2.1 A History of Christianity

1. 2.1 A History of Christianity 2.1: Power and Poverty- Two Ways of Being Church

2. Fertile Question To what extent has the monastic way of life kept the Christian Church faithful to the true vision of The Way of Jeshua of Nazareth?

3. Trappings of Power • One generation after Constantine, Christianity, originally led by peasants, artisans, women and slaves, now had the trappings and structure of an organised religion. • Thanks to the efforts of early Church fathers such as Ignatius of Antioch, and then the requirements of Emperor Constantine, Church leadership came to reflect Roman civil governance. Women were excluded from public office. • The City of God (the title of St Augustine’s major theological writing on the Church) was now modelled on the City of Rome. • Christ and the Emperor were pantocrators; bishops and senators ruled from their basileia; priestsofficiated at religious events and minor officials assisted them. • Now that Christianity was favoured by the rulers, those of the upper classes rushed to benefit from imperial patrony and took up positions of leadership in the church. Ambrose, appointed Bishop of Milan in 374 CE, was not the first (nor the last) pagan to need baptism and ordination before taking up his post.

4. Red Martyrdom • The Acts of Perpetua and Felcitas, the account of a Christian nursing mother and her maid torn apart by beasts in Carthage in 202 for refusing to offer sacrifice to the gods, became one of the most popular martyr stories of the early church. • Debate raged in the early church about what to do with those Christians who fled, renounced their faith or capitulated to offer sacrifice to the gods, rather than face martyrdom. • Donatismwas the result of one such debate in North Africa. • Tertullian, a late 2nd century writer, coined the term: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church”.

5. White Martyrdom • “White Martyrdom”, a reaction to the power and privilege the church had accommodated itself to, became popular, first in the East and then in the West. • After the Edict of Milan in 313 CE tolerating Christianity, there was little opportunity for martyrdom for one’s faith, unless one was declared a heretic and punished by the church itself. • But, urged by the writings of Augustine and Basil and others, people sought to suffer for their faith in imitation of Christ. • Asceticism, including renunciation of sexuality and comfortable living, became favoured as a more faithful form of discipleship.

6. A Spiritual Elite • To achieve this “pure” form of Christianity and deep communion with God, men and then women retreated to desert places, first alone and then in communities, to imitate Jesus’ time in the desert. • Among the first monks was St Antony of Egypt (c 251-356) who retreated to the desert to live among graves and battle the devil as a hermit, praying, fasting and meditating on scripture. • Of course there arose extreme practices like monks sealing themselves inside caves and standing on one leg for years. Simeon Stylites spent the last part of his life atop a pillar, his food and wastes transported in baskets.

7. Monasticism • From that time until the present, men and women of every culture have felt drawn to the ascetic versions of Christianity, ranging from the extremes of anchorites imprisoned in their cells for life, to very wealthy, corrupt abbot/bishops who controlled vast lands and peoples, living depraved and ostentatious lives bearing very little resemblance to their founding principles. • Most orders of monks and nuns observed a “Rule” for monastic living in groups, mostly separately, but sometimes in the same compound. • The Rule of Benedict of Nursia (480-547 CE) was considered moderate and has formed the basis of most Western monasticism to the present day.

8. Monasticism’s Contribution • The contribution of Monasticism to the life, expansion and very survival of Christianity has been significant. • Monasteries are credited with preserving much of the learning and knowledge (Christian and secular) that survived the decline and destruction of the Roman Empire. • Monasteries, at their best, offered the prayer life, hospitality, healing and sanctuary of the historical Jesus to all who sought it. • They offered women the opportunity of education and an alternative life of submission to men as wives. • Initially at least, in the West and for longer in the East, monasteries offered an alternative, communal way of living the Jesus Way to the hierarchical, clerical and often luxurious life of the imperial church.

9. Monasticism’s Drawbacks • For all the good Monasticism has done for society and the Church, one aspect underpinning monastic life has contributed to what many scholars today believe to be a betrayal of the Jesus movement. • For many in the Church, even today, monasticism has been and remains the highest form of Christian life. • However, its emphasis on celibacy and mortification of the flesh as a focus of Christian morality has led to an attitude in the church that sexuality is not compatible with spirituality.

10. Corruption of a dream • Monasteries for both monks and nuns expanded across all of the known world from 500-1500 CE. • There were different types of monks: originally there were the anchorites and hermits who lived alone, but who then became “attached” to monasteries of cenobites, who lived in communities. • Over time, many monasteries became very wealthy, with large land holdings and Abbots became landlords and Lords of the manor. • By the time of the Reformation, monastic life in many places had lost the original ideals of poverty, chastity and obedience, with a life balanced between prayer, work and study. • In some monastic religious orders, at various times, reforming leaders emerged and returned the monasteries to their original ideals. • There also existed the mendicant orders who existed by begging and charity and were wandering preachers.

11. An Obsession with Sex • Urged on by Augustine’s statement that “flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit lusts against the flesh”, church leadership has held up virginity, monastic and celibate life as the highest form of Christianity. • There is little argument that the misogyny present in Christianity across history and the scape-goating of women in a distorted and disturbing view of sexuality and sexual sins, mostly by men in the church, has its roots in this world view. • Mary became a sexless virgin “goddess” figure and model for all women, married or otherwise.

12. Communal and Individual religion • The preference given to a monastic lifestyle resulted in changes to observance of the sacraments. • Group and communal reconciliation was replaced by individual confession, begun by Irish monks in the 5th century. • Rules concerning reception of the Eucharist after sexual intercourse became so strict that reception of Eucharist by ordinary people virtually disappeared. The church had to pass laws requiring people to receive communion at least once a year, at Easter. • Relics, saints and adoration of the Eucharist replaced the community breaking bread in memory of Jesus.

13. Two Visions of discipleship • By 500 CE, then, there were two visions of what it was to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus: • A powerful, hierarchical Church, placed beside the civil authority, governing the people as the emperor governed the empire. All the trappings of power and majesty reflected the power and majesty of God. • A humble, servant Church which valued poverty, chastity and obedience , and practised the open mealing and healing of the original movement. • However, for the average artisan or peasant, both of these models were out of reach.

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