Schism and Heresy
Jerome and Pelagius
Pelagius believed that there was not a need for divine aid in performing good works. He also believed that the only thing necessary to receive grace was a declaration of the law. Pelagius believed that to be true since he did not think that all of humanity was wounded by the sins of Adam and… Continue reading Jerome and Pelagius
Optatus and Schism
The schism that separated the Church after the Great Persecution was between the Donatistis and the Catholics and it was a fierce division amongst the early believers of Christianity. Donatists believed that the new Church after the Great Persecution should become a church of holy people, not a group of treacherous degenerates. In Africa, the… Continue reading Optatus and Schism
Asceticism and Monasticism
Antony and Theodoret: Model Christians
Christians and non-Christians were motivated to move into a life of renunciation and withdraw from the world because they did not want the distractions of society to get in the way of their goals. Christians were trying to reach a place where they were one with God and that that was their only focus. An… Continue reading Antony and Theodoret: Model Christians
Hermits and Asceticism
Life in the fourth century was not easy for people in the Roman Empire, even for religious people like the Jews and the Christians. However, where the non religious person differed in faith from the Christian, both groups had individuals that sought a life a way from complementary life structure. In this time, if one… Continue reading Hermits and Asceticism
Early Christian Devotion
Christological Controversy
Nestorius and Cyril
After the fourth-century debate on the relationship of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God, there came, in the fifth and sixth centuries, a debate about how Jesus could be divine and human at the same time. According to philosophers that Lynch mentions in his introduction, it was impossible for Jesus to be God and human;… Continue reading Nestorius and Cyril