Church History: Evolution of Christianity

Puts a date and context to the denominations, heresies, councils and events, policies, and figures outlined in the other 4 flashcard sets; framework for combining the smaller sets of flashcards in the Church History / Christianity folder...

100’s - Pauline Christians (Nicene)

• Founded by (St.) Paul

• Believe that Jesus’s death and resurrection introduced a New Covenant that fulfilled the Old Covenant and superseded Jewish law and custom, thus they did not have to follow Jewish law or custom

• Believe that gentiles could also be Christians, not just Jews

• Christians who are gentiles and thus believe gentiles can be Christians, not having to follow Jewish law or customs

100’s - Gnostic Christians (Heretical)

• Believe that the fallen world or physical world is inherently bad, so our spiritual goals should be directed towards entrance into the spiritual world which is inherently good

• Believe that the (only) goal of Christianity is to escape the physical world and go to heaven, implying heaven is very different from earth

• Reject the idea that a good God made our physical world very good

• Reject the idea that Jesus took on a human nature to come and redeem the physical world

• Believe they had access to secret knowledge about the spiritual world

• Emphasized Jesus’s divinity, but overlooked Jesus’s humanity

• Term used to refer to a number of groups including the Valentinians and Sethians

• Considered heretical today because they are non-Nicene

• Influences the modern, non-Christian religion of Mandaeism

180 - “The Great Church” (Nicene)

• Founded by (St.) Peter

• State of the church prior to the Council of Nicaea

313 - Edict of Milan

• Made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire

• Passed under Constantine I

325 - Council of Nicaea

• First ecumenical council in which the namesake creed is established and codified

• Overseen by Constantine I

• Council in which Arians branch off

325 - Nicene Christianity

• Founded by (St.) Paul / (St.) Peter

• Believe that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all co-eternal

• Believe that God is 1 essence, but 3 persons

• Believe in the tenets of the namesake Creed, formed at the namesake Council by Constantine

• Historical term used to refer to contemporary Christian body including Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Protestant denominations and their churches

• All Christian denominations agree:

  • Christ is truly human and truly God

  • Christ was born of the Virgin Mary

  • Christ died for our sins

  • Christ rose from the dead

  • Christ ascended and will return

• Any “Christian” who denied these tenets is not considered, by most Christians, to be Christian

• Absorbed by the Roman Empire

325 - Arian Christianity / Arians (Heretical)

• Founded by Arius

• Believe that God created Jesus, meaning there was a time when Jesus did not exist and thus that he could not be God because God is eternal

• Believe that Jesus is like God, but not actually God

• Believe that the Holy Spirit is also distinct from God the Father and Jesus the Son because Jesus uses the Holy Spirit and because Jesus was made, so was the Holy Spirit

• Results from the Analogical Fallacy: “The Trinity is like how the sun, its light, and its heat are all the sun”

• Absorbed by the newly converted Germanic tribes, such as the Celts / Gauls, Vandals, and Lombards

• Influences Jehovah’s Witness Theology

380 - Edict of Thessalonica

• Made (Nicene) Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire

• Passed under Theodosius I

381 - First Council of Constantinople