Assignment-1st week ofn December
Chapter 1 1st week of Dec. EXCURSUS TRAVELLING: THE EXCHANGE OF LETTERS AND LITERATURE The apostles, as well as many of the prophets, traveled unceasingly in the interests of their mission. However, even through the travels of the regular missionaries were necessary, our interests at present are the journeys undertaken by other prominent Christians, from which we may learn the vitality of personal communication and intercourse throughout the early centuries. The most extensive travels were those of origin who traveled from Alexandra’s and Caesarea to sidon, Tyre, Bostra, Antioch several times the following notable Christians journeyed from aboard to Rome:. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna Valentine the Gnostic, from Egypt Cerdo the Gnostic from sinope (Iren, 127,1,iii,4,3) and several other notable Christianity who traveled far and wide to propagate Christianity As for the exchange of letters, the Roman church occupies the foreground. For example, the pastoral letters were dispatched to Corinth by clement (c96 AD) The “shepherd” of Hermas, which was sent to churches aboard, the pastoral letter of bishop Soter in Corinth (i.e. the homily he sent thither) and several other letters dispatched to and from several others in propaganda of Christianity The co – operation the brotherliness, and moreover the mental activity of Christians, are patent in this connection, and they were powerful levers in the extension of the cause. The Roman church was the catholic church. It was more than the mere system and representative of Christian. Unity; to it more than to any other Christians owed unity itself. The technical side of the spread of early Christian literature has not yet been investigated, and any results that can be reached are far from numerous. We must realize, however, that a large number of these writings were not edited. In the technical sense of the term never, at any rate, until after some generations had passed. There were editions of the New Testament or of the Old Testament until Theodotian, while revised editions were meant by those early fathers who bewailed the falsification of the Bible texts by the gnostics. Even after the editions of the scriptures were published they were frequently transcribed at will from some rough copy. Unedited or unpublished writings were naturally exposed in a special degree to the risk of falsification. The church, fathers are full complaints on this score. Yet even those which were edited were not preserved with due care. To what extent the literature of Christianity fell into the hands of its opponents, is a matter about which we know next to nothing. Celsus furnished himself with quite considerable Christian library, in which he studied deeply before he wrote against the Christians; but it is merely a rhetorical phrase, when Athenagoras assumes that the emperors know the old Testament. The attitude of the apologists to the scriptures, whether they are quoting them or not, shows that they do not presuppose any knowledge of their contents. One great obstacle to the diffusion of the scriptures lay in the Greek version, which was inartistic and offensive, but still more in the old Latin version of the Bible, which in many parts was simply intolerable. In the Latin west, Christian literature had but little to do with the spread of Christian religion; in the East, upon the contrary, it became onwards. CHAPTER 11 METHODS OF THE MISSION: CATECHIZING AND BAPTISM, THE INVASION OF DOMESTIC LIFE The missionary preaching includes the missionary methods. The one God, Jesus Christ as son and Lord according to apostolic tradition future judgment and the resurrection – these truths were preached. So was the gospel of the saviour and of salvation, of love and charity. The new religion was stated and verified as spirit and power and also as the power to lead a new moral life, to practice of self- control. News was brought of a divine revelation to which humanity must yield itself by faith. In 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul expressly states that he gave a central place to the proclamation of the crucified Christ. He proclaimed Christ as the saviour who wiped away sins. As the decisive proof of men’s impiety and unrighteousness, Paul adduced their ignorance regarding God as idolatry, an ignorance which was their own fault. Paul’s method was to first of al bring his hears to admit “we are sinners, one and all”. Then he led them to the cross of Christ, where he developed the conception of the cross as the power and the wisdom of God. And interwoven with all this, in characteristic fashion, lay expositions of the flesh and the spirit, with allusions to the approaching judgment. It was know that some impostors joined the church in order to profit by the brotherly kindness of its members; but even pagans as a missionary bribe. What they did allege was that Christians won credulous people to their religion with their words of doom, and that they promised the heaven – laden a vain support, and the guilty an unlawful, pardon. When a newcomer was admitted into the Christian church, he was baptized. Immersion in relation to Christ was a dying with him, or an absorption into his death; the water was the symbol of his blood, Paul himself taught this doctrine, but he rejected the speculative nations of the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1: 13). There were several other issues such as discipline marriage, divorce;. In terms of invasion of domestic life, clement says if anyone :has a godless father or brother or son, who would be a hindrance to the faith and an obstacle to the higher life, he must not associate with him or share his position; he must abjure the fleshly the on account of the spiritual hostility. In how many cases the husband was a pagan and the wife a Christian such a relationship may have frequently been tolerable, but think of all the distress and anguish involved by these marriages in the majority of cases. A living faith requires no special methods” for its propagation; on its sweeps over every obstacle; even the strongest natural affections cannot overpower it. However, from the third century, Christianity was chiefly influential as the monotheistic religion of mysteries and as a powerful church which embrace holy persons, holy books, a holy doctrine, and a sanctifying cultus. The church stooped to meet the needles of the masses in a way different from what had hither to been followed; she studied their traditional habits of worship and their polytheistic tendencies by instituting and organizing festivals, delivers, saints, and local sacred sites, after the popular fashion. In this connection, the missionary method followed by Gregory Thaumaturgies is thoroughly characteristic; by actually promoting. CHAPTER 111 THE NAMES OF CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS Jesus called those who gathered round him “disciples” and he called himself the “teacher”. The term “disciples” fell into disuse because it no longer expressed the relationship in which Christians now found themselves placed. Consequently, other terms such as” God’s people, the seed of Abraham, the chosen people, the twelve tribes, the elect, the servants of God believers, saints brethren and the church of God. Of these names, the first seven never became technical terms taken singly but collectively. The three characteristics titles however are those of saints, brethren and the church of God. The name catholic originally meant Christendom as a whole in contrast to individual charge. It follows that the orthodox Christians were called catholic and ecclesiastics at the period of the valentinian heresy. The name Christians which became the cardinal title of the faith was first mentioned in Antioch among pagans who heard that a learn called “Christ” was the lord and master of the new sect. EXCURSU 1 FRIENDS We should expect to find that Christians also call themselves “the friends”. But there is hardly any passage bearing this out. EXCURSUS 11 CHARISTIAN NAMES By the middle of the third century pagan names were still employed quite freely throughout Northern Africa, and the necessity of employing Christian names had already yet arisen An inscription and writings testify, that Christians in the East and West Alike made or almost made exclusive use of the old pagan names in their environment till after the middle of the third century, the martyrs perished because they declined to sacrifice to the gods whose names they bore. The problem becomes even harder when one recollects that Bible itself contains examples of fresh names being given. We may point to the fact that a whole series of pagan names must have been rendered sacred from the outset by the more fact of distinguished Christians having borne them. Soon Christians got to the length of strenuously asserting that there was nothing in a name. Even surnames with a Christian meaning are extremely rare. But soon Christians started adding Christian title to their original names in the second century. In the days when Christians bore pagan names and nothing more the dividing lone between Christianity and the world was drawn much, more sharply than in the days when they began to call themselves Peter and Paul. In the practice of infant baptism, a name was conferred upon the child at this solemn act, it naturally seemed good to choose a specifically Christian name. Also, chiefly the more the church entered the world, the more the world also entered the church. Soon after, bishop Dionysius of Alexandria wrote that c Christians prefer to call their children Peter and Paul. It was then also that Christian changes of name began to be common. But when the first of them was questioned by the magistrate he replied not with his own name but with that of the Old Testament prophet. Children became to call themselves Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel instead of the name given them by their parents which were probably derived from idols. The motive behind naming their children after patron saints and patriarchs disclosed by theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus in Syria thirty years afterwards was that people are to give their children the name of saints and martyrs in order to win them the protection and patronage of these heroes.
Chapter 1 1st week of Dec. EXCURSUS TRAVELLING: THE EXCHANGE OF LETTERS AND LITERATURE The apostles, as well as many of the prophets, traveled unceasingly in the interests of their mission. However, even through the travels of the regular missionaries were necessary, our interests at present are the journeys undertaken by other prominent Christians, from which we may learn the vitality of personal communication and intercourse throughout the early centuries. The most extensive travels were those of origin who traveled from Alexandra’s and Caesarea to sidon, Tyre, Bostra, Antioch several times the following notable Christians journeyed from aboard to Rome:. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna Valentine the Gnostic, from Egypt Cerdo the Gnostic from sinope (Iren, 127,1,iii,4,3) and several other notable Christianity who traveled far and wide to propagate Christianity As for the exchange of letters, the Roman church occupies the foreground. For example, the pastoral letters were dispatched to Corinth by clement (c96 AD) The “shepherd” of Hermas, which was sent to churches aboard, the pastoral letter of bishop Soter in Corinth (i.e. the homily he sent thither) and several other letters dispatched to and from several others in propaganda of Christianity The co – operation the brotherliness, and moreover the mental activity of Christians, are patent in this connection, and they were powerful levers in the extension of the cause. The Roman church was the catholic church. It was more than the mere system and representative of Christian. Unity; to it more than to any other Christians owed unity itself. The technical side of the spread of early Christian literature has not yet been investigated, and any results that can be reached are far from numerous. We must realize, however, that a large number of these writings were not edited. In the technical sense of the term never, at any rate, until after some generations had passed. There were editions of the New Testament or of the Old Testament until Theodotian, while revised editions were meant by those early fathers who bewailed the falsification of the Bible texts by the gnostics. Even after the editions of the scriptures were published they were frequently transcribed at will from some rough copy. Unedited or unpublished writings were naturally exposed in a special degree to the risk of falsification. The church, fathers are full complaints on this score. Yet even those which were edited were not preserved with due care. To what extent the literature of Christianity fell into the hands of its opponents, is a matter about which we know next to nothing. Celsus furnished himself with quite considerable Christian library, in which he studied deeply before he wrote against the Christians; but it is merely a rhetorical phrase, when Athenagoras assumes that the emperors know the old Testament. The attitude of the apologists to the scriptures, whether they are quoting them or not, shows that they do not presuppose any knowledge of their contents. One great obstacle to the diffusion of the scriptures lay in the Greek version, which was inartistic and offensive, but still more in the old Latin version of the Bible, which in many parts was simply intolerable. In the Latin west, Christian literature had but little to do with the spread of Christian religion; in the East, upon the contrary, it became onwards. CHAPTER 11 METHODS OF THE MISSION: CATECHIZING AND BAPTISM, THE INVASION OF DOMESTIC LIFE The missionary preaching includes the missionary methods. The one God, Jesus Christ as son and Lord according to apostolic tradition future judgment and the resurrection – these truths were preached. So was the gospel of the saviour and of salvation, of love and charity. The new religion was stated and verified as spirit and power and also as the power to lead a new moral life, to practice of self- control. News was brought of a divine revelation to which humanity must yield itself by faith. In 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul expressly states that he gave a central place to the proclamation of the crucified Christ. He proclaimed Christ as the saviour who wiped away sins. As the decisive proof of men’s impiety and unrighteousness, Paul adduced their ignorance regarding God as idolatry, an ignorance which was their own fault. Paul’s method was to first of al bring his hears to admit “we are sinners, one and all”. Then he led them to the cross of Christ, where he developed the conception of the cross as the power and the wisdom of God. And interwoven with all this, in characteristic fashion, lay expositions of the flesh and the spirit, with allusions to the approaching judgment. It was know that some impostors joined the church in order to profit by the brotherly kindness of its members; but even pagans as a missionary bribe. What they did allege was that Christians won credulous people to their religion with their words of doom, and that they promised the heaven – laden a vain support, and the guilty an unlawful, pardon. When a newcomer was admitted into the Christian church, he was baptized. Immersion in relation to Christ was a dying with him, or an absorption into his death; the water was the symbol of his blood, Paul himself taught this doctrine, but he rejected the speculative nations of the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1: 13). There were several other issues such as discipline marriage, divorce;. In terms of invasion of domestic life, clement says if anyone :has a godless father or brother or son, who would be a hindrance to the faith and an obstacle to the higher life, he must not associate with him or share his position; he must abjure the fleshly the on account of the spiritual hostility. In how many cases the husband was a pagan and the wife a Christian such a relationship may have frequently been tolerable, but think of all the distress and anguish involved by these marriages in the majority of cases. A living faith requires no special methods” for its propagation; on its sweeps over every obstacle; even the strongest natural affections cannot overpower it. However, from the third century, Christianity was chiefly influential as the monotheistic religion of mysteries and as a powerful church which embrace holy persons, holy books, a holy doctrine, and a sanctifying cultus. The church stooped to meet the needles of the masses in a way different from what had hither to been followed; she studied their traditional habits of worship and their polytheistic tendencies by instituting and organizing festivals, delivers, saints, and local sacred sites, after the popular fashion. In this connection, the missionary method followed by Gregory Thaumaturgies is thoroughly characteristic; by actually promoting. CHAPTER 111 THE NAMES OF CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS Jesus called those who gathered round him “disciples” and he called himself the “teacher”. The term “disciples” fell into disuse because it no longer expressed the relationship in which Christians now found themselves placed. Consequently, other terms such as” God’s people, the seed of Abraham, the chosen people, the twelve tribes, the elect, the servants of God believers, saints brethren and the church of God. Of these names, the first seven never became technical terms taken singly but collectively. The three characteristics titles however are those of saints, brethren and the church of God. The name catholic originally meant Christendom as a whole in contrast to individual charge. It follows that the orthodox Christians were called catholic and ecclesiastics at the period of the valentinian heresy. The name Christians which became the cardinal title of the faith was first mentioned in Antioch among pagans who heard that a learn called “Christ” was the lord and master of the new sect. EXCURSU 1 FRIENDS We should expect to find that Christians also call themselves “the friends”. But there is hardly any passage bearing this out. EXCURSUS 11 CHARISTIAN NAMES By the middle of the third century pagan names were still employed quite freely throughout Northern Africa, and the necessity of employing Christian names had already yet arisen An inscription and writings testify, that Christians in the East and West Alike made or almost made exclusive use of the old pagan names in their environment till after the middle of the third century, the martyrs perished because they declined to sacrifice to the gods whose names they bore. The problem becomes even harder when one recollects that Bible itself contains examples of fresh names being given. We may point to the fact that a whole series of pagan names must have been rendered sacred from the outset by the more fact of distinguished Christians having borne them. Soon Christians got to the length of strenuously asserting that there was nothing in a name. Even surnames with a Christian meaning are extremely rare. But soon Christians started adding Christian title to their original names in the second century. In the days when Christians bore pagan names and nothing more the dividing lone between Christianity and the world was drawn much, more sharply than in the days when they began to call themselves Peter and Paul. In the practice of infant baptism, a name was conferred upon the child at this solemn act, it naturally seemed good to choose a specifically Christian name. Also, chiefly the more the church entered the world, the more the world also entered the church. Soon after, bishop Dionysius of Alexandria wrote that c Christians prefer to call their children Peter and Paul. It was then also that Christian changes of name began to be common. But when the first of them was questioned by the magistrate he replied not with his own name but with that of the Old Testament prophet. Children became to call themselves Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel instead of the name given them by their parents which were probably derived from idols. The motive behind naming their children after patron saints and patriarchs disclosed by theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus in Syria thirty years afterwards was that people are to give their children the name of saints and martyrs in order to win them the protection and patronage of these heroes.