Session 1 - Why History, Why Doctrine?

The title of the first session is “Why History Why Doctrine” and will involve you in reading about the development of the Church up to AD313 when the Emperor Constantine gave civil rights and toleration to Christians throughout the Roman Empire.:

What was it like to become a Christian in those first centuries?

Becoming a Christian in the first three centuries was a very difficult decision. In Britain today this would be about accepting some apparently old fashioned ideas from some of the more cobwebby sections of the cultural and political establishment. We have a degree of respect and respectability, but are also the butt of some good natured humour. There is little malicious opposition. The little opposition we have is usually in the form of excessive political correctness, and is disguised in the language of human rights and individual freedoms (for everyone except Christians).

In the first three centuries, becoming a Christian was to join an avant-garde underground movement. It was often to join something illegal and clandestine. Opposition was very real, “in-your-face”. You did not have the protection of British Law to guarantee a fair trial. To become a Christian was to risk everything. At any moment you could be arrested and imprisoned and sentenced to death. This was clearly not just a personal choice – these consequences would also have a serious impact on your family. There was no welfare state to look after them while you were away or after your execution. We forget as well how terrifying these ordeals must have been. The shouting of a mob, unrestrained by any police, wanting your blood. (Compare this to the British soldiers we saw recently, set on fire by an Iraqi mob.) The pain of whips and beatings. The sight of a very real lion in the circus coming to eat you alive – slowly.

These days we imagine that God is under some kind of obligation to give us an easy life free of all discomforts. In those days, to become a Christian was to invite every kind of discomfort. You could not be a half-hearted or nominal Christian.

In theological terms, most discussion at this time centred on the nature of Christ. Who were we worshipping? There were various debates on the nature of the trinity, and whether Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, or if he was more of one than the other. Gnostic doctrines had him as less than God, while others believed he had only one divine nature and was not fully human (Docetism). Irenaeus was a key figure in resolving these issues.

What Practical Problems and difficulties did the Church have to face?

This is covered to some degree in my comments above.

Christians were blamed for natural and other disasters. The fire in Rome (when Nero ‘fiddled’) was blamed on Christians, as was the destruction of Ephesus, because the pagan gods were angry when pagan worship stopped.

Christians were sometimes forced to go into hiding to avoid persecution. But how do you get food when you are hiding?

What was happening to the empire in those three centuries?

This period saw the rise of the Roman Empire to its greatest peak, both in terms of the extent of its territory and in terms of its economic, administrative and military civilisation.

It also saw times of total chaos. There were times when madmen were emperors and had short reigns ending in bloody deaths. There were Emperors who lacked any sense of morality, committing murders and sexual immorality of every type.

Some Emperors orchestrated persecution of the Church, seeing it as a rival to the cult of the Emperor.

There were also times when the burden of leadership was too great for one man, and ‘the purple’ ie the Emperor’s authority was shared. This process began the division into east and west empires, although this was reveres several times.

Towards the end of the period various Germanic tribes began to push into the northern part of the empire, escaping from the Huns that were emigrating from Asia. Some of these Germanic incursions were peaceful, but many were violent. Eventually, some time after Constantine, the Visigoths sacked Rome, followed by the Vandals who sacked it again. The last Emperor of the West abdicated in 476.

When it became legal to be a Christian (AD313 Edict of Milan), what fresh problems did this raise for the church.

The main problem with the legalisation of Christianity was that it rapidly became the religion of the establishment and therefore became a political force. This meant that the theological debate moved from abstract ideas of Christology into much more practical debates about who was the real church, who had he political power, which of the various streams of church life was the real one. Which one had apostolic authority?

Also, being the established religion and having political power attracts ‘converts’ whose faith is for convenience only. They don’t have the quality of their faith tested by persecution. These converts come in two types – the malicious ones who are deliberately abusing the church to gain power or influence or respectability, and the ones who genuinely think they are doing the right thing but are actually just following the trend and going through the motions rather than having an actual belief in the Lord Jesus’ atonement for them as individuals. Both these types still exist to some degree in the church today. The former are often actively harmful. The latter tend to blunt the effectiveness of the church.

Another problem was that of how the church should deal with Christians who in the times of persecution had abandoned the faith, but now wanted to be re-admitted. The Donatists argued that they should be excluded permanently, while Augustine held a doctrine of original sin and imperfection covered by God’s grace. He reasoned that nobody is perfect, and that you could never fully distinguish a true believer, therefore these people should be readmitted and that sacraments administered by them were valid. (This reasoning has been taken to extremes, for example being used to justify not expelling actively paedophile priests.) Even at the time of Augustine the clergy were notoriously immoral, and this prompted Pelagius to counter the teaching of Augustine. He regarded humans as capable of separating themselves from sin and living holy lives. Thus, following the example of Christ, they would earn their salvation. This has become the dominant philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church, and lead ultimately to the Reformation in which Luther and others returned to the doctrine of salvation by grace.

References/Researched Materials

John D Woodbridge Ed, Great Leaders of the Christian Church, Moody, Chicago, 1988.

style="font-size:100%;">Alister E McGrath, Historical Theology, Blackwell, USA, 2003

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/guide03/timeline53.html

http://www.srcf.ucam.org/cucn/features/churchhistory.html