Transcript Christianity Before Constantine: Internal

Christianity Before Constantine:
Internal Developments and Roman Responses
I. Internal Developments
A. Worship
B. Organization
C. Theology
II. Roman Responses to Christianity
A. Misconceptions
B. Persecution of Christians
Christianity Before Constantine:
Internal Developments and Roman Responses
I. Internal Developments
A. Worship
The Catacombs
Eucharistic Banquet
Catacombs of St. Calixtus, Rome, beginning of 3rd century
The Breaking of Bread in the Eucharistic Banquet
Catacomb Wall Painting, Rome
Christianity Before Constantine:
Internal Developments and Roman Responses
I. Internal Developments
A. Worship
B. Organization
Christianity Before Constantine:
Internal Developments and Roman Responses
I. Internal Developments
A. Worship
B. Organization
C. Theology
Origen of Alexandria
(185 - c.254)
“…For this man [Origen], having been a student of Ammonius, who had attained
the greatest proficiency in philosophy of any in our day, derived much benefit from
his teacher in the knowledge of the sciences; but as to the correct choice of life, he
pursued a course opposite to his. For Ammonius, being a Christian, and brought up
by Christian parents, when he gave himself to study and to philosophy straightway
conformed to the life required by the laws. But Origen, having been educated as a
Greek in Greek literature, went over to the barbarian recklessness. And carrying
over the learning which he had obtained, he hawked it about, in his life conducting
himself as a Christian and contrary to the laws, but in his opinions of material
things and of the Deity being like a Greek, and mingling Grecian teachings with
foreign fables. For he was continually studying Plato, and he busied himself with
the writings of Numenius and Cronius, Apollophanes, Longinus, Moderatus, and
Nicomachus, and those famous among the Pythagoreans. And he used the books of
Chaeremon the Stoic, and of Cornutus. Becoming acquainted through them with
the figurative interpretation of the Grecian mysteries, he applied it to the Jewish
Scriptures."
-Porphyry, Against the Christians
Christianity Before Constantine:
Internal Developments and Roman Responses
I. Internal Developments
A. Worship
B. Organization
C. Theology: Origen of Alexandria
II. Roman Responses to Christianity
Christianity Before Constantine:
Internal Developments and Roman Responses
I. Internal Developments
A. Worship
B. Organization
C. Theology: Origen of Alexandria
II. Roman Responses to Christianity
A. Misconceptions
Roman Responses to Christianity
Anti-Christian Graffiti: "Alexamenos is worshipping his God"
Christianity Before Constantine:
Internal Developments and Roman Responses
I. Internal Developments
A. Worship
B. Organization
C. Theology: Origen of Alexandria
II. Roman Responses to Christianity
A. Misconceptions
B. Persecution of Christians
Damnatio ad bestias!
To the lion!
Women as Heroines: Accounts of Women Martyrs
The Virgin-Martyr Agnes, Gold-Glass from fourth-century Rome
Certificate of Having Sacrificed to the Gods
(from persecution under Emperor Decius, c.250)
Early Christian Mosaic of St. Perpetua
Christianity Before Constantine:
Internal Developments and Roman Responses
I. Internal Developments
A. Worship
B. Organization
C. Theology: Origen of Alexandria
II. Roman Responses to Christianity
A. Misconceptions
B. Persecution of Christians