And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee,
and taught them on the sabbath days.
And they were astonished at his doctrine:
for his word was with power.

And in the synagogue there was a man,
which had a spirit of an unclean devil,
and cried out with a loud voice,

Saying, Let us alone;
what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?
art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.

And Jesus rebuked him, saying,
Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
And when the devil had thrown him in the midst,
he came out of him, and hurt him not.

And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves,
saying, What a word is this! for with authority
and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.

And the fame of him went out
into every place of the country round about.
Luke 4: 31-37 (King James Version)

The gradual decay in the Catholic Church’s values continued unabatedly, finally culminating in the ‘Reformation’. John Wycliffe was such an early proponent. But it was Martin Luther (1483-1546), an intellectual monk of the Order of Augustinian Hermits, who is known as the Father of the Protestant Reformation. He was much pained to see the corruption of the Western Church. He preferred the Augustine’s theology. But differences with the Western Church and specially on the ‘indulgences issue’ finally led to his dissociation with the Church. His famous and provocative ‘Ninety-Five Theses’ challenged the Western Church which led to the Church excommunicating him by promulgating a papal bull. Another major reformer was John Calvin (1509-1564), a French theologian who started a system of Christian theology known as Calvinism. The Lutherans and the Calvinists thus brought about the much needed Reformation.

All of this also resulted in the Catholic Church gradually introducing various changes and ushering reforms. Council of Trent, the most important ecumenical council, was convoked by Pope Paul III in 1545. Various decrees were passed. The Council issued condemnations of ‘heresies committed by Protestantism’ and also statements and clarifications of the Church’s doctrine and teachings were issued. The Church’s liturgy and practices were also discussed in great detail.

A more interesting event transpired in England. King Henry VIII was not able to procure an annulment of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon. His plans of marrying Anne Boleyn was thus getting delayed. The Pope was not granting him divorce primarily because Catherine of Aragon was the aunt of the Holy Roman Empire. Out of frustration, the king founded the Anglican Church. The Archbishop of Canterburry then declared the first marriage annulled. Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterburry, through his ‘Book of Common Prayer’ introduced Protestant form of worship in the ‘Catholic Church in England’. But Queen Mary I, a Roman Catholic, executed him. Later Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) restored the Anglican Church and made it a Protestant establishment.

Europe was in the midst of various battles between the warring kingdoms. These were as much religious as political. French wars of succession, German wars as well as the Thirty Years War (17^th Century) were fought with religious overtures too. But subsequently with the gradual advancement and development of natural and physical sciences, the Church started losing much of its significance. But Darwinism changed everything in the Nineteenth Century. The ‘Origin of Species’ published in 1859 and the ‘Descent of Man’ in 1871 completely shook the roots of Christianity. Darwin’s convincing ‘Theory of Natural Selection’ completely bypassed God in the evolution of Human race. Scholars like Karl Marx (1818-83) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) also contributed immensely to anti-God proposition.

Surprisingly, revival of this faith came in the form of a movement known as ‘Evangelicalism’. It’s a kind of piety with no specific denomination. Last Century’s ‘Pentecostalism’ has also hugely added to the growing number of Christian believers. The long dissociation between Western Church and the Eastern Orthodox which had continued from excommunication of 1054 was partially revoked in 1964 when Pope Paul VI met Athenagoras I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Though communion could not be reestablished, at least the excommunication of 1054 was rescinded.  Yesterday’s historic meeting of the Russian patriarch (an important part of Orthodoxy) and Pope and their joint plea for persecuted Christians has led to a renewed chance of communion.

And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

And also upon the servants and
upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

And I will show wonders in the heavens and
in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood,
before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

And it shall come to pass,
that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered:
for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance,
as the LORD hath said,
and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

                                                               JOEL 2: 28-32 (King James Version)

It was the conversion of Constantine the Great (who became the Caesar of the West and subsequently the Augustus) that changed the direction of the nascent religion. His going into a battle with a Christian symbol painted on his soldiers’ shields was truly a watershed moment in Christianity’s history. Subsequently he granted the Christians legal rights by promulgating the ‘Edict of Milan’. With a view to bring clarity on the various doctrines which the Church was following, he also conveyed the first ever ‘ecumenical’ council. His setting up of a new capital ‘Constantinople’, a truly Christian Capital, was the height of his evangelism. But later rulers like ‘Julian the Apostate’ were inimical to this new faith, though his pagan beliefs could not do much damage as he shortly died after assuming office.

Then came the Golden age of Christian thoughts. Famous ‘Apostolic Fathers’ such as Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna are still revered. Though there were a number of leading theologians during that period, it was St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) whose intellectual ingenuity has a continuing profound influence on Christianity. Gradually Augustinian Christianity became Western Christianity. Among his many ideas, ‘predestination’ i.e. God from eternity elects some to save is now well accepted. Gradually the theologians started analysing the relation of Christ’s divinity to his humanity which is known as Christology. St. Maximus the Confessor (580-662) can be considered as the greatest ‘Christologian’ whose famous ‘Trinitarian theology’ has greatly added to Christian theology. It was the beginning of the Christian scholasticism.

In the mean time, the might of the Western Roman Empire was gradually wearing down. With increasing raids by ‘barbarian tribes’, the Empire was continually shrinking and the later emperors were mere titular heads controlled by all powerful barbarian lords. But gradually these Germanic Tribes were also evangelized.

There continued to be many significant disagreements regarding the basic elements of Christian faith.  Divinity of Jesus or the relation of the Father to the Son was a dominating one. To resolve this serious dispute, Constantine on assuming control of the Eastern Christian World convened the first ‘Ecumenical Council’ at Nicaea. The ‘Nicene Creed’ described the Son as ‘consubstantial’ with the Father. But there were ‘homoeans’ (who considered the Son of being of similar substance with the Father) as well as ‘anomoeans’ (who considered the Son as very different from the Father). Finally it was the ‘Cappadocian Fathers’ (St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Basil of Caesarea and St. Gregory of Nazianzus) who in the second Ecumenical Council (381) held that the eternal God had entered into the human history in the form of Christ.

But differences continued to haunt this new faith. In fifth century A.D., in Constantinople, disagreements over the ‘Mother of God’ raised to such proportions that a council was convened in Ephesus (431) to resolve the issue. The raging battle over the doctrinal aspects were continuing in Alexandria too. ‘Monophysitism’ (in the Incarnation, Christ’s humanity was assumed into his divinity) divided Alexandria and Constantinople. To resolve this dispute, the fourth Ecumenical Council (the Great Council of Chalcedon) was convened in 451 A.D. Rejecting ‘Monophysitism’, it reaffirmed ‘dyophysite’ position. But such outright rejection also led to the division of the order. The Ethiopian Church, the Syrian Jacobite Church, the Coptic Church and other Monophysite communions separated from Rome. The ecclesiastical differences were the precursor to the East-West Schism.

The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus,
of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Until the day in which he was taken up,
after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments
unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

To whom also he shewed himself alive
after his passion by many infallible proofs,
being seen of them forty days,
and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

And, being assembled together with them,
commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father,
which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
ACTS 1: 1-4

The Synoptic Gospels proclaim the rising of the Christ and his transformation into a ‘spiritual body.’ The birth of the church came after Christ’s ascension at the beginning of the feast of Shavuot or ‘Pentecost’. When the apostles gathered on the day of Pentecost, the house was filled with wind and fire and they started speaking foreign languages. On coming out, the Jews were amazed to see these Galileans speaking the native languages. On proclamation of Christ’s resurrection to the dumbfounded Jews, a substantial number of such Jews converted to Christianity.

The Apostolic Church was exclusively Jewish as in the beginning it did not allow Gentiles to be baptised. Only later Apostle Peter declared that the gospel could be received by the Gentiles too without the additional requirement that they be bound by the Law of Moses. Gospels state that Apostle Peter had a vision in which Christ commanded him to take food of all kind, whether Kosher or not. Peter baptised a Roman centurion, Cornelius, and this was the beginning of Gentiles being baptised into the new faith.

But it was Saul (later known as Paul) who actually popularised the still infant Messianic sect to the large population of Gentiles and pagans. A ‘Hellenized’ Pharisee from Tarsus in Asia Minor, he was at one point inimical towards this very sect. But his transformation from a persecutor to the greatest missionary of Christianity is a game-changing event in the history of Christianity. According to Christian texts he was blinded by a blazing light and his vision was restored by a Christian named Ananias which led to his becoming a missionary of Christ. A tireless preacher, he changed the course of history forever. Bringing into the fold vast numbers of Gentiles led not only to the continuation of this infant sect but also, though gradually, it was successfully seen as a separate sect from the Jews.  His equal treatment of Jews and Greeks was an exemplary step. The common participation of the Jews and Gentiles in Abraham’s faith made them inheritors of God’s covenant with Abraham. Their obedience to the Mosaic Code was not compulsory. This theology of Paul led to the tremendous growth of Christianity and the church became a force which transformed the world.

The early Christians used to meet on Sundays, the day of Jesus’ resurrection. They used to sing Psalms, glossolalia, prophecy etc. But this new ‘mystery religion’ had numerous pagan critics. The Roman authorities gradually started looking at them with disdain and suspicion. The protection (legal immunity) which Jews had was no more available to the followers of this new religion which led to the Roman authorities taking brutal steps to control this new found menace.

The followers of Christianity had to compulsorily honour the Gods of the Roman Empire and offer prayers to the Gods for the Empire’s welfare. On refusal death penalty was the sole punishment. This led to the start of the endless pagan persecutions, the first one being the infamous ‘Nero’s purge’. Gradually theses persecutions were aimed at extermination of Christians finally culminating in making ‘professing Christianity’ a capital offence. Christians were hunted down and those who did not denounce their faith were put to death. It continued till the third Century A.D. Emperor Decius even issued an edict requiring every citizen to make a sacrifice at a pagan altar, refusal of which again led to capital punishment. Such anti Christian laws and policies of the Empire continued but surprisingly could not limit the growing popularity of Christianity.