Tuesday, July 4, 2023

It is the 4th of July 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

We head back to the early church today to look at a woman we might argue is the most significant woman in the first centuries of the church- quite a claim, but I think I can make it.  

To start, let’s look at one of the unfortunate “side effects” of the growth of popular monasticism in the early church. A vow of virginity is praised by Paul and Jesus himself never married, and thus those wanting to imitate Jesus found celibacy as a high calling. Unfortunately for them, especially to those without that calling the chief sin would then be a temptation by the female form. Add to that the role of Eve and her “tempting” of Adam, and you might see how women would be shunned in the church and relegated to secondary status.  

A debate had raged in the early centuries about women’s bodies as inherently unclean- a holdover from Jewish ceremonial law.

Enter Pulcheria- the granddaughter of Theodosius the Great. Theodosius the Great was the emperor of the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire in Constantinople in the late 300s. He was a vigorous defender of Christianity and the Nicene Creed. When he died, his son, Arcadius, became Emperor. Arcadius was the father of Pulcheria and Theodosius II. In 412 Arcadius died, Theodosius II was too young to rule and so Pulcheria, then a teenage girl was- on this, the 4th of July in 414 named Regent in her younger brother's place.

She saw her authority as from God, but others saw her ruling as a great inversion of the social order. She was personally barred from a communion service by Archbishop Nestorius.

Nestorius had such a problem with women that he was part of a theological movement to stop the veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Some called Mary the “Theotokos” or the “mother/bearer of God”. Nestorius, in an attempt to protect the sanctity of the divine, went as far to say of Jesus, “I cannot term him God who was two and three months old.”

Others who held to Jesus being fully divine and human argued that the flesh of Jesus, from the flesh of Mary, made her the “bearer of the divine”- the Theotokos.

There was a problem: Pulcheria’s younger brother, the titular head of the empire, had, under the advice of counselors, made Nestorius the Archbishop. He couldn’t condemn him and stay on his sister’s side. Luckily for Pulcheria, many in the West agreed with her, including the Pope and Cyril of Alexandria. At Pulcheria’s request, her brother called for the 3rd Ecumenical council- this at Ephesus. Here the Nestorians were condemned, Nestorius banished, and the Virgin Mary was proclaimed “Theotokos” of the mother of God.

Prior to this, there were very few churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Pulcheria wrote to Jerusalem, then the center of relics, requesting relics of the Virgin Mary for a new church to be devoted to her. As the story goes, she was told that none could be found save the burial shroud of Mary. This would lead to the development of the doctrine of the assumption- that she was taken into heaven like Elijah.

In 450, her younger brother died. He only had a daughter, and thus there were crises over the Theodosian line. Pulcheria agreed to marry- Marcian, a soldier who would be named Emperor, but would leave theological issues to his wife, the Empress. This proved important as she was free to call another council to further codify the important doctrine of the two natures of Christ. In 451, she had the Council of Chalcedon called. This would be the largest of the ecumenical councils and would unite the Western church by affirming Pope Leo’s Tome on the 2 Natures and codifying the Nicene Creed. X Not a bad resume for a woman whose very nature herself had been questioned- solidifying orthodoxy surrounding the pressing question of the age. She was present at the council, and it is said she was praised with loud acclaim by the Bishops present. She would reign until her death in 453.

The last word for today comes from the Declaration of Indepen…. Just kidding. The Daily Lectionary and a good reading for today’s story- from 1 John 4:

 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 4th of July 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who will keep producing these as long as his soda cans are red, white, and blue ones… he is Christopher Gillespie. 

The show is written and read by a noted fireworks despiser- it's a tough day for both me and Pedro the dog- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

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