Post 12

[post twelve: give a detailed summary of the material presented in this chapter.]

Christianity consists of three major divisions: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. Christianity centers in the life of Jesus born in Palestine around 4 B.C. He grew up in Nazareth and was baptized by the prophet John. In his early thirties he had a teaching / healing career that lasted around one to three years. During this time he received hostility from some of his own compatriots and the suspicion of Rome that later lead to his crucifixion. Jesus was a charismatic wonderworker who alleviated suffering and wanted a new social order. Jesus opened his ministry by quoting a statement from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” He also added, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled.” His spiritual order included angels and other invisible beings, and centered in Yahweh. Jesus’ historical career stood squarely in the tradition of these Spirit-filled mediators. John who is a prophet baptized Jesus became his immediate predecessor. When John baptized Jesus he opened his spiritual eye. This enabled him to see “the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove.” This spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness where he fasted and prayed for forty days and this was when the Spirit had entered him. Jews accepted without question the supremacy of Spirit over nature. What made him outlive his time was the way he used Spirit to heal humanity beginning with his own people. The political position of the Jews in Jesus’ time was desperate. There were four responses to their predicament; Sadducees favored accommodating themselves to Hellenistic culture and Roman rule. Hoping for change was the other three positions. The fourth position thought that change could come only through armed rebellion. Jesus introduced a fifth option were he extolled peacemaking and urged that even enemies be loved. Pharisees stressed Yahweh’s holiness while Jesus stressed Yahweh’s compassion. Jesus’ idea proved to be too big for a single religion to accommodate. The Pharisaic platform was majestically holy himself, Yahweh wanted to hallow the world as well. Jesus could not accept the lines that the holiness program drew between people. Jesus could see the social barriers as an affront to Yahweh’s compassion. This made him a social prophet advocating an alternative vision of the human community. However his protest did not prevail but did alarm the Roman authorities, which led to Jesus’ arrest and execution on charges of treason.
Jesus’ miracles were performed quietly apart from the crowd and as demonstrations of the power of faith. Peter epitomize Jesus’ life when he said, “He went about doing good.” Jesus would heal them and counsel them. All of Jesus’ teachings have counterparts in the Old Testament or Talmud. The language Jesus would use is in itself fascinating being compact and invariably cuts to the message. His teachings may be the most repeated in history; we are not to resist evil but to turn the other cheek, love our enemies and bless those who curse us, the sun rises on the just and the unjust alike, outcasts and harlots enter the kingdom of God before many who are perfunctorily righteous. Jesus’ extraordinary admonitions come from his understanding of the God who loves human beings absolutely. His entire life was one of humility, self-giving, and love that sought not its own. After having taught his people for a number of months Jesus was crucified. His close associates reported that he appeared to them in a new way and that he was resurrected. People who believed or had faith in Jesus’ resurrection produced the Church and its Christology. The love the disciples had encountered in him was victorious over everything, including death. This movement started in an upper room in Jerusalem where they spread their message. To mark where these meetings were held Christians began to scratch an outline of a fish with its head pointing to the location on walls and the ground. They chose this logo because the Greek letters for fish are also the first letters of the Greek word for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, and Savior.” People were impressed by what they saw as well as what they heard. Two qualities factored into this; one being how Christians loved one another. They saw men and woman who not only said that everyone was equal in the eyes of God, but lived it as well. The second was joy. They were persecuted and yet in the middle of it all they found inner peace that surfaced as happiness. This joy came from the lifting of three intolerable burdens; fear (ie. Fear of death), guilt, and self-centeredness. This is documented in the New Testament. The power that effected these transformations of the order is love. Christian love became known as the love that emanated from Christ embraced sinners and outcasts, Samaritans and enemies and was giving in nature. Within the Christian belief are differences as to whether salvation is possible outside the Body of Christ. Liberals believe that it is. Fundamentalists insist that no one but those who are knowingly and formally Christians will be saved. There is a middle of these two extremes where Christians were all human beings who live honorably, uprightly and by their best lights will be saved as well. The Christian God was alarmed with humanity enough to suffer on its behalf. The conservatives became threatened with Christian’s radically egalitarian social views and felt they needed to be silenced. This is where the persecution of Christians stemmed from. The incarnation of Christ asserts that he was both divine and human. The Apostle’s Creed moves to establish that the man part of the God-man splice was human in every respect. The doctrine of the Atonement has a root meaning of reconciliation, which is the recovery of wholeness. Christians believe that Christ’s life and death had affected an unparalleled rapprochement between God and humanity. Sin is considered a disconnectedness or estrangement from God. The third essential Christian doctrine is the Trinity where God is fully one, and God is also three. The claim that God is also three leads Jews and Muslims to wonder if Christians are truly monotheists. However Christians are confident that they are. The Pentecost, a third visitation came. The disciples were together, suddenly from heaven there came a sound and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. All of the disciples became filled with the Holy Spirit. Thereby generating the third Person of the Trinity.
The Church divided into three great branches: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. Up to 313 A.D. the church faced Roman persecution. That same year it became legally recognized and received equal rights with other religions of the empire. In 380 it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. It continued as a single institution until 1054. Then it divided into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The next division occurred in the Western Church with the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. In regards to the Roman Catholic church it does accept the church as Teaching Authority with the premise that God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to teach people how to live so as to inherit eternal life. With Bible study however, individuals come up with different interpretations. The Church stands as the “supreme court” to avert such disintegration adjudicates between truth and error. The Church as Teaching Authority leads to the doctrine of papal infallibility. The earthly head of the Church is the Pope. The doctrine of papal infallibility asserts that the Pope speaks officially on matters of faith and morals only and God protects him from error. It does not mean that Catholics have to accept the Pope’s view on politics because he too can make mistakes. Only in regards to faith and morals is where he is infallible. The second central idea in Catholicism is the Church as Sacramental Agent. The Sacraments help with being able to do as they teach. The number of Sacraments in the Roman Church has been fixed at seven; Baptism, confirmed, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders, Sacrament of the Sick, Reconciliation, and Mass known also as the Holy Eucharist or Communion. Sacrament is a literal transfusion of energy from God to the human soul. When the Eucharistic elements consecrated, they become Christ’s body and blood. With the exception of Baptism, the other six sacraments convey grace as a letter conveys meaning.
The Eastern Orthodox Church officially separated from the Roman Church in 1054 A.D. The two share far more than they differ over. They honor the same Sacraments, and share the same intention regarding the Teaching Authority. Although one of the differences is the Eastern Church sees fewer issues on which unanimity is called for. Another difference is in how many dogmas are appropriate. The two Churches differ on how they are arrived at. The Roman Church holds that in the final analysis they are delivered through the Pope. The Eastern Church holds God’s truth through the “conscience of the Church.” All Christians consider themselves to be “members of one another.” The Eastern Church has taken this notion most seriously. Each Christian is working to attain salvation with and through the rest of the Church. Orthodoxy as a whole carries this to its logical limit by picking up on Paul’s theme of the entire universe as “groaning and in travail” as it awaits redemption. Church dogmas reflect the conscience of Christians generally. Priests need not remain celibate. Christianity believes that reality contains two realms being the natural and the supernatural. After death the human live moves to the supernatural domain. Roman Catholicism holds that the Trinity dwells in every Christian soul.
The break between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism had a basic cause that was a new conception of Christianity that emerged. Two central features are Justification by Faith and the Protestant Principle. The Protestant conception includes a movement of the mind, movement of the heart, and a movement of the will. When Protestants say that human beings are justified they are saying that it is a movement of the self on all three of its fronts that effects the change. Unless they awaken the actual experience of God’s love they too do not suffice. No number of good deeds performed can be counted on to change the way one experiences life in the present. Protestant Principle warns against absolutizing the relative and warns against idolatry. Idolatry is not limited to idol worship but also is giving one’s life first and foremost to something in the finite world. Protestants consider the dogma of papal infallibility as idolatrous. Protestants believe that faith must be a living experience. They also speak for its distinctive version of faith including the Bible because they hold it in such high esteem. They believe the Bible to be ultimate and presents protestants with their clearest picture of God’s goodness and the way human beings can connect with it. It is also believed that the most reliable way they can enter the divine life is by reading this record of God’s grace with total openness and divine intent. The Bible is the prospect that people will derive different truths from their encounters, which has resulted in the splintering of Protestantism into innumerable denominations. However Protestants do not consider diversity to be bad.