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BOOK
REVIEW
Christian Mission and
Modern Culture
THE
CHANGE OF CONVERSION AND THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTENDOM Trinity Press
International £8.50
Alan
Kreider
In this powerful little
book we see how the early church before Constantine was converted and how
in the centuries afterwards church and state together sought to bring all
peoples under its umbrella. Not being either a theologian or a church historian,
I found the title of this book confusing. Given that the objective for the
series as set out in the preface is to help the church ‘understand its missional
responsibility in a culture of crisis’ I wondered if the book itself would
be accessible and of any benefit to me. However my concern fast disappeared
as the author first told his story and then continued by telling the stories
of individuals who figured in the first six centuries of church history.
The author is a story-teller, so here we find real characters with whom
we can identify.
The first two people
we meet, Justin and Cyprian, are not portrayed as heroes suffering for their
faith in the face of the antagonistic Roman society and culture of their
day. Rather we see how their conversion involved changes in their ‘beliefs,
belonging and behaviour’. They, along with the Christian community, searched
for ways of ‘dealing with sex, the occult, wealth and violence that would
be in keeping with the teachings of Jesus. What comes over strongly is that
they were highly motivated in so doing, with well-developed programmes of
teaching for those wishing to ‘espouse the Christian way’.
The ‘question-posing’
behaviour of the early Christians aroused suspicion and concern. They did
not witness publicly, ‘they had no ‘decades of evangelism'. Nor was their
worship designed to attract non-Christians. The author argues that their
community life, their beliefs, the sense of God’s power in healing and exorcism
and the ‘beauty’ of their lives were attractive. The reality of the living
faith of these early Christians resonates with truth and is deeply inspiring.
The author portrays
the early church as not making it easy for people to join. Potential members
had to go through anything up to five years as catechumens before they were
baptised and allowed to participate in common prayer, ‘the kiss of peace’
and communion. Becoming a Christian was a deliberate and demanding process
involving distancing oneself from one’s former life and developing practices
and priorities of this community.
Following the ‘conversion’
of the emperor Constantine, there were initially inducements and then compulsion
on the part of the authorities for people to become Christians. By the time
of Augustine of Hippo (early fifth century) fear was motivating people to
become catechumens and the attractive life of Christian people was less
in evidence than it had been earlier. Christian commitment and behaviour
became diluted, not all Christians believing that changes in behaviour should
precede baptism.
Through the sermons
of Caesarius, a bishop in Arles in the first half of the sixth century,
we are shown how conversion became more perfunctory. Infant baptism was
becoming common, and a picture is painted of church life that is anarchic.
The people resisted the demands of the church to change their behaviour,
conversion was too costly, especially if it involved loving one’s enemies.
They continued with their pagan worship and practices, developing a community
religion. The church’s response was to preach conversion, the result of
which was the development of monasticism. The author becomes more reflective
at this point, beginning to examine how the Christian message can be introduced
into a cultural framework. He summarises succeeding centuries of church
history as Europe became ‘Christendom’ by a further diminishing of catechetical
teaching and an augmenting of the power of the host cultures.
In the final chapter
the author reverts to a more analytical approach in providing a catalogue
of the characteristics of Christendom in terms of belief, belonging and
behaviour. Following a brief examination of today’s post-Christendom western
world, he suggests three ‘clues’ in the early church which are relevant
to Christian mission in Western culture. He queries if insight into truth
grows out of action, in contrast to the view, prevalent in the Protestant
traditions today, that experience is the most important ingredient of conversion.
This little book is
well worth reading. The title describes the content quite well but it would
have been helpful to have more stories and insight into how Christendom
affects both the church and western society today.
The author has carefully
not written from a given position. All sectors within the church should
feel uncomfortable in reading this book. We are being given the opportunity
to learn from the past, seeing where our roots have arisen but also appreciating
how others have grown. Like the listeners to Jesus’ parables, it is up to
us whether we want to be taught, whether we want to change.
The author also applies
his practice of examining belief, belonging and behaviour to our own culture.
Are we holding on to beliefs, ways of belonging and behaviour which have
been shaped more by the values and lifestyles of society in past generations
rather than critiquing these and seeking to understand our society today
in the light of God’s Word? What is the Gospel in a society where truth
is relative, where experience is reality?
Alan Kreider helps us
observe how Christians became ‘residents’ rather than being ‘resident aliens’.
In many parts of the world today Christians are ‘resident aliens’ but in
Northern Ireland many Christians have an expectation that those who accept
their particular brand of Christianity and political affiliation should
be ‘resident’ whilst those who do not are deemed aliens. We see political
threats and in turn expect political measures to defend our culture, our
particular religious, national and ethnic identity. This abuse of power
and concern for political and ethnic identity is both deeply at odds with
Jesus’ life and teaching and detrimental to our discipleship as evidenced
so clearly by the change in conversion reported in this book.
Ethel
White is a member of the ECONI Central Co-ordinating Group.
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