Before Christianity became the official church of the Roman Empire, Paganism was the faith of the Empire and the people. Paganism has numerous gods, each of whom govern different aspects of daily life. The deities of the Roman Empire borrowed heavily from the older Greek pantheon - for example, the king of the Gods on Mount Olympus was Zeus (Roman Jupiter), Poseidon (Roman Neptune) was the ruler of the sea, and so on. Jupiter was the boss god in Rome. The return of the longer days after the winter solstice was celebrated at a festival to the Roman god Saturn, the god of agriculture, time, and renewal. This festival, held on December 25, was called Saturnalia; later, Christianity would co-opt this celebration and designate it Jesus’ birthday. During the first few centuries of the common era, every town had a shrine to their local pagan god and visitors would go to these community shrines and pay their respects (that is, all visitors except Christians and those belonging to the Jewish tradition.)
Christianity really took off when the Roman Emperor Constantine was persuaded by his wife to adopt the Christian faith as the official religion of the Roman Empire. Constantine himself converted to Christianity in 312 CE. The faith he converted to in that year was a hodge podge of different beliefs, rituals, and structures. For Christianity to become a common faith, there needed to be a common point of belief. Up until the early fourth century, there had been many churches with many different beliefs. In the year 325 CE, Christian leaders from far and wide were summoned to a council by Constantine; the Emperor hosted this meeting to lay out the common ground of this new religious faith. The Trinity is a concept which came out of this meeting, known now as the Council of Nicaea. Trinity doctrine is commonly expressed as the statement that the one God exists as or in three equally divine “Persons”, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is a hard concept for people today to accept and was equally difficult for people 1700 years ago. In fact, non-Christians in the 4th century often accused Christianity of having three gods. So why did the people at the Council need to develop the idea of the Trinity? The answer is convoluted. How do you explain the concept of the Father (God), the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Lord and Giver of Life? I think you can also extend to the meaning of the Holy Spirit the creative teachings of Jesus. The only time we see the three parts of the Trinity together in the gospels is in Matthew 28: 19 when Jesus tells us to go out and baptise the nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Perhaps my hesitancy at accepting the Trinity on its face rests in that the Trinity makes little sense to me. I see no need for it except to explain away a question asked many years ago. It is also such a complicated notion that it is often incomprehensible. So, when Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane in Mark 14:36, who is he praying to? Himself as part of the Trinity? God? The Holy Spirit? In the original Greek writing, he addresses God as Father – Abba ho Pater - both in Aramaic and Greek. The notion of the Trinity is becoming less and less frequently used today. In my experience, preachers and congregants pay less and less attention to it. Once we sang hymns about the Trinity but less so today. So where is it used? In Baptism the Trinity plays a front and centre role. In my denomination, I speak the words for baptism clearly as follows, “I baptise you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” The World Council of Churches have decreed that the words of baptism shall be so. Although the Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the World Council of Churches, they are observers. Our Catholic brothers use the same words for their baptism as do the Protestants. Because we use the same words The Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant churches accept each other‘s baptisms.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm Rev. Dr. Pirie Mitchell and I live in Ontario, Canada. Archives
May 2023
Categories |
Home |
About |
Contact |
Copyright © 2023 Ask the Preacher