More Background information about the early development of Christianity and a New View of Human Nature
After Plato, there were many other important philosophers: Aristotle, Epicurus, Lucretius, Zeno, Cicero, etc. Although they had different views about the telos (goal) of human existence, their philosophies did share certain characteristics in common. Some of these characteristics are:
Ø secularism (the movement away from "miracle, mystery and authority"),
Ø humanism (an interest in human concerns like the achievement of happiness, etc.),
Ø rationalism (an optimism about the ability of reason to find answers)
The experiment of democracy was failing in Athens. Thucydides said, "the whole Greek world was demoralized by greed and the lust for power." Arnold Toynbee, a famous modern historian, argued that the failure of the experiment in democracy made the classical world "ripe for a change to a more stable, authoritarian and uniform view of reality." The classical period (Hellenic) lasted from around 500 BCE to 336 BCE and included the great leader Pericles, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Alexander the Great. The Hellenistic period lasted from 336 BCE until 146 BCE. During this period Greek culture and ideas spread through the conquests of Alexander. After his death, his successors carved up his expanded empire, and it became weaker, and eventually became integrated into the Roman Republic in 146 BCE.
In the Roman Empire around the time of Jesus, there was a plethora of religious interest and activity, as people sought for new meaning beyond the here and now as they grew increasingly disillusioned with Roman leadership. As Dostoevsky said in Brothers Karamozov , the times were ripe for "miracle, mystery and authority." Three of the most popular mystery cults (religious movements based in mythology) in the Roman world at this time were the cult of Great Mother (Roman), the cult of Isis and Osiris (Egyptian), and the cult of Mithra (Persian). These cults incorporated resurrection motifs, final judgment, baptism rituals, and other elements that eventually became part of the new Christian religion. Some more information on these cults:
1. The Great Mother - Roman myth, based on the Greek goddess, Rhea. The goddess Cybele had a lover, Attis who died and then was resurrected from the dead. The motto of the cult was "Reborn into eternity." They had a baptism ritual (slaughter of bull) and a belief in resurrection.
2. Isis and Osiris - Egyptian legend: Osiris, king of Egypt, and Isis, the goddess of the earth and moon. They had a morning and evening ritual and believed in resurrection.
3. Mithra - Persian god of light and wisdom. The universe is a battleground on which the powers of good (element of order) and evil (disorder) fight for the souls of men. Prospective members had to prove their worthiness through passing through seven ordeals. They also believed in resurrection.
There were also messianic cults within the Hebrew religion based on the coming of the Messiah. Elements of these were also incorporated into the Jesus movement. The Roman authorities believed that the cults took attention away from civic duties in the here and now because they focused on life after death. However these cults became very popular despite Rome's disapproval.
Jesus' Basic Teachings:
Ø Reform the Jewish religion which had become too legalistic. Get back to spirit of law.
Ø Two basic laws: Love God and love your neighbor.
Ø Focus on God as a loving father.
Ø Some scholars argue that Jesus believed in the imminence of judgment day (although this interpretation is not accepted by all scholars).
Ø The poor are closer to God (possibly because of imminence of judgment day).
Many people were attracted to Jesus for many reasons. Those who saw him only as an earthly leader scattered after his crucifixion. However, stories about Jesus' resurrection reinvigorated the movement and resulted in a new look at Jesus and his teachings that eventually were written down and became what we now call the New Testament. The early missionaries of the church were significantly important in spreading the message throughout the empire. Perhaps the most important teacher was St. Paul.
Saint Paul's teachings incorporated the following from his multi-faceted background:
Ø the elements of traditional Judaism (experience with this religion),
Ø aspects of the Messiah cult and mystery cults (Roman citizenship),
Ø the mystery of a resurrected God (common theme also in mystery cults),
Ø the importance of both faith and works in achieving salvation (early Christian debate on teachings),
Ø the doctrine of original sin (interpretation of Genesis),
Ø an analysis of why the will often fights reason (incorporating elements from Greek philosophy and Christianity).
In the following centuries, the Jesus movement continued to grow, and we see the beginnings of a formal religion with a hierarchy, set of doctrines, and a systematic theology. This new religion was based on a new understanding of human nature that had a tremendous impact on the development of Western culture and incorporated new ideas about human nature, especially the idea of original sin. Unlike the Greek view, the Christian view taught that man could not save himself. He needed grace made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus. Reason alone was no longer enough. "I know the better, but I choose the worse." - St. Paul
More historical background and developments:
I. Christianity began as a Jewish messianic sect and appealed to members of the pagan religions as well. Christians recognized Jesus as the Messiah and expected the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God on Earth. Their two basic rites were common among the religions of the ancient world: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper/Eucharist. Initially the message of Jesus and the Church was transmitted orally. Writing only occurred decades after the death of Jesus. The letters of Paul are the oldest Christian writings dating from about 20 years after the crucifixion. The earliest Gospel, Mark, probably dates from before 70 CE. The newest parts of the New Testament may have been written as late as 120 CE.
II. Although initially a Jewish sect, Christianity soon spread among the Greek speaking peoples of the cities in the Holy Land and into Asia Minor. The most important missionary who facilitated this expansion was St. Paul. The result of this extension of the Church into the non-Jewish world was a change in both the audience and a rapid expansion into areas outside of the Holy Land. Although initially Christianity was a religion of slaves, it soon appealed to all classes. In the first three centuries after Christ, Christianity was one sect among many religious movements in the Roman Empire. Unlike most sects, however, Christians faced persecution by their neighbors and eventually by the imperial government. They were viewed as a threat to the established order. The fact that they looked down upon non-members did not enhance their popularity.
III. In the early fourth century the status of the church increased in what has been called alternatively the Peace of the Church or the Triumph of the Church. A new emperor, Constantine (306-337), granted toleration to Christianity in the Edict of Milan in 313 CE. and it was he who built the first St. Peter’s in Rome. St Basil (329 - 379) lived during this time period when Christianity was very divided . By the end of the century, Emperor Theodosius the Great (379-395) did even more by outlawing paganism. Judaism was tolerated, but just barely. Pogroms (A pogrom (from Russian: "погром", meaning "wreaking of havoc") is a massive violent attack on a particular group; ethnic, religious or other - Wikipedia) were not unknown. From being persecuted, Christianity had begun to persecute. The first persecution of Christian heretics also took place at this time. One of the early thinkers who provided the theological justification of the use of coercion by the state in support of the Church was St. Augustine. Ironically, Theodosius was chastised and excommunicated governor by St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan who baptized Augustine, for his violence specifically in Thessalonica where 7000 where massacred in response to the assassination of the military governor. Theodosius, a devout Christian, accepted Ambrose’s message and repented publicly.
IV. To many of the time, it seemed as if the Kingdom of God had finally been established. Church and State were united. The emperor headed both of them. It was the emperor who called and presided over the first four General Councils that established the basic doctrines of Christianity. The Church was in large measure absorbed into the bureaucratic structure of the Roman Empire, a development that has left lasting marks on the organization and character of the Catholic hierarchy which even today reflects the imperial hierarchy. Bishops, in fact, were members of that hierarchy. The vestments that bishops still wear derive from the attire that marked them as high ranking officials. The Church’s top down way of operating is a faithful continuation of Roman imperial practice.
But the conversion of the Empire to Christianity had even more far-reaching consequences. Almost everybody in a given community would be Christians. Some of these Christians moved into deserts or other unsettled parts of the Empire to lead lives of prayer and study. The result was Monasticism. The monks would set a very high standard for Christian behavior for almost 1500 years.
V. Initially, educated Romans, and especially the philosophers, had nothing but contempt for the “superstition” of Christianity. But with the conversion of the ruling class, the learned class soon followed. When they applied their philosophical methods and concepts to the Bible and Christianity they created Theology. Although there were some theologians in the second and third centuries, the fourth and fifth centuries saw a great increase in theology that established the basic doctrines of the Church on Christ and the Trinity (again through the writings of thinkers like Augustine and Basil).
VI. Of course, one of the most important was Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) who created a theological world view that would dominate Western Christianity until the eighteenth century. After Christ and the St. Paul, Augustine had more influence upon the shape and content of Western Christianity than any other thinker. Augustine also witnessed the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire. He died while his city of Hippo was besieged by the Germanic Vandals. Twenty years earlier, other invaders had conquered the capital and pillaged it, the Sack of Rome (410).
This was a shock to the entire population of the Empire. Many blamed Christianity. Certainly nothing like this had ever happened when Rome was pagan. Augustine’s greatest book, the “City of God,” was written as a work of apologetics, or defense. In it, he both defended Christianity against the charge that it was responsible for the decline of Rome, but also expounded many new theological doctrines in a clearly philosophical way. It is also a “theology of history” as it interprets events in history from a Christian point of view.
VII. The cause(s) of the fall of the Roman Empire are debated among historians even today. There does seem to be some common factors. First, there was a dramatic decline in the population of the empire in the third century. There would not be an upturn until the ninth century, long after the empire had collapsed. Two major causes of the population decline were a change of climate and disease. The earth entered a mini Ice Age in this period. As a result, the land produced fewer crops and malnutrition was not uncommon. This set up the population for disease. A series of plagues struck the empire beginning in the late second century. The smaller population also meant an economic decline of immense proportions. Long distance trade became increasingly rare and contributed to the closing down of culture in general (the Dark Ages). The demographic and economic decline both fostered and were reinforced by political divisions as Roman generals competed for the emperorship and eventually resulted in a split in the empire in the fifth century between the East and the West. And of course, there were the barbarian invasions/barbarian migrations. Barbarian from barbaroi, a great word meaning someone who didn’t speak Greek Often, the Roman armies were made up primarily of barbarians, so you had barbarians protecting the empire from other barbarians. In time the barbarian leaders assumed greater and greater control of the government until the last Western Roman Emperor was deposed in 476 CE.
The empire fell into four main areas of barbarian kingdoms: the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Visigoths in Spain, the Franks in Gaul/France, and the Vandals in North Africa. The barbarian rulers lacked both the ability and resources to maintain Roman civilization. Government shrunk until it served only two purposes: war and the maintenance of order (justice). The idea of government also shrunk. In effect, there was little idea of it as “public.” Instead it was privatized. Kings in effect owned their kingdoms. Dukes and Counts owned their duchies and counties. Bishops owned their churches. [An interesting survival of this way of thinking is that the Archbishop of Philadelphia “owns” the archdiocese of Philadelphia. It isn’t a public corporation. The whole thing in his name.] Despite this, the Church remained the most public institution. In a sense, it was the heir to Rome in culture and government. It was usually the Church that assumed responsibility in default of the government in education, charity, public works and the like. It was this early medieval Church, supported by barbarian kings that converted most of Europe, often at the point of a sword.
VIII. The Christianity that spread had two key aspects. First of all, the Catholic Church remains a Church of sacraments. These are sacred rituals that convey salvation and protection. They often had magical elements, e.g. the Eucharist was sometimes used to heal physical disease, including diseases in animals.
The second focus was the cult of the saints. The saints were holy men and women to whom the population appealed for help and guidance. Sometimes this happened while the saint was still alive. But most of the cult concerned the holy dead and their relics. The saints were thought to possess miraculous powers that could help one into heaven or, more likely, help one to survive in this life. Relics were either parts of the dead saint—bones mostly—or things that the saint had used or worn. The relics were believed able to heal the sick, raise the dead, drive away bad weather, protect the population from invaders, etc. As can be seen, religion was just as much, if not more, about life in this world as about salvation in the next. Miracles, wonders and magic were crucial for making Christianity relevant to the population, and not just to the lower classes. As Dostoevsky noted years later “ Christianity provided miracle, mystery and authority”, something which human beings seem to crave.
Jesus and the Bible became less significant. Jesus was often portrayed more as a ruler, like an emperor, and the saints filled the human void. The Bible was not often read. The Church wrote the New Testament as the source of Christian doctrine. The Church relied more on preaching and did not encourage reading the Bible because most of the population was illiterate. The Church would interpret the Bible for you. Even today, many Catholics in particular are unfamiliar with the Bible.
IX. It was not until the 800s that Western Europe started to emerge from the Dark Ages. In the 800s the population stopped shrinking and began to grow, probably as a result of a warming climate. Cities revived after 1000 and grew phenomenally in the twelfth and the thirteenth century. They grew in large part because the economy began to expand rapidly, especially through long distance trade, the development of feudalism, and the beginning of a new political structure where power was increasing centralized in the hands of a few regional leaders. This would eventually lead to the development of the modern sense of national identity around the thirteenth century.
All of these developments gradually lead to a new understanding of human nature that is partially based on the decline of the power of the Church, and a new way of thinking that developed with the modern view based on the New Science of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Prepared by Anne Knop, Manor College, 2006