The Second Council of Nicaea decreed that religious images are to be venerated, making the cult of icons central in Eastern Orthodoxy. Its Acts are essential reading for the iconoclast controversy, one of the most explored and contested topics in Byzantine history, and significant for the history of culture and the history of art.
The Oxford Handbook of Christology brings together 40 authoritative essays considering the theological study of the nature and role of Jesus Christ. This collection offers dynamic perspectives within the study of Christology and provides rigorous discussion of inter-confessional theology, which would not have been possible even 60 years ago. The first of the seven parts considers Jesus Christ in the Bible. Rather than focusing solely on the New Testament, this section begins with discussion of the modes of God's self-communication to us and suggests that Christ's most original incarnation is in the language of the Hebrew Bible. The second section considers Patristics Christology. These essays explore the formation of the doctrines of the person of Christ and the atonement between the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and the eve of the Second Council of Nicaea. The next section looks at Mediaeval theology and tackles the development of the understanding of who Christ was and of his atoning work. The section on 'Reformation and Christology' traces the path of the Reformation from Luther to Bultmann. The fifth section tackles the new developments in thinking about Christ which have emerged in the modern and the postmodern eras, and the sixth section explains how beliefs about Jesus have affected music, poetry, and the arts. The final part concludes by locating Christology within systematic theology, asking how it relates to Christian belief as a whole. This comprehensive volume provides an invaluable resource and reference for scholars, students, and general readers interested in the study of Christology.
English, Greek, and Latin. Includes the documents in the original text, a reproduction of Conciliorum oecumenicorum decreta, and English translations. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. v. 1. Nicaea I to Lateran V -- v. 2. Trent to Vatican II.
This collection of essays has its origin in a conference held at Oxford in 2006 to mark the publication of the first English edition of the Acts of Chalcedon. Its aim is to place Chalcedon in a broader context, and bring out the importance of the acts of the early general councils from the fifth to the seventh century, documents that because of their bulk and relative inaccessibility have received only limited attention till recently. This volume is evidence that this situation is now rapidly changing, as historians of late antiquity as well as specialists in the history of the Christian Church discover the richness of this material for the exploration of common concerns and tensions across the provinces of the Later Roman Empire, language use, networks of influence and cultural exchange, and political manipulation at many different levels of society. The extent to which the acts were instruments of propaganda and should not be read as a pure verbatim record of proceedings is brought out in a number of the essays, which illustrate the fascinating literary problems raised by these texts.
Twelve scholars contextualize and critically examine the key debates about the controversy over icons and their veneration that would fundamentally shape Byzantium and Orthodox Christianity.
This volume offers partristic commentary edited by Gerald L. Bray on the first article of the Nicene Creed. Readers will gain insight into the history and substance of what the early church believed about God the Father.
In 451 CE the Council of Chalcedon was called to assert the preeminence of orthodox Catholic doctrine against the heresy of men who refused what we now refer to as the Definition of Faith, or the belief in Jesus Christ as both man and divine spirit during his lifetime. This book is suitable for scholars studying this period.
The Lateran Synod of 649 was a major event in the 'monothelete' controversy of the seventh century over 'wills' and 'operations' in Christ. It represented a determined attempt by the papacy to frustrate and reverse the ecclesiastical policy of the emperor and patriarch at Constantinople. It represented the boldest challenge to imperial authority by churchmen that late antiquity had seen. The theology adopted by the synod and its expression in a series of speeches was the work of a team of Greek monks under the leadership of St Maximus the Confessor. This translation will add to the still limited body of material available in English for the study of a writer who is widely held to have been the greatest of all Byzantine theologians. The Acts of the synod have been a major puzzle ever since their editor, Rudolf Riedinger, demonstrated that the Greek version, not the Latin, is the original, even though the council must have conducted its business in Latin. This edition offers a new explanation of this anomaly, which restores authenticity to the synodal sessions, without denying that the Acts, as published, were not a straight factual record but propaganda intended to convince the Roman world of the orthodoxy and authority of the papacy.
The First Council of Ephesus (431) was the climax of the so-called Nestorian Controversy. Convoked by the emperor Theodosius II to restore peace to the Church, it immediately divided into two rival councils, both meeting at Ephesus. Attempts by the emperor's representatives to get the bishops on both sides to meet together had no success, and after four months the council was dissolved without having ever properly met. But a number of decrees by the larger of the two rival councils, in particular the condemnation of Nestorius of Constantinople, were subsequently accepted as the valid decrees of the 'ecumenical council of Ephesus'. The documentation, consisting of conciliar proceedings, letters and other documents, provides information not only about events in Ephesus itself, but also about lobbying and public demonstrations in Constantinople. There is no episode in late Roman history where we are so well informed about how politics were conducted in the imperial capital. This makes the Acts a document of first importance for the history of the Later Roman Empire as well for that of the Church.
Most Christians living in a secular society have unwittingly relegated God and all things spiritual to the "second storey" of the universe: a realm we cannot reach except through death. The effect of this is to banish God, along with the saints and angels, from our everyday lives. Fr. Stephen Freeman makes a compelling case for becoming aware of God's living and active presence in every moment of our lives here and now. Learning to practice your Christian faith in a one-storey universe will change your life--and make possible the living, intimate relationship with God you've always dreamed of.
