The History OF Evangelicals

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deb1

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I got this response on my blog to an article that I wrote about my conversion story.

***By the third century there were 2 major schools of Bible interpretation, one was the Alexandrian and one was the Antiochian school. The Alexandrian school is used by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox and the Antiochian school is used by Evangelicals. Both of these schools considered the other heretics. Detail analysis will show that the differences are quite large and irreconcilable.

Furthermore Evangelicals consider the Catholic sacraments an invention of Middle Ages by the scholastics. This innovation moved the true church from its continuity with apostolic teaching. Many Evangelicals argue it was Aquinas’ heretical teaching( he was excommunicated by the Bishop of Paris)that fueled the Reformation 250 years later.***
Honestly, I don’t know anything about the two schools. My main concern has just been explaining my beliefs to non Catholics, not active debating.

There are so many smart people on this site, I thought some of you could give me a more Catholic interpretation. I thought that the existence of Protestant groups before Luther had been seriously debunked:shrug:

I did direct the poster to this site so that he could get a better response to his statement. Hopefully he will show up. 🙂
 
By the way, if any of you do want to read the first part of my conversion story, I posted it on my blog.:dancing:
 
Hopefully someone will answer soon. I just don’t want the post to be lost before someone can answer.
 
deb1 said:
I got this response on my blog to an article that I wrote about my conversion story.
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I’m by no means a church history expert, and am prepared to be corrected, but let’s give this a go anyway.😉

By the third century there were 2 major schools of Bible interpretation, one was the Alexandrian and one was the Antiochian school.

Although all of scripture had been written by the third century, there was as of yet no agreed canon, or contents of the bible, and thus no actual bible. The canon wasn’t agreed until the Council of Hippo in 393, after which St Jerome’s Vulgate bible became widely disseminated.

There certainly were theological disagreements during the early days of the church, but the existence of separate ‘schools’ is probably a later development. There were actually five main patriarchates in the early church - Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Jerusalem. Their relationship is complex.

The Alexandrian school is used by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox and the Antiochian school is used by Evangelicals.

The Roman ‘school’ was the seat of Roman Catholicism (obviously!). The Eastern Orthodox church developed out of the Constantinople patriarchate. The patriarchate of Antioch was in alliance with Rome, but the erroneous claim for its being home to ‘the Evangelicals’ might stem from its association with St Paul. The church there did not develop a tradition separate from Rome, ‘evangelical’ or otherwise.

Both of these schools considered the other heretics. Detail analysis will show that the differences are quite large and irreconcilable.

Inasmuch as these schools were in alliance, this is untrue. Inasmuch as theologians from both places often disagreed, it could be said to be true. The association of these two places with distinctly ‘Catholic’ and ‘Evangelical’ theology is just silly.

Furthermore Evangelicals consider the Catholic sacraments an invention of Middle Ages by the scholastics. This innovation moved the true church from its continuity with apostolic teaching.

True to the extent that yes, many evangelicals believe something like this. However, most of the doctrine and dogma regarding the basic nature of the sacraments dates to the patristic era, 1000 years before the medieval scholastic period. Aquinas’ work is an extension and elaboration of this, not the start of the process of defining the sacraments.

Many Evangelicals argue it was Aquinas’ heretical teaching( he was excommunicated by the Bishop of Paris)that fueled the Reformation 250 years later.

Aquinas was never excommunicated. It is arguably true that his theological writings were specifically denounced by major protestant refomers like Luther, Calvin and Zwingli, but that hardly makes him responsible for the reformation.
deb1 said:
I thought that the existence of Protestant groups before Luther had been seriously debunked.
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There were certainly protests before Luther - people like John Wycliffe, for instance - but there is no distinct and separate tradition of same, and certainly not one that could claim continuity with the apostolic era.

Hope this helps.
 
deb1 said:
I got this response on my blog to an article that I wrote about my conversion story.

***By the third century there were 2 major schools of Bible interpretation, one was the Alexandrian and one was the Antiochian school. The Alexandrian school is used by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox and the Antiochian school is used by Evangelicals. Both of these schools considered the other heretics. Detail analysis will show that the differences are quite large and irreconcilable.

Furthermore Evangelicals consider the Catholic sacraments an invention of Middle Ages by the scholastics. This innovation moved the true church from its continuity with apostolic teaching. Many Evangelicals argue it was Aquinas’ heretical teaching( he was excommunicated by the Bishop of Paris)that fueled the Reformation 250 years later.***
Honestly, I don’t know anything about the two schools. My main concern has just been explaining my beliefs to non Catholics, not active debating.

There are so many smart people on this site, I thought some of you could give me a more Catholic interpretation. I thought that the existence of Protestant groups before Luther had been seriously debunked:shrug:

I did direct the poster to this site so that he could get a better response to his statement. Hopefully he will show up. 🙂
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If there were two major schools of thought that date back all the way to the third century; one followed by Catholics and the other adhered to by evangelicals, why did these evangelicals come out of the Catholic Church in the 16th century? One would think that these two schools of thought would have ran parallel to each other and there would have been no need for one to break from the other :confused:

God bless
 
Deb1, there is a scintilla of truth to what you have heard. There were two schools of Christian thought and it was the Antiochian School that gave us some of the early heresies. So far as the Antiochian School being followed by Evangelicals, maybe so. It is not hard to find Evangelicals who adhere to Nestorianism, for instance. But the fact remains that Evangelicalism is an even later development than Protestantism. There were no Evangelicals until the 18th Century so there has certainlay been no continuity from the Antiochian School. They simply adopted many of the beliefs of the Antiochian School as they developed over the last 200 or 300 years.
 
Ocarm said:
I’m by no means a church history expert, and am prepared to be corrected, but let’s give this a go anyway.😉

By the third century there were 2 major schools of Bible interpretation, one was the Alexandrian and one was the Antiochian school.

Although all of scripture had been written by the third century, there was as of yet no agreed canon, or contents of the bible, and thus no actual bible. The canon wasn’t agreed until the Council of Hippo in 393, after which St Jerome’s Vulgate bible became widely disseminated.
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:doh2: I should have gotten that one right away.
 
The comment makes no sense. My guess is it is an accusation concerning the First Council of Nicea, where the issue was whether Christ was a deity. This was known as The Arian Controversy, and it was the Bishop of Alexandria whom settled the issue,

here
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea
 
Texas_Roofer said:
The comment makes no sense. My guess is it is an accusation concerning the First Council of Nicea, where the issue was whether Christ was a deity. This was known as The Arian Controversy, and it was the Bishop of Alexandria whom settled the issue,

here
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea
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Thank you. The comment struck me as odd also. Maybe something about my conversion story bothered him or her.:confused:

I cut and paste some of the responses that I have read here. I credited the posters that I quoted on my blog.
 
I just read a huge article on the Christian Science Monitor that says that Evangelicals will be gone in about ten years because they do not teach the truth of the Word of God as they are too much into their megachurches and other things.
 
The Alexandrian school is used by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox and the Antiochian school is used by Evangelicals. Both of these schools considered the other heretics. Detail analysis will show that the differences are quite large and irreconcilable.

I don’t know where the writer got this idea. Speaking as one who has been Orthodox for 35 years, Orthodox have always tended towards the Antiochian school.

**Furthermore Evangelicals consider the Catholic sacraments an invention of Middle Ages by the scholastics. **

Which is funny, because the EXACT SAME SEVEN Sacraments are found in all the Apostolic Churches of the east, including the Assyrian Church (so-called Nestorian Church), non-Chalcedonian Churches (also called Monophysite or Miaphysite Churches), and the Orthodox: all of whom were out of communion with Rome before the rise of Scholasticism in the West.

In fact, some Orthodox have suggested that the West’s falling away from Orthodoxy is what caused the rise of Scholasticism, which Protestants inherited.

Pleas tell your correspondent he’s simply wrong on these issues.
 
Cluny said:
The Alexandrian school is used by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox and the Antiochian school is used by Evangelicals. Both of these schools considered the other heretics. Detail analysis will show that the differences are quite large and irreconcilable.

I don’t know where the writer got this idea. Speaking as one who has been Orthodox for 35 years, Orthodox have always tended towards the Antiochian school.

**Furthermore Evangelicals consider the Catholic sacraments an invention of Middle Ages by the scholastics. **

Which is funny, because the EXACT SAME SEVEN Sacraments are found in all the Apostolic Churches of the east, including the Assyrian Church (so-called Nestorian Church), non-Chalcedonian Churches (also called Monophysite or Miaphysite Churches), and the Orthodox: all of whom were out of communion with Rome before the rise of Scholasticism in the West.

In fact, some Orthodox have suggested that the West’s falling away from Orthodoxy is what caused the rise of Scholasticism, which Protestants inherited.

Pleas tell your correspondent he’s simply wrong on these issues.
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Thank you.🙂
 
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