Mere Christianity: What Is Fellowship?. New Testament Christianity.
Christianity
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Transcript of Christianity
Comparative Religions
Christianity
Christianity is the most widespread religion and has the largest number of followers.
There are three major divisions in Christianity:Roman CatholicismEastern OrthodoxyProtestantism
Christianity centers on the life of Jesus of Nazareth
The Historical Jesus
JesusCharismatic wonder-workerMediated between the everyday world and the
Spirit world Drew upon the Spirit world to alleviate
suffering and seek a new social order“The spirit of the Lord is upon me.”
The spiritual order dominated the biblical tradition in which Jesus stood
It included angels and other invisible beings, but it centered in YahwehThe two were no spatially separateYahweh spoke through prophetsFasting and solitude were important in
communications
The most important fact for the understanding of Jesus’ historical career is that he stood squarely in the tradition of these Spirit-filled mediators.John the Baptist baptized Jesus, causing the heavens
to open and the Spirit of the Lord to descend and declare the Lord’s pleasure with Jesus
Jesus then went into the wilderness for 40 daysWhen he returned from the wilderness, he was empowered
“By the Spirit of God I cast out demons”Jesus accepted without question the supremacy of
Spirit over natureHealed diseasesCast out demonsQuelled stormsParted watersBrought the dead back to life
Jesus used this spiritual power to heal humanity, beginning with the Jews
“Thy kingdom come, on earth”The Jews were in desperate situations. Four sects of
Jews developed from this desperation:Sadducees – made the best of a bad situation.
Accommodated themselves to Hellenistic culture and Roman rule.
The other three hoped for change Essenes believed the world was too corrupt to allow for
faith’s reflowering, so they withdrew into property-sharing communes and devoted themselves to piety
Pharisees remained within society and sought to revitalize Judaism through adhering strictly to the Mosaic law, especially its holiness code
The fourth group were rebels who sought change through armed rebellion It was their revolt in 70 ce that brought the second destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
Jesus introduced a fifth option for the JewsHe wanted changed where the Sadducees did notHe stayed in the world while the Essenes left itHe promoted peace where the rebels wanted warHe taught Yahweh’s compassion where the Pharisees
taught his holinessThe Pharisees thought since Yahweh was holy, He
wanted the world to be holy too. He chose the Jews to make the world holy.
Jesus disagreed with the Pharisees because of the social lines/classes that were created by it.Pharisaic belief created
The clean and uncleanThe pure and the defiledThe sacred and the profaneJew and GentileReligious and Sinner
Jesus saw the social barriers as an affront to the compassion of Yahweh.
“He went about doing good”He performed miracles but did not emphasize them
He performed them quietly, apart from the crowdHe used them as demonstrations of faith, not power
Jesus was comfortable amongOrdinary peopleSocial misfits
Jesus Healed themCounseled them
Jesus’ disciples and followers thought that if divine goodness were to manifest itself in human form, this is how it would behave
The Christ of Faith
“Never spoke man thus”It was what Jesus said
All of his teachings have counterparts in the Old Testament or Talmud
All together, they are vivid, urgent, and appear newReally, Jesus didn’t say much, but it was HOW
he said it…Love your neighbor as yourselfWhat you would like people to do to you, do to
themCome unto me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you restYou shall know the truth and the truth shall set you
free
Jesus told stories too that amazed those who listened…Stories of
Buried treasureSowersPerl merchantsA good Samaritan
He advised people the opposite of what human nature tended to leanDon’t fight, turn the other cheekLove your enemies and bless those who curse youThe sun rises on the just and the unjustOutcasts and harlots will enter the kingdom of God before
the fake righteousThe way to salvation is narrowHappy people are meek, they cry and are merciful and
pure in heart
The only way to make sense of what Jesus said is to realizeHe saw God as one who loves human beings
absolutelyHe saw God as one who doesn’t look at what
someone was worthThink about this…
Why should we give someone our cloak and our coat?Because God has ministered far more to our needs
Why should we go that extra mile for others?Because we know God has stayed with us for a lot
longerWhy should love our friends AND our enemies?
Because God’s sun shines on both
“We have seen his glory” Jesus didn’t just teach these things, he LIVED them
His entire life was one of Humility Self-giving Love that was unselfish
He didn’t care what people thought of him, he cared about what people thought of God
He loved people and they love himLoved children
Jesus didn’t like anything that stood in the way or mislead people about God’s compassion and love for people. Jesus hatedInjusticeHypocrisy
His disciples and the people said, “We have seen his glory, full of grace and truth
What happened after the crucifixion?Jesus’ close associates reported that he
appeared to them in a new wayCorporeality – eating, and Thomas’s touching the
wound in his sideVisionary – seeing him pass through closed doors
Jesus seems to have resumed his former body, but it was a resurrection, not a resuscitation
Christology is a result of the faith in Jesus’ resurrection
The End & the Beginning
ChristologyExtended the status of goodness in the
universe because it was omnipotent Resurrection reversed the cosmic position in
which the cross has placed Jesus’ goodness.The love of Jesus was not fragile, it was victorious
over everything – including death
Christians became one of the most dynamic groups in human historyThey exploded across the Greco-Roman world
Preaching the Gospel – translated Good NewsBegan in an upper room in JerusalemIn their own generation Christianity had taken root in every
major city of their regionBecause of persecution Christian used the symbol of
the fish to identify each other.When they drew it, it’s head pointed toward the place
where they would secretly meetBecause the Greek letters for fish were also the first
letters of the phrase “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”
The Good News
Those hearing the Good News were impressed by what they saw and what they heardThey saw transformed livesThey saw people who had changed overnight by finding
the secret of livingNew Christians seemed to have two qualities that
impacted those around themMutual regard for others “see how these Christians
love on anotherTotal absence of social distance they really did regard one
another as equals Joy – Christians possessed an inner peace that surfaced
in happiness even though they were persecuted
What produced their joy and love?Three intolerable burdens had been lifted from
the Christians shouldersFear – including fear of deathGuiltSelf-centeredness
What freed them from these things?Love
LoveHuman love comes from being bombarded by finite
human loveEarly Christians had felt love in infinite proportions
flowing from Jesus – God’s loveIf we felt ourselves loved vividly and personally by one
who unites all power and perfection that would also reduce our fears, guilt and self-centeredness to zero.
New Christians had felt Jesus’ love and believed he was God incarnate so they had felt God’s love.
A new love was born – Christian loveConventional love is evoked by lovable qualitiesChristian love embraced sinners, outcasts,
Samaritans, and enemiesGood example is I Corinthians 13
Christians never felt alone, they believed that Jesus was in their midst as a concrete, energizing power“I am the vine, you are the branches”The Holy Spirit was the life-blood flowing
through the vineTalents of each Christian were different, but
they all had the same life-giving substance – the Holy Spirit
The Church is the Mystical Body of ChristChrist dropped the human body and exchanged
it for a new physical body – the churchChrist’s mission continued through the church
The Mystical Body of Christ
The development of the church literally incorporated people into Christ’s person – the church
Christians varied then and still vary now in their connection with ChristHoly Spirit might be flowing fully through themThey may be a bit sluggishThey could be apostate – paralyzed in their
connectionThe church and the Holy Spirit bound
Christians together and put them in the closest conceivable relation to Christ himself.
Christians came to see the church as having a double aspectThe Invisible Church – Christ and the Holy Spirit
dwelling in people and giving them grace and loveThe Visible Church – it fell short of perfection and
needed to be criticized because it was full of fallible human beings.
Christians differ on the possibilities of salvationLiberals think salvation is possible outside the
Body of ChristFundamentalists think it is notA lot of Christians are in between.
The reason the disciples were first drawn to Jesus was that they were living in the presence of someone in whom love, joy, and power intersected in a way they believed was divine
What is theology?Religion always includes an ethicEthics springs from a vision of reality that sets it in
motionThe vision is born of experience
Religious experience is invisible so it gives rise to symbols as the mind tries to think about the invisible realities
The Mind of the Church
So…we can define theology as the systematization of thoughts about the symbols that religious experience gives rise to
Christian Creeds are the bedrock of Christian theology for being the earliest attempts by Christians to understand systematically the events that had transformed their lives
Three doctrines that are the Christian CreedsDoctrine of the Incarnation claims something
about both God and JesusJesus – by identifying Jesus with God, they said his
life provides the perfect model for usMaking Jesus God and man wasn’t as foreign to the
people in that day as it is today, Emperors often claimed to be divine.
Jesus’ impact laid in the kind of God he disclosed – a God who was willing to assume the limitations of human life Concerned about humanity Concerned enough to suffer in its behalf
These two concerns caused red flags in the eyes of the Jews and the Romans. These worried them as did the Christians’ radically egalitarian social views
Christians were persecuted, but developed many ways to avoid persecution if possible.
Christians didn’t emphasize Jesus’ divinity, their Creeds took it as their first task to insure his humanity
The first Creed that Christians used to prove Christ’s humanity was the Apostles Creed I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven
and Earth I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our LordWho was conceived by the Virgin MarySuffered under Pontius PilateWas crucified, dead and buriedThe third day he arose from the dead, and is seated at the
right hand of the Father and will come again to judge the living and the dead
I believe in the universal Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins and live everlasting.
Amen
After acknowledging God, the Creed moves immediately to its overriding concern: that part of the God-man splice was human in every respect
The Church felt it needed to retain Christ’s humanity.Christ was a bridge between God and humanity
and the bridge must touch both sides
The Doctrine of the AtonementRoot meaning is reconciliation The recovery of wholeness or at-one-mentChristians believed that Christ’s life and death
had effected an unparalleled rapprochement between God and humanity.
Two metaphors have dominated the Church’s understanding of this realignmentThe legalistic one assumes that disobedience –
depicted by the eating of forbidden fruit in Eden – estranged humanity from GodThe sin was of infinite proportion for having been directed
against an infinite GodOnly an infinite initiative could heal the damage doneChrist accomplished this through his vicarious death on
the cross
The deeper meaning of the word is singularSin is disconnectedness, or estrangement from
GodThe heart’s misplacementA misalignment of its affections
Self-love pulls against our love for othersThe bondage that imprisons us is self-love
The higher power to overcome/bridge the gap between God and humanity came in the form of ChristJesus is credited for the restoration of the
bridge between God and humanity – At-one-ment!
The Doctrine of the TrinityWhile god is fully one, God is also three
This is where Jews and Muslims often believe that Christians are not monotheistic
Christians are monotheistic – water, steam, and ice are all H2O just in different fashions
Christians, most of which were Jewish, affirmed the deity of Yahweh easily enough.
They say Jesus as Yahweh’s extension in the worldThen came Pentecost
While the disciples were together suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind
The wind filled the entire house where they were stayingDivided tongues of fire appeared among themA tongue rested on each of themAll of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
Christians viewed this as the arrival of a third party to the divine assembly – thus, the Trinity!
313 ce – the Church becomes a legally recognized religion in Rome
380 ce – it becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire
1054 ce – the Church divides into the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church
16th Century ce – Roman Catholicism is further divides into Protestantism with the Protestant Reformation
The Three Great Branches areRoman CatholicEastern OrthodoxyProtestanism
The Three Great Branches of Christianity
Roman Catholic Church is the Teaching Authority and the Sacramental Agent
Teaching AuthorityBegins with the concept that God came to
earth in the person of Jesus Christ to teach people how to live in this world so as to inherit eternal life
The Gospels alone don’t do everything here because they contain ambiguities
Bible Study, individually pursued, doesn’t resolve these ambiguities because people come up with different interpretations
Roman Catholicism
AmbiguitiesIs divorce permissible?Was Christ born of a virgin?Did his body ascend after death?Is the fourth Gospel authentic?
The Church stands as the Supreme Court on these issues. This leads to the doctrine of papal infallibilityThe earthly head of the Church is the PopeThe Popes are the successors to St. PeterThe doctrine of papal infallibility asserts that when the
Pope speaks officially on matters of faith and morals God protects him from error
The Pope is NOT endowed with extraordinary intelligenceHe does NOT know the answer to every conceivable questionCatholics do NOT have to accept the Pope’s view on politics
The Church as the Sacramental AgentIt’s one thing to know what to do, but another
thing to be able to do it.The Sacraments help Catholics know how to be
able to DO what needs to be done.Since the 12th Century the Roman Catholics
have had seven Sacraments:BaptismConfirmationHoly MatrimonyHoly OrdersSacrament of the SickReconciliationMass
Reconciliation is confessionMass is the Holy Eucharist or Communion
The Catholic Church teaches that when the eucharist elements are consecrated, they become Christ’s body and blood.
The Eucharist conveys grace to Catholics like a boat conveys its passengers
The other six sacraments (except Baptism – which delivers the soul into the supernatural order) convey grace like a letter conveys meaning.
The Eastern Orthodox Church broke officially with the roman Church in 1054 ce.
They honor the same SacramentsShare the same intent regarding the Teaching AuthorityTwo differences arise
The first of these is numericalThe Eastern Church sees fewer issues on which unanimity is called
forOnly ones mentioned in scripture can qualifyOnly 7 times – in the Seven Ecumenical Councils, all before 787 –
has there been need to interpret what scripture says about themThe Roman Catholic Church looks positively on subsequent
pronouncements seeing them as development of doctrineThe Eastern Church sees these as additions which Christians may,
but need not, endorse
Eastern Orthodoxy
The two churches also differ on how these additions are arrived atThe Roman Catholics have the PopeThe Eastern Church has no Pope, they believe God’s truth is
disclosed through “the conscience of the Church” a phrase that refers to Christian consensus
This Eastern view is very corporateAll Christians consider themselves to be “members of one
another”The Eastern Church has taken this more seriously
Each Christian is working, not to save his or her individual soul, but to attain salvation with and through the rest of the Church. “One can be damned alone but saved only with others.” – From Russia
Not only is the destiny of the individual bound up with the entire Church, individuals are responsible for helping to sanctify the worlds of nature and history
The welfare of everything in creation is affected to some degree by what each individual contributes to or detracts from it.
The practical side of this…The Church dogmas reflect the consciences of
Christians generally is one of these, and the principle holds in practical matters as well
The laity in each congregation elect their own clergy It is believed that divine guidance is thought to
suffuse the entire Church in these choicesThe clergy is really on separated by being able
to administer the SacramentsThey can marryEven the “head” of the Church, the Patriarch of
Constantinople, is no more than the “first among equals”
The laity is known as the ‘royal priesthood’
Christianity believes that reality contains two realmsThe naturalThe supernatural
Following death, human life moves to the supernatural domainRoman Catholicism holds that the Trinity
dwells in every Christian soul, but its presence is not normally felt
The Eastern Church actively encourages its members to take the initiative toward the mystical life.
The causes that led to the 16th Century break with Roman CatholicismPolitical economyNationalismRenaissance individualismConcern over ecclesiastical abusesJustification by faithProtestant Principle
Protestantism
The two main reasons for the break were Justification by faith and the Protestant Principle
Justification by FaithProtestant faith is not just a matter of belief It is a response of the entire self
Movement of the mind (believing in certain things)Movement of the heart (loving and trusting those things)Movement of the will (doing things that are prompted by
that loveCreeds have their place, but unless the doctrines one
professes reach one’s heart and change the way life feels, they are mere mouthings
Rituals – prayer, churchgoing, etc – unless they awaken the actual experience of God’s love they are no good either
Where faith is genuine, people want to help others
Protestant Principle warns against idolatryProtestant definition of idolatry is giving one’s life
first and foremost to something in the finite worldIdols cannot deliver on unlimited investments in themIn Biblical times idolatry involved golden calves and
graven imagesToday, idolatry may be sex, success, oneself, an
ideology, an ethnic group, or even one’s nationalityThe chief Protestant idolatry has been bibliolatry –
excessive adherence to the literal interpretation of the Bible
Another instance of idolatry is the deification of private religious experience An example of this is when people think they are Christ or God
or when they do unlawful things because they say God told them to do it.
Holding the Bible in such high, infallible, esteem can also be a form of idolatry Protestants believe that the Bible is the most reliable way they
can enter the divine life - by reading this record of God’s grace with total openness and divine intent
The dangers of misconstruing the Bible is the prospect that they will derive different truths from their encounters The splintering of Protestantism into different
denominations is proof of this hazard Overall, Protestants will take the risk of interpretation to keep
the freedom of interpretation