Alexander Schmemann

3. The Age Of The Ecumenical Councils (50 pages)

From Schmemann's A History of the Orthodox Church

Page 42

Quality of Life in the New Age.

In the seventh century there was a perceptible coarsening of morals, a certain “barbarization” of the whole pattern of life. The centuries of invasion, impoverishment, and constant military tension had left their mark. One could already sense the approach of the Middle Ages, in the negative sense (which in no way excludes their positive aspects), and much even in the life of the Christian community reflected this coarsening. Christians had become used to Christianity and it had become an ordinary, everyday matter.

This is the main impression we receive from the decrees of the so-called Consilium Quintisextum, or Trullan Council, of 691, summoned by Emperor Justinian II to supplement by disciplinary decrees the work of the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils, which had been limited to purely doctrinal action. The life of the Church required clear regulatory principles, and the Trullan Council (so called from the pillared hall of the palace in which the sessions were held) provided them in the form of 102 canons. They give us a picture of the daily life of the Church in that period.
The purpose of the Council was to heal infirmities, and its decrees, of course, reflect only the negative aspects and defects of the Church community, but these are interesting just because they indicate the extent to which the empire was Christianized after four centuries of the “age of Constantine.”

So far as the social and political scene was concerned, Christianity had conquered beyond question. The defects in the Church community themselves resulted from this victory and its decisiveness.
Christianity had entered into the flesh and blood of mankind, a large fraction of which had been unified by the empire, and in the depths it of course defined, evaluated, and judged life. This will be discussed presently.

Yet no victory maintains itself; it requires constant effort and tension, but inevitably the tension begins to slacken. For example, in the struggle against the pagans and its heroic conquest of the world, the Church had never hesitated in adapting many “natural” forms of religion, usual for paganism, to the service of Christianity. The pagans had celebrated the birth of the Invincible Sun on December 25; Christians allotted to this date the celebration of the birth of Christ, which taught men “to honor the Sun of Righteousness and to come to know it from the height of the East.”[15] The pagans had celebrated an “epiphany” on January 6, which became the date of the Christian Epiphany as well. The ecclesiastical cult of “Unmercenary Saints” had much in common with the pagan cult of the Dioscuri; the forms of the Christian saint’s life with the models of pagan eulogies of heroes; and finally, the explanation of the Christian sacraments to the catechumens with the mysterial terminology of pagan initiations.

 

Previous Page / First / Next

Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church: Table of Contents

Cf.  Books for getting closer to Orthodox Christianity ||| Orthodox Images of the Christ ||| Byzantium : The Alternative History of Europe ||| Greek Orthodoxy - From Apostolic Times to the Present Day ||| A History of the Byzantine Empire ||| Videos about Byzantium and Orthodoxy ||| Aspects of Byzantium in Modern Popular Music ||| 3 Posts on the Fall of Byzantium  ||| Greek Literature / The New Testament

On Line Resources for Constantinople * On the future of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Greek Forum : Make a question / Start a Discussion 

Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/schmemann-orthodoxy-3-councils.asp?pg=42