Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Tuesday Bible Study (5/26/20)

The Question of the End:


Apocalyptic Expectation in Early Medieval Europe


1000 A.D.

"The Last Judgment" fresco at the Camposanto, Pisa c. 1348
attrib. to Italian master Buonamico Buffalmacco

Scriptural Starting Places:

Matthew 24:29-31 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 - "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words."

2 Peter 3:10 - "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed."

Revelation 20:1-6 - "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.  He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.  But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.  Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years."

>> Eschatology is from the Greek adjective éskhatos (ἔσχᾰτος). It means "last, at the end, final." Therefore 'eschatology' means the study of the end times, the "last things." The big question with eschatology is "When will all these things be"? In the New Testament, the way that Jesus, Paul, Peter and John talk might lead the reader to expect the immanent end of all things. Yet these teachings have come to us from twenty centuries ago; so we can say, "The end has not happened yet!" Further questions on the end involve concrete statements from the NT about the rapture and the 1,000 years. Such verses have been understood in a variety of ways throughout Christian history. Toward the "middle" of the Middle Ages, when the year 1000 A.D. approached, very many people expected the return of Christ and the judgment. We'll explore that movement in our study today as we conclude our year-long look at the first 1,000 years of the history of the Church.

>>> Note that the dating system of world history as "A.D." (meaning "year of the Lord") was devised by a Christian monk active in Rome.  A learned man from modern day Romania/Bulgaria, Dionysius the Humble devised the calendar around the year 525. He counted backwards to what he determined had been the birth year of Christ and based his calendar on it. The incarnation of the Word was thus the center-point of all history. 

>>>> In what precedes and follows I rely heavily upon Derek Cooper's book, Twenty Questions that Shaped World Christian History


Around the Year 1000:

As an anonymous pastor proclaimed in Old English in a homily from 971 A.D, "We know that the end of time is not far distant, for all the signs and portents which our Lord said should occur before doomsday have occurred, except only that the accursed visitant Antichrist has not yet come into the world. It is not long until the time when that must happen for this world must necessarily end in this age that is present. In this age then must this world end and most of it has passed, that is, nine hundred and seventy-one years in this year." 

Surrounding the year 1000 there were strong apocalyptic expectations in Western Europe.  Based on Dionysius' dating system, 1000 A.D. marked the 1,000th year since the Incarnation and redemption of humanity. Along with the suggestive verses in Revelation, the late 10th century and early 11th century were filled with strange astronomical events and other "miracles" witnessed by large numbers of people. For example, chroniclers around the year 1000 recorded an unusually violent earthquake in Western Europe and a strange episode of blood falling upon a certain group of worshipers during a Palm Sunday service. In addition there were comets, violent battles with the Vikings and Eastern European tribes, large-scale famines, planetary alignments, and other apocalyptic phenomena. 

Where writers and popular prophets differed was the exact time of completion for the 1,000 years. Would it be 1,000 years after the Incarnation or 1,000 years after the Passion (putting it at 1,033 A.D.)? Opinions differed.  

While it would be overly-simplistic to argue that Christians believed the world would end at the year 1000, it is certainly accurate to state that there was a heightened apocalyptic feeling at this point in the history of the Western Church. 

Fleury Abbey, founded in 640, is  in north-central
France. It is an important and celebrated monastery.

Major Voices:

Adso of Montier-en-Der (c. 910-992): abbot of a monastery in the Northeast of France. His most famous work is a book on the Antichrist where he points out that many Antichrists have already come, such as Emperor Nero and others, but that a final Antichrist will rise up and carry out horrible persecution of the Church. He surmised that the End would be near when the kingdoms that Rome had subdued would rise up against Rome and against the Papacy. "[The] time has not yet come, because, though we see the Roman empire destroyed in great part, nevertheless as long as the kings of the Franks who hold the empire by right shall last, the dignity of the Roman empire will not totally perish, because it will endure in the kings." Adso went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in preparation for the end. 

Abbo of Fleury (c. 945-1004): monk of Fleury Abbey who recorded an interesting memory that gives us a window into popular apocalypticism at this time: "When I was a young man I heard a sermon about the End of the world preached before the people in the cathedral of Paris. According to this, as soon as the number of a thousand years was completed, the Antichrist would come and the Last Judgment would follow in a brief time. I opposed this sermon..." 

Wulfstan of York (?-1023): monk and archbishop of York in Northern England. In five sermons on the End Times Wulfstan guessed that the end was near because the world was growing worse with each passing day. "A thousand years and more have now passed since Christ was among men in human form, and now Satan's bonds are greatly loosened and Antichrist's time is very close, and therefore things are in the world ever the weaker the longer it goes on." 

Ralph Glaber (985-1047): monk active near Dijon, France. His most important work is a five volume work called Histories in which he offers a literal interpretation of Revelation. Here he connects a 10th century heretic named Vilgardus with the release of the devil from prison at the end of 1,000 years. Glaber also notes many interesting events from around 1000 A.D. which anticipated the last age. Among other signs Glaber notes Halley's Comet: "[This] clearly portends some wondrous and awe-inspiring event in the world shortly after." 

Title page of a work by Abbo of Fleury. Note the name "Abbo"
written across the monk's neck. The date is c. 970.


Significance Today:

Our Lord teaches, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority" (Acts 1:7), yet since the earliest times of the Church, indeed, since the time of the Twelve, disciples have wished to know the exact date of the End. 

In the Early Church, prominent writers such as Augustine and Jerome believed Revelation was a heavily symbolic text with figurative numbers and provocative, non-literal imagery. This has not always been the opinion. Other ancient Fathers such as Hippolytus and Tertullian had different views that would resonate more with modern day Dispensationalists than most Catholics or Lutherans. 

Around the year 1000 there were several monastic authors who looked around at the numerous terrestrial and heavenly "signs" and decided that the end was imminently near. Of course ten centuries have now passed, and we have historical hindsight to see that worse things have happened since that time! Tsunamis, famines, wars, genocides, and pandemics have plagued the world, and more Christians were slain in the 20th century alone than in all previous centuries put together. 

It is important for us as Christians to live in the tension of the "End Times" with the understanding that, since the Ascension, every age has eagerly expected to see the face of Christ as Judge and Victor. As disasters and wars take place, the Church catches glimpses of the End. Just as there are many Antichrists, there are many 'signs' and 'wonders' of the End. Indeed, the world is groaning under the weight of sin and is ready for the transfiguration of all things. The Church's mission is to prepare all of creation to meet her Author: the Messiah Jesus. 





Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Tuesday Bible Study (5/19/20)

The Question of the Real Presence:

Transubstation and Other "Theories" of the Eucharist in Early Medieval Theology

c. 850 A.D.

The Tassilo Chalice, c. 780, Anglo-Saxon
design, now at Kresmuenster Abbey, Germany

Scriptural Starting Places:

Matthew 26:26-29 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.  For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.  But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

John 6:51, 53 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you."

1 Corinthians 10:16The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?


1 Corinthians 11:26-30 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.


Definitions: 

TransubstantiationChange of one substance into another. Term for [the Roman Catholic] view that in the Eucharistic rite the substance or basic reality of bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, while the outward appearances of bread and wine are not affected. 

ConsubstantiationView, falsely charged to Lutheranism, that bread and body form 1 substance ("a third substance”) in Communion (similarly wine and blood) or that body and blood are present, like bread and wine, in a natural manner.

Real Presence: Belief that Christ's body and blood are truly and substantially present in, with, and under the elements of bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. Also referred to as the "Sacramental Union," this teaching affirms that communicants partake of both bread/wine and Body/Blood at the same time. The prepositions "in, with, under" do not denote a metaphysics of the Sacrament, but rather an inability to describe the exact nature of the Mystery and pin down its operation. 

>> These definitions come from the "Lutheran Cyclopedia." Lutherans are often mislabeled as "consubstantialists" which is inaccurate. There is not a third, compound substance formed at the Lord's Supper, but the salvific Body and Blood of Christ is received simultaneously as the physical bread and wine. The prepositions "in, with, and under" are simply indicating the great mystery that takes place; we believe and trust that Christ is really, actually, truly present, but we can't understand everything about the mode of His presence. It happens sacramentally, mystically, supernaturally, salvifically here at the altar. 


The Eucharistic Controversy: Paschasius Radbertus vs. Ratramnus 

Corbie Abbey, outside of Amiens, founded around 660

Around the year 831, the learned and influential abbot of Corbie in northern France produced the first, full-length treatise in the Western Church on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. This treatise, called De Corpore et Sanguine Domini ("The Lord's Body and Blood") is now Paschasius Radbertus' most well-known work, and it proved to be highly influential as well as very divisive in the history of medieval Christianity. Its arguments for the doctrine of "transubstantiation" set into motion the first of the so-called "Eucharistic Controversies" in the West. Radbertus most likely wrote this treatise for the monks at Corbie. Soon, the chief teacher of the monks, a man named Ratramnus, offered a different interpretation of the Eucharist. 

Ratramnus had an excellent relationship with King Charles the Bald (a grandson of Charlemagne, reined 875 to 877 as Holy Roman Emperor). The emperor had visited Corbie Abbey sometime in 843 and had commissioned the learned monk to write a treatise in response to Radbertus' position.

It would seem that at the time there were two different opinions on the Lord's Supper that existed alongside each other: Radbertus' literal view ("transubstantiation") and Ratramnus' figurative or mystical view. Both monks believed that when Christ said, "This is my body," the word "is" signifies that the Body of the Lord is truly present. Where they different is in the mode of presence. 

Radbertus occasionally sounds Capernaitic in his understanding. This term is taken from John 6:26 - 58 and refers to an almost cannibalistic chewing and swallowing of Jesus' flesh just as other food might be chewed and swallowed. Radbertus asserts that the elements at the Eucharist are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit so the sacrifice of the Lamb's body and blood can take place again. 

Ratramnus at times seems to understand Holy Communion in a spiritual or symbolical sense, as if the eating and drinking of the Body and Blood happen in the heart of the believer when he or she trusts the Word of the Lord with faith. In this he prefigures the Calvinists and Zwinglians of the 16th century who taught something similar. 

What should be emphasized, however, is that both monks unequivocally state that the Eucharist offers grace and forgiveness of sins, and that it joins Baptism as a mystical sacrament in the Church.  Neither monk understands a sacrament as a "mere" symbol; they differ as to the extent of what a symbol means. In Ratramnus' view, a symbol is a veil, a truth is a direct utterance. Therefore a symbol would be Christ's teaching in John 15 where He calls Himself the "vine" and His disciples the "branches." If this were understood literally, it would lead to a ridiculous and untrue picture! However, believers are to understand it mystically, and by reaching out to it in faith, the Holy Spirit leads to understanding. The Sacrament works in much the same way; the Body and Blood are veiled, hidden from our eyes "under" (he uses this preposition; it's "sub" in Latin) the elements on the altar. 

Radbertus' argument is less clear and organized than Ratramnus'. He represents an older, monastic and devotional approach while Ratramnus presents a more scholarly and systematic approach. Both views exerted influence in future theology, though Radbertus' transubstantiation became the standard view, with further clarifications. 


Samples of the Arguments

Radbertus (transubstantiation): "Yet these [elements] must be believed to be fully, after the consecration, nothing but Christ's flesh and blood." 

Ratramnus (figurative/mystical): "But that bread which through the ministry of the priest comes to be Christ's body exhibits one thing outwardly to human sense, and it proclaims another thing inwardly to the minds of the faithful. Outwardly it has the shape of bread which it had before, the color is exhibited, the flavor is received, but inwardly something far different, much more precious, much more excellent, becomes known, because something heavenly, something divine, that is, Christ's body, is revealed, which is not beheld, or received, or consumed by the fleshly senses but in the gaze of the believing soul." 

Radbertus (transubstantiation): "[It is] truth therefore, when the body and blood of Christ is created by the power of the Spirit in His word out of the substance of bread and wine; but a figure when , through the agency of the priest at the altar, outwardly performing another thing, in memory of His sacred Passion, the Lamb is daily sacrificed as He once was for all." 

Ratramnus (figurative/mystical): "For the very One who now in the church, with omnipotent power, spiritually changes the bread and wine into the flesh of his body and the stream of his blood, then also invisibly made the manna given from heaven to be his body and the water which had been poured forth from the rock to be His very blood." 


Engraving of Paschasius Radbertus


The Eucharist in Orthodox Lutheran Theology


The Formula of Concord is a masterpiece. In it the late reformers systematically organize the tenets of Christian doctrine and present them in a clear and uncomplicated way. The writing is characterized by an insistence on faith and tension - that is, leaving riddles and problems unresolved. 

For example, in the Formula of Concord: Epitome, Article VII paragraph 6 we read: "We believe, teach, and confess that the body and blood of Christ are received not only spiritually through faith but also orally with the bread and wine, though not in Capernaitic fashion but rather in a supernatural, heavenly way because of the sacramental union of the elements. The words of Christ clearly demonstrate this..."  The reformers conclude this article by stating, "Human reason and understanding cannot grasp this, but our understanding must be taken captive by obedience to Christ here as in all other articles of faith. Such a mystery cannot be grasped except by faith and is revealed alone in the Word." 

In all of the Lutheran writings in the Reformation, there is an emphasis not on the priest's words or the recipient's faith, but on Christ's speech. It is Christ's promise at the Last Supper that holds today in the Lord's Supper. It is Christ's Word that confirms and sanctifies the elements. We bring forth the memory of Christ's words today and hold to them in trust, faith, and hope. 


The altar at Martin Luther's church, the "Stadtkirche" of Wittenberg.
Pictured above the altar is Cranach's famous altarpiece (photo by Adam).





Thursday, May 14, 2020

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Tuesday Bible Study (5/12/20)

Alcuin and the Beauty of Wisdom:
Education and the Christian in the Early Middle Ages

800 A.D.

A manuscript from around 830. The middle figure is
Alcuin. He and Rabanus Maurus are dedicating a book to
Archbishop Odgar of Mainz.

Scriptural Starting Places

Proverbs 1:7 - "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Proverbs 8:32-36 - "And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death." 

Ecclesiastes 7:12 - "For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it."

Sirach 24:12 - "I [Wisdom] took root in an honored people, in the portion of the Lord, His heritage." 

Wisdom of Solomon 6:17-21 - "The beginning of wisdom is the most sincere desire for instruction, and concern for instruction is love of her, and love of her is the keeping of her laws, and giving heed to her laws is assurance of immortality, and immortality brings one near to God; so the desire for wisdom leads to a kingdom. Therefore if you delight in thrones and scepters, O monarchs over the peoples, honor wisdom, so that you may reign forever."

> Wisdom (in Hebrew, Chokmâh, in Greek, σοφῐ́ᾱ - sophia) is a significant theme in the Old Testament. Wisdom is neither experience nor piety, but is a saving knowledge of God and His ways for His creation. This saving knowledge is imparted by old to young, one to another. It is the responsibility of families to raise the next generation in the wisdom and fear of God.  For early Christians, the Wisdom identified by Solomon is none other than the Word, the λόγος who was made flesh for the sake of the world.  Education for believers is therefore a "passing along" of this Wisdom through worship, witness, and formal learning. 


Background

Charlemagne (748-814), the son of Pepin the Short, ruled as Frankish king before gaining more and more power over the Lombards in Italy. In 774 he triumphed and ruled over a large area including modern day France. In 800 he was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day at St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Charlemagne is one of the most significant figures of the early Middle Ages; his reign marks a renaissance in learning, art, and culture. He fought back the Muslim armies in Spain, expanded his empire, and established many important, new monastic schools in his kingdom. 

At this time, due to Charlemagne's keen interest in education, Christian and pagan texts began to be circulated widely after being copied with great skill. Charlemagne reached to all corners of his empire to find the best teachers and scholars for himself, his children, and his court. Among them were Alcuin of YorkTheodulf - VisigothPaul the DeaconPeter of PisaPaulinus of Aquileia, Angilbert, Angilram, Einhard, and Waldo of Reichenau. Of all these scholars, the one who is best-known today is Alcuin. 

Charlamagne also increased the number of libraries and scriptoriums (writing and copying workshops) throughout his realm, and established a library in his own palace as well as in the old city of Jerusalem. 


Emperor Charlemagne by Albrecht
Dürer, 1511-1513

Alcuin


Alcuin of York (c. 735-804) was called by a chronicler writing after his death, "The most learned man anywhere to be found." Born in York and educated there by the archbishop, Alcuin rose to prominence in Northumbria (modern day northern England) and was invited by Charlemagne to join his court. 

Becoming the master of the palace school at Aachen, Alcuin personally educated (or supervised the education) of Charlemagne's children as well as the emperor himself. He revamped the curricula of the school to include the Trivium and Quadrivium disciplines- the seven liberal arts of grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, mathematics, music, astronomy, and geometry. The school was nicknamed "The School of Master Alcuin" so great was his influence. 

Alcuin has left us numerous treatises, commentaries, poems and letters. At the end of his life he served as abbot at the Marmoutier Abbey outside of Tours, in Western France. He continued leading his students and monks in copying texts until his death. 

Wherever he was, the great scholar sought the best for his students. In an interesting letter to Charlemagne dating from the late 790s, Alcuin writes,

"This is a matter which has not escaped your most noble notice, how through all the pages of Holy Scripture we are urged to learn wisdom. In toiling toward the happy life nothing is more lofty, nothing more pleasant, nothing bolder against vices, nothing more praiseworthy in every place of dignity; and moreover, according to the words of philosophers, nothing is more essential to government, nothing more helpful in leading a moral life, than the beauty of wisdom, the praise of learning and the advantages of scholarship... O Lord King, exhort the youths who are in your excellency’s palace to learn wisdom with all their might, and the gain it by daily toil while they are yet in the flush of youth, so that they may be deemed worthy to grow grey in honour, and by the help of wisdom may reach everlasting happiness. But I, according to the measure of my little talent, shall not be slothful to sow the seed of wisdom among your servants in this region. Mindful of the saying, ‘In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thy hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.”

Later Alcuin quotes Jerome (c. 347-420) in saying, 

“The old age of those who have trained their youth in honest arts and have meditated in the law of the Lord day and night, becomes more learned with age, more polished by use, wiser by the lapse of time, and reaps the sweetest fruits of studies long grown old.”


Significance

"The Carolingian Renaissance" is a major moment in European history and educational history. A common script (Carolingian Minuscule) became the standard "font" for the Latin-language kingdom; monastic schools were established and flourished; new libraries abounded; texts were copied and distributed, making many writings available for the first time; and everywhere, education was encouraged by the great emperor who loved learning himself. 

Education is a controversial and divisive subject today. With the amoral "Common Core State Standards" and the removal of the last traces of religion in American schools, education is far removed from the "instruction in Wisdom" that Solomon encouraged. During Alcuin's time there was no question that education involved sacred and secular reading, developing pious and well-balanced students who were able to wisely govern lands, adjudicate disputes, and themselves educate the populace. The telos or goal of education was nothing less than heaven, via a well-ordered life on earth. Education was the means of developing reasoning subjects who defended the land with sword or law as they defended the faith with pen or sermon. In the West today we have split "secular" learning from "sacred" learning. This is something we've come to accept as inevitable, possibly even healthy! But is it? What do other Christian voices suggest?

Stretching into the later Middle Ages and even into the Renaissance, the Carolingian view of education basically prevailed; the Trivium and Quadrivium components of a liberal, classical education were taught, and Christian instruction or catechesis was woven into every element of such an education. Martin Luther himself assumed that education for the young was absolutely necessary for a thriving, Christian population. Like Alciun, he supported no other "model" than that of the Trivium and Quadrivium, with Theology as the "Queen of the Sciences" at the university.  Since God Himself is the source and goal of all learning, the completion of formal education at university (for clergy, lawyers, and physicians) was marked by a special emphasis on Theology itself. Luther believed monastic schools had declined and advocated for strong state schools, with curricula determined by pastors and teaching provided by learned men. 

Erasmus, Luther's contemporary, saw the goal of all education to be a moral, Christian life. Education that is not concerned with or moving toward ethics is not education, by the great humanist's definition. He believed that by the careful study of the Bible (in its original languages) and the classic Greek and Latin authors, a society would be filled with moral and rational people. 

Later Protestant theorists such as John Amos Comenius in the 17th century echoed Luther; education was to be broad, classical, religious, and moral. Comenius saw education as the central task of the Church, preparing our world for righteousness and dispelling the darkness of ignorance. 

The question for the 21st century is, "What is "education" apart from Wisdom, apart from God, apart from the Church?" 


Charlemagne et ses Leudes, a statue in Paris from 1878




 So, this list is highly subjective. I haven't read all of these books, and I've also had to eliminate very significant books becaus...