Good evening, Dave! > Good morning, Lowell! > > Lowell C. Savage wrote: > > > Good evening, Dave! > Yes, that is an unconscionable gaffe that crept into the logic here. > However, the Christian faith we know today was not "invented" nor came to > life until the post-Reformation, which is an interesting fact. If we > compare Christianity 2000 years ago with today, or, in particular, if we > study Christianity in the pre-Reformation with Christianity as we know it > today, the two are shockingly dissimilar. However, if we study Islam today > and shortly after its birth, the vision remains quite similar, if not the > same. I apologize for the misstatement regarding Islam. It's sometimes > hard to keep track of all the Prophets.
Actually, there are several periods of Christian history. A rough outline follows (which may contain inaccuracies). The first period lasted approximately 400 years. During that time, Christianity was a state-persecuted, yet vibrantly growing religion. With the conversion of Constantine, it became a state-sponsored religion within the Roman empire. During this period of (a little more than 300 years) it became the dominant religion throughout the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea, most of Europe, the Arabian peninsula, and western Asia. (Archeologists have found Christian symbols, artifacts and writings as far east as China and India.) With the rise of Islam, huge swaths of formerly Christian areas became Muslim by the sword. The "Christian World," such as it was, considered it largely a secular, temporal matter and left it to the individual states to defend themselves from invasions by neighboring countries (that happened to be Muslim) while the church more-or-less confined itself to "spiritual" matters. (This was approximately a 100 year period--ending with the battle of Tours (or Poitier) France.) After the breakup of Charlemagne's empire (about 100 years after Tours), and with multiple small states constantly warring back and forth, the Pope gradually acquired considerable political and temporal power, leading to various forms of corruption within the Church. (Another 300 years.) Some of the more complete expressions of rules of war come from this period. (Obviously, many of those rules were not followed for some time.) After the muslims destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and cut off access by Christians to the Holy Land, and begin taking large chunks of territory in what is now Turkey, the Byzantine Emperor asks the Pope for help and the Pope responds by preaching for the first Crusade. It now appears to Christians that in order for a religion to succeed, it must be capable of making war for religious ends. (Another 200 years or so.) The crusades being less successful against Muslims (ok, so the later ones were absolute failures), the Church takes a more active role assisting various temporal authorities in removing muslims and their influence from their lands. Thus we have assistance to France, Spain and Portugal in implementing the inquisition (which also goes after Jews). Also, the remnants of the Byzantine Empire fall to the Turks. (Another 200 years or so.) The Reformation begins. Various groups split off from the Catholic Church attempting to return or reform Christian worship, theology and practice to something more like the original and to remove much of the corruption that has crept into the church. It is supported by various temporal rulers for political purposes. A Counter-Reformation within the Catholic Church attempts to accomplish many of the same goals while remaining within the Catholic Church. After 200 years of religiously-based warfare (some inspired by rulers or leaders with political ambitions) both Catholics and Protestants generally decided to "live and let live." (Of course, various such conflicts survive to this day. See, for instance, Northern Ireland.) But, perhaps the most important idea to emerge from this period is the idea that each person is responsible for their own soul. It is but a few extensions of this idea to find the foundations of some of the ideas of personal responsibility, pursuit of happiness and the state as the servant of the people rather than the master which are the basis of much of our liberty. A missionary period occurred which mirrored the expansion of commerce, trade, and exploration. There had always been missionaries who went out or were sent out from established Christian areas (see, St. Patrick, for instance) but during this period, missionaries were probably sent out in greater numbers and with greater effect than at any time since the first period talked about above. During this period, there was also a gradual expansion of an "ecumenical movement" attempting to find ways that Christians of different denominations could work together. This found its first expression in the mission field (where, for instance, churches would agree to not "poach" each other's converts). In summary, I think that much of the dynamism of Christianity has come from its struggle to continually check that it is true to its origins while keeping up with changing times. Even at its worst, the tradition of disputation and debate survived in some attenuated forms. As events have changed it and perhaps moved it to extremes, this tradition of debate has helped it to subsequently re-evaluate and get pushed back toward the original vision--though never quite back to where it was before. At the same time, the central message of the forgiveness from God has lasted (with, perhaps some interruptions) throughout its history. Islam, by contrast, does not seem as capable of making these adjustments, perhaps because it has always been associated so strongly with temporal authority and conversion by the sword. Orthodoxy seems to be as likely to be settled by the power of the sword (or gun or bomb) as by any other means and there is much less of a tradition of debate. From what little I know of Muslim history, there does appear to have been some changes in the beliefs that they have espoused and the Wahabbi or Salafi sect is an attempt to return Islam back to its original "true belief." But then every Christian denomination is an attempt to return itself to the original "true belief" of Christianity. Like the Wahabbi, the Sunni, the Shiite and others who disagree about what the original "true belief" of Islam entails, so the Catholic, Orthodox, and various Protestants disagree about what the original "true belief" of Christianity is. Lowell C. Savage It's the freedom, stupid! Gun control: tyrants' tool, fools' folly. _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
