Church History Overview:
Class 1: Introduction and History
to Constantine the Great
Ann T. Orlando
IAP 2005
Introduction
• Purpose: Provide a basic introduction to Catholic
Church History in 4 one-hour lectures
• Church periods for this class:
– Wk1: Beginning to Constantine the Great (“in the
beginning” to 312)
– Wk2: Constantine to Charlemagne (312 to 900)
– Wk 3: Medieval Europe (900 to 1500)
– Wk 4: Reformation and JPII (1500 to 2000)
• NB: I am teaching a semester long class in Church History at St.
John Seminary. Feel free to go to my website for this class at
http://web.mit.edu/aorlando/www/ChurchHistory/
Overview of Week 1 Lecture
• Background to the beginning of Church history in three strands
– Story of people Israel (Old Testament)
– Secular history
– Philosophical history
• New Testament as historical document; missionary activities; first
council
• Second Century
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Complete break with Judaism
What is canon of Scripture
Relations with Empire
Who has authority in Church
• Third Century
– Imperial Chaos and Empire-wide martyrdoms
– Impact of neo-Platonism
– Development of Christianity in North Africa
“In the beginning…
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The Bible tells the theological story of the Church and God’s revelation to the Church
Adam, Eve, the Fall and God establishes a people with a special relationship to Him:
dateless, timeless; Genesis
Moses c. 1250 BCE (BC) Exodus through Deuteronomy
David c. 1000 BCE Samuel, Kings, Chronicles
Destruction of 1st Temple; 586 Babylonian Captivity by Nebuchadnezzar; Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Return and rebuilding of Temple (Second Temple) 539 BCE by Persian King Cyrus;
Ezra, Nehemiah
Israel between two great Greek powers; 330 BCE to 160 BCE; Maccabees appeal to
Rome for help; Daniel writes about whore of Babylon, but really is referring to
Seleucids
Palestine a client of Rome 160 BCE to 4 BCE (death of Herod the Great)
Jesus Christ 1 to 33 CE (AD)
Palestine revolts; destruction of Second Temple in 70 CE; occupied by Rome until
600 CE and Moslem conquests
New Testament written 50 and 90 CE
Rome as whore of Babylon in Revelation
Secular History Background
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Alexander the Great
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Hellenistic (Greek) Empires 323 – 31 BCE
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Son of Philip of Macedonia; Student of Aristotle
Conquers the ‘world’ by age of 33
Founds Alexandria, center of learning for next 600 years
Dies in 323 BC; leaving his generals in charge of various parts of his conquests
Macedonians: Greece, Sicily, southern Italy
Seleucids: Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia
Ptolemies: Egypt and Cyrene
As a result of this extended period of Greek rule, the ‘lingua franca’ of the Mediterranean was Greek from
the 4th C BC until the 5th C AD in the West and the 15th C in the East
Israel between two major competing Empires: Seleucid and Ptolemy
Rome
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Traditional founding date of 753 BCE
Started as a Republic ruled by Senate
Punic Wars, conquers and destroys Carthage 202 BCE
Maccabees ask Rome for help against Seleucids 160 BCE
Julius Caesar conquers Gaul 80 BCE
Augustus defeats Anthony and Cleopatra (last Ptolemy ruler of Egypt) at Actium in 31 BCE; Roman Empire
established
Roman Empire existed in some form between 31 BC and 1453 AD
Philosophical (Greek) Background
• Athenian Philosophy Before Alexander
– Socrates and Plato: Platonism (and indirectly skepticism);
Academy
– Aristotle: Plato’s student, founder of Lyceum and Aristotelianism
• Hellenistic Philosophy
– Epicurus, fought in Alexander’s army; opposed to Plato, founder
of Epicureanism; the Garden
– Zeno: opposed to Epicurus, founder of Stoicism; the Stoa
• Neo-Platonism centered in Alexandria 250 CE
• Catholic Christianity has always used contemporary
philosophical methods as the language of theology and
as an aid to interpret the Bible; philosophy as the
handmaid of theology. Example: Virtue
Roman Society
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Do not judge ancients by modern standards
Roman religion was a public, civic obligation;
– NOT a way to have a personal relationship with Divine
– ‘mystery religions’ became very popular in 1st through 3rd Century Roman Society
(Cults of Mithra; Isis and Osiris; Dionysius)
– Anyone who did not offer sacrifice for the good of the state was considered an
atheist
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Roman Emperor increasingly was a soldier who was ‘adopted’ by current
Emperor (Augustus). Cult of Roman Emperor as god in his lifetime was
started by Nero
Roman household was composed of patron (father) and clients (wife,
children, slaves, business associates dependent upon him)
– Father had complete control of clients
– Adoption was very common
– Owning property was far more prestigious than commerce
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Excellent road and mail system throughout the Empire
Note that the most Latin (least Greek) part of the Empire was North Africa
History of Church in
New Testament
• Paul’s Letters are the oldest Christian documents we have.
However, Paul was not writing a general history, he was responding
to specific problems in specific communities (except for Romans)
• [Paul and Peter martyred in 64 AD by Nero]
• Gospel of Luke and Acts of Apostles
– written in an ancient historical style; Luke gives an ‘ordered account’ of
Jesus and the early Church
– Council of Jerusalem in which Paul’s position that Gentiles do not need
to convert to Judaism is affirmed (Acts 15)
– Story of how the Church was spread by Paul’s missionary activity
• Revelation (most scholars believe) is based on persecution of
Christians in Asia Minor during Domitian’s reign; Rome as whore of
Babylon
• Note: John’s Gospel is most philosophical; Jesus as Logos
What Happened to Judaism
in this Period
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Before and during Jesus’ life there were many types of Judaism
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Pharisees: upholders of the Law (Torah)
Sadducees: from aristocracy and high priests, did not believe in resurrection of dead; closely
associated with Temple
Essenes: disgusted with impurities in Temple; left for desert
Zealots: ‘terrorists’ against Roman occupation
Diaspora Jews not living in Palestine but scattered around Mediterranean; Greek Jews
(Hellenists in Acts of Apostles)
Jews in Mesopotamia who did not return after the exile in 6th C BC
During the First War with Rome 66-73 AD, the Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots
were destroyed
In 117 AD the Emperor Trajan destroyed the Hellenistic Jewish community in
Alexandria; after this the Greek Jews seemingly either converted to Christianity or
rabbinic Judaism
The Pharisees were the group out of which rabbinic Judaism grew in the 2cd and 3rd
C CE. They reestablished contact with the Mesopotamian Jews and their theology;
rejected use of Greek philosophy and parts of the OT written in Greek, not Hebrew
Hellenistic Jewish theology was taken over, preserved and used by early Christian
theologians, especially in Alexandria
Second Century Christianity
Key Issues
• What constitutes Scripture?
– Multiple gospels (some rather bazaar) were used by Gnostics
– Status of OT; some (Marcian) wanted to reject all of OT and
most of NT
• What is role of philosophy is Christianity?
– How to interpret the Scriptures
– Philosophical understanding of Trinity
• Relationship with Empire
– How to deal with sporadic (but very real) persecutions
– Can a Christian also be a good citizen?
• Internal Church authority
– Who decides and teaches what is orthodox
Second Century Issues ‘Resolution’
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Scripture:
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Early Orthodox theologians used Stoicism
Multiple levels of meaning of Scripture;
Jesus, although God, had a real body that suffered
Justin Martyr developed the idea of Jesus as Logos
Relation to Empire
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Based upon the Greek OT the Septuagint which includes the deutero- canonical works; and
the 27 Books of the NT;
St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was among the first to reject other books of Scripture and to
support these
Christians tried to be good citizens and encouraged praying for welfare of Emperor
Christians tried to explain themselves to intellectuals of their day in apologies (Justin Martyr,
Tertullian)
Viewed with suspicion by pagan neighbors because they were a ‘new’ religion (superstition);
period of sporadic persecution
Authority in Church
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‘What the Church prays the Church believes’
Development of structure of bishops assisted by deacons and presbyters (elders)
St. Ignatius of Antioch, martyred. c110 in Rome
Apostolic succession of bishops (but NOT special secret knowledge)
Third Century Issues
• Empire-wide Persecutions
– Instability in third century empire led to increased
persecutions
– Waves of persecutions led some to apostasy then
want to return to the Church
– How best to remember the martyrs
• Development of liturgy
– Organized, standardized prayers for Eucharist
– Organized approach to catechumens
• How to include new philosophical methods
Third Century ‘Resolutions’
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Donatist Controversy
– Donatist, especially strong in North Africa, did not allow those who had
apostatized to return to Church; the Church of the ‘pure’; Ministers had to be
especially pure
– Orthodox church allowed lay and ministers to return to church with appropriate
public penance
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Beginning of hermits in desert who wanted to escape civilization to lead a
pure life
Certainly Eucharist before third Century (Paul’s Letters, Gospels, Didache)
but specific practice developed in third century; St. Hippolytus
– Rites for ordination of bishops
– Rites for instruction of catechumens and baptism at Easter Vigil
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New philosophical developments: neo-Platonism
– Origen and how to think about Jesus and Trinity
– Augustine and how to think about evil
– Guided Christian theological developments until 13th C in West
What’s Next Week?
• Constantine the Great
– The Christianity goes from being persecuted to being the official
religion of the Empire
– Model for Church-State relations for next 1000 years
• Defining beliefs more carefully
– Councils of Nicea, Ephesus and Chalcedon
– Great theologians East and West
• Fall of Rome (in the West)
• The Church as the social and educational backbone of
Europe
• Rise of Islam
• Charlemagne
• Breakup of Charlemagne’s Empire