History of Christian Thought - Essay Example

? Assignment: Theology The first members of Christianity considered their religion as a movement to revive Palestinian Judaism. They viewed their faith as an embodiment of God’s promise to the land of Israel. In Judaism, Saul and David were also regarded as “Messiahs” (God’s Anointed One), though they played no special part in the pagan religion. Along these lines, the Christians also accepted Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah and Christ (Frend, 12). The formation of Jesus’ ministries and the first Christian groups occurred during the time of the second period of events at the Qumran. Jesus and his early followers believed that they would soon witness the end of that era and looked for the signs, which would alert them of the approaching end. They were concerned with the future consequences of the kingdom. They identified themselves as “The Community of the Poor” and their social philosophies always favored the poor people (Frend, 27-28). Jesus Christ was given a violent death by his antagonists who crucified him onto a cross. The Jewish religion believed that the prophets usually sacrificed their lives as a martyr, and Jesus death occurred in a similar circumstance. Of course, being the “Son of God”, he resurrected himself within three days of his dying. Thus, his followers came to regard him as “the true and faithful martyr” who sacrificed his life for the salvation of mankind (Frend, 54). Paul, a religious genius, shifted the Christian ideology away from Palestinian Judaism to the Jewish cultural centers in Europe and Asia Minor. According to him, although Christianity was a reform movement within Judaism, one could become a Christian only through a formal process of baptism to the religion. However, Paul had not respected the Christian followers at Jerusalem and they naturally opposed his philosophies (Frend, 89). 2. During the 2nd century, Rome emerged as the leading center in Christianity. According to the account in Clement I, the Roman Church was governed by presbyter bishops, instead of a single authoritative bishop. Hermas’ account suggests that different religious officials were responsible of carrying out different tasks: Clement was in charge of the foreign correspondence of the Church while other bishops or overseers were asked to monitor the area of hospitality and other charitable activities of the institution. During this time, Rome also started implementing beneficial activities for communities living beyond the city (Frend, 130). During 130-180, the Christian religion experienced the advent of the Gnostic movement. The movement advocated a form of Gentile Christianity, which encouraged its followers to encompass all kinds of knowledge and experience in their ultimate aim of achieving salvation centering around the divinity of Christ. Basilides, Valentinus, and Heracleon were three of the pioneering teachers of the movement, who working in Alexandria, spread its influence to Rome, Italy, Asia Minor and the Rhone valley. The Gnostic philosophy laid the foundation for the Alexandrian school of theology and Christian Platonism, which flourished in the subsequent centuries (Frend, 195). During this time, the Christian religion was retained its presence although in a smaller scale. During the second century, Christians had become almost a minority in certain places of the western world. By this time, new religious movements were also emerging which differed from Christianity in their basic ideals. Religious fanaticism had reached such a peak that, Christians being a minority began to be persecuted at different places of the Roman Empire. 3. During the 2nd and the 3rd centuries, the Roman Empire started to witness evidence of religious syncretism among its citizens. During the ancient time, the empire had been under the pagan influence after which the Christian religion had become popular among the people. Now, influences of other religions had started percolating into Christianity and the people had started to include these new practices within their existing religion. During this time, the Romans also witnessed the emergence of the Imperial Cult, which proved to be a major unifying force among them. The Roman Empire was not strongly governed during that time and the Cult proved to be an important platform by which the Roman remained united in the name of loyalty to their country and their emperor. (Frend, 338) During the 1st- 4thcentury AD, there was a mystery religion prevalent in the Roman Empire, which was called Mithraism. Earlier, the Greeks had adapted the Persian God Mithra as “Mithras” in their theology and associated him with a different image. The Romans also started adopting this new form of religion into their existing lifestyle. People had to pass through seven levels of initiation to be initiated into Mithraism, and all these stages had distinct meals. By 190-200, Christianity invaded Carthage, the chief town and main cultural center of Africa. Many educated citizens decided to convert to the religion. The group of converts included a brilliant advocate Tertullian, who was a master of Latin and Greek as well. By the time, he became a Christian he had already been subject to persecution. This prompted him to write Apologeticus in 197 AD, where he defended Christianity by launching a counter-attack on the superstitions of polytheism as prevalent under the pagan philosophy (Chadwick, 118). 4. By the second century, the Christians were self-confident and possessed an identity of their own, which transformed them into articulate orators of their religion. This new group of Christians was called the Apologists, who were contemporary to the Gnostics and the Marconists. Similar to them, the Apologists also believed in a Gentile form of Christianity by reaching an amicable relationship with Palestinian Judaism, the ancient Greek philosophy and the laws of the Roman authorities (Frend, 234). Quadratus of Athens was the “Father of the post-apostolic Apologists”. In his work Preaching of Peter, he wrote the first Christian apologetic towards both the pagans and the Jews. On the other hand, Aristides’ (c. 145) work aplogia is the oldest existing complete account of the Apologists. This apologetic was most favorable to the Jews. Justin Martyr was the first traditional Apologist to examine the significance of philosophy in the Christian principles. In Typho and the Two Aplogies, he considered the arguments enumerated in Diognetus and explained them with the help of explicit examples (Frend, 234). Celsus, was a Greek observer of the Church, who became concerned about the rapid expansion of the Christian religion. Celsus believed, the supreme God Zeus was the Head of a group of lesser deities, who protected their own tribes and nations. The Christians abhorred this polytheistic practice by labeling it as the worship of evil daemons. They often insulted the story of Zeus’ tomb in Crete and abused the cult-statues of the pagan religion. This naturally, enraged Celesus and he expressed scorn at the Christian communities and their continuing growth (Chadwick, 111). According to Irenaeus, there were a variety of characteristics that converged to form a structure of orthodoxy in Christianity. The Church finally had a standard canon of Scripture, which became its sacred text. The Christian Scripture acquired its own identity, which was distinct from the literature of the Jews, Pagans and the Gnostics (Frend, 250). 5. Clement of Alexandria (180-203), in his works Protrepticus, Paidagogus and Stromata described Christianity’s evolution towards becoming a more mature religion. Clement’s theology placed the Holy Spirit in place of Plato’s Logos and conceived Jesus Christ in a role different to that considered by the Alexandrian Gnostics. Origen, in his Commentary on Matthew described the increasing addition of strong-minded and dedicated members into the Christian Church. He has also enumerated the universal character of the Christain missionary activities (Frend, 252-253). Earlier, the Gnostic movement was considered as the main threat to Origen’s World-flesh philosophy among the members of Christianity. Later, Monarchianism replaced Gnosticism as the primary danger to Origen’s theology. (Frend, 314) Messius Quintus Decius was the prefect of Rome, who defeated the Roman emperor Philip and himself became the emperor in 249. Philip was very tolerant towards the Christians of his kingdom. However, Decius being a bitter enemy of Philip subjected the Churches to persecution. Licius Valerianus had been Decius’ censor, who succeeded him to the throne after the civil war. Though he was friendly to the Christians first, his policy changed in 257. He began persecuting the Roman Christians and this repression continued till the capture and defeat by the Persians. In November 284, an Illyrian soldier Diocles, seized power from his rivals and became the Roman Emperor. On 23 February, he launched a Great Persecution against the Christian population in his kingdom. Perhaps he felt that he was obliged to act on behalf of God in reforming the Christian Church which had become slow and argumentative in its methods (Frend, 119, 452). 6. The Montanists were members of a religious movement in Phrygia, in Asia Minor, who later emerged as a threat to the unity of the Christians. The movement was initiated by Montanus, a former priest of Cybele, who was accompanied by his two aids Prisca and Maximilla, who declared themselves to be prophets inspired by the Paraclete. The leaders made prophecies about the future millennium which was well received by the common people (Frend, 253). There was a Jewish-Christian apocalyptic tradition existing among the Christians of Asia Minor, which inspired the Montanist movement. The Montanists firmly believed in prophecy, asceticism and martyrdom as the essential principles of their movement. The Montanist also practiced certain customs which were Jewish and Johanine in origin. The Montanists had showed extraordinary resilience against the persecution of their movement by the orthodox Christians during the future times (Frend, 254). During the 3rd century, the Christian Church was rejuvenated by the efforts of a committed member called Cyprian. When he returned to the Church of Carthage he directed all his efforts to revive it. He became the Head of the Church council after the Easter of 251 and was instrumental in formulating the penitential code of the institution. Cyprian assumed a powerful position in the Church, where he along with the clergy was responsible for deciding on the important matters. With the progress of time, Cyprian further consolidated his position as an authority in the Christian Church (Frend, 323). 7. The entire series of events following Constantine’s efforts to secure the power of the Roman empire is known as the Constantinian Revolution (305 -330). Many of his trusted generals, helped Constantine in his campaign. Finally, in 306 AD, the Imperial troops emerged victorious at York and declared Constantine to be the “Ceasar”. (Macmullan, 119) After Constantine became the Roman Emperor, he named his capital in commemoration of his famous victory and called it Byzantium Constantinople. He spent a huge amount of resources, adorning his capital city for he wanted to make it equal to that of Rome in stature and grandeur. (Ehrman Cila, 29). Eusebius (260-339) was the bishop of Caesarea, a place in Palestine during the reign of Constantine. He wrote his famous work Church History and was later credited by the title “Father of Christian History”. He declared himself to be the ecclesiastical representative of the Roman Emperor. After Constantine’s demise, Eusebius wrote the Life of Constantine , lauding the efforts of the Emperor. (Ehrman Cila, 30). However, there was also a very strong monastic reaction during the rule of Emperor Constantine. It was led by the influential members of the Christian Church. Some accounts of this monastic reaction can be gathered from the writings of the contemporary historians. During the period succeeding the reign of Emperor Constantine, the Roman society exhibited several tendencies of moving from the pagan beliefs to the Christian philosophies. Emperor Julian was a staunch follower of the pagan religion and wanted to establish a pagan priesthood of high moral integrity and exemplary standing. However, the measures that he adopted for this purpose were not effective to transform the society back to the old pagan beliefs and overall his efforts were unsuccessful. (Frend, 337) 8. During the 4th century, there ensued a religious controversy between the followers of Arius and those of St. Alexander of Alexandria. They were divided on the opinion on whether God and his son Jesus Christ were same in their divine forms or in their beings. The First Council of Nicea, is credited with drafting the Nicene Creed which is a religious statement of faith existing among the Christian community even till today. On August 25, 325 AD, the Arians lost in the argument and the Council came to an end. Emperor Constantine ordered the bishop to be exiled to Illyria. Athanasuis, was a Christian theologian during this period, who was also a member of the group of 8 Doctors of the Church. He has provided an informative account of the Council of Nicea, in his writings. (Frend, 421) St Basil, St Gregory of Nazianzus and St Gregory of Nyssa were known as the Cappadocian Fathers who endeavoured to reconcile the principles of Catholic Christianity with the ideas of other branches of study. St. Gregory of Nyssa was an exemplary thinker while St Gregory of Nazianzus was known for his oratorty skills. On the other hand, St. Basil was an efficient executer of the actions. (Frend, 332) Ambrose of Milan was conferred as Bishop after he had been baptized and rushed through various ecclesiastical grades in 8 days. He molded Western Christian liturgy and hymnody in the direction of congregational life. One of his principal aims was bringing the prominent Illyrian bishops to trial for heresy before their fellow bishops and thus strike a decisive blow at Arian Christianity in the West. As the most influential cleric in the West in his time, he did more for the overthrow of Afrianism and paganism and for establishing the superiority of the Church over the State than anyone else. (Frend). St. Jerome was declared the priest at Atioch. From there, he went to Rome in 380-381, where he met St.Gregory of Nazianzus and developed a friendship with him. He is credited with the writing of many important literary works on the Bible, theological controversies, historical accounts, letters and translations. (Frend, 338) 9. Donatism was popular among the Christians in North Africa. The philosophy propagated theory of Christian martyrdom, which in the opinion of Augustine was no better than Paganism. On the other hand the Donatists were in favor of imposing a ritualistic philosophy on their followers, which in turn was not acceptable to Augustine. (Frend, 661-662). Donatism was founded by Donatus who believed that as there was only one God, his Church was also one and it was characterized by purity. The movement gained considerable success and became a representative of the Christian and African religious ideals. North Africa under the Donatist movement gathered itself around its bishops and following the Cyprus and the Donatist ideals almost became a Christian society. (Frend, 653-656). Pelgaius was a Christian theologian contemporary to St. Augustine. According to his opinion, the Bible should be followed without questioning. He further believed that man had the power of discovering oneself and that moral reform was required to ring about a change in society. He believed that man’s sin affected other members of his race. (Frend, 662-663). The Manichaeist philosophy believed that Christianity combined reason and revelation in a truly spiritual process of worship. The Manichaeists advocated that it was not necessary to worship God at any altar. The contemporary Manichaeists of that period included Fortunatus, a byter of the press in Hippo, Cornelius an intellectual man, Alypius also a resident of Thagaste, Honoratus, a pagan converted to Manicheism and Nebridios who followed St.Augustine through the movement to Platonist Christianity. (Frend, 660-661). St. Augustine was brought up on Christian ideals by his mother. Initially, tutored by Maximus of Badora, he moved to the school of Madaura . In 371c he traveled to study at Carthage in Rome, where he pursued two philosophies: namely Manichaeism and another faith which advocated undivided wisdom through philosophy. Augustine’s conversion came about as a culmination of his prayers to God. In his account about his own experiences he claimed that he traversed six stages in a man’s life from infancy to old age (at 43) before he successfully converted to Christianity (Frend, 651-653). 10. During October 8 - November 1, 451, a Christian religious Council was held at Chalcedon, Bythenia, in Asia Minor. The Council was convened to assert the traditional Catholic Christian principles in the opposition of the accounts of Eutyches and Monophysites. The members of the Chalcedon Council also wanted to strengthen the ecclesiastical discipline and regulation in the Christian Catholic religion. (Chadwick, 300) Theologian Nestorius was convinced of the divine and the human character of Jesus Christ and preached that there existed two beings in Christ. His philosophy was condemned at the Council of Epheseus in 451. Nestoruis’s opponents emphasized the singular personality of the Savior and considered Him as one Being. Some of the opponents like Dioscurus, Patriarch of Alexander and Eutyches, a monastery president outside Constantinople, went even further. They advocated that the Divine nature in Jesus Christ was intimately associated with his Human nature so that it was impossible to differentiate between the two. In fact, the Divine nature had completely absorbed the human one, so that Jesus Christ was a divine figure with a single unique personality and single nature. The theologists argued that after His Incarnation, there was no difference between the Divine and the Human nature of Christ. This new viewpoint was called the Monophysitic error and it was declared under the authority of St. Cyril, a great teacher of Alexandria. (Frend, 112) However, it was later pointed out that the Monophysitic theologists formed their arguments by misinterpreting certain teachings of St. Cyril. This gave rise to a new set of controversies after the end of the Chalcedon Council. (Frend, 112) 11. Emperor Justinian had a dream of reviving the Byzantine empire and he was able to successfully achieve it during his reign. The Byzantine empire covered the maximum territory under his rule and the emperor was firmly in control of all the provinces of his kingdom. Justinian was also an ambitious builder who constructed magnificent buildings all across his empire. He hired excellent architects to give shape to his expansive plans and pushed the architecture of the period to an unprecedented height. Justinian’s rule represented the last fruitful period of a grand tradition of literature that originated almost thousand years before. The authors of this age concentrated on preserving the literary traditions of the past instead of inventing new ideas and subjects. In the religious sphere, the Emperor made efforts to bring about an understanding between the Chalcedonians and the anti-Chalcedonians, who came to be known as the Monophysites. The Council of Chalcedon had included the three advocators of Nestorios into the Catholic Church, which Justinian vehemently opposed. For this , the Latin Church became angry with the emperor. Finally, in 553, the Fifth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople rejected the Three Chapters which had been accepted earlier. (Frend, 443) St. Benedict was an aristocratic Roman, who had embraced life of asceticism in his early youth. He gathered other follower monks around him, whom he divided into small communities. The principles of his teachings are known as Benedictine Monasticism, which flourished in the West, during the 6th – 10th century AD. St. Benedict wrote the Rules to be obeyed by his followers. These rules were based on common sense which ensured physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual security for the Benedictine monks. After two generations, Pope Gregory I, reinstated the principles of St. Benedict in his literary works. He wrote a biography of St. Benedict which had a significant influence on the subsequent principles of Christian monasticism in the Christian world. St. Benedict had already enumerated a framework for the external life of the monks. To this Pope Gregory I added the internal structure of monasticism by providing a spiritual basis for the structure. (Frend, 445) Read More