Church History 101: The Highlights of Twenty Centuries by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
Published: 2016-05-27T03:00:00+00:00

ELEVENTH CENTURY

The Great Schism; Anselm of Canterbury

The eleventh century still found the church in a dark place, though glimmers of light continued to shine through. One of its darkest events, usually referred to as the Great Schism, took place in 1054. The de facto division between the Latin-speaking Western church and the Greek-speaking churches of the East was made absolute and irreconcilable. The pope of Rome and the patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other, and the bodies of churches under the authority of each were arrayed against each other as hostile camps. The unity of the visible church was broken, and remains broken down to our time.

The disagreement centered on the addition of the filioque (that is, “and from the Son’) clause to the Nicene Creed. In the fifth century, Western scholars, under the influence of Augustine, had begun to look afresh at the Scriptures regarding the relationship of the Spirit to the Father and the Son. They came to the conclusion that the Scriptures teach that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, but also from the Son. Therefore, from the fifth century onward, the Western Church had added the filioque clause to the relevant article of the Nicene Creed, giving it the form in which it has come down to us today: “I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son.”

The Eastern churches took issue and appealed to the original formulation of the Council of Nicaea, arguing that the Latin-speaking Western church did not have authority to alter a formula adopted by an ecumenical council. But behind this concern was the objection of the Eastern churches to the Western claim that the pope was the supreme bishop of the worldwide church and the “vicar” or representative of Jesus Christ on earth.

One glimmer of light during this dark time was Anselm of Canterbury, a gifted intellectual and a man of considerable spiritual and moral courage. Anselm promoted his famous ontological argument for the existence of God and served the church by providing thoughtful theological argumentation and philosophical analysis regarding the existence and nature of God.

Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo, or Why Did God Become Man? plumbed the depths of the atonement of Jesus Christ and the purposes of God that stood behind it. He argued that God’s justice requires Him to punish sins committed against His infinite majesty with everlasting punishment of the sinner, in body and soul. As sinners, our only hope is to find a mediator and deliverer who is very man and perfectly righteous, and therefore able to satisfy for our sins; but also very God, more powerful than all creatures, and therefore able to sustain the burden of God’s wrath and obtain righteousness and eternal life for us. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is “very God and very man,” is the Savior God has provided for us.

During this time, many within the church recognized the corruption bred by the close relationship between church and state.

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