J. N. D. Kelly, in his well-known and highly praised volume, Early Christian Doctrines, makes the following remarks about the cultural background of the Roman Empire in which Christianity first established itself:

The world in which the Church made triumphant, if sometimes painful, headway was hungry for religion. Surviving monuments of every kind testify to the desperate longing, felt by all classes, for assurance against death and fate, redemption from evil, spiritual cleansing, union with God. To meet this need the old classical religions had little to offer. Despite periodical drives (e.g. by Augustus) to revive ancient piety, the gods of Greece and Rome had lost whatever power they had possessed to inspire. The worship of the emperor or his genius, fostered by Augustus and his successors, became increasingly prominent and had official backing. At best, however, it provided a channel for corporate loyalty and the sense that Providence watched over the Empire. Much more satisfying were the Oriental cults which from the first century before Christ spread rapidly across the Greco-Roman world...and the various cults fused with and borrowed from each other indiscriminately.

This was the cultural milieu nearly two thousand years ago, but does it not sound remarkably like today? We need to substitute a few things--the worship of the emperor could now be seen as the worship of the State or some other kind of nationalistic idolatry; and unfortunately Christianity could be substituted for the old classical religions in the context of this statement. We also see some other parallels with today, such as the spiritual hunger and the rapid spread and popularity of Eastern religions and philosophies.

What does this say to you? Is this a fair comparison, and if so, where do we go from here? It is no small thing that our culture views Christianity in the same way as the ancient Romans did their classical religions. What are the implications of this for the Church's mission today?

Labels: Christianity, Church History, culture, Early Church, religion