Who is Who — The Divinity School

Bishop of Antioch, martyred in Rome. His seven letters, written on the road to execution, are the earliest post-apostolic witness to church organisation, the Eucharist, and the threefold ministry of bishop, presbyter, and deacon.

Can help you study: The Apostolic Fathers, martyrdom, church unity, the Eucharist, the epistles of Ignatius, and the earliest structure of the Christian church.

Bishop of Lyons whose Against Heresies is the first systematic refutation of Gnosticism. He argued that creation is good, that the body matters, and that salvation is recapitulation — Christ living the human story from beginning to end so that humanity might be restored.

Can help you study: Against Heresies, recapitulation, the goodness of creation, anti-Gnostic theology, and the argument that matter is not the enemy of spirit.

The father of Latin theology. He coined the word trinitas and the formula “three persons, one substance.” He asked what Athens has to do with Jerusalem — a question that has never been settled.

Can help you study: Latin theology, the Trinity, apologetics, Athens vs Jerusalem, and the relationship between faith and philosophy.

Head of the catechetical school in Alexandria. He argued that Greek philosophy was a preparation for the Gospel — a “tutor” leading the Greeks to Christ as the Torah led the Jews.

Can help you study: Alexandrian theology, the relationship between philosophy and faith, the true Gnostic, and the argument that all truth is God’s truth.

The most prolific writer of the early Church and the founder of systematic biblical exegesis. He read every text at three levels — literal, moral, and spiritual — and taught that all souls would ultimately be restored to God (apokatastasis).

Can help you study: Biblical exegesis, the three senses of Scripture, apokatastasis, Alexandrian theology, and the discipline of reading deeply.

The “Christian Cicero” — a rhetorician who converted and wrote the Divine Institutes, the first systematic Latin presentation of Christianity to an educated pagan audience.

Can help you study: Apologetics, the Divine Institutes, rhetoric, providence, and the argument that wisdom without religion is vain.

Bishop of Alexandria, exiled five times for defending the Nicene Creed. “Athanasius contra mundum” — Athanasius against the world. He held that the Son is of one substance with the Father and that the purpose of the Incarnation is theosis: God became man so that man might become God.

Can help you study: Nicene orthodoxy, theosis, the Arian controversy, contra mundum, and the cost of holding a theological position against overwhelming opposition.

Bishop of Milan who refused the Emperor Theodosius communion until he did public penance for a massacre. The Church is not the state’s chaplain. He also baptised Augustine.

Can help you study: Church and state, pastoral authority, Latin liturgy, and the argument that spiritual authority is independent of political power.

One of the three Cappadocian Fathers. He wrote the definitive monastic rule of the Eastern Church, founded hospitals for the poor, and articulated the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

Can help you study: Cappadocian theology, monastic rule, the Holy Spirit, practical charity, and the argument that theology without action is empty.

The Theologian — one of only three people in Eastern Christianity to bear that title. His Five Theological Orations defined Trinitarian orthodoxy. He preferred poetry and contemplation to church politics, and resigned the see of Constantinople rather than endure another synod.

Can help you study: The Five Orations, Trinitarian theology, poetry, the contemplative life, and the argument that theology is best done in silence.

The most philosophical of the Cappadocian Fathers. He taught epektasis — that perfection is not a destination but an infinite journey toward God, who is inexhaustible. The soul never arrives; it stretches forward forever.

Can help you study: Epektasis, apophatic theology, infinite progress toward God, the Life of Moses, and the argument that the darkness is where God is.

Translator of the Vulgate — the Latin Bible that shaped Western Christianity for a thousand years. He insisted on going back to the Hebrew original (Hebraica veritas) rather than relying on the Greek Septuagint.

Can help you study: The Vulgate, biblical scholarship, Hebraica veritas, translation, and the argument that you must always go to the source.

Archbishop of Constantinople, called “Golden-Mouthed” for his preaching. He preached relentlessly against wealth and in favour of the poor, and was exiled for it. Twice.

Can help you study: Preaching, poverty and wealth, homiletics, the social obligations of Christianity, and the argument that the bread you store up belongs to the hungry.

The most influential theologian in Western Christianity. The Confessions invented autobiography. The City of God reimagined history after the fall of Rome. His doctrines of grace, original sin, and predestination shaped everything that followed — Catholic and Protestant alike.

Can help you study: The Confessions, The City of God, grace, original sin, predestination, the restless heart, and the argument that the self is a mystery even to itself.

Anonymous author who wrote under the name of Paul’s Athenian convert. His Mystical Theology and Celestial Hierarchy became the foundation of Christian mysticism and apophatic theology — the theology of what cannot be said about God.

Can help you study: Apophatic mysticism, the Celestial Hierarchy, the Divine Darkness, negative theology, and the argument that God is known by unknowing.

Pope, monk, and the man who sent Augustine of Canterbury to convert England. He wrote the Pastoral Rule — the manual for Christian leadership that shaped the medieval Church. He wanted to be a contemplative; duty made him an administrator.

Can help you study: The Pastoral Rule, mission to England, church administration, and the argument that the person who rules must remember they are ruled.

The last of the Church Fathers. Writing in the safety of a monastery under Muslim rule, he compiled the Fount of Knowledge — the first systematic theology — and defended the veneration of icons against the iconoclasts. Matter matters because God entered it.

Can help you study: Systematic theology, the defence of icons, the Fount of Knowledge, and the argument that the material world is holy because of the Incarnation.

The scholastic synthesis. His Summa Theologiae integrated Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology into the most comprehensive intellectual system the Middle Ages produced. He proved (or attempted to prove) the existence of God five ways, defined natural law, and established that faith and reason are complementary, not opposed.

Can help you study: The Summa Theologiae, natural law, the Five Ways, faith and reason, Aristotelian-Christian synthesis, and the argument that every inquiry begins with a question.

David Nieto, Haham (Chief Rabbi) of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London. A physician, astronomer, and theologian who defended the Oral Law against the Karaites and wrote on the relationship between divine providence and natural causation. He also confronted the Spinoza controversy within his own community.

Can help you study: Sephardic theology, halakha, the Kuzari tradition, the Spinoza controversy, divine providence, and the argument that the tradition is a living river, not a fence.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe. He transformed Chabad-Lubavitch from a small Chassidic court into a global movement, built a worldwide network of emissaries, and taught that every soul contains a divine spark that the world needs. He never visited Israel. He never left Crown Heights in his last decades. He reached the world from a single room.

Can help you study: Chassidut, Kabbalah, Jewish leadership, teshuvah, the divine spark, the emissary model, and the argument that every person you meet is a soul you were sent to help.

The oldest voice. The Pali Canon preserves the Buddha’s teaching as transmitted by the Theravāda tradition — the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, dependent origination, and the three marks of existence: impermanence, suffering, not-self. This is the Buddha before the commentaries, before the schools, before the philosophical elaborations. The suttas themselves.

Can help you study: The Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, dependent origination, the three marks of existence, the Pali suttas, and the practice of seeing things as they are.

The Buddha thinking through emptiness. Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā takes the Buddha’s teaching of dependent origination to its logical conclusion: everything is empty of inherent existence — including emptiness itself. The Middle Way between existence and non-existence. The most rigorous philosophical voice in the Buddhist tradition.

Can help you study: Śūnyatā (emptiness), the two truths, dependent origination as emptiness, the Madhyamaka dialectic, and what it means that nothing has a fixed nature — not even this teaching.

The Buddha as compassion in action. The Bodhicaryāvatāra is the path of the bodhisattva — the being who postpones personal liberation to work for the liberation of all. “For as long as space endures and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I too abide to dispel the misery of the world.” The chapter on patience is among the most extraordinary pieces of philosophical writing in any tradition.

Can help you study: The bodhisattva path, the six perfections, patience, compassion, the exchange of self and other, and the practice of taking on the suffering of others.

The Buddha as direct transmission. Huangbo’s Chan strips away everything — scripture, philosophy, meditation technique — and points at the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. All sentient beings are already Buddha. The problem is not that you lack enlightenment but that you are looking for it. He was known to strike students to interrupt their thinking. Sometimes the shortest path is a blow.

Can help you study: Chan Buddhism, One Mind, no-mind, direct pointing, the transmission of mind, and the practice of stopping the search.

The Buddha as the Lotus-Born. Padmasambhava brought the dharma to Tibet, subdued the local spirits, established the first monastery at Samyé, and buried treasure teachings (terma) throughout the landscape for future generations to discover when the time was right. Founder of the Nyingma — the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism. The dharma as living transmission, hidden in the earth and in the mind.

Can help you study: Vajrayāna, the introduction of dharma to Tibet, terma (treasure teachings), the Nyingma tradition, and the Tibetan Buddhist understanding of consciousness, death, and the bardo.

The Buddha singing in a cave. Milarepa began as a sorcerer who killed many people with black magic. He found his teacher Marpa, endured years of gruelling penance, and achieved realisation alone in mountain caves wearing nothing but a cotton cloth. His Hundred Thousand Songs are the dharma as lived experience — the teaching that the worst sinner can become the greatest saint, and that a cave, a cotton cloth, and a song are enough.

Can help you study: Tibetan yogic practice, songs of realisation, solitude, the guru-student relationship, inner heat (tummo), and the transformation of a murderer into a saint.

The Buddha as natural perfection. Longchenpa is the supreme voice of Dzogchen — the Great Perfection. His Seven Treasuries teach that awareness (rigpa) has always been free. You do not need to create, purify, or develop it. You need to recognise what has always been the case. Liberation is not something you achieve. It is something you were never without.

Can help you study: Dzogchen, rigpa (pure awareness), the Seven Treasuries, Nyingma philosophy, and the practice of recognising what was never lost.

The Buddha sitting. Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō teaches that practice and enlightenment are not separate — that zazen is not a means to awakening but awakening itself. To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things. His concept of uji (being-time) — that every moment is the whole of existence — anticipates phenomenology by seven centuries.

Can help you study: Sōtō Zen, the Shōbōgenzō, zazen, being-time, practice-enlightenment, and the practice of just sitting.

The Buddha as literary meditation. Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha leaves the Buddha’s own sangha because he believes wisdom cannot be taught, only lived. He passes through asceticism, desire, wealth, and despair before finding, in the end, that a river contains everything. A simulacrum of the character — the Buddha as the West first encountered him, through a novel, beside a river, listening.

Can help you study: The limits of teaching, the relationship between experience and wisdom, the river as metaphor, the unity of all things, and why wisdom cannot be communicated — only found.

The Buddha walking on the green earth. Thích Nhất Hạnh founded Engaged Buddhism — the teaching that mindfulness is not retreat from the world but full participation in it. Exiled from Vietnam for opposing the war, he established Plum Village in France and taught for fifty years that the miracle is not to walk on water but to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment. His concept of interbeing — that nothing exists independently — is Nāgārjuna’s emptiness made gentle and practical.

Can help you study: Engaged Buddhism, mindfulness, interbeing, the Plum Village tradition, peace, and the practice of being fully alive in the present moment.