Wednesday, February 18, 2025

It is the 18th of February 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

It is Ash Wednesday for those of us in the Western Church- I’ve done shows in the past you can find on Fat Tuesday, Why Ashes, and the like… today we head, as promised, to the mailbag and our pal Ron in Alaska, who assures me- “The flip flops come out at 45F—we were so close.” I was on the Minnesotan Riviera this past weekend- balmy in the 40s… this script is being written from seat 12A on my way from Minneapolis back home.

 

Ron has taken a deep dive into Reformation theology and specifically predestination and came across the mysterious Gottschalk of Orbais, said “he kinda looks like Calvin” and “I thought maybe you could give us a primer on Gottschalk? I’d be grateful”. Absolutely Ron! Gottschalk is fascinating- and so much of his life is tied up in controversy, and the writing we have about him is contradictory. But here’s what we know.

 

Gottschalk was born just after 800. His father is a newly made Duke in the Saxon lands during the forced conversion after the rise of Charlemagne. His father sent him as a young boy, as an oblate, to the monastery and school at Fulda. He is living in the heart of the Carolingian Renaissance and the development of Christian schools that will become the great Universities in the West. At Fulda, Gottschalk caused problems. Not only did he question aspects of theology, but also of his being made to enter the monastery against his will and the legality of his father giving his inheritance to the church.

 

He would be released from his vows at Fulda but would be reinstated as a monk at the monastery at Orbais. He would be ordained, irregularly, a priest and spent time as a missionary in Italy and Eastern Europe.

 

But it was his writings that would get him in trouble. An avid follower of Augustine, he wanted to develop Augustine’s thought on three doctrines: the Trinity, the Lord’s Supper, and Predestination. One modern author has called his development of Augustine’s thoughts- especially on Predestination- as “the most serious doctrinal crisis since Christian antiquity”.

 

So- let’s talk predestination and what Gottschalk did. Since the Council of Orange in 529, the Western Church sided with Augustine, at least partially, in affirming that, however one is saved, it originates in the grace of God. Following the biblical texts, the claim is that if you are saved, you don’t get the credit for your salvation. We might call this “single” Predestination or predestination to salvation.

 

But Gottschalk knew that Augustine taught, later in his life, that God works for the “condemnation of the righteously destined for punishment”- a so-called double predestination where God is actively electing AND damning. This was condemned at Orange, and since the 500’s, the church had been relatively silent on the doctrine of Predestination.

 

For Gottschalk, the “double” aspect of Predestination was both a logical necessity, and he pointed out the Scriptural texts from Job to Paul that seem to have no problem making God an active participant in both election and damnation. The problem seems to be twofold- he was a prickly fellow who sued to be released from his vows and made enemies pretty easily. He was also teaching against the received teachings from the Council of Orange, which condemned the “double” or “damning side” of election.

 

He would be called to account at two councils in his lifetime- at the second, he was forced to burn all of his writings, was sent under house arrest to an Abbey, and died around 868. And here’s where it gets fun for us moderns. Until the last century, we assumed his writings were lost… and then we found them. From 2010, we have his Latin Predestination texts in English by Victor Genke and Francis Gumerlock, and a full monograph: Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire.

 

He has been rightly picked up by many in the Reformed and Calvinist branches of the church to show a historical lineage from Augustine and the early church against charges of innovation.

 

Thanks for the tip, hope you have or can check out the newer texts in your diving into the man and his ideas- Gottschalk of Orbais… bring him up at a party to show you know the deep cuts!

 

I’m back home now- and back to making the donuts- ready for you when you wake up every morning.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary, and they have us in Romans 1 for the first day of Lent:

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from[c] faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 18th of February 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who never got back to school clothes at Gottschalks… I just learned it was a West Coast thing… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man with a shout-out to 10-year-old Oliver, who got me out on the ice of Lake Carlos- the kid caught like 50 perch (it may have been the same perch multiple times…). I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.