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The History and Development of Christianity

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The History and Development of Christianity Christianity 5000 Years of History and Development Gary A. Stilwell, Ph.D. ii For my Mother, Virginia Pauline Stilwell My own St. Monica iii Acknowledgments Christianity: 5000 Years of History and Development, and the course of lectures that preceded it, is partially an attempt, among other reasons, to resolve some of the historical ambiguities of the development of Christianity to my own satisfaction. Another purpose for its production was to condense an entire 5000-year history into a concise and comprehensible snapshot. The interested non-specialist may see the task of researching such a vast amount of information as too daunting a task to initiate. Hopefully, this relatively slim volume will ease that task and encourage the reader to pursue more in-depth studies among the dozens of available sources recommended in the footnotes and bibliography. There were many friends, colleagues and family members whose help in creating this work was tremendous. I wish to thank David Worley, Judy Roberts, Carla Cramer, Dr. Dennis Duke, Dr. Maudine Blair, and my son, Keith Stilwell, for their diligent reading, proofing and suggestions for improvement to the text. My most ardent supporter and confidant is my wife, Barbara Ann Stilwell, for whose help I am most grateful. This work is a further development of a class I taught at the Florida State University Academy. Therefore, I must also offer much gratitude to my students who endured as the first test subjects. As much as I would like to blame the good people noted above for all remaining errors and problems in the book, I, alas, must retain responsibility for the lot. iv Contents Acknowledgments _________________________________________________________ iv Preface _________________________________________________________________ xii PART I - Orientation and Introductory Information ___________________ 1 The Academic Study of Religion ______________________________________________ 2 Why Study Religion? ____________________________________________________________ 2 Religion as an Object of Critical Analysis ____________________________________________ 3 Some Important Definitions ______________________________________________________ 3 Orientation in Ancient Places and Times ________________________________________ 7 Ancient Places _________________________________________________________________ 7 Ancient Times _________________________________________________________________ 8 Religions Before Christianity ________________________________________________ 12 World Religions Today ____________________________________________________ 13 Major Branches of Christianity – Worldwide ________________________________________ 14 Liberal and Conservative Branches of Christianity — Worldwide ________________________ 15 United States Religions Today _______________________________________________ 16 The ARIS Study of 2001 ________________________________________________________ 16 Families of Christian Denominations ______________________________________________ 16 Contemporary Denominational Families of Christianity and the Year Started _______________ 17 Why so Many Variations of Christianity? ______________________________________ 19 Limited or No Central Control____________________________________________________ 19 Priesthood of All Believers ______________________________________________________ 19 Sola Scriptura_________________________________________________________________ 19 Ambiguous Interpretations of Scripture ____________________________________________ 20 Christian Doctrines Today __________________________________________________ 20 The Fundamentals (1909 - 1912) __________________________________________________ 20 A Contemporary Conservative View _______________________________________________ 20 Traditional Conservative Essential Christian Doctrines ________________________________ 21 Return to the One Single Faith? ______________________________________________ 23 History and Development Graphics ___________________________________________ 24 History Leading to Christianity ___________________________________________________ 24 Development of Christianity _____________________________________________________ 24 PART II – The History of Christianity ______________________________ 25 Timelines: The Big Picture (3000 – 1 BCE) ____________________________________ 25 A Synopsis of Part II (Encapsulation) _________________________________________ 26 The Pre-Christian Roots: ___________________________________________________ 27 The Religions of Mesopotamia ______________________________________________ 27 Sumerian and Akkadian _________________________________________________________ 28 Dying and rising gods ________________________________________________________ 28 Story of Dumuzi and Inanna ___________________________________________________ 28 Old Babylonian _______________________________________________________________ 29 Assyrian _____________________________________________________________________ 30 Mesopotamian Religious Literature ________________________________________________ 30 Cosmology and the Enuma elish ________________________________________________ 31 Eschatology and the Epic of Gilgamesh __________________________________________ 32 A major function of ancient religion _____________________________________________ 35 Canaanite Religion _____________________________________________________________ 36 v Mesopotamian Blends into Israelite ________________________________________________ 37 The Religions of Egypt _____________________________________________________ 38 Evolution of Egyptian Religion ___________________________________________________ 38 Some Old Kingdom texts ______________________________________________________ 39 Egyptian Pre-History ___________________________________________________________ 40 Post-Old Kingdom Texts ______________________________________________________ 44 Non-funerary texts of the post-Old Kingdom period _________________________________ 45 The Middle and New Kingdoms ________________________________________________ 46 Egyptian theologies __________________________________________________________ 46 The most advanced early Egyptian religion — Memphite theology _____________________ 47 The Classical Egyptian Judgment of the Dead ________________________________________ 48 The Book of the Dead ________________________________________________________ 48 Akhenaten (ca. 1400 BCE): the First Monotheist? ____________________________________ 50 The Religion of Persia _____________________________________________________ 52 Zoroastrian Theodicy and Eschatology _____________________________________________ 53 The first linear cosmic eschatology. _____________________________________________ 53 An introduction to some general solutions to the theodicy problem _____________________ 57 Zoroaster's solution to the theodicy problem _______________________________________ 58 The Religion of Zoroaster _______________________________________________________ 59 Main doctrines of Zoroastrianism _______________________________________________ 59 The Zoroastrian Noah? _______________________________________________________ 63 The Religions of the Greeks: from Zeus to the Mysteries __________________________ 65 A Comparison of Eschatological Concepts in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece ____________ 66 A possible cultural transmission ________________________________________________ 66 Evolution of the Greek Religions __________________________________________________ 67 Homer (ca. 750): the descent into Hades __________________________________________ 68 Hesiod's (ca. 700 BCE): five ages of man _________________________________________ 70 Pythagoras (ca. 540) and the Greek Mysteries _____________________________________ 72 The Orphics (ca. 550) ________________________________________________________ 73 Plato (ca. 365 BCE) __________________________________________________________ 76 The soul concept in Egypt and Greece____________________________________________ 78 Pre-Platonic Writer‘s Influence on Plato __________________________________________ 79 Plato‘s Idealism _____________________________________________________________ 83 Plato‘s later influence ________________________________________________________ 83 Stoics and Epicureans (ca. 310 BCE) ____________________________________________ 83 The Stoics and Epicureans versus Plato ___________________________________________ 84 A summary of three Greek philosophies __________________________________________ 86 A counterfactual historical footnote ______________________________________________ 87 The Religions of Ancient Israel ______________________________________________ 89 A Brief History of Judaism (Encapsulation) _________________________________________ 90 Persistence and commonality of myth ____________________________________________ 90 Monarchical Israel _____________________________________________________________ 91 The reforms of Josiah – Deuteronomist history _____________________________________ 92 Post-Exilic Judaism __________________________________________________________ 92 The Sects of the First Century BCE ________________________________________________ 93 Pharisees and Sadducees ______________________________________________________ 93 The Essenes (the pious) _______________________________________________________ 93 The Scrolls of Qumran on the Dead Sea __________________________________________ 95 The Making of the Hebrew Bible – Old Testament (Encapsulation) _______________________
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