'The Seminar'
- To UNDERSTAND WHY the issue of the Person of Jesus Christ is so important.
- To SHOW HOW, because it was so important, the issue of the person of Jesus Christ precipitated almost cataclysmic controversies in the early church.
- By doing this, to MORE PERFECTLY PERCEIVE the Person of Jesus Christ for ourselves.
- Also, to have ARMED OURSELVES with the ability to avoid being side-tracked into another Battle in the Night between believers.
- To PREDICT HOW the final Battle in the Night will play out in the present world.
OBJECTIVES
Friendly Fire?
We, appropriately, take the title for this seminar from the church historian Socrates of Constantinople (c.380-450 A.D.) who, writing of the opposing parties in the Arian controversy, observed:
“The situation was exactly like a battle in the night, for both parties seemed in the dark about the grounds on which they were hurling abuse at each other. Those who objected to the word HOMOOUSIOS imagined that its adherents were bringing in the doctrine of Sabellius and Montanus.
So they called them blasphemers on the grounds that they were undermining the personal subsistence of the Son of God.
On the other hand, the protagonists of HOMOOUSIOS concluded that their opponents were introducing polytheism, and steered clear of them as importers of paganism… Thus, while both affirmed the personal subsistence of the Son of God, and confessed that there was one God in three hypostasis, they were somehow incapable of reaching agreement, and for this reason could not bear to lay down arms.
(Whether or not Socrates’ comment on the contending parties was valid, indicating that this really was misguided “friendly fire” between Christians - blue on blue, as the military laconically call it today – we will be better equipped to judge when the seminar is completed: the fourth objective is to arm ourselves with the ability to avoid being side-tracked into another Battle in the Night .)