Christianity

Christianity is the religion of about a billion people whose belief system centers on the person and teachings of JESUS CHRIST. To Christians, Jesus of Nazareth was and is the MESSIAH or CHRIST promised by God in the prophecies of the Old Testament (the Hebrew BIBLE); by his life, death, and RESURRECTION he freed those who believe in him from their sinful state and made them recipients of God's saving GRACE. Many also await the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, which they believe will complete God's plan of salvation. The Christian Bible, or Holy Scripture, includes the Old Testament and also the New Testament, a collection of early Christian writings proclaiming Jesus as lord and savior. Arising in the Jewish milieu of 1st- century Palestine, Christianity quickly spread through the Mediterranean world and in the 4th century became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Christians have tended to separate into rival groups, but the main body of the Christian CHURCH was united under the Roman emperors. During the Middle Ages, when all of Europe became Christianized, this main church was divided into a Latin (Western European) and a Greek (Byzantine or Orthodox) branch. The Western church was in turn divided by the Reformation of the 16th century into the Roman Catholic church and a large number of smaller Protestant churches: Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist), Anglican, and sectarian. These divisions have continued and multiplied, but in the 20th century many Christians joined in the ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT to work for church unity. This resulted in the formation of the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES. Christianity, a strongly proselytizing religion, exists in all parts of the world.

Beliefs

Certain basic doctrines drawn from Scripture (especially from the Gospels and the letters of Saint PAUL), interpreted by the FATHERS OF THE CHURCH and the first four ecumenical councils, historically have been accepted by all three of the major traditions. According to this body of teaching, the original human beings rebelled against God, and from that time until the coming of Christ the world was ruled by SIN. The hope of a final reconciliation was kept alive by God's COVENANT with the Jews, the chosen people from whom the savior sprang. This savior, Jesus Christ, partly vanquished sin and Satan. Jesus, born of the Virgin MARY by the power of the HOLY SPIRIT, preached the coming of God's Kingdom but was rejected by the Jewish leaders, who delivered him to the Romans to be crucified. On the third day after his death God raised him up again. He appeared to his disciples, commanding them to spread the good news of salvation from sin and death to all people. This, according to Christian belief, is the mission of Christ's church.

Christians are monotheists (believers in one God). The early church, however, developed the characteristic Christian doctrine of the TRINITY, in which God is thought of as Creator (Father), Redeemer (Son), and Sustainer (Holy Spirit), but one God in essence.

Christianity inherited and modified the Jewish belief that the world would be transformed by the coming of the Reign of God. The Christians held that the bodies of those who had died would rise again, reanimated, and that the righteous would be triumphant, the wicked punished. This belief, along with Jesus' promise of "eternal life," developed into a doctrine of eternal rewards (heaven) and punishments (hell) after death. A source of doctrinal uncertainty was whether salvation depended on God's election in advance of a believer's faith, or even in a decision of God before the disobedience and fall of the first man and woman (see PREDESTINATION).

Although Christians today tend to emphasize what unites them rather than what divides them, substantial differences in faith exist among the various churches. Those in the Protestant tradition insist on Scripture as the sole source of God's REVELATION. The Roman Catholics and Orthodox give greater importance to the tradition of the church in defining the content of faith, believing it to be divinely guided in its understanding of scriptural revelation. They stress the role of ecumenical councils in the formulation of doctrine, and in Roman Catholicism the pope, or bishop of Rome, is regarded as the final authority in matters of belief.

Practice

Christian societies have exhibited great variety in ethos, from mutual love, acceptance, and pacifism on the one hand, to strict authoritarianism and forcible repression of dissent on the other. Justification for all of these has been found in various passages in the Bible. A prominent feature of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches is MONASTICISM.

Christians also vary widely in worship. Early Christian worship centered on two principal rites or SACRAMENTS: BAPTISM, a ceremonial washing that initiated converts into the church; and the EUCHARIST, a sacred meal preceded by prayers, chants, and Scripture readings, in which the participants were mysteriously united with Christ. As time went on, the Eucharist, or MASS, became surrounded by an increasingly elaborate ritual in the Latin, the Greek, and other Eastern churches, and in the Middle Ages Christians came to venerate saints--especially the Virgin Mary--and holy images. In the West, seven sacraments were recognized. The Protestant reformers retained 2 sacraments-- baptism and the Eucharist--rejecting the others, along with devotion to saints and images, as unscriptural. They simplified worship and emphasized preaching. Since the 19th century there has been a certain amount of reconvergence in worship among ecumenically minded Protestants and Roman Catholics, with each side adopting some of the other's practices. For example, the Catholic Mass is now in the vernacular. Among other groups in both traditions, however, the divergence remains great.

In most Christian churches Sunday, the day of Christ's resurrection, is observed as a time of rest and worship. The resurrection is more particularly commemorated at EASTER, a festival in the early spring. Another major Christian festival is CHRISTMAS, which commemorates the birth of Jesus.

Polity

Most churches make a distinction between the clergy--those specially ordained to perform spiritual functions--and ordinary believers, or lay people (see MINISTRY, CHRISTIAN). The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches have an all-male threefold ministry of bishops, priests, deacons, and several minor orders. The Roman Catholic church is headed by the pope, who governs through a centralized bureaucracy (the PAPACY) in consultation with his fellow bishops. In the Orthodox churches and those of the ANGLICAN COMMUNION (which retain the threefold ministry) lay influence is somewhat greater; major decisions are made by the bishops acting as a group with lay consultation, sometimes with votes. Church government among Lutherans, Reformed, and other Protestants generally involves the laity even more fully, policy being determined either by local congregations or by regional assemblies composed of both clergy and lay people. Most Protestant churches, including some provinces of the Anglican Communion, now permit the ordination of women.

During its early history the Christian church remained independent of any political regime. From the 4th century to the 18th century, however, churches accepted the protection of emperors, kings, and princes and became closely allied with secular governments. In some cases monarchs became the leaders of their own national churches. In the 19th and 20th centuries the trend has once again been in the direction of separation of CHURCH AND STATE, sometimes amicably achieved, sometimes otherwise.

History of the Early Church

The age of Christian antiquity extends from the beginning of the Christian era (dated from the approximate time of Jesus' birth) through the fall of the western half of the Roman Empire in the 5th century.

After Jesus was crucified, his followers, strengthened by the conviction that he had risen from the dead and that they were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, formed the first Christian community in Jerusalem. By the middle of the 1st century, missionaries were spreading the new religion among the peoples of Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Greece, and Italy. Chief among these was Saint Paul, who laid the foundations of Christian theology and played a key role in the transformation of Christianity from a Jewish sect to a world religion. The original Christians, being Jews, observed the dietary and ritualistic laws of the TORAH and required non-Jewish converts to do the same. Paul and others favored eliminating obligation, thus making Christianity more attractive to Gentiles. The separation from Judaism was completed by the destruction of the church of Jerusalem by the Romans during the Jewish Revolt of AD 66-70.

After that Christianity took on a predominantly Gentile character and began to develop in a number of different forms. At first the Christian community looked forward to the imminent return of Christ in glory and the establishment of the Kingdom. This hope carried on in the 2d century by MONTANISM, an ascetic movement emphasizing the action of the Holy Spirit. GNOSTICISM, which rose to prominence about the same time, also stressed the Spirit, but it disparaged the Old Testament and interpreted the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in a spiritual sense. The main body of the church condemned these movements as heretical and, when the Second Coming failed to occur, organized itself as a permanent institution under the leadership of its bishops.

Because of their refusal to recognize the divinity of the Roman emperor or pay homage to any god except their own, the Christians were subjected to a number of persecutions by the Roman authorities. The most savage of these were the one under Emperor Decius (249-51) and that instigated by Diocletian (303- 13). Many Christians welcomed martyrdom as an opportunity to share in the sufferings of Christ, and Christianity continued to grow despite all attempts to suppress it. Out of the experience of persecution a controversy grew over whether those who had denied their faith under pressure could be readmitted to communion, and whether the sacraments could be administered validly by clerics who had apostacized. In opposition to the Novatianists and DONATISTS, the larger church replied affirmatively to both questions.

The principal theme of early Christian theological development was the interpretation of the faith in terms of concepts drawn from Greek philosophical thought. This process was begun by Saint JUSTIN MARTYR, TERTULLIAN, ORIGEN, and other apologists of the 2d and 3d centuries. Following the recognition of Christianity by Emperor Constantine I in the early 4th century, it was continued in a lengthy controversy about the person of Christ. The problem was to defend Christian monotheism against the charge that the church also worshiped Christ as Lord and the Holy Spirit of God promised by Christ. In one solution, MONARCHIANISM, God the creator was supreme but shared his power with Christ, the LOGOS or Word. Another, Modalism, held that the three persons of the Trinity were modes or aspects of the same God. A third, ARIANISM, like Monarchianism, taught that the Son was inferior to the Father. These doctrines were rejected by the councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381), which, following the lead of Saint ATHANASIUS, affirmed the equality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, declaring them to be separate persons but of one substance. The Council of Ephesus (431) condemned NESTORIANISM, which denied that Mary was the mother of God, and the Council of Chalcedon (451) repudiated MONOPHYSITISM, which emphasized the divinity of Christ over his humanity.

The condemnation of Monophysitism alienated the churches of Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia, creating dissention in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire and lessening its ability to withstand the Islamic invasion in the 7th century. The empire, thereafter confined to Anatolia and the Balkans, remained the center of Orthodox Christianity until its demise in the 15th century.

In the West, where Roman rule was ended by the Germanic invasions of the 5th century, the church, strengthened by the guidance of such able leaders as Saint AUGUSTINE and Pope GREGORY I, survived to become the main civilizing influence in Europe during the Middle Ages. For the history of Christianity in that period and later, see MIDDLE AGES; MISSIONS, CHRISTIAN; ORTHODOX CHURCH; PAPACY; PROTESTANTISM; REFORMATION; and ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

George H. Williams, http://utminers.utep.edu/ajkline/christian.htm

Bibliography: Chadwick, Owen, ed., The Pelican History of the Church, 5 vols. (1960-70); Frend, W. H. C., The Early Church (1966); Latourette, Kenneth S., A History of Christianity, 2 vols., rev. ed. (1975); Pelikan, Jaroslav, The Christian Tradition, 4 vols. (1971-83); Urban, Linwood, A Short History of Christian Thought, rev. ed. (1995).