Early Christianity Creatively Coping with Change

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Early ChristianityCreatively Coping with Change
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1st Century AD

• Jesus Christs teaching controversial to the Jews
• Jewish desire to resist change
• Missionary work shifted to the Gentiles
• Romans and Jews expected Christianity to crumble

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1st Century AD

• Growth of the Church
• Pentecost3,000 joined in 1 day
• Baptisms daily
• Creativity in taking gospel to non-Jews
• Is something still creative if inspired?
• Brought enemies and followers
• Disturbing signs in the New Testament (apostasy
  predicted)

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1st Century AD

• Persecutions (Jewish)
• Council to kill Saul
• Disliked concept of new covenant
• Believed Christians usurped the Messiah
• Believed performing miracles in Jesus name was
  blasphemy
• Note the anti-Jewish tone of the gospels

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1st Century AD

• Persecutions
• Gentiles (Greeks/Romans)
• Soothsayers took Paul to authorities
• Angry over loss of idol business
• Romans persecuted the Christians with the Jews
• Nero blamed Christians for the fire
• Christians used secret signs (fish, etc.)
• Collapse of Jerusalem (Jewish revolt)
• Antioch became center of the church
• Domitian sacrificed Christians to the Roman gods
• Many changed their faith rather than die

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2nd Century AD

• Period of no record (100-150)
• Probably when the apostasy occurred
• Causes of apostasy
• Discussed one by one as they occurred
• Authority is from historical records
• Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea in the 4th century
  and author of History of the Church

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ApostasyKeys

• Loss of leadership and priesthood
• Unauthorized elections of officers
• Lack of apostolic overview
• Persecution
• Bishops wars

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• When James the Righteous had suffered martyrdom
  like the Lord and for the same reason, Symeon the
  son of his uncle Clopas was appointed bishop. He
  being a cousin of the Lord, it was the universal
  demand that he should be the second.

Eusebius, History of the Church, 22.7
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ApostasyKeys

• Loss of leadership and priesthood
• Unauthorized elections of officers
• Lack of apostolic overview
• Persecution
• Bishops wars
• Doctrinal changes

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2nd Century AD

• Rise of Church Fathers
• Tried to interpret doctrine
• Wrote epistles
• Started orthodox tradition
• Greek influence
• Persuasion to allow Christians to be Roman
  citizens

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• But when the sacred band of the apostles had in
  various ways reached the end of their life, and
  the generation of those privileged to listen with
  their own ears to the divine wisdom had passed
  on, then godless error began to take shape,
  through the deceit of false teachers, who now
  that none of the apostles was left threw off the
  mask and attempted to counter the preaching of
  the truth by preaching the knowledge falsely so
  called.
• Eusebius, History of the Church, p. 96

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• When my fellow-Christians invited me to write
  letters to them I did so. These the devils
  apostles have filled with tares, taking away some
  things and adding others. For them the woe is
  reserved. Small wonder then if some have dared
  to tamper even with the word of the Lord Himself,
  when they have conspired to mutilate my own
  humble efforts.
• --Eusebius quoting Dionysius, History of the
  Church, 23.11

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• In their eagerness to find, not a way to reject
  the depravity of the Jewish Scriptures, but a
  means of explaining it away, they resorted to
  interpretations which cannot be reconciled or
  harmonized with those scriptures.
• Eusebius, History of the Church, 19.4

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2nd Century AD

• Gnosticism
• Secret knowledge only known by a few
• Associated with creation story
• Supported by the apocryphal books
• Mystical writings of Paul
• Two aspects of God (loving vs. harsh)
• Matter is the source of all evil
• Two groupsintellectuals and occult/magic
• Labeled a cult
• Influence almost split the church

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2nd Century AD

• Arianism
• Christ was created by the Father
• Christ and the Father were two separate beings
• Christ was corporeal on earth but gave up his
  body when he became a God (after resurrection)
• Very popular belief in Egypt and among the
  Germans
• Persecuted strongly (heretics)

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• In his Origens life he behaved like a
  Christian, defying the Jewish law in his
  metaphysical and theological ideas he played the
  Greek, giving a Greek twist to foreign tales. He
  associated himself at all times with Plato, and
  was at home among the writings of...followers of
  Pythagoras. He made use, too, of the books of
  Chaeremon the Stoic and Cornutus, which taught
  him the allegorical method of interpreting the
  Greek mysteries, a method he applied to the
  Jewish Scriptures.
• Eusebius, History of the Church, 19.4

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ApostasyKeys

• Loss of leadership and priesthood
• Unauthorized elections of officers
• Lack of apostolic overview
• Persecution
• Bishops wars
• Doctrinal changes
• Church Fathers sent letters without authority
• Many competing philosophies/doctrines
• Some of these letters were changed
• Greek-educated leaders dominate

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ApostasyKeys

• Loss of true scripture
• Many books and versions
• Uncertain authorship
• Innocent change
• Nefarious change
• Imposition of orthodox (accepted) position
• Chaos and corruption
• Emergence of Imperial church
• Councils
• Heretics suppressed

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3rd Century AD

• Leadership
• Hierarchy of Bishop
• Archbishop vs. metropolitans
• Church centersJerusalem (past), Antioch,
  Alexandria, Rome

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3rd Century AD

• War among the Bishops
• 4 centers of power (3 after Jerusalem fell)

Rome
Antioch
Jerusalem
Alexandria
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3rd Century AD

• War among the Bishops (cont.)
• Ordination problems
• Locally elected, centrally ordained
• Hierarchy of bishops emerged
• Crisis in Alexandria
• Clement and Origen versus Bishop of Rome

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3rd Century AD

• Hermits
• Originally from pagan concepts
• Origin of Christian monastic order
• Especially strong in Egypt
• Maintained local doctrinal beliefs
• Resisted Rome
• Vied each other for greater self sacrifice
  (tower, one foot, one year)
• Influential due to followers
• Rome wanted their support
• Offered clerical positions
• Compromised on doctrine

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4th Century AD

• Romans felt politically threatened
• Rapid growth
• Diocletian issued 4 edicts
• To unite the people of the empire
• Confiscated holy books and destroyed them
• Arrested all bishops
• Forced pagan worship
• Torture was allowed

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4th Century AD

• Christians fled the Roman Empire
• Lived among the barbarians outside the empire
• Converted many

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4th Century AD

• Constantine and the Imperial Church
• One of seven claimants to be Caesar
• Began a war and won
• Eventually took control of the entire empire
• Gave edict of tolerance to all religion
• Nicene Council (325 AD)

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4th Century AD

• Heresies persecuted
• Non-orthodox were attacked
• Roman bishops enforced orthodox doctrine
• Arian doctrine persecuted

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• Like dazzling lights the churches were now
  shining all over the world, and to the limits of
  the human race faith in our Savior and Lord Jesus
  Christ was at its peak, when the demon who hates
  the good, sworn enemy of truth and inveterate foe
  of mans salvation, turned all his weapons
  against the Church. In earlier days he had
  attacked her with persecutions from without but
  now that he was debarred from this, he resorted
  to unscrupulous impostors as instruments of
  spiritual corruption and ministers of
  destruction, and employed new tactics, contriving
  by every possible means that impostors and
  cheats, by cloaking themselves with the same name
  as our religion, should at one and the same time
  bring to the abyss of destruction every believer
  they could entrap, and by their own actions and
  endeavors turn these ignorant of the Faith away
  from the path that leads to the message of
  salvation.
• --Eusebius, History of the Church, 6.2

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• "In 325 Constantine summoned the Christian
  leaders from all over the empire to a council at
  Nicaea (modern Iznik), on the shores of the Sea
  of Marmara. These leaders believed in widely
  differing interpretations of the Scriptures, but
  Constantine brow-beat them into accepting an
  official line on such matters as the divinity of
  Christ, and his equality with God. This was
  essentially a political move, enabling
  Constantine to strengthen his hold on the empire
  by merging the power of the Church with that of
  the state."
• Strathern, Paul, Mendeleyev's Dream, New York
  Berkley Books, 2000, p.38.

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5th Century AD

• Christianity made the official religion of the
  Roman Empire
• Rapid growth as Romans saw the political
  advantages of being Christian

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5th Century AD

• Canonization
• Dispute over authenticity
• Some new testament apocryphal works true
• Jerome solidified canon
• Wrote the Vulgate (Latin) version
• Rome controlled the canon and eliminated
  Alexandrias claim to intellectual supremacy
• Alexandria spoke Greek

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• It will be well, at this point, to classify the
  New Testament writings already referred to. We
  must, of course, put first the holy quartet of
  the gospels, followed by the Acts of the
  Apostles. The next place in the list goes to
  Pauls epistles, and after them we must recognize
  the epistle called I John likewise I Peter. To
  these may be added, if it is thought proper, the
  Revelation of John, the arguments about which I
  shall set out when the time comes. These are
  classed as Recognized Books. Those that are
  disputed, yet familiar, to most, include the
  epistles known as James, Jude, 2 Peter, and those
  called 2 and 3 John, the work either of the
  evangelist or of someone else with the same
  name.
• --Eusebius, History of the Church, 25.1

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• So it was that they apostates laid hands
  unblushingly on the Holy Scriptures, claiming to
  have corrected them...Either they do not believe
  that the inspired scriptures were spoken by the
  Holy Spirit if so, they are unbelievers or
  they imagine that they are wiser then He if so,
  can they be other than possessed?
• --Eusebius, History of the Church, 28.18

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• "Origen conceded in reply to Greek criticisms
  of the Bible that the testimony of the
  Scriptures was largely uncorroborated, but
  counter-attacked by arguing, with some
  justification, that the same objection applied to
  a great many historical traditions such as the
  Trojan War... All one could reasonably do, he
  concluded, was to accept the main outline of
  Biblical history, as it had come down to us,
  reserving the right to explain away as
  corruptions or accretions any details which by
  now appear frankly incredible. In particular,
  one was not obliged to treat the Creation-story
  in the first chapter of Genesis as a literal
  account of an historical sequence of events."
• Toulmin, Stephen and June Goodfield, The
  Discovery of Time, The University of Chicago
  Press, 1965, p.59.

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• By the phraseology also we can measure the
  difference between the Gospel and Epistle and the
  Revelation. The first two are written not only
  without any blunders in the use of Greek, but
  with remarkable skill as regards diction, logical
  thought, and orderly expression. It is
  impossible to find in them one barbarous word or
  solecism, or any kind of vulgarism. ..The other
  saw revelations and received knowledge and
  prophecy I will not deny but I observe that his
  language and style are not really Greek he uses
  barbarous idioms, and is sometimes guilty of
  solecisms. There is no need to pick these out
  now for I have not said these things in order to
  pour scorn on him do not imagine it but
  solely to prove the dissimilarity between these
  books.
• --Eusebius, History of the Church, 25.11

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• Of Peter one epistle, known as his first, is
  accepted, and this the early fathers quoted
  freely, as undoubtedly genuine, in their own
  writings. But the second Petrine epistle we have
  been taught to regard as uncanonical many,
  however, have thought it valuable and have
  honored it with a place among the other
  Scriptures.
• --Eusebius, History of the Church, 3.3

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5th Century AD

• Emperor Valentinian III
• Decreed that all bishops give allegiance to
  bishop in Rome
• Bishop in Rome adopted title Pope
• National churches separated from Rome and formed
  the Orthodox tradition
• Additional doctrinal councils
• Rome fell to invading barbarians
• Catholic Church became the arbiter of truth in
  the west

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Timeline of the Apostasy
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Augustine354-430 AD

• Educated in Greek classical thought
• Adopted/rejected Manichaeanism
• Disciple of St. Ambrose
• Bishop in Hippo (Africa)
• Confessions speaking together
• Related to own conversion
• Defined basic doctrine
• God present in the soul of every human
• God chooses his elect
• Those who receive sacraments receive grace
• Original sin
• "Platonic" God

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Augustine

• City of God
• First all-encompassing history of the world
• Written to defend the Christians
• Explained why God allowed Rome to be attacked
• Two cities (Earth and God) constantly fight
• Act with charity
• Pilgrims on earth ("Divine Light")

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• Faith is to believe what you do not see, the
  reward for this faith is to see what you
  believe.
• St. Augustine

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• For besides the disciplines of good behavior,
  and the ways to eternal happiness (which are
  called virtues) and besides the grace of God
  which is in Jesus Christ, imparted only to the
  sons of the promise, invention has brought forth
  so many and such sciences and arts that the
  excellence of His capacity makes the rare
  goodness of His creation apparent...What
  varieties has man found out in buildings,
  attires, husbandry, navigation, sculpture, and
  imagery! What perfection has he shown, in the
  shows of theatres, in taming, killing, and
  catching wild beasts! What millions of
  inventions has he against others, and for himself
  in poisons, arms, engines, stratagems, and the
  like! What thousands of medicines for the
  health, of meats for the throat, of means and
  figures to persuade, of eloquent phrases to
  delight, of verses for pleasure, of musical
  inventions and instruments! What excellent
  inventions are geography, arithmetic, astrology,
  and the rest! How large is the capacity of man,
  if we should stand upon particulars!"
• St. Augustine, In Praise of Creation

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Influence of St. Augustine

• Turned tide of opinion among bishops
• Provided foundation for church in the Middle Ages

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New Doctrine after Augustine

• Strict monotheism numerical unity
• Numerically single God
• Taught by Pythagoras (530 BC)
• Logos Christ the force of God
• Platonic view of Logos as an independent force
  emanating from Forms
• Stoics believed Logos was the seed of reason that
  constituted God
• Apologists linked Logos (Christ) with force from
  God because the word was the same

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New Doctrine after Augustine

• Dualism absolute distinction between mind and
  created things
• Platonic depreciation of anything earthly
• Insurmountable gap between God and all earthly
  things
• Metaphysical theism God is Forms
• God is pure mind
• God dwells in Pleroma (the only true reality)
• Pleroma is pure being or essence
• God dwells outside time and space

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What was Lost after Augustine

• The Nature of God
• Corporeal denied
• Resurrection redefined
• 3 separate entities changed to one
• Mans Potential
• No concept of becoming like God (exaltation)
• Mans agency subjugated to Gods will
• Satans plan to force men to be saved was
  accepted

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6th Century AD

• Gregory I
• Accommodations with other religions
• Eastern Christianity revised
• To satisfy western membership
• Adopted pagan holidays/beliefs
• Mithraism
• Persian sect involved with Zodiac
• Holy day was December 25th

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• The various modes of worship of the people in
  the empire, were all considered by the people,
  as equally true by the philosopher, as equally
  false and by the magistrate, as equally useful.
  And thus toleration produced not only mutual
  indulgence, but even religious concord.
• Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

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Catholic Doctrine after Gregory

• Accommodation of the pagans
• Pagan Mother Goddess
• Value of observing the natural world was
  deemphasized
• Ability to understand meaning was denied
  (trinity)
• Expected to obey
• Most people illiterate, non-intellectual

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Questions

• Was the Greek influence "bad" for Christianity?
• Did Christianity become a help or hindrance to
  creativity?
• How would it have developed without the apostasy?

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Discussion

• Since philosophy and science were the same in the
  ancient world, rejection of Greek philosophy
  would also reject science. Compare to rejection
  of secularism today. Does rejection of scientific
  secularism mean that we must reject science?

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Thank You