A Brief History of the Early Catholic Church - Essay Example

 A Brief History of the Early Catholic Church For more than 2000 years, the Catholic Church has existed. While Catholics consider the founder of the religion to be Jesus Christ, who is also their spiritual leader, it is important to note much of the building of the new fell upon Jesus’ disciples. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus selected the apostle Peter to be the official founder of his church. Matthew recounts that Jesus, blessing his selected successor, said “thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16: 18-19 RSV). Despite the fact that Peter died, we know that “his office continues... and his successors continue to fill his office of royal steward and continue to preserve the sacred deposit of truth entrusted to the Church by the apostles” (Ray, 62). The task placed on Paul and his colleagues was a large one. Together they would have to face adversity and accusations of heresy in their campaign to spread the message of Jesus Christ. However, when one considers that fact that by 380 AD became the state religion of the Roman Empire, it becomes evident that Peter and his contemporaries worked diligently and quickly. Despite the fact that little has been written about the early days of the Catholic church, and the details of Peter’s life beyond his accession to the office of Bishop of Rome are lacking, “we cannot assume that the silence of the New Testament is an indication that the seldom-mentioned apostles ceased their apostolic ministries after the Ascension of Christ, or that they were not important in the first century and beyond” (Ray, 64). It is important to note that in the early Church, Peter did not act alone. His office, while seemingly above this apostolic colleagues, did bear much resemblance to the modern day papacy. Peter was “far removed from being a spiritual monarch or a sole ruler” (Kung, 10). While he did maintain a type of special authority, he did not possess it alone. This is how the Catholic Church would operate in its infancy. The early Catholic Church did not desire to separate itself from its Jewish counterparts. Rather, they intended to “remain integrated with Judiasm” (Kung, 13). In fact, Mitch Finley writes that “for a time Church remained completely Jewish, sect within Israel for those who believed in the resurrection of Jesus and regarded him as the promised Messiah” (Finley, 16). It also appears as if the early Christian preachers carried their message only to fellow Jews. Many early Christina teachers preached at synagogues and temples across Rome. At the same time, followers of Jesus were embarking to spread their message across Africa, Asia Minor, Arabia, Greece. Most scholars agree that Asia Minor appears to be “the first major site outside Palestine where the Gospel was preached and it was from here that the Church began to spread among non-Jewish people” (Finley, 17). In attempting to explain the break between Christians and Jews, Hans Kung claims that “executions and persecutions made a decisive contribution to the alienation: first of the Hellenistic Jewish-Christian Stephen, then of James the son of Zebdee (AD 43), and above all that of James the brother of the Lord, one of Jesus’ four brothers and head of the Jerusalem community after the departure of Peter (AD 63)” (Kung, 13-14). However, the final break came when a Jewish council in Jamnia destroyed the second temple of the Romans in AD 70. This marked “the formal excommunication of Christians, a curse of heretics which was to be repeated at the beginning of every synagogue service.” (Kung, 14). As the first century waned and the second began, there would be more sporadic persecutions of Christians. In AD 64, the emperor Nero had Christians killed and used them as a scapegoat for the fires of Rome. Nero, in doing this, set a dangerous president as Christians would often be killed for crimes they did not commit for a number of decades onward. It was in this period that Christians also began to develop new prayers aside from the ones they inherited from Judaism. Many of these prayers introduced a sense of hope and deep thanksgiving. In addition to new prayers, institutional changes began to occur as well. What would traditionally be described as “overseers” gradually evolved into what the modern Church calls bishops and priests. The deaths of the original apostles at the end of the first century also made it essential for the early Church to establish an institutional leadership model that would outlive the individual office holders. Saint Ignatius of Anitoch “developed in his letters a theology to support the idea of a monarchical approach to the office of bishop” (Finley, 21). By the middle of the third century Ignatius’ preferred model became common practice in the institutional workings of the Church. According to Mitch Finley, “without the popularity of Ignatius’s monarchical view of the bishop’s role, the bishop of Rome might never have gained his primacy role in the Catholic Church” (Finley, 22). Many of the challenges faced by the early Church came “in the form of various teachings that were incompatible with the new faith” (Finley, 22). Some writers of the period accused Christ of practising and preaching witchcraft. Also, Christians found themselves being persecuted for refusing to worship the emperors of Rome as Gods, due to their belief that they could only worship their own God – the father of Jesus Christ. While the second century saw further persecutions of Christians, many of them continued to practise their faith secretly underground or in their homes. At the same time, institutional strengthening continued. The bishop “became the symbol of unity, the main leader, and the primary preside of the Eucharist”, while priests “were delegated to care for smaller communities and preside over the Eucharist when the bishop was absent” (Finley, 27). The year AD 300 saw the last major persecution of the Christians. By this time the Christians composed of about 20 percent of the empire, but the emperor Diocletian was determined to put an end to the practice of Christianity. He “ordered the destruction of all Christian places of worship, that all Christian writings be turned over to the government and that all clergy be arrested” (Finley, 27). During this time many Christians died for refusing to renounce their faith. However, in AD 311, the new emperor Galerius ordered a decree of toleration. Under Galerius Christians would be free to practice their religion as they saw fit. Galerius acts of toleration were a sign of things to come. The emperor Constantine, “who was baptized only at the end of his life, pursued a tolerant policy of integration until his death in AD 337” (Kung, 37). In the years following Constantine’s death, successive emperors attempted to promote either the further integration of Christianity or existing pagan faiths. Inevitably, Christianity’s momentum could not be stopped. It was the emperor Theodosius the Great, “a strictly orthodox Spaniard, who at the end of the fourth century decreed a ban on all pagan cults and sacrificial rites” (Kung, 38). This move made Christianity the official state religion. Hans Kung, generally a critic of the Catholic Church observes that “in less than a century the persecuted church had become a persecuting church” (Kung, 38). Pagans and Jews came under pressure. For the first time, Christians killed other Christians due to disputes over faith. Regardless of the many controversies surrounding the meteoric rise of the Catholic faith, no one could deny its supremacy. Less than 400 years after Jesus had placed his trust in Peter to lead his Church, Catholic leaders had established their faith as the official religion of the Roman Empire. Works Cited Finley, M. (2005). Key moments in church history concise introduction to the Catholic Church. Oxford, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc. Kung, H. (2001). The Catholic Church: a short history. New York, NY: The Randomhouse Publishing Group Ray, S. (1999). Upon this rock: Saint Peter and the and the primacy of Rome in scripture and the early church. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press Read More