A Multitude of All Peoples

Engaging Ancient Christianity's Global Identity

Vince L. Bantu

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780830828104
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

Christianity Today Award of MeritChristianity is not becoming a global religion. It has always been a global religion. The early Christian movement spread from Jerusalem in every direction, taking on local cultural expression all around the ancient world. So why do so many people see Christianity as a primarily Western, white religion?In A Multitude of All Peoples, Vince Bantu surveys the geographic range of the early church's history, revealing an alternate, more accurate narrative to that of Christianity as a product of the Western world. He begins by investigating the historical roots of the Western cultural captivity of the church, from the conversion of Constantine to the rise of European Christian empires. He then shifts focus to the too-often-forgotten concurrent development of diverse expressions of Christianity across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.In the process, Bantu removes obstacles to contemporary missiological efforts. Focusing on the necessity for contextualization and indigenous leadership in effective Christian mission, he draws out practical lessons for intercultural communication of the gospel. Healing the wounds of racism, imperialism, and colonialism will be possible only with renewed attention to the marginalized voices of the historic global church. The full story of early Christianity makes clear that, as the apostle Peter said, "God does not show favoritism, but accepts those from every people who fear him and do what is right."Missiological Engagements charts interdisciplinary and innovative trajectories in the history, theology, and practice of Christian mission, featuring contributions by leading thinkers from both the Euro-American West and the majority world whose missiological scholarship bridges church, academy, and society.

1

The Roots of Western Christian Identity Politics

Beginning with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2, the Christian movement spread in every direction out of Jerusalem during the formative years of the movement. As the gospel spread, it took on local cultural expression, and by the second century there existed variegated forms of Christian theology and worship across the Roman and Persian empires. However, in time the Christian faith became associated with the Roman world. In medieval times, the formation of European nations and the very concept of “the West” was inextricably bound with the form of Christianity that was a product of and the impetus for the formation of the Western world. Before gaining an understanding of the breadth of early Christian expression in the non-Western world, it is necessary to understand the roots of Western Christian identity politics. If the church has been global from the beginning, then why have so many people seen Christianity as a Western, white religion? Rather than offering an exhaustive historical treatment of Western Christianity, this chapter will explore the roots of an idea: the perception of Christianity as a product of the Western world, or the Western cultural captivity of the church.

Christianity was deeply embedded in the Greco-Roman world from the beginning. While the earliest Christians were Palestinian Jews whose first language was Aramaic, the New Testament was written in Greek, the dominant language in the Eastern Roman Empire. The apostle Paul and other New Testament writers took great efforts to communicate the Christian message in terms and concepts that were accessible to Greek-speaking Romans outside the Jewish community. While Hellenistic Christianity existed from the beginning of the church, Christianity was not seen as a Hellenistic/Roman religion until the fourth century. This was due in large part to the religious and political reforms of the emperor Constantine as well as his patronage in the Christian community by figures such as Eusebius of Caesarea.

LIFE OF CONSTANTINE

Constantine was born in 272 CE in Naissus (in modern Serbia) to the Greek-speaking Helena and the Latin-speaking Flavius Constantius who would become caesar (deputy emperor) of the Western Empire in 293. Diocletian divided the Roman Empire again to include two caesars who would be subordinate to their corresponding augustus (senior emperor), a system known as the tetrarchy (“four rulers”). After being educated and rising through the ranks of Diocletian’s army, Constantine was promoted by his father Caesar Constantius to become augustus of the Western Empire, which was opposed by a rival caesar, Maxentius, who waged war against Constantine in 311 for control of the entire empire.

The forces of Maxentius were ultimately defeated by those of Constantine at the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge. The church historian Eusebius of Caesarea wrote one of the most famous biographies of Constantine in which he describes Constantine’s celestial vision that was allegedly the cause of his victory: “About the time of the midday sun, a cross-shaped trophy formed from light, and a text attached to it which said, “By this conquer.”1 The embellished tone of Eusebius comes forth clearly throughout his Life of Constantine, which has been commonly understood to fit the literary genre of hagiography, purposed to establish Constantine as God’s chosen servant and guardian of the church, and thus less historically reliable.2 Eusebius claims that Constantine then crafted a cross out of precious jewels and received instruction in the Scriptures by Christian leaders, whom he then appointed as his high counselors.3 Maxentius, however, is depicted as a bloodthirsty tyrant who murdered countless Roman citizens and practiced sorcery:

Constantine meanwhile was moved to pity by all these things, and began making every armed preparation against the tyranny. So taking as his patron God who is over all, and invoking his Christ as savior and succor, and having set the victorious trophy the truly salutary sign, at the head of his escorting soldiers and guards, he led them in full force, claiming for the Romans their ancestral liberties.4

Constantine’s forces defeated those of Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge over the Tiber River in Rome, after which Constantine ordered the decapitated head of Maxentius paraded through the city streets.5 Constantine rededicated the buildings of Maxentius in his own name and initiated propaganda presenting him as the liberator of the tyrannical Maxentius. Eusebius’s Life of Constantine is one of the best examples of such propaganda. In 313 Constantine and his Eastern coemperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan ordering the end of persecution of Christians and the return of confiscated property. However, Licinius began persecuting Christians in fear that they would be more loyal to Constantine. The two caesars waged a war that was seen in religious terms—with Constantine as the Christian protector and Licinius as the Christian persecutor:

Licinius, who had previously respected the Christians, changed his opinion, and ill-treated many of the priests who lived under his government; he also persecuted a multitude of other persons, but especially the soldiers. He was deeply incensed against the Christians on account of his disagreement with Constantine, and thought to wound him by their sufferings for religion, and besides, he suspected that the churches were praying and zealous that Constantine alone should enjoy the sovereign rule.6

After a series of defeats in 324, Licinius surrendered to Constantine, who initially promised to spare Licinius’s life. However, Constantine ordered Licinius to be executed a year later on suspicion of conspiracy. Constantine was now the sole emperor and united the West and East into one empire. In 330 Constantine established the city of Byzantium (modern Istanbul) as the center of the Roman Empire in the Greek-speaking East and named it Constantinople in his honor. Constantine enacted several administrative reforms and expanded the empire following the conquest of Germanic tribes to the north. While preparing for a military campaign against the Sassanian Persian Empire in 337, Constantine became fatally ill. Preparing for death, Constantine began training as a catechumen and set out for Constantinople to be baptized. Constantine made it as far as Nicomedia where he was baptized by the bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, who followed the teachings of Arius.7 Constantine died shortly thereafter and was buried in Constantinople at the Church of the Holy Apostles.

CONSTANTINE’S CHRISTIAN FAITH

The Edict of Milan (313) was immediately preceded by the Edict of Toleration by the Eastern emperor Galerius in 311. Galerius’s edict ordered the cessation of Christian persecution and the right of Christians to privately worship:

We had earlier sought to set everything right in accordance with the ancient law and public discipline of the Romans and to ensure that the Christians too, who had abandoned the way of life of their ancestors, should return to a sound frame of mind; for in some way such self-will had come upon these same Christians, such folly had taken hold of them, that they no longer followed those usages of the ancients which their own ancestors perhaps had first instituted, but, simply following their own judgement and pleasure, they were making up for themselves the laws which they were to observe and were gathering various groups of people together in different places. When finally our order was published that they should betake themselves to the practices of the ancients, many were subjected to danger, many too were struck down. Very many, however, persisted in their determination and we saw that these same people were neither offering worship and due religious observance to the gods nor practicing the worship of the god of the Christians. Bearing in mind therefore our own most gentle clemency and our perpetual habit of showing indulgent pardon to all men, we have taken the view that in the case of these people too we should extend our speediest indulgence, so that once more they may be Christians and put together their meeting-places, provided they do nothing to disturb good order.8

While the Edict of Galerius allowed Roman Christians to worship privately, it did not return the property that had been confiscated during the Great Persecution under Diocletian. The Edict of Milan issued by Constantine and Licinius took this extra step:

We wish those things that belong justly to others, should not only remain unmolested, but should also when necessary be restored, most esteemed Anulius. Whence it is our will, that when thou shalt receive this epistle, if any of those things belonging to the catholic church of the Christians in the several cities or other places, are now possessed either by the decurions, or any others, these thou shalt cause immediately to be restored to their churches. Since we have previously determined, that whatsoever, these same churches before possessed, shall be restored to their right.9

Whether Constantine’s benevolence toward the Christians was the result of an authentic conversion to the Christian faith remains a prominent question in the history of early Christianity. Constantine’s mother Helena is reported by Eusebius to have traveled to Palestine and erected various churches throughout Palestine, such as Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.10 In various ways, Constantine gives clear gestures of a sincere Christian conversion and provides support for his Christian constituency. Following his victory over Maxentius, Constantine did not offer the customary celebratory offering to the gods. Rather, he clearly attributes his military victories to the Christian God as well as denouncing pagan deities.11 However, in true Roman tradition, Constantine erected a triumphal arch that still stands today outside the Colosseum—the Arch of Constantine—which contains no Christian symbolism or reference.12

While a detailed treatment of the Constantinian debate is beyond the scope of the present project, an understanding of the origins of westernized Christianity necessitates some consideration of the political and cultural implications of Constantine’s conversion. Constantine’s vision of the Christian faith was to a significant degree an innovation. Peter Brown demonstrates the distinctly “Roman” nature of Constantine’s appropriation of the Christian tradition as a new form of religio.13 Brown explains the Roman concept of religio as the system of worship appropriate for each god, passed down through familial and communal identities, for the purpose of maintaining civilized life and promoting Roman identity. Constantine saw in Christianity the opportunity to unite his empire under a single religio, in contrast to the plurality of gods common to Roman cosmology.14 This new process of religious consolidation is exemplified in Constantine’s gathering the Christian bishops of his empire at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea in 325. Constantine’s primary goal at these proceedings was imperial unity. The date of Easter, previously celebrated at different times, was universally agreed on. One of the central theological questions addressed at Nicaea was the divinity of Jesus. A bishop from Alexandria named Arius was associated with the belief that there was a time when God the Son did not exist.15

In contrast to Arius’s teaching that the Son is of a “similar substance” (homoiousias) as the Father, the Nicene and later the Apostles’ Creed declared that Jesus eternally exists with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.16 The Nicene Creed explicitly pronounced anathemas, or condemnations, on anyone who espoused the teachings of Arius and demanded that all profess the same substance (homoousias) that exists between the three persons of the Trinity. Through this gathering of his imperi...