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2021 Lect 30 Christianity Part 2 — Transcript

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0:01so this is part two of our Christianity
0:04lectures in would be discussing
0:06universal religions and this lecture is
0:09really going to focus on the
0:11transformation of Christianity from a
0:13very small practice within Judaism to a
0:17worldwide religion a real superpower so
0:21we had talked about the first step along
0:23that journey last time which is the
0:25expansion of Christianity to non-jews
0:28and that had a lot to do with the
0:30preaching of Apostle Paul who as you
0:33recall had this very dramatic conversion
0:37and he his story states that he was told
0:41by Jesus to stop persecuting Christians
0:43and then he goes on to become a real
0:46apostle for the faith and arguing that
0:49this message was meant for Gentiles
0:51which means everyone outside of the
0:54Jewish community so that's the first
0:56step but there's some other things to
0:58talk about too such as why did this
1:00message have such widespread appeal for
1:02this part of the world and then how did
1:05these early Christians go about
1:07organizing themselves in order to really
1:09facilitate the growth of a large church
1:11so that's going to be the focus of our
1:14discussion today
1:22within a few centuries Christianity is
1:25going to become the most popular
1:26religion from North Africa to Ireland so
1:29I'd like to think just a little bit
1:31about why that might have been and so
1:34there are just a couple of chief
1:35theories and these are theories that
1:37people at the time within the ancient
1:38world were also considering as they
1:40looked around and realized that this
1:42religion had really taken taken off one
1:45of the theories is the idea of the
1:48universal message and by that I mean
1:52that within the teachings of
1:54Christianity you don't have to have a
1:56certain kind of social status you don't
1:58have us have to have a certain amount of
2:00money in order to be promised salvation
2:02and remember that within these ancient
2:05mystery cults there often was an element
2:08of material sacrifice they were
2:11scientist assign of status to be good to
2:13belong to some of these mystery cults so
2:15it was often kind of expensive you know
2:17you think about the most elite types of
2:19clubs that we have today or fraternal
2:21orders but with Christianity there
2:25really was the sense that no matter
2:26where you were on the social wrong you
2:28could have this transformation of the
2:30heart that's talked about within the
2:33Gospels and be promised the same
2:36salvation as the richest the richest man
2:38in town so this probably was quite
2:40appealing to people and marginalized
2:43communities in particular women the poor
2:45seem to have been among the first people
2:48to convert to Christianity and of course
2:50once that comes into the household
2:52there's a good chance that the woman is
2:54going to begin to teach her children
2:56about this new faith that she has and
2:57then in many cases the father's the male
3:00relatives are also going to convert so
3:03that's one of the ways in which
3:04Christianity probably spread now it's
3:08worth noting that it's the once the
3:10ruling class converts there's going to
3:12be another wave of widespread acceptance
3:15and as we'll see in a minute that's when
3:17it really becomes institutionalized but
3:20I don't think we can under play the role
3:22that many of these marginalized
3:23communities had and spreading
3:25Christianity now in a kind of twist of
3:30irony another thing that could have
3:32helped Christianity spread in the
3:34is persecution so we'll talk a little
3:37bit about that remember that the Romans
3:39were very open to different types of
3:41religions they didn't insist that you
3:43worship you know one God or even just
3:46the Roman pantheon of gods however there
3:49was a component within Roman religion
3:52which was the cult of the emperor and
3:56within that cult of the Emperor you were
3:58supposed to acknowledge him not only as
4:01your political leader but upon his death
4:03many of the Emperor's claim to become
4:06gods
4:07Emperor Augustus talks about planning
4:11this apotheosis and which upon his death
4:14he will enter the pantheon of gods and
4:16it's a little murky as to how that works
4:19but there definitely is a tradition in
4:21which the Emperor's image is venerated
4:23once you're an emperor of Rome you put
4:26your face on on everything you produce
4:28so the coins are gonna be stamped with
4:29your face you're going to pay a lot of
4:31sculptures sculptors to begin producing
4:34sculptures of you and putting them in
4:35throughout the Roman world and there was
4:37a tradition of honoring this emperor by
4:42spilling a little bit of wine a libation
4:45in honor of the Emperor now of course
4:48within Christianity and within Judaism
4:51this is a problem because you are not
4:53supposed to acknowledge any other deity
4:55besides God so there's a sense in which
4:59the Christians and the Jews are already
5:01at odds for their religious beliefs and
5:03then there's the added layer of do they
5:06represent a political threat and I think
5:08this was probably the bigger issue is do
5:11you have these sort of revolutionaries
5:13that are gaining gaining numbers within
5:15the Empire so Rome responds by a series
5:19of persecutions probably the two most
5:23famous series of persecutions are occur
5:26under Nero and this is famously where
5:29some of the followers the immediate
5:31followers of Jesus including Peter and
5:33Paul are going to be executed and then
5:38there are another other waves in over
5:40the next couple centuries there's Decius
5:42is that probably the second major wave
5:45of persecutions that call the dision
5:47persecutions but they're also going to
5:49take place under Diocletian as well and
5:52I think there are some very evocative
5:56event that come out of this for example
5:59Christians are used within the arenas
6:02you probably all have seen different
6:04movies that portray this where they
6:05would take groups of Christian believers
6:07and throw them into the Colosseum which
6:09it had been traditional you know to
6:10throw slaves and other people into the
6:12Colosseum so that they could be mauled
6:14and mutilated by animals and the Romans
6:16thought this was fine entertainment so
6:18we have some of these very paths those
6:20images of Christians being burned under
6:22Nero supposedly they were used to light
6:25up Rome at one point as human torches so
6:28there's these very very pathos images of
6:31persecution but ironically instead of
6:36causing that the Christian religion to
6:38shrink into itself in some ways it seems
6:42to have propelled them forward as a
6:44sense that you know we've created this
6:45group of martyrs that we're going to
6:47emulate we we see their bravery they're
6:50instantly being rewarded by being being
6:53able to enter into heaven and some
6:55scholars feel as if these persecutions
6:57could have contributed to the growth of
7:00Christianity the last real hold out
7:04within Roman society is going to be the
7:06military the military had a very strong
7:10tradition of the cult of Mithras which I
7:12had talked about before it's associated
7:14with with warriors and so within the
7:16military this is probably going to be
7:18the strongest holdout and I mentioned
7:21that in part because the military might
7:22have been carrying on a lot of these
7:24types of persecutions and they're really
7:25not having a lot of problem with that
7:28because this isn't the religion that
7:30they practice but this is all going to
7:32change as we'll see in a minute
7:40the real turning point for Christianity
7:43among the elites is the conversion of
7:45Constantine in the 4th century CE II and
7:48remember that we talked about this the
7:50elites in the military had really been a
7:52holdout for Christianity they had
7:55continued to practice Mithras own as
7:56well as venerating the Emperor and the
7:59other Roman gods and through a series of
8:02events the Emperor Constantine in the
8:044th century is contending for the throne
8:07and he is at this really pivotal point
8:10and where he's he is engaged in a battle
8:14with another contender to the throne
8:16Maxentius and it looks as if things
8:19might go south for Constantine and the
8:22story goes that as he was beginning to
8:25lose he receives vision in which you
8:29have this symbol the Greek letters in
8:32Jesus's name appear they actually appear
8:34in the cloud some people say recounted
8:36as a vision and other other people
8:38recounted as a dream but either way he
8:40has this very clear symbol that victory
8:43will be brought to him in Jesus's name
8:45and so he has his soldiers begin
8:50painting this symbol all over their
8:52shields and they really rejoicing of the
9:01Umbridge in 312 and it's at that point
9:04that Christianity has finally made its
9:06way from the most marginalized people in
9:09society all the way up to the very top
9:11Constantine the first is going to go on
9:13to win the battle he's going to end up
9:15erasing all of the other contenders to
9:18the throne and ultimately ruling the
9:20entire Roman Empire by himself so he's
9:24going to be one of they they call him
9:25Constantine number eight right that
9:26normally gets affixed to your name when
9:28you're a particularly important and
9:29powerful leader and so now we have this
9:32powerful leader who is also converted to
9:34Christianity and one of the things that
9:37he does quite early is to issue the
9:40Edict of Milan and the Edict of Milan is
9:43actually issued with another ruler but
9:46we won't we won't get in too much to
9:48that it's normally associated with
9:50Constantine
9:51this edict which very significantly is
9:54going to put an end to any type of
9:56persecution whether it's very violent or
9:59whether it's just a matter of you know
10:01extra taxes or not giving people
10:04positions because of their Christian
10:06faith he's going to remove that and
10:08issue tolerance for religions throughout
10:11the Roman Empire so it doesn't make
10:14Christianity the only empower the only
10:16religion but it does allow it to be
10:18practiced openly and probably most
10:20importantly now everyone knows that the
10:23Constantine at least nominally has
10:26become a Christian and so if you want to
10:28get in with the Emperor then you should
10:31practice the same faith that he does and
10:33in fact that's what's gonna begin to
10:35happen many of the aristocracy much of
10:37the military is gonna finally convert to
10:40Christianity I wanted to mention to the
10:43role of Constantine's mother Helena
10:46because she becomes a very powerful
10:48female symbol within Christianity we
10:50haven't really talked about that yet and
10:52there are going to be some very
10:54influential female symbols most
10:57importantly the mother of Jesus Mary and
11:00then also Helena Helena became a
11:04Christian she is credited with
11:07discovering the location of the cross
11:09where Jesus was crucified and this
11:12becomes a very important relic and
11:15relics are going to be something that's
11:16important throughout the Middle Ages
11:18relics are just pieces of material
11:20culture associated with an important
11:23person in this case of course the most
11:25important people are going to be Jesus
11:27and his immediate apostles so pieces of
11:29the cross thorns from the crown that was
11:33that was put on Jesus's head when he was
11:35crucified all of these types of things
11:40on this page you're reading or listening
11:44to the Council of Nicaea and this is
11:47another important part on that journey
11:49to Christianity becoming a world
11:51religion first we have the expansion of
11:54Christianity to non-jews then we have it
11:58slowly growing within the population and
12:01then with Constantine of course you have
12:03the most important person in the Roman
12:04world inverting to Christianity so very
12:08shortly after that you're going to start
12:10to see a real codification of Christian
12:13belief and the development of
12:15Christianity into a church with
12:18administrative units we had talked about
12:21the Council of Jerusalem and another
12:24watershed moment is this council of
12:26nicaea that's held in 325 and there's
12:28there's two really important things that
12:30come out of the Council of Nicaea first
12:33of all there have been a lot of people
12:35discussing the nature of Jesus what does
12:39it mean exactly to be a Christian and
12:41what is it that you should believe in
12:43and at the heart of that argument is the
12:45relationship between three distinct
12:48bodies you have God the Father who is
12:51the father that has talked about within
12:53the Judaic scriptures we looked at this
12:56class we looked at Genesis the creator
12:58of all things he interacted with Noah he
13:00interacted with Moses so you have that
13:02figure but you've added this element of
13:05Jesus who is the son of God but also God
13:08and then there are references made to
13:11the Holy Spirit so you have the Father
13:13the Son and the Holy Spirit and this is
13:16not exactly an easy concept for most
13:20people to grasp in fact I don't I've
13:22never met anyone that can easily grasp
13:24the concept of what comes to be called
13:26the Trinity and so they're grappling
13:28with this issue within the Council of
13:30Nicaea
13:31it's Jesus really God or is he just a
13:33really important person are they are
13:36they equal one had what about the Holy
13:38Spirit so they're still trying to really
13:40hammer out what to believe about
13:42Christianity and there are very divided
13:46camps among they can't really decide
13:49what is going to be doctrine
13:52and in order to deal with this and some
13:54other issues they asked the Emperor
13:56Constantine to call a council so the
13:59first thing that's important about the
14:01Council of Nicaea is really laying down
14:04what to believe within Christianity and
14:06I think the second part that's really
14:09important about the Council of Nicaea is
14:11that it begins a relationship between
14:13the church and the political authority
14:16and I'll say that again it begins a
14:18relationship between Christianity and
14:21the political authorities and this is
14:24something which is going to help
14:25determine what what the church looks
14:28like for the next a thousand years and
14:31even further they've asked the Emperor
14:34Constantine to step in which he does and
14:36he calls this council and the result of
14:38this council among other things is the
14:40council of or is the Nicene Creed which
14:43you've just listened to or read which
14:45really nails down what Christianity is
14:49going to believe there is going to be
14:52one God the Father one Lord Jesus Christ
14:56and you'll all key you into this phrase
14:59which says begotten from the father only
15:03begotten which means that he is actually
15:06part of God this isn't a creature that
15:11is less than God they are all of the
15:14same essence so these are the types of
15:16things that they're trying to nail down
15:17and then a scientist and Creed is going
15:20to really become the foundational
15:22statement of faith for Christianity from
15:24here on up
15:29there will be a number of other councils
15:31throughout the 5th century that talk
15:33about Christianity and its basic tenants
15:36one of the most important things that
15:38comes out of that I think is the
15:40preeminent of Mary she is identified as
15:43the bearer of God not just the bearer of
15:45Jesus the man which gives her not
15:48certainly elevated to the status of a
15:50God but it but it gives her a real
15:52importance within Christianity which we
15:54will see expressed they also make
15:56decisions about the nature of the holy
15:58spirit they continue to try to define
15:59the Trinity which is which is always a
16:01tricky subject but there's a real
16:04pragmatic thing that has to happen too
16:06which is as the numbers of believers are
16:08growing into the tens of thousands into
16:11the hundreds of thousands how is it that
16:13we carry out this faith how do we meet
16:17together as a church how do we make sure
16:20that everybody is learning the correct
16:22things and in order to do that they're
16:25going to establish five key
16:27administrative areas and these are
16:29called the patriarchs so if you see the
16:32area of the patriarchs here on the map
16:33they are located in Constantinople in
16:36Antioch Jerusalem Alexandria and Rome
16:41and these cities are chosen for two
16:45reasons one because they all have an
16:46association with Jesus or the first
16:50apostles and also because these just are
16:53very important cities for example with
16:55Constantinople Constantinople is where
16:58the Emperor is residing so that's really
17:00where it gets it's um its chief
17:03importance it's the most important city
17:05in the Empire then you have Rome which
17:07is important because it is viewed as the
17:10seat of st. Peter who is going to become
17:12one of the most important people within
17:16the church if not the most important
17:18person within the church is going to be
17:20Peter and he is said to be the first
17:22Bishop of Rome and so that's going to be
17:25an important identification point for
17:27Christians and then also an Antioch to
17:29Russa ylim and Alexandria so in one
17:34sense they have a very spiritual
17:35association and then on the other sense
17:37these are just administrative centers
17:40you have bishops that are placed in each
17:42these cities and they are going to begin
17:44creating their own administrative
17:47centers throughout their region and this
17:49structure of the church is one again
17:51that's going to last for hundreds of
17:53years
17:57an important part of organization within
18:01the early Christian church was
18:03identifying those writings that would be
18:04accepted as the most important and
18:07divinely inspired teachings of God and
18:09remember that at this point within the
18:12first centuries following the death of
18:14Jesus there are a number of works that
18:16are that are circulating in the form of
18:17letters in the form of small books and
18:19so by the fourth century near the end of
18:22the fourth century at the Council of
18:23Carthage the leaders of the church are
18:25charged with determining what is going
18:28to be the official canon of Christianity
18:32what are what is going to be the book
18:34and there's a tradition of this already
18:37within Judaism remember that we have the
18:39Pentateuch which is the core
18:42foundational text within Judaism and now
18:45Christianity is going to do the same
18:48thing and really develop a book which
18:50tells Christians what they should be
18:52doing and we'll see that also within
18:54Islam with the development of the Quran
18:56where you really have this text which
18:59helps you in your spiritual journey so
19:02at the council of Carthage they
19:04determined that the synoptic Gospels
19:06which I had mentioned before that talk
19:08about the life of Jesus and his
19:10teachings Paul's letters which he had
19:13written to various churches throughout
19:15the Mediterranean the writings of John
19:17including Revelation which is a text
19:20that talks about things that are going
19:22to happen and the writings of Peter are
19:25also going to be included so now they've
19:28really established what that central
19:30text will be now that doesn't mean that
19:32other writers are not going to be highly
19:34influential in shaping the early faith
19:37however they've kind of slammed the door
19:40on adding any further books to the can
19:43and after the 4th century you have
19:45what's considered to be the Bible so now
19:47that you have this text what how does it
19:49make its way into the hands of
19:51Christians and honestly it really
19:54doesn't for hundreds and hundreds of
19:56years even though we have the
19:58development of paper as we saw in China
20:01in the West they're still using
20:03primarily parchment which is a form of
20:05writing material made from animal skins
20:07they're also still using papyrus
20:10in North Africa and in the eastern areas
20:13of the Mediterranean these are very
20:15expensive and they're not something that
20:17most people are going to get their hands
20:19on and quite honestly even if they could
20:21they are not literate so you know
20:23literacy is quite low so they wouldn't
20:25be able to read them anyway so even
20:27though we talked about the beginnings of
20:29the Bible it's probably wise to remember
20:32that it's still circulating among a very
20:34small number of people one of the men
20:37that's at least contributes to having
20:40the Bible more widely spread is Jerome
20:43and Jerome is a really interesting
20:46character he has a bad reputation we
20:49have a number of different letters that
20:51were written by Jerome into Jerome and
20:53he has this reputation for being sort of
20:55very grumpy and very Xserve Akande but
20:59he was a very good scholar and he was
21:02able to look at things in the original
21:04texts including those books which were
21:07in Hebrew and those books which were in
21:09Greek and forming those and
21:12transliterating them into Latin so he is
21:15going to copy these original texts into
21:17a language that most people throughout
21:20the Mediterranean world can speak and
21:22your scholars can all read so the first
21:25Latin form of the Bible begins
21:27circulating shortly after the council of
21:29Carthage and it's called the Vulgate and
21:31sort of an odd name but vulgar has a
21:35different connotation today but back
21:36then it really just referred to common
21:38the common language and it's going to be
21:40the the gold standard for the Bible
21:42throughout the Middle Ages
21:53we'll conclude our discussion with
21:56another key figure with an early
21:58Christianity Augustine of Hippo
22:01and of all the different writers that we
22:03could have talked about for Christianity
22:06I've chosen Agustin for a couple reasons
22:08one because his ideas and he writes a
22:11lot of them Augustine is incredibly
22:13prolific he writes pages and pages and
22:16pages about pretty much all aspects of
22:18Christianity from the nature of grace to
22:21original sin to marriage I mean he
22:24really covers it all and his his ideas
22:28are gonna be very influential within
22:30Christianity up until today
22:32the second reason I've chosen Agustin is
22:35because I think he's a good figure to
22:37represent what was going on in Rome
22:41particularly Western Rome during the
22:43fourth and fifth and sixth centuries and
22:45when we get into Rome next week we'll
22:48detail this a little bit more but in
22:50general Rome had started to decline very
22:53quickly in the West due to some internal
22:55factors but also due to the fact that
22:57large numbers of Germanic peoples and
23:01some Asiatic peoples were pushing into
23:04what had been the Roman Empire they're
23:06coming across out of Germany
23:08Germania out of Gaul which is what is
23:11today France and they're pushing into
23:13the central part of the Roman Empire and
23:15becoming a real dis stabilizing force
23:17now sometimes these attacks are very
23:19violent and they involve raping and
23:22looping looting and pillaging and
23:23burning cities and other times they're
23:25just coming in with large numbers of
23:28families and settling in agricultural
23:30areas so this was a period of real
23:33anxiety for the West and I think that
23:39Augustine kind of represents this real
23:42tumultuous nnessee was born in North
23:46Africa he's an African and he is born
23:49his father as a pagan I mean in the
23:51sense that he's still worshipping the
23:53Roman gods and it's his mother who's
23:54going to convert to Christianity again
23:57something that we've seen as being
23:58somewhat typical and begin instructing
24:01her son in Christianity and if you're
24:05interested in this life of Augustan
24:07which is really pretty colorful he did
24:09write a little biography called the
24:11confessions but the confessions are
24:14really more of a biography of his life
24:16and it's it's pretty interesting it's
24:18short you can get it green it cheaply
24:20it's probably free on the internet if
24:21you're interested in learning more about
24:22Agustin but he really represents Rome I
24:25think during this period and then he
24:27starts in North Africa
24:28he moves to Rome he moves to Milan and
24:31he begins to grapple with his own
24:34personal spiritual journey and then also
24:38looking at the world around him seeing
24:40it start to significantly change and in
24:43many ways crumble and this is his
24:46response to that so he writes a book
24:49called the City of God which is going to
24:52be again one of those real go-to texts
24:54for the next thousand years for
24:56Christianity and the City of God is
24:58written within the context of these
25:00Germanic invasions within society
25:02changing so rapidly and he's going to
25:05argue that the mission of the Christian
25:09is to prepare for the City of God which
25:12is not here on earth it really is in
25:16heaven and he talks about ways in which
25:18people on earth can can prepare
25:21themselves as if they're already living
25:22in heaven
25:23but but the real thrust of the book at
25:25least for me is to say that all of this
25:28is temporal all of this is going to pass
25:30away and instead what you need to be
25:32doing is really preparing your soul
25:34focusing on God this image that you see
25:36here of Augustine looking with his eyes
25:38looking up is very typical
25:41I think of Augustine's view and it's
25:44really going to be one which shapes a
25:46great deal of North Africa until the
25:49until the Islamic expansion and then
25:52certainly all of Europe arguably even to
25:55today so we've kind of done a quick view
25:59of early Christianity and then we are
26:03going to continue talking about another
26:04universal religion next time Buddhism
26:07which also is going to have a message of
26:09wide appeal and is going to expand out
26:12of its initial small group within India
26:15and really explode throughout the
26:18much in the way that Christianity
26:20exploded throughout the West

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