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Christianity-
The first 400 Years
(2 OF 3)
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by "The Legacy"
Ital333, Prof. Barbara Nucci, March 1999 Strangely enough, the first
mention of the Christian movement by a non-Christian Roman writer was by
Pliny the Younger, governor of the province of Bithynia (modern Turkey)
at the beginning of the 2nd Century, more than 100 years after Jesus’ death.(Wilken,
introduction; xii)
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A Chronology
of
Events in Italy
60,000
BC - 1300 AD
1300
AD - 1998 AD |
| Either earlier writings have been destroyed
as "heretical" by the Roman Catholic church or the Christians were considered
to be simply another cult of the low-born and not worthy of note.
Emperor worship had been instituted by the Romans after Augustus’s death,
but by the 2nd Century, Mithraism and Christianity were beginning to undermine
the old "gods."(Hearder, 34) In spite
of the appeal of the Eastern religion of Mithras, Christianity proved to
be popular with the common masses and with the upper society women, perhaps
due to the Christian belief in spiritual equality of men and women.
The impact of these women on Roman society was eventually great.(Chadwick,
58)
The young Christian group
was already fighting an enemy more threatening than Rome: the ability to
maintain the integrity of Jesus’ message. It was, in many cases,
a losing battle. As early as 56 AD, Paul wrote to the four-year old
church at Corinth, warning them against allowing the practices and teachings
of other religions to infect their worship. Also, there were
complaints against Christians made by businessmen, makers of idols or providers
of sacrifices to pagan gods, who were unhappy over loss of revenue due
to Christian teaching. Paul dealt with this problem in Ephesus as
early as 56 AD(Nelson, Acts 19:23-4), and Pliny
dealt with it a hundred years later.(Wilken, 15)
When Pliny investigated the charges, he found them to be "innocuous", but
nevertheless, executed all those who refused to renounce Christianity,
with the exception of Roman citizens who were sent to Rome for judging
by the emperor.
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Though most churches had
the New Testament in written form by the 2nd Century, it was read by the
leaders and relayed to the common man orally.(Bowie,
15) The various interpretations led to many heated debates and
political machinations. In 251 AD, Cornelius was elected as bishop
of Rome and declared that there was no effective baptism outside the church.(Chadwick,
119) This declaration effectively invested all power over
the eternal soul in the Roman church and purportedly changed the grace
offered to all sinners through Jesus’ sacrifice to a salvation which could
be denied or granted at the whim of a human being.
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With Constantine’s edict
of 313 AD and the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, events were set into motion
which eventually led to the complete split between the western church in
Rome, the parent of Roman Catholicism, and the eastern church which fathered
the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches. Strangely enough,
the edict which eliminated the persecutions of Christians almost proved
to be the death blow to Christianity. The emperor’s acceptance of
Christianity made it a "popular" religion, and new converts were often
only vaguely aware of its true meaning and brought with them the trappings
of their pagan religions.(Chadwick, 126)
Back to Christianity, page
1
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