Origin of the Church History Through the Middle Ages

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Introduction

The central figure of the medieval church, who is Jesus Christ, was born during the reign of King Harold in the sixth centaury. Dionysius Exiguous used the death of Christ to come up with a calendar system running from the beginning of the Christ’s era, and that year is called the first year of the Christian era AD 1. The date given by modern scholars for Christ’s birth generally falls between the eight and the fourth year before Christ. When and what age Christ died is not known for certain but he was probably executed in the year 30 AD. To some of His fellow Jews Jesus of Nazareth was the long awaited messiah, the fulfillment of the Prophecies, the savior of the people and the expected of nations. They had him preach not a new Law but the fulfillment of the Jewish law summarized in the sermon on the mountain (Matthew Chs 5-6) in a doctrine of universal love.

The political problems that he posed for the rabbinical leaders and for Roman authority led to his execution by crucifixion on a hill outside Jerusalem between two thieves. Due to his persecution Christ’s followers were compelled to follow his footsteps and teachings. It is believed that he resurrected on the third day after his burial making the faith of his followers even more deep because of the supernatural occurrence of his resurrection after which he moved to heaven after fourteen days after he had resurrected. His followers were said to have been inspired by the Holy Spirit under the appearance of tongues of fire (Williston 1980).

They believed that the human race had fallen into sins of Adam and Eve and for mankind to be redeemed from this sins God sent his son to the earth in form of a human being whose death on the cross was a redemptive sacrifice for the whole of the human race, Christ, the God in form of a man, was a redeemer, a savior and a reconciler. It was through belief in him that salvation which was free for all was to come to the world. This was the massage his followers were to preach.

The twelve disciples of Jesus, several scores of other disciples and a band of holy women, a scant hundred or so in total formed the core group from which the Christian church was to grow, with the mandate to preach the good news to all people baptizing them in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit. (Matthew 28: 19, Mark 16: 15 and Acts 1: 8) the band of early Christians were all Jews and valued themselves as part of the Jewish religious tradition (Judaism).

There decision was not to subject the gentiles to Jewish religious tradition (Judaism) before they were gradually converted to Christianity, this later led to a large number of followers from the gentiles. Christianity spread from the small Jewish band in Jerusalem to the Roman Empire Becoming the predominant religion in the empire (Owen 1979).

Issues and Disputes Prominent during the middle ages in the History of the Christian Church

The Christian church statutes greatly changed in the fourth century after Christ because of Emperor Constantine the great, who officially permitted and promoted Christianity in the Roman Empire and since then, Christians began making pilgrimages to the holy land which was in Jerusalem. Just as the number of pilgrimages to the holy land was at its peak, the Seljuk Turks took over Jerusalem preventing pilgrimages which resulted into wars with Christians (crusades) against the non Christians following a speech by pope urban the second mandating the war and taking up the Red Cross as the official sign for pilgrims followed (Bradley and David, 2003). Seven major crusades were carried out from 1095 up to 1250 AD. The fourth crusade which happened in 1204 had major political and religious significance since it was directed towards Egypt and Crusaders believed conquering the country would be the key to conquering Jerusalem the holy land. The crusades benefited the papacy which was the increasingly becoming a powerful center of Christianity powers and authority (Williston, 1980).

The Catholic Church was the most popular and dominant structure during the medieval Europe. Children were baptized at infancy entering into a life of service to God. Every person was required to abide by the church doctrines and regulations. Individuals were also charged by the obligation of paying taxes in support of the church. In return of this, they were shown the way to everlasting life contradictory to the teachings of Christian foundation where salvation was free. A part from the taxes the church took gifts from persons in need of special favors or assurance of an assurance of qualifying to go to heaven (Donald, 1990). The church became very powerful hence influencing the kings to do as they wanted, the head of the church was called the pope and he believed to be God’s representative on earth, he had so much powers that he could excommunicate from the church anyone who was against it and the person was believed to burn in hell after earthly death. Under the leadership of the pope, there also existed the bishops who took charge of the priests. At the center of every town there was a parish church overseen by a parish priest, this is where children were baptized, wedding vows were exchanged, and final prayers were said when a person died. Every villager was required to attend church every Sunday and to listen to a sermon in Latin as much as they didn’t understand the language or the sermon. Many persons in the middle age devoted there lives to Gods service in the church, because religion was seen to be very important at the time. They were called monks (if they were men) and nuns (if they were women). They promised to remain single, be obedient to their superiors and to live a life of prayer, dressing in simple clothes and eating cheap food stuff (Macdonald, 1984).

Some Christians in the medieval age made frequent journey to holy lands, this journeys were called pilgrimages (Oakes,1989).The church played a major role in the medieval age (from 600AD to 1350 AD). It had a major impact on the political and social lives of the persons during that time. The fall of the Roman Empire marked the start of the middle age this was after a period known as the Dark Ages, an empire came up bringing with it the desire for faith and religion, primarily Christianity whose importance wasn’t evident until 1350 AD, after the Black Death led to the end of a systemized era. During this period the church was seen as corrupt, evil with materialistic popes and sinful acts. As much as immorality was present Christianity saw to hope and stability among people becoming a cultural trend after its rapid spread in the late age of antiquity and later on re-emerged as the state religion in the 14^th century, which fundamentally become the base of western world proceedings. Its popularity influenced the church and its followers in their daily lives it was on these proceedings that the Middle Ages expanded religious importance incorporating it in every day’s life of every member of the western society. Due to the iconoclastic controversy in the eighth century, Christianity had a one peaceful turn dividing the western and the Byzantine Empires, also disputes over icon use in religious worship arose, this led to religious vigor. People had different opinions regarding Christianity; some of them agreed that it was the way of life while others found it to be fully of unjustified doctrines and practices.

Historical Development and Its Impact on Christianity

In the early medieval ages, the church was not well established and full of disorganization, although further into the middle age it became more organized as much as there were many setbacks in the papacy’s reputations, due to corrupt and ineffective churches. The tenth centaury saw the religious decline where monasteries and churches were privately owned, papal positions were being traded and incompetence of the popes started to become an order of the day (Donald, 1990).

An example of an incompetent pope is Pope John All-in this age; He acted sinfully giving the papacy a bad name, leading to loss of respect from the church by the people who no longer viewed Christianity as the ideal way of life. Towards the end of the middle age the negative attitude towards the church had changed as the papacy system suddenly became powerful during this era. Movements of the cluny, monastery and papacy organized the church. The common law which dictated what was wrong or right come into play during this era and clerical marriages and Sermons in the church went hand in hand with this new legal system, this was done to get rid of corruption in the churches. Being as the leader of faith with the grandest morals, the pope’s expectations were raised making the succession of popes to become more favorable. Pope Gregory the seventh restored hope to the believers since he opted to lay a new right direction to the world after the tented history the church had witnessed, this made people to regain faith in Christianity. The religion influenced many aspects of life including education, literature and art. Due to architectural education provided by the church, divine Cathedrals were build in a stylish manner and art education enabled biblical scenes and popes portraits to be painted so as to demonstrate the Christian belief (Williston, 1980).

Charlemagne started the fundamental up rise of formal literacy by coming up with schools in the communities. Educational changes during this period gave the foundation of cathedral schools. The University of Paris was established with much basis to Christian inspirations and beliefs and this led to the beginning of scholasticism as the desire for knowledge increased. Scholasticism is the blending of traditional philosophy and the Christian belief. Abelard Peter was a founder of this great discovery as he studied and organized philosophies about Scholasticisms. Thomas Aquinas created the Summa Theological, the foundation of the Christian faith were confirmed in the summa theological. These theories were embraced by the people to investigate there faith.Christianity in the middle age was closely intertwined with the political realm. Religion was used as an aid by the emperors (who were often seen as Godlike figures) in taking charge of the empire. The papacy was the supportive force behind of the emperors as the popes were viewed as representatives of God by the Christians in this era hence this belief had massive power over the church and the empire at large. The pope often crowned the King as assign of papal support of the empire.

Papacy became weak near the eleventh century after a major power and leadership contradiction between the empire and the church. Up to 1050 AD the Roman kingdom took full control of papacy. When papacy as a power was weak, Pope Gregory the seventh came into reign, the papal power become more powerful than the earlier monarchical powers. Christianity was used in territory expansion and military conquest, with Christianity being used as justification for war and gained peoples support (Owen, 1979).

During the Renaissance, Charlemagne worked towards the expansion of the empire and did this in the name of Christianity and he also had full support from the pope (Bradley and David, 2003), he advised the monks and the priests to work in oneness in order to expand the empire. He did this by labeling the enemies the descendants of the devil. By having Christian ideas incorporated into the law which he had come up with known as the Capitulary of Missi, Charlemagne gained control of the empires.

Major Theological and Philosophical Themes of the Medieval Church and how they Impacts on People’s lives in modern Times

It can be noted that the Crusades played an important part in the middle age church by enhancing the way individuals lived their spiritual and secular lives. The main center of power in the Catholic Church which is has majority of followers in the world today is the papal powers which is both political and religious powers. The first crusade initiated by Pope urban the II who promised the Christians abundant life after their death with no purgatory and an ascent to the promised eternity for mere crusade participation, was considered the most influential person of that time. Although additional crusades which made people to question about Christianity union did more harm than good to the papal monarchy at that time this is probably the reason why the modern times Protestants denominations originated (Robert C. Walton, 2005). Christianity as a theme and way of life in the middle age and even in the modern times today was effective because it implemented almost all persons and events at the time which is still the case up to today. It affected people’s social lives on a daily basis because it was seen as the ideal way of life. It also influenced the coming up of new intellect and growth of innovative advancements (Robert C. Walton, 2005). The politics of the time were equally influenced by the Christianity just as it influenced the people’s social lives and the era also saw papacy offering competition for political powers. It is quit evident that the medieval age Christian church changed concepts and faith for all (Macdonald, 1984).

References

Williston, L., Richard, G. et al. (1980). The history of Christianity, London: Sage.
Owen, C. (1979). A history of Christianity, New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Donald, F. L. (1992). History of the Christianity in the middle ages, USA: Rutledge.
F. Macdonald. (1984). Everyday life: the middle ages. Silver Burdett Company.
Oakes, C. (1989). Exploring the past: Christianity in the middle ages, Orlando: Hamlin publishing group.
Bradley P. N. and David P. Nystrom. (2003). The History of Christianity: An Introduction. USA: McGraw-Hill.
Robert C. Walton. (2005). Chronological and background charts of church history. USA: Zondervan publishers.

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Origin of the Church History Through the Middle Ages

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