[A work in progress . . .]

Some decent maps. [Warning: this guy's off the deep end theologically, but there are some good early church maps]

Useful publisher for ancient & medieval works: svspress.com

Israel

  • Cyrus (559-529 BC)
  • Darius I (c. 549-485; r. 522-486) [wikipedia]

Ancient

  • The Apostolic Church
    • The apostolic tradition was simply the NT Scriptures, which was inseparable from apostolic succession
    • Apostolic succession is taught in the Second Helvetic Confession (chs. 13, 17, 18): “[Christ is] the most perfect teacher of the world; in whom is hidden the wisdom of God, and which has come to us through the most holy, simple, and most perfect doctrine of all. For he chose disciples for himself whom he made apostles. These went out into the whole world, and everywhere gathered together churches by the preaching of the Gospel, and then throughout all the churches in the world they appointed pastors or teachers according to Christ’s command; through their successors he has taught and governed the Church unto this day.” (Chapter 18)
  • The Apostolic Fathers [wikipedia]
  • Apostolic pattern of church polity:
    1. Plurality of eldership
    2. Flexibility of language
    3. Lifetime presidency
    4. Mother churches with daughter churches
  • The Roman Emperors [list: roman-emperors.org]
  • Justin Martyr (ca. 100-ca. 165) [wikipedia]
    • Early Christian apologist
  • Tertullian (ca. 160-ca. 225) [wikipedia]. His seven hermeneutical principles (early 3rd c.):
    1. Scripture to be interpreted in light of its dominant ideas
    2. Literal sense considered first, spiritual sense only if called for (e.g., parables)
    3. Read text in its immediate context
    4. Interpret the unclear from the clear
    5. Scripture does not contradict itself
    6. Interpret according to the rule of faith (regula fidei, i.e., the Apostles’ Creed)
    7. Apostolic faith can never leave the church & heretics have no right to interpret Scripture
    • Quote: “The more we are mown down by you [persecutors], the more numerous we grow; the blood of Christians is seed” (Apology 50)
    • Quote: “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What has the Academy to do with the Church?” (Prescription Against the Heretics 7)
  • Melito of Sardis (d. ca. 180) [wikipedia]
  • Origen (ca. 185-ca. 254) [wikipedia]. Probably studied under Ammonius Saccas, who also taught Plotinus (founder of neoplatonism). His threefold sense of Scripture:
    • Body/historical; soul/moral; spirit/spiritual.
  • Irenaeus (2nd c.-ca. 200), combated Gnosticism [wikipedia]
  • Gnosticism [wikipedia]
    1. Gnostic “worldview”: Demiurge is the creator; the fulness (pleroma) consists of the divine realm (pure spirit), the heavens (intermediate), and the earth; the archons, like demons, rule the earth.
    2. Gnostic “savior”: The basic problem is ignorance, so salvation is not redemptive; rather, what is needed is illumination.
    3. Gnostic “telos“: The enlightened have their souls ascend to the pleroma; the ignorant are probably annihilated.
    4. Gnostic history:
      • Simon Magus (church fathers thought he was the root; cf. Acts 8:9-24)
      • Marcion (ca. 110-160), was excommunicated [wikipedia]
      • Valentinus (ca. 110-ca. 160) [wikipedia]
      • Manichaeism, founded by Mani (216-276) [wikipedia]
      • Mandeans [wikipedia]
  • Didache (early 2nd-c.) [text: newadvent.org; about: wikipedia]
  • Cyprian (?-ca. 258), combated the Novationists [wikipedia]
    • On the Unity of the Church [text: ccel.org, romancatholicism.org]: “The episcopate is one, each part of which is held by each one for the whole” (sec. 5). (Cf. OPC FOG 12.2: “These assemblies [session, presbytery, general assembly] are not separate and independent, but they have a mutual relation and every act of jurisdiction is the act of the whole church performed by it through the appropriate body.”)
  • Novationist Schism (250s), all previous schisms were over heresy, but the Novationists were unwilling to allow the lapsed back into the church [wikipedia]
    1. Martyrs, those who confessed & died during persecution
    2. Confessors, those who confessed and were willing to die, but were allowed to live
    3. Lapsed, those who compromised
  • Diocletian Persecution (303-311) [wikipedia]
    • The last, and most severe, episode of persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
  • Constantine I (ca. 272-337) [wikipedia]
    • His relationship with Christianity [wikipedia]
    • Edict of Milan (313), Christianity made legal [wikipedia]
    • (Christianity later mandated under Theodosius I in 381)
  • Hilary of Poitiers (ca. 300-368) [wikipedia; newadvent.org]
  • Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389) [wikipedia]
  • Basil of Caesarea (ca. 329/333—379) [wikipedia]
  • Julian the Apostate (331-363; r. 360/1-363) [wikipedia; roman-emperors.org]
    • Attempted to legally disenfranchise Christians
    • Tried to establish a pagan “church” [religion in ancient Rome: wikipedia]
    • Attacked the Christian doctrine that humans are not divine and the novelty of Christianity (only 300 years old)
  • Ambrose of Milan (ca. 338-397) [wikipedia]
  • John Chrysostom (ca. 347-ca. 407) [wikipedia]
  • Jerome (ca. 347-420) [wikipedia]
    • Translator of the Vulgate [wikipedia]
    • Hermeneutics: Historical, tropological (moral), spiritual.
  • Augustine of Hippo (354-430) [wikipedia]
    • Confessions [text & commentary: stoa.org]
  • Donatists, a continuation of Novation ideas under persecution in the 300s under Diocletian; there were two main sins: worship of the emperor and handing over the Scriptures [wikipedia]
  • John Cassian (ca. 360-435) [wikipedia]
  • Monastics:
  • (on week 4 notes)

Medieval

Reformation [see posts]

Modern