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The history of Christianity concerns the history of the Christian religion and the Church, from the Apostles to contemporary times. Christianity is the monotheistic religion which considers itself based on the revelation of Jesus Christ. "The Church" is understood theologically as the institution founded by Jesus for the salvation of mankind.

Christianity began in the 1st century AD as a Jewish sect. It spread throughout the Greco-Roman world and would become the official religion of the Roman empire even though it was originally persecuted. In the Middle Ages it would spread beyond the old imperial borders to Northern Europe and Russia. During the Age of Exploration it would spread to all parts of the world. Today it is the world's largest religion.^[1]

Throughout its history, the religion weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in the development of three main branches: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism.

History

The history of Christianity began in Jerusalem with a handful of Jews fearing for their lives after their leader, Jesus, had just been arrested and executed. Today Christianity has 2.2 billion members. It is the largest religion and is found throughout the world. Most of its members are in the third world, with a significant number still in North America and Europe. It has some members in Jerusalem and environs where it began. Most Christians call themselves names like Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, Lutheran, Bible Believing, Non Denominational, or Pentecostal. There are at least four hundred titles to describe Christians. Titles would reach into the thousands if groups with no institutional affiliation were included. Clearly Christianity is a very diverse religion - institutionally, culturally, and religiously.

Amidst this diversity are similar words and actions. Christians state they believe in God who created and creates this world. They follow what they think Jesus said and did so God’s will can be done. They believe that the Bible shows how God wants humans to live. This book contains both some writings of the early Christian church (New Testament) as well as the sacred writings of the ancient Jews (Tanack). They believe that God speaks in a unique way through this book whether in its original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) or in the many translations of those languages. Their prayer called the Lord’s Prayer is an important part of expressing their faith, while differing sometimes on the inclusion or exclusion of one of its last lines. A good Christian is recognized by all as one who keeps the Ten Commandments (Decalogue)of the Jewish Tanack (Exod. 20:2-17; Deut 5:6-21), Jesus’ command to love everyone (John 15:12), and Jesus’ Beatitudes (Matt 5:3-10). A good Christian is also one who gathers regularly with fellow Christians on Sunday, baptizes new members, and regularly shares a token amount of wine and bread in memory of Jesus’ last supper (Communion, Mass, Lord’s Supper). They believe firmly that they will continue to live after they die just as Jesus did and does. While “church” is an acceptable designation by most for both their place of meeting as well as themselves, some have other names for themselves and the buildings. Always, they claim to continue the same memory of Jesus as those early Jews.

These common Christian characteristics may be lost amidst the thousands of voices vying to be heard as one true Christian way of life. These contemporary pleadings have a long history beginning with those first Christians the Sunday after Jesus’ crucifixion.

Christian texts

What we know of the early Christians is from the Christian writings called the New Testament. These writings provide four views of Jesus called the Gospels. They tell us that Jesus was a Jew who worked as a carpenter throughout his life. At a certain time, either a year or three years before his execution, he was baptized by John the Baptist. After his baptism he began to teach about the coming of God’s Kingdom: what it was, what was expected of those who were part of it, and its proximity in time and place. He is also described as helping people through miracles. None of these descriptions were written while he was alive. They are the history of Jesus’ words and actions written long afterwards. Central to these Gospels is that Jesus was executed by crucifixion, died, and resurrected. According to these accounts his small group of disciples discovered on the Sunday after his execution that he was resurrected. Resurrection means that the same Jesus who lived at the beginning of Christian history, was alive during it, and is alive today. He is alive differently than he was on earth since he has a new kind of body. These beliefs form the basis of Christianity.

Christ

Christ is derived from a Greek word, Christos, which is a translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. When Jesus is called Jesus Christ he is being recognized by Christians as the Messiah. At the center of Jewish Messianism is the conviction that God will send someone to save the Jews from suffering and injustice and begin God’s Kingdom. According to one Jewish tradition the Kingdom begins with resurrection. All the early Christians were Jews and thus all the religious images and expectations of Judaism were theirs. They expanded the dominant view of the time that saw the messiah as a conquering king and added, from Jewish holy writings, the messiah as priest, prophet, and suffering servant who, through his suffering and death, would bring about the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ resurrection demonstrated this expanded view of the messiah. Resurrection marked the end of the old world and the beginning of the new world, the Kingdom of God. Jesus, the Christ, brought about a world described in his teachings and shaped by his miracles.

From Jesus to Church

It is not unusual that people have different views of the same person. Nor is it unusual that with changing time and circumstance a person is seen differently today than yesterday. Thus, almost immediately after his death and resurrection, tensions developed about how to speak about him and what he expected of his followers. Should his followers be Jews, as he was? Should his followers expect the Kingdom to come in this generation, as it seemed he did? Should they accept their Jewish peers rejection of both Jesus and themselves and leave their religion? What should they do about adding more followers to these original ones?

A Church for All

The word church became an important descriptor for this community. It is derived from a Greek word meaning assembly, those called out, or gathered, from the ordinary citizens for a certain task. Gradually “Church” became an acceptable name for the early Christian community as designating those called by God to walk the Way of Jesus.

Jerusalem was the center of Jewish life since it housed the temple. As Jews from outside Jerusalem came into the city they learned about Jesus, his teaching, actions, and hopes for the future. Those who thought these things important brought them home. As these Jews gathered in synagogues on sabbath (Saturday) to pray, read their scriptures, and interpret them for contemporary living they brought the interpretations of the early Christians. These believers would then meet the next day (Sunday) to have a fellowship meal in Jesus’ memory.

These Jews mixed with other people from the Roman Empire in business, pleasure, and daily life. Sooner or later they told them about Jesus and his message. Some of these people also found it believable and joined them at the Sunday gatherings.

The Jews who gathered in synagogues both in and outside of Jerusalem began to feel pressure, sometimes violent, to forsake their interpretations of the Tanack and belief in Jesus’ message. With time the Christian Jews had no choice but to leave their synagogues.

Both Jews and gentiles (non-Jews) were faced with a problem: Jesus was a good Jew and accepted Jewish religious customs and beliefs. Did all those who followed him also have to become Jewish to become Christian? Some Jewish Christians said “yes” and some said “no.” What and how should they decide? Certainly those who were close to Jesus would know. Certainly Peter, the spokesperson for them would know what they thought. Representatives of the Christian communities met in Jerusalem to discuss and decide on the issue. The decision was that those who were not Jews did not have to follow the Jewish laws to become Christian. That meant that Jewish Christians had to abandon their former belief that God’s laws were absolute and eternal. Before, circumcision for males was the only way to get into the Kingdom of God, now it was not so. Before, kosher dietary laws were the only way to get into the Kingdom of God, now it was not so.

A Greek Church

As Christianity expanded outside Jerusalem the language used to talk about Jesus changed. Jesus spoke Aramic, now most of his followers spoke Greek with Greek ideas and ways of thinking. As it expanded outside the original Jewish community it also began to come into places that did not think in rural terms such as sheep and farming but in terms of trade and close living. Should they change the way he spoke about how to live in the Kingdom of God? Those who were close to Jesus tried to answer all the questions based on their memory of Jesus. Gradually the answers coalesed around certain themes such as judgment, servants, love, and Jesus’ death and resurrection. Gradually too these answers were written down, in Greek of course, and then gathered together with other writings such as letters of famous first Christians: Paul, Peter, James, John, Matthew and Jude.

A Church with Sacred Books Over time all these written memories of Jesus’ message and actions were gathered. They were called the “Good News of Jesus Christ,” “gospels (evangelion) of Jesus Christ.” Those who wrote them were called Evangelists. Today there are four gospels, written between 65 and 110 C.E., as part of the Christian Writings (New Testament): Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. There were other gospels written during the same period but they were not recognized by all the churches as providing an authentic telling of the Good News. There were also the letters, as already mentioned, and two other books: Acts, a description of the beginning of the Christian church, and Revelations, a description of the happenings associated the Church’s expansion into the Roman empire, its hopes, desires, and apocalyptic expectations. A Church of the Apostles, plus one The person whose writings compose much of the New Testament and who was responsible for a great deal of change in the early church was Paul whose original Jewish name was Saul. He was born in the city of Tarsus in what today is Turkey. He was both a Jew and a Roman citizen. He had a deep knowledge of his religion and his Graeco-Roman culture. He was dedicated to the destruction of the Christians and the survival of Judaism. On his way to Damascus to destroy Christians he had an experience that convinced him that Jesus was alive and what the Christians said was true. Subquently he began to preach Christianity and establish Christian churches throughout the major cities in Greece and Asia Minor. Once he had started a strong Christian community in a city, his local converts would take the message to areas outside the city. Many of his, or his disciples, letters remain part of Christian scripture. We see in these letters that Paul’s conversion experience convinced him that: God’s love was given freely to all who would accept it; the manifestation of God’s love was Jesus, as well as the spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit; we are all equal as a consequence of God’s love; this love will overcome evil and all of its manifestations. Paul helped instigate the Jerusalem decision and was its strongest advocate.

Paul claimed to be an Apostle. By this he meant either one of the twelve and/or some one who was called by God to preach the gospel. Most of the time he meant it in the latter sense.

The gospels identified Apostles with The Twelve who were taught by Jesus and were witnesses to his resurrection. The symbolism of The Twelve Apostles reflects the claimed continuity of Christianity with Judaism and its twelve Tribes of Israel. These Twelve Apostles ensured the continuity between what Jesus said and did and what the Church continued to do. Paul claimed to provide that same continuity. That same continuity was also claimed by certain churches founded by any of the Twelve Apostles. Jerusalem, being a community established by all the Apostles, was central to the claims made by these Apostolic churches. When the Jerusalem church, along with the city, was destroyed in 70 C.E. the onus of continuity was on the other Apostolic churches. Paul’s churches were included among these. A Church of the Prophets Another group recognized by the early Church as assuring the authenticity of the gospel were the prophets. If the apostles warranted authenticity by connecting the present with the past, the prophets warranted authenticity by connecting the present with the living God present through them and in the community. Wheras apostolic succession is easy to recognize, one just traces the process of appointment. The recognition of the prophet is more difficult and seems to have led to its disappearance in the apostolic church. Whether it continued beyond apostolic times is a matter of controversy among contemporary Christians. A Church of Martyrs By the turn of the first century all the apostles and many of the first generation of Christians were dead. The question of what would Jesus do or say could no longer be answered by eye witnesses or even by those who learned from these eye witnesses. The persecution by the Jews generally abated as Christians clearly became independent of the synagogue. The Roman Empire did continue its persecutions. This persecution provided another witness to Jesus: the martyr. These persecutions instilled in early Christianity the fear of the government, outsiders, and openly preaching its message. The community was small, meeting in the larger homes of the more prosperous members on Sunday. At this meeting they brought together, from previous generations, the readings, preaching, and prayers of their Jewish heritage with the shared meal of their Christian heritage. A Church and its “World” The Christian church was surrounded by “the world.” The world, “cosmos” in Greek, had no equivalent in the Hebrew language. For early Greek Christians it meant either a systematic whole constituted by some unifying principle or everything and everyone antagonistic to them. It was a place of threat, danger, suffering and death. An idealized version of this church is seen in the book of Acts, second chapter where the community gathers together to share their food, their possessions, and their prayer. Certainly this version of Luke, the author of Acts, is echoed in the words of non-Christians when it was stated “See how these Christians love one another.” A Church led by the Spirit The role of the Holy Spirit, another important chracteristic of this community, is also highlighted in Acts: the role of the Holy Spirit. Luke ends his gospel with Jesus saying that he will send his Spirit upon them when he ascends to heaven. In Luke’s second book, Acts, he visualizes this descent of the Spirit. The early Christian churches experienced the presence of the Spirit and the Spirit played an important role among the early Christians. Luke’s Acts also shows the importrant role of the Apostles, especially Peter. Peter was their spokesperson. An idealized version of one of his sermons is found in Acts where he told people who Jesus was, He asked them to respond to Jesus’ message the way Jesus had asked his followers to respond: repenting of their sins, not sinning any more, and being baptized. Peter promised them that if they did this the Holy Spirit would enliven, spiritualize, them. People heard such sermons and responded. The Christian church grew. A Church at the beginning of its History At the end of the first century, then, we clearly have two rituals that were part of the community: 1) baptism and 2) breaking of the bread/Lord’s Supper. We have people gathered together with a clear idea of what distinguishes them from others. A people who saw each other as brothers and sisters equal in the life of the Spirit while functioning differently with that same life for the good of the community. We have people who through word of mouth, letters, gospels, the Jewish Tanack, knew who Jesus was, how he continued the Jewish covenant with God, and what he demanded of those who followed him. We have a community of men and women who took their lead from those filled with the Holy Spirit, the martyrs, and those chosen to act in the apostles’ name. It was not a large group of churches but it slowly expanded around the Mediterranean basin while being sporadically persecuted by the government for disobeying its laws From Persecution by the World to Responsibility for the World No community exists without controversy and the Christian churches certainly had several controversies which continue to this day. The most significant were: Are material things as important as spiritual ones? How can we be sure that those who tell us about Jesus are telling us the truth? What are the normative books of the Christian church? Which celebrations are central to the Church’s life? What are the consequences of sinning after conversion and baptism? A Church Distinct from Other Persecuted Christian Groups in its beliefs The Greek language had two words that Hebrew did not have: “body” and “soul.” Greeks were accustomed to thinking of people as two parts: material, or “body,” and immaterial, or “soul.” This way of talking and thinking helped them explain their experience of needing sleep, food and of dying as contrasted to imagination, dreams, and ideas. The gnostics were people who became convinced that there was a limitless reality in each of us striving to be free. That was the real person. If we thought the proper thoughts, and practiced the proper rituals we could be free from the evil of the body and all limiting, changing, corruptible materiality that, as immortal, godlike creatures, imprisoned us. Christian gnostics believed that Jesus allowed himself to be captured in a body to show us how to free ourselves of it. He gave certain people a special knowledge (gnosis) that would free them from the material world to return to their true home in the heavens. These were the Christians. Those who did not have this knowledge were condemned to remain on earth. The god who created this earth was an evil god. This god continues to tempt us to give in to our flesh and all other corruptible things. Jesus was sent by the good god of the heavens to lead us back to where we belong. The Jews and their scriptures were products of this evil god. The Christian Apostolic churches proclaimed the gnostics wrong because Genesis, the first book of the Tanack, said that the world and everything God created were good, that God’s Word was found in both the Jewish and Christian scriptures, that Jesus’ human body was good. Antinomianism was another approach to Christianity that could also be part of Gnostic Christianity. Antinominanism claimed that once you believed in Jesus, were saved, and were filled with his Spirit, you can do whatever you want. Gnostics added another belief to this one, resulting in the same conclusion: what your body does is irrelevant to the life of the spirit, so it doesn’t matter if you sin with it. Do what you want with your body since it is your spirit that is important. The Apostolic churches clearly affirmed Jesus’ incarnation as both necessary and true. Distinct in its Holy Books Gnosticism and antinominianism were part of the Christian churches from the beginning. The question of which books would be accepted as normative Christian writings developed slowly as first the necessity for these books arose and the number of them increased. As we have already seen, Apostolic Christians always recognized the Jewish scriptures as God’s word. Jesus was also recognized as God’s world. It was only as the realization grew that Jesus was not going to return that people sensed the need of something beyond the spoken word of the Apostles. But which should be normative for the community? The Apostolic churches agreed on the use of the Greek translation of the Tanack, the Septuagint. What the other authoritative writings should be was another matter. Certainly those written by an Apostle. But not all those claiming to be written by Apostles were included. What seems to be equally important for recognition was their role in the prayer and worship of the communities.The books finally included among these writings were used in such a way. This New Testament, as it was called by the end of the second century, was almost finalized by the fourth century. The list of Books in a contemporary bible differ among Protestants and Catholics. Those titled Apocrypha indicate those books accepted by the original reformers. Chapters were introduced into these books in the 13th century and verses in the 16th. Ultimately these books, along with the system of Bishops, and creeds provide the way of testing whether this was an Apostolic church. Distinct in its Sacred Days. Christians gathered on Sunday as a day for the sharing of a meal, remembering Jesus’ resurrection and expecting his return. They also gathered for welcoming the newly baptized into their community on Easter eve. But they did not agree on when the day of Easter should be celebrated. The English word “Easter” seems to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon spring godess “Eastre.” The Latin languages, for example Spanish, show the early Christian community’s difficulty better with its word for Easter, Pascua. Jesus was said to have died at Passover. But should that day be the Sunday after Passover (the first full moon of Spring) as in Rome or on the actual day of Passover as in Asia Minor? Each church claimed apostolic authority: Rome for Peter, Asia Minor for John. Each church was convinced their way of doing it was Jesus’ way. The reasons for the solution remain clouded in mystery. But we do know that the Council of Nicea (325) declared that Easter / Pascua was to be celebrated on the Sunday after Passover.

Distinct in Dealing with Sinners

Although called to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:48) the Christian many times falls short of the ideal and sins. Our English word “sin” translates many different ideas in the Bible. In the New Testment it translates three ideas: a wrong action, a permanent evil condition in people, an evil power leading humans to destruction. The early Church was convinced that Jesus conquered sin and that they, as sharing the life of Jesus, were to have no sin in them or do sinful acts. They were the holy ones – the saints. But what happened when people did evil, was some of this “evil” worse than others? Were the consequences of some of these acts more serious than others? The New Testament has many lists of sins and vices. The sin against the Spirit, for example, (Mk3:28-30) was said to be unforgivable. What is to be done when someone in the community commits a public, egregious sin? Some Christians said sinners could not live with the saints: Christians were holy, the church was holy, they could not associate with the unholy. They should get rid (excommunicate) the sinners. Another group said that forgiveness was to be part of Christianity. Christians were a mixture, individually and as a community, of both saint and sinner. Somehow they should be readmited to the community. From about 150 C.E. the Apostolic church developed a ritual of reconciliation between the sinner and the community. The sinner would be accepted into the community if they did public penance over a long time, usually three years. At the end of that time they would be allowed to return to full communion in the community. Many times the sinner would have to remain celebate after their reconciliation. Many times, also, people delayed their baptisms until their death bed because of this ritual and its consequences. They remained part of the community as catechumens, those ready for baptism, but not so much a part that they suffered the consequences of sin. What is not clear are the sins that deserved such consequences. Most scholars suggest three sins resulted in the need of public penance: idolotry, adultry, and murder.

Distinct in Leadership

People who believe the same thing and are persecuted for that belief need the support of others to keep their faith. Originally the Apostles and their delegates provided the touchstone of faith and the motivation for collegiality. As time passed two ways of retaining the community developed. One imitated the Jewish synagogue in which the older people, the elders, formed a ruling council from which one was chosen as leader to supervise the church and to keep contact with the other churches. The other way of retaining community came from Paul who was as a forceful leader designating who he wanted to lead the local community. Both of these modes of leadership were part of the church for about two hundered years. With time there evolved a combination of both of these called a “bishop.” This was a person chosen by the people to lead the church. The bishop’s role was to lead the church by his supervision, his spirituality, and his presiding over the key ritual celebrations such as Baptism and Eucharist.

Distinct and Persecuted

By the end of the third century the Christian church was still small yet present in all the major cities of the Roman Empire. Christians were feared as the cause of the gods’ anger and persecuted as traitors for refusing to participate in essential state cermonies. Although there were many ways of following Jesus among these churches there was agreement on when to celebrate its weekly and yearly ceremonies, the core of its holy scriptures, the foundational beliefs about Jesus life, death, resurrection, and message, and the role of the bishop.

Persecuted No More

When Constantine (288-337) raised his flag at the Milvian Bridge and declared “In this sign I shall conquer” he changed Christian history. For he did conquer and the standard he hoisted contained the Christian sign, chi-rho the first two letters of the Greek world Christos. The next year, 313, he joined with the Eastern Emperor in declaring the Edict of Milan, providing tolerance to all religions in the Empire. In 320 he defeated that emperor and became the emperor of the Roman Empire. Subsequently he made Sunday a public holiday, established Episcopal tirbunals, protected the clergy and church property from taxation, gave the right to the church to free slaves, offered many public buildings for church work and worship, and made laws to protect the poor, children, and debtors. With Constantine the Christian Church passed from being persecuted to being responsible for the public weal. People flooded into it.

Responsible for Christian Unity

Constantine, aware that the Church’s unity and the Empire’s unity were interdependent, sought to heal some of the deeper divisions in the Church by gathering the bishops in Council at the city of Nicea in 225.

Councils and synods were time honored means of deciding issues among the various Christian churches. They were named after the place in which they met. Christians took Jesus’ call to unity ( Jn 17:21-23) seriously. When serious division arose they gathered in council to heal the division. Nicea was the first council of representatives from all the churches. It was also the first one called together by a lay person, the emperor. Although total unanimity was desired the representatives often voted with the majority determining the decision of the Council. As a gathering of the entire Church it was, and is, titled the Ecumenical Council of Nicea.

Responsible for Uniy in Doctrine and Governance

The primary issue was whether Jesus was God. Everyone accepted Jesus was human. They divided on whether he was the same as Yahweh-God and how that God was understood in Greek culture as one, all powerful, eternal Lord. They concluded, using a non-biblical Greek term, homoousion, to describe how Jesus and the creator God were one. Saying that Jesus was the “Son” of God was not precise enough because it suggested that there was a time Jesus did not exist. That suggested that he may have been created. Nicea said that God was a human, Jesus, and this human was God. Those who held otherwise, so said the Council, were not Christians. The Emperor enforced this decision of the Council. Actually not everyone could comprehend that Jesus was totally God and human since it seemed a contradiction. There would be six other Ecumenical Councils over the next 350 years to finally put this issue to rest among the Apostolic churches. Many other ethnic, national, and philosophical issues surfaced in the process of resolution. One result of the process, the Nicean Creed, actually the Nicene-Constantinoplitan Creed after the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (381), is said or sung aloud today on Sundays in many Christian churches. This creed clearly affirms not only Jesus’ divinity but also the threefold (Trinitarian) nature of God as Father (Creator), Son (Redeemer), and Spirit (Sanctifier) which is held by the Apostolic churches to be a mark of Christianity. Baptismal creeds, representing the belief of the church, were common in the early church. This is the first creed of an Ecumenical Council. Some current Christian churches reject this and all creeds an unbiblical.

Nicea also re-iterated other current rules and regulations such as affirming that a Bishop, once ordained in a diocese, must remain in that diocese for life; the sinfulness of taking interest on loans (usury); and, the date and day for celebrating Easter.

As the Church increased in numbers, public buildings, and power, it refined its organization. The clergy (bishops, presbyters, deacons) became separate from the other members. The Roman geographical organization of empire became the organization of the churches. Originally every church began with the city. Now, with the increase in numbers and a very public presence in the empire, it began refering to these churches as the diocesan/ eparchical church, and/or the metropolitan church, or a Patriarchical church. The oldest Christain communites, for example, Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, were led by a bishop titled Patriarch. A metropolitan bishop led an entire Roman Province and a diocesan bishop, the city and its surrounding territory. A church became identified with its territory.

Constantine affirmed the Bishops’ authority to rule their people. He also began to move his Imperial Council to the new city of Constantinople (324). In doing so he brought imperial power closer to ecclesial power, leaving the former imperial center, Rome, more independent. The Western empire, centered in Rome, the Eastern empire, centered in Constantinople would evolve into two major churches: the Western, Roman, Catholic Church; the Eastern, Orthodox, Byzantine Church. Both affirmed the Nicene creed’s statement that the church was: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. While Constantine helped enable the ecclesial unity of Nicea, he planted the seeds for disorganizational unity by moving to Constantinople.

Continuing the Spirit of Martyrdom: Monasticism

Another type of organization developed as the Church became identified with the culture: Monasticism. Monasticsm was independent of the bishops. Individuals called monks felt the Church was becoming weak, Christians uncommitted, and the communities losing their cohesiveness. A new type of martyrdom was needed to witness to Jesus who died for us, the ability of the Holy Spirit to enliven us and the strength to discipline the body in such a way that they would enter more deeply into the life of God and be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. At first individuals wandered into the desert in imitation of Jesus going into the desert to defeat the devil by celibacy, fasting, self torture to discipline the body. Later some, like St. Basil, developed a rule to bring these wanderers together for mutual support in their desire for this new kind of martyrdom.

Monasticism came into the Western Church with St. Benedict in the sixth century. Benedict provided a type of organization and common sense that had a tremendous impact upon Western culture. Monasticism in the East retained an isolation and exoticism that reflected its highly spiritual and mystical nature. It also provided many bishops for the Eastern church, the people and its priests looking to those portraying a deep spiritual life to be their leader.

Rituals for a Responsible Church

As the buildings of the church multiplied so did the rituals and feast days for those who filled them. At the beginning of the 4th century the Church of Alexandria began celebrating the Epiphany of Jesus as the coming of God in Jesus on their New Year’s day, January 6th. Rome began to celebrate the same event on 25th of December, the time of the winter solstice. Since no one knew when Jesus was born these churches chose a day when everything started new – reflecting the newness of the Kingdom of God beginning with Jesus. The emphasis here is upon Jesus’ divinity. Talk about the baby Jesus and his humanity will begin in the Middle Ages with Francis of Assisi. A day celebrating the death of the martyrs was introduced during the Easter season and in 610 Pope Boniface IV brought the relics of the martyrs to the Pantheon, now a church, in Rome. By 835, it was celebrated as All Saints Day in November.

Feasts were usually preceded by fasts. We have seen how Easter became the three days of Easter (Triduum), Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday. We have seen too how Easter not only was a time for remembrance of Jesus’ resurrection but also of individuals’ baptisms, and of expectation of Jesus’ return to this earth (Second Coming). The Christian community prepared for these events by fasting. The Jewish custom, continued in Christianity, was to express penance and their dedication of reform through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Both East and West began a forty day preparation for these events (Lent) from the third century onward. In imitation of the Jewish sabbath Constantine declared that Sunday be a festival day and, in imitation of the Jewish sabbath, a day of no work. The Sunday celebration was now called “The Mass” after its concluding words: Ita missa est and grew in length and intricacy as it left the home to the public buildings.

The Empire’s Churches and the Tribes

The destruction of the Empire began in the middle of the 4th century. Some claim that the Battle of Adrianople (Aug. 9, 378) was the beginning of the end. Rome was plundered and sacked in 410. Slowly but surely the mighty empire fell apart and the parts were picked up by the destroyers to build a new culture that mixed their beliefs and customs with those of Rome. The public Church of Christianity helped in not only picking up the parts but shaping them into what became first the Middle Ages and then our modern world. The Church in the East helped build Constantinople’s walls which defended them first against the tribes of the pagan tribes of the north, then later the Muslim tribes of the South. Ultimately the walls were breached ( 1453), the name changed, and Islam became the public religion that former empire.

From Empire to The Eastern, Orthodox, Byzantine Christian Church of 1054

The Eastern Christian church was composed of many different churches. The majority were those that adhered to the creeds of the Councils. Others such as the Arians, Nestorians, Manichaens, and Gnostics each went their own way outside the structure of bible, bishops, and creed. Those of the Eastern Apostolic churches at the beginning of the 5th century were the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and the churches derived from them.

While we have used Constantinople as the symbol of the Eastern Church the fact is that the Eastern Church expanded and contrasted with the Eastern Empire which at times extended west to Naples, Italy, North to the Danube river in Central Europe, and East to Palestine. This culture saw itself as one Christian society in which both Emperor and Patriarch sought and carried out the will of God. This will was certainly evident in the mutually agreed upon work, action, and communal organization stated in the seven Ecumenical Councils that met until 787.

By 1054 the East looked upon the West as deviating from the traditional Christian faith. A list by the Patriarch Photius (9th century) states most of these deviations: the manner of celebrating Lent, mandated clerical celebacy, refusal to allow priests to administer Confirmation, and false teachings about the Holy Spirit. The West, of course, had its list. In 1054 the Pope’s representative excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Patriarch excommuicated the Pope’s representative. Most historians look at this mutual excommunications as an accident caused by cultural rather than religious differences and sustained over the centuries by the same mutual misunderstanding caused by the rise of the papacy, the power of Islam, and the failure of the Crusades.

The Church as Orthodox

“Othodoxy” was accepted as a proper title by Eastern Christianity because it saw itself as adhering to the right (orthodox) faith. This was an easy presupposition since the language of the New Testament as well as the creeds were Greek and most of the original great thinkers were from the East. It grew into a Christian way of life that saw the power of God presence surrounding all of us us but especially those gathered to celebrate the church’s liturgies. These rich liturgies have kept it in existence throughout the centuries as it was overpowered first by Islam in the Greek Orthodox church and then communism in the Russian Orthodox church.

Orthodox Rituals

Foundational to the Eastern liturgy is the conviction that the Christian church is most evident when it gathers together in worship celebrating the Great Mysteries. A mysterion,Greek for mystery (the Romans used sacramentum), is a manifestation of God’s power and love in space and time. These mysteries were especially found in the Church’s liturgies. The Sunday liturgy in particular is a lengthy celebration with ornate singing, incense, and use of icons. All the senses are invoked in order to bring the worshiper into the presence of God. During the first nine centuries these liturgies devloped in intricacy, sensuality, and importance to the Church’s life. But it was a development which seldom allowed old elements to die. For example, originally the liturgy was in the language of the people but today that language is not that of the people.

Central Orthodox Beliefs

The central tenant of their Christianity is that Jesus death destroys human death and enables humans to become like God. This deification of humanity only occurs because Jesus is both human and divine. Thus God’s suffering and death causes humanity’s life and divinization. The principle agent of divinization is the Holy Spirit who at Pentecost and through the Mysteries of Baptism and Chrismatization brings to each human the life of the Spirit and makes the Body of Christ, the church.

A fundamental doctrinal difference with the West at that time is contained in this belief: the Divine Life comes from the Father, through the Son, to us in the Holy Spirit. When the West added to the Nicene creed what is known as the “filioque” clause without the approval of an Ecumenical Council it rejected not only the previous concept of Conciliar theory but also, from the East’s perspective, said that the Holy Spirit is with us as a consequence of mutual action of Father and Son. Reason enough, the East said, to see that the West is deviating from the Apostolic faith.

Apostolic Authority and the Bishops

This addition of the filioque clause highlights another growing difference between East and West: the role of the bishops. The East believes that the bishop is central to keeping and understanding the Christian tradition. The Ecumenical conciliar tradition reflects this role in both content and process. Some of the content we have seen but the process is necessary to understand for it represents the expression of a central tenent of many Christian churches: the bishops in council in their proclamations and in their churches’ reception of that proclamation represent the Christian tradition. No bishop is a bishop alone. One becomes a bishop only when accepted as such through the ritual of ordination. When ordained and in communion with the other bishops, they are individually and collegially the guardian of faith, the center of liturgical life, and of service to all.

The development of a powerful jurisdictional role for the bishop of Rome, the Pope, seemed to contradict this conciliar tradition. With time the Pope became the norm of faith and the Western church seemed to honor his words over the words of Councils. Conciliar proclamations, according to the West, had to be affirmed by the pope who, as the successor to Peter, was the rock upon which the Church was built. (Matt 16:18)

Although the mutual excommunications were withdrawn at the end of the 20th century these divisions exist to this day.

From Empire to the Western Church, Catholic, Latin, Church to the Millennium

The Tribes

As the Ecumenical Councils gathered (325- 787) so too the councils of war gathered. The first devastating wave came from the North and East. The Goths, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Visagoths, and Huns were always a threat to both the Eastern and Western parts of the Empire. By the 6th century they destroyed the old Western Empire and were slowly replacing it with new ways of thinking and living. By the beginning of the 9th century the Arab tribes of the South under the bannar of Islam established a united Empire that extended from the borders of India to the Strait of Gibralter and the Pyrenees Mountains. Persia, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain went from being Christian to Muslim. The rubble of the Roman political and military empire was taken piece by piece to build a new European culture using the morter of the North Tribes, the inspiration of the Christian religion, and the threat of the Southern tribes. The result was the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages. One cannot understand contemporary Western Christian churches without an understanding of what went on during those times for some are still trying to build upon it while others are still trying to reject it.

It all begins with the pieces. Every series of wars leaves behind destruction of land and people. These tribal invasions were no different. What remained after the destruction of Roman unity was tribal conflict and culture. Roman law, technology, communication were destroyed and in their place were loyalty to tribe and a chief who used raw power to achieve his ends. These tribes’ religions reflected their every day reality: their gods were powerful, throwing sudden and destructive thunderbolts to achieve their ends. Their minor gods brought healing power to certain trees, streams, and places; fertility to certain actions and potions; protection, through rituals composed of movement and chant. Into this landscape, smoldering with newness, came two forces of Chrisianity: 1) the Churches already present in these conquered lands; 2) the Monks of the Irish Isles who from 500 C.E. developed a Christianity deep in erudition, unique in organization, and imbued with the mysteries of their former religion.

Growth in Tribal Memership

Church membership grew differently than during the first three centuries. During those centuries it grew from person to person and person to family when the Father converted. Initially it was a church of adults. As Christianity spread among the tribes it spread from chief to chief, tribe to tribe. It was individul inasmuch as the chief accepted Christianity. It was communal inasmuch as when he became Christian the whole tribe became Christian. A tribe who shared common grazing lands, farming lands, and consequences of warfare also shared a common religion. As thousands converted to Christianity the task of teaching about Christianity changed. Before one knew about Christianity from those who were converted before them. Once converted they were baptized. Now baptism marked one’s conversion, change of religion, and one learned about Christianity afterwards. Although there were many illiterate among the early church, now most of the church was illiterate while some of the chiefs and kings and most of the bishops and priests could read and write. The term “cleric” originally referred to someone who could read and write. Illiterates need something beside books to learn about their religion. To find this “something” was an enormous challenge of imagination and personnel.

Growth in Leadership

The bishops grew in authority and prestige under Constantine. But they also grew in bureaucratic necessities. When the rule was one bishop, one church these were usally small communities. Now there were large communities. Should there be more bishops or more bishop’s delegates (priests and deacons)? By late 3rd century the church had already developed the role of presbyter or priest, and deacon. The deacon served the community by taking care of necessary physical goods such as food, clothing, housing for the poor. The priest, as obvious by his liturgical title, cared for the spiritual and ritual needs of the church in the place of the bishop. The bishop was the priest and the deacon all others acted in his name. In the process his power, prestige, and bureauracy grew.

The bishop who was head of the church at the center of the empire reflected the growth of the role of the bishops througout the empire. The bishop of Rome, however, led a very unique church which was where Peter died, Paul died, and the Roman Empire was centralized. In a church dependent upon the apostles, a church that lived in the tradition of the two most important apostles was, in itself, important. When Rome as the center of the empire collapsed there was still a need by the people of the empire for a center. The bishops and patriarch of Rome sought to fulfill that need.

Growth in Monasteries

In the midst of chaos there are always those who seek to escape the chaos. Many times this occurs by physically removing oneself from the devestation. In this instance it was impossible. In its stead monasteries grew and offered a place away, a place of regulated living, of striving for a perfect relationship with God, a place of work and prayer. The concrete expression of this monasticism was the Rule of Benedict (6th century). This brief code of law told its adherencts how and when to pray, sleep, work, study care for those in need, and build their monastery. Monasteries were independent on the bishop. This organizational distinction is shown by calling those who live by the rule (regula) regular clergy, and those who live in the world (saecula) secular clergy. As in the East, where many of bishops were chosen from the monasteries, so in the West the expectations of poverty, chastity, and obedience were transferred to the secular clergy.

Growth in Devotions

These mostly illiterate people, including as time progressed many secular clergy, were challenged to live the good new of Jesus as provided by the Christian community in prayer, ritual, calendar, and a moral life. Most of these people lived their short lives under brutal conditions. The warriors spent their days actually fighting or preparing for war. Prayer entered into people’s lives as moments of repeated, memorized words offering a moment of hope, and sometimes respite, from this every day brutality - a hope for life, for peace, for a good death, for health, for marriage, and for food. Central, of course, was the prayer of Jesus, the Lord’s prayer / Our Father, handed down from generation to generation pleading for many things among which was daily bread and deliverance from evil. The Ave Maria, Hail Mary, originated in the East in the 6th century slowly gaining adherence in the West and formulated in its final form in the 16th century. For the most part, people were passive in prayer as they were in life. As they waited for the commands of their Lord for what to do.

Growth in Ways of Worship

The development of their ritual, liturgical, life reflects this cultural passivity arising from multiple developments in the Western church. By the end of the millenium the title “priest” was the accepted designation for the bishop and his presbyters. It was not used in the first century for church leaders. For it to grow and become accepted several things had to happen, especially a cultural emphasis on sacrifice. The idea of sacrifice is found in the New Testament (Mk 14:24; 1 Cor 5:7; 2 Cor 10:14-22, Jn 6:51-58). Its meaning is multiple and complex from the beginning of the Jewish tradition (Gen 4:3-5; 8:20-22; 31:34; Lev 1-7; Exod. 12:27). By the end of the 2nd century it is used in reference to the Sunday Eucharistic celebration which had always been seen as the remembrance, presence, and the expectation of Jesus. Along with its use is the growth of the Bishop’s liturgical role as Christianity became the State religion. As the state religion Christianity was also expected to do some of the things the former religions did. Their priests sacrificed to the gods. That sacrifice made the gods look favorably upon the Empire. Priests and sacrifice also are linked in the Jewish tradition. As as sacrifice is introduced into the Christian tradition Jesus is affirmed as the priest with one sacrifice once and for all in the Letter to the Hebrews. The Christian people, in imitation of the Jewish tradition (Exod 19:5-6) affirm all the baptized as priests (1 Pet 2:4-12). By the end of the first century the bishop starts to be acknowledged as priest as he increases his role in Christian worship. Jesus was always understood to be with the community as it met in memory of him, prayed over bread and wine and ate and drank. Now Jesus as the sacrificed was there among the community.

As the Christian eucharistic celebration moved from the homes of the early Christians to large public buildings, these buildings, many times former courts, were much like a temple with all the action in front, done by the presiding public official, while the people waited for the results. As membership increased along with accepted ritual passivity of the people, it became acceptable for everyone to wait in the church while the bishop and his priests make eucharist, or mass, a phrase still used in many latin languages. This ritual of priest/bishop doing the sacrifical mass, while the people waited for Jesus to be present in the bread and wine, was essential to Christian worship for the next thousand years. At first the people retained the older custom of eating and drinking, as at the meal. But this disappeared and leaving only the priests to act out the, by now, ritualistic gesture of eating and drinking.

Growth by Adapting to Tribal Ways of Leadership

As the lands and their people gradually changed from the order of the empire and the anarchy of tribal settlements, a new political cohesiveness took place called the Feudal system. Land and the inheritance of land was as central to the system as argriculture was central to daily existence. The roots of the system are found in both the Roman and Germanic traditions. A large amount of land is owned by one person, the Lord. The land provides things to eat as well as housing. People, in order to share the proceeds of the land bind themselves by oath to do what the Lord demands and the others, in turn, bind themselves to those bound to the Lord. Warriors bind themselves to fight for the Lord. Serfs bind themselves to whoever’s land they work. Many were Lord bishops and or Prince bishops, who in turn were bound to their Lord. The ceremony for the exchange of oaths was titled Investiture. When a bishop was involved the Lord gave the bishop his lands, his ring, and staff (crosier) indicating what the bishop was to do for his Lord. What originated with Constantine and was continued in the Eastern church became imbedded in the Western Church through the investiture ceremony.

This relationship between lord and bishop, while at times causing personal tensions, was not a source of great controversy until the beginning of the second millennium when a wave of reform broke the relationship and shifting power in the culture. At the end of the reform the Church authorities, particularly the pope, were seen as independent of the state. Whether there was actual independence is a point of controversy since it is difficult to conceive of a situation where the citizens of the church and the state are one and there is no influence of one on the other. Nevertheless this is how the Christian church broke its link with the nobles beginning the Christian tradition of a Church expected to be independent of the state.

When Charles Martel (Pepin) was crowned King of the Franks by Bishop Boniface in 751 and re-anointed in 754, Pepin promised to protect the Pope. Two years later Pepin gave the Pope what came to known as the Papal States, land stretching from Rome to Ravena, incompasing twenty-two cities. This appointment of lands was based upon an ancient document titled “The Donation of Constantine.” The “Donation” and Pepin’s gift clearly established the pope as a Feudal Lord of Rome and environs in addition to his being the Bishop of Rome. The land was his. He was not bound to any lord. He, and his Church, was independent of any state because he was now a ruler of a state. This concept of the Pope as governing both land and Church was essential to Western Christianity until 1871.

Charlemagne (768-814) followed Pepin and expanded Pepin’s territories and rule of law. He brought order to the Church through enforcing laws both old and new. He strongly advocated learning for nobles and clergy. Formerly if anyone felt a need for writing, reading, and systematic thinking and speaking they went to the monastery schools. Palace and Cathedral schools now joined with monastic schools in an attempt to bring literacy to government leaders. Charlemagne left no doubt he was ruler over the old Western Roman Empire while he attempted to bring order and learning to that empire.

But all rulers were not Pepin or Charlemagne. Kings, popes, nobles, bishops lacked the inspiration, discipline, knowledge, and skills to look beyond their personal wants and needs for the common good and Christian ideals. These wants and needs were to be had by purchase or the power of the sword. A diocese, a monastery, the sacraments, everything was up for sale. It was hard to distinguish the life of a bishop or a pope and a king. Many thought this was wrong. Things had to change.

Seeking Appropriate Growth

In 910 William the Duke of Aquataine founded the monastery of Cluny in Southern Burgundy. It was independent of the bishop and the civil rulers. It followed the ancient Rule of Benedict. It was responsible to only the pope. Eventualy three hundred monasteries joined with Cluny in advocating reform of church life and rule. It was they who promoted the Peace of God (989) which limited the combatants in war to soldiers alone and the time of war to times other than weekends and feast days. It was they who influenced the Emperor Henry III (1039-56) to forbid children of clergy from holding church or state office and outlawed the payment of money or gifts for Church offices and sacraments. Out of the Cluniac reform came Hildebrand who directed Popes Leo IX and Benedict X in their attempts to make the entire church, not just a few monasteries and the Pope, independent of the landed aristocracy. Leo refused to be crowned by the emperor. Benedict established the College of Cardinals (1059) to elect the Pope. Alexander refused to give Henry IV a divorce merely because he requested it.

Hildebrand became Pope Gregory VII (1073-85). He ordered clerical celebacy, prohibited the investiture of bishops and began appointing bishops to those dioceses that opposed him. He excommunicated Henry IV. The excommunication of Henry began a struggle of armies he could not win. He lost the battle with Henry but ultimately won the war against investiture when Henry I of England and then Henry V of Germany signed concordants which left the investiture of the bishop to the Pope. Thus ended a centuries old tradition and began a new one that still exists: the Pope as absolute monarch ruling the entire church. The basis of such rule was developing over the millennium. How to rule, legally and personally, is still developing.

From its beginning, the Christian church regulated itself. The ideal community (Acts 2) inspired by the Spirit and led by the apostles demanded that people do certain things to remain part of God’s people. What was demanded was remembered and, when necessary, written down so the rules would be known not from memory but in writing from generation to generation. Such evident rules provide cohesivness to the community. But times change things. What worked for one generation might not work in the next. To retain the link between today’s community and yesterday’s; between this church and another, interpretation of those rules is needed. The Roman culture was particularly adept at such interpretation. As a conseqeunce, people with an aptitude for interpretating Roman law used these same abilities and methods for intepreting the developing church law. This became known as Canon Law with the most significant codification of these laws known as the Decretum Gratiani (1139/1150).

The Pope’s Role in Seeking Appropriate Growth

The Pope’s role in interpretation began first with his church of Rome. In the early Church, acting as bishop, he settled disputes among his people. In the Church of Constantine he was given civil authority to do the same. With the demise of the Empire he fulfilled the need of judge as well as priest. As metropolitan and patriarch he performed the same tasks for the bishops and other church officials. As membership and clergy grew these tasks of judgement and authority grew and necessitated an expanding bureaucracy. Costs followed burearcracy. Taxes followed costs. As many times happens, ineptitude, greed, and graft followed the money. What Hildebrand did, though well intentioned, only highlighted the continual need in a church that was constantly expanding in membership, lands, and power, to reform itself.

From Western Church to Roman Catholic Church: 1000-1500 C.E.

As the centuries progressed food was more plentiful, kings were gaining more land, peace was returning to those on the land. People had a reason to live and the church taught them the proper way. The church reflected Medieval society because it was Medieval society. Its attempts to bring order after its disintegration were successful. The feudal kings and bishops, those who brought order, were seen as God’s agents. The God who brought order and rule on earth and rewarded us for keeping the rules by life in heaven. While king and bishop were recognized as God’s instruments for good, the Pope was accepted as the guarantor of the propriety of those instruments. Pope Innocent III said it best in 1198: Only St. Peter was invested with the plenitude of power. See then what manner of servant this is, appointed over God’s household, he to is the vicar of Jesus Christ, the successor of Peter, the Lord’s anointed...set in the midst between man and God. . . less than God but greater than man, judge of all men and judged by none. (Selected Letters Concerning England C. R. Cheney & W. H. Semple, eds. p. x.) If the pope’s words were true he was to make the perfect society commissioned by God. So many thought, and still think, that the ordered society produced by the Popes during the the 13th, 14th,and 15th centuries demonstrated how Christianity could embrace and perfect human reason and the arts.

We will first look at this society through the eyes of those who saw it as the model of Christian living, and then through the eyes of those who did not. Both based their affirmations and critiques upon the conviction that the earth was the center of the universe and that the community is more important than the individual.

A Common View of Life and Afterlife

Our earth is one physical and spiritual world with easy access from one to the other. At the center was what we could see, feel, touch, hear and smell. We could reach beyond that by climbing the mountains to the heavens or descending through a hole to hell. In heaven were God, Jesus, his Mother Mary, the saints and angels. The devil, evil people and spirits, were in hell. What was good was above. Evil was below. When people died they went to one or the other place depending on whether God judged them good or bad. Most people, however, would go to purgatory which is an entry place to heaven where we were made perfect to enter heaven. The Church authorities tell us what we should do and say to get to heaven.

A Good Christian Life

As community we must believe what the community believes and do what the community does. Those who believe different than us should not be associated with us because they represent false truths which allow the devil to come into our midst and take us to hell. As a community we should do everything we can to help each other when we are alive or dead to gain heaven. We can do this while we are alive by prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and good living. These are ways we beg God to erase the sins of those in purgatory who will help us when they get to heaven. As community we must provide food for the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing for the naked, and housing for the abandoned. In offering such provisions of material goods we cannot give on the condition that they repay us more than we gave them. We give freely. When they can repay it should be equal for equal nothing more. Otherwise this is ursury and God has told us in the bible and through church teaching that this is a sin.

The priests, bishops, and pope are good people who help everyone get to heaven. They help build wonderful churches that provide everyone with a sense of God and the attractiveness of heaven. Their supoort of the arts enable us to feel the presence of saints, angels, and God.

Part of the necessary things of life are the sacraments which by the 13th century were clearly defined by the theologians as instruments designated by Jesus to get us to heaven. There were seven: Baptism, Confirmation, Mass, Confession (Penance), Extreme Unction, Marriage, and Holy Orders. The Eastern Church said that these rituals brought us God’s love and help (grace). The Western Church emphasized that they brought us energies to get us to heaven and to fulfill the purpose of the sacrament (another type of grace) such as living our marriage, facing our death,and doing penance for our sins. The number, meaning and function of these Seven sacraments took centuries to develop and by the end of the Middle Ages they were seen as a ritual ladder given to enable Christians to enter heaven.

Models of a good life were provided to good people seeking to be perfect. Monks were an example of these people. Lists of virtues and vices developed from the Bible to enable people to live the good life. Two important lists were the Seven Deadly Sins and The Works of Mercy.

Seven Deadly Sins Works of Mercy Lust Feed the hungry Pride Give drink to the thirsty Gluttony Shelter the homeless Sloth Clothe the naked Envy Visit the sick Anger Visit the imprisoned Avarice Bury the dead

Clerical life in the country was different than in the city. Most city churches had an ancient lineage with a complex bureaucracy associated with its Cathedral church, the church of the bishop. The rural churches were simple in construction and in population. The priest was usually as illiterate as his people and also living with a woman and his family. His doing of the sacraments was rote and dedicated to giving the people what they needed. He was appointed and supported by his Lord, the local nobleman. He learned what to do by imitation, not education.

Both city and country were filled with talk of God and God’s messengers, angels and saints. Everything had a saint’s name attached to it whether it was a street, town, or church bell. All art was a portrayal of God’s world with the church as a bridge to heaven. Everything was done in God’s name. From the perspective of those who saw these centuries in this light, it was a wonderful time to be a Christian in a Christian culture.

Need Changes to be Truly Christian

Many who were part of that culture saw much evil in this culture constituted by the Popes. First only a few saw the evil. Century by century, though, more and more saw this as a culture destructive of true Christianity. By the 16th century it seemed nearly every one sought to change it.

Those who saw evil wanted to change, or reform, things. They saw evil especially in the life of the regular and secular clergy with the Pope at its apex. These morally dead people were killed by the seven deadly sins. The streets were filled with the hungry and the naked while clergy walking in them were quick to offend and take offense. Fat, vain, and conceited they had to reform their lives. If the root (church authorities) changed, the branches (the people) would grow and be strengthened.

Change It But Do Not Destroy It

Two types of reformers called for change. One group discerned the necessary change by using their reason, the bible, and the good developments over the centuries. The other group based their norms for change upon their reading of the bible and / or their religious experience. Anything that developed over the centuries contrary to these norms were unchristian. The first mode of reform evolved into the Roman Catholic church shaped by the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563); the other, evolved into the Protestant reformation beginning with Martin Luther in 1517.

Those who sought reform were both illiterate and literate. The illiterate based their claim for change upon their religious experiences. Using their own changed life as examples, they encouraged others to do the same. They usually were condemned, isolated, and/or killed. The literate based their claim upon the reading of the Bible, the use of the new philosophies, and the reading of the writings of early church thinkers. They usually remained within the church structure until the 16th century.

Change By Seeking Knowledge

The world was changing and an important part of the change was that more people were becoming literate and more were going to the newly formed universities. The university was a gathering of learners who sought to use the tools of the mind for the good of God and people. Gradually the new trade routes, the crusades, and the pilgrimages brought them books. Many books were hand copyed over the centuries in the monasteries. Now books and thoughts were arriving from the Muslim Empire. The ancient philosophers of Aristotle and Plato brought methods of thinking clearly. The Muslim thinkers demonstrated how to use these methods in dealing with contempory issues. The results were new ideas and attempts to put these ideas into practice. The Mendicants were teachers and taught at these universities.

Change by Seeking Perfection: the Mendicants

One group of reformers which was a mix of both illiterate and literate were the Mendicants. Francis of Assisi (l182-1226) is seen by many as the first of the Mendicants.The ideals expressed in his life resulted in the establishment of several Mendicant orders among which were the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustianians, and Carmelites. They bound themselves to lead lives of poverty, chastity and obedience. Like Francis they begged for their meals, housing, and clothing. Initially their dress was begger’s dress, their food what people would give them, their housing the fields and empty dwellings. Their message was this: to be perfect one must be poor, humble, a servant to all by loving all, obedient to God’s word in the authorities and the Bible, and refusing to love only one in order to love all. Two by two they preached the message of perfection and the need to refrain from sin. The first mendicants were well educated men from the growing middle class. Those who could not read and write also wanted to be perfect and joined the Mendicants.. They changed the culture by their preaching, their lives, and their erudition.

Since monastic and mendicant ways of life were seen as ways to follow Jesus, many people wanted to imitate them without joining them.The Third Orders (tertiaries) offered both tested practices to perfect one’s life as well as experienced directors to show one the way.

Interior Perfection

The practice of “spiritual director” had always been part of Christian life and was especially associated with the monks, and the mendicants because of their education and experience in seeking and living Jesus’ way of life. The “spiritual life” was enhanced by not only accepting the direction of a qualified person and the spiritual way he or she advocated but also by a constant diet of prayer, meditation, and reading the Bible. Other practices evolved for the illiterate majority to aid their life in the Spirit: a new form of the Sacrament of Penance, the rosary, pilgrimage, and devotions such as the Stations of the Cross, honoring the statues of the saints and Jesus, and wearing pieces of holy cloth called scapulars.

The ritual of reconciliation that was used in the early church became a ritual for the dying because of its penances. In its place, against much episcopal and papal opposition, rose a form of dealing with sins more in accord with the culture. It was much like spiritual direction except that in spiritual direction one discusses prayer life, ideas and ideals, and successes and failures of one’s life with God. This ritual focused on sin alone. The Irish monks brought it with them as they spread out across England and Europe preaching the Christian message.

Just as medieval society demanded satisfaction for offenses (I kill your son, you kill mine.) so the monks said God demanded satisifaction for offenses against God. Each sin, seen now as an offense against God, had a corresponding “satisfaction” to be done in order to set things straight. Lists of these sins and their penance, or satisfaction, were compiled. After the confessor heard the penitent’s list he would tell the penitent what to do from his list. The penitent then performed the penance and the sins were forgiven. Most confessors were priests. Also, just as one could make up for offenses in ordinary life in various ways, so there evolved ways of doing the penances associated with sin. There developed a system of making up for the offenses for those who had died so they could get to heaven. This was the system of indulgences that some unscrupulous Christians developed into a way of paying for forgiveness of sins. The reformers rejected the giving of money to achieve any spiritual result. While the Medieval Church recognized many ways of obtaining forgiveness for sin, the ritual of Confession developed to such an extent that it was made mandatory once a year by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. Until the middle of the 20th century it was the preferred method of forgiveness of sin by more than half the Christians in the West.

Perfection as a Physical Process

Pilgrimage is an ancient Christian means of making satisfaction for sin, thanking and/or asking God for favors, and seeking answers to life’s questions. Pilgrims go to places where they feel God is especially present. From the earliest times the Holy Land of Jerusalm and its environs was a pilgrimage site. Gradually Rome, Santiago de Compostela, Canterbury, and other places became important pilgrimage centers. Aside from their religious significance they were of economic importance to the towns along the way as well as the pilgrimage site itself. In addition the pilgrims brought back with them customs, food, and religious experiences. Pilgrimage is not done in a day. It is a process of weeks, months, and sometimes years. Few are the same at the end of the pilgrimage as they were when they started.

The Crusades may be seen as a form of pilgrimage which had as its ends both the destruction of opponents to the Christian faith and the forgiveness of sins for the warriors. The first Crusade began in 1095 to return the Holy Land to Christian rulers from its Muslims. The Crusades continued over the next 250 years with various objectives. Some crusaders formed religious orders in imitation of the Mendicants. The crusades were not limited to fighting those outside Europe. They were sometime waged against those reformers inside Europe who were seen as enemies to church and culture.

With the beginning of the millennium there arose a deep conscious repudiation of those living other religions whether as pagan witches, Jews, or Muslim. The Fourth Lateran Council ruled that Jews and Muslims wear distinctive dress. It also repudiated many new interpretations of Christianity.

Deep Disagreements In and With the Western Church

As we begin to detail a few of these interpretations we must remember that the recent distinction between religion and state did not exist at this time. When one changed religions one became both anti-religious and a traitor.

The Catheri or Albigensians existed as a cohesive community from the 12th to the 14th century. They reach back to Gnostic Christianity and Manichaeism. They saw this sensible world as the battle ground between the good, spiritual, immaterial god and the bad, materialistic, fleshy god. They refused to eat meat, eggs, and milk while keeping rigorous fasts to free the soul from all bodily attachments. They rejected the sacraments and the clerical hierarchy as representatives of the evil god. They formed their own organization and hierarchy. Many people enthusastically joined their ranks and just as enthusiastically were seen by others as threats to the Christian way of life. To destroy them the Inquisition was formed and crusades preached.

When the Fourth Lateran Council declared that secular authorities should help destroy unbelievers, the pope issued a papal Bull establishing procedures for identifying them. The haphazard use of these procedures by local authorities resulted in causing more fear than destroying the enemy. Consequently the Dominican mendicants professionalized and legalized the procedure which resulted in, for those days, a just gathering of evidence, questioning of the accused, and a legal demonstration of why the person was guilty. The now famous Spanish Inquisition deviated from the norms developed by the Dominicans.

As to Papal Leadership

Anti popes, diverse popes, popes representing various Italian families and European kingdoms were not uncommon during these centuries. One particularly contentious stretch of years was from1309-1418. These were the years of the Avignon Papacy (a.k.a. Babylonian Captivity) (1309-1377) and the Great Western Schism (1378-1418). The first represents the movement of the Pope and the central government of the Western church to France. The second represents a deep division over who was pope among sometimes as many as three contenders each claiming authority over the Christian church and each supported by one of the European powers. The first was ended by a famous Christian mystic St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), a Dominican tertiary, who conviced Pope Gregory IX to return to Rome. The second by the Council of Constance which dealt with solving the three pope controversy as well as with several doctrinal controversies.

As to Foundational Doctrines

These doctrinal controversies found their source in two men John Wycliffe (1320-1384) and John Hus (1369-1415). Both were priests, theologians, university teachers of theology as well as theologians to monarchs. They were highly involved with civil and ecclesial politics.

Their advocacy of some of the following ideas led to their condemnation at the Council of Constance (1414-18). The Church should be poor, thus it should own no property. The property now owned should be given to the King. Priests, bishops, and popes should provide their services free of charge, therefore, no money should be paid to them nor should any king or nobleman pay tithes to church officials, thus no king should be held accountable for tithes or taxes to the Pope. One either serves the church or the nation, thus no one should hold two positions such as Lord and Bishop. The mass of legal interpretation, counciliar teaching and papal instructions are nothing unless they can be found to be clear expressions of the teaching and life of Jesus Christ. Only the Bible contains the truths of the Christian faith. That bible should be read by all, thus all should have it available in a language they understand. Finally, only those people destined by God for heaven are true Christians. Only they and they alone are members of the Church. Outside this church there is no salvation.

As to Conciliar Authority

Three Councils were called to resolve the difficulties of multiple popes and multiple beliefs. Pisa (1409) Constance (1414-18) and Basil (1431-38). Pisa and Basil failed but, to some extent, Constance succeeded. It did so because it looked to the Emperor Sigismund, the bishops, theologians, and others to make decisions effecting the pope. They gathered at the German city of Constance. Sigismund had the pope, John XVIII, convoke the council, thus providing it legality in Canon Law, but he also demanded all three popes of that time resign. Those that did not were deposed by force of arms. Pope Martin V was elected in 1417. The bishops voted according to national blocks with one vote each. It was led by Pierre d’Ailly and Jean Gerson who were leaders advocating the idea that the Council was the highest authority in the Church, higher than pope or bishops. In the face of the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Western Schism conciliarism, as it was called, was the solution for limiting papal immunity and requiring accountability. Constance declared something that was acceptable to canonists but not to supporters of the Monarchical papacy:

“This synod holds its power directly from Christ; all persons, of whatever rank or dignity, even a pope, are bound to obey it in matters related to faith and to end the schism as well as to reform the Church in head and members.”

The primary effect of Constance, and the power of the Emperor’s soldiers, was to return the rule of one pope to the Western church. Its decree Frequens required Councils to meet every five years but that never happened. The next Council, Pisa, was a failed attempt to re-awaken conciliarism in the Church but once one central government was running, there was neither the energy nor the power to share Church authority amon all its members.

The attempt to quash the ideas of Wycliff and Hus also failed. Although they were condemned and John Hus burned at the stake, the ideas and ideals expressed by these men continued throughout the centuries taking institutional form in many contemporary Christian churches.

Constance may have provided one pope but the call for change in the church only increased as society itself continued changing from the Medieval to the Modern world by thinking new thoughts in the universities, beginning new ways of banking and commerce, and moving toward the nation state. In the universities some theologians were saying that we were thinking too much about God (How many angels could dance on the head of a pin?), others were saying that words had lost their meaning, especially words that attempted to encompass abstract ideas (human, Christianity) where only individuals exist (Mary / John) ; others, applying this view (nominalism) to morality claimed there were no universal norms of morality only how this or that person thought about what was right and / or wrong. A banking and lending system grew to finance the risk of adventure, resulting in time with an economy based on money, not land. Kings were building nations. People were being educated. Reading and writing increased as their need for commerce and new things necessitated such skills. A church that was organized according to diocesan lands, that had condemned urury, and claimed to be the religion of the empire, now had to decide what to do about these changes.

Four important religious questions were being debated: 1) Who or what speaks for God? 2) What is the nature of the Christian community? 3) What is the best way to live? 4) How can I be sure of my relationship with God so I know I am going to heaven? The answers to these questions would divide the Western Church for the next five hundred years after which they would be irrelevant to most Western people.

The Second Half of the Second Millenium: 1500 - 1900

If Medieval society was to survive, its two pillars of pope and monastery had to live their ideals. The story of the collapse of the established Church and the society it helped create is the story of attempts to reform the Church in head (Pope) and members (especially the monasteries) so that the society itself would reflect in fact what it proclaimed in ideal. The reforms which were not achieved during the Middle Ages began to be achieved as the Middle Ages were transformed into modernity. The ideal was that society was united through love and interdependence. The fact was that this society was torn by rising nationalism and beginning capitalism. The ideal presented a society with a pope who stood between God and people, ruling in love and harmony. The fact was there had been three popes at the same time that offices and sacraments were bought and sold, that the pope and his curia stood with hands outstretched for money. The ideal was that the priests and religious were learned and dedicated to the service of the people and God. The fact was many of them were ignorant, with their only function to say Mass or read the breviary, their prayer book. The ideal was that the religious and priests be poor and celibate, but the fact was that many sought increased wealth and were either married or had a concubine. The Western Christian Church needed to change because the ideals it presented were not found reflected in the daily life of most of the people. On October 31, 1517 a 34-year-old Augustinian mendicant, Martin Luther, posted 95 theses in Latin on the door of a church in Wittenberg. This was a traditional way of challenging to debate one’s academic colleagues. This act, unforeseen by Luther, marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, a period which dramatically changed the relationship between the Established Church and society. It also began a way of speaking about Western Christianity as Catholics and Protestant. Although some of the Reform churches, such as the Anglican, saw themselves as Catholic. The Beginning of Contemporary Protestantism and Protestant Reform In essence, the Roman Catholics accepted some of the developments of the last thousand years as expressions of what Jesus said and did, while Protestants did not. Protestants believed that a book, the Bible, would enable them to remember Jesus. Catholics’ believed that the Bible, its interpretation by the successors to the apostles, and the life of the Christian community provided us with the proper memory of Jesus’ message and hope. Four major movements sprang forth from Luther’s call for reform. They may be titled: 1) Lutheran, 2) Anglican, 3) Calvinist / Reformed, and, 4) Anabaptist / Radical. The first being is closest to Medieval Christianity, the last most distant. As these movements swept through Europe it was difficult to separate religion, society, economics, nationalism, and politics from what historians call the Protestant reformation. Everything was being reformed, or changed, including the Medieval Christian church which became the Roman Catholic Church of today. No doubt about it, a thousand years of what it meant to be Christian was coming to an end. It is difficult to say exactly what Protestantism was or is beyond it is not the Medieval Christian church and everything we have described as evolving during that time. After they said “no” to that church they never agreed on what to say “yes” to. Consequently, there were over four thousand Protestant groups at the end of the 20th century. In general we can provide how most Protestants answered the religious questions that were being debated toward the end of Medieval Christianity. Protestant and Catholic Responses to the Four Questions of Reform Who Speaks for God? Protestants emphasized the bible and preaching more than tradition and ritual. Church architecture reflected this emphasis with Protestant churches focusing on the pulpit and Catholic ones on the altar. Protestants claimed that the sacraments had to have a biblical basis and thus accepted only Baptism and Lord’s Supper as important and rejected the others; Catholics accepted the seven of the Medieval Church. Protestants simplified their Sunday service to reading, singing, praying and preaching, with Lord’s Supper generally once a month. Roman Catholics retained the use of Latin in all their sacraments, except when preaching, and published a quite detailed ritual to be followed by everyone in the church. The Anabaptists baptized only adults; everyone else baptized both adults and infants. While the Catholics emphasized the authority of both Bible and Tradition, Protestants used the bible alone to find the truth. But they divided over how to use the Bible alone in discerning religious truth. Lutherans found the Word in the Bible, Reformed said the Bible was the Word, and Anabaptists said the Word is in our hearts and confirmed by the Bible. The discovery of the Word, no matter what the tradition, more and more was reserved to the clergy even though more people were reading the Bible and discussing how to lead a Christian life. All the reformers ultimately introduced Catechisms into their reform as a means to provide their theological interpretation of the bible. Their hope was that through people reading the bible, the clergy preaching the Word of God and teaching the catechism, people’s lives would be changed. What is the Nature of the Christian Church? But what is the nature of that community producing and/or arising from the preached word or the preached word and ritual of Lord’s supper? Roman Catholicism quite clearly opted for the Medieval model of church hierarchy which is the bridge between us and God. Catholics always advocate what might be called the Incarnational Principle: God acts through material things. Whether that material thing is our body, bread, wine, water, oil, sex, statues, repetitive prayer, or a community of people. God is meeting us through our senses. Protestants will strongly object to seeing God in such a way. God cannot be limited by nature or nurture. God is supreme with no need for mediators of popes, bishops, sacraments, or statues. These are useless human works that take us from the work of God. Humans with faith can meet God one on one without the need of others or material things. As Luther said in 1520: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none, a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” (The Freedom of a Christian). As a consequence of this emphasis upon the individual’s relationship with God many Protestants came to advocate that Christianity was a gathering of the saved, a gathering of equals, a gathering of those who once saved constituted the Christian community. Catholics saw the community as a mix of sinners and saints all striving for perfection - a community that existed before their baptism and will continue to exist after their death. Leadership of the community was seen to be bishops, among Catholics, the ordained minister among Lutherans, a moral and intellectual leader among Presbyterian, and one who explicitly was called by God among Anabaptists. The organizations that formed out of these movements reflected this understanding of the Christian community and its leaders.

What is the Best Way to Live and to be Assured of Salvation? This Christian society was a free gift of God, as faith itself was always free. From the Protestant perspective faith and salvation were freely given and freely sustained by God alone. Faith alone suffices for salvation. From the Catholic perspective, God freely gave us grace in Baptism to be one with him and we were challenged to sustain that grace by living a good life evident by good works of charity, penance, observing the commandments, prayer, and celebration of the sacraments. In these instances our work is the work of God present through us. Interesting enough, while Protestants distained a religion based on “works” there arose among Calvinist reformers what was later called “the work ethic,” a phrase highlighting the belief that individual hard work evidences our providential call to assured salvation. God wishes us to answer God’s call but Protestants tended to say that all calls were equal whereas Catholics said some calls (e.g. monks, nuns, priests) were better than others. Both sides agreed that the Ten Commandments (Decalogue) were a necessary part of answering that call. This too was a change from the Medieval emphasis upon the Seven Deadly Sins. They did differ, however, in the numbering with the Lutherans and Catholics favoring the old listing and Greek Orthodox and remaining Protestants spliting the First Commandment. Thus the prohibition against false images (Exod 20:3-6) stood out as the second commandment (Protestant) rather than remain hidden with the first forbidding worship of false gods (Catholic). The emphasis, of course, fit in with the Protestant distain of statues and other ornaments in the churches. The movements developed several types of church organizations reflecting their reading of the New Testament. After the first moments of fervor some type of organization is always necessary to sustain the ideas and ideals of a group. We saw this with the early Christians, these late Medieval Christians are no different. Once one says “no” to late Medieval Christianity, what does one say “yes” to as how to choose leaders, gather on Sunday, and continue to reform individual and communal Christian life? The Protestant Reformation provides us with several models which, while sometimes present in their pure form, are usually found in contemporary churches in some combined form. The congregational model is preferred by those whose culture and religious expression is individualistic and personal. In this model the only true church is that community in which the saved congregate to mutually support each other in their faith. The people determine the belief, manner and time of worship, manner of helping those in need, and in choosing their pastor. Sometimes the title “congregational” church is found on churches which actually are totally subservient to the pastor in what might be called the prophetic model. In this instance the pastor gathers believers together by her or his interpretation of the Gospels. The pastor claims to be called by God to do so and the people recognize this call by following her or his lead. As this type of church grows it adapts the organizational forms of the day. Today this is reflected in the church being run along the lines of a successful business with the Pastor as CEO-owner. At the other extreme from congregational are those who follow the hierarchical model. These will be several churches linked together by someone called “Bishop,” “Supervisor,” or a similar term. It may take the ancient form as found in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, or the Medieval Form as found in the Roman Catholic Churches. It also maybe found among those churches that have adapted to the need for people to have a voice in a democratic society. In this instance both at the local, national, or international level there are usually two legislative bodies: the clerical and the lay. Each of these has an essential role in developing church belief, worship, moral declarations, and organizational matters. A last model is a mixture of the congregational and hierarchical. Starting from the local church or congregation which elects individuals to represent themselves. They are usually called elders. The pastor, chosen by the community, is the moderator of these elders who, in turn, make decisions for the community. Each of these churches, in turn, send representatives to another body which makes decisions in regard to all the churches and so on until all the churches in a designated area are included. The movements also gave birth to a diversity of Sunday celebrations which range from the tightly programmed rituals of Roman Catholicism to the free flow, spontaneous rituals of the Pentecostals. All however are rituals: repeated ways of acting and speaking. Some follow books designating what is to be said and done in a very precise way, every word and action, to those books that indicate in a general way what is to be done. Some have no common book to tell them what to do but the customs of the community do dictate exactly what to say and do. Catholic Reform The Catholic answer to these questions, polity, and ritual is found in the Council of Trent (1545-1563) which was composed of twenty-five sessions and met sporadically over those years. This might be called the fourth Council of reform. If Constance had produced one pope, Trent produced a deep desire for change that drove reform for centuries in Roman Catholicism. It clearly said “no” to the Protestant models of reform and “yes” to purifying itself from those elements of Medieval Christianity that glossed over the healthy changes that had occurred over the centuries. The designation, education, and choice of clergy were dramatically changed. All clergy must go to seminaries, places where they were to obtain a good education and be directed in their life with God. Bishops must be mature and capable of leading their flock. They could not be children, nor could they live outside the diocese they led. The law advocating celibacy was to be enforced. The sacraments they celebrated now would be celebrated in the same way, according to a ritual written down and distributed for all to follow. The official translation of the bible was the Latin Vulgate translation St. Jerome (3347-420).

The End of the Western Church and the Beginning of National Churches All these religious differences between methods of reform led to war and, in Protestant lands, exchange of large tracts of land from church ownership to that of the nobles. The wars devastated Europe until the Peace of Westphalia (1648) which, through a series of agreements ended the wars and made the rule that each prince had the right to establish the religion for those he ruled. In making such distinctions it was making a distinction between Christianity and the state - an important distinction that would lead to separation of church and state. Many would also see these series of treaties as the beginning of the modern political world. Whether new ways of thinking, acting, and relating to each other are found in such clear historical markers is a matter of discussion. What is clear is that things were developing into something new. What began with Constantine was coming to an end along with the entire way of life dependent upon it. What was coming is titled “The Modern.”

Christianity in the Modern World What was new was how people decided what was normative, how they worked, how they organized, how they responded to changing types of leadership, and how they conceptualized the world in which they lived. The Modern world was not the Medieval one.

Once the norms for truth shift, society shifts. The current distinction between “facts” and “beliefs” reflects such a shift because these words now indicate a radical divide between truth and reality. Facts can be proven. They are not made up. They are objective. They exist. “Beliefs” are not proven and can easily be fabricated. They are subjective. In the Modern world religion deals with beliefs and science deals with facts. Science is objective; religion is subjective. The discovery of these facts demanded the rejection of what many thought were facts but were actually beliefs such as God creating this earth we stand on, God creating the weather, God causing fires and lightening, God creating sickness and pain. Science discovered the facts that enable us to heal, to relieve pain, to travel to the heavens, to travel, to have plentiful food throughout the year. This distinction between belief and facts is a small reflection of the difference between the Medieval World and the Modern one. Some others are shown in this chart which compares the Medieval and Modern Worlds within which the Church lived.

Medieval Modern Norm That which we have done before that resulted in survival That which is logical, scientifically proven, rational and results in economic security Dominant mode of elite reasoning Deductive & a priori Inductive and a posteriori with an emphasis upon the method to be used for both modes of reasoning. Work Farmer (Hunter, gatherer) Industry Organization Inherited or “ordained” status Rational bureaucratic authority Government Feudal Strong central bureaucracy Distrust The new, the outsider, unbridled reason and analysis The old, supernatural norms and experience Dominant Status “Religious” - as God-speaker/actor,e.g. Pope, King. Scientist (e.g. doctor) as objective discoverer of truth. Core values Sharing, work, loyalty Individual accumulation, hard work differentiation, choice, pluralism, relativity, reductionism, empirical (rational), this worldly. It is dominated by instrumental and pragmatic reasoning and usually demeans tradition. God As King As a perfect machine Threat to status quo Occult: dark and hidden works of the devil Parapsychology Vision of Universe The earth in the center surrounded by spheres of perfect circles which are the stepping stones to heaven, the farthermost sphere. Some retained a biblical view of the universe with the earth as the center and God in the clouds above earth. Mountains were a means of touching the heavens and God. The sun is the center of the universe. Established upon the laws discovered by Kepler and Newton, seen by people like Galileo, the Copernican revolution changed how humans understood themselves in the universe. Power Coercive as local or transcendent. The transcendent is available to all but many times controlled by clergy. Coercive, usually associated with mechanical; elicitive associated with professional knowledge; leaders.

Dealing with the Modern World

Christians reacted to the Modern world by accepting it, rejecting it, or adapting to it. Those who accepted it did so by rejecting anything that could not be sensed and measured. Thus afterlife, an all powerful God, rituals as involvement with this God, heaven, hell, and “miracles” were all rejected. It should be noted here that “miracles” as breaking natures’ laws can only be seen as such when we know there are natural laws (science). Extreme forms of adaptation are “Deists” and “Rational Unitarians.” Those who rejected it, while accepting the belief-fact distinction, said that the Bible was all fact and can be proven as such, that God created this world exactly as it is, that miracles do occur, that the God of the Bible is a fact, and that there exists a world beyond the one we can sense and measure, beyond the natural, a supernatural world. Many who claim to be Christian Fundamentalists, Bible Believing, and Pentecostals accept this rejection. Those who adapted to it try to test their beliefs and condition their facts. Continuing the tradition of the theologians in the Middle Ages, they use the rules of logic, and now science, to discover what is true no matter where it resides. They accept the development that claims history looks for facts in the past and use these to norm the present. They accept the findings of the natural and social sciences that seek to understand the facts of the human mind and spirit, human society, politics, and the make up of the world. In such acceptance they ask as the early Christians did when faced with what to do with their Jewish heritage, “How do we remember, act, and hope today?” What are called Mainline churches such as the majority of Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Episcopalians, and Orthodox are in that camp. Roman Catholic history is a cycle of adaptation and rejection. The use of the names of Churches in the past to some extent does not convey the reality of how the Christian communities exist today. Such rejection, acceptance, and adaptation may be found within all those Christian churches that have developed over the last two thousand years. We can expect that these churches will divide and new ones develop from these divisions.

By Emphasizing Feelings and Belief

The Modern world also brought a change in how people felt about things and the role religion played in supporting those feelings. The Modern World concentrated on the ‘I” not the “we.” Modern Christianity did the same. Do “I” feel saved? Do “I” feel that Jesus is my savior? Do “I” get anything out of Sunday services? Do “I” benefit from serving the needy? As science began to explain everything, Christianity abandoned facts for beliefs and beliefs for individual feelings about those beliefs. The result was that some theologians said that Christianity was meant to provide a meaning for life rather than an explanation of it. That meaning, when present, was clearly felt. Other, more practical proponents of Christianity, found that when preaching in a certain way the meaning of life became clear to people and it expressed itself in the body’s reaction to this meaning, personalized as the Holy Spirit. Two Protestant movements of particular significance in the Modern world are: the Evangelical and the Pentecostal. We are using the term “Evangelical” as prominent outside of Europe where it generally refers to the Lutheran Church. Outside Europe it is usually understood to be a form of conservative Christianity which many times identifies itself as “Christian” to the exclusion of all other churches. Its foundational claims are: the factual inerrancy of the Bible upon and from which all truth comes, salvation through trust and faith in Jesus who saved us through atonement (satisfaction) for our sins, and the preaching (evangelizing) of biblical truth found in Jesus’ message. Pentecostals add to Evangelical beliefs that one demonstrates one’s life in the Holy Spirit with the gifts of the Spirit, as they did at the first Pentecost, through, for example, speaking in tongues and miracles. The Charismatic movement, found in many Christian churches, expresses the same claim that all Christians have a direct personal experience of Jesus.

This direct, personal experience of Jesus can be found especially in the ritual of Revival. In revival meetings people gather to be encouraged to change their lives either through repentance of their sins and through a direct experience of Jesus. These gatherings are expected to happen in a certain way and with certain results, thus are rituals. American revivals were and are found to have the expression of change demonstrated through tears, laughter, falling on the ground with shaking of the body, swaying back and forth, and speaking in tongues. The preacher will speak of the consequences of sin and the glory of accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. People are called to witness to what happens when they change their life and to pray for those seeking change. Roman Catholics developed the ritual of the “Retreat” or “Mission” to achieve the same purposes except that instead of the expectations of bodily expression to demonstrate change they engaged in the sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation to do so. These rituals take place over several days and/or weeks.

By Discovering Authoritative Words: Written and Spoken

In the modern industrialized word an enormous variety of books became available to everyone who could read: poetry, novels, history, technical manuals, novels and other imaginative literature. By 1500 students of literature had already begun to develop methods for dating the originals of the copies they read as well as discerning what was originally written. That meant that students of the Bible were sometimes able to read a Bible never seen by their predecessors. They were also able to see errors in translation or copying that influenced Church development over the centuries. Toward the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th they also developed ways of discerning what types of writing, or literary forms present in the Bible. These scholars offered a Bible that even the first Christians did not have since many of them used the Greek translation of the Jewish Bible. Ultimately books and the ability to read them provided every Christian with not only the bible but ways of understanding the bible and arguing with their clergy. The spirit of independence combined with the availability of the bible, now considered by many the sole norm of faith, made the community irrelevant. Each Christian became a church unto him or herself dependent, sometimes unknowingly, on a scholar’s claim to providing the original.

The Modern world seeks to simplify explanations for everything. In simplifying the explanations, usually in mathematical formulas, things and people can be controlled and made predictable. Thus if someone is sick the physician seeks the cause of that sickness. In finding the virus that causes the sickness, the physician kills it. The person becomes healthy.

This reductionism and the seeking of fundamentals became part of the Christian mentality in the West. People sought the fundamentals of faith and the Fundamentalism inherent to many Evangelical churches arose. Roman Catholic Bishops sought to reduce their community’s faith to clear statements, clearly spoken by one spokesperson and Papal infallibility was confirmed. Out of the secular fundamentalism advocated by modernism came the religious fundamentalisms present at the beginning of the 21st century.

By Seeking a Life of Love and Justice

Part of the Modern was industrialization, capitalism, and a moneyed economy. The churches reacted to human poverty in several ways. 1) We should accept this new world as God’s will. Workers should obey their employers as they would the Kings of old; employers should remember the need for charity in a good Christian’s life. More conservative Protestants favored this approach. 2) We should use the tools of the modern sciences and the mandates of the Gospels to rid ourselves of the poverty, inequality, ignorance, and homelessness produced by these new means of production and economics. Joining together as workers to achieve these ends we can bring about the Kingdom of God on earth. Progressive Protestants favored this approach. It developed into the Social Gospel Movement in the United States and Christian Socialism in Britain. 3) Indeed we should join together but the joining together should be similar to the guilds of the Middle Ages where everyone concerned with producing a product worked together for the benefit of all. Socialism should not be advocated. The Catholic Church beginning with the Encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) held this view. Its rejection of socialism gradually modified over the years. The foundational question for Modern Christians is whether the love mandated by Jesus is found in the outstretched hand of charitable giving or in response to the cry of the prophets for justice.

The Deepening of Tradition: Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

The centralization of the Roman Catholic church in the Papacy continued unabated after the Council of Trent. There were attempts to re-instate the power of bishops either individually or in national council but they were rebuffed. The centuries of development culminated in the Council of Vatican I (1869-70) declaring that the Pope was without error (infallible) in speaking about matters of faith and morals. It also strongly rejected any claims that reason alone can provide the truths of faith while advocating that both reason and faith were necessary to discover and understand matters of faith. The Council was interrupted by the Italian troops entering Rome and never formally closed until 1960 in preparation for the Council Vatican II. The entry of the Italian troops also marked the end of the Pope’s rule over the Papal States and the end of his role as King over the papal lands. Only Vatican city remains of those centuries of civil rule. Also the Vatican is the center of the papal bureaucracy that developed since 313. Vatican II (1962-65), as a continuance of Vatican I, attempted to face the new post modern age by dealing with the Modern one. It emphasized the role of the bishop, the need for adaptation of Catholic sacramental ritual to the modern mentality and the native languages, and the call of the poor to face the consequences of Modernity in matters of war, economics, family, and the wholesale slaughter of peoples occurring as the instruments of the modern were brought to bear upon daily life. The first wave of enthusiasm for change after Vatican II was briefly lived in the face of the power for centralization and the comfort of ecclesial habits deepened since Trent. At the turn of the second millennium the Roman Catholic church has one billion members scattered over the globe governed by the Pope in Rome.

When the Eastern Empire fell to the Islamic Turks in 1454 the Greek Orthodox church seemed doomed to disappear as many other Christian churches had when Islam swept the former Eastern Roman Empire. A church so dependent upon the link between state and church lost its balance but not its existence, for the Russian church was already proclaiming that it was the upholder of the Greek, Orthodox faith. With the demise of Constantinople the rise of Moscow as the center for the empire was proclaimed by Tsar Ivan III. This proclamation of Moscow as the third Rome in the 15th century as the second Rome, fell had its beginnings in the 9th century when two missionaries were sent from Constantinople to Moravia, present day Slovakia. Cyril (826-69) and Methodius (815-85) devised an alphabet for the Slav language and translated the Bible and other important books into it. As a consequence of their missionary work all of Eastern Europe and Russia became Christian. As already mentioned, Orthodox Christianity was always tightly aligned with the civil rulers. They never had, nor wished to have, an investiture controversy. Also, as we have said, the bishops did not develop a central authority such as the pope. With the development of the concept of nationhood, therefore, church and nation were one with the state dominating. What holds these national Christianities together is what held the Greek Orthodox together: creed, bible, worship, monasticism, and a deep sense of God’s overwhelming presence. This held them all in good stead when the Russian Orthodox church was persecuted in the Soviet Union. It provides them with the energy of renewal as they enter the third millennium.

From Religion to Spirituality, a New Age - Perhaps!

The third millennium began after a century of serious critique of the Modern in every way. The massacres of the World Wars were proof enough that reason alone and the wonderful technologies resultant needed something more to fulfill the destiny of humankind. As we look back at Christian history we see that it certainly expanded as it adapted: to peoples’ language, ideas, organizations, ritual, and morals. Even the dominant the memory of Jesus shifted as he was remembered first as suffering servant and slave, then as the all powerful and knowing God, and today as the loving friend ready to embrace us and carry us through our troubles. What is developing at the start of the third millennium signifies once again that Christianity is challenged how to remember Jesus and to bring that memory and accompanying hope, to a new, developing culture such as the post modern one suggested below.

Post modern Norm That which provides an experience capable of being repeated and results in well being. Dominant mode of elite reasoning dialectical & wholistic Work Technological, Information Organization Teams and transitional gatherings of professionals for immediate goals and objectives Government Democratic/populist, declining emphasis upon authority, (church /state) for policy making but continually responsive to power groups capable of providing celebrity and populist experiences Distrust The boring and abstract, unbridled science; normative (Religion) producing uniformity Dominant Status Celebrity - providers of well-being Values Leisure, individual self-expression, quality of life concerns God As love Threat to the status quo Absolutes, norms and acknowledged limits Vision of the Universe No center demonstrated by the relativity of Einstein, the observations of Shapely, the Doppler Effect and the Big Bang theory. Power Although the total destruction of the human universe is possible through human weapons the day to day life of the post modern universe favors the elicitive power of choice over coercive power.

Perhaps

The growth of Christianity is not in the Modernized West but in those countries newly modernized. They are a mix of tribal, feudal, modern, and post modern. Here is certainly a fertile ground within which the seeds of Christianity will continue to grow in new ways, with a history yet to be written. The growth of Christianity with cultures more ancient than the Western ones is slowly developing a picture of the Indian, Chinese, and Japanese Jesus that history waits to describe.

Many in the West have escaped to spiritualities old and new. Spirituality is many times seen as a way to opt out of the institutional churches for a way of life that is closer to the individual’s desires for perfection. Many times these spiritualities come from a rich Christian heritage but whether one can have Christianity without a community of memory waits to be seen. Those first frightened Jews at the beginning of Christianity thought it impossible. Future Christian histories will describe what comes out of this post modern age of more spiritualities and fewer churches in the West.

Notes

↑ Adherents.com, Religions by Adherents

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Chidester, David. 2002. Christianity: A Global History. New York: HarperCollins.
Hillerbrand, Hans ed. 2004. Encyclopedia of Protestantism. New York and London: Routledge.
MCBrien, Richard P. ed. 1995. The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism. N.Y.: HarperCollins.
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. 2003. The Reformation: A History. New York: Penguin. 2003.
Mead, Frank S. & Hill, Samuel, eds. 2005. Handbook of Denominations in the United States. 12 ed.

Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, Press.

External links

History of Christianity Religionfacts.com.Retrieved November 4, 2007.
Christian History and Biography Christianitytoday.com.Retrieved November 4, 2007.
Questions and Answers Christiananswers.net. Retrieved November 4, 2007.
Creeds of Christendom Creeds.net. Retrieved November 4, 2007.
The Christian Theology Page People.bu.edu. Retrieved November 4, 2007.

[1] Adherents.com, Religions by Adherents

[1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Claimed}}{{Contracted}}
 {{Christianity}}
-The '''history of Christianity''' concerns the history of the [[Christianity|Christian]] [[religion]] and the [[Church]], from the [[Apostles]] to contemporary times. Christianity is the [[monotheism#Christian view|monotheistic]] religion which considers itself based on the revelation of [[Jesus]] Christ. "The Church" is understood [[Theology|theologically]] as the institution founded by Jesus for the [[salvation]] of [[mankind]].
+The '''history of Christianity''' concerns the history of the [[Christianity|Christian]] [[religion]] and the [[Church]], from the [[Apostle]]s to contemporary times. Christianity is the [[monotheism#Christian view|monotheistic]] religion which considers itself based on the revelation of [[Jesus]] Christ. "The Church" is understood [[Theology|theologically]] as the institution founded by Jesus for the [[salvation]] of [[mankind]].
 Christianity began in the 1st century AD as a [[Jew]]ish [[sect]]. It spread throughout the [[Greco-Roman]] world and would become the official religion of the [[Roman empire]] even though it was originally [[Persecution|persecuted]].  In the [[Middle Ages]] it would spread beyond the old imperial borders to [[Northern Europe]] and [[Russia]]. During the [[Age of Exploration]] it would spread to all parts of the world. Today it is the world's largest religion.<ref>Adherents.com, [http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html ''Religions by Adherents'']</ref>