Ch2 Sect 3 From Constantine to Augustine to the Middle Ages

“With the coming of the Christian Emperor Constantine and the Edict of Toleration (AD 313), external pressure was replaced by the internal pressure of heresy in the church.” (p 35) At this point in the Church history further clarification and dogmatic development came from several councils in the east, such as the Council of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451) where Christological formulations were constructed such as Christ being one person(specifically the 2nd Person of the Trinity) with two natures, divine and human. As debates in the church continued through the first millennium there became a difference in doctrinal emphasis between the East and West. The East was dominated by the corruption of humanity and the liberation by Christ which makes us partakers of life, immorality, and the divine nature. While the West thought of the relationship between God and man in more legal categories. Bavinck points out that the East followed and associated themselves with the teaching of John, while the West with Paul. The final difference between the East and West that caused the schism of 1054 was the filioque controversy .Filioque, which is latin for “and from the Son”, was a division over the Nicene creed which originally stated that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. Later the church in the West added, “and from the Son”, which we as protestants affirm as well (Rom 8:10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 1 Cor 15:45 “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.)

I think this background concerning the church in the East and West that Bavinck provides, is to highlight and emphasize the work of Augustine in the late 4th and early 5th century. Bavinck on page 37 says, “This entire dogmatic development in the East and West culminates in Augustine. The doctrine of the Trinity and Christology of the Eastern theologians was all absorbed and, over a lifetime of rich experience, internally appropriated by Augustine.” Augustine’s point of departure is the human souls’ quest for truth, happiness and goodness which all are one. The knowledge of the self and the knowledge of God are the two poles between which all human thought oscillates. This is exactly the same point of departure for John Calvin in his Institutes. In the first paragraph of the fist Chapter of the Institutes Calvin says. “Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also as it were, leads us by the hand to find him.” I think this illustrates the magnitude of the work of Augustine. Augustine provides foundational doctrine concerning the Church, predestination and Grace. Bavinck states that Augustine is a Theologian of greatest importance for all theological work that comes after him and is the most Christian and most modern of all the early church fathers. Every reformation returns to Augustine and Paul. (p38) And at the same time Augustine is known as Saint Augustine by the Catholic Church.