I finally completed the book Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years by Philip Jenkins. The book examines the early history of Christianity, particularly the 4th and 5th centuries C.E. The book is very appropriately named. During these early years, there was battle after battle in Christology definitions. Not just battles of words, but actual physical violence.
The clergy was trying to determine who Christ was, or rather, what he was. Some, the earliest followers of Jesus, called Ebonites, were Jewish and believed that Jesus was a man and a prophet, not at all divine. Others believed that Jesus was born human but at his baptism he was adopted by God or that God had descended upon him and he became divine and human. Others believed he was both God and human while others believed that he was completely divine. The violence exhibited between primarily the latter two belief systems was immense, even monks fell prey to murderous tendencies. They worked diligently to destroy the opposing belief, Jews and pagans.
The people of power, found in the title of the book, were they ones who determined what all would believe and were more than willing to annihilate the others. And they did. Through the various Councils, the theories of Christ were discussed, determined and previous theories were thrown away. At one of the gatherings, the Second Council of Ephesus in 449 C.E. there was a quote that came from it, ''May those who divide Christ be divided with the sword, may they be hewn in pieces, may the be burned alive!'' Shocking, I know. So, what happened at this Council?
In 449, the leading Fathers of the Christian church met in Ephesus, in Asia Minor, to debate pressing theological issues. At a critical moment, a band of monks and soldiers took control of the meeting hall, forcing bishops to sign a blank paper on which the winning side later filled in its own favored statement. The document targeted the patriarch of Constantinople, Flavian, one of the three or four greatest clerics in the Christian world. Yelling ''Slaughter him!'' a mob of monks attacked Flavian, beating him so badly that he died a few days later. So outrageous was the intimidation that the ultimate winners in the conflict invalidated this whole council. The repudiated it as a Latrocinium--loosely, a Gangster Synod (Jenkins 1).The Empress Pulcheria, who ''saved Orthodoxy'', had a special affinity for the Virgin Mary and a strong hatred towards Jews, perhaps even starting Anti-Semitism in Europe. Any insult to the Virgin Mary, including stating that she did not give birth to a fully divine God, would result in violence. It is through this interest in the Virgin Mary and the crucifixion that people began to question the ''orthodox'' view of Christology, the fully divine Jesus. How could a mere woman give birth to the Creator of the world? How could He suffer through the crucifixion?
Overall, I recommend this book if you have an interest in Christian history or are Christian. If you don't have any interest in Christian history, the book may be a bit dry in some parts. It is important to have knowledge of the past, especially something of this magnitude.
To close, I want to highlight perhaps my favorite quote in the book. Tertullian the African, in 200 C.E., said ''I believe it (Jesus being fully divine/God having flesh) because it is absurd'' (Jenkins 49).
-VB
