Early Christianity: Challenges That Shaped the Church

Some important challenges and lessons from the early years of our Christian movement

Gnostics taught that there is Introduction a fundamental antagonism When Presbyterians think of important moments in the his- between spirit and matter. tory of the church, the events and people who shaped and Spirit is good and has its passed on both the content of our belief and the practices by source in a supreme deity which we live, we turn fi rst, of course, to the New Testament. previously unknown. Matter, in contrast, is inferior, even From there we tend to jump to the Protestant Reformation and evil, and has its source in the contributions of Martin Luther and John Calvin. Unfortu- the creator God of the Old nately, in making that jump we lose sight of some of the most Testament. important moments of our heritage, because much of what we take for granted in the church today emerged during those early centuries in response to the challenges the church was Roman Empire. Although Christians encountered resistance facing. Examining some of those challenges and the ways in in some of these Greek-speaking Jewish communities, they which the church responded can provide a frame of reference also found there Jews who were receptive to the message of for considering our own faith and practice and the challenges Jesus. Another group proved to be receptive as well: devout we face as Christians today. Gentiles, i.e., non-Jews, who had been attracted to the ethi- cal standards of Judaism and even worshiped the God of the The Spread of Christianity Jews, although without submitting to the whole of the Jewish law. The Ethiopian converted by Philip (Acts 8:26–40) and Pentecost is often referred to as the birthday of the church. the Roman Cornelius converted by Peter (Acts 10) are exam- Acts 2 tells us of the gift of the Holy Spirit at the fi rst Pente- ples of devout Gentiles who were receptive to the gospel. cost after the crucifi xion. That gift unleashed the missionary work that continues into the present. Initially, the Palestinian Beyond Judaism Jews who had been followers of Jesus preached to other Jews in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem church, which emerged from The spread of the gospel in the next hundred years may per- that preaching, consisted not only of Palestinian Jews but also haps be thought of as occurring in concentric circles: Pales- of “Hellenists,” Greek-speaking Jews who had been shaped to tinian Jews, then Hellenist Jews, then devout Gentiles, and some degree by the Greco-Roman culture outside of Palestine. fi nally people throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. This fi rst missionary effort of the church began the movement Of course, the movement was hardly orderly, but there does toward ever-wider circles of conversions. seem to have been a sense in which the gospel appealed to ever wider audiences, each progressively more distant from Beyond Jerusalem Palestinian Judaism. This missionary impulse of early Chris- tianity repeatedly forced the church to reconsider its identity, With the beginning of persecution in Jerusalem, some Chris- primarily its Jewishness. Was the message of Jesus intended tians scattered about Palestine; others found refuge among only for Jews? If not, did non-Jews who wished to convert a network of Hellenist synagogues located throughout the have to observe the Mosaic law, including such requirements

Early Christianity Copyright © 2011 www.thepresbyterianleader.com P1 Permission given to the purchaser to copy this page Participant Handout for use in local church setting. as circumcision for males and a kosher diet? The Council at from the previously unknown God, he had no connection with Jerusalem (Acts 15) offi cially opened the door to Gentiles. the God of the Old Testament or the material creation. Signifi cantly, it also dropped the requirement for circumcision Gnosticism was attractive in that it provided a satisfying expla- as well as most dietary restrictions. nation for human ills: My true self is spirit and good; yet I am Although Paul is the missionary about whom we know the trapped in a body that not only fails me but also engages in most, the message of Jesus spread throughout the Greco- evils for which I as spirit cannot be held accountable. How- Roman world and beyond not only through missionaries but ever comforting it may be to believe that the “real me” is pure, also through immigrants, merchants, other travelers, and, of the gnostic opposition of spirit and matter entailed a rejection course, people telling their neighbors. One effect of this multi- of fundamental elements of the Christian message: monothe- pronged missionary work was that over time the proportion of ism, the Old Testament and its God, the goodness of creation, Jewish Christians declined in relation to Gentile Christians. the reality of the incarnation and crucifi xion, and the need for In the second century, the leadership of the church was dis- forgiveness of sin. It also limited the possibility of salvation to tinctively Gentile. Paul’s message that there is neither Jew nor the spiritual and intellectual elite. Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, because all are one in Christ (Gal. 3:28) opened the door of the church, potentially, to everyone. Safeguarding the Faith It is diffi cult to establish the number of Christians at any one of the Apostles time. Acts speaks of about 120 believers immediately before In the late second century, three effective lines of defense Pentecost and larger numbers afterward. By the year 350, there against Gnosticism developed. The goal was to ensure that would seem to have been approximately 33 million Christians, the teaching and preaching of the church were in continuity more than half of the empire’s total population of 60 million.1 with the teaching and preaching of the apostles. This three- pronged defense against Gnosticism continues to shape the The Challenge of Gnosticism church today. The astonishing growth of the church brought challenges. Canon of Scriptures New converts with new perspectives questioned established Christian identity. What elements of faith and practice were One line of defense against the gnostics was the establishment essential and what could be altered or even dropped? The of a canon, i.e., an offi cial set of Christian Scriptures. The answers were not obvious. basic criterion was that these documents should be traceable either to the apostles or to their immediate associates. The four One of the most important challenges arose in the second Gospels and the Epistles that we have today were believed to century: Gnosticism (from the Greek word gnosis, meaning satisfy this criterion. The Old Testament also met the criterion knowledge). That label is used to cover a variety of religious in that it had been, generally speaking, the text sacred to the systems that existed both inside and outside the church. In gen- apostles and even Jesus himself. Having such a collection of eral, gnostics taught that there is a fundamental antagonism texts had the effect of disallowing later additions by gnostics. between spirit and matter. Spirit is good and has its source The union of Old Testament and New Testament also ensured in a supreme deity previously unknown. Matter, in contrast, that the church would insist on a connection between the God is inferior, even evil, and has its source in the creator God of of the Old Testament and the savior proclaimed in the New. the Old Testament. The human dilemma is that we are all spir- its trapped in material prisons, most specifi cally our bodies. Creed Thus bodily entrapment, not sin, is the source of all human ills. What is needed is a savior who comes from the supreme A second defense against the gnostics was the use of a state- God and provides secret knowledge enabling the escape of ment of faith similar to our creeds, especially the Apostles’ spirit from matter and a return home to the spiritual realm. Creed. Called Rules of Faith, they affi rmed the one God, who was not only the creator of the material world but also the Those gnostics, who considered themselves to be Christians, source of the incarnate Son. These summaries of the faith believed that Christ was the revealer who had brought secret were believed to have originated with the apostles, who had knowledge making escape possible, but only for a few. Because intended them as a lens through which Scripture was to be he was entirely spiritual, he could not have been born of a interpreted. Reading the Scriptures through such a lens served woman or have had a real body, although he may have made as a protection against gnostic speculation about multiple use of a body while on the earth. Finally, because he had come deities.

Early Christianity Copyright © 2011 www.thepresbyterianleader.com P2 Permission given to the purchaser to copy this page Participant Handout for use in local church setting. The irony, of course, is that after the mary concern was that the Christians refused to make sacrifi ce fi rst decade of the fourth century, the to the gods of the empire on whom, the Romans believed, the church, with the support of the Ro- empire’s safety depended. Christians were guilty of treason. man emperors, moved from being an alternative to Roman society to a force The Church as an Alternative Society within it. The offense of the Christians went even further, however. Because much of Roman civic life, including the theater, sports, the military, governmental service, and even taking an oath, entailed some form of idolatry, Christians, when possible, dissociated themselves from these activities. In so doing, they appeared indifferent, even hostile, to basic structures of Roman society. Mistrusted by their neighbors, Christians constructed an alternative society based on exclusive fi delity to the one God Apostolic Succession and love of neighbor, especially those neighbors within the A third line of defense against the gnostics was the notion of Christian community. Preparation for full membership in this apostolic succession. According to this view, the apostles had alternative society regularly consisted of several years of pre- appointed and instructed their successors, known as bishops, baptismal instruction in Scriptures, doctrine, and way of life. who in turn had instructed and appointed their own succes- Those seeking admission, called catechumens, had to show sors in an unbroken line. This line of defense protected the evidence that they were conforming to the habits of Christian church against self-appointed gnostic teachers who taught life, including almsgiving, visiting the sick, living in chastity whatever they pleased. or, if married, in fi delity. Their commitments were not to the empire but to Christ and his church. As Presbyterians, we may choose to dispute the second-century claim that our sacred texts, the content of our teaching, From Persecuted Minority and our ordained teachers all can be traced to the apostles. to Favored Majority Yet we do use a canon of Scripture that corresponds to a great extent to the books used by Christians at the end of The irony, of course, is that after the fi rst decade of the fourth the second century. We also interpret the Bible through the century, the church, with the support of the Roman emperors, lens of the Apostles’ Creed, which affi rms that there is only moved from being an alternative to Roman society to a force one God, who is both our creator and redeemer. Finally, within it. The Emperor Constantine was critical to this shift. although we do not have bishops, our presbyteries preside He was convinced that the God of the Christians had granted over the certifi cation of persons invested with the teaching him victory in a decisive battle in 312. A year later, he and his authority of the church. Candidates for the offi ce of Minister co-emperor issued the Edict of Milan, which granted freedom of Word and Sacrament must demonstrate that they accept of worship to adherents of all religions in the empire. After the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as interpreted Constantine became sole emperor in 324, his involvement through the lens of the ancient creed. We, too, want the with the church grew. He was even more convinced that he church’s teaching to be in continuity with the teaching of owed his position to the favor of the Christian God. Jesus to the apostles. As previous emperors had seen Rome’s ancestral religion as a means of unifying the empire and securing the favor of its The Church and gods, Constantine and all but one of his successors saw Chris- the Roman Empire tianity as necessary to imperial unity and to the favor of this powerful God. Accordingly, Constantine did a multitude of Gnosticism was not the only challenge faced by the church. things to strengthen the church. He insisted that any proper- From the late fi rst century into the early fourth, Christians ties that the church or individual Christians had lost during were subject to sporadic persecution by the Roman govern- persecution were to be restored to them. He gave bishops the ment. Their suspicious neighbors accused them of canni- right to serve as judges in civil cases. He gave to the church, balism, incest, and atheism and blamed them for assorted and thus to its bishops, grain to be distributed to the clergy and disasters: fl oods, droughts, famines, and plagues. Whatever the poor. He subsidized the building of enormous churches in credence the Roman government gave to these charges, its pri- major cities and at locations considered to be holy, such as the

Early Christianity Copyright © 2011 www.thepresbyterianleader.com P3 Permission given to the purchaser to copy this page Participant Handout for use in local church setting. sites of the nativity and the ascension. He showed preference ecclesiastical hierarchy could imagine its own existence apart to Christians in his hiring practices. from the other. Nevertheless, in the development of Christian monasticism there arose an alternative not only to Roman Moreover, in 325, Constantine convened and fi nanced a coun- society but also to church, which had become identifi ed with cil of bishops at Nicaea (near Constantinople, today’s Istan- that society. bul) to deal with a heated dispute over the relationship of the Son to the Father in the evolving doctrine of the Trinity. What little information that we have about this council, which came The Challenge to to be known as the First Ecumenical Council, suggests that the Church Today Constantine was involved in its deliberations and may have contributed to its outcome. The principle of imperial involve- Some observers of the church today claim that Christians in ment in the operation of the church had been established. the West are moving toward a pre-Constantinian status in rela- Even more important, the doctrinal decisions of the church tion to the state. Although the claim is an obvious exaggera- now had the police power of the state behind them. Finally, in tion, the point would seem to be valid: The church in the West 392 the emperor Theodosius declared Christianity to be the does appear to be moving toward a status in which it can no only legitimate religion of the empire. longer expect the state or the broader culture to reinforce its faith and values. Many believe that the change in status pro- The Church within Roman Society vides an opportunity to reconsider what it means to be followers of Christ. What forms of faith and practice would compose The increasing imperial favor shown the church had a vari- such a life? What of our present social entanglements might ety of effects. Church rolls grew dramatically, because it was need to fall away? What would need to be strengthened? As not only legal but also advantageous to be associated with the Presbyterians, historically we have believed that our vocation church. As noted above, by the middle of the fourth century, lies within the structures of society; yet our theological ances- more than half the population of the empire was identifi ed tors also believed that within those structures our vocation is as Christian. As churches became the benefi ciaries of impe- to be conformed not to society but to Christ. What might it rial and private generosity, bishops, especially in large cities, mean to pose an alternative to society within society itself? became the administrators of growing ecclesiastical resources, including prominent real estate. Many of those resources About the Writer were used to care for the innumerable poor, especially widows and orphans. Moreover, some bishops employed their moral Rebecca H. Weaver is professor of church history at Union Pres- authority to denounce abuses of power; yet the church did byterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. little to challenge grave social injustices, such as slavery. In effect, over the course of the fourth century the church lost Endnote its position as an alternative society. If not yet coextensive 1 Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist with Roman society, it had become a pervasive and promi- Reconsiders History (Princeton University Press 1996), nent force within it. Neither the imperial government nor the 4–9.