Christian Thought and Culture up to 1600 (V81200)

University of Nottingham 2017/2018

Lavinia Cerioni

Handout Lecture 2

 What do we mean by “Early Christianity”? This is the conventional definition to indicate

the first two centuries of Christianity.
 To which centuries does it usually refer? 1st – 2nd century. More precisely, the years
between the death of Jesus (around 33 CE) and the middle of the 2nd century (ca 150 CE).
 What are the geographical locations interested? The Mediterranean area. Some of the
most important cities were: Jerusalem, Rome, Thessaloniki, Corinth, Antioch and
Alexandria.

A bit of history…

 The first Christian communities were quite small, usually about 50 people of different social
groups (e.g. poor men, rich women, few slaves).
 During the first years, teachings and stories were transmitted mainly by word of mouth.
Hence, there are very few documents.
 Documents appear only in the second half of the 1st century.

1. What sources do we have about the life of these communities?

o The Pauline Epistles;

o The Gospels:
o Acts of the Apostles;
o The Didache: This is a short text. It is particularly important because it is one of the few
documents about the daily lives and practices of the Christian communities. It is likely that
it was firstly transmitted orally and then wrote down around the 70 CE;
o Accounts of the martyrs’ deaths: there are several accounts of the martyrs’ death. Two of the
most famous are The Martyrdom of Polycarp and The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas;
o The writings of the Apologists: The Apologetics is a religious discipline born out of the
Christian necessity to defend and explain the faith in Christ to the Roman world. Indeed,
during the first two centuries, Christianity was trying to define its own identity. In doing so,

1
 it was important to highlight the differences with the two other major religions of the Roman
Empire: Judaism and Paganism.

2. The Pauline Epistles

These letters are important because they inform us about the doctrine of the apostle Paul. He had
great influence on the development of Christian theology and his letters are the first theological
documents available to us.1
In the New Testament (NT), there are 14 Pauline Letters, but not all can be attributed to Paul with
certainty.

Undisputed Pauline Letters Disputed Pauline Letters

• First Thessalonians • Colossians
• Galatians • Second Thessalonians
• First Corinthians • Ephesians
• Philippians • First Timothy
• Philemon • Second Timothy
• Second Corinthians • Titus
• Romans • Hebrews

3. Judeo-Christianity

The process of differentiating themselves from Jews was long and caused many contrasts within
Christian communities. For instance, the episode of Acts 15, the so-called Council of Jerusalem,
tells us that the apostles debated about imposing the circumcision to the Gentile converts. For about
100 years after Jesus’ death (until 120-130 CE), some Christians continued to be called Judeo-
Christian, for they kept in high regard Jewish ritual practices, such as the circumcision or
respecting the Shabbat.2

1
The first letter to be written was probably Paul’s 1 Epistle to the Thessalonians (ca 52 CE).
2
Eventually (around the end of the 2nd century CE) these groups ceased to exist.

2
By the middle of the 2nd century, Christianity – which started to include more Gentiles than Jewish
converts – elaborated its own distinct identity. Consequently, the Judeo-Christian groups became a
minority up to the point of disappearing completely within 150 years.

4. The Gospels

There are four canonical Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. There are many disputes over the
date of composition. This is a rough chronology:

1) The Gospel of Mark: 60-80 CE (probably after the destruction of the Temple in
Jerusalem 70 CE)
2) The Gospel of Matthew: 70-95 CE
3) The Gospel of Luke: 80-90 CE
4) The Gospel of John: 95-110 CE

Since we are doing historical theology, we are not considering only the four canonical Gospels but
also the apocryphal Gospels, which are important sources for the life of Jesus and the theological
debates of the following centuries.
Here some examples:

1. The Gospel of Thomas

2. The Gospel of James
3. The Gospel of Judas
4. The Gospel of Mary
5. The Gospel of Philip

5. Apologetics

In those same years, Roman authorities became more suspicious towards Christian groups, for they
did not share the same religious practices of the other citizens of the Empire (e.g. making sacrifices
to the gods or to the emperor). A testimony of the attitude of the Roman Empire towards Christian
communities is given by the letter sent by Pliny the Younger (61-113 CE) to the Emperor Trajan.
Despite the generally tolerant attitude of Roman authorities concerning religious beliefs, yet
Christianity stood out as a problematic group. Given the difficulties encountered, Christianity felt

3
the urgency to explain itself to the exterior world, so much so that the art of explaining Christianity
to others became a theological field: Apologetics.
The most important apologist of the first two centuries is:

Justin Martyn (100-165/168 CE) is a Christian philosopher and theologian. He was part of the
intellectual elite and he became Christian after having been raised as a pagan. Having studied
Platonism for many years, he interpreted Christianity in a highly philosophical fashion. His most
important works are:
a. Dialogue with Trypho. This work is a dialogue between Justin (Christian) and Trypho (a
Jew). Here, Justin aims at proving two points: 1) Believing Jesus is God does not
prevent Christians from being monotheistic; 2) Christ fulfilled the prophecies of the Old
Testament.
b. Apologia Prima (First Apology). It addresses the Roman Senate and the emperor
Antoninus Pius. Justin particularly insists on the fact that Christians are punished
because they are deemed atheists, whereas atheist philosophers are not condemned.