Catholicism For Dummies. Rev. Kenneth Brighenti

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СКАЧАТЬ often intervened, urging or even demanding that the religious leaders, such as the pope, patriarchs, and bishops, cease the unrest by settling the issues once and for all. This section explains some of the heresies, or false rumors, that plagued the Church during early Christianity.

      Gnosticism and Docetism

      Gnosticism comes from the Greek work gnosis, for knowledge. From the first century B.c. to the fifth century A.d., Gnostics believed in secret knowledge, whereas the Jews and Christians were free and public about disclosing the truth divinely revealed by God. Gnostics believed that the material world was evil and the only way to salvation was through discovering the “secrets” of the universe. This belief flew in the face of Judaism and Christianity, both of which believed that God created the world (Genesis) and that it was good, not evil. Keeping revelation secret wasn’t meant to be; rather, it should be shared openly with others.

      Docetism, a spin-off from Gnosticism, comes from the Greek word dokesis, meaning “appearance.” In the first and second centuries A.d., Docetists asserted that Jesus Christ only appeared to be human. They considered the material world, including the human body, so evil and corrupt that God, who is all good, couldn’t have assumed a real human body and human nature. He must have pretended.

      The Gnostic antagonism between the spiritual and the material worlds led Docetists to deny that Jesus was true man. They had no problem with His divinity, only with believing in His real humanity. So if that part was an illusion, then the horrible and immense suffering and death of Jesus on the Cross meant nothing. If His human nature was a parlor trick, then His Passion also was an illusion.

      The core of Christianity, and of Catholic Christianity, is that Jesus died for the sins of all humankind. Only a real human nature can feel pain and actually die. Docetism and Gnosticism were considered hostile to authentic Christianity, or, more accurately, orthodox Christianity. (The word orthodox with a small letter o means correct or right believer. However, if you see the capital letter O, then Orthodox refers to the Eastern Orthodox Churches, such as the Greek, Russian, and Serbian Orthodox Churches.)

      

Even today, remnants of neo-Gnosticism are in some modern ideologies and theories of religion. New Age spirituality and Dianetics, which is the Church of Scientology, propose to reveal secrets and unlock secret powers of human nature. Docetism seems to have pretty much died out, however.

      Arianism

      Arianism was the most dangerous and prolific of the heresies in the early Church. (By the way, the Arianism that we’re referring to isn’t about modern-day skinheads with swastikas and anti-Semitic prejudices.) Arianism comes from a cleric named Arius in the fourth century (A.d. 250–336), who denied the divinity of Jesus. Whereas Docetism denied His humanity, Arianism denied that Jesus had a truly divine nature equal to God the Father.

Arius proposed that Jesus was created and wasn’t of the same substance as God — He was considered higher than any man or angel because He possessed a similar substance, or essence, but He was never equal to God. His Son-ship was one of adoption. In Arianism, Jesus became the Son, whereas in orthodox Christianity, He was, is, and will always be the Son, with no beginning and no end. Arianism caught on like wildfire because it appealed to people’s knowledge that only one God existed. The argument was that if Jesus was also God, two gods existed instead of only one.

      Emperor Constantine, living in the Eastern Empire, was afraid that the religious discord would endanger the security of the realm. He saw how animate and aggressive the argument became and ordered that a council of all the bishops, the patriarchs, and the pope’s representatives convene to settle the issue once and for all. The imperial city of Nicea was chosen to guarantee safety. In Nicea, the world’s bishops decided to compose a creed that every believer was to learn and profess as being the substance of Christian faith. That same creed is now recited every Sunday and Holy Day at Catholic Masses all over the world. It’s known as the Nicene Creed, because it came from the Ecumenical Council of Nicea in A.d. 325.

      The punch line that ended the Arianism controversy was the phrase “one in being with the Father” in the Nicene Creed (the phrase that has recently been replaced by “consubstantial with the Father”). The more accurate English translation of the Greek and Latin, however, is consubstantial or of the same substance as the Father. This line boldly defied the Arian proposition that Jesus was only similar but not equal in substance to the Father in terms of His divinity.

      Nestorianism

      Another heresy was Nestorianism, named after its founder, Nestorius (c. 386–451). This doctrine maintained that Christ had two hypostases (persons) — one divine and one human. Nestorius condemned the use of the word Theotokos, which was Greek for “bearer” or “mother of God.” If Jesus had two persons, the most that could be said of Mary was that she gave birth to the human person of Jesus and not to the divine. Nestorius preferred the use of the word Christotokos or Christ-bearer to Theotokos.

      Another Ecumenical Council was convened, this time in the town of Ephesus in A.d. 431, where the participants ironed out the doctrine that Jesus had one person, not two, but that two natures were present — one human and one divine. Because Christ was only one person, Mary could rightly be called the Mother of God because she gave birth to only one person.

In other words, Jesus didn’t come in parts on Christmas Day for Mary and Joseph to put together. He was born whole and intact, one person, two natures. The Church says that because Mary gave birth to Jesus, the Church could use the title Mother of God (Theotokos), realizing that she didn’t give Jesus His divinity. (This concept is similar to the belief that your mother gave you a human body, but only God created your immortal soul. Still, you call her mother.)

      Monophysitism

      The last significant heresy about Jesus was known as Monophysitism. This idea centered on a notion that the human nature of Jesus was absorbed into the divine nature. Say, for example, that a drop of oil represents the humanity of Jesus and the ocean represents the divinity of Jesus. If you put the drop of oil into the vast waters of the ocean, the drop of oil, representing His humanity, would literally be overwhelmed and absorbed by the enormous waters of the ocean — His divinity.

      The Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in A.d. 451 condemned Monophysitism. A simple teaching was formulated that one divine person with two distinct, full, and true natures, one human and one divine, existed in Jesus. These two natures were hypostatically (from the Greek hypostasis, for person) united into one divine person. Thus the Hypostatic Union, the name of the doctrine, explained these things about Jesus:

       In His human nature, Jesus had a human mind just like you. It had to learn like yours. Therefore, the baby Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem didn’t speak to the shepherds on Christmas Eve. He had to be taught how to speak, walk, and so on. Likewise, His human will, like yours, was free, so He had to freely choose to embrace the will of God.In other words, in His humanity, Jesus knew what He learned. And He had to freely choose to conform His human will to the divine will. (Sin is when your will is opposed to the will of God.) Any human knowledge not gained by regular learning was infused into His human intellect by His divine intellect. Jesus knew that fire is hot just as you’ve learned this fact. He also knew what only God could know, because He was a divine person with a human and a divine nature. The human mind of СКАЧАТЬ