My notes for Sessions 1 & 2

Here are my notes - I've also attached the same thing as a Word doc, if you prefer.

John Behr’s The Way to Nicea

Introduction

• Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am?” Matt 16:15

• The job of the disciple

• The New Human

• Theology is a conversation with the world

• Reflection creates the space for fruitful thinking

Part I – The Gospel of Jesus Christ

• The scandal of particularity

• The “real” Jesus

• On what basis is Orthodoxy determined

• The marketplace of ideas

Chapter 1 – The Tradition and Canon of the Gospel According to the Scriptures

• Orthodoxy defined in the midst of challenges

Marcion (pp. 17-19)

Gnosticism, Valentinus, Gospel According to Thomas (pp. 20-23)

• Raises the question of the starting point

Why is this important?

Heresies in the early church

• The Orthodoxy mounted a response (p. 23)

Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons

• “According to the Scriptures”

Mimesis, emulation, paideia (p. 23)

Typology, reemploying images (p. 25)

Typology, reemploying images (p. 25)

The veil of Moses (2 Cor. 3:12-4:6) (p. 26)

But the veil is removed to those who have turned to the Lord.

The veil was removed by Christ

• The eschatological apocalypse of the Cross (p. 27)

The proclamation of the death and resurrection of Christ is not straightforwardly derivable from Scripture. It is a confrontation with the crucified and risen Lord that brings the key to understanding.

*** Apostles didn’t understand, except Matthew 16 where Peter confesses that “you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But Jesus says, “You did not know this by flesh and blood, but by an apocalypse of the Father.”

At the cross, they fled. “I do not know the man.” At the empty tomb – it was ambiguous. The women turn up. “What’s happened here? Has someone stolen the body?” It took an angel to explain to them, “Don’t you remember what he said?”

Resurrectional accounts: Every account has a key turning point at which the disciples come to recognize him. Luke 24 – Road to Emmaus. The key moment is at the opening of the Scripture and the breaking of the Bread.

St. Paul didn’t read Scripture and come to the conclusion of a crucified and risen Lord, he instead persecuted and killed Christians!

I Corinthians 15 - 2 things Paul has received and hands down… Christ has died in accordance with the Scripture and He was raised in accordance with the Scripture..

The object is not to understand the “original meaning” of the text, but God’s meaning, God’s full revelation in Christ.

• Irenaeus preaches the teaching of the Apostles (p. 29) but draws from OT Scripture to support assertions (p. 30) Coherence of Scriptures

***Irenaeus “Against the Heresies” (pp. 30-31) Ἔλεγχος καὶ ἀνατροπὴ τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως

***Scripture paints the portrait of Christ. Heretical teachings use the same Scripture and rearrange the tesserae to form the image of a dog and say to you that this is your Lord.

Irenaeus – criticizing the Valentinians for disregarding the order and the connection of the Scriptures.

• First principles are the basis for understanding – those things “from which you cannot go behind the curtain,” so to speak. (p. 32-33)

• Canon of Truth, straight line (p. 33) by which you know a crooked line when you see one. Without a canon, knowledge is simply not possible.

(p. 35) The faith received by the Apostles.

The Canon of Truth was received through Baptism.

Canon is not fixed and abstract doctrine – rather I t expresses the correct hypothesis of Scripture itself (pp. 35-36)

Context keeps changing, but the key elements of the content do not change:

“The Church…carefully guards this preaching and this faith…”

• It is the Apostles alone who have brought the revelation of Christ into the world… (p. 39)

Relationship between authority, Scripture, and tradition (p. 40)