Varieties The of Christian Experience Andrea Gardner and Monica Locker RELI 161 Final Exam December 14, 2007
The Varieties of Christian Experience Main Argument: Christianity has changed due to outside pressures in order to be more useful to its believers and to serve the purposes of the believers. Different varieties of Christianity came from different needs of the people who followed the Christian religion.
Don't forget: Talk about Waco and Munster in Magisterial/Radical Reform due to the fact that the government and idea of control over an area changed the religion. Develop the thesis more Creativity is key.
Table of Contents Book One: Establishment and Survival of Early Christianity Chapter 1: The Push-Off from Judaism Chapter 2: Persecution in the Roman Empire Chapter 3: Constantine and the Rise of Christianity Book Two: Development of Christianity as a Majority Religion Chapter 4: Ambrose, Augustine, and the Universal Church. Chapter 5: Relic Piety, Martyrs, and Saints. Chapter 6: The Reform Papacy Book Three: The Reformation Chapter 7: The Age of Decline Chapter 8: Magisterial and Radical Reform Chapter 9: The Resurgence of Catholicism Chapter 10: The English Reformation
Many varieties of Christianity have emerged since the very beginning of the Christian religion. These different Christianities have emerged due to outside pressures such as persecution and the needs of its believers. Christianity has changed, in part, to serve the purposes of the believers and to be more useful to its believers. Our book, The Varieties of Christian Experience, shows the ways that outside pressures has affected the Christian religion. The first change came due to the need for a push-off from Judaism and the more recent emerged after the Reformation of Christianity which resulted in the development of Protestantism. In the years after the death of Christ, Christianity struggled to establish itself as a separate religion from Judaism. Jews in diaspora had wanted a messiah who was angelic and superhuman. However, Ignatius, the patriarch of Antioch, wanted a Jesus Christ who was fully human, a Jesus Christ who was like him and whom he could strive to be like. His Christology was instrumental in the theology of early Christians. Another of the major players in the pushoff, a man named Tertullian, took the ideas of Ignatius and explained why Christians should "obey the bishop." He effectively started apostolic tradition, the belief that Jesus had passed down his teaching to a chosen few, who then transferred the knowledge on in something like a divine succession. Also during the second century, due to this new religion, people were refusing to worship the Roman emperor. This was seen by the Romans as an act to overthrow the emperor of the day. Due to this, Christianity was practiced in secret. Those who were followers of Christ feared for their very lives. There was much instability within the empire when it came to religion. Heresy flourished in the Empire at this time. Montanus and his new apostles, the Montanists, believed that bishops are not necessarily religious authorities and that there are many more truths that can be learned by those of pure faith. The Passion of Perpetua, which upholds
this idea, was allegedly written by Tertullian during this time period. This text promoted the message that anyone could be in touch with God and that prayer would help those in the afterlife. It was also completely antagonistic to what Tertullian usually stood for "obey the bishop." It was possible that Tertullian experienced a change in his Christology toward the end of his lifetime and went from being an apologetic of the bishops to a man who believed that the purpose of Christianity was purity rather than prosperity. These people were persecuted by the early church authorities and from this persecution came martyrdom. Martyrdom eventually became critical in the religion and many of these martyrs became saints. As we can see from this example, persecution was just the beginning of many changes in the religion. Constantine conquered Rome and made Christianity the state-supported religion. This was the first time in history that Christianity was being supported by the government rather than persecuted by it. This critical change shows that Christianity was on the rise from a persecuted religion to a majority, persecuting religion in the empire due to its acceptance. Constantine also moved the capital of the empire east to Constantinople. Christians no longer had to worship in secret, hiding their faith from the pagan majority and pagan emperors. Christianity was now popular and available to everyone, not just for fervent, saint-like individuals. This became a problem when many Christians did not want to accept those who had bowed to the pagan majority back into the fold. Due to Constantine's desire to support whichever branch of Christianity caused the least strife, forgiveness also became a staple of the Christian religion. War also caused religion to become more popular. Now, people of wealth and power were becoming Christians. After Christianity became the state religion, four major changes took place. The first is that it was celebrated throughout the empire because the Christian God was hailed as the reason
for Constantine's conquest. This celebration was known as triumphalism. Then, was Christianity mainstreamed; the government pushed for people to become Christians. Convents and monasteries were developed as places for Christian ascetics. Finally, local bishops became part of the governmental bureaucracy, beginning Christianity's long reign within Europe. One of the most influential men in Christian history, Ambrose, appears on the scene during this time. He was sent to referee the election of the bishop in Milan, but by some stroke of politics, he ended up becoming the bishop. He greatly expanded the power of the post during his time spent in it. At one point during his reign, Ambrose was even known to stand up against Theodosius, the emperor at the time, and not allow him to even set foot in Ambrose's basilica until he had apologized for slaughtering a number of his citizens. Ambrose was a powerful orator and had many followers. One of Ambrose's followers included Augustine, who has often been called the most influential Christian besides Jesus and Paul. Augustine was not a Christian and was initially just impressed with Ambrose as a speaker. Ambrose eventually baptized Augustine. Augustine then went back to North Africa, where he had grown up. He became a leader of what he called the universal church (which later became the Roman Catholic Church). Augustine was a firm believer that Rome needed to be reformed and that Roman Catholicism should be the dominant Christianity over all the various heretical sects. Martyrs played a major role throughout the Christian experience; however, during Augustine's time, Christianity experienced a resurgence of martyrdom. Martyrs were believed to be the bridges to the next world. Most martyrs eventually went on to become saints. The only problem with martyrdom during Augustine's time is that the Church does not approve of
suicide. Augustine refused to have anything to do with this "cult of martyrs." Another idea that came about during this time is the idea of worshipping the bones and remains of martyrs. This became known as relic piety and was present through much of Christianity from this point forward. Relic piety was very popular because it went along with the belief that martyrs were bridges to the next world. The remains of the martyrs were believed to be a way to be closer to them and in some ways, closer to God. Christians began to stop going to church and started worshipping at these shrines to martyrs. The reform papacy was the "rehabilitation of the Church as a morally and politically influential instrument" (Kaufman). While the reform papacy began in 1050 CE, the biggest reforms did not begin until Innocent III became Pope. He used the Crusades absolutely brilliantly, not only against Islam, but also against heretics at home. In this manner, Roman Catholicism was persecuting other varieties of Christianity to attempt to unify the religion under their church and their leader. Innocent was also a consummate politician. He was not particularly fond of King John of England after John decided to tax the clergy. His answer to King John's new tax was the excommunication of the entire country of England, which led to the nobility forcing the king to sign the Magna Carta and become a constitutional monarch who was at the mercy of his subjects. Innocent also used propaganda to encourage men to go to war and fight in the crusades. As seen from the example of Pope Innocent III, religion had responded to the government's pressures by trying to become part of the government. Other laws that came from the reform papacy include the law requiring celibacy for all priests, bishops, nuns, and monks. Simony, the selling of church offices, was now looked down upon and punished if discovered.
The age of decline is a key example of how outside pressures and occurrences have altered the Christian experience and have aided in the creation of the varieties of Christianity that are seen today. There was decline in all areas of society social, economic, religious, and political. The Hundred Years War along with the Black Plague did not help the fact that the churches were understaffed. There was a sense of self-religion and people began worshipping outside of Church on their own. There was also greater mobility and economic instability. All of these factors led to the Protestant Reformation. Many new reformers emerged as the Reformation got its start. These reformers were of two different types - magisterial, meaning that they had the support of the government and wanted reform from within the Church, and radical, meaning that they were fanatical reformers and called for a complete overhaul of the Church. Examples of magisterial reformers include Erasmus, the satirist, and Luther, who single-handedly started the Protestant movement. Luther, however, did have the aid of the printing press, which was developed around the same time as Luther's reforms began. This gave him an advantage over previous reformers; his works could be widely distributed and read. Radical reformers include Savonarola and Calvin. Calvin sparked a reformation in Geneva whose aftereffects were seen for many years after. The denominations of Christianity that are seen today (i.e. Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc.) come from Calvinism.
Works Cited Kaufman, Peter I. Lecture Reli 161: Introduction to the History of Christian Traditions. Fall 2007.