The spread of Christianity around the world. To the ends of the earth: how did Christianity spread? The origins of Christianity

The spread of Christianity

As mentioned above, Christianity from its very inception attracted people of different social and property status, although, of course, Christians from the bottom of society predominated. In the II-III centuries. more and more wealthy people, including those belonging to the very top, adopted the new creed. This process can be judged both by the specific biographies of individual Christians, and by the place in Christian literature the issue of the behavior of Christians from among the wealthy began to occupy, and the possibility of their preservation of their property.

The first mentions of Christians from the highest Roman nobility are not entirely reliable, although they are probable. So, the historian Dio Cassius writes that the emperor Domitian executed his relative Flavius \u200b\u200bClement and his wife, accusing them, among other things, of atheism, "according to which many others were condemned, inclined to the Jewish rites." This message can be interpreted as an indication of the belonging of the emperor's relatives to Christians. Indeed, in the eyes of the Roman historian, Christianity was just a Jewish sect. In addition, the Christian writer Tertullian writes about the persecution of Christians by Domitian. Finally, the cemetery, named after Clement's wife Flavia Domitilla, is located next to the ancient Christian cemetery.

In the II-III centuries. social conditions and socio-psychological conditions led to an increase in the number of Christians among people not only wealthy, but also occupying a high position in society. It is known that the mistress of Emperor Commodus Marcia was a Christian and helped her fellow believers during their persecution. Around the middle of the 2nd century. among the Roman Christians a certain Marcion appeared, a wealthy ship-owner from the province of Pontus in Asia Minor. Marcion made a significant monetary contribution to the treasury of the Roman community and tried to take a leading position there. Indirect evidence of the presence among Roman Christians of people with sufficient social weight is contained in a letter to the bishop of Antioch of the II century. Ignatius, addressed to Roman Christians. In this letter, Ignatius, who was imprisoned, asks his Roman brothers not to use their influence to free him (he believed that martyrdom would provide his soul with heavenly bliss).

In the III century. in a number of areas, gravestones appear on which the names of people belonging to the new creed are immortalized. On a common gravestone of a noble family from the city of Apollonia in Asia Minor (representatives of this family held the hereditary position of members of the city council) one of its members is named a Christian. Another noble family (she traces her ancestors back to Augustus) from the same city also had Christians. According to the testimony of Tertullian (III century), the confidant of the emperor Septimius Severus was a Christian procurator; and in published in the middle of the III century. the edict of the emperor Valerian speaks of the punishment that people belonging to the upper classes in the state (senators and equestrians) should be subjected to for adherence to Christianity. The fact that the Roman nobility began to convert to Christianity should not be surprising. If the Roman senators were ready to believe the “prophet” Alexander, then Christians, whose teaching created a feeling of informal community, promised salvation to everyone, no matter what nationality he belonged to and no matter what social position he occupied, could even more attracted them to Christians.

The increase in the number of wealthy people among Christians was not only due to penetration from outside; some Christians, continuing their "worldly" activities, could use the contacts between Christians in different cities, help provided by their fellows, and sometimes community funds for personal enrichment. In a letter from Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna to the Christians of Philip (about the middle of the 2nd century), by the way, it is said that the author of the letter grieves for a certain Valens, who once belonged to the ministers of the community (clergy), but showed a passion for enrichment (apparently, at the expense of community funds). One of the ways the leaders of Christian communities acquired wealth was custody of the bequests. Christians quite often bequeathed their property to the community, appointing elders as executors; often, elders were also appointed guardians of young children. The use of inheritance and guardianship for personal purposes caused in the III century. special decisions of bishops, forbidding clerics to engage in worldly affairs.

The question of the attitude to wealth (not to wealth in general, which is outside the world of Christians, as it was in the 1st century, but to the real wealth of specific people belonging to Christian communities) is acute in Christian literature of the 2nd-3rd centuries, and the relevance of this question indicates a sufficient prevalence of Christianity among the wealthy strata of the population.

This problem is considered, in particular, in the work "Shepherd", the author of which is considered to be a certain Herma, who apparently lived during the reign of the Antonines. Herma, in his own words, came from freedmen, became rich, then went bankrupt. His work, written in the genre of the apocalypse (it is a description of the visions that appeared to the author), is full of sympathy for the poor. Herma says that, being rich, he was useless to God, while being ruined, he became useful. All the more indicative is his attitude to wealth: rich Christians are also stones from which the church is built, but during persecutions these people "for the sake of their riches can deny the Lord." To be saved and become true Christians, they must diminish their wealth by giving part of it to the poor. He calls for charity: "So, do charity, who has received how much from the Lord ..." Herma's attitude to wealth is typical for Christians of the 2nd-3rd centuries. There have been no changes for the better in earthly life, the second coming does not come, which means that the only hope in this world is for the help of our more prosperous fellow believers. Herma even tries to justify the mutual dependence of the rich and the poor: the rich, giving part of their fortune to the poor, become pleasing to God, since the poor, living off alms, pray for them. Only to those who profit from the believers, Herma is irreconcilable. Thus, he sharply condemns those ministers who "performed badly in their ministry," plundering the property of widows and orphans and profiting from their ministry.

So, even among Christians from the bottom there is a conciliatory attitude towards the rich, which, in turn, contributed to the influx of wealthy people into Christian communities. And in the III century. the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria wrote the essay "Which rich man will be saved?", in which he condemns the desire for luxury inherent in the top of Roman society, but at the same time he does not oppose wealth as such. “The Lord does not condemn wealth and does not deprive people of the heavenly inheritance for the mere fact that they are rich, especially when they are zealous in fulfilling his commandments,” writes Clement.

In the III century. changes in Christian communities and attitudes towards the occupation of various government positions that Christians in the 1st century. considered completely unacceptable. Apparently, by the beginning of the 4th century. There were already such a number of Christians who occupied city positions that the congress of bishops (council), which met in 305 in the city of Elvira, was forced to express its attitude towards these people. Judging by the resolution of the council, there were Christians who even held official priestly positions. The Council decreed that those who made sacrifices and organized bloody games should not be in the Christian community until the end of their days; those who arranged only festive games were allowed access, but only after appropriate repentance. Such a relatively tolerant attitude towards the occupation of priestly positions by Christians (it was primarily about the ministers of the imperial cult) was caused not only by the influx of people into Christianity who held certain official positions associated with the rendering of divine honors to the emperor, but also by a change in the attitude of Christians towards official pagan cults, which in their eyes have become simply part of the state machine. For the first Christians, pagan deities were real-life demons, hostile forces. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians says that one cannot be in communion with demons (in the Greek script, demons) and offer sacrifices to them. But in the III century. Christians have already hunted the ancient gods ...

A very important factor for the development and dissemination of the Christian doctrine was the appearance among Christians of the 2nd century. educated people familiar with Greco-Roman philosophy and science. The crisis of rationalistic philosophy led to the fact that many philosophers, teachers of eloquence began to look for a combination of philosophy and religion in Christianity. Theoretical writings began to appear justifying the advantages of the Christian doctrine (the so-called apologies). The first apology known to us was created around the middle of the 2nd century. by a certain Aristides from Athens. One of the most significant apologists for Christianity was Justin, who came from a wealthy Greek family who lived in Palestine. In his own words, he studied with various philosophers (from the Stoics, from the followers of Aristotle; most of all he was fascinated by the philosophy of Plato), but in the end he became a Christian and began to preach a new teaching, moving from city to city. He founded a Christian school in Rome.

Among the first Christian theologians of the II-III centuries. highly educated people prevailed: Minucius Felix was a famous lawyer; Clement of Alexandria, who came from an aristocratic family, who had been engaged in philosophy before his conversion to Christianity, possessed a great erudition; Bishop Cyprian of Carthage was a teacher of eloquence ... In the second half of the II century. In Alexandria, a school of Christian theology was created, at the head of which was at one time Clement, and then Origen.All these people participated in the formation of Christian theology, developed the attitude of Christianity to ancient culture, criticizing it and at the same time borrowing a lot from it. Their activities, in turn, attracted more and more educated people to Christians, who ceased to see in Christianity only a pernicious superstition, as it seemed to the writers of the beginning of the 2nd century. (for example, Tacitus).

The spread of Christianity at the top of society did not mean a decrease in the influx of the poor and disadvantaged into Christian communities. In Christian legends about the martyrs who died during the persecution, slaves and freedmen are mentioned. It is known that the former slave was the head of the Christian community of Rome, Callistus. For such people, there was still no way out in real life, and therefore the idea of \u200b\u200bequality before God continued to appeal to them, and the opportunity to receive help from rich fellow believers reconciled many poor people to the inequality that was arising within communities. Despite the conflicts within Christian groups, Christians actively came to the aid of their fellows in trouble. Lucian, in the already mentioned story of Peregrinus, says that when he was in prison in Palestine, envoys even from Asia Minor Christians came to him to "put in a word for him at the trial and console him." Of course, this could not fail to attract to Christians people who stood at the lower rungs of the social ladder, for whom it was difficult to count on anyone's help.

In the II-III centuries. Christianity began to infiltrate the villages. Pliny's letter to Trajan already speaks of the spread of Christianity in rural areas. In the III century. in the rural settlements of Asia Minor, primarily in Phrygia, separate gravestones of Christians appear. Judging by them, Christianity spread unevenly in the villages: there are areas where Christian inscriptions on tombstones until the 4th century. (i.e., before the recognition of Christianity by the state) is practically nonexistent, but there are areas where they are found quite often. Scientists do not yet have sufficient data to discover the cause of this unevenness. In part, it seems, can be explained by the varying degrees of persistence of local village cults; a number of researchers believe that the appearance of Christian inscriptions in Phrygia before the Council of Nicea (325) is associated with the spread of the Christian heresy of the Montanists in these areas, who considered it their duty to openly declare their Christianity. The Asia Minor Christian tombstones are interesting in that they sometimes combined pagan and Christian symbols, pagan symbols (for example, the vine) were reinterpreted in an allegorical Christian spirit. It was in rural areas at the level of folk beliefs that an intense mixing of pagan and Christian elements took place. It is also interesting that in rural areas the traditions of early Christian organizations were preserved longer. There even in the inscriptions of the 4th century. women deaconess are mentioned (perhaps this is also the influence of Montanism, which opposed the Episcopal Church). In one of the village inscriptions, God and Jesus Christ are mentioned separately: apparently, the believer who erected this tombstone perceived Jesus as a messiah sent by God, that is, in the way that many of the first Christian groups perceived him.

In the III-IV centuries. Christians also took part in the performances of rural slaves and colonies. A number of these uprisings had a religious connotation. One of the largest movements of this kind was the Circumcellion movement (which literally means "wandering around the cages"), which developed in rural areas of North Africa. Circumcellions robbed large estates, killed landowners, freed slaves and debtors, and at the same time preached the idea of \u200b\u200bChristian equality.

The spread of Christianity in various strata of the population led to a change and complication of the Christian doctrine. On the one hand, the educated elite created Christian philosophy and theology, which is far from always clear to most believers, on the other hand, the lower strata of the population, especially from rural areas, where traditional local beliefs were strong, introduced elements of pagan ideas into Christianity, naively combining the features of their local deities with the image of the Christian god.

In the II-III centuries. Christianity spread not only in different layers of the empire's population, but also in different provinces. At the beginning of the II century. the largest number of Christians was still in Asia Minor and Syria; on the Balkan Peninsula, during this period, Christian communities are known only in a few cities (Corinth, Philippi, Thessaloniki). Judging by the story of Lucian about Peregrine, who joined the Christians in Palestine, there in the II century. separate groups of Christians (more precisely, Jewish Christians, in particular the Ebionites) remained, but Palestinian Christianity did not play any significant role. After the defeat of the Bar Kokhba uprising, the emigration of Christians from Palestine continued not only to the west, but also to the east. In the II century. Christians appear in Northern Mesopotamia. The origin of major Christian figures and writers of the 2nd century is characteristic: Justin was from Samaria, his disciple Tatian and Theophilus were from Mesopotamia, Athenagoras, apparently from Athens, Irenaeus, the author of a huge essay against heresies, from Asia Minor; even the writer Hippolytus of Rome, although he lived in Rome, came from somewhere in the Greek-speaking eastern provinces of the empire. Christianity appears relatively early in Egypt. The first third of the II century. papyrus fragments of Christian writings found in Egypt are dated; among them are fragments of the scriptures included in the New Testament, as well as excerpts from unknown gospels (one of them uses a tradition close to the first three gospels of the New Testament, in the other - to the Gospel of John). In Egypt, Christianity spread primarily, probably in Alexandria, where many Greek-speaking Jews lived. Among the Alexandrian Christians there were many educated people, and it was there that a special theological school was opened, which, as already mentioned, in the II-III centuries. led by such prominent Christian writers and theologians as Clement of Alexandria and Origen.

During the II century. separate Christian communities appear in the southern regions of Egypt - Ahmim, Assyut, Henoboskion, where after the Second World War a real library of Gnostic Christians (in Coptic) was found. This find indicates that a variety of Christian doctrine was spreading in Egypt, which did not coincide with the teachings of Asia Minor and Roman Christians. The spread of Christianity in its Gnostic understanding among the rural inhabitants of Egypt was associated with the traditions of Egyptian beliefs that influenced the Gnostics, and with those passive forms of struggle that the Egyptian peasants used against those in power. Such a form of struggle was "anachoresio", the withdrawal, flight of landowners from their villages. The fugitives hired themselves as farm laborers, became vagabonds. The Roman authorities actively fought against vagrancy, caught vagrants, punished them, and returned them to their original place. Many fugitives entered secret religious communities and settled in remote places. From the II century. the first monks appear in Egypt (the word “monk” means “lonely”). In solitude, these people sought to "free themselves" from the world of evil and find that state of mind that would provide them with a mystical fusion with the deity. In the Egyptian Gnostic teachings, much was taken from the ancient Egyptian religious concepts and from the teachings of the Egyptian priests (in particular, a number of magic formulas and spells of the Christian Gnostics were borrowed from the ancient cults of Egypt). Egyptian farmers were accustomed to believing in the magical power of a spoken word or name. They believed that knowledge of the name of God introduced a person to him, and knowledge of the name of a demon gave a person power over this demon. Among the Gnostics, the Word (Logos), name, concept was torn away from concrete reality and acted as an independent eternal essence. Probably, not all Egyptian farmers who fled from tax burdens to the remote areas of Upper Egypt and entered the communities of the Gnostics fully realized the complex mysticism of the teachings of the latter, but they put their magical ideas into the discourse about the Logos-Christ, about the power of the divine Word.

The spread of Christianity in the west of the empire proceeded at a much slower pace. The only exception was its capital - Rome. In Rome lived people who arrived or were brought there (if they were slaves) from the most distant ends of the empire. There one could meet admirers of various gods; therefore, there is no reason to doubt that Christians lived there already in the time of Nero.

We cannot say how numerous at the end of the 1st century. there were Roman Christians. There were probably not many of them, and all of them, judging by the names mentioned in Paul's letters, were not native Romans. At the end of the Acts of the Apostles, there is an account of Paul's meeting with the leaders of the Jewish community in Rome. In this episode, the Jews, by the way, say that they have not heard anything about Paul, they only know that they argue about this teaching (i.e. about Christianity). Thus, Christians appear to have been in Rome in the 1st century BC. still a small closed group, about which even many Jews living there knew little. In the II century. the number of Christians in Rome is increasing markedly. From the second half of the II century. in the Roman catacombs - underground galleries and quarries that have survived from antiquity, special Christian cemeteries appear; starting from the III century. Christians cut through the catacombs and new galleries for their burials. The burial of the dead occupied an important place in the Christian cult: after all, Christians believed in the resurrection in the flesh, therefore they rejected the rite of corpse burning accepted among the Romans. They arranged special cemeteries in order to be in the circle of co-religionists even after death. The catacombs were also places of prayer for Christians before they dared to gather openly.

By the end of the III century. the number of Roman Christians can be indirectly judged by the fact that the Christian community in Rome provided support (according to the writer Eusebius) to about 1,500 widows and beggars. But for a long time immigrants predominated among the Roman Christians; their language remained Greek, the leaders of the Roman Christians of the 2nd century wrote in Greek, the most ancient inscriptions in the catacombs were made in Greek. An interesting inscription of the end of the II century. - in it the Roman name of Rufina is written in Greek letters. When Latin gravestone inscriptions appeared (from about the middle of the 3rd century), they sometimes used Greek words written in Latin letters: the tradition of considering Greek the language of Christian worship was extremely strong.

Information about Christianity in the western provinces appears only from the second half of the 2nd century: Christians in Gaul are known from reports of persecutions against them that took place in Lugudun (Lyon) and Vienne in 177 in connection with the prohibition to introduce new cults that cause popular unrest ... The legend of the Lyons martyrs is undoubtedly colored by the fantasy of Christian hagiographers, but the very fact of the persecution cannot be denied. After the persecution, the famous Irenaeus became Bishop of Lugudun, who wrote an extensive work "Against Heresies". Irenaeus came from Asia Minor, apparently, he was associated with the Gallic Christians, most of whom were from the Greek-speaking eastern provinces (the names of the martyrs are usually Greek). According to legend, a crowd of Luguduns, outraged by the Christians 'unwillingness to answer the judges' questions and to renounce their faith, demanded torture and public executions in the arena of the amphitheater. Among those executed were people of different social status: the slave Blandina, who, according to legend, showed extraordinary courage, and her mistress, as well as a doctor, lawyer, deacon from Vienne; the legend specifically states that this deacon answered in Latin during interrogation: "I am a Christian." The emergence of a Latin-speaking Christian from Vienne is not accidental - Vienne was founded as a Roman colony.

Persecution affected a relatively small group of Christians, so that the Christian community in Lyons survived. The Christians who remained at large kept in touch with their arrested brethren, and they even managed to convey from prison their opinion on the spread of the teaching of Montanism. By the beginning of the IV century. known bishops (and therefore, there were Christian communities) in Arles, Vezon, Lutetia (Paris), Trier, Reims and some other cities. In Gaul, Christianity spread primarily among the urban population; first among the aliens-settlers (as it happened in the east in due time), and then the Gallo-Roman population, who spoke Latin, began to adhere to it. From Gaul, Christian preachers entered Britain. However, in this province, Christianity spread slowly: at the beginning of the 4th century. the council of bishops convened at Arles, Gaul, received only three bishops from Britain. The fragility of Christianity in this province is also evident from the fact that the invasion of the Angles and Saxons into Britain practically destroyed it there; it appeared on this island again only in the 6th century.

Probably from Italy or Gaul, Christian preachers came to Spain. Irenaeus mentions Christian churches that existed in Spain. But the Spanish Christian communities and their leaders did not play an important role in the development of Christian doctrine and Christian church organization. The Christians of North Africa occupy a much more important place in the history of Christianity. Perhaps Christianity appeared in this Roman province primarily among the Jewish settlers, and then spread among the local and Roman population. It was the North African Christians who created the first Latin-speaking Christian writings.

The earliest written records of Christians in North Africa are associated, as in Gaul, with persecutions against them. At the end of the II century. (about 180) Christians from the small Numidian town of Scythia were sentenced to death. The description of their deaths was made, apparently, on the basis of the protocols of interrogations carried out by Roman officials. There were persecutions against Christians in North Africa in 197 and 202. Among the martyrs, whose names have been preserved for us by tradition, there were representatives of the local free population, and slaves, and even Romans from noble families. As in Gaul, the social composition of Christians was quite variegated here, although we can talk about the predominance of people from the lower classes.

By the beginning of the III century. Christianity in North Africa spread quite widely: in 220 there were already 70 bishops. One of the largest Christian writers at the turn of the II-III centuries. was a native of North Africa Tertullian. He was educated in Carthage, was a lawyer in Rome; he initially denied Christianity, but then, at the end of the second century, became its passionate defender. The biography of Tertullian is also notable for the fact that at first he acted as a defender of the orthodox trend in Christianity, asserting the infallibility of church authority; but then he changed his position, joined the stream of Montanists, who denied the authority of the bishops, and at the end of his life even created his own special Christian group.

Among North African Christians, there were many who opposed the hierarchy of the nascent church. It was in North Africa in the IV century. the Donatist movement arose, which did not recognize the bishops who renounced their faith during the persecutions at the turn of the 3rd-4th centuries, and supported the anti-Roman uprisings of local tribes. Perhaps it is the very fact that Christianity began to penetrate North Africa through Judeo-Christian groups that explains the longer preservation of the traditions of early Christianity there.

So, from this brief sketch it is clear that in the II-III centuries. Christianity spread among different social groups and different nationalities of the Roman Empire. In the process of spreading Christianity could not but undergo changes both in its doctrine and in its organization. The main content of the ideological development of Christianity in the II century. there was an awareness of it as a new religious teaching, opposed to the polytheistic religions of the ancient world and Judaism. Christian dogmatics, ethics, aesthetics were worked out, the scriptures were selected that were considered sacred. Parallel to this process and in close relationship with it, a church organization was formed that was opposite to the ancient religious community based on the authority of the prophets who preached the revelations and the apostles who repeated the oral tradition, which, according to them, went back to Jesus himself.

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Lecture 5

The emergence and spread of Christianity
Orthodoxy is one of the directions in Christianity. Features of the Orthodox faith and worship.
Catholicism is one of the trends in Christianity. Features of church organization, doctrine and worship.
Protestantism is one of the trends in Christianity.

Christianity - World War II. According to the latest data, about two billion followers of Christianity live on Earth.

Christianity originated in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, in Palestine. The dominant religion in the Roman Empire was the religion of the Romans. Temples were built in honor of the gods, statues were erected outside Rome. But the ancient gods (Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, etc.) were mostly neither kind nor merciful. And people wanted to believe in just gods. Local religions - tribal and national - did not unite the inhabitants of the Roman Empire, but created artificial partitions between people.

The hard life of the people in the Roman Empire, the general lack of rights and led to the need for religious consolation. The rebels were already crucified on crosses. Some began to try to find answers to questions: about the meaning of life, about the reasons for success and failure, about justice, about ways of salvation, getting rid of suffering. The philosophy of the 1st century could not offer a path to salvation that would be accessible, understandable and reassuring.

So, a religion was needed that could not separate, but unite the broad masses of the multi-tribal and multilingual population of the Roman Empire.

Christianity originated in Palestine - in the eastern province of the Roman Empire. The majority of the population of Palestine at this time were Jews, professing their national religion - Judaism. Jews were resettled. Where they settled, diasporas were created. Palestine at this time was ruled by King Herod the Great, who was politically dependent on the Roman emperor. After the death of Herod, his kingdom was divided between his three sons and gradually came under the direct control of the Romans. From the 6th year A.D. e. Judea (a region of Palestine with the capital Jerusalem) was ruled by a Roman procurator, the fifth of whom was Pontius Pilate. He ruled from 26 to 36.

Ancient Judaism was in a deep crisis. In it, currents appeared - sects. These were:

· Pharisees - religious movement for the purity of Judaism, for the observance of religious traditions, for the sacrifice to the god Yahweh.

· Sadducees -opposed the Pharisees. They recognized only the written Torah, that is, the law of Moses, and rejected oral traditions, did not believe in the afterlife, denied the existence of angels and demons, the resurrection of the dead.

· Essenes -lived in monastic communities in secluded areas of Palestine. They were against sacrifices. They believed in the afterlife, the coming resurrection from the dead. They expected the coming of the Messiah, i.e. the anointed of God, the savior. ( Messiah - from other Hebrew - savior, anointed one,those. an initiate who has received divine grace; Christ - from the Greek. - savior). They condemned wealth and money-grubbing, strove for moral purification. In 1946-47. in the mountain caves of Qumran, on the shores of the Dead Sea, Arab Bedouins found scraps of ancient scrolls belonging to the Essenes sect.

· Nazarenes.This sect was the closest to the emerging Christianity. For a long time the Jews were called Nazirites people who dedicated themselves for a time or for a lifetime to God. They did not cut their hair, did not drink wine, etc. Jesus Christ is also depicted as Nazarene in the Gospels.

So, the psychological background on which Christianity arose is the unstable state of the surrounding world, anxiety, fear and uncertainty in the future, the inevitability of changes.

On the issue of the origin of Christianity, there are two main directions:

1.Traditional theological point of view, according to which Christianity was founded by the God-man Jesus Christ, who lived in Palestine at the beginning of the 1st century. n. e. and preached his doctrine. His disciples - the apostles transmitted the teachings of Jesus Christ to mankind.

2.Scientific direction.Scientists find in Christianity numerous coincidences with ancient Eastern cults, and also believe that early Christianity is a kind of synthesis of Eastern (Judaic) and Western (Hellenic-Roman) religious and philosophical ideas.

Was I.Kh. historical figure? Discussions on this issue led to education in science two main schools - mythological and historical.

Representatives of the mythological school believe that science does not have reliable data about Jesus Christ as a historical person. There are many contradictions, inaccuracies, and discrepancies in the Gospels. This school draws analogies with the legends of the born, dying and resurrecting gods in other Eastern cultures. This school believes that the image of I.Kh. mythological. It is the product of the addition of several ancient myths (about Osiris, Mithra, Zarathustra, etc.) and partly of Hebrew prophecies. Mithra's birthday December 25 - at the time of the winter solstice - became I.Kh. This school believes that the Gospels are based on myths, borrowed and revised.

Historical school (now predominant)believes I.Kh. a real person, but his image is complemented by numerous fantasies. The reality of Jesus is confirmed by the reality of a number of evangelical characters, such as John the Baptist, the Apostle Paul, and others, who are directly related to Christ.

At the center of Christianity is the figure of I.Kh. The name Jesus (or Jehoshua) literally means Yahweh the Savior.

To obtain an accurate portrait of I.Kh. you can rely on the documents of N.Z.

The Gospels do not say anything about the year, month and birthday of I.Kh. It is difficult to establish, since earlier there was a reckoning from the day of the founding of Rome. Catholics and Protestants celebrate Christmas on December 25, and Orthodox Christians on January 7. It is not entirely clear how long I.Kh. According to the first three Gospels - one year, and according to the fourth Gospel - three years. According to the legend of I.Kh. died at the age of 30-33 in the week of the Passover, which falls in the spring.

Jesus came from the tribe of Judah and was a descendant of the famous king David. His birth was predicted by the archangel Gabriel, who appeared to his mother the Virgin Mary. Maria and her husband, an elderly carpenter Joseph, lived in the small Palestinian city of Nazareth. However, the baby Jesus was not born in his parents' house, but in a stable, among pets in Bethlehem, where his parents went in connection with the census conducted by the Romans. Joseph was from Bethlehem. Magi (eastern priests and magicians) and shepherds, attracted by the light of the star lit in the sky and the angelic choir, were the first to come to worship the divine baby. On the fortieth day, the baby was brought to the temple for dedication to God.

Fleeing from the persecution of the cruel king Herod, the parents fled to Egypt with the baby. Later, in his adolescence, Jesus went to Jerusalem, where he surprised the wise Pharisees with his intelligence and discernment. This is the biography of I.Kh. as if interrupted and the next episode refers to the time when he is already about 30 years old. This episode is the baptism of I.Kh. in the waters of the river. Jordan, which was performed by the prophet of the new faith John the Baptist. During the baptism over the head of Jesus, the Holy Spirit appeared in the guise of a dove and the voice of God was heard: "This is my beloved son." Then Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days. In the wilderness he was tempted by Satan, offering power and wealth, but Jesus resisted the temptations.

From this time begins the epic of Jesus' wanderings through the lands of Palestine with the preaching of a new teaching. Having received baptism from John the Baptist, I.Kh. did not become his disciple and did not join his disciples, but began to preach on his own. THEIR. performed miracles, healing the sick, raising the dead. One of the heights of his sermons is the famous Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the words: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (ie, blessed are those who do not consider themselves spiritually self-sufficient, but accept “spiritual food” from I.Kh.).

Sermons of I.Kh. caused anger and enmity. On the days before the Jewish Passover, Jesus, accompanied by his disciples, entered Jerusalem. Sitting on a donkey (a symbol of meekness and peacefulness), he rode through the streets of the ancient city, greeted by people. In memory of this event, the church celebrates the day of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem or Palm Sunday. The willow branches in the hands of believers resemble flowers and palm branches with which the people greeted Jesus.

On Friday, during an Easter dinner with the disciples (the Last Supper), Jesus predicts the betrayal of one of them (Judas), as well as his earthly suffering and death. Christ gives his disciples bread and wine, personifying his body and blood. Jesus spends the night with his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, where armed guards come, and at the direction of Judas, who kissed Jesus, they seize him and lead him to the judgment of the highest Jewish priesthood. The court sentenced Jesus to death for claiming to be the Messiah. But the verdict must be approved by the governor of the Roman emperor - the procurator (administrator) of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Pilate, doubting the guilt of Christ, appeals to the people with a request to pardon the accused in honor of the holiday, but the crowd shouts "crucify him" and demands (at the instigation of the Jewish priesthood) to release not Jesus, but the murderer Barabbas. So, the people themselves, or rather the crowd, finally condemns Christ to death.

Jesus is crucified on the cross, on Mount Calvary, surrounded by two robbers. They mock him: "If you are God, descend from the cross!" But he suffers and dies as a person. The death of Jesus is accompanied by an eclipse of the Sun and an earthquake. The suffering of Christ opens the way for humanity to salvation, which was closed by God since the fall of Adam. Jesus was crucified precisely because He called Himself the Son of God. His statements were considered blasphemy, and he was sentenced to be crucified.

After the death of Jesus, Christianity began to spread throughout the numerous provinces of the Roman Empire, adapting to the conditions of each country, to the prevailing social relations and local traditions. Thus, Christianity has never been a single trend. Christians were persecuted.

In 381, at the II Ecumenical Council, the result of the decentralization of the Roman state was the emergence of the first 4 autocephalous (independent) churches: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem. Soon the Cypriot and then the Georgian Orthodox Church separated from the Antioch Church.

From the V century. a bitter struggle for leadership in Christianity flared up. In 1054, there was a split between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In the western part of the former Great Roman Empire, the church began to be called Catholic, and in the eastern part - in Byzantium - Orthodox. In Byzantium, the state power was strong and, the church immediately turned out to be an appendage of the state, and its head was actually the emperor.

The spread of Christianity

In the first three centuries, the Christian Church only partially penetrated beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. When Christianity became the state religion of Rome, it got the opportunity to spread widely beyond its borders. The ways in which the new religion entered the pagan countries were varied. Merchants who visited pagan countries for trade brought Christianity there. The captives who fell among the pagans enlightened them. The pagans who were captured by Christians got acquainted with Christianity and, returning home, became distributors of it among their compatriots.

Preachers specially went to the barbarians and arranged missions there to convert the pagans, persuading them to accept Christianity. The first to adopt Christianity were the inhabitants of the countries adjacent to the borders of the empire. In Africa, Christianity began to spread among the Abyssinians (Ethiopians). The Abyssinian Church was subordinate to the Alexandrian patriarch. In Asia, the inhabitants of the Caucasus adopted Christianity in the 4th century, and partly in the 6th century. In 457, the Patriarch of Constantinople Anatolyappointed an archbishop to Georgia. It was a Greek Peter,title awarded catholicosthroughout Iberia (Eastern Georgia).

In Armenia, the disseminator of Christianity was Gregory,who received the title of Enlightener for his preaching work. During the entire period of the struggle against heresy, the Armenian Church remained faithful to the Christian teaching. Christianity penetrated into Persia in the II century. from the border areas of the empire. In the IV-V centuries. in the country there was a fierce struggle between Christianity and paganism, which ended in the consolidation of Christianity. The beginning of Christianity in Arabia dates back to apostolic times. In the IV century. among the local nomadic tribes, some were already quite Christian. However, the emergence of Islam here stopped the further spread of Christianity in the countries of the East.

This text is an introductory fragment. From the book Pre-Nicene Christianity (100 - 325 A.D.?.) by Schaff Philip

From the book Early Christianity: Pages of History the author Sventsitskaya Irina Sergeevna

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It is difficult to find such a religion that would have such a powerful influence on the fate of mankind as Christianity did. It would seem that the emergence of Christianity has been studied well enough. An unlimited amount of material has been written about this. Church writers, historians, philosophers, and representatives of biblical criticism worked in this field. This is understandable, because it was about the greatest phenomenon under the influence of which the modern Western civilization actually took shape. However, there are still many secrets kept by one of the three world religions.

Emergence

The creation and development of a new world religion has a complicated history. The rise of Christianity is shrouded in secrets, legends, assumptions and assumptions. Not much is known about the statement of this teaching, which today is professed by a quarter of the world's population (about 1.5 billion people). This can be explained by the fact that in Christianity, much more clearly than in Buddhism or Islam, there is a supernatural principle, belief in which usually generates not only awe, but also skepticism. Therefore, the history of the issue was subjected to significant falsifications by various ideologists.

In addition, the emergence of Christianity, its spread was explosive. The process was accompanied by an active religious, ideological and political struggle, which significantly distorted historical truth. Disputes on this issue continue to this day.

The birth of the Savior

The emergence and spread of Christianity is associated with the birth, deeds, death and resurrection of just one person - Jesus Christ. The basis of the new religion was the belief in a divine Savior, whose biography is mainly presented by the Gospels - four canonical and numerous apocryphal ones.

In church literature, the emergence of Christianity is described in sufficient detail, in detail. Let us briefly try to convey the main events recorded in the Gospels. They claim that in the city of Nazareth (Galilee) the Archangel Gabriel appeared to a simple girl ("virgin") Mary and announced the forthcoming birth of a son, but not from an earthly father, but from the Holy Spirit (God).

Mary gave birth to this son during the reign of the Jewish king Herod and the Roman emperor Augustus in the city of Bethlehem, where she went with her husband, Joseph the carpenter, to take part in the population census. The shepherds, notified by the angels, greeted the baby, who received the name Jesus (the Greek form of the Hebrew "Yeshua", which means "God the Savior", "God saves me").

From the movement of the stars in the sky, the eastern sages - the wise men - learned about this event. Following the star, they found a home and a baby in which they recognized Christ ("anointed one", "messiah"), and presented him gifts. Then the family, saving the child from the distraught King Herod, went to Egypt, returning and settled in Nazareth.

In the apocryphal Gospels, numerous details are told about the life of Jesus at that time. But the canonical Gospels reflect only one episode from his childhood - a trip to a holiday in Jerusalem.

Acts of the Messiah

Growing up, Jesus adopted the experience of his father, became a bricklayer and carpenter, after the death of Joseph, he fed and took care of the family. When Jesus turned 30, he met John the Baptist and was baptized in the Jordan River. Later he gathered 12 disciples-apostles ("messengers") and, walking with them for 3.5 years the cities and villages of Palestine, preached a completely new, peace-loving religion.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus substantiated the moral principles that became the foundation of the worldview of the new era. At the same time, he performed various miracles: he walked on water, with the touch of his hand he raised the dead (three such cases are recorded in the Gospels), healed the sick. He could also calm the storm, turn water into wine, “five loaves of bread and two fish” feed 5000 people to their fill. However, this was a difficult time for Jesus. The emergence of Christianity is associated not only with miracles, but also with the suffering that he experienced later.

Persecution of Jesus

No one perceived Jesus as the Messiah, and his family even decided that he “lost his temper,” that is, became frantic. Only during the Transfiguration did Jesus' disciples understand his greatness. But the preaching activity of Jesus provoked the irritation of the high priests who were in charge of the Jerusalem temple, who declared him a false messiah. After the Last Supper, held in Jerusalem, Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver by one of his disciples-followers - Judas.

Jesus, like any person, besides divine manifestations, felt pain and fear, so he experienced “passions” with longing. Captured on the Mount of Olives, he was condemned by the Jewish religious court - the Sanhedrin - and sentenced to death. The verdict was approved by the governor of Rome, Pontius Pilate. During the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, Christ was subjected to a martyr's execution - crucifixion. At the same time, miracles happened again: earthquakes swept, the sun darkened, and according to legend, "the coffins were opened" - some of the dead were resurrected.

Resurrection

Jesus was buried, but on the third day he was resurrected and soon appeared to the disciples. According to the canons, he ascended to heaven on a cloud, promising to return later in order to resurrect the dead, to condemn the deeds of everyone at the Last Judgment, to cast sinners into hell to eternal torment, and to exalt the righteous to eternal life in “mountain” Jerusalem, the heavenly Kingdom of God. We can say that from this moment an amazing story begins - the emergence of Christianity. The believing apostles spread the new teaching throughout Asia Minor, the Mediterranean, and other regions.

The day of the foundation of the Church was the holiday of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles 10 days after the Ascension, thanks to which the apostles were able to preach the new teaching in all parts of the Roman Empire.

Secrets of history

How the emergence and development of Christianity proceeded at an early stage is not known for certain. We know what the authors of the Gospels, the apostles, told about. But the Gospels differ, and significantly, with regard to the interpretation of the image of Christ. In John, Jesus is God in human form, the divine nature is emphasized by the author in every possible way, and Matthew, Mark and Luke ascribed to Christ the qualities of an ordinary person.

The existing Gospels are written in Greek, widespread in the world of Hellenism, while the real Jesus and his first followers (Judeo-Christians) lived and acted in a different cultural environment, communicated in Aramaic, common in Palestine and the Middle East. Unfortunately, not a single Christian document has survived in Aramaic, although early Christian authors mention the Gospels written in this language.

After the ascension of Jesus, the sparks of the new religion seemed to be extinguished, since there were no educated preachers among his followers. In fact, it so happened that the new faith was established throughout the planet. According to church views, the emergence of Christianity is due to the fact that mankind, having departed from God and carried away by the illusion of domination over the forces of nature with the help of magic, still looked for a way to God. The society, having passed a difficult path, “matured” to the recognition of a single creator. Scientists have also tried to explain the avalanche spread of the new religion.

Preconditions for the emergence of a new religion

Theologians and scientists have been fighting for 2000 years over the phenomenal, rapid spread of the new religion, trying to find out these reasons. The emergence of Christianity, according to ancient sources, was recorded in the Asia Minor provinces of the Roman Empire and in Rome itself. This phenomenon was due to a number of historical factors:

Strengthening the exploitation of the subordinate and enslaved peoples of Rome.
Defeat slave rebels.
The crisis of polytheistic religions in Ancient Rome.
Social need for a new religion.

Beliefs, ideas and ethical principles of Christianity were manifested on the basis of certain social relations. In the first centuries of our era, the Romans completed the conquest of the Mediterranean. Subjugating states and peoples, Rome destroyed along the way their independence, the originality of social life. By the way, the emergence of Christianity and Islam are somewhat similar in this. Only the development of two world religions proceeded against a different historical background.

At the beginning of the 1st century, Palestine also became a province of the Roman Empire. Its inclusion in the world empire led to the integration of Jewish religious and philosophical thought from Greco-Roman. This was also facilitated by the numerous communities of the Jewish diaspora in different parts of the empire.

Why the new religion spread in record time

The emergence of Christianity is considered by a number of researchers to be a historical miracle: too many factors coincided for the rapid, "explosive" spread of the new teaching. In fact, it was of great importance that this movement absorbed a wide and effective ideological material, which served it to form its own creed and cult.

Christianity as a world religion has developed gradually under the influence of various currents and beliefs of the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia. Ideas were drawn from religious, literary and philosophical sources. It:

Jewish messianism.
Jewish sectarianism.
Hellenistic syncretism.
Oriental religions and cults.
Popular Roman cults.
The cult of the emperor.
Mysticism.
Philosophical ideas.

Fusion of philosophy and religion

Philosophy played a significant role in the emergence of Christianity - skepticism, epicureanism, cynicism, stoicism. Philo's "middle Platonism" from Alexandria was also noticeably influenced. A Jewish theologian, he actually went into the service of the Roman emperor. Through an allegorical interpretation of the Bible, Philo sought to merge together the monotheism of the Jewish religion (belief in a single God) and elements of Greco-Roman philosophy.

The moral teaching of the Roman Stoic philosopher and writer Seneca was no less influential. He viewed earthly life as a threshold to rebirth in the other world. Seneca believed that the main thing for a person was the acquisition of freedom of spirit through the realization of divine necessity. That is why later researchers called Seneca the "uncle" of Christianity.

The dating problem

The emergence of Christianity is inextricably linked with the problem of dating events. An indisputable fact is that it arose in the Roman Empire at the turn of our era. But when exactly? And in what place of the grandiose empire, which covered the entire Mediterranean, a significant part of Europe, Asia Minor?

According to the traditional interpretation, the origin of the basic postulates falls on the years of Jesus' preaching activity (30-33 AD). Scientists partially agree with this, but add that the doctrine was compiled after the execution of Jesus. Moreover, of the four canonically recognized authors of the New Testament, only Matthew and John were disciples of Jesus Christ, were witnesses of the events, that is, they were in contact with the direct source of the teaching.

Others (Mark and Luke) have already accepted some of the information indirectly. Obviously, the formation of the doctrine was stretched over time. It `s naturally. After all, behind the "revolutionary explosion of ideas" in the time of Christ, there began an evolutionary process of mastering and developing these ideas by his disciples, who gave the teaching a complete look. This is noticeable when analyzing the New Testament, the writing of which lasted until the end of the 1st century. True, there are still different dating of books: the Christian tradition limits the writing of sacred texts to a period of 2-3 decades after the death of Jesus, and some researchers stretch this process until the middle of the II century.

It is historically known that the teachings of Christ spread in Eastern Europe in the 9th century. The new ideology came to Russia not from some single center, but through different channels:

from the Black Sea region (Byzantium, Chersonesos);
over the Varangian (Baltic) Sea;
along the Danube.

Archaeologists testify that certain groups of Russians were baptized already in the 9th century, and not in the 10th century, when Vladimir christened the Kievites in the river. Earlier, Kiev was baptized Chersonesus - a Greek colony in the Crimea, with which the Slavs maintained close ties. Contacts of the Slavic peoples with the population of ancient Taurida were constantly expanding with the development of economic relations. The population constantly participated not only in the material, but also in the spiritual life of the colonies, where the first exiles, Christians, were sent into exile.

Also, possible mediators in the penetration of religion into the East Slavic lands could be the Goths, moving from the shores of the Baltic to the Black Sea. Among them, in the IV century, Bishop Ulfilah, who translated the Bible into Gothic, spread Christianity in the form of Arianism. The Bulgarian linguist V. Georgiev suggests that the Proto-Slavic words "church", "cross", "Lord" were probably inherited from the Gothic language.

The third way is the Danube way, which is associated with the enlighteners Cyril and Methodius. The main leitmotif of the Cyril and Methodius teachings was the synthesis of the achievements of Eastern and Western Christianity on the basis of the Proto-Slavic culture. The enlighteners created the original Slavic alphabet, translated liturgical and church canonical texts. That is, Cyril and Methodius laid the foundations of the church organization in our lands.

The official date of the baptism of Rus is considered to be 988, when Prince Vladimir I Svyatoslavovich massively baptized the inhabitants of Kiev.

Output

The emergence of Christianity cannot be briefly characterized. Too many historical mysteries, religious and philosophical controversies unfold around this issue. However, more important is the idea carried by this teaching: philanthropy, compassion, help to one's neighbor, condemnation of shameful acts. It doesn't matter how the new religion was born, it is important what it brought to our world: faith, hope, love.

About a third of the world's inhabitants profess Christianity in all its varieties.

Christianity arose in the 1st century. AD... on the territory of the Roman Empire. There is no consensus among researchers about the exact place of origin of Christianity. Some believe that this happened in Palestine, which was part of the Roman Empire at the time; others suggest it happened in the Jewish diaspora in Greece.

Palestinian Jews have been under foreign domination for centuries. However, in the II century. BC. they achieved political independence, during which they expanded their territory and did a lot for the development of political and economic relations. In 63 BC. Roman general Gney Poltey introduced troops to Judea, as a result of which it became part of the Roman Empire. By the beginning of our era, other territories of Palestine had lost their independence, and the administration began to be carried out by the Roman governor.

The loss of political independence was perceived by a part of the population as a tragedy. Religious meaning was seen in political events. The idea of \u200b\u200bdivine retribution for violations of the covenants of the fathers, religious customs and prohibitions spread. This led to the strengthening of the position of Jewish religious nationalist groups:

hasidim - Orthodox Jews;
sadduceeswho represented a conciliatory mood, they came from the upper strata of Jewish society;
pharisees - fighters for the purity of Judaism, against contact with foreigners. The Pharisees advocated the observance of external norms of behavior, for which they were accused of hypocrisy.

In terms of social composition, the Pharisees were representatives of the middle strata of the urban population. At the end of the 1st century. BC. appear zealots - come from the lower strata of the population - artisans and lumpen proletarians. They expressed the most radical ideas. From among them stood out sicarii - terrorists. Their favorite weapon was a crooked dagger, which they hid under a cloak - in Latin "Sika"... All these groups with more or less persistence fought against the Roman conquerors. It was obvious that the struggle was not in favor of the rebels, therefore, aspirations for the coming of the Savior, the Messiah, intensified. The oldest book of the New Testament dates back to the first century AD - Apocalypse, in which the idea of \u200b\u200bretribution to enemies for the unfair treatment and oppression of Jews was so strongly manifested.

Of greatest interest is the sect essenes or essen, because their teaching had the features inherent in early Christianity. This is evidenced by found in 1947 in the Dead Sea area in Qumran Caves scrolls. Christians and Essenes had ideas in common messianism - expectations of the imminent coming of the Savior, eschatological views about the coming end of the world, interpretation of the idea of \u200b\u200bhuman sinfulness, rituals, organization of communities, attitude to property.

The processes taking place in Palestine were similar to those taking place in other parts of the Roman Empire: everywhere the Romans plundered and mercilessly exploited the local population, enriching themselves at their expense. The crisis of the ancient order and the formation of new socio-political relations were painfully experienced by people, caused a feeling of helplessness, defenselessness in front of the state machine and contributed to the search for new ways of salvation. Mystical moods increased. Eastern cults spread: Mithras, Isis, Osiris, etc. Many different associations, partnerships, so-called colleges appeared. People united on the basis of professions, social status, neighborhood, etc. All this created a fertile ground for the spread of Christianity.

The origins of Christianity

The emergence of Christianity was prepared not only by the prevailing historical conditions, it had a good ideological foundation. The main ideological source of Christianity is Judaism. The new religion rethought the ideas of Judaism about monotheism, messianism, eschatology, chiliasm - faith in the second coming of Jesus Christ and his millennial kingdom on earth. The Old Testament tradition has not lost its significance; it has received a new interpretation.

The ancient philosophical tradition had a significant impact on the formation of the Christian worldview. In philosophical systems stoics, Neopythagoreans, Plato and Neoplatonists mental constructions, concepts and even terms were developed, reinterpreted in the New Testament texts and the works of theologians. Neoplatonism had a particularly great influence on the foundations of Christianity Philo of Alexandria (25 BC - c. 50 AD) and the moral teaching of the Roman Stoic Seneca (c. 4 BC - 65 AD). Philo formulated the concept Logos as a sacred law that allows one to contemplate things, the teaching about the innate sinfulness of all people, about repentance, about Being as the beginning of the world, about ecstasy as a means of approaching God, about the Logos, among whom the Son of God is the highest Logos, and other Logos are angels.

Seneca considered the main thing for every person to achieve freedom of spirit through the realization of divine necessity. If freedom does not follow from divine necessity, it will turn out to be slavery. Only obedience to fate gives rise to equanimity and peace of mind, conscience, moral standards, universal human values. Seneca recognized the golden rule of morality as a moral imperative, which read as follows: “ Treat the one below as you would like to be treated by those above. "... We can find a similar formulation in the Gospels.

A certain influence on Christianity was exerted by Seneca's teaching about the transience and deceitfulness of sensual pleasures, caring for other people, self-restraint in the use of material goods, avoiding rampant passions, the need for modesty and moderation in everyday life, self-improvement, and gaining divine mercy.

Another source of Christianity was the Eastern cults flourishing at that time in various parts of the Roman Empire.

The most controversial issue in the study of Christianity is that of the historicity of Jesus Christ. In solving it, two directions can be distinguished: mythological and historical. Mythological direction claims that science does not have reliable data about Jesus Christ as a historical person. The gospel stories were written many years after the events described, they have no real historical basis. Historical direction claims that Jesus Christ was a real person, a preacher of a new religion, which is confirmed by a number of sources. In 1971, the text was found in Egypt "Antiquities" by Josephus Flavius, which gives reason to believe that one of the real preachers named Jesus is described in it, although the miracles performed by him were spoken of as one of the many stories on this topic, i.e. Josephus himself did not observe them.

The stages of formation of Christianity as a state religion

The history of the formation of Christianity covers the period from the middle of the 1st century. AD until the 5th century inclusive. During this period, Christianity went through a number of stages of its development, which can be summarized in the following three:

1 - stage actual eschatology (second half of the 1st century);

2 - stage fixtures (II century);

3 - stage struggle for domination in the empire (III-V centuries).

During each of these stages, the composition of believers changed, various neoplasms arose and disintegrated within Christianity as a whole, internal conflicts were incessantly seething, which expressed the struggle for the realization of vital public interests.

Stage of actual eschatology

At the first stage, Christianity has not yet completely separated from Judaism, therefore it can be called Judeo-Christian. The name "actual eschatology" means that the defining mood of the new religion at this time was the expectation of the coming of the Savior in the near future, literally from day to day. The social basis of Christianity was enslaved, disadvantaged people suffering from national and social oppression. The hatred of the enslaved towards their oppressors and the thirst for revenge found their expression and detente not in revolutionary actions, but in impatient anticipation of the reprisal that the coming Messiah would inflict on the Antichrist.

In early Christianity there was no single centralized organization, there were no priests. The communities were led by believers who were able to perceive charisma (grace, the descent of the Holy Spirit). Charismatics united groups of believers around themselves. People stood out who were engaged in the explanation of the doctrine. They were called didascals - teachers. Special people were appointed to organize the economic life of the community. Originally appeared deaconsperforming simple technical duties. Later appear bishops - observers, overseers, and elders - elders. Over time, bishops take the lead, and elders become their assistants.

Adaptation stage

At the second stage, in the second century, the situation changes. The end of the world does not come; on the contrary, there is a certain stabilization of Roman society. The tension of expectation in the moods of Christians is replaced by a more vital attitude of existence in the real world and adaptation to its orders. The place of eschatology, common in this world, is taken by individual eschatology in the other world, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is being actively developed.

The social and ethnic composition of communities is changing. Representatives of the wealthy and educated strata of the population of different peoples who inhabited the Roman Empire began to turn to Christianity. Accordingly, the creed of Christianity is changing, it becomes more tolerant of wealth. The attitude of the authorities to the new religion depended on the political situation. One emperor carried out persecutions, the other showed humanity, if the internal political situation allowed.

The development of Christianity in the II century. led to a complete separation from Judaism. The number of Jews among Christians in comparison with other nationalities became less and less. It was necessary to solve problems of practical cult significance: food prohibitions, the celebration of the Sabbath, circumcision. As a result, circumcision was replaced with water baptism, the weekly Sabbath celebration was postponed to Sunday, the Easter holiday was converted to Christianity under the same name, but was filled with a different mythological content, as well as the Pentecostal holiday.

The influence of other peoples on the formation of a cult in Christianity was manifested in the fact that there were borrowings of rituals or their elements: baptism, communion as a symbol of sacrifices, prayer and some others.

During the III century. the formation of large Christian centers took place in Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, in a number of cities in Asia Minor and other regions. However, the church itself was not internally united: among Christian teachers and preachers there were differences regarding the correct understanding of Christian truths. Christianity from within was torn apart by the most complicated theological disputes. Many directions appeared that interpreted the provisions of the new religion in different ways.

Nazarenes (from Hebrew - "to refuse, to abstain") - ascetic preachers of ancient Judea. An outward sign of belonging to the Nazirites was the refusal to cut hair and drink wine. Subsequently, the Nazarites merged with the Essenes.

Montanism arose in the II century. The founder Montana on the eve of the end of the world he preached asceticism, the prohibition of remarriage, and martyrdom in the name of faith. He regarded ordinary Christian communities as mentally ill; he considered only his followers to be spiritual.

Gnosticism (from the Greek - "having knowledge") eclectically linked ideas borrowed mainly from Platonism and Stoicism with Eastern ideas. The Gnostics recognized the existence of a perfect deity, between which there are intermediate links and the sinful material world - zones... Jesus Christ was also referred to them. Gnostics were pessimistic about the sensible world, emphasized their God's chosenness, the advantage of intuitive knowledge over rational, did not accept the Old Testament, the redemptive mission of Jesus Christ (but recognized the salvific one), his bodily embodiment.

Docetism (from Greek - "to seem") - a direction that separated from Gnosticism. Corporeality was considered an evil, lower principle and on this basis they rejected the Christian teaching about the bodily incarnation of Jesus Christ. They believed that Jesus only seemed clothed in flesh, but in reality his birth, earthly existence and death were ghostly phenomena.

Marcionism (by the name of the founder - Marcion) advocated a complete break with Judaism, did not recognize the human nature of Jesus Christ, and was close to the Gnostics in his basic ideas.

Novatians (by the name of the founders - Rome. Novatiana and carf. Novata) took a tough stance towards the authorities and those Christians who could not resist the pressure of the authorities and made a compromise with them.

The stage of the struggle for domination in the empire

At the third stage, the final establishment of Christianity as a state religion takes place. In 305, the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire intensified. This period in church history is known as "Era of martyrs"... Places of worship were closed, church property was confiscated, books and sacred utensils were confiscated and destroyed, plebeians recognized as Christians were turned into slavery, senior members of the clergy were arrested and executed, as well as those who did not obey the order to abdicate, showing honor to the Roman gods. Those who gave in were quickly released. For the first time, burial places belonging to communities became for a time a refuge for the persecuted, where they performed their cult.

However, the measures taken by the authorities had no effect. Christianity is already strong enough to offer worthy resistance. Already in 311 the emperor Gallery, and in 313 - the emperor Konstantin accept decrees on religious tolerance in relation to Christianity. The activities of Emperor Constantine I are of particular importance.

In the course of a fierce struggle for power before the decisive battle with Mackentius, Constantine saw in a dream the sign of Christ - a cross with the command to come up with this symbol against the enemy. Having accomplished this, he won a decisive victory in battle in 312. The Emperor gave this vision a very special meaning - as a sign of his election by Christ to make the connection between God and the world through his imperial service. This is how his role was perceived by the Christians of his time, which allowed the unbaptized emperor to take an active part in solving internal church, dogmatic issues.

In 313, Constantine published Edict of Milan, according to which Christians become under the protection of the state and receive equal rights with pagans. The Christian Church was no longer persecuted, even during the reign of the emperor Juliana (361-363), nicknamed Apostate for restricting the rights of the church and proclaiming religious tolerance for heresies and paganism. Under the emperor Feodosia in 391, Christianity was finally consolidated as a state religion, and paganism was prohibited. Further development and strengthening of Christianity are associated with the holding of councils, at which church dogma was worked out and approved.

Christianization of pagan tribes

By the end of the IV century. Christianity was established in almost all provinces of the Roman Empire. In the 340s. through the efforts of Bishop Wulfila, it penetrates the tribes ready... The Goths adopted Christianity in the form of Arianism, which then dominated the east of the empire. As the Visigoths moved westward, Arianism also spread. In the V century. in Spain it was accepted by the tribes vandals and suevi... to Galin - burgundians and then lombards... Frankish king adopted Orthodox Christianity Clovis... Political reasons led to the fact that by the end of the VII century. in most parts of Europe, the Nicene religion was established. In the V century. the Irish became acquainted with Christianity. The activity of the legendary apostle of Ireland dates back to this time. st. Patrick.

Christianization of barbarian peoples was carried out mainly from above. In the minds of the masses of the people, pagan ideas and images continued to live. The Church assimilated these images, adapted them to Christianity. Pagan rituals and holidays were filled with new, Christian content.

From the end of the 5th to the beginning of the 7th century. the power of the pope was limited only to the Roman ecclesiastical province in Central and Southern Italy. However, in 597 an event took place that marked the beginning of the consolidation of the Roman Church throughout the kingdom. Dad Gregory I the Great sent preachers of Christianity headed by a monk to the pagan Anglo-Saxons Augustine... According to legend, the Pope saw English slaves on the market and was surprised at the similarity of their name with the word "angels", which he considered a sign from above. The Anglo-Saxon Church was the first church north of the Alps to report directly to Rome. The symbol of this dependence has become pallium (a plate worn on the shoulders), which was sent from Rome to the primate of the church, now called archbishop, i.e. the supreme bishop, to whom powers were delegated directly from the pope - the vicar of St. Peter. Subsequently, the Anglo-Saxons made a great contribution to the consolidation of the Roman Church on the continent, to the alliance of the Pope with the Carolingians. Played a significant role in this st. Boniface, a native of Wessex. He devised a program of profound reforms in the Frankish Church with the aim of establishing uniformity and submission to Rome. Boniface's reforms created the whole Roman church in western Europe. Only the Christians of Arab Spain preserved the special traditions of the Visigoth Church.

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