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A CHANGE OF THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE IN THE 5TH CENTURY C.E.

Ionut Holubeanu

Abstract

During the 5th century C.E., two important changes occurred in the Church of the Eastern Roman province of Scythia Minor (today’s Dobruja, in Romania and Bulgaria): on the one hand, the original soteriological thought of the local Church was replaced by Augustine of Hippo’s (d.430), on the other hand, Latin replaced Greek in theological education. The present investigation focuses on the context that allowed these important changes. For this task, there has especially been examined the historical information regarding the theological debates of the 5th and early 6th centuries. Augustine developed his teaching on behalf of the divine grace and human will in his endeavor to combat the Pelagianism. Therefore, promoting Augustinianism must be seen as an effort to eradicate this heresy or, at least, a theological thought suspected of it. The most relevant ecclesiastical event of the 5th century that could indirectly arouse the Eastern interest in Augustinian thought was the Council of Ephesus (431). The participants in the Council condemned the Nestorianism and also Celestius’ theological opinions, i.e., the Pelagianism. The Church of Scythia Minor was represented at Ephesus by the Metropolitan of Tomis, Timothy (c.431). Although he initially showed himself rather as one of Nestorius’s (d.450) allies, Timothy eventually decided to approve with his signature the deposition and excommunication of the latter. Thus, he consented to the decrees of the Council. Returning to his province, Timothy certainly tried to promote the faith of Ephesus. But, given that the Council did not expose the orthodox faith contrary to Celestius’ teaching, it seems that he resorted to Augustine’s writings. In this way, the local original faith, which was wrongly reckoned as Pelagianism by Timothy, was replaced by the Augustinian predestination. At the same time, by promoting the Augustinian writings in the Scythian Church, Latin gradually gained preference over Greek in local theological education.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2014/B12/S2.003

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