A People's History of Christianity - Book Review

There has been a rise in recent years for people to return to their roots; to understand the inner workings of who their ancestors were discover their heritage. In the author's spiritual walk with Christ and her own study of Christian history she kept having conversations with her friends that ended up with statements like "I don't have trouble with Jesus. It's all the stuff that happened after Jesus that makes me mad." (pg.1) It is this sense of discontentment and question that caused Diana Butler Bass to write A People's History Of Christianity.

I have also expressed some discouragement, along with many of my friends, over the state of the evangelical church in the present day. There are times when we just stand back with mouths agape and eyes wide thinking out loud "How did we get to here?" It's this very question that Bass hopes to answer through A People's History Of Christianity.

A People's History of Christianity divides Christian history into five time periods: The Way (Early Christianity, 100-500); The Cathedral (Medieval Christianity, 500-1450); The Word (Reformation Christianity, (1450-1650); The Quest (Modern Christianity, 1650-1945); and The River (Contemporary Christianity, 1945-Now) and traces the social history of Christianity through those five periods. Within these periods Bass tends to highlight persons and principles that served as catalysts for movements of Christianity.

During "The Way" (Early Christianity, 100-500) "people understood Christianity primarily as a way of life in the present, not as a doctrinal system esoteric belief, or promise of eternal salvation." (pg.27) Those centuries closest to the ascension of Christ were filled with people living out Jesus' call to "come and die" on a day-to-day basis in figurative and sometimes literal ways. It would appear that this "way of life" mindset is making resurgence among many Christ-followers in the present day.

"The Cathedral" age brought about with it the rise of higher devotion to Jesus and a distancing from the institutional church. Monasticism came to a rise and more and more people were seeking true community to follow Jesus rather than the institutional church, which had become nothing more than a tyrannical theocracy. "In an age when people claim to be "spiritual but not religious," it is fashionable to downplay institutions in favor of a direct experience of the divine." (Pg.90)

"The Word" refers to the period of time in which the Guttenberg Press printed the first Bible ever. With the Word being printed and passed around this put the Word of God into the hands of the people in their own language. It made the Bible common place for society.

"The Quest" or the period of Modernity was the time in which it seemed that many were searching for truth and believed they could find it. This is a large shift into postmodern thinking in which searching is more important than finding and truth is what you make of it.

"The River" is a name given to this time period that describes the fluidity of Christianity. In our contemporary era of postmodern though truth has become what we make it. Christianity flows up and down and can fit into whatever mold I pour it into. This is all done for the purpose of ideas like the "ecumenical movement" in which people of all races, genders, denomination, sexual orientation, or creed can gather together and worship the same God all at once. Let me say this. I think that sounds like a beautiful thing. I really do. However there when it comes to some issues of theology and doctrine and biblical truth I don't budge for the sake of loving everyone. The best way for me to love someone is to sometimes confront him or her, in a loving and compassionate manner, with the hard truth of a wrong path they are traveling.

Bass effectively traces this social history of Christianity by stringing together some of her own personal encounters with each section as she herself studied Christian History in college. Some of her college experience took place in conservative theological seminaries while her PhD comes from Duke University in North Carolina. This liberal influence in her PhD work seeps through here and there in her writing as it seems throughout the book that conservative outlook is frowned upon or seen as close minded while "emerging Christianity" and "spiritual progressives" those with a more liberal view seem to shine through a bit brighter.

Bass' end desire is for Christians to understand their roots. She wants those who claim to follow Christ to know how we got to here... wherever "here" ends up being in the next few years. She longs for the readers to see an importance in knowing history and then to go and make history. (Pg. 310) Bass tends to push the reader toward a thought process that ends up on the liberal, or spiritually progressive, end of the drawing board however she does a good job of trying to stay balanced in her communicating of the topic.

The Great Awakening (1720-1740)- Lecture

Introductions:

I'm doing quite a bit of study in the realm of Church History this summer. I'm taking the first of two parts of an overview of Church History and then a more specific study concerning the history of Baptists. In my studies I've come to the point where a bit of discussion on The Great Awakening (1720-1740) is in order. I thought to myself (at the prompting of a discussion board) if I were to teach a class on The Great Awakening what would my main three sections be? What parts of The Great Awakening are crucial to the understanding of what exactly the movement was?

The Background:

It's important first to understand that we are not speaking in general terms of the Great Awakenings but rather the First Great Awakening. "The Great Awakenings were several periods of rapid and dramatic religious revival in Anglo-American religious history, generally recognized as beginning in the 1730s. They have also been described as periodic revolutions in U.S. religious thought. The term is also used in some respects to refer to American religious revivalism that the Protestant Reformation inspired during and after the 1500s, as well as to identify general religious trends within distinctly U.S. religious culture." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Awakening) The First Great Awakening was indeed a revival, think full commitment not tent preachers with gimmicks, of the soul.

The reasons for the start of this awakening are threefold: Providential in that it was affirmed by the works of Jonathan Edwards and others; Physical as natural disasters and diseases such as an earthquake and diphtheria brought the people to think heavily on eternal matters, and Spiritually there was very little involvement in the church by the colonists and the lack of understanding about spiritual matters brought many to place of questioning.(Ergun Caner CHHI 694 Lecture Notes Lesson 12 Pgs. 3-6)

Controversies: (Old & New Lights)

As with anything in the local church there are always those who champion and oppose. There were those among the Congregationalists who rejected the revival called the "Old Lights". Many of these men and women later became Unitarians. Those who championed the cause of the revival from this group, the "New Lights", began to question things like infant baptism and later became Baptists. "As more religious dissenters and more of the general populace supported the idea of separation of church and state, more ministers from various denominations supported the Great Awakening. Although it began to reinforce the old, traditional theology of Calvinism among people, a new group of preachers arose later in the years called the New Lights. Leaders such as George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were New light preachers who gave emotional speeches. They believed that salvation was more important than religious training. In contrast, the Old light preachers used more closely reasoned, rational arguments in their sermons."(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Awakening)

Results:

Some important results of the Great Awakening were: renewed evangelism and revivalism, religious freedom, emphasis on being part of the local church, and renewed call and passion for ministry. (Ergun Caner CHHI 694 Lecture Notes Lesson 12 Pgs. 6) The greatest result was that the Great Awakening helped to draw people back to Jesus this was an is still the most important aspect of any revival in the church. That God would draw all men unto Himself so that He alone can receive glory for the work done in men's hearts.

The Effects Of Constantine

Let’s talk about Constantine, the sole Roman Emperor from 324-337. What did he do for the Christian movement? What short-term impact (positively, negatively) did his actions have on the church? What long-term impact did they have?

Constantine grew up in a home where his Father was very tolerant of Christians. This probably had much to do with his later life decisions. In 312 Constantine, before the battle of Milvian Bridge near Verona, has a vision in which he believes God shows him a symbol that will bring him victory against his opponent Maxencius. Constantine puts this symbol on the shields of his men and the flags that he bears and wins the battle. After this battle Constantine adopts Christianity as his own persona faith. While there is evidence on both ends of the spectrum for whether or not he was actually a Christian the truth can only be known by God.

In 313, Constantine issues the Edict of Milan in which he granted tolerance to Christians. In the short term, this ended persecution, at least from the political perspective and Christians were treated as equals in court and other legal arenas. Social however there were most likely still some persecutions taking place. In a modern context one my think of the civil rights movement.

In 323, Constantine proclaims himself as the Sole Ruler / Roman Emperor. He makes Christianity the preferred religion of the decade and sets up a theocracy in which the church rules the state. Constantine considered himself as the bishop to the bishops, which in some cases portrayed a very negative picture of Constantine as he took his authority a bit to far. He began to give every soldier that would convert to Christianity 20 silver coins. Think about going out on a street corner and announcing that anyone who would accept Jesus Christ as their savior would be given a $50 bill on the spot. This would indeed be a stimulus package!

In the long term, Constantine brought the Church out of an era of persecution. Not everything was perfect in the beginning but it was a major start in getting the church a voice again. However this voice in later year will become over dominant and become the persecutor rather than the persecuted.

The Results Of Persecution On The Early Church

How did the church respond to persecution?

How did the Christian movement develop in theology and practice as a result of persecution?

There were four main causes of persecution for the Church: Religious, Social, Political, and Economic.

Religious persecution of the Church came mainly from the Jews because the Jewish leaders didn’t accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah. While some Jews viewed Jesus as the fulfillment of prophecy which moved the Jews into the messianic age. Those who doubted found a great deal of force and urgency with their persecution of Christ-followers. A secondary reason for religious persecution was because of the enthusiasm Christ-followers had after their conversion. Christianity was contagious and as Acts chapters 1-6 traces it grew in epidemic proportions very quickly.

Social persecution came from two areas. First the fact that Christianity put the master and the slave on equal ground and secondly blame due to the disrespect of other gods. Slavery and religious tolerance had swelled like a tumor in this time with the rise of Greek philosophy and melting pot of gods were thrown together and all worshiped for different purposes and meanings. The Christians claimed that Jesus was the only one true God and this did not sit well with religious relativist worship.

Political persecution came from a similar vein of idol worship. As Christians claimed Jesus exclusively as God they refused to say that Caesar was Lord. For this reason they also refused to serve in the army in which they had to proclaim this statement and were deemed unpatriotic.

In the economic realm, Christians hurt business of those selling idols for idol worship.

The Christian church responded in many ways persecution.

The good results of persecution were that the vast majority of Christians remained true to their faith despite the persecution; the Church was purified by any who chose to take the easy road out and flee the persecution; and the Scriptures became canonized during this time.

The bad results were that thousands of Christians denied the faith and fled persecution; many took positions that were contrary to the Christian faith in other religions; it caused divisions in the Church; some of the Scriptures were lost due to the burning of Christian letters and text; an abnormal desire for persecution arose among evil emperors and persecution became a heavy blood sport, and concerns of the relationship between the Church and the State arose.

There were some mixed results as well: While three million Christians dying at the hands of persecutors is by no means a good thing it does provide and effective witness to the fact that three million people were willing to die for the cause they believed in. Also while some fled the persecution and the empire, like cowards, after they got their bootstraps back underneath them the Gospel was spread into the areas in which they fled.

The Christian movement was forced to stand firm in their theology and practices. They had to know what they believed and why they believed it if they were going to be killed for holding true to it.

The Preparation For Early Christianity

Christianity began with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit on Christ’s followers gathered in an upper room in a home in Jerusalem. It was from this moment on that the spread of Christianity took root with Peter and the other disciples speaking to the people gathered for the Jewish festival of Pentecost.

There were three major factors that helped prepare the way for the swift spreading of Christianity. The first of these factors was the large gathering of Jews in Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost. Over time many of the Jews had spread out far and wide away from Jerusalem. These Jews were called Diaspora Jews, meaning they had dispersed. When they heard Peter’s message, of the life Jesus, many believed and became saved. Those same Jews then left Jerusalem back to their far away homes and spread the gospel to those in their area.

The second major factor is that of the Roman roads. It was a true statement that all roads really did lead to Rome. As many people, from many religious backgrounds and cultures, used these main roads it made for an efficient route for the story of what had been happening in Jerusalem. Merchants traveling these roads from town to town would have also spread the story of what happened in Jerusalem to their other import and export towns.

The third major factor was the rise of Greek philosophy and thinking. The teachings of Plato and Socrates spread wide, and left many with open minds to other religions and thoughts of the supernatural. This open mindedness toward other ways of thinking made a way for the apostle Paul to share Christ as not just another god among many, but as the one true God who became flesh.

These three factors largely contributed to the preparation for the quick spread of Christianity from the town of Jerusalem to the rest of the world.