A Brief Introduction to Christianity

Christopher Partridge, Tim Dowley, Christopher Partridge, Tim Dowley

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781506450322
• eBook ISBN: 9781506450339
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

This brief introduction to Christianity is designed to help readers understand this important religious tradition. With both nuance and balance, this text provides broad coverage of various forms of Christianity with an arresting layout with rich colors. It offers both historical overviews and modern perspectives on Christian beliefs and practices. The user-friendly content is enhanced by charts of religious festivals, historic timelines, updated maps, and a useful glossary. It is ideal for courses on Christianity and will be a useful, concise reference for all readers eager to know more about this important religious tradition and its place in our contemporary world.

2

CHRISTIANITY

SUMMARY

With around one third of the world’s population as adherents, Christianity is easily its largest religion. This fact, though, belies Christianity’s humble origins, as what was essentially a small Jewish sect. For his early followers, Jesus was a Jewish teacher commanding strong loyalty, who provided direction through his preaching and a code for life, but was also more than a mere prophet. Christianity’s divorce from Judaism was the result of its acceptance of Jesus himself as the Messiah of Jewish teaching, as the Son of God, and as a sacrifice made by God to redeem his followers from sin. Jesus’ message not only supersedes that of the Old Testament in Christianity, but his life also furnishes it with its distinct rituals and festivals: baptism, communion, and, above all, Easter, are all taken from the Gospels, rather than from Jewish tradition.

While the earliest history of Christianity is one of anti-establishment insurgency, a threat to both Jewish and Roman authority, much of its subsequent history is closely bound up with European high politics. Christianity rapidly advanced into Asia and North Africa, and after 324 was officially recognized in the Roman Empire, a development that eventually saw much of the church’s life centred on Rome itself. This ancient church subsequently broke up during three schisms that resulted from conflicts over doctrine and authority.

If Christianity today is the world’s largest religion, it is also its most diverse. This is in part due to the division of the ancient church, producing distinct Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant branches, but also due to more recent developments, such as the adaptation of churches in the global South to the needs and cultures of their local communities. In the West, too, older churches have been shaped by their different reactions to social and scientific developments, as well as by the emergence of new trends, such as the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. The strength of Christianity increasingly lies outside the West, however, and in much of the world it faces competition from other faiths, especially Islam.

9

A Historical Overview

Christianity rapidly spread beyond its original geographical region of Roman-occupied Palestine into the entire Mediterranean area. Something of this process of expansion is described in the Acts of the Apostles, in the New Testament. For example, it is clear that a Christian presence was already established in Rome itself within fifteen years of the resurrection of Christ. The imperial trade routes made possible the rapid traffic of ideas, as much as merchandise.

THE EARLY CHURCH

Three centres of the Christian church rapidly emerged in the eastern Mediterranean region. The church became a significant presence in its own original heartlands, with Jerusalem emerging as a leading centre of thought and activity. Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, was already an important area of Christian expansion, as can be seen from the destinations of some of Paul’s letters, and the references to the ‘seven churches of Asia’ in the book of Revelation. This process of expansion in this region continued, with the great imperial city of Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul, becoming a particularly influential centre of mission and political consolidation.

Yet further growth took place to the south, with the important Egyptian city of Alexandria emerging as a stronghold of Christian faith. With this expansion, new debates opened up. While the New Testament deals with the issue of the relationship of Christianity and Judaism, the expansion of Christianity into Greek-speaking regions led to the exploration of the way in which Christianity related to Greek philosophy. Many Christian writers sought to demonstrate, for example, that Christianity brought to fulfilment the great themes of the philosophy of Plato.

Yet this expansion was far from unproblematic. The ‘imperial cult’, which regarded worship of the Roman emperor as determinative of loyalty to the empire, was prominent in the eastern Mediterranean. Many Christians found themselves penalized for their insistence on worshipping only Christ. The expansion of Christianity regularly triggered off persecutions. These were often local – for example, the Decian persecution of 249–51, which was particularly vicious in North Africa. Christianity was not given official recognition as a ‘legitimate religion’ by the Roman state until 313, when Constantine, a recent convert, was joint emperor. From that point onwards, Christianity became not merely a recognized faith, but in time the official religion of the Roman state.

This period of Christian history was marked by a series of controversies over the identity of Jesus Christ and the Christian doctrine of God. A series of councils was convened to resolve these differences, and to ensure the unity of the Christian church throughout the empire. The most important of these was the Council of Chalcedon (451), which set out the definitive Christian interpretation of the identity of Jesus Christ as ‘true God and true man’.

The fall of the Roman Empire – traditionally dated to 476 – led to widespread insecurity within the Western church. In the East, the church continued to flourish, as the Eastern Empire, based at Constantinople, was largely unaffected by the attacks from northern European invaders which eventually ended Roman power in the West. The removal of Rome as a stabilizing influence, however, gave a new role to the church in the West, and particularly to its monasteries. The founding of the first Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino around 525 is seen as a landmark in this process. The increasingly important role of the pope as a political force also began to emerge during this period.

The major disruptions within the Roman Empire in the fifth century led to a growing rift between the Western and Eastern churches. Increasing tension over political as much as theological issues led to the ‘Great Schism’ of 1054. By this stage, the influence of the Eastern Church had extended as far north as Moscow. While the story of Christianity in Eastern Europe at this time is important, most attention focuses on developments in the Western church.

Spread of Christianity about 300 CE

CHRISTIANITY TIMELINE

THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE

Christianity underwent a major renaissance in Western Europe during the period 1000–1500. This era – often referred to as the ‘Middle Ages’ – saw the renewal of church life at every level. It was a period of consolidation of the political and social influence of the church, with the personal authority of the pope to intervene in political disputes of the region reaching unprecedented levels. The form of theology known as ‘scholasticism’ began to develop around this time, with thirteenth-century writers such as Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus achieving new levels of theological sophistication.

Yet scholasticism was not universally acclaimed. The European Renaissance, which began to become a major cultural force in Western Europe during the fourteenth century, emphasized the importance of returning to the roots of Christendom through the simple language and imagery of the New Testament. The humanist movement, linked with the Renaissance, believed it was essential to study the Bible in its original languages, rather than in unreliable Latin translations, such as the Vulgate, thus creating irresistible pressure for new Bible translations. Yet it became clear that some medieval theological ideas were ultimately based on translation mistakes in the Vulgate. Some form of review of teachings was seen to be necessary, in the light of the new biblical scholarship.

The rise of Islam in the seventh century had a significant impact on Christianity in North Africa and Palestine. However, its influence seemed poised to reach new levels in 1453, when Islamic armies finally managed to take Constantinople, the city widely seen as the gate to Europe. By the early sixteenth century, Islam had become a significant presence in the Balkans, and was poised to enter Austria. Martin Luther (1483–1546) believed it was only a matter of time before Europe became an Islamic sphere of influence. In the event, a series of decisive military defeats limited this influence to the Balkans. By this stage, however, Western Europe was convulsed by new controversies, as the movement we know as the Reformation gained momentum.

‘Prayer of St Francis’ Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Attributed to Francis of Assisi (1181–1226)

REFORMATIONS

The sixteenth century gave rise to a major upheaval within Western Christianity, usually referred to as the Reformation. This movement had its origins in the Renaissance, especially its demand for a return to the original sources of Christianity in the New Testament. Alarmed at what they perceived to be a growing disparity between apostolic and medieval visions of Christianity, individuals such as Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) pressed for reform. For Zwingli, it was the morals and institutions of the church that required reform. Luther, however, judged that a deeper level of reform was required. The teachings of the church had been either distorted or inflated during the Middle Ages, and needed to be brought back into line with Scripture. For Luther, the whole question of how we enter into a right relationship with God – technically referred to as the ‘doctrine of justification’ – needed radical revision in the light of the biblical witness.

Although the need for reform was widely conceded within the church, such reforming agendas proved intensely controversial. In the end, both Luther and Zwingli found themselves creating reforming communities outside the mainline church, instead of reforming that church from within, as they had hoped. By the time of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Consulting editors
• Contributors
• List of Maps
• List of Time Charts
• List of Festival Charts
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• UNDERSTANDING RELIGION
• CHRISTIANITY
• Gallery
• Rapid Fact-Finder
• Index
• Picture Acknowledgments