Christian Life

Physical Environment, Organization, Leadership,

Worship

Physical EnvironmentFirst two centuries, meetings in houses (domus)

or one or two rooms of an apartment (insula). Some early church buildings such as San Clemente in Rome seem to have been built over insulae

Very little privacy. Eucharist shared as a common meal with members sitting or reclining at table

Earliest eucharistic celebrations probably combined with agape feasts which gradually become separate events (e.g. Justin’s description of the eucharist in mid-second century Rome (Apology 1.61-66)

Domus Ecclesiae By end of second century numbers had grown and

liturgy evolved beyond the capacity of domestic architecture. Participants will now stand before a common table that functions as an altar

Houses remodeled into buildings better suited to worship: Best example is the Christian house at Dura-Europos (frontier of Roman Syria). One room accommodates 60-75 people. Another room contains a baptistery with walls adorned with biblical scenes

Christian worship now fits the profile of public worship and no longer takes place within “family environment”

In keeping with this, bishops become centralized authority figures responsible for larger and larger groups of people

Impact of House on Leadership and

Organization Earliest roles of elders/bishops shaped by their role as

heads of households: Leaders should be chosen who know how to rule their own households and are hospitable (The Pastoral Epistles)

Ethics include domestic household codes in later NT writings and writings of Apostolic Fathers. Family structures are not radically changed but nevertheless householders are instructed to treat subordinates with kindness and relationships probably transformed “in the Lord”

Capacity for leadership for both men and women in local communities in first century linked to the capacity to offer one’s house for a meeting (e.g. Colossians speaks of the church meeting in Nympha’s house)

Some tension in earliest literature between local “settled” domestic leadership and wandering charismatic leadership (The Didache)

Church Organization Elders (presbyteroi) chosen to safeguard apostolic

tradition (similar to synagogue structure) Earliest charismatic patterns in Paul’s communities

disappear after death of earliest apostles – gradually elders with role of bishop at the head emerge

Flexible terminology in earliest period presbyteroi and episcopoi (overseer or bishop) sometimes used interchangeably

“Gradually the bishop became the chief officer of the local congregation and was called “priest,” while the elders were seen to share in the bishop’s ministry and to conduct the liturgy with a teaching/preaching function; later they were also called priests.” Valle, 131

Bishop ordains elders and deacons by the laying on of hands

Deacons have liturgical functions and service ministry

Important Stages in Organization

Early Second Century: Ignatius of Antioch and the Monarchical episcopacy

Late Second Century: Irenaeus states that the bishops of great cities derived their authority from unbroken chain of succession from the Apostles (Bishops have authority for forgiveness and readmission of penitents)

Early Third Century: Cyprian emphasizes the difference between clergy and laity. Bishop is at once priest, prophet, and teacher and unity of bishops central to unity of church

Nicaea in 325: Bishops grouped into provinces headed by metropolitan bishop (usually bishop of capital of civil province): Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, and Constantinople with Rome gaining ascendency in the 5th century

Women in the Church Examination of the literary texts of first and second

centuries CE suggests that women – many of them unnamed and quite ordinary according to the standards of their day – were actively doing things that contributed to the expansion of church groups

Women named as missionary partners (e.g. Prisca and Aquila [Rom 16:3-4; 1 Cor 16:19]; Andronicus and Junia [Rom 16:7])

Continue practices of Jewish and Pagan women in earliest period

Women’s leadership often tied to asceticism: early communities of women, virgins and widows

Women deacons and Deaconesses

Widows, Teachers, and Prophets

Networks of women contribute to the expansion of Christianity among women and children

Ignatius greets, “the virgins called widows” (Ign. Smyrn. 13.1)

The Shepherd of Hermas: “Grapte shall exhort the widows and the orphans” (Herm. Vis. 2.4.3)

3rd Century Didascalia Apostolorum: Indirect acknowledgement of the influence of widows in making contacts with potential converts

Martyrdoms of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas: Women making public impression in prison/martyrdom arena

Children Given the fact that the house was a meeting

place for the church it is reasonable to assume that children were very rarely absent

Interest in the socialization of children is found repeatedly in the teaching of the Apostolic Fathers (1 Clem 21:6,8; Did 4:9; Pol Phil 4:2)

In his correspondence with Laeta, Jerome casts Laeta’s daughter in the role of the child-evangelist: “When she sees her grandfather, she must leap upon his breast, put her arms around his neck, and whether he likes it or not, sing Alleluia in his ears.”

Household as Source of Conversion

The ideal Christian wife could serve as a symbol of group identity(Eph 5:22-33), and the perfect, modest, and discreet mediator between the church and the non-believing world (1 Pet 3:1-6)

Marriages between non-believers and Christians existed in the church from Paul’s day and virtually always involved women as the believing partner. Whether these “mixed marriages” resulted in the conversion of husbands and other members of the household to any significant degree remains uncertain

Clement of Rome connects the suffering of believing women who are divorced by their pagan husbands with indignities suffered by women during martyrdom (1 Clem 6:1-4)

Acts of Paul and Thecla: The importance attributed to household settings in the expansion and struggle for success of early Christianity

Asceticism Holy Men of 4th and 5th century Egypt, the cradle of monasticism (Anthony of

Egypt 250-356, hermit eventually followed by disciples; More communal style of monasticism with Pachomius (295-346): at his death 9 monasteries of men and two of women

In response to growing laxity, monks offered alternate society modeled on community of Jesus’ time and especially the Jerusalem community depicted in Acts 4:32-35. Reject conventional forms of settled life (marriage, ownership)

Asceticism: Questions and Challenges

Were NT texts concerning poverty and chastity to be taken literally?

Other questions had to do with “…the religious value of virginity and sexual renunciation; the role of self-mortification in reforming the human person; the spiritual gain of the mastery over one’s will, desires, and passions; the link between training the body and the training the soul, between controlling bodily energies and redirecting the heart to God.” (Vallee, 140)

Relationship between ascetics and espiscopal leadership

Dangers of extremism including insistance that all baptized individuals should be celibate, ascetic “overachievers”, hatred of the body and materialism (links with gnosticism), elitism and the development of a double standard