Lecture
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literary legacy includes both pre-Christian and Christian works: "Against the Academicians (Skeptics)" (386), "On the Happy Life" (386), "On Order" (386), "Soliloquies" (387), "On the Immortality of the Soul" (387), "On the Quantity of the Soul" (388–389), "On the Teacher"
(388–389), "On Music" (388–389), "On True Religion" (390), "On
the Usefulness of Belief" (391), "On Free Will (On the Choice of the Will)" (388–395), "Against the Letter of Mani, Called the Foundation" (396), "Against Faustus" (in 33 books, c. 400), "On the Spirit and the Letter" (412), "On Nature and Grace" (415), and others. Augustine's most significant works, which influenced not only the formation of the Christian religious canon but also the evolution of European culture as a whole, are the "Confessions" (400) and "The City of God" (412–426).
Augustine's ontology is a teaching about God as "perfect Being." Reinterpreting the fundamental presumptions of Neoplatonism (in particular, within the framework of the Neoplatonic concept of emanation), Augustine posits the idea of "potencies" originally created by God, which acquire the status of actual being "in due time," i.e. of "seminal logoi" as a kind of fructifying meanings.
Augustine's "Confessions," reconstructing his spiritual journey from paganism to Christianity, laid in European culture the foundations of such a genre as spiritual biography and autobiography, setting a course toward refined forms of subtle introspection and intellectual self-analysis.
Augustine's teaching played a significant role both in the development of Christian theology and in the unfolding of the European historico-philosophical tradition. Augustine may be regarded as one of the founders of dogmatic theology; in particular, the 15 books of his treatise "On the Trinity" (399–419) represent a coherent and systematic exposition of numerous texts of Holy Scripture, on the basis of which the Nicene Creed was formulated.
Gnosticism (Greek gnosis – knowledge), a religious movement that developed alongside Christianity. Gnosticism, in its developed forms, represented a combination of Eastern and Hellenistic motifs with a Christian interpretation of the history and destiny of humanity, going back to the epistles of the Apostle Paul. Common to the Gnostic systems is a sharp dualism – an opposition of spirit and matter. At the basis of the Gnostic myth lay the notion that the world abides in evil, and that this evil could in no way have been created by God. From this it followed that the world was created either by a power limited in its might, or by an evil power, which the
Gnostics call the Demiurge. The Gnostic Demiurge has nothing in common with the Demiurge (the divine craftsman) of Plato's Timaeus, who is conceived as unconditionally good and as fashioning the visible world in accordance with a divine pattern. According to the Gnostics, the Supreme God dwells in a realm beyond the heavens, but out of compassion for humanity he sends to people his messenger (or messengers) to teach them how to free themselves from the power of the Demiurge. Some Gnostic sects identified the Demiurge with the God of the Jewish religion and, accordingly, regarded the Jews as a people chosen to hinder the saving activity of the messengers of the Supreme God.
The teachings of various Gnostic sects found reflection in an extremely extensive body of writings, but for the most part these writings were destroyed as heretical. The most famous founders of Gnostic sects were Simon Magus, Menander, Saturninus, Cerinthus (1st century AD), Basilides (died c. 140), Valentinus (mid-2nd century), and Marcion (2nd century), each of whom had his own Gnostic system.
Manichaeism – a religion that arose in Babylonia in the middle of the 3rd century, as
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one of numerous sects, |
united under the name |
of Gnostic. |
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From the moment of its emergence and throughout the entire 4th century, Manichaeism |
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spread deep into |
Central |
Asia |
(as far as Chinese |
Turkestan) |
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and established itself |
in many |
cultural |
centers |
of the West, |
in Rome and especially |
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in Carthage. In |
Carthage |
the sect was joined by |
Augustine, |
and he remained in it |
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for the ten years preceding his |
conversion to Christianity. |
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Manichaeism, over the course |
of a number of centuries, retained many |
adherents |
in the East, even under Muslim rulers, but it was finally eradicated in the 13th century as a result of the Mongol conquests. In the Byzantine Empire and in the West, Manichaeism as an independent religion was eradicated much earlier as a result of harsh persecution and survived – under various names – only in the form of secret communities, which
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later |
gave support to |
new heretical |
movements that penetrated |
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into Europe from the East in the 11th and 12th centuries. For a long |
time |
we knew about Manichaeism |
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only |
from non-Manichaean |
sources – |
Syriac, Muslim, |
and Christian (among the latter, Augustine's works devoted to polemics against the Manichaeans are the most important), but at the end of the 19th century fragments of Manichaean writings were discovered in Chinese Turkestan. Papyri found around 1930 in the Fayum (Egypt), containing a Coptic translation of the writings of Mani and his first disciples, made it possible to clarify details of the life of the founder of Manichaeism and the essence of his teaching.
Mani (Manes) began his preaching around 240 AD in Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanid rulers. Initially Shapur I, king of Persia, patronized his religious activity, but later Mani fell victim to the Zoroastrian priests, who, envious of his fame, put him to death around 270. Mani's religion was based on the idea of a dualism of good and evil, which caused the origin of the world and would remain the chief agents
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in this world until its end. |
Although he, like other prophets |
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and religious teachers of the 3rd century claimed to use reason to attain religious truth (gnosis), his teaching was in fact a variety of popular religious cosmogony based on myth. According to this myth there existed an eternal conflict between the princes of light (God and the divine messenger of light) and the demons of darkness (the devil, personifying matter, and his messengers, the archons), whose domains were originally separated from one another but later became intermingled as a result of an event which in Manichaean doctrine is called the "demonic seduction." Particles of the divine substance, light, were stolen by the demons and used by the prince of darkness for the cre-
ation of the earth with the heavens and all the animal and plant organisms and inanimate entities that fill it. However, the divine call to free the particles of light imprisoned within themselves, and thereby to contribute to the process of liberating the luminous substance confined in the visible cosmos and its return to the kingdom of light, reached Adam and his descendants. Manichaeism regards the development of nature, which must culminate in the final absorption of darkness by light, as part of the spiritual development of man, whose goal is to free himself from the evil brought by Eve, another creation of the devil. The answer to the question of the reasons for the existence of evil in the world, together with the revelation indicating the means of victory over evil, are the most important elements of Mani's teaching. As for the revelation received by man about his own true nature and his role in the destinies of the universe, here Mani acknowledges the merits, in accomplishing this revelation, of such religious teachers as Buddha, Zoroaster, and above all Jesus Christ. In Manichaeism Jesus appears as a messenger of light, surpassed in significance in the work of bringing about the final victory of light only by Mani himself, the last of the great prophets. There is no doubt that Mani, who in his epistles called himself the "apostle of Jesus," regarded Christianity as the most important source of religious inspiration and saw in it the justification of his mission to save the world.
Montanism – the teaching of a Christian group founded by the Phrygian Montanus. The Montanists placed the Holy Spirit at the foundation of Christianity. Referring to Holy Scripture and the practice of the apostolic church, they asserted that only people born again from above, who had received the Holy Spirit, could be Christians. The Montanists sought a continuation of the miracles of the apostolic church, preached about the second coming of Christ, and were distinguished by a life separate from "this world," bordering on asceticism. The church, they taught, should keep its doors tightly closed to every manifestation of sin, and give the Holy Spirit first place within it. The Montanists recognized baptism only for adults and considered a sinful life after baptism unforgivable. A second marriage was considered unlawful. Women were admitted to church ministry.
The First Council of Nicaea (325) issued no censure against them. But the First Council of Constantinople (381) decreed that Montanists were not to be received back into the bosom of the church except through rebaptism, regarding them as pagans. Among the fathers of the church who professed Montanism are Tertullian (who wrote the book "Ecstasy," which abounds in departures from Scripture permitted by the state church of that time), Clement of Rome, Polycarp of Smyrna, Theophilus of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and others.
Changes in Christian ideology in the 2nd–3rd centuries were closely connected with a change in the original social composition of the Christian communities. The crisis of the slaveholding system increasingly affected the well-to-do strata of society as well. Wealthy people began to join the Christian communities in large numbers. If throughout the first century of the existence of the Christian communities all their members were considered equal and there was no special governing apparatus, then from the middle of the 2nd century the organization begins to become more complex. Well-to-do Christians, who contributed part of their means to the communal treasury, acquired considerable influence; increasingly they occupied the positions of bishops and deacons, who managed the community's property and economic affairs. Gradually the administration of the Christian communities became concentrated in the hands of the bishops; nothing remained of the former democratic principle, and a monarchical episcopate arose. Bishops and deacons became ever more separated from the mass of believers. To justify their privileged position, a teaching gradually developed about a special "grace" bestowed by God on these officials, giving them the exclusive right to perform religious rites, to instruct the other members of the community, and to decree the principles of doctrine. Thus a church organization was formed, divided into clergy and laity. The institution of monasticism began to take shape. The strengthening of ties between individual communities contributed to the process of forming a single Christian church, governed by bishops. The forming church rejected ever more decisively the democratic tendencies of primitive Christianity and strove first for a compromise with the pagan imperial power, and then for a direct alliance with state power, which provoked the protest of a considerable part of Christians and contributed to the emergence of heresies (the Ebionites, Novatianists, Montanists, and others). Heretics, as a rule, spoke in defense of the principles of primitive Christianity.
With the formation of the church organization, the cult and dogmatics of Christianity were developed and became increasingly complex. To work out a unified doctrine, the canonization of certain Christian writings was begun. In including this or that work in the New Testament, the church showed a tendency to reject writings that reflected the democratic tendencies of primitive Christianity and rebellious sentiments. In the doctrine, the idea began to be advanced that blessedness could be attained not only by the poor (as was often emphasized in the early stage of the development of Christianity), but by all who believed in Christ, performed the church rites, submitted to church discipline, and showed humility and patience. The original communal gatherings, the fellowship meals, turned into worship services. The rites became increasingly complex, absorbing the cultic practices of the religions of the ancient world. Thus the main Christian sacraments, feasts, and forms of worship were developed, surviving with one modification or another to this day.
The forming Christian church came to represent a significant force. The Roman emperors, regarding the Christian church as a possible political rival, amid the political crisis of the 3rd century, cruelly persecuted Christians, treating their refusal to offer sacrifices in honor of the Roman gods as equivalent to political disloyalty (persecutions of Christians in the second half of the 3rd – beginning of the 4th centuries under the emperors Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian). Later, however, having recognized the essence of the ideology, the character, and the significance of the activity of the Christian church, the emperors, in order to ensure the submission of the masses, began to rely on the Christian organization. In the 4th century the church was also used in the struggle for the imperial throne. The emperor Constantine I (reigned 306–337), having received the support of the Christian church, while himself remaining a "pagan," declared Christianity an officially permitted religion. In 325 the emperor convened the 1st Ecumenical Council of representatives of the church hierarchy. At the council the "Creed" was adopted, and an alliance between imperial power and the church was formalized. At the Ecumenical Councils of 325 and 381 the dogma of the Trinity was established. The emperor Theodosius I (379–95) issued a decree closing all pagan temples. Thus Christianity was transformed from a persecuted religion into a state religion, sanctifying the social order that had aroused the indignation and hatred of the first Christians. The Christian church waged a fierce struggle not only against paganism but also against heresies within Christianity itself. The victory of Christianity over the pagan religions was also aided by cultic borrowings from them. In the Christian cult the veneration of saints, martyrs, and angels spread; for the most part they became the successors of the gods of the ancient religions.
Peculiarities in the historical development of the western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire led to divergences between the Christian churches of the West and the East, which intensified especially after the division of the Roman Empire into 2 states in 395. The Roman bishops (from the 5th century, "popes") claimed the leading position in the Christian world. In the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) they were opposed by the patriarchs of Constantinople. Rivalry between these church organizations was a source of disputes over questions of dogma and cult. The division of the Christian church into Catholic (Western) and Orthodox (Eastern) is dated to 1054, but in fact it was a centuries-long process, completed at the beginning of the 13th century.
1st century AD – the emergence of Christianity;
313 – the Edict of Milan of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, granting equal rights to Christianity and other religions;
325 – the 1st Ecumenical Council at Nicaea;
4th century – the appearance of independent Christian religious centers (Rome and Constantinople) in connection with the division of the Roman Empire into Western and Eastern;
5th century – the emergence of Monophysitism;
506 – the final separation of the Armenian Apostolic Church from Byzantium;
18 July 1054 – the official division of the western and eastern churches as a result of the mutual anathema of Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople and Pope Leo IX of Rome;
1596 – the establishment of the Union of Brest;
16th century – the emergence of the first Protestant churches in Western Europe;
1965 – the "consigning to oblivion" of the anathema of 1054, which had divided the Christian church into eastern and western.
1. What are the main features of Christianity?
2. What ideas underlie the Christian religion?
3. With what historical events is the emergence of Christianity connected?
4. What do the Gospels tell about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
5. When and under what circumstances did Christianity become the dominant religion?
6. How did the Christian church arise?
7. What are the causes of the division of the Christian church into western and eastern?
8. What is the role of the Christian churches in the life of modern civilization?
1. Socioeconomic causes and ideological preconditions of the emergence of Christianity. The Bible as the sacred book of Christianity.
2. The formation of Christian dogmatics, cult, and church organization.
3. The basic dogmas of Christianity.
4. Christianity in the history of Russia.
1. The origin of Christianity.
2. The personality of Jesus Christ.
3. The evolution of primitive Christianity.
4. Christian doctrine and cult.
5. The composition and content of the Old and New Testaments.
6. The Ecumenical Councils in the history of Christianity.
7. Christianity in the 20th century.
1. Familiarize yourself with the full text of the Creed and identify its twelve articles (parts).
2. Name the main testimonies and documents that serve as evidence of the historicity of Jesus Christ.
3. Indicate the countries where Christianity achieved the widest distribution and locate them on a map of the world.
4. Solve the crossword puzzle on the topic.
Down:
1. One of the main Christian feasts, celebrated in honor of Jesus Christ.
2. A special type of religious organization.
3. A cross bearing the figure of Christ.
Across:
4. The central dogma of Christian theology.
5. Members of a parish community who regularly attend church.
6. An apostle, one of the closest disciples of Jesus.
7. A collection of psalms included in the Old Testament.
8. The main Christian feast.
9. A constituent part of the New Testament.
10. The name of the baptizer of Jesus Christ.
Aquinas, T. Fragments from works "Anthology of World Philosophy" in 4 vols. M., 1969–1972.
The Bible
Gecse, G. Bible Stories. M., 1988.
Donini, A. At the Origins of Christianity (from its beginnings to Justinian). M., 1979.
John Chrysostom. Fragments of works // Monuments of Byzantine Literature of the 4th–9th Centuries. M., 1969.
Kosidowski, Z. Tales of the Evangelists. M., 1990.
Kryvelev, I.A. The Bible: A Historical-Critical Analysis. M., 1985.
Mirkina, Z., Pomerants, G. The Great Religions of the World. M., 1995.
Ranovich, A.B. Primary Sources on the History of Early Christianity. Ancient Critics of Christianity. M., 1990.
Renan, E. The Life of Jesus. M., 1991.
Sventsitskaya, I.S. Early Christianity: Pages of History. M., 1987.
Florovsky, G.V. Did Christ Live? M., 1991.
Frazer, J. Folklore in the Old Testament. M., 1985.
Christianity: A Dictionary / Ed. by L.N. Mitrokhin. M., 1994.
Shifman, I.Sh. The Old Testament and Its World. M., 1987.
Часть 1 9. The emergence of Christianity: the early (pre-Constantinian) period in the history of Christianity
Часть 2 4. The Bible: composition and content. Canon and Apocrypha -
Часть 3 7. The formation of the cult and of the church
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