Thursday, March 12, 2026

It is the 12th of March 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

It took a long time to get there, but I made it back on time- a shout-out to the great folks at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama- my class and two sermons are up on their website at Adventbirmingham.org.

 

Can we talk about the Eastern onomastic habit?

 

Ono what? Onomastic refers to the practice of naming. Today in the West, we have a given first and middle name, and then our family name. But this was not always the case- and when it comes to figuring out “who is who,” we do well to figure out how people were named- especially prior to the 14th century, when some standardization occurred.

 

And it’s not uncommon in the church to have names attached that tell us something about the person- we have John the Golden Mouthed (that’s Chrysostom and named so on account of his preaching). We have Maximus the Confessor and two “the Theologians”- a high rank, indeed- the Eastern Church calls John, the Apostle and Gospel writer, the “Theologian” as well as Gregory of Nazianzus. But there is one called the “New Theologian”- and in church history, “new” can be someone from the 900s- he was Simeon the New Theologian, born in 949 and dying on this, the 12th of March in 1021.

 

The title “New” theologian isn’t entirely clear- it may have been an epithet at first- an ironic name for a theologian charged with innovations.

 

Simeon was born in Asia Minor and studied at Constantinople for a life at court. He would come under the influence of Simeon the Pious. He was removed from court but began studying theology, and after a religious experience, entered the monastery of Simeon the Pious around 970. Controversy would surround him, and he would move to the Saint Mamas, where he would be the abbot for 25 years. From 1009, he would be exiled over disputes with the Byzantine authorities and spent the rest of his life as a small semi-independent monastery near Chrysopolis (this is modern Uskudar in Turkey, across the Bosphorus from Constantinople/Istanbul)

 

What made him so controversial? In many ways, he was a good son of Constantinople, but some of his practices and emphasis made him suspect. He is among the first in the East to write theology as a kind of autobiography. In the West, Augustine began this tradition, but it didn’t make its way to the East until later. This was not out of bounds, but would cause suspicion.

 

It was in fleshing out the doctrine of the Holy Spirit that he would come under most suspicion. He makes a distinction between water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit- something that made him popular amongst 20th-century Pentecostals. The active indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all believers also led him to kick against some of the authority structures so important in the medieval church. He believed that if the Holy Spirit is actively working in a believer, they have the ability to give spiritual counsel and, importantly, hear confession and absolve sin. He believed that it wasn’t the office, but that anyone who had experienced the Holy Spirit and sufficiently tasted of its grace could bind and loose sins. It wasn’t the office, but the Spirit that mattered.

 

We can trace from Simeon the New Theologian both the coming of the Radical Reformation and those sometimes pitting “spirit” vs “flesh” and elevating a “leveling” spirit against institutions and texts.

 

Over the years, Simeon was rehabilitated, and he is “Venerable” in the Eastern Orthodox Church, which came to appreciate his hymns and writings on prayer and the experience of the Holy Spirit. Because the day of his death, today, lands in Lent, his feast day has been moved to October 12th. Today we remember the venerable, but one-time controversial medieval saint who suggested that the Spirit, not Ordination, was key; he was Simeon the New Theologian.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and a word from Paul touching on the Holy Spirit and forgiveness from Ephesians 4:

25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 12th of March 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by Christopher the Bearded Gillespie.

The show is written and read by Dan the Tattooed 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.