The Early Church
Unity & Division
 
Spreading the Faith
From Jews to Gentiles
 
The Apostle Paul

 
For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the grounds of their faith and the uncircumcised through their faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. [ALR, 230; Romans 3:28-31]
  • Does this imply that faith alone is sufficient to attain salvation? If not, then what exactly is he saying...and if so, does this mean that Jesus’ teachings are of secondary importance?
A Qualification?
Galatians 5
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. [www.biblegateway.com]
  • Can “faith” and “works” be reconciled? Are they ultimately distinct...or are they fundamentally connected?
  • What are the implications of this debate for contemporary Christianity?
 
Reflecting on the life of Jesus and their experience of the risen Christ, Christians believed that the transcendent and invisible God had become immanent and visible in Jesus. This led to the early development of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which speaks of three equal “persons” within one divine being: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is the one who sends the Son to become incarnate in Jesus with the mission to reveal God’s love to the world. The Son or Word manifests God in the world in many ways, but the incarnation in Jesus is a culmination of that revelation. The Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, who Jesus promises will be sent after his death, is the power and presence of God, actively guiding and sustaining the faithful.

Although Jesus had spoken in parables with several levels of meaning, the evolving Church found it necessary to articulate some of its beliefs more openly and systematically. A number of creeds, or professions of faith, were composed for use in religious instruction and baptism, to define who Jesus was and his relationship to God, and to provide clear stands in the face of various controversies. The Emperor Constantine was particularly concerned to bring doctrinal unity among the Christian churches which he had legalized and whose beliefs he was promoting throughout his widespread empire. One major controversy concerned the teachings of Arius, a leader of the congregation in Alexandria. The issue was the relationship between God and Jesus. The Christians worshipped Jesus, but at the same time came from monotheistic Jewish tradition, in which God alone is worshipped. Was Jesus therefore somehow the same as God? To Arius, the “Son of God” is a metaphor; it does not mean that Jesus has the same status as God, for Jesus was a human being. Opponents of this belief argued that Jesus is properly worshipped as the incarnation of God.
       Constantine convened a general council of the elders of all area churches in Nicea in 325 CE to settle this critical issue. After decades of controversy, Arius’s beliefs were ultimately rejected in the framing of the Nicene Creed, traditionally dated to another council held in Constantinople in 381 CE (and thus sometimes referred to as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed). It is still the basic profession of faith for many Christian denominations in both East and West, including all Orthodox churches, and has been proposed as a basis for unifying all Christians:
 
We believe in one God, the Father, the almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father (and from the Son). With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. [LR, 319-20]
  • How did the decision to emphasize “dogma” shape the development of Christianity? How might Christianity be different today had Arius been allowed to maintain a different interpretation of the relation between Jesus and God?
 
 
The First Schism
The Eastern Orthodox Church
Late in the third century CE, the Roman Empire had been divided into two: an eastern section and a western section....In the western half, religious power was becoming more and more centralized in the Roman pope [i.e. the bishop of Rome] and other high officials....The east did not recognize the Roman pope’s claim to universal authority in the Church. By the early Middle Ages, there were also doctrinal disagreements. In its version of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, for example, the Western Church added a filioque, a formula professing that the Holy Spirit came from the Father “and from the Son”; the Eastern Church retained what is considered the more original text, professing that the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father.
 In 1054, leaders of the eastern and western factions excommunicated each other over the disagreement about the Holy Spirit, and also over the papal claim, celibacy for priests (not required in the Eastern Church, which requires celibacy for bishops only), and whether the Eucharistic bread should be leavened or unleavened. To the Eastern Church, the last straw was its treatment by crusaders. [LR, 322-3]
 
  • To what extent was the division between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches based on “dogmatic” issues...and to what extent was it a question of politics and power?
Eastern Orthodox in Practice
Distinctive Features of Orthodox Spirituality
Over the centuries, the individual Orthodox Churches have probably changed less than have the many descendants of the early Western Church....A central practice is called “unceasing prayer”: the continual remembrance of Jesus or God, often through repetition of a verbal formula that gradually impresses itself on the heart. The most common petition is the “Jesus prayer”: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The repetition of the name of Jesus brings purification of heart and singularity of desire. To call upon Jesus is to experience his presence in oneself and in all things.
       The Orthodox Church has affirmed that humans can approach God directly.  Some may even see the light of God and be utterly transformed by it:
 
He who participates in the divine energy, himself becomes, to some extent, light: he is united to the light, and by that light he sees in full awareness all that remains hidden to those who have not this grace;…for the pure in heart see God…who, being Light, dwells in them and reveals Himself to those who love Him, to His beloved.
 
Another distinctive feature of Orthodox Christianity is its veneration of icons. These are stylized paintings of Jesus, his mother Mary, and the saints. They are created by artists who prepare for their work by prayer and ascetical training. There is no attempt at earthly realism, for icons are representations of the reality of the divine world. They are beloved as windows to the eternal. In addition to their devotional and instructional functions, some icons are reported to have great spiritual powers, heal illnesses, and transmit the holy presence. Believers enter into the grace of this power by kissing the icon reverently and praying before it. [LR, 328-30]