Religion of the State
Ask Me Anything
Week 2: Religion of the State
What role does the church play in faith? My church has been fortunate enough to surround me with a great environment, but it can be a dangerous place in a way. Do we need to change the church culture?
Why do people assume God was white?
If you must accept the Christian God to go to heaven then heaven itself would be predominantly white. Does this say something about Christianity (perhaps some bias…😉)?
Last week we discussed the origins of Christianity. Historically, we don’t know much about Jesus outside of what his followers said about him. The gospels were written 40-60 years after his death, and each was written for a different audience. Gospels are not a biography, they are good news, so they are telling us about Jesus' character. By the end of the first century we see Christianity emerging as its own religion. Before, it was a Jewish movement from a Jewish messiah. There was a lot of diversity in thought and understanding about Jesus. Paul and other early church fathers such as Peter and James, the brother of Jesus, were constantly arguing and debating on how to interpret the Jesus event.
Diversity of Early Christianity
In the second century, Christianity was not uniform. This was a time of a lot of self-definition. Within Rome alone, there was Justin Martyr's school, a sect of Gnosticism headed up by Valentinus, and then Papal St. Peter's See. These sects disagreed vastly on topics such as the dates for Easter and the divinity of Christ. By the third and fourth century there were more gospels than you could count or ever read in one bible. The Gospel of Mary Magdalen shows her as a disciple and argues that women should be able to teach. There were also Gospels containing stories of Jesus as a child or about disciples going to strange lands. The Gospel of Thomas is only sayings of Jesus, it does not account for the story of Jesus' life.
"If you bring forth what is in you, what you bring forth will save you. If you don’t bring forth that which is within you, what you don’t bring forth will destroy you."
Irenaeus was an 18-20-year-old Greek bishop from the first century when he witnessed 50-70 people executed in his community. He was very wary of fragmentation and tried to rally his people under a uniform message. Irenaeus wanted orthodoxy, not heterodoxy. He didn’t want people making choices about what to believe, but being told what to believe from a bishop. Irenaeus was very vocal about having just the four gospels that we have today. This was before the canonized bible and so there was a lot of discussion of what should and shouldn’t be included. When the bible was canonized there were some criteria put into place, but it wasn’t a call for full belief of one brand rather, an attempt to rally diverse people together under one church. Irenaeus was very against the Gnostics; he did not like The Gospel of Thomas because he believed it was heavily influenced by the Gospels, and therefore he labeled it as ‘heretical’.
Persecution of Early Christians
In 112, there was a new Roman governor in modern-day Turkey called Pliny the Younger. Pliny wrote a letter to the emperor asking for advice on what to do about Christians because they weren't taking part in the Roman sacrifices. This is the first time the Roman government acknowledged Christianity as its own thing. Pliny claims that the Christians were the most stubborn group he'd encountered. They met before daybreak, sang hymns, worshipped Christ, and took an oath to do good. Jews historically didn’t have to take part in the sacrifices because they had religious differences. This put Christians in a hard spot because they were no longer seen as Jewish, and therefore, they now, by law, had to take place in the pagan rituals. Christianity couldn't be seen as a religion at that point because it wasn't ancient. Therefore, Pliny decided that anytime someone refused to sacrifice at the Roman temples, he would ask if they were Christian. If not, they would go sacrifice; if they were and refused to sacrifice, they then were executed. Pliny was trying to squash a seditious movement. Unwillingness to sacrifice to Roman gods made Christians seem seditious and anti-social.
This started several centuries of Christian persecution. Early believers became the scapegoat for every disaster such as plagues and floods because they refused to appease the Roman gods. Roman society and law were highly tolerant as long as one did what is expected as citizens, so now Christians were seen as rivals of Roman society.
Rome was in decline and beagn to feel undermined by Christianity. The third century is a tipping point. Decius, who was Roman emperor from 249-251, decided that Christians were a threat and must be arrested, persecuted, and killed. Decius was ruthless to those who didn't sacrifice, however, this actually backfires and ends up strengthening the church. Diocletian, who was emperor from 284-305, made another attempt to persecute those in public office. Christians heavily believed in being able to read the bible, thus most Christians were literate and therefore held public office. They were thrown out of government, but then government didn’t work.
Constantine’s Conversion
Everything changed when Constantine became emperor. He was a successful general, fighting a war for control over parts of Rome. Constantine was promoted to become the empire of the Western Empire. The rival emperor, Maxentius, waged a war for control of the entire empire in 311. There was a battle at Milvian Bridge, where Constantine had a celestial vision with the sun and a cross shape overlaying it and with words underneath the cross saying "by this, conquer." The story says he painted shields of soldiers with crosses and attributed the victory to Jesus. Constantine issued a series of propaganda to help unite the empire and slander Maxentius and had historian Eusebius write Life of Constantine. The Life of Constantine painted Constantine as God's chosen leader. In 313, Constantine and Licinius, another Roman official, issued the edict of Milan. However, Licinius was worried Christians would be more loyal to Constantine, so he continued persecution. Constantine and Licinius went to war and in 324, Licinius surrendered, and then was executed by Constantine. In 337, Constantine fell fatally ill. In preparing for death he trained as a catechumen and started the journey to Constantinople to be baptized. He made it to Nicomedia and was baptized there by a bishop. The Authenticity of Constantine's conversion remains in question.
Religion of the State
Regardless of the authenticity of his conversion, Constantine changed the face of Christianity. He saw the opportunity to unite and strengthen the empire under one God. He favored Christianity and gave money to churches. It seems that his Mother, Helena, sponsored several churches such as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. However, to unite the empire under one religion, the religion itself needed to be unified. In order to do that, he had to get everyone on the same page. Constantine gathered the Christian Bishops in Nicaea in 325 to agree on one brand of theology, or orthodoxy. Prior to this, Christianity had heterodox, or a variety of opinions and beliefs. His priority was imperial unity. He presided over the bishops and took on a unique role of emperor and bishop. This council is when the date of Easter was agreed upon, and there was a lot of debate around Jesus' divinity. Through this, Constantine was able to demand and enforce a prescription for Christian identity that served to promote Roman identity. Christianity became so synonymous with Roman identity that any non-Roman nation was seen as non-Christian even if there was a history of indigenous Christian expression there. Kingdom of God and the Roman Empire became synonymous. However, not everyone agreed with the new orthodox theology. In order to have everyone on the same page, Constantine had to force everything to become black and white, and therefore those who disagreed were labeled ‘heretics’. A lot of the established Christian churches in Egypt, Nubia and Persia, disagreed with key pieces of Orthodox theology and therefore were all labeled ‘heretics’. Therefore Roman and Western identity is seen as Christian, and Eastern is seen as ‘heretical’.
The Aftermath
When Christianity became a religion of the state, it became synonymous with Roman thought. Forcing orthodoxy began a trend of silencing non-Roman, Christian voices. We are still paying the price. Many people incorrectly think that Christianity did not reach non-Western countries until colonialism, however, there were deeply vibrant Christian communities in Egypt, Nubia, and northern Africa through the first six centuries. In the book, A Multitude Of All Peoples, author Vince L Bantu states that "we have two tasks to move forward: the deconstruction of western, white cultural captivity of the Christian tradition; and elevating non-western expressions of Christianity.” Western and white captivity of the church has been a stumbling block for the reception of the gospel for centuries. In the Western world, the growth of secularism, agnosticism, and atheism is due in large part to historical atrocities committed by western Christians.
Discussion Questions
The past two weeks we have learned a lot about the history of the early church. Does this impact any of your personal beliefs?
Constantine made Christianity orthodox (or one standard brand of theology and thought). What are the pros and cons of Christianity being orthodox versus staying heterodox (variety of opinions and doctrines)? How do you think Constantine’s decision impacts us today?
Now that we can see the history of how Christianity began to be associated with whiteness, do you think that it is possible to separate whiteness from Christianity?
Resources
PBS Documentary, From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians (Pt. 1)
PBS Documentary, From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians (Pt. 2)