatic decisions of at least the first four Ecumenical Councils, but not in the matter of church government?

Pahls Defines Terms

Michael J. Pahls has a brief summary of all the confusing Anglican church government terms at Reformed Catholicism.

A Good Argument?

In From Apostles to Bishops: The Development of Episcopacy in the Early Church Father Francis A. Sullivan, S.J. presents what seems to be a solid argument in favor of episcopacy.  His conclusions come at the end of an extensive study which argues that the 3-fold ministry of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons is not found in the New Testament.  But, as a good Roman Catholic, he must have some reason for accepting the later episcopal development.  His theological argumentation for episcopal government is as follows:

1. The post-New Testament development is consistent with the development that took place during the New Testament period.

2. The episcopate provided the instrument that the post-New Testament Church needed to maintain its unity and orthodoxy in the face of the dangers of schism and heresy threatening it.

3. The Christian faith recognized the bishops as the successors to the apostles in teaching authority.  The reception of the bishop’s teaching as normative for faith is analogous to the reception of certain christian writings as canonical and normative for faith.  The Holy Spirit guided the Church in determining both norms, for error about the norms would have led to untold errors in faith. (225)

Chrysostom’s On the Priesthood

Relevant quotes from John Chrysostom’s Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood:

“For the priestly office is indeed discharged on earth, but it ranks amongst heavenly ordinances; and very naturally so: for neither man, nor angel, nor archangel, nor any other created power, but the Paraclete Himself, instituted this vocation, and persuaded men while still abiding in the flesh to represent the ministry of angels. Wherefore the consecrated priest ought to be as pure as if he were standing in the heavens themselves in the midst of those powers. Fearful, indeed, and of most awful import, were the things which were used before the dispensation of grace, as the bells, the pomegranates, the stones on the breastplate and on the ephod, the girdle, the mitre, the long robe, the plate of gold, the holy of holies, the deep silence within.  But if any one should examine the things which belong to the dispensation of grace, he will find that, small as they are, yet are they fearful and full of awe, and that what was spoken concerning the law is true in this case also, that “what has been made glorious hath no glory in this respect by reason of the glory which excelleth.”  For when thou seest the Lord sacrificed, and laid upon the altar, and the priest standing and praying over the victim, and all the worshippers empurpled with that precious blood, canst thou then think that thou art still amongst men, and standing upon the earth? Art thou not, on the contrary, straightway translated to Heaven, and casting out every carnal thought from the soul, dost thou not with disembodied spirit and pure reason contemplate the things which are in Heaven? Oh! what a marvel! what love of God to man! He who sitteth on high with the Father is at that hour held in the hands of all, and gives Himself to those who are willing to embrace and grasp Him. And this all do through the eyes of faith! Do these things seem to you fit to be despised, or such as to make it possible for any one to be uplifted against them? … There stands the priest, not bringing down fire from Heaven, but the Holy Spirit: and he makes prolonged supplication, not that some flame sent down from on high may consume the offerings, but that grace descending on the sacrifice may thereby enlighten the souls of all, and render them more refulgent than silver purified by fire. Who can despise this most awful mystery, unless he is stark mad and senseless? Or do you not know that no human soul could have endured that fire in the sacrifice, but all would have been utterly consumed, had not the assistance of God’s grace been great.” (III.4)

Inescapable Creeds

William Hetherington, in his hagiographic and Presbyterian-cheerleading history of the Westminster Assembly, does have a good apologetic for creeds and confessions:

“The Christian Church, as a divine institution, takes the Word of God alone, and the whole Word of God, as her only rule of faith; but she must also frame and promulgate a statement of what she understands the Word of God to teach. This she does, not as arrogating any authority to suppress, change, or amend anything that God’s Word teaches; but in discharge of the various duties which she owes to God, to the world, and to those of her own communion. Since she has been constituted the depositary of God’s truth, it is her duty to him to state, in the most distinct and explicit terms, what she understands the truth to mean … And, since she has been instituted fo the purpose of teaching God’s truth to an erring world, her duty to the world requires that she should leave it in no doubt respecting the manner in which she understands the message which she has to deliver. Without doing so, the Church would be no teacher, and the world might remain untaught, so far as she was concerned,” (History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, 1908).

The most basic argument for creeds and confessions is that everybody does it. If someone were to ask a Christian what the Christian message is, a consistent anti-creedalist could only speak in Bible verses. As soon as we summarize God’s truth in words other than exact Bible quotes, we are writing a creed. The only question is which creeds and confessions are more faithful to God’s revelation.

St. Athansius

Today is the feast day of St. Athanasius, a day when the Church remembers and celebrates the life of the man who stood contra mundum (against the world), defending the deity of Christ from the Arian heretics. George Grant gives some insight into what made Athanasius, and other great saints, so effective in their witness:

“In contrast, the heroes of the faith through the ages have always been diligent, vigilant, and constant in prayer. They humbled themselves before God with prayers, petitions, and supplications always acknowledging their utter dependency upon His mercy and grace. Historical anecdotes abound. Athanasius, for instance, prayed five hours each day. Augustine once set aside eighteen months to do nothing but pray. Bernard of Clairveaux would not begin his daily activities until he had spent at least three hours in prayer. Charles Simeon devoted the hours from four till eight in the morning to God. John Wesley spent two hours daily in prayer–beginning well before dawn. John Fletcher regularly spent all night in prayer. His greeting to friends was always, “Do I meet you praying?”

Nevin on History

John Williamson Nevin believed in the centrality of history in a college curriculum. This makes sense because every subject has a history. Every idea comes from somewhere. We need to hear his words again, especially since Americans are notoriously provincial in their historical memory: “You mean there was civilization before America? There was a church before the Baptist church?” History should teach us a little humility.

In Hart’s summary: “Not only did history interest Nevin for understanding the development of Christianity and the organic qualities of the church, but it also proved to be a subject that gave coherence to the college curriculum. Because the study of history involved the ‘universal relation of the system of nature to the system of living mind in the economy of the world,’ it offered a means of training the mind to see things whole,” (John Williamson Nevin: High Church Calvinist, P&R, 182).

Nevin also resisted the drive toward “practical” education and a million specialized degree programs. Rather, he held fast to the tried and true heritage of liberal education: a broad familiarity with the classics of the pagan world and Christendom, an education that prepared you to do anything, precisely because it prepared you to do nothing (the vision New St. Andrews College is seeking to recover).

Nevin delivered these words to the 1867 graduating class of Franklin and Marshall College: “Let it be our ambition then, and our care, to maintain in vigorous force here, an institution that shall be devoted supremely to liberal education, in the old and proper sense of the term; liberal, as being free from all bondage to merely outside references and ends, as having to do, first of all, with the enlargement of the mind in its own sphere. This, after all, must remain the true conception of education forever,” (Hart, 186-187).

Reformers & the Creeds

My master’s thesis documents how the majority of reformers (and the confessions they wrote) include explicit affirmations of the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. In his book, On the Thirty Nine Articles (Paternoster Press, 1986) Oliver O’Donovan explains the motivations behind these affirmations of the catholic (universal) creeds. Although he writes about the English Reformers and the 39 Articles, his point holds true for the majority of Reformers and Protestant confessions:

“Nevertheless, it is clear what the Reformers wished to establish by their selection of documents: points of contact with the pre-Nicene church, with the Niceno-Constantinopolitan settlement of the trinitarian question, and with the Chalcedonian settlement of the Christological question (to which the Athanasian creed gave the most convenient documentary access). And in establishing these contacts with the church of the first five centuries they intend to be free of the opinions of any individual theologian, however great, and associate themselves only with the most considered doctrinal confessions of the church speaking as a whole,” (54).

In other words, the English Reformers did not want to be “Augustinians”, “Lutherans”, or “Calvinists,” in the sense of following the teachings of any one man. Rather, they affirmed the wise consensus of the church throughout history. They weren’t starting a brand new church; they were reforming something already there.

Bullinger a Proto-Puritan?

According to Philip Benedict, Bullinger’s On the Origin of Errors (1528) is responsible for much liturgical hyper-sensitivity in the Reformed world. It was “a compelling historical account of the gradual corruption of Christian worship through the introduction over time of new rituals. Perhaps more than any other work, it stoked the later Reformed suspicion of the least ritual innovation as a dangerous step down the slippery slope to popery. If the Reformed churches would be always reforming, and if their members would be quick to see small liturgical innovations as huge threats, it would be in large measure because Bullinger had taught them how easily and insensibly rot had infected the church in the past,” (Christ’s Churches Purely Reformed, 58).

Bullinger’s influence on England was profound, so did this influence Puritan anti-ligurgicalism?