Church Matters: Retrieving the Great Tradition

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Chur ch Mat ter s : Ret r i ev i ng the Great Trad i t i on

are born into the heavenly city by grace freeing nature from sin” ( The City of God , 14:28-15:2).

IV. Summary of This Period: Changes in the Church by 600 AD

By the year 500 a very different picture [of the church at 100] had emerged. The great majority of people within the Roman Empire called themselves Christians and Christianity had become the official religion of the state. There were also substantial churches outside the bounds of the empire, as in Ethiopia or in India. The Scriptures consisted of an Old and a New Testament – the latter being identical to ours today, with a few lingering local variations. There were two major creeds which were widely used. There was also a clear under standing of “orthodoxy” as opposed to heresy, especially regarding the doctrines of the Trinity and the person of Christ. The ministry of the church everywhere took the threefold form of bishops, presbyters and deacons, though lesser regional differences remained. The worship of the church was entirely liturgical, with fixed set forms of prayer. Most of these changes came gradually over the four hundred years. On the whole they “Were for the good and reflected healthy growth on the part of the church.” But not all of the changes were necessarily for the better.

~ Tony Lane. Harper’s Concise Book of Christian Faith . New York: Harper and Row, 1984, p. 10.