Homework helpREL 223: World Religion East and West
Discussion question
The recent theologian, Karl Rahner, said: “Despite their orthodox confession of the Trinity, Christians are, in their practical life, almost mere 'monotheists'” (Hall 54). Do you agree? Why or why not? How important is the Trinity to you or to Christians you know well?
Journal Reflection base on reading below
image of a Bible
Why do Jews and Christians have very different beliefs (creed) and practices (code and cult) even though they share much of the same scriptures?
How did a small first-century Jewish sect become the religion of the entire Roman Empire, and a major world religion?
Why are there differences in the details between the four gospels?
image of a trinity symbol
How and why do Christians believe that God is a Trinity, while Jews and Muslims deny this?
images of churches
Why are there so many different types of Christians? What do they share in common and how do they differ?
What are the differences between Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant Christians?
images of a dinosaur and Charles Darwin
How do Christians understand their faith in light of modern science and modern scholarly findings about the Bible and Christian history?
When you complete this module, you should be able to:
Summarize the life, teachings, Passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Explain the role of Paul, his life, mission and teaching for the New Testament and Christian soteriology, i.e., theology of salvation.
Discuss modern biblical scholarship and the New Testament.
Explain fundamental Christian beliefs about Jesus Christ’s person and work.
Summarize the major periods and figures of Christian history.
Discuss the differences between Roman Catholicism, Eastern Christianity, and Protestantism.
Identify salient features of contemporary Christianity and Christianity in the modern world and summarize the different Christian responses to modernity.
The Christian Center
Take a few minutes and write down what you believe to be the more important teaching of Christianity. Why did you choose this teaching? How do you know this is the most important Christian teaching? Is this belief important to you? Why or why not?
Christian Origins
Christianity emerged in the first century from both Jewish and ancient-Greco religion. At the time of Jesus, Judaism was unified by certain core beliefs (creed) and practices (code and cult), but with many sects differing on important matters.
Early believers in Jesus came from a strand of Judaism more open to Greco-Roman religion. The first Christians were Jews who believed that Jesus of Nazareth, crucified as a criminal by the Romans, had risen from the dead and was the promised Messiah of Israel. Most Jews did not expect a crucified Messiah, and so saw Jesus as a failure or as being punished for his own sins. The first Jewish Christians understood Jesus’ death as not for his own sins but for the sins of others. The idea of a dying and rising Savior God was central to a number of ancient Greco-Roman mystery cults.
Why Not Jesus?
Imagine a new Christian preacher today who preached (loudly) that people must become Christians, but they don’t need to go to church, read the Bible, pray, share their faith, or give money to the church. This is how Paul was viewed by the early Jewish Christians.
Try to put yourself in the shoes of a first-century Jew who did not believe Jesus was the promised Messiah. What thoughts and feelings would you have about Jesus and Christians? Why would you have them?
Consider these thoughts as you read and journal this week
St. Paul the Apostle
The first Christians were all Jews. It was natural for them to believe that if a non-Jew wanted to follow Jesus, then they must convert to Judaism. It was extremely difficult for Greco-Romans to become Jewish, though. It was like joining a cult, because following the Law of Moses involved separation from non-Jews.
Although a Jew himself, Paul did not require non-Jews (Gentiles) to become Jews (get circumcised and keep the Law of Moses) in order to become Christians. This idea was revolutionary, gaining Paul many enemies, both Jewish and Christian. Gentile converts to Paul’s version of Christianity grew, however, and soon greatly outnumbered Jewish Christians. The fact that almost half of the New Testament is attributed to Paul shows how Pauline Christianity became the form that would endure.
Councils and Creeds
In the first few centuries, Christians had to explain and defend their faith to Jews and Greco-Romans and to combat other Christians with divergent beliefs. They embraced the Greek ideas and language of the intellectual elite in order to do so. They forged and formulated fundamental Christian beliefs through this process.
Those in the Church struggled to understand how they could affirm belief in only one God, while at the same time view Jesus as divine, and also speak of the Holy Spirit. The Greek philosophical schools, especially Neoplatonism, helped them do so. Through a long process of internal conflict, within a few centuries the Church formulated the beliefs that God is one in essence but eternally three “things” (the modern word “person” does not connote what they meant), Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that Jesus Christ is one person with a full human nature and a full divine nature. Formal meetings of Church leaders, called “councils,” became the means by which the Church publically stated these beliefs, in formal statements called “creeds.” Councils and creeds have remained an essential feature of Christianity ever since.
The Importance of the Trinity
The recent theologian, Karl Rahner, said:
“Despite their orthodox confession of the Trinity, Christians are, in their practical life, almost mere 'monotheists'” (Hall 54).
Do you agree? Why or why not? How important is the Trinity to you or to Christians you know well?
Reflect on this as you read and journal this week.
Hall, Christopher. Learning Theology with the Church Fathers. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press. 2002. Print.
"East is East and West is West"
Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in AD 378. At the time, the Roman Empire in the West was crumbling, while the Eastern Empire was thriving. The Church and the bishop of Rome filled leadership, cultural, social, and economic voids in the West. The Western Church spoke Latin, while the Eastern Church spoke Greek. The West and East differed in certain beliefs and a number of practices. This led to multiple schisms or separations of the Western and Eastern Church throughout the centuries, but the Fourth Crusade (AD 1204) made permanent, what many believed to be just another temporary schism (which began in AD 1054).
Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Like Roman Catholics in the West, Eastern Orthodox Christians trace their lineage through bishops ordained in succession back to the earliest days of Christianity. Since AD 1054, however, Christians in the East have not accepted the authority of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope). Instead, archbishops (patriarchates) of large geographical regions have been the leaders. Eastern Orthodox Christians are similar to Roman Catholics in many ways, but they differ in some beliefs and in many practices.
Eastern Orthodox priests can marry, while in the largest Rite of the Roman Catholic Church (the Roman Rite), priests must be celibate. Eastern Orthodox Churches worshipped in the common vernacular of the people in various regions. In the West, Latin became the uniform language of worship.
Both West and East hold to multiple models for understanding Jesus’ work; however, the Western Church has typically emphasized legal categories borrowed from Roman Law. Examples include Jesus “paying the debt” of sin and justifying sinners before God, while Eastern Christians emphasize how the God-man, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit elevate human beings to union with the divine life.
Salvation in Christianity
How do you envision the way a person “gets saved” or “goes to heaven,” according to Christianity? What must a person do to be saved in Christian belief? Believe in Jesus? Be baptized? Do good works?
Write down your answer.
Next, think about why you believe this. From where did you get this belief?
Write down your answer.
Finally, ask yourself from what “type” of Christian, Christian group, or Church you derived this belief.
Write that down as well.
Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Prescription
We saw how Eastern religions often understand the human problem as ignorance and the solution as (right) knowledge. For Christianity and the Western monotheistic traditions (Judaism and Islam) in general, the human problem is a moral problem. A cardinal tenet of all traditional forms of Christianity is that the human problem is sin, and Jesus saves humans from sin.
How Jesus saves from sin is depicted with numerous models, many of which appear in the New Testament. One model familiar to Western Christians is a legal model: Christians are guilty before God, and Jesus has atoned for their guilt. Ideas of sacrifice, ransom, and substitution represent this model.
A model emphasized in Eastern Christianity is “theosis” or “divinization.” In this model humans are subject to decay and death due to sin. By becoming human, God the Son elevates humanity to the eternal divine life. Other models include reconciliation between two estranged parties (God and humans), and Christ as victor over humanity’s evil cosmic enemies: sin, death, and the devil.
Yet More Division
Have you ever wondered why there are Baptists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics, and all of the other types of Christians?
In the late Middle Ages a number of factors coalesced to cause a splintering of Western Christianity in the AD 1500s. Many think that Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation, but the Reformation would have happened even if he had never been born. Multiple independent groups at the same time and for the same reasons sought to reform the medieval Roman Catholic Church (creed), both in teachings and in practice (code and cult).
All Protestant Reformers agreed that the Bible, not the Church, is the sole infallible divine authority for Christian faith and practice. Most also agreed that a person is “saved” by faith in Jesus alone, not by their good works. Beyond these basic agreements, they disagreed over things like the nature and number of sacraments, the nature and structure of the Church, Christian practices, and the relationship between Church and state. Since the AD 1500s these groups have had further disagreements leading to thousands of different Protestant faith communities today.
Fundamentalists and Liberals
In the last several centuries, the Western world has undergone epochal changes, resulting in what is often called the modern world, in distinction from the medieval world. Once the center of public and private life, religion has become marginalized and even criticized. Science, critical thinking independent from and not accountable to religion, scholarly study of scripture, and the separation of church and state have posed significant challenges for Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
Within the last century and half, Christians have become polarized in responding to these challenges. Liberal and Progressive Christians have embraced modern science and critical reason, adjusting their traditional beliefs and practices accordingly. Conservatives and fundamentalists have resisted the impact of modern science and critical reason on their faith. Many Christians fall on a spectrum between these two extremes. A similar spectrum of reaction to the modern world has likewise occurred in Judaism and Islam.
Are science and faith compatible? If so, then how? If not, then why not? Consider this question as you read and journal this week.
For this module, read the following:
REL 223 Module 7 AVP Script Title: Jesus and Modern Scholarship Slide 1 Narrator: Welcome to the presentation on Jesus and Modern Scholarship Slide 2 Slide title: Modern Biblical Scholarship Slide content: No text Image: picture of a book splayed open to show many pages at once Narrator: For much of history, Christians viewed the gospels like newspaper reports, relating specific detailed facts about Jesus. Several hundred years ago, Christians began to ask questions about the Bible that we might ask about any document like: When were the biblical books written? Were they written all at once by one person, or were they written over a period of time by multiple authors? Why were they written? What were their agendas? Who were their original audience? What genres or types of literature were used? How do these genres dictate the author’s intended meaning? What sources did the authors use? How did they edit their sources? What literary techniques did they use?
Slide 3 Slide title: Historical-Critical Method Slide content: No Text Image: picture of an old bible Narrator: This approach is called the “historical-critical” method. The word “critical” here does not mean “criticizing.” It comes from the Greek word “krisis,” which means “judgment.” So “historical-critical” simply means “making historical judgments;” offering answers to questions about the origins of the biblical books. The historical-critical method has also been used to study the scriptures of other religions. In this presentation, we’ll summarize some some of the findings of historical-critical scholarship regarding Jesus in the New Testament. Slide 4 Slide title: The Letters of Paul Slide content: No text Image: full-color painting of St. Paul Narrator: Paul’s letters are the earliest New Testament documents, pre-dating the gospels by at least twenty years. Paul focused almost exclusively on Jesus’ death and resurrection, which are the means by which God saves both Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles) from the evil forces of sin, death, and the devil. Paul rarely mentions Jesus’ teachings or the events of his life.
Slide 5 Slide title: Authorship of the Gospels Slide content: No text Image: collage of images from the gospels according to Mark, John, Luke, and Matthew Narrator: The earliest copies of the gospels do not have the titles, like “according to Matthew.” They were all anonymous. Scholars have found oral and written sources behind the gospels. Matthew and Luke both used Mark as one of their chief sources. The gospels reflect situations, persons, and events existing only decades after Jesus. The gospels were written by educated persons. Jesus’ disciples were fishermen who could not read or write. For these and other reasons, scholars are certain that the gospels were written at least forty years after Jesus, and not by original disciples of Jesus. Slide 6 Slide title: Ancient Histories and Biographies Slide content: Text: Ancient histories and biographies: • Were more concerned with meaning than fact • Involved much creative work on the part of the authors(s) • Are very different from modern histories and biographies Image: stack of books Narrator: Ancient histories and biographies were, first, more concerned with meaning than fact. Secondly, involved much creative work on the part of the author or authors. And third, are very different from modern histories and biographies. A close look at the gospels reveal differences that cannot be reconciled if we take the gospels as literal, blow-by-blow, descriptions of events. The tendency has been to either try to impose an awkward harmony, or to simply ignore, these differences. Modern scholarship has discovered that ancient biographies and history-writing were very different from modern biographies and history books. The ancients realized that there is no such thing as detached, objective history writing, but that all histories have a "take" or "spin" on the events. There was also much more creative work on the part of the author. This was not criticized, but expected. Centuries before Jesus, Thucydides, an ancient Greek historian, admitted that he composed the speeches in his history books. Neither he nor his readers had any problem with this. Thus the original readers of the gospels did not expect them to align in every detail. The early Christians who included the four gospels side-by-side in the canon were aware of these differences, but they didn’t change them. These differences often bother us because we have a different understanding of what history and biography writing should look like. Despite many similarities, the gospels present different portraits of Jesus. These portraits were largely determined by the audiences and agendas of the original gospel writers.
Slide 7 Slide title: The Synoptic Problem and Mark Priority Slide content: Text: • Mark is the shortest, overall, and evidences no concern with Jesus’s birth and childhood. • Mark is the common denominator when Matthew and Luke disagree. • Mark contains more detail in specific stories, which Matthew and Luke shortened to include their own material. No image Narrator: Most scholars hold that The Gospel of Mark was the first and that Matthew and Luke used Mark because Mark’s gospel is the shortest, and also the earliest. Frequently when Mark, Matthew, and Luke all contain the same passage, Mark and Matthew will agree against Luke, or Mark and Luke will agree against Matthew. Matthew and Luke’s versions of stories in Mark are also shortened. For these reasons, scholars conclude, Mark was written first, and that Matthew and Luke used Mark as a primary source. Slide 8 Slide title: The Gospel of Mark Slide content: No text Images: stone carving of Mark Narrator: Mark was written during the Jewish Revolt against Rome in AD 65 – 70. Mark’s audience was Gentile or non-Jewish converts to Christianity. At the time they were not accepted by the original Jewish Christians. They were considered traitors by their own countrymen, the Romans. Internal evidence indicates that Mark’s audience was experiencing persecution, and perhaps even martyrdom. Therefore Mark presents Jesus as the “hidden Messiah” misunderstood by everyone: his enemies, friends, and his family. Only God, the evils spirits, the narrator, and the reader, know Jesus’ true identity in Mark. It is notuntil Jesus dies on the cross, that a Roman soldier confesses that Jesus is the Son of God (Mark 15:39). Mark also uses Jewish apocalyptic theology to portray Jesus. In this theology, God’s people are suffering, misunderstood and persecuted now, but will be vindicated by God by resurrection in the coming age. Jesus’ resurrection at the end of Mark, signifies divine vindication. Mark’s portrayal of Jesus as suffering, misunderstood, persecuted, and killed is due to the situation of Mark’s audience. Followers of Jesus must, like Jesus, suffer misunderstanding and persecution. But they, like Jesus, will be vindicated by God in the end. Slide 9 Slide title: The Gospel of Matthew Slide content: Text: Matthew viewed Jesus as the promised Messiah, King of Israel, and the new Moses. Image: statue of Matthew with his arms spread openly Narrator: Matthew was written in the AD 80s for Jewish Christians who at least partially kept the Law of Moses. For this reason, at various points in Matthew, Jesus advocates keeping the Law and Jewish practices. The context was the expulsion of Jewish Christians from the broader non-Christian Jewish communities after the failed Jewish revolt against Rome, again which was around AD 65 – 70. The author used Mark and other sources, editing them for his own purposes and audience.
Matthew’s portrait includes Jesus as the Messiah predicted in the Jewish Scriptures, and Jesus as the “New Moses,” with direct parallels between Jesus and Moses. Matthew is also concerned with the leadership, structure, and authority of the early church as a community now independent from the synagogues. Matthew removes Mark’s negative portrayal of Jesus’ disciples, in order to buttress his claim that divine authority lies with the new Christian Church, and not with the Jewish synagogues. Peter plays prominently in Matthew in this regard. After Jesus calms the storm and gets into the boat in Mark, Jesus’ disciples: “were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; and their hearts were hardened” (Mark 6:51 – 52). Matthew’s version of the same event, copied and edited from Mark, reads: “Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’.” (Matthew 14:43). Matthew’s version also includes a story about Peter walking on the water. Matthew’s portrait of Jesus, themes, and edits of Mark are determined by Matthew’s original audiences, and purposes in writing. Slide 10 Slide title: The Gospel of Luke Slide content: Text: Luke viewed Jesus as the Israelite prophetic tradition and social justice. Image: stained glass with images of the apostles Narrator: Luke’s gospel is part of a two-part work that includes the Acts of the Apostles, written in the AD 90s. Luke’s gospel has the most sophisticated writing style and is more complex than Mark and Matthew. Like Matthew, Luke used Mark as a primary source but edited it according to his audience and purpose. Luke’s portrait of Jesus contains multiple intertwined and related themes. Luke is the only gospel writer to refer to the rulers and events of the Roman Empire. A prominent theme in Luke and Acts is that both Jesus and early Christians were innocent of any political and social crimes again Rome. Instead of Mark’s centurion confessing Jesus as the Son of God, when Jesus dies in Luke the centurion says: “Truly this man was innocent” (Luke 23:47). Luke also has one of the criminals crucified with Jesus defend him as innocent (Luke 23:39 – 43), while Mark and Matthew, they both reviled Jesus (Mark 15:32; Matthew 27:44). Thus one of Luke’s intentions was to present a defense for Christianity to the broader Roman establishment. Luke also avoids portraying Jesus’ death as a sacrifice for our sins. This is because the Romans misunderstood the teachings of Christianity. We have Roman documents wrongly accusing Christians of human sacrifice and of killing children (infanticide). As outsiders, they misunderstood the Christian teaching, that Jesus the son of God was sacrificed for sins. Matthew emphasizes Jesus as the true King of Israel, the promised Messiah. Luke portrays Jesus in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets. Throughout Luke and Acts, Jesus is referred to as prophet and is paralleled to great prophets like Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha. Along with the prophetic theme, Luke presents Jesus as very concerned with social justice issues, such as reversing power between the rich and poor, men and women, and privileged and minorities. Women feature prominently and more positively in Luke, compared to the other gospels. Only Luke says that women supported Jesus and his disciples financially (Luke 8:1 – 3). Because Luke is the furthest of the three synoptic gospels from Jesus’s time, Luke portrays Jesus’ second coming as something that will not occur until far into the future. This contrasts with Mark’s and Matthew’s presentation that Jesus will return very soon.
Slide 11 Slide title: The Gospel of John Slide content: Text: John viewed Jesus as the divine man sent from heaven. Image: picture of the baby Jesus surrounded by the holy family and a lamb Narrator: John is very different from the synoptic gospels. In John, Jesus has a three-year ministry as opposed to only one year in the synoptics. The synoptics have many miracles, healings, and exorcisms, but there are only seven miracles, called "signs," in John’s gospel, and no exorcisms. In the synoptics, Jesus rarely talks about himself and always teaches publically in parables. In John, Jesus always speaks about himself in long philosophical discourses instead of parables. In John, Jesus is crucified on the day of preparation of Passover, when the Passover lambs were sacrificed (Thursday). For John, Jesus is the "Lamb of God". In the synoptics, Jesus is crucified on the Passover feast (Friday). This is why in John, there is no Last Supper with bread and wine. The Passover meal would have been on Thursday evening, when Passover began. The gospel of John was written by a group who referred to themself
The gospel of John was written by a group who referred to themselves as “we”, however they periodically appeal to one of Jesus’ disciples as a source. The authors also used other textual sources. Essential to John, is a focus on the divinity of Jesus. The synoptic gospels present Jesus in very human terms, but John portrays Jesus as a divine being who temporarily came into the world to reveal the Father. John repeatedly uses God’s name revealed to Moses in the burning bush, “I AM” (Exodus 3:14) to refer to Jesus. In its final form, John’s gospel also engages and refutes an early heterodox form Christianity that emerged at the turn of the first century (ca. AD 100) called “Gnosticism.” Slide 12 Slide title: Historical Criticism and Christian Faith Slide content: Text: Scripture and incarnation: fully human as well as fully divine Image: Jesus standing in front of a pasture Narrator: This brief survey indicates merely a few ways in which each of the four gospels presents a distinctive and unique portrait of Jesus. Christians today often have difficulty reconciling modern biblical scholarship with faith in the Bible as the Word of God. Yet many Christians have fully embraced historical criticism while maintaining faith in divine inspiration of the Bible. There are numerous ways to do so, but one of the most common is based on the Incarnation.
