From Pagan to Christian: Part II – The Religious Marketplace

The previous post described the culture of the Roman Empire within which Christianity originated as religiously cosmopolitan.  Types of religiousity included atheism, polytheism, pantheism, monotheism, animism and mysticism, as well as philosophers and proponents of religion who sought to identify truths representing the essential unity of all religions.

What drew people to religion in this cosmopolitan religious environment? Not surprisingly, the motives were varied. In Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity, Luke Timothy Johnson ventures to identify four general categories of religiousity or religious interest, in Greco-Roman culture, including desire to “participate in divine benefits”, hope for “moral transformation”, a desire to “transcend the world”, and the use of religion to “stabilize the world”.  

From Pagan to Christian: Part I – The God Fearers

During the years in which Christianity was born and began to grow, the Mediterranean basin represented a diverse, multicultural, and multilingual social environment subjected to a dominant political and military order (the Romans), and loosely united by an increasingly pervasive yet heterogenous cultural ethos that was an amalgram of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian and even Jewish influences. Religion in the Empire featured a smorgasbord of choices, but often there were also threads of commonality connecting various traditions. Categories of religiousity included atheism, polytheism, pantheism, monotheism, animism and mysticism, as well as philosophers and proponents of religion who sought to identify truths representing the essential unity of all religions.

Images of the Church: Our First Session on Sunday, May 12, 2013

Thank you to everyone who participated in this morning's session. You will find the substantive content of the presentation reflected in the preceding post. What follows here are copies of sketches made on whiteboards by various participants in response to class discussion and the prior presentation on "How the Mennonite Church got to the 21st Century".  I have elaborated somewhat on the sketches. However, if you were part of a group that presented the sketch, feel free to provide clarification and detail in the comment section.

How did Mennonites get to the 21st Century?

CLASSICAL MENNONITES - SEPARATED SAINTS

It began with baptism.

The Anabaptist wing of the reformation of the 16th Century was remarkably diverse, including peasant revolutionaries, pacifists, mystics, vengeful end time visionaries, polygamists, communists and eventually Mennonites, Amish and Hutterites. The single notion linking these groups was that baptism of infants was profoundly misguided, and the only valid baptism was that of adults prepared to dedicate their lives to following Jesus Christ.

Welcome

Welcome to the Next Mennonite Century blog.

This discussion is an outgrowth of a Waterloo North Mennonite Church adult Sunday School class with sessions on May 12 & 19 and June 2 & 9. You will find a little more information about the topic under the "The Agenda" tab/page. If you are of a slightly suspicious frame of mind, look under The (Hidden) Agenda tab for hints as to where the course might lead.  References to books and other resources that have influenced the material in the course, and links where available, will eventually be found under the "The Reading List" tab.