Anti-Christian Philosophy Issues - Research Paper Example

Worksheet 17

Ans.1) Claudius Julianus was the emperor for only nineteen months, and within that time he left a deep impact. The restoration movement that he undertook started off with him renouncing his Christian upbringing and declaring himself Hellene, with a high interest in anti-Christian philosophy. His Hellenism consisted of reviving old priesthoods, funding festivals and temple renovations. He did all this in a way that made him seem overzealous. He criticized Christian literature and barred Christians from teaching classics, and supported the Jews (Christianity and the Imperial House, pp 48).

Julianus understood the task of the priest and once he came to power, he engaged himself in a rigorous task of reviving old priesthoods, festivals, temple restorations and creating a network of Hellene priests that would teach non Christian values. In his letter to Theodore, he tells him that priests should be those people who would respect the right god and worship accordingly. Christian priests were liable to be removed or chastised.

Julianus was upset with the Christian teachers because he thought of them to be of lacking cultural origin and questionable origin and according to his wishes he passed a law barring Christians from teaching Greek literature (Christianity and the Imperial House, pp 48).

Julian favored the Jews and viewed them as a race with a cultural and religious background and permitted them to rebuild their temples in Jerusalem. He allowed them to resume sacrifices and prayers in his name, as a way of showing triumph over Christianity.

Ans.2) Ephraim was a teacher and a hymnographer for a church in Nisibis. Following the disastrous campaign by Julian, against the Persians, followed by the surrender of Julian’s successor, Jovian, Nisibis came under the Persians. Ephraim and others found them put up in the city of Edessa, where Ephraim became a deacon and directed choirs that sang his compositions.

Ephraim was a Christian author of the Roman Empire. He aggressively defended Nicene orthodoxy against Arians. His Hymns Against Julian show how he attempted to equal Julian’s non-Christian rule. In the first hymn he describes Julian’s rising as the coming of the bad shepherd. In another hymn he describes Julian’s paganism revival attempts by drawing parallels between the idolatry and sexual license. Julians death had been described in a joyful tone in Hymn three as a fall of a pagan king. He calls Julian a Hellenic king and makes fun of him (Christianity and the Imperial House, pp 53).

Ans.3) Asthanasius was the bishop of Alexandria. In his Easter letter of 367 he defines the books which are accepted by the Church. In his letter he mentions some 27 books which were considered as relevant (Christianity and Imperial House, pp 17).

Ans.4) Julian lived his early years in a constant fear of having a similar fate as his father. He spent his childhood in isolation, and early manhood roaming about and dreaming while being a student. He had a love for philosophy and passive Christianity, but the fate of his father and brother affected his mind and he started hating his cousin and uncle Constantius. He now obeyed his stepmother Helena. In 351 Julian converted to a mystical form of Neo-Plutonism, believed in a single creator and recognized the Sun as the giver of life. He was drawn towards Greek gods and them as his benefactors, friends and saviors. In 351 he was given the title Caesar, and he married Helena, Constantius’s sister (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 594-598).

Ans.5) Constantius doubted his powers, but Julian proved himself to be a successful general. H recaptured Cologne, and the cooperation between him and Constantius was evident. He caught Alamanni and Chnodomer in the following year. He later became a philosopher with a long beard and led an army against the Christians and an equally powerful emperor (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 598 – 600).

Ans.6) Julian wanted to remove Christianity from Rome. The Roman Senate consisted of members who would support his views, but there was a mismatch in the beliefs of the common people and the Senators. Many towns had already become fully Christians and Julian couldn’t close temples. He undertook a number of policies, such as dismantling the church and the government. Church’s privileges were scrapped, priests made to rebuild churches and economic reforms undertaken. He started taxes and took up the administration in his own hands, and some hail him as the liberator. He set out to revive a lost priesthood and bring back Helenism. However he failed, being on the throne for a few months (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 600-604).

Ans.7) Julian misunderstood the strength of Christianity, and he dreamt of defeating Alexander the Great. In Antioch, he tried to tell the Galanic priest Arsacius, how paganism was not being endorsed and how poor were mistreated. He then made laws against the Christians teaching the literature. Problems in food supply cropped up in Antioch. His undertaking to restore Jewish temples at Jerusalem also made him unpopular (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 604 – 606).

Ans.8) His Persian campaign of 362-363 was a hopeless endeavor. Despite warnings, he set out in 363, and conquered almost all of Mesopotamia. After 10 days of war with the Persians he was hit by a spear. He was succeeded by Jovian. The war was lost, and Jovian had to sign a treaty giving out many cities, including Nisibis to the Persians (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 607 – 608).

Ans.9) After Eusebius dies in 341, Julian and his brother Gallus had been imprisoned in Cappadocia. He was a reader at the church for 6 years. He knew the Bible well and also studies Greek literature and liberal arts under Mardonios.

Julian and Gallus used to exchange arguments for and against the gods. In 361 Julian wrote a letter to Alexandria claiming to be a non Christian, but it was known after Constantius’s death.

He believed Sun to be the most important with subordinates, a theory called monotheism. Julian’s restoration of Polytheistic ways of worship included rebuilding of shrines, with Christians having to pay for those. State tax was prevented from being used in church welfare. He excluded Christians from teaching the literature of Greeks and saw them as unreligious and cultureless.

To worry Galileans, he ordered the restoration of temples in Jerusalem. This would revive sacrifices and vex the Christians (Julian and the Church, 293-309).

Worksheet 18

Ans.1) Ambrose became the bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. Before that however he was a politician and a governor. His speech at the funeral of Theodosius doesn’t eulogize an emperor but, but makes imperial powers less important to Christian authority. His speech was long and he advices Theodosius’s sons and heirs to be obedient and humble.

He brings in Helena through the emphasis of a debt owed by the imperial power to Christ, on account of Helena’s discovery of the True Cross (Christianity and the Imperial House, pp 17).

Ans.2) Julians untimely death brought back Christianity to the forefront. Lucifer of Cagliari created disturbances. Naples, Rome and Antioch saw conflict. Jovian ruled for a short time. Valentinian I ascended the throne and resulted in the winning of Nicene orthodoxy. Valentinian remained neutral in religious conflicts and didn’t interfere (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 616-617).

Ans.3) Ambrose’s father died, and when he was young and he was brought up by his mother and sister. He studied about Aristotle. He became a governor and later the priest in 373. He was a priest from 374 to 397 (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 618-619).

Ans.4) Ambrose helped to forge a relationship between the state and the church. This was an outcome of a conflict with Arianism. During the reign of Valentinium supported the growth of relics and leading a conventional life. When the emperor died, his son Gratian came to the throne. His half brother from a stepmother became the emperor of Balkans.

When the Goths attacked and the emperor fell, Gratian had taken the reins and contacted Theodosius. Ambrose had his influence over him, and through previous results Gratian was respectful and asked Ambrose to help him. Ambrose wanted Illyrian bishops to trial for heresy. H e brought pressure on Gratian and the priests were punished. The following year the Roman aristocracy tried to have Altar of victory restored, but received similar treatment from Ambrose (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 618-621).

Ans.5) These events relating to Ambrose and his treatment brought empress Justina and her court from Sirmium to Milan to save the throne for her son and protect Milan fromm an invasion from Magnus Maximus of Italy. Ambrose’s aid was essential.

Justinia through her prefect in Italy, asked for the basilica situated outside the walls of Milan for homoean worship, Ambrose refused. Ambrose refused to give up a temple of God. An altercation happened between the bishop and high officials, and the court had to give way in such church state relations (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 622). Later digging revealed two martyrs skeletons, which proved the Christian God and Justinia had to give in.

Ans.6) Theodosius clashed with Ambrose. At Euphrates, a catholic mob consisting of monks had looted and destroyed a Jewish synagogue and Valentinian chapel. Theodosius asked Ambrose to repair both and punish the men who were guilty. Ambrose said that Jewish had been pagan in times of Julian and deserved it, as they were left unpunished from then and the bishop won again (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 623-624).

Ans.7) Damascus was a deacon and a one time supporter of Felix which the majority of the Romans believed after Liberius’s death, but some who didn’t considered Ursinus as the deacon. Conflicts took place and Ursinus’s supporters were killed. Valentinian also disliked Damascus; it was only Gratian who forgave all his faults.

Damascus died in 384 and his successor Siricius had few intellectual pretentions and did not hide his disregard for new breed of ascetic intellectuals in the West. He was a tough administrator and in 15 years he made great progress on the already founded authority by Damascus (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 626-628).

Ans.8) Basil the Great and his brothers were very important in the history of Greece. Eastern monasticism, a Trinitaian orthodoxy that mixed piety and intellectual rigor, laid the foundation of Byzantine Christianity. The mixture of classical learning and dogmatic Christianity of Eastern orthodoxy came up because of them. Basil seeked austerity through Christian philosophy (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 632-633).

Ans.9) In 376, Basil tried another embassy. He wanted Damascus to condemn Apollinaris of Laodicea. Apollinaris was excommunicated. Apollinaris views about Christianity became popular in 370. He was a hardcore Nicene and a correspondent of Basil. Apollonaris had been found to influence Basils decision of acceptance of homoousion. Apollonaris rejected the existence of a human mind in Christ. He said if one believed Christ to exist, then one had to believe in the fact that Christ had a free will and could sin (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 633- 34).

Ans.10) Theodosius spent much of 379 at Danube restoring situations from catastrophe to Roman arms. Nicene minority began to take heart. They invited Gregory of Sasima. There as objection to Gregory being the bishop as he was already a bishop of Sasima. Theodosius became the new emperor then, and he ordered everyone to follow what apostle Peter had taught Romans, and later by Damascus and Peter of Alexandria. Evrything else was considered fake. This was how he tried to bring universal Catholic faith in the whole empire (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp635-637).

Ans.11) Theodosius took steps to stop all types of deviations and paganism. A law against Manicheans was passed. Informers were used to denounce people to stop from deviating. Combination of mystical with the intellectual, reason and intuition contributed to Christianity from the Cappadociums. In Antioch, and nearby, Thoedore, bishop of Mopsuenestia said that there were two natures in Christ. Jesus was a man and was a created order. God was the creator, and the division between the two cannot be removed (From Constantine to Chalcedon, pp 640-641).