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THE
RISE AND TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY |
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THE
LIFE
OF JESUS |
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According
to the Biblical account, JESUS OF NAZARETH was born in Bethlehem during
the reign of Herod (who died in 4 B.C.) rather than in the year that
traditionally begins the Christian era.
After spending the first years of his life as a
carpenter in the village of Nazareth, Jesus began his brief MISSION,
preaching a gospel of love for one's fellow man and urging people to
"repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17).
The fame of Jesus' teaching and holiness spread among
the Jews as he and his twelve disciples traveled from village to village
in Palestine. When he came to Jerusalem to serve the feast of the
Passover, he was welcomed triumphantly by huge crowds as the promised
MESSIAH. But Jesus was concerned with a SPIRITUAL, NOT AN EARTHLY,
KINGDOM, and when the people saw that he had no intention of leading a
nationalistic movement against the Romans, they turned against him.
His ENEMIES then came forward: |
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 | The
moneylenders whom he had denounced
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| The
Pharisees who resented his repudiation of their minute regulations
of daily behavior
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| The
people who considered him a disturber of the status quo
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| Thos
who saw him as a blasphemer of Yahweh.
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Betrayed by Judas, one of his disciples, Jesus was
condemned by the Sanhedrin for BLASPHEMY "because he claimed to be
the Son of God" (John 19:7). Before the procurator Pontius Pilate,
however, Jesus was charged with TREASON for claiming to be the king of
Jews. Jesus was condemned to the death that Rome inflicted on criminals --
crucifixion.
With Jesus' death it seemed as though his cause had
died. NO WRITTEN MESSAGE had been left behind, and his few loyal followers
were disheartened. Yet in the wake of his martyrdom the Christian cause
took on new impetus. REPORTS SOON SPREAD that Jesus had been seen after
his crucifixion and had spoken to his disciples, giving them solace and
inspiration.
At first there were few CONVERTS within Palestine
itself, but the Hellenized Jews living in foreign lands, in contact with
new ideas and modes of living, were less firmly committed to traditional
Jewish doctrines. The new religion first made real headway among the
Jewish communities in such cities as DAMASCUS, ANTIOCH, CORINTH, AND ROME.
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| PAUL'S
MISSIONARY WORK |
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If
followers of Jesus had been required to observe the Jewish Law, the new
religion would have had no UNIVERSAL APPEAL. This obstacle was removed
through the missionary efforts of Paul.
Born Saul, of strict Jewish ancestry, and raised in a
Hellenistic city in Asia Minor, this Christian saint possessed a wide
knowledge of Greek culture. Saul was also a strict Pharisee who considered
Christians to be blasphemers against the Law and took an active part in
their persecution. One day, ON THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS -- in Saul's own
words:
And as I was traveling and coming near Damascus, about
midday a bright light suddenly flashed from the sky around me. I
fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, "Saul, Saul. Why
do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" I asked.
"I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute," he said to me.
The men with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who
was speaking to me. I asked, "What shall I do, Lord?" and the
Lord said to me, "Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will
be told everything that God has determined for you.
Saul, henceforth known as Paul, turned from being a
persecutor into the greatest of Christian missionaries.
Paul taught that Jesus was the Christ (from CHRISTOS,
Greek for Messiah), the Son of God, and that He had died to atone for the
sins of mankind. |
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| Acceptance
of this belief guaranteed salvation to JEWS AND GENTILES alike. The
Law, with its strict dietary regulations and other requirements that
discouraged the conversion of gentiles, was unnecessary.
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| According
to Paul, a man is put right with God only through FAITH in Jesus
Christ, never by doing what the Law requires. . . .So there is no
difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free men,
between men and women: you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.
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After covering 8,000 miles teaching and preaching, Paul
was beheaded at Rome about 65 A.D. (as was also Peter, founder of the
church at Rome) during the reign of Nero. By this time Christian
communities had already been established in all important cities of the
Roman Empire.
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TRIUMPH
OF CHRISTIANITY
Perseuction
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The
Roman government tolerated any religion that did not threaten the safety
or tranquility of the Empire. Christianity, however, clearly appeared to
be a subversive danger to society and the state and so Christian were
persecuted.
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| Tolerance |
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In
311 the emperor Galerius recognized that persecution had failed and issued
an EDICT OF TOLERATION making Christianity a legal religion in the East.
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| Legalization |
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In
the following year, the emperor CONSTANTINE was swayed toward Christianity
during a desperate battle with the army of a rival for the throne.
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the height of the conflict, tradition has it that he saw emblazoned
across the sky a cross with the words "In hoc signo vinces"
(By this sign thou shalt conquer).
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| Constantine
won the battle, and in 313 he issued the EDICT OF MILAN, which
legalized Christianity throughout the Empire and put it on a par
with all the pagan cults.
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| Constantine
favored Christianity by granting many privileges to the Church, but
he waited until he was on his deathbed before receiving baptism. His
successors, with one exception, were Christian.
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| Official
Recognition |
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The
final step in the triumph of Christianity was taken during the reign of
Theodosius I (379-395), who made Christianity the OFFICIAL RELIGION of the
Empire. Henceforth paganism was persecuted.
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CHURCH
ORGANIZATION
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Viewing
the present world as something that would end quickly with the imminent
Second Coming of their Lord, the earliest converts saw no necessity for
organization. But after it became clear that the Second Coming had been
postponed, a definite Church organization began to emerge.
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first, there was little or no distinction between LAITY AND CLERGY.
Traveling teachers visited Christian communities, preaching and
giving advice where needed.
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| Church
Officials |
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| The
steady growth in the number of Christians made necessary SPECIAL
CHURCH OFFICIALS who could devote all their time to religious work,
clarifying the body of Christian dogma, conducting services, and
caring for the funds.
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earliest officials were called PRESBYTERS (elders) or BISHOPS
(overseers).
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| The
bishops were recognized as the SUCCESSORS OF THE APOSTLES and,
like them, the guardians of Christian teaching and tradition.
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| Churches
in the villages adjacent to the mother Church, which was
usually located in a city, were administered by PRIESTS
responsible to a bishop.
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| Territorial
Divisions |
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| The
DIOCESE was a territorial division under the jurisdiction of a
bishop.
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number of dioceses made up a PROVINCE. The bishop of the most
important city in each province was known as an ARCHBISHOP.
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| The
provinces were grouped into larger administrative divisions called
PATRIARCHIES. The title of patriarch was applied to the bishop of
such great cities as Rome, Constantinople, and Alexandria.
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| Primacy
of the Bishop of Rome |
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A
development of outstanding importance was the rise of the bishop of Rome
to a position of preeminence in the hierarchy of the Church.
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first only one of several patriarchs, the Roman bishop gradually
became recognized as the leader of the Church in the West with the
title of POPE -- from the Greek word meaning "father."
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| Many
factors explain the emergence of the papacy at Rome.
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the largest city in the West and the capital of the Empire,
Rome had a PRESTIGE that was transferred to its bishop.
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| When
the Empire in the West collapsed in the fifth century, the
bishop of Rome emerged as a STABLE and dominant figure looked
up to by all.
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The primacy of Rome was fully evident during the
pontificate of LEO I, called the Great (440-461). |
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| Provided
the LEADERSHIP that saved Italy from invasion by the Huns.
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| Formulated
the major theoretical argument for papal supremacy in the Church --
the PETRINE THEORY.
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doctrine held that since PETER, whom Christ had made leader of
the apostles, was the first bishop of Rome, his authority over
all Christians was handed on to his successors at Rome.
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| The
Church in the East, insisting on the equality of all the
apostles, has never accepted the Petrine Theory.
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| Regular
and Secular Clergy |
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There
were two types of clergy.
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SECULAR CLERGY moved through the world (saeculum)
administering the Church's services and communicating its teachings
to the laity.
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| The
REGULAR CLERGY, so called because they lived by a rule (regula)
within monasteries. These monks sought seclusion from the
distractions of the world in order to prepare themselves for the
next.
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| Monasticism |
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The
monastic way of life was older than Christianity (e.g., the Essenes).
| Christian
ascetics, who had abandoned the worldly life and become HERMITS,
could be found in the East as early as the third century A.D.
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| Some
went to far as to denounce even beauty as evil and, in pursuit of
spiritual perfection by SUBORDINATING THEIR FLESH, tortured
themselves and fasted to excess.
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As a more moderate expression of asceticism, Christians
in Egypt developed the monastic life, wherein men seeking a common
spiritual goal lived together under a common set of regulations. |
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| ST.
BASIL (330-379), a Greek bishop in Asia Minor, drew up a rule based
on work, charity and a communal life in which, however, each month
retained most of his independence.
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| The
rule of St. Basil became the standard system in the eastern Church.
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In western monasticism the work of ST. BENEDICT (c.
480-543) paralleled St. Basil's efforts. |
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| About
529, St. Benedict led a band of followers to a hill between Rome and
Naples, named Monte Cassino, where they erected a monastery on the
site of an ancient pagan temple.
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| There
he composed a rule which gave ORDER AND DISCIPLINE to western
monasticism.
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| Benedictine
monks took the three basic vows of POVERTY, CHASTITY, AND OBEDIENCE
To the abbot, the head of the monastery.
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| Unlike
eastern monks, the daily activities of the Benedictine monks were
CLOSELY REGULATED: they participated in eight divine services,
labored in field or workshop for six or seven hours, and spent about
two hours studying and preserving the writings of Latin antiquity at
a time when chaos and illiteracy had overtaken the western half of
the Roman Empire.
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| Benedictine
monasticism was to be the most dynamic CIVILIZING FORCE in western
Europe between the sixth and the twelfth centuries.
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| FORMULATION
OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE |
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While
the administrative structure of the Church was being erected, Christian
beliefs were being defined and systematized.
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process of fixing the dogma began with Paul, who stressed the
DIVINITY OF JESUS and interpreted his death as an ATONEMENT for
man's sins.
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| Controversies |
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| In
time differences of option over doctrinal matters caused clashes.
One of the most important controversies was over ARIANISM.
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issue was the relative position of the three persons of the
Trinity -- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit.
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| The
view that the Father and the Son were equal was vigorously
denied by Aires (256-336), a priest of Alexandria.
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believed that Christ
was not fully God because he was not of a
substance identical with God.
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| As
a created being, the Son
was not coeternal with the Father.
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| First
Church Council
Nicene Creed |
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| The
controversy became so serious that in 325, the emperor Constantine
convened the first ecumenical Church council, the COUNCIL OF NICAEA,
to resolve the problem:
| With
Constantine presiding, the council branded the Arian belief a
heresy -- an opinion or doctrine contrary to the official
teachings of the Church -- and Christ was declared to be of
the same substance
as God, uncreated,
and coeternal
with Him.
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| This
mystical concept of the Trinity, without which the central
Christian doctrine of the incarnation would be undermined,
received official formulation in the NICENE CREED.
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| Despite
persecution, Arianism continued to flourish throughout the fourth
century.
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| Simple
Liturgy |
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LITURGY in the early churches was plain and simple, consisting of
prayer, Scripture, reading, hymns, and preaching.
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| Church
the Intermediary |
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| The
early Christian worshipped God and sought salvation largely through
his own efforts. Following the growth of Church organization and
dogma, however, the Church was believed to be the indispensable
INTERMEDIARY between God and man. Without the Church, the individual
could not hope to approach God.
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| Church
Fathers Define Dogma
Christianity and Greek Philosophy Compatible |
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The
development of the Church's dogma owed much to the Church Fathers of the
second through fifth centuries.
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most of them were intellectuals who came to Christianity by way of
Neo-Platonism and Stoicism, they maintained that Greek philosophy
and Christianity were compatible.
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| Because
reason (logos in Greek) and truth come from God,
"philosophy was a preparation," wrote Clement of
Alexandria (d. 215), paving the way towards perfection in Christ.
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| Thus
Christianity was viewed as a superior philosophy which could
supersede all pagan philosophies and religions.
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In the West three Church Fathers stand out. |
| Vulgate
Translation of Bible into Latin |
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| The
scholarship of ST. JEROME (340-420) made possible the famous VULGATE
TRANSLATION of the Bible into Latin. This is still the official
translation of the Roman Catholic Church.
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Church's Superiority Over the State |
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| ST.
AMBROSE (340-397) resigned his government post
to become bishop of Milan, where he employed his great
administrative skills to establish a model bishopric. By reproving
the actions of the strong emperor Theodosius I and forcing him to do
public penance, St. Ambrose was the first to assert the CHURCH'S SUPERIORITY
OVER THE STATE in spiritual matters.
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Foundation for Church Theology |
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| St.
Augustine (354-430) was probably the most important of all
the Church Fathers.
| At
the Age of thirty-two, he found in Christianity the answer to
his long search for meaning in life, as he relates in his Confessions,
one of the world's great autobiographies.
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| As
bishop of Hippo in North Africa, he wrote more than a hundred
religious works which became the foundation
FOR Church theology.
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| ONLINE
RESOURCES |
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DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS |
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| What
characteristics of Christianity contributed to its success?
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| How
did theological controversies contribute to establishing Christian
dogma and order within the Church?
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| Why
was monasticism an important institution? What were the
characteristics of monasticism? Why was the Benedictine rule so
important?
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