The Spread of Christianity

In roughly 311 AD, Constantine's signing of the Edict of Milan made Christianity a recognized religion in the massive Roman Empire. In the almost three centuries since Christ's ascension, Christianity had grown from a motley crew of 120 in the upper room, to a sizeable force in the Roman Empire. The faith had indicated a willingness for cultural adaptation, and Gentiles far outnumbered Jewish background believers. Faced with a freedom they'd never had, Christians might have thought their battles were over. In reality, they had just begun.

With the broad acceptance of Christianity came an influx of marginal believers. While Christianity had spread in part because of persecution, combined with a sense of community, love, purity, the passion of the believers, and the spirit of the age which sought immortality, the widespread acceptance brought new dangers. Heretical teachings, present since the earliest days of the church, began to multiply.

Formalized doctrinal statements became necessary, and the "basics" of apostolic succession, the canon of the New Testament, and the Apostles' Creed became the center of the church in the West - what would become the Catholic Church. At the same time, a tension existed between this "inner ring" of Christianity - what was considered firm, unchanging, grounded - and the "outer ring" of fringe movements, which often touched in many points the inner ring but varied on some aspects. In many cases, the key difference was Scripture: those groups which had Scripture translated into their languages were more likely to be closer to the center or even influence a change in the center (such as the Reformation later challenged Apostolic Succession). Those groups which did not have Scripture translated into their languages remained on the fringe or even spun off into completely disparate movements.

Meanwhile, as the West began to centralize into a hierarchical church structure, Christianity spread in other directions as well. While Christians had been accepted in Persia while persecuted in the West, once Christianity was a religion of the state in Rome the believers in Persia were heavily persecuted -- 153,000 in one event. In fact, more Christians died in Persia's Great Persecution than in all of Rome's persecutions.

Christianity spread to North Africa as well, but unsuccessfully for the long term - the failure to produce a Punic translation of the Bible, North Africans' alienation from "Romanized" Christians, the emphasis of the church on the elite, Christianity's identification with Roman and Hellenistic culture and military - in short, the lack of cultural adaptation of the forms of Christianity and failure to provide Scripture, led to heretical movements and ultimately the development and acceptance of Islam. To this day North Africa remains an Islamic stronghold despite the early Christian movement's presence in that land.

More successful cultural transitions were made to the Celtic and Gothic peoples. The Armenian Church was formed and became very closed linked with Armenian nationalism, because it was so heavily contextualized to the area. During this season of movement and transition, much of the world known to Christianity was very open to the Gospel. The Moravians did an especially good job of developing worship in each of the own languages of the peoples they reached.

So what are some "takeaway" lessons for the modern missions movement? While there are many, many lessons to be learned from the historical theology of these groups, there are also missiological lessons. Among these are:

• Language is at the heart of missions. We can't ignore the need for people groups to have Scripture in their own languages.
• Christianity is highly translatable. Once the basics of the Gospel are understood, there is much freedom for form and practice within the Biblical parameters. The history of Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple, as well as any number of other religious groups, affords a dramatic contrast to the openness allowed Christian worshippers.
• We have to be aware of nationalism. Every people group is nationalistic to some degree. Tribal groups are proud of elements of their culture that are unique from other tribes. Nations love to boast of what they are "best" at. With few exceptions, people in other countries love to encounter individuals from "home" and enjoy sharing what is best about their native cultures. When Christianity is perceived as an "outsiders' religion", then, it will enjoy limited success (as in North Africa). When an "inner ring" of truths are held firm, and the church allowed to contextually develop, wise national believers can take what is best in their culture and use it to reflect the glory of God. When we avoid the "idolatry of form" we free the people to glorify God in unique ways.
• We must be aware of contextualization's limits. Failed contextualization is called syncretism. While there will always be degrees of understanding about the Christian faith, even in a fully "Christianized" society, we must guard against an "anything goes" approach which leads to doctrinal error.