Transcript Church History

Church History
Chapter 4
Courageous Faith
 The Roman demand for conformity.
 Religious conformity foster unity
 Blessings from the gods.
Not to worship = unpatriotic, treasonous,
atheistic
Christians never knew when someone
might turn them in for being Christian
2 well-known Early Martyrs
 Ignatius of Antioch > wrote letters to the
Christians in the 7 towns where he and his
captors stopped “ come the wicked torments
of the devil upon me if I may be attain unto
Jesus Christ
 Justin Martyr > Pagan parents. He is
searching for answers and finds them in
Christianity. He and six of his students are
executed for their faith.
 He is an APOLOGIST or “defender of the
faith”
 Apologists defended the faith in intellectual
discussions with well educated pagans.
 Why bother?
 While the Romans demand conformity the
church was held together by a strong
organization.
 By the 2nd century:
 Bishop > from the Greek word for
“supervisor”
The Christian communities were small so each
city only needed one bishop.
The position of priest emerges later.
 Deacons and Deaconesses > attend to the
welfare of the community’s poor, widowed,
orphaned, sick.
 Another development in our structure was the
role of the Bishop of Rome.
 Before Jerusalem was crushed by the Romans
in 70 A.D. The bishop of Jerusalem was
considered most important of all the bishops.
After the fall, the bishop of Rome became
more and more central in the Church.
 Peter had died in Rome
 Rome was the imperial capital.
 The bishop of Rome is considered Peter’s
successor.
Barbarians
 “peace of Rome” > not justice but
relative peace.
 Nomadic tribes from the North pose a
threat to Roman territory.
 The Roman’s fear of the barbarians and
of any dissent fueled the persecution of
minority groups like the Christians.
What to do with Christians
who sacrificed to the idols?
 Apostasy > to renounce your faith.
 Should those who have renounced their fait
be allowed to re-enter the Christian
communities?
 Some bishops said their sin could never be
forgiven. Others disagreed
 The decision of the bishop of Rome was
accepted
 Reunited after repentance and public
penance…the first forms of the sacrament of
reconciliation.
Conversion pages 73-75
Constantine
Helena, his mother, was a Christian
Constantine worshiped the sun god.
Before and important battle Constantine
has a vision that in this sign he will
conquer
 XP Chi-Rho on banners and shields.
 After his victory Constantine gives
honor to the Son of God.
 He supports Christianity but does not
Get baptized until shortly before his death
in 337 A.D. This was a common practice
at the time.
Issues the :
Edict of Milan
313 A.D.
Made it legal for Christians to be!!!
Change of address
 Constantine becomes emperor of the
entire empire ( see map pg.74).
 The city of Rome itself is run-down.
 Constantine moves the capital to the
East and what was the city of
Byzantium becomes known as
Constantinople.
Church and State
 The Christians are finally legal and
enjoy the favor of Constantine.
 They are grateful to him
 They are not inclined to resist his
influence.
 So, here we are, for 3 centuries we
were poor and powerless and now are
allied with the Roman Empire
Official Religion of the Empire
 313 we are legal
 380 we are the OFFICIAL religion of the
empire.
 Emperor Theodosius declared paganism
illegal and ENFORCED Christianity.
 Ironic: The original Christian stance to war
was one of pacifism.
 NOW ONLY Christians could join the army!
Being official and its costs
 Constantine’s conversion saved the church
from the horrors of persecution, a new era
began when the church became connected
with worldly power.
 Staying free from political pressures and
influence proved difficult.
 The church of 380 was a far cry from the
band of Apostles who had wandered with
Jesus.
Question
 How were Christians both better off and
worse off after Constantine declared
Christianity legal and it became the
official religion of the empire?.
Clarity of Doctrine pages 7680
 We were suffering persecution from outside,
but we also had conflict from within.
 Splinter groups challenge the beliefs of the
majority
 Keeping consistent with the teachings of the
Apostles
 Opposing those teachings contrary to
essential beliefs of faith
Gnosticism: A Denial of Jesus’
Humanity
 Heresy: a belief or teaching that is contrary
to an essential belief of a faith.
 Heretic: One who teaches or believes in a
heresy.
 Gnosticism: Heresy
 Believers called: Gnostics
 Believed all material things, including
the human body , were evil
 Jesus was divine..but not human
Gnosticism2
 Gnostics believed that God was so removed
from material things that humans were
ignorant of God.
 All except the Gnostics who had a special
secret knowledge of God.
 Gnostic>Greek>Gnosis= knowledge
 Salvation was not the gift of Jesus to all, but
the special privilege of the Gnostics.
Gnostics 3
 The Gnostic denial of Jesus’ humanity
was considered a heresy .
 Iranaeus, bishop of Lyons, vigorously
opposed Gnosticism
 This turmoil in beliefs also lead to clarity
and unity.
 By the year 200 basic beliefs expressed
in the Apostle’s Creed.
Arianism: a denial of Jesus’
Divinity
 Gnosticism thrived during the period of the
persecutions. But another heresy Arianism
after the persecutions, around the time of
Constantine and it divided the church for
centuries.
 Arians denied Jesus’ divinity. They did not
believe that the unreachable and
unchangeable God could ever take the form
of a human being
Arianiam 2
 To the Arians, Jesus was made or created by
God and subordinate to God.
 He was neither God nor human, but
somewhere in between.
 Arius’ beliefs were inconsistent with the
understanding about Jesus that was
Traditional in the church at large.
 Arius refused to change his stand, he was
declared a heretic
The Council of Nicaea and the
Nicene Creed
 Constantine calls an ecumenical
(worldwide) council to settle these disputes.
 Held in Nicaea across the water from
Constantinople.
 300+ bishops attend, mostly from the East.
 The Nicene Creed is still recited at Mass.
 The Council of Nicaea was a major defining
moment for Christianity.
 The Creed has been an important definition of
membership in the Christian community for
over 1600 years.
Athanasius
 How to explain Jesus’ relationship to God?
 Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria said
 “ Jesus is related to God as brightness is to
light”
 The two realities cannot be separated.
 Jesus is the brilliant reflection of the light that
is God
 IN 392 Theodosius outlaws Arianism along
with Paganism in the empire.
 What we now call the Catholic faith was the
only religion allowed in the empire