Erasmus
Born Oct. 27, 1469 in Rotterdam, Holland Died July 12, 1536 in Basil Switzerland.
Humanist who was the greatest scholar of the northern Renaissance, the first editor of the New Testament, and also an important figure in PATRISTICS and classical literature.
Using the philological methods pioneered by Italian humanists, Erasmus helped lay the groundwork for the HISTORICAL-CRITICAL STUDY OF THE PAST, especially in his studies of the GREEK NEW TESTAMENT and the CHURCH FATHERS. His educational writings contributed to the replacement of the older scholastic curriculum by the new humanist emphasis on the classics. By criticizing ecclesiastical abuses, while pointing to a better age in the distant past, he encouraged the growing urge for reform, which found expression both in the PROTESTANT REFORMATION. Finally, his independent stance in an age of fierce confessional controversyrejecting both Luther's doctrine of predestination and the powers that were claimed for the papacymade him a target of suspicion for loyal partisans on both sides and a beacon for those who valued liberty more than orthodoxy.
Church Fathers.
partisans on both sides and a beacon for those who valued liberty more than orthodoxy.
Church Fathers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[The study of the Fathers is known as Patristics]
The Church Fathers or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. The term means specifically writers and teachers of the Church, not saints in general; usually it is not meant to include the New Testament authors, but some of their texts were considered to enter the biblical canon.
Those fathers who wrote in Latin are called the Latin (Church) Fathers, and those who wrote in Greek the Greek (Church) Fathers.
The very earliest Church Fathers, of the first two generations after the Apostles of Christ, are usually called the Apostolic Fathers. Famous Apostolic Fathers are St. Clement of Rome, the author of the Didache and the Shepherd of Hermas. Later, in contact with Greek Philosophy and Literature and facing persecutions, began a period called the Apologetic Fathers who tried to justify and defend the Christian doctrine against attacks from within the Hellenistic world, important Fathers of this era are St. Justin Martyr, Tatian, Athenagoras, Hermias and Tertullian. Fathers prior to Nicene Christianity are collected in Ante-Nicene Fathers, those after are in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.
Famous Latin Fathers include the Montanist Tertullian, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Ambrose of Milan, and St. Jerome, the translator of the Vulgate; famous Greek Fathers include St. Irenaeus of Lyons (whose work has survived only in Latin translation), Clement of Alexandria, the heterodox Origen, St. Athanasius of Alexandria, St. John Chrysostom, and the Three Cappadocian Fathers. However there are many more.
The Desert Fathers were early monastics living in the Egyptian desert; although they did not write as much, their influence was also great. Among them are St. Anthony the Great and St. Pachomius. A great number of their usually short sayings is collected in the Apophthegmata Patrum.
A small number of other Fathers wrote in other languages: Saint Ephrem, for example, wrote in Syriac, but his works were widely translated into Latin and Greek.
In the Roman Catholic Church, St. John of Damascus, who lived in the 8th century, is generally considered to be the last of the Church Fathers and at the same time the first seed of the next period of church writers, scholasticism. The Eastern Orthodox Church does not consider the age of Church Fathers to be over at all and it includes later influential writers in the term.
[The study of the Fathers is known as Patristics]
Some very limited examples of Patristics from various Early Church Fathers follow. PLEASE NOTE THE SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO SCRIPTURE IN MUCH OF WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY BELOW:
Erasmus studied Patristics, and was well acquainted with all of the writings of these men:
JOHN DAMASCENE
Born at Damascus, about 676 A.D; died some time between 754 and 787 A.D.
AT THE GARDEN GATE
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for training in righteousness. 2 Tim. 3:16. The soul therefore gains great advantage from the reading of the Bible.
Like a tree planted by streams of water, Ps. 1:3 the soul is irrigated by the Bible and acquires vigour, produces tasty fruit, namely, true faith, and is beautified with a thousand green leaves, namely, actions that please God.
The Bible, in fact, leads us towards pure holiness and holy actions. In it we find encouragement to all the virtues and the warning to flee from evil.
The Bible is a scented garden, delightful, beautiful. It enchants our ears with birdsong in a sweet, divine and spiritual harmony, it touches our heart, comforts us in sorrow, soothes us in a moment of anger, and fills us with eternal joy.
Let us knock at its gate with diligence and with perseverance. Let us not be discouraged from knocking. 'I'he latch will be opened.
If we have read a page of the Bible two or three times and have not understood it, let us not be tired of reading it again and meditating on it. Let us seek in the fountain of this garden a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 4:14. We shall taste a.joy that will never dry up, because the grace of the Bible garden is inexhaustible.
John Damascene On the Orthodox Faith, 4, 7 (PG94, 1176ff.)
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DIADOCHUS OF PHOTICA
Written by John Damascene
THE SECRET OF THE PEACE WE NEED
Those who are engaged in spiritual warfare must always keep their hearts tranquil. Only then can the mind sift the impulses it receives and store in the treasure house of thememory those that are good and come from God, while rejecting altogether those that are perverse and devilish.
When the sea is calm, the fisherman's eyes can see the movements of the fish deep down, so that hardly any of them can escape. But when the sea is ruffled by the wind, the turmoil of the waves hides from sight the creatures that would easily have been seen if the sea wore the smile of calm. The skill of the fisherman is of little use in rough weather.
Something of the same sort happens with the soul, especially when it is stirred to the depths by anger.
At the beginning of a storm, oil is poured on the waters to calm them, and in fact the oil defeats their commotion. In this way, when the soul receives the anointing of the gift of the Holy Spirit, it gladly gives in to this inexpressible and untroubled sweetness. And even if it is continually attacked by temptation it maintains its peace and joy.
Diadochus of Photica Spiritual Works, 23 (SC5b, pp.27ff.)
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MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR
Known as the Theologian and as Maximus Confessor, born at Constantinople about 580; died in exile 13 August, 662
THE HOLY CHURCH
includes many people, men, women and children without number. They are all quite different frorn one another, in birth, in size, in nationality and language, in style of living and age, in trades and opinions, in clothes and customs, in knowledge and rank, in welfare and in appearance. They are nonetheless all of them in the selfsame Church. Thanks to her, they are all reborn, newly created in the Spirit. The Church grants to all of them without distinction the grace of belonging in Christ and of taking his name by calling themselves Christians.
Faith, moreover, puts us in a position which is extremely simple, and incapable of separation, in such a way that the differences between us seem not to exist, because everything is gathered together into the Church and reconciled in her.
No one lives alone any more, no one is separated from the others, but all are mutually joined together as brothers and sisters in the simple and indivisible power of faith.
Of the first Church,Scripture says: "The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul" Acts 1:32 in such a way that all the many members looked like a single body, truly worthy of Christ himself, our true Head. And speaking of the action of Christ in the Church, the Apostle asserts: "There is neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek, neither circumcised nor uncircumcised, neither barbarian nor Scythian, neither slave nor freeman, but Christ is all and in all." cf. Gal. 3:~8; Col. 3:11. Christ with the unique power of goodness and with infinite wisdom reunites everything in himself, as the centre from which the rays go out.
MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR
RIGHT USE NOT MISUSE
It is important to understand the right use of external objects and pictures of them in our imagination.
The reasonable use of them produces for its fruit the virtues of chastity, charity and right knowledge.
Their unreasonable use results in debauchery, hatred and ignorance.
It is through the measure in which we misuse the powers of the soul, namely its desire, emotion, reason, that the vices install themselves: ignorance and folly in the reasoning faculty, hatred and debauchery in the desires and emotions. Their right use, on the contrary, produces right knowledge and prudence, charity and chastity.
Nothing that God has created is in itself bad. Food is not bad, gluttony is; the procreation of children is not bad, lechery is; wealth is not bad, avarice is; glory is not bad, only vainglory is.
So you see nothing is bad in itself, only the misuse of it, which is the souls negligence in cultivating its true nature.
Maximus the Confessor Centuries on Charity, 3, 1 (SC9, p.123)
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA
(20 B.C.E.-50 C.E.)
LIFE IS A DREAM WITH MANY CHANGES OF SCENE
I am not telling a lie: human life is a dream.
In our dreams we look without seeing, we listen, without hearing, we taste and touch without tasting or touching, we speak without saying anything, we wa1k without moving. We seem to be moving normally even though we stay still and to be making our habitual gestures even though we are not. The mind invents realities that are entirely imaginary.
When we are awake, our thoughts are like these dreams. They come and go. They meet and part. They fly away before we can catch them.
Nor is our body any different from a dream. Is not its beauty likely to go rotten before it is ripe? Is not its health continually being threatened with illness? How little it takes to destroy its strength! How easily its senses deterioiate!
Our careers are no less precarious. Often a single day is enough to scatter a great work to the winds. Many people who are held in respect and honour with a sudden change of events fall into disgrace. The greatest kingdoms on earth have been destroyed in a short time.
If we have so many changes of scene in life, and so many dark experiences, we ought to learn to distinguish what is virtuous from what is base, what is good from what is bad, what is just from what is unjust.
I give you an example of what I mean. Do you possess a lot of money? If so, give it away because the beauty of riches consists not in money-boxes but in helping the poor. Are you short of money? Be careful not to envy the rich. And do not despair, because human affairs are always changing into their opposites.y
Philo of Alexandria, Thesaurus Patrum VII.
PROCLUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE
IF CHRIST HAD NOT BEEN BORN OF WOMAN
A God who was nor only God, and a man who was not simply man, was born of woman.
By being born he formed the gate of salvation from what had at one time been the way in for sin. Where in fact the serpent by exploiting human disobedience had infused his poison, there the Word entered through obedience and built a living temple. From the womb of a woman had come forth the original son of sin, Cain; and £rom the womb of a woman, without seed, there came into the light the Christ, the redeemer of the human race.
Let us not be ashamed that he was born of a woman. That.birth was for us the beginning of salvation.
If Christ had not been born of woman, he would not have died either, and would not "by death have destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." - Heb. 2:14.
Proclus of Constantinople, Homily on the Mother of God (PG6S, 679ff.)
PSEUDO-MARCARIUS by John Damascane
ACCOMPLICES
Inside us evil is at work suggesting unworthy inclinations. However, it is not in us in the same way as, to take an example, water mixes with wine. Evil is in us without being mixed with good.
We are a field in which wheat and weeds are growing separately. We are a house in which there is a thief, but also the owner. We are a spring which rises from the middle of the mud, but pours out pure water.
All the same, it is enough to stir up the mud and the spring is fouled. It is the same with the soul. If the evil is spread, it forms a unity with the soul and makes it dirty. With our consent, evil is united with the soul; they become accomplices.
Yet there comes a moment when the soul can free itself and remain separate again: in repentance, contrition, prayer, recourse to God. The soul could not benefit from these habits if it were always sunk in evil.
It is like marriage. A woman is united with a man and they become one flesh. But when one of them dies, the other is left alone.
But union with the Holy Spirit is complete. So let us become a single spirit with him. Let us be wholly absorbed by grace.
Pseudo-Marcarius Homily 16, 1 (PG34, 613)
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SAYINGS OF THE DESERT FATHERS:
IF YOU THINK YOU ARE HUMBLE THAT MEANS YOU ARE NOT
A monk said: "Every time you feel a sense of superiority or a touch of vanity, examine your conscience. Ask yourself if you are keeping all the commandments, if you are loving your enemies and weeping for their faults, if you consider yourself an unprofitable servant and the worst sinner in the world. But even after this examination of conscience, do not take too high an opinion of yourself as if you were perfect: such an idea would wreck everything!"
Another monk said: "Whoever is praised and honoured more than is deserved suffers a great loss, while the one who does not receive honours from others will be glorified in heaven."
People asked a monk: "What is humility?" He replied: "Humility is if a brother or sister sins against you and you forgive them before they come to ask you to.
A brother asked a monk: "What is humility?" The monk said: "To do good to whoever does evil to us." The brother insisted: "And if one does not achieve as much?" The monk's reply was: "Then go away and try to keep your mouth shut."
Sayings of the Desert Fathers, nos. 165ff. (PG65)
St. Irenaeus, Against the Heresies, III:
The Lord of all gave to His apostles the power of the gospel, and by them we also have learned the truth, that is, the teaching of the Son of God - as the Lord said to them, `He who hears you hears Me, and he who despises you despises Me, and Him Who sent Me' [Lk.10:16]. For we learned the plan of our salvation from no other
than from those through whom the gospel came to us. The first preached it abroad, and then later by the will of God handed it down to us in Scriptures, to be the foundation and pillar of our faith. For it is not right to say that they preached before they had come to perfect knowledge, as some dare to say, boasting that
they are the correctors of the apostles. For after our Lord had risen from the dead, and they were clothed with the power from on high when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they were filled with all things and had perfect knowledge. They went out to the ends of the earth, preaching the good things that come to us from God, and proclaiming peace from heaven to all men, all and each of them equally being in possession of the gospel of God.
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St. Justin Popovich:
In Christianity truth is not a philosophical concept nor is it a theory, a teaching, or a system, but rather, it is the living theanthropic hypostasis - the historical Jesus Christ (John 14:6).
Before Christ men could only conjecture about the Truth since they did not possess it. With Christ as the incarnate divine Logos the eternally complete divine Truth enters into the world. For this reason the Gospel says: "Truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).
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St. Anthony the Great:
I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, "What can get through from such snares?" Then I heard a voice saying to me, "Humility."
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St. Hesychius the Priest:
The hour of death will come upon us, it will come, and we shall not escape it. May the prince of this world and of the air (cf.
John 14:30; Eph. 2:2) find our misdeeds few and petty when he comes, so that he will not have good grounds for convicting us.
Otherwise we shall weep in vain. 'For that servant who knew his lord's will and did not do it as a servant, shall be beaten with
many stripes' (cf. Luke 12:47).
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St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ:
There is nothing impossible unto those who believe; lively and unshaken faith can accomplish great miracles in the twinkling of an eye. Besides, even without our sincere and firm faith, miracles are accomplished, such as the miracles of the sacraments; for God's Mystery is always accomplished, even though we were incredulous or unbelieving at the time of its Celebration. "Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?" (Rom. 3:3).
Our wickedness shall not overpower the unspeakable goodness and mercy of God; our dullness shall not overpower God's wisdom, nor our infirmity God's omnipotence.
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St. Dimitry of Rostov:
First of all it must be understood that it is the duty of all Christians - especially of those whose calling dedicates them to the spiritual life - to strive always and in every way to be
united with God, their creator, lover, benefactor, and their supreme good, by Whom and for Whom they were created. This is because the center and the final purpose of the soul, which God created, must be God Himself alone, and nothing else - God from whom the soul has received its life and its nature, and for whom it must eternally live.
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St. Theodore of Edessa:
Wine makes glad the heart of man' (Ps. 104:15). But you who have professed sorrow and grief should turn away from such gladness and rejoice in spiritual gifts. If you rejoice in wine, you will live with shameful thoughts and distress will overwhelm you.
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John of Karpathos:
Do all in your power not to fall, for the strong athlete should not fall. But if you do fall, get up again at once and continue the contest. Even if you fall a thousand times because of the
withdrawal of God's grace, rise up again each time, and keep on doing this until the day of your death. For it is written, 'If a righteous man falls down seven times' - that is, repeatedly throughout his life - 'seven times shall he rise again' [Prov. 24:16].
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St. Symeon the New Theologian:
For those who believe in Him, Christ will become all this and even more, beyond enumeration, not only in the age to come but first in this life, and then in the world to come. Thou in an obscure way here below and in a perfect manner in the Kingdom, those who believe see clearly nonetheless and receive as of now the first-fruits of everything they will have in the future life.
Indeed, if they do not receive on earth everything that was promised to them, they do not have any part of foretaste of the
blessings to come, their higher hope being set on the hereafter. However, it is through death and the resurrection that God in His foresight has given us the Kingdom, incorruptibility, the totality of life eternal. Given these Conditions, we unquestionably become partakers of the good things to come, that is, incorruptible, immortal, sons of God, sons of the light and of the day, inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven, since we carry the Kingdom within.
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THEODORET
HUMANITY AS WITNESS TO THE UNKNOWN
When we consider how human beings are made, we are filled with wonder at the wisdom of the Creator that is revealed in us.
Suffice it to observe the different functions of the senses which all stem from one centre, the brain, and report back to it all sorts of perceptions: sight, smell, taste, touch
, and also to observe the other organs of the body both internal and external; and the memory, that recalls numerous disparate elements without confusing or altering them; and the number of thoughts which do not cancel each other out but reappear at the right moment.
We cannot refrain from exclaiming with the Psalmist: "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, O Lord: it is high, I cannot attain it." (Ps. 139, 6)
In fact, no one will ever succeed in explaining completely the harmony that is displayed in our bodies or the subtlety that is apparent in our soul. Innumerable thinkers have written on this point. Even so, what has been said is but a small part of what remains to be said, for human reason cannot attain to divine wisdom.
So this is the Psalmists attitude: he praises God for what he understands but confesses himself overwhelmed by it; it is not possible for him to encompass all the marvels which are to be seen in humanity.
Such an admission is in itself an appropriate hymn of praise.The Cure of Pagan Diseases, 5, 81 (SC57, p.2
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THEODORET
AS THE EYE NEEDS LIGHT
To see visible objects we need the eyes of the body. To understand intelligible truths we need the eyes of the mind. To have the vision of divine things we cannot do without faith.
What the eye is for the body, faith is for reason. To be more precise: the eye needs the light which puts it in contact with visible things; reason needs faith to show it divine things.
Theodoret The Cure of Pagan Diseases, I, 78 (SC57, 124)
God bless,
Stever
[b]PATRISTICS--THE STUDY OF THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS[/b] |
