Rumming Church History (AD 313 – 1000)

What happened?

Let’s learn a bit about the this juvenile stage, our youth, before what has happened, what we have become, that perhaps were never intended nor envisioned. (AD 313 – 1000)

Edict of Milan (313 CE): Constantine and Licinius, his eastern counterpart, issued this proclamation, granting religious freedom to Christians and ordering the return of confiscated property.

Council of Nicaea (325 CE): Constantine convened the first ecumenical council to resolve the Arian controversy, which debated the nature of Christ. The council condemned Arianism and produced the Nicene Creed, affirming Christ’s divinity.

Athanasius defines the New Testament (367 CE): Athanasius of Alexandria, in a letter, listed the same 27 books of the New Testament that are recognized today, a key step in solidifying the biblical canon.

Christianity becomes the state religion (381 CE): Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, following the First Council of Constantinople. This ended paganism’s privileged status and influenced the relationship between church and state for centuries.

Jerome completes the Vulgate (405 CE): The translation of the Bible into Latin, known as the Vulgate, standardized the scripture for the Western Church and became the authoritative text for over 1,000 years.

Fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE): With the decline and collapse of Roman authority in the West, the church increasingly filled the power vacuum, providing social services and preserving culture amid the chaos.

Council of Chalcedon (451 CE): This council further defined Christ’s dual nature (fully human and fully divine), leading to the separation of dissenting “Oriental Orthodox” churches that did not accept the Chalcedonian doctrine.

The rise of monasticism: Originating in the deserts of Egypt, monasticism flourished during this era as an alternative to the increasingly worldly imperial church. Key figures like Basil the Great (c. 358) and Benedict of Nursia (c. 540) established communal (cenobitic) living and monastic rules that would shape religious life in both the East and West.

The papacy of Gregory the Great (590–604): Pope Gregory I, often seen as a pivotal figure between the ancient and medieval periods, centralized the Roman Catholic Church, expanded its missionary work, and adapted Augustinian theology for the medieval worldview.

Rise of the Frankish kingdom: In the 8th century, the alliance between the papacy and the Frankish Carolingian dynasty fundamentally reshaped the Western Church. Pope Stephen II officially sanctioned Pepin the Short as king in 751, a move that secured papal temporal power.

Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor (800 CE): Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, symbolically transferring Roman authority to the Frankish kings. This event forged a powerful relationship between the papacy and Western European rulers.

The East-West Schism approaches: Although the formal split occurred in 1054, the period from 312 to 1000 saw increasing theological and political differences between the Eastern (Byzantine) and Western (Latin) churches, including disputes over papal authority.

‘Rummaging’

Lost

Persecution & encouragement of it by the Roman State
grassroot, organic growth and organization of the Church (to a more organized, official religion)

Gained

“Rights” and ‘stuff’
Organized Thought: Councils, Canons, Confessions, & Creeds ; “The Bible” (book of books)
“The papacy” (organized leadership, the claim of “Apostolic Succession”)
Monasticism
Islam and the church’s response

Renewed

Organized Thought: Councils, Canons, Confessions, & Creeds ; “The Bible” (book of books)
Continues to be disagreed upon, division must exist (1 Cor. 11:19); reform will come and continues…
Monasticism

Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The expansion of Christianity and the increasing secularization of the church caused the awareness of costly grace to be gradually lost…. But the Roman church did keep a remnant of that original awareness. It was decisive that monasticism did not separate from the church and that the church had the good sense to tolerate monasticism. Here, on the boundary of the church, was the place where the awareness that grace is costly and that grace includes discipleship was preserved…. Monastic life thus became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity, against the cheapening of grace.”….”The restoration of the church will surely come from a new kind of monasticism, which will have nothing in common with the old but a life of uncompromising adherence to the Sermon on the Mount in imitation of Christ. I believe the time has come to rally people together for this.”

Islam and the church’s response

Lamenting the response might we discern our part in the propagating it (to spread the idea).

Failing to properly discern the coming comforter (John 14:16)
Bad orthopraxis/discipleship & Futurism beyond AD 70

Biblical Wisdom (to scattered brethren)

1 Peter 4:12-19

Do not be surprised, “fiery ordeal among you”, as though some strange thing has happened…
“for your testing”
He has been and continued to be revealed (‘grow through what you go through’)
Jugdement begins at the household of God
“doing what is right”

James 4:13 – 17