Friday, September 21, 2007

Patrick and Augustine and Nestorius and Pelagius

Kinda blows my mind that Nestorius took Pelagius under his protection for a while, until both were anathematized by the Council of Ephesus in 431. Up until now, I've been very sympathetic towards Nestorius, but I wonder now if he had Pelagian tendencies.

I wonder if Pelagius was actually only a semi-Pelagian.

I'm pretty sure Nestorius wasn't a Nestorian. Gotta go find his Bazaar of Heraclides.

While I'm at it, I wonder what Patrick thought of Pelagius, or if they met, or if they knew about each other.

What did Patrick think of Augustine?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is difficult to know exactly what Nestorian believed and when he believed it as it has been lost in the sands of time. Even reading the "Bazaar of Heraclides" is not decisive as it was written years after the Council of Ephesus and Nestorius may have altered his beliefs in an attempt to rehabilitate his reputation.

By the way, the Assyrian Church of the East - often erroneously labeled "Nestorian" - never believed in two persons in Christ. There were cultural, theological, and linguistic differences that caused some confusion between the East and the Church of the Roman Empire (no doubt made more so by the fact that Rome was in a constant state of war with the Persian Empire) that led to a split after Ephesus.

John Warren said...

Re your first point: makes sense and is sort of what I was afraid of. Who knows.

Re your second point: that was my impression from reading the website http://www.nestorian.org.