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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