Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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Ignatius of Antioch (c.35-107 AD), in letters to churches in towns in Asia c.107AD, is one of the first Christian leaders to use the term ‘the Catholic Church’.He is emphatic that the unity of the Church can only be maintained bysubmitting to the rule of the local bishop. ‘Let no one do anything,’ he writes,‘which pertains to the Church, apart from the bishop.’ 13Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons (c.177-200 AD), sees the unifying force in the churchto be ‘the knowledge of the truth’. 14 By ‘the truth’ he means the doctrinesconcerning God and Jesus, and the order of the Church which had come downfrom the first apostles, preserved through an episcopal succession. He believesthat the Church can identify this succession in the names of bishops descendedfrom the Apostles. He refers to the disputes beginning at Corinth mentioned inClement’s letter and sees Rome as the Church that has apostolic authority tocorrect the errors of the Corinthians. The truth handed down is Biblical truthbut it is expounded by faithful men who are consistent in their teaching withthe apostles’ doctrine.But there were false counter-apostolic views abroad from a very early date.There were also men who divided the church, not doctrinally, but by their styleof church discipline, which went counter to the general conduct of thechurches. Some of the heresies were ephemeral; some were long-lasting; andsome can even be found today, mainly in sects which have risen up since the19 th Century.Jerome (c.345-420 AD) said that there was something in the distinction that aschism was a separation from the Church while a heresy was a denial oforthodox doctrine; but he noted that every schism had within it a fault indoctrine.We can see in the Church’s response to these challenges to its faith theformation of responses that have become the bases for unity which we canrediscover and celebrate today.13This demand to submit to the local bishop is a constant call in Ignatius’s letters. SeeBettenson, Henry, The Early Christian Fathers, Oxford University Press, 1969, p 40, letter tothe Ephesians; pp 42-43, letter to the Magnesians; p 47, letter to the Philadelphians; p 49,letter to the Smyrnaeans.14Bettenson, Henry, The Early Christian Fathers, Oxford University Press, 1969, p 89.Page 21
Almost all the heresies in the Early Church, up to the 4 th Century, have to dowith opinions concerning either the Person of Christ (some denying hiscomplete humanity, others impugning his full deity) or the relationship ofFather, Son and Spirit within a Triune Godhead.THE MAIN HERESIES AND SCHISMS OF THE EARLY CHURCHLet us look at the main heresies and schisms of the first 400 years of thechurch.DocetismThe first challenge to apostolic teaching can be found within the NewTestament itself in the form of a heresy often termed Docetism. As John waswriting his letters in the province of Asia towards the end of the 1 st Century, hechallenged the view that the real humanity of Christ only appeared to have areal body of flesh and blood (dokeo – ‘I seem or appear to’).The roots of this heresy lay in Gnosticism (from gnosis – knowledge),widespread in the 1 st Century, which claimed an inner knowledge of the waythings were in the universe. Later, in Christianised forms, Gnosticism was totrouble the Church considerably, so that in the next century Irenaeus of Lyonswrote strongly against it as a deviation from Christian truth.Gnosticism, if unchecked, would have seriously diminished an apostolic view ofthe person of Christ and his redemptive work, because Gnosticismpresupposed an antithesis between the physical and the spiritual. Matter wasevil, only spirit was good. This dualistic view could not accommodate the ideaof a supreme, good God taking on a material form in human flesh. SomeChristian Gnostics tended to see the God of creation as opposed to thesupreme good God, because a good God could not have been involved in thecreation of matter.A certain Docetic teacher, often identified as Cerinthus, was troubling thechurch in John’s region by denying, further, that Christ, the Messiah, died onthe Cross. He seems to have been teaching that Jesus was only an ordinaryman until his baptism, when a higher power came upon him. This power leftJesus just before his Crucifixion. By his dualism, this teacher thus separatedPage 22
Page 11 and 12: Can Christian Unity be expressed ac
Page 13 and 14: ‘In the Trinity the three are one
Page 15 and 16: Protestants, equally, have to be ab
Page 17 and 18: When John Wesley said that Christia
Page 19 and 20: (Geneva) Agreed Statement was issue
Page 21 and 22: While organised Christian endeavour
Page 23 and 24: Christian Unity consist?’ We shal
Page 25: CHAPTER 1CHRISTIAN UNITY IN THE EAR
Page 29 and 30: interpreted as being against the la
Page 31 and 32: was raised by the Novatian schism.
Page 33 and 34: ArianismArianism was the most impor
Page 35 and 36: the Person of Christ. This was the
Page 37 and 38: Nicaea (325 AD), which asserted, ag
Page 39 and 40: He wrote:‘The ancient doctrines o
Page 41 and 42: agreement into the terms and ethics
Page 43 and 44: authority of the local bishop; Cypr
Page 45 and 46: Protestants. He was born in Tagaste
Page 47 and 48: guide the affairs of men: the Papac
Page 49 and 50: The distinction between laity and c
Page 51 and 52: ule. Christians were allowed to be
Page 53 and 54: fallen corruption and mortality but
Page 55 and 56: During the 1917 Communist Revolutio
Page 57 and 58: his repentance and restoration. The
Page 59 and 60: just before death, they might recei
Page 61 and 62: In both the East and the West heres
Page 63 and 64: The Waldensians were so named after
Page 65 and 66: CHAPTER 4THE SECOND GREAT SPLIT: WE
Page 67 and 68: Far more serious criticisms of the
Page 69 and 70: and the sacraments. He was tried by
Page 71 and 72: and his discovering that the Script
Page 73 and 74: denominational allegiances: confess
Page 75 and 76: aptism and substituting for it bapt
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Vincent de Lérins’ threefold bas
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Charles de Guise, Cardinal of Lorra
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CHAPTER 5QUOTATIONS ON THE THEME OF
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Dr Charles Malik - 20 th Century:
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Nicholas Zernov - 20 th Century:‘
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The restoration of the universal Ch
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Timothy Ware - 20 th Century:‘It
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Basilea Schlink - 20 th Century:‘
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Cardinal Basil Hume - 20 th Century
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Keith A Fournier - 20 th Century:
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concept of a contract between a rul
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harmoniously ordered society of pea
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interesting to note that the disput
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• In the Eucharist, Komensky main
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The Conference opened with much pom
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a growing unity among Christians at
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We cannot leave the 17 th Century w
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CHAPTER 7CHRISTIAN UNITY AND THE EV
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In Dr Woodward’s account of the r
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for Whitefield’s work in America,
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the West, the North and the South.
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‘John Wesley, displeased at not b
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formally, though it may have helped
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In view of all this, Charles Wesley
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Some of the refugees were persuaded
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Isaac Watts (1647-1748), the pionee
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CHAPTER 8VISIONS OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
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hymns and Eastern orthodox spiritua
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eplied with a series of Eirenicons
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positively wrote on grace and love
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hand that pours out sorrow’ and t
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He died in England in 1853 an ‘ec
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assembly, without much hesitation r
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‘Loving all whom Christ loves bec
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says, the Broad Church was ‘a moo
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far greater part for the laity in t
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ehind some of the criticism of the
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came together with the clear purpos
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In subsequent missionary conference
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university formed by a federation o
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credo-baptists to accept the provis
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Horton Davies 137 points out in his
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However, since New Delhi, the WCC s
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(b) The Church of Christ in China (
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the Scriptures as the supreme autho
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In 1970 a similar scheme to that of
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indulgences, were all confirmed str
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however, at a lower level, manifest
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In her study of the Evolution of th
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Even within the Reformed Protestant
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the publisher’s foreword to Gee
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and so I have some golden opportuni
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CHAPTER 10 THESE BRIDGES CAN’T BE
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‘Only he - only Christ - was able
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c) Justification by Faith and Works
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However, in the Credo of the People
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f) Purgatory‘Purgatory’ is a na
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The Catechism of the Catholic Churc
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who love and trust the Lord Jesus C
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However, there is a growing awarene
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encouraged to receive a blessing al
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c) Traduction Œcumenique de la Bib
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witness. There is one such Sisterho
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Practically all para-church groups
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s) Missions and CampaignsMissions a
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My Protestant friends say to me tha
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Most Christians, in all three tradi
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of God may be complete, equipped fo
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CHAPTER 12NOW WHAT?This book began
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c) For some Protestants ecumenism m
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The church at Corinth was full of C
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) It has become clear that, realist
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Christians who believe a Catholic d
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There are three confessions that ha
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‘The solution to the ecumenical i
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k) Christ has left us an example -
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day’, the Niceno-Constantinopolit
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APPENDIX 2FOUR BIBLICAL TEXTS ON TH
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of the common good, and when one’
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eaten, as idols did not exist anywa
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14. That to continue in any known s
Page 239 and 240:
What all three traditions have in c
Page 241 and 242:
Calvin held that the Gospel of Jesu
Page 243 and 244:
Relations between Protestantism, Ca
Page 245 and 246:
Brandreth, Henry, R T, The Oecumeni
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Hopko, Thomas, All the Fullness of
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Rupp, E G and Drewery, Benjamin, Ma
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INDEXAAct of Uniformity, 114aggiorn
Page 253 and 254:
Frame, John M, 91, 187Francis of As
Page 255 and 256:
Richardson, Paul, 239Roman Catholic
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