GROAN!

Didjaredit? What was the name of the famous school were Clement taught? Clement coined the term, “Philosophy is the __________________ of Theology.” Who was Clement’s famous student? Clement’s famous three-part writing is still intact today. It is called, “The ______________.” What role did agitation play in the creation according to the Gnostics? How did Origen feel about his father’s martyrdom? What did Emperor Justinian do to Origen? What horrible thing did Origen do to himself and why? Is Origen considered a heretic today? Why?

Augusteen to tin? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-AVpFBYMy0

St. Clement of Alexandria Titus Flavius Clemens was a Christian theologian who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature

As his three major works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular by Plato and the Stoics. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was also familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, claiming that both Plato and Pythagoras were taught by Egyptian scholars. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. It is unknown how Clement died.

Origen Adamantius c. 185–254

Ante-Nicene Father from185-254. Teacher at Alexandrian School Alexandria = Northern Egypt Origen is very controversial. He was not a heretic. He constructed a systematic theology. Origin wanted to make a systematic study of Christian Theology. Remember, he didn’t have the materials we do today. He was a trailblazer. Origen was a son of a martyr from a Christian family. Early 3rd ctry his dad was killed. Origin held him in high esteem. Origen was well educated with best of pagan philosophy. Read Greek thinkers. Only upper crust of society had this education. His writings are difficult to read because he was brilliant.

His Theology: 2 major works. Origin was tortured and killed in persecution. However he is not considered a martyr. His Theology: 2 major works. 1. On First Principles. (Systematic Theology) 2. Against Celsus. Celsus was a pagan philosopher who despised Christianity. Believing in a God born into stinky stable and had to flee, die on cross, Rise from dead was ridiculous in his mind. He was insulted by the Christ story. Origen wrote other minor works – most famous for his Scripture commentary. The Scriptural “senses” = literal, spiritual etc. started with Origin. CELSUS

Origen wrote against the Gnostics. Origin sought to write against Gnostics “Secret knowledge” which held beliefs that the human body was somehow evil…because we all die. They didn’t “belong” to the body. Body doesn’t desire immortality. Gnositcs had their creation story: We are fragments of the Divine (the ONE). We became trapped in bodies. The fall wasn’t Adam and Eve’s free choice. It was the created world that was the problem. The created world didn’t come from a good God. Bodies are jail cells. Jesus comes in as an enlightened spirit that “SEEMS” to be a man. He reveals his knowledge. You are a god…you are divine and you need to escape the body. In the end the privileged knowledgeable ones will return to creator. Faith and love are not as good as knowledge. Fleshly pagans had no chance to return – but some Christians might.

Origen sought to contest these thoughts. He made the distinction between the creator and created. All these souls created in state of bliss. Origin thought souls existed before material world. All created souls got bored with union with God and we fell. We are bored with bliss. Our sin is boredom. God’s remedy was to create body. When you are in body and in time you’ll die, but you’ll learn how to love me better. Origin believed the body was good. It is proof that God loves us. It is an act of Divine Love.

Origen contrasted openness of Christianity with secrecy of Gnosticism. For Gnostics, Savior “seems to be man” with secret knowledge, but Origen’s Savior loves man so much, he becomes man and isn’t afraid of suffering and death. God made material creation for us and bodies to return to him. In the Incarnation, God didn’t refuse to die. Gnostic account has no thought of a body for Christ. Christ’s body dying meant for them that the Divinity in him had already left. Origen contrasted openness of Christianity with secrecy of Gnosticism. Eschatology related to faith and love. Gnostics eschatology focused on knowledge and acquaintance.  

ASSIGNMENTS (weather pending) Tomorrow: Read Eusebius of Caesarea and St. Athanasius for tomorrow. Friday: Augustine through book 5. Monday: Sts. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nazianzus & St. Gregory of Nyssa Tuesday: Study guide for test work in class Wednesday: Study guide for test work in class Thursday: TEST #1 part A in class. Part B due by midnight. Friday: Dennis teaches books 6 & 7 of Confessions.

The SCHOOLS: Alexandria & Antioch There were three cities in the Roman Empire which were recognized as having special status during the time of the Ante-Nicene Fathers: Rome, first of all, because, of course, it was the capitol; Alexandria, which was the leading city in the Greek-speaking world; and Antioch, which was another important city in the Greek-speaking world. The churches in these three cities were given special responsibility for overseeing developments in their respective parts of the world. When problems became too intense, a church council was convoked. It is important to recognize that the 'schools‘ of Alexandria and Antioch, as schools, never existed in a concrete sense.

It is possible that the “Catechetical School of Antioch” as such may have been an academy. Historians aren’t sure. However, when we refer to the 'schools' of Alexandria and Antioch, we speak of them as we would speak of a 'British school of thought' on international relations, or a the 'German school' of biblical source criticism. The term “school” is applied by the observer, the historian and thinker, to accommodate evident convergent themes and approaches across geographical locales; but they do not represent a specific building, university, etc.

The Catechetical School of Alexandria a school of Christian theologians and priests in Alexandria The teachers and students of the school (also known as the Didascalium) were influential in many of the early theological controversies of the Christian church. It was one of the two major centers of the study of biblical exegesis and theology during Late Antiquity, the other being the School of Antioch. Emphasized allegorical interpretation of Scripture. exegesis = critical interpretation of Scripture According to St. Jerome the Alexandrian school was founded by Mark the Apostle. The earliest recorded dean was Athenagoras (176). He was succeeded by Pantaenus 181, who was succeeded as head of the school by his student Clement of Alexandria in 190. There is another opinion that the school was founded mid-second century, around 190 A.D.

The Catechetical School of Alexandria was the oldest catechetical school in the world. Under the leadership of the scholar Pantaenus, the school of Alexandria became an important institution of religious learning, where students were taught by scholars such as Athenagoras, Clement, Didymus, and the great Origen, who was active in the field of commentary and comparative Biblical studies. Many scholars, such as Jerome, visited the school of Alexandria to exchange ideas and to communicate directly with its scholars. The scope of this school was not limited to theological subjects. Apart from subjects like Theology, Christian Philosophy and the Bible; science, mathematics and Greek & Roman Literature, Logic and Arts were also taught.

The question-and-answer method of commentary began there, and,15 centuries before Braille, blind students at the school were using wood-carving techniques to read and write. Emphasized a Christology focused on the union of the Human and Divine. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria claims continuity with the catechetical school of Alexandria, and regards that the school was re-established in 1893 as the Coptic Theological Seminary.

A rendering of Ancient Alexandria. The lighthouse you see depicted here was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. This was one of the most beautiful cities ever.

THE SCHOOL OF ANTIOCH Antioch = Antakya, Turkey today was one of the two major centers of the study of biblical exegesis and theology during Late Antiquity; the other was the Catechetical School of Alexandria. This group was known by this name because the advocates of this tradition were based in the city of Antioch, one of the major cities of the ancient Roman Empire. Antioch held to a more literal and occasionally typological exegesis Held a Christology that emphasized the distinction between the Human and the Divine in the person of Jesus Christ.

The school of Antioch is best divided into three periods: the early school (270-early fourth century) the middle school (350-433) the late school (after 433). After the early school of Antioch came into decline, the presbyter Diodore of Tarsus re-founded it in the middle of the fourth century as a semi-monastic community.

So we must take care not to read these 'schools' not schools in any strict sense. Rather, they represent loci of converging approaches to Christological reflection centered around two great strongholds of theological activity in the fourth and fifth centuries. We have to be careful, that while noting the schools’ differences, they were not mutually exclusive. And despite the danger of making over-generalizations about each school of thought, certain common characteristics of these converging traditions can be determined. In a general sense, these trends and tendencies are as follows:

Alexandrian 'school' Antiochene 'school' Tendency toward Platonic metaphysical approach; a desire to move beyond appearances to the 'truly real'. Tendency toward Aristotelian stress on concrete realities, factual historicity and its analysis, and the discernable characteristics of concrete reality. Favours an allegorical reading of scripture, first proffered in a notable way by Origen; driven here by a desire to 'get to the real meaning' of given biblical passages. Favors an historical/factual, 'literal', reading of scripture. With regard to Christ, a tendency to focus on inner, metaphysical composition and activity. A tendency to focus upon the factual/historical aspects of the human life of Christ-what he did, said, accomplished, etc. Cf. Theodore's exegetical interest in the 'historical Jesus'. Soteriological convictions driven most often by notions of sanctification/divinisation, mystical relation, etc. Soteriological convictions driven by corrective agency of divinity on humanity. Generally: stress laid upon the ontological oneness of Christ-the divinity and humanity form one being-wrought most often by reference to the Logos/sarx framework (though not always; cf. Cyril of Alexandria). Generally: stress laid upon the distinction between God and man in Christ-these not only distinct in discernable attributes, but in substantive reality. Preservation of full reality and integrity of both natures. Logos/anthropos model predominates. Key weakness lies in the routine jeopardy into which the persistent distinction of natures is cast in the maintenance of the single ontological reality of the incarnate Christ. Key weakness lies in the difficulty in expressing the genuine union of the two natures, and indeed the true oneness or singular subjectivity of the incarnate Christ.