Great Schism: Causes of the East-West Church Split

The Great Schism

• East and West Split
• West= Roman Catholic with Pope in Rome
• East= Orthodox with Patriarch in Constantinople
• Cause: Political capital moved of Roman Empire to Constant. causes split.
• Western: Spoke Latin couldn't read Greek writing of other theologians
• Western: Decline of literacy, less theologians compared to east

Reasons the Church Split

• Liturgy/Word: Latin vs Greek couldn't understand other
• Authority of Pope: Pope got power through Peter but Constant was power source
• Celibacy: Demanded in East Catholic, not Constant
• Iconoclastic controversy: use of icons and idols

Filoque

• How we understand the Holy Trinity
• "East" Proceeds from father
• "West" Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (Three People)
• Great Schism: Separation and Excommunication of churches (Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael)
• Differences
• East- Religion>State, Yes Celibacy, Latin, Unleavened, Roman Law
• West- State>Religion, No Celibacy, Greek, Leavened, Philosophy

Ecumenism

• Aim or principle for unity among Christian churches!!!
• Historically used for councils under emperors to clarify doctrines
• Modern- Sense for Christian unity, impulse to recreate

Protestant Reformation

• Martin Luther proposes changes to the church due to liberalism and newfound Enlightenment
• Cultural Ramifications
• Challenging long-established social political power
• Invention of printing press with new interpretations of German bible new interpretations
• Doctrinal disputes= Social Revolts
• Reformations were both political and religious

Property Rights

• Reformation was call for separate economic and spiritual
• Catholics used to require contract to be just and equitable
• Oversight of the church was no longer part of contracts
• Luther and Augustine
• Strong need for Grace
• Both challenged and proposed revisions for long accepted religions
• Found corruptions or contradictions within them
• Free will can be good or bad depending on orientation to God

Ecumenism

• Bruenig shows that the Reformation is not a religious debate that can be phrased as right vs wrong
• Both sides make valid points and justification for change
• Ecumenical conversations are important for this reason
• THE ANABAPTISTS
• Re baptizers-Persecuted in 16th century by both Protestant and Catholic
• Literal interpretation of Sermon on the Mount
• Separate Church and State/ Non Conformity to the world
• Pacifism/Nonresistance
• Priesthood for all followers

Letter From a Birmingham Jail

• April 3rd 1963 Sitins and Marches in Birmingham AL
• Circuit Judge Jenkins issued a law that you can't parade
• King disobeyed
• Call to Unity suggests civil rights limited to courts
• King Perspectives
• Black Minister Activist
• Clergymen said nope don't do it. King said civil dis. is justified by unjust laws and is even patriotic

Just vs Unjust Law

• An Unjust law is no law at all- Augustine
• Luther- Unjust laws degrade humans personally
• Inflict on minority with devious methods and deny blacks rights like voting to promote white supremacy
• AQUINAS AND UNJUST LAW
• Natural Law: God given predictable goal driven smoothly
• Human Law: Humans try to find balance and order but is flawed so civil dis. is justified.
• We should Suffer sometimes because imperfect stable order is better than broken unstable one.

King's Letter

• Had Aquinas and Augustine in his head when making theologically ground decisions
• Important because he was talking to pastors clergymen
• DISGUSTED WITH WHITE MODERATE
• Theological to protest nonviolence
• IMPLICIT BIAS
• We all have it, possesses them, pervasive
• We do not always coordinate with declared beliefs
• Generally favor our own group

James Cone and Black Theology of Lib

• CONTEXTUAL THEOLOGY
• Theology that responds to a person's particular context
• Different for everyone
• Attempt to find universal experience of God
• LIBERATION THEO
• Liberation of the Oppressed
• Preferential Option for the Poor
• Church should be organized form bottom up not top down
• God is among oppressed, can find him among poor and that is his larger church

LIB THEO CONT.

• South America- 50s and 60s
• 1971 by Gustavo Guteirrey, wrote book Theology of Liberation
• Hostility from Church, Too much Marxist Liberation
• Poverty caused by systematic sin, both Christian Theology and Political Activism
• Have to think about Theo through perspective of poor and oppressed

CONT

• Reorganizing church through base communities
• Biblical interpretation and liturgy should be defined by local congregation
• Sacred Text interpretation is Praxis
• Relationship with Catholic Church Rocky

Black Theology

• Contextualize Christianity in a way that can help African Americans overcome oppression
• Liberation theology+Civil Rights Movement
• ON GOD AND JESUS CHRIST
• Moses free Hebrews from Egyptians
• We are Moses
• Cone Argues that God enters human affairs in side of oppressed, Divine Despair
• God cares about Justice, Christianity isn't white
• All Theo is contextual

Sacraments

• David Foster Wallace
• Water Context is divine presence
• SACRAMENT
• A "sign" something that goes beyond itself and reveals who God is
• Sometimes God is more present
• Imago Dei- Image of God

7 Sacraments

• Baptism
• Confirmation- SACRAMENTS OF INITIATION
• Eucharist
• Confession
• Marriage
• Holy Orders
• Anointing of the Sick

Sacraments of Healing

• Penance/Reconciliation- Contrition, Confession, Absolution, Satisfaction by penance
• Anointing of the Sick-Extreme Unction, Last Rites
• SACRAMENTS OF SERVICE
• Holy Orders- Priest and Nuns
• Marriage- Commit to another person

Worship and Embodiment

• Sacraments always reflect that humans have body
• Baptism- Water and Oil
• Mass- Bread and Wine, Stand Sit Kneel
• Rosary- something you feel
• Incense- Smell
• Holy Water- Dip and Cross
• Images/Statues-Look and Kiss

Sacramental Consciousness

• An awareness of the presence and activity of God in our lives through things of this world
• Recently becoming Contentious worldview
• An issue of how we understand "Presence"
• CONSEQUENCES OF SECULAR AGE
• Western Society changed form a place where it is almost impossible not the believe in God, to a place where God is one of many options
• Our own world isn't bad we just have lots of particularities, limitations, and difficulties
• We can't believe in God with imagination, paradox, and mystery

PLATO

• Greek Philosophy and First Century Judaism
• Variety of effects on Judaism, yet don't assume Jesus or Paul knew about these Philosophers
• Although they were alive it is highly unlikely that had knowledge of Jewish concepts or ways of life
• Christian Ethics owe more to Plato or Aristotle in form and structure than writings of Old and New testaments

What is Existence?

• Like Being in a Cave
• Analogy of being a philosopher, educating public
• We are comfortable in ignorance, actively hostile to anyone who points it out
• Masses are too ignorant and stubborn to govern themselves

The Human Person in Plato

• Division between body and soul
• Existence of Transcendental Reality
• Material things are evil- need to get out of our bodies and concentrate
• Need to reflect carefully and become philosophers
• Find greater light and leave the cave
• Sun is like seeing the truth in ourselves
• Break out of chains and find truth, shadows are initial reality

Plato's Ideal Society

• The Guardians (Philosophers who ruled through wisdom)
• The Military (Kept order in Society through Courage)
• The Masses (Filled with desire worked to calm through moderation)
• Not up to you to pick position, well ordered society>individual freedom
• Just person does their part doesn't fall into desires

3 Categories of the Soul

• Reason- intellectual ability- governed by virtue of reason
• Spirit- Drive to get things done- virtue of courage
• Passions- desire to eat sleep sex- virtue of moderation
• All overall governed by justice. Balance between wisdom, courage, and moderation in order to seek happiness.

Platonism in Scripture

• Paul, Colossian- Image of God, first form of creation
• John- Logos- reason and thought, with you, is you

Ethics

• Branch of philosophy that studies morality right or wrong behavior
• Turn to self had a dramatic impact on how we think about ethics
• Ethics: Community
• Morality: Individual
• Ethics is not just concerned with what things are moral but why something is.

Duty Ethics/Deontology

• Do unto other rational agents as they do unto us- Golden rule
• Judges morality based on action rules or laws
• Laws create duty for us to follow
• By admitting there is a rule you are universalizing that rule
• Thus you are saying its okay for other person and everyone to do same interaction

Utilitarianism

• Maximize good for most people
• What is right, maximizes our happiness
• GREATEST GOOD FOR GREATEST NUMBER
• If it was universal someone would ultimately suffer
• Most familiar ethical language in our society
• Cost Analysis, Business Language

Contractarianism

• We can all come up with things that will benefit society entirely on our own
• "Veil of ignorance"
• People make decisions outside of race class etc which will result in most justice
• Make political decisions without knowing talents, abilities, tastes, they have withing a social order
• Make decisions based on moral considerations

Virtue Theory

• Does not tell us what to do
• Development of Character as opposed to following the rules
• Focus on being good people, moral decisions happen naturally
• What does it mean to be virtuous?
• For Aristotle: Doing the right thing at right time in right way for right people
• Don't need to be specific, good people know what to do in certain situations
• Concerned with TELOS- Telos is the inherent purpose of each thing, the ultimate reason for each thing being the way it is, whether created that
• Know what object is FOR then define morality
• We have "bad eyes" yet we have a community that can help us when we don't see bigger picture

VIRTUE ETHICS

• PRACTICE
• NARRATIVE
• TRADITION

The Politics of Jesus

• Jesus preached a social ethic
• Kingdom of God
• Not a perfect social order
• Not meant to console those suffering
• Recognize spiritual values for their own worth
• Ethical systems would not have been created because a "Good Christian" should've been ethical enough

Early Christian Ethics

• Learn Morality?
• Common Life- shared possessions
• Give up all you possess and be my disciple
• Lucian (Pagan) Christian- viewed possessions with contempt and own all property communally
• Justin Martyr: all claim Christians must own everything in common, renounce private property, and give wealth to the poor