{"id":5029,"date":"2017-02-26T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T15:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=5029"},"modified":"2017-02-20T15:08:56","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T20:08:56","slug":"learning-our-faith-from-the-greek-fathers-of-the-church-20170226","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=5029","title":{"rendered":"Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20170226"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this article I have tried to express the thoughts of the Greek Fathers of the Church and, in doing so, I have, of course, mentioned the struggles that the Church encountered during the first seven\/eight centuries. The struggles were namely about Who Jesus Is. I\u2019ve mentioned in passing several heresies, <\/em>and thought that I would now look at them in a little more depth. The first, of course, being the ARIAN CONTROVERSY.<\/p>\n

While for years the Church had reflected fruitfully on the person and work of Christ, it took a specific individual to prod the Church to formalize or crystallize its teaching regarding the divinity of Jesus. How sad? \"\"<\/a>At Alexandria in the early fourth century, a priest by the name of Arius <\/em>began to question seriously the possibility that Jesus could be divine, at least in the same sense that God or the Father was divine.<\/p>\n

We can best understand Arius\u2019 position by sneaking a peek at his own mail. In a letter written to his friend Eusebius of Nicomedia, Arius complains of the trouble that has engulfed him in Alexandria. Arius relates that \u201cthe bishop greatly injures and persecutes us and does all he can against us, trying to drive us out of the city as godless men.\u201d Why was Arius encountering such opposition?<\/p>\n

Arius writes that<\/p>\n

we do not agree with him [Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria] when he says publically, \u201cAlways Father, always Son,\u201d \u201cFather and Son together,\u201d \u201cThe Son exists unbegottenly with God,\u201d \u201cThe eternal begotten\u201d, \u201cUnbegotten-only-one\u201d, \u201cNeither in thought nor by a single instant is God before the Son,\u201d Always God, always son,\u201d \u201cThe son is of God Himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arius is displeased with Bishop Alexander\u2019s description of the Son, largely because Alexander is leaning over backwards in his insistence that the son has always been with the Father. There is \u201cno instant,\u201d as Alexander phrases it, when the Father was without the Son. Indeed, to be Father is to have a Son: \u201calways God always Son.\u201d If so the son must be divine in essence, just as the Father is. Or so it would seem.<\/p>\n

Arius refused to accept Alexander\u2019s formulations. Alexander\u2019s position raises a number of problems that appear insurmountable to Arius. Thus the beginning of the heresy of Arius. More to follow<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article I have tried to express the thoughts of the Greek Fathers of the Church and, in doing so, I have, of course, mentioned the struggles that the Church encountered during the first seven\/eight centuries. The struggles were … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athanasius-of-alexandria","category-learning-our-faith-form-the-church-fathers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5031,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5029\/revisions\/5031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}