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whether this institution was foreseen by Jesus.
C. Some clues come from his earliest followers.
1. After the resurrection, a group of about 120 met to choose a successor to Judas, who had betrayed Jesus. This implies a certain corporate
mentality.
2. In Acts of the Apostles (2.42), we read, They remained faithful to the teachings of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread, and to
prayers. This implies communities that assumed they were to behave in common ways.
3. The apostles were the original disciples of Jesus who accompanied him during his ministry. After Jesus s death, they decided, consciously and as a
body, to obey his last command to them: Go forth and teach all nations.
4. Paul, an early Jewish convert to Christianity and the new faith s greatest missionary and second greatest teacher, founded new communities,
corresponded with communities, and corresponded with other leaders. There was clearly some sense of a network of leaders and, implicitly, some
kinds of connections among different communities (at the very least, they received visitors and prayed for one another).
5. Paul uses the word church regularly of the community in a particular place.
From some of Paul s letters, we get hints about the organization of
individual Christian communities.
A. We read in various places in Paul s letters of officials called overseers, elders, and servants. These words have passed most commonly into English usage
as bishop, priest, and deacon.
B. It is hard to see how bishops and priests differed in Paul s thinking. They both presided at worship, taught the faithful, and instructed new converts. It
appears that every community had officers like this. It is not clear, but initially unlikely, that there was any hierarchical distinction between them.
C. Deacons were clearly people (usually, but not exclusively, men) who facilitated the work of the leaders and served the community.
D. Around 100, Bishop Ignatius of Antioch speaks of monarchical bishops. By the end of the second century and the beginning of the third, we hear of
metropolitan bishops.
E. It appears that the expanding Christian church was adapting itself to the
administrative geography of the Roman Empire.
1. Many communities (we might say parishes today) existed in most cities, and gradually, the oldest priest (or elder) came to have a hierarchical and
supervisory role over all the communities in the town. He was the overseer in a literal sense.
2. Within provinces of the empire, there were mother cities, that is, provincial capitals, and the overseers in those cities began to supervise the
overseers in individual towns. A highly articulated structure was growing.
II.Early Christian apologists began to explain the new faith to the ancient world.
A. Justin Martyr (c. 100 c. 165) wrote A Dialogue with Trypho the Jew to differentiate between Christianity and Judaism, and he wrote his First Apology to
Emperor Antoninus Pius to argue that Christians were good and loyal subjects of the empire.
B. Bishop Ignatius of Antioch (C. 35 c. 107) wrote a series of letters to other Christian communities affirming basic doctrines and warning against false
teachers.
C. In the second century, then, we can see a clear sense that Christianity was a distinctive faith, not a version of something else, and that it had teachings that
were regarded by some, but not by all, as authentic atid binding.
[V. What factors primarily account for the success and spread of Christianity?
A. Most converts were not articulate. Those who were stressed the compelling nature of the basic teachings.
B. Even Christianity s bitterest foes praised the admirable quality of the lives of the Christians.
C. The heroism of the martyrs attracted people. From the time of Domitian, Christianity was illegal, but Christians were not harassed systematically before
the third century.
D. Christianity was a universal faith: open to all ethnic groups, all social classes, both genders. Most ancient cults, by contrast, were severely restricted.
E. Christianity was an exclusive faith. Christians could not just add one more god to all the old ones. They had to renounce all other religious allegiances.
F. Christianity was compatible with many aspects of classical culture and particularly similar to Stoicism.
G. Christianity was a historical faith. Jesus had lived and taught in the present. Roman writers (such as Tacitus) mentioned him. This was not one more
myth placed at the dawn of time.
H. Christianity had a particularly strong appeal to women.
I. Christianity developed a large-scale and highly articulated organization, something no pagan cult had.
J. The peace, security, and ease of transportation provided by the Pax Romana aided Christianity immensely.
Essential Reading:
Fox, Pagans and Christians.
Frend, Rise of Christianity.
Meeks, First Urban Christians.
Questions to Consider:
1. Can you think of ways in which a his torical view of Christianity s growth might conflict with a doctrinal view of the same topic?
2. How would you assess the various factors offered in this lecture to account for Christianity s success?
Abbasids: Dynasty of caliphs (q.v.) from 750 to 1258. Moved capital to Baghdad and fostered brilliant culture.
Gradually declined in power as regions broke away and Turkish mercenaries acquired real power.
Acropolis: The elevated region of a polis used for civic celebrations and defense.
Aediles: Roman republican officers, two elected annually, who had responsibility for food supply, public buildings,
games.
Aeneid: Twelve-book epic poem on Roman origins by Virgil, characterized by praise of traditional Roman virtues.
Agoge: Name for the training, the traditional way of bringing up Spartan males.
Agora: The market; a key component of any Greek polis.
Anabaptists: Literally rebaptizers, this is a catchall name for adherents of the radical reformation, those who felt
that Lutherans and Calv inists had not gone far enough in rooting out papism. Prominent on Europe s frontiers.
Angevin Empire: Name for the lands in France held by the kings of England of the Angevin dynasty beginning with
Henry II (r. 1154-1189).
Anglo-Saxons: Catchall name for various peoples from northern Germany and
southern Denmark who settled in England from 450 to 600 and built small kingdoms.
Antigonids: Dynasty of rulers who succeeded to one of Alexander s generals. They ruled the Balkans until the
Romans conquered them in a series of secondcentury wars.
Arianism: See Anus in Biographical Notes.
Armada: Great fleet sent by Catholic Spain against Protestant England in 1588 that ended in failure.
Assyrians: A Semitic-speaking people who arose in Mesopotamia in the second
millennium B.C. and, after about 900 B.C., built a large and cruel empire centered on Nineveh. Defeated by a
coalition led by Neo-Babylonians and Medes.
Augsburg Confession: A statement made in 1530 of the essential doctrines of Lutheranism. Prepared by Luther s
associate Philip Melanchthon (1497 1560).
Augsburg, Peace of: A settlement made in 1555 between Lutherans and
Catholics in Germany, which included the principle cuius regio, eius religio.
Princes could dictate the religion of their lands and people were free to stay and
practice that religion or migrate elsewhere. The settlement ignored Calvinists, yet was the first example of religious toleration in Europe.
Avesta: Holy books of Zoroastrianism (q.v.).
Babylonian captivity: Derisive name for the period when the popes were in Avignon (1305 1378).
Barbarians: To Greeks, babblers, people who did not speak Greek; to Romans, people outside the empire. The word gradually acquired more acutely negative
connotations.
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