Christian Terms

Caiphas

The Jewish High Priest before whom Christ was tried (Mt. 26: 3, etc.).

cuneiform

The characters of wedge-shaped components in which ancient Accadian, Persian, and other inscriptions were written.

Acts of Apostles

The fifth Book of the NT, written by St Luke the author of the Third Gospel. It outlines the mission of the Church from Christ's Ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit to St Paul's visit to Rome c. ad 62. The identity of authorship between the Third Gospel and Acts is now virtually undisputed, and there are some grounds for holding that both are the work of Luke, the companion of Paul mentioned in Col. 4: 14, Philem. 24, and 2 Tim. 4: 11. This is definitely stated by Christian writers from the latter part of the 2nd cent. onwards, e.g. the Muratorian Canon, St Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian. The chief objections to Lucan authorship are the inconsistencies between Acts and the Pauline Epistles, but these can be explained in part by their different aims. The accuracy of the author's information probably varies in different parts of the Book. There are errors (e.g. concerning Theudas), but it would be unreasonable to expect modern attitudes to historical precision, and at some points where Acts coincides with profane history Luke has been supported by modern archaeological finds (e.g. by Sir William Ramsay). In general the narrative is condensed and impressionistic, not exact in its details. Scholars are far from unanimous on the question of date. Two different views were already held in antiquity. Acc. to the so-called Anti-Marcionite 'Prologue of Luke' (at one time dated c. 160-80), Acts was written in Achaia some time after the death of Paul. The more common early opinion dated the Book at the end of or shortly after the Apostle's first Roman captivity. Eusebius based this view chiefly on 2 Tim. 4: 16 ff. It was followed by A. Harnack, who considered it unlikely that Acts would have omitted any mention of Paul's martyrdom if it had already taken place. At the other extreme a few have put forward a 2nd-cent. date. Some have thought that parallels with Josephus imply that the author had read his 'Antiquities' (93), but the majority would probably settle for the 80s. This is late enough to account for an idealized picture of the nascent Church, but prior to systematic persecution by the Roman authorities. The author will have used oral and perhaps written traditions; the apparent existence of doublets in the earlier chapters has been thought to support the latter hypothesis, and scholars such as Harnack once claimed success in separating these sources. Acc. to C. C. Torrey, Acts 1: 2-15: 35 is Luke's translation of a single Aramaic document emanating from Jerusalem which was concerned to show the universal mission of Christianity. The so-called 'We-sections' (Acts 16: 10-17; 20: 5-15; 21: 1-18; 27: 1-28: 16, to which Codex Bezae adds 11: 28) are still often believed to come from the author's own travel diary, thus revealing him as an eyewitness of many of the events he related, but many critics ascribe the use of the first person to one of the author's sources, or his own desire to achieve vividness in his narrative. In any case there are extensive sequences that supply detailed information, as well as others which give a more generalized account. The text of Acts, which has come down to us in two recensions, presents a difficult critical problem. The shorter text is represented by most of the great uncial MSS, e.g. the Codices Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus; the other, longer, text by the so-called 'Western text', esp. Codex Bezae. Several theories have been put forward to account for this divergence. Acc. to one view, represented e.g. by F. Blass and T. Zahn, Luke himself issued his work in two versions; acc. to another, which is much more widely held, the original text was expanded and smoothed over by some writer versed in tradition early in the 2nd cent. The Book of Acts may be conveniently divided into six parts, tracing the progress of Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome. 1: 1-6: 7 describes the Jerusalem Church and the preaching of St Peter; 6: 8-9: 31 the extension of the Church throughout Palestine and the preaching of St Stephen; 9: 32-12: 24 the extension of the Church to Antioch and the conversion of Cornelius; 12: 25-16: 5 Paul's first missionary journey and the Council of Jerusalem; 16: 6-19: 20 the conversion of Macedonia, Greece, and Asia; and 19: 21-28: 31 ends with Paul's journey to Rome as a prisoner and his witness to the Gospel there. The Book emphasizes the Divine origin of Christianity, which is attested by the Apostles and their miracles and martyrdoms. In their discourses with the Jews they affirm that Jesus is the Messiah (2: 36; 4: 27; 9: 22, etc.), proclaimed as such by His Resurrection, of which they are the authorized witnesses (e.g. 1: 22; 3: 15), and foretold in the OT (2: 25-36; 13: 16-38). Salvation is offered through Him, but it is not so clearly associated with His death as it is by Paul. The most striking proofs of the Divine origin of the infant Church are the miraculous intervention of the Holy Spirit in her foundation (2: 1-4), the fervent charity of the first Christians (2: 44-7), the rapid propagation of Christianity, and the Divine help given to the Apostles, esp. to Peter and Paul (chs. 12 and 16). Belief in the Divine status of Christ is reflected, notably in the title 'Lord'. Sins are forgiven through Baptism (2: 38), mention is made of the imposition of hands (8: 15-17; 19: 6), which some have seen as foreshadowing Confirmation, and all the faithful remain in fellowship in 'the breaking of bread' (ἡ κλάσις του̑ ἄρτου, 2: 42; cf. 2: 46; 20: 7), the term used in Acts for the Eucharistic rite. Thus, acc. to Acts, the Church has her special rites from the beginning, by which Christianity is distinguished from Judaism. This distinction becomes noticeable esp. with the conversion of pagans (ch. 11) and through the decision of the Council of Jerusalem (ch. 15) to abrogate certain of the Mosaic observances. The infant Church seems to have been governed first only by the Apostles (2: 42; 4: 33), to whom the 'Seven' were added later (6: 1-6), as well as elders (πρεσβύτεροι, 14: 23; 15: 2, etc.) and bishops (ἐπίσκοποι, 20: 28), the latter two evidently not yet being distinguished. The author may have had a number of aims: to defend Christianity against the charge of political subversion; to demonstrate the essential unity of the Church in its worldwide mission (and here he seems at least to have played down the dissensions which the Epp. show to have been serious), and perhaps to vindicate the part played by Paul. But his main aim can best be seen as to give a picture of what Christianity is, and how the Gospel spread from Jerusalem to Rome. This he does with the help of sermons and speeches, an emphasis on the main stages, and a selection of illuminating incidents. He has undoubtedly given a dramatic picture; a majority of scholars accept it as at least substantially reliable, however partial.

Arianism

The main heresy which denied the full Divinity of Christ, so called after its author, Arius. Arius seems to have held that the Son of God was not eternal but created by the Father from nothing as an instrument for the creation of the world; He was therefore not God by nature, but a creature susceptible to change, even though He differed from other creatures in being the one direct creation of God; His dignity as Son of God was given Him by the Father on account of his foreseen righteousness. Earlier scholars saw this teaching as an adulteration of Christian faith by pagan philosophical concerns; recently it has been argued that a major objective of the Arians was to distinguish the Divinity of the Father from that of the Son in order to express the Incarnation of Christ in a way which did not ascribe the limitations of the Incarnate Son to the full Divinity which they attributed only to the Father. The teaching of Arius, though condemned by a synod at Alexandria (c.320), spread until Constantine, anxious for peace in the Empire, called a General Council which met at Nicaea in 325. The Council, largely under the leadership of Athanasius, defined the Catholic faith in the coeternity and coequality of the Father and the Son; the famous term 'homoousios' ('of one substance') was used to express their consubstantiality. Constantine, at first a supporter of the Nicene faith, soon wavered, and in 350 Constantius, an avowed Arian, became sole ruler. Among the Arians three main groups emerged: the 'Anomoeans', also known in modern times as 'Neo-Arians', pressed the differences between the Father and the Son; the 'Homoeans' tried to avoid dogmatic precision by affirming that the Son is similar to the Father 'according to the Scriptures'; the 'Semiarians' favoured the term 'homoiousios' ('of like substance') as expressing both the similarity and the distinction between the first two Persons of the Trinity. A Homoean formula, drawn up by a Council of Sirmium (357), was accepted by a double Council of E. and W. bishops which met at Seleucia and Ariminum respectively in 359. This crowning victory of Arianism frightened the Semiarians into the ranks of orthodoxy, and with the death of Constantius (361) Arianism lost its chief supporter. In 362 Athanasius held a Council which helped to unite a wide spectrum of opponents of Arianism. In the W. Arius had little direct influence, though for some time a more straightforward biblical form of subordinationism was a powerful force there. The brilliant expositions of the Nicene faith by the Cappadocian Fathers prepared the way for the final victory of orthodoxy at the Council of Constantinople in 381. Driven from the Empire, Arianism retained a hold among the Teutonic tribes, which prevented their assimilation with their Catholic subjects when they overran most of the W. Empire and caused persecutions in Spain and N. Africa. The conversion of the Franks to Catholicism (496) was the prelude to the disappearance of Arianism.

Christology

The study of the Person of Christ, and in particular of the union in Him of the Divine and human natures, and of His significance for Christian faith. In the NT Jesus of Nazareth is presented as a teacher, a prophet, and as Messiah (the Christ), but such merely human categories were felt to be inadequate; instead of being an interpreter of the Law, Jesus is seen as superseding the Law (Mt. 5: 21-48), and the role in the work of creation that Jewish thought had ascribed to the Torah or Wisdom is attributed to Christ, the Son of God, the Word (1 Cor. 8: 6; Heb. 1: 2; Jn. 1: 3). The idea that in Jesus was encountered the One through whom God had made the universe provided a starting-point for a more philosophical approach to Christology. The Apologists of the 2nd cent. saw Jesus as the Logos or Word of God, understood as the source of all order and rationality; in Jesus the Logos united Himself to a human being. For them, however, the Logos was an intermediary between God and the world, distinct from Him. When Arius (d.336) held that such a subordinate Logos was not the uncreated God but part of the created order, he was opposed by those for whom to say that Jesus was the Logos incarnate was to say in some way that He is God. At the Council of Nicaea (325) Arius was condemned and it was asserted that the Son of God who became incarnate in Jesus is 'consubstantial with the Father'. Such a clear affirmation of the divinity of Christ provoked debate. The Alexandrians stressed that in Christ God Himself was living a human life; the Antiochenes emphasized that in Christ both humanity and divinity cooperated without involving any encroachment on the reality of either nature. After the Council of Ephesus (431) had rejected Nestorius' objection to the title of 'Theotokos' ('Mother of God') being applied to the BVM, Cyril of Alexandria and the moderate Antiochenes reached an agreement enshrined in the 'Formulary of Reunion' (433); this affirmed the unity of Christ and asserted that He is 'consubstantial with the Father in Godhead and consubstantial with us in manhood'. Eutyches in 447 began to teach that after the union there was one nature and that this nature was not 'consubstantial with us', but this teaching was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon (451), which asserted that there is 'one Christ...in two natures, without confusion, without change, without separation'. It also endorsed the Christological teaching of Pope Leo that there is one subject in Christ, to which, paradoxically, two sets of attributes, Divine and human, are to be ascribed. Neither the Council of Ephesus nor that of Chalcedon secured complete agreement. Those who supported Nestorius rejected the Council of Ephesus and formed a schismatic Church, the Church of the East. The so-called 'Monophysites' rejected the Chalcedonian Definition. In an effort to secure agreement between the Chalcedonians and the Oriental Orthodox Churches the 6th-cent. 'Neo-Chalcedonians' developed the doctrine of 'Enhypostasia' (q.v.). In the W. the Chalcedonian Definition was generally accepted. At the Reformation Christological concern shifted from the question of the two natures of Christ to a more direct analysis of His work in redemption. J. Calvin stressed the Divine transcendence, while the Lutheran tradition developed a new Christology of the two states of Christ's humiliation and exaltation in cross and resurrection, in accounting for the biblical stress on historical contingency in the Incarnation. This led to reflection on kenosis (self-emptying) in Jesus and in God. After the Enlightenment a new Christology was produced which tended to see belief in the divinity of Christ as a way of articulating the conviction that the distinctive character of Christian faith in God is that this faith is focused on Jesus of Nazareth. It looked for the divinity of Jesus in the unique quality of His life on earth. In reaction to such an approach the so-called 'dialectical theology' arose. K. Barth's God is wholly other; in Christ He reveals Himself as and when He wishes. For R. Bultmann Jesus is the one who confronts people with an eschatological message, demanding response. Bultmann's pupils developed a 'New Quest' of the historical Jesus, accepting the importance of kerygma, but seeking again to relate it to history. J. Moltmann sees the cross of Christ as the key not just to Christology but to all legitimate talk about God. Liberation theology relates the Incarnation to salvation directly in its commitment to love of the poor and dispossessed

dualism

1 A metaphysical system which holds that good and evil are the product of separate and equally ultimate first causes. 2 The view that in the Incarnate Christ there were not merely two natures but two persons, a human and a Divine.

Auf-klar-ung

"Enlightenment" -- A movement of thought which appeared in a particularly clear-cut form in 18th-cent. Germany. It combined opposition to all supernatural religion and belief in the sufficiency of human reason with a desire to promote human happiness in this life. One of its ideals was religious toleration. See also Enlightenment.

Augustine of Hippo

(354-430), Bp. of Hippo Regius (modern Annaba, on the coast of Algeria) and 'Doctor of the Church'. Aurelius Augustinus was born at Thagaste (modern Souk-Ahras, in Algeria), to a pagan father Patricius, a member of the town council, and his Christian wife (St Monica), through whom he was made a catechumen in infancy. Augustine's home culture was Latin, and teachers at Thagaste, nearby Madauros, and Carthage gave him a mastery of Latin literature and rhetoric, with some knowledge of Greek. In adolescence he lost his faith, and at the age of 17 he took a concubine with whom he lived for 15 years; she bore him a son, Adeodatus (d. 389). In 373, when he was 18, Augustine read Cicero's (lost) Hortensius. This reawakened his religious aspirations, but disillusionment with the Old Latin Bible's style and content led him away from his mother's faith to Manichaeism. The Manichees retained his loose adherence for a decade, as he passed through successive teaching posts at Carthage, Rome, and Milan. Here, for reasons of secular ambition, he painfully abandoned the liaison with the mother of his son and was betrothed to a 12-year-old heiress found by Monica. This turmoil coincided with a religious crisis to which various factors contributed: loss of belief in Mani's mythology, the positive influence of St Ambrose's sermons (which he attended initially for their rhetorical power but increasingly for their content), attachment to a group of enthusiastic students of Plotinus and Porphyry, and asthmatic attacks which forced him to retire from his Milan professorship when he was 32. In July 386 in a garden in Milan he came to a decision to abandon secular hopes, his career in rhetoric, and marriage. On Easter Eve 387 he was baptized by Ambrose. He moved to Rome and, having buried Monica at Ostia, returned to Africa in the late summer of 388. At Thagaste he and a group of friends established an ascetic lay community. In 391, when visiting Hippo Regius, Augustine was seized by the people and against his will ordained priest by the aged Bp. Valerius. Probably in the summer of 395 be became coadjutor bishop and was in sole charge after Valerius' death soon afterwards. He himself died on 28 Aug. 430, when the Vandals were besieging Hippo. Augustine's consecration as bishop was controversial, not least on account of his Manichaean past. During his priesthood he produced tracts against the Manichees and in the three years after he became bishop he wrote the deeply anti-Manichaean Confessions (q.v.). Against Mani he used Neoplatonist arguments to counter belief in an ultimate power of darkness too strong for the good Light to eliminate; he defended the canonical OT (rejected by Mani), and he upheld the use of wine in both natural and sacramental contexts as well as the admission of married Christians to full Church membership by Baptism. Crucial to Augustine's rebuttal of Mani is the vindication of religious authority both in the biblical canon and in the world-wide Church: 'I would not have believed the gospel unless the universal Church had constrained me to do so' (C. Ep. Fund. 5. 6). Augustine nevertheless remained influenced by Mani's contention that unregenerate humanity lacks free will to perform any good action, and the proposition that sexuality exercises a downward pull on the soul (common to Mani and the Platonists) was important to Augustine both in his ascetic ideals and in his articulation of the doctrine of 'original sin'. Augustine's opposition to Donatism helped him to win the confidence of the Catholic community. He wrote a popular, versified narrative of the schism's origin and invited Donatist bishops to public debate on the central issue of unity versus holiness. He persuaded the primate, Aurelius, Bp. of Carthage, to call episcopal councils to achieve a common front, and he sought to induce his colleagues to recognize the sacraments conferred by Donatists, including Orders. To this end he developed the distinction between validity (q.v.) and efficacy: even though valid, Baptism or Ordination does not benefit the recipient until brought within the fold. This conciliatory sacramental theology was assisted by the doctrine of predestination: 'Many who seem to be without are within, and many who seem to be within are without.' Augustine initially opposed the use of coercion against the Donatists, but from 405 Imperial government pressure was increasingly successful in reconciling Donatists to Catholicism, and by the time of the conference at Carthage in May 411, he accepted its legitimacy within certain limitations. In Confessions, 10. 29 (40) Augustine prayed 'You have commanded continence. Grant what you command and command what you will'. In 405 this was quoted at Rome by a bishop condoning Christians of unregenerate sexual life; it caused outrage to Pelagius, a respected spiritual director. He felt that Augustine's doctrine destroyed human responsibility; if God gives a moral command one cannot say that its keeping is inherently impossible, and while the assistance of grace is necessary, the agent of a moral action has a part to play. Against this, in a vast body of anti-Pelagian writings, Augustine argued that without grace there could be no faith, no act of good will; the catastrophic consequences of Adam's fall have made humanity corrupt and selfish, locked into a sinful social tradition: therefore the grace needed is more than external instruction and example and has to be the love of God poured into the passive heart by which humanity is enabled to do right because it is then enjoyable. Nevertheless, though Baptism is the sacrament of remission of sins both actual and 'original' (i.e. corporately transmitted from Adam), no believer attains perfection, being tied down by the body's desires. The sexual instinct is never without some flaw of egotism, even if procreative marriage makes good use of it. Even the virtuous actions of good pagans are flawed. That salvation is wholly by grace is the logic of predestination: by an eternal decree antecedent to merit God has shown His mercy in choosing a substantial minority of souls who are granted the gift of perseverance. Augustine sometimes thought it possible that God's decree not only brought the elect to salvation but also consigned the reprobate to hell; more often in his later works he preferred to say that God allowed but did not decree the latter. During the years of the Pelagian controversy, Augustine was also engaged in writing a massive vindication of Christianity against pagan critics who held that the abandonment of the old gods was responsible for the sack of Rome in 410. The 22 books of The City of God appeared in instalments (416-22). The old Republic had been sordid and its religion trivial, and its gods had not delivered the human happiness and order they promised. Augustine then discussed the State under a Christian emperor. He disapproved of torture and capital punishment, though conceding that judges had to punish criminals to protect society; slavery was a symptom of humanity's fallen estate, and in a violent world the Church was called to represent forgiveness and humanity. But the city of God is an otherworldly society towards which one can struggle now by restraining injustice, but which is realized beyond this life. The two 'cities', earthly and heavenly, are distinct. Augustine's ethic is ascetic. The corruption of society is seen in lust for dehumanizing or degrading entertainments (gladiators killing in the amphitheatre, eroticism in the theatre); in inhuman torture and capital punishment; in war for aggression rather than for self-defence, which he thought 'just' provided also that its end was to achieve fraternal peace with the enemy; in the selfish quest for power, honour, wealth, and sex, though all four could also be used for positive social ends. The root cause of injustice and wrong is the treatment of means as ends and ends as means. We enjoy what we ought only to use and vice versa. The morality of an individual action depends on its intention in the situation, and the one moral absolute is the 'Golden Rule'. The purpose of the conjugal act is procreation, but its use for mutual delight is pardonable. The foundation of Christian marriage is consent, mutual fidelity, and recognition that in God's sight it is indissoluble. The problems of sexuality lie in its involuntary and irrational impulses, from which Adam and Eve in paradise were free.Between 399 and 419 Augustine wrote On the Trinity in 15 books. The central theme is that there is nothing irrational in the notion of being one and three, since being, knowing, and willing are all constitutive of human personality. There are, however, difficulties in using this analogy to understand the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God yet distinct in their mutual relations. An ascending series of triads culminates in the unity of thought, speech, and will, and in the interpenetration of knowing and loving. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son. Jn. 20: 22 suggests that the coming forth of the Spirit is from the Father through the Son, and to join the Son with the Father averts an Arianizing understanding of the Trinity as an unequal Triad. Augustine's speculation, later taken as formal theology, laid the foundation for the Filioque. The heart of Augustine's religion is seen in his Tractates on St John's Gospel, his Sermons, esp. on the Psalms, and his Rule for monks and nuns (see Augustine of Hippo, Rule of St). These express not only his spirituality, the yearning (desiderium) for God which for him is the hallmark of authentic faith, but also his profound sense of the ecclesial community, the body which with Christ as its head is the totus Christus. No scandal is bad enough to make anyone right to leave it. Exegesis of Scripture became increasingly important to Augustine. His treatise De Doctrina Christiana sought both to place biblical study in relation to secular culture and to articulate principles of interpretation so that one can discern what is literal and what allegorical. His Harmony of the Evangelists answers pagan criticism that the inconsistencies of the Gospels invalidate their authority. Other tracts include De cura pro mortuis, arguing that prayer for the faithful departed is right, but that whether they are buried in any particular place is a matter of indifference; two treatises on lying, which is held to be wrong if intended to deceive and always dangerously likely to diminish respect for the truth;

"Confessions of St. Augustine"

The anti-Manichaean prose-poem written by St Augustine c.398-400. The title means both 'confessing' in the biblical sense of praising God, and also avowal of faults. Books 1-9 are autobiographical; the last four deal with memory, time, creation, and an allegory of the Church in Gen. 1.

Apostolic Age

A modern title for the first period in the history of the Church, falling approximately within the lifetime of the Apostles.

Diatessaron

The edition of the four Gospels in a continuous narrative, compiled by Tatian c.150-60. In Syriac-speaking countries it became the standard text until it gave way to the four separate Gospels in the 5th cent. Its original language was probably Syriac or Greek.

antilegomena

The name given by Eusebius of Caesarea to those Scriptural books whose claim to be considered part of the NT Canon was disputed.

Baptism

The sacramental rite, involving the use of water, by which a candidate is admitted to the Church. It is clear that it goes back to the earliest days from the many references in Acts and in the Epistles of St Paul. Traditionally it has been held that Christ Himself instituted the sacrament, but how far He made His intentions explicit, or indeed envisaged the Church as a continuing institution, is now disputed. Baptism has been in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at least since the end of the 1st cent. In the early Church it was normally administered by immersion. The rite, at which the bishop usually presided, included the laying on of hands and anointing, and culminated in the Eucharist. (For the later division of these ceremonies in the W., see Confirmation.) In the first four or five centuries it was common to defer Baptism until death was thought to be imminent because of the responsibilities attached to it. The theology of Baptism was elucidated by the 3rd-cent. controversy over the validity of Baptism administered by heretics. Largely through the influence of St Augustine, it came to be accepted that the validity of sacraments depended on the use of the correct form, regardless of the faith or worthiness of the minister. Against the Pelagians Augustine maintained that one of the chief effects of Baptism was the removal of the stain of Original Sin on the soul which bars even the new-born child from Heaven. He also held that the Holy Spirit produced in Baptism an effect independent of sanctifying grace; it could not be destroyed and was not to be repeated. In the 16th cent. various aspects of Catholic teaching were rejected by the Reformers. M. Luther sought to combine belief in the necessity of Baptism with his doctrine of justification by faith alone; for him Baptism was a promise of Divine grace after which people's sins are no longer imputed to them. U. Zwingli denied the necessity of Baptism, seeing in it only a sign admitting a person to the Christian community. J. Calvin taught that it was efficacious only for the elect, since they alone had the faith without which it was worthless. The BCP preserved the traditional Catholic teaching. At the Council of Trent, the RC Church stressed that Baptism is not merely a sign of grace, but actually contains and confers it on those who put no obstacle in its way. Since the Second Vatican Council, the RC Church has again linked Baptism with Confirmation and First Communion as sacraments of initiation. The forms of the rite used in the RC Church are the most elaborate found in the W. In the case of children it includes an undertaking from the parents that the child shall be brought up in the Christian faith, a prayer of exorcism, blessing of water, renunciation of evil by parents and godparents and a declaration of faith, Baptism by immersion or affusion with the Trinitarian formula, and anointing with chrism. The child's father, godfather, or someone else, holds a candle lit from the Paschal Candle. The Baptism of Adults is not very different, except for the omission of the chrismation; it is followed immediately by Confirmation. The C of E rite is similar but simpler. In CW, renunciation of evil is followed by the signing of each candidate with the cross, blessing of water, and Baptism by immersion or affusion, using the Trinitarian formula. There is provision for the optional use of oil and clothing with a white robe

Baruch II

'The Syrian Apocalypse'. A Jewish work which professes to have been written by Baruch, Jeremiah's secretary. It was probably written after the fall of Jerusalem in ad 70 to encourage the Jews after the destruction of the Temple. It was composed in Greek, but mostly survives only in Syriac.

Athenagoras

(2nd cent.), Apologist. His 'Apology' or 'Supplication', addressed c.177 to Marcus Aurelius and his son, sought to rebut the current calumnies against the Christians, namely atheism, Thyestian banquets, and Oedipean incest. A treatise 'On the Resurrection' is ascribed to him, but this attribution has been challenged.

Dura Europos

an ancient city on the R. Euphrates. Excavations have revealed the earliest securely dated Jewish synagogue (before ad 245) and an early Christian church. This was constructed from two rooms of a private house and probably dates from the 240s.

Celsus

(2nd cent.), pagan philosopher. His 'True Discourse' (c.178) is the earliest literary attack on Christianity of which details have survived; most of it is preserved in Origen's reply. Celsus praised the Logos doctrine and the Christian moral code, but he objected to the exclusive claims of the Church and appealed to Christians to abandon their religious and political intolerance. He found the doctrines of the Incarnation and Crucifixion repugnant.

John Chrysostom

(347-407) Bp. of Constantinople. He studied at Antioch and later (c.373) became a hermit. Made deacon in 381 and priest in 386, he was specially charged with the task of preaching ('Chrysostom' means 'golden-mouthed'). His famous series of sermons 'On the Statues' was given in 387 after a riot at Antioch in which the Imperial statues were overthrown. His homilies on Books of the Bible establish his title as the greatest Christian expositor. These works combine a great facility for seeing the spiritual meaning of an author with an equal ability for immediate practical application. He was, however, opposed to the allegorical exegesis of Scripture and stressed the importance of the literal sense. In 398 he was made Patr. of Constantinople. He incurred the hostility of the Empress Eudoxia. When he sheltered the Tall Brothers, who had fled from Egypt after the condemnation of Origenism, Theophilus, Patr. of Alexandria, took the opportunity to humiliate the see of Constantinople. At the Synod of the Oak (403), which was packed by Theophilus, Chrysostom was condemned and deposed. Though recalled by the Court, his plain speaking antagonized the Empress and on a technicality he was exiled. Feast day in the W., 13 Sept. (formerly 27 Jan., also observed in parts of the Anglican Communion The normal liturgy used in the E. Orthodox Church except on a few days in the year. In its present form it is much later than the time of St Chrysostom. Most scholars question the grounds for associating it with him at all, but parallels in his works have led in recent times to a defence of the connection. It probably owed its influence to being the liturgy of the imperial capital.

Clement of Alexandria

(c. 150-c. 215), theologian. Practically nothing is known of his life. Perhaps born in Athens, after studying Christianity and philosophy in several places, he became a pupil of Pantaenus in Alexandria. He assumed the role of teacher himself (c.190), continuing after Pantaenus' death, but fled from Alexandria in the persecution c.202. Eusebius (HE 6. 13. 1-14. 7) mentions several of his works, of which the following survive: the Protrepticus, or an 'Exhortation to the Greeks'; the Paedagogus, on Christian life and manners; eight Books of Stromateis, or 'Miscellanies' (though the last Book seems to be a misplaced fragment on logic); Excerpta ex Theodoto (extracts from the work of Theodotus, a Valentinian Gnostic); Eclogae propheticae (these two last may be material for the apparently missing eighth book of Stromateis); a homily (Quis dives salvetur?), and several fragments. Clement's work represents an attempt to meet the charge of such pagan critics of Christianity as Celsus that it is a religion for the ignorant. He treads a middle way between heretical Gnosticism which had intellectual pretensions and a religion of simple faith, seeing in Christianity the fulfilment both of the OT Scriptures and of Greek philosophy. His theology is presented as a spiritual journey in the threefold work consisting of the Protrepticus, the Paedagogus, and the (projected) Didascalus (or 'Teacher', to which the Stromateis seems to bear a somewhat ambiguous relationship). In the first, the Logos exposes the error and immorality of Greek religion and leads men, through Baptism, to the true and pure religion of Christianity. In the second, the Logos as paedagogus, nurse, and physician, watches over the newly-born Christian soul, trains it in appropriate virtues, and prepares it to grasp the deeper teaching (essentially of the Scriptures) which the Logos will expound as didascalus. In all this Clement is deeply indebted to contemporary Middle Platonic philosophy, and he uses many themes from the Gnostics: he applies the term 'gnostic' to the Christian who has attained the deeper teaching of the Logos. The ultimate goal of the Christian life is presented as deification, identified both as Platonic 'assimilation to God' (Theat. 176 b) and as the biblical idea of imitation of God (cf. Mt. 5:48, and the example of Moses following God).

Didymus

An alternative name for the Apostle St Thomas. Greek (lit. twin)

"The Analogy of Religion"

1736. J. Butler's famous book seeks to show both that Christianity is not unreasonable and that both Natural and Revealed Religion are positively reasonable. He argues that various objections to particular religious beliefs are not decisive, since similar objections can be raised with respect to non-religious beliefs concerning nature. The balance of probability points to the truth of both Natural and Revealed Religion whose propositions are of practical importance.

Basil the Great

330-379. one of the three Cappadocian Fathers. The brother of St Gregory of Nyssa, he settled as a hermit near Neocaesarea in 358; he left his retirement only when called upon by his bishop to defend orthodoxy against the Arian Emp. Valens. In 370 he became Bp. of Caesarea in Cappadocia. This office involved him in controversies with the extreme Arian party led by Eunomius, as well as with the Pneumatomachi, who denied the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. His writings include a large collection of letters, a treatise 'On the Holy Spirit', and three 'Books against Eunomius'. With St Gregory of Nazianzus he compiled the 'Philocalia'. He tried to reconcile the Semiarians to the formula of Nicaea and to show that their term 'homoiousios' ('like in substance [to the Father]') had the same implications as the Nicene 'homoousios' ('of one substance'). The virtual termination of the Arian controversy after the Council of Constantinople of 381 is a tribute to his success. He possessed great talent for organization and impressed on E. monasticism the structure and ethos which it has retained ever since

Aristotle

384-322 BCE -- He was a member of the group which gathered round Plato in Athens. He was later tutor to the future Alexander the Great. On his return to Athens, though he did not sever his connection with the Academy, he opened a rival school at the Lyceum in 335. Though he was a disciple of Plato, his philosophical position was very different. Whereas Plato set out from a world of 'ideas', Aristotle asserted that an idea exists only as expressed in the individual object. Thus he held that, so far from there being an idea 'tree' possessing existence in its own right, it is the union of the 'form' tree with 'matter' which makes the real individual tree. This view required a theory of causation to account for the conjunction of form and matter, and Aristotle was thus led to postulate a 'First Cause', though he did not hold this supreme cause to be personal in the Christian sense. Aristotle's philosophy was regarded with suspicion in the early Church, largely because it was thought to lead to a materialistic view of the world. Aristotle was conceived as diametrically opposed to Plato, who was held in high esteem.

Benedict (St.) -- Rule of St. Benedict

480-550. The licentiousness of society at Rome led him to withdraw c.500 to a cave at Subiaco to live as a hermit. A community grew up around him and he is said to have established a group of monasteries in the area. Local jealousy prompted him to move, with a small group of monks, to Monte Cassino, c.529. Here he elaborated plans for the reform of monasticism and composed his Rule (see Benedict, rule of st). The monastic Rule drawn up by St Benedict of Nursia c.540 for his monks, mostly laymen, at Monte Cassino. Drawing freely on earlier Rules, Benedict created a taut, inclusive, and individual directory of the spiritual as well as of the administrative life of a monastery.

Domitian, Titus Flavius

51-96. Roman Emperor from 81. Roman historians ranked him as a tyrant; Christian tradition held him to have been a persecutor. Under his successor, being a Christian was already a capital offence, but this may have been the case continuously since the reign of Nero.

Book of Baruch

A Book of the Apocrypha to which is attached the 'Epistle of Jeremy' (q.v.), the two forming, with Lamentations, appendices to the Book of Jeremiah. It consists of an introduction professing to be by Baruch, Jeremiah's secretary, a liturgical confession, a sermon, and a set of canticles. It is generally dated in post-Maccabean times, possibly after ad 70.

Catechetical School of Alexandria

A Christian school in Alexandria, concerned with advanced teaching in theology and with a succession of teachers in charge from the 2nd to the 4th cent., is depicted by Philip Sidetes (5th cent.) and, with some differences, by Eusebius of Caesarea; it is not, however, clear that this picture is accurate. It is more probable that there were various individual teachers, and it is uncertain whether advanced teaching continued after Origen's departure to Caesarea in 251.

Barnabas & Epistle of Barnabas

A Jewish Levite who became one of the earliest Christian disciples in Jerusalem. Along with St Paul, he is called an Apostle (Acts 14: 14). He introduced Paul to the Apostles after his conversion and went with him on his first 'missionary journey'; later, owing to a dispute over John Mark, they parted, and Barnabas sailed for Cyprus. He is the traditional founder of the Cypriot Church and legend asserts that he was martyred at Salamis in ad 61 An epistle ascribed to the Apostle Barnabas, but perhaps written by a Christian of Alexandria some time between 70 and 150. It contains a strong attack on Judaism and claims to find in the OT testimonies for Christianity.

Letter of Aristeas

A Jewish pseudepigraphical letter which contains a legend of how the LXX came to be miraculously written. Its composition has been variously dated between 200 bc and ad 33.

Caesarea (Palestine)

A city on the coast north of Jaffa, it was rebuilt by Herod the Great and renamed in honour of the Emp. Augustus. It became the capital of Palestine (c.13 bc). In the course of a visit by St Peter, the Holy Spirit was here first given to the Gentiles (Acts 10: 44 f.). St Paul was imprisoned here for two years (Acts 23: 23; 24: 27). The home of Origen from 231, Caesarea became noted as a seat of learning. The city was important during the Crusades, but was demolished in 1265.

Baptism in the Spirit

A doctrine now best known in its Pentecostal form. Pentecostals generally claim that the believer is empowered for Christian witness through a unique action of Christ (cf. Mk. 1: 8), distinct from conversion or sacramental Baptism ('water baptism'). They maintain that, as the Holy Spirit fell on the first Apostles, so those summoned to be likewise 'filled' (cf. Acts 2: 4) are 'baptized in the Holy Spirit' (cf. Acts 11: 15 f.), and that the normal outward sign of this 'baptism' is their breaking into tongues (i.e. glossolalia) (cf. Acts 10: 44-7). This teaching has been accepted in a modified form by many members of the Charismatic Renewal Movement in the main Churches.

antinomianism

A general name for the view that Christians are by grace set free from the need of observing any moral law. It was attributed to St Paul by his opponents (Rom. 3: 8) because of his disparagement of the Mosaic Law in favour of the Law of the New Covenant 'written in the heart'—an internal impulse towards good—and strenuously repudiated by him. The charge of antinomianism was plausibly made against many of the Gnostic sects, e.g. the Carpocratians, who held that, as matter was so sharply opposed to spirit, bodily actions were indifferent and therefore licentiousness was wholly admissible.

Epistle to Diogentus

A letter in Greek written by an unknown Christian to an otherwise unknown inquirer. It probably dates from the 2nd or 3rd cent. The author explains why paganism and Judaism cannot be tolerated, describes Christians as the soul of the world, and insists that Christianity is the unique revelation of God.

Antiochene Theology

A modern designation for a style of theology associated with the Church at Antioch, contrasted with Alexandrine theology. In scriptural exegesis it placed more emphasis on the literal and historical sense of the biblical text. In its Christological teaching, stress was laid on the humanity of Christ and the reality of His moral choices. To achieve this, and to preserve the impassibility of His Divine nature, the unity of His person was described in a looser way than in Alexandrian theology. It was primarily this difference which was at the heart of the Nestorian controversy.

Alexandrian Theology

A modern designation for a style of theology associated with the Church of Alexandria. It is particularly used (in contrast to Antiochene theology) of forms of belief which emphasized the Divine nature of Christ and the unity of His person. In their exegesis of the Bible the Alexandrians were drawn to mystical and allegorical exposition, in contrast with the literal and historical method of Antioch.

Apocryphal New Testament

A modern title for various early Christian books outside the Canon of the NT which are similar in form or content to the corresponding canonical Scriptures. The epithet 'apocryphal' does not of itself convey the modern sense of fictitious invention. Many apocryphal Gospels exist. Some may embody trustworthy traditions, but this applies only to the earliest, such as the Gospel of Thomas. Others were clearly intended to support heretical views, while a third group aimed at satisfying popular curiosity about the childhood of Christ or His post-Resurrection life. The most important Acts are those of Sts Peter, Paul, John, Andrew, and Thomas, all probably 2nd cent. Their subject-matter is made up partly of stories parallel to and perhaps inspired by the Acts of the Apostles, partly credible oral tradition, partly evident romance. Nearly all reflect heretical influences. There were numerous epistles and other writings such as that of Paul to the Laodiceans and many apocalypses besides Revelation

Dialectical Theology / Crisis of Theology

A name applied to the theological principles of K. Barth and his school, on the ground that it finds the truth in a dialectic apprehension of God which transcends the 'Yes' and 'No' of the other methods. Its object is to preserve the Absolute of faith from every formulation in cut-and-dried expressions. Rejecting the liberal tradition in modern theology, Barth sought to return to the basic principles of the Reformers, especially J. Calvin. The stress of Dialectical Theology on the transcendence of God commended it to many theologians of different traditions. Another name for the Dialectical Theology of K. Barth and his disciples, based on various associations of the Greek word κρíσις.

Clementine Lit.

A number of apocryphal works circulated in the early Church under the name of St Clement of Rome, but by convention the term 'Clementines' is restricted to three of them. 1 The Clementine Homilies is a religious and philosophical romance which Clement is supposed to have sent from Rome to James, the Lord's brother, preceded by two letters from St Peter and Clement also addressed to James, and instructions for the correct use of the work. They describe Clement's travels in the East, when he met Peter and witnessed his conflict with Simon Magus. 2 The Clementine Recognitions resemble the Homilies and the narrative goes over much of the same ground, with additional details about the vicissitudes of various members of Clement's family and their reunion after their 'recognition' (hence the title) by Peter. 3 Two Greek Epitomes of the above. They are evidently later and introduce an account of Clement's martyrdom. It is generally thought that the Homilies and Recognitions depend on a common lost source, which probably dated from the early 3rd cent. The Homilies belong to the 4th cent. and betray Arian sympathies. The Recognitions appear to be later; they survive mainly in a Latin translation by Rufinus.

Athanasian Creed

A profession of faith which has been widely used in W. Christendom. It expounds the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation, adding a list of the most important events in the Lord's life; it includes anathemas against those who do not believe its affirmations. The attribution to St Athanasius has been generally abandoned, chiefly on the ground that it contains doctrinal expressions which arose only in later controversies. It was probably composed after 428.

Decapolis

A region consisting of ten allied cities E. of the Jordan in biblical Palestine.

Deism

A system of natural religion which was developed in England in the late 17th and 18th cents. At first there were various classes of Deists, from those who held that God was the Creator, with no further interest in the world, to those who accepted all the truths of natural religion, including belief in a world to come, but rejected revelation. Gradually all belief in Divine Providence and in rewards and punishments was abandoned, and the chief mark of later Deism was belief in a Creator God whose further intervention in His creation was rejected as derogatory to His omnipotence and unchangeableness. Never widely accepted in England, Deism exercised great influence in France and Germany.

demythologyizing

A term used from 1941 by R. Bultmann for his proposal to interpret the NT critically in order to express the theological meaning of its mythological language. He claimed that the biblical three-storeyed universe, belief in angels, etc., was incredible in the modern world, and that the Gospel message could be freed from these stumbling blocks. Though he insisted that he was interpreting rather than eliminating myth, his slogan came to be attached to various reductionist interpretations of Christianity.

Apostle

A title given in the early Church to some of its leaders (1 Cor. 12: 28), especially missionaries, and at Heb. 3: 1 to Christ Himself. The origin and significance of the term is disputed, but some reference to being sent (Gk. ἀποστέλλω‎, 'I send') is certain. St Paul claimed the title for himself (Rom. 1: 1 etc.) on the basis of a commission from the Risen Christ, and used it of others, including St James, the Lord's Brother (Gal. 1: 19). It is used, most often by St Luke, of the twelve disciples whose names are recorded in Mk. 3: 14-19, Mt. 10: 2-4, and Lk. 6: 13-16, the slight variations perhaps indicating uncertainty rather than fluctuating membership of the group or different names for the same person. The title later came to be restricted to the twelve. In modern usage the term is sometimes applied to the leader of the first Christian mission to a country

Apostolic Fathers

A title given since the 17th cent. to those Fathers of the age immediately after the NT period whose works survive in whole or part. They are Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Hermas, Polycarp, and Papias, and the authors of the 'Epistle of Barnabas', the 'Epistle to Diognetus', 2 Clement, and the 'Didache'.

Apocalypse of Abraham

An apocryphal writing, dating from perhaps as early as the 1st cent. ad. The opening chapters (1-8) recount Abraham's conversion from idolatry. The rest of the book (9-32) describes a series of visions seen by Abraham in the heavens, showing the nature of sin and the Fall and its issue in God's destruction of the Temple. The book ends (32) with a promise that God will deliver His chosen. The work in all probability goes back to a lost Greek or even Hebrew or Aramaic original, but the text survives only in a late Slavonic version. The earliest MS ('Codex Sylvester') dates from the 14th cent. In its present form the book shows clear traces of Christian influence, particularly in the later chapters, although the opening 'legendary' part of the book is based on Jewish tradition.

doxology

An ascription of glory to the Persons of the Trinity. Besides the 'Gloria in excelsis' (the Greater doxology) and the 'Gloria Patri' (the Lesser doxology), there are metrical forms appended to some hymns.

Apostolic Church Order

An early Christian document containing regulations on ecclesiastical practice and moral discipline. Its contents are ascribed to various Apostles, but it was composed in Greek, probably in Egypt c.300.

Biblical Theology

An influential movement among biblical scholars in the mid-20th cent. which derived from the thought of K. Barth and others of similar outlook. Its adherents generally held that: 1 biblical concepts were different in kind from other ideas and that Hebrew thought was preferable to Greek; 2 biblical concepts were still adequate for all essential purposes; 3 God's action in history was the primary medium of revelation; 4 the biblical material had an inner coherence which was often represented as centred on key concepts, such as covenant; and 5 the biblical records were generally historically trustworthy.

Andrew (and) Acts of Andrew

Apostle. He was the brother of St Peter, and several incidents are recorded about him in the Gospels. Eusebius states that he later went to Scythia. According to an unreliable tradition, he was crucified at Patras in Greece in 60. The earliest evidence for the form of the cross taking the shape of an X dates from the 10th cent. An apocryphal book, probably dating from the late-2nd cent., of which there is an epitome by Gregory of Tours. It depicts the apostle imprisoned at Patras in Greece. The 'Martyrdom of St Andrew', a variant text of part of the work, describes his death by crucifixion, but without mention of the 'St Andrew's cross'.

Demetrius

Bp. of Alexandria from 189. At first he supported Origen, whom he recognized as head of the Catechetical School in the city c.202. Later, when Origen preached in Palestine while still a layman, Demetrius recalled him and censured his conduct. In 231 he banished him for having been ordained priest irregularly at Caesarea and soon afterwards deprived him of the priesthood.

apocatastasis

The Greek name for the doctrine that ultimately all free moral creatures—angels, men, and devils—will be saved. It was condemned in the first anathema against Origenism, probably put out by the Council of Constantinople in 543. The doctrine, which has modern defenders, is also known as universalism.

Rudolph Bultman

He was a professor at Marburg from 1921 until he retired in 1951. He carried the methods of form criticism to the point where any historical value in the Synoptic Gospels was called into question. In his Jesus (1926; Eng. tr., Jesus and the Word, 1934), he presented the mission of Jesus as summoning His followers to a decision. Bultmann combined his biblical scholarship with the dialectical theology of K. Barth and the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith alone to make an almost complete hiatus between history and faith, leaving only the bare fact of Christ crucified as necessary for Christian faith. He regarded St Paul and the author of Jn. as the only genuine theologians of the NT, because they offer an interpretation of human existence and see talk of God, Christ, and salvation, in terms of the individual's changed self-understanding effected by the proclaimed Word or kerygma. Narrowing the theological focus in this way involved criticizing the cosmological elements in the NT as 'myth', and it was his programme of demythologizing the NT which made Bultmann notorious in the 1940s and 1950s. Latterly his aim to make the Christian message intelligible in the modern world has been more widely respected.

Constantinople

In 330 Constantine inaugurated Constantinople as his capital on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium. It remained the capital of the E. Empire until it fell to the Turks in 1453, and was renamed Istanbul. It was the Turkish capital until 1923. Byzantium had a Christian community at least from the 2nd cent., and Constantinople was a Christian city from its inauguration. In 381 its Bishop was given honorary pre-eminence after the Bp. of Rome; in 451, though the Pope objected, patriarchal powers were formally conferred on him. Constantinople was challenged by Alexandria for supremacy in the East, but by the 6th cent. the Patr. of Constantinople was recognized in the East as the Oecumenical Patriarch.

de fide

In Catholic theology, a proposition is said to be de fide (or de fide catholica) if it has been expressly declared and defined by the Church to be true.

allegory

In Christian exegesis, one of the traditional ways of interpreting the Bible in contrast to the literal or historical sense. The Greek word comes from ancient literary theory and is defined as 'speaking one thing and signifying something other than what is said'. From the first, Christians applied allegory to the OT to make it yield a Christian meaning. St Paul used the term (Gal. 4: 24) to point to the relationship between the old Israel and the Church. Origen, who is regarded as the great exponent of allegory, distinguished a threefold literal, moral, and spiritual sense, but in practice usually worked with a twofold distinction between letter and spirit, history and deeper allegorical meaning, as did most of the Fathers. Concern to safeguard the literal, historic meaning of the biblical text led to criticism of allegory in the patristic period by Antiochene theologians and later by the Reformers. In modern times there has been renewed appreciation of patristic allegory, often called 'typology'.

dogma

In Christianity the term signifies a religious truth established by Divine Revelation and defined by the Church.

Corinth

In NT times Corinth (in modern Greece) was the capital of a Roman province and a commercially important city. The Church there was established by St Paul c.50. It included prominent Jewish converts but appears to have consisted largely of Gentiles. It seems to have contained some who prided themselves on their intellect, and certainly many from the poorer classes, including slaves. See also clement of rome; Corinthians, epistles to the; Corinthians, third epistle to the.

analogy

In common modern usage the word signifies a resemblance or similarity between objects of discourse. More technically analogy is a linguistic and semantic phenomenon which occurs when one word bears different but related meanings, as in the expressions a healthy diet and a healthy complexion. In theology it helps to explain how one can significantly refer to God by means of words more usually used of people. Thus one can meaningfully say that 'God is wise' and 'Solomon is wise', even though the wisdom of God is incomprehensible. The use of analogy in talking about God allows us to employ arguments about Him which abide by common rules of logic and proceed by means of terms for which there is already some (non-theological) meaning. The recognition that our discourse about God can be analogical is a corrective to anthropomorphism or any tendency to imply that God is the same kind of thing as any nameable creature.

Alexandria

In size and importance, Alexandria in Egypt was the second city of the Roman Empire. It was a centre not only of Hellenism but also of Semitism, with the largest community of Jews in any single city of the ancient world (see Philo, Septuagint); and it has therefore sometimes been found surprising that St Paul never preached there. The foundation of the Church in Alexandria is traditionally ascribed to St Mark, but we have no reliable knowledge of its early history. Gnostic teachers, such as Basilides and Heracleon, were active in the city in the mid-2nd cent., but its fame as a centre of Christian thought dates from the end of that century with the work of Clement and Origen. Its importance increased during the 4th and 5th cents., especially under its bishops Athanasius and Cyril. The Council of Nicaea (325) assigned to Alexandria a place of honour second only to Rome, and superior to Antioch, but its importance was diminished by the rise of Constantinople, which was granted precedence over Alexandria by the Councils of Constantinople (381) and Chalcedon (451). The great majority of Christians in Egypt supported the Monophysite schisms, and by the time Egypt passed under the Persians (616) and then under the Arabs (642), the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria had lost most of its influence. At the division between E. and W. Alexandria remained on the side of Constantinople. Besides the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, the head of the Coptic Church also has the title 'Patriarch of Alexandria'; and since the 13th cent. there has been a Latin Patriarch of Alexandria, but he is purely titular.

Docetism

In the early Church a tendency, rather than a formulated doctrine, which considered the humanity and sufferings of the earthly Christ as apparent rather than real. In some forms it held that Christ miraculously escaped death, e.g. by Judas Iscariot or Simon of Cyrene exchanging places with Him just before the Crucifixion. It reached its zenith in the 2nd cent., particularly among the Gnostics.

Anthromorphism

In theology, the attribution to God of human characteristics. Discussion of its propriety has often centred around the concept of analogy.

Antiochus Epiphanes

King of Syria from 175 bc. In 169 bc he attacked Jerusalem and despoiled the Temple; in 167 bc Jewish customs were forbidden, the Temple was defiled, and pagan cults instituted. This led to the Maccabean revolt.

Christocentric

Of systems of theology which maintain that God has never revealed Himself to humanity except in the Incarnate Christ; they preclude the possibility of natural religion. 2 More generally, of any set of religious beliefs which is focused on the Person of Christ.

Bartholomew

One of the twelve Apostles. He has sometimes been identified with Nathaniel. He may have visited India. He is traditionally said to have been flayed alive at Albanopolis in Armenia.

Karl Barth

Swiss Protestant theologian. He wrote his famous 'Commentary on Romans' (Der Römerbrief, '1919', pub. 1918) while he was a pastor of Safenwil (Aargau). In this he revived Pauline and Reformation themes that had been muted in liberal theology—the sovereignty of God, the finitude and sinfulness of human beings, eschatology, and God's judgement on human institutions. In 1921 he became assistant professor at Göttingen and then professor at Münster (1925) and Bonn (1930). With the outbreak of the 'Church Struggle' in Germany (1933), he threw in his lot with the 'Confessing Church'; the Barmen Declaration (1934) was largely his work. In 1935 he became professor of theology at Basle. Barth aimed to lead theology away from what he believed to be the fundamentally erroneous 19th-cent. synthesis between theology and culture. Theology was to be based on the Word of God communicated in the Bible. Human reason, he held, has no power to attain to the knowledge of God which is given only in God's gracious revelation in Jesus Christ. This revelation comes from God to humanity and is contrasted with religion, which is described as human beings' sinful attempt to grasp God. This outlook rules out natural theology and makes any dialogue with non-Christian religions virtually impossible. Apart from many other works, Barth devoted much of his life to a systematic exposition of his theology on a vast scale. The first volume of Die kirchliche Dogmatik (or Church Dogmatics, as it is known in English) appeared in 1932; the last section in 1967. This work, though unfinished, is the most detailed Protestant exposition of Christian doctrine to have appeared since the Reformation.

Diaspora

The Dispersion (διασπορά) of the Jews began with the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations (c.721 and c.597 bc). It eventually spread throughout the Roman Empire, and by NT times there were at least a million Jews in Alexandria. The Jews of the Diaspora kept in touch with their home country, paying the Temple taxes and keeping their religion. The Jewish synagogues in Asia and Asia Minor were the first scenes of Christian preaching.

Demiurge

The English form of a Greek word meaning 'craftsman', used of the Divine Being by Plato in his account of the formation of the visible world, and so by Greek Christian writers of God as the Creator of all things. The Gnostics used the word disparagingly of the inferior deity to whom they ascribed the origin of the material universe, distinguishing him from the supreme God. In its English form the word is commonly used in reference to this Gnostic doctrine.

Atonement (Church Fathers' doctrine)

The Fathers developed the doctrine of the NT but posed new questions. For Origen, the death of Christ was the ransom paid to Satan, who had acquired rights over humanity by the Fall. St Athanasius held that God the Son, by taking our nature upon Him, had effected a change in human nature as such. The general patristic teaching is that Christ is our representative, not our substitute, and that the effect of His suffering, obedience, and resurrection extends to the whole of humanity and beyond. In the 11th-12th cents., with Anselm's Cur Deus Homo, the emphasis shifted. The role of Satan gave way to the idea of the satisfaction due to God for sin. The death of Christ was then seen not as a ransom paid to the devil but as a debt paid to the Father. At the Reformation M. Luther rejected the satisfaction theory and taught that Christ, in bearing by voluntary substitution the punishment due to human beings, was reckoned by God a sinner in their place. In reaction against the exaggerations of this 'penal theory' arose the doctrine, defended by the Socinians, which denied the objective efficacy of the Crucifixion and looked upon the death of Christ primarily as an example to His followers.

Dome of the Rock

The Muslim shrine in Jerusalem, built in the area of the Jewish Temple. It was completed in 691/2. The rock from which it takes its name is believed in Islam to be that from which Muhammad ascended to heaven, and by Jews to be that on which Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac. The shrine is also known as the 'Mosque of Omar'.

Damascus

The ancient capital of Syria. It was on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus that St Paul was converted to the Christian faith. A Christian community has existed there continuously from Apostolic times. It is now the seat of the Greek Orthodox, the Greek Catholic (Melchite) and Syrian Orthodox Patriarchs of Antioch.

Apotheosis

The assimilation of a human person to a god. Greeks and Romans made no firm distinction between gods and humans, and from at least the 4th cent. bc cults were rendered to rulers as if to gods, though it does not appear that they were credited with supernatural powers. The Christians' refusal to take part in the cult of Roman emperors has sometimes been seen as a reason for their persecution by the government, but implausibly, since participation was not legally obligatory on any subject. See also Deification.

the Apocrypha

The biblical Books received by the early Church as part of the Greek version of the OT, but not included in the Hebrew Bible. Their position in Christian usage has been ambiguous. In the Vulgate and versions derived from it they are mostly part of the OT; but in the AV, RV, NEB, and other non-RC versions they form a separate section between the OT and NT, or are omitted altogether. They comprise (in the order of the AV): 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the Rest of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch with the Epistle of Jeremy, the Song of the Three Children, the History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. The Church received these writings from Hellenistic Judaism. In the Septuagint (LXX), which incorporated all except 2 Esdras, they are in no way differentiated from other parts of the OT. They date from the period 300 bc-ad 100 approximately, and mostly from 200 bc- ad 70, i.e. before the definite separation of the Church from Judaism. When the Hebrew Canon of Scripture was settled (perhaps around ad 100), the Hebrew text of the excluded Books ceased to be copied. The Greek, on the other hand, survived because of its use by Christians who at first received all Books of the LXX equally as Scripture. In the 4th cent. many of the Greek Fathers came to recognize a distinction between those Books of the LXX which were canonical in Hebrew and the rest. St Jerome accepted the distinction and introduced the term 'apocrypha' for the latter class. With few exceptions the W. continued to regard all the LXX Books as equally canonical.

Babylonian Captivity

The captivity in Babylon to which a significant part of the population of Judah was deported in two batches c.597 and c.586 bc. The expression is also used metaphorically of the exile of the Popes to Avignon from 1309 to 1377.

apologetics

The defence by argument of Christian belief and of the Christian way against alternatives and against criticism. There is a long tradition of such activity from St Paul's speech on the Areopagus, the 2nd-cent. Apologists, and St Thomas Aquinas. Objections to apologetics were raised by K. Barth, who insisted that the Gospel's basis in revelation alone yielded no common ground for a defence of Christianity by natural reason. This view has been widely disputed by theologians, both Protestant (e.g. P. Tillich) and RC (e.g. H. Küng), for whom human reason cannot be regarded as wholly corrupt and for whom the natural world, especially human nature, provide rationally defensible intimations of transcendence.

Divine Right of Kings

The doctrine that monarchy is God's chosen form of government, and that rebellion against the monarch is always a sin. Where active obedience to an evil ruler is morally impossible, it is held that passive obedience (i.e. willing acceptance of any penalty imposed for non-compliance) is demanded. St Paul's injunction to obey 'the powers that be' (Rom. 13: 1-2) reverberated through the centuries as the mainstay of Christian political quietism, though it was modified by the need to 'obey God rather than men' (Acts 5: 29). After the conversion of Constantine, Greek theories of divine kingship became Christianized: the Emperor was the earthly image of God's ruling wisdom. Divine attributes were used to describe kings and, in parallel, imperial vocabulary used to describe Christ's kingdom. To the monarch's Godlike nature was added his Christlike nature. Monarchs were quasi-sacerdotal, and anointings became a normal feature of coronations. With the revival of knowledge of Aristotle and of Roman law from the 12th cent., the theory of Divine Right became a theological gloss upon Roman jurisprudence and later upon ideas of absolute sovereignty. Divine Right kingship confronted two opposing traditions: the claim to supreme authority by the Church and popular representative institutions. Under the Stuarts the doctrine of Divine Right was widely accepted by the Anglican clergy, though James II's attack on the C of E eroded its support. Those who opposed it accepted that sovereign authority was ordained by God, but insisted that God left people free to choose the form of government, whether monarchy or not.

didache / Didache

The elements in primitive Christian apologetic of an instructional kind, as contrasted with kerygma or 'preaching'. A short early Christian manual on morals and Church practice. It includes instructions on Baptism, fasting, prayer, the Eucharist, and how to treat apostles and prophets, bishops, and deacons. Baptism is to be by immersion if possible, and two Eucharistic Prayers, of an unusual and primitive kind, are given. The author, date, and place of origin are unknown; most modern scholars now place it in the 1st cent. The community described is probably Syrian.

Dedication (Jewish Feast of), Hannukah

The feast instituted by Judas Maccabaeus in 165 bc to commemorate the purification of the Temple after its defilement by Antiochus Epiphanes. Modern Jews observe it as 'Hanukkah'; it falls in late Nov. or Dec.

Book of Deuteronomy

The last Book of the Pentateuch. It contains Moses' final utterances, consisting essentially of seven mainly legislative and hortatory addresses (including the Ten Commandments); it ends with an account of his death. The distinctive style and diction of Deut. mark it off from the other Pentateuchal Books. According to the traditional view it was written by Moses, but most modern critics assign it in its present form to a much later date, mostly to the 7th cent. bc. They emphasize, however, that it shows evidence of a lengthy literary history.

Bar Cochba

The leader of a Jewish rebellion in Palestine in ad 132. He claimed to be, and was accepted as, the Messiah.

diptychs

The lists of names of living and departed Christians for whom prayer is made in the Greek and Latin Eucharistic Liturgies. In early times the diptychs were recited publicly, and the inclusion or exclusion of a name was held to be a sign of communion or excommunication.

Book of Chronicles

These OT Books record the history of Israel and Judah from the creation to the return from Exile (c.539 bc). In the Hebrew Bible they are a single Book; the division goes back to the Septuagint, where they are called 'Paralipomenon', i.e. 'that which is left over' (from Sam. and Kgs.). The term 'Chronicles' was introduced by St Jerome, whence it passed into English versions. The work appears to have been written in the latter half of the 4th cent. bc. On its historical value, opinion is divided.

Divine Comedy

The name commonly given to Dante's poem describing his vision of the three realms of the world to come, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. In his vision Dante travels for a week in 1300 from a dark forest on this side of the world down through Hell to Satan at the centre of the Earth and up the seven terraces of the mount of Purgatory, an island in the Antipodes opposite Jerusalem, to its summit, the Earthly Paradise, where Adam and Eve were created. So far Virgil has been his guide, but now he meets Beatrice, who conducts him through the nine planetary and stellar spheres to the Empyrean, where St Bernard of Clairvaux takes her place. St Bernard presents Dante to the BVM, at whose intercession the poet is granted a glimpse of the Beatific Vision. The date, purpose, and detailed interpretation of the poem are widely disputed

Deuteronomistic History

The name given by M. Noth and others to the Books Deut.-2 Kgs., all of which appear to have been compiled on the same editorial principle, i.e. originally independent units of material, such as collections of laws, stories about the Judges, the so-called 'Court History' (2 Sam. 9-1 Kgs. 2), and the Elijah and Elisha 'cycles', have been assembled together and set in a framework by an editor or editors who believed that obedience to the Divine commands led to success and disobedience to disaster. The Divine commands are set out in Deut. with appropriate warnings, and in the subsequent Books Israel's history is recounted and commented on in the light of this retributive theory. The editor's purpose is thus not so much to record history as to draw out its religious lessons, with the particular intention of giving a theological explanation for the conquest of Judah by the Babylonians in the early 6th cent bc. As examples of his method, style, and outlook may be cited the farewell speeches of Moses (Deut. 31), Joshua (Jos. 24) and Samuel (1 Sam. 12), and also the comments on the fall of Samaria (2 Kgs. 17: 7-23) and of Jerusalem (2 Kgs. 23: 26-7 and 24: 2-4).

Apologists

The name given to the Christian writers who (c.120-220) first undertook the task of making a reasoned defence and recommendation of their faith to outsiders. They include Aristides, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tatian, Theophilus, and Tertullian. They had to contend with both pagan philosophy and the general outlook which it influenced and specifically Jewish objections. Their method was to present Christianity as politically harmless and morally and culturally superior to paganism.

dispclina arcani

The practice ascribed to the early Church of concealing certain theological doctrines and religious usages from catechumens and pagans.

antichrist

The prince of Christ's enemies. In the NT he is referred to by name only in 1 and 2 Jn. (where he is identified with those who deny the Incarnation), but many see him in the strange beasts of Rev. and in the 'man of sin' in 2 Thess. 2: 3-10. Some have connected Antichrist not with a person but with an evil principle; others have seen in Antichrist a reference to some historical person (e.g. Nero).

Diocletian Era

The reckoning of time from the year of Diocletian's accession ( ad 284). It is also known as the 'Era of the Martyrs'.

Appian Way

The road constructed by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus in 312 bc from Rome to S. Italy. St Paul, travelling on the Appian Way, was met by groups of Christians at Appii Forum and Three Taverns (Acts 28: 15).

Constantine the Great

The son of the Emp. Constantius Chlorus and St Helena, he was proclaimed Emperor at York in 306, and became senior ruler of the Empire after the battle of the Milvian Bridge (312). Following instructions received (according to Lactantius) in a dream, Constantine had fought under the sign of the Cross; he attributed his victory to the Christian God and soon afterwards toleration and imperial favour were given to Christianity. Constantine's policy was to unite the Church and State by the closest possible ties. In 313 the Donatists appealed to him to settle their controversy with the Church in Africa. He heard the case himself in 316 and gave judgement against the Donatists. When rioting followed, he reinforced his verdict with repressive measures, but was unable to end the schism. A similar appeal from the contending parties led him to summon the Council of Nicaea (325) to settle the Arian dispute. After his victory at Chrysopolis (324) had made him sole Emperor, Constantine fixed his capital at Byzantium (rebuilt and inaugurated as 'Constantinople' in 330). He had to deal cautiously with paganism, which remained influential among his subjects, but his commitment to Christianity is clear in his policy and legislation, even though he was not baptized until just before his death (deferment of Baptism was then common). In 321 he ordered that Sunday should be a public holiday, and he liberally endowed Christian church building, especially in Palestine, Rome, and Constantinople. Legend has added much to history, including among its embellishments the 'Donation of Constantine'.

Ascension of Christ

The statement in the Creeds that Christ 'ascended into heaven' is based mainly on Acts 1: 1-9 where, after 40 days of appearances, the Risen Lord speaks to the Apostles and is then taken up in a cloud. The reference to the Apostles' return to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1: 12) gave rise to the tradition that it took place there. Lk. 24: 50-53 by contrast seems to imply that this withdrawal of Christ into Heaven occurred at Bethany on the evening of the day of the Resurrection. Behind St Luke's narrative stands the conviction of the early Church that God had vindicated Jesus after His crucifixion. The Ascension marks the close of the post-Resurrection appearances and signifies the rule of Christ in the present (cf. 1 Cor. 15: 25). Doctrinally it implies Christ's humanity being taken into Heaven.

Canon of Scriptures

The term 'canon' gradually acquired a technical meaning for the Books which were officially received as Scripture. It was long thought that the Hebrew canon of the OT was closed in the second half of the 1st cent. ad, but it has been suggested that there was no defined canon until much later than this, and there is discussion as to whether the canon of the OT formed a model for that of the NT or the other way round. The Jews of the Diaspora regarded as equally inspired certain other Greek Books, most of which are printed in the AV and RV among the Apocrypha (q.v.). The Four Gospels and the 13 Epistles of St Paul had been accepted, at least in parts of the Church, as an authoritative witness to the Apostolic teaching by c.130; towards the end of the 2nd cent. these NT writings came to be regarded as 'Scripture' on the same footing as the OT. Other NT writings were received more slowly, while some, e.g. the Epistle of Barnabas, were admitted by individual Churches though rejected by the majority. St Athanasius in his Festal Letter of 367 is the earliest exact reference to the present NT canon. A Council probably held in Rome in 382 gave a complete list of the canonical Books of the OT and NT which is identical with that given at the Council of Trent.

Dead Sea Scrolls

The term denotes scrolls and fragments discovered at seven sites on the NW and W. shores of the Dead Sea, mainly between 1947 and 1960; it is commonly used only of those writings from caves near Qumran. They are referred to by cave number, site, and abbreviated title: 1QH = cave 1, Qumran, Hodayot. From the Qumran caves there are remains of over 850 documents. Some may come from the 3rd cent. bc; most date from c.130 bc to ad 50. They probably once belonged to the library of a Jewish community based on a building at Qumran; many scholars identify this community with the Essenes. Almost all the Books of the canonical OT are represented among the scrolls, which are important for reconstructing the history of the OT text. The non-biblical MSS include several apocryphal and pseudepigraphal books already known (e.g. Enoch, Jubilees) and many previously unknown. Some MSS seem to relate specifically to the Qumran community, e.g. the Manual of Discipline and various liturgical texts. Others may have been composed elsewhere and copied and edited at Qumran. The scrolls provide evidence for Jewish life and thought at the time when Christianity was born.

Anastasis

The term is used both of Christ's resurrection and that of human beings in general. It is also used specifically of: 1 the church in Jerusalem known in the W. as the Holy Sepulchre (q.v.), and 2 the Greek style of representing the resurrection in the form of Christ's visit to Hades.

Apocalyptic Lit

The word 'apocalypse' means a 'revelation' or 'unveiling', so an apocalyptic book claims to reveal things which are normally hidden or to reveal the future. The Jewish Apocalyptic books belong approximately to the period from 200 bc to ad 200 and deal with the end of the present order or with the next world. Apocalyptic literature proper begins with the Book of Daniel, probably written during the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 bc), though there are apocalyptic tendencies in some of the prophetic writings with their references to the approaching 'day of the Lord'. The Apocalyptic writings are almost always pseudonymous and written in the names of Israel's past heroes. The Jewish Apocalyptic writings outside the OT include 1 and 2 Enoch, Baruch II, 4 Ezra (2 Esdras), the Assumption of Moses, Jubilees, the Ascension of Isaiah, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. The main Christian Apocalypses are Revelation and the (non-canonical) Apocalypse of Peter.

anathema

The word means 'separated' or 'accursed'. In the OT it was used of 'things devoted to God', that is not for common use; later when applied to people it came to involve exclusion from the community and loss of goods. St Paul used it of separation from the Christian community. Anathematization, which became the regular procedure against heretics, was distinguished from excommunication; whereas the latter involved only exclusion from the sacraments and worship, the former was complete separation from the body of the faithful.

Baal

The word was used especially of the Semitic deities who were held to produce agricultural and animal fertility. The Hebrew Prophets had constantly to resist attempts to fuse the worship of God with that of the local Baalim.

Epistles to the Corinthians

These two Epistles of St Paul to his converts were prob. written from Ephesus and Macedonia, c. 52-6. 1 Cor. was occasioned by news which St Paul had received from the Church at Corinth. The subjects dealt with include party-feeling among the Corinthian Christians, and their tendency to think too highly of a certain kind of human 'wisdom' (1:10-4:21); his own position as an apostle (4:1-13; 9); a sexual scandal at Corinth and the treatment of a particular offender (5 and 6); the question of litigation between Christians (6:1-8); and certain points on which they had consulted him in a letter, namely marriage and celibacy in relation to the Christian gospel (7), problems regarding the relations of Christians with the surrounding paganism (8), behaviour at Christian worship (10 and 11), 'spiritual gifts' such as prophecy and speaking with tongues (12), and the resurrection of the dead (15). The sections on the Eucharist (10:16 ff., 11:20 ff.), on love (agape) as the highest of spiritual gifts (13), and on the Resurrection (15), are among the most important in the NT. In 2 Cor. the principal topic is apostleship, negatively defined in chs. 10-13, positively in 2:14-7:4. Paul's own status as an apostle had been challenged and his conduct attacked. In the earlier chapters he defends his conduct, setting out at length the authority and ministry of the Christian apostle, which is derived from Christ's New Covenant, far superior to the Torah and the Old Covenant of Sinai in both glory and efficacy, in that it effects the reconciliation of humanity with God by the atoning death of Christ (3:4-6:10). He rejoices that he and the Corinthians are now one again (7:8 ff.). Chs. 8-9 deal with the collection for the Church at Jerusalem which Paul was organizing. Both seem so loosely attached to what proceeds that some think they were originally separate letters. The passage 6:14-7:1 may also be a separate fragment, possibly from an earlier epistle (cf. 1 Cor. 5:9), but conceivably not even written by Paul. Ch. 10 starts afresh with a new treatment of Paul's relations with the Church at Corinth and a severe condemnation of his opponents (ψευδαπόστολοι, 'false apostles'). The content and tone are so different from the earlier celebration of reconciliation that many critics believe they stem from a different epistle, possibly that referred to at 2:4. Hypotheses about several fragments being combined are common, but many scholars defend the integrity of this epistle and most accept that of 1 Cor. Apart from 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1 and 1 Cor. 14:34-5 the authenticity of neither is seriously questioned today.

Book of Daniel

This OT Book consists of: (a) a narrative section (1-6) describing the experiences of Daniel and his three companions under Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, kings of Babylon, and Darius the Mede; and (b) a series of visions (7-12) which reveal the future destinies of the Jewish people. The traditional belief that the Book was written in the 6th cent. bc by Daniel, one of the Jewish exiles in Babylon, is now almost universally regarded as untenable. The consensus of modern critical opinion is that it dates from 167 to 164 bc. See also Song of the Three Children; Susanna, Book of; Bel and the Dragon.

Ferdinand Baur

founder of the Tübingen School. He taught in Tübingen University from 1826 until his death. From 1835 he was inspired by G. W. F. Hegel's theory of historical development; this guided his interpretation of Gnosticism (1835) and various works on doctrine. He had also recognized the fact of conflict in the early Church and later made this the key to his understanding of early Christianity. In 1835 he denied the Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles, dating them in the 2nd cent. on account of the historical situation they presuppose. His monograph on St Paul (1845) went on to deny the authenticity of all the Pauline Epistles except Gal., 1 and 2 Cor., and Rom., and assigned Acts to the later 2nd cent. In his work on the Gospels (1847) he gave the earliest dating to Mt., as representing the Judaizing party, and the latest to Jn., as depicting the final reconciliation. This last Gospel, he argued, reflected the Gnostic and Montanist controversies of the 2nd cent. and was devoid of historical value. Such views aroused a storm of controversy.

Caesarea Philippi

now Banias, at the foot of Mount Hermon. The scene of St Peter's confession of Christ's Messiahship.