DB 4
Deedee1
Week4-CWC-EARLYCHRISTIANITYINAFRICA.pptxSources for week four
Oden, C., Thomas The African Memory of Mark, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011
____________ How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007
Baur, John 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa. Nairobi, Kenya: Pauline’s Publications, 1994
Vurton, A. Keith The Blessings of Africa, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007
EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN AFRICA
MARK IN AFRICA
Cyrene and its surrounding territory, Cyrenaica, is found on the map in the northernmost part of the continent of Africa, in modern-day Libya
Cyrene of the first century had a sizeable Jewish population and were known to be Messianic in their hopes and historical perspective long before the arrival of Mark in the city
These Jewish populations lived with Greeks, Romans, Punic, Berber, and Nilotic speaking people
The Jews were internationally connected
Universal human history and providence
Following civil disturbance in Cyrene (A.D. 5-20), the family of Mark left Cyrenaica for Palestine where Mark and his mother became engaged in the company of Jesus of Nazareth
EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN AFRICA
MARK IN AFRICA
We hear of Mark next in Jerusalem, where his mother had access to a spacious place of residence (Acts 12:12), …the same upper room as noted in Mark 14:15 and Acts 1:13
As a young man, Mark and his mother joined the followers of Jesus. They became a part of a culture-transforming movement within Judaism
Later Mark would be the first among the disciples to write the good news of the coming of this incomparable person who changed his life entirely
His gospel was the first and the oldest surviving written efforts to tell the non-Jews of the good news of the beginning of Christianity
Mark became a pattern for all subsequent reports of the history of Jesus
EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN AFRICA
MARK IN AFRICA
The boy who grew up in Africa was also remembered as the first one to take the good news of Jesus, Son of God, back to Africa
Mark’s life would end in the most populous city of Africa: Alexandria, in the coast of the Nile delta
Out of this city, the most influential intellectual center of the whole Mediterranean world, came the first Christian school
The first historically known Christian from Alexandria is the Jew Apollos (Acts 18:24; 1 Cor. 3:4-7)
Its distinctive learning process, from apostolic texts and in dialogue with culture, was born in Africa
Out of Marks’s life and death came an enduring gift to all early Christians: the mergence of African Christianity
EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN AFRICA
MARK IN AFRICA
Despite their differences African Christians have basic agreement that Mark is the first apostle to Africa. This is the fact that makes Mark:
Foundational for the Coptic Patriarch history
Honored and celebrated in explicit annual Catholic and ecumenical liturgical recollections of Mark as the first Christian Martyr of Africa
Viewed by almost all varieties of African Protestants, despite their diversity, with great pride and joy as their earliest apostolic ancestor
The delight of both African Pentecostals and Orthodox in celebrating the outpouring of the Spirit at the house of Mary the mother of Mark as the setting of the original Pentecost in Jerusalem
HELLENISTIC CHRISTIANITY
THE LINK TO THE UNIVERSAL CHRUCH
Some 300 years before Christ, Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great (332 B.C.)
The country of the Pharaohs was then exposed to the intensive influence of Greek colonization, called Hellenization
The Greek language and culture were not restricted to the many Greek traders who settled in Alexandria and other cities but were accepted by practically the whole urban population
HELLENISTIC CHRISTIANITY
Alexandrian Theological School
Alexander itself became the metropolis of the entire East Mediterranean; a cultural center even more important than Athens
Though the Romans conquered it in 30 B.C., it remained a Greek city, and its top philosophical schools extended their influence even in Rome
Christian theology in the proper sense of the word first started in Alexandria
The first attempt made by the Gnostics to influence the faith failed utterly
The school was founded by the almost unknown Pantaenus (AD 180), whose successor was his disciples Clement of Alexandria (AD 200) and Origen (220-250); under Origen it attained its zenith
HELLENISTIC CHRISTIANITY
Alexandrian Theological School
Clement of Alexandria was indeed the first Christian scholar in full command of the knowledge of his time
While he warned his students against the errors of the philosophers, he insisted on accepting from the Hellenes “whatever is good, whatever is beautiful”
To work all the elements of faith and philosophy into a theological system was the glory of Origen
He started with Scripture, establishing a secure text by comparing the various versions and interpreted it, always looking for a deep (often allegorical) meaning of the text
Origen is venerated as the first biblical scholar, theologian, and master of asceticism; a man to whom all later theologians, St. Augustine included, are deeply indebted
HELLENISTIC CHRISTIANITY
THE ALEXANDERIAN PATRIARICHATE
In the ecclesiastical field too, Egypt was destined to play a role of leadership, second only to Rome. This was through the development of Alexandrian Patriarchate
The first one known to history is Demetrius (189-231), the bishop of Clement and Origen
During his episcopate the Church spread very fast; he began to ordain bishops outside Alexandria, but kept them under his supervision
This was the origin of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, which comprised a 100 bishops and enjoyed the leadership of the whole church in the East
Bishop Peter Martyr (305-312), who died at the end of the Diocletian Persecution, is the first Egyptian saint, also venerated in Rome in its Cannon of the Mass
Bishop Athanasius (328-367), the “Father of Orthodoxy,” gave fame to the Alexandrian Patriarchate
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW THE WESTERN IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY WAS BORN IN THE CRUCIBLE OF AFRICA
The unrivalled library of Alexandria was the model for the university libraries all over Europe. It was unexcelled for five centuries
The experimental academic model that later transformed into Western idea was initially born in Africa
The vast learning community of philosophers, scientists, writers, artists and educators that surrounded the Alexandrian library of the third century provided the essential archetype of the university for all medieval Europe
The history of the first medieval universities such as Padua (Italy), Paris (France), Salamanca (Spain), and Oxford (England) followed methods of text examination, curricular patterns and philosophical imperatives that were refined in 2nd ct. African Christianity
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW THE WESTERN IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY WAS BORN IN THE CRUCIBLE OF AFRICA
Clement’s writings Stromateis and Paedaogus, reveal much of the method and content of education that became normative in the medieval university
The academic community in Constantinople, still located in the physical residence of the University of Istanbul today, was patterned after academic communities and libraries in Cyrenaica (Libya), Alexandria (Egypt), Carthage (Tunisia), and Hippo (Algeria)
African monastic patterns of relating the life of the mind to responsibility in the world became the pattern for study under Alucin, whose court academy under Charlemagne imprinted the whole of proto-European university education
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW THE WESTERN IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY WAS BORN IN THE CRUCIBLE OF AFRICA
Christian scholarship was born in the leading academic center of the ancient world: Alexandria
That vital crucible of learning was itself transformed by Christianity and exported to Rome, the Rhone valley, Byzantium and Antioch
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW CHRISTIAN EXEGESIS OF SCRIPTURE FIRST MATURED IN AFRICA
Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa (all in the 4th ct. C.E.) were crucial in defining early Christian thinking of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit for Orthodox Christianity, both East and West
These Cappadocian fathers were decisively shaped by extensive exegesis of Scripture from Africa
Basil and the Gregories introduced Origen’s basic teaching and forms of exegesis of Scripture to both Europe and Asia in their early collections called the Philocalia (c. 360)
The rules and methods for interpreting the Scripture to both Europe were decisively shaped not only by Africa’s greater scientific investigator of sacred texts, Origen, but by also by fourth-and fifth century African exegetes like Didymus the Blind, Tyconius and Augustine of Hippo
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW CHRISTIAN EXEGESIS OF SCRIPTURE FIRST MATURED IN AFRICA
The normative early Greek and Latin Bibles before Jerome (the Septuagint and the Old Latin Bible versions) were both products of Africa
The perplexing relations of the Old and New Testaments were studied with great philosophical precision by Christians from Africa of the first three centuries
These patterns of interpretation became decisive for later studies in Syriac, Greek and Latin, and much in German, French and English exegesis
The editors that produced the twenty-eight volumes of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture at Drew University were astonished to find such a large percentage of texts from Africa or influenced by African writers among the patristic comments on verse after verse of Scripture
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW CHRISTIAN EXEGESIS OF SCRIPTURE FIRST MATURED IN AFRICA
Many leading themes of the widely read homilies of John Chrysostom and Theodore of Cyrrhus and Ambrose followed Origen, Didymus and Cyril of Alexandria in specific details
Virtually all Christian exegetes following Origen and Didymus the Blind actively borrowed their studies in large portions, from African scholars
The philological, linguistic and historical studies of Origen was a pattern to follow for many who followed after him
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW AFRICAN SOURCES SHAPED EARLY CHRISTIAN DOGMA
These African exegetes powerfully affected the dogmatic formulations of the Orthodoxy of the East and the West
Dogmatic definitions were working off of textual interpretations hammered out chiefly in Africa, the Maghreb and the Nile Valley
The definition of Christology and the Trinity were profoundly shaped by definitions and concepts that were defined decades earlier in Africa by Tertullian, Cyprian, Athanasius, Augustine and Cyril
The growing theological wisdom of Leo the Great, Cassiodorus and Gregory the Great emerged later on north Mediterranean shores many generations after African Christian teachers had already hammered out their basic terms
Western Christian dogma was formed with precision in Africa before it became ecumenically received worldwide
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW AFRICAN SOURCES SHAPED EARLY CHRISTIAN DOGMA
The influential into Greek of the OT, the Septuagint
As its apex the brilliant Jewish intellectual tradition of Africa produced Philo with his approach to biblical events and metaphors
The Jewish community became a seed bed of preparation for the gospel that would echo throughout world Christianity
The major battles with heresy were fought out in Africa before they were received ecumenically
Gnosticism, Arianism, Montanism, Marcionism, Manichaeism were all thoroughly argued as problems of biblical interpretation in Africa before these arguments reached clear definitions in the Rhone and Rhine and Orontes Valley
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW AFRICAN SOURCES SHAPED EARLY CHRISTIAN DOGMA
What Irenaeus and Hippolytus of Rome learned about Gnosticism was learned largely from African sources (Valentinus, Basilides, the Sethians)
The precocious intellectual developments in the African valleys of the Majdjerda and the Nile informed subsequent Asian and European Christian Orthodoxy
The Nicene formula was so keenly refined by Athanasius that, though contested, it found its way into the center of ecumenical orthodoxy
Even when strongly resisted at first by the imperial authorities of Constantinople, Athanasian scriptural interpretation in time became normative after the First Council of Constantinople (381) and the Creed of the 150 fathers, and the rest is ecumenical history
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW EARLY ECUMENICAL DECISION MAKING FOLLOWED AFRICAN CONCILIAR PATTERNS
The early African councils provided a practical model for ecumenical debate and resolution
The conciliar movement, which began in Jerusalem (c. 45 C.E.) as reported by Luke, took on formal characteristics in African debates in Carthage, Alexandria, Hippo, Milevis that would gradually come to define the methods for achieving ecumenical consensus elsewhere
Major decisions made by ecumenical conciliar processes in North Africa under the leadership of Cyprian and the bishops of Numidia, Byzacena, Carthage and Mauretania were closely followed in the general ecumenical councils
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW EARLY ECUMENICAL DECISION MAKING FOLLOWED AFRICAN CONCILIAR PATTERNS
Africa was the region that first set the pattern and method for seeking wider ecumenical consent on contested points of scriptural interpretation
It was from African bishops like Agrippinus and Cyprian, and the African-born Pope Victor that the impulse for conciliarity first developed
The most influential ecumenical debates first occurred largely in the great African cities of Carthage, Hippo, Milevis and Alexandria
Arianism, Sabellianism, Gnosticism and Pelagianism were debated and largely decided in Africa before they were debated elsewhere
Many of the actual decisions made by the early African councils are still observed as weighty precedents of canon law throughout vast reaches of global Christianity
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW EARLY ECUMENICAL DECISION MAKING FOLLOWED AFRICAN CONCILIAR PATTERNS
Among conflicts that were first settled in African synods before Nicaea were issues on penitence, diocesan boundaries, episcopal authority and ordination as well as issues on the person of Christ and triune teaching
They sorted out the ecumenical acceptability of the views of Sabellius, Tertullian, Arius, Athanasius, and Origen—all Africans
Ecclesiology and the penitential patterns that became normative for Europe was first tested in Africa with the issues first raised by Demetrius of Alexandria, Cyprian of Carthage, Optatus of Milevis and Augustine of Hippo
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW THE AFRICAN DESERT GAVE BIRTH TO WORLDWIDE MONASTICISM
The suffering of the African martyrs—Mark in Alexandria and Cyprian in the Maghreb—became the pattern for early monasticism in Africa long before it did elsewhere
The African monks understanding of sacrifice; the daily ordering of the life of prayer, study and work; and radical discipleship were destined to enter into the heart of the whole Christian tradition that would later flower in medieval European Christianity
The course of the monastic movement in Africa was well-formed long prior to the time of Benedict of Nursia (480-550), the key figure of European monasticism
Both Basil in the East and Benedict in the West followed African monastic patterns
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW CHRISTIAN NEOPLATONISM EMERGED IN AFRICA
It is seldom mentioned in the philosophical literature that the earliest advocates of Neoplatonism did not reside either in Greece or Rome, but in Africa
Philo, Ammonias Saccas and Plotinus—the central players in Neoplatonism—were all Africans
After taking firm root in the Nile Delta, in due time it would move north to Rome, Athens, and Byzantium
Christian teachers like Clement of Alexandria were among the earliest to set forth circumspect connections and distinctions between logos and philosophy and the Christian teaching of God
SEVEN WAYS AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
HOW RHETORICAL AND DIALECTICAL SKILLS WERE HONED IN AFRICA FOR EUROPE’S USE
The advanced dialectical study of rhetoric migrated from Madaurus, Sicca, and Carthage to Italy, as it did with many leading Christian figures: Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius and Lactantius, all prior to the more famous example of Augustine
African rhetors introduced many rich subtleties of African communication talents, literary passion and dialectical skills to the north Mediterranean.
