CHURCH (1099AD)
“Power or piety?”
What started as a spontaneous movement, developed into a powerful organization. For centuries the Church has been dominant, politically and intellectually. Until the last century. Whence this growth and eventual decline?
Many cultures influenced the young Church. Moreover, since the Axial Age, religion had acquired two faces. On the one hand the age-old public religion stressing social order and control of nature. The Pantheon in Rome is a good example of the Roman cult. Sacrificial rituals were held at the stage of this temple, visible to all who passed by. Participation was mandatory but not demanding. On the other side also new personal religions emerged, often focusing on deep, secret knowledge and rites. These so-called mystery-religions were demanding but voluntary. Remnants of these religions have also been found. The god Mithras for instance, was quite popular among Roman soldiers. Below the San Clemente Church in Rome a Mithraneum has been found – a closed space where followers of Mithras were baptized and where they shared ritual meals.
Initially the Christians in Rome too came together in home groups. They were being educated, baptized and had meals together. Early wall paintings in the catacombs show Jesus as a family friend. Why did Christendom grow faster than Mithraism? Certainly, Christian charity for the poor and sick played a key role. God is not a mighty emperor nor a passionate aristocrat. He reveals Himself in the tragic life of a carpenter’s son. This strange reversion of divine power and love did and still does appeal powerfully to people.
If we use the metaphor of a river for the Church, then that stream has become so deep due to God’s strange, universal love for man without considering rank, status, life or achievements. And that stream has become so wide due to the confluence of 4 tributary rivers: Jewish monotheism – one God for all nations; Persian dualism of good and evil; Greek philosophy of the spiritual vs the material and Roman governance.
Of course, emperor Constantine had an enormous impact when he officially acknowledged the Christian religion. Simply put: Rome became Christian and the Church became Roman. In the ancient Santa Pudentiana church, one sees a mosaic of the Holy Supper: like an emperor Jesus is sitting on the throne with the apostles like Roman senators on his side. In the 11th century pope Gregory VII raised the Church to the pinnacle of her power, which unfortunately soon led to the Crusades. Even so, ecclesiastical power piety never completely replaced personal piety. As a response to romanization, hermits and monks chose the path of spiritual renewal and continued to remind the Church of its origins.
In our part of the world, science, technology and the welfare state have marginalized the role of the Church in the public domain. Numerous social institutions came in her place. In addition, our time prefers (self-chosen) examples and role-models to established authorities. So perhaps, the Church should fulfil her mission to man and society by doing what she did in the beginning: being a selfless personal renewal movement – bottom-up accessible for everyone – living from the experience that a new future presents itself through the deepest valley.