I love audio books, because they allow me to "read" a book while driving, or relaxing my eyes and just listening. One book that I got on audible is "Through the eye of a Needle: the making of Christianity in the West, 350-550AD (unabridged)" It's 31 hours long, and I find it very interesting how the Church changed and added significant things to their belief system.
Now, there is a story in the Gospels that is commonly called the story of "The Rich young ruler" In it a very rich man asked Jesus how to get to heaven, Jesus told him to keep the commandments, the man said that he had, and Jesus responded that you lack one thing; sell everything and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me. The man left sad because he was very rich. Then Jesus said "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
I personally disagree with all the interpretations that I heard in this book, but looking at how Peter Brown describes that people back then interpreted it at the time and how it changed over time is instructive.
This is the story of how the church changed from a persecuted minority to the ruling power of the western Roman empire. Specifically he addresses how the church handled the idea that it was harder for a rich man to enter heaven then for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Since about 80% of people were subsistence farmers, then for many of the rich people who were just local land owners it was easy for them to sell their property. But when the rich 1% of the 1% of the 1% converted it was a different story.
Rome had the richest land owners of all time, during it's golden age, many of the rich households in Rome received an annual income of 4,000 lbs of gold per year, in addition they received commodities worth another third, the 2nd class families only got 1,000-1,300 lbs of gold per year. When an occasion for a celebration happened in a rich family, they would organize games, entertainment etc for all of Rome. These public celebrations were expensive, one of the few that we have records on cost 4,000 lbs of gold, and lasted for only one week!
At one point a couple who were both inheriting the family business converted to Christianity, and decided to sell everything. As I imagine it, it would be like if Wal-Mart and General Electric decided that they were going to go out of business. They lived a poorish life afterwards, but it took decades to wind down their fortune, and they aimed to use this for the church. This might have contributed to the change in attitudes of the church about who the "poor" were.
One thing that changed during these 200 years is that the poor changed from being people to being the Church. One Bishop was a rich man, who after he converted gave all his wealth to the church (that he was bishop of) and "managed it on the behalf of God."
He shows how some of the pagan beliefs of Rome were copied into the church, we ended up with theologians arguing points back and forth in order to win money from Roman elite. There were other branches of Christianity that were extinguished. One of those now extinct belief systems may have been where the Catholic belief of original sin came from.
End book review, start personal beliefs.
I'm not a catholic, and was raised in a old-school Protestant church that still preached that the Pope was Anti-Christ. So for me this was a story of how time, the progressing of generations, and money corrupt religion. It was interesting for me to see how some catholic beliefs that I don't understand were inserted from pre-christian Roman beliefs, both religious and non-religious practices.
I have a theory that the closer a nation follows the instruction manual for life, the more prosperous it will be. There are two major practices / beliefs that Mr. Brown shows were introduced in this time to the church.
- Monasteries & celibacy. They were great for copying books from the past, and they did some research, but they made sure that the best and brightest didn't reproduce!
- Original Sin, good for teaching people to try to be moral, but please why did you have to teach people that they are guilty for just existing.
I will be doing more on the "DeclineAndFall" tag, I already have 3 stories in mind. Also, I'm looking to point out mistakes of the past so that we can go forward in a more perfect way.
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Congratulations on the work and thought you have put into this post. Interesting to learn about history of the Catholic Church.
Any thoughts on whether the current pope is the anti-christ? ;)