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Lion Hudson - Jonathan Hill

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The first 400 years after the death of Christ saw huge developments and changes in the emerging faith. Christianity spread from Jerusalem to much of the known world; it became the official religion of the British empire; its key texts were written and its core ideas and beliefs were shaped and formalized. Much of this happened under huge pressure, from both within and without. Jonathan Hill charts the fascinating history of this crucial period in the development of Christianity. He shows how and why certain ideas triumphed over others; introduces the key figures, both within the faith and among its opponents, and their intellectual struggles; covers the main battles, often bitterly fought, both of ideas and of weapons; describes the lives of ordinary Christians and their worship and how each influenced the other. Occassionally murky, often thrilling and always compelling, the story Hill tells recounts the ways in which a new religion - centred on a single man executed in the Roman Middle East - first struggled, and then spread, to become the dominant belief system of the world.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

History of religions

Christianity

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Publié par	Lion Hudson
Date de parution	25 septembre 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780745957906
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

CHRISTIANITY THE FIRST 400 YEARS

Text copyright 2013 Jonathan Hill This edition copyright 2013 Lion Hudson
The right of Jonathan Hill to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Lion Books an imprint of Lion Hudson plc Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England www.lionhudson.com/lion
ISBN 978 0 7459 5631 2 e-ISBN 978 0 7459 5790 6
First edition 2013
Acknowledgments Scripture quotations are from The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches in the USA. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover image: iStockphoto.com/cstar55
Contents

INTRODUCTION

1 JESUS AND THE FIRST CHRISTIANS

JUDAISM

JESUS PALESTINE

JESUS

THE SOURCES FOR JESUS

THE TITLES OF JESUS

THE MINISTRY OF JESUS

OPPOSITION AND DEATH

THE FIRST CHRISTIANS

THE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS

THE RESURRECTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

PENTECOST

THE FIRST DAYS OF THE CHURCH

THE FAITH OF THE FIRST CHRISTIANS

THE FIRST PERSECUTIONS

THE SPREAD OF THE CHURCH

PAUL

PAUL S LETTERS

PAUL S CHRISTIAN MESSAGE

2 FROM ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT

THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES

FROM ORAL TRADITIONS TO THE WRITTEN WORD

LIVING AS A CHRISTIAN

CHRISTIAN MORALITY

THE FIRST LITURGIES

BAPTISM

THE EUCHARIST

OTHER SERVICES

LEADING THE COMMUNITY

THE PILLARS OF THE CHURCH

PROPHETS AND APOSTLES

THE EMERGENCE OF HIERARCHY

UNITY AND DIVISION

3 OPPOSITION AND PERSECUTION

CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM

JUDAISM IN THE FIRST CENTURY AD

THE JEWISHNESS OF CHRISTIANITY

THE EBIONITES

A RELIGIOUS SPECTRUM

CHURCH AND SYNAGOGUE: BEFORE AD 70

CHURCH AND SYNAGOGUE: AFTER AD 70

CHRISTIAN ATTITUDES TO JUDAISM

THE IMPERIAL PERSECUTIONS

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

THE BOOK OF REVELATION

CHANGING BELIEFS

THE RETURN OF CHRIST

THE COSMIC CHRIST

4 THE CHURCH IN THE EMPIRE

ALEXANDRIA

CHRISTIANITY IN THE EAST

EDESSA

THE PERSIAN CHURCH

LIVING AS A CHRISTIAN

LIFE AND DEATH

CHRISTIANS AND CLASS

WOMEN IN THE CHURCH

SEXUAL MORALITY AND ASCETICISM

A CHRISTIAN MORALIST

LITURGY

THE MYSTERY RELIGIONS

MITHRAISM

CHRISTIAN ART

5 CHRISTIANS IN A HOSTILE WORLD

ROMAN RELIGION

ATTITUDES TO THE CHRISTIANS

POPULAR ATTITUDES

THE PHILOSOPHERS AND THE CHRISTIANS

THE PERSECUTIONS

CHRISTIANS ON TRIAL

THE CHURCH AND THE MOB

CO-ORDINATED PERSECUTIONS

EXECUTING THE CHRISTIANS

THE GREAT PERSECUTION

A THEOLOGY OF MARTYRDOM

THE RELICS

6 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY

JUSTIN MARTYR

LATER APOLOGISTS

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA

ORIGEN

ORIGEN S LIFE

ORIGEN S PHILOSOPHY

THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

7 HERESY AND ORTHODOXY

THE EMERGENCE OF ORTHODOXY

VARIANT CHRISTIANITIES

MODALISM

MARCIONISM

MONTANISM

GNOSTICISM

GNOSTIC MOVEMENTS

THE RULE OF FAITH

IRENAEUS AND THE GNOSTICS

TERTULLIAN

THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH

CYPRIAN AND THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH

BISHOPS AND SYNODS

THE ROLE OF SCRIPTURE

THE OLD TESTAMENT

THE NEW TESTAMENT

8 THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE

THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE

THE LEGEND

THE POLITICAL CONTEXT

THE EDICT OF MILAN

CONSTANTINE THE CHRISTIAN

SOLE EMPEROR

THE CHURCH AND SOCIETY

THE STATUS OF BISHOPS

THE CHURCH AND THE WELFARE SYSTEM

THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH

ART AND ARCHITECTURE

CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE

CHRISTIAN ART

RELICS AND PILGRIMAGES

RELICS

SACRED GEOGRAPHY

9 A DIVIDED CHURCH

THE DONATIST SCHISM

DONATIST ORIGINS

CONSTANTINE INTERVENES

DONATUS TRIUMPHANT

THE CIRCUMCELLIONS

THE ARIAN CONFLICT

ARIUS

THE CONTROVERSY WIDENS

THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA

THE REINVENTION OF CHRISTIANITY?

ARIANISM: THE NEXT PHASE

THE ROLE OF THE EMPERORS

THE NEXT GENERATION

A NEW SOLUTION

10 THE FIRST MONKS

ANTONY THE GREAT

THE SEMI-COMMUNAL LIFESTYLE

LIVING IN THE DESERT

EVAGRIUS PONTICUS

THE DEMONS OF TEMPTATION

DISCIPLINE

PACHOMIUS AND THE FIRST MONASTERIES

SYRIAN MONASTICISM

EPHREM THE SYRIAN

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

MESSALIANISM

THE MONKS AND THE WIDER WORLD

THE PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAL

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

JOHN CASSIAN

PALESTINE

11 THE OFFICIAL CHURCH

CHRISTIANITY OUTSIDE THE EMPIRE

THE SASSANID EMPIRE

THE BARBARIANS

THE ARMENIAN CHURCH

CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM

THE REBELLION OF MAGNENTIUS

CONSTANTIUS AND THE PAGANS

JULIAN AND THE PAGAN REVIVAL

PAGANISM AFTER JULIAN

THE AGE OF THEODOSIUS

AMBROSE OF MILAN

THEODOSIUS I AND GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS

THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE

PAGANISM IN THE AGE OF THEODOSIUS

MORALITY IN AN OFFICIAL CHURCH

JOVINIANISM

PRISCILLIANISM

DONATISM

PELAGIANISM

EPILOGUE

NOTES

FURTHER READING
Introduction

Christianity was founded by a group of fishermen and peasants from Galilee, a rural backwater in an unimportant region of the Roman empire. They were the followers of a relatively minor wandering prophet who had died as a condemned criminal. When their movement came to the attention of the Roman authorities, it was brutally suppressed. Yet little more than three centuries later, the Christian religion had become the faith of the empire itself. Christian bishops had combined Christian theology with classical philosophy to create an intellectual and spiritual synthesis that would endure for over a thousand years, while Christian emperors were busy dismantling the ancient religion of Rome itself and supplanting it with the official teachings of a triumphant church. How did this happen? How did this unregarded Jewish cult come to displace the traditional religion of the empire and go on to become the largest religion in the world?
In this book we trace the first four centuries of Christianity. These centuries were the most tumultuous and important in the religion s history. They saw Christianity not only being founded but being refined and defined as it faced a series of potentially crippling challenges, both internal and external. These forced Christians to reflect on their faith and what it meant. By the end of this period, Christians possessed official declarations of doctrine and practice, holy writings, and ecclesiastical and monastic structures that were capable of enforcing orthodoxy. None of these things existed in the days of the first disciples of Jesus. So the first four centuries were truly a crucible for Christianity. It began rather rough and ill-defined, caught between a disapproving Jewish leadership and a hostile Roman state. It endured centuries of proscription, persecution, and massacres in both the Roman and the Persian empires. It emerged stronger than ever - but had it been refined by the experience, or changed out of all recognition?

Throughout, our focus is on what the Christian religion really meant to its adherents. How did they live and what did they believe? Why did they believe these things? To understand these, we must place the early church in its social and cultural context, and see how the early Christians interacted with the world around them. For the crucible of the first four centuries did not simply refine and transform the Christian religion: it did the same thing to the pagan and Jewish religions, and to society as a whole.
This book is divided into three main sections. The first three chapters tell the story of the founding of Christianity and its first century, roughly the period in which the New Testament was written. Since this period is relatively well known and covered, these chapters are briefer. Chapters 4-7 then cover the next two centuries. In them we find out how Christianity developed and spread within Roman society and beyond during this period, and how it reacted to the increasingly violent persecutions against it. We also find out how Christians began to construct notions of orthodoxy and heresy, and how they distinguished between them. Finally, the last four chapters of the book cover the fourth Christian century. We see how Christianity was decriminalized, promoted, and finally made the official religion of Rome, and how the traditional Roman religion was increasingly marginalized and forbidden. But we also see how Christianity was riven by its greatest internal divisions yet, and how it forged a new understanding of its doctrinal and spiritual heritage.
1 Jesus and the First Christians

Christianity was, and still is, unusual among the major religions in that its founder is also its message. Christians do not simply believe things that Jesus taught - they believe things about Jesus. So who was Jesus? What do we know about him? How did his followers come to believe such remarkable things about him?
Judaism
Both Jesus himself and the first generation of Christians can be understood only in the context of the Jewish religion. Judaism in the first century was enormously complex and is still only imperfectly understood. A proper discussion of Judaism and the various parties and sects that composed it is beyond the scope of this book. Here we shall just indicate some of the most important and relevant elements.
All Jews believed that they belonged to a special people, descended from Abraham. All Jewish boys were circumcised on the eighth day after their birth as a sign of this covenant, and all Jews sought to keep the Law. This was part of a sacred covenant between God and his people. God, for his part, had promised to Israel - the Jewish people - that they would occupy the land of Palestine. Perhap