The Constantinian Revolution on Christian Worship

W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of Christianity (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1984), 473-592.

Christian history—and worship—took a decisive turn when Constantine was converted to Christianity. Constantine conquered Rome in 312 AD (482). It was his so-called conversion that “set the seal on the Christian victory” (504). The Roman Empire was divided in their dealings with the Christians. In the East, persecution was severe in that some bishops betrayed the faith (traditores). “Anti-Christian measures” were implemented by Galerius and Maximin in AD 307-09 (474). However in the West, the rise of Constantine—not merely as Ceasar but—as Augustus stopped religious oppression (475) and Christians were no longer considered “atheists”(480). Eusebius of Ceasarea (260-339) defended Christianity against Jewish and pagan critics (478), but he “founded the political philosophy of the Constantinian state” (479) where the unity between the church and state were upheld. The Edict of Toleration (311 AD) marked the end of persecution as long as Christians do not pose as a threat to the state (479). Constantine embraced Christianity as a state religion—in the Edict of Milan (313 AD)—through the influence of Hosius, Bishop of Cordova; but without any intention to leave his allegiance from the Sun God (483-4). The relative completion of religious freedom was accompanied with the disposal of the immortal gods as protectors of the empire (486). In fact, Sunday became the day of worship in honor to the Sun God, free from any legal proceedings, but not “as the Lord’s Day” in the edict of Constantine in AD 321 (488).

The impact of Constantine to Christian church was immense. The official church began to hoard vast material possessions and the status of the clergy suddenly changed (487). The few church’s elite usurped extraordinary power in politics, as well as in ecclesiastical order. Hostilities towards the Jews developed also (488). But the union between the church and state did not stop the schism among the churches. Donatus of Casae Nigrae pursued a major controversy in 312 AD that led to a lasting dispute concerning the validity of the traditores’ authority in the church. Added to this is the Arian controversy concerning the relationship of Christ to the Father, hailing that “there was when he was not,” meaning the Son is a “creature.” Constantine’s developing role in these major disputes revealed that he assumed himself as the pontifex maximus (chief priest) and/or Vicar of Christ (491). In the Council of Nicaea (312 AD), in particular, he used his political influence to arbitrate victory in church disagreement. Dealing with Arianism, he introduced the term “homoousios” (consubstantial) which became the core belief in the Council of Nicaea (499). Schism was far from over. His impact in the church included the use of public funds to support building churches in major cities and also the compilation of the Scriptures (502-3). He assumed himself as the protector of Christians beyond the border of his empire (503). During his reign, the official church became mission minded and expanding geographically while there was a “steady accumulation of property” among the clergy and the state-church as a whole (504). After his death in 22 May 337, some of his successors followed his edicts and policies of using religion as main authority in gaining power in politics. The integration of Christianity into the area of politics became an event that will make repercussions to the next generations of church-state relations.

Development of Eschatology: The Christian Hope

Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, 2d ed. (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers Inc., 1997). Pp. 540-561.

Eschatology relates to the Christian anticipations related to the consummation of time, end of life, and human history. In the New Testament, the theme of hope is predominantly centered upon Jesus Christ through his life, death, and resurrection. In the preaching of Jesus, the eschatological emphasis on the coming of the kingdom of God is a distinctive feature that has lead to serious misinterpretations of other scholars. McGrath confirms that “kingship” rather than “kingdom” is more appropriate in translating basileia—which is an act of ruling, not a geographical term. But in this eschatological concept, there is a tension between the now and the not yet (540-42).

In Pauline eschatology, this now/not yet tension is amplified. Several themes emerged. Primarily is the presence of the new age (aionos) in the coming of Christ [2 Cor 5:17]. This eschatological new age has been inaugurated through the event of the resurrection of Jesus. The Christian hope is expressed in the future coming (parousia) of Jesus Christ for it entails judgment in the end time where the new life and triumph of the believers are confirmed. Moreover, a major element in Pauline eschatology—which is in line with the Jewish expectations also—is the coming of the Holy Spirit as a gift (arrabon), a guarantee, or pledge of ultimate salvation (542-43).

Augustinian eschatology is seen in his City of God as a corporate dimension in relation to the city of God and the city of the world. In Augustine’s concept, the believers live in dialectic tension between these two cities. Since the church is a mixture of sinner and saints, the church cannot be referred to as the body of believers. The church is perceived to be living in the world but not of the world as an exile in the intermediate period between Christ’s incarnation and future appearance. But despite of the corporate emphasis of his eschatological understanding, Christian hope refers also to an individual concern the saved, purified, and perfected believer in tension with hope and reality. Salvation implies a now and not yet elements. This Christian hope is not mere psychological, spurious, and ambiguous concept but is grounded upon the resurrected of Jesus Christ (544). In Ogden’s term, this kind of eschatological theology is inclined to the emphasis of the community.

In the middle Ages, Joachim of Fiore’s eschatological emphasis offered a speculative interpretation to history through a Trinitarian model. Universal history has three epochs: the age of the Father (OT), the age of the Son (NT), and the age of the Holy Spirit (rise of new religious movements, reforms, renewal, universal peace and unity). On the other hand, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy offers a more poetic approach to eschatological Christian hope. His medieval poem portrays himself as he traveled through hell and purgatory as he was led by the pagan poet Virgil (545). There is an attempt for adequate theology here but the cognitive aspect remains a speculation.

The Enlightenment, however, treats eschatology as an irrational and unrealistic superstition with special reference to the illogical concept of hell. Such concept, including heaven, is without objective basis. Marx’s criticism emphasized the vicious role of religion in persuading suffering believers about hope in the afterlife. This element keeps the people from fulfilling their tasks as social transformers through revolution. With the evolution theory developed in the age of reason, the doctrine of hope is perceived as a positive development towards a perfect society in human history, but his idealistic view was devastated when the First World War happened added with the Holocaust, threat of nuclear war, ecological destructions, and the like (545-46). Enlightenment’s self-sufficient rationality fails to identify the limitations of reason in theology.

The eschatological emphasis of the New Testament is, therefore, a complex theological element. So far, three positions are identifiable. First is the futurist view. In the view of Johannes Weiss, God’s kingdom remains a future concept that will intervene in the midst of human history. Second is the inaugurated view. While the full realization of the kingdom is still in the future, it has started to influence human history. And third is the realized view. In the coming of Jesus Christ, the kingdom has already happened in his ministry. The kingdom is only in the future at the perspective of the prophets, but it was realized in Jesus Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection. In Jesus the future is realized (456-47).

Rudolf Bultmann offers a demythologized concept of the end times. He identifies the beginning and end of world (human history), and heaven as a myth and must be interpreted existentially. Eschatological myths of the imminent end of the world and judgment may be reinterpreted to the individualistic existential concern of the here and now which is the reality of death and the present judgment of man’s self. As human beings are confronted by the kerygma, existential crisis can be addressed through an authentic personal decision. Thus, eschatology is an event in the world history, a present process that takes place in the kerygma (548-49). In Ogden’s term, this attempt is focused more on personal experience at the expense of the corporate view of theology.

Jurgen Moltmann’s Theology of Hope offers a new Christo-centric and futuristic approach to eschatological hope which transcends man’s alienation from the present. The Christian concept of hope is a corporate concern. It is central in Christian theology as opposed to Barth’s harmless little chapter at the conclusion of a Christian dogmatics. Moltmann’s emphasis on the future is succinctly stated: Hope seeking understanding--I hope, in order that I may understand. The vision of hope as a public idea must be characterized of Christian theology in contrast to individualistic, existential, or private hope, as well as godless, secular concept of hope and social transformation (549-50). In comparison to the individualistic eschatology of Bultmann, Moltmann offers a more corporate, Christo-centric, and positive outlook in theology that is open to the world.

Helmut Thielicke offers practical emphasis of eschatology. Christian ethics must be eschatological in its orientation. Since the believers and the church lives in between the present aeon and the age to come, hope of the future concurrent with the present must be recognized. The two ages (present and future) are both present to faith and must create an impact on the ethical stance of the Christian. Any ethical perspective deprived of eschatological orientation is deficient (550-51). If Ogden is looking for an ethical emphasis on theology, Thielick’s proposition is qualified.

Twentieth century dispensationalist movement was prevalent among evangelical. It gave special attention to “dispensations” (oikonomia) of the salvation history. J.N. Darby and C.I. Scofield are popular dispensationalists who offered eschatological periodization of history. In Scofield’s scheme, they are the: innocence (creation to fall), conscience (fall to Noah’s flood), human government (flood to the Abram’s call), promise (Abraham to Moses), law (Moses to Christ’s death), the church (Christ’s resurrection to the present), and the millennium. For him, including C. Ryrie, Israel (the earthly people) and the church heavenly people) are not interchangeable; they have separate history and destiny. They special feature the rapture and the tribulation in their eschatological concepts but they remained divided in their interpretation whether the rapture will take place before (pre-tribulational) or after (post-tribulational) the tribulation (551-52). While dispensationalism has the tendency to be dogmatic about their claims, it is really hard to be authentically dogmatic about the doctrine of the last things for these theories remains interpretation of something which is beyond man’s control and comprehension.

Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven

The doctrine of the Last Things deals with three major concepts: Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

The concept of Hell became a major interest in the middle Ages and was graphically described in Dante’s Divine Comedy. It is believed to be a place of the unbaptized and virtuous pagans. Hell had several limbos (upper and lower) for different degrees of sinners. Increasingly serious sinners like lustful, glutton, miserly, and wrathful are tormented in the upper limbo of hell. In between this upper and lower limbo is the River Sytx. On the lower level—comprises the sixth to ninth level—the heretics, violent, fraudsters (including some popes), and traitors were tormented in fire. This concept of hell was influential in the medieval period (553).

Several criticisms on the concept of hell are identifiable. First, the presence of hell is perceived to be a contradiction to the Christian claim that God is victorious over evil. This was first argued by Origen. Universal salvation is certainly an affirmation for such total victory. Second, the NT concept of the compassionate God is in question in the light of this vindictive justice. Hell and loving God is an illogical Christian proposition. As a result, some evangelicals turned to the development of the doctrine of conditional immortality; the belief is that potential immortality (the essence of salvation) was found in Christ. Those who failed to respond to Christ fail to have entered into immortality. Hell will have no place when the fullness of Christ’s reign in the consummation of time (553-55).

Purgatory, especially in the Catholic tradition, is the second prevailing concept in the doctrine of the last days. This intermediate state for purification purposes before going to heaven finds support in Macc 12:39-45. Clement of Alexandria and Origen were responsible in developing the idea of the purgatory. The purification by fire is necessary for those who died and have failed to do penitential works. This patristic influence spread through the Eastern Church by their prayers for the dead. Gregory the Great explicitly developed the doctrine through his exposition of Matt 12:31. Sins that were not forgiven on earth may be forgiven in the age to come. This idea was rejected by the reformers because of its lack of substantial support from the Scriptures and it was inconsistent with the doctrine of justification by faith that does not require for any intermediate state (555-56).

Christian doctrine of the last days places the idea of heaven as an eschatological realization. It is where God’s power and presence, the cessation of sin, fullness of salvation are affirmed. NT presents heaven as a communal concept—it is a place of the redeemed community of God. In Pauline writings, the spiritual sphere of heaven seems to coexist with the material world of space and time when he describes believers as citizens of heaven sharing life in the present. Moreover, considerable attention is given in the book of Revelation concerning the concept of millennium. Several interpretations on the millennium were offered already by early theologians. Irenaeus’ concept of a worldly (material) millennium was supported by his exposition on Christ’s promise to drink wine with his disciples in the future. Tertullian’s explanation of the millennium is the confirmation of the compensation of the righteous for their suffering. But their theories were rebutted by Hippolytus arguing that millennium is just an allegorical presentation of the kingdom of God (557-58). As a result, the shift of emphasis from millennium to the bodily resurrection occurred.

The resurrection became a major concern for the patristic theologians. With the threat of Gnosticism in view, Origen theorized that the purely spiritual nature of the resurrected body also possessed the same form (eidos) as the earthly body. The individual identity is still retained after the resurrection despite of the spiritual transformation. Origen’s platonic concept of the bodily resurrection was criticized by Augustine later on. For Augustine, bodily resurrection is in terms of submission to the Spirit. He tried to resolve the tension between the physical and the spiritual approaches to the doctrine but all of them remained to be speculative.

Cultural Engagement and Questions

The eschaton-mania was felt before the closing of the century here in the Philippines, particularly among the fundamentalist, evangelical, and Pentecostal circles. Their standard bearer was the Endtime Updates based in Manila. They go to various places holding several seminars concerning the coming end of days (of course, it was coupled with the several Hollywood films portraying the consummation of time—e.g End of Days, Omega Code, Armageddon, Deep Impact, etc. the fascination on the dispensational movement was strong among the fundamentalist groups (In fact as a kid, I remember painting a lot of copies of the dispensational blueprint for pastors who emphasized the doomsday. I was even forced to receive Christ for the fear of being left behind at the rapture).

Nearing at the close of 1999, Y2K was sensationalized here in the Philippines. There was a strong sense of anticipation of what might happen when all computers will bug down at a designated time. As usual, the bahala na syndrome proves to be a test of many Filipino Christians concerning their fate. Added to this was the presence of the leading bio-chip maker, Lucent Industries (previously Lucifer), secretly established here in the Philippines. Awareness about the Procter & Gamble’s satanic support, Committee of 300, Mark of the Beast, Illuminati, Mason movement, ecumenical movement, drug trades, and the like, added to the sensation of dispensational movement’s anticipation of the worse conspiracy to mankind and the church.

Most evangelical churches have mixed emotions concerning the previous emphasis on eschatology. But certainly, those were the days were eschatology overshadowed other Christian doctrines. There was even a church who will not allow any pastor to preach anything aside from eschatology. It became an obsession with the intent to evangelize people by manipulating their psychological needs. Fear-driven Christians have often worse effects. Some were passionate for evangelism in fear of losing rewards in heaven, while others lived in idle anticipations. Meanwhile, some preachers also earned their reputation by talking only about eschatology. And since one of the basic characteristics of Filipino leadership is that a leader should be an interpreter of time, many Filipino Christians embraced these preachers readily.

Among the fundamentalists, eschatological dispensation is one of the dividing line between a liberal and what is not (ammillenialists were considered liberals). Most of the fundamentalists are pre-tribulationalists. In the Bible School, I was scorned when I questioned the teacher: Are you really sure that’s the mind of God? I was despised as a liberal because I questioned Ryrie’s and Scofield’s plot. I just reasoned out in class, “You can call me liberal, just don’t call me a fanatic, because I think.” Certainly, my interest in history and eschatology runs through my vein since I was a child (no wonder that when I grabbed the opportunity to understand Pannenberg’s historico-eschatological concept of God, I have a natural inclination to explore it more), but some questions remain. What should be the role of eschatology in the shape of the church’s theology today? Why is eschatology a fascination to Christians? Is it like other culture’s interest in astrology, necromancy, and fortune telling? Is it part of human nature to know what is beyond? How was the Christian eschatology able to meet the need for man’s anticipation of hope? Is hope general?