Voting about God in Early Church CouncilsIn this study, Ramsay MacMullen steps aside from the well-worn path that previous scholars have trod to explore exactly how early Christian doctrines became official. Drawing on extensive verbatim stenographic records, he analyzes the ecumenical councils from A.D. 325 to 553, in which participants gave authority to doctrinal choices by majority vote. The author investigates the sometimes astonishing bloodshed and violence that marked the background to church council proceedings, and from there goes on to describe the planning and staging of councils, the emperors' role, the routines of debate, the participants’ understanding of the issues, and their views on God’s intervention in their activities. He concludes with a look at the significance of the councils and their doctrinal decisions within the history of Christendom. |
Contents
| 1 | |
2 The democratic element | 12 |
3 The cognitive element | 24 |
4 The supernaturalist element | 41 |
5 The violent element | 56 |
6 Preliminaries | 67 |
7 Councils in action | 78 |
Summary | 113 |
Notes | 119 |
| 155 | |
| 167 | |
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acclamations acta Alexandria Ambrose Antioch Aquileia Arian Ariminum Arius ascetics assembly Athanasius Basil belief called Carthage Chadwick Chalcedon Chap Christ Christian Chron church clergy conciliar Constantine Constantinople Cple creed CSEL curse Cyril debate declare deposed Dioscorus dispute divine doctrinal Donatists eastern ecumenical Egypt Egyptian emperor Ephesus Epiphanius episcopal Eusebius Eusebius of Dorylaeum Eutyches Evagrius faith Fathers fifth century Flavian fourth century Greek Greg Gryson Hamilton and Brooks Hefele heresy heretic Hilary historian hoi polloi Holy Council homoousios Ibas ibid imperial Jerusalem Justinian Lancel later MacMullen 1997 Mansi mass meeting Meyendorff 1989 monks Monophysites nature Nestorian Nestorius Nicaea Nicene ordinary bishops Orientals orthodox ousia parisina participants party passim patriarch person Philostorgius Pietri Pneuma presiding provinces quoted read aloud Reverend Bishops shouted Roman Rome Schwartz scripture secular Seleuceia Serdica session Sirmium sort Sotinel speak synodal letter Theodoret theological Vita vote words Zelzer