Bible Students

A reflection based on “The Story of Christian Theology” by Olson (chapters 1-5)

This week covered the first five chapters of The Story of Christian Theology. These chapters cover the first few sections of Christian development through the first and second century. 

Chapter one discusses Gnosticism and the early Christian response. Due to the presence of Gnosticism threatening early Christianity, theologians were raised to address the heresies of the time. Gnosticism contains many different beliefs among different sects, but generally believes salvation can be achieved through secret knowledge of God. Montanus was a gnostic leader who claimed to be a, if not the, current mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit. He believed Christians were limiting the Spirit’s voice to written revelation, but that He was freeing the Spirit’s voice by being His mouthpiece. This heresy can be seen today in extremely charismatic circles, but I do not believe this is commonly believed (that is, that an individual is the mouthpiece of the Spirit for this age), even among the most strange sects of Christianity. Gnosticism believes the material world itself is corrupt and incurable, and that God did not create the world. Rather, a rebellious spirit created the world against the wishes of God. salvation from the material world comes through secret insider knowledge passed on by Gnostics. They also, and quite importantly, believed Jesus did not come as a human, but only in the appearance of a human. An early line of reasoning against Gnostics is that if Gnosticism was real, this knowledge would have been passed on by people who knew Jesus. Because this knowledge did not come from those who knew Jesus, it had to be discredited. 

Chapter two discussed some of the early church fathers who supported the systematization of the church. Polycarp’s writings are one of the most reliable sources on what the early church believed, as he is one of the oldest sources. While the disciples of the Apostles did add some beliefs of their own which are not reflected in Scripture, they acted as very reliable sources for the beliefs of the Apostles. The Didache was an early document used for integrating new believers into the church. Today, this king of document is missing in the Western church, I feel. On the mission field, I believe a document briefly explaining the biblical beliefs of new Christians ans practices would be incredibly helpful. I believe a catechism addressing the specific cultural issues would be the most helpful. One of the early church fathers was Clement, who must have known Paul personally. Some of his works do emphasize works with a lack of emphasis on faith. Many people today who support papal authority point to the apostolic succession of Paul to Clement. The Didache reflects the Psalms in pointing to the way of life and the way of death. There is a strict morality, but Christians who believe in Jesus in faith must know how to behave. The Apostolic fathers believed in a comprehensive duality of Jesus’ humanity and deity, setting the tone for the centuries to come. 

Chapter three reviews the ancient church apologists. In early church apologetics, there was some overlap between Greek and Christian philosophy. The two ideologies should not be syncretized, though they do naturally overlap in some areas. Reading the Scriptures allegorically bridges the gap between Greek and Hebrew philosophy. Greek philosophy did not approve of polytheism, which was spoken about by early church apologists to bridge the gap between the Greek and Christian world. Two of the more influencial apologetic fathers, Justin Martyr and Athenagoras, were from the second century. Justin said that Christians were the best citizens and reasoned that they should not be preyed on by the Roman government. Athenagoras claimed monotheistic philosophy makes the most sense, and used Greek philosophy to support his claims.The fathers and apologists began the formulation of Christian theology.  

Chapter four discusses the influence of early church apologist, Iranaeus. Iranaeus fought many of his battles against Arians and Gnostics.He was one of the first theologians to write on original sin in a Christian backdrop. His work was an answer to Gnosticism, and aimed to show it as unreasonable. He took the threat of Gnosticism seriously, as he viewed a threat to the theology of incarnation as a threat to salvation. This kind of desire for orthodox theology needs to be restored today. On the mission field, there is a looming danger of cults taking the seeds Christians plant and perverting the growth, turning the new Christian into a cultist. This same kind of thing was occuring during the first and second century. I believe taking after the early apologists in developing culture-relative apologetics will show itself to be fruitful in those new areas for generations to come. There is an enormous open field for developing mission-centered apologetics for the majority world, which was the same project taken on by early apologists like Iranaeus. 

Finally, chapter five discusses Clement and Tertullian, two later Christian apologists. Their influence would shape the centuries to come. The early church fathers seemed to be moving closer and closer to a works-based salvation, due to the nature of the responses they were giving to local cults. Much of their theological development was aimed at contemporary heresies, such as Gnosticism. Clement was heavily influenced by Justin Martyr and Greek Philosophy. He believed humans could only be good with the help of God, and not apart from Him. He believed Christ was the embodiment of God’s wisdom, the divine Logos. He also believed the emotions of God were anthropomorphisms, simply a human way to speak about God. In some way, I do believe this. Certainly, God does not feel emotions in the same way that humans do. There must be some sort of difference between the anger of man and the anger of God, meaning His anger is a different kind, and unlike anything humans have experienced. However, God is not the Greek idea of God, wholly detached from human affairs. While Clement was the proto-liberal Christian thinker, Tertullian was the proto-conservative Christian thinker. 

In short, the first five chapters of this book introduce the first couple of centuries of church history, including the fathers and apologists, in addition to their responses specifically aimed toward Gnosticism. These thinkers set the tone for the rest of church history, including the situation I am in today. I hope to take a page out of the book of ancient church thinkers and help to develop contemporary apologetics to combat contemporary issues.