MISSION FROM THE EARLY CHURCH TO THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE 1001453

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MISSION FROM THE EARLY CHURCH TO THE FALL OF
CONSTANTINOPLE (100-1453)

• House Churches, Monks, Mendicants, and Beguines

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MISSION IN THE EARLY CHURCH (100-301)

• Christian faith moved west to Rome north to
  Armenia east across Iraq, Iran, as far as India
  to the south to Egypt, Ethiopia, and across
  northern Africa.

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CHRISTIANS AT HOME AND IN THE MARKETPLACE

• In early years, Christians outside the Roman
  empire (Armenia, Iraq, Iran, and India) lived
  their new found faith openly and freely.
• Those who lived under Roman rule had a difficult
  time. They couldnt build churches or gather
  publicly.
• Christians were accused of being cannibals and
  traitors.
• Men and women died for their faith during the
  occasional periods of public persecution.
• The home was the center of Christian life larger
  homes were designated for weekly gatherings
• Early Christians witnessed to their faith outside
  the home. They took care of orphans, widows, and
  the sick. They witnessed in the marketplace and
  brought their faith with them when they traveled.

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WOMEN WITNESSES AT THE HEART OF MISSION

• Womens role in mission began in the home.
• Women led house churches. They also shared the
  gospel when gathered outside the home.
• Women were also martyred.

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LEARNINGS FROM EARLY CHURCH

• Ordinary baptized Christians were the primary
  agents of mission.
• Both women and men had no doubt that their
  baptism made them full members of the church and
  responsible to share the good news of Christ,
  with or without words.
• The martyr was the ideal Christian.
• Those interested in becoming Christians were to
  be transformed into persons with such faith,
  motivation, and identity through an intensive
  catechumenate process.
• The house church provides an image of table
  fellowship and mission.
• Men and women witnessed to their faith through
  the gossiping the gospel

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MISSION AND THE MONASTIC MOVEMENT (313-907) FROM
CONSTANTINE TO THE FALL OF THE TANG DYNASTY

• Around 313 Emperor Constantine changed the status
  of the church from being persecuted and tolerated
  to the official endorsed religion of the empire.
• The capital of the Roman empire was shifted from
  Rome to Byzantium.
• The Persian empire began to persecute tens of
  thousands of Christians.
• Islam began in the seventh century.
• The monastic movement emerged thousands of
  people seeking an ascetic Christian life went to
  the deserts in Egypt and Syria.
• Communities of monks and nuns developed and
  spread through Palestine, Ethiopia, Asia Minor,
  Italy, Gaul, Ireland, England, and Persia.
• The year 907 marks the decline of monasticism's
  leading role in Christian mission.

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EAST SYRIAN MONKS TRAVELING THE SILK ROAD TO
CHINA

• The East Syrian monasteries were very important
  for preserving Christian identity and for
  theological, spiritual, and medical training.
• The network of monasteries provided centers for
  mission and refuge for Christian travelers across
  Asia and into China.
• In 635 a band of East Syrian monks led by Alopen
  traveled along the Silk Road and arrived in
  Changan, the capital of the great Chinese
  empire.
• The emperor granted Alopen and his monks
  permission to preach the gospel. In this way
  Christians learned how to live peacefully with
  the followers of other religions.

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CYRIL AND METHODIUS APOSTOLES TO THE SLAVS

• Cyril and Methodius were born in Greece in the
  early ninth century.
• They set out in 863 for Moravia (Central European
  state). Here they preached and celebrated
  liturgy in local language. They developed an
  alphabet for the Slavonic language and translated
  the scriptures.
• Cyril and Methodius experienced rivalry from
  German monks who only spoke Latin and
  consequently had little mission success.
• They are the patrons of ecumenism.
• Mission work from 313-907 was carried out by nuns
  and monks.

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MISSION AND THE MENDICANT MOVEMENT (1000-1453)
PREACHERS, THIRD ORDERS, BENGUINES

• At beginning of the second millennium the church
  was hemmed in on all sides by Muslim political
  rule and mission was nonexistent.
• The Holy Roman Empire and a strong papacy mounted
  crusades against the Muslims in the Middle East.
• The renewal of mission reinvigorated the church.
  The Franciscans, Dominicans, and other new
  movements provided this spark within the church
  of the West.
• The fall of Constantinople to Muslim forces in
  1453 ended eleven hundred years of the Byzantine
  Empire and the end of this moment of Christian
  mission.

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FRANCIS OF ASSISI ENCOUNTERING THE MUSLIM SULTAN

• After fighting in the crusades, Francis had a
  conversion, left behind the material wealth and
  social prestige of his family to imitate the
  poverty and life of Christ.
• Francis and his companion Brother Illuminato
  traveled to Damietta at the mouth of the Nile
  River and were received by Sultan
  Al-Malik-al-Kamil as emissaries of peace.
• The Franciscan rule written by Francis in 1221
  presented two approaches to non-Christians
  Christian presence and witness open and explicit
  proclamation of the gospel.

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BEGUINES LAY WOMEN IN MISSION AT HOME

• Individual women yearned to live a more
  intentional spiritual life within their
  households.
• A loose network of such women developed. They
  supported themselves and wore a common dress of
  gray.
• They provided a new avenue for combining personal
  and communal spirituality with ministerial and
  missional service. The beguines were precursors
  of womens active (non-cloistered) religious
  orders.
• At this time, mission was practiced both at home
  and far away places. It was not defined
  geographically

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QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

• What person, movement, or image is inspiring and
  enriching for your personal understanding of
  mission?
• What did you find most surprising and/or most
  challenging in this chapter?