Story of Christianity: Volume 1: The Early Church to the Reformation (The Story of Christianity)

by Justo L. González

narratives because there were in fact two creations.

Origen proposes all of this, not as truths to be generally accepted, nor as something that will supersede the doctrines of the church, but as his own tentative speculations, which ought not to be compared with the authoritative teaching of the church.

there is no doubt that Origen strays from what Christianity has usually taught.

The emperors who created and applied these policies were

Septimius Severus and Decius.

the emperor felt the need for religious harmony within his territories, and thus settled on a policy of promoting syncretism. He proposed to bring all his subjects together under the worship of Sol invictus—the Unconquered Sun—and to subsume under that worship all the various religions and philosophies then current. All gods were to be accepted, as long as one acknowledged the Sun that reigned above all.

This policy soon clashed with the seeming obstinacy of two groups that refused to yield to syncretism: Jews and Christians.

Therefore, the year 202, when the edict of Septimius Severus was issued, is a landmark in the history of persecutions.

The most famous martyrdom of that time is that of Perpetua and Felicitas, which probably took place in 203.

It is possible that Perpetua and her companions were Montanists, and that the account of their martyrdom comes from the pen of Tertullian. In any case, the martyrs were five catechumens—that is, five people who were preparing to receive baptism.

“Now my sufferings are only mine. But when I face the beasts there will be another who will live in me, and will suffer for me since I shall be suffering for

Shortly thereafter, for reasons that are not altogether clear, persecution abated.

succeeded Septimius Severus, there was a brief persecution; but this again did not last long, and was mostly limited to North Africa.

Persecution was a past memory, both painful and glorious.

Then the storm broke out.

In 249, Decius took the imperial purple.

This was the basis of Decius’ religious policy. It was no longer a matter of rumors about Christian immorality, nor of punishing the obstinacy of those who refused to worship the emperor. It was rather an entire religious

campaign for the restoration of ancestral religion.

Those who refused to worship the gods were practically guil...

The emperor’s purpose was not to create martyrs, but apostates.

Tertullian had declared that the blood of the martyrs was a seed, for the more it was spilled the greater the number of Christians.

If, instead of killing Christians, they were forced to recant, this would be a victory for Decius’ goal of restoring paganism.

The imperial decree found Christians unprepared for the new challenge. Those generations that had lived under constant threat of persecution were now past, and the new generations were not ready for martyrdom.

Since Decius’ goal was to promote the worship of the gods, rather than to kill Christians, those who actually died as martyrs were relatively few. What the authorities did was to arrest Christians and then, through a combination of promises, threats, and torture, to try to force them to abandon their faith.

Decius’ persecution was brief. In A.D. 251, Gallus succeeded him, and his policies were set aside. Six years later Valerian, a former companion of Decius, began a new persecution. But he fell prisoner to the Persians, who took him in captivity, and the church enjoyed another forty years of relative peace.

Given the great prestige of the confessors, some thought that they were the ones with authority to determine who among the lapsed ought to be restored to the communion of the church, and how.

The church of Rome, for instance, had lost its bishop in the persecution, and the clergy of that city wrote to Cyprian questioning his decision.

the outcome was a schism that divided the church in Carthage and throughout the neighboring areas.

“outside the church there is no salvation,” and “no one can have God as Father who does not have the church as mother.”

The church was to be a community of saints, and the idolaters and apostates had no place in it.

The significance of these episodes is that they show that the restoration of the lapsed was one of the main concerns of the Western church from a very early date. The question of what should be done about those baptized Christians who sinned divided the Western church repeatedly. It was out of that concern that the entire penitential system developed. Much later, the Protestant Reformation was in large measure a protest against that system.

Wise scholars among Christians were the exception rather than the rule.

They were not entirely wrong, for there are indications that the vast majority of Christians during the first three centuries belonged to the lower echelons of society.

Although there were Christians of relatively high rank, such as Domitilla and Perpetua, it is likely that for each of these there were hundreds of Christians of humbler status and less instruction.

It was mostly out of this rank and file that

legends and writings arose with a very different tone from that of Justin and the other Christian scholars. Foremost among these writings are some of the apocryphal gospels and some of...

The miraculous plays a central role in these writings, even to the po...

However, this naive credulity should not lead one to underestimate those common Christians. A comparison of their theology with that of more cultured Christians does not always favor the latter. Thus, for instance, the active, sovereign, and just God who is depicted in many of these writings is closer to the God of Scripture than is the ineffable and distant One of Clement of Alexandria.

The reason for gathering on the first day of the week was that this was the day of the resurrection of the Lord.

This is why Acts describes those gatherings as happy occasions:

Those early communion services did not focus their attention on the events of Good Friday, but rather on those of Easter.

From that time, and throughout most of its history, the Christian church has seen in communion its highest act of worship. Only at a relatively recent date has it become common practice in many Protestant churches to focus their worship on preaching rather than on communion.

The most remarkable characteristic of those

early communion services was that they were celebrations.

In the beginning, communion was part of a...

However, by the beginning of the second century the common meal was being set aside, perhaps for fear of persecution, or in order to quell the rumors about orgiastic “love feasts.” Although the celebration then became more symbolic, the original tone of joy remained.

First there were commented readings of Scripture, with prayers and hymn singing. Since at that time it was almost impossible for an individual Christian to possess a copy of Scripture, this first part of the service was almost the only way in which believers came to know the Bible, and therefore it was rather extensive—sometimes lasting for hours. Then came the second part of the service, communion proper, which opened with the kiss of peace. After the kiss, the bread and wine were brought forth and presented to the one presiding, who then offered a prayer over the elements. In this prayer, often lengthy, the saving acts of God were usually recounted,

and the power of the Holy Spirit was invoked over the bread and the wine. Then the bread was broken and shared, the common cup was passed, and the meeting ended with a benediction. Naturally, although these were the common elements in a typical communion service, in various places and circumstances other elements could be added.

Another common characteristic of these early communion services was that only those who had ...

People coming from other congregations were certainly welcome, as long as they w...