9th Century (14)
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It had been nearly a full century since the Viking plague had begun with the first tragic raid on the holy island of Lindisfarne. After that disaster, Alcuin had written to the British church urging them to consider this raid as a scourge from God, sent to awaken the Anglo-Saxons from spiritual lethargy. Now, nearly one hundred years later, the king of Wessex finally took this warning to heart and set about reviving Christian learning and worship throughout his land.The Life of Alfred the Great, 181
It seemed to Alfred that oath-keeping truly was the virtue that most clearly distinguished a Christian nation from a pagan nation.The White Horse King, 201
Alfred insisted that every Anglo-Saxon man keep his oaths and pledges. Instead of a prohibition of murder, treason, or some other heinous crime, the king saw oath-breaking as the greatest threat to the endurance of his kingdom.The White Horse King, 201
After this length preface, which underlined the king's deep conviction that justice had been passed down from God to men and that it was the duty of law-givers to study Scripture, history, and the counsel of other men as they made their legislative decrees, Alfred finally listed his collection of one hundred twenty laws. (It is suspected that the total number of one hundred twenty laws was chosen to equal the age of Moses at his death, acknowledging once more the biblical foundation for Alfred's law code.)The White Horse King
Only those laws that had been founded on the eternal principles of justice, had stood the test of time, had been passed on from generation to generation, and had received the approval of the wisest of counsellors should be enacted and enforced by a just king. To make this point clear, Alfred began the domboc with a translation of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God on Mount SinaiThe White Horse King, 198-199
Ecstatic to find so great a precedent as Alfred the Great, the sixteenth-century Anglican ministers began publishing biographies on Alfred and Anglo-Saxon editions of the Bible.The Life of Alfred the Great, 192
These psalms, primarily the songs of King David composed throughout the King of Israel's tumultuous reign, had always had a special place in Alfred's heart. Having memorized many of the psalms in his youth, Alfred had used these sacred words throughout his life to embolden himself in battle, encourage himself in despondency, humble himself in his sins, and comfort himself in his forgiveness. The entire spectrum of Alfred's personal trials and triumphs seemed to have been lived out already by the shepherd king of Israel. More than any other text, the book of Psalms had become the poetry of Alfred's life.The Life of Alfred the Great, 191
Before his death, King Alfred personally translated the following into the Wessex vernacular: Pastor Care by Gregory the Great; The Consolation of Philosophy, by Boethius; the Soliliques of Augustine; and the first fifty psalms of the Bible. These works were then copied and distributed as widely as possible throughout the schools and churches of Wessex to provide reading material for the newly literate nation.The Life of Alfred the Great, 189
Despite the fact that the aged minds of many of Alfred's best nobles seemed to resist new learning, the king was resolute in his new demand. Soon the royal court of Wessex was filled with the comic sight of the thegns of Wessex--the same men who had stood undaunted in the shieldwall, standing shoulder to shoulder with the king throughout countless bloody battles-- sitting lost in a mental fog as they tried to push their faltering minds through simple Anglo-Saxan texts.The Life of Alfred the Great, 187-188
Alfred concluded that the Vikings were not the cause of England's overthrow. They were the result. The Anglo-Saxons' own lethargic apostasy had been the cause of the fall of the various Anglo-Saxon nations. If Alfred was to have a victorious defense policy, clearly armies and burhs were not enough. If Wessex wanted to be successful in her ongoing struggle with the plundering Danes, then the nation must devote itself to a revival of Christian learning and Christian worship.The Life of Alfred the Great
What estimation can be made of Photius? His logic is almost impeccable, but it is also completely self-contained. He did not know Augustine's arguments, nor did he reflect seriously on the Western tradition, which was a closed book to him. He allowed himself to be carried away by his own reasoning and came up with an analysis of the Filioque that his Latin contemporaries would not have recognized, even if they had been able to read his work. More seriously still, he never answered the positive challenge of the Filioque, which was to define how the Son and the Spirit were related. If the Spirit does not proceed from the Son, what is the nature of the connection between them?God Has Spoken, 669
Photius is one of the most controversial figures in church history. In the East, he is regarded as a saint who defended the theological tradition when it was under serious threat, but in the West he has traditionally been seen as the man mainly responsible for splitting the church into its Eastern and Western halves. What both sides agree on is that he was a brilliant scholar and a consummate politician who used his gifts for what he saw as the best interests of his church.God Has Spoken, 666
After 800 there was a definite pause in theological creativity as the churches absorbed the lessons of the past and appropriated their inheritanceGod Has Spoken (399)
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