Radical Christianity

Something happened to the church around 311 A.D. After nearly 3 centuries of being persecuted, tolerated, or ignored - but not legally recognized in most places - the church in the Roman Empire experienced a profound cultural shift. Emperor Constantine reportedly saw a cross in the sky with the Latin words meaning "In this sign, conquer". He adopted the cross as his standard and in 313 A.D., through the Edict of Milan, gave Christians full legal status. Suddenly Christianity was not a religion of outsiders.

Like any cultural change, this one did not happen in a vacuum. Almost immediately, the church in Persia, previously at peace with the government there, began to be persecuted. It appears that the Persian leaders associated Christianity with being in opposition to Rome. Rome's enemies, therefore, were Persia's friends. But when Christianity in Rome became acceptable, Persia's Christians were no longer considered Rome's enemies. The worst persecutions of Christians to that date took place - including 153,000 Christians murdered in one incident.

Whether Constantine's edict was a good thing or not remains a debated question even within the modern church. But the fact is, when Christianity was accepted legally and even adopted by leaders, it became easier for people to be Christians. And with that came a high degree of nominalism and compromise - not unlike what we in American Christianity experience today.

These ripple effects soon had a significant impact on believers who were grieved at the lack of depth in Christianity once it became a mass movement. These "radical" Christians began to respond in extreme ways, living in the desert and adopting ascetic practices. The monastic movement soon developed as a direct response to nominalism.

Interestingly, monasticism developed in the other areas of the church as well, but with different dynamics. Ultimately the Coptic, Celtic, and Byzantine (Nestorian/Persian) churches all had monastic movements. We have seen how the Celtic monks preserved ancient texts after the fall of Rome. Another key contribution of the monastic movement was the continuation of the Christian mission. Simply put, without the monastic movement, not much would have taken place in missions from about 400 AD until the Reformation. While there were solitary individuals from time to time, by and large the monks of the various religious traditions carried the Gospel in an effort to fulfill the Great Commission.

This fact of Christian history can provide key lessons for us in retrospect. As 21st century Christians seeking to grasp "the big picture" and be on mission with God, what can we learn from a millenium where mission was dominated by monasticism?

• Don't underestimate the value of lay people. While church leaders did eventually come from the monastic orders, the initial movement was begun not by clergy, but by laity who were frustrated by spiritual leaders focused more on political power than on the Gospel. If you are Protestant, you can see in this example part of the origin of the idea of the "priesthood of the believer" - the idea (rooted in Scripture) that we are all a kingdom of priests.
• Don't minimize the impact of fringe movements. Ralph Winter observes that most if not all the key missions and renewal movements since the New Testament have started with "fringe" movements. The believers who wanted to pursue a radical lifestyle as a protest to the nominalism of their day soon grew into a movement significant enough to impact the world for Christ. We've seen this in our own day - half a century ago no one had heard of Youth with a Mission, but this "fringe" group now has nearly 16,000 people serving in 149 countries!
• Don't assume God waits until we're "ready". The various monastic groups spread the Gospel with varying levels of Scriptural understanding or even Scriptural texts. Their attempts to hide from the world usually backfired, and people found them to demand teaching. Their resources were slim and their methods radical: Celtic monks, for example, would set sail from Ireland without any direction in mind, trusting that wherever they landed was their mission field. In later years, when monks were pressed into leadership roles in the church it was often against their wishes and even despite their blatant protests. Yet the fruit of their labors remains - a Chinese inscription dated in the 600s AD shows us Nestorian monks made it to the other side of the world. All of which leads to another point...
• Don't reject the importance of the church structure. The core of the church played an important role in providing doctrinal guidance and spiritual leadership to a zealous monastic movement. While there was much that occurred that should not be emulated, there was also a thread of continuity that was vitally important. For the most part, the monastic movement knew that they were bringing new believers into the larger body of Christ and that the creeds and doctrinal statements were important to successful adoption of the new religion.
• Prioritize Scripture. Where they were most successful, the monastic movements spread with Scripture in the native language of the people. Those regions that had a stronger emphasis on Scripture taught to them were more likely to be orthodox than regions that only had Scripture minimally or as a veneer to paganism. Scripture also provides a safeguard - as discussed before there is a fine line between contextualization and compromise.
• Christ has built His church on a rock, and nothing can prevail against it. But we can boast only in Him. The study of church history has convinced me that only God could have caused the church to prevail through the centuries. Persecution couldn't kill her; compromised leadership couldn't kill her; theological hair-splitting couldn't kill her; and even a ragtag bunch of radical believers could be used in her advance. Whatever challenges the church faces around the world today - from humanism to nominalism to persecution to inept leadership to zealous but untrained laity - she remains the bride of Christ, the one He will present to God "without spot or blemish". Most remarkably, Paul says in Ephesians 3:10 that through the church - through this weak, fallible bunch of people - God displays His mainfold wisdom in the spirit realm. Surely that manifold wisdom is reflected in Christ Himself, as God chooses the foolish of the world but ultimately reveals His wisdom in Christ:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many
were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:18-31)