Christian History in Seven Sentences

A Small Introduction to a Vast Topic

Jennifer Woodruff Tait

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780830854783
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Histoire du Christianisme

The history of the Christian church is a fascinating story.Since the ascension of Jesus and the birth of the church at Pentecost, the followers of Christ have experienced persecution and martyrdom, established orthodoxy and orthopraxy, endured internal division and social upheaval, and sought to proclaim the good news "to the end of the earth." How can we possibly begin to grasp the complexity of the church's story?In this brief volume, historian Jennifer Woodruff Tait provides a primer using seven sentences to introduce readers to the sweeping scope of church history.Among the sentences: - "No one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to give his heart to the observance of the Christian religion." —The Edict of Milan (AD 313)- "Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance from the Father." —The Nicene Creed (325)- "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent, ' he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." —Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses (1517)- "The church is confronted today, as in no preceding generation, with a literally worldwide opportunity to make Christ known." —The Edinburgh Conference (1910)Pick up and read. The story continues.The accessible primers in the Introductions in Seven Sentences collection act as brief introductions to an academic field, with simple organization: seven key sentences that give readers a birds-eye view of an entire discipline.

- one -

THE EDICT OF MILAN (313)

“No one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to give his heart to the observance of the Christian religion.”

With these words, two Roman emperors changed the course of Christianity forever.1 The church we read about in the New Testament—and may well have heard about in childhood stories of heroic Christians standing against pagan persecutors—was an illegal faith. Scholars in recent years have debated how often and when it was most persecuted. However, though some of its adherents did increase in wealth and rise in councils of state, always hovering in the background was the possibility of that midnight knock on the door, with potential loss of property, imprisonment, and even death to follow.

In the early fourth century, though, the winds shifted. In 311, Emperor Galerius issued an edict of toleration in the name of all four members of the ruling tetrarchy of imperial leaders that persecution of Christians should cease.2 Two years later, emperors Constantine and Licinius legalized Christianity as an accepted faith. The famous story that Constantine did so after seeing a vision of the cross in 312 at the battle of Milvian Bridge may be questionable, and his statement did not make Christianity the empire’s official religion—that would not happen until 380 under a different emperor, Theodosius. But Constantine’s interest in Christianity was almost certainly genuine, and his actions set his new faith on a new path. This hinge point of Christian history is a very good place to start our story.

A CELEBRATION OR A FUNERAL?

Some years ago, when I was a seminary professor, I had a student in one of my church history classes who, though he was finishing the seminary master’s degree he had started, was no longer a Christian. He had great admiration for the scrappy, persecuted, miracle-working New Testament church, but he argued that Christianity had always been intended to be illegal. Constantine’s acceptance, he said, had fundamentally changed the character of what Jesus had started, and he could no longer believe in a faith that had ever supported worldly empires. At Milan, he said, Christianity had died.

It’s more complicated than that—especially because I believe God can work with the church’s choices whether or not they were the best possible choices. Nevertheless, it is true that what happened in the early fourth century fundamentally altered many things about how the faith spread and was practiced. To see how, we have to step back to the beginning.

Our first source for the spread of Christianity—“the Way,” as its earliest adherents called it (Acts 9:1-2)—is the Bible itself. The book of Acts begins where the Gospel of Luke ended, telling how Jesus ascended to heaven and the Holy Spirit came upon his disciples as they were gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish holiday called Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks—in Greek, “Pentecost.” The resulting preaching of the gospel by Peter led to over three thousand converts baptized that day, according to Acts 2:41.

The rest of the book of Acts details how the early church spread; how persecution dogged it from both Jewish and Roman sources once it became clear that the Way was no longer a sect of Judaism (which was a protected religion under Roman law); how it received explicit commission to spread among the Gentiles (Acts 10); and how one of its most fervent persecutors, Saul, became its most tireless missionary, Paul.3 Much of the rest of the New Testament consists of the letters Paul wrote as he traveled, preached, and planted churches—quite a few of which still exist today. Around AD 40, the growing number of believers first acquired the name “Christians” (Χριστιανός), ones who followed Christ.4 Urban areas seem to have heard the message first, as the apostles and those who came after them sailed from port to port: in these “bustling urban crossroads akin to modern airport hubs,” they found ready audience among the “educated, employed and cosmopolitan—the sort of folk who welcomed the open exchange of ideas about everything, including religion.”5

By the end of the first century, many scholars think the Christian movement numbered around fifty thousand adherents and had spread through the empire to establish itself in forty to fifty cities.6 It would spread eventually through Asia Minor, Greece, Macedonia, North Africa, Italy; as far as Gaul (modern France) and Spain; and even outside of the Roman Empire’s borders to Syria and—if tradition is correct—India.

People were drawn to the faith for a variety of reasons. They marveled at the signs and wonders performed by the early apostles and the respect Christianity gave to those whom Roman society looked down on, such as slaves and women. They appreciated the way that many Christians dedicated themselves to care of the poor and sick since Greek and Roman “public officials did not believe they had any responsibility to prevent disease or to treat those who suffered from it.”7 Consequently, they wanted to join the thick bonds of community established among those early followers. By the middle of the third century, Christians made up 2 percent of the empire’s population of sixty million people. By the time of Constantine, they would constitute around 12 percent of the population, and by the beginning of the sixth century there may have been thirty million Christians—pretty much all of the population of the now-declining empire.8

ABANDONING TRADITIONAL GODS

But of course, not everyone heard the message gladly. Christians were criticized for being cannibals because they referred to eating Christ’s body and blood in the Eucharist (Jn 6:51-59; 1 Cor 11:23-26); promiscuous practitioners of orgies because women and men met together in worship and practiced the kiss of peace (Rom 16:16); superstitious; aggressive in spreading their faith; and, perhaps most damaging from the Roman state’s perspective, atheists who sought to overthrow the state:

The point of such accusations was not that Christians did not believe in a deity, but that they did not believe in and serve the gods who were most deserving of worship—the traditional gods of Rome, who had for centuries guided the Roman people and made their empire great. When asked why they refused to participate in rites that others regarded as little more than patriotic recognition of the state’s gods, Christians explained that they could acknowledge no god but their own.9

Early persecution of Christians was more sporadic than we sometimes picture, but in the places and times where it flared up, it was severe. In Tertullian’s (c. 155–c. 240) Apology, written a little before 200, he famously remarked that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”10 The early church certainly treasured its martyr stories, retelling them and holding them up as examples. The first great persecution occurred under Nero, as a result of a fire in the year 64. The Christians had not set the fire, but they were blamed for it. Some fifty years after the event, Roman historian Tacitus wrote of the punishments:

Besides being put to death they were made to serve as objects of amusement; they were clad in the hides of beasts and torn to death by dogs; others were crucified, others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight failed.11

Church historian Eusebius wrote in the early fourth century: “It is related that in [Nero’s] reign Paul was beheaded in Rome itself and that Peter was also crucified.”12 Tacitus’s narrative implies that most of those killed were poor and were not Roman citizens, who would not have been allowed to be executed in the ways he describes.

The next persecution occurred under Domitian in the 90s. Eusebius claims:

With terrible cruelty Domitian put to death without trial great numbers of men at Rome who were distinguished by family and career, and without cause banished many other notables and confiscated their property. . . . Tradition has it that the apostle and evangelist John was still alive at this time and was condemned to live on the island of Patmos for his testimony to the divine Word.13

In the second century, correspondence between the emperor Trajan and his governor Pliny around 112 gives us our earliest evidence of the way Christian cases were handled in court, as Pliny reported to his superior:

I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed.14

Hadrian, who reigned from 117 to 138, issued a rescript that protected Christians, but this peace did not last. Significant local persecutions occurred under Marcus Aurelius (who ruled 161–180) and the emperors of the Severan dynasty (r. 193–235). Christians were also criticized regularly in treatises by Greek and Roman writers, and mob violence took place in several places, including Greece and Gaul. One of the most famous martyrs from this era was Polycarp, martyred sometime around 155. An account of his martyrdom, believed to be from a letter written shortly after his death, records the story:

The Proconsul . . . tried to persuade him to apostatize, saying, “Have respect for your old age, swear by the fortune of Caesar. Repent, and say, ‘Down with the Atheists!’” Polycarp looked grimly at the wicked heathen multitude in the stadium, and gesturing towards them, he said, “Down with the Atheists!” “Swear,” urged the Proconsul, “reproach Christ, and I will set you free.” “86 years have I have served him,” Polycarp declared, “and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”15

Another of the early church’s most famous martyrs, Perpetua, died along with a number of companions in 203 during the reign of Severus. Before she died, she recorded some of her visions, making her the first known female Christian author. These visions were later collected and circulated along with an account of her death (which may have been written by Tertullian). Just before her execution, she wrote of a dream she had about entering the arena:

And the people began to shout, and my helpers began to sing. And I went up to the master of gladiators and received the branch. And he kissed me and said to me: “Daughter, peace be with you.” And I began to go with glory to the gate called the Gate of Life. And I awoke; and I understood that I should fight, not with beasts but against the devil; but I knew that mine was the victory.16

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS

The next—and perhaps greatest—wave of persecution came under Decius (r. 249–251). In response to perceived military and economic decline, he ordered that anyone who lived in the empire should make a yearly sacrifice to the pagan gods, and he had leading Christians seized. People who sacrificed received a certificate stating they had “poured a libation and sacrificed and eaten some of the sacrificial meat....