The Christian Faith: A Unique Belief System

The Christian faith is unlike any other belief system in the world. It centers around a historical figure named Jesus, who is believed to be both fully God and fully human. This concept, known as the incarnation, is one of the core elements of Christian theology. Additionally, Christians believe in the Trinity, which means that God exists as three persons in one: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. This is a unique concept of Godhead quite different from other monotheistic traditions.

Salvation in Christianity is based on faith, which means trusting in God’s saving power through crucifixion rather than relying solely on our own actions. This faith-based salvation is also a distinctive feature of Christianity.

Christianity’s Theological Paradoxes

Christianity is known for its theological paradoxes—ideas that seem contradictory but are central to the faith. For example, the belief in Jesus as both fully God and fully human is a paradox. It’s like saying one person is both a superhero and an ordinary person at the same time. These mysteries can be challenging to understand and unravel.

Christian Views on Human Nature, Society, and Destiny

Christianity has unique perspectives on human nature, society, and destiny. These views can seem arbitrary and complex. Christians believe that humans are inherently flawed, a concept known as original sin. They also believe in the idea of salvation through Jesus’ sacrificial death. This means that through faith in Jesus and not by their moral actions, humans can be saved from their sins and have eternal life with God. The Christian salvation scheme is a top-down rather than a bottom-up moral scheme.

Christianity’s Blend of Jewish and Roman Traditions

Jesus lived in a time when the Jewish faith was predominant, but the pagan Roman Empire ruled the land. The early Christians faced challenges in dealing with the Roman authorities, who often persecuted them. In this Greco-Roman context, there were many mystery religions and cults that focused on rituals and sacrifices to cleanse sins. These religions influenced early Christianity. The faith became a mix of the Jewish monotheism and Greco-Roman mystery religions.

The Influence of Mystery Religions on Early Christianity

Mystery religions in the Greco-Roman world emphasized the idea of a savior who would die sacrificially to cleanse people’s sins. These themes of tragedy and ritual sacrifice were central to the culture and religion of the time. Early Christians struggled to convert Roman pagans to their monotheistic belief in one God. As a result of this long conflict, the early Christian Church incorporated some Greco-Roman concepts into its theology. This blending of biblical vocabulary with Greco-Roman ideas led to a form of Christianity that was different from the original monotheistic teachings of Jesus and the Jewish tradition.

Key Christian Concepts Shaped by Greco-Roman Influence

Several central Christian concepts were influenced by the Greco-Roman culture and tradition. These concepts include the idea of human depravity, the need for a savior, the sacrificial death of Jesus, the belief in the saving acts of Jesus, initiation into the Christian community, and salvation through Jesus’ atoning death.

These ideas shifted the emphasis away from human participation in salvation through morality and highlighted divine grace and incentive. True faith was seen as believing in the mystery of Jesus’ incarnation and sacrificial death, rather than relying on human knowledge, reason, and actions. The Church played a central role in dispensing divine knowledge and grace, and it was believed that salvation could only be found within the Church.

The Church’s Supremacy in Medieval Christendom

In the 4th century AD, Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, leading to the merging of Church and State. The Church gained significant power and authority, making it nearly irresistible. In return, the Church reinforced the authority of the state by equating obedience to the Emperor with submission to God.

This fusion of Church and State led to a form of absolute monarchy and absolute Church control, particularly in the Latin Christian world. It also resulted in the suppression of Greco-Roman philosophical and scientific traditions and a culture that opposed reason and intellectualism. This period is often referred to as the Dark Ages.

Trinitarian Theology and Its Impact on Christendom

Trinitarian theology, which is central to Christianity, contributed to this anti-intellectual culture. The idea of the Trinity, where God exists as three persons in one, along with other dogmas such as original sin, human depravity, and redemption through Christ’s atoning death, played a role in inhibiting intellectual progress. These were supernatural, paradoxical, and contradictory dogmas. They stifled rational inquiry and critical thinking.

The Enlightenment of the 18th century saw a pushback against these Christian mysteries. Enlightenment thinkers sought to usher in an age of reason and freedom by challenging traditional Christian beliefs. This demonstrates the long-lasting impact of Christian dogmas on intellectual development or stagnation in Christendom.

In summary, the Christian faith is unique in its beliefs about Jesus, the Trinity, and salvation through faith. It has been influenced by both Semitic and Hellenistic traditions, leading to theological paradoxes and complex concepts. The fusion of Christianity with Roman authority in the 4th century had significant cultural and intellectual consequences, contributing to the Dark Ages. Trinitarian theology and other dogmas played a role in inhibiting intellectual progress, eventually sparking the Enlightenment era’s pursuit of reason and freedom.

Christ and Christian Theology: Exploring the Trinity and Jesus’ Role

In the world of Orthodox Christianity, believers follow a faith centered around a unique concept: the Trinity. This means they believe in one God who exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. These three persons are equal in godhead and share the same divine substance, but they have distinct identities and consciousness.

While all three members of the Trinity are important, it’s Jesus Christ who often takes the spotlight in Christian liturgy and daily life. Christians are very focused on Jesus, considering him both fully human and fully God. He goes by many names and titles, such as the Son of man, Son of God, the Word, the Prophet, the Messiah, the Lord, and even God. This intense concentration on Jesus is because as the crucified God he is seen as the central figure of the Christian faith and salvation.

Understanding God Through Jesus

In Christianity, it’s believed that God is most fully revealed through Jesus Christ. The life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus are seen as God’s way of revealing Himself to humanity. One theologian, William Blake, said, “The final revelation of Christianity is, therefore, not that Jesus is God, but that God is Jesus.” This means that through Jesus, people can understand who God is and what He is like.

The New Testament: Jesus Takes Center Stage

The New Testament is a collection of writings that are fundamental to the Christian faith. However, what’s interesting is that even though it’s called the New Testament, it’s primarily focused on Jesus rather than God the Father. Richard Burridge, former Dean of King’s College, London, found that in the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), God the Father is only mentioned about 2.5% of the time.[i] The rest of the Gospels are all about Jesus—his life, his teachings, his disciples, and his interactions with various people.

Bishop Charles Gore, another scholar, noted that “Christianity is faith in a certain person, Jesus Christ.”[ii] This faith is unique because it’s not just faith in a human being; it’s also seen as faith in God because Christians believe that Jesus is God incarnate, meaning God in human form.

Who Wrote the New Testament?

Even though the central pivot of all New Testament writings is Jesus Christ and crucial information about his life, teachings, death, and resurrection, are contained in the books, none of them in fact were written by him or under his supervision. Philip Schaff, the renowned ecclesiastical historian, observes: “The Lord chose none of his apostles, with the single exception of Paul, from the ranks of the learned; he did not train them to literary authorship, nor gave them, throughout his earthly life, a single express command to labor in that way.”[iii] The apostle Paul wrote several letters (or epistles) that were later included in the New Testament. However, when it comes to the Gospels and other writings, they were authored by later generations. They were written by individuals or communities who wanted to capture and share their experiences and understanding of Jesus.

The New Testament’s Importance

Despite not being written by Jesus himself, the New Testament holds immense significance for Christians. It contains crucial information about Jesus’ life, teachings, death, and resurrection. These writings are considered the earliest and most important responses to various aspects of Jesus’ existence.

R. M. Grant, the famous University of Chicago theologian and New Testament historian, highlighted that the New Testament is the core collection of books for the Christian Church. Unlike the Old Testament, which has a long history and various authors, the New Testament was produced within a single century, mainly by Jesus’ indirect disciples or their immediate followers. Grant observed, that the New Testament “is the basic collection of the books of the Christian Church. Its contents, unlike those of the Old Testament, were produced within the span of a single century, under the auspices of disciples of Jesus or their immediate successors. The collection is unlike the Koran in that it contains not a word written by the founder of the community, though his spoken words are recorded by evangelists and apostles and reflected in almost all the documents.”[iv]

The Development of the New Testament Canon

It’s worth noting that the New Testament as we know it today did not exist in its current form for centuries after Jesus and his disciples. The process of combining these writings into one authoritative volume came later. Scholars like C. P. S. Clarke suggest that early Christians did not initially think of putting all these texts together. They were “written for the special needs of particular groups of people, and the idea of combining them into one authoritative volume was late and not in the mind of the authors. Christians, therefore, and the Christian Church might conceivably have gone on indefinitely without Christian scriptures.”[v]

One reason for this delay might have been the existence of the Hebrew Bible, which was already accepted as Scripture within the Christian community. This Old Testament served as the foundation of Christian doctrine. The process of identifying which texts should be considered part of the New Testament and which should not (known as the canonization process) was a complex one that took centuries to complete.

In fact, it took the Christian Church 367 years to create a definitive list of writings that we now recognize as the New Testament. The earliest undisputed mention of this canon is attributed to Athanasius, a fourth-century bishop of Alexandria. During these many centuries, the Hebrew Bible remained the primary Scripture for the Christian community.

In conclusion, Christianity is a faith that centers around the Trinity, where God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit are all equal and distinct. Despite the emphasis on the Trinity, Jesus takes center stage in Christian theology and daily life, serving as the primary way that believers understand and connect with God. The New Testament, a collection of writings primarily about Jesus, was not written by Jesus himself but by later generations of Christians. These writings hold immense importance within the Christian tradition, and their canonization process took several centuries to complete.

[i] See details Richard A. Burridge, What Are the Gospels? A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp.271-74.

[ii] Charles Gore, The Incarnation of the Son of God (New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1960), p.1.

[iii] Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (Michigan: W. B. Eerdmans, 1976), vol.2, p.570

[iv] Robert M. Grant, The Formation of The New Testament, New York, Harper and Row, 1965, p.8.

[v] C. P. S. Clarke, Short History of The Christian Church (London: Longman, 1966), p.28.