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FIRST ENCOUNTER
You have come to Egypt to see its great sights: the Nile River, the pyramids of Giza, and the temples of Luxor. In front of your hotel in Cairo, near the Egyptian Museum, you arrange with a taxi driver to take you to the pyramids late one afternoon. The traffic is slow and the horn-blowing incessant. From the window, you see a donkey pulling a cart full of metal pipes, a woman carrying a tray of bread on her head, a boy carrying a tray of coffee cups in front of him, and an overloaded truck full of watermelons. All of them compete for space with dusty old cars and shiny black limousines.
Your taxi driver is Gurgis, a middle-aged man with a short gray beard and a kind manner. He drives with the windows open and chats with drivers in other taxis beside him. You cross Gezirah Island through the Zamalek district. At last you can see the pyramids. You’d thought that the pyramids were far outside the city in the lonely desert. Now, though, they are just beyond a Pizza Hut, a bridal shop, and blocks of shops and apartments. Apparently, the city of Cairo swallowed up the desert here some time ago.
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As you near the pyramids, Gurgis says, “If you wait till dusk, you can see the sound-and-light show. Tourists love the green laser lights on the pyramids. I can eat my supper at Giza and I’ll take you back afterwards.” This sounds like an experience not to be missed. Who would want to miss the green laser lights? You agree. “I’ll be just outside the gates, when the show is over,” Gurgis says confidently.
When the light show is over, it’s hard to believe that within. that huge crowd surging out you will find Gurgis. Luckily, he finds you. “Come, hurry,” he says, and rushes to his taxi. On the trip back across the river, you ask about his background.
“I’m a Copt, an Egyptian Christian” he says, “and I’m named after Saint George.” To verify what he’s telling you, Gurgis holds up his right arm. In the dim light you see a little blue cross tattooed on the inside of his wrist. Before long, you learn about his birthplace (in Alexandria) and his relatives (in Saskatchewan). He tells you about his religion, Coptic Christianity.
“It is very old. The first bishop was Saint Mark, who wrote the gospel. Our patriarchs follow him in a long line of patriarchs. We Copts are only about 10 percent of the population in Egypt, but our Church is strong.”
Aware of your interest, Gurgis tells you about other places you might like to go.
“I can take you to the old Coptic section of the city,” he says. “It’s along the Nile, and not very far from your hotel,” he says encouragingly. You agree to meet in front of your hotel tomorrow, Friday morning, at 9 A.M.
On Friday, you visit three churches. There’s a lot going on because it is the Friday before Easter, and all of the churches, already surprisingly crowded with worshipers, will be filled in a few hours for special services. Inside one church, a priest stands in front of the doors to the sanctuary, apparently explaining something to a crowd of listeners. At the last church you visit, you see a painting outside of Mary and Jesus on a donkey. Gurgis explains that the church marks the spot where the family of Jesus stayed when they visited Egypt. You are doubtful, but in the basement of the church, a large sign says the same thing.
As you walk along the old street, heading out of the Coptic quarter, Gurgis tells you more about Copts. “The original Christian hermits were Copts,” he says with pride. “Our current pope was a monk once, and he’s strengthening Coptic life. Now he is even sending priests and monks to your country, too. I know there are some in New Jersey.”
Back at the entrance to your hotel, Gurgis makes another offer. Sunday will be Easter. The big service will begin Saturday night at St. Mark’s Cathedral. “The service will be very long, but it is beautiful. Would you like to go?”
“Wonderful,” you say. “But let’s sit near the door.” You arrange through him to get a pass at the cathedral office, which he will show at the entrance.
On Saturday night at 8 P.M. Gurgis picks you up and you drive to an immense domed church. It is behind a large gate, and big men in dark-blue suits, looking like bodyguards, stand thickly along the walkway into the church. Inside, a huge purple curtain hangs in front of the main sanctuary doors. It has a winged lion sewn onto Page 321it. “That represents Saint Mark,” Gurgis whispers. In the sanctuary is a throne-like wooden chair. “That is the Coptic pope’s chair, the throne of Saint Mark.”
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM OF CHRONOLOGY: BC AND AD
The influence of Christianity is apparent in the European dating system, which has now generally been adopted worldwide. The Roman Empire dated events from the foundation of Rome (753 BCE), but a Christian monk, Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis the Little; c. 470–c. 540 CE) devised a new system that made the birth of Jesus the central event of history. Thus we have “BC,” meaning “before Christ,” and “AD,” Latin for “in the year of the Lord,” anno Domini. The date selected as the year of Jesus’s birth may have been incorrect, and scholars now think that Jesus was born about 4 BCE. (The historical facts given in Matt. 2:1 and Lk. 2:2 about the year of Jesus’s birth are not compatible.) Also, the new dating system began not with the year zero but with the year one because there is no zero in Roman numerals. Because of the Christian orientation of this dating system, many books (including this one) now use a slightly altered abbreviation: “BCE,” meaning “before the common era,” and “CE,” meaning “common era.”
The Eucharistic service begins, with incense and singing. There is no organ, but the choir uses small triangles and cymbals. It is the Lord’s Supper, but in a form you’ve never seen before. At times you can only hear the priests, because the sanctuary doors are periodically closed, and you can no longer see the altar. The service ends with communion. Through it all, the people—men on the left side, women on the right—are amazingly devout.
Back in your hotel, hours after it all began, you think about what you have seen and heard. You know that the Lord’s Supper has something to do with the last supper of Jesus with his disciples. But what about the incense and the cymbals? How did the rituals originate? And how did monks and hermits come about in Christianity? You had heard of a pope in Rome, but never one in Egypt. How did this other pope originate? What thoughts, you wonder, would Jesus have if he were with you today? And finally, what will be the future of this Egyptian Church in our changing world?
THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF JESUS
Christianity, which grew out of Judaism, has had a major influence on the history of the world. Before considering its growth and influence, we must look at the life of Jesus, who is considered its originator, and at the early scriptural books that speak of his life.
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Before Jesus’s birth, the land of Israel had been taken over repeatedly by stronger neighbors. During Jesus’s time, the Land of Israel was called Palestine by the Romans and was part of the Roman Empire—but not willingly. The region was full of unrest, a boiling pot of religious and political factions and movements. As mentioned earlier, patriots who later became known as Zealots wanted to expel the Romans. The Sadducees, a group of priests in Jerusalem, accepted the Roman occupation as inevitable, yet they kept up the Jewish temple rituals. Members of a semimonastic movement, the Essenes, lived an austere life in the desert and provinces; for the most part, they deliberately lived away from Jerusalem, which they thought was corrupt. The Pharisees, a lay movement of devout Jews, preoccupied themselves with meticulously keeping the Jewish law.
Many Jews in Jesus’s day thought that they were living in the “end times.” They expected a period of turbulence and suffering and a final great battle, when God would destroy all the enemies of pious Jews. God, they believed, would then inaugurate a new age of justice and love. Some expected a new Garden of Eden, where the good people who remained after the Judgment would eat year-round from fruit trees, and women would no longer suffer in childbirth. Most Jews shared the hope that the Romans would be expelled, that evildoers would be punished, and that God’s envoy, the Messiah ,would appear. The common expectation among the Jews of Jesus’s day was that the Messiah would be a king or a military leader who was descended from King David. In fact, the name Messiah means “anointed” and refers to the ceremony of anointing a new king with olive oil. Many held that the Messiah had been foretold in some of their sacred books—such as Isaiah, Micah, and Daniel—and they expected him to rule the new world.
Into this complicated land Jesus was born about two thousand years ago ( Timeline 9.1 ). Traditional teaching tells of a miraculous conception in Nazareth, a town of northern Israel, and of a birth by the virginal mother Mary in Bethlehem, a town in the south not far from Jerusalem. It tells of wise men who followed a guiding star to the baby soon after his birth. The traditional portrait of Jesus, common in art, shows him in his early years assisting his foster father, Joseph, as a carpenter in the northern province of Galilee. It is possible that the truth of some of these traditional details—as it is regarding the lives of many other religious founders—may be more symbolic than literal.Page 323
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T I M E L I N E 9 . 1 |
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c. 4 BCE–c. 29 CE |
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Life of Jesus |
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Life of Paul |
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c. 4–64 CE |
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313 CE |
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Issuance of the Edict of Toleration by Constantine, making Christianity legal |
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Life of Augustine |
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354–430 CE |
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476 CE |
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Collapse of the Roman Empire of the West |
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Life of Benedict |
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c. 480–c. 547 CE |
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638 CE |
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Muslim conquest of Jerusalem |
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Split between Eastern and Western Christianity |
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1054 CE |
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1099 |
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Conquest of Jerusalem during the First Crusade |
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Black Death |
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1347–1351 |
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1453 |
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Conquest of Constantinople by Muslim forces |
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Life of Martin Luther |
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1483–1546 |
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1492 |
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The expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain |
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Life of John Calvin |
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1509–1564 |
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1517 |
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Beginning of the Protestant Reformation |
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Founding of the Church of England by Henry VIII |
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1534 |
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1565 |
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Christianity enters the Philippines |
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Life of composer Johann Sebastian Bach |
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1685–1750 |
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1805–1844 |
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Life of Joseph Smith |
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Founding of the World Council of Churches |
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1948 |
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1962–1965 |
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Modernization of Catholicism by the Second Vatican Council |
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Evangelical Climate Initiative signed by 86 evangelical leaders |
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2006 |
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2013 |
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Accession of Pope Francis |
Timeline of significant events in the history of Christianity.
There have been many attempts to find the “historical Jesus.” Although artists have portrayed Jesus in countless ways, no portrait that we know of was ever painted of Jesus while he was alive. Of course, we can guess at his general features, but we cannot know anything definitive about the individual face or eyes or manner of Jesus.
Almost everything we know of Jesus comes from the four gospels of the New Testament. ( Testament means “contract” or “covenant,” and gospel means “good news.”) The gospels are accounts, written by later believers, of the life of Jesus. The gospels, however, tell very little of Jesus until he began a public life of teaching and healing. He probably began this public life in his late 20s, when he gathered twelve disciples and moved from place to place, teaching about the coming of what he called the Kingdom or Rule of God. After a fairly short period of preaching—no more than three years—Jesus was arrested in Jerusalem at Passover time by the authorities, who considered him a threat to public order. From the point of view of the Sadducees, Jesus was dangerous because he might begin an anti-Roman riot. In contrast, Jewish patriots may have found him not anti-Roman enough. From the Roman point of view, however, he was at least a potential source of political unrest and enough of a threat to be arrested, whipped, nailed to a cross, and crucified—a degrading and public form of execution. Death came from shock, suffocation, loss of blood, and possible cardiac arrest.Page 324
Dying on a Friday, Jesus was buried quickly near the site of his crucifixion. The burial occurred shortly before sunset, just as the Jewish Sabbath was to begin. No work could be done on Saturday, the Sabbath. On the following Sunday, the gospels report, the followers who went to care for his body found his tomb empty. Some followers reported apparitions of him, and his disciples became convinced that he had returned to life. Forty days later, the New Testament says, he ascended into the sky, promising to return again.
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This bare outline does not answer many important questions: Who was Jesus? What kind of personality did he have? What were his teachings? For the answers to these questions, we must turn to the four gospels. They are the core of the Christian New Testament.
Jesus in the New Testament Gospels
The four gospels are written remembrances of Jesus’s words and deeds, recorded some years after his death by people who believed in him. All the books of the New Testament are strongly colored by the viewpoints of their writers and by the culture of the period. Thus it is difficult to establish the historical accuracy of New Testament statements about Jesus or the words attributed to him. Perhaps an analogy can clarify the problem: the gospels are like paintings of Jesus, not photographs. In compiling our picture of Jesus, we must also recognize that the gospels are not a complete record of all essential information. There is a great deal we cannot know about Jesus. Nevertheless, a definite person does emerge from the gospels.
However obvious it may seem to point this out, Jesus believed and trusted in God, just as all contemporary Jews did. Yet while Jesus thought of God as creator and sustainer of the universe, he also thought of God in a very personal way, as his father. It is Jesus’s extremely special relationship to God that is central to Christianity.
Raised as a Jew, Jesus accepted the sacred authority of the Law and the Prophets—the Torah and the books of history and prophecy. As a boy, he learned the scriptures in Hebrew. He kept the major Jewish holy days common to the period, and he probably traveled to Jerusalem and its temple for some of these events. He apparently kept the basic food laws and laws about Sabbath observance, and he attended synagogue meetings on Saturdays as part of the observance of the Jewish Sabbath (Lk. 4:16). It seems he was a devout and thoughtful Jew.
Nonetheless, one striking personal characteristic of Jesus, alluded to frequently in the gospels, was his independence of thought. He considered things carefully and then arrived at his own opinions—which he was not hesitant to share. Jesus, the gospels say, taught differently: “unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority” (Mk. 1:22). 1
Perhaps Jesus’s most impressive characteristic was his emphasis on universal love—not just love for the members of one’s own family, ethnic group, or religion. He preached love in many forms: compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, acceptance, helpfulness, generosity, gratitude. When asked if a person should forgive up to seven times, he answered that people should forgive seventy times seven times (Matt. 18:22)—in other words, endlessly. He rejected all vengeance and even asked forgiveness for those who killed him (Lk. 23:34). He recommended that we respond to violence with nonviolence. “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. If anyone hits you on one cheek, let him hit the other one too; if someone takes your coat, let him have your shirt as well. Give to everyone who asks you for something, and when someone takes what is yours, do not ask for it back. Do for others just what you want them to do for you” (Lk. 6:27–31). 2 Page 326
Although Jesus’s nonviolent, loving message has often been neglected over the centuries, it is spelled out clearly in the Sermon on the Mount sections of the New Testament (Matt. 5–7, Lk. 6). In the world of Jesus’s day, which esteemed force and exacted vengeance, his message must have been shocking.
Jesus was wary of an overly strict observance of laws that seemed detrimental to human welfare. About keeping detailed laws regarding the Sabbath, he commented, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mk. 2:27). 3 He did not confuse pious practices, common among the Jews of his day, with the larger ideal of virtue. He disliked hypocrisy and pretense (Matt. 23:5–8).
From what we can see in the gospels, Jesus showed many human feelings. He had close friends and spent time with them (Jn. 11:5), and he was disappointed when they were less than he had hoped for (Matt. 26:40). He wept when he heard of the death of one of his dearest friends (Jn. 11:33–36).
Jesus urged simplicity. He recommended that people “become like little children” (Matt. 18:3). He liked directness and strived to go beyond details to the heart of things.
Much of Jesus’s advice is good psychology, showing that he was a keen observer of human beings. For example, we are told that as you give, so shall you receive (Matt. 7:2) and that if you are not afraid to ask for what you want, you shall receive it (Matt. 7:7).
Jesus showed an appreciation for nature, in which he saw evidence of God’s care (Matt. 6:29). But Jesus did not look at nature with the detached vision of a scientist. He knew scripture well but was not a scholar. As far as we know, he was not a writer, and he left behind no written works. He showed almost no interest in money or in business. In adulthood, he probably did not travel far from his home territory, between the Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem. While he may have spoken some Greek in addition to his native Aramaic, he did not apparently have much interest in the Greco-Roman culture of his day.
Whether Jesus had a sense of humor is hard to know. The four gospels never mention that he laughed, thus giving him an image of solemnity. Yet some of his statements come alive when we see them as being spoken with ironic humor and even laughter (see, for example, Matt. 15:24–28). We do know that although he sometimes sought seclusion, Jesus seems to have enjoyed others’ company.
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Jesus had many female friends and followers. He seems to have treated women as equals, and he spoke to them in public without hesitation. In one gospel, he is shown asking a woman for a drink of water at a well (Jn. 4). In another gospel, he speaks with a Canaanite woman, whose daughter he cures (Matt. 15:21–28). We find repeated mention of the sisters Martha and Mary of Bethany as close friends of Jesus (see Jn. 11). The gospels also speak of other women disciples, such as Joanna and Susanna (Lk.8:3). The gospels tell how women stood by Jesus at his crucifixion, even when most of his male disciples had abandoned him. And the most prominent among the female disciples was Mary Magdalene, who was the first witness of his resurrection (Jn. 20:11–18).
Some people would like to see Jesus as a social activist. He cared strongly about the poor and the hungry, but he apparently was not a social activist of any specialized type. For example, the gospels do not record words of Jesus that condemn slavery or the oppression of women. Perhaps, like many others of his time, Jesus believed that God would soon judge the world, and this may have kept him from working for a specific reform. Instead, he preached basic principles of humane treatment, particularly of the needy and the oppressed (Matt. 25).
1. Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God will forgive you. Give to others, and God will give to you. Indeed, you will receive a full measure, a generous helping, poured into your hands—all that you can hold. The measure you use for others is the one that God will use for you.
2. —Luke 6:37–38 4
For those who would turn Jesus into a protector of the family and family values, the gospels present mixed evidence. When asked about the divorce practice of his day, Jesus opposed it strongly. He opposed easy divorce because it meant that a husband could divorce his wife for a minor reason, often leaving her unable to support herself or to remarry. He stated that the marriage bond was given by God (Mk. 10:1–12). And at his death, Jesus asked a disciple to care for his mother after he was gone (Jn. 19:26). But Jesus himself remained unmarried. If Jesus had a wife, that fact almost certainly would have survived in tradition or been mentioned somewhere in a gospel or other New Testament book. Moreover, there is no mention anywhere that Jesus ever had children.
Indeed, Jesus spoke highly of those who remained unmarried “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:12). 5 As an intriguing confirmation of Jesus’s unmarried state, it is now recognized that celibacy was valued by the Essenes, the semimonastic Jewish movement of that era, which may have had some influence on him. 6 In any case, Paul—one of the most important of the early Christians and missionaries—and generations of priests, monks, and nuns followed a celibate ideal that was based on the way Jesus was thought to have lived. In fact, the ideal of remaining unmarried for religious reasons remains influential in several branches of Christianity today.
The gospels mention Jesus’s brothers and sisters (Mk. 6:3). Some Christian traditions have held that these relatives were cousins or stepbrothers and stepsisters, hoping thereby to preserve the notion of his mother Mary’s permanent virginity. But it is now widely accepted that Jesus had actual brothers and sisters, who were children of his mother Mary and of Joseph. When we consider his relationship to his family members, it seems that Jesus at times was alienated from them. They quite naturally worried about him and apparently wished he were not so unusual and difficult. Yet Jesus, irritated by their claims on him, said publicly that his real family consisted not of his blood relatives, but of all those who hear the word of God and keep it (Mk. 3:31–33). After Jesus died, however, because of their blood relationship with Jesus, his family members were influential in the early Church, and the earlier disharmony was downplayed.Page 328
The Two Great Commandments
What, then, was Jesus’s main concern? His teachings, called the Two Great Commandments, combine two strong elements: a love for God and an ethical call for kindness toward others. These commandments already existed in Hebrew scripture (Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18), but Jesus gave them new emphasis by reducing all laws to the law of love: love God and love your neighbor (Matt. 22:37–40). Being fully aware of God means living with love for all God’s children. Like prophets before him, Jesus had a clear vision of what human society can be at its best—a Kingdom of God in which people care about each other, the poor are looked after, violence and exploitation are abandoned, and religious rules do not overlook human needs.
It may be that Jesus’s emphasis on morality was tied to the common belief in an imminent divine judgment. This belief seems to have been a particularly important part of the worldview of the Essenes, who thought of themselves as preparing for this new world. It was also essential to the thinking of John the Baptizer (also called John the Baptist), whom the Gospel of Luke says was related to Jesus (Lk. 1:36). John preached that the end of the world was near, when God would punish evildoers. As a sign of their purification, John immersed his followers in the water of the Jordan River. Jesus allowed himself to be baptized, and when John died, Jesus had his own followers continue John’s practice by baptizing others. Whether Jesus shared John’s view of the coming end of the world is debated. Some passages would seem to indicate that he did (see Mk. 9:1, 13:30; Matt. 16:28). This vision of impending judgment is called apocalypticism . In the apocalyptic view, the Kingdom of God would soon be a social and political reality.
Whatever Jesus’s views about the end times, his focus was on bringing about the Kingdom of God in each human heart. This would occur when people followed the Two Great Commandments and lived by the laws of love. Some of Jesus’s closest followers were among those who seem to have expected him to be a political leader, wanting him to lead the fight against the Roman overlords to establish a political kingdom of God. But Jesus refused. The Gospel of John records him as saying, “My kingdom is not of this world” (Jn.18:36). 7 Instead of political violence, Jesus chose a path of nonviolence.
EARLY CHRISTIAN BELIEFS AND HISTORY
The Book of Acts records that after Jesus’s ascension to heaven forty days following his resurrection, his disciples were gathered, full of fear, wondering what to do next. The Book of Acts then tells how the Spirit of God came upon them in the form of fire, giving them courage to spread their belief in Jesus as the Messiah. This first preaching of the Christian message has been called the Birthday of the Church.
The early Christian message was not complicated. It is summarized in the apostle Peter’s speech in Acts 2, which says that God is now working in a special way; that Jesus was the expected Messiah, God’s ambassador; and that these are the “final days” before God’s judgment and the coming of a new world. Early Christian practice required those who believed to be baptized as a sign of rebirth, to share their possessions, and to care for widows and orphans.
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The early Christian group that remained in Jerusalem seems to have been almost entirely Jewish and was led by James, called the Just because of his careful observance of Jewish practice. Being one of Jesus’s real brothers, James carried great authority. The Jewish-Christian Church, led by Jesus’s relatives, was a strong influence for the first forty years. Its members kept the Jewish holy days, prayed in the Jerusalem Temple, and conducted their services in Aramaic. The Jewish-Christian Church, however, was weakened by the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, and it seems to have disappeared over the next one hundred years. Meanwhile, the non-Jewish, Greek-speaking branch of early Christianity, led by Paul and others like him, began to spread throughout the Roman Empire.
Paul and Pauline Christianity
As the Jewish Christianity of Jerusalem and Israel weakened, Christianity among non-Jews grew because of the missionary Paul. Paul’s preaching in Greek, his energetic traveling, and his powerful letters spread his form of belief in Jesus far beyond the limits of Israel.
Originally named Saul, Paul was born of Jewish parentage in Tarsus, a town in the south of present-day Turkey. He was earnest about traditional Judaism and went to Jerusalem for study. At that time he was a Pharisee, and he was adamantly opposed to the new “Jesus movement,” which he saw as a dangerous messianic Jewish cult that could divide Judaism.
Paul, however, came to a new understanding of Jesus. The Book of Galatians says that he pondered the meaning of Jesus for three years in “Arabia” and “Damascus” (Gal. 1:17). In a more dramatic, later account, the Book of Acts relates that while Paul was on the road from Jerusalem to root out a cell of early Christian believers, he experienced a vision of Jesus. In it Jesus asked, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 8 (See Acts 9, 22, 26.) After several years of study in seclusion, Paul became convinced that Jesus’s life and death were the major events of a divine plan, and that Jesus was a cosmic figure who had entered this world in order to renew it. Consequently, as we will soon discuss, the focus in Paul’s thought is less on the historical Jesus and more on the meaning of the cosmic Christ.
Paul discovered his life’s mission: to spread belief in Christ around the Mediterranean, particularly among non-Jews, whom he found more receptive to his message. His use of the Greco-Roman name Paul, instead of his Jewish name Saul, shows his orientation to the non-Jewish world.
Paul’s missionary technique was the same in most towns. If the Book of Acts is correct in its portrayal of Paul’s missionary work, he would begin by visiting the local synagogue. There Paul would use Jewish scriptures, such as the Book of Isaiah, to explain his own belief that Jesus was the Messiah whom Jews had long been awaiting. Paul was unsuccessful with most Jews, who generally expected a royal Messiah, not a poor man who had been publicly executed. They sometimes even treated Paul as a traitor—especially when he said that it was not necessary to impose Jewish laws about diet and circumcision on non-Jewish converts to Christian belief.
Whether all Christians had to keep Jewish religious laws was a subject of intense debate in early Christianity. Christianity had begun as a movement of Jews who believed that Jesus was the expected Messiah; but it soon attracted followers who did not come from a Jewish background. Questions about practice led early Christianity to differentiate itself from Judaism, to define itself on its own terms. Did adult males who wished to be baptized also have to be circumcised? (Needless to say, adult male converts were not always enthusiastic about the practice of circumcision.) Did new converts have to keep the Jewish laws about diet? Did they have to keep the Jewish Sabbath? Should they read the Jewish scriptures?
Some early Christian preachers decided not to impose Jewish rules on non-Jewish converts, while others insisted that all Jewish laws had to be kept. The faction that insisted on upholding all Jewish laws, however, did not prevail. Ultimately, some elements of Judaism were retained and others were abandoned. For example, Jewish scriptures and weekly services were retained, but circumcision was replaced by baptism as a sign of initiation.
These efforts to define what it meant to be a Christian signaled a major turning point in Christianity. Paul’s conclusions, in particular, played a prominent role in shaping the movement. His views on the meaning of Jesus, on morality, and on Christian practice became the norm for most of the Christian world. This happened because of his extensive missionary activities in major cities of the Roman Empire and because he left eloquent letters stating his beliefs. Copied repeatedly, circulated, and read publicly, these letters have formed the basis for all later Christian belief.
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Paul’s training as a scholar of Jewish law made him acutely aware of human imperfection. He wrote that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:2-3). 9 He came to feel, in fact, that external written laws, such as those of Judaism, hurt more than they helped. In fact, the imposition of laws that could not be kept could only make human beings aware of their inadequacies.
For Paul, Jesus came from God to bring people a radical new freedom. Believers would no longer have to rely on written laws or to feel guilty for past misdeeds. Jesus’s death was a voluntary sacrifice to take on the punishment and guilt of everyone. Human beings thereby found redemption from punishment. Believers need only follow the lead of the Spirit of God, which dwells within them and directs them.
Thus, Paul preached that it is no longer by the keeping of Jewish laws that a person comes into right relationship with God ( righteousness ). Rather, it is by the acceptance of Jesus, who shows us God’s love and who was punished for our wrongdoing. What brings a person into good relationship with God “is not obedience to the Law, but faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16). 10
Despite his newfound sense of freedom, Paul did not abandon moral rules. Yet his notion of morality was no longer based on laws that were imposed externally—and kept grudgingly—but rather on an interior force that inspired people to do good deeds spontaneously. The life of Jesus was for Paul a proof of God’s love because God the Father had sent Jesus into the world to tell about God’s love. According to Paul, our awareness of God’s love will inspire us to live in a new and loving way.
Paul saw Jesus not only as teacher, prophet, and Messiah, but also as a manifestation of divinity. For Paul, Jesus was a cosmic figure—the preexistent image of God, the Wisdom of God (see Prov. 8), and the Lord of the universe. Jesus was sent into the world to begin a process of cosmic reunion between God and his human creation. Sin (wrongdoing) had brought to human beings the punishment of death. But Jesus’s death was an atonement for human sin, and the result was that the punishment of death was no longer valid. Jesus’s return to life was just the beginning of a process of eternal life for all people who have the Spirit of God within them.Page 332
The New Testament: Its Structure and Artistry
1. God’s love has been poured into our hearts.
2. —Rom. 5:5 11
What we know of Jesus and early Christianity comes largely from the New Testament. The New Testament, which is also at the core of Christianity, is used in religious services, read regularly, and carried throughout the world.
The New Testament is divided into four parts: (1) the Gospels, (2) the Acts of the Apostles, (3) the Epistles, and (4) Revelation. The gospels describe the life and teachings of Jesus. Although we now know that the facts surrounding their authorship are complex, tradition has attributed the gospels to four early followers—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who are called evangelists (Greek: “good news persons”). The Acts of the Apostles tells of the initial spread of Christianity, although its historical accuracy cannot be confirmed. The epistles are letters to early Christians, primarily by Paul. The New Testament ends with a visionary book, Revelation, which foretells in symbolic language the triumph of Christianity.
Altogether, there are twenty-seven books in the New Testament. All the books of the New Testament were written in Greek, the language of culture and commerce in the classical Mediterranean world of the first century. The quality of the Greek varies. In the book of Revelation, the Greek is considered rough, while in the Gospel of Luke and Acts it is considered particularly graceful.
The Gospels
We know of the life of Jesus primarily from the gospels, which are written in an extremely pictorial way. They are filled with powerful stories and images and have been the source of great inspiration for much later Christian art. Each of the four gospels is as unique in its artistry and style as would be four portraits of the same person painted by four different artists. The portraits would certainly be recognizably similar, but would also be different in such details as choice of background, clothing, angle of perspective, and so on. The same is true of the “portraits” of Jesus that are painted in the gospels: each gospel writer shows Jesus in a different way.
Despite their differences, the first three gospels show a family resemblance in stories, language, and order. They are thus called the Synoptic Gospels (synoptic literally means “together-see” in Greek, implying a similar perspective). The synoptic writers show Jesus as a messianic teacher and healer sent by God. It is generally thought that the Gospel of Mark was written first because it seems to be the primary source for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The Gospel of John, however, is recognizably different and relies on its own separate sources. It is possible that all the gospels were originally written to be used as readings in religious services, probably in conjunction with complementary readings from the Hebrew scriptures.
The Gospel of Matthew is thought to have been written for an audience with a Jewish background. For example, it portrays Jesus as the “new Moses,” a teacher who offers a “new Torah.” In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7), Jesus delivers his teachings on a mountain, just as Moses delivered the Ten Commandments from another mountain, Mount Sinai. The gospel also contains many quotations from the Hebrew scriptures, showing that Jesus was their fulfillment. The gospel may have had at least one earlier version, but the version that is now common is usually dated about 80–90 CE.Page 333
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THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
GOSPELS
Synoptic Gospels
1. Matthew (Matt.)
2. Mark (Mk.)
3. Luke (Lk.)
Non-Synoptic Gospel
1. John (Jn.)
HISTORY
1. Acts of the Apostles (Acts)
EPISTLES
Pauline Epistles
1. Romans (Rom.)
2. 1 Corinthians (1 Cor.)
3. 2 Corinthians (2 Cor.)
4. Galatians (Gal.)
5. Ephesians (Eph.)
6. Philippians (Phil.)
7. Colossians (Col.)
8. 1 Thessalonians (1 Thess.)
9. 2 Thessalonians (2 Thess.)
10. 1 Timothy (1 Tim.)
11. 2 Timothy (2 Tim.)
12. Titus
13. Philemon (Phlmn.)
14. Hebrews (Heb.)
Universal Epistles
1. James (Jas.)
2. 1 Peter (1 Pet.)
3. 2 Peter (2 Pet.)
4. 1 John (1 Jn.)
5. 2 John (2 Jn.)
6. 3 John (3 Jn.)
7. Jude
PROPHECY
1. Revelation (Rev.)
The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four gospels, which suggests that it is the oldest (possibly written about 70 CE). This gospel contains no infancy stories and begins instead with the adult public life of Jesus. In the original version, it ends with an account of Jesus’s empty tomb. The account of Jesus’s appearances after the resurrection (Mk. 16:9–19) is a later addition.
The Gospel of Luke is filled with a sense of wonder, perhaps because it speaks repeatedly of the miraculous action of the Spirit of God at work in the world. Some argue for an early date, but the consensus puts it between 80 and 90 CE. It has been called the “women’s gospel” because of its many accounts of women, including Jesus’s mother Mary, her cousin Elizabeth, his follower Mary Magdalene, and disciples such as Joanna and Susanna. This is a gospel of mercy and compassion, with a strong focus on the underdog.
The Gospel of John stands by itself. The time of its writing is difficult to pinpoint. Traditionally, it has been dated quite late—about 90 to 100 CE—because of its apparent elaboration of Christian doctrines. Yet details that might have come from an eyewitness suggest that parts may have been written earlier. Because it views human life as a struggle between the principles of light and darkness, students of the Gospel of John have wondered whether it was influenced by one or more religious movements of the period, such as the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism Page 334(see Chapter 10 ), Greek mystery religions, or Gnosticism (see Chapter 10 )—a movement that saw human life as a stage of purification to prepare the soul to return to God. 12 The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, beginning in 1947, has shown many similarities between the language of the Gospel of John and certain phrases found in the Qumran literature (for example, “sons of light and sons of darkness”). The Jewish origins of the gospel are now clear.
In the Gospel of John, the portrayal of Jesus is full of mystery. He is the incarnation of God, the divine made visible in human form. He speaks in cosmic tones: “I am the light of the world” (Jn. 9:5). “I am the bread of life” (Jn. 6:35). “You are from below; I am from above” (Jn. 8:23). 13 Scholars frequently question the historicity of these exact words, seeing them more as representing the author’s vision of the heavenly origin and nature of Jesus.
The central aesthetic image of the gospel is a ray of divine light that descends like a lightning bolt into our world, passing through and lighting up the darkness. Ultimately the light returns to its heavenly source, enabling human beings to follow. Most people, the gospel states, do not really understand the truth. Only those who have an open heart can see the true nature of Jesus as divine light. Water, bread, the vine, the shepherd, and the door are additional symbols used in the Gospel of Page 335John to indicate aspects of Jesus and of his meaning for the believer. These symbols later became regular features of Christian art.
The Acts of the Apostles
This book is really the second part of the Gospel of Luke, and scholars sometimes refer to the two books together as Luke-Acts. It is possible that the single work of Luke-Acts was divided in two in order to place the Gospel of John after the Gospel of Luke. Just as the Gospel of Luke portrays Jesus as moving inevitably toward his sacrifice in Jerusalem, so Acts portrays Paul in a parallel journey to his final sacrifice in Rome. At the heart of both books is a single beautiful image of a stone, dropped in a pond, that makes ever-widening ripples. Similarly, the life of Jesus makes ever-widening ripples as it spreads in a growing circle from its origin in Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
The Epistles
The word epistle means “letter.” It is an appropriate label for most of these works, which were written to instruct, to encourage, and to solve problems. Several epistles are long and formal; a few are brief and hurried. Some epistles seem to have been written to individuals; some, to individual churches; and others, for circulation among several churches. It appears that a few of the epistles were originally treatises (for example, Hebrews) or sermons (1 Peter).
The wide category of works called the epistles can be divided into two groups. The first includes those books that traditionally have been attributed to the early missionary Paul—the Pauline Epistles. The second group includes all the other epistles—called the Universal Epistles because they seem to be addressed to all believers. The genuine Pauline letters are the earliest works in the New Testament, dating from about 50 to 60 CE. The dating of the other epistles is debated, but some may have been finished as late as about 125 CE. Of the so-called Pauline Epistles, it is now recognized that Paul did not write several of them. However, writing in the name of a famous teacher after that person’s death was a common practice in the ancient world. It was meant not to deceive the reader, but to honor the teacher.
One factor that has made the epistles so much loved is their use of memorable images, many of which come from the Pauline letters. For example, life is compared to a race with a prize given at the end (1 Cor. 9:24), good deeds are like incense rising to God (2 Cor. 2:15), and the community of believers is like a solid building set on secure foundations (1 Cor. 3:9–17). Effective images also appear in the non-Pauline epistles: new Christians are compared to babies who long for milk (1 Pet. 2:2), and the devil is like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8).
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The letters are also interesting in their description of roles in the early Church. Thanks are given to many women for their help. Paul, for example, in various letters, mentions quite a few: Phoebe, Priscilla, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, Julia, Junia, Evodia, Syntyche, Nympha, and Apphia. Phoebe is called a helper and was quite possibly an official deacon (Rom. 16:1). Nympha owned a house at which a community of believers met (Col. 4:15). In his letter to Galatians, Paul contributed to Christianity one of its greatest passages on equality: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). 14
The themes of the epistles vary widely, but they focus generally on proper belief, morality, and church order. The topics include the nature and work of Jesus, God’s plan for humanity, faith, good deeds, love, the ideal marriage, community harmony, Christian living, the conduct of the Lord’s Supper, and the expected return of Jesus.
Revelation
This final book of the New Testament was originally written (possibly around 100 CE) as a book of encouragement for Christians who were under threat of persecution. Through a series of visions, the book shows that suffering will be followed by the final triumph of goodness over evil. The last chapters show the descent of the New Jerusalem from heaven and the adoration of Jesus, who appears as a lamb.
The language of Revelation is highly symbolic, deliberately using numbers and images in a way that would make the meaning clear to early Christians but obscure to others. For example, the lamb (Rev. 14:1) is Jesus, and the dragon with seven heads (Rev. 12:3) is the empire of Rome, a city built on seven hills. The number 666, the mark of the beast (mentioned in Rev. 13:18), may be the name of Emperor Nero, given in the form of numbers. Although long attributed to the author of the Gospel of John, Revelation is plainly—because of stylistic differences—by another hand. Some of its images were seminal to the development of later Christian art—particularly the adoration of the lamb, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the book of life, and the vision of heaven.
The Christian Canon
Some of the books in the New Testament were not accepted universally for several centuries. Agreement on which books belonged to the sacred canon of the New Testament took several hundred years. 15
Early Christians continued for the most part to accept and read the Hebrew scriptures, particularly those books—such as Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, the Psalms, and the Song of Songs—that they saw as foreshadowing the events of Christianity. The New Testament books, therefore, were added to the Hebrew scriptures already in existence. Christians thought of the Hebrew scriptures, which they called the Old Testament, as being fulfilled by the Christian scriptures, which they called the New Testament. The Christian Bible thus includes both the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament.
There is a whole spectrum of ways in which the Christian Bible is read and interpreted by Christians. One approach emphasizes the subjective aspect of the scriptures, interpreting them primarily as a record of beliefs. A contrasting approach sees the Christian Bible as a work of objective history and authoritative morality, Page 337dictated word for word by God. To illustrate, let’s consider how the two approaches interpret the stories of creation in the Book of Genesis. The conservative position interprets the six days of creation and the story of Adam and Eve quite literally, as historical records. On the other hand, the liberal approach interprets these stories primarily as moral tales that express God’s power, love, and sense of justice. There are similar contrasts between the conservative and liberal interpretations of miracles (for example, the virgin birth) in the New Testament.
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THE CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW
The New Testament and later creeds help define the Christian way of looking at the world. Most Christians agree on the following elements.
1. God Behind the activity of the universe is an eternal, intelligent power who created the universe as an expression of love. Traditional Christianity holds the belief that God consists of three “Persons”: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—together called the Trinity . The doctrine of the Trinity is said to be a mystery beyond complete human comprehension, but it hints that the nature of God is essentially a relationship of love.
2. The Father The loving and caring qualities of God are especially evident in the Father, whom Jesus constantly addressed. Although without gender, God the Father is frequently depicted as an elderly man, robed and bearded.
3. Jesus Christ Jesus is Son of the Father, but equally divine. Because he is the visible expression of God, he is called God’s Word and Image. The life and death of Jesus on earth are part of a divine plan to help humanity. Jesus willingly took on the punishment that, from the perspective of justice, should fall on all human beings who have done wrong. Some forms of Christianity also teach that Jesus’s life and death redeemed a basic sinfulness in human beings called original sin , which is inherited by all of Adam’s descendants. Jesus continues to live physically beyond the earth, but he will someday return to judge human beings and to inaugurate a golden age.
4. The Holy Spirit The Spirit is a divine power that guides all believers. In art, the Spirit is usually shown as a white dove.
5. The Bible God’s will and plan are expressed in the Bible, which was written by human beings under God’s inspiration. The Bible consists of the books of the Hebrew Bible—which Christians call the Old Testament—and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament.
6. Human life Human beings are on earth to help others, to perfect themselves, and to prepare for the afterlife. Suffering, when accepted, allows human beings to grow in insight and compassion.
7. Afterlife Human beings possess an immortal soul. Both body and soul ultimately will be rewarded in heaven or punished in hell. Many Christians also believe in a temporary intermediate state called purgatory, where less worthy souls are prepared after death for heaven.
These basic beliefs invite a variety of interpretation. In the first five centuries of Christianity, debate was frequent until these beliefs had been clearly formulated in statements of faith. In recent centuries, however, new and diverse interpretations of all aspects of Christian belief have emerged.
Most contemporary Christians hold a position that is somewhere in between the conservative and liberal poles of the spectrum. They believe that the Bible was inspired by God in its essentials, but they see it as requiring thoughtful human interpretation. Interpretation of the Bible has been and still is a major cause of conflict and division in Christianity. However, the debate has also been—and still is—a great source of intellectual vitality.
THE EARLY SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY
Christianity is a missionary religion. The Gospel of Mark tells how Jesus sent out his disciples in pairs to preach throughout the land of Israel (Mk. 6:7). Then the Gospel of Matthew ends with Jesus’s command, “Make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). 16 In the following discussion, we will see how Christianity spread in stages: from being a Jewish messianic movement in Israel, Christianity spread around the Mediterranean; then it became the official religion of the Roman Empire; and after the end of the empire in the West, Christianity spread to the rest of Europe. (Later it spread to the New World, Asia, and the South Pacific.)
Paul’s eagerness to spread his belief in Jesus took him to Asia Minor (Turkey), Greece, and Italy. Tradition holds that Peter, one of the original twelve apostles of Jesus, was already in Rome when Paul arrived, and that both Peter and Paul died there under the Emperor Nero about 64 CE.
At that point, early Christianity was only loosely organized. It was clear even then, though, that some kind of order was necessary. Influenced by the Roman Empire’s hierarchical political organization, Christians developed a style of Church organization that has been called monarchical (Greek: “one ruler”). Population centers would have a single bishop (Greek: episkopos, “overseer”). This person would be in charge of lower-ranking clergy.
In those days, before easy communication, a truly centralized Christianity was impossible. The bishops of the major cities thus played a significant role for the churches of the neighboring regions. Besides Rome, several other great cities of the Roman Empire became centers of Christian belief—particularly Antioch in Syria and Alexandria in Egypt ( Figure 9.1 ). Because the bishops of these important cities had more power than bishops of other, smaller cities, four early patriarchates arose: Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The word patriarch (Greek: “father-source”) came to apply to the important bishops who were leaders of an entire region.
However, when serious questions arose about doctrine and practice, the early Church leaders needed some way to answer them. On the one hand, they could seek a consensus from all other bishops by calling a Church council—an approach that the churches in the eastern part of the Roman Empire held to be the only correct practice. On the other hand, they could designate one bishop as the final authority. The bishop of Rome seemed to be a natural authority and judge for two reasons. First, until 330 CE Rome was the capital of the empire, so it was natural to think of the Roman bishop as a kind of spiritual ruler, like his political counterpart, the emperor. Second, according to tradition, Peter, the head of the twelve apostles, had lived his last days in Rome and had died there. He could thus be considered the first bishop of Rome. The special title pope comes from the Greek and Latin wordpapa (“father”), a title once used for many bishops but now applied almost exclusively to the bishop of Rome. It is also, however, a term still used for the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria.
The nature of papal authority and the biblical basis for it (Matt. 16:18–19) have been debated. Nonetheless, this hierarchical model of Christianity became common Page 339in Western Europe. Although the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, which you will examine later, weakened the acceptance of papal authority, the Catholic bishops of Rome have continued to claim supremacy over all Christianity, and the Roman Catholic Church maintains this claim. Christianity in Eastern Europe, however, as we will see later in the chapter, developed and has maintained a different, less centralized form of organization.
The Roman Empire made many contributions to Christianity. In the first two centuries of the common era, Christianity was often persecuted because it was associated with political disloyalty. When Constantine became emperor, however, he saw in Christianity a glue that would cement the fragments of the entire empire. In his Edict of Toleration, Constantine decreed that Christianity could function publicly without persecution, and he supported the religion by later asking its bishops to meet and define their beliefs. This they did at the first major Church council, the First Council of Nicea, held in Asia Minor in 325 CE. By the end of the fourth century, Christianity had been declared the official religion of the entire Roman Empire.Page 340
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GREEK AND ROMAN RELIGIONS AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY
If you visit Rome, take a walk from the Colosseum westward through the old Roman Forum, along the Via Sacra (“sacred way”). Because the large stones of the ancient road are still there, you can easily imagine what it must have been like for a visitor to Rome in the first century CE. At the end of the Forum rises the steep Capitoline Hill, the ancient center of government and the location of a temple to Jupiter, the father of the Roman gods. You also will notice that just beyond the bare pillars are bell towers and crosses—signs that many of the Forum’s buildings were long ago turned into Christian churches.
From its Middle Eastern roots, Christianity grew and spread within the Roman Empire, where it displaced the established religions of the Greeks and the Romans—but slowly. In fact, Christianity did not become the official state religion until the end of the fourth century. Because Rome in classical times was the largest city of the world, other religions from faraway lands had also found their way there. (Rome in the imperial period was a great crossroads, much like London or Los Angeles today.) Like the temples that survive as Christian churches, elements from many of these religions were absorbed into the new religion of Christianity.
Because some of their gods came from the same source, the classical religions of the Greeks and the Romans show many similarities. Yet their religions were made of layers and were constantly evolving. The earliest layers, existing before recorded history, came from the veneration of local gods and nature spirits—often worshiped at sacred wells, groves, and roadside shrines. The next layer came from an array of sacred figures that were brought to Europe about 2000 BCE. The same pantheon appears in the Vedas, and some of these gods are still worshiped by Hindus today. Other layers were added when both the Greeks and the Romans absorbed gods from neighboring cultures. Great heroes of the past could be declared to be gods. Later, so could emperors. (One, when he thought that he was dying, is said to have amusingly remarked, “I think that I am becoming a god.”)
There were occasional attempts at creating a complete system of deities. We find one such attempt, for example, in the works of Homer. The Iliad and the Odysseyplaced the major Greek gods on Mount Olympus, living in a kind of extended family under the care of the sky god Zeus. Later, the Romans borrowed those ideas from the Greeks. There were also attempts to bring statues of major gods together for worship in the same place. The Athenians put statues of their most important gods at the Acropolis—a fact that Paul noticed and mentioned when he preached in Athens (Acts 17:19–23). The Romans placed multiple temples in the region of the Forum, and then the emperor Hadrian created the circular Pantheon (Greek: pan, “all”; theos, “god”), which had altars for the deities that he thought most important. Today the Pantheon—perhaps the most beautiful of all classical Roman buildings—is a Catholic church.
Despite their speculative forays, Greek and Roman religions involved practices as much as doctrine. In the days when medicine was undeveloped, charms and auspicious ceremonies were highly valued. Hence ritual, carefully performed, was essential. Ceremonies were held on festival days throughout the year. Romans had about thirty major festivals and many lesser ones—most with specific purposes, such as defense, fertility, and good harvest. These were largely acts of public religion, performed for the welfare of the nation. Thus, it is not surprising that Christianity continued such practices in developing its liturgical year, anchored in Christmas (the winter festival) and Easter (the spring rite of new birth). Saints’ feast days, which were marked by special blessings and rituals, were similar to earlier veneration of the many gods.
Of great importance to the formation of Christianity were the Greek and Roman “mystery religions,” so named because initiates vowed not to disclose the details of their initiations and practices. These typically involved instruction, a purification rite, a sharing of sacred food or drink, and a revelatory experience. We see clear echoes in the early training of would-be Christians (the “catechumens”), in baptism, and in Eucharistic rites.
As the Roman Empire expanded during the time of Jesus and early Christianity, it imported the exotic worship of gods from Asia Minor (Turkey), Persia, and Egypt. Among the first religious imports was worship of the goddess Cybele, “the Great Mother,” and Isis, a mother figure from Egypt. Such worship of goddesses undoubtedly influenced the growing Christian cult of Mary. From Persia came worship of the sun god Mithras, which practiced baptism in the blood of a bull and a ritual sacred meal. Evidence of worship involving Mithras has been found as far away from Rome as London.
As you end your walk along the Roman Forum, you may think of other parallels. Early images of a beardless Jesus, found in Christian burial chambers, resemble images of Apollo and Dionysus. The tendency to treat Zeus or Jupiter as the supreme god—as was shown by the great Temple of Jupiter that crowned the Capitoline Hill—may have helped convert the Roman Empire to monotheism. The ritual meal of Mithraism has echoes in the Christian Lord’s Supper—in fact, the ancient church of San Clemente in Rome is built upon a Mithraeum, a Mithraic place of worship.
The exact amount of Greco-Roman religious influence on Christianity’s evolution will never be entirely clear. But the influences we’ve reviewed remind us that all world religions were once new religions that were built, in many different ways, upon what came before them. At the same time, the ability of a new religion to adapt existing religions could help the new religion to be accepted and understood—as we see so well in the case of Christianity.
Thus the partnership of Christianity with the Roman Empire marked an entirely new phase and a significant turning point for the religion. Christianity formalized its institutional structure of bishops and priests, who had responsibilities within the set geographical units—based on imperial political units—of dioceses and parishes. And because it now had the prestige and financial support that came with government endorsement, Christianity could enthusiastically adopt imperial Roman architecture, art, music, clothing, ceremony, administration, and law. Most important, through church councils and creeds, Christianity clarified Page 341and defined its worldview. Just as historians had written about the history of Rome, so writers such as Eusebius (c. 260–c. 339) came to record the history of Christianity.
Because Christianity in Western Europe spread from Rome, much of it was distinctively Roman in origin—especially its language—Latin. Latin was the language of church ritual and scholarship in the West. The Bible had also been translated into Latin. Indeed, scholars often say that though the Roman Empire disintegrated in the late fifth century, it actually lived on in another form in the Page 342Western Church. The pope replaced the emperor of Rome, but the language, laws, architecture, and thought patterns of Rome would continue fairly undisturbed in the West for more than a thousand years.
INFLUENCES ON CHRISTIANITY AT THE END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
The Roman Empire was collapsing in the West, and it would end there in 476 CE. At the same time, new sources of energy influenced the further development of Christianity. Two individuals who had a great impact on Christianity were a bishop, Augustine, and a monk, Benedict.Page 343
Augustine
Augustine (354–430 CE) was born in North Africa in the later days of the western Roman Empire. Although today we think of North Africa as being quite different and separate from Europe, in Augustine’s day it was still a vital part of the Roman Empire.
As a young adult, Augustine left his home in North Africa for Italy to make his name as a teacher of speech. After a short time in Rome, he won a teaching position in Milan. He became seriously interested in Christianity as a result of his acquaintance with Ambrose, the bishop of the city. While in his garden one day, Augustine thought he heard a child’s singsong voice repeating the phrase, Tolle, lege (“pick up, read”). 17 Augustine, who had been studying the letters of Paul, picked up a copy of the epistles that lay on a nearby table. When he opened the book, what he read about the need for inner change pierced him to the heart, and he felt that he must totally reform his life. Augustine sought out Ambrose and soon asked to be baptized.
Augustine decided to return to North Africa to devote himself to church work. Ordained as a priest and then as a bishop, he decided to live a monastic style of life in the company of other priests. Although he had had a child with a mistress before his conversion, Augustine now preached an attitude toward sex and marriage that encouraged a growing Christian suspicion of the body. A reversal of those attitudes would begin only a thousand years later with the thought and work of the reformer Martin Luther, who had been a celibate member of the Augustinian order of friars, but who later married.
In the years after his conversion, Augustine wrote books that were influential in the West for centuries. His Confessions was the first real autobiography in world literature, and it details Augustine’s growth and conversion. The City of God was a defense of Christianity, which some people in his day blamed for the decline of the Roman Empire. The Trinity was Augustine’s explanation of the relationship between God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. He also wrote to oppose the priest Pelagius, a thinker who held a more optimistic view of human nature than Augustine did.
Augustine had incalculable influence on Western Christianity. He was the authority in Christian theology until the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. He was an influence, as well, on Reformation thinkers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. In short, Western Christianity was basically Augustinian Christianity for over a thousand years.
Benedict and the Monastic Ideal
As mentioned earlier, Augustine, after his conversion, chose to become a priest and live with other priests and monks in a life devoted to prayer and study. This monastic way of life became a significant part of Christianity. It is important to remember that monastic life was not just a religious choice. In the days when life was less secure, when work options were severely limited, and when marriage inevitably brought many children (of whom up to half might die young), the life of a monk offered extraordinary freedom. The monastic life provided liberation from daily cares, time to read and write, a wealth of friendships with interesting people, and a strong sense of spiritual purpose.Page 344
In fact, monks and nuns are found in many religious traditions today, and monasticism, far from being odd or rare, is a fairly universal expression of piety. Monasticism appears not only in Christianity but also in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism; and in Judaism, the celibate monastic life was carried on among the Essenes for approximately two hundred years.
A monk is not necessarily a priest, nor need a priest be a monk. A monk is simply any male who chooses to leave society to live a celibate life of religious devotion, whereas a priest is a person authorized to lead public worship. In the early days of Christianity, priests were often married and thus were not monks. However, under the influence of monasticism, Western priests were gradually expected to resemble monks and to be unmarried.
Christian monasticism probably sprang from a number of influences. One may have been the Essene movement and another may have been the fact that Jesus had never married. We might recall that Jesus spoke positively of those who do not marry “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:12). 18 Paul also was without a wife and recommended that state heartily for others (1 Cor. 7:32–35). Another influence on Christian monasticism came from Egypt, where hermits had been living in caves even before Jesus’s time. Lastly, once the government stopped persecuting Christians, becoming a monk or nun was an important way for a Christian to show special religious fervor.
The first Christian monks that we know of are called the Desert Fathers: Paul the Hermit, Anthony of Egypt, Paphnutius, Pachomius, and Simon the Stylite. There were also women (of apparently shady backgrounds) among them: Saint Pelagia the Harlot and Saint Mary the Harlot. These individuals all turned away from the world to live what they thought of as a more perfect type of life. The movement may have shown a lack of interest in the needs of the world, but the movement also expressed a longing for the life of paradise—for joy, lack of conformity, individuality, and love of God. In fact, the monastic style of life was often called “the life of the angels.”
The monastic movement in the West was greatly influenced and spread by a Latin translation of the Life of Anthony, the Egyptian monk. The movement took root in southern France and Italy. The real founder of Western monasticism was Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–c. 547 CE). Benedict was born into a wealthy family near Rome but fled to live in a cave, where he began to attract attention and followers who joined him in the monastic life. Eventually, Benedict and his followers built a permanent monastery on the top of Monte Cassino, south of Rome. From there the movement spread and became known as the Benedictine order.Page 345
Benedict’s influence came from his Rule for Monks. Based on the earlier Regula Magistri (“rule of the master”) and on the New Testament, the Rule gave advice about how monks should live together throughout the year. It stipulated that monks should pray each week the entire group of 150 psalms (biblical poems), spend time in manual labor, and remain at one monastery. It opposed excess in any way, yet it was sensible—for example, it allowed wine because, as it lamented, the monks could not be persuaded otherwise. The Rule became the organizing principle for all Western monasticism. It is still followed today by Benedictines. 19
Benedictine monks became the missionary force that spread Christianity—and Roman architecture and culture—throughout Western Europe. 20 Among the great Benedictine missionaries were the monk Augustine (d. 604 CE), who was sent as a missionary to England by Pope Gregory I, and Boniface (c. 675–754 CE), who spread Christianity in Germany.
1. What can be sweeter to us, dear brethren, than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold, in His loving kindness the Lord shows us the way of life.
2. —Saint Benedict’s Rule for Monks 21
THE EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH
Up to this point, our focus has been on Christianity in Western Europe. But another form of Christianity, known as the Eastern Orthodox Church, developed and spread in Russia, Bulgaria, the Ukraine, Romania, Greece, and elsewhere. These were regions that learned their Christianity from missionaries sent out from Constantinople, which Constantine had established as his imperial capital in 330 CE. Orthodox , meaning “correct belief,” is used to designate Christianity in much of the East. The name’s Greek roots—orthos, “straight,” and doxa, “opinion,” “thought”—reflect Eastern Christianity’s desire to define its beliefs and keep them unchanged.
Early Development
In the earliest centuries of Christianity, when communication was slow and authority was rather decentralized, the bishops of Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, and Alexandria, though sometimes at odds in their theology, were looked to for guidance and authority. They were somewhat eclipsed, however, when Constantine made the small fishing village of Byzantion (Byzantium) the new capital of the Roman Empire. He officially named it New Rome, but it was soon called Constantinople—“Constantine’s City.” (Today it is Istanbul.) The large population of Constantinople, its importance as a governmental center, and its imperial support of Christianity all united to elevate the status of the bishop of Constantinople. Now called a patriarch, he became the most influential of all the bishops in the East.
Constantine had hoped to strengthen the Roman Empire by placing its capital—now Constantinople—closer to the northern frontier. From there, soldiers could be sent quickly to protect the frontier against the many barbarian tribes that lived in the north. But Constantine had, in fact, planted the seeds for an inevitable division of Christianity into Eastern and Western Churches. For a time there were two emperors—of East and West—although this did not work well. The Latin-speaking Western empire, as we have seen, ended in the fifth century, and Western Christianity developed independently. The Greek-speaking Eastern empire, centered in Constantinople, spread its own form of Christianity and continued until its fall in the Muslim conquest of 1453.Page 346
The Orthodox Church is generally divided along ethnic and linguistic lines—Russian, Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Romanian. But all these churches accept the statements of faith of the first seven Church councils, particularly those of the first council of Nicea (325 CE) and the council of Chalcedon (451 CE). The Orthodox Church has always held to a decentralized, consensus-based model. Although it does accept in theory that the bishop of Rome has a “primacy among equals,” it holds that decisions concerning all of Christianity should be made collectively, in consultation with all patriarchs and bishops. Thus only Church councils are of ultimate authority.
Monasticism in the Eastern Church
As in the West, the monastic movement was an important aspect of the Eastern Church. It spread northward from Egypt and Syria into Asia Minor, where its greatest practitioners were the fourth-century Church leaders, Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335–394), Gregory Nazianzen (c. 329–389), and Basil of Caesarea (c. 330–379), who set the pattern for the monastic movement in Orthodoxy . Basil wrote recommendations for monastic living that are still followed today in Orthodox Christianity. Greek-speaking monks of the eastern part of the Roman Empire carried Christianity from Constantinople into Russia and Eastern Europe. The ninth-century brothers Cyril and Methodius are the most famous of these missionary monks, because they or their disciples are said to have authored the Cyrillic alphabet, based on the Greek alphabet, which is in common use in Eastern Europe and Russia today.
Eastern Orthodoxy has created great monastic centers. The most famous is on Mount Athos in Greece, the current center of monasticism in that region. All Orthodox branches have sent representatives there for monastic training, and to visit or study there is considered a great honor. 22 Other monastic centers grew up Page 347in Romania, Bulgaria, the Ukraine, and Russia. Many of these monasteries still exist and may be visited today.
Eastern Orthodox Beliefs
Debate over several questions helped define and differentiate the Orthodox churches in their early development. One issue was the nature of Jesus Christ: How is Jesus related to God? Is God the Father greater than Jesus? If Jesus is divine as well as human, is he two persons or one person? And how did Jesus exist before his human life began? Some believers stressed the human nature of Jesus, while others stressed his divinity. The controversies eventually led to the creation and adoption in the fourth century of the Nicene Creed, which is accepted not only by the Eastern Orthodox but also by all traditional Western Christians. Because the creed was created to overcome several heresies, it speaks of the divine nature of Jesus in some detail:
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one essence with the Father; by whom all things were made, both in heaven and on earth; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man. 23
Even after the Nicene Creed, one school held that the divine and human natures of Christ were two separate persons, not one. Others argued that Jesus had only one nature, not two. The Council of Chalcedon (in 451 CE) declared that Jesus had two natures—divine and human—that were united in only one person.
After the major Church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries, certain groups of Christians, with differing views about the nature of Jesus, were labeled heretical. They continued to exist, however, though not in communion with the mainstream. Among those churches that did not accept the formulations of some early Church councils were the Church of the East, existing in Syria and the Middle East; the Coptic Church of Egypt; and the Church of Ethiopia. The variety of these early churches exemplifies the diversity of thought that existed among Christian groups in the first few centuries of the common era.
Another defining controversy, which has had lasting influence, occurred over the use of images for religious practice. We might recall that one of the Ten Commandments prohibits the making of images (Exod. 20:4), and Jews, as a result, have generally refrained from creating religious images. Islam has a similar prohibition, as do some forms of Protestant Christianity today. The argument over making and using images reached a crisis when the Byzantine Emperor Leo III (680–740 CE) commanded the destruction of all images of Jesus, Mary, and the angels. It is possible that he did this for political as well as religious reasons, hoping to build bridges to Islam.
However, John of Damascus (c. 676–749), a monk and writer, came strongly to the defense of religious images—or icons , as they are often called (the Greek term eikon means “image”). John argued that images serve the same purpose for the illiterate as the Bible does for those who can read. He also argued that God, by becoming incarnate in Jesus, did not disdain the material world. Icons, he said, were Page 348simply a continuation of that manifestation of divine love shown through the physical world. Church councils later affirmed the use of images, thus putting an indelible stamp on the practices of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which glories in the veneration of religious paintings.
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INSIDE A GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH
In his book Eleni, Nicholas Gage documents his childhood in Greece during World War II and the civil war that followed it. His memories include this description of the Greek Orthodox church in his native village of Lia. The church was destroyed by the Nazis.
For seven centuries the Church of the Virgin had nourished the souls of the [villagers of Lia]. Its interior was their pride and their Bible. No one needed to be literate to know the Holy Scriptures, for they were all illustrated here in the frescoes painted by the hand of monks long vanished into anonymity. In the soaring vault of the cupola, Christ the All-Powerful, thirty times the size of a mortal man, scrutinized the congregation below, his Gospel clasped in his hand. In the spaces between the windows, the prophets and apostles, painted full-length with bristling beards and mournful eyes, made their eternal parade toward the altar.
The villagers of Lia never tired of staring at the wonders of the Church of the Virgin: the walls glowed with every saint and martyr, the twelve feast days, the Last Supper, the life of the Virgin, and as a final warning, on the wall near the door, the Last Judgment, where bizarre dragons and devils punished every sort of evil, with the priests in the front rank of the sinners.
The jewel of the church was the magnificent golden carved iconostasis, the shimmering screen which hid the mysteries of the sanctuary until the priest emerged from the Royal Doors carrying the blood and body of Christ. The iconostasis held four tiers of icons, splendid with gold leaf and jewels, and between the sacred pictures, the native wood-carvers had allowed their imagination to create a fantasy of twining vines and mythical birds and beasts perched in the lacy fretwork. 24
Cracks in the unity of Christianity appeared early, but the first great division occurred in 1054, when disagreements brought the bishops of Rome and Constantinople to excommunicate each other. Despite the fact that the excommunications at last have been revoked, there remains a strong sense of separation.
Although cultural differences assisted the separation, there were small doctrinal differences, as well. The most famous concerned the doctrine of the Trinity. Did the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father or the Son or from both? The oldest and traditional position held that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. Yet it became common in the West to say that the Spirit proceeds from both Father and Son. The Latin word filioque (“and from the Son”) was added to creeds in the West from an early period and also began to be used in Rome in the early eleventh century. The Eastern Church rejected the notion as an improper addition to the Nicene Creed and cited it as a main reason for splitting off from the Western Church. Another dividing issue was the growing power of the pope and the claim that the bishop of Rome was the head of all Christians. Scholars today, however, point out the inevitability of separation because of many factors, such as distance, differences of language, and the political growth of Northern and Eastern Europe.
Orthodox belief is, in summary, quite similar to that which emerged in the West and eventually became mainstream Christianity. The doctrinal differences are quite small, but the Orthodox Church differs in emphasis. Mainstream Western Christianity Page 349(Catholicism and Protestantism) has focused on the death of Jesus as an atonement for sin. Some scholars have said that focus indicates a more “legal” emphasis: God is viewed as a judge, and punishment and repentance are paramount. Eastern Christianity has put more emphasis on a mystical self-transformation that human beings can experience through contact with Christ. As a consequence, Orthodox Christian art and literature focus less on the crucifixion of Jesus and more on his resurrection.
With the collapse of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, the Orthodox Church has regained some of its earlier strength. Church buildings that were banned from religious use have been transferred back to Church ownership and restored. It is notable that after the fall of communism, Russian authorities decided to rebuild the Cathedral of the Holy Savior in Moscow, which Stalin had destroyed and replaced with a swimming pool. The Russian Orthodox Church was also successful in having laws passed that affirmed its special status, thereby giving it assistance against the missionary efforts of some other religious groups.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Mar Saba Monastery
One of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East is Mar Saba Monastery. It is famous for the remains of its renowned founder, Saba, which are kept in the monastery church. The monastery also contains the remains of John of Damascus, the early scholar who defended the veneration of images.
On the way to Bethlehem, I stopped at Mar Saba Monastery. I had arranged to enter the monastery long before I had left on my trip. Yet it was still difficult to Page 350persuade the guardians to let me inside. At the front door were three burly men and about eight children. I was asked to sit on a stone and one man brought me tea. The conversation progressed. At last, the taxi driver was successful in convincing the guards, the door opened, and I was led inside.
The monastery is a cluster of white buildings, domes, and towers on the western side of a steep gulch. Down below, a stream meanders. On the other side of the gulch are small dark caves. I was helped by a monk. We passed through a courtyard and soon entered the church. It was of medium size, but dark, except for gold frames on the icons and the few burning candles. The monk led me to the right, to the remains of Mar Saba, the founder of this monastery. I knelt to kiss the cloth that covered the relics, and I stayed a few minutes to pray. I then asked, “May I also venerate the remains of John of Damascus?” “I’m sorry,” the monk said. “His remains are not available at the moment. They are in a room that is being renovated.”
The monk led me to the left of the church, and we passed through a small wooden door. Outside, we stood on a long outdoor porch that looked across the gulch to the dark caves on the other side.
“Where do you come from originally?” I asked the monk. Because his eyes were light blue, he did not seem native to the region. “I come from Russia,” he said. “My parents are not religious, and they don’t understand why I am here. I came several times to visit, and I felt at home. This seemed like the right place for me. So I asked to join.”
“What do you like about this place?” I asked.
“There are several things,” he said. “First, the other monks are kind—like brothers in a family. And here I can find silence, which is so difficult to find in the world. Also, believe it or not, there are things that are funny and make me laugh. For example, sometimes visitors look across to the caves. They hope to see a hermit. They ask me, ‘Does anyone live over there?’ Although hermits did formerly live there, there are none right now. But I hate to disappoint the visitors, and I am tempted sometimes to say, ‘Oh yes, I just saw an old hermit there early this morning. If you wait here a few hours you may see one, too.’ But I work hard to avoid that temptation!” We both laughed.
The monk led me back through the church and we returned to the gate. The same burly men were outside. I gave a tip to the monk at the gate, then to the guardians, and finally I gave coins to each of the children, who helped me politely into my waiting taxi.
CHRISTIANITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES
From its earliest days, when it was just another exotic “Eastern” religion in the Roman Empire, Christianity had made astonishing leaps—at first facing persecution, then becoming the official religion of the empire, and finally rising as the religion of all Europe. Christianity also existed on a smaller scale and in varied forms in Ethiopia, the Middle East, and India.
There were many reasons for the growth of Christianity. It preached a gospel of mercy and hope, offered divine help, promised an afterlife, treated the sick, and aided the poor. It taught skills in agriculture and architecture, introduced books, and spread use of the technology of the time. Imagine how a candlelit church at Easter—with its music, incense, candles, jeweled books, glass windows, and gorgeously robed priests—must have appeared to people who were not yet Christians. The effect must have been intoxicating. A legendary story tells of Russian ministers who attended a service at Aghia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople about 988 CE. When they returned home to Kiev, they said that during the cathedral service they had not known whether they were on earth or in heaven.
Although many of the religious practices in both Rome and Constantinople were Roman in origin, the two centers eventually split because of differences. The existence of several patriarchates in the East kept any one of them from becoming a single ruling power. However, the Roman Church in the West had no competitors for power in its region and thus grew in authority and strength. The pope, as the bishop of Rome, asserted his dominion over all Christians, an assertion that was not widely opposed in the West until the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century.
The long-term effect was that the practices of the Roman Church would set the standard for language, practice, doctrine, church calendar, music, and worship throughout Western Europe and then beyond, wherever European influence traveled. (To get a sense of the far-reaching impact of Roman culture, consider the fact that the book you are now reading—long after the Roman Empire has ended and probably thousands of miles from Rome—is written in the Latin alphabet. The capital letters come from the classical Latin of Rome, and the lowercase letters were created by Christian monks and clerics.)
The growing size of the Christian population and the increasing cultural dominance of Christianity created a climate for a wide variety of religious expression: devotional and mystical movements, the founding of new religious communities, the Crusades and the Inquisition, reform movements, and new interpretations of the Christian ideal. Over time, traditional Church authority was questioned, giving rise to a search for new sources of authority.
Christian Mysticism
The word mysticism in theistic religions indicates a direct experience of the divine and a sense of oneness with God. Although not always approved of by Church authorities, this sort of transcendent experience is nevertheless an important part of Christianity. Christian mystics have spoken of their direct contact with God, sometimes describing a dissolution of all boundaries between themselves and God. Accounts of their experiences speak of intriguing states of consciousness.Page 352
The fact that Jesus felt an intimate relationship with God, whom he called Father, provided a basis for seeing Jesus as a role model for all Christian mystics. The Gospel of John, which has a strong mystical tendency, sees Jesus in this light. We also see mysticism in some letters of Paul. For example, Paul describes himself as having been taken up to “the third heaven” and having heard there things that could not be put into words (2 Cor. 12:1–13). Many monks and nuns from the earliest days of Christianity yearned to experience God, and mystical passages are common in the writings of Origen, Augustine, and Gregory of Nyssa. 25 Origen (c. 185–254) was the first of many Christians who would interpret the biblical Song of Songs mystically. He saw the young lover as Jesus and saw his beloved as a symbol of the mystic, “who burned with a heavenly love for her bridegroom, the Word of God.” 26
Mystical experience was especially prized in the West during the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226 CE) is possibly the best-known medieval mystic. Originally a playboy and son of a wealthy trader, Francis embraced a life of poverty in order to imitate the life of Jesus. He also showed a joyful love of nature, calling the sun and moon his brother and sister. One of the greatest Christian mystics was Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328), a German priest whose description of God as being beyond time and space, as “void,” and as “neither this nor that” 27 has captured the interest of Hindus and Buddhists as well as Christians.
Many mystics were women. In recent years, the mystical songs of the medieval Benedictine nun Hildegard of Bingen (c. 1098–1179) have become popular through the availability of numerous recordings. An Englishwoman, known as Julian (or Juliana) of Norwich (c. 1342–1416), had a series of mystical experiences, which she later described in her book Revelations of Divine Love. She wrote of experiencing the feminine side of God. “God is as really our Mother as he is our Father. He showed this throughout, and particularly when he said that sweet word, ‘It is I.’ In other words, ‘It is I who am the strength and goodness of Fatherhood; I who am the wisdom of Motherhood.’” 28 One of the most famous female mystics was Teresa of Avila (1515–1582), a Spanish nun who wrote in her autobiography about her intimacy with God. A dramatic statue by Bernini at the Roman church of Santa Maria della Vittoria shows Teresa lost in ecstasy.Page 353
The mystical approach to Christianity was counterbalanced by Christian attempts to offer reasoned, philosophical discussion of primary beliefs. The religious communities of Franciscans and Dominicans—discussed later in this chapter—were especially active in this work. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a Dominican priest, is the best known. In two major works, the Summa Theologiae and Summa Contra Gentiles, he blended the philosophical thought of Aristotle with Christian scripture and other Christian writings to present a fairly complete Christian worldview. Even he, however, was swayed by the appeal of mystical experience. At the end of his life, after a particularly profound experience of new understanding brought on by prayer, he is said to have remarked that all he had written was “like straw” in comparison to the reality that could be understood directly through mystical experience.
1. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
2. —Prayer attributed to Francis of Assisi 29
The Crusades, the Inquisition, and Christian Control
During the fourth and fifth centuries and thereafter, Christians all over Europe made pilgrimages to the land where Jesus had lived and died, and the Emperors Constantine and Justinian had built churches there to encourage this practice. Muslims, though, took control of Jerusalem in the seventh century, and by the eleventh century, Christian pilgrimage had become severely restricted. To guarantee their own safety in pilgrimage and their access to the “Holy Land,” some Europeans thought that they had a right to seize control of the land of Israel and adjacent territory. Attempts to take over the Holy Land were called the Crusades—military expeditions that today might be described as religious enthusiasm gone badly astray.
The First Crusade began in 1095, and Jerusalem was taken after a bloody battle in 1099. Europeans took control of Israel and kept it for almost two hundred years, until they lost their last bit of Israel, at Acre near the port of Haifa, in 1291. The suffering inflicted on Muslims and Christians alike was appalling, and most crusaders died not of wounds but of illness. Many Eastern Christians, too, died at the hands of crusaders because they were mistaken for Muslims. The Crusades also did ideological damage because they injured Christianity in their promotion of the ideal of a soldier who kills for religious reasons—something quite foreign to the commandments of Jesus. The romantic notion of the Christian soldier, “marching as to war,” has remained in some forms of Christianity ever since.
One significant development in Christianity was the founding of nonmonastic religious communities, called religious orders. An order is a religious organization of men or women who live communal celibate lives; follow a set of written rules (Latin: ordo); and have a special purpose, such as teaching or nursing. The most famous medieval order was the Franciscan order, begun by Francis of Assisi, who idealized poverty and worked to help the poor. Other orders were the Dominicans, who became teachers and scholars, and the Knights Templar, who protected the pilgrimage sites and routes. Most orders also accepted women, who formed a separate division of the order.
In another development of the times, as Western Europe became almost fully Christianized, Jews, Muslims, and heretics were considered to be religiously and politically dangerous. Jews were forced to live a life entirely separate from Christians; nontraditional Christians who had emerged in southern France were killed, and an effort began that would rid Spain and Sicily of Muslim influence.
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The Inquisition received its name from its purpose—to “inquire” into a person’s religious beliefs. Church authorities set up an organization to guarantee the purity of Christian belief, and its aim was to root out variant forms of Christianity that were considered heretical—divisive and dangerous to public order. Heretics were ferreted out, questioned, tortured, and, if found guilty, burned to death.
The Inquisition was first active in southern France in the thirteenth century, and the same inquisitorial procedures were later employed in Spain. We might recall that in the fifteenth century there was a large-scale attempt by Christian rulers to “reconquer” all of Spain. When all Spanish territory had been taken over by Christian rulers, Jews and Muslims were forced to convert to Christianity or to leave Spain. Many did leave, going particularly to Morocco and Egypt. Those who stayed had to accept baptism and to publicly practice Christianity. Some of these new converts continued, however, to practice their old religions in private. The Inquisition attempted to discover who these “false Christians” were, and the religious order of Dominicans was especially active in this pursuit.
Tomás de Torquemada (c. 1420–1498), a Spanish Dominican, was appointed first inquisitor general by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1483 and grand inquisitor by Pope Innocent VIII in 1487. As he oversaw the Inquisition in Spain, he became notorious for his cruelty. The Reconquista, as the Christian movement was called, took over all Spanish territory in 1492. After this date, the Inquisition acted as a religious arm of the Spanish government both in Spain and in Spanish colonies in the New World.
The Late Middle Ages
The complete ousting of the crusaders from Israel (1291) marked the end of the Christian optimism that had been typical of the earlier Middle Ages. The loss was widely viewed as some kind of divine punishment for religious laxity. The feeling of pessimism deepened a half century later, when an epidemic of bubonic plague—called the Black Death for the black swellings that appeared on people’s bodies—began to spread throughout Europe. The first major outbreak of disease occurred largely between 1347 and 1351. Beginning in France and Italy, the plague swept throughout Western Europe, and whole towns were emptied, with no one left to bury the corpses. Priests sometimes fled from care of the dying—a neglect that brought the Church into disrepute. Between a quarter and a third of the population died, and the plague continued to break out in many places for years afterward.
We now know that the disease was bacterial, caused by a bacillus found in fleas, which carried the disease to human beings. Rats that carried the fleas had arrived on ships that came from the Black Sea to ports in southern France and Italy. But the medical origin of the plague was not understood at the time, and people saw it instead as punishment from God. Some blamed the Jews, who were accused of poisoning wells or of angering God by their failure to accept Christianity. Others saw the plague as punishment for the negligent behavior of Church authorities.
It is natural for a successful institution to take its authority for granted, and by the late Middle Ages, it was common for bishops and abbots to be appointed to their Page 355positions purely for financial or family reasons. Some even lived away from their monasteries or dioceses. Indeed, for most of the fourteenth century, the popes lived not in Rome but in southern France. This papal dislocation led to a weakening of Church authority. The weakening was worsened when two and then finally three factions claimed the papacy.
The Middle Ages saw many changes in European society, as travelers to the Middle East and Asia returned home with new goods and ideas. New forms of trade and economy developed. Imagination and independence grew.
By far the greatest development of the late Middle Ages was the invention of printing with movable type. Before that time, all writing had to be done, laboriously, by hand, making the Bible and other works available primarily to scholars and clergy. Although the first book to be printed (c. 1455) was a Latin Bible, translations were soon necessary. Printing also made possible the spread in modern languages of new and revolutionary ideas. As a result, a multitude of vital new forms of Christianity would emerge.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
As institutions age, they naturally lose some of their earnestness and purity, prompting attempts at reform. The Eastern Church, weakened by the Muslim invasions and its own decentralization, had less need for reform. In contrast, the Roman Church in the West had been enormously successful, spreading throughout Western Europe and building a centralized power structure that had not been seriously challenged in the first thousand years of its growth.
By the late medieval period, people resented the lands and wealth of the Church and its monasteries. Thoughtful people also were troubled by what seemed to be a multitude of devotional practices—particularly the veneration of relics of saints. Significant relics included the bones of saints and any object supposedly touched by Jesus or Mary or the saints, such as Mary’s veil and the nails used at Jesus’s crucifixion. Many of these items were not genuine.
Earlier attempts at reform had not been successful. John Wycliffe (c. 1320–1384), an English priest, preached against papal taxation and against the special authority of the clergy. He labeled as superstition the doctrine of transubstantiation—the notion that the sacrament of bread and wine, when blessed at the Mass, literally turned into Jesus’s flesh and blood. He also oversaw the first translation of the Latin Bible into English. Accused of heresy by Pope Gregory XI in 1377, he was forbidden to teach. He died of a stroke, and after the Council of Constance (1414–1418) had condemned his teachings, his body was dug up and burned and the ashes were thrown into a river.
Jan Hus (c. 1370–1415), rector of the University of Prague, kept alive many of Wycliffe’s criticisms. Excommunicated in 1410 and condemned by the same council that condemned Wycliffe, Hus was burned at the stake in 1415.
Reform was inevitable. Soon another great turning point would occur in Christianity. The north and south of Europe would painfully split along religious lines, and Western Christianity would divide into Protestantism and Catholicism.Page 356
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (1483–1546), a German priest, was the first reformer to gain a large following and to survive, and his success encouraged others who also sought reforms. Their joint influence ultimately created the Protestant branch of Christianity. It gained its name because the reformers protested some of the doctrines and practices of the Roman Church and affirmed their own biblical interpretations of Christian belief.
Luther, convinced of his own personal sinfulness, entered religious life—the Augustinian order of friars—as a young man. He had made a vow during a lightning storm that he would give himself to religious life if he survived the storm. To enter religious life, however, he had to disobey his father, who wanted him to be a lawyer. 30 Unfortunately, even after ordination as a priest, Luther still did not experience the inner peace he had sought.
Luther became a college professor in the university town of Wittenberg, teaching courses in the Bible. His focus was on the New Testament, particularly the epistles of Paul. At a time when Luther felt overwhelmed by his own sinfulness, he was struck by Paul’s words at the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans: “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17). 31 Luther explained later that upon reading this epistle, he felt as if he had been “born anew,” and he sensed that now “the gates of heaven” were open to him.
What Luther came to believe was that no matter how great the sinfulness of a human being, the sacrifice of Jesus was enough to make up for all wrongdoing. An individual’s good deeds could never be enough. To become sinless in God’s eyes, though, a person could rely on the work of Jesus. 32 Luther also recognized the importance of his reading of the Bible as the primary inspiration for his new spiritual insight. Luther’s main focuses have sometimes been summarized by the Latin phrases sola scriptura (“scripture alone”) and sola fides (“faith alone”).
Luther’s teaching came at a time when the papacy was asking for contributions to construct the new Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In return, donors were promised an indulgence , which would shorten the period after death that an individual would spend in purgatory, a preparatory state before the soul could attain heaven. Luther opposed the idea that anything spiritual could be sold.
To show his opposition and to stir debate, it is thought that in 1517 Luther posted on the door of the castle church of Wittenberg his demands for change and reformation. They were in Latin and in the form of Ninety-Five Theses. Despite reprimands, Luther was unrepentant, and in 1521 Pope Leo X excommunicated him. Luther’s efforts at reform might have failed, and he might have been executed, if he had not received the support of—and been hidden by—the prince of his region, Frederick III of Saxony. During this period of hiding, Luther translated the New Page 357Testament into German, and not long after, he translated the Old Testament, as well. Luther’s translation of the Christian Bible was to become for the Germans what the King James Bible became for the English-speaking world—it had an incalculable influence on German language and culture.
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EMPHASES OF PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY
Protestantism seeks to find—and live by—what is essential to the Christian experience. It places great emphasis on the individual’s own ability to establish a personal relationship with God.
1. Return to simple Christianity The New Testament outlines the essentials of Christianity, both in belief and in practice. Christians should imitate the early tradition and avoid unnecessary, later alterations.
2. Centrality of Jesus Jesus is the one way to God the Father. Devotion to Mary and the saints has distracted believers from their faith in Jesus and should be deemphasized or even abandoned. Trust in relics of Mary and the saints borders on superstition.
3. Guidance of the Bible The Bible is a divinely inspired guide for human lives. Believers should read it regularly, and ministers should explain it in sermons.
4. Importance of faith One’s deeds alone cannot bring salvation. Faith in Jesus brings righteousness in God’s eyes.
5. Direct relation to God Although ministers assist in religious services, they are not necessary as intermediaries between God and the individual. Every individual has a direct relationship with God.
6. Individual judgment The Holy Spirit helps each believer make decisions about the meaning of biblical passages and about how to apply Christian principles to everyday life. (The ability of each individual to radically question and rethink accepted interpretation is sometimes called the Protestant Principle.)
After his insight into the sufficiency of faith, Luther firmly rejected celibacy and the monastic style of life. He married a former nun, Katharina von Bora, had six children, and opened his home to a wide range of visitors interested in his work on church reform.
Forms of Protestantism
The right of every individual to radically question and reinterpret Christian belief and practice is at the heart of Protestant Christianity. This so-called Protestant Principle has been responsible for the generation of major branches of mainstream Protestantism, a multitude of smaller sects, and many thousands of independent churches, which continue to proliferate miraculously. Their styles of organization and worship run the spectrum—from ritualistic and structured to informal, emotional, and highly individualistic. Some Protestant denominations emphasize emotional conversion of individuals, while others stress broad social welfare. Some exclude people who are not in their denominations, while others are strongly inclusive, even inviting non-Christians to share in their services. Some have retained traditional ritual and an organizational structure involving bishops and priests, while others have rejected all ritual and clergy. It is helpful to keep this variety in mind as you read about these denominations.Page 358
Lutheranism
Martin Luther’s version of the reform emphasized faith and the authority of the Bible. To encourage greater participation, Luther called for services to be conducted in German, as well as in Latin. He also wrote hymns that were to be sung in German by the entire congregation. This began a strong musical tradition in Lutheranism, which has particularly valued choral and organ music.
Luther’s version of the Protestant reform spread throughout central and northern Germany and then into Scandinavia and the Baltic states. It later came to the United States with German and Scandinavian immigrants, who settled primarily in the upper Midwest. Over the years, Lutheranism has retained Luther’s original enthusiasm for the Bible, a trust in God, and excellent church music.
Calvinism
Once the notion of reform was accepted, it was adopted and reinterpreted by others who also sought change. Among them was the French theologian John Calvin (1509–1564). Calvin’s thought is sometimes said to be darker than Luther’s because he saw human nature as being basically sinful and almost irresistibly drawn to evil. He also took the notion of God’s power to its logical end: if God is all-powerful and all-knowing, then God has already decreed who will be saved and who will be damned (a doctrine known as predestination ). One’s deeds do not cause one’s salvation or damnation; rather, they are a sign of what God has already decreed.
Calvin’s view of God as judge may have been influenced by his study of law at the university. Eager for reform, when he was only 26 he published a summary of his ideas in his book The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Persecuted in France, he was forced to flee. Eventually he settled in Geneva, Switzerland. Because of the work of the reformer priest Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531), the Swiss were already considering reforms. Calvin’s great success in Geneva made the city a center for the expansion of the reform movement.
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Where Luther had allowed much latitude in preserving elements of the Mass and other traditional Catholic practices, Calvin had a more austere view. Looking exclusively to the Bible for what might be approved, he encouraged the removal of all statues and pictures from the churches and the adoption of a style of congregational singing that had no organ accompaniment. The focus of the Calvinist service was on the sermon.
Ministers were not appointed by bishops—there were to be none in Calvinism. Instead, ministers were “called” by a council from each congregation. This practice, being highly democratic, threatened the political and religious leaders of the time, and people who believed in Calvinism were often forced into exile. Among such believers were the Puritans, who immigrated to New England, and the Huguenots (French Protestants), who were forced out of France in 1685 and settled in several areas of North America. Calvinism spread to Scotland through the efforts of the priest John Knox (1514–1572), who had studied with Calvin in Geneva. It was in Scotland that a Church structure without bishops was refined, providing a pattern for Calvinism in other countries. Calvinism ultimately became important in Holland, Scotland, Switzerland, and the United States. Later, in the nineteenth century, it became influential in sub-Saharan Africa, Korea, China, and the Pacific. The Presbyterian Church is the best-known descendant of Calvinism. It gets its name from the Greek word presbyter,meaning “elder” or “leader.”
The Church of England (Anglican Church)
Another form of Protestantism originated in England under King Henry VIII (1491–1547). It unites elements of the Reformation with older traditional practices. Some see the Anglican Church as a compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism.
Henry maintained the traditional Church structure of bishops and priests. It is called an episcopal structure, from the Greek word episkopos, meaning “bishop” or “overseer.” He also kept the basic structure of religious services much as before and in Latin. He even maintained priestly celibacy, although this was abolished soon after he died. However, as a concession to reformers, Henry had an English translation of the Bible placed in each church for all to read. The Church of England had a shaky beginning, but Henry’s daughter Elizabeth, when she finally became queen, established it firmly.
The Church of England produced several works of great significance in its first century of existence. The Book of Common Prayer, with all major prayers in English for church use, was first issued in 1559. Its rhythmic sentences set a standard by which other works in English have been measured. Throughout the sixteenth century, composers were commissioned to write choral music in English for religious services. The result was a wonderful body of music, still in use today. In 1611 the King James Bible was published, named for its sponsor, James I, who had succeeded Queen Elizabeth I. It became the single greatest influence on the English language.
The Church of England has been deliberately tolerant of a wide spectrum of interpretation and practice. Some churches have buildings and services of great simplicity (their style is called Low Church), while others use incense, statues of Mary, and stately ritual (called High Church). Furthermore, in spite of great opposition, the Church of England has in recent decades generally accepted the ordination of women as priests and bishops.
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Sectarianism
The powerful notion that every individual can interpret the Bible has encouraged—and still encourages—the development of an abundance of independent churches or sects. Most have been formed by a single, charismatic individual, and many have been small. Some have interpreted the Bible with literal seriousness, thus producing special emphases—among them, the rejection of the outside world and its technology, the adoption of an extremely simple lifestyle, total pacifism (rejection of war and violence), complete celibacy, and the expectation of the imminent end of the world. As a loosely defined group, this branch of Protestantism is called Sectarianism. Following are the most prominent sects:
1. The Anabaptists (meaning “baptize again”), formed a pious movement that developed during the sixteenth century. It stressed the need for believers to be baptized as a sign of their inner conversion—even if they had been baptized as children. Their worship was simple. From this general movement arose several Mennonite and Amish sects, some communities of which maintain a simple, agricultural lifestyle without the use of cars or electricity. (The movie Witness is set against a background of Amish life.)
2. The Baptists, a denomination that began in England, have grown up as a major force in the United States. Baptists espouse some of the Anabaptist principles, including the need for inner conversion, baptism of adults only, simplicity in ritual, independence of personal judgment, and freedom from government control.
3. The Quakers were founded in England by George Fox (1624–1691). Those who came to the United States settled primarily in Pennsylvania. Quakers are ardent pacifists; they have no clergy; and they originated a type of church service conducted largely in silence and without ritual. Their official name is Society of Friends, but the name Quaker came about from George Fox’s belief that people should “quake” at the Word of the Lord.
4. The Shakers grew out of the Quaker movement. Founded by “Mother” Ann Lee (1736–1784), who came from England to New York State, the Shakers accepted both women and men but preached complete celibacy. Their religious services were unusual because they included devotional dance, from which their name derives. Settling in New York State and New England, the Shakers founded communities that were primarily dependent on farming. Although there are only a few Shakers today, their vision of Christian simplicity lives on in their architecture and furniture, which is unadorned but elegant.
5. The Pentecostal movement, although it has ancient roots, has been especially active in the last one hundred years. It emphasizes the legitimate place of emotion in Christian worship. At Pentecostal services, one might encounter “speaking in tongues” (glossolalia), crying, fainting, and other forms of emotional response. These are thought of as gifts brought by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
6. The Methodist Church at first was simply a devotional movement within the Church of England. It was named for the methodical nature of prayer and Page 361study followed by Charles Wesley (1707–1788) and his followers at Oxford. Yet under the strong guidance of John Wesley (1703–1791), Charles’s brother, Methodism took on an independent identity. Charles Wesley wrote more than six thousand hymns, which helped spread the movement.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIANITY FOLLOWING THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
The Catholic Reformation (Counter-Reformation)
Although the Protestant Reformation was a powerful movement, Roman Catholicism not only withstood its challenges, but also grew and changed in response to it. That response, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—is called the Catholic Reformation or the Counter-Reformation. It strongly rejected most of the demands of the Protestant reformers. Protestants rejected the authority of the pope; Catholics stressed it. Protestants demanded the use of native languages; Catholics retained the use of Latin. Protestants emphasized simplicity in architecture and music; Catholics created churches of flamboyant drama.
Nevertheless, the Catholic Church recognized that some institutional reform was necessary. The church’s first response was a long council, primarily held in the northern Italian town of Trent between 1545 and 1563. The council set up a uniform seminary system for the training of priests, who had sometimes in the past learned their skills simply by being apprenticed to older priests. It made the Roman liturgy Page 362in Latin a standard for Catholic services. And it defended traditional teachings and practices (see the box “ Emphases of Catholic Christianity ”). This council took a defensive posture that erected symbolic walls around Catholic belief and practice.
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EMPHASES OF CATHOLIC CHRISTIANITY
Catholicism accepts all traditional Christian beliefs, such as belief in the Trinity, the divine nature of Jesus, and the authority of the Bible. In addition, particularly as a result of the Protestant Reformation, it defends the following beliefs and practices.
1. Importance of good works The Christian must accompany faith with good works to achieve salvation.
2. Value of tradition Along with the Bible, Church tradition is an important guide for belief and practice.
3. Guided interpretation of the Bible Individual interpretation of the Bible must be guided by Church authority and tradition.
4. Hierarchical authority The pope, the bishop of Rome, is the ultimate authority of the Church, and bishops are the primary authorities in their dioceses (regions of authority).
5. Veneration of Mary and the saints Believers are encouraged to venerate not only Jesus but also Mary and the saints, who reside in heaven. As an aid to faith, believers may also honor relics (the bodies of saints and the objects that they used while alive).
6. Sacraments There are seven sacraments (essential rituals), not just two—as most Protestant reformers held. They are baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper, Mass), matrimony, holy orders (the ordination of priests), reconciliation (the confession of sins to a priest), and the anointing of the sick (unction).
Several new religious orders came into existence to defend and spread Catholic teaching. The most influential of these orders was the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. The Spanish founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), was a former soldier, and with this background, he brought a military discipline to the training and life of his followers. Ultimately, Jesuits made a lasting contribution through their establishment of high schools and colleges for the training of young Catholics, and many continue this work today.
Because of the varied interpretations of the Bible and of Christian doctrine that began to emerge as a result of the Protestant Reformation, a major part of the Catholic Church’s response was to stress discipline and centralized authority. The First Vatican Council (1869–1870) upheld this emphasis when it declared that the pope is infallible when he speaks officially (that is, ex cathedra, “from the chair” of authority) on doctrine and morals.
The International Spread of Christianity
The New Testament contains the injunction to “baptize all nations” (Matt. 28:19). As a result of this order, powerful missionary and devotional movements arose within all branches and denominations of Christianity ( Figure 9.2 ). Over the past five hundred years, these movements have spread Christianity to every continent and turned it into a truly international religion.
FIGURE 9.2 Branches and denominations of Christianity.
The Catholic Church conducted an early wave of missionary work. Wherever Spanish, Portuguese, and French colonists took control, their missionaries brought Page 363Catholic Christianity. The Jesuit Père Jacques Marquette (1637–1675) propagated Catholicism in Canada and the Mississippi River valley, and the Franciscan Padre Junípero Serra (1713–1784) spread Catholicism by establishing missions in California. In Asia, early Catholic missionaries at first had little success. Jesuit missionaries were sent out from such missionary centers as Goa in India and from Macau, an island off of southeastern China, to convert the Chinese and Japanese. The Spanish Jesuit Francis Xavier (1506–1552) and Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) were industrious, but their attempts in China and Japan were repressed by the government authorities, who feared that conversion would bring European political control. Catholicism was, however, successful in the Philippines and Guam, where Spanish colonization contributed to the widespread acceptance of the religion. In the nineteenth century, French Catholic missionaries worked in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region. Tahiti, after being taken over by the French, became heavily Catholic; Vietnam, too, now has a sizable Catholic population. In sub-Saharan Africa, wherever France, Portugal, and Belgium established colonies, Catholicism also took hold.
Catholicism in Latin America frequently blended with native religions. In Brazil and the Caribbean, African religions (especially of the Yoruba peoples) mixed with Catholic veneration of saints to produce Santería, Voodoo, and Candomblé (see Chapter 11 ). In the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, and Spanish-speaking South America, Catholic practice incorporated cults of local deities. The cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe arose at the place where an Aztec goddess had been worshiped, and nature deities of the Mayans—gods and goddesses of the earth, maize, sun, and rain—are still venerated under the guise of Christian saints. Jesus’s death on the cross was easy to appreciate in Mayan and Aztec cultures, in particular, in whose native religions offerings of human blood were an important part. Native worship of ancestors easily took a new form in the Día de los Muertos (“day of the dead”), celebrated yearly on November 1–2, when people bring food to graves and often stay all night in cemeteries lit with candles.
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Protestant Christian missionaries and British conquests also spread their faith throughout the world. Protestant settlers who came to North America represented the earliest wave. The Church of England (the Anglican Church) traveled everywhere the English settled—at the time of the American Revolution, the name of the Church in the United States was changed to the Episcopal Church to avoid the appearance of disloyalty to the new country. The Anglican Church is widespread in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other former British colonies. It has also been a major force in South Africa—as demonstrated by its campaign against apartheid, the former government policy of racial segregation in that country.
Protestant churches in the United States have played a large role in the lives of African Americans. When slaves were brought to the English colonies of North America, the slaves were (sometimes forcibly) converted to Christianity, usually Protestantism. Most African Americans became members of the Methodist, Baptist, and smaller sectarian denominations. In the nineteenth century, Protestant denominations split over the issue of segregation and slavery, and churches were divided along racial lines. In 1816, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church emerged from Methodism. Its purpose was to serve African Americans exclusively and to save them from having to sit in segregated seating at the services of other denominations. At the same time, some New England Protestant churches became active in the abolitionist (antislavery) movement. They helped runaway slaves to escape to Canada, and they assisted in changing public opinion about the morality of slavery. Later, southern Protestant churches played a large role in the movement that fought segregation, and their pastors, such as Martin Luther King Jr., became its leaders.
The missionary movement gave both women and men new opportunities to spread Christianity, as well as to lead unusual lives. One example involves three women who worked together for years. Called the China Trio, they were two sisters (Eva and Francesca French) and a friend (Mildred Cable). Much of their time was spent traveling to towns of western China and to oases in the Gobi desert. They worked in China for more than thirty years, distributing Bibles and Christian literature and publishing colorful accounts of their work. They left China in 1936 but continued for years afterward to write about their work there.
Methodist and Presbyterian missionaries have spread their vision of Christianity to Asia and the South Pacific. Protestant Chinese have been active in Taiwan, where they are politically prominent, and in mainland China, where today there are many authorized churches and many “underground” house-churches, which are not authorized by the government.
Missionaries have also spread Orthodox Christianity across Russia to Siberia and even into Alaska, where 40,000 Aleuts (Eskimo) belong to the Orthodox Church. (A noted Russian Orthodox church is located in Sitka, Alaska.) The Orthodox Church also spread to North America through emigration from Russia, Greece, and Eastern Europe.
Christianity has been less successful in China, Japan, the Middle East, and North Africa. Elsewhere it is either the dominant religion, or at least is a powerful religious presence.Page 365
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MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929. The fact that both his father and grandfather were Baptist ministers led him naturally to religion. As a young man, he was troubled deeply by segregation and racism, and his studies in college and graduate school convinced him that Christian institutions had to work against racial inequality. His reading of Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” and his study of the work of Mahatma Gandhi led him to believe in the power of nonviolent resistance. In Montgomery, Alabama, in 1959, King led a boycott of the city’s bus system, following Rosa Parks’s refusal to move from the white section to the back of a public bus. Ultimately, the Supreme Court declared that laws imposing segregation on public buses were unconstitutional. As founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King mobilized black churches to oppose segregation. In 1964 he won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated four years later. 33
King’s powerful preaching and writing relied heavily on images taken from the Bible. His “I Have a Dream” speech is inspired by the stories of Joseph’s dreams in the Book of Genesis (37:1–10). His “I Have Seen the Promised Land” speech is based on the story of Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy (34:1–4).
Nontraditional Christianity
Because Christianity is a fairly old religion and has flourished in cultures far from where it originally developed, it has produced some significant offshoots. These denominations differ from traditional Christianity, and although they are not usually considered a part of the three traditional branches of Christianity—Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox—they all sprang from Protestant origins. They differ in their beliefs, particularly regarding the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, the timing of the end of the world, and the role of healing. Because the fastest-spreading of these religions is Mormonism, it is described in some detail. Other nontraditional groups include the Unitarians, Unification Church, and Jehovah’s Witnesses (see the box “ Examples of Nontraditional Christianity ”).
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Utah, is one of the fastest-growing religious denominations Page 366in the world. Although members of this Church consider themselves to be Christians who belong to a perfect, restored Christianity, mainstream Christian groups point out major differences between Latter-day Saints teachings and traditional Christianity.
Joseph Smith (1805–1844), the founder of the movement, was born in New York State. As a young man he was troubled by the differences and conflicts between Christian groups. When he was 14, he had a vision of God the Father and of Jesus Christ, who informed him that no current Christian denomination was correct because true Christianity had died out with the death of the early apostles.
When Smith was 17, he had another vision. An angel named Moroni showed the young man to a hill and directed him to dig there. The Latter-day Saints teach that Smith unearthed several long-buried objects of great religious interest. The objects were golden tablets inscribed with foreign words, a breastplate, and mysterious stones that Smith was able to use to translate the words written on the tablets. Smith began the translation work, dictating from behind a curtain to his wife Emma and to friends Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris. The result of his work was the Book of Mormon. Later, John the Baptist and three apostles—Peter, James, and John—appeared to Smith and Cowdery, initiating them into two forms of priesthood—the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods.
Hoping to be free to practice their religion, Smith and his early followers began a series of moves—to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Opposition from their neighbors resulted from the new Church’s belief in the divine inspiration of the Book of Mormon and later from the practice of polygamy, which Smith defended as biblically justified. At each new location, believers were persecuted and forced to leave. In Illinois, Smith and his brother were imprisoned and then killed by a mob that broke into the jail.
At this point, the remaining believers nominated Brigham Young (1801–1877) as their next leader. Young organized a move to Utah, where he founded Salt Lake City. Prior to the move, a split had developed within the Church—in part over the matter of polygamy. Leadership of the smaller group, which did not travel to Utah, was taken over by Smith’s son. This branch, with its headquarters in Missouri, is now called the Community of Christ.
In Utah, the Church faced regular opposition but grew in numbers. In 1890, the fourth president of the Church delivered a manifesto that disavowed polygamy. This rejection of polygamy—sometimes called the Great Accommodation—led to social acceptance of the growing Church. In 1896, the Utah Territory won statehood. Members of this majority branch are commonly called Mormons.
The Church of the Latter-day Saints (LDS) has always been a missionary Church. Members made its way very early to England and Hawai’i. They have now spread so far through missionary efforts that the Mormon Church is now found worldwide. It has been particularly successful in the South Pacific. (Smaller branches will be mentioned later.)
Mormons accept as inspired the Christian Bible, which they usually use in the King James Version. They also believe that several other works are equally inspired. Most important is the Book of Mormon. Another inspired work is the Doctrine and Covenants, a list of more than one hundred revelations that were given by God to Joseph Smith and, later, to the heads of the Church. A last Page 367inspired work is The Pearl of Great Price, containing further revelations and a compilation of the articles of faith. These three additional works are all thought of as complements to the Christian Bible. More than 100 million copies of the Book of Mormon have been distributed.
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EXAMPLES OF NONTRADITIONAL CHRISTIANITY
Christianity is capable of taking on new shapes, sometimes as a result of blending with other religions. Here are some important examples:
1. Unification Church Founded in South Korea, this Church blends elements of Christianity, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Reverend Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012), who called himself the Jesus of the Second Coming, founded the religion in 1954. The Church hopes to establish God’s kingdom on earth. Promoting its vision of society as a harmonious family, the Unification Church arranges marriages between its followers and frequently performs joint wedding ceremonies involving hundreds of couples.
2. African Independent Churches (AICs) Christianity has been immensely successful in sub-Saharan Africa over the last one hundred years. Although the majority of Christians belong to mainstream traditional churches, thousands of independent churches exist. Some manifest distinctively African characteristics and interests, including a focus on faith healing, prophecy, and charismatic experience. The Harrist Church, for example, was begun in the Ivory Coast by a messianic leader who claimed to have received revelations from the angel Gabriel, and the Mai Chaza Church in Zimbabwe was founded by a woman who claimed to have died and come back to life. These churches also have often adopted elements from African culture, particularly music, dress, and ritual. The Kimbanguist Church of Central Africa, for example, uses sweet potatoes and honey, rather than bread and wine, in its services. 34
3. Jehovah’s Witnesses Members of this religion take biblical passages literally and expect the imminent end of the world. The religion does not allow blood transfusions because of the biblical prohibition against ingesting blood. Its members do not believe in the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, or a permanent hell—all of which, they say, are not found in the Bible. For the same reason, they do not celebrate Christmas (or birthdays). Giving allegiance only to God, they are strongly nonpolitical, refusing to salute a flag or show allegiance to any country.
4. Christian Science and Unity The Christian Science Church and Unity Church began in the movement called New Thought, which emphasized the role of positive affirmations. Christian Science puts emphasis on the power of thought to bring about physical healing. In its services it uses the Bible and the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, written by its founder Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910). Unity Church is based in Christianity, but it also uses passages from many other religions among its readings. Its services include guided meditations, hymns, and positive affirmations.
5. Unitarian Church The Unitarian Church rejects the doctrine of the Trinity and prides itself on having no creed. Instead, it imitates the prophetic role of Jesus by emphasizing acts of social justice. The writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were Unitarians.
The LDS notion of the afterlife includes a belief in hell and in several higher levels of reward: the telestial, terrestrial, and celestial realms. At the peak of the highest realm are believers who have performed all the special ordinances.
The Book of Mormon adds details to traditional biblical history. It teaches that some descendants of the people who produced the tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9) settled in the Americas but eventually died out. It also teaches that a group of Israelites Page 368came to North America about 600 BCE. They divided into two warring factions, the Nephites and Lamanites, and Jesus, after his resurrection, came to preach to them. The Book of Mormon tells how in the fourth century CE, the Nephites were wiped out in battles with the Lamanites, who are considered to be the ancestors of Native Americans.
While Mormons follow the Christian practice of using baptism as a ritual of initiation, they are unusual in that they also practice baptism by proxy for deceased relatives, as was practiced by some early Christians (1 Cor. 15:29). This—along with a general interest in family life—is a major reason for Mormon interest in genealogy. In fact, Mormons maintain the largest source of genealogical records in the world.
Devout Mormons meet for study and worship each Sunday. Their Sunday meetings include a sacrament service (Lord’s Supper), which is performed with bread and water, rather than wine. Because they view the body’s health as a religious concern, devout Mormons do not smoke or use tobacco, drink alcohol, take illicit drugs, or consume several beverages, primarily coffee and tea.
Because the Mormon Church emphasizes different gender roles for men and women, its hierarchy is male. Women, however, exercise leadership roles in their own organizations, which focus on domestic work, child rearing, and social welfare. Mormons are well known for the importance that they place on harmonious family life. Mormons also support the tradition of setting aside one night each week for all family members to stay at home to enjoy their life as a family.
At the top of the Church hierarchy is the church president, who is called the Prophet, as well as Seer and Revelator, because he is considered capable of receiving new revelations from God. Below him is a group of men called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and below that group are the first and second Quorums of the Seventies, who act as general authorities. Below them are area authorities and stake Page 369presidents (a stake is the equivalent of a diocese). Pastors are called bishops, and the males in their wards (parishes), when they reach the appropriate age, are ordained in various offices of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods.
Young men are expected to give two years to preaching the religion, often in foreign countries. Young women are also invited to do missionary work, but the length of their missionary work is slightly less (usually a year and a half). At any one time, about 60,000 missionaries are active. Today the Mormon Church has about fourteen million members, half of whom live outside the United States. The headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church) is in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mormonism has a strong choral tradition. Hymns and solo works are sung at services, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which gives regular concerts in Salt Lake City, performs a traditional repertory of hymns, oratorios, and other music.
In addition to the Mormons, who form the largest branch of the Latter-day Saints movement begun by Joseph Smith, there are at least a dozen offshoots. The most important is the Community of Christ, formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (RLDS). It changed its name in order to emphasize its closeness to mainstream Christianity. Smaller groups exist—some of them continuing the early practice of polygamy. They live primarily in Colorado, Utah, and western Canada. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) is the largest of the groups that practice polygamy. Because of this practice, polygamous groups have received much government scrutiny—as well as television coverage—in recent years.