Re: Christian history (was: my boy problems)

["Peter T. Chattaway" <petert at interchange_ubc.ca>]

On Mon, 17 Dec 2001, Don Smith wrote:
> In the third century, there is ample evidence that the exact nature of
> Jesus's relation to the father (of the same spirit or of like spirit)
> was a hot topic of discussion from bishops' tables to barstools.

Heh, is this the sort of evidence you were thinking of?

   http://web.idirect.com/~ichthus/cathcam_gregofnyssa.html

   Garment sellers, money changers, food vendors -- they are all at it. If
   you ask for change, they philosophize about the Begotten and the
   Unbegotten. If you inquire about the price of bread, the answer is that
   the Father is greater and the Son inferior. If you say to the
   attendant, 'Is my bath ready?' he tells you that the Son was made out
   of nothing.

   -- Gregory of Nyssa (?-386)

> Peter's quip that we would be Orthodox not Catholic is, I believe, based
> in the fact that Rome didn't become the center of the Christian universe
> (and still isn't for many non-European christans) until manymany
> centuries after Christ.  It was important, but not central.

Something like that, yes.  As my Orthodox friend puts it, to the Orthodox,
all the bishops were supposed to be equal in some sense, and Rome split
off because it wanted there to be a single authoritative bishop, namely
Rome's.  I'm sure the Romans see it differently, though.

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
 "I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
      Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom

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References:

• Christian history (was: my boy problems)
• From: Don Smith <dasmith at rotse2_physics.lsa.umich.edu>

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