Christianity

(from the Greek Christós, literally “anointed one”), one of the world religions, along with Buddhism and Islam. Christianity has a large following in Europe, North and South America, Australia, and, as a result of vigorous missionary work, in Africa, the Near East, and a number of areas in the Far East. Exact data on the number of Christians are not available; according to official church records, which usually exaggerate the number of adherents, about 1,025,000,000 people profess Christianity (1975). Like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is a monotheistic religion. Its main tenets are the redemptive mission of Jesus Christ, the impending second coming of Christ, the last judgment, heavenly reward, and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven.
Christian dogma and worship are based on the Bible, or Scripture, which includes the Jewish Old Testament and the exclusively Christian New Testament, comprising the four gospels, which recount the life of Jesus Christ, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation). Second only to the Bible is sacred tradition, which the church raises to the level of “divine law.” Throughout its history Christianity has taken the form of rival religious movements. The only common feature that unites all Christian denominations, churches, and sects is faith in Christ, although even here there are diverging views. For example, although the majority of Christian churches teach that Christ had a double nature, divine and human, the Gregorian Armenian and Coptic churches believe that Christ had only a divine nature.
The main branches of Christianity are Catholicism, Orthodoxy, comprising 15 autocephalous and several autonomous churches (seeORTHODOX CHURCH), and Protestantism, which includes three main currents—Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism—and a great number of sects. Many of the Protestant sects, for example, the Baptists, Methodists, and Adventists, have become independent churches. Christianity also has a number of minor offshoots, notably Monophysitism and Nestorian-ism. (For a more detailed account of the development of the various trends in Christianity, seeCATHOLICISM, ORTHODOXY, PROTESTANTISM, LUTHERANISM, and CALVINISM.) All the main trends in Christianity are represented in the USSR, where there are Christian churches and seminaries for the training of clergymen.
Christianity arose in the latter half of the first century in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, originating among the Jews but spreading to other ethnic groups within a few decades. The crisis in the slaveholding system and harsh social and political oppression provoked mass uprisings of slaves, poor freemen, and conquered peoples. After Rome crushed the popular movements that emerged at the beginning of the first century, a sense of despair and impotent hatred of the oppressors swept across the empire.
Christianity was the protest, in religious form, of the slaves and the oppressed against the existing order, the slaveholding state. The most important difference between nascent Christianity and the other religions of antiquity was its complete rejection of ethnic and social barriers in matters of faith, as well as sacrifice and ritual. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul and reward after death contributed to its success. Regarding moral and material poverty as the consequence of the innate imperfection, or sinfulness, of the individual, Christianity proclaimed the spiritual salvation of all men through faith in the redeeming sacrifice of a divine savior as a guarantee of man’s deliverance from sin. The new religion offered “inner salvation from a corrupt world, the consolation that everyone so passionately longed for” (F. Engels, in K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 19, p. 314). Christianity, along with Buddhism, Judaism, and certain other religions, is sometimes called a religion of salvation.
Christianity evolved out of Jewish sects and currents, notably the Zealots and the Essenes. The social relations, daily life, and ideology of one of the Essene communities were brought to light by the Qumran finds (seeDEAD SEA SCROLLS). These sects served as links between Judaism and early Christianity. Greco-Roman philosophy and Eastern religions, including Egyptian, Iranian, and even Indian traditions and faiths, also played a major role in the emergence of Christianity. Engels called Philo of Alexandria (first century A.D.) an exponent of Judeo-Greek philosophy, the “father of Christianity” (ibid., p. 307). Christianity adopted Philo’s ideas about the divine logos—the intermediary between god and man, messiah, and savior of mankind. Another important source of Christian ideas was the philosophy of the Roman Stoic Seneca (first century A.D.), who spoke of the ephemeral nature of earthly existence, of a reward in the other world, and of the equality of all men, including slaves, before fate. Christian mythology developed under the strong influence of Eastern cults, notably the cult of Isis and Osiris, the god who died and rose again, and the cult of Mithras.
The first communities to acknowledge the new god-savior Christ probably arose in Asia Minor (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Laodicea) and at Alexandria in Egypt. (Some scholars believe that the first such communities were formed in Palestine.) Their members came from the lower levels of society. “Early Christianity was a religion of slaves and freed-men, of paupers and those without rights, of peoples conquered or dispersed by Rome” (F. Engels, ibid., vol. 22, p. 467). The communities were distinguished by a simple organization and an absence of clergy; the members organized communal meals and meetings at which sermons were preached. There was no established form of worship, and a unified doctrine was not worked out until the beginning of the second century.
Although the various early Christian groups and tendencies disagreed on a number of important questions of doctrine, they were united in their hatred of Rome, their hope for the collapse of the empire and deliverance from Roman oppression, and their faith in the imminent coming of the god-savior and the establishment of the “kingdom of god” headed by Christ. This faith permeates the oldest Christian work that has come down to us—the Book of Revelation, written in the second half of the first century. It is clear from this work, in which there is no mention of a church organization, that Christian mythology, dogma, and ritual had as yet not taken form. The Book of Revelation reflects above all the rebellious spirit of the popular masses, oppressed by the Roman state, but it also attests to the existence of another trend in early Christianity: the spirit of resistance is tempered by the idea of long-suffering, by a call to await passively the outcome of the struggle between divine forces and the antichrist and the onset of the “millennium.”
As Christianity evolved, as the social makeup of the communities changed and they adapted themselves to actual conditions, the rebellious sentiments in Christianity receded, ultimately because of the political immaturity of the mass movement itself.
In the second century, the dominant trend in Christianity called on the toiling masses to “bear their cross” without complaint and to put their trust in supernatural deliverance, or “god’s will.” The sufferings of the god-savior were increasingly stressed in doctrine, and his religion essentially became a deification of human suffering, humility, and patience. In time, suffering became a necessary condition for attaining bliss in the world beyond the grave (“We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God,” Acts 14:22).
The victory of the trend calling for conciliation with the existing order marked a new stage in the development of early Christianity. The “second coming” of Christ was relegated to the indeterminate future. This stage may be traced in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul (end of the first century and first half of the second century), emphasizing that every earthly authority is established by god and must be obeyed. Children must obey their parents, wives—their husbands, and slaves—their masters (Ephesians 6:5). A radical break with Judaism is expressed in the Epistles; for the first time the Jews are accused of killing Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:15), and a Christian ideology is formulated. The figure of Jesus Christ takes on human traits, although the Epistles still give no details of his earthly life.
Christianity appears as a more or less fully formed religion, having its own dogma, creed, and ritual, in the writings of the first Christian apologist, Justin (c. A.D. 150), in which the biography of Christ conforms to the Gospel narratives. Justin described in detail the various Christian sacraments and formulated the creed, albeit in the most general terms. The life of Christ was fully described in the Gospels. Four of the Gospels, those attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were acknowledged to be “god-inspired” by the fledgling Christian church and were included in the New Testament, becoming the basic sacred books of Christianity.
The canonization (designation as Scripture) of the New Testament Gospels by the church in the second half of the fourth century attests to the completion of the myth-making process, namely the creation of a legend about the god-man, the son of god who suffered and died to redeem the sins of the human race. The doctrine of nonresistance to evil (“resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also,” Matthew 5:39) and of heavenly bliss as the reward for earthly suffering is more clearly expressed in the Gospels than in the other New Testament books. Moreover, the message about the coming kingdom loses its former anti-Roman thrust in the Gospels, which call for conciliation with those holding power, the “pagan” imperial authorities. The words “render . . . unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21) are put into Christ’s mouth. Eventually this doctrine allowed Christianity to become a tool of the exploiting classes.
The modifications that occurred in Christian ideology in the second and third centuries were closely related to changes in the original social makeup of the Christian communities. The crisis in the slaveholding mode of production increasingly affected the well-to-do strata of society. Even the rich began to join Christian communities in large numbers. Whereas during the first century of the existence of Christian communities all the members were considered equal and there was no special governing apparatus, from the middle of the second century the organization of the church became more complex. The well-to-do Christians, who had donated some of their money to the community coffers, acquired considerable influence. More and more often they occupied the post of bishop or deacon, charged with managing the community’s property and economic affairs.
Gradually, the governing of the Christian communities was concentrated in the hands of the bishops; not a trace remained of the former democratic principles, which had been supplanted by a monarchical episcopacy. The bishops and deacons stood increasingly aloof from the mass of believers. To justify their privileged position, a doctrine was gradually worked out according to which a special “grace” bestowed by god gave these officials the exclusive right to perform religious rites, to be the mentors of the other members of the community, and to decree principles of doctrine. In this way a church organization was formed that was divided into clergy and people. The institution of monasticism began to emerge. The strengthening of ties between separate communities facilitated the formation of a single Christian church governed by the bishops. The developing church rejected the democratic principles of primitive Christianity, seeking at first to compromise with the pagan imperial power and later to ally itself with the slaveholding state, a policy that was opposed by many Christians and that stimulated the rise of heresies (Ebionites, Novatianists, Montanists). The heretics, as a rule, advocated the principles of primitive Christianity.
With the formation of a church organization, ritual and dogma were worked out and became increasingly complex. To create a unified doctrine, certain Christian writings were designated as canon. In selecting the writings that were to be included in the New Testament the Church tended to reject works that reflected the democratic tendencies in primitive Christianity and its rebellious spirit. A new idea was introduced into church doctrine: blessedness was attainable not only by the poor, as was often stressed in the early stage of Christianity, but by all believers in Christ who performed church rituals, submitted to church discipline, and showed humility and patience. The original community gatherings and suppers were turned into worship services. Rituals became increasingly complicated, assimilating rites of the ancient religions. In this way were worked out the basic Christian sacraments, holy days, and liturgy, which have survived with slight modifications to this day.
The evolving Christian church began to wield considerable power. Seeing the church as a potential political rival, the Roman emperors harshly persecuted the Christians during the intensified class conflict of the third century, equating their refusal to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods with political unreliability. Especially severe were the persecutions under the emperors Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian in the late third and early fourth centuries. Later, however, having discerned the essence of the Christian ideology, as well as the nature and significance of the church’s activity, the emperors began to rely on the Christian organization to secure the submission of the masses. The church was also used in the fourth-century struggles for the imperial throne. Emperor Constantine I (reigned 306–337), who had received the support of the Christian church, declared Christianity an officially tolerated religion while himself remaining a “pagan.” In 325 the emperor called the first ecumenical council of church leaders, at which the Creed was adopted, and an alliance was effected between the imperial authority and the church. At the ecumenical councils of 325 and 381, the dogma of the trinity was firmly established. The Emperor Theodosius I (379–395) issued an edict closing all pagan temples.
Thus, from a persecuted religion Christianity was transformed into a state religion, sanctifying the social practices that had provoked the indignation and hatred of the first Christians. The “Christians, after their religion had been given the status of a state religion, ‘forgot’ the ‘naïveté’ of primitive Christianity with its democratic revolutionary spirit” (V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 33, p. 43). The Christian church ruthlessly combatted not only paganism, but also heresy. Christianity’s triumph over the pagan religions was facilitated by its cultic borrowings from them. The saints, martyrs, and angels who came to be widely venerated were in many ways the successors to the gods of the ancient religions.
The special circumstances of the historical development of the western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire led to divergences between the Christian churches of the West and East that became more marked after the division of the Roman Empire into two states in 395. The bishops of Rome, called popes from the fifth century, claimed the dominant position in the Christian world, a claim that the patriarchs of Constantinople in the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) refused to recognize. The rivalry between these church organizations precipitated disputes over dogma and ritual. The division of the Christian Church into Catholic (western) and Orthodox (eastern) Churches, dated from 1054, actually occurred over several centuries, being completed in the early 13th century. By the 13th century all Europe had been converted to Christianity. Under the influence of Byzantium, Christianity spread to Russia in the late tenth century; the Orthodox Church established in the Russian state was under the control of the patriarchs of Constantinople until the 15th century.
Despite certain differences in ritual, organization, and dogma, both Catholicism and Orthodoxy had the same social role in the feudal period: both served to strengthen the feudal system by religious means, sanctioning and sanctifying the foundations of feudal society. The economic basis of both churches was large-scale ecclesiastical, chiefly monastic, feudal landownership. Christianity became the ruling ideology in European countries during the feudal period. In the Middle Ages the church gained a monopoly over education and upbringing. In the early Middle Ages, the clergy was the only literate stratum of society; Christian monasteries promoted the spread of literacy and the making of books by maintaining schools and scriptoria. Having evolved under the Roman Empire, the Christian church was the sole bearer of classical culture, but it made use of the classical heritage, in a limited and emasculated form, only insofar as that heritage would strengthen Christian dogma. As secular culture grew, the church hindered its development. Science was shackled by theological restrictions, and philosophy became the servant of theology. The church persecuted the slightest manifestation of freethinking.
The medieval movements that attacked the feudal system, encompassing peasants, plebeians, and burghers, were primarily directed against the church, which had sanctified the system. The opposition usually took the form of heresies, such as those of the Paulicians, Bogomils, Cathari, Waldenses, and Strigol’niki. The antifeudal movement in the form of a struggle against Catholicism achieved its greatest scope during the Reformation. In the 16th century, as a result of the Reformation, a number of churches broke away from Catholicism in parts of Germany and in England, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland, Switzerland, and elsewhere, and Protestantism emerged as the third basic branch of Christianity, next to Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Reflecting the interests of the bourgeoisie who opposed the feudal church, Protestantism served as the banner of the first bourgeois revolutions, including the English Civil War, and at that time played a relatively progressive role. Protestantism later lost its progressive character, and Protestant churches became supporters of the bourgeois states.
Historically associated with feudalism, Catholicism and Orthodoxy adapted themselves to capitalist society in the second half of the 19th century. Christian churches defended the immutability of capitalist private ownership and countered the spreading socialist ideas with the notion of class peace and the harmony of interests of employers and workers. The new tendencies that were emerging in church policy under bourgeois governments were forcefully expressed in an encyclical issued in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII, Rerum novarum, which justified and defended the capitalist system. The Christian churches made extensive use of social demagoguery, portraying Christianity as the voice and defender of universal human interests and propounding the “Christianization” and regeneration of capitalism, a concept in which the politically backward strata of workers in capitalist countries still believe. Christian trade unions, political parties, and youth and other mass organizations were formed on a denominational basis in many countries for the purpose of splitting the class organizations of the workers and propagating the reactionary idea of class cooperation. The leadership of these organizations hindered the spread of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat. In the late 19th century, when the imperialist powers were trying to divide the world, the Christian churches intensified their missionary work, which always facilitated colonial conquests.
The Christian clergy was hostile to the October Socialist Revolution in Russia and actively supported the domestic and international reactionaries in their efforts to restore capitalism. Reactionary church leaders embarked on a systematic ideological and political struggle against the socialist countries and the communist movement, falsifying its goals and ideals. In 1949 and again in 1959, the Vatican issued decrees excommunicating Communists, as well as Catholics who collaborated with them.
The shift in the balance of power in the world after World War II, the rise and consolidation of the world socialist system, and the growth of the worldwide national liberation movement have brought about a definite change in the policy of the Christian churches not only in the socialist countries (through the influence of the masses of believers, as well as members of the lower clergy), but also in the capitalist nations. The modern age has left its mark on all the Christian trends and their institutions. Despite the efforts of the ruling circles to apply Christianity in all spheres of spiritual and social life, a weakening of Christianity’s traditional influence on believers may be observed in the bourgeois countries. Christianity’s position is being undermined by the growth of the democratic and socialist movements through the influx of believers who are coming to the realization that social justice and a lasting peace can only be attained by the organized actions of the workers themselves. The present crisis in Christianity may be discerned chiefly in the growth of atheism, anticlericalism, and freethinking among the various social strata, above all, the working class.
Christian leaders have been obliged to modernize the church’s ideology, ritual, organization, and missionary work. A process is under way by which, according to Lenin, religion is being “renovated” and “purified” (ibid., vol. 45, p. 27). The present “purification” consists in efforts to adapt religious doctrine and organization more effectively to the spirit of the times, lest they conflict too much with the secular outlook and materialist views of modern man. Efforts are also being made to render the church organization more flexible at all levels and to “democratize” the complex Christian ritual. A new approach to the workers’ and national liberation movements, communism, modern scientific and technological progress, and other Christian and nonchristian churches is being worked out.
Although reactionary Christian leaders in bourgeois countries continue to defend the foundations of capitalism, there are clergymen and laymen in leftist religious currents who sincerely believe that the doctrine they profess is a stimuls for social prosperity. They hold anti-imperialist views in international relations and advocate social reform. In the socialist countries, the Christian churches are loyal to socialism. Under the influence of modern scientific achievements some Christian churchmen are pressing for a doctrinal rejection of a literal interpretation of the more fantastic ideas in the Old Testament. The church has been obliged to sanction that which the workers had already gained through intense class struggle. Thus, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, enacted by Vatican Council II (1962–65), speaks of the right of workers to unite and recognizes the legitimacy of strikes as a means of defending workers’ rights. The new phase in Christian ideology is also reflected in the church’s use of such liberal social and economic concepts as “distribution of wealth,” “people’s capitalism,” and “industrial society,” perceived as ways of wiping out social inequality.
An important place in the activity of contemporary Christian organizations is held by the policy of ecumenism, aimed at alleviating interdenominational discord, bringing the various trends in Christianity closer together, and creating a united front against atheism and materialism. The ideological documents of various Christian churches increasingly refer to the positive significance of the theological and cultural heritage of other branches of Christianity. On Dec. 7, 1965, the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church of Constantinople, in a joint declaration read simultaneously in Rome and Istanbul, revoked the anathemas pronounced against each other by the heads of these churches in 1054. Contacts between the various churches have become markedly stronger. The World Council of Churches unites about 270 Protestant and Orthodox organizations (1975). Meetings between Catholic and Protestant church dignitaries are held in various countries (the first such meeting since the Reformation took place in 1966 in the Federal Republic of Germany), and theological discussions are regularly conducted between representatives of the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate.
An analysis of the modernization of contemporary Christianity shows that as much as Christianity may have been “renovated” at each new phase of historical development, it has not changed essentially as a doctrine of social consolation. Moreover, new tendencies in the mass Christian organizations of a number of countries have confirmed the correctness of the Marxist-Leninist aim of combining a reasoned disclosure of the unsoundness of Christian doctrine and a full exposé of the ideology and the policies of reactionary clericalism with collaboration with believing workers on resolving pressing social and political questions.
===REFERENCES===
Marx, K., and F. Engels. O religii [collection]. Moscow, 1955.Lenin, V. I. O religii i tserkvi [collection]. Moscow, 1966.Momdzhian, Kh. N. Kommunizm i khristianstvo. Moscow, 1970.Sheinman, M. M. Khristianskii sotsialism. Moscow, 1969.Vipper, R. Yu. Rim i rannee khristianstvo. Moscow, 1954.Ranovich, A. B. O rannem khristianstve. Moscow, 1959.Lentsman, Ia. A. Proiskhozhdenie khristianstva, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1963.Lentsman, Ia. A. “Izuchenie sovetskimi uchenymi rannego khristianstva.” In Voprosy nauchnogo ateizma, fasc. 4. Moscow, 1967.Kovalev, S. I. Osnovnye voprosy proiskhozhdeniia khristianstva. Moscow-Leningrad, 1964.Kovalev, S. I., and M. M. Kublanov. Nakhodki v Iudeiskoi pustyne (Otkrytiia v raione Mertvogo moria i voprosy proiskhozhdeniia khristianstva), 2nd ed. Moscow, 1964.Kazhdan, A. P. Ot Khrista k Konstantinu. [Moscow, 1965.]Golubtsova, N. I. Uistokov khristianskoi tserkvi. Moscow, 1967.Livshits, G. M. Proiskhozhdenie khristianstva v svete rukopisei Mertvogo moria. Minsk, 1967.Kublanov, M. M. Vozniknovenie khristianstva. Moscow, 1974.Kryvelev, I. A. Istoriia religii, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1975–76.Sherdakov, V. N. Sotsial’no-psikhologicheskii analiz khristianskoi morali. Leningrad, 1974.Robertson, A. Proiskhozhdenie khristianstva. Moscow, 1959. (Translated from English.)Nichols, J. H. History of Christianity 1650–1950. New York, 1956.Walker, W. A History of the Christian Church. New York, 1959.Girardi, J. Marxismo e Christianismo. Assisi, 1966.M. P. MCHEDLOV
Category:Christianity
Category:Religion