Voices of Concern: Critical Studies in Church of Christism

This deification of fertility denies women control over their bodies. Fertility is viewed as a way to sustain marriage and demonstrate self-worth, whereas infertility and miscarriage are associated with being the devil's work and a justification for men to divorce, have multiple marriages, and engage in extramarital sex.

Secular groups deem it appropriate for both partners to have equal rights to decide family size. Decisions are reached in the context of our understanding of biology and, to a lesser extent, demography and social sciences. Conservative religious institutions often promulgate rigid norms of sexual identity Horn , supported by an ideological stance that homosexuality is sinful. The Old Testament clearly condemns homosexuality. Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: Religious traditions are often used to justify laws and judicial decisions as well as discrimination against sexual minorities EHAHRDP Policies and laws have been adopted that exclude protection of the individual rights of people based on their sexual orientation Twiss According to the International Lesbian and Gay Association, among countries, 78 have laws that criminalise male same-sex relationships and in 45, female same-sex relationships are illegal International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, authorities relying on religious laws impose whipping, life imprisonment, and even death penalties.

When same-sex relationships between consenting adults are criminalised, fear of jail, violent attacks, stigma, and discrimination reduce the number of gay people who choose to be tested for HIV. Although alternative sexualities are known to have existed in sub-Saharan Africa for at least years, many people today have highly negative attitudes toward sexual minorities, attributed to both retained colonial laws and values and powerful religious beliefs Oxfam Two widely publicised events provoked a secular outcry in support of same-sex partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa Senior The first occurred in Malawi, a deeply conservative society where traditional religions are mixed with the values of the Anglican Church.

There are proposals to penalise those who engage in homosexual behaviour in Zimbabwe's new Constitution Radio Vop Zimbabwe , a country which has historically used state power to restrict sexual rights and citizenship and denigrate homosexuality Phillips Religiously encouraged laws such as these continue to create conflict between conservative religious institutions and secular groups. The second and more egregious situation relates to the proposed Bahati anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda first introduced in October , discussed, but rejected in Parliament in May However, it could potentially be carried over into the next session of Parliament International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission a , Kron , which seeks to establish comprehensive legislation ostensibly to protect the traditional family by prohibiting any form of same-sex relations, allegedly spurred by the actions of US Evangelicals.

This anti-homosexuality bill calls for imprisonment for those engaging in same-sex relations as well as for those members of the public who fail to report such activities, with the original draft calling for the possibility of life imprisonment and the death penalty by serial offenders or HIV-positive individuals Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law , Harris et al. In a terribly sad turn of events, Mr. David Kato, a Ugandan gay-rights activist was beaten to death in his home on 26 January , three weeks after he won a court case against a local newspaper that published the names and addresses of gay-rights campaigners in the East African nation Bloomberg News Liberal Christian churches focus on brotherly love and compassion.

Christians pride themselves on doing things that Jesus Christ would do if He were here now, and many believe that Christ would condemn injury, let alone murder, based on sexual orientation. Religious institutions have historically been involved in the roles of men and women in society. Many conservative churches place women in dependent, submissive roles, justified by selected interpretation of biblical texts Marshall and Taylor HIV prevention messages that promote fidelity for a woman, regardless of a man's unfaithfulness, may effectively be a death sentence for women whose partners refuse to use condoms.

For example, Agadjanian , Agadjanian and Menjivar found differences in these standards and expectations for men and women in many churches in Mozambique. Condom use was likely to be discussed at men's meetings, but was unlikely to be discussed at women's meetings. Women congregants especially those from healing churches reported they were reminded that having an extramarital relationship could result in the loss of property rights and children.

Women congregants had many traditional responsibilities, e. Crumbley studied the attitudes toward women from three different churches in Nigeria. The Christ Apostolic Church prohibits women from being ordained. In the Celestial Church of Christ, women are not only prohibited from being ordained, but from entering the altar area or the church during menstruation.

Although women in the Church of the Lord are prohibited from entering the church while menstruating and their participation in discussions of theological matters is limited since they are viewed as being ritually impure, they can be ordained but cannot perform Holy Communion, weddings, and baptism before they are menopausal or reach the age of In Malawi, responsibility for translating religious doctrine into practice is placed in the hands of men, effectively serving to control and subordinate women's work and sexuality.

Not only do Malawian women receive fewer benefits than men from religious institutions, but they lack support from them Rankin et al. As with discrimination against sexual orientation, so the diminution of women at many levels in conservative religious institutions, although less recognised, is a serious obstacle to HIV prevention. Women are, in fact, too often seen as the vectors rather than the victims of HIV. It is as difficult for conservative religious institutions to consider changing their view of sexual and reproductive rights as it is for secular organisations to accept religious theology and doctrine.

As to sexual autonomy, reproductive autonomy and tolerance of deviance, we recommend adopting Wingood's diplomatic approaches to congregants of religious organisations through organised church groups. This could take the form of meetings of small groups of women or families, guided by individuals who are neither religious nor secular leaders. These discussions should be constructive in helping to frame responses to these universal transgressions against the current conservative Christian ideals of sexual autonomy, reproductive autonomy, and tolerance of deviance.

In fact, the punishment, even when only social disgrace, may be more hurtful in secular groups than the price of forgiveness in religious groups. Secularists must devote themselves to convincing conservative religious institutions that many will not and cannot change their practices in reproductive autonomy. Individuals who have opted to have children outside marriage or fewer children in marriage could respectfully explain their decision to selected groups of congregants.

Stigma and discrimination are the most immutable of the four issues. Intolerance to social deviance of any kind is universal among secularists and religious congregants. Secularists must convince those conservative Christian religious institutions which consider homosexuality as socially or biologically deviant that acceptance or forgiveness is an appropriate Christian ideal. What is urgently needed is a dialogue that emphasises the convergence of religious institutions and secular groups to promote social justice, avowed by all. Drawing upon the Protestant theology, Smith argues that religion and condoms for disease prevention are linked because of the Christian obligation to protect life.

Revision by the Catholic Church of its ideological stance from no condom use to condoning condom use for disease prevention in limited circumstances is encouraging. As promotion of condom use is the most effective method of reducing the spread of HIV, we propose that these parties concentrate on what seems achievable in the short-term:. Biomedical technologies that do not limit pregnancy -- antiretrovirals and medical male circumcision for HIV prevention -- may become more acceptable than condoms.

Given steps like the Pope's tweaking of Christian theology as to condom use, we are optimistic that people of good will join together to reduce the spread of HIV.

The Christian Post

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the National Institute of Mental Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Author manuscript; available in PMC Aug Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer. The publisher's final edited version of this article is available at Glob Public Health.

See other articles in PMC that cite the published article. Introduction Societies have traditionally granted broad authority to religious institutions to create and oversee rules for many aspects of individual behaviour, including those affecting sexuality, the role of women, reproduction, health education and care of the sick. Secular and religious collisions regarding sexual and reproductive rights Early Hebrews linked reproduction with survival Yarber , disapproving of all sexual activity not aimed at reproduction.

The right to sexual autonomy Heterosexual sex within marriage is the accepted, if not celebrated, expression of sexuality within the vast majority of Christian traditions Louw In the words of one of Smith's female participants, In the words of one pastor: Condoms and sex education for the young Conservative Christian religious institutions that promote abstinence and fidelity believe that these practices prevent new infections, frequently citing Uganda as the exemplary model Denis The right to reproductive autonomy Religion plays an essential role in how people understand and make choices about contraception, fertility, motherhood and abortion.

The Bible encourages sexual pleasure: The right to freedom from stigma and discrimination of sexual orientation and gender Sexual orientation Conservative religious institutions often promulgate rigid norms of sexual identity Horn , supported by an ideological stance that homosexuality is sinful.

Gender Religious institutions have historically been involved in the roles of men and women in society. As promotion of condom use is the most effective method of reducing the spread of HIV, we propose that these parties concentrate on what seems achievable in the short-term: Selecting local people, e. Inspiring conservative religious leaders to provide HIV prevention messages, emphasising from the pulpit that God's righteousness and mercy, Christ's mission of forgiving, warrant appropriate condom use. Mobilising liberal churches to discuss with conservative religious congregants their common religious responsibility to compel broader condom use.

Teaming up liberal and conservative churches may be more acceptable than secular groups teamed with conservative churches because of trust and credibility within the commonality of religious organisations. Encouraging liberal Christian religious institutions and s ecular groups to join in discussions of condom use with conservative religious institutions in every available forum. Emboldening secular leaders to enhance their understanding of how the Bible relates to condom use, perhaps participating in bible studies at conservative Christian churches.

Footnotes Conflict of Interest Statement The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the National Institute of Mental Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Bayes JH, Tohidi N. Globalization, gender, and religion. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa. Protecting the next Generation in sub-Saharan Africa: Guttmacher Institute; New York: Third, the call to discipleship implied a radical break with the past that involved leaving family, work, possessions for example, Luke 1: Thus, Matthew 10 lists the work of the disciple as proclaiming the good news, curing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, casting out demons Matt.

The letters of St. Paul, for example, express this as participating in the cross of Jesus and in his resurrection—in other words, in the triumph of glory over suffering and life over sin and death Rom 6: This dynamic is continually strengthened by the regular celebration of the Eucharist in early Christian communities. The notion of union with, and participation in, the life of Jesus Christ is further developed in St.

Paul, who also uses the language of adoption. Second, and closely related to this, is the emphasis on discipleship as membership of a family. As already noted, Christian spirituality implies an understanding of God, the material world, and human identity. In other words, spirituality and beliefs are inseparable. However, as we shall see, in the study of Christian spirituality, how the relationship between beliefs and spirituality is understood has changed over the years.

The fundamental point is that the varied traditions of Christian spirituality grew out of spiritual practice rather than out of abstract theory. Equally, formal definitions of Christian doctrine about God, or about Jesus Christ as both human and divine, did not arise from intellectual speculation. Christian doctrine, scripture, and the Christian life were intimately interconnected. However, the motives behind seeking greater doctrinal precision grew from a sense that authentic living depended on maintaining right belief orthodoxy , and that misbelief or heresy led to spiritual inauthenticity.

The doctrine of the Incarnation, affirming that in the person of Jesus of Nazareth there was a union of the divine and the human, not only governed all other Christian beliefs but was also the bedrock of Christian spirituality. This heresy had two main elements. The first was a focus on esoteric knowledge. That is, true knowledge of God was reserved to a special group of initiates who inherited secret oral teachings. Second, this secret knowledge involved dualistic, anti-material beliefs.

Human bodily existence is the result of sin. Humans have a fundamental spiritual nature that is trapped in the body, belongs to another world, and needs to return there. It also undermined the belief that God entered into the material world and into the human condition in the person of Jesus. This process of clarification about the nature of Jesus Christ, his relationship to God, and the implications for the Christian life, took several hundred years to be formally defined. Two official gatherings, or Councils, of Church leaders stand out. First, the Council of Nicaea in ce condemned the heresy of Arianism named after an Egyptian priest called Arius.

Arianism denied that the nature of God could be shared or communicated. Consequently, Jesus Christ was not an uncreated equal of the eternal God as Father. Equally, there was no intimate relationship between God and humanity. This heresy was termed Monophysitism.

Again, this undermined the value of the human condition. The Chalcedonian Creed affirmed that Jesus Christ had two natures and so was paradoxically both truly God and truly human. However, it did not manage to resolve precisely how this was to be understood. In the end, the focus of all this debate about doctrine was practical in relation to understanding and leading the Christian life and, indeed, to understanding the nature of human life more generally. It is now possible to describe briefly the fundamental characteristics of Christian spirituality.

However, it is too narrow to understand the call to proclaim the Kingdom simply as a verbal communication of information about God or of moral teachings. While later forms of Christian spirituality necessarily re-interpret these scriptural foundations, it is nevertheless possible to say that personal transformation and the mission to transform the world are key themes.

The history of Christian spirituality is a rich and varied commentary on how these two themes have been expressed in a wide variety of spiritual movements and literature. In the light of these values, all classic Christian spiritual traditions address certain questions, implicitly or explicitly. First, in reference to transformation, both personal and social, what needs to be transformed and why?

Second, is transformation essentially individual, or does it also imply a commitment to transform society? Third, what factors stand in the way of transformation? These factors were described in religious terms, although nowadays commentators would also note the role of psychological or social and cultural factors. Fourth, what is the context for transformation?

Is it the processes of everyday life, or does it demand stepping aside into a special context for example, the desert, the monastery, or a retreat house? Fifth, how does transformation take place? This usually involves some theory about how spiritual growth takes place as well about lifestyles or spiritual practices that assist it. Finally, what is the purpose of transformation?

In other words, classic Christian spiritual traditions offer some vision of spiritual enlightenment and human completeness. In terms of the word mission, the concept is both rich and ambiguous. For some traditionalists, it implies proselytizing—that is, converting people to Christianity. However, for others, Christianity is mission-focused in a quite different, outward-looking way.

This outward-looking approach seeks to respond to the lives and needs of others. The message of Jesus Christ demands that disciples attend to the needs of the poor and marginalized, and enable their voices to be heard. At this point it is worth summarizing the classic approaches to spiritual transformation. One widespread image in Christian spirituality is that of a pilgrimage or journey. Thus, the theology of the early Church gradually developed a theory of successive stages on the spiritual journey. The theologian Origen c.

In the following century, Gregory of Nyssa c. His metaphor was the story of Moses climbing Mount Sinai to enter deep clouds of darkness in his encounter with God. While described as consecutive stages, in practice they are interrelated dimensions. The 6th-century Rule of St.

While these classic Christian approaches to the spiritual journey may continue to offer wisdom for the present day, their purely individual approach would nowadays be balanced by a renewed biblical emphasis on collective, social understandings of spirituality. Thus, the theme of transformation in Christian spirituality is nowadays more explicitly engaged with the question of transforming society rather than simply transforming individual lives. As has already been noted, Christianity embraces a great variety of spiritual traditions and writings.

Any attempt to write an overview of Christian spirituality confronts the question of how to organize a large amount of material into an intelligible pattern. Scholars have sometimes found it helpful to define what they see as major types of Christian spirituality. Types of spirituality are fundamentally distinctive styles of spiritual wisdom and spiritual practices with certain shared characteristics.

These may be expressed in a body of literature, in meditative practices or other spiritual disciplines, in distinctive communities that practice a certain lifestyle, or in a combination of these. Having identified such types, it is then possible to develop a framework what is called a typology that enables us to compare and contrast them and thus to understand their distinctive qualities. However, typologies need to be used with caution. They are useful tools to help people analyze the complexities of Christian spirituality. However, the notion of types is itself an act of interpretation rather than a straightforward description of reality.

For the purposes of this article, I identify five types of Christian spirituality, which will now be briefly described. These types are ascetical, mystical, active, aesthetic, and finally, prophetic. These types sometimes overlap to some degree. Thus, for example, ascetical forms of spirituality may also have mystical elements.

The ascetical type of spirituality sometimes prescribes special places for the process of spiritual transformation, such as the wilderness or the monastery. Characteristically, it also describes certain disciplines or practices of self-denial, austerity, and abstention from worldly pleasures as the pathway to spiritual growth and moral perfection. The end in view is a condition of detachment from material existence as the pathway to eternal life. In some respects, all the major Christian spiritual traditions contain an ascetical or disciplined element.

However the most familiar expression of this type is associated with monasticism. The period from the 4th to the 12th centuries ce was one of major consolidation in the history of Christianity and complex changes in its surrounding political and cultural contexts. Inevitably, this led to readjustments in self-understanding and in spiritual values. One consequence was the expansion of counter-cultural ascetical movements that gave birth to monasticism.

For the next seven centuries, the history of Christian spirituality, both East and West, was in many ways dominated by the ascetical-monastic type of spirituality. Christianity has no monopoly on monasticism. It has existed in some form in other world religions. While single Christian ascetics first appeared in the region of Syria and Palestine, structured monasticism emerged in Egypt. This took several forms, from small groups of hermits to larger, village-like settlements, and eventually to major communities, for example associated with Pachomius c.

By about ce , monasticism numbered thousands of men and women. Basil, which is still the foundation for Eastern Orthodox monasticism. In the West, two major monastic Rules emerged, the Rule of St.

Augustine in 5th-century North Africa and the Rule of St. Benedict in 6th-century Italy. Although other traditions eventually emerged, these two Rules continue to dominate Western monasticism. Notable medieval products of the Benedictine tradition, and its off-shoot the Cistercians, include a pope, Gregory the Great — ; the philosopher Anselm of Canterbury — ; the poet, musician, and artist Hildegard of Bingen — ; the mystical theologian Bernard of Clairvaux; and the English writer on human friendship, Aelred of Rievaulx.

In modern times, well-known monastic spiritual figures include the popular writer Thomas Merton — and the Eastern Orthodox nun and writer Maria Skobtsova — , who was executed by the Nazis for protecting Jews. In recent times, monasticism has re-emerged in Protestant Christianity as well as in the Anglican Communion. The mystical type of spirituality is associated with the desire for an immediacy of presence to God, frequently through contemplative practice.

It does not demand withdrawal from everyday life, but suggests that the everyday world may be transfigured into something wondrous. The mystical type is associated with intuitive knowledge of God beyond discursive reasoning and analysis. The ultimate purpose is spiritual illumination and being connected to the transcendent. A mystical dimension to Christianity existed from its beginnings. In the 6th century ce , the writings of an anonymous Syrian monk known as pseudo-Dionysius had a considerable influence in both the East and the West.

However, it is commonly suggested that in Western Christianity the period from — ce saw a particular flourishing of mysticism. This was partly because of a growing sense of the individual self after what became known as the 12th-century Renaissance, and partly as a reaction to a more philosophically driven theology.

The 14th century is particularly rich in mystical writers. A number of key figures have achieved wide popularity, even outside Christianity. Two people may be taken as examples. She became an anchoress sometime after an almost fatal illness in when, over a twenty-four hour period, she had sixteen visions provoked by the sight of a crucifix in her sick room. Her famous A Revelation of Love , in the version known as the Long Text she also wrote a Short Text , is a sophisticated vernacular work of mystical-pastoral theology, written after years of reflection for the benefit of all her fellow Christians.

But you will never know different, without end. The active type of spirituality, in a variety of ways, promotes everyday life as the principle context for the spiritual path. In this type of spirituality, people do not need to retreat from everyday concerns in order to reach spiritual enlightenment. What is needed for spiritual growth is within our reach. This type of spirituality seeks to find spiritual growth through the medium of ordinary experiences, commitments, and activity, including the service of our fellow humans.

Among the best-known examples of this type is the spiritual wisdom associated with Ignatius Loyola — , a 16th-century Basque noble, soldier, and finally Catholic reformer and founder of the religious order known as the Society of Jesus Jesuits. The main values of Ignatian spirituality are highlighted in his text, the Spiritual Exercises. The Spiritual Exercises is one of the most influential Christian spiritual texts, now used as a medium for retreats and spiritual guidance across an ecumenical spectrum of Christians.

It is not an inspirational text but a collection of practical notes for a retreat guide. The aim is to flexibly assist a retreatant to grow in inner freedom, to be able to respond to the call of Christ in the midst of daily life. From the Exercises , it is possible to outline certain key features of Ignatian spirituality and of the active type of spirituality more generally. First, God is encountered in the practices of everyday life. Second, the life and death of Jesus Christ are offered as the fundamental pattern for Christian life. Third, God, in and through Jesus Christ, offers the healing and liberation needed to respond to the divine call.

Fourth, spirituality focuses on a deepening desire for God in the midst of ordinary existence. Ignatius effectively summarizes a long tradition of discernment in Christian spirituality that finds its roots in ancient philosophy, notably in Aristotle. The Exercises and the wider Ignatian tradition promote a range of spiritual practices including meditation, contemplation, and other forms of prayer, including what is known as the Examen, a brief daily practice of prayerful reflection on the events of the day and how God has been present.

The aesthetic type of spirituality covers a spectrum of ways by which the spiritual journey may be expressed in, and shaped by, the arts, music and poetry. Icons are understood to be a medium of divine power. Through interaction with them, humans may become spiritually united with, and transformed by, what the icon represents—God, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, or other saints.

In the world of music, there is a long tradition of explicitly spiritual-religious music, often associated with Christian worship, such as plainchant, the polyphonic Mass settings of composers like William Byrd or Giovanni Palestrina, and the Lutheran chorales of Johann Sebastian Bach. In more recent times, the French Catholic composer Olivier Messiaen believed that sound in itself was spiritual, because it connects the listener to the harmonies of the cosmos. If we turn to literature, it is clear that the extraordinary poetry of someone like the 16th-century Spanish mystic John of the Cross was a direct expression of his own inner spiritual experience.

The 19th-century English Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins is considered to be one of the leading and most innovative Victorian poets, full of spiritual vision. In recent times, the lyric poetry of the late Elizabeth Jennings is deeply imbued with her inner struggles and her Christian faith. However, in the history of Christian spirituality, a cluster of important 17th-century English poets expresses the gradual emergence of a distinctive Church of England spiritual tradition.

Deeply inspired by the Bible and the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer, the sophisticated poetry of such priests as John Donne, George Herbert, and Thomas Traherne as well as the physician Henry Vaughan is both great literature and an important expression of Anglican spirituality. George Herbert — , aristocrat, Cambridge University orator, Member of Parliament, then priest, wrote two great works—a prose treatise on the priestly life, The Country Parson , and an outstanding poetic collection, The Temple.

However, the carefully ordered nature of the collection also indicates their wider purpose—to communicate to readers the sometimes-painful complexity of the Christian spiritual path. Herbert was someone with deep aesthetic sensibilities—to the beauty of liturgy and of church architecture, for example. He also considered writing poetry as a form of prayer. Finally, the prophetic type of spirituality goes beyond the simple service of other people in the direction of an explicit commitment to social transformation as a spiritual task.

It is possible to argue that historic religions have always had prophetic elements. Thus, the prophets of the Hebrew Bible such as Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah critiqued corrupt social and political systems. In medieval Christian spirituality, the movement associated with Francis of Assisi emphasized spiritual poverty and worked with marginalized groups of people, partly in reaction against what Francis saw as the prevailing sins of his own wealthy merchant class.

However, neither biblical prophecy nor Francis of Assisi explicitly promoted a spirituality of social justice or social transformation. The development of a prophetic style of spirituality really emerged during the 20th century in response to three factors. First, the appalling slaughter of the two World Wars, mid-century totalitarianism Nazism, Fascism, and Stalinism , the Holocaust, and then the birth of the atomic-nuclear age provoked an overwhelming sense of the destructive power of war and of human oppression.

Second, there was the gradual and often violent end to European colonialism in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Third, there was a growing wave of social and cultural change in Europe and North America in relation to the status and role of women and to civil rights for ethnic minorities. In Christianity, there has been a range of examples of the prophetic type of spirituality. The arrival of the 'Kingdom' contained the seeds of economic revolution and social reversal. With all these we, however, do not find a 'pattern' of a fully orbed programme to transform society in the life of the early church.

This, however, radically changed when the church moved out beyond the borders of the Graeco-Roman frontiers. Bruce Winter in his careful and well-documented discussion of public life in the 1st century shows how early Christians took part in public life in the Greco-Roman communities in which they lived Winter He argues that 'the early church in fact taught a civic consciousness among its members'.

Christians were not to abandon life in public sphere politeia but to address their obligations as citizens from the perspective of the Christian ethic. Winter holds that the Christian community, while maintaining a commitment to the tradition of benefaction of the classical city, required all its citizens, whatever their financial resources, to contribute to the welfare of the city even in the face of persecution.

They thus saw themselves as practising a new and strange politeia. Winter concludes that the Christian social ethic … was an unprecedented social revolution of the ancient benefaction tradition. Every Christian had an obligation to promote the welfare of the city and help the poor, even without the rewards that were traditionally accorded the benefactor. David Bosch points out that transformation humanisation has been a part of the Christian mission and influence in society right from the beginning Bosch In a society described as 'macabre, lost in despair, perversion, and superstition', Christian communities emerged as something entirely new in the populous and far-flung Roman Empire.

The early church was on the periphery of society. It found many of its earliest adherents among slaves, women and foreigners - people who had no special influence on the shape of society. Yet it was to have an impact on society, especially over the next two millennia.

Christianity began by preaching and practising the 'gospel of love and charity' which included almsgiving and care for widows, orphans, slaves, travellers, the sick, the imprisoned and the poor Von Harnack Driven by the love of Jesus believers went out and expressed their love for the neighbour. The early disciples showed true mercy and compassion. Peter, who had no silver or gold on his person, gave a crippled beggar what he did have: Tabitha Dorcas is cited as an early disciple 'full of good works and acts of charity' Ac 9: Generally speaking, the New Testament sees the ministry of mercy not only as an individual obligation, but also as a corporate endeavour of the church, to be carried out by the church itself.

Thus members of the first Christian congregation 'sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need' Ac 2: The early Christians in Jerusalem were organised on determinedly egalitarian lines, practising community ownership of property. Women played as prominent a role as men did. Within the group, at least in the early decades, there was a conscious rejection of the status-conscious norms of society, a rejection summarised in the admonition that within the community of the baptised there was 'neither Jew nor Greek … slave nor free … male nor female' Gal 3: As the church spread through the Roman Empire its ministries of mercy underwent considerable development.

Social relief became a monopoly of the church in Rome and Alexandria, where it was manifested in distributions to the poor and in the establishment and upkeep of hospitals, orphanages and homes for the aged. By the 4th century the church was also bringing relief to people whom inflation had plunged into distress. During the time of Constantine the church enjoyed much favour. Constantine's attempt to create a Christian empire eventually resulted in the state taking over much of the responsibility of the church.

For example, the state now assumed as its responsibility the care of the poor though the church continued with this on a small scale. To Constantine himself is credited the observation that a changed religion involves a changed social order. As a matter of fact the Constantinian policy embraced two parallel but distinct objects. These objects may be described as follows Cochrane The former represents the attitude of the emperor to individual believers; it finds expression in an extensive scheme of moral and social reform designed to satisfy their demands and to promote their interests.

The latter reflects his views regarding the Church as an institution, and it manifests itself in the project of a Christian establishment conceived more or less along the lines of existing pagan state-cults. Constantine's reforms were limited to a certain tenderness towards dependents, women, children and slaves. Women, for example, were no longer to be compelled to undergo trial in the public courts, widows and orphans were to have special consideration at the hands of the judiciary and they were not to be forced to travel long distances for hearings Cochrane A law that forbade the separation mitigated the hardships of slavery by sale of man and wife, and the practice of manumission was encouraged, especially if it took place in the church.

In other respects, also, the emperor tried to maintain the cohesion of the family, especially by prohibiting divorce except on statutory grounds: Constantine also called for the prohibition of gladiatorial exhibitions and the abolition of crucifixion as a form of punishment, no doubt out of respect for the memory of Christ.

With this tasteless expression of Christian sentiment may be compared the enactment which forbade the branding of human beings on the face 'because the face is made in the image of God', while slaves, criminals and even conscripts continued to be branded on other parts of the body Cochrane In the earliest stage of his public career, Constantine maintained a more flexible though still strictly aristocratic type of society. Once in power, however, he seems to have abandoned any such notion; for he maintained in all its rigour, the legal framework of the status-society.

He promoted the tendency towards social evolution upon an occupational basis; in each and every case seeking to attach to the legal person fixed obligations commensurate with the privileges to which his status in the community entitled him; and, at the same time, scattering immunities and exemptions with a generous hand among favoured groups whose services he regarded as peculiarly valuable to the regime. This programme was said to demoralise the middle groups while, at the same time, it transformed the free peasant into a serf. Post-Constantine churches spent great sums on the work of ransoming captives.

St Ambrose proposed selling the precious vessels on the altars of his church in Milan to do just that. There is one incentive which must impel us all to charity; it is pity for the misery of our neighbors and the desire to alleviate it, with all the means that lie in our power, and more besides.

As we have shown, there is no doubt that the early Christian centuries were a period of significant social change and restructuring, witnessing the spread of Roman power across the Greek East as well as the emergence of Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. The emergence of a new cultural form both indicated and enabled broader societal transformations Perkins In spite of what we have just noted, however, it can hardly be maintained that the early Christians deliberately attempted to restructure the empire in addressing matters of socio-economic justice.

Instead, during the first two centuries when Christians constituted a small minority, their concern was to help those who were dehumanised and oppressed by providing practical help.

Their concerns were motivated by compassion and characterised by communal justice and the love of God. Their input into changing society was essentially to provide charity and love as expressed in the Scriptures. Yet they were to have a profound effect in helping the poor and neglected.

The medieval period was built on a system of feudal hierarchy. In this hierarchy, the lord of the manor, who, in turn, owed allegiance to and was protected by a higher overlord, protected the serf, or peasant. And so the system went, ending eventually with the king. This hierarchical and systemic differentiation was generally biologically based, with birth right crucial to one's place in feudal society, as was hereditary provenance. Such a structure led to the exploitation and oppression of those lower in the hierarchy.

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The Catholic Church was by far the largest owner of land during the Middle Ages. The bishops and abbots, in exercising a primary loyalty to the church in Rome, provided a strong central government throughout this period. Hence the manor functioned on both a religious and secular basis. The dominant economic institutions in the towns were the guilds who were also involved with social and religious questions. They regulated their members' conduct in all their activities: Although the guilds regulated very carefully the production and sale of commodities, they were less concerned with making profits than with saving their members' souls.

Salvation demanded that the individual lead an orderly life based on church teachings and custom. This led to a strong paternalistic obligation towards the common people, the poor and the general welfare of society. It was accepted that some were to be rich, and that the poor had to subordinate to the leadership of the wealthy. However, it was equally emphasised that the wealthy had an obligation to use their riches to help the poor.

Hence riches and wealth were not condemned, but greed, selfish acquisitiveness, covetousness and the lust for wealth were consistently condemned by the Christian paternalist ethic. What we do see here is a concern for the poor. However, the support of wealth and not greed or selfish acquisitiveness was to obscure the absolute biblical focus on the poor that Jesus advocated.

The teachings of Christ in the New Testament carry on part of the Mosaic tradition relevant to economic ideology. He taught the necessity of being concerned with the welfare of one's brother, the importance of charity and almsgiving. He condemned the rich and praised the poor as he took their side. The medieval church in many ways attempted to remain true to the teachings of its Lord as it set out to develop its society politically, economically, socially and religiously. However, while on the one hand the Church drew up guidelines for helping the poor, and their assistance was structured accordingly, on the other hand, certain bishops began to allow believers to adopt a more comfortable life style.

So the problem of the poor was attacked only at the level of its consequences and not of its causes. The poor were still dependent on the rich and, although some of the rich showed great generosity, the institutional and structural injustice which generated poverty was not dealt with at its roots. The key figure to shape the medieval paradigm of mission thinking was Augustine of Hippo though, strictly speaking, he preceded the Middle Ages, at least if one takes this period to have begun around Bosch Augustine's circumstances and his reaction to them, influenced deeply by his personal history, were to shape both the theology and the understanding of mission of subsequent centuries.

His reaction to an English monk, Pelagius, and the Donatists in North Africa essentially directed the missionary paradigm of the Middle Ages see Frend Augustine maintained that God became human in order to save human souls that are hurtling to destruction. Hence not the reconciliation of the universe but the redemption of the soul stands in the centre.

The church as a transformation and change agent

The theology of Augustine could not but spawn a dualistic view of reality, which became second nature in Western Christianity - the tendency to regard salvation as a private matter and to ignore the world, though this was not the view of Augustine himself. This particular view gave rise to the tendency of seeing mission as an attempt to develop the church rather than get involved with the world Bosch Augustine, however, promoted the involvement of the church with the world. In this respect he maintained that the church's involvement with social change in relation to the poor was personal charity.

Augustine was the architect of the doctrine of charity; obedience to God required a genuine concern for the needs of the poor Sider The Middle Ages also saw the rise of the monastic movement which greatly contributed to the Christianisation of Europe Tanner Only monasticism, says Niebuhr, saved the medieval church from acquiescence, petrification and the loss of its vision and truly revolutionary character Quoted in Bosch For upward of years, from the 5th century to the 12th, the monastery was not only the centre of culture and civilisation, but also of mission.

At first glance, the monastic movement appears to be a most unlikely agent for mission and transformation. The communities were certainly not founded as launching pads for mission. They were not even created out of a desire to get involved in society in their immediate environment. Rather, they regarded society as corrupt and moribund, held together only by 'the tenacity of custom'.

Christian Spirituality and Social Transformation

Monasticism stood for the absolute renunciation of everything the ancient world had prized, it was an endeavour to refrain from the 'sinful world'. It was 'flight from the world, and nothing else' Bosch In the light of the above it may therefore sound preposterous to suggest that monasticism was both a primary agent of medieval mission and the main instrument in reforming European society.

That this was indeed what happened was due, firstly, to the esteem in which the general populace held monks Elliston Secondly, their exemplary lifestyle made a profound impact, particularly on the peasants. The monasteries became self-sustaining communities organised around rules for daily life, rules which pertained to work as well as prayer. This concept was revolutionary in the ancient world, where manual work was seen as fit for slaves.

This concept would be emphasised again by Puritanism and have had a powerful effect on the western world. Thirdly, their monasteries were centres not only of hard manual labour, but also of culture and education. The monks were encouraged to become scholars. Thus, for the first time the practical and theoretical were embodied in the same individuals.

This combination helped create an atmosphere favourable to scientific development, including both workshops and libraries. The monasteries became centres of Christian faith, learning and technical progress as they expanded into northern Europe. According to Cannon, in the West the monasteries became 'the highway of civilisation, itself' Cannon It is interesting to note how the monks related their profound spirituality to an eminently practical lifestyle. They refused to write off the world as a lost cause or to propose neat, no-loose-ends answers to the problems of life, but rather to rebuild promptly, patiently and cheerfully, 'as if it were by some law of nature that the restoration came' Bosch Henry points out that the Benedictine Rule had been 'one of the most effective linkages of justice, unity and the renewal the church has ever known' The Benedictine monastery indeed became a 'school for the Lord's service', and was to have a profound influence in the centuries to follow.

The monastic movement, from its inception, has been concerned not only with the spiritual side of life, but also with its social and economic components. Ora et Labora was the motto of the Benedictine Order, and it also inspired many other communities. During the Middle Ages, the Church was deeply concerned about economic matters, not only on the theological level, but also on the operational one.

Hospices, orphanages and philanthropic work were supported by income generated through economic activities. However, most of these were done through the monasteries. Julio De Santa Ana points out that it was the monasteries that chose to radically eradicate poverty The monks saw the need to be involved in the transformation of society as their gospel responsibility. However, the concept of social or community transformation adopted by the medieval church can be classified as that of the conservative paradigm, poverty is just there: The relationship of rich and poor is a personal one of mutual rights and obligations, which are ordained by tradition.

The responsibility of the rich towards the poor is to behave with fairness, forbearance and compassion. The responsibility of the poor, as taught in the medieval church, was to accept their place in life humbly, being hardworking, law-abiding, loyal and grateful for the charity of the rich. This is, usually, reflected in relief programmes to ease immediate hardship and in welfare approaches concerned with meeting 'basic needs'. More broadly, it is seen in institutions such as the 'poor relief' at the parish level.

The provision of such support is often seen as an important part of the role of the Church. While the church in the medieval period took seriously its responsibility to the poor it did not really seek to restructure society. Instead it took the poor and struggling people into the monasteries and cared for them there. This was to change with the coming of the Reformation. The period of the Reformation saw the rise of mercantilism and then industrial capitalism. By , before the reformation, there were many thriving cities and larger towns. The growth of towns and cities led to a growth of rural-urban specialisation.

With urban workers severing all ties to the soil, the output of manufactured goods increased impressively. The expansion of trade, particularly long-distance trade in the early period, led to the establishment of commercial and industrial towns that serviced it. Each of these areas of change, particularly the latter, brought about a weakening and ultimately a complete dissolving of the traditional ties that held together the feudal economic and social structure.

New systems of commercial law developed.

Philip Sheldrake

Unlike the system of paternalistic adjudication based on custom and tradition that prevailed in the manor, the commercial law was fixed by precise code. The worker no longer sold a finished product to the merchant. Rather, the worker sold only the worker's own labour power. This led to the workers and their families becoming dependent on the merchant-capitalists. It was inevitable that such a relationship was in due course going to lead into serious conflict. England experienced a series of such revolts in the late 14th and 15th centuries. But the revolts that occurred in Germany in the early 16th century were probably the bloodiest of all.

The early 16th century is a watershed in European history. It marks the vague dividing line between the old, decaying feudal order and the rising capitalist system. After , important social and economic changes began to occur with increasing frequency, each reinforcing the other and all together ushering in the system of capitalism. The capitalist market economy demanded self-seeking, acquisitive behaviour to function successfully. From the capitalists views of the nature of humans, and their needs to be free from the extensive economic restrictions that inhibited them in the conduct of their everyday business grew the philosophy of individualism that provided the basis of classical liberalism.

By now the church had become completely secularised. As a result, the people could no longer look to the Catholic Church for relief from widespread unemployment and poverty. Destruction of the power of the church had eliminated the organised system of charity. The state attempted to assume responsibility for the general welfare of society. All through this time the Christian paternalist view that promoted the general welfare of society still prevailed.

However, with the eventual emergence of industrial capitalism this paternalist view was no longer tenable. The capitalists wanted to be free not only from economic restrictions that encumbered manufacturing and commerce but also from the moral opprobrium the Catholic Church had heaped upon their motives and activities.