History of Christianity

1. History of Christianity The Beginning

2. The Beginnings of Christianity • What we know about the beginning of Christianity is through the writings of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. • The gospels of Matthew and Luke record the birth of Jesus. • The birth of Jesus was in fulfillment of Jewish prophecy found in the Hebrew Bible. • Jesus was born around 4 BCE in Palestine, in the town of Bethlehem. • His public ministry and defining moment was his baptism in the Jordan by John. • Jesus returned to begin his mission as a storyteller and a miracle worker.

3. The Message of Jesus • The Kingdom of God • Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God as being here and now - referring to God’s intervention into human history to right wrongs. He said that the present age of injustice was rapidly coming to an end and a new age where all of creation would obey God was beginning. • The Kingdom of God would be one of peace and justice for all.

4. The Message of Jesus • Ethical Transformation • Jesus did not reject the Torah but instead urged his followers to a higher observance of the Law where they would not merely observe the letter of the Law but the spirit of the Law. Thus Jesus taught that loving God meant loving ones enemies. The morality of Jesus is defined in the Beatitudes.

5. The Beatitudes • The Latin word for blessed is beatus, from which we get the word beatitude. • The beatitudes are found at Matthew 5: 3-12 • Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. • Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. • Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. • Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied. • Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. • Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. • Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. • Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

6. The Law of Love: A Moral Code • The law that Jesus followed and taught was contained in the Jewish Scriptures: “Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind [Deuteronomy 6:5]. … You must love your neighbour as yourself [Leviticus 19:18]. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also” (Matthew 22:37-40).

7. Victory Over Death • Jesus’ teachings and actions were controversial and His criticism of current religious practice angered the religious authorities of His day. • People demanded his death as a traitor and a blasphemer of the Law of Moses. • Nationalistic Jews were disappointed that he was not leading the people to a military victory over the Romans. • The Romans, were worried about Jesus because of his power to influence people’s lives.

8. Jesus was sentenced to death by crucifixion. • But He conquered death and from this moment, the Resurrection of Jesus became the cornerstone of Christian belief. • After the death of Jesus, his disciples gathered together, devastated and terrified until they experienced the presence of their Lord among them. • According to the Gospels, the crucifixion was not the end but a new beginning, a beginning of the resurrected life promised by God.

9. The Early Church • How the disciples understood this experience of Jesus’ resurrection varied. It transformed His followers, and gave them new reasons to proclaim Him as Lord. • They began to recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, the one who would usher into history the reign of God. • They experienced the Holy Spirit, lost all fear and so began the Church. • When Pentecost day came around, they had all met together, when suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and there appeared to them tongues as of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of the. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit… (Acts 2:1-4)

10. The Early Christians • After the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples lost all fear and went out into the streets of Jerusalem to preach to the Jews. • In their native languages, Jews from the Diaspora heard about Jesus for the first time. There were many converts. • Soon these new Christians were converting others to a belief in “the Way.” • Despite persecutions, new members continued to join. • Worship became more regularized, they met on Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, shared prayers and hymns, readings from the Apostles, and celebrated the Last Supper.

11. The Apostolic Church • Led by Peter and the other apostles, these “followers of the way” began a threefold mission based on the life of Jesus: • Evangelization: They proclaimed the “Good News” of the lordship of Jesus, and his announcement that the reign of God had begun. • Liturgy: Those who accepted this Good News gathered together in community for prayer, worship and the act of remembering Jesus in the breaking of bread and sharing of his story. • Service: The community reached out to those in need - the widowed, poor, oppressed, and wounded.

12. Paul the Apostle • -known in his early life as Saul • Trained in Jewish law, actively suppressed the young religion of Christianity which was seen as a heretical Jewish sect • On his way to suppress the Christians in the City of Damascus, he had an overwhelming experience of the risen Christ

13. It happened that while he was traveling to Damascus and approaching the city, suddenly a light from heaven shone all around him. He fell to the ground, and then he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, Lord?” he asked, and the answer came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:3-5)

14. Spreading the Word • Those who spread the Gospel did so in Jewish synagogues, because Jewish communities could understand the prophecies about the Messiah. • The apostles also preached to the gentiles - a Greek term meaning “the nations” or “the others,” and used by the Jewish people to refer to non-Jews.

15. The Conversion of Paul • -Paul became a believer in his Gospel • Went from being a persecutor of the Christians’ to one of the their most ardent apostles • He founded many new Christian communities, not without great difficulty • Five times I have been given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews; three times I have been beaten with sticks; once I was stoned; three times I have been shipwrecked, and once I have been in the open sea for a night and a day; continually travelling, I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from brigands, in danger from my own people and in danger from the gentiles… (2 Corinthians 11:24-26) • He is thought to have been martyred in Rome under the emperor Nero, in about 68 C.E.

16. Judaism and Christianity • The inclusion of both Jews and gentiles in the early Church led to Christianity’s first major dispute. • Jewish Christians of Jerusalem argues that they were obligated to follow Jewish religious law. • Peter and Paul led the argument against retaining Jewish law, using the fact that God had sent the Holy Spirit to purify them. • Thus Christians were freed from the requirements of circumcision, Jewish dietary laws and ceremonial washing. • Another point of separation was the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. Rabbis no longer welcome Jewish Christians in their synagogues, since the survival of the Jewish identity was threatened. • By 90 C.E. a definite separation had occurred. The Church moved away from its Jewish roots to take on the language and culture of the gentile people who embraced it, becoming universal.

17. The Word of God Recorded • The followers of Jesus collected writings by or about their founder, the earliest being the letter by Apostle Paul to the various communities that he had started. • The Four Gospels were eventually added to the letters or ‘Epistles’ • The First Gospel was written by Mark, who organized various scraps of written accounts with the stores he had heard. • Matthew took many of the same stories Mark used but wrote with a more Jewish audience in mind. • Luke, a companion of Paul, wrote the Third Gospel was intended for the Gentiles. • The last Gospel is attributed to the Apostle John. This gospel stresses the mystery of Jesus’ being God made flesh.

18. The Church spread quickly in the Roman Empire. At first the persecution of Christians was common practice for Roman emperors. Under Nero, both St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred. “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” After 3 centuries, persecutions ended with the accession of the emperor Constantine who was convinced that the God of the Christians had given him victory in the civil wars that led him to the crown. In 313 C.E. he issued the Edict of Milan, which removed all laws against Christians Christianity became the official religion of the empire and by the end of the century, it was the only legal religion. The Christian Church and the Roman Empire

19. Legalized Christianity • Church leaders known as bishops (overseers) were given authority over local church groups within a city and the surrounding territory. • Church councils were convened to address questions relating to the Christian nature of God and Jesus, and their essential beliefs. • Writings about Jesus and the Epistles were gathered to decided which would be considered official by the Church. • Constantine brought together the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea to address these issues. • This led to the summary of faith known as the Nicene Creed.

20. The Sacred Story and its Creed • The central point of Christian belief is that God entered into human history in the historical Jesus of Nazareth. • He is the Messiah promised to the Jews. • All creation owes its being to God. • God’s love for his creation is most fully revealed in the incarnation, when He became human in the person of Jesus. • Turning away from this love (sin) can potentially lead to a fall from grace. • Salvation was God’s grace in action, a restoring of the harmony between God and humanity.

21. Challenges • The most critical challenge to Christianity came with the spread of Islam throughout the Middle East, northern Africa, and Spain, and into eastern Europe. • Tensions began to grow between the Christian Church in the East and in the West - causing the first major division in the Church. • There was a split between the Church in Rome and Constantinople. • The Eastern Church became known as Orthodox Christianity (orthodox = straight). Includes the Greek, Serbian, Russian and others.

22. The Orthodox Church • The Divine Liturgy is the central public liturgical act • They believe that the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ. • More elaborate liturgies that last several hours with 3 main parts. The Morning service, the processions and the Communion

23. The Orthodox Church • Instead of statues, they employ icons in their worship, which are painted on wood or executed in mosaic with gold leaf. • An icon is the reflection of the saint’s transfiguration in heaven. Icons are seen as sacramental signs of a world transformed and as demonstrations of the human power to redeem creation through beauty and art. • The rich images are meant to stimulate the imagination to get past the images to spiritual reality.

24. Catholicism in the Middle Ages • The pope in Rome began to become more powerful. • Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade in which the Holy Land was retaken by the Christian forces. • Further division between East and West came during the Fourth Crusade that destroyed Constantinople, stripping it of its great treasures and even desecrating its magnificent churches. • Constantinople eventually fell to the Muslim Turks without the aid of the West.

25. The Crusades • The Crusades were a series of military conflicts of a religious character waged by much of Christian Europe most of which were sanctioned by the Pope in the name of Christendom.