Test 2: St Augustine & the City of God Flashcards
Who wrote letters to Corinthians?
Paul of Tarsus
Who excommunicated the emperor Theodosius?
Ambrose
Who were the 3 gospels known as the Syn-Optic Gospels?
Marc
Matthew
Luke
How is Jesus portrayed in John’s Gospel?
Jesus is more divine than human
Who did early Christianity appeal to the most?
Women
Slaves
the poor
What were the Ebionites preaching about in early Christianity?
-Claimed Christians had to follow the Jewish Laws
-Believed Jesus was sacrificed to redeem the sins of humanity
What were the Marcionites preaching about in early Christianity?
-Believed that the Jewish tradition was misguided
-Believed that the Jewish God was a source of the material world, making him an evil source
-Rejected the Jewish Bible
-Embraced the letters of Paul
What were the Gnostics preaching about in Christianity?
-Jesus was entirely divine and not incarnate
-Jesus’ purpose was to teach the true doctrine of the spirit, and how it can only be liberated from the material world through knowledge of the divine world
-Spiritual elite of Christianity
-Accepted cannonical gospels as partly true
What is the Apostolic Tradition?
-Set of criteria that must be met in order to be considered a true Christian
Who imposed restrictions on who could hold church office?
Clement of Rome
Who wrote letters to the congregation in Corinth?
Clement of Rome
Who is Ignatius of Antioch?
- Third Bishop of Antioch
-Wrote letters to the Christian community, telling them that they should respect the Apostles since they were the only ones with legitimate authority
Who was Justin Martyr?
- Tried to establish a set of official Christian texts
-Executed during the reign of Marcus Aurelius
-Wrote the Apology (a defense of Christianity) - Wrote Dialogue With Trypho
Who is Tatian?
- Wrote the Diatesseron
-combined the four canonical gospels into one narrative (gospel harmony) relating to the life and teachings of Jesus - Wrote Address to the Greeks; denounces pagan learning
What is the Nicene Creed?
- Reiteration of the emphasis on the mysteries of the incarnation and the Trinity
- These points were made by Iranaeus and Tertullian
What is the Rule of Faith (Canon of Truth)?
- A summary of the core beliefs of Orthodox Christianity
- Serves as a guide against heresy
- Written by Iranaeus and Tertullian
Why did Constantine convene all the bishops at the Council of Nicaea?
- To settle doctrinal disputes
- Achieve a harmonized Christian creed
Who is Irenaeus?
- Defended the four gospels on numerological grounds
- Believed that the number 4 was ordained by God
Who was Arius?
- Emphasized that the son’s divinity was not equal to the father’s
- The son depends on the father
Who was Ulfilas?
- Half Gothic Missionary
- Translated the Bible into Gothic Language
- Missionized Arian Christianity among Gothic tribes
Who was Nestorius?
- Archbishop of Constantinople
- Claimed that there were two separate natures to Jesus: Jesus the man, and the Divine Logos
- These natures came together but were never of the same essence
Who was Eutyches?
- Launched the Monophysites
- Archimandrite of Constantinople
- Claimed that Jesus could not be both human and divine
- Believed Jesus’ humanity was absorbed by his divine nature
Who was Jerome?
- Expressed emphasis on asceticism
- Defended celibacy
- Suspicious of sexuality
- Preferred virginity over marriage
- Wrote Adversus Joviniaunum
- Translated the Old Testament and the New Testament into the Latin Vulgate
What is the Adversus Joviniaunum?
-Written by Jerome
- Promotes virginity over marriage for both men and women
- Stronger emphasis on female virginity
What is the Latin Vulgate?
The official bible of the Middle Ages
Who is Ambrose?
- Imparted traditional Roman values to Church Doctrine and to the institutions of the church
- Made the Bishop high above the Christian congregation
- Antisemitic
- Scared of celibacy
- Highly censorious of sexual love
- Opposed the Gnostic notion that women could be church officials
- Wrote de officiis ministrorum
What is the de officiis ministrorum?
- Higher code of ethics of Bishops
- Recalls the famous work of Cicero
- Imitates Cicero’s De Officiis (translates to “on the duties for church officials)
- Redefined the 4 cardinal virtues, but accepts them
Who had the Altar of Victory removed?
Ambrose
What does Augustine call the knowledge of the divine world?
Sapientia
What is Manichean?
- Christian creed influenced by Gnosticism and Zoroastrianism
- Two cosmic principles at war in the universe; matter and spirit
- Both principles are material and contend with each other
What does Cupiditas represent?
The material world
- It is a world of original sin
- Selfishness, lust for power and domination
What is Augustine’s Conception of God?
- God is a pure spirit that transcends the material world, is a pure being, pure thought, and consists of everything that is good
- The ultimate sign that God cares about us is that he sacrificed his son (Jesus)
- God’s thought is the ideas of Plato, which he uses to form the universe
- God cares about the material world
- God is not remote or indifferent
- God cares about humankind
- Human beings have a personal relationship with God, which can be achieved once we all embrace our inner light
What does Augustine call the knowledge of the material world?
Scientia
What was Augustine’s view on true wisdom?
- True wisdom involves the recognition of humanity’ s debt to God for all the gifts they receive
-Reason can only reach the truth when assisted by a divine grace
What does Cupiditas represent?
-Turn your love towards God
- Renounce attachment to the material world
- Devote yourself to God and salvation
