{"id":71,"date":"2019-05-19T15:25:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T19:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/dclause2\/?page_id=71"},"modified":"2019-05-19T15:25:07","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T19:25:07","slug":"rels-3115-early-christianity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/dclause2\/rels-3115-early-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"RELS-3115 &#8211; Early Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Course\nSummary:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The years 30 through 325 CE were the formative\nyears of the Christian faith. During that time, a despondent gathering of\nJewish followers of a crucified, Galilean preacher transformed themselves into\na sect of spirit-led believers in the resurrection of Jesus. From the heart of\nthe Jewish homeland they reached out with their apocalyptic message to\ndispersed Jews throughout the Roman Empire, and, through them, to non-Jewish\nsympathizers as well. Through the efforts of Paul and traveling missionaries\nlike him, pagan belief in the salvation offered by the Jewish messiah grew\nuntil it soon outpaced the growth of Jewish members. By the second century,\nGentile \u201cChristians\u201d were claiming sole possession of the Jewish scriptures and\neven identifying themselves as the true chosen people of the God of Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Separation from its roots in Judaism\nresulted in periods of persecution for the young Christian religion across the\nempire. From ad hoc mob violence to official bans on the faith, Christianity\npersevered, lionizing the role played by the unfortunate martyrs who gave their\nlives rather than give obeisance to the pagan gods. Other Christians actively\ndefended their faith through literary works known as \u201capologies.\u201d They\nchallenged the pagan philosophers at their own game explaining Christianity as\nanother, better philosophy. As membership grew, so too did formalization of\npractice and organization. Liturgies developed that became standard throughout\nChristendom and procedures for joining the new religion were laid out. Creeds\ncoalesced in short, memorable form what orthodox Christians should believe\nwhile the growing numbers of bishops ensured each catechumenate learned it\nthoroughly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To combat the diverse variety of\nChristian beliefs, selections from the vast number of available Christian texts\nwere made to shore up faith and provide a cohesive library expressing the\n\u201ccorrect\u201d view. By the end of the fourth century, a widely-accepted New\nTestament came to be established. In addition to the debates over texts,\nChristian theologians battled over such issues as the nature of Christ, his\nrelationship to God, the nature of the Trinity, and the contents of the\northodox creed that would summarize these beliefs and hand them down to future\ngenerations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, after the last and greatest\npersecution of Christians in the ancient world, the Roman Emperor Constantine\nembraced Christianity as his personal religion and showed special favor to the\n5% of the population that shared his views. From that time forward,\nChristianity would come to dominate the Western world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Course Summary: The years 30 through 325 CE were the formative years of the Christian faith. During that time, a despondent gathering of Jewish followers of a crucified, Galilean preacher transformed themselves into a sect of spirit-led believers in the resurrection of Jesus. From the heart of the Jewish homeland they reached out with their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2499,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-71","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/dclause2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/dclause2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/dclause2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/dclause2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/dclause2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/dclause2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/dclause2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/dclause2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}