Hot Topics in Church History Saint Anne Adult Forum Lent 2013
30
Embed
Saint Anne Adult Forum Lent 2013. Previews of Coming Attractions Week 1: Lost Christianities Early Christians and faiths we never knew Week 2: Establishment.
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Slide 1
Saint Anne Adult Forum Lent 2013
Slide 2
Previews of Coming Attractions Week 1: Lost Christianities
Early Christians and faiths we never knew Week 2: Establishment of
the Church Canon Books that didnt make the bible and why Week 3:
The Council of Nicaea Establishment of Christian orthodoxy Week 4:
The Crusades Religious wars in the name of Christ Week 5:
Establishment of the Anglican Church A rift between England and
Rome that became a new faith Week 6: Modern Hot Topics Contemporary
topics, still unresolved after 2000 years of discussion
Slide 3
Early Christian faiths we never knew
Slide 4
Outline The Christian world of 100 to 300 AD Different
interpretations of what it meant to be a Christian Ebonities
Marconites Gnostics Why did these different interpretations exist?
What became of these Christianities? How do the differences in
these Christian faiths continue to influence our own faith
today?
Slide 5
The Roman Empire 117 AD
Slide 6
The State of Christianity No established canon No established
set of beliefs (Council of Nicaea wouldnt meet until 325 AD) Many,
many books available describing the life and teachings of Jesus
Much information about the life of Jesus was still shared by
word-of-mouth Different groups had very different understandings of
what it meant to be Christian
Slide 7
Where Does Our Information About These Groups Come From?
Original texts and writings generally dont survive Irenaeus second
century author who wrote against these interpretations, and
sometimes quoted their texts
Slide 8
The Ebionites Accepted Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, but still
kept the Jewish law May have been closely associated with James,
the brother of Jesus Believed that Jesus was fully human (not
divine), and became a Son of God by keeping The Law perfectly Had a
gospel similar to the gospel of Matthew (less the first two
chapters), plus the books of the Old Testament
Slide 9
Marcionites Theology developed by Marcion (85 160 A.D.) of
Sinop Believed Jesus was fully divine (not human) Did not think one
had to keep The Law to be right with God (i.e. did not have to be
Jewish Held that there were two Gods one of the Old Testament (who
also created the world) and one of the New First to develop a canon
of accepted scripture: Book similar to gospel of Luke (called the
Gospel of Marcion) Ten letters of Paul Sinop
Slide 10
Gnostics Very little known about Gnostics until the discovery
of many Gnostic texts at Nag Hamadi, Egypt in 1946 Believed that
the world is an evil place created by an inferior god, but many of
us have the spark of the divine and are trying to return to the
true God Believed Christ entered the body of a man named Jesus, and
came here to reveal this knowledge to us Felt that the world wasnt
what it appeared to be, and that we arent supposed to be here
Slide 11
Gnostic Texts Followed Gospel of Mark and John Many other
Gnostic texts, including: Gospel of Thomas Gospel of Truth
Slide 12
Alternate Universe What would modern Christianity be like if
these other interpretations had won? Ebionites - Christianity would
be a specialized subset of Judiasim Marcionites much shorter canon
(no Old Testament) Gnostics Emphasis would be on discovering your
inner divine spark
Slide 13
What Were the Disagreements? Who was Jesus? Was he fully human,
but kept the law perfectly and became a Son of God? (ebionites) Was
he fully divine, and only appeared to be human? (Marcionites) Was
he a divine being who entered the body of a man named Jesus? What
was Jesus purpose here? To deliver a new interpretation of The Law?
To be the perfect sacrifice? To deliver the knowledge needed to
return to the divine realm?
Slide 14
How Did Our Current Understanding of Christianity Win? Located
in Rome Roads able to communicate the theology and the scriptures
which eventually became the canon Wealth churches in Rome could
send funds to help support like- minded Christian churches
elsewhere in the Empire Old once the Old Testament was adopted,
became credible and authoritative by virtue of its age (i.e. older
than Homer, Plato, etc) Popular once adopted by Constantine,
Christianity became quite popular Ebonites not very appealing (must
become a Jew and keep The Law) Marcionites not very old, thus
lacked authority and credibility Gnostics elitist (only some, but
not all, can be saved)
Slide 15
Questions? On display through April 14, 2013
Slide 16
Next Week Books that didnt make the bible and why
Slide 17
Books that didnt make the New Testament and why
Slide 18
Outline The state of Christianity 100 300 A.D. A brief history
of the books that made the New Testament canon Gospels Acts
Epistles Apocolypse Selected books that were not accepted Gospel of
Thomas The Infancy Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Peter How were
the books of the New Testament selected? How did the canon come to
be?
Slide 19
The State of Christianity Proto-orthodox Christianity becomes
the dominant form in most parts of the empire by the 4 th century
No formal canon (list) of accepted texts exists Various Christian
groups may be using different texts from one another
Slide 20
Books of the Modern New Testament Consists of a total of 27
books by 14-15 different authors: 4 gospels 1 book of acts of the
apostles 21 epistles (letters) 1 apocalypse All books were
originally written in Greek Letters of Paul written around 50 - 60
A.D. Gospel of Mark ~ 65 A.D. Gospels of Luke and Matthew 80 85
A.D. Gospel of John 90-95 A.D. Most books completed by 120
A.D.
Slide 21
Some Books Which Were Not Included in the Canon The Gospels of
Thomas Philip Mary Magdalene The Hebrews The Ebionites Bartholomew
Nicodemus Basilides Truth The Nazarenes The Egyptians The Secret
Gospel of Mark The Aprocryphon of James The Infancy Gospel of James
The Infancy Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy The Armenian Gospel of the Infancy
The Assumption of the Virgin The History of Joseph the Carpenter
The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles John Peter Paul Andrew
Thomas Paul and Thecla Andrew and Matthias Barnabas James the Great
Peter and Andrew Philip Pilate Thaddeus The Ascents of James The
Martyrdom of Matthew The Passion of Paul The Passion of Peter The
Preaching of Peter
Slide 22
How Were Books Determined to be Canonical? Had to satisfy three
main criteria: Had to be written by one of the apostles or one of
the apostles companions (i.e. the book had to be old) Had to be
widely read by Christian churches throughout the world Had to
conform to the teachings of the church (had to be orthodox)
Slide 23
Infancy Gospel of Thomas Describes the life of Jesus prior to
his 12 th birthday Many stories about miracles Jesus performed as a
child
Slide 24
The Gospel of Thomas Consists of a total of 114 sayings
attributed to Jesus Widely used by the Gnostic Christians Was known
only by the writings of Ireneaus until 1946 A complete copy was
discovered in Nag Hamadi, Egypt, written in coptic Translated into
English in 1977 Not included in the canon because it was considered
to be a gnostic text
Slide 25
Gospel of Peter Gospel explicitly claims to be written by Peter
The Gospel is written in the first person Contains an eyewitness
account of the resurrection Was in use in the liturgy of many
Christian churches Declared heretical by Searpion of Antioch
Slide 26
Irenaeus, 2 nd Century Marcion was the first to develop a list
of acceptable scription Irenaeus was the first to call Mark, Luke,
Matthew and John all canonical Cites 22 of the 27 books in the New
Testament Uses apostolic succession in his arguments
Slide 27
The First Modern Canon The first listing of the 27 books
contained in the modern New Testament dates from 367 A.D. Listed in
an annual spring letter by Athanasius, the Bishop of
Alexandria
Slide 28
Jerome Commissioned by Pope Damascus in 382 to revise the
complete bible, including the Old and New Testaments Rewrote the
gospels from Greek, translated into consistent Latin Dominant
version of the bible from 400 to 1530 A.D.
Slide 29
For further reading Ehrman, Bart D. Lost Christianities The
Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot Lost Scriptures Meyer, Marvin W. The
Secret Teachings of Jesus Pagels, Elaine Beyond Belief: The Secret
Gospel of Thomas Revelations: Visons, Prophesy and Politics in the
Book of Revelation