Amazing Rando
October 11th 2004, 08:15 PM
This is my review of a book I read for Christian Tradition class. Very interesting work that challenged the precepts of both "Christendom" and the conversion process of Christianity today by examining the catechumenate of the early church.
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Frend, W.H.C. Review of The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom, by Alan Kreider. Expository Times 111.11 (August 2000): 387.
Kreider, Alan. The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom in Christian Mission and Modern Culture series. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999.
Stansbury, R.J. Review of The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom, by Alan Kreider. Fides et historia 32.2 (Summer-Fall 2000): 143-145.
Abstract: Alan Kreider makes the case that the process of conversion for new Christian initiates changed dramatically over the course of the first five centuries of the church’s existence, and that this change in the process of conversion led to the beginning of “Christendom.” He notes that in the early (Pre-Constantinian) church, conversion to Christianity involved a radical change of belief, behavior, and belonging. However according to Kreider, the conversion of Constantine and the institutionalization of the church led directly to an over-emphasis on belief, to the near-exclusion of belonging and behavior. This, combined with the coercion and eventual persecution of non-Christians, resulted in the establishment of “Christendom-” a culture seeking to subject all areas of human existence to the Lordship of Christ” (Kreider 91-92).
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In The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom, Alan Kreider compares the conversion rites of the early church to those of the later fifth and sixth century church and pinpoints the latter as the beginning of the establishment of “Christendom.” He walks us through the lengthy process through which catechumens were instructed in and finally initiated into the Christian faith in the pre-Constantinian church and suggests that the arduousness and depth of the training which the catechumens experienced prepared them for living their lives as authentic Christians. Later catechesis, Kreider argues, which demanded much less in the way of repentance on the part of the Christian neophytes, in essence watered down the conversion process, making it more “rudimentary”(93), “routinized,” and “perfunctory” (94).
Kreider’s survey of historical literature from the early church period suggests that the process of catechism was so strenuous, detailed, and involved, that it took as long as three years in some locales. It was commonly done in four stages. Stage One, evangelization, took place in an informal setting between Christian and nonbeliever. The catachumenate, Stage Two, marked the candidate’s entrance into the “official” circles of the church; the seeker was first scrutinized, and then instructed daily in the precepts of the Christian faith. This stage placed the emphasis on the behavior of the inquirer, to ensure it was in accord with the high standards expected of the Christian brothers and sisters. In Stage Three, enlightenment, the catechumen focused his or her learning in the area of comprehending orthodox Christian beliefs. Finally, after the catechumens were baptized and initiated into the Christian family, the fourth century yielded a brief Stage Four, mystagogy, in which the neophyte was instructed in the “mysteries” of the Christian faith. This stage focused primarily on what it meant to belong to the family of God (21-22). Kreider uses several case studies, including those of Justin Martyr and Cyprian, to demonstrate how the early church’s catechumenate used these four basic steps to ensure that a genuine conversion resulted in a change of behavior, belief, and belonging for the new Christian.
The conversion of Constantine and the institutionalization of the church proved to be the beginning of the end for this lengthy and involved conversion process. Not only did they mark the end of the persecution of the church by pagans, but the heralded the arrival of a new age, one in which the church began to persecute the pagans. The church’s catechumenate no longer sought to change an initiate’s behavior as radically as it had before; instead, as Kreider’s case study of Volusian indicates, a change in behavior became almost irrelevant. Emphasis was instead placed on belief, rather than behavior. The change in belonging was also left by the wayside. As the church grew in numbers and gained a foothold in the civil institutions and official governments, Christians were no longer the persecuted minority, no longer “resident aliens (paroikoi)” (15). New Christian initiates joined the cultural mainstream, rather than the societal fringes. This, according to Kreider, was the advent of “Christendom,” a society in which “everyone is a Christian” (94).
Kreider’s case has marginally convinced this reader. He certainly documented the changing process of conversion well, including looking at the conversions of several prominent Christians throughout the first five centuries of the church’s existence. But his linking this change of conversion to the beginnings of Christendom and the beginning of the state of “decrepitude if not decomposition” (98) that he finds the church in today was not as strongly established evidentially as was the change itself. In his review of Kreider’s book, Ronald J. Stansbury observes that Kreider’s portrayal of the medieval church is “far too simplistic” (Stansbury 144). Perhaps Kreider has not fully considered the immense changes that were occurring in the church and the empire during the period his book covers. The struggle to adapt the faith of the martyrs to the faith of the victors could very well have inevitably led to a gradual disintegration of the rigors of the catechumenate. Or, perhaps the post-Constantinian church, devoid of religious persecution, no longer had need for its converts to spend three whole years learning the precepts of the faith. But on the whole, Kreider’s work was convincing. It serves as an excellent wake-up call to the sedentary churchgoers of the 21st century, saying that the Christian church is not reaching its full life-giving, world-transforming potential.
One area in which Kreider’s work affected me profoundly was in its descriptions of the early church’s faith, practices, and solidarity. Reading the stories of the church’s first intellectual giants, their reasons for converting, and their experiences as they underwent their catechumenate was truly awe-inspiring, and makes me wonder just what the church today is missing out on and why we’re not transforming the world in the way Jesus and the first Christians knew that we could.
Kreider’s work definitely has a missiological emphasis. Why did he bother documenting the conversion process of the early church? He did it to inspire the church of the 21st century on to greater things. By rediscovering the emphasis the first Christians and their successors placed on conversion, we can see just what drove them and how they experienced the saving power of Christ in their day-to-day lives. Like Caesarius of Arles, Kreider is calling on Christians of the 21st century to convert to Christianity! In a society where everyone is nominally Christian, actual conversion is a much rarer phenomenon than it would seem by simply looking at the number of people who would profess a belief in some type of God. In his review of Kreider’s work, W.H.C. Frend asks the quintessential question of Kreider’s book: “We live under Christendom’s shadow, but can Christianity change the behavior patterns of modern society?” (Frend 387). We need to have faith that it can, or else the work of Christ is lost. Kreider’s book is one voice that challenges Christians to live up to the ideals of the early church, and remember our Christian identity by changing not only our beliefs, but our behavior and our belonging as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Frend, W.H.C. Review of The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom, by Alan Kreider. Expository Times 111.11 (August 2000): 387.
Kreider, Alan. The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom in Christian Mission and Modern Culture series. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999.
Stansbury, R.J. Review of The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom, by Alan Kreider. Fides et historia 32.2 (Summer-Fall 2000): 143-145.
Abstract: Alan Kreider makes the case that the process of conversion for new Christian initiates changed dramatically over the course of the first five centuries of the church’s existence, and that this change in the process of conversion led to the beginning of “Christendom.” He notes that in the early (Pre-Constantinian) church, conversion to Christianity involved a radical change of belief, behavior, and belonging. However according to Kreider, the conversion of Constantine and the institutionalization of the church led directly to an over-emphasis on belief, to the near-exclusion of belonging and behavior. This, combined with the coercion and eventual persecution of non-Christians, resulted in the establishment of “Christendom-” a culture seeking to subject all areas of human existence to the Lordship of Christ” (Kreider 91-92).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom, Alan Kreider compares the conversion rites of the early church to those of the later fifth and sixth century church and pinpoints the latter as the beginning of the establishment of “Christendom.” He walks us through the lengthy process through which catechumens were instructed in and finally initiated into the Christian faith in the pre-Constantinian church and suggests that the arduousness and depth of the training which the catechumens experienced prepared them for living their lives as authentic Christians. Later catechesis, Kreider argues, which demanded much less in the way of repentance on the part of the Christian neophytes, in essence watered down the conversion process, making it more “rudimentary”(93), “routinized,” and “perfunctory” (94).
Kreider’s survey of historical literature from the early church period suggests that the process of catechism was so strenuous, detailed, and involved, that it took as long as three years in some locales. It was commonly done in four stages. Stage One, evangelization, took place in an informal setting between Christian and nonbeliever. The catachumenate, Stage Two, marked the candidate’s entrance into the “official” circles of the church; the seeker was first scrutinized, and then instructed daily in the precepts of the Christian faith. This stage placed the emphasis on the behavior of the inquirer, to ensure it was in accord with the high standards expected of the Christian brothers and sisters. In Stage Three, enlightenment, the catechumen focused his or her learning in the area of comprehending orthodox Christian beliefs. Finally, after the catechumens were baptized and initiated into the Christian family, the fourth century yielded a brief Stage Four, mystagogy, in which the neophyte was instructed in the “mysteries” of the Christian faith. This stage focused primarily on what it meant to belong to the family of God (21-22). Kreider uses several case studies, including those of Justin Martyr and Cyprian, to demonstrate how the early church’s catechumenate used these four basic steps to ensure that a genuine conversion resulted in a change of behavior, belief, and belonging for the new Christian.
The conversion of Constantine and the institutionalization of the church proved to be the beginning of the end for this lengthy and involved conversion process. Not only did they mark the end of the persecution of the church by pagans, but the heralded the arrival of a new age, one in which the church began to persecute the pagans. The church’s catechumenate no longer sought to change an initiate’s behavior as radically as it had before; instead, as Kreider’s case study of Volusian indicates, a change in behavior became almost irrelevant. Emphasis was instead placed on belief, rather than behavior. The change in belonging was also left by the wayside. As the church grew in numbers and gained a foothold in the civil institutions and official governments, Christians were no longer the persecuted minority, no longer “resident aliens (paroikoi)” (15). New Christian initiates joined the cultural mainstream, rather than the societal fringes. This, according to Kreider, was the advent of “Christendom,” a society in which “everyone is a Christian” (94).
Kreider’s case has marginally convinced this reader. He certainly documented the changing process of conversion well, including looking at the conversions of several prominent Christians throughout the first five centuries of the church’s existence. But his linking this change of conversion to the beginnings of Christendom and the beginning of the state of “decrepitude if not decomposition” (98) that he finds the church in today was not as strongly established evidentially as was the change itself. In his review of Kreider’s book, Ronald J. Stansbury observes that Kreider’s portrayal of the medieval church is “far too simplistic” (Stansbury 144). Perhaps Kreider has not fully considered the immense changes that were occurring in the church and the empire during the period his book covers. The struggle to adapt the faith of the martyrs to the faith of the victors could very well have inevitably led to a gradual disintegration of the rigors of the catechumenate. Or, perhaps the post-Constantinian church, devoid of religious persecution, no longer had need for its converts to spend three whole years learning the precepts of the faith. But on the whole, Kreider’s work was convincing. It serves as an excellent wake-up call to the sedentary churchgoers of the 21st century, saying that the Christian church is not reaching its full life-giving, world-transforming potential.
One area in which Kreider’s work affected me profoundly was in its descriptions of the early church’s faith, practices, and solidarity. Reading the stories of the church’s first intellectual giants, their reasons for converting, and their experiences as they underwent their catechumenate was truly awe-inspiring, and makes me wonder just what the church today is missing out on and why we’re not transforming the world in the way Jesus and the first Christians knew that we could.
Kreider’s work definitely has a missiological emphasis. Why did he bother documenting the conversion process of the early church? He did it to inspire the church of the 21st century on to greater things. By rediscovering the emphasis the first Christians and their successors placed on conversion, we can see just what drove them and how they experienced the saving power of Christ in their day-to-day lives. Like Caesarius of Arles, Kreider is calling on Christians of the 21st century to convert to Christianity! In a society where everyone is nominally Christian, actual conversion is a much rarer phenomenon than it would seem by simply looking at the number of people who would profess a belief in some type of God. In his review of Kreider’s work, W.H.C. Frend asks the quintessential question of Kreider’s book: “We live under Christendom’s shadow, but can Christianity change the behavior patterns of modern society?” (Frend 387). We need to have faith that it can, or else the work of Christ is lost. Kreider’s book is one voice that challenges Christians to live up to the ideals of the early church, and remember our Christian identity by changing not only our beliefs, but our behavior and our belonging as well.