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    Christian Spirituality

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    Richard Michael Delfin
    The document discusses early Christian spirituality as presented in the Didache and writings of the Apostolic Fathers. It describes that early Christian spirituality was Christocentric, eschatological, ascetical, liturgical, and communal. It also discusses Gnosticism and how some early Christians attempted to integrate Greek philosophy with Christianity, which later led to heretical dualistic teachings, while other authors like Paul and John used gnosis in a positive orthodox sense.

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    Christian Spirituality

    Uploaded by

    Richard Michael Delfin
    80 views15 pages
    The document discusses early Christian spirituality as presented in the Didache and writings of the Apostolic Fathers. It describes that early Christian spirituality was Christocentric, eschatological, ascetical, liturgical, and communal. It also discusses Gnosticism and how some early Christians attempted to integrate Greek philosophy with Christianity, which later led to heretical dualistic teachings, while other authors like Paul and John used gnosis in a positive orthodox sense.

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    The document discusses early Christian spirituality as presented in the Didache and writings of the Apostolic Fathers. It describes that early Christian spirituality was Christocentric, eschatological, ascetical, liturgical, and communal. It also discusses Gnosticism and how some early Christians attempted to integrate Greek philosophy with Christianity, which later led to heretical dualistic teachings, while other authors like Paul and John used gnosis in a positive orthodox sense.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    80 views15 pages

    Christian Spirituality

    Uploaded by

    Richard Michael Delfin
    The document discusses early Christian spirituality as presented in the Didache and writings of the Apostolic Fathers. It describes that early Christian spirituality was Christocentric, eschatological, ascetical, liturgical, and communal. It also discusses Gnosticism and how some early Christians attempted to integrate Greek philosophy with Christianity, which later led to heretical dualistic teachings, while other authors like Paul and John used gnosis in a positive orthodox sense.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 15

    CHAPTER 2

    SPIRITUALITY OF THE EARLY


    CHURCH
    By Richard Michael Delfin
    Considerations:
    The life of Jesus and His Sermons and
    parables (Christocentric)
     Jews (chosen people) and the Gentiles
    Jerusalem, the cradle of the church
    His followers and their works and
    writings
    Liturgy/ worship
    The Didache
    The Didache (Greek meaning "teaching"),
    variously known as The Doctrine of the
    Twelve Apostles and The Lord's Teaching
    through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations,
    is a short exposition concerning Christian
    morals, doctrine, and customs that was most
    likely composed in the first century. Its
    sixteen chapters cover Christian moral life,
    Baptism, fasting, prayer, the Eucharist, and
    the developing Church hierarchy.
    The author, exact date, and location are
    unknown, but many of the early Church
    Fathers, such as St. Clement of Alexandria,
    Eusebius of Caesarea, and St. Athanasius,
    used this text as a reference, and some even
    sought its admittance to the Canon of
    Scripture. Lost to scholars for centuries, it
    was finally rediscovered in 1873 by
    Philotheos Bryennios, a Greek Orthodox
    bishop.
    In the Didache or Teaching of the Twelve
    Apostles, written sometime between 70
    and  100, we find a great deal of
    information about the Christian life in the
    early Church. It  mentions, for example,
    the organization of the hierarchy that
    emerged at this period:  apostles,
    prophets, doctors, bishops, priests and
    deacons.
    Didache is an important link between the
    Acts of the Apostles and the Apostolic 
    Fathers, and it is to their writings that we
    turn for a more detailed description of the 
    spirituality of the early Church.  
    THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS 
    As the writings of the apostles were an
    authentic record of the teachings of Christ,
    so  also the works of the earliest Christian
    writers, called the "Apostolic Fathers," were
    a  transmission of the teaching of the
    apostles.
    Bouyer points out, "the importance of an
    oral tradition... makes the few original texts 
    bequeathed to us from this period of quite
    secondary importance."
    "Apostolic Fathers"
    (in 1672), as follows: 
    Barnabas,
    St. Clement of Rome,
    Hermas,
    St. Ignatius of Antioch,
    St. Polycarp,
    Papias,
    CHRISTIAN LIFE 
    First of all, early Christian spirituality was
    Christocentric.
    Secondly, early Christian spirituality was
    eschatological.
    Thirdly, primitive Christian spirituality was
    ascetical.
    Fourthly, primitive Christian spirituality was
    liturgical.
    Finally, early Christian spirituality was
    communal or social.
    Gnosticism's fundamental points:
    Gnostic beliefs held that a secret
    knowledge regarding God and the origin
    and destiny of man had been given to a
    select few.
    Its worldview pitted the Demiurge, the
    creator god of the material and visible
    world, against the remote and unknowable
    Divine Being.
    The Demiurge was of lesser stature than the
    Divine Being, from whom the Demiurge had
    originated through a series A Coptic image
    of Pisces of emanations.
    The Gnostics claimed that the Demiurge was
    the author and ruler of the created world.
    Being material and imperfect, the created
    world would naturally have an antagonistic
    and inferior relationship to the spiritual,
    perfect world of the Divine Being.
    Thus, the spiritual Divine Being is the agent of
    goodness, and the Demiurge, the author of the
    material world, propagates evil in the world.
    Generally, a Gnostic religion holds the following
    beliefs:
    1. Matter is a corruption of spirit, and thus the
    world is corrupt;
    2. Man must seek through knowledge to overcome
    this fallen state and return to God; and
    3. God has made this possible by sending a savior
    (usually held to be Jesus).
    CHRISTIAN GNOSTICISM 
    Because of the excesses to which it led,
    Gnosticism is generally condemned
    outright  as an attempt to Hellenize
    Christianity by adapting the Gospel to
    Greek philosophy.  This was not so from
    the beginning, however, for the first phase
    of Gnosticism was  simply an effort to
    express in philosophical terms the moral
    and doctrinal content of  Sacred Scripture.
    Itis only later, toward the end of the second
    century, that some  Gnostics promulgated the
    doctrine of the dual principle of creation and
    the erroneous  conclusions that follow from
    such a doctrine. Thus, according to Bouyer,
    Gnosticism  "was not originally a heterodox
    idea, either in Christianity or in Judaism.
    In St. Paul, therefore, gnosis signified the
    knowledge of God, knowledge of the 
    mysteries or secrets of God, and the
    understanding of the mystery of Christ (Eph. 
    3:i4-r9).
     In St. John, gnosis is united with love and
    takes on mystical qualities.  Reflections of the
    Pauline and Johannine doctrine are found in
    the Didache, in the  Shepherd of Hernias and in
    the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, but it is in
    St.  Clement of Rome and the pseudo-Barnabas
    that the doctrine of gnosis is clearly set  forth.

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