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Contents: Two Paths to the Divine in the 4th Century

Read the story of a 20th Century librarian
who meets some real Desert Fathers at:
Book of John the Librarian

for comments, feedback and criticisms please contact the author at alexandrinelibrarian@gmail.com
First: 4th and 5th Centuries Egypt: Men and Women Go into the Desert to Seek the Divine through Extreme Asceticism and Meditation

"In the fourth century a.d. the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, Arabia and Persia were peopled by a race of men.... They sought a way to God that was uncharted and freely chosen, not inherited from others who had mapped it out beforehand. They sought a God whom they alone could find, not one who was 'given' in a set stereotyped form by somebody else." ...Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert

Second: 4th and 5th Centuries Egypt: In Alexandria, Many Seek the Divine through Philosophy, Mysticism, and Alexandrine Teaching

"Many centuries before our time, in the learned circles of a wonderful city, men were greatly interested in the stars, in the elements, in the cosmic process, in time and space, in the relations of the spiritual to the material, in the possibilities of the ages yet to be and in the perennial riddle of the future of the human soul."... R. Tollinton, Alexandrine Teaching.


Neoplatonism and the Desert Fathers in Late Roman Antiquity

Just before the dark ages, in the learned circles located in Alexandria, Egypt, early Christianity competed with other philosophies and religions to explain the nature of God, the afterlife,
and the fate of the human soul. During the 2nd to 4th centuries, the two Alexandrian schools, The Catechetical School of Alexandria (a Christian theological school)and the Alexandrine Schools, (a secular prototype university) flourished side by side as early church fathers, Clement and Origen blended Platonic philosophy into an early version of Christian philosophy.

The Platonic view of man as a soul imprisoned within a body or viewing the body as a sarcophagus eventually became known as Neoplatonic philosophy or Neoplatonism. Eventually the Christian view of man favored the Hebrew concept of man as an antimated body, an idea taken from the mythical Genesis story of creation. This shift in the view of man from an imprisoned soul to an animated man would eventually prove significant.

By the 5th Century Christian view of man, based on the mythical Genesis story, became ossified by a largely political process that began with the first ecumenical council, chaired by Roman Emperor Constantine in 325 CE. Subsequently the emergence of a new definition for the concept of heresy, for the first time in recorded history (The word "heresy" means a "choice" or an "opinion," but it came to mean an "incorrect" theological belief.), eventually led to the two schools becoming mortal enemies.

Many of the early desert fathers were monks educated at the Alexandrine University and the related Catechetical School, both located in Alexandria, Egypt. Many of these monks were exposed to the teachings of Plato that tended to fuse the writings of Plato and Christianity into Neoplatonism. Two of the early Church Fathers Clement (150 - 215) and Origen (185 – 254), as heads of the Cathechetical School in Alexandria, were instrumental in the education of these monks. The teachings and writings from both these early Church fathers were influenced by Neoplatonism. Origen's writing were declared heretical by the Church in the 6th century.


Welcome and Introduction to The Desert Fathers

In the fourth century A.D. the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, Arabia and Persia were peopled by a race of men who have left behind them a strange reputation. They were the first Christian hermits, who abandoned the cities of the pagan world to live in solitude....

What the Fathers sought most of all was their own true self, in Christ. And in order to do this, they had to reject completely the false, formal self, fabricated under social compulsion in "the world."

They sought a way to God that was uncharted and freely chosen, not inherited from others who had mapped it out beforehand. They sought a God whom they alone could find, not one who was "given" in a set, stereotyped form by somebody else. Not that they rejected any of the dogmatic formulas of the Christian faith: they accepted and clung to them in their simplest and most elementary shape. But they were slow (at least in the beginning, in the time of their primitive wisdom) to get involved in theological controversy. Their flight to the arid horizons of the desert meant also a refusal to be content with arguments, concepts and technical verbiage....Thomas Merton...The Wisdom of the Desert
Hello and Welcome...

This blog serves as a companion to my blog: Alexandrine Librarian  (2010) which has been revised and rewritten as the Book of John the Librarian in 2021. One purpose of this blog is to document my research of the rise of monasticism in the third and fourth centuries in the Egyptian desert around the ancient city of Alexandria, Egypt. Another purpose is to explore the nature of the compelling spirituality of these desert fathers who lived quite independently mainly in the desert of Egypt around the ancient city of Alexandria prior to the time of Church interference that began with the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

Alexandrine Librarian was a fictionalized story told by one of the librarians who worked at the great library, in Alexandria, Egypt, right before its demise in 415 AD. I began writing the story to get a sense of what it might have been like working in that great library during those years of political and religious turmoil in the empire.

Surprisingly, the fourth century AD started as a century of hope for human civilization as it was a period of time when there were many great libraries throughout major metropolitan cities and the early beginnings of a prototype modern day university was established and thriving in Alexandria, Egypt.

I began my research in 1995. As a university librarian, my initial interest was in learning about the Great Library located in Alexandria, Egypt - how it came to be and what happened to it. However it quickly became obvious that the fate of the Great Library was closely tied to the truculent nature of the local Christian Church and its bishop. The two could not be separated.

In 1995, little did I realized that my interest in this topic would be so compelling that eventually I would take early retirement from my position as a university library director, in 2005, in order to spend all my time researching and writing about early Christianity and its influence on ancient libraries. For me this interest became an obsession, a sort of spiritual journey into the origin and roots of early Christianity and, more importantly an exploration of my own feelings and beliefs about the nature of the unseen world and the nature of the Divine and Divine Realm.

Before 1995, the god I thought I knew was a god created by men, perhaps men of good intention, perhaps not. But certainly they viewed an anthropomorphic god with all the limitations of human weaknesses. These same men put human limitations on their god and fashioned that god for their own purposes. But the God of those men and women in the third and fourth century monastic movement was a very real God, a God who could be experienced first hand.

The 4th century AD, must have been one of the most spiritual centuries in human history with a two-pronged effort toward searching for the nature of God and the destiny of the human soul. One search was under way in an early university set up in Alexandria, Egypt, centered around that early repository of ancient wisdom, the great Alexandrian Library. Building on the early works of the great mystic Plato, that included ideas, such as karma and reincarnation, from texts on eastern religions, they attempted to understand the nature of the unseen world through rational thinking based on ancient wisdom from India and Tibet. Among these Christian Neoplatonists were early church fathers, including Clement and Origen, who likely used the resources of that great library facility in their studies and teachings.

Clement has been quoted as saying: "Many streams flow into the one river of truth. The bee gets her honey from every kind of flower in which she can discover it." One could easily surmise from this that he was a heavy library user. As the great library was all inclusive in its collection building, it is likely that the library acquired the texts of eastern religions and that those texts were available to the early Church fathers. Karma, reincarnation and the belief that the human soul was eternal were a part of early Christian Neoplatonist philosophy. Neoplatonist philosophy including the writings of the early church fathers from the second and third centuries was later declared a heretical teaching by the church in the fourth century.

The other search for the nature of the unseen world was in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, Arabia and Persia, where men and women, in solitary, sought to experience the Divine. They followed the path of the great mystics from the east. Through extreme asceticism that involved physical deprivation and the consumption of hallucinogenic drugs they had powerful visions that enabled them seek a way to the divine "that was uncharted and freely chosen, not inherited from others who had mapped it out beforehand." (Visit Monks and Nuns of the Egyptian Desert for a brief archaeological and historical overview.)

Two very different approaches toward solving the riddle of the future of the human soul. Both efforts, using different methods, converged at that point in human history, and focused on understanding the nature of the unseen world.

At first in the second and third centuries, these two approaches easily coexisted side by side in Egypt. This peaceful coexistence continued until the early Christian church and an emerging church doctrine began to take shape in fourth century. In 380 AD, sixty-eight years after Constantine legalized the Christian religion, Roman Emperor Theodosius' decreed that Christianity was the only religion of the Empire. That act lead to the beginning of the end of the Alexandrian University and the rational approach to understanding the nature of the unseen world. After that time the early Christian church quickly consolidated its power and began aggressively eliminating of all contrary ideas about the nature of the unseen world. The world of classical scholarship and learning, supported by vast collections of recorded wisdom, which the early church branded as pagan and, therefore, heretical, was coming to an end.

The decree of 380 gave the Christian Church authority to use Roman troops to destroy all non-Christian temples and non-Christian libraries throughout the Empire and murder anyone who stood in the way. According to some accounts the early Church moved quickly to enforce the decree, leaving those individuals who were not Christian with no alternative but convert, or else, to Christianity as their shrines and temples were destroyed. Many non-Christians lost their lives when they rebelled against the destruction of their sacred places. The early Christian Church proved as brutal in carrying out the new decree as the Romans were in persecuting early Christians.

Theodosius's decree in 380 lead to the beginning of the end of classical scholarship and all teaching and research in the Empire. The Alexandrine University, located in Alexandria, Egypt was eventually closed with its faculty and librarians fleeing to higher education institutions and libraries in Persia (modern day Iran). Fortunately some classical texts in the libraries were saved from destruction by being transported to libraries in Persia. But in the main, library collections were burned and scholars and librarians who tried to defend their libraries were murdered by Christian fundamentalists (see here and here for an alternate view for destruction of classical literature).

The brutal murder of Hypatia of Alexandria in 415 AD, one of the last philosopher librarians, by members of the Church underscored just how serious the fracture between the church and classical scholarship had become.

The movie Agora released in 2009 dramatizes one version of the end of the Great Library, the death of librarian-philosopher Hypatia and the end of classical scholarship. The movie was produced in Spain, but never made it to popular distribution in the US because of it's strong anti-Christian content. According to Robert Ebert in his review of this movie, "This is a movie about ideas, a drama based on the ancient war between science and superstition." Also the review in the New York Times authored by A.O. Scott should be read before viewing the movie to identity the various historical figures close to Hypatia.

According to Carl Sagan in his book Cosmos:

"Hypatia stood at the epicenter of ... mighty social forces. Cyril, the Archbishop of Alexandria, despised her because of her close friendship with the Roman governor, and because she was a symbol of learning and science, which were largely identified by the early Church with paganism. In great personal danger, she continued to teach and publish, until, in the year 415, on her way to work she was set upon by a fanatical mob of Cyril’s parishioners. They dragged her from her chariot, tore off her clothes, and ... flayed her flesh from her bones. Her remains were burned, her works obliterated, her name forgotten. Cyril was made a saint."

One would think that given the technology, science and individual spirituality that emerged at this time, that human civilization was about to make a great leap in improving the human condition for all.

However, it did not. For the next thousand years the light of wisdom would go dark for many as a period of the Dark Ages descended upon humanity in Europe and Northern Africa.

Why?

This blog and the companion blog Alexandrine Teaching explores that question.

click on image to enlarge

Comments and observations are welcome. If you wish to contribute a chapter or so to this blog, feel free to contact me.

Larry Greenwood, Retired Librarian
From the high mountains of southern Colorado
USA
October 2010
send email to: alexandrinelibrarian@gmail.com


Some additional links:
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The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross...by John M. Allegro

1956. Religious scholar John Marco Allegro published The Dead Sea Scrolls and presented three talks on the BBC, introducing these ancient documents to the general public. Allegro had joined the translation team in Jerusalem in October 1953, around the time Huxley began experimenting with psilocybin. Allegro's work on the Scrolls was later to lead to an international scandal when he published The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross in 1970, in which he claimed that the assumed Essene community at Qumran, where the Scrolls were discovered in July 1947, was a mushroom cult and Jesus was the name for their sacrament.

source: Metahistory.org
"Biblical scholar John Marco Allegro controversially proposed that the Roman Theology was derived from a sex and psychedelic mushroom cult in his 1970 book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross,... although his theory has found little support by scholars outside the field of ethnomycology. The book was roundly discredited by academics and theologians, including Sir Godfrey Driver, Emeritus Professor of Semitic Philology at Oxford University, and Henry Chadwick, the Dean of Christ Church College, Oxford.... Christian author John C. King wrote a detailed rebuttal of Allegro's theory in the 1970 book A Christian View of the Mushroom Myth; he notes neither fly agarics nor their host trees are found in the middle east even though cedars and pines are found there, and highlights the tenuous nature of the links between biblical and Sumerian names coined by Allegro. He concludes that if the theory was true, the use of the mushroom must have been "the best kept secret in the world" as it was so well concealed for all this time....

In Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy (formerly called Strange Fruit), Clark Heinrich interprets A. muscaria usage by Adam and Eve, Moses, Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, Jesus and his disciples, and John of Patmos... In the book Apples of Apollo the mushroom is identified in a wide range of mythological tales such as those involving Perseus, Prometheus, Heracles, Jason and the Argonauts, Jesus and the Holy Grail"...Amanita muscaria (Wikipedia)
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Christianity and Mushrooms

"The large window of the Legend of St. Eustace in Chartres cathedral shows many ‘mushroom trees’ and unambiguous depictions of mushrooms throughout its panels. Hundreds of depictions of mushrooms appear in Christian art." source: The Entheogen Theory of Religion... by Michael Hoffman
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Early Christianity and hallucinogens

"The essence and origin of religion is the use of visionary plants to routinely trigger the intense mystic altered state....

The main origin and ongoing wellspring of religion is the use of visionary plants. These plants include Psilocybe mushrooms, Henbane, Cannabis, Opium, Peyote, Salvia divinorum, and Amanita mushrooms. "...The Entheogen Theory of Religion and Ego Death...by Michael Hoffman
To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, by Mind at Large — this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone and especially to the intellectual....Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (1954)
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The Entheogen Theory of Religion and Ego Death...by Michael Hoffman

"The main origin and ongoing wellspring of religion is the use of visionary plants. These plants include Psilocybe mushrooms, Henbane, Cannabis, Opium, Peyote, Salvia divinorum, and Amanita mushrooms.

Visionary plants have been commonly used around the world throughout the history of religion and culture (Hofmann, Schultes, & Ratsch 1992), including in the various forms of Western Esotericism (Heinrich 1994). Greek and Christian mythic-religious systems often refer to visionary plants (Ruck, Staples, & Heinrich 2001). Leading mystics throughout the history of various religions have used visionary-plant sessions on-demand, with mystic-state experiencing that was largely rationality-oriented (Merkur 2001).

Meditation, shamanic drumming, and liturgical ritual were developed as activities to do in the plant-induced dissociative state, not as methods of inducing the dissociative state in the first place. "...The Entheogen Theory of Religion...by Michael Hoffman
The large window of the Legend of St.
Eustace in Chartres cathedral shows many ‘mushroom trees’ and unambiguous
depictions of mushrooms throughout its panels. Hundreds of depictions of
mushrooms appear in Christian art...From The Entheogen Theory of Religion...by Michael Hoffman
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Christianity and Mushrooms

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Christianity in the 2nd century

This page is under construction
Helpful Definitions:
  • Acts: The activities of the disciples after Jesus's death.
  • Epistles: Letters written by Christian leaders to other Christians.
  • Apocalypse: A revelation concerning the end of the world in a cataclysmic act of God.
  • Apocryphon: Greek term for a genre of Jewish and Early Christian writings that were meant to impart "secret teachings" or gnosis (knowledge) that could not be publicly taught.
Christianity in the 2nd Century
  • Early Church: 2nd-3rd Centuries (Internet Ancient History Sourcebook)
  • CH101 - The Second Century
  • What Was a Church Service Like in the Second Century
  • The Diversity of Early Christianity
    From the beginning, early Christians struggled to define for themselves the identity of Jesus and the meaning of his message.
  • Gentile Christianity of the Second Century
  • Christianity in the Second and Third Century A.D.
  • Christianity in the 2nd Century (Wikipedia)
    Christianity in the 2nd century was largely the time of the Apostolic Fathers who were the students of the apostles of Jesus, though there is some overlap as John the Apostle may have survived into the 2nd century and Clement of Rome is said to have died at the end of the 1st century. While the Christian church was centered in Jerusalem in the 1st century, it became decentralized in the 2nd century....
  • Key Players in the 2nd Century Christianity (Wikipedia)
  • Early Christian heresies (Wikipedia)
    In the middle of the 2nd century, three unorthodox groups of Christians adhered to a range of doctrines that divided the Christian communities of Rome: the teacher Marcion; the pentecostal outpourings of ecstatic Christian prophets of a continuing revelation, in a movement that was called "Montanism" because it had been initiated by Montanus and his female disciples; and the gnostic teachings of Valentinus. Early attacks upon alleged heresies formed the matter of Tertullian's Prescription Against Heretics (in 44 chapters, written from Rome), and of Irenaeus' Against Heresies (ca 180, in five volumes), written in Lyon after his return from a visit to Rome. The letters of Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna to various churches warned against false teachers, and the Epistle of Barnabas accepted by many Christians as part of Scripture in the 2nd century, warned about mixing Judaism with Christianity, as did other writers, leading to decisions reached in the first ecumenical council, which was convoked by the Emperor Constantine at Nicaea in 325, in response to further disruptive polemical controversy within the Christian community, in that case Arianist disputes over the nature of the Trinity.
    • Early suppression of heresies (Wikipedia)
      Before 313 AD, the "heretical" nature of some beliefs was a matter of much debate within the churches, and there was no true mechanism in place to resolve the various differences of beliefs.
    • Christology (Wikipedia)
      The earliest controversies were generally Christological in nature; that is, they were related to Jesus' (eternal) divinity or humanity. The orthodox teaching, as it developed, is that Christ was fully divine and at the same time fully human, and that the three persons of the Trinity are co-equal and co-eternal.
    • Ecumenical councils (Wikipedia)
      Several ecumenical councils were convened. These were mostly concerned with Christological disputes.
    • Gnosticism (Wikipedia)
      Gnosticism refers to a diverse, syncretistic religious movement consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect god, the demiurge, who is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God. Gnosticism is a rejection (sometimes from an ascetic perspective) and vilification of the human body and of the material world or cosmos. Gnosticism teaches duality in Material (Matter) versus Spiritual or Body (evil) versus Soul (good). Gnosticism teaches that the natural or material world will and should be destroyed (total annihilation) by the true spiritual God in order to free mankind from the reign of the false God or Demiurge.
      • Gnosticism
        In the early second century a strange movement began to emerge, more strongly concentrated in Egypt, but with pockets of activity throughout the Roman world. Gnosticism was a curious synthesis of Jewish apocalypticism, Platonism, strains of pagan religions, and early Christianity. There are some indications of an early form of first century gnosticism in the NT, but nothing like what developed in the second century. Some scholars want to date various NT documents into the second century based on the apparent references to gnosticism.
      • Gnostic Gospels (Wikipedia)
        The Gnostic Gospels are a collection of about fifty-two ancient texts based upon the teachings of several spiritual leaders, written from the 2nd to the 4th century AD.
      • [annotated] List of Gnostic Heresies
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Christianity in the 1st Century

This page is under construction
Helpful Definitions:
  • Acts: The activities of the disciples after Jesus's death.
  • Epistles: Letters written by Christian leaders to other Christians.
  • Apocalypse: A revelation concerning the end of the world in a cataclysmic act of God.
  • Apocryphon: Greek term for a genre of Jewish and Early Christian writings that were meant to impart "secret teachings" or gnosis (knowledge) that could not be publicly taught.
Christrianity in the 1st Century
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5th Century...Nestorius

Nestorius (c. 386–c. 451) was Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to 22 June 431. Drawing on his studies at the School of Antioch he devised a doctrine that later bore his name, Nestorianism, which emphasized the disunity of the human and divine natures of Christ. His teachings, which included a rejection of the long-used title of Theotokos ("Mother of God") for the Virgin Mary, brought him into conflict with other prominent churchmen of the time, most notably Cyril of Alexandria, who accused him of heresy. Nestorius sought to defend himself at the First Council of Ephesus in 431, but instead he found himself formally condemned for heresy and removed from his see. Thereafter he retired to a monastery, where he asserted his orthodoxy for the rest of his life. Despite his acquiescence, many of his supporters split with the rest of the church in the Nestorian Schism, and over the next decades a number of them relocated to Persia. Thereafter Nestorianism became the official position of the Church of the East.
source: Wikipedia
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5th Century...Christology Issues - Nestorianism Heresy

Nestorianism is a Christological doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431. The doctrine, which was informed by Nestorius's studies under Theodore of Mopsuestia at the School of Antioch, emphasizes the disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus. Nestorius' teachings brought him into conflict with some other prominent church leaders, most notably Cyril of Alexandria, who criticized especially his rejection of the title Theotokos ('Mother of God") for the Virgin Mary. Nestorius and his teachings were eventually condemned as heretical at the First Council of Ephesus in 431 and the Council of Chalcedon in 451, leading to the Nestorian Schism in which churches supporting Nestorius broke with the rest of the Christian Church. Afterward many of Nestorius' supporters relocated to Sassanid Persia, where they affiliated with the local Christian community, known as the Church of the East. Over the next decades the Church of the East became increasingly Nestorian in doctrine, leading it to be known alternately as the Nestorian Church.

Nestorianism is a form of dyophysitism, and can be seen as the antithesis to monophysitism, which emerged in reaction to Nestorianism. Where Nestorianism holds that Christ had two loosely-united natures, divine and human, monophysitism holds that he had but a single nature, his human nature being absorbed into his divinity. A brief definition of Nestorian Christology can be given as: "Jesus Christ, who is not identical with the Son but personally united with the Son, who lives in him, is one hypostasis and one nature: human." Both Nestorianism and monophysitism were condemned as heretical at the Council of Chalcedon. Monophysitism survived and developed into the Miaphysitism of the modern Oriental Orthodox churches.

Following the exodus to Persia, scholars expanded on the teachings of Nestorius and his mentors, particularly after the relocation of the School of Edessa to the Persian city of Nisibis in 489 (where it became known as the School of Nisibis). Nestorianism never again became prominent in the Roman Empire or later Europe, though the spread of the Church of the East in and after the 7th century spread it widely across Asia. However, not all churches affiliated with the Church of the East appear to have followed Nestorian Christology; indeed, the modern Assyrian Church of the East, which reveres Nestorius, does not follow all historically Nestorian doctrine.
source: Wikipedia
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5th Century...Council of Chalcedon (4th Ecumenical Council - 451)

The Council of Chalcedon was a church council held in 451 from 8 October to 1 November 451 at Chalcedon (a city of Bithynia in Asia Minor), on the Asian side of the Bosporus.

The Council of Chalcedon was convened by Flavian's successor, Anatolius, at Pope Leo I's urging, to set aside the 449 Second Council of Ephesus, better known as the "Robber Council". The Council of Chalcedon repudiated the idea that Jesus had only one nature, and stated that Christ has two natures in one person. The Chalcedonian Creed describes the "full humanity and full divinity" of Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity. The council also issued 27 disciplinary canons governing church administration and authority. In the famous 28th canon passed by the council, the bishops sought to raise the See of Constantinople (New Rome) in stature, claiming that Constantinople enjoyed honor and authority similar to that of the See of (older) Rome. Pope Leo's legate opposed the canon but in 453, Leo confirmed all the canons, except the 28th.

The Council is considered by the Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, the Old Catholics, and various other Western Christian groups to have been the Fourth Ecumenical Council . As such, it is recognized as infallible in its dogmatic definitions by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches (then one church). Most Protestants also consider the concept of the Trinity as defined by these councils to be orthodox doctrine to which they adhere. However, the Council resulted in a major schism, with those who refused to accept its teaching, now known as Oriental Orthodoxy, being accused of monophysitism. The Oriental Orthodox churches reject the "monophysite" label and instead describe themselves as miaphysite. This council is the last council that is recognised by the Anglican Communion.
source: Wikipedia
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5th Century...The Second Council of Ephesus (3nd Ecumenical Council - 449)

The Second Council of Ephesus was a church synod in 449 AD. It was convoked by Emperor Theodosius II as an Ecumenical council but because of the controversial proceedings it was not accepted as Ecumenical, labelled a Robber Synod and later repudiated at the Council of Chalcedon.
source: Wikipedia
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4th Century...Trinity

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The doctrine, one of the most important in the Christian faith, states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, or in the Greek hypostases, but as one being. Saying that God exists as three persons but is one God means that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit exactly duplicate the nature or being of God the Father in every way. Whatever attributes or power God the Father has, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have as well. "Thus, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are also eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinitely wise, infinitely holy, infinitely loving, omniscient."

The New Testament does not have an explicit doctrine of the Trinity. However, Southern Baptist theologian Frank Stagg emphasizes that the New Testament does repeatedly speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to "compel a trinitarian understanding of God."

The doctrine developed from the biblical language used in New Testament passages such as the baptismal formula in Matthew 28:19 and took substantially its present form by the end of the 4th century as a result of controversies in which some theologians, when speaking of God, used terms such as "person", "nature", "essence", "substance", terms that had never been used by the Apostolic Fathers, in a way that the Church authorities considered to be erroneous.

Trinitarianism contrasts with Nontrinitarian positions which include Binitarianism (one deity/two persons), Unitarianism (one deity/one person), the Oneness belief held by certain Pentecostal groups, Modalism, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' view of the Godhead as three separate beings who are one in purpose rather than essence.
source: Wikipedia
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4th Century...Pelagianism Heresy

Pelagianism is a theological theory named after Pelagius (AD 354 – AD 420/440), although he denied, at least at some point in his life, many of the doctrines associated with his name. It is the belief that original sin did not taint Human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without special Divine aid. Thus, Adam's sin was "to set a bad example" for his progeny, but his actions did not have the other consequences imputed to Original Sin. Pelagianism views the role of Jesus as "setting a good example" for the rest of humanity (thus counteracting Adam's bad example) as well as providing an atonement for our sins. In short, humanity has full control, and thus full responsibility, for obeying the Gospel in addition to full responsibility for every sin (the latter insisted upon by both proponents and opponents of Pelagianism). According to Pelagian doctrine, because men are sinners by choice, they are therefore criminals who need the atonement of Jesus Christ. Sinners are not victims, they are criminals who need pardon.

Pelagianism stands in contrast to two other prominent theological theories: Semipelagianism and Total Depravity.
source: Wikipedia>
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4th Century...The Nicene Creed

The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in A.D. 325. The Nicene Creed has been normative to the Anglican, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic Eucharistic rite as well as Eastern and Oriental Orthodox liturgies. The Creed is recited in the Roman Rite Mass directly after the homily on all Sundays and Solemnities (Tridentine Feasts of the First Class), and in the Byzantine Rite Liturgy following the Litany of Supplication on all occasions.

It is given high importance in the Anglican Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Assyrian Church of the East, Oriental Orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic Church including the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Old Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church and most Protestant denominations.
source: Wikipedia
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4th Century...First Council of Constantinople (2nd Ecumenical Council - 381)

The First Council of Constantinople is recognised as the Second Ecumenical Council by the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox, the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, the Old Catholics, and a number of other Western Christian groups. This being the first Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople, it was called by Theodosius I in 381 which confirmed the Nicene Creed and dealt with other matters such as Arian controversy. The council took place in the church of Hagia Irene from May to July 381.

The Council of Nicaea did not end the Arian controversy which it had been called to clarify. By 327, Emperor Constantine I had begun to regret the decisions that had been made at the Nicene Council. He granted amnesty to the Arian leaders and exiled Athanasius because of Eusebius of Nicomedia. Even during numerous exiles, Athanasius continued to be a vigorous defender of Nicene Christianity against Arianism. Athanasius then famously said "Athanasius against the world". The Cappadocian Fathers also took up the torch; their Trinitarian discourse was influential in the council at Constantinople.

Up until about 360, theological debates mainly dealt with the Divinity of Jesus, the 2nd person of the Trinity. However, because the Council of Nicaea had not clarified the divinity of the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of the Trinity, it became a topic of debate. The Macedonians denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit. This was also known as Pneumatomachianism.
source: Wikipedia
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4th Century...The Edict of Thessalonica

The Edict of Thessalonica, also known as Cunctos populos, was delivered on 27 February 380 by Theodosius I, Gratian, and Valentinian II in order that all their subjects should profess the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria. This made Nicene Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire. The edict was issued shortly after Theodosius had suffered a severe illness in Thessalonica and was baptized by Acholius, the bishop of that city.

The emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity in 312. By 325 Arianism, a type of christology which denied the trinity, had created enough problems in the early church that Constantine (who had little patience for the finer points of theology) called the Council of Nicaea in an attempt to establish an empire-wide orthodoxy and end the controversy. The council produced the Nicene creed, which rejected Arianism and upheld the trinity.

However, the divisions within the church did not end with Nicaea. Constantine, while urging tolerance, began to think that he had come down on the wrong side, and that the trinitarians—with their fervent persecution of Arians—were actually perpetuating strife within the Church. Constantine was not baptized until he was near death (c.327), and then he chose an Arian bishop, Eusebius of Nicomedia, to perform the baptism.

Constantine's son and successor in the east, Constantius II was sympathetic to the Arians, and even exiled Nicene bishops. Constantius' successor Julian the Apostate was a pagan and encouraged the various christian sects in their disagreements by declaring toleration for all of them. Julian's successor in turn, Jovian, while christian, only reigned for 8 months and never entered Constantinople. He was then succeeded in the east by Valens who was an Arian.

By 379, when Valens was succeeded by Theodosius, Arianism was widespread in the eastern part of the empire, while the west had remained staunchly orthodox (i.e. Nicene). Theodosius, who had been born in Hispania was himself orthodox and very devout. In August, his counterpart in the west Gratian took steps toward legal persecution of heretics in the west. This was followed shortly by the jointly issued Edict of Thessalonica.
source: Wikipedia
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4th Century...Edict of Milan

Constantine is perhaps best known for being the first Christian Roman emperor; his reign was certainly a turning point for the Church. In February 313, Constantine met with Licinius in Milan where they developed the Edict of Milan. The edict stated that Christians should be allowed to follow the faith of their choosing. This removed penalties for professing Christianity (under which many had been martyred in previous persecutions of Christians) and returned confiscated Church property. The edict did not only protect Christians from religious persecution, but all religions, allowing anyone to worship whichever deity they choose. A similar edict had been issued in 311 by Galerius, then senior emperor of the Tetrarchy; Galerius' edict granted Christians the right to practice their religion but did not restore any property to them. The Edict of Milan included several clauses which state that all confiscated churches will be returned as well as other provisions for previously persecuted Christians.
source: Wikipedia
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4th Century...Donatists Heresy

The Donatists (named for the Berber Christian Donatus Magnus) were followers of a belief considered a schism by the broader churches of the Catholic tradition, and most particularly within the context of the religious milieu of the provinces of Roman North Africa in Late Antiquity. They lived in the Roman province of Africa and flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries.

Like the Novatianist schism of the previous century, the Donatists were rigorists, holding that the church must be a church of saints, not sinners, and that sacraments, such as baptism, administered by traditors (Christians who surrendered the Scriptures to the authorities who outlawed possession of them) were invalid. Probably in 311, a new bishop of Carthage was consecrated by someone who had allegedly been a traditor; his opponents consecrated a short-lived rival, who was succeeded by Donatus, after whom the schism was named. In 313, a commission appointed by Pope Miltiades found against the Donatists, but they continued to exist, viewing themselves, and not what was known as the Catholic Church, as the true Church, the only one with valid sacraments. Because of their association with the Circumcellions, they brought upon themselves repression by the imperial authorities, but they drew upon African regional sentiment, while the Catholic party had the support of Rome. They were still a force at the time of Saint Augustine of Hippo at the end of the fourth century, and disappeared only after the Arab conquest of the 7th-8th century.

The primary disagreement between Donatists and the rest of the early Christian Church was over the treatment of those who renounced their faith during the persecution under the Roman emperor Diocletian (303–305), a disagreement that had implications both for the Church's understanding of the Sacrament of Penance and of the other sacraments in general.
source: Wikipedia
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