BASICS of CHRISTIANITY
Understanding the Contexts for
African-American Christianity
Jesus
• Jesus is the form of direct revelation in
Christianity. The books of the New Testament
are a record of that revelation, but the event
of Jesus' life is the central form of contact
between the divine and human realms in
Christianity - there would be no scripture, no
religious tradition, no Christianity without
Jesus' life, activity, death and resurrection.
Jesus Christ
• Jesus is his given name, what people called
him when he was young
• Christ is an honorific term, meaning “The
Anointed One” – it has cosmological
significance as a name for Christians
• The narrative of Jesus’ life is one of struggle:
born outside of wedlock, poor, a member of a
colonized people, executed unjustly by
powerful forces scheming against him
Jesus Christ’s relevance for poor and
marginalized peoples
• The narrative of Jesus’ life ends in the triumph
of resurrection
• The fact that Jesus during his earthly life was
not a man of high status or among the elite
has given Christianity an innate manner of
appeal to the disefranchised, including
African-Americans.
Jesus’ disciples and Paul
• Jesus’ immediate followers told his story and
conveyed his message
• Paul – a disciple who went from persecuting
Christians to becoming one of their leaders –
dissociated Christianity from Judaism (despite
being Jewish himself, like Jesus and his disciples)
• Due to the power of Paul's proselytizing and to
the historic circumstance of the fall of the temple
in Jerusalem, Christianity became a religion
dependent not on ethnic identity, but on
experiential and intellectual assent to the
meaning of the Christ event.
Scope of a Religion’s Purview I
• Universal - Religions that assume that the human
situation is basically identical in all
circumstances, and that there is thus a single
soteriological viewpoint/solution/perspective for
all people. Thus, universal religions tend to
proselytize. Examples include Christianity, Islam,
and Buddhism.
Proselytize
• To induce or
convince someone
to join your
religion
• To convert a person
from one belief,
doctrine, cause, or
faith to another
• Missionizing
would impact
Africans and be
adopted by
African-Americans
Scope of a Religion’s Purview II
• Ethnic - Religions which have a universal and
unitary ontology, but which base membership and
access to this knowledge on kinship, generational
ties, and history of a specific ethnic group. These
religions tend not to proselytize, yet they are
sometimes open to new members. Examples
include Judaism, Hinduism, and Shinto.
Scope of a Religion’s Purview III
• Local - Religions which are built on the locality and local
conditions in which a people live. These religions are
specific to given geographic areas and/or to the peoples
who live there. Thus, these religious systems are often
co-extensive with cultural systems, and thus rarely if ever
proselytize (though they may choose to share their
insights with others). Their names are usually the same
as the name for that people; thus Navajo religion, Ainu
religion, Dinka religion (the Dinka are an East African
people). Most traditional African religions are “local”
religions. In fact, 'religion' here is a western scholarly
distinction not made by the practitioners.
Scope of a Religion’s Purview IV
• Esoteric - World-views and/or practices within religions
which assume that there is a special knowledge (gnosis)
that is gained through initiation, intensive study, magic,
material transformation (i.e. alchemy), and secrecy.
Esoteric religious trends can be found in all traditions,
and vary in social location from elite intellectual groups
to revolts by the marginalized. Gnosticism,
Manicheanism, Taoism, and Tantra are religious
traditions that have significant and consistent connections
with esotericism.
Key Dates in Early Christian History
The First Century
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4 BCE – 30 CE – Life of Jesus
35 CE – Conversion of Paul
50-67 – Epistles of Paul written
50-70 – Gospel of Mark written
70 – Destruction of Temple in Jerusalem
70-90 – Gospels of Matthew and Luke
80-110 – Gospel of John and Revelation
Two Contexts for Early Christianity
• JEWISH CONTEXT
Sadducees
Essenes
Zealots
Pharisees
Roman rule
Paul – Law v.Grace
Early Christianity must
effect both continuity
and separation from
Judaism
• ROMAN CONTEXT
Multi-religious empire
Polytheistic practices
linked to Emperor
Philosophic traditions
Communication and
transportation network
Early Christianity
thrives in urban areas
Christianity persecuted
in Empire
Saul, soon to be Paul,
on the Road to Damascus
• Saul persecuted Christians
• On road to Damascus,
struck off his horse, blinded,
hears Jesus speak to him
• God restores his sight, and
the now renamed Paul
becomes a Christian leader
• Famous painting of this by
Caravaggio (1601)
Paul (ca. 5 – 67 CE)
• Paul could move in both the
Jewish and Roman worlds
• A Jewish Pharisee
• Held Roman citizenship
• Renders Christianity a
universal religion by
dissociating need to be
Jewish first from being
Christian
• Paul travels extensively around the eastern end of
the Mediterranean Roman Empire
• Paul’s writings are known through the letters he
wrote to churches he had visited.
• Paul’s fourteen letters are the oldest NT texts
• Romans, Corinthians (1, 2), Galatians, Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians (1, 2), Hebrews,
and friends Timothy (1, 2), Philemon, and Titus
Key Themes in Christian History
The Second and Third Centuries
• Alternating times of persecution and tolerance
in Roman Empire
• Development of church structure, including
deacons, priests, bishops, and arch-bishops
• Christian writing largely in apologetics –
defenses of the faith against pagan detractors
• Christianity grows in urban areas, not rural
Key Dates in Early Christian History
• Persecution of
Christians by Roman
Empire especially
intense in 202, 235,
303
• However, Christians
tolerated (even
favored) by Roman
Empire following
persecutions in 211,
238
• CONSTANTINE –
emperor converts 312
• Elevates Christianity
to an official religion,
officially tolerated 313
• Christianity made
official religion of
entire empire 380
Key Themes in Christian History
The Fourth Century Transition
from Persecution to Power
312-415: Constantine to Hypatia
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Christianity comes up into the light of day
Theological conferences, starting with Nicea
Formulating creeds
Expelling heretics
Active proselytizing + social advantages
Church structure
Belief and Internal Debate
• Even before Constantine, Christians had
theological differences with each other
• During the Diocletian persecution in 305,
two groups of Christians were
imprisoned together in the same cell in
Alexandria
• Here’s what happened (remember, these
people are likely all facing the death
penalty…)
Belief and Internal Debate
• “when the Archbishop Peter realized that
Melitus and his party were opposed to his
more humane counsels, filled as they
were with excessive religious zeal, Peter
made a curtain down the middle of their
cell, by hanging up a cloak, a blanket, a
shirt; and he declared… ‘There are some
who are of my view, let them come over
to my side, and those of Melitus’ view,
stay with Melitus.’”
Emperor Constantine
(272-337 CE, r. 306-337 CE)
• Converts to
Christianity 312 CE
• Official tolerance,
even preference,
extended to
Christianity
• Political officials
play role in shaping
doctrine
Christianity’s
Schizophrenia
• Constantine’s
conversion meant that,
rather rapidly,
Christianity went from
being a minoritized,
sometimes persecuted
religious group, to
being the religious
group aligned with
state power.
• This created
uncertainty about
whether Christianity
represents the poor,
and gives advantage to
the down-trodden, or
whether Christianity
represents the
powerful in society.
Christian Triumphalism
Emperor Theodosius
(347-395 CE, r. 379-395)
• In 380, declares Catholic
Christianity the sole official
state religion
• Withdraws state support
from pagan temples & rituals
• After 391, issued decrees
making the destruction of
pagan temples mandatory
Triumphal
playful “We’re
ism • The
number one!” of
• Triumphalism is a
term referring to the
attitude or belief that
a particular doctrine,
religion, culture, or
social system is
superior to, and
should triumph over,
all others
sports fans is a
benign example of
triumphalism.
• In religion,
triumphalist
attitudes,
particularly in
proselytizing
religions, feed
religious wars.
Augustine of Hippo
354-430
From Hippo, in northern Africa
Augustine’s Significance
• Solidifies Christian
doctrine
• Battles heresies
• His Confessions form an
early autobiography
• Brought philosophic
training and his earlier
neo-Platonism to
Christianity when he
converted.
Augustine’s Significance
• Influential at Third Council of
Carthage, 397, that demarcates
the full New Testament canon
• Augustine is the pivotal figure
between the ancient world and
the medieval world
• He cements the link between
original sin and sexuality that
has influenced Western attitudes
concerning sex.
Augustine’s Conversion
• So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter
contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a
neighbouring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I
know not, chanting, and oft repeating. "Take up
and read; Take up and read." Instantly, my
countenance altered, I began to think most
intently whether children were wont in any kind
of play to sing such words: nor could I remember
ever to have heard the like.
Augustine’s Conversion
• So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose;
interpreting it to be no other than a command
from God to open the book, and read the first
chapter I should find. For I had heard of Antony,
that coming in during the reading of the Gospel,
he received the admonition, as if what was being
read was spoken to him: Go, sell all that thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven, and come and follow me and
by such oracle he was forthwith converted unto
Thee.
Augustine’s Conversion
• Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius
was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the
Apostle when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and
in silence read that section on which my eyes first
fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in
chambering and wantonness, not in strife and
envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make not provision for the flesh, in concupiscence.
No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly
at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of
serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of
doubt vanished away.
Augustine’s The
City of God
• Presents a cosmology
that portrays the
world as sinful and
mutable, while God
is perfect and
immutable
• Allows for divine
right of rulers while
also limiting their
hold on virtue.
Conversions of Paul and Augustine
• Paradigmatic for Christianity
• Paul: sudden, miraculous (grand
hierophany), calling forth action and
expansion of the faith
• Augustine: gradual, intellectual, direct
(intimate hierophany), calling forth defense
of the faith, both intellectually and
physically
Africa in Early Christianity
• Africa, especially north Africa and the Nile
delta, were integral parts of the Roman
Empire and thus, gradually and later, of
Christianity
• These areas were absorbed into Islam in the
seventh century, with only small pockets of
African indigenous Christianity remaining
(e.g. Ethiopia)
Dualism and the Logic of Christian
Exclusivism
• Augustine in North Africa (ca. 399-401)
preaches to his congregation to destroy
all visible remnants of Pagan religion,
“for that all the superstitions of pagans
and heathens should be annihilated is
what God wants, God commands, God
proclaims!” (Sermon 24)
“Us v. Them” Logic
includes all of Them
• Augustine adds in another sermon from
this time: “You must know, my friends,
how the mutterings (of the pagans) join
with those of heretics and Jews. Heretics,
Jews, and pagans—they have come to
form a unity over against our Unity.”
(Sermon 62)
Christian Theology
• Theology = Logic/words about god/s (theos)
• Theology is an attempt to logically and
systematically describe a cosmology
• Christianity has long been concerned with
establishing a consistent, if paradoxical,
mental picture of the world and of the sacred.
• Three main areas are the Incarnation, the
Trinity, and the Doctrine of Atonement.
The INCARNATION: Arians
• The Incarnation demands an explication of the
nature of Jesus/Christ, which is known as
Christology.
• The question is how could Jesus be both human
and divine?
• The most significant answers were:
• Arians - Jesus was fully human, and not divine;
there was no Trinity, only a single God, who
created Jesus as His instrument for acting
decisively in history. Founded by Arius (256-336).
The INCARNATION: Docetist
• The Incarnation demands an explication of the
nature of Jesus/Christ, which is known as
Christology.
• The question is how could Jesus be both human
and divine?
• The most significant answers were:
• Docetists - They believed that Jesus was fully
divine, and that his human appearance, suffering,
and death were only an illusion. Possibly
influenced by Gnosticism.
The INCARNATION: Nestorian
• The Incarnation demands an explication of the
nature of Jesus/Christ, which is known as
Christology.
• The question is how could Jesus be both human
and divine?
• The most significant answers were:
• Nestorians - This sect developed the idea that
Jesus had two entirely separate natures, one
human and one divine, existing side-by-side but
not communicating or interpenetrating.
The INCARNATION: Western
• The Incarnation demands an explication of the nature
of Jesus/Christ, which is known as Christology.
• The question is how could Jesus be both human and
divine?
• The most significant answers were:
• Western churches - the idea that Jesus was fully human
and fully divine at all times and in all ways during his
lifetime. Because this is an impossibility for human
beings to conceive, it was considered more likely to
represent the divine intent.
• This is the predominant view of Christian churches now
The ATONEMENT
• This doctrine implies that Christ's earthly mission, life,
suffering, and death were necessary acts, caused by
the sinfulness of human beings. Beginning with Adam
and Eve's sin in the Garden, human beings, from a
position of limitedness and finitude, had sinned and
therefore offended God. If God loved human beings,
the only way God could forgive these offenses was to
have a sacrifice performed that would more than
compensate for the sins of humanity. The Incarnation,
and Jesus' death, are supposed to have served as that
sacrifice. The African bishop, Saint Augustine, perhaps
the most important theologian between Paul and
Luther, articulated this doctrine most clearly.
The TRINITY
• The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit
• Creator God of Old Testament, Jesus Christ,
God’s ongoing presence in the world
• This doctrine holds that God has three
different aspects or modalities: Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. It is a way of trying to
understand the infinitude of God's power by
not limiting God to one type of historic or
theologic activity.
Heresy and Orthodoxy
• Because Christianity bases itself on intellectual
agreement concerning the importance of the Christ
event, it must develop, maintain, and disseminate
ideas of 'correct' and 'incorrect' opinions.
• "-dox" - Greek root meaning "opinion, belief" but also
implying "honor, glory"
• "ortho" - root meaning "straight, upright, correct"
• orthodox - sound or correct in opinion, doctrine,
theology - opinions which have ecclesiastic approval
• heterodox - not in accordance with accepted doctrine
• heresy - religious opinion or doctrine at variance with
orthodox or accepted doctrine; from the Greek root
'haíresis' lit. meaning "act of choosing"
Ecclesiasticism
• Christianity has adopted and developed many
forms of church organization. While Christianity
has not been dependent on ethnicity as a form of
identity, it has fostered community among its
adherents. It has also spawned powerful social
movements, with both liberatory and repressive
parameters. Christian life, for better or worse,
has almost always been identified with an
institutional, worshipping community. AfricanAmerican churches form a powerful example of
how churches can perform multiple functions in
the lives of congregants.
Church Organization I
• The question of how a church should be organized has created
most of the splits between different forms of Christianity. There
are three major forms of Christianity in the world today, with a
residual fourth category of "other.”
• Catholic Christianity - churches aligned with the Roman Catholic
Church and its priestly, sacramental theology. Church organization
is universal and hierarchic, culminating with the Pope in Rome.
• Eastern Orthodox Christianity - churches aligned with one of the
ethnic churches of Asia and Eastern Europe, such as the Greek
Orthodox Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Russian
Orthodox Church, etc. Each of these ethnic- and language-based
churches is organized hierarchically, with a structure of bishops.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity is a priestly, sacramental tradition,
placing a great deal of emphasis on the use of visual icons for
worship.
Church Organization II
• Protestant Christianity - is composed of a wide variety of churches, most of
European or North American origin, which split from Catholic Christianity at the
time of the Protestant Reformation, or developed later from within
Protestantism. There is no unifying element among Protestant churches, which
debate questions of church governance endlessly. While there are some
sacramental Protestants, most Protestant Christians have moved away from the
strict sacramentalism of Catholic Christianity, and so call their religious leaders
"ministers" instead of "priests.” The primary African-American denominations
are Protestant.
• Other Christianities - this category includes groups which, while they technically
stemmed from Protestant impulses, have articulated theologies which would
put them at variance with most Protestant churches. These include the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (i.e. Mormons), the Jehovah's Witnesses, and
the contemporary Unitarian-Universalists. Members of all three of these
denominations—denominations which share almost no theological tenets—
object to being called "Protestants" because they feel this category no longer
applies to them.
MY STERNEST LEVEL OF WARNING!!
DO NOT USE THE TERM "CHRISTIANITY" AS A SYNONYM FOR PROTESTANT!!
DO NOT, EVER EVER DO THAT!!
TO DO SO IS TO SUPPORT A POLEMICAL
(usually ANTI-CATHOLIC) EXCLUSIVISM!!
• In a Religious Studies classroom, we use the descriptive definition of
Christianity - any religion that places the life, actions, and meaning of Jesus as
the central cosmological event of history, qualifies as a Christian religion. That
means that Catholics are Christians, Protestants are Christians, Eastern
Orthodox are Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses are Christian, and Latter-Day
Saints are Christians! No matter what your minister or priest says! If they
disagree with me on this, they are undoubtedly using an evaluative definition
of Christianity, a definition which considers the term "Christianity" to be a title
of honor - which they then bestow on only those groups with which they
agree. In the religious studies classroom, we are using the term "Christianity"
only to describe something, not to flatter those who hold it! I am VERY
SERIOUS ABOUT THIS POINT! DON'T MESS UP ON THIS!
Umbrella Chart of Christianity
Protestant Reformation I
Protestant Reformation II
Luther’s theses “had the effect of lightening in a powder
magazine. The manifold and contradictory strivings of the
knights and the middle-class, the peasants and the plebeians, the
princes craving for sovereignty, the lower clergy, secretly playing
at mysticism and the learned writer's opposition of a satirical and
burlesque nature, found in Luther's theses a common expression
around which they grouped themselves with astounding rapidity."
Fredrich Engels The Peasant War in Germany
Family Tree of Henry VIII
JAMES VI/I
1566-1625,
r.1603-1625
Elizabeth I
(1533-1603, r. 1558-1603)
Elizabethan Settlement I
• To control religious
pluralism and dissent,
Elizabeth declared in
1559 that
• All citizens of England
were members of the
Church of England
(a.k.a. Anglican
Church)
Elizabethan Settlement II
• In exchange for
religious conformity to
the Church of England,
Elizabeth vowed not to
examine the personal
religious conscience of
her subjects
• Outward conformity,
inner conscience
• Religious persecution
only when religion
motivated a crime
Elizabethan Settlement III
• Results of the
Settlement:
• Church of England
an official state
church
• It retains elements of
Catholic
organization and
ritual
• Most conform
• Creates blending
(and tension) of
religion and state
• Contrarians resist
conformity:
Catholics, Puritans,
Separatists
(Pilgrims)
The Elizabethan Settlement’s Discontents
• Catholic opposition muted by
patriotism (e.g. Spanish
Armada) and distancing from
domestic terrorism (e.g. Guy
Fawkes’ plot)
• Separatists refused to conform –
lead to “Pilgrims” to America
• Conformist Reformers wanted to
make Church of England more
Calvinist – lead to the Puritans
who both come to America, and
lead a revolution in England
King James I,
r. 1603-1625
Anglican Reformation