Learning intention: This is the holy spirit
Early church communities
To be able to describe the characteristics
of the early church. People are being baptized
“ they devoted themselves to the
apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the
Who founded Christianity? breaking of bread and the prayers”
The followers of “the way” were still
Christianity develops after the crucifixion on a faithful Jews who attended the Temple
first century Jewish teacher. His followers but who also met in their small
believed he was the son of god, the long awaited communities.
messiah that Jews had longed for. The movement spreads outside of
Jerusalem
The Early Church Soon Gentiles (non-Jews) became
Ascension, Pentecost and the apostles attracted to “the way”
The first community that included
Paschal Mystery
Gentiles and Jews was Antioch
Jesus is executed It is at Antioch that they ate first called
After three days, Jesus rises from the dead “Christians”
He remains with his followers for forty
days
St Paul
The Ascension
For 300 years Christians were persecuted,
Jesus is “taken up on a cloud”
Tortured and murdered In the roman
Jesus ascends into heaven
empire
Jesus is no longer present in his body, But
St Paul was a Greek speaking Jewish
is available to the entire world spiritually
convert who travelled teaching Jews &
He says he will send the holy spirit non-Jews about Jesus
Pentecost
The apostles (12 close friends and
followers of Jesus) and some other
disciples are gathered together
There is a great wind
Tongues of fire descend on each of them
They are able to speak in their languages
Ancient Rome – The Rise of Apostles travelled spread Christian
teachings and wrote the gospels of the
Christianity bible.
Peter and Paul were two very influential
CONTEXT IS IMPORTANT! apostles.
Roman persecution of Christians
Why did the romans hate the Christians?
Monotheism vs. Polytheism
Christians did not view emperors as
gods
Emperors such as Nero crucified and
tortured Christians
Christians became Martyrs: Dying for
their beliefs.
The martyrdom of Peter
Under Julius Caesar, Rome because an Peter the apostle travelled to Rome and
empire
was crucified upside down by Nero.
Octavian Augustus was the first emperor
of Rome Believed to be the first “Bishop” or Pope
Rome became too powerful to be of the Christian church.
challenged and entered a time of peace in Today, all popes are believed to be
the empire, known as the Pax Romana or descendants of St. Peter
“Roman Peace”
We now call this the “Catholic” church
o Allowed Ideas to spread across the
which means “universal”.
world
Followers of Jesus wrote about the
teachings and experience that occurred
during his life
These writings were called gospels,
meaning “good news”
o Can be found in the new
testament of the Christian bible
o The old testament is used by the
Jewish faith which does not
believe Jesus was the true messiah
Because of the Pax Romana, these ideas
of Christianity were able to spread quickly
through the empire
Christians forced into secrecy
Followers of Jesus became known as Under the emperors of Rome Christianity was an
Christians. illegal religion. The authorities persecuted Christians,
Much of what is known about Jesus comes Even to death. As a result many martyrs came out of
from the writings of the apostles. the early church. Martyrs; a person who is killed
o Apostle means “One who Travels” because of their religious or other belief
The Nicene Creed
We believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all ages,
God from God,
Light from Light,
Christianity under Constantine
true God from true God,
In 312 AD, Constantine became Emperor of begotten, not made;
Rome
of the same essence as the Father.
During battle he saw an image of a cross and
Through him all things were made.
won
In 323 AD- Constantine issues the Edict of For us and for our salvation
Milan making Christianity a legal religion in he came down from heaven;
Rome he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin
To strengthen the religion he call the Council Mary,
of Nicaea to establish the core beliefs of
and was made human.
Christianity, leading to the Nicene Creed.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried.
Christianity and the Roman Empire The third day he rose again, according to the
Scriptures.
Council of Nicea He ascended to heaven
1st Ecumenical Council 325 AD and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again with glory
Ecumenical; representing a number of different
to judge the living and the dead.
Christian Churches.
His kingdom will never end.
Arius 250-336 AD
And we believe in the Holy Spirit,
Arianism the Lord, the giver of life.
Christ did not He proceeds from the Father and the Son,
always exist and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and
Christ was divine glorified.
but created being – He spoke through the prophets.
He was created by We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.
god the father and We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
therefore did not always exist and is We look forward to the resurrection of the dead,
therefore less than god the father
and to life in the world to come. Amen.
St Athanasius
298 to 373 AD
Why is it important that Jesus was a human?
So they had proof that Jesus walked this earth
using the power he received, being blessed by
god. But could die and be crucified to give us the
gift of freedom.
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The Protestant Reformation (1450-1565)
Key concepts
End of religious unity and universality in
the west
What is the Nicene Creed?
A convergence of unique circumstances
The Nicene Creed is the summary statement of Not the first attempt at reform, but very
Christian belief that was originally formulated at unique
the First council of Nicea in AD 325. It was revised
and promulgated at the council of Constantinople The churches problems:
in AD 381. What were they protesting about?
Charges or greed
Doctrine that was dodgy
The wealth of the church
Indulgences
o The medieval church sold the
rights to heaven for a price.
This meant people could pay a
sum of money go and
knowingly sin but be assured
they would be on good terms
with God.
What statement is being made about creation – what do you
think is unseen? This means that they are saying everything on
earth has been created by god. The things that we can’t see, we
can feel he created.
For Christianity why the statement that the son is one in being
with the father? They are two different but are connected and
birthed from god.
Why is it important for Christians that Jesus is more than a
man? This is important because they want to believe that
he was mighty and all powerful, that he had powers to
make blind me see. Most importantly they want to say he is
the son of god that has been blessed with almighty powers.
