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2021 Lect 29 Christianity Part 1 — Transcript

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0:03we're gonna begin our discussion of
0:05universal religions with Christianity
0:08and I just wanted to take a minute and
0:10explain what I mean by universal
0:11religions there are hundreds if not
0:14thousands of different religions and
0:16spiritual practices in the world and
0:18when I use the term universal religions
0:21it's really just a matter of size and
0:24influence so Christianity Buddhism and
0:27Islam are religions that are going to
0:29expand across cultural boundaries
0:32linguistic boundaries and state
0:34boundaries to include large numbers and
0:37diverse peoples within them so that's
0:39what we mean by universal religions
0:42we're gonna begin by talking about
0:44Christianity and one of the things I'd
0:47like to point out is that Christianity
0:48starts about year one our entire dating
0:52system that we use in the West the bc-ad
0:56and now that's transformed into the BC
0:59ECE but it still uses that year one mark
1:03and it really stems from the life of
1:05Jesus so it gives us an indication of
1:08how influential this religion has been
1:10particularly in the West and then also
1:13moving into what is considered the new
1:16world by by many people in the old world
1:20so North America Central American South
1:23America are also going to be very
1:25influenced by Christianity so we're
1:27gonna start there but I just want you to
1:29keep in mind that we haven't talked
1:31about the Roman Empire we're going to
1:33talk about that after we look at the
1:35universal religions so although we
1:38haven't established all of the political
1:40and social changes that have happened in
1:42the West for our discussion really all
1:45we need to know is that following the
1:48fall of the Macedonians the Alexander's
1:51Empire in the real power started to
1:54shift or the Italian peninsula and then
1:56slowly over time the civilization
2:00surrounding Rome became more and more
2:02powerful and they in fact form this
2:04entire empire which surrounds the
2:07Mediterranean so that's just the brief
2:10political background that we'll use for
2:11this lecture and then
2:13will dig a lot deeper I promise into the
2:15Romans next week
2:24I've included in your learning materials
2:26for this week an animated map of the
2:29expansion of many of the the world
2:31religions and so I hope you'll get a
2:33chance to look at that it's a little bit
2:35more complete than the image that I'm
2:37showing you here however I did want to
2:40just give you a visual sense of the
2:43expansion of Christianity over about 500
2:46years so beginning with that that kind
2:49of magenta color in the first century
2:51and then moving up into that lavender
2:52cover color in the 6th century and
2:55remember that all of the areas that are
2:58shown here had been polytheistic so we
3:01had different gods that were being
3:03worshipped by the Germans and the Franks
3:05for example and the Celts in the
3:07northern part of the map and then of
3:09course we spent a lot of time talking
3:10about you know Greek gods and Egyptian
3:12gods we talked about Zoroastrianism in
3:15that Persian area different gods within
3:18western Africa so all of these different
3:21civilizations had been very strongly
3:23polytheistic and within about five
3:25centuries they are all going to convert
3:29to Christianity now does that mean that
3:32every last person on an individual level
3:35converted to Christianity that's
3:38something we really can't know
3:39unfortunately we don't we don't get to
3:41hear from every voice however we know a
3:45large majority of the people within this
3:48region converted to Christianity and
3:50certainly by the end of the period the
3:53states within these regions had
3:56officially adopt Christianity so let's
3:59talk about this this kind of small sect
4:02within Judaism that ends up starting
4:04with a few people and then explodes
4:07throughout the Mediterranean world and
4:09becomes the shaping force even today
4:18well as we just mentioned Christianity
4:20is gonna get started in the first
4:22century and this is during the reign of
4:24Emperor ohs first emperor Augustus
4:28Caesar Augustus there are many different
4:33influences that are going to contribute
4:35to the formation of Christianity so I
4:37just want to talk to you a little bit
4:38about what's going on with Judaism
4:40during this period we have we really
4:42haven't discussed Judaism since the
4:45first week of the course or weeks of the
4:47course when we were looking at those
4:49flood narratives and talking about the
4:51very earliest writings that take place
4:54in Genesis and then moving into the
4:57formation of the Kings period under
5:00David and then we talked about periods
5:02of captivity but these are you know
5:04those are 400 years to even further back
5:07from the period that we're looking at
5:09now and certainly Judaism and the Jewish
5:12people were not static during this time
5:14so let's talk about some of them chief
5:18spiritual influences of that time there
5:21were four main groups there were the
5:25Sadducees and the Sadducees represent
5:29for the most part the kind of upper
5:31class aristocratic people they were the
5:37ones that performed the rituals at the
5:39temple they studied Greek philosophy we
5:43have you know spent some time talking
5:44about Greek philosophy so they would
5:46have been familiar with Plato with with
5:48Aristotle and at the center of their
5:52religious approach is the Torah so
5:57they're really take a literal
5:59interpretation of the law and there's
6:03there's not a whole lot of emphasis on
6:05the afterlife and preparing for the
6:08afterlife instead it's really about
6:10living in accordance with these written
6:12laws and making sure that you understand
6:15and perform them properly you might
6:18think of to yourself well this doesn't
6:19sound too much different from the early
6:22Vedic practices of the Hindus and in
6:24effect that could have been true the
6:27second group is the
6:28Pharisees now they're going to look at
6:31not only the Torah which remember the
6:32Torah represents those what's considered
6:35the Old Testament by Christians the
6:38Hebrew Scriptures but they also look at
6:40the Talmud and the Talmud was a body of
6:43it it wasn't was it is it continues to
6:47be part of the oral tradition and it
6:51gave guidance on correct life it kind of
6:55tape took those low laws the mosaic laws
6:58and expands on them and makes them
7:00applicable to people's everyday lives
7:02and so this is going to be the center
7:05for the Pharisees now one of the other
7:07important distinction about Pharisees is
7:09that they do believe in an afterlife so
7:14there's this the sense that what you do
7:16here and preparing your soul is going to
7:19have an effect on what happens after you
7:21die
7:22and we'll see that that's going to be
7:23something that's definitely carried over
7:25into Christianity
7:31the other two groups that are
7:33influential during this period are the
7:35Essenes and the zealots and the Essenes
7:39- maybe oversimplify things I hope I
7:42hope not but the Essenes represent a
7:45very spiritualistic look at a very
7:48spiritualistic approach to Judaism
7:51they're going to look at some more of
7:54the traditional groups the Pharisees and
7:56the Sadducees and they're going to
7:58reject the worldliness of it they're
8:01going to reject the concentration on the
8:05Scriptures this meticulous study and
8:07instead talk about the importance of
8:10preparing the soul through things like
8:15fasting rejecting you know fine clothing
8:20the Essenes communities of the Essenes
8:23were probably living out in the
8:24wilderness that they talked about one of
8:26the most important possibly a scenes was
8:29John the Baptist he was gonna play an
8:31important role within the Christian
8:32story and the person of John the Baptist
8:35the scripture tells us lived in the wild
8:37he covered himself with skins he lived
8:40on locusts and honey
8:42you know he kind of had wild wild hair
8:45and a wild beard because he wasn't
8:46overly concerned about what society
8:48thought about him and when you think
8:51about it this isn't the first time we've
8:52seen somewhat of an approach like that
8:54right I mean when you think about the
8:56Janice for example you know who are
8:58going to be fasting withdrawing from
9:01society from materialism and the cynics
9:05to a certain degree in in Greece where
9:08they argue that a lot of this is just
9:09trappings it's the packaging and it's
9:12really what's within that matters the
9:14other thing that the Essenes preached
9:17which is going to be probably very
9:19influential within Christianity is this
9:22coming of a new kingdom so they talked
9:25about the fact that the present age is
9:27evil violent corrupt but there's going
9:32to be replacement of all that with this
9:34peaceful and just new kingdom the reason
9:38we know about the Essenes in addition to
9:40what we can deduce from the
9:43Christian Bible and then from some other
9:45sources Judaic sources are the Dead Sea
9:49Scrolls and you might have heard that
9:51term before the Dead Sea Scrolls refer
9:54to some documents that were found in
9:56Qumran near the Dead Sea in modern times
10:00and they are among the oldest version of
10:02Hebrew Scriptures that we have and some
10:05of our information about that comes from
10:07those primary source texts the zealots
10:11in my mind are quite different from the
10:14Essenes I think that the Essenes are
10:17interested in the next world and the
10:19zealots are interested in this one and
10:21that doesn't mean that they're not
10:23interested in purity or preparing their
10:25their souls but they're also very
10:28concerned about the fact that they're
10:29being occupied with what they consider
10:31to be a foreign power Rome as we just
10:35mentioned had expanded throughout the
10:37Mediterranean including what had been
10:39Israel and Palestine and they are
10:41advocating for a strong political break
10:43from Rome so the zealots are eventually
10:47the ones that are going to lead the the
10:51famous revolt on the hill of Masada and
10:55they are advocating the removal of these
10:58pagan Roman masters so the affero sees
11:03and the Essenes both have a tradition of
11:07an expectation of dramatic change from
11:10subjugation and corruption to a just
11:13peaceful society now in the case of the
11:16zealots of course it's going to take the
11:18probably take a military takeover in the
11:21case of the Essenes it's more like a
11:23spiritual revolution we think but there
11:26are these terms and expectations of the
11:29Messiah or Savior and is it going to be
11:32a political Messiah or is it going to be
11:34of spiritual Messiah and these are
11:37definitely going to play in to the
11:39development of Christianity
11:43so this is the environment that
11:45surrounds the rise of Christianity and
11:47at this point the story that I can tell
11:51you depends on what you believe about
11:54Jesus and again as we as we've
11:56encountered these spiritual leaders
11:58before we've talked about Master Lau
12:01we've talked about Confucius we've
12:04looked at Zara aster so there are
12:08traditions within the religions
12:11themselves and much like Judaism there
12:15isn't anything that really collaborates
12:19the story of Jesus's life other than
12:22what we can take from the Scriptures the
12:25Christian scriptures themselves which
12:26are fairly extensive they shouldn't be
12:28discounted there are multiple copies of
12:30these accounts of his early life so what
12:33I'm going to tell you now really comes
12:35from those accounts and what they tell
12:38us is that Jesus was born in Bethlehem
12:41and his parents had traveled there for a
12:44census and while they were there they
12:47have the birth of this this child and
12:50the sources say that it was revealed to
12:52them that this was not any ordinary
12:54child but it was in fact the Son of God
12:57and then it was going he was going to
12:59play a role in the redemption of all
13:01mankind so it has a very auspicious
13:04beginning but we don't hear anything
13:06more really about Jesus from the from
13:10the time of his birth until he begins
13:12his preaching so he seems to have had a
13:18rather traditional Jewish home life and
13:21that he does begin to reveal as he grows
13:23up he begins to reveal to his parents
13:25that he knows who he is he is the son of
13:28God and that he's going to be performing
13:31this important Redemption
13:33as you can see Jesus physically we know
13:37very little if anything about his
13:40physical appearance appearance other
13:41than he was born in the Middle East but
13:44other than that we don't really have any
13:46idea of what he might have looked like
13:48and of course as Christianity has
13:51expanded throughout the world the
13:52tendency has been to make
13:55look like whatever people are talking
13:57about him so we get a lot of images in
14:01Western Europe of Jesus with a blonde
14:03beard and blue eyes in Africa you see
14:06Jesus with darker skin darker eyes so
14:11there's all different types of
14:12representations of Jesus and none of
14:15them really have have been shown to be
14:17an accurate portrayal of his physical
14:19appearance
14:24most of what we know about the life of
14:26Jesus is going to take place during
14:27about a three year period and the
14:31sources that we have are later collected
14:34into the Gospels which we'll talk about
14:37in a minute but they really focus on his
14:39teaching activities and his interactions
14:41with Jewish leaders members of the
14:45Sadducees members of the the Essenes and
14:48the Pharisees and zealots and just
14:50everyday people people that are living
14:52in what's today Israel cereal Syria and
14:55Palestine and there are three really
15:00main parts of of Jesus's teaching which
15:04are going to funnel into Christianity
15:06the first one is the fulfillment of the
15:08law remember that we talked about Mosaic
15:11law being so foundational to Jewish
15:13society and in addition to those Ten
15:15Commandments that that Moses was given
15:18there are within the Jewish Scriptures
15:20there are just there are descriptions of
15:22how to live almost every aspect of your
15:26life how families should relate to one
15:29another who can get married and who
15:30can't how you should raise your children
15:32even things like how you should dress
15:35and so Jesus is going to begin to teach
15:39that he is the fulfillment of that law
15:42he's not in opposition to that law but
15:45he is the fulfillment of a prophecy
15:47which is found in Isaiah in the Old
15:51Testament that talks about the coming of
15:53this Messiah and he is in fact that
15:55Messiah so that's the first part the
15:56second part is his exhortation to moral
16:01transformation so again not just keeping
16:04all of the laws and ticking off all of
16:07the boxes but there really needs to be a
16:10transformation of the heart a turning
16:13away from evil and an acceptance of
16:16God's love and God's forgiveness and
16:19then if you are doing that if you are
16:23accepting of this transformation then
16:27there's the promise of an afterlife so
16:30that's where we get to that third
16:32important part which is the promise of
16:34salvation and salvation just means being
16:36safe
16:36and I think that the understanding is
16:39that you're going to be saved from death
16:41and then in other places in Christian
16:44Scripture it talks about being saved
16:46from a place of eternal torment which
16:49comes to be called Hell so you have this
16:51chance there moral transformation to be
16:55saved and those are the really core
16:57parts of many of the teachings of Jesus
17:09Jesus is teaching he's moving through
17:11the community for about three years and
17:13in that short period of time he gets
17:16both a lot of followers and a fair
17:19amount of enemies there are those who
17:22are really relating to his message and
17:25the scriptures of the Christian
17:27scriptures tell us that he begins
17:29traveling with a number of apostles
17:32people who are really devoted and
17:34dedicated to his message and then there
17:36are crowds of people who just come to
17:39listen to him and in these sermons that
17:42he's giving these kind of impromptu
17:44talks lectures he manages to point out
17:50some very powerful members of society
17:53who are probably not happy about being
17:55called out he talks about the Sadducees
17:57and the Pharisees as being hypocritical
17:59as too focused on the law too focused on
18:02themselves and not really embracing the
18:06spirit of the law which is to love your
18:09neighbor to love God and then at the
18:12same time the Roman overlords are also
18:14becoming a little bit nervous because
18:16although much like serous the grade they
18:20the Romans generally were very open to
18:23forming relationships with local leaders
18:25they allowed people to have their own
18:28administrators their own customs and
18:30indeed write their own religion that the
18:32Jews are practicing Judaism monotheism
18:36however you don't want a revolutionary
18:39who is going to stir things up and we
18:42knew that there was already the zealot
18:44group who didn't want Rome in their land
18:48and so there probably was some
18:49nervousness that Jesus might align
18:51himself with a group like that and
18:53become very dangerous so there are a
18:55couple different groups there seem to
18:57have had it in for him and within about
19:00three years
19:01Jesus is brought before both the Jewish
19:06court and before the Roman court and he
19:09is sentenced to die by crucifixion both
19:14sides seems to have supported this
19:16crucifixion although in the scriptures
19:18that tell us tells us that the
19:19Roman administrator Pontius Pilate says
19:23I don't really understand why why you
19:25have so many issues with this man you
19:27know this is kind of difficult for us to
19:28know again because we don't have a lot
19:30of cooperating evidence but the end of
19:32the story is he is crucified and
19:34crucifixion was a particularly nasty and
19:38demeaning way to die it was often used
19:42for rebels they for example when there
19:46was a large-scale slave revolt they
19:49would crucify slaves and put them all
19:52along the road it was it was a way of
19:54really showing the the power and
19:57viciousness that Rome was capable of and
19:59this is the death that they have chosen
20:01for Jesus so Jesus is crucified and
20:07that's where the story would have ended
20:11except that the Christian Gospels are
20:15going to say that Jesus did not stay
20:18dead but instead completed that task
20:22that he was sent to earth to do remember
20:26he was the Messiah the Savior and at
20:29this point it becomes pretty clear that
20:31he's not going to be a political Savior
20:34he's not going to be someone who's going
20:36to jump on a horse and throw the Romans
20:38out instead he's going to be the
20:40spiritual savior much more in line with
20:43what the Essenes had had talked about
20:45and so within Christianity the belief is
20:50that Jesus was risen from the dead by
20:53God and that at that point he becomes he
20:57is he has completed the atonement and
20:59that those people who believed in him
21:01are then going to be able to be saved
21:05it's interesting to know that because of
21:08this strong association with with Christ
21:12and crucifixion this very popular way of
21:15getting rid of criminals and slaves was
21:19abolished by the Roman Emperor
21:21Constantine the 4th century they no
21:23longer used crucifixion and that's
21:25solely because it becomes associated
21:28with Jesus and anyone who is at all
21:31familiar with the Christian tradition
21:33knows
21:33that that cross is the symbol of
21:36Christianity
21:41so what is the evidence that we have
21:44that I've been talking about these
21:45Christian scriptures for the life of
21:47Jesus and for the story that I've just
21:49told you and it's contained in what is
21:54called the synoptic Gospels which are
21:57four different small books Matthew Mark
22:00Luke and John and these describe the
22:05birth of Jesus's life as teaching his
22:08crucifixion and most importantly this
22:11resurrection and although they emphasize
22:14different aspects of Jesus's life and
22:16teachings these are the ones that that
22:20are really meant to be read together
22:22they seem to be meant to read together
22:24and they end up being considered
22:27canonical now this term canonical just
22:30means that it's established as true by a
22:33church council so surrounding in the in
22:36the hundred years after the death of
22:38Jesus there are actually quite a number
22:40of different texts that appear to have
22:41been circulating I mean this was someone
22:43who clearly made an impact on many
22:45different people's lives and there are
22:47different types of accounts circulating
22:49but these are the texts which the church
22:52determined in the first couple hundred
22:55years are legitimate are true and those
23:00are the works that we have to talk about
23:01the life of Jesus there is a very small
23:05reference in an historian josephus who's
23:09a Jewish historian and he offers some
23:12rare really rare corroborating evidence
23:15for the life of Jesus however there's
23:17some question about whether this
23:18occurred at the same time or whether
23:21this was added in later so at this point
23:23we're just gonna look at these Gospels
23:31while we don't have a great deal of
23:33contemporary evidence for Jesus within a
23:37hundred years after his death we have
23:38many many sources that are showing the
23:40impact of his teaching but there becomes
23:44there comes to the center the question
23:47who is it for
23:49who is Christianity for and who can be a
23:52Christian remember that up until this
23:54point this whole belief system is rooted
23:58within Judaism Jesus was a Jew his
24:02family was Jewish his followers are
24:05Jewish and they have been living a life
24:09that's in accordance with Mosaic law
24:12he's interacting with the Pharisees with
24:14the Sadducees with other Jewish people
24:17within the community and so on one camp
24:20you have this idea that this is the
24:23fulfillment of the Old Testament
24:25prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures and
24:28that this is the Messiah for the Jews
24:32that's where things really change is
24:36with the person of Tull so Paul is from
24:42a educated Jewish family he was educated
24:45in a very he's from Tarsus which is a
24:47very kind of cosmopolitan city at that
24:51point he would have spoken Greek
24:52probably as well as he spoke Hebrew so
24:57he is somewhat familiar with Greek
24:58philosophy we're not sure exactly to
25:00what extent but he certainly had been
25:02exposed to it and so people give him
25:04this term Hellenized Jew and of course
25:06now you know that this term Hellenized
25:08comes from the Hellenistic period this
25:11this means that he had been influenced
25:12by Greek philosophy as well as his own
25:16his own traditions so he was very well
25:20familiar with the prophecies of the Old
25:23Testament and he did not believe that
25:25Jesus was the Messiah it's very clear
25:28that he thought this was someone who was
25:29leading people away he was preaching
25:32dangerous messages and he begins to try
25:36to root out those messages he's probably
25:40executing some of the Christians we
25:42don't
25:42of cooperating evidence for that but he
25:45talks about harsh persecution of some of
25:47these early followers of Jesus for
25:50committing what he considered to be
25:52heresy so this is where the story
25:55becomes really interesting because in
25:58the middle of this career he has a
26:01spiritual encounter a dramatic encounter
26:05in which Jesus appears to him and asks
26:10him why is he persecuting him and it's
26:13at this point this dramatic conversion
26:15that the story of Christianity really
26:17begins to expand to include people who
26:20are not Jews because Paul's teaching his
26:25version of Christianity argues that this
26:29was not a message that was meant solely
26:31for Jews but it is meant for Gentiles as
26:34well it has meant in fact for the whole
26:36world so we have this issue of the law
26:40which Paul knew very well and he's going
26:43to begin to preach that we are no longer
26:47held under the the letter of the law but
26:51instead Christians should embrace the
26:54spirit of the law those things that
26:57Jesus talked about the love of God the
26:59love of one's neighbor prioritizing the
27:04spirit over the body keeping the body
27:07pure these are the things that should be
27:09the focus now there's a very practical
27:12side of this as well and that's the fact
27:14that one of the things that had
27:17separated the Jews the Israelites
27:20historically had been circumcision and
27:23this was one way that they set
27:25themselves apart from the people around
27:28them something that God had told them to
27:30do in the law so now as you start to
27:33include people who are not Jewish into
27:36this new form of expression of faith
27:40there are a lot of followers who seem to
27:43have said no you can't you can't become
27:45a member of this this sect within
27:47Judaism if you're not circumcised
27:49clearly this is something that set us
27:51apart for a long time
27:52and Paul seems to have been instrumental
27:54in arguing that circumcision was no
27:57longer necessary because that was an
27:59example of that that letter of the law
28:01and not the spirit of the law
28:03so circumcision sounds like kind of a
28:06small thing but when you think about it
28:08when you're talking about grown grown
28:10men might not be so willing to enter
28:14into a new religion if they have to
28:15undergo this very painful procedure so
28:17circumcision is removed as an obstacle
28:20to Christianity dietary restrictions are
28:23removed and this really happens at the
28:25Council of Jerusalem and 48c II this is
28:29considered to be the first Church
28:31Council you have the fellowship of
28:34believers coming together and deciding
28:37that or being inspired to decide is what
28:40they feel that they are going to accept
28:43Gentiles into this new form of religion
28:46and the Christ's message they're calling
28:48him Christ right the Savior at this
28:50point that his message is meant for
28:52everybody
28:58so I wanted to conclude this first
29:01lecture about Christianity by just
29:03talking about some of the contributing
29:04influences that we've already looked at
29:07in this class that probably played a
29:09role in the way that Christianity
29:11developed at least in some parts the
29:14first one is mystery cults and remember
29:17that during the Hellenistic period in
29:19particular it became very fashionable to
29:22belong to one of these cults the cult of
29:26Isis the cult of Mithras and oftentimes
29:29within those secret rituals that were
29:31done within the cults there was a moment
29:34of rebirth or restoration there was a
29:38moment of baptism within myth RISM for
29:41example there was a kind of baptism of
29:43blood which which symbolized that you
29:46were made a new creature and that's
29:49gonna be something that's that's also
29:51incorporated into Christianity
29:54Christians will begin to talk about
29:56being reborn born again and that was
30:00something that was circulating within
30:02many of these mystery cults the other
30:04thing we were certain ceremonies
30:07oftentimes there was a meal that was
30:10shared within these cults and that
30:13becomes part of Christianity too quite
30:15early on there is a tradition of
30:19commemorating Jesus's Last Supper before
30:22he was crucified and that last supper
30:25was a celebration of the Passover
30:27remember that we had talked about the
30:30Jews during their time in Egypt the
30:32Jewish scripture says that God preserved
30:35them from this angel of death that took
30:38all of the firstborn in Egypt and God
30:40allowed that angel of death to pass over
30:43the houses of the Jews because they had
30:46prepared in the way that that he told
30:48them to and so from that time there had
30:51been a celebration of the Passover
30:53dinner and this is the the dinner that
30:55Jesus was celebrating before his
30:57crucifixion and very early within
31:00Christianity there is a recreation of
31:03this Passover dinner in which people ate
31:06bread and wine to symbolize the body in
31:09the blood of Christ
31:11we're going to be spilled or sacrificed
31:14so there are some of those aspects the
31:17the communal meal the idea of being born
31:20again which do have some similarities
31:22there the other two I think you can see
31:26similarities with our we look at Plato
31:28and remember that I had said when we
31:31talked about Plato that this idea of the
31:34the world of being in the realm of
31:36becoming and that the realm of being is
31:39this this perfection ultimate good
31:43ultimate beauty ultimate righteousness
31:47and there will be some who will cling to
31:50that and say Plato was a follower of
31:54Christ before Christ was born he didn't
31:56know he was anticipating the fact that
31:59Jesus and God we're going to represent
32:00all of those things and in fact there is
32:03a trend within early Christianity called
32:05Neoplatonism in which they're borrowing
32:08some of this language to talk about God
32:10and I think we still do I think that a
32:13lot of the plainest language has made
32:15has made its way into the way that
32:18Christians talk about God and then the
32:20final one
32:21Xaro a streon ism and this has to do a
32:24lot with just geographically where we
32:26were that a lot of the areas of the new
32:29Christians were living in had were on
32:32the border states between the Roman
32:34Empire and the western half part of the
32:37Persian Empire so both of those
32:38influences through trade as we talked
32:41about through the Silk Road both of
32:43those influences are in that area and
32:45remember that within Cyril astron ISM
32:48there's this identification of total
32:50good and total evil and overcoming the
32:55flesh and again this is going to be
32:57something that's very important within
32:59Christianity the prioritization of the
33:01soul over the body and then quite
33:05quickly there will be a discussion of
33:08this this figure of the devil this this
33:12evil figure which Jesus was able to
33:14conquer but is still in the world still
33:17a threat to Christian believers so those
33:21are three things which were certainly
33:22circulating at the same time which
33:24probably
33:24influenced Christianity a little bit the
33:28next lecture we'll talk about the growth
33:30of Christianity as it moves from a very
33:33small number of followers at this point
33:35probably could be numbered in the
33:36hundreds how do we get to that point
33:38with by the sixth century it's taken
33:40over all of the the Mediterranean world
33:43and North Africa all the way up into
33:44Europe so that will be the focus of our
33:46next lecture together

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