Early Christian Thought Development:

the emergence of variations in the Christian community

by Daniel Keeran, MSW
Victoria, Canada
www.counsellorpublishing.com
In this article I am using the term Christian in the sense of all who identify themselves with
this appellation.
Variations in understanding the teaching of Jesus and the apostles have been present since the
beginning of his life on earth. Even at his birth, some thought the Messiah would be a military
or political rival to earthly kings such as Herod and the Roman Emperor. During the apostolic
period, there was also a major variation in thinking about the status of the sacred laws of Israel.
In the period following the apostles, questions arose about the nature of Christ. The Arians took
the view that Jesus was first created who then created the universe. The Trinitarians took the
view that Jesus is eternal, fully God and fully man.
The idea developed from eastern Docetic influence that the material universe is evil and that
self-knowledge leads to salvation. The associated denial of the physicality of Christ resulted in
an over-reaction in the Christian community seen in the development of the idea of
transubstantiation, an exaggerated affirmation of the physical body of Christ supernaturally
appearing in the bread and cup of the Eucharistic mass and effected by a properly ordained
male, a priest. The locus of Gods power became focused in the development of the clergy:
hierarchy, bishops, and priests.
In about the same time period, at the urging of the parents of sick children, church leaders
administered baptism as a ritual practice in the belief that the act itself would ensure that infants
would be able to enter heaven if they should die.
The idea of purification of the soul after death was the common belief in ancient Rome reflected
in Virgils poem Aeneid. This view was incorporated into Christian theology by writers and
Christian thinkers, influenced by Greek and Roman philosophy, living during the early
centuries. The idea of purgatory facilitated conversion to Christianity away from Roman
religions.
Because Rome was the centre of the empire, the church at Rome that was founded by the
apostle Paul, took on increasing importance as the chief example of trustworthy Christian
teaching and a source of unity for the often unwieldy Christian community. The papacy grew in
influence and developed an elaborate argument to support its claims of supreme authority over
the Christian community.
The 4
th
century saw the radical shift from a generally pacifist view among Christians to a
radically Roman imperial view whose main contributors were the Emperor Constantine, who
legislated Christianity beginning with the forced baptism of his soldiers, and Augustine who
developed the just war teaching that prevails in Christian communities to this day.
Monasticism developed in the late 3
rd
and early 4
th
centuries, first in Egypt and Syria and has
become an immensely effective source of educational and social services in many countries.
The veneration of Mary emerged in the fifth century C.E. or earlier, possibly under the
influence of the worship of female deities such as Isis and Artemis, again facilitating the
identity transition from popular Mediterranean religions to Christianity. And so Roman
Catholicism developed to include the above elements due to the historical and cultural
continuity and adaptability of the Magisterium: Pope, Cardinals, and Bishops in council.
With the sale of indulgences in the late middle ages, a protest movement emerged opposing
indulgences and other practices considered unbiblical resulting in a visible break away from the
authority of Rome and thousands of variations in understanding to include the idea from Luther
and Calvin of the sovereign choice of God to determine whether the individual will enter
heaven or not. This appears to be a reaction to the practices and abuses of the Catholic Church,
such as extortion through the sale of indulgences on the promise the money would alleviate the
suffering (cleansing or purification) of loved ones in purgatory.
The evangelical Protestant movement today appears to be part of a historical wave in the
direction of the idea of sovereign grace, that humans are incapable of doing good or right, and
only God can choose who will enter heaven, as over against the ability and necessity of the
individual to personally choose holiness as a requirement of entrance into heaven.