WHO ARE THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH

The Fathers of the Church is the general name given to the theologians and writers of the Eastern and Western Christian traditions who lived between circa 100 AD and 750 AD. The foundations of Christianity are to be found in the writings of the New Testament: the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the apostolic Epistles and the Apocalypse. As the new faith spread outside the Holy Land into Syria and Asia Minor, and further on to Greece, Italy, North Africa, Spain and Gaul, it became essential to explain these doctrines to cultures outside the Jewish community in which Jesus had lived, and also outside the influence of Greek culture.

It was not a matter of invention. The Fathers worked to draw out from what was expressed plainly, alluded to, or implied in the teachings of Jesus a set of intrinsic doctrines, many of which drew also on the Old Testament, seeing the fulfilment of Gods older covenant by the new one.

THE GREEK FATHERS

In seeking to give a universal expression to the new faith the early Fathers drew on Greek philosophy, and Greek literary conventions. The Christian doctrines themselves after lengthy debate were formulated and given final authority by General or Ecumenical Councils of the Church. The Oriental Greek Churches at the present day accept the doctrines of the first seven Councils of the Church down to Chalcedon. The divisions then not so much doctrinal as disciplinary - that arose between the Greeks and the Latins led to the Great Schism of 1053 a yet unhealed wound in the greater Christian community. There has been (many scholars argue) no constructive theologian in the East since St John of Damascus, who died on 4 December in 749, at the very end of the period covered.

EARLY ECUMENICAL COUNCILS

First Council of Nicaea (325)
Repudiated Arianism, declared that Christ is "homoousios with the Father" (of the same substance as the Father), and adopted the original Nicene Creed, fixed the date of Easter ; recognised primacy of the sees of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch, and granted the See of Jerusalem

First Council of Constantinople (381)

Repudiated Arianism and Macedonianism, declared that Christ is "born of the Father before all time", revised the Nicene Creed in regard to the Holy Spirit.

Council of Ephesus (431)

Repudiated Nestorianism, proclaimed the Virgin Mary as the Theotokos ("Birth-giver to God", "God-bearer", "Mother of God"), repudiated Pelagianism, and re-affirmed the Nicene Creed.

Council of Chalcedon (451)

Repudiated the Eutychian doctrine of monophysitism, adopted the Chalcedonian Creed, which described the hypostatic union of the two natures of Christ, human and divine. Reinstated those deposed in 449, and deposed Dioscorus of Alexandria. Elevated the bishoprics of Constantinople and Jerusalem to the status of Patriarchates. This council occasioned a division between East and West. Later Council recognised in the West are rejected in the East by the Oriental Orthodox churches. Chalcedon is also the last council explicitly recognised by the Anglican Communion.

Second Council of Constantinople (553)

Repudiated The Three Chapters as Nestorian, condemned Origen of Alexandria, decreed the Theopaschite Formula.

Third Council of Constantinople (680681)

Repudiated Monothelitism and Monoenergism.

Second Council of Nicaea (787)

Restored the veneration of icons (condemned at a church assembly at Hiera in 754) and repudiated Iconoclasm.

THE NICEAN CREED

As finally formulated in the West

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

These cases can display a very tiny selection of the many hundreds of the Fathers of Church of East and West whose writings survive. The present selection will be varied from time to time in the coming weeks.

THE WESTERN FATHERS

Though the primacy of Rome was recognised from an early date, the spread of the church meant that the Latin fathers were originally few than those in the East.

However, political developments, such as the removal of the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium (Constantinople), meant that the intellectual and doctrinal developments in the West became more emphatic and rivalries increasing between Rome and Byzantium.

But these developments belong to a later period of Church history than that covered by this exhibition.