Development of Christianity
Challenges to early orthodoxy |
| relied on prophecy and speaking in tongues |
| "The Infancy Gospel of Thomas" |
| 45 gnostic texts discovered in 1945 |
| based on Q, the sayings collection |
| 2nd c expansion and revision by a gnostic group |
| A bewildering variety of religious groups |
| sought spiritual gnosis 'knowledge' |
| Groups had some common attitudes |
| 1. emphasis on discovering spiritual nature |
| 2. viewed themselves as free from doctrinal and disciplinal conformity |
| 3. believed themselves to be free from authority of the Church |
| 4. desired a higher level of understanding: gnosis |
| 5. claimed gnosis enabled them to do whatever they wanted |
| freedom from the law and ordinary morality |
| 6. sought to know God through direct experience |
| 7. claimed to see through illusions of this world |
| Fragmented and divided church teachings |
| Strengthened organization |
| became uniformly episcopal and hierarchical |
| Distinguished between orthodox and heretical |
| Established a canon of orthodox texts by end of 2nd century: Bible |
| four Gospels, Acts, epistles of Paul and a few others, Book of Revelations |
| a second century fragment of John |
| OT canon included texts which later were not admitted in canon of Judaism |
| eg. Judith, Esther, Maccabees, Tobit |
| Second century produced many gospels and epistles that the Church rejected |
| Later development of Creeds, brief statements of faith |
| "Apostle's Creed" (by 7th c) |
| Proclaimed Church as source of Christian teaching |
| not the individual believer and his/her Bible |
| Third century: "an age of anxiety" |
| period of political turmoil |
| life seen as an illusion or evil |
| fading away of traditional paganism |
| religious movements from the east |
| emphasis on spiritual forces and salvation |
| Mithra: god of contracts, the sun, and loyalty to the emperor |
| many followers were soldiers and imperial officials |
| goddess of rebirth and salvation |
| founded by Manes, a Persian |
| fusion of Zoroastrian dualism and Christianity |
| rejected OT as irreconciliable with NT |
| saw OT as the work of the power of darkness |
| believed Jesus was a mere phantasm |
| who prophesized the messiah Manes |
Reasons for success of Christianity |
| 1. appeal to poor and lower classes |
| 2. emphasis on the value of the individual |
| 5. explained presence and role of evil |
| but God is clearly more powerful |
| 6. doctrine of salvation through faith |
| 7. strong organization and community |
| 8. clear sense of mission and purpose |
| sporadic and local at first |
| increase in third century |
| all citizens must offer sacrifice to state gods |
| confiscated property of Christians |
| Diocletion (303-11): the great persecution |
| attacked organization and individuals |
| Constantine: Edict of Milan (313) |
| toleration of Christianity |
| Jesus as a god of victory! |
| Constantine at Battle of Mulvian Bridge |
| 'through this sign you conquer' |
| forbade pagan cults (394) |
| Christianity now part of the world |
| doctrinal disputes become political |
| distinctions between orthodox and heretic backed by state |
| anti-Judaism became dangerous when backed by political power |
| interference of secular authorities in religious matters |
| the Church becomes a secular power |
| East: becomes subordinated to emperor |
| West: religious authority gradually centered on the Pope |
| hermits in Egyptian desert (early 4th c) |
| prayer, meditation, contemplation |
| struggle against "demons" |
| gradually organized into monastic communities |
| Rule of St. Benedict (5th c) |
| a backbone of the Church for 1000 years |
| regular clergy who withdrew from the world and lived by monastic rules, contrasting |
| secular clergy who lived in their parishes |
| a non-Christian philosophical movement |
| but with consequences for later Christian world-view |
| combined teachings of Plato and Aristotle |
| first systematic development of the "Great Chain of Being" |
| based on concept of "plenitude" or "fullness" |
| each level of existence generates the next out of its own fullness |
| all conceivable kinds of living things are generated |
| God is the One, beyond all distinctions |
| out of his Goodness and perfection, God overflows, or emanates |
| producing Nous, thought, or mind |
| Nous contains the Platonic forms |
| from Nous emanates the World-Soul |
| incorporeal and invisible |
| connects spiritual and physical world |
| a higher soul which faces Nous |
| a lower soul, Physis, Nature, which is the actual soul of the phenomenal world |
| from the World-Soul proceeds |
| pre-existent before birth |
| possess personal immortality |
| at its lowest level, unqualified matter is evil itself |
| but evil is not a positive force |
| privatio boni "absence of good" |
| Implications of Plotinus's thought |
| Intelligible world (Nous, the Forms) is deficient without the material world |
| a nondual view, rooted in the nondualism of Plato |
| later dialogues go beyond the dualism of the Phaedo |
| the Timaeus: the existence of the world is the consummation of the perfection of the Forms |
| the Forms were less perfect on their own |
| material world is the exteriorization of the intelligible |
| they are inextricably bound together |
| the greater the diversity, the greater the Goodness of the One |
| there are no gaps in nature |
| the less perfect proceeds from the more perfect |
| from the higher emanates the lower |
| evil as the absence of good |
| a nondual view of the relationship of good and evil |
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