More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Sometimes the church demanded a clean break from the past.
Second,
Third,
let each one be zealous to perform good works and to please God, living righteously, devoting himself to the Church, performing the things which he has learnt, advancing in the service of God.”27
Thus by the early third century the catechumenate involved three discrete stages. It began with informal contact with nonbelievers, which led to formal enrollment, initial examination, and assignment of a sponsor or mentor. It then provided instruction in the biblical story, the creed, and the Christian way of life, assuming that such knowledge would lead to genuine change of life. Finally, it culminated in Holy Week, when church leaders scrutinized candidates one more time and led them through a highly choreographed process of initiation that involved fasting, prayer, vigils, exorcisms,
...more
Thus it was less likely that people became Christian by decision, commitment, and training; they simply were Christian by association with Christian culture.
showy commencement ceremony following a mediocre education.
Was there some ulterior—and ungodly—motive? Ambrose thought so. “And here is one who comes to the Church because he is looking for honors under the Christian emperors; he pretends to request baptism with a simulated respect; he bows, he prostrates; but he does not bend his knees in spirit.”
Seems duper relevant in 2020
The fading of Christendom is forcing the church to consider once again what it means to function as an outsider institution.38 Such a change of status is also challenging the church to reconsider the role of the ancient catechumenate.
The impact of this new faith was an unintended consequence of something else, something far more important.
It concerned what Christians believed about the very nature of reality or, better put, who they believed was at the center of reality—namely, Jesus Christ.
Neither did they isolate from Rome. Instead, they immersed themselves in the culture as followers of Jesus and agents of the kingdom, influencing it from within both as individuals and as a community.
This God of love, they believed, loves the people he created by inviting them to be participants and recipients of the love that exists within the very being of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
They viewed worship as a bridge between divine and human worlds, as if in worship Christians stepped into a liminal space between heaven and earth.
as beholders of the unspeakable glory of God.
Their knowledge of Jesus changed their view of history. The story of Jesus opened their eyes to see history not as a narrative of the empire’s achievements—and atrocities—but as a narrative of God’s redemptive work in the world, which often occurs in quiet and mysterious ways.
All authority, they confessed, comes from Jesus Christ, which completely redefined how they understood worldly authority. The incarnate Son of God emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.
Rome pitted rich against poor, citizen against barbarian, male against female, master against slave.
Ie: america
The catechumenate was both inherent to the faith and necessary for its survival and growth. It was inherent because discipleship was the only possible response to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
it was necessary because the church faced stiff opposition and competition in the ancient world.
Anything short of that would have resulted in accommodation or isolation, and thus to the decline and eventual death of Christianity, at least as the apostles defined it.
But these were renewal movements, intended to awaken a moribund Christendom.
As long as Christians assume we are still living under the old arrangement of Christendom, the church will continue to decline in the West, no matter how ferociously Christians fight to maintain power and privilege.
Christians will either accommodate until the faith becomes almost unrecognizable, or they will isolate until their faith becomes virtually invisible.
Now, as then, the church needs disciples who trust in and confess that Jesus is Lord and try to live accordingly, who orient their lives around the worship of the Triune God and understand the Christian story as their story, who view themselves as new creatures in Christ and as members of a global community of faith, and who strive to imitate Jesus in all areas of life, serve the “least of these,” and steward their resources as if everything they have belongs to God, which of course it does.
Nothing short of a change of church culture will suffice—from a culture of entertainment, politics, personality, and program to a culture of discipleship. Such a radical change will require patience, steadiness, and purposefulness. A coach cannot turn a team with a losing record around in one season, nor can an orch...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Leaders with clear vision, faith in the power of the gospel, and high standards ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
He is the same Lord today. It can happen again.
