Need examples of disagreements in church history

[daveleau]

Hi everybody!

I am writing a paper on dealing with disagreement in the Church. I am fairly unfamiliar with early church writers, and am in need of examples where orthodox Christians disagreed. The only example I have thusfar is the disagreement of Eusebius with Papias regarding the Millenium. I don't need long explanations of the disagreements, I just need to be pointed in the right direction to begin research on how the early church writers handled disagreement, so a mention of the issue and those involved should be enough to get the ball rolling for this aspect of my writing.

When I mentioned "orthodox" Christians above, I don't mean theologians of the Orthodox congregation, per se, but from orthodox Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy. I am interested in any disputes in history between congregations or within a congregation. I am not as interested in arguments between orthodoxy and nonorthodoxy, such as Augustine and Pelagius, since Pelagius is often described as highly unorthodox.

Thanks!
Dave

 

[Diane_Windsor]

Dave

There is the Quartodecimanism controversy over the date of Easter. I believe that Bede mentions it in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and that a Council decided the dispute for the English church.

I also remember some sort of baptism controversey, with one bishop oppossing the bishop of rome. I'll have to check with my notes. Aha, I found this on Wikipedia.

Is this what you are looking for?

DIANE

 

[daveleau]

That does help. I'm less interested in the theology behind the disagreements and more interested in how the opposing sides of the argument handled the disagreement.

Thanks! Please keep them coming.

 

[Philip]

Check Acts 15.

Look at St Cyprian of Carthage. He had a long running dispute with Rome about how to handle/reconcile Christians who succumbed to persecution and the repented.

Do you have a thesis for this paper?

 

[daveleau]

Acts 15 is one of my internal evidences. Thanks. I'll check out your other one for external evidence.

No thesis yet, but it is going to basically say that Christian disagreement has often been much more harsh than is exemplified or prescribed in Scripture. I plan to talk about three categories Christians fall into:
1) no harsh words in arguing at all (referring to the Sermon on the Mount)
2) harsh words in arguements all the time (referring to Christ's clearing the temple)
3) Middle ground

I plan to look at instances where Christ got angry and spoke harshly, and our prescribed teaching about intra-Christian relationships. One aspect I need are examples of historical arguments between Christians.

Thanks!
Dave

 

[Philip]

You might also look at St Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch. While their dispute is related to the Nestorian heresy, Cyril's letters to John are a plea for him to return to the Church.

 

[daveleau]

Any more?

 

[constance]

How about the treatment of the apocrypha throughout Church History? You could talk about Jerome, who excluded it because it was not Hebrew (but later included it after being pressured by his church peers, but said it should be read only for edification), you could talk about Cardinal Cajetan, a 16th century scholar who also said it was for edification, etc...there, that covers about 1100 years right there. I know there are many others between the two.

Constance

 

[Peter]

Just look at any of the seven ecumenical councils. These all had major disagreements, and everyone there was from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

St. Nicholas, yes the real one, slapped the heretic Arius.

The Reader Peter

 

[PearlOfGreatPrice]

Just look at any of the seven ecumenical councils. These all had major disagreements, and everyone there was from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The Reader Peter

the one holy catholic and apostolic church is the Nicene creed... which was the result of the second council of Nicea deciding on the orthodoxy from which said creed comes. (Google Nicean Council - specifically set up to resolve differences).

The Reformation of course - all the myriad little schisms within Protestant tradition. (Turned into a bit of a frenzy of protest in the end!)

The Church of England breaking from Rome under Henry VIII

You more or less have the whole of the church's history to cover! Oh yes, Peter and Paul too.

Good luck with it!

Blessings!

 

[IgnatiusOfAntioch]

The Arian Heresy is a rich source of controversy.

 

[armothe]

Uh, Sixteenth Century Geneva?

-A

 

[constance]

Dave! How did you do on your paper?

Constance

 

[AngCath]

if/when you discuss Nestorianism you may want to look into the Synod of Beth-Lapat of the Assyrian Church of the East.

 

[daveleau]

Dave! How did you do on your paper?

Constance

Well, I found that I needed much training in church history before I could tackle it. I ended up changing topics to a pre-approved topic of discussing the Gifts of the Spirit in the 1st century. I am now taking the first half of my church history class, and am finding what I needed was indeed a complex understanding that I didn't have. So, I did well on my paper, but under a different topic. I feel like I am being driven to write on the topic I mentioned above, but it might be a little more time until I am qualified to tackle the subject the way it needs to be addressed.

Thanks!
Dave

 

[daveleau]

I guess I should mention that I was not writing on disagreements of the early church, but trying to research how Christians treated each other in these disagreements. My goal was to write on how Christians are to treat each other, and one aspect of that writing was going to discuss disagreements in the early church.

 

[AngCath]

I guess I should mention that I was not writing on disagreements of the early church, but trying to research how Christians treated each other in these disagreements. My goal was to write on how Christians are to treat each other, and one aspect of that writing was going to discuss disagreements in the early church.

sounds like a great topic

 

[daveleau]

Yes, I think it is. Immense, though. I hope to write at length about it once I feel I am qualified to give it a good treatment.