For my church history I (apostolic era to pre-reformation) I have to do a case study. For example Augustine vs. Pelagius. I am looking for some ideas and resources of some lesser known issues, something not so much ink has been spilt over. Any ideas?

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Alan
Seminarian, RTS Jackson, MS
OPC

If Jacques Lefebvre d'Estaples [sp?] qualifies as pre-ref, he would certainly be interesting, esp. his views on worship, which prefigured Calvin's development of the regulative principle.

Does it have to be a comparison of two individuals?

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Wayne Sparkman, Th.M.
Director, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO
Blogs: The Continuing Story and PCA History Blog

Alan,

Bernard of Clairvaux vs. Peter Abelard
Origen vs. Celsus
Irenaeus vs. Doceti
Justin Martyr vs. All Comers
Gregory's papal doctrine vs. his successors
Constantine vs. Maximian

Just a few thoughts.

Cheers,

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Adam B., Wine Country, California, PCA

"I fear not to hold with Junius, de Politia Mosis cap. 6, that he who was punishable by death under that Judicial law, is punishable by death still; and he who was not punished by death then, is not to be punished by death now."

How about the schism between Rome and Constantinople? I've read somewhere that though the split officially occured in 1054, it took some time for the members of the two groups to actually realize that the two groups had already split. I don't remember the book though.

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Albert, The Republic of the Philippines
Pasig United Covenant Reformed Church (a Reformed church plant)
United Covenant Reformed Churches in the Philippines (UCRCP)
Three Forms of Unity and Westminster Confession of Faith

Psalm 27:1a (AV) The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
“Perseverance is the badge of true saints. The Christian life is not a beginning only in the ways of God, but also a continuance in the same as long as life lasts.” -

There is a lesser known text by Augustine called "De Magistro" or "On the Teacher," which is important in Augustine's arguments against skepticism, his theory of knowledge, of language, and of signs and symbols. Ronald Nash deals with this dialogue of Augustine in his book on Augustine's epistemology entitled, "The Light of the Mind."

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Joshua Butcher
PCA
College Station, TX

Cyprian vs. Pope Stephen would be a good one, especially the way in which the two of them use and interpret Matthew 16 with respect to Peter. This controversy provides us with the very first instance wherein a bishop of Rome invokes Matthew 16 in the context of attempting to claim that scriptural pericope to support universal primacy of jurisdiction.

DTK

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Sola Scriptura est norma normans non normata
D. T. King, pastor
Christ Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Elkton, Maryland
Augustine (354-430): Therefore what He [i.e., Christ] has deigned to speak to us, we ought to believe that He meant us to understand. But if we do not understand He, being asked, gives understanding, who gave His Word unasked. NPNF1: Vol. VII, Tractates on John, Tractate XXII, §1.

I'm doing a paper on Dabney on evolution, so in that vein, you could do a paper on Dabney vs. Woodrow and we could compare notes afterwards!

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Seth Stark
Member, Communion Presbyterian Church (ARP), Irvine, CA
Biola University, Graduate Student, M.A. - Science and Religion
Seth's Blog

The adoptionist controversy involving Bishop Felix of Urgel is probably one of the lesser-referenced Christological controversies.

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Ruben
Moderator
F.P.C.I.
Indiana

Vanities and disguises have covered us, and thereby we are naked; licenciousness hath inflam'd us, and thereby we are frozen; voluptuousness hath fed us, and thereby we are sterved, the fancies and traditions of men have taught and instructed us, and thereby we are ignorant.
John Donne

Board Rules - Signature Requirements - Suggestions?

Calvinistas Conversando
Teología en Mexico
The Howling Wilderness

Did Nestorius actually teach Nestorianism? a controversy that has relevance to the history of the OPC - i.e. the dispute over the orthodoxy of Gordon Clark.

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In Christ's love and service

Mr. Tim Cunningham,
BMus. (Trombone Performance), University of Toronto
Dip. CS, Regent College, Vancouver
Member, First Baptist Church
Vancouver, BC
------------
"I once sat in darkness, and waited for the moon to rise.
I once sat in darkness, and waited for the sun to shine.
I once sat in darkness, when all the light I'd waited for was gone.
Then Jesus came, and now the only true light, ever, shines in me."
– John Deacon -

My paper must be pre-reformation so Dabney is not an option.

Thanks everyone, and keep em coming, I will probably take a couple more weeks in making up my mind.

I would second the comments about Nestorius. Very little has been written. But current scholarship has determined that Nestorius did not believe the things for which he was anathematized at the council of Ephesus in 431. His recently discovered "Book of Heraclides" cites Cyril (who led the council and whose theology won the day) as having enlisted the help of armed gangs of thugs to basically force his point of view across on the council. (And, his charges against Nestorius were false; nevertheless, they were ratified by the council).

Moffett, writing in "A History of Christianity in Asia" cites theologians who say that Nestorius's Christology was "weak" but in no way heretical.

The outworkings of this council caused the most egregious schisms in Christian history, and yet they are little understood. And as it turns out, the Rome/Constantinople church complex was hugely in the wrong during this whole ordeal.

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John Bugay
City Reformed PCA, Pittsburgh, PA
http://reformation500.wordpress.com
--
And the sphere of a creature's knowledge, be it that of an infant, or of a man, or of a philosopher, or of a prophet, or of saint or archangel in heaven, will float as a point of light athwart the bosom of that God who is the infinite Abyss for ever. From A.A. Hodge, "Evangelical Theology," pg 16.

It would be a fascinating study to look at Thomas Bradwardine (Archbishop of Canterbury (1290-1349).

His great theological work, to modern eyes, is a treatise against the Pelagians, entitled De causa Dei contra Pelagium et de virtute causarum.

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Keith
Pastoral Worker and MDiv Student, PCI
Ballymoney, Northern Ireland

John, I don't want to take this thread off track, but a few points bear mentioning.

"Recently discovered" is not quite accurate by today's standard of recent. A Syriac version of the Book of Heraclides was published in 1910, so it has been accessible for almost 100 years. In that time, more than a little ink has been spilt.

Second, accusations of wrongdoing are very widespread, and are not all to be taken at face value: in addition, theological violence does seem to have been more widespread in earlier times. Augustine writes of narrowly avoiding some armed Donatists, Athanasius was accused of murder, and "decently and in order" is not the first thing that leaps to mind when reading about what happened at councils.

Third, scholars can be found to say almost anything about almost anybody. If a contention is not demonstrated by a contextual and sympathetic reading of the primary sources, the fact that a scholar says it is almost evidence against it.

Perhaps we should take this up on another thread, but I am wondering what you mean by "wrong". Wrong in substance? Wrong in manner?

Theodoret provides some interesting light, as a friend of Nestorius. He was understandably reluctant to pronounce an anathema, and did not think that Nestorius was guilty as charged. He did at last, however, pronounce a conditional condemnation, along the lines of, "If he believes that, then he is wrong." Which exemplifies that though the question of whether Nestorius was a Nestorian may be a little vague, the fact that Nestorian Christology is wrong is pretty clear.

There were different models of the Trinity. Maybe you could compare and contrast what two Christian thinkers believed about the different models of the Trinity.

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Curt Hayashida
member, Community Bible Church (Non-denominational)
Vallejo, CA