COURAGEOUS FAITH AND CLEAR DOCTRINE Martyrs and ordinary Christians struggled asking themselves, “Who was Jesus?”

First Century Christians  Outside: Persecution by the Romans  Inside: Disagreement about beliefs and practices  Foreshadows what is to come…how? This continued throughout the second and third century.

Why did persecution begin?  Roman empire was falling apart  Corrupt emperors  Barbarian attacks  Believed they needed conformity/unity  Christians refused to participate in religious sacrifices and paying homage to divine emperors unpatriotic

“Blood of martyrs became seed of Christianity” - Tertullian  ‘Martyr’: means witness  Heroic  Term used by Christian church for one who openly professed faith before a hostile public or in front of a judicial hearing  They die because they live in a culture hostile to their beliefs

Martyrology  Before end of the persecution era their “birthdays”, date of their death, were liturgically commemorated.  Why?

Church structures developed  Developed in 2nd Century  Held communities together  Bishops- Supervisor  Deacons and Deaconesses  Bishop of Rome

Decline into chaos:  Barbarians threaten Empire’s order  No tolerance for non-conformity  Christians were forced to sacrifice  Those who refused were killed  Diocletian  Competent  persecuted dissenting Christians  Ordered churches destroyed, sacred books burned, leaders executed

Some Christians sacrificed to idols in order to save their lives.  The question arises: Should these Christians be allowed to re-enter the community?

What to do?  Apostates – people who renounce their faith  Most wanted to repent and return.  Question too about the validity of the sacraments of priests who were apostates?  Today: validity of sacraments doesn’t depend on goodness of priest  Bishop of Rome: said they could return after repentance  Becomes first form of which sacrament? The sacrament of Reconciliation.

Constantine’s conversion  After Diocletian – several contenders for throne.  Fought  Chi-ro XP on shields (Greek letters for Christ’s name)  Victory  Arch to son god  Constantine honored Son of God instead

The Edict of Milan  313 CE  Granted freedom of worship to Christians  Moved from under to above ground  Christian clergy exempt from paying taxes  Constantine built many churches

Church and State Entwined  Hesitant to oppose  Why?  Tension between being true to faith versus loyalty and subservience to gov’t – saturate church history for centuries.  Theodosius-paganism declared illegal

Effects on Church  Christianity – official religion of Empire, was enforced and only Christians could serve in the army  Church, over the centuries became intimately connected with corruption of power.  Church given lands, Bishops –ranked high in public life  Church of 350AD -far from church of apostles

Clarity of doctrine  Conflict within the Church  Vigorously opposed anything that did not square with basic aspects of faith  Heresies: Beliefs contrary to some essential belief of faith

Gnosticism What were the beliefs of the Gnostics?  Material things including the body were evil.  Jesus was an apparition  Divine not human  Humans were ignorant of God  Only Gnostics would be saved through their special knowledge

Caused turmoil in the Church but led to clarity  What did the Christians formulate to answer this heresy in 200 AD? The Apostle’s Creed  All catechumens had to understand and accept it publically  What is a catechumen? A canditate seeking Baptism

Arianism What were the beliefs of the Arians?  Denied Jesus’ divinity  Did not believe that God could ever take the form of a human being  Jesus was created by God and was subordinate to God.

What did the Church do to refute Arius?  Council of Nicaea  325 CE  Bishops met  Condemned Arius as an heretic  one who refuses to change one’s wrong stand  Nicene creed, Jesus is not made by God but is one with God  Is this the last that we hear of Arianism?

About heresy  Most heretics are not simply trouble makers  Beliefs have been thought out and they are deeply convicted  Goes against official teaching  Many religious matters allow room for various views.

St. Athanasius  “Jesus is related to God as brightness is to light”  The two cannot be separated.  The Scriptures state that if we know Jesus, we know God.  Strongly opposed by Arian bishops

Implications:  Separation of church and state is an attempt to avoid kind of power entanglement that characterized Christianity and the Roman Empire from Constantine’s time on.  At times, Christianity has been thought of as the religion of the society  Church always needs to maintain its identity as a potential critic of society and government

 Church leaders used precise philosophical language to respond and teach about heresies BUT more abstract and intellectual than scriptural faith handed down by apostles.  Vatican II – changes to attempt to get back to biblical, concrete faith of early church

Review  Why did Gentiles convert to Christianity at a time when paganism was booming?  St. Paul Movie  Who was Paul  Where did he travel  What did he teach/write about?  Paul Quizes  Eucharist in Early Church vs. today

 Aspects of the Christian Testament  Messages of Paul’s letters  What led up to the final break between Jews and Christians?  Christian persecutions-Why did they begin? Who were the Christian martyrs?  Apostates  Edict of Milan  Constantine  Theodosius  Church and State entwined

 Gnosticism  Arianism  What did heresies do to Christian faith?  Heresy  Council of Nicaea  Nicene Creed