Who were the members of the council of Laodicea?
December 20, 2008 10:30 AM Subscribe
I am looking for a list of people that participated (the people actually voting) in the Council of Laodicea. Any books or papers that detail their life would be beneficial as well.
Response by poster: I'm not sure if the information exists or not. I figured the church keep records of everything, and coming from a Judeo-Christian world where endless genealogy of important people are kept - I would see why keeping the names of those in a synod would be important. So, it baffles me that this information seems non-existent.
Basically what I would like to find is the equivalent of "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary" - but for the Christian biblical cannon. Not that any of the people involved were madman or murders, but I think it would be enlightening to see what kind of people were involved in the making of cannon.
I know about Cyril of Jerusalem, and I find it interesting that his decisions about what should be in the cannon is pretty much copied by the Synod of Laodicea. How much of those decisions were shaped by the schism brought on by the Arian controversy? But I'm out of my league here, I can't read Latin, or any other ancient language. I'm certainly uneducated when it comes to Catholic cannon and their bureaucratic process. The history of Christianity begins, in my religious education, when the 95 Theses were posted.
posted by bigmusic at 4:51 PM on December 21, 2008
Basically what I would like to find is the equivalent of "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary" - but for the Christian biblical cannon. Not that any of the people involved were madman or murders, but I think it would be enlightening to see what kind of people were involved in the making of cannon.
I know about Cyril of Jerusalem, and I find it interesting that his decisions about what should be in the cannon is pretty much copied by the Synod of Laodicea. How much of those decisions were shaped by the schism brought on by the Arian controversy? But I'm out of my league here, I can't read Latin, or any other ancient language. I'm certainly uneducated when it comes to Catholic cannon and their bureaucratic process. The history of Christianity begins, in my religious education, when the 95 Theses were posted.
posted by bigmusic at 4:51 PM on December 21, 2008
Best answer: I believe the type of information you seek would be scarce even for a relatively modern such episcopal get-together in that this one was not a general, or ecumenical, council. And if you don't find anything about Laodicea, you might want to look into Rome or Hippo.
There is an excellent one-volume book called The Church in Crisis: A History of the General Councils: AD 325-1870, which is available online and worth reading in itself, the appendix to which is available here. That should be a great bibliography sufficient to get you started provided you're near a decent library (especially if you're close to an older Catholic college, seminary, or university). If you're where I think you are, you should check out the library at St. Mary's University or Oblate School of Theology. Either one or both will have most of these works. (Although you will laugh when you read this part after he lists all these awesome books that will probably answer your question: "The reader will see that to make use of these "indispensables" our serious student needs at least a reading knowledge of Latin and French. And there is the same need of foreign languages for all of us whose curiosity about this history takes us any appreciable distance beyond such a book as mine. The exiguity of Catholic scholarly work, in the English language, in the field of Church History is notorious and, considering the fact that English-speaking Catholics must number a good 60 or 70 million [in the 1960s], is very little to our credit. For far too long now we have left it all to the 'heretics.' Indeed, I can think of only one figure who can be ranked with the great French and German scholars, from Dollinger to Duchesne and Batiffol, and that is [John Henry Cardinal] Newman. This, in explanation of the character of the books I am now going to suggest 'for further reading.'")
You may already know this, but since others may not, I think it's of the utmost importance to understand that the Protestant understanding of the compilation of biblical canon is far different from that of Catholics (or Orthodox or similar conciliar, apostolic ecclesial communions). You will want to make sure you understand your audience before you attempt to broach this subject with them (i.e., are these "conciliar" Christians or sola scriptura Protestants). So while you might want to look into this to explain to Bible-thumping fundamentalists that they shouldn't be so dogmatic about being dogmatic, realize that they won't care about the council or synod of this-or-that or whatever. Many, if not most, have a very limited understanding of how and where they got the Bible (as do many Catholics and Orthodox), and simply won't care if you tell them that one of the attendees of some random council they've never heard of was actually a philanderer or heretic or simoniac or possessed by the devil or whatever. To most Protestants, councils of bishops are powerless to bind the Church.
posted by resurrexit at 8:02 AM on December 22, 2008
There is an excellent one-volume book called The Church in Crisis: A History of the General Councils: AD 325-1870, which is available online and worth reading in itself, the appendix to which is available here. That should be a great bibliography sufficient to get you started provided you're near a decent library (especially if you're close to an older Catholic college, seminary, or university). If you're where I think you are, you should check out the library at St. Mary's University or Oblate School of Theology. Either one or both will have most of these works. (Although you will laugh when you read this part after he lists all these awesome books that will probably answer your question: "The reader will see that to make use of these "indispensables" our serious student needs at least a reading knowledge of Latin and French. And there is the same need of foreign languages for all of us whose curiosity about this history takes us any appreciable distance beyond such a book as mine. The exiguity of Catholic scholarly work, in the English language, in the field of Church History is notorious and, considering the fact that English-speaking Catholics must number a good 60 or 70 million [in the 1960s], is very little to our credit. For far too long now we have left it all to the 'heretics.' Indeed, I can think of only one figure who can be ranked with the great French and German scholars, from Dollinger to Duchesne and Batiffol, and that is [John Henry Cardinal] Newman. This, in explanation of the character of the books I am now going to suggest 'for further reading.'")
You may already know this, but since others may not, I think it's of the utmost importance to understand that the Protestant understanding of the compilation of biblical canon is far different from that of Catholics (or Orthodox or similar conciliar, apostolic ecclesial communions). You will want to make sure you understand your audience before you attempt to broach this subject with them (i.e., are these "conciliar" Christians or sola scriptura Protestants). So while you might want to look into this to explain to Bible-thumping fundamentalists that they shouldn't be so dogmatic about being dogmatic, realize that they won't care about the council or synod of this-or-that or whatever. Many, if not most, have a very limited understanding of how and where they got the Bible (as do many Catholics and Orthodox), and simply won't care if you tell them that one of the attendees of some random council they've never heard of was actually a philanderer or heretic or simoniac or possessed by the devil or whatever. To most Protestants, councils of bishops are powerless to bind the Church.
posted by resurrexit at 8:02 AM on December 22, 2008
Best answer: The history of Christianity begins, in my religious education, when the 95 Theses were posted.
Ah, I see where you're coming from. By that time everything was fairly well documented, but the situation was very different over a millennium earlier. We don't have many records, just vague descriptions. I'm pretty sure the kind of detailed information you're looking for doesn't exist; it's like asking for the CVs of everyone in the Sanhedrin in Jesus's day. We're lucky to know something about the patriarchs and other leaders.
posted by languagehat at 9:07 AM on December 22, 2008
Ah, I see where you're coming from. By that time everything was fairly well documented, but the situation was very different over a millennium earlier. We don't have many records, just vague descriptions. I'm pretty sure the kind of detailed information you're looking for doesn't exist; it's like asking for the CVs of everyone in the Sanhedrin in Jesus's day. We're lucky to know something about the patriarchs and other leaders.
posted by languagehat at 9:07 AM on December 22, 2008
Best answer: In The Faith of the Early Fathers (1970) by William Jurgens, it says:
...no authentic list of the signatories of the Council has been preserved...
Perhaps the best you can do is to read about members of the Asian church in the 4th century to gain a general impression of what kind of people the bishops and theologians who attended the council might have been. I know that probably isn't quite good enough, so I'm sorry you've hit a dead end.
posted by Sova at 2:25 AM on January 7, 2009
...no authentic list of the signatories of the Council has been preserved...
Perhaps the best you can do is to read about members of the Asian church in the 4th century to gain a general impression of what kind of people the bishops and theologians who attended the council might have been. I know that probably isn't quite good enough, so I'm sorry you've hit a dead end.
posted by Sova at 2:25 AM on January 7, 2009
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posted by languagehat at 12:41 PM on December 21, 2008