Origins

• Historical and Social Background
• Scriptural Sources -The New Testament
• Jesus: His life and teaching

• St. Paul vs. the Jerusalem church (for Jews or Gentiles?)
• Church vs. state (the Roman Empire and persecution)
• Orthodoxy vs. Heresy (Gnostics)
• Development of Official Church Doctrine (Nicene creed)
• Formalization of the Faith
• East vs. West (Constantinople vs. Rome)
• Origins of division
• Differences

• Monasticism
• Scholasticism
• Mysticism
• Saints
• Crusades and the Inquisition

• Contributing Factors
• Four main Protestant groups
• Lutheran
• Anglican
• Reformed
• Sectarian

Practices

• The Sacraments
• Worship
• Holidays

Historical and Social Background:
Greek and Roman influences:

• Greek philosophy and religious ideas influence early Christian interpretation of Jesus’ life (ideas such as virgin birth, god-men, etc. are found in Greek religion but are foreign to Jewish thought)
• Greek culture - the people speak Greek as the vernacular, the Hebrew scriptures had been translated into Greek (the Septuagint); problems in translation also influence later Christian reading of the Hebrew prophecies (e.g., Isaiah: "and a virgin shall conceive")
• Roman political power in the Holy Land causes many clashes with the Jewish people who desire both civil relationships but also, ultimately, self-rule

• Pharisees: separatists concerned with ritual purity, emphasis on Torah and oral law; but more flexible and "modern" compared to...
• Saducees: their life lay in close connection to the temple and the ancient priestly rites and rituals; they stuck strictly and only to the written law of Torah rather than to the oral law found so important to the Pharisees; they died out with the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE
• Esseans: mystical beliefs, monastic and ascetic withdrawal from the world/society into a cooperative brotherhood focused on strict discipline, intense study of scripture, acts of ritual purification (e.g., water purification rites of baptism) and messianic expectations as an immanent answer to Roman persecution; both Jesus and John the Baptist may have been involved or otherwise influenced by this group; destroyed by the Romans in 68 CE
• Zealots: a revolutionary and political response to Roman occupation, more nationalist than religious in nature; deep hatred for the Romans; ancient counterpart to modern Zionism with same desire for Jewish self-rule
• Messianic/Charismatic personalities, expectations and movements: Esseans and Zealots were expressions of an overall first century Jewish hope and expectation for the promised "King of the Jews" (the Messiah); the people were constantly on the lookout for potential messiahs and there were plenty to go around. Jesus was one of many charismatic itinerant preachers wandering the countryside, drawing followers in hope that "this might be the one" they awaited. John the Baptist was part of this activity. However, the "King" the Jews expected was to be a worldly, political ruler; the Jewish messiah was to be no more than human. The Messiah, King and Savior Christians view Jesus to be is quite different from Jewish expectations.

• The Gospels - the life and teachings of Jesus
• Acts of the Apostles - very early development of the church
• Epistles (letters) of Paul and others to local fledging church communities; earliest writings (even before Gospels)
• Book of Revelations - expectations of future times yet to come

• The Synoptics ("same view"): Matthew, Mark and Luke
• All three share similar material, offering a similar view of the life and meaning of Jesus
• Not necessarily written by Jesus’ disciples, could have been passed down orally by them or written by their associates
• Both Matthew and Luke appear to have taken some of their material from Mark (material found in all three Gospels)
• Additional material common to both MT and LK not found in MK presumed to have originated from the same unknown original source(s) called "Q" (Quelle[German] = "source")
• Still remaining material unique to each MT and LK: each is presumed to have had it’s own third source called "M" for Matthew’s source and "L" for Luke’s source


Thus:

Mark + Q + "M" = Matthew
Mark + Q + "L" = Luke

• Mark focuses on life and death of Jesus esp. miracles and healings; Matt. & Luke add birth and resurrection of Jesus and also add "Q" sayings (teachings) of Jesus
• Mark, 70-80 CE: a simple, straightforward description more of what Jesus did than of what he taught
• written just after the fall of the Temple for Jewish-Christians living outside the Holy Land
• translates Aramaic words (e.g., "Talitha cum") of Jesus into Greek for Greek-only speaking people
• Matthew (c. 85 CE): geared to Hebrews with many references to Old Testament prophecies linking Jesus to these expectations
• written for Jewish-Christians living within the Holy Land, it is the most Jewish of all the Gospels
• Contains genealogy presenting Jesus as a Hebrew (contains ancestral lineage linking Jesus back to King David)
• speaks against scribes and Pharisees who were most prominent opponents of the Jewish-Christians in years after the fall of the Temple
• Luke (c. 90 CE): geared to Gentiles (non-Jewish Greek citizens of the Roman Empire), drawing on imagery and concepts familiar to Greek thinking (contains familiar birth story) thus universalizing the message beyond Judaism
• Luke, a Greek associate of Paul who preached to the Gentiles, was a Gentile writing for a Gentile audience (also wrote Acts)
• shows Jews as hostile to Gentile Christians, also makes first reference to followers of Jesus as "Christians"
• Places Christianity as part of Roman-Greek culture rather than Jewish
• The Gospel according to St. John (c. 95 CE), the "spiritual" Gospel, is unique, presenting a more mystical or Gnostic (Greek rather than Jewish) understanding of Jesus as the Christ, as an eternally existing divine figure, focuses on miracles and a symbolic presentation to make this point:
• Jesus is the sacrificial lamb (rather than just eats it at the last supper)
• Jesus rather than Torah is seen as the "word" of God
• The Gospels seem to have combined Jewish, Greek and possibly other religious (Zoroastrian? and, later, Pagan) influences in interpreting what Jesus stands for. This enables the new religion to appeal to a wide audience but alienates the mainstream traditional authorized version of first cent. Judaism (thus it is a "stumbling block" to them); writers of the New Testament, in addition to appealing to Greek and Roman gentiles were, themselves, Gentile and so superimposed their own non-Jewish worldviews upon the events they were concerned with.
• New Testament in its final form not canonized until 4th cent
• Many other Gospels and texts did not "make the cut," were suppressed by the early church authorities (e.g., Gospel of Thomas) not discovered until mid-20th cent at Nag Hammadi, Egypt; these are of a Gnostic view of Jesus representing early "heresies"

Problems in search of the historical Jesus:

• One problem in determining who Jesus was, what he was all about as revealed in the Bible, is that the Bible was written after the fact and may reflect later belief about him rather than fact and truth as it was (discuss comment in Fisher p. 277)

• Redemption of the first born (LK 2:21-24)
• observation of Passover as child (LK 2:41-42) and adult (MT 26:17-19)
• Jesus in synagogue (LK 4:15-22)
• The Greatest Commandment: the Shema & Ve’haftah (MK 12:28-31)

• under demonic control? (MT 12:22-24)
• King of the Jews? (Does not admit to any accusations by Roman Pilate) (MT 27:11-12 MK 15:2-5 LK 23:3 JN 18:37) Not the kind of king the Romans would imagine, not a political king
• Jesus: the Jewish Messiah?: To claim Jesus as King of the Jews, as the awaited Savior/Messiah, he must be identified as a descendent of King David. Being born in Bethlehem is a sign that he was of David’s line. But there is little historical evidence that Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem rather than the Nazareth where he grew up. The faithful of later times who wrote the Gospels, wanting to emphasize such signs, might write it in even if it were not factual.
• Messiah, "Son of God", "Son of Man"? (clarifies meaning before the priests) (MT 26:63-64 MK 14:61-62 LK 22:67-70)
• How did this "King of the Jews" get to be the "Son of God"?:

In ancient times kings and emperors were considered to be descended from the gods. They were understood to be "sons" of the gods, divinity manifested in human society. If you claim someone to be a king, by implication in Roman times, you claim them to be a son of a god and divine. Jesus, as "King of the Jews" was thus naturally understood to be a "son" of the Jewish God perhaps not by the Jews in his day, but by the later Roman and Greek cultured early Christians.

• To the Jews: MT 10:5-6 MT 15:21-28 (Canannites are "dogs" - transition?)
• To all the world?: MT 21:42-45 (transition - rejected by the Jewish authorities), MT 28:19 (after resurrection)

• Miracles: turning water into wine, walking on water, calming a storm, feeding thousands with little, a great haul of fish: demonstrations of faith and/or symbolic lessons
• Miracle healings:
• Jesus heals the blind and the lame by a laying on of hands and casts out "demons" at command (these people were likely, in today’s understanding, insane, psychotic, epileptic, etc.)
• Raising of the dead: Raising of Lazarus appears only in John (11:30-44) and thus may likely be symbolic rather than fact (certainly the other Gospels which read more like history, would report such an event if it had actually happened. The other gospels do report the healing of those who are near death: "the girl was not dead" (MT 9:23-25)
• "your faith has made you well": lessons concerning the power of faith:
• unintended, automatic healings (MK 5:25-34):
• automatic healing the daughter of a Canaanite woman (see above: MT: 15:28)
• Samaritan is healed and displays thanks: (LK 17:11-19)
• automatic healing at a distance of son of Roman soldier (JN 4:46-53)
• Disciples lack faith to heal ("faith as small as a mustard seed...": MT 17:19-20 & power of belief to move mountains: MT 21:21)

• Method: story telling/use of parables: why?, how they work:
• inability of some to understand (parable of the sower: MT 13:1-23)
• Content/themes:
• The Kingdom of God: when God will rule men’s lives and thus God’s rule will be manifest in society as well as men’s hearts
• Eschatological: the "end times" are near (in the immediate, imminent future) but the dawning of those times are here and now in individual lives and hearts (starts small and gets bigger like a mustard seed and yeast: MT 13:31-33, LK 13:18-21; "Kingdom of God is within you" - LK 17:20-21, "You are not far from the K of G: MK 12:32-34)
• Salvation at the endtimes: (weeds in the field: MT 13:24-30 & explained: 36-43, fishermen reject worthless fish: MT 13:47-50)
• K of G is worth more than anything else (MT 13:44-46)
• The nature of God: God is near, answers prayer (mustard seed, "ask and it shall be given"), is gracious and merciful - like a loving parent ("abba") but also an absolute authority
• forgiving: God loves all equally, does not judge as men do (Laborers in the vineyard receive same pay no matter when they started work, MT 20:1-16)
• loves even sinners, welcoming them "home" (into the Kingdom - the presence - of God) (Prodigal son: LK 15:11-32)
• Imagery of these stories (farming, fishing, shepherding) is familiar to those he is speaking to and are used symbolically

• Jesus ethics goes beyond the justice of the Judaism of his day: "go the extra mile, love your enemies" (MT 5:38-45)
• God’s love extends to encompass man’s love for fellow man - unconditional love. One is to emulate God, as God so loves unconditionally, so too must man: "love enemies... be merciful as your father is merciful" (LK 6:32-36 - note: Jesus believes we are all sons of God!)
• The Great Commandment: Love God, love self, love others (noted above: MK 12:28-34)
• Love over law: Plucking wheat on the Sabbath, eating offering to God because men were hungry (MK 2:23-28); healing on the Sabbath to help and save life (MK 3:1-6, LK 13:10-17); not concern about dietary laws (what comes out of the heart more important than what goes into the belly: MK 7:14-23)
• Political confrontations with Romans: insurrections, threatening crowds, direct verbal attacks regarding Herod’s immorality scares and angers rulers; talk of this new "king of the Jews" usurps the position of the Roman Emperor

• At whose hands? Jewish authorities only too pleased to cooperate with Roman authorities, encourage them to find him guilty and crucify him but it was the Romans who had the power to carry out the sentence. Jewish punishment for blasphemy is stoning to death; Roman punishment is crucifixion - a common criminal sentence in those days.
• Did Jesus predict his own death? It would not be hard to anticipate it given what he was doing to incite both Jewish and Roman authorities. Did he have foreknowledge (from the beginning or only toward the end) of his destiny? At the very end, he seems all too human: "let this cup pass from me"(MT 26:39), "why hast thou forsaken me?" (MK 15:34)
• Was it destined by God? Was Judas really a turncoat? Since Christian beliefs holds that Jesus had to die to fulfill his mission then no one should be blamed as all involved were playing their destined part in the working out of God’s plan for human salvation.
• Was Jesus resurrected? Was he really dead or just unconscious? Even if he did come back from the dead was it perhaps a rare but natural phenomena? the power of his own faith?
• The meaning of his death and resurrection came later and may be questioned

[Show video on resurrection debate]

• Discussion: Did Jesus really intend to start a new religion or only to reform or renew the old one (to reinvigorate it spirituality)?

Is Christianity the religion of Jesus or the religion about the Christ?

Four early tensions:

• St. Paul vs. the Jerusalem church (for Jews or Gentiles?)
• Church vs. state (the Roman Empire and persecution) (External conflict)
• Orthodoxy vs. Heresy (Gnostics) (internal conflict)
• East vs. West (Constantinople vs. Rome)

• Christianity started out as a sect within first century Judaism:

• Jesus was Jewish, so were his disciples and followers
• most Jews in Jesus day loved Jesus, only the minority leadership (Pharisees and Priests) had problems with him (those that turned away from him did so only after he died without fulfilling their messianic expectations)
• Jesus’ followers and disciples continued to see themselves as Jewish (they were observing the Jewish Pentecost [Shavuot] when the Holy Spirit come to them [Acts 2:1-4])
• Jesus’ brother James and some of the other disciples were head of the new movement in Jerusalem
• Paul:
• These early Christians were not received well by their fellow Jews, including one by the name of Saul who actively persecuted the Christians
• However, one day while on his way to destroy the church in Damascus, Saul had a mystical encounter with the risen Christ and was immediately converted to Christian faith (Acts 9:1-9)
• From then on, rather than persecuting the Christians, Saul (thenceforth known by the Roman version of his name: Paul) began preaching the Gospel - the good news about the risen Christ - especially to the Gentiles. (Acts 9:19-22)
• Paul did more to spread Christianity in the first cent. and make it a universal religion (beyond Jewish circles) than anyone else. He was well traveled from Palestine to Rome and Greece and back again several times by both land and sea. He visited local Christian congregations, sent letters by messenger when he could not be there to give direction when some issue, question or problem arose. These letters ("epistles") were the earliest Christian writings and make up the core of the New Testament.
• But Paul and the church in Jerusalem were in disagreement over who could become a Christian. Did one have to be or become a Jew before one could be Christian? Paul said "no" and did not require that Gentiles be converted (and circumcised) to the Jewish faith. He argued his case before the leaders of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:1-35) and convinced them of the universality of the "Good News"
• Paul’s Good News: "So, what was the Good News that Paul preached? Was it the same Good News that Jesus preached?"
• Jesus preached the Good News about the Kingdom of God; Paul preached the Good News about the resurrected Christ (Paul had never met the historical Jesus, only the resurrected Christ)
• Jesus went around telling people they were already forgiven by God (not that he, Jesus, forgave them); Paul taught that Jesus Christ was Lord and Savior who died for their sins so that, by proxy, as a sacrifice, they would be forgiven and accepted by God.
• For Jesus, that people discover the Kingdom of God within themselves was the central issue in his teaching; for Paul it was the person of Jesus, not his life and teaching but his death and resurrection that was of primary significance. Those who followed Jesus before he died were drawn to him because of his life and teaching, not because they saw him as their salvation in the way Paul saw him (again, Paul only knew the resurrected Christ)

• Paul did, however, stress Love, in agreement with Jesus, as the essence of Christian faith and practice (1 Cor. 13)
• It was with Paul that Christianity broke from its Jewish roots
• The Gospels and other New Testament writings are as much, if not more so, a reflection of the beliefs of the authors as they are a reflection of what Jesus actually said and did. He is "said to have said". The presentation and commentary interspersed with Jesus’ own words tell us more about the early church thinking about Jesus than they tell us about the historical Jesus.
• How did you answer the question: what was Jesus’ intention? He most likely never intended to start a new religion but only desired to reform the old Judaism, restoring it to its spiritual roots as a personal encounter and relationship with God such as Abraham and Moses had.

• For various social, political and economic reasons and Roman misunderstanding of the Christian religion, the Romans persecuted the Christian minority
• Political issues: Christians (like Jews) refused to recognize the divinity of the Emperor. Christians preached a new "King" - Jesus Christ as "Lord". But, unlike Judaism, Christianity was not an ancient faith and antiquity was valued. And, unlike Judaism, Christianity was spreading and becoming more and more popular among the people thus becoming more or an issue
• Social issues: Christianity was popular among the lower classes - the poor and slaves (the message Jesus preached had been for the "little people"). It was feared there might be a revolt.
• Economic issues: Christianity interfered with the statue making business - Christians would not buy statues of the divine Emperor or other statues of Roman gods and goddesses. Christianity also questioned the Roman religion, seeking converts from among that faith, trying to prove it wrong
• Romans did not understand this new Christian practice of "drinking blood and eating flesh" - they took it literally and thought the Christians were cannibals; rumors spread that Christians killed non-Christian children for this ritual
• Persecutions began in the first century and continued for several centuries
• The first Christian martyrs and saints arose during this period as they stood up to the tortures rather than give up their faith
• Not until Emperor Constantine, in 4th cent., was converted to the new faith did the persecutions end. First Christianity was accepted side by side with other faiths of the Empire; by the end of the 4th cent. the tables had turned and Christianity was the only official religion of the Empire. Other faiths were now persecuted and the people converted in droves for social and political reasons rather than by faith.

• At the same time that Christians were in external conflict with the non-Christian Roman Empire, there were also internal conflicts
• From early centuries the Christian church has been divided over doctrinal issues and questions
• "Orthodoxy" = "straight thinking" and was the authority in control of the church which labeled all other so called "Christian" thinking as "heresy". The "heretics" themselves considered their thinking to be correct and the "orthodox" to be wrong. It was simply the "luck of the [political] draw" as to which doctrines became official
• Questions of Christology: a question of how Jesus’ humanity and divinity are related, how Jesus is related to God, how Jesus is related to humanity and how the spiritual force (the "Holy Spirit") is related to both God and Christ
• Several views were accepted and thus considered "orthodox"
• The early Gospels and acts saw Jesus as a man, born and died, but adopted by God after death
• Paul’s understood the Christ to be pre-existent but losing some divinity with the incarnation
• John’s presented Christ as pre-existent and fully divine in the incarnation
• Heretical views were also circulating:
• Is Jesus half and half?
• Does he change his nature back and forth like a chameleon changes its color?
• Is he only seemingly but not really divine or human?
• Some held that Jesus had not really died on the cross, that he hadn’t really resurrected, that he hadn’t really been present in physical form at all and so couldn’t die
• Gnostics claimed secret knowledge ("Gnosis") believed to have been taught by Jesus. They held a basically dualist view wherein spirit is good and matter is evil (a view based on Greek Platonic metaphysics) thus believed that the divine Christ could not have really experienced a physical (material) life and suffering (divinity cannot, by its nature, participate in evil). (docetisim)
• The Gnostic Gospels stressed "self-knowledge" where to know the self is to know God; Jesus is presented as the revealer of wisdom; focus is on the message, wisdom and knowledge of Jesus rather than on his death and resurrection (Paul’s focus)
• Gnosticism was too syncretic for orthodox sensitivities. It crossed the lines of Greek and Jewish thinking, incorporating similar concepts from various other religious systems as well. But it was always seen as heretical by the religious and social mainstream of all religions and cultures (it is the same problem had throughout history by mystics and "new age" type thinking to this day)
• None of these heretical views satisfied the needs demanded by the notion that Jesus could have been a proxy sacrifice for human sin. He would have actually had to have been human and have actually died to be the sacrifice and thus savior
• Other heresies involved heretical practices rather than beliefs:
• Some early Christians maintained closer ties with Jewish religion and thinking in regarding Jesus as a fully human messiah "adopted" by God and continued to hold Jewish law as binding (Ebionites) (e.g., today’s "Messianic Jews")
• Some totally rejected the Jewish law and Jewish notions of God in favor of the new idea of a God of love, divorcing themselves entirely from the Jewish roots of Christianity (Marcionism)
• Some Christian groups looked forward to an immediate outpouring of the spirit of God, expected and sought direct contact with God by each individual and lived an ascetic life in preparation and expectation of the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God on earth (Montanism). Orthodox Christianity had already moved beyond this 1st cent. expectation
• In the 2nd cent. Bishop Irenaeus tried to dictate and unify the new religion by limiting the number of official Gospels
• By the 4th cent. Constantine completed the task of unifying Christianity through the elimination of heretics

• Church doctrine as we know it today was not present from the beginning. It developed over several centuries and nuances continued (and continues) after that.
• By the end of the 4th cent., with Christianity now the official religion of the Empire, scripture was canonized and creeds were set in stone.
• As a result of the heretical beliefs and practices, councils of bishops from local churches in various geographic locales got together to agree on official doctrine.
• Creeds such as the Apostle’s and Nicene creeds were written reflecting the questions and issues raised by the heresies.
• The Nature of God: three in one - a mystery of faith
• God as creator ("maker of heaven and earth") is clearly stated in response to Gnostic notions that spirit has nothing to do with matter.
• God is declared a trinity - "three persons" of "one substance" (like H2O can appear in any of three different forms: water, vapor or ice).
• The Nature of Christ (Christology): two in one - a mystery of faith
• The division and dispute regarding the degree of humanity in Christ:
• some views held that Christ took on all aspects of humanity - a rational and animal soul as well as flesh, some saw Christ as more divine than human
• Council at Chalcedon in 451 made final determination that Christ is both, equally and fully, human and divine - one person with two distinct natures. Nicene creed emphasizes both these natures and specifically acknowledges what various heresies deny: he is eternal, not a creation of God ("not made"), he did incarnate, he did die, he did resurrect and ascend to heaven, is there now, is our savior and will come again (second coming) as our judge
• Doctrine of Salvation (Soteriology): Are we saved by works or faith? By our morality or God’s grace?
• The question was tackled by Augustine in the 4th -5th cent.:
• The issue of freewill is involved. According to Augustine’s thinking, we have limited freewill. God’s grace can arrange circumstances that encourage us to freely choose God’s will for us.
• Ultimately, salvation comes by God’s grace through the sacrificial death of Jesus but we are free to accept that gift or not (although the Presbyterians later held that even that is not our choice)
• Sin: the original sin of humanity inherited from the first man, Adam, is transmitted by desire in the course of the act of intercourse (original sin is not the sex act itself but the lustful desire which accompanies it [in Buddhism, the cause of suffering is desire!]). Those conceived in desire inherit the sin of desire. The desire to know good from evil and to thus be more like God was the first sin committed by the first humans in the Garden of Eden.
• The Holy Spirit "proceeds" from the father ["and the son"]; the Eastern Church did not agree to this later addition: God the Father was seen as the sole source of everything.
• The church: the ecclesia (Greek for "assembly" similar to the meaning of "synagogue"), the people, the members of the church, were understood to be, collectively, the "Body of Christ" ("wherever two or more of you are gathered in my name..." [MT 18:20])
• Despite official creed, some fringe groups continue to debate these issues:
• Unitarians trace a long history back to the 4th century claiming that there is no reference in scripture to the trinity. They were considered "heretics" in the early centuries and today might be questioned as legitimate Christians but for many other reasons than just the trinity issue. Like Gnostics, some would consider themselves Christian and some not, for various reasons.
• Other modern "heresies" include Mormons, Christian Science Jehovah’s Witness and, in the 16th century, Protestants were excommunicated as heretics

• Leadership was through Bishops as the seats of authority in major geographic areas throughout the Empire. Rome and Constantinople became two main seats of eccesiastical power as they were also the two main seats of Roman political power.
• Worship was held on Sundays and Easter and Christmas were celebrated
• Sacraments of the Eucharist, Baptism and Confession were in practice
• Monastic communities began to develop, the first being the Benedictines which set the model of poverty, chastity and obedience coupled with prayer, work and service to those in need.

• The Eastern Orthodox Church likes to think of itself as the original church with the Roman Catholic having split off from it. The Roman Catholic Church likes to think it is the original church with the Orthodox splitting away from RC.
• In actuality, neither the Orthodox nor the RC churches existed until 1054 CE when the bishops of Rome and Constantinople excommunicated each other. Both churches share equally in the first 1000 year history of the Christian church.
• When Constantine became Emperor in the 4th cent. he shifted the political center of power from Rome to Constantinople, in the Eastern part of the Empire. The church’s center of power tended to follow the center of political power and Constantinople became a second seat of ecclesiastical power.
• The break between East and West was not sudden. The issues involved were numerous and built up over a period of many centuries.
• The cause was primarily due to the geographic distance and cultural differences between the western and eastern seats of the Roman Empire. These differences contributed to doctrinal and ritual differences:
• Eastern bishops resisted claims to primacy of the bishop in Rome
• Eastern culture was different tending toward a more contemplative, mystical and passive approach to religious practice than the active, pragmatic and legal approaches of the west.
• In the 7th and 8th cent. the east had to deal with encounters with the new and spreading Islamic faith which was not an issue for the west
• The east felt that statues and realistic pictures of religious figures in use in the west was idolatry and thus banned such representations. They were iconoclasts (against such icons). In the end, the East became associated with icons but only as stylized two dimensional images.
• The filoque statement added to the Nicene creed was a major theological issue between East and West. The Eastern bishops held that God the Father is sole creator and origin of everything, including both the Son and the Holy Spirit. The HS proceeds only through the Father, not, as the West held, through both the Father and the Son.
• Differences of opinion regarding ritual practice included the use of leavened (East) or unleavened (West) bread in the Eucharist and baptism by immersion (East) or sprinkling (West)
• All these issues served to create harsh feelings and strained relations between the eastern and western seats of the Church. The final break came in 1054
• From 1054 onward, the two churches continued to develop in different directions, independent of each other

• Organizational Structure:
• Eastern churches continued to remain autocephalous: self-ruling. The various national churches operate independently of each other, each under its own Bishop, but they are in mutual communication and cooperation with each other through periodic councils. They are a cooperative of independent church bodies.
• The Western church is united under (ruled over by) one head: the Pope (the Bishop of Rome) with other Bishops serving under the Pope in a hierarchical relationship from Cardinals and Bishops down to local Priests, Deacons and, finally, The People
• Corporate Nature of the Eastern Church:
• In the Eastern Church the clergy is seen as more equal to the laity than in the West. Eastern priests marry and have families.
• The Eastern Church holds that the church, as a body, is infallible but rejects the notion of the infallibility of a single representative of the church, i.e., the Pope, as held by the Western church
• Relationship to the larger society:
• The Eastern churches maintains a separate but close and mutually dependent relationship with the secular government of their respective nations
• The Western Church is often at odds with the secular society and has, at times, been both religious and secular head of society.
• Theological differences:
• The Eastern church focuses on the incarnation, the West focus in on the atonement through Jesus’ death and resurrection
• The Eastern Church sees the ultimate spiritual goal to be the eventual divinization of humanity and actively encourages the mystical life in all its members while the Western church tolerates but does not provide for such experience as a primary goal.
• Both Eastern and Western churches hold to the same basic sacraments but with a somewhat different interpretation reflecting the East’s focus on the divinization of all humanity vs. the West’s focus on the atoning nature of Christ.
• Eastern liturgy vs. Western Theology:
• Most significantly, the Eastern Church lacks the kind of theological development seen in the Western Church. Theologically, the East maintains the basic theology found from the earliest centuries of the Church without the later accretions added by the West.
• Rather, the East has developed the liturgy to an art into a feast for the senses with images (icons), smells (incense), and sound (the liturgy is chanted almost continually). All this is intended to foster a deep spiritual elevation in the worshiper.

Monasticism:

• The aim is to achieve holiness in fulfilling vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Days are spent in prayer and work on behalf of God.
• The first monasteries were set up in the East in the 4th century
• There are two basic types: communal under vows of silence and the hermitage, which is a more private spiritual retreat from the world
• Eastern monasticism tends toward personal, contemplative withdrawal from society (exemplified in the book, The Way of a Pilgrim)
• Western monasticism takes an active, social direction with strong influences upon society
• General characteristics of monastic life:
• a hierarchical governing under an Abbot
• a novitiate period before vows are irrevocable
• personal possessions are relinquished
• some lead a more ascetic life while others lead a more active life serving the larger society
• The Benedictine order, under St. Benedict in the 6th cent., was the first Western monasticism.
• The 13th century saw the development of mendicant (begging) orders such as the Franciscans (founded by St. Francis) who took vows of poverty and manual labor
• The 13th cent also saw the development of teaching orders. The Dominicans, who were also mendicant, were the first western order to stress the ideal of study and preaching over work
• The Jesuits, begun in the 16th cent. by Ignatius Loyola, rival the Dominicans as educators and, to this day, remain in the forefront of Roman Catholic education and church based schools (grade schools, colleges, universities, seminaries). The Jesuits developed as a counter to Protestant heresies.
• The 20th cent. Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, wrote much about his own experience in coming to the monastic life in his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain

• Many of the greatest of Medieval scholars and mystics were associated with one or another of these monastic orders
• Most of western medieval philosophy and scholasticism was done by Christians in service of Christian theology. Such thinking began with Augustine in the 4th cent and climaxed with Thomas Aquinas in the 13th cent.
• Aquinas made a strong case for the use of reason in support of faith ("Natural Theology" uses reason, "Revealed Theology" is based on scripture). He is famous for his "Five [cosmological] Proofs" for the existence of God: God as first mover, first cause, therefore necessarily self-existent, the measure of all perfection, the "argument from design" (God as intelligent designer of the cosmos)

• Whereas scholasticism used the mind and the intellect in service of religion, mysticism used the heart and the emotions to attain direct religious experience.
• Some of the great mystics of the Church include the 12th cent. Bernard of Clairvaux, and the 13th cent. Dominican Meister Eckhart, Thomas a Kempas who wrote The Imitation of Christ, and women mystics as well such as Teresa of Avila.

• Saints must be proclaimed by the Vatican after lengthy and in-depth investigation. One cannot be proclaimed a saint until after death and certain signs (e.g., miracles) must have been part of their life.
• Seen as examples humans can live up to more so than the sinless Christ. Saints were ordinary humans, sinners who became saints.
• Saints exist in the spiritual realm of the afterlife and serve as mediators between sinful humans and the sinless Christ who, in turn, serves as mediator between humans and God
• The Virgin Mary is particularly important as the "Mother of God [the Son]". She and other female saints provide an important feminizing element to the spiritual life and the Church

• 10th to 14th cent. Crusades began as attack against Muslim rule in Eastern Christian lands to regain the Holy Land, defend against Muslims and other enemies of Christianity. Although at first the West and East cooperated in this endeavor, the fourth and last Crusade was waged by the West against Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which it by then saw as an heretical enemy.
• The 13th cent. Inquisition was the Church’s attempt to identify heretics and either force their return to official church teachings or eliminate them. The inquisition was not primarily an attack on non-Christians but an attack on those Christians who were going too far afield from the Church’s control (although non-Christians, e.g. Jews and Pagans, were also often targets – many Jews were forcibly converted to Christianity but continued to practice Judaism in secret)

The Roman Catholic Church, through leadership under the Pope, stresses the unity and universality of the Church as teaching authority and sacramental agent. Church tradition and teaching is held to be as important as the scriptures themselves. It is through the Church teaching that the scriptures are understood and it is through the sacraments that the Christian life is lived.

In the 16th cent. several individuals within the church - monks and priests - protested certain self-serving practices and teachings which came down from Rome. This, then, was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation and it coincided with the end of the "Dark Ages".

Contributing Factors:

• European Renaissance begins a new tradition of free thinkers in society and in the Church. New technology is one result.
• Of particular importance is the printing press which makes Bibles (as well as other books) readily available to the masses thus increasing literacy. New ideas can spread more rapidly, including those of the early reformers. People can now read the Bible for themselves rather than needing the Priests to tell them what it says. This results in many new understandings of what the Bible has to say.
• Geographic distance from Rome and desire for political independence of European nation states also contribute to development of independent "state" religions: each nation became associated with a particular Protestant church (Germany and Northern Europe = Lutheran, England = Anglican, Switzerland = Reformed churches)

• Lutheran, Church of England (Anglican) and Reformed churches are "mainstream"
• The more extreme "separatist" sectarian groups are smaller in membership, self governed and tend to be reactionary against the larger society. Thus they have been persecuted or rejected by the mainstream in the same way that the mainstream Protestants were rejected by the Roman Catholic Church they broke away from.
• Lutheran and Anglican reform primarily the theology, not the worship nor hierarchy of Church organization (beyond rejecting the Pope)
• Reformed churches reform the style of worship, hierarchical organization as well as theology
• Sectarian or Separatist churches start from scratch with a radical reform, changing much in worship and theology
• Lutheran: began in Germany (1517), Martin Luther protesting certain immoral and self-serving practices of the Church (e.g., indulgences). Paved the way for other reform movements throughout Europe
• Salvation by faith, not good works
• Rejects clerical authority over lay people, maintains organizational leadership under Bishops
• Accepts only Baptism and the Communion meal as Biblically mandated sacraments, setting the precedent for other Protestant groups
• Proclaims Christ’s spiritual, but not physical, presence in the Eucharist
• Maintains greatest unity under various "synods"
• Church of England: "Anglican" ("Episcopal" in America); began in England by Henry the VIII in defiance of the Pope’s ruling regarding his divorce. Methodist, Baptists and other churches have since broken away from their English roots.
• Like Lutheran, maintains leadership under Bishops ("episcopal") who assigns clergy
• Breakaway groups include:
• Methodist (John Wesley) (maintains episcopal leadership) and subgroup: Wesleyan
• Baptists (several regional sub-denominations)
• Quaker (Society of Friends)
• Pentecostal and Holiness (Nazarene) (American groups)

• Reformed: began in Switzerland by John Calvin, includes Presbyterian and other denominations
• Influenced by Lutherans and others
• Believes God’s will presides over all, including human destiny with regard to salvation ("Double Predestination" of both saved and damned)
• Holds Communion meal as symbolic only
• Reorganized leadership under church elders (Presbyters) rather than Bishops
• Includes such groups as:
• Presbyterian (Scottish)
• Reformed Church (Dutch and German)
• American subdivisions (originating in England) include:
• Evangelical and Reformed Church
• Christian Church: Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ
• Congregationalists (Puritans)
• Breakaway group: Unitarians
• Those groups have since rejoined into the United Church of Christ

• Sectarian or Separatist groups: Independently founded churches, many preaching for adult rather than infant Baptism thus called Anabaptist ("second" Baptism)
• Maintain separation of church and state (do not follow state religion). Many of these church groups separated themselves from the larger society which they saw as antithetical to Christian faith and life
• Tend to be non-creedal and anti-militarian (pacifist)
• They were persecuted by the more mainstream Protestant groups, as were the secondary divisions that broke away from those "parent" churches.
• Includes:
• Evangelicals
• Quakers, Mennonites and their even more separatist subgroups:
• Amish, Hutterite (communal living)
• Church of the Brethren
• Moravian
• Seventh Day Adventist (American)

• Many persecuted sects took refuge in America in 17th and 18th cent. These included the Congregationalists (Puritans), Baptists, Methodists, Quakers (under William Penn in Pennsylvania), Mennonites and related Church of the Brethren and Amish, Shakers (now defunct because they did not procreate)
• 19th cent. America also saw the makings of home grown churches such as Unitarian (1819 - merged with Universalist in 1961), Mormons (1830), Seventh Day Adventists (1863), Jehovah’s Witness (1879 Pennsylvania by Charles Taze Russell: "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society), Christian Science (1879), Pentecostals (late 19th cent American Revival movement), "Holiness" churches (Nazarenes), Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ.
• Many trace their ancestral roots back to earlier European denominations or sects.
• Some are liberal, preaching a "social gospel" addressing the worldly needs of people; others are fundamentalist and evangelical stressing Christ as redeemer and seeking converts to the faith.
• Missionary activity of these churches may be directed either to social needs or to seeking converts or to both activities combined
• Evangelism vs. Proselytism: Evangelism is simply a sharing of the Gospel with others. Proselytism has the intention of making converts to the faith. Proselytism is more explicit and forceful than evangelism.

• A return to Biblical sources of faith rejecting Church traditions and teachings which are not Biblically based.
• A rejection of hierarchical authority, seeing more equality between pastor and the people (the pastors marry and some denominations allow women as ministers, unlike RC).
• The Bible is the central religious authority which each individual Christian has responsibility for studying and interpreting (no reliance on Church teachings, traditions or Pope for direction). The Bible speaks for itself - some interpret it literally, others quite liberally. For every interpretation there is a different church.
• Differences between Protestant churches are varied. Some can be quite negligible, a matter of some minute difference in belief or practice can create a schism resulting in a sub-denomination or an entirely new denomination
• Focus on faith more than on rites and ritual

• Liberation Theology speaks to the down and out members of society esp. to third world countries, the underprivileged and subjugated lands. It is especially prevalent in South America
• Process Theology associates the creation and the Creator and sees humanity as playing a key role in the continuation and completion of the creative act. Process theology also suggests that, as creation advances and changes so too does the Creator. Paul Tillich referred to the "God above the God of Theism" as the power of "Being Itself". Rather than seeing God as one Superior Being among and apart from other beings Tillich saw God as the underlying essence of all being not merely as the creator at the beginning of time (e.g., Aquinas’ "First Cause")

The Sacraments: A sacrament is a ritual act in which the Sacred (God) is present.
Participation in a sacrament is participation in the Holy, a way of communing with God, of building or renewing one’s spiritual life

• Seven sacraments observed in the Roman Catholic Church:
• Sacraments of initiation:
• Baptism (a purification for the elimination of original sin, initiation ritual)
• Confirmation
• Communion (Eucharist, The Lord’s Supper)
• Sacraments of healing:
• Reconciliation (Confession and Penance) (spiritual healing)
• Anointing of the sick (Extreme Unction, "Last Rites") (physical healing)
• Sacraments of Vocation: (one chooses one or the other, not both)
• Matrimony
• Holy Orders (Ordination) dedication to God’s service

• Protestants recognize only two of these as Biblically mandated: Baptism and Communion
• Most Protestant churches practice the others in some form or another but do not consider them to be "sacraments"
• Confession is communal: a statement read in unison as part of the liturgy
• Protestants may interpret these practices differently, may practice them differently and less often than Catholics; some non-mainline churches do not even practice Baptism and Communion.

• A singing of hymns by either the congregation, choir and/or soloist
• Scriptural reading from Old Testament, Epistles and Gospels
• A lesson (homily) or sermon by the Priest or minister often related to the scriptural reading for the day
• A unison recitation of the "Lord’s Prayer" (the "Our Father"): a directive for prayer given by Jesus and found in the Gospels (MT 6:9-13) and, in some churches, a recitation of the Nicene Creed
• A collection of money (offertory) to support the church, its missions and/or its charitable work
• The Communion Meal, "Lord’s Supper" or Eucharist, the climax of worship in some churches or only once a month or less
• A "passing of the peace" greeting each other with words such as "may the peace of God be with you" "and also with you"
• Prayers for the sick

• Christmas season: [show video]
• Begins with Advent on each of four Sundays prior to Christmas, looking forward to the coming ("advent") of God manifest as the Christ
• Christmas day: Dec. 25 is not the actual day Jesus was born (no one knows exactly when he was born); probably celebrated in early Winter as a continuation of early Pagan European Winter Solstice celebrations given Christian reinterpretation: celebrating the return of the sun, of light (the lengthening of daylight) symbolically as the coming of the Son of God. Many Christmas traditions such as the tree and lights and caroling have their origin in non-Christian Pagan traditions
• Epiphany: Jan. 6 - celebrating the arrival of the three wise men from the East who came bearing gifts to the infant Jesus. In some European cultures this is the major gift giving day of the Christmas season
• Easter season:
• Begins with Ash Wednesday as the start of Lent, the 40 day preparation period; a period to give up something (a sacrifice), a cleansing period (purification); traditionally the avoidance of meat ("Fish on Fridays" in old Catholic homes)
• Holy Week includes [show video]
• Palm Sunday: observing Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem as the beginning of the events leading up to his death and resurrection
• Maundy Thursday: observing the "Last Supper" Jesus held with his disciples; some churches even hold mock seders reenacting the event (which is traditionally held to have been the Jewish Passover Seder)
• Good Friday: a solemn occasion observing the day Jesus was crucified
• Easter Sunday: celebrating Christ’s resurrection; attendance at sunrise services is common; the association of Easter with rabbits, chicks and eggs may also relate more to Pagan culture in celebration of the new life of Spring than to the Christian religious meaning of Easter but symbolically, Christ brings new life and so the use of these fertility symbols is not entirely unwarranted. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (thus the date may differ according to the cycle of the moon); it thus also usually follows close after the Jewish Passover since that holiday falls on the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
• Ascension Day follows Easter by 40 days as the observance of the day the risen Christ ascended into heaven (Acts 1:3-9)
• Pentecost comes the 50th day after Easter in remembrance of the Pentecost event (Acts 2:1-13) when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles
• The entire Christian liturgical calendar is organized around these key occasions with specified Biblical readings for each Sunday of the year (a tradition of annual scripture reading adopted from Christianity’s Jewish roots)