How Did Christianity Get So Strong, Spread So Far and Last So Long Until Today?

The Christian Identity

The formation of the early Church and its development are key factors in the formation of the Christian identity. Almost from its beginning, the Christian faith began to form alliances with government. “Byzantine emperors formed firm alliances with Church leaders and worked to create an empire that flourished into the mid-fifteenth century” (Fiero 17). The backdrop upon which Christianity formed was during the decline of Rome when the last emperor of Rome helped to build the “new faith”. Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance and moved the seat of power from Rome east to Byzantium renaming it Constantinople: the “New Rome.” Christianity was legalized and proclaimed the “religion of the empire”. This put Christianity in a position to develop Church hierarchy, dogma (prescribed doctrine) and liturgy (rituals for public worship). From these the Christian identity began to take shape. Business startup was initiated. The Church fathers worked on formulating the language of the new faith to bring unity of belief and practice to the Christian people. During this time art contributed meaningful symbolism and nurtured the spiritual needs of the masses. Many of the symbols used came directly from Greco-Roman culture. Some even came from Egypt, such as, Isis’ rosette, which is the Egyptian Goddess in her regenerative roll.

“Church Leaders in the West took from Rome the Latin language, the Roman legal system (Became the basis for Church canon law, and Roman methods of architectural construction” (Fiero 17). As the form of administration took shape, the Church grew in power and the Christian identity was closely related to how the people would relate to their Christian leadership. The leadership assumed a significant roll over the people because of its emerging governmental form, its supreme control over the land and its function. “Rome’s administrative divisions were retained and transformed into archbishops overseeing provinces, bishops overseeing dioceses, and priests overseeing parishes. Rome became the administrative center of the “new faith” when the authority in Constantinople and Antioch contested their primacy and the Bishop of Rome, Leo the Great, put up the “Petrine Doctrine” in which the pontiffs (popes who are the temporal representatives of Christ) claimed inheritance of their position as successors to Peter, the First Apostle and principle evangelist of Rome” (Fiero 17). The Roman Catholic Church took control of the government as the Roman Empire crumbled away. All of Western Christendom was patterned after the Imperial Roman Empire. This resulted in the first vital achievement in forming the Christian identity: a “FUCTIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE HIERARCHY WAS ESSENTIAL TO THE SUCCESS OF THE “NEW FAITH” AND THE FORMULATION OF A UNIFORM DOCTRINE OF BELIEF” (Fiero 17). The Christian now had a hierarchy of leadership, which gave structure to his or her understanding of the “chain of command” within which he or she could function. This framework set the stage for the fleshing out beliefs, practices, mission, goals, etc.

To formulate the dogma of Christianity, the first Ecumenical council was called by Emperor Constantine and met in Nicaea in 325. Church leaders discussed the beliefs that would be standardized in the new faith and by a consensus of opinion they developed the Nicene Creed, which states the beliefs of Christianity. “THE NICENE CREED STANDS AS THE TURNING POINT BETWEEN CLASSICAL RATIONALISM AND CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM: CHALLENGING REASON AND THE EVIDENCE OF THE SENSES, IT EMBRACES FAITH AND THE INTUITION OF TRUTHS THAT TRANSCENDED ORDINARY UNDERSTANDING AND ANTICIPATES THE SHIFT FORM HOMEOCENTRIC CLASSICAL WORLDVIEW TO GOD-CENTERED MIDIEVAL WORLDVIEW” (Fiero 18). Now the Christian had a set of doctrines that contained the main tenets of Christianity and he or she could now refer to it as a basis of faith and rhetoric when necessary. This meant that all Christians would be able to converse within an agreed upon set of beliefs that outlined exactly what they stood for and who they were in it. Identity was becoming clearer as the necessary parts were formulated for the people to believe in and do.

Contributions to Christian dogma and liturgy were to be formulated by the community of Benedictine Monasticism. The Essenes in the West practiced asceticism long before Jesus was born and these practices formed the basis of the ascetic branch of Christian practices of the new faith. The earliest Christian monastics pursued the ascetic lifestyle of self-denial and were known as the desert fathers and mothers, as they spent their time in the deserts in fastings, living in poverty and keeping celibacy. This lifestyle was instituted by Bishop St. Basil and is still followed by the Eastern Church. Chaos set in as the last remnants of Classical civilization disappeared. Plato’s academy closed in Athens, and Educational facilities were disappearing. “The impulse to retreat from the turmoil of secular life” (Fiero 18), its uncertainty and its dangers “was intense” and people needed to find peace. The Western monastics offered sanctuary from the confusion, gave partakers a simple solution to their troubled lives and a place to feed and nurture their spiritual needs. They took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to the governing abbot or father, the first of whom was Benedict of Nursia. He instituted a balance of work with religious study and prayer, in which the motto “sound mind and sound body” was the religious program: ora et labora. This was part of the Christian identity, to deny the self, and this lifestyle became a doctrine of the faith. Christians were known as “holy” when they lived this way.

I have to wonder why we were placed in such a beautiful, rich world to love, care for, enjoy and to be happy in; if we “have to” go through such denial to be spiritual. I don’t think this is what Spirit has in mind. Balance and diversity are key realities on Earth. Being here in joy would be more like the Spirit that I understand would intend for us.

“Monastics and Church fathers regarded Women as sinful and dangerous objects of sexual temptation and the Church prohibited women from holding positions of authority in The Church” (Fiero 18), but they gladly allowed them to become nuns! Women who practiced the ascetic life style were often taken into the homes of Aristocratic women to form Benedictine nunneries and were given religious education. Intellectuals found refuge and they offered women an alternative to marriage. Interestingly, there were twice the numbers of women as men. This segment of Church practice formed extremely strong Christian Identities for women as well as for men. In the Catholic Church, as new facets of vocations developed, the Christian identity broadened into different specific vocations within the Church umbrella of activities. Different Christian identities could now be cultivated, depending on one’s place in Christendom.

How sad to see the loss of the true purpose of man and woman and the natural equality balanced with difference.

“Priests, or regular clergy, played increasingly important roles in Western intellectual history. As the Greek and Roman sources of education dried up, people did not learn to read and write, so it was left in the hands of Benedictine monks and nuns, who hand-copied volumes and preserved the history and the literature of the past in their monasteries” (Fiero 18). The Christian identity is also closely tied to music, art, missionary work, bible scholarship, Christian mysticism, and Church reform. All of these were part of the Monastics Christian identity. A certain way to do these things made it specifically Christian and identity was strictly developed within these frameworks as they were fashioned by the Church leaders. Just about everything that was necessary for the Church to function as a complete government was influenced by Christian dogma and the formulation of new constructs to accommodate new needs. The Church calendar was developed by Dionysius Exiguus. It was designed to outline the liturgical year, especially main events such as Easter, Christmas, etc. in the life of Christ. This is the calendar still used today. The calendar outlined what was to be done in the liturgy of the Church year and it repeats and repeats and repeats and repeats until I had to quit because it was just too much repeating without any real meaning to me.

Latin Church Fathers were four of the most important Latin scholars to participate in formation of Christian dogma and liturgy. They lived in the fourth and fifth centuries. The first was Jerome. He translated the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament into Latin, the Church’s chosen language. This volume became known as the Vulgate, which became the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. Jerome did not hesitate to pull from all sources of Greek and Rome, and freely “Plundered the spoils of classicism and Hebraism to build the edifice of a new faith” (Fiero 19).

I can appreciate the keeping of history and writings of the past, but it seems pretty arbitrary to put a volume together and decide to make it the Divine Word of God. It has never been brought home so clearly that the bible is a compilation of works written by members of human kind and to ascribe anything more is perhaps ludicrous; at least to the educated of mind, in my opinion. However, the influence on the Christian identity that this one book has had is profound. Everything in this book is ascribed as Divinely Inspired and is there for the Principle of thought for all Christians. This book provides the framework within which most of the Christian identity is contrived or formulated. I can attest to this experience. I was born and raised a Christian and remained so for many years, until I finally came to the end of it and realized it just wasn’t working for me in my life. It was hard to leave, but I did. But, as a Christian, and as you read the Bible and immerse yourself in it, you become what it is, the Christian according to it. Whatever the book means to any individual; pastors, priests, etc. insure that there is some kind of unity of belief within their boundaries of whatever church you are in and, make no bones about it, he is in control. In my experience it is a narrow belief system that offers a structure and basis for life that is void of the female principle, is limited in acceptance of others who are different and is demanding of the practitioner to live up to the expectations of the Church. It has been said that religion is the opiate of the people and thought this may be a colloquialism; it is certainly true of my experience with it. It made it easy for me to give up my control of my life, to Jesus and the Pastor or Priest. I didn’t have to be responsible to much of an extent as my spiritual food was spoon fed to me, and not knowing any better, I thought it was meat! I had to be attentive to the rules and be exactly what was required to be accepted, any deviations, and I was out! It was easy to be rejected and to get “disciplined”, especially since I was definitely a witch trapped in a Christian’s mindset. I came to realize that I am an earth-path spirit and that is where I belong. But, aside from the form of Christianity laid out by the church, a real Christian is like its Avatar-Jesus. I find nothing of the dogma or religious ritual that resonate truth, but as you understand Quantum reality, you have what you believe, and I did. I was fully engaged with a Devil who was almost as strong as God and who sometimes was “allowed” to test me and it was hell on Earth! Now, I put negative energy under my feet to be transformed into healing energy to help heal the Earth. Which do you like better? It is clear that Christian identity is extremely tied into the Bible very strongly and is limited by it.

The second was Ambrose. “He drew on Greek, Hebrew, and Southwest Asian traditions to formulate Christian doctrine and liturgy and wrote many Christian hymns for congregational use after the music styles of the eastern Mediterranean chants and Hebrew psalms” (Fiero 19). The word use of, “God as the ‘Light of Light,’” is directly from the cult of Mithros and Plato’s analogy between God and the Sun.

Many words and concepts used were from Greek and Roman literature and religion. No matter how you cut it, it seems that Christianity was fashioned from the pagan trappings, knowledge and beliefs of the pre-Christian world. It may seem correct and nice, but in truth, you can fashion a religion in the same way as did the “Church Fathers.” And, I suspect it might turn out just as good as or better than the fashioning of Christianity. All of mankind’s civilizations that we have studied seem to ascribe equality with God upon their leaders. It is an interesting phenomenon. Again, the Pope is ascribed with divine power and station. I always wonder how a human being could somehow become deified when a leader and not as a man anywhere. It does not make sense to me and I don’t ascribe to it. Respect is all I owe a leader.

The hymns and Church music I use to sing for masses and services was very beautiful and quite filled with dogma. I love to sing and write my own songs and I use to write scripture songs to sing at masses and services. I was never a Christian that felt any particular commitment to any denomination and thus I spent time in many of them, including the Catholic Church where I wrote a Latin Mass and many special songs for the mass. I did a lot of music ministry for these different churches. The strange thing is, I had an anointing on my music that was unmistakable. But, I use to wonder why no one noticed it and why the church seemed unresponsive to the beautiful way in which the scripture was sung. I know it was good. But when I met the Goddess and heard her song, I was captured and I ran to her. She helped me to validate my femaleness in divinity, and this helped me to begin to accept my femaleness. I even go so far now to enjoy wearing a dress and doing some of the female rituals of normal women. When I sang to the Goddess and God, I noticed the anointing became a much larger sphere and not a confined “boxed in” area. I felt a profound difference in the presence of Spirit, which was much stronger and more alive. It was then I began to suspect that I’d been lied to about who Spirit is and how Spirit works. I was right and I cannot un-know what I now know about spirituality. The trappings that date back to the Roman Empire have been preserved for all these centuries in this religion. I wonder what that says about our growth as human beings in relation to Spirit. Have we indeed devolved spiritually as well as in other ways? It is a good question. I think I have discovered the inconvenient truth of the Spirit!

The third was Gregory the Great. His work was vital to the development of the Church Government, which sent out missionaries to aid the spread of the new religion. Gregory’s work extended temporal authority of the Roman Church over the land and the people. He organized liturgical music for the use of the Church in liturgy.

It fascinates me that this “new faith” was developed into a government! I don’t think that it was what Jesus had in mind. Much of Christian doctrine has been taken from the literature and beliefs of pre-Christian civilization and it drastically departs from the understanding that we are part of nature and she is what enables us to live. Caring for our world has lost its place in our lives. I attribute much of this flawed thinking to dogma in the Christian faith. It appears that all of the things that make up this religion have been borrowed or fabricated to meet a specific need and agenda that doesn’t have much to do with the Spirit of Love. I think it is the most amazing hoax I ever saw. How centuries of mankind have allowed themselves to be plagued with its propaganda and control is amazing. I guess there is a payoff for believing this stuff because now that I know Spirit, I am amazed at how long I languished in this religious prison and how I could be duped like this. How could I not see the fallacy of it? Better late than never. I see it now. Don’t think I have not been angry about how much of my life I spent going in circles with this dogma, trying to make sense of it and trying to find meaning and power in it. I don’t think any of it has much to do with Jesus or Creator. I gave it the best shot any one could give and it just isn’t real. According to our text, it was formulated, crafted, decided, developed and agreed upon what it was going to be. It isn’t close to the truth, even though there are many truth’s in it. But those truths’s I would have learned in any religion. It’s the dogma that tears at the heart of the soul and spirit. There is no way I believe that Spirit desires us to live in such a contrivance of who Spirit is and what Spirit wants. It seems pretty clear that the thing most needed and wanted by Spirit is Love. Make it the point and you don’t really need religion, you can develop your own expression of spirituality without all the confusion, control, guilt and fear.

Augustine, the fourth Latin Church Father, had the most profound and influential role in the development of dogma and liturgy. He wrote treatises on the nature of the soul, free will, the meaning of evil and the Confessions. Confessions orates Augustine’s lifelong conflict between his love of earthly pleasures “lower self” and his love of God, “higher self”, and is one of the most scrutinizing autobiographies ever written. His concepts of duality, analogy and allegory produced Christian dogma describing such concepts as: 1) physical vs. spiritual satisfaction 2) the dualistic model of the human being as the locus of 2 warring elements, the “unclean body” and “the purified soul” along with the Pauline promise that the sin of Adam would be cleansed by sacrifice of Jesus. Much of his writing is reminiscent of the Neoplatonist duality of matter and spirit, and other Greco-Roman writings and concepts of humanist philosophers. 3) He developed his idea that there are three temptations of the soul: lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the lust of the ambition of the world (pride of life) and 4) devised the concept of heaven and earth: “wise men live according to man”-world before Jesus and the heavenly city and the spiritual realm-where human beings live according to divine precepts as the destiny of those who embrace the “New Dispensation of Christ”. 5) His rationalism of evil as perversion of good created by God, 6) his defense of a “just war”, and 7) his description of history as divinely ordered (fundamental to Christian philosophy of history) is very different from any thinking before him. He wrote about the dualistic model of reality- matter and spirit, body and soul, earth and heaven, Satan and God, state and Church and more. His conceptualization of reality, spiritual truth and other dogma of Christianity became the basis of Western religious thought. His conception of the visible world (matter) as the matrix where God’s message is hidden and is the imperfect revelation of divine order is in duality with the invisible world (spirit) which is the message and is perfect. He brought in strong elements that became the allegorical character of Christian culture. He believed that through Scripture along with all natural and created things, the invisible order must be discovered. He proposed that the Bible was a symbolic pre-figuration of Christian truths, that history was a cloaked message of divine revelation and that a single image assumes various meanings within the language of Christian faith.

We all have a choice in adopting a worldview. We have a choice in developing a spiritual connection. We have choice in all that we do and believe. My question is why would any sane person believe that mankind is sinful and that women were especially sinful and dangerous? Why would any sane person buy into the concept of sin and the old man, or lower self or higher self or any of that jargon? Do you realize that a whole bunch of Christian dogma, rhetoric and propaganda has been perpetrated upon us by this one man? So much of the “understanding” of what a Christian is and what is believed is tied into this kind of mental ruminating about things that are only opinions! Millions have suffered and been killed over this stuff! Didn’t Jesus talk about love as being the point? I am not saying that there is no value in Christianity. Some people find it works for them. I am only discussing my experience, my opinion and my choices and have no agenda to push them on anyone else. In fact, I don’t care if anyone agrees with me or not because this is my personal struggle with spirituality not anyone else’s. So there is no need to get defensive about this because you can own your own spirituality regardless of what I think or what anyone else thinks. I see it as simple. I am too tired to contemplate all this stuff , to try to make it work in my life (been there done that, done) and I have reached the point that I want to spend my last years on this planet in simple spiritual truth. I don’t think it needs to be this complicated and demanding on the stressed human being today. The Christian Identity has been influenced strongly by these writings. What are we doing to ourselves? Why would you want to believe this if you could just be in peace, contentment and joy with Creator and Nature? What about simple, loving relationships. Has this “new faith” made human relationships better? I don’t think so; certainly not in my life. Judgment, rejection, control, authoritative abuse and over powering of others, condemnation, scripture whipping, debasing, demonizing, etc. of others is not my concept of love. So, what is this stuff? In my opinion it is mental illness touted as valid for an agenda. I guess you can say at this point I do not appreciate the imposition of religion on me and the results of its dogma in my life. In fact, at this point in my life, I am quite …. Well, you can imagine my colorful explicatives!

One thing I have learned from my battle with food and being overweight, if you give it power, it has power over you and boy it seems pretty powerful!! So, I choose to let it go, to just be and rest my weary mind. Although it helps to write and think about my experience and to analyze what I now understand, it doesn’t change the fact that I am no longer there and I do not need to remain there. I choose to move on and I am going to be very glad when this chapter comes to a close. I don’t like discussing religion because I do have very strong feelings about it, but I won’t shrink away, either, when it comes up and I won’t hold back my feelings and thoughts in fear of offending, because if engaged, I am entitled to my opinion and not one person has to agree with me. And that’s OK with me. The only thing I need be concerned about is my acceptance of the religious choices of others and their right to them. As long as all people can let each other be, then it is not important that my way be the right way or the wrong way, because in truth, it is only right for me and no one else. So let the snowflakes fall in all their unique variety!

To address Augustine’s mental state when he was doing his “work for the Church”, I would have to say that as far as mental health goes, these dogmas are very destructive and are very far from what is actually our reality. Again, though, if you believe them, according to quantum thought, you have them. I know that was true for me. I suffered in these dogmas because I could not reconcile them to inner truths’ I instinctively knew, yet could not name or understand at the time. I only knew they were incongruous with what I experienced in nature. There was peace, love, contentment, goodness, happiness, connection to Spirit and Earth, and beauty and wonder were my delight. I gave all this up to become a practicing Christian, and all that went away. My heart grieved for my simple place where I felt right and whole. After too many years, I have abandoned these mind pretzels for the simplicity of nature, Spirit and me. I let love be the main thing, the point, and I am learning how to protect my soft heart from predators. It is wonderful to be home.

The Christian identity is set within the boundaries and structure formulated by the Church Fathers of the Roman Catholic Church and those things added to them over time until now. All brands of Christianity come from this place. Although there are flavors of Christianity and their identities are flavored within that, the basic tenets of Christianity solidify them into a basic identity that is built on giving one’s life to Christ, being a servant to and obedient to Christ and his authority on Earth, women are under the authority of a man, and man has dominion over the Earth and pretty much does what he wants, etc. Christians are obedient and faithful to the Word of God, the Bible, and all that is in it.

My identity as a Christian consumed my whole life and being. I was passionate about being used by God and doing the will of God, which I still don’t know what they mean by that. It was never simple and I never was good enough. My dilemma reminded me of my mother. I tried so hard to be part of the church, but I was never really part of any of it and I was easily thrown away by the authority. I found jealousy toward my music and I was always eased out of participating. I guess they must have sensed my spirit wasn’t like theirs. I went to Bible school for three and a half years and studied all the time when I wasn’t in bible school. I was involved in church but I always felt as if my being there was tolerated and that at any time I could be asked to leave somehow. It happened every time. A point would be reached when I knew I would be eased out or put in a position where my only choice was to leave. This caused much grief and loss.

As a solitary, I am much more content and satisfied with my spiritual path. I think this is the way I was meant to be. It’s OK that I am alone and I feel better not having to worry about my acceptance by others in a religious context. I am also sure that each Christian has their own Christian identity but it is always the same basic belief system. I like being the only person with my individual expression of spirituality. Different is good. It is one of Spirit's favorite parts! Diversity or Bust!

Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition Book Two. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006. (pg. 17-21)