Stages of Christianity

Rasp

Senior Editor
[From: The Odinist, no. 26 (1977)]


STAGES OF CHRISTIANITY


If we accept Jesus as a historical figure, we might adopt the term 'Jesu-anity,' coined by Duren Ward, as the essence of the first period of that faith which later turned into the religion, still influencing the spiritual life of the West.

As represented in Jesus, the beginning was a reaction against the corruption, hypocrisy and pharisaism which had become widespread within the hierarchy of Judaism. The followers of Jesus admired his sincerity and spiritual strength, his daring and devotion and before long they simply surrendered to a superior personality. In them, it was an appreciation of virtues they respected, and revered and they became his disciples.

Discipleship means dependence, it is a submission to a stronger character, undertaken with joy and jubilation. This is the analysis of all discipleships, but in the case of Jesus it is the one par excellence, and one which turned out to have the most extreme influence upon the spiritual development of the West.

People in such a relationship will constantly quote from the Master, exaggerate the extent of his wise words and good deeds and let their own personality be completely absorbed in that of the object of their adoration. Such a state of mind we find expressed in the extreme in this Gospel hymn:

"Oh, to be nothing, nothing,
Only to lie at his feet,
A broken and emptied vessel,
For the Master's use made meet."​

That sort of self-abasement makes the flesh of an Aryan crawl, for even though we admire strong personalities, we do not therefore want to become a blotting-paper absorbing the imprint of another's character. This kind of intellectual condition is one of arrested development, contrary to true Aryan philosophy.

Be that as it may, this first stage of Christianity was, in fact, Jesu-anity; it was evangelical in nature and went on, enthusiastically, for over two centuries. At the same time the Roman Empire was gradually losing power, the scientific knowledge, so ardently sought and developed by educated Greeks and Romans alike, was forgotten, independent thought faded away and the known world was in a state of decay.

Although this new credo, the Gospel of Jesu-anity, was viciously persecuted, it gained in strength and kept growing, helped along by peculiar economic and political circumstances, and in the year 311 CE, the Emperor Galerius passed an Edict of Toleration. This early struggle and subsequent success changed Jesu-anity into Jesu-olatry because, as it always happens, persecution only makes the disciples stronger in their
beliefs and more fanatic in their adoration for the leader, and hence the exaggeration that much greater.

From Jesu-anity, or rather Jesu-olatry, the credo passed into Christ-anity, or as we call it, Christianity. This, in fact, was a move from imitation of an admired personality to a belief in and deification of a life, from enthusiasm for a code of conduct to an acceptance of a fixed creed, from discipleship to dogmatism.

At the Council at Nicea in the year 325 CE the enthusiasm had died down and was replaced by a formal, official statement of beliefs. Constantine the Great had become a professed follower and this Imperial discipleship spelled authority -- the whole creed thus merged into a state-sanctioned
and state-sponsored religion; within a short period of time Christ-ianity changed into extreme Christ-olatry.

The decay of the Roman Empire proceeded slowly and this second stage of the Pauline Faith simultaneously went through another gradual change. The fight for dominance which raged between the various prelates had pushed Christ-ianity in the background, Christ-olatry had disintegrated during the battle of the bishops and, partly because of its central location, partly its political importance, the Roman Pontiff finally came out on top, so by the year 600 CE Rome was the accepted seat of the Papacy and the absolute dictator of all intellectual and spiritual life in the West.

During this power struggle, organization became more important than doctrine, and from then on the emphasis was on control; the number of individuals nominally accepting the faith was more important than the sincerity with which they professed their beliefs, the complete sway over the religious life of the world became the aim, and the means by which this was obtained meant little or nothing. The individuals were of no concern, even the Pope became only the 'voice' of the Father in Heaven; and the more this concept saturated the minds of the Church hierarchy the more conformity became the ideal, and freedom of thought was lost. It was a matter of submission on all accounts -- not to the influence of a stronger personality as was the case with the early disciples, but to a stronger organization, to the all-powerful Church.

For centuries the might of the Church rose; in the 11th century it overruled all opposition and two centuries later all kings held power or were dethroned by papal will. The former Roman Empire which militarily had ruled the world was now succeeded by the Holy Roman Empire, ruling the spiritual world with absolute power. Christ-ianity had turned into Church-ianity.

A frenzy of devotion and churchly zeal followed, fanatical Crusades mowed down all real and imagined enemies of the Only True Faith and before long Church-ianity transformed into a hysterical Church-olatry.


But even 'God's viceroy' can overdo it, and the 14th and 15th centuries saw a growing opposition to this complete dominance over life and death, not so much in the physical sense, although this certainly was real enough, but even more so over the spiritual life, or rather spiritual death, which was the consequence of this new Roman dictatorship.

What we know as the Great Schism occurred and at times the world saw two or even three of God's Chief pontiffs, each cursing the others and alternately pleading with or bullying the confused followers to accept his particular version of the True Word of God, while all three joined in persecuting honest and sincere men like Huus and Wycliffe who told the truth about them all.

Finally the power struggle became so fierce and expensive, and the intemperance of the Church hierarchy so great that they became careless and overconfident; the open sale of 'indulgences' was one too many and caused Luther to nail his 95 theses of protest to the very doors of the Church.

The Reformation was thus ushered in. The more honest and dedicated of the Christians 'protested' the authority of the Church, they challenged Papal decisions, they studied the early Scriptures and soon went from Church-ianity (Church-olatry) to Bibl-ianity. It was a revesting to previously held concepts; but it was also a change in attitude. It was a freeing of the mind from a central authority, and this seed of protest was the first small step out of the Dark Ages. But it was only a feeble move for the Protestants did not create new ideas, they still did not question the authority of the Book of Books, they simple went back in time and pulled the old Christianity out of the dust bin.

Anyhow, the firm grip on the spiritual life of the West, held for so many centuries by Rome, had finally been loosened. These were the times when discoveries and inventions galore swept our countries; printing put the Bible into every household; explorers like Columbus, Magellan and Cartier put the Church geography severely in doubt and knowledge in all fields exploded into the Age of Science.

This was a further strain on the Authority of Rome, traditions began to be examined and what had started only as a protest against the overwhelming oppression of the central power of the Church Worked itself into an avalanche of doubt about and discontent with the whole structure of the Christian beliefs. Instead of the childish reliance on the teachings of the Church with no questions asked, inquiry, observation, test and verification became the order of the day. Bibl-ianity which early had turned into Bibl-olatry was now being supplanted by Rationality; the Protestantism of Wycliffe and Luther rapidly developed into a documented and systematized body of knowledge.

Consequently the main pillars of the Church were swept away. The dependency of discipleship, the narrowness of dogmatism were replaced with the mood of self-reliance and independence; men were again doing their own thinking. What for centuries had been Ecclesiasticism and book-worship, and therefore stagnant and life-negating, now blossomed into a life-affirming Weltanschauung. Many actual facts about the cosmos were discovered and the search for new truths just meant being honest about scientifically proven findings and the laws of nature. It was putting intelligent character into words and deeds. Mind had broken the ropes of authority; it was the greatest thing that ever happened to our society. For now we see that each new circle drawn around former efforts can be enlarged by another concentric to it. We see that the areas and scopes of knowledge and insight are infinitely multiplied with each removal from the center of former authority. And, as Duren Ward notes, 'everywhere it is now conceded that every noontide splendor of achievement is only another dawn to those who shall live beyond the horizon of our present view.'

[E.]
 
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