This document provides an introduction and overview for a course on the history of Christianity. It includes the course objectives, which are to recognize the major contours and diversity within Christianity, interpret Christianity's self-definition and encounters with culture, and evaluate theological development through primary sources. It recommends textbooks and outlines assignments including a visit to a church of a different tradition. The document discusses the importance of studying Christianity's history as the ongoing story of Jesus at work and our spiritual heritage.

1. Introduction
© John Stevenson, 2016

2. Dr. John T. Stevenson
• Family Life
• Academic Life

3. • Family Life
• Academic Life
• Professional Life
Dr. John T. Stevenson

4. • Family Life
• Academic Life
• Professional Life
• Spiritual Life
• Ministry Life
Dr. John T. Stevenson

5. Dr. John T. Stevenson
http://JohnStevenson.net
JohnStevenson@Bellsouth.net
Jstevens@tiu.edu

6. Group Introductions
• Your name
• Your church background
• Where are you in the TIU process?
• What is your current ministry within
the Kingdom?

7. Course Objectives
• To recognize and identify the major
contours of the history of the Christian
Church.
• To identify, explain and evaluate both the
unity and the diversity of the various
Christian traditions.
• To interpret and evaluate Christianity’s
own self-definition and the Church’s
varied encounters with its surrounding
culture.

8. Course Objectives
• To recognize and to evaluate the
theological development that has taken
place in the life of the Church.
• To explain and discuss key ideas of
significant actors through careful reading,
reflection, observation, discussion and
examination of primary source
documents.

9. Zondervan Handbook
to the History of
Christianity
Editor, Jonathan Hill,
Masters of Theology from
Oxford

10. Recommended Reading
Bruce L. Shelley, Church History
in Plain Language, 3rd Edition,
1996, Word Publishing.
Henry Bettenson and Chris
Maunder, Documents of the
Christian Church, 3rd edition,
1999, Oxford University Press.

11. • Homework Questions & Reading
• Class Participation
• Movie Review
• Christian Experience Report & Oral
Presentation
– Visit a church worship service outside your
own tradition
– Interview an elder/pastor from that church
– Your paper will involve their history, theology,
worship, and your own personal reflections

12. What is Christianity?

13. Why should we study about a
bunch of Dead Guys?
• Because their story is the story of Jesus
at work.

14. Matthew 16:15-17
He said to them, “But who do you
say that I am?” 16 And Simon Peter
answered and said, “You are the
Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 And Jesus answered and said
to him, “Blessed are you, Simon
Barjona, because flesh and blood did
not reveal this to you, but My Father
who is in heaven.”

15. Matthew 16:18
“And I also say to you that you
are Peter, and upon this rock I will
build My church; and the gates of
Hades shall not overpower it.”

16. Why should we study about a
bunch of Dead Guys?
• Because their story is the story of Jesus
at work.
• Because they are a part of your spiritual
heritage.
• Because you are in a continuing story.

17. Old
Testament
New
Testament
Continuing
Testament

18. Who is the
most
important
Christian in
the world
today?
Francis & Edith
Schaeffer

19. 1000
1 500 1500 2000
The
Medieval
Church
The
Reformed
Church
The
Ancient
Church

20. Acts 1:7-8
He said to them, “It is not for
you to know times or epochs which
the Father has fixed by His own
authority; 8 but you shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you shall be
My witnesses both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria, and
even to the remotest part of the
earth.”

22. Galatians 4:4
But when the fullness of the time
came, God sent forth His Son, born
of a woman, born under the Law.
In what ways was
this the “fullness of
the time?”

23. What Factors Caused
Christianity to Spread?

24. How did Christians seek to
accommodate themselves to
their audience?

25. How did Christians seek to
accommodate themselves to
their audience?
• Paul’s attitude in 1 Cor. 9:19-27
• Paul in Athens (Acts 17)
• Paul’s vow (Acts 18:18)
• Timothy’s circumcision (Acts 16:3)

26. They love everyone, but
are persecuted by all.
They are unknown and
condemned; they are put to
death and gain life. They
are poor and yet make
many rich. They are short
of everything and yet have
plenty of all things. They
are dishonored and yet
gain glory through
dishonor. (Anonymous
Letter to Diognetus, 150).

27. 1 25 50 75 100 125 150
Paul
John
Fall of
Jerusalem
Peter
Clement of Rome

28. • Mentioned by Paul in
Philippians 4:3.
• Served as an overseer in
the church at Rome
• Tradition ascribes to him an
epistle to the Corinthians.
• Addressed from the church
of Rome to the church at
Corinth
Clement of Rome
Died 101

29. Clement of Rome
Shameful, beloved, extremely
shameful, and unworthy of
your training in Christ, is the
report that on account of one
or two persons the well-
established and ancient
church of the Corinthians is in
revolt against the presbyters
(Epistle to the Corinthians
47:6).
Died 101

30. 1 25 50 75 100 125 150
Paul
John Justin Martyr
Fall of
Jerusalem
Peter
Clement of Rome

31. • Born in Samaria
• Pagan upbringing
• Studied philosophy
• Became a Christian
• Wrote two apologies
– First is dedicated to Emperor
Antonius Pius and to the
Senate of Rome
• Dialogue with Trypho
Justin Martyr
100-165

32. • Challenges authorities to
investigate Christianity
• Answers charge of atheism
against Christians
• Answers charge of
subversion against those
who look for a heavenly
kingdom
Justin Martyr
100-165

33. Justin Martyr
On the day which is dedicated
to the sun, all those who live in
the cities or who dwell in the
countryside gather in a
common meeting, and for as
long as there is time the
Memoirs of the Apostles or the
writings of the prophets are
read (First Apology 67).
100-165

34. Justin Martyr
Having concluded the prayers,
we greet one another with a
kiss. Then there is brought to
the president of the brethren
bread and a cup of water and
of watered wine (First Apology
65).
100-165

35. Justin Martyr
We who valued above all else
the acquisition of wealth and
property now direct all that we
have to a common fund, which
is shared with every needy
person (First Apology 14).
100-165

36. • Discovered in 1873 by
Philotheos Bryennis,
archbishop at
Constantinople
• It had been known to
Origen and Athanasius
• Significance initially
ignored by scholars
• Author is anonymous

37. There are two ways, one of
life and one of death, but a
great difference between the
two ways. The way of life,
then, is this: First, you shall
love God who made you;
second, love your neighbor
as yourself, and do not do to
another what you would not
want done to you (1:1)

38. You shall not commit
murder, you shall not commit
adultery, you shall not
commit pederasty, you shall
not commit fornication, you
shall not steal, you shall not
practice magic, you shall not
practice witchcraft, you shall
not murder a child by
abortion nor kill that which is
born… (2:1).

39. But on the Lord’s day,
after you have assembled
together, break bread and
give thanks, having in
addition confessed your
sins, that your sacrifice
may be pure. (14:1)

40. But concerning baptism, thus baptize: having
first recited all these precepts, baptize in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit, in running water;
7:2 but if you do not have running water,
baptize in some other water, and if you
cannot baptize in cold, in warm water;
7:3 but if you have neither, pour water three
times on the head, in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

41. Baptism depicted in
early Christian art

42. • Instructions on visiting
prophets
– Regulates how long they
are allowed to stay (2 or
3 days)
– Not allowed to ask for
money
• Speaks of election of
overseers and deacons
(15:1)

43. 1 25 50 75 100 125 150
Paul
John
Ignatius
Polycarp
Justin Martyr
Fall of
Jerusalem
Peter
Clement of Rome

44. • Sat under the teaching of
the Apostle John
• Bishop of Antioch
• “The closer the sword, the
closer the Lord”
• Arrested and taken to Rome
to be martyred

45. There is one Physician
who is possessed both of
flesh and spirit; both made
and not made; God
existing in flesh; true life in
death; both of Mary and of
God; first possible and
then impossible, even
Jesus Christ our Lord
(Ephesians 7).

46. Take care to do all things
in harmony with God, with
the bishop presiding in the
place of God and with the
presbyters in the place of
the council of the apostles,
and with the deacons, who
are most dear to me,
entrusted with the
business of Jesus Christ…
(Magnesians 6:1).

47. Permit me to become food for the wild
beasts, through whose instrumentality
it will be granted me to attain to God. I
am the wheat of God, and let me be
ground by the teeth of the wild beasts,
that I may be found the pure bread of
Christ. Rather entice the wild beasts,
that they may become my tomb, and
may leave nothing of my body; so that
when I have fallen asleep, I may be
no trouble to any one (Romans 4).

48. • Preach God of the law and
prophets but denies Christ to
be the Son of God
Warns against false teachers
• Confess Christ to be the Son of God but
deny the God of the law and prophets
• Confess Christ but think he was only a
man (Ebionites)

49. • Confess Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, but think the
incarnation was only an
appearance
Warns against false teachers
• Have correct views of Christ and God but
do not seek to live a holy lifestyle

50. It is absurd to have Jesus Christ
on the lips and at the same time
to practice Judaism. Christianity
did not base its faith on Judaism,
but Judaism on Christianity
(Magnesians 10:3).

51. • Church leader in need of
discipline
• Issue involved money
• Calls for his repentance
and his removal from office
• Refers to collection of
epistles of Ignatius
Epistle to the Philippians

52. Epistle to the Philippians
I was exceedingly grieved for
Valens who previously was a
presbyter among you, because
he is so ignorant of the office
which was given to him. I warn
you therefore that you refrain
from covetousness, that you be
pure and truthful (11)

53. Epistle to the Philippians
For everyone who shall not
confess that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is antichrist; and
whoever shall not confess the
testimony of the cross is of the
devil; and whoever shall pervert
the oracles of the Lord to his own
lusts and say that there is neither
resurrection nor judgment, that
man is the firstborn of Satan (7)

54. • Named in title after traveling companion of
Paul
• Epistle itself is anonymous
• Anti-Jewish in nature
– Judaism is a false religion
– Because Jews broke God’s covenant, they
were not God’s people
– God’s covenant is for those who believe in
God’s Messiah

55. …it is not your present Sabbaths that are
acceptable, but the Sabbath which I have
made, in which, when I have set all things at
rest, I will make the beginning of the eighth
day which is the beginning of another world.
Therefore also we keep the eighth day for
rejoicing in which also Jesus rose from the
dead, and having been manifested
ascended into the heavens (16).

56. You shall not take the
name of the Lord in
vain. You shall love
your neighbor more
than your own soul.
You shall not murder a
child by abortion, nor
again, shall not kill it
when it is born (19).

57. The Apostolic
Fathers
Faced a world
steeped in
polytheism and
pagan worship
The Reformers
Dealt with those who
agreed on the reliability of
Scripture, the deity of
Christ, and who were
monotheistic
Their evangelistic
concerns were
over the paganism
of their day
Their evangelistic
concerns were largely
directed toward those who
were a part of the Roman
Catholic Church

58. The Apostolic
Fathers
The Reformers
Their evangelistic
concerns were
over the paganism
of their day
Their evangelistic
concerns were largely
directed toward those who
were a part of the Roman
Catholic Church
Where should be our
major evangelistic
concerns today?