Christianity Today

Today, Christianity is the largest religion in the

world, with 2.2 billion Christians. Of these, about
1.1 billion are Roman Catholics, 800 million
Protestants and Evangelicals, and 260 million
Eastern Orthodox.
"Abrahamic" Religions

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

are typically referred to as
"Abrahamic" religions; that is,
they ground their historical faith
on the God of Abraham, often
identified as the "father of faith."
The God of Abraham is the creator of
all and has designated human history
according to a plan for final salvation.

Further, all three religions understand

that God is the foundation for
morality and truth. Thus, to believe
the truths revealed by God, and to act
in harmony with God's will, is the
goal of this life.
Christianity’s Uniqueness • Christians also believe that the Son
united with humanity in the person of
Christians are unique in Jesus.
that they believe this same
God has revealed himself as
• Christians consider Jesus the icon of
a Trinity.
God, the presence of God on earth,
and the Word of God.
While God is one, and
Christians believe they are
monotheists, this same • Like Jews and Muslims, Christians
singular God is also a understand that the gravest problem
dynamic relation of in the human condition is sin, which
persons: Father, Son, and is failure to live according to God's
Holy Spirit. moral truths.
What distinguishes Christians from
Jews and Muslims is not the fact of sin
or its violence against God's will, but God's response to
rather the origins of sin and the this human
necessary remedy. dilemma was to
send his Son to
For Christians, the sin of Adam and redeem humans
Eve in disobeying God in the Garden by dying in
of Eden was decisive. It created a reparation for sin
snowball effect whereby the very and to restore
nature of an unreformed soul has a human nature to
quality of revolt against God. its original
innocence by his
grace.
 The Ministry of Jesus

Jesus was raised in Nazareth, a small town in the territory of

Galilee.

He was also an exorcist and cast out many demons.

Typically, he required faith in those he healed. Jesus was a
miracle worker, particularly a healer.

• He attracted many disciples, and among them chose twelve.

• He became a preacher, going from town to town in Galilee. Shortly thereafter, he
began his own public ministry.
• Around 30 CE, a prophet named John, known as the "Baptizer," paved the way for
Jesus’ ministry.
• One of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, had agreed to hand Jesus over. The religious
leaders of Jerusalem condemned him to death by crucifixion.
 The Gospels are filled with accounts of Jesus'
miracles, but it would be a mistake to place our
emphasis there. For one thing, Jesus did not himself
emphasize them; almost all of them were performed
quietly, apart from the crowd, and as
demonstrations of the power of faith.

Once, in addressing a group, Peter found it

necessary to epitomize Jesus' life, and said, "He went
about doing good." Moving easily and without
affectation among ordinary people and social
misfits, healing them, counseling them, Jesus went
about doing good.
 Crucifixion and Resurrection

We are given too few details to know exactly what happened after the
crucifixion. Jesus' close associates reported that he appeared to them in a new
way, but it is not possible to determine exactly what that way was.

Certain accounts suggest corporeality - eating, and Thomas's touching the

wound in his side - while others are more visionary, reporting him as passing
through closed doors. Thus, he seems not to have resumed his former body;
resurrection was not resuscitation, Instead, it was entry into another mode of
being that was sometimes visible but usually was not. What is clear is that Jesus'
followers began to experience him in a new way, namely as having the qualities
of God.

Faith in Jesus' resurrection produced the Church and its Christology. Instead of
being fragile, the love the disciples had encountered in him was victorious over
everything, including death.
 Early Christianity

Paul was a persecutor of the Jesus movement. He was

instrumental in spreading the Christian faith.

Gnosticism is form of Christianity that denied Jesus

was an actual human. They understood salvation as
gaining secret knowledge of the divine world.
Paul's Theology

Paul's theology is never clearly laid out in his

letters. Paul's letters show little interest in the
specifics of the ministry or preaching of Jesus.
What he was most concerned about theologically
was who Jesus was and how Jesus saves believers.

Paul represents the earliest Christian message,

which was:
1. Jesus came in fulfillment of Old Testament
promises
2. Jesus performed mighty deeds and preached
the emergent kingdom of God
3. God's plan, Jesus was crucified on the cross
and died
4. God raised him from the dead and made him
Lord and Christ

Paul emphasizes atonement. Here, the

resurrection also becomes crucial. The cross
atones for sin, and the resurrection breaks the
bonds of death, allowing for salvation.
Christianity’s Split from Judaism

When Paul discusses the acceptance of gentiles into

the early church, he does so with the image of Israel
as the tree of salvation onto which gentiles are
grafted. It is essentially certain that Jesus did not
intend to create a new religion.

One of the most decisive events in the history of

Judaism was also one of the most crucial in the
emergence of Christianity as a separate religion; the
Jewish Revolt and the destruction of the Temple (66-
70 CE). In this revolt and the subsequent Roman
victory, all leadership in Judaism fell to the Pharisee
movement, the only group to survive. By the late
first century, at least in Palestine, synagogue
worship renounced the sect that promoted Jesus as
the messiah. Thus, reverence for Jesus became a
heresy, and believers were not welcome.

There is the sociological factor. By the end of the

first century, the majority of believers in Jesus were
gentiles and not Jews.
The Life of the Early Church
Beyond the apostles, we find in the
New Testament groups of leaders who
are often called presbyters (elders).
Acts also references servant-leaders
known as deacons. Leadership at this
time was typically a collective venture.

By the late first or early second

century, a pattern of church leadership
emerged. Each Christian congregation
had a single leader, a bishop or
overseer who was directly supported
by a group of elders and a group of
deacons.

Ignatius was the first to use what

became a common term for
Christianity.
Each Christian community understood
itself as a church, an assembly where the
body of Christ met, baptized new
members, and celebrated the Eucharist. It
was, however, a church that belonged to
the universal church.

From the start, Christians practiced two

rituals that would ground their identity:
baptism and the Eucharist. Being plunged
into the water during baptism
represented entering the tomb with
Christ, and rising from it was rising to a
wholly new life.

The Eucharist, or Lord's Supper, was also

essential to Christian identity. The
Eucharist was understood as a shared
meal of thanksgiving for Jesus's salvation.
Two themes were prominent: sacrifice
and communion with God through the
body and blood of Jesus in the form of
bread and wine.
Monasticism
From the late third century onward, a particular form of
Christian life came to be recognized as one of the most
venerable. These were devout men and women who took
asceticism, celibacy, and prayer to their farthest lengths by
devoting themselves to lives of virtually continual prayer.

The Imperial Church

When Constantine's father died in 306, Constantine
succeeded him. Constantine would be baptized at the end of
his life, and during his reign he supported Christianity. He
devoted government funds to Christian charitable works
and built impressive churches.

Constantine's understanding of Christianity and his role in it

reflect a dramatic change within the Christian ethos. In
effect, he created the conditions for a Christian nation, and
he saw himself as ruler over this newly formed alliance. He
and his succeeding emperors called church councils to
decide on controversial issues and forcibly exiled those
church
Councils and Dogmas
The canon of the New Testament came relatively
late. Of course, most of the texts that made it into
the canon were widely used far earlier, but it
would not be until the late fourth century that
Christianity definitively concluded its canon.

A doctrine is a religious teaching of importance

and ought to be widely accepted. A dogma,
however, represents a core teaching that is
presumably unalterable. Christians were in
relative agreement on many issues early on.

Periodically, emperors called bishops together to

decide on these issues, believing that the
authenticity of Christianity was at stake. The
bishops also created a creed at Nicaea, a short
summary statement of decisive beliefs that
ensured this decision would be asserted
throughout Christianity.
The Protestant Reformation
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was an
Augustinian monk and young professor
of bibical studies at the University of
Wittenberg. Luther's great question was:
How could you ever know if you did
enough that was within you? His
response to the issue was not simply that
we are justified by grace through faith-
everyone thought this.

In addition to these theological positions,

Luther was highly critical of the Catholic
Church's use of indulgences. From the
time of the early church, many church
fathers believed that their souls would
have to go through some kind of
purification before entering heaven.
The Catholic Reformation
The Catholic Church responded to the Reformation with its
own initiative to reform.

While there had been reform movements prior to this, they

never showed much effort at real change. But between 1545
and 1563, Catholicism held the Council of Trent, a
decidedly reforming council. Trent made reforms in liturgy,
the demand for better and consistent formation of priests,
and demands for bishops to have greater accountability. It
was also something of a "counter-reformation" that posed
itself in opposition to the Protestant cause.

The Reformation led not only to political divisions but even

to open warfare between Catholics and Protestants. Like
Catholics, Protestants assumed that the goal of Christianity
was a Christian civilization. For the most part, however,
neither side considered the other to be authentically
Christian. Consequently, Christians resorted to warfare.
Christianity today in Africa and
Asia

In 1900, there were 7 million

Christians in Africa, making up 5
percent of the total population.
Today, there are 400 million
Christians there, or about 53
percent of the total population.

Christianity is now a majority

religion in most countries in
Africa, particularly south of the
Sahara.

Both Catholic and Protestant

Christians sent missions to
Africa, where we now find
Lutheran, Dutch Reform,
Anglican, Methodist, and Roman
Catholic communities.