Bury Christmas Beneath the Willow

Chronicles ^ | 12/16/05 | Aaron Wolf

[Kolokotronis]

"Did Nestorianism depend on literacy?"

I sincerely doubt it! :) From what I've seen, literacy seems to have very little to do with any heresy, at least among "nominal" Christians, which, unfortunately, make up the majority in this country.

[fzx12345]

You are forgetting the Abecedarians, a 16th Century Anabaptist sect, who claiming that as the Holy Spirit alone passed all knowledge to humanity, literacy was sinful.

[redgolum]

Been reading a bit about the Nestorians, and find it kind of funny that Nestor himself probably wasn't one. It was those who claimed to follow him after he went into exile at a monastery that took his writing to the logical extreme. Or rather, they only had a superficial understanding of what he was saying. After Chalcedon, Nesotor felt vindicated in that the formula there worked out was what he was trying to say. Unfortunately for him, neither his supporters or his opponents understood that (which begs the question if he wasn't just saying he agreed to Chalcadon to try to get out of trouble).

In fact, one author that I am reading suggested that was the real issue that the ecclessial authorities were concerned about. That nominal Christians would just wander into a Nestorian heresy without actually thinking that much about it.

[Kolokotronis]

"Been reading a bit about the Nestorians, and find it kind of funny that Nestor himself probably wasn't one."

The same has been said about Pelagius. With Nestorius, however, it is a fact that he argued against the title of Theotokos for for the Virgin Mary, asserting that she should be called the Christotokos, which of course is pretty much definitional of the heresy itself.

[redgolum]

With Nestorius, however, it is a fact that he argued against the title of Theotokos for for the Virgin Mary, asserting that she should be called the Christotokos, which of course is pretty much definitional of the heresy itself.

Which did spark the whole debate, you are correct. I think Harold Brown (the author of the book) was saying that while he did coin the term Christotokos, he did not want to separate the Divine and Human natures of Christ into two separate persons. But from this distance of time, it is hard to say for sure if Nestor's later statements were mearly trying to "make up" or not.

[Charles Henrickson]

Aaron D. Wolf—Associate Editor of Chronicles and
Webmaster; M.A. in Christian Thought and Church
History from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

From what I know of him, Aaron Wolf is a sharp guy, and a good guy. He knows his stuff. I don't think that he is a "deacon" in the sense of a full-time church worker. I know and trust Wolf's pastor and the congregation he belongs to. I've met Wolf and heard him speak in person.

Just from glancing at a couple of comments here, I think some of the confusion might be over the use of the word, "Evangelical." It really has a couple of uses. More common today is to use it to refer to "American Evangelicals," who are not sacramental in the way that Lutherans are. The older and more historic use of "Evangelical," though, is in reference precisely to Lutherans, who were called Evangelisch early on in the Reformation, because of their emphasis on the Gospel..

[Arrowhead1952]

Great observation Tony. Our "non mega" LCMS Church will have a Christmas Eve, Christmas morning and evening service. I'll probably be at all three.

[Mr. Lucky]

The Christmas day service, being the last service of the tax year, should give these mega-churches sufficient pecuniary reason to stay open.