Christianity Extras

Christian Summary
Christianity is by far the largest religion in the world. In 1991, the estimated number of Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants was 1,783,660,000. This means that approximately one of every three persons on earth is identified in some way with Christianity.
1. In general, Christians share a common belief in the uniqueness of Jesus of Nazareth, that he in some way provided for the redemption of humankind by his death and was himself resurrected from the dead.
2. Christians generally believe in baptism as initiation into the religion and in the communion meal.
3. They hold to the idea that believers have one life in which to determine their destiny for life after death.
4. This destiny is usually thought to be either an eternity of bliss in heaven or an eternity of torment in hell. Some believe in purgatory as a way of entering heaven.

Source Theory for the Synoptics
GOSPELS OF MATTHEW , MARK & LUKE
These are called the Synoptic gospels (from the Greek synoptikos, "seeing the whole together") because they tell much the same story in much the same way.

Interrelatedness of the Synoptic Gospels:

LITERARY RELATIONSHIPS
1. The consistent pattern both in the verbal relationship among the three gospels and the order of events presented shows that the gospel of Mark was written first and that Matthew and Luke have both used it as a source.
2. The verbal relationships among the synoptic gospels is that sections of Matthew and Luke not found in Mark are so close verbally that they must be using a common source (called the Quelle or Q source).
3. Both Matthew and Luke present special material of their own.

Gospels - From Jesus to Christ Video
MARK 70 CE- oldest- audience reads Greek, Aramaic explained. Written in crude grammar.
· Written after the first great war with Rome. Jesus is the persecuted one.
· Reflects on the destruction of the temple; temple destroyed because it has been desecrated. Jesus stands against the temple.
· Jesus seen as a miracle worker who is different. He is a country teacher who speaks surprising things.
· Jesus is mysterious - keeps people from understanding who he is.
· Messianic secret: Mark reveals and conceals his true identity. That Son of man has come to suffer is only clear at the end. Death reveals the secret. Jesus has come as the suffering servant who serves and gives his life as a ransom for many. The divine secret ends with an empty tomb.
· Shortest Gospel, straightforward and in narrative style.
· The book in general consists of miscellaneous short sayings scattered incidents relating to Jesus' Galilean ministry.

Gospels - From Jesus to Christ Video
MATTHEW 85 CE- Uses Mark as a source and the Q: sayings of Jesus that are wise and apocalyptic
Written after the fall of the temple. for Jewish/Christian audience in upper Galilee.
· Pharisees seen as a threat to Christians, only a few accepted their story. Singles out the Pharisees because they are more powerful after the first revolt.
· Most Jewish of the gospels; relies on Jewish scripture.
· Jesus seen as the new Moses - five major sermons ( all on mounts) are like the five books in the Torah. Jesus is traced back to Abraham.
· Gospel opens with the sermon on the mount and ends on the mount with Jesus ascending to heaven.
· Expanded account of the death of Jesus. Jesus appears on mount and finally tells disciples to go out and preach to the world. Ascends to Heaven.
· Emphasis with long passages on Jesus' teachings and works, parables, and discourse.

Gospels - From Jesus to Christ Video.
LUKE/ACTS 85 CE - Mark and Q* are source material
Writes for a Greco-Roman audience. Mainly gentiles.
· Tells how Jesus affected the rest of the world and how Christianity begins
· Jesus is seen as a powerful figure like a Hebrew prophet and scholar.
· Jesus is portrayed as the friend of all men, the perfect example of a life, and the lover and savior of mankind.
· Most literary of the Gospels. Acts is like a Greek novel complete with shipwreck. This is a two volume work.
· Concerned with whether Christians can be seen as good citizens of Rome. First reference to Christians as a group.
· Roman soldiers portrayed as kind.
· Plot takes place in a Western journey from Jerusalem to Rome, the capitol of the Roman empire.
· Begins with John the Baptist and ends with Paul in Rome.

Gospels - From Jesus to Christ Video.
JOHN 100 CE- 70 years after the death of Jesus in Syria
· Christian and Jewish relationship is virulent.
· Writers of this gospel are becoming more and more marginalized - feeling alienated.
· Jesus is solemn and reflective; light of world.
· This is a spiritual gospel. Tells the story in symbolic ways.
· Jesus is always in control; even the soldiers who arrest him.
· Jesus is crucified on the days that the Jews take their lambs to be slaughtered for the Passover.
· Jesus does not eat the Passover meal; he becomes the Passover meal. Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
· Jesus is seen as the word of God. For Jews the Torah was the only word of God.

OTHER INFORMATION
The gospel and letters of John represent a distinct and distinctive understanding of Christian faith. To move from the synoptic gospels to John's gospel is to move from one world to another.
· Meditation Themes: God, who is light and in whom is no darkness at all; Jesus Christ is his Son whom he sent into the world to save it; the Christian life as essentially the recognition of being loved and the act of loving.
· Every line of the gospel and letters of John breathes the spirit of this meditation, and this quality has made these writings the fundamental literature of Christian mystics through the long centuries of Christian history.
· Holy spirit as the Counselor who will guide Christians after Jesus rises from the dead. This Counselor is the gift to the world.

Message of Jesus
1. BAPTISM WAS AN EXPERIENCE OF GOD:
A man who described his baptism as an experience of God, and Jesus' authority to speak stems from that experience.
Matt 3:16: And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son," with whom I am well pleased."

2. HAD AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FATHER:
In Matt. 11:27, we read "everything has been entrusted to me by my father; and no one knows the son except the father, just as no one knows the father except the son and those to whom the son chooses to reveal him."
· This intimate relationship of son to Father is Jesus' interpretation of his baptism experience.

3. WE SHOULD PRAY TO GOD AS OUR PARENT:
The prayer, "Our Father" becomes another instance of Jesus' central experience.
"Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we
4. INVITED ALL TO EXPERIENCE THE KINGDOM:
Jesus' message becomes an invitation to all men and women, especially the irreligious, poor, sinners, and uneducated, to experience the good news that they too are sons and daughters of God.
"Good news" or "kingdom of God" preached or proclaimed generated opposition especially from the respectable and religious authorities. Hence, Jesus was both loved and feared. He associated too much with "publicans and sinners", and he was avidly idolized by these same people, including women because Jesus seems to have treated women in a revolutionary way.

5. JESUS EMPHASIZED THE COMMANDMENT OF LOVE:
"Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?" Jesus replied,"You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the other commandments and all the demand of the prophets are based on these two commandments." (Matt22:36-40)

6. USED PARABLES TO TEACH
Jesus is most often remembered for his use of a teaching device called the parable. The parable is a short, easily recognized story about very human characters and events.
"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down the road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, "Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back." (Luke 10:30-35)

Cult of Mary
The large-scale conversion of the pagan masses in the late Roman Empire brought about a remarkable development in the Christian religion.
· Mary as the numinous Mother of God spontaneously arose and asserted itself as a dominant element in the popular Christian vision even though there is little information about Mary in the New Testament.
· The pagan multitudes (410 CE. - Goths capturing and sacking Rome) after Constantinian empire, brought with them a deeply ingrained tradition of the Great Mother Goddess (as well as several mythological examples of divine virgins and virgin births of divine heroes.
· Mary fundamentally differed from the pagan goddess in being the unique human mother of the Son of God, rather than a nature goddess governing timeless cycles of death and rebirth.
· Mary was soon venerated in the early Church as the mediator between humanity and Christ and even as the "Coredmptrix with Christ."
· The recognition and worship of the Virgin Mother made the Christian pantheon more congenial to the classical world's sensibility and served as an effective link between Christianity and the pagan nature religions of rebirth.
· Mary's maternal qualities became identified with the Church: the "Holy Mother Church", under the the guardianship of Mary, became the nourishing matrix within which all Christians could be encompassed, protected and guided.