SUBMITTED TO :- PROF.

JOY PACHUAU

SUBMITTED BY :- NAYAN DHAWAL(MA. 3RD SEM.)

What do you think were some of the important developments that occurred in
the first four centuries of Christianity that led to its consolidation?

Christianity is monotheistic religion, it is based on the life and teachings of

Jesus of Nazareth, also known by Christians as the Christ. It is the world's
largest religion with majority of the population in about two-thirds of the
countries in the world. Its adherents believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the
Logos, and the savior of humanity, whose coming as the Messiah (Christ) was
prophesied in the Old Testament, as described in the Bible. One motive for
locating the birth in Bethlehem might be precisely to settle the argument
noted in John's Gospel about Jesus's status as Messiah of his people Israel: it
answered the sceptics who pointed out the problem with Micah's prophecy 1.
But there is much else to these stories, all reflecting the deepening conviction
among followers of Christ that this particular birth had profound cosmic
importance.2

Christianity erupted upon the world after the Emperor Titus’ destruction of the
Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, at more or less the same time as Judaism, its
twin offspring of the religion of ancient Israel. These rival sister religions, each
claiming to be the true interpreter of the Hebrew Scriptures, would remain
permanently but uneasily linked, with tragic consequences for the Jews 3.

The Tanakh had on rare occasions referred to Israel's God as Father, but the
idea sprouts mightily within the New Testament, where Jesus is portrayed as
constantly referring to God as Father. He actually produces one of his most
remarkable innovations by calling God 'abba', an Aramaic word equivalent to
'Dad', which had never been used to address God before in Jewish tradition,
and whose peculiar novelty was attested by being kept in its Aramaic form in
the Greek text of the New Testament4. Judaism itself would ultimately spread
across the world, but it did so as the religion of a displaced minority, at least in
theory the possession of a single people. Almost from the beginning, however,
Christianity understood its message as addressed to the whole human family.
Within three centuries of the death of Jesus, it was to become the favoured
religion of the very Empire that had tortured its founder to death. Displaced
from its ancient Mediterranean heartlands by the rise of Islam, it gave birth to

1
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. 2009. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Penguin Book, New York.pp-58
2
Ibid
3
Ibid pp-74
4
Ibid pp-81
Europe, and would go on to shape, reshape or obliterate new and ancient
civilisations, from Asia to the Americas.
Christianity evolved to be a religion of thousands mostly non-Jews in the
eastern Mediterranean by the first century of its existence which is seen by
later generations and contemporary Christians as evident of divine
intervention in human affairs.5 After the crucifixion of Jesus around 30CE,
Christianity can be said to have really begun. His followers in Judaea and
Galilee along with his immediate disciples (apostles) who were almost all Jews,
continued to be an identifiable group even after his crucifixion and
resurrection.6
Jesus was convinced of his special mission to preach a message from God
which centred on an imminent transformation of the world, yet he spoke of
himself with deliberate irony and ambiguity, and used a delicate humour that
is revealed in the content of some of his sayings. He spoke of his special place
in a divine plan, looked forward to a last judgement in which he would play a
leading part, yet also saw that the way to this final conclusion might result in
suffering and death both for himself and for his followers7. This is the point
that attracted the people towards this benevolent religion. Love, participation,
indwelling bind all together: such relationships transcend the usual human
bonds of marriage, family ties or social status, which are allowed to survive
precisely because they are irrelevant to the categories of the new age to come.
The Christian future was to present many alternative situations and
possibilities8.
Paul did not consult any of the existing Jewish leaders of the Jesus movement
in Jerusalem, or indeed any 'flesh and blood'. He went away to Arabia to
preach Christ, then three years passed before his first encounter in Jerusalem
with two of the original Twelve, Peter (whom he calls Cephas) and the leader
of the Jerusalem Church. He also knows about the previous belief system
about obedience to the Law, and one senses him struggling with his
inheritance of Law in ways that are never wholly coherent. In his letter to the
Christians in Rome, one can read that the Law brings wrath and sin, but also
that it is holy9.

5
Paul Johnson. A History of Christianity. Pp-8
6
Martin Goodman. The Emergence of Christianity in A World History of Christianity, ed. Adrian Hastings
7
. Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Penguin Book, New York Pp-67
8
Ibid pp-78
9
Ibid pp-74
 Paul also managed to find a prophet of the Tanakh to sum up what he wanted
to say: 'the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is
written "he who through faith is righteous shall live the relationship of the
believer to Christ can become so intimate that he can speak of it in terms of
one personality absorbing another - one of his characteristic phrases is that
believers are 'in Christ'10’. He proposed compromise solution and allowed
Christians to maintain their private social links with the non-Christian elites of
the city, while keeping public solidarity with less affluent Christians because
they had avoided public contact with civic ritual, Paul was a citizen of the
Roman Empire, here and now, emphasizing without Jesus's witty ambiguity
that everyone must 'be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no
authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.'
His command to obedience had a great future in Christian conversations with
the powerful11.

Paul's solutions to the two food problems preserved a delicate balance

between equality in the sight of God and inequality in the sight of humanity.
His acceptance of the secular status quo had especial implications for two
groups whose liberation has over the last quarter-millennium sparked conflict
worldwide, but especially within Western Christianity: slaves and women. If
the coming of Christianity thus made little significant difference to the position
of slaves, there are plenty of signs that Christians began by giving women a
newly active role and official functions in Church life, then gradually moved to
a more conventional subordination to male authority. First- and second-
century Christians may not have made such a distinction between male and
female deacons or the part that either played in the life of the Church. These
woman and slaves further played vital role in connecting the other non-
Christians into the manifold of Christianity.
Christianity was the only Jewish movement of the first century defined by its
messianism. The new Christian communities provided social support, mutual
aid and comfort from others whose social identity was also derived from their
Christian identity. Christians were encouraged by stories of martyrdom of
early church and about the sacrifice of christ12. The Christian community had
no organized missionary activities with trained clergy or anything as such in the

10
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Penguin Book, New York pp-85
11
Ibid 101
12
Adrian Hastings. A World History of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. London pp-28
first century. But it had spread through networks of family, friendships,
migration and sometimes through the scattering effects of persecution, the
striking moral character of the members especially when persecuted and
through the impact of its rapidly increasing literature and the writing of the
initial followers of Christianity13.
Gnostic attitude was important factor in their dualism, envisaging a cosmic
struggle between matched forces of good and evil, darkness and light, and that
might suggest acquaintance with the dualism of Zoroastrian religion in Iran 14.
Gnosticism represented an alternative future for the Church. It is probably no
exaggeration to say that wherever there were Christians in the second-century
world, a good many of them could have been labelled gnostikoi by the likes of
Irenaeus. Because of gnosticism's general hospitality to mixtures of doctrine,
Christianity might have drained into the sands of a generalized new religiosity
within the Roman Empire15.
The second century saw a marked increase in the authority and coherence of
the Church's ordained ministry. By 200 CE there was a mainstream Catholic
Church which took for granted the existence of a threefold ministry of bishop,
priest and deacon. It was not surprising that the Jerusalem Church had a single
leading figure in the wake of the death of Jesus, since it was Jesus's own
brother, James done a god job in enhancing the circumference of the
Christianity.
The disappearance of charismatic wandering Christian teachers or prophets
and the assertion of the authority of bishops were probably sealed by the
Catholic Church's confrontation in the later second century with a movement
known as Montanism or 'the New Prophecy'16. It believed in charismatic
prophecy and required everyone to acknowledge their utterances as the true
work of the holy spirit. All these developments resulted in the formation of
something of the character of a ‘book religion’ which though greatly diverse,
begun to be treated as a single book by expositors like Cyprian, Origen, etc.
The New Testament canon was formed giving special importance to the
written tradition imparting a fixed point protecting it against adulteration.
Before the new testament canon was formed, the tradition of the words of
God was always in oral and continued to be so to some extent even after the
13
Adrian Hastings. A World History of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. London pp-52
14
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Penguin Book, New York pp-98
15
Ibid pp- 105
16
Ibid pp-106
formation of the canonical gospels.17 The idea of a body of ’new scriptures’
containing the essence of the Christian faith assisted the forces which were
creating an institutional church and many more things related to the church.
The rule of Constantinople and the fight of princely ally was another important
factor for the consolidation of Christianity. Christians faced severe persecution
and harassment during the rule of Diocletian. But with the rise of Constantine
as the sole Emperor of the whole Roman empire after the defeat of his eastern
counterpart Licinius in the civil war of 323-424, the Christians were given a
much better position and get an ease to spread and have the control on power
and position. Further the ruler’s religious tolerance and patronage of the
Christian faith played pivotal role in its consolidation in near future. It was the
largest assembly of bishops then, and saw the participation of bishops from
the Greek East, from Rome, Alexandria and Antioch18. The Christian also had an
empire, which suit their patronage, while it was on the verge of consolidation.
Love and communal charity and benevolence practiced by the Christians was
an important tool which impressed and attracted the appreciation of the
pagans and helped in the consolidation of this religion. The Bishops and
missionaries expanded their charitable trusts of the Jewish diaspora and ran a
miniature welfare state in the empire. In all these charitable trusts, women
played important roles. It offered them advantages and treated them as equals
before the eyes of God while also exhorting the husbands to treat well and
show consideration to their wives in the way Christ does to his bride, the
church. This type of benevolence, love, compassion showed by the religion
attracts people like magnet.
Jesus teaching on the sanctity of marriage, abandonment of unwanted child
and divorce was very clear. In last I conclude, by saying that, Christianity as a
religion has a mixture of different religions of that period, and suited well to
the existing population. Thus, its boundaries started increasing and
consolidated its path until the first four centuries of the millennium.

17
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Penguin Book, New York pp-74
18
Paul Johnson, . A History of Christianity pp-22
BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Hastings, Adrian. A World History of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. London.1999.

2. Johnson, Paul. A History of Christianity.1975

3. McManners, John. History of Christianity. OUP. New York.1990.

4. MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Penguin Book, New York.
2009.

5. Stark, Rodney. The Rise of Christianity. Harper Collins Publisher.1999