Theology Update for the Week of January 28

The Genesis of Orthodoxy

On Sunday, January 28, at 10 a.m., the Sunday class concludes its study of the origins of the Christian orthodox theological tradition. This sessions looks at the contested question of the number and status of the Church councils that followed the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451). The class meets on the fifth floor.

The Emperor and the Bishops: Politics of Language and Faith in the Fifth-Century Church

On Wednesday, January 31, at 6:30 p.m., the Rt. Rev. Allen K. Shin, Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of New York, discusses the complex interaction between politics, religion, and national identities in the Church of the patristic age. While debating fundamental theological doctrines about Christ, the bishops were also speaking different languages, living in different cultures, and negotiating different relationships with the emperor. The result was a heated controversy which nevertheless formed the Christian tradition as we know it today. The lecture is held in Andrew Hall.

A Glorious Vision: Anglo-Catholicism and Race

In this class on Sunday, February 4 at 10am, the Rev. Brandt Montgomery discusses the historic appeal of the catholic expression of Anglicanism to a great number of the Episcopal Church’s black members. In examining past events and present circumstances, one sees how catholic Anglicanism has not only appealed to those historically and socially oppressed, but presents “a glorious vision” reflective of a Christian Gospel that is meant for all people. Fr. Montgomery is Associate Rector and All School Chaplain at the Church of the Ascension in Lafayette, Louisiana, and a former seminarian at Saint Thomas Church.