You are fired up over a note sent to you on Facebook suggesting that most everyone in OWS is on the public dole. You responded better than I expected you would. People do want to live in a free country, those who say there is no free lunch, and they don’t want to pay for it. Good point, boy. Otherwise, a usual Monday mid-morning.
I have worked most of my life, I did begin with a paper route around ten or so. I bought my first car and paid for the insurance myself. I helped pay for college and paid all of graduate school. No loans. I worked into 2003. I do have Medicare Part B but not Part A. I do not collect social security. I have had a good life. I am sure other people have had a good life too. Wealth in itself is not bad, but in our country, the way our government is set up, money buys power and power controls undemocratically, that’s what it comes down to. And, in a democracy/republic this is unjust, it is not of the people, by the people and for the people – it is mainly, buy the people.
Post. - Amorella
I feel like I should do some research on specific Christian cultural history before beginning this scene.
How about early Christian diversity. – Amorella.
I checked Wikipedia on the History of the Christian Church up into the seventh century, copied it, and have fifteen pages to read and edit.
Make another copy for editing and I will help you search for relevant material for the scene. – Amorella.
Wow. Such information. It is very interesting to see the whole of how Christianity developed. I had forgotten most of this material that I am sure I had in religious history and in Western Civilization while at Otterbein, lots of proper and place names popped out along the skimming.
Take a break. You will need to go over the edited notes again, this time we will bold important aspects and from those edit and add to your notes. – Amorella.
I enjoy this type of exercise. What would I do without Wikipedia?
The Internet makes these works possible, orndorff. The timing of writing and researching for the books has been will made. – Amorella.
In other words, I lucked out.
Your wordage not mine. – Amorella.
You had a nap and you and Carol spent the later afternoon in the shade of a hill at the north end of Pine Hill City Park. Here is what we have:
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History of Christianity: (Edited to AD 700, relative to Book Four)
From Wikipedia.
Christianity spread initially from Jerusalem throughout the Near East. In the 4th century it was successively adopted as the state religion by Armenia in 301, Ethiopia in 325, Georgia in 337, and then the Roman Empire in 380. It became common to all of Europe in the Middle Ages.
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Early Christianity may be divided into 2 distinct phases: the apostolic period, when the first apostles were alive and led the Church, and the post-apostolic period, when an early episcopal structure developed, and persecution was periodically intense. The Roman persecution of Christians ended in AD 313 under the reign of Constantine the Great, who in 325 prompted the First Council of Nicaea, the beginning of the period of the First seven Ecumenical Councils.
Apostolic Church
The Apostolic Church was the community led by the apostles, and some degree, Jesus' relatives. In his "Great Commission", the resurrected Jesus commanded that his teachings be spread to all the world.
The first Christians were essentially all ethnically Jewish or Jewish Proselytes. In other words, Jesus preached to the Jewish people and called from them his first disciples, see for example Matthew 10. However, the Great Commission is specifically directed at "all nations," and an early difficulty arose concerning the matter of Gentile (non-Jewish) converts as to whether they had to "become Jewish" (usually referring to circumcision and adherence to dietary law), as part of becoming Christian.
Circumcision in particular was considered repulsive by Greeks and Hellenists while circumcision advocates were labelled Judaisers.
The actions of Peter, at the conversion of Cornelius the Centurion, seemed to indicate that circumcision and food laws did not apply to gentiles, and this was agreed to at the apostolic Council of Jerusalem.
The sources for the beliefs of the apostolic community include the Gospels and New Testament epistles. The very earliest accounts of belief are contained in these texts, such as early Christian creeds and hymns, as well as accounts of the Passion, the empty tomb, and Resurrection appearances; some of these are dated to the '30s or '40s, originating within the Jerusalem Church.
Post-Apostolic Church
The post-apostolic period concerns the time after the death of the apostles (roughly 100 AD) until persecutions ended with the legalisation of Christian worship under Constantine the Great.
Persecutions
According to Church tradition, it was under Nero's persecution that Peter and Paul were each martyred in Rome. Similarly, several of the New Testament writings mention persecutions and stress endurance through them. For 250 years Christians suffered from sporadic persecutions for their refusal to worship the Roman emperor, considered treasonous and punishable by execution.
Why did Christianity succeed?
In the influential book, The Rise of Christianity, Rodney Stark argues that various sociological factors which made Christianity improving the quality of life of its adherents were crucial for its triumph over paganism.
Another factor, more recently pointed out, that may have contributed to the success of Christianity was how the Christian promise of a general resurrection of the dead combined the traditional Greek belief that true immortality depended on the survival of the body with practical explanations of how this was going to actually happen at the end of times.
Structure and the episcopacy
The diversity of early Christianity can be documented from the New Testament record itself. The Book of Acts admits conflicts between Hebrews and Hellenists, and Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, and Aramaic speakers and Greek speakers. The letters of Paul, Peter, John, and Jude all testify to intra-Church conflicts over both leadership and theology. In a response to the Gnostic teaching, Irenaeus created the first document describing what is now called apostolic succession.
Early Christian writings
As Christianity spread, it acquired certain members from well-educated circles of the Hellenistic world; they sometimes became bishops, but not always. They produced two sorts of works: theological and "apologetic", the latter being works aimed at defending the faith by using reason to refute arguments against the veracity of Christianity.
Early heresies
The New Testament itself speaks of the importance of maintaining correct (orthodox) doctrine and refuting heresies, showing the antiquity of the concern. Because of the biblical proscription against false prophets, Christianity has always been occupied with the orthodox interpretation of the faith.
Indeed one of the main roles of the bishops in the early Church was to determine and retain important correct beliefs, and refute contrarian opinions, known as heresies. As there were sometimes differing opinions among the bishops on new questions, defining orthodoxy would occupy the Church for some time.
The earliest controversies were often Christological in nature; that is, they were related to Jesus' divinity or humanity.
Docetism held that Jesus' humanity was merely an illusion, thus denying the incarnation (Deity becoming human).
Arianism held that Jesus, while not merely mortal, was not eternally divine and was, therefore, of lesser status than the Father.
Trinitarianism held that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit were all strictly one being with three hypostases or persons.
Many groups held dualistic beliefs, maintaining that reality was composed into two radically opposing parts: matter, seen as evil, and spirit, seen as good. Such views gave rise to some theology of the "incarnation" that were declared heresies. Most scholars agree that the Bible teaches that both the material and the spiritual worlds were created by God and were therefore both good.
The development of doctrine, the position of orthodoxy, and the relationship between the various opinions is a matter of continuing academic debate. Since most Christians today subscribe to the doctrines established by the Nicene Creed, modern Christian theologians tend to regard the early debates as a unified orthodox position against a minority of heretics.
Other scholars, drawing upon distinctions between Jewish Christians, Pauline Christianity, and other groups such as and Marcionites, argue that early Christianity was always fragmented, with contemporaneous competing beliefs.
The Biblical canon is the set of books Christians regard as divinely inspired and thus constituting the Christian Bible. Though the Early Church used the Old Testament according to the canon of the Septuagint (LXX), the apostles did not otherwise leave a defined set of new scriptures; instead the New Testament developed over time.
The writings attributed to the apostles circulated amongst the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were circulating in collected form by the end of the 1st century AD. Justin Martyr, in the early 2nd century, mentions the "memoirs of the apostles", which Christians called "gospels" and which were regarded as on par with the Old Testament.
A four-gospel canon (the Tetramorph) was in place by the time of Irenaeus, c. 160, who refers to it directly. By the early 3rd century, Origen of Alexandria may have been using the same 27 books as in the modern New Testament, though there were still disputes over the canonicity of Hebrews, James, II Peter, II and III John, and Revelation.
Such works that were sometimes "spoken against" were called Antilegomena. In contrast, the major writings and most of what is now the New Testament were Homologoumena, or universally acknowledged for a long time, since the middle of the 2nd century or before.
These councils were under the authority of St. Augustine, who regarded the canon as already closed. Likewise, Damasus’ commissioning of the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible, c. 383, was instrumental in the fixation of the canon in the West. In 405, Pope Innocent I sent a list of the sacred books to Exuperius, a Gallic bishop.
Thus, by the 4th century, there existed unanimity in the West concerning the New Testament canon, and by the 5th century the East, with a few exceptions, had come to accept the Book of Revelation and thus had come into harmony on the matter of the canon.
Spread of Christianity to AD 325
Head of Constantine's colossal statue at Musei Capitolini Galerius, who had previously been one of the leading figures in persecution, in 311 issued an edict which ended the Diocletian persecution of Christianity. He was then succeeded by an emperor with distinctively pro Christian leanings, Constantine the Great.
Constantine thus established a precedent for the emperor as responsible to God for the spiritual health of their subjects, and thus with a duty to maintain orthodoxy. The emperor was to enforce doctrine, root out heresy, and uphold ecclesiastical unity.
Ecumenical Councils
During this era, several Ecumenical Councils were convened. These were mostly concerned with Christological disputes.
The two Councils of Nicaea (325, 382) condemned Arian teachings as heresy and produced the Nicene Creed.
The Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorianism and affirmed Mary to be Theotokos ("God-bearer" or "Mother of God").
The Council of Chalcedon that affirmed that Christ had two natures, fully God and fully man, distinct yet always in perfect union. Thus, it condemned Monophysitism and would be influential in refuting Monothelitism.
However, not every group accepted all the councils, for example Nestorianism and the Assyrian Church of the East split over the Council of Ephesus of 431, and Oriental Orthodoxy split over the Council of Chalcedon of 451.
Christianity as Roman state religion
On February 27, 380, with the Edict of Thessalonica put forth under Theodosius I, the Roman Empire officially adopted Trinitarian Christianity as its state religion.
Prior to this date, Constantius II (337-361) and Valens (364-378) had personally favored Arian or Semi-Arian forms of Christianity, but Valens' successor Theodosius I supported the Trinitarian doctrine as expounded in the Nicene Creed.
After its establishment, the Church adopted the same organisational boundaries as the Empire: geographical provinces, called dioceses, corresponding to imperial governmental territorial division.
Nestorianism and the Sassanid Empire
During the early 5th century the School of Edessa had taught a christological perspective stating that Christ's divine and human nature were distinct persons.
A particular consequence of this perspective was that Mary could not be properly called the mother of God, but could only be considered the mother of Christ.
The most widely known proponent of this viewpoint was the Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius. Since referring to Mary as the mother of God had become popular in many parts of the Church this became a divisive issue.
The Roman Emperor Theodosius II called two synods in Ephesus, one in 431 and one in 449, with the intention of settling the issue. The councils ultimately rejected Nestorius' view.
Many churches who followed the Nestorian viewpoint broke away from the Roman Church, causing a major schism. The Nestorian churches were persecuted and many followers fled to the Sassanid Empire where they were accepted.
The Sassanid (Persian) Empire had many Christian converts early in its history tied closely to the Syriac branch of Christianity. The Empire was officially Zoroastrian and maintained a strict adherence to this faith in part to distinguish itself from the religion of the Roman Empire (originally the pagan Roman religion and then Christianity).
Christianity became tolerated in the Sassanid Empire and as the Roman Empire increasingly exiled heretics during the 4th and 6th centuries, the Sassanid Christian community grew rapidly. By the end of the 5th century the Persian Church was firmly established and had become independent of the Roman Church. This church evolved into what is today known as the Church of the East.
Miaphysitism
In 451 the Council of Chalcedon was held to further clarify the christological issues surrounding Nestorianism. The council ultimately stated that Christ's divine and human nature were separate but both part of a single entity, a viewpoint rejected by many churches who called themselves miaphysites.
The resulting schism created a communion of churches, including the Armenian, Syrian, and Egyptian churches.
Arianism and Goths
A popular doctrine of the 4th century was Arianism, the denial of the divinity of Christ, as propounded by Arius.
Though this doctrine was condemned as heresy and eventually eliminated by the Roman Church it remained popular underground for some time.
In the late 4th century Ulfilas, a Roman bishop and an Arian, was appointed as the first bishop to the Goths, the Germanic peoples in much of Europe at the borders of and within the Empire. Ulfilas spread Arian Christianity among the Goths firmly establishing the faith among many of the Germanic tribes, thus helping to keep them culturally distinct.
Monasticism
Monasticism is a form of asceticism whereby one renounces worldly pursuits and goes off alone as a hermit or joins a tightly organized community. . . .
Originally, all Christian monks were hermits, following the example of Anthony the Great. However, the need for some form of organised spiritual guidance lead Pachomius in 318 to organise his many followers in what was to become the first monastery.
Soon, similar institutions were established throughout the Egyptian desert as well as the rest of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Women were especially attracted to the movement.
Central figures in the development of monasticism were Basil the Great in the East and Benedict in the West, who created the famous Rule of Saint Benedict, which would become the most common rule throughout the Middle Ages, and starting point for other monastic rules.
The transition into the Middle Ages was a gradual and localised process. Rural areas rose as power centres whilst urban areas declined.
Although a greater number of Christians remained in the East (Greek areas), important developments were underway in the West (Latin areas) and each took on distinctive shapes.
The Bishops of Rome, the Popes, were forced to adapt to drastically changing circumstances. Maintaining only nominal allegiance to the Emperor, they were forced to negotiate balances with the "barbarian rulers" of the former Roman provinces.
In the East the Church maintained its structure and character and evolved more slowly.
Western Missionary Expansion
The stepwise loss of Western Roman Empire dominance, replaced with foederati and Germanic kingdoms, coincided with early missionary efforts into areas not controlled by the collapsing empire.
Already as early as in the 5th century, missionary activities from Roman Britain into the Celtic areas (current Scotland, Ireland and Wales) produced competing early traditions of Celtic Christianity, that was later reintegrated under the Church in Rome. Prominent missionaries were St. Patrick, Columba and Columbanus.
The Anglo-Saxon tribes that invaded southern Britain some time after the Roman abandonment, were initially pagan, but converted to Christianity by Augustine of Canterbury on the mission of Pope Gregory the Great. Soon becoming a missionary center, missionaries such as Wilfrid, Willibrord, Lullus and Boniface would begin converting their Saxon relatives in Germania.
The largely Christian Gallo-Roman inhabitants of Gaul (modern France) were overrun by the Franks in the early 5th century.
The native inhabitants were persecuted until the Frankish King Clovis I converted from paganism to Roman Catholicism in 496. Clovis insisted that his fellow nobles follow suit, strengthening his newly established kingdom by uniting the faith of the rulers with that of the ruled.
After the rise of the Frankish Kingdom and the stabilizing political conditions, the Western part of the Church increased the missionary activities, supported by the Merovingian kingdom as a means to pacify troublesome neighbor peoples.
After the foundation of a church in Utrecht by Willibrord, backlashes occurred when the pagan Frisian King Radbod destroyed many Christian centres between 716 and 719. In 717, the English missionary Boniface was sent to aid Willibrord, re-establishing churches in Frisia continuing missions in Germany.
Above from: Wikipedia
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