Councils & Controversies
Arius argued that the Son was not eternal but was created by the Father. What key claim of Nicene Christianity did this contradict?
The Son is eternally begotten (not made), and consubstantial (homoousious) with the Father.
Religious unity and stability across the empire. The dispute threatened divisions that could undermine the strength and cohesion of the vast empire.
What was the name given to the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Franks, Burgundians, Saxons, and the Huns collectively, who invaded Rome in 476?
Who are the Barbarians?
This famous church, built under Justinian in Constantinople, was renowned for its enormous dome
What is the Hagia Sophia?
This city became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire under Constantine and was later called Constantinople
What is Byzantium?
Why did the Council of Nicea use the term homoousios rather than simply saying that Jesus was like the Father?
"Like" could allow the Son to be a lesser or created being; homoousios affirmed that the Son shares the same divine essence as the Father.
Theodosius I supported Nicene Christianity and issued the Edict of Thessalonica in 380. What changed in the relationship between Christianity and imperial authority?
Nicene Christianity became the empire's officially prescribed form of Christianity, and imperial authority increasingly supported and enforced religious orthodoxy.
What did these groups often do both genuinely and in an effort to stabilize the empire as they conquered it?
What is convert to Christianity?
476
These are the Patriarchal Sees, also known as the Pentarchy.
What are Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinople?
What was the reaction of the laypeople at the Council of Ephesus, after they waited outside the Council all day to hear the news?
They rejoiced, the women led a torchlight procession through the city, and they threw a party
Why is it misleading to describe the early Church as simply independent of the Roman government after Constantine?
Emperors convened councils, enforced religious policies, appointed bishops, and intervened in theological disputes.
Who met with Attila the Hun who was planning to invade Italy when it was clear the emperor was too weak and poor to prevent the invasion?
Who is Pope Leo I?
What profession was Theodora?
Actress
These 4 factors were the root of Alexandria's beef with Constantinople's addition to the Patriarchal Sees.
What are Alexandria was the primal see of the East, it violated the principle of apostolicity, Constantinople's power as the "new Rome" was derived from imperial politics, and theological rivalry?
The Council of Ephesus defended Mary's title theotokos. Explain why this was fundamentally a claim about Christ rather than primarily a claim about Mary.
The title safeguards the unity of Christ's person; it does not mean that Mary originated His divinity.
What three main criteria were used to determine whether a text would be admitted to the Biblical canon?
What are floods, famine, and epidemic?
With which heretical group did Theodora associate?
Who are the Monophysites?
Name one major theological disagreement between Eastern and Western Christians.
What are either papal primacy and the filioque controversy?
How did theology develop over the first 500 years?
Evaluate the claim: "Constantine's conversion was a greater turning point for the Church than the fall of the Western Roman Empire"
Constantine transformed Christianity's legal status and access to imperial power. The Western Empire's collapse altered political structures and forced the Church to assume new social and institutional roles.
Which pope, reluctantly named, took on social, economic, and political leadership as part of his pastoral care for the people of Rome, who were experiencing a major plague outbreak and collapse of infrustructure?
Who was Pope Gregory I (the Great)?
What brought Justinian to imprison two popes?
Who is his heretical wife, Theodora, and the fact that these popes rejected Monophysitism and affirmed the Council of Chalcedon?
Explain the complex relationship between the emperors and the bishops that contributed to the East - West tension.
What's the difference between the Eastern model, in which emperors frequently intervened in Church affairs and worked closely with the patriarch of Constantinople, and the Western experience, in which popes increasingly exercised independent spiritual and political leadership as imperial authority weakened. Emperors on both sides influenced the Church, but disagreements over who had authority to appoint, depose, or overrule church leaders - and the Pope's claims to authority beyond the West - contributed to growing tensions.