Christian Ethics Essay
Christianity arose in Palestine in the first century. Palestine was in composition of Roman Empire. The Palestinian population has been multiethnic, especially in its central part. The settlers brought the elements of their culture and what are more important elements of their religions. So in addition to the Greek-Roman influence it should be noted and the impact of other cultures. Palestinian Jews got political independence for a short time. Beginning from 140 year before Christ Judea had been ruled by archpriests. However in 6 year before Christ Judea lost its independence. So here is the first premise for emergence of new religion. I mean people need a new religion like new political ideology.
On this basis we can understand the mood of the Palestinian population. The loss of political independence was seen as a tragedy. In political developments was seen religious meaning. Spread the idea of divine retribution for violations of the prohibitions and precepts of their fathers and ancestors. Rome did not respect religious shrines and traditions of the peoples. Dissatisfaction with foreign domination, disappointment caused by the suppression of anti-Roman rebellions, and the rise of social stratification and the internal contradictions engendered feelings of uncertainty, apathy and hopelessness. All this leads to mystical expectations. So here is the second premise for emergence of new religion. I mean the mystical expectations.
So for these two reasons many preachers appeared in the first century in Palestine. They heralded the imminent arrival of a savior, a messiah who would save the Jewish people and become king. Thus began appearing different religious movements. Among them was also a community of Essen. It has features which later proved to be intrinsic and early Christians. Throughout the Roman Empire began to create a variety of religious associations. So here is the third premise for emergence of new religion. Now let’s look at the ideological progenitors of Christianity. Christianity at its inception was not free from religious, philosophical, ethical and other influences. Christianity assimilated and reinterpreted previous ideological concepts of Judaism, Mithraism, the ancient Eastern religions, philosophies. All of this has enriched the new religion turned it into a powerful cultural and intellectual force, could turn into a massive national movement. It was able to oppose all of the national ethical cultures, and become a massive national movement. In Christianity, have been redefined ideas of Judaism, such as monotheism, messianism, and eschatology. Interpreting the Bible Old Testament texts, scholars have developed a Christian understanding of providentially, creationism, transcendence and incomprehensibility of God, divine grace, etc.
On the formation of the Christian worldview was significantly influenced by an ancient philosophical tradition. In the philosophies of the Stoics, the Pythagoreans, Plato, and Neo-Platonist, partly in Aristotelianism were developed mental designs, concepts, and even terms, reinterpreted in the New Testament texts, the writings of theologians.
Especially noticeable effect on the basics of Christian doctrine had neo-Platonism of Philo of Alexandria and the moral teachings of the Roman Stoic Seneca. Philo put together the concept of Logos in the biblical tradition. It is interpreted as The Creative word which comprehended in apparitions and in the Hellenistic tradition, considering the logo as a domestic law, directs the movement of the cosmos. Logos in Philo – a sacred word which allows contemplate things. Other ways of knowing God does not exist, only through the Logos-Word. Philo’s doctrine of innate depravity of all men, of repentance, that exists on both the original world of ecstasy as a means of approaching God, the Logos, of which the Son of God – the supreme Logo and other logos, called angels – was one of the ideological preconditions for the Christian representations of a hierarchy of spiritual principles, has had a noticeable effect on the shape.
Moral teaching of Christianity in particular the achievement of virtue is close to the views of Lucie Anne Seneca. The main thing for every man, Seneca considered the achievement of freedom of the spirit through the understanding of divine necessity. If freedom does not flow from a divine necessity, it would be slavery. Only obedience to fate generates calmness of spirit, conscience, morality and human values. Adoption of universal values does not depend on state requirements, but is entirely of sociability. Under the sociability of Seneca understood the recognition of unity of human nature, mutual love, universal compassion, caring for each person on the other, regardless of social status.
Now let’s try to consider the controversy about the personality of the founder of Christianity. How many Christians, as debate continues about the identity of its founder. There are three versions. According to the first version Christianity was founded by Christ who was the son of God. According to the second version Christianity was founded by Christ who was a simple man but the great philosopher. According to the third version Christ did not exist in general, and Christianity was founded by the apostles.
After Christ Christianity and Christians were persecuted for a long time. The first States to adopt Christianity as state religion was Armenia. In 301 the year of Christianity was proclaimed the state religion of Armenia, the Armenian king Trdat third. Several decades later, Rome was converted to Christianity.
The main idea of teaching about the afterlife in Christianity is the idea of the existence of heaven and hell. Paradise is a place of bliss, hell – a place of torment. The word “paradise” comes from the Persian language. In the first, literal meaning, it means wealth, happiness. The word “hell” comes from the Greek language (Greek, it sounds like “Hades”) in the first, the literal meaning of meaning “invisible”. The word the ancient Greeks called the kingdom of the dead. Because, in their views, this kingdom is under the ground, the word “Hades” in the second meaning came to mean “the underworld”. Ancient Christians believed that paradise is in heaven (hence the synonym for paradise has become the expression “kingdom of heaven”), and hell – in the hinterland. Contemporary Christian clergy are added to this, that heaven and hell are in a special supernatural space: they are inaccessible to people with life on earth. In the literature, usually written that, according to Christian teaching, God is righteous forward to heaven and sinners – hell. Strictly speaking, according to Christian teaching the original sin of Adam and Eve as sinners are all humans (except for Mary, the mother of Jesus). Therefore, on presentation of Christian saints – this is not the opposite of sinners, and their special part. Since the righteous differ in the degree of righteousness, and hardened sinners differ from each other in the depth of sin, then the fate of all the righteous (to the extent and forms of bliss) and all the sinners (to the extent and forms of torture) are not identical.
According to the canons of Christianity afterlife has two stages. First: from the death of the body until the second coming of Jesus Christ. The second phase will begin with the second coming of Jesus Christ and the end, he has not. In the first stage in paradise and hell are only the souls of men, the second of the soul united with resurrected bodies. Hell is for both phases are the same place, and paradise in the second stage will move from heaven to earth. Ancient Christianity was the cradle of the world’s main religions of our time. In its further development of Christianity split into many denominations, but each of them relies on the legacy of ancient Christianity.
Today Christianity is the largest religion in the world. There were about 2 billion Christians in the world. Christianity arose in Palestine in the middle of I to. BC The first Christians were Jews by nationality, for the past religious world – the Jews. But in the second half of I century Christianity became an international religion. Language of international communication in the original Greek language became a Christian (as in the state at the time). From the perspective of clergy, the main and only cause of Christianity was the pastoral activity of Jesus Christ, who was both God and man. Jesus Christ, they say, ministers of religion, as a man came to earth and brought the people the truth. On his coming to earth (this is held as the first advent, in contrast to the second, the future) it is told in the four sacred books, which are called Gospels.
