Fahrenheit 451 Week 1 Review

What has been enlightening to me over my studies, and was again seen in this month’s reading, was just how many issues the church has overcome. Since the very beginning of the church there has been persecution, division and confusion as to just who Jesus was and what his teaching really meant. The persecutions seemed to start because these Christians did not want to participate in the cultic and warring practices of the Roman Empire. Christians were looked at as strange for avoiding the public bathhouses and they gathered in secret. It seems eerily similar to what Christians in the East have to do today to stay alive. Then Christianity gets recognition from the Emperor Constantine in 312 and now the church has legitimacy and protection. During

The councils in 300’s and 400’s defined many of the beliefs we still recite today in Creed. Many of these councils were called to address heresies being pronounced by the Arians and Donatists and others. What was surprising to me as I read these chapters is there were splits in the church almost since the very beginning. I had always felt like I had heard the Church was one till the great schism in the 1000’s between the Western and Eastern Church. It starts well before that time and looks to begin at the Council of Chalcedon in

I had always thought that discipline came into effect long before this and was from a more spiritual necessity than a material. Parishes started to sprout up with a church expected in every town. Pastoral care took a bigger influence and pastors brought back the 10% tithe from scriptures to help support these local church. St. Augustine vaguely referred to marriage as a sacrament in the 300’s and now in the 1100’s the church defines it as sacrament performed by the priest. It was originally a contract witnessed by the priest, this lead to the there being no possibility of divorce. We see this issue being talked about as recently in the Churches Synod on the family. The big issue is how inclusive can the church be to divorced Catholics when it comes to other sacraments like the Eucharist. Seeing that the church has been struggling with the issue of marriage and divorce since the 300’s is a comfort. Through all these chapters what I see is the church has had to deal with questions, schisms, dissent to the core beliefs almost since the very beginning. Through all the issues the church is still standing and a beacon of hope to the