THE EARLY CENTURIES OF CHRISTIANITY: PURE FAITH IN JESUS'S TEACHINGS CORRUPTED BY POWER...?

Young Franciscan Friar, Father Casey, from the USA, is always very worth listening to for well balanced, reasonable (and often very good humoured and amusing) views on Christianity.

I've posted some of Friar Casey's work on here in the past.

Here, he describes events that I myself have described in lessons that I have prepared and taught in the past, and in  discussions and social media posts: how the early Christian Church was totally committed to pacifism and humble living. For example (from Hippolytus (170 - 236) Bishop of Rome (Pope)):

"Anyone taking or already baptized who wants to become a soldier shall be sent away, for he has despised God.”

“A person who has accepted the power of killing, or a soldier, may never be received [into the church] at all."

And how, once Christianity had, first been made legal in the Roman Empire, and then later decreed to be the accepted religion of the Roman Empire, the Christian Church began to compromise its core doctrines on pacifism and humility.

(There is something that I will challenge in Friar Casey's presentation though: it is contentious as to whether or not Emperor Constantine (the Roman Emperor who legalised the practice of Christianity) actually became a Christian himself. Many contend that he did not: but rather, that he was converted to Christianity posthumously by the leaders of the Christian Church.)

Friar Casey is critical of the change in the Christian Church, and is open and direct, and intellectually honest and analytical in his assessment of the subject.

In lessons that I have prepared and taught, I point out the dilemma for the Church at that time - and how becoming the accepted religious authority in the greatest empire in the world - which gave access to the massive spreading of the teachings of Jesus - would obviously come with the need to compromise on ideals: as Rome had powerful enemies, and total pacifism would surely lead to the fall of the Roman Empire...

The solution was the development of a Christian doctrine of the concept of the 'Just War': the strict rules under which warfare could be permitted and justified.

However, as with all rules and laws, over the centuries unscrupulous leaders found ways to bend and interpret the doctrine of the 'Just War' for their own ends.

This presentation by Friar Casey is what reasonable, mature discussion on the subject of religion looks like...

(Just a footnote: in the Roman Catholic Church a friar is a clergyman who wears a monks habit and lives in a monetary but goes out into the world to preach; a monk is a clergyman who wears a habit and remains only within his monetary.)

Textual content: © Copyright MLM Arts 16. 08. 2024. Edited and re-posted: 19. 08. 2024

JUST WAR THEORY LESSON (MLM Arts 2008)

(I found the images used in this lesson online. My acknowledgement and thanks to the various people who made them / own them.)