{"id":17552,"date":"2015-09-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2377"},"modified":"2015-09-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T00:00:00","slug":"schism-and-christianization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/09\/schism-and-christianization\/","title":{"rendered":"Schism and Christianization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

It would seem that a major schism would so weaken the church that it would be ill-suited to major expansion and growth. So it might seem. In his contribution to\u00a0Sacred Schisms<\/a>, however, Joseph Bryant argues that the third-century schism between the Catholic and Katharoi <\/em>factions actually facilitated the church\u2019s capacity to absorb the empire.<\/p>\n

This preview of the Donatist controversy centered on the church\u2019s treatment of the many lapsed Christians who had adopted various strategies to sidestep Roman authorities during the Decian persecution. Vast numbers of Christians sacrificed as required; others paid to get false documents stating that they had complied with the decree; many fled. Martyrs were few.<\/p>\n

Alarmed, what Bryant describes as the rigorist sector of the church, the \u201cPure Ones\u201d or Katharoi<\/em>, enforced high standards for readmission. Early on, Cyprian took a rigorous stance: \u201cCyprian is adamant that the Eucharist can be offered to remorseful apostates only on their deathbed. For all the others, his episcopal command remains unchanged: the battle is still being fought; those who are genuinely repentant can erase their fatal offenses by seeking a martyr\u2019s crown\u201d (158).\u00a0Over against the Katharoi were the moderates and \u201claxists\u201d who had a much lower bar for readmission of the lapsed.<\/p>\n

Through a process of \u201cschismogenesis,\u201d the two parties split into rival churches. Bryant explains the term: \u201crivalrous groups develop their own identities and objectives through a dialectical process of polarizing opposition and separation.8 As points of in-group tension become manifest, the emergent factions move increasingly toward disequilibrium, each side defining and valorizing their own respective positions through an intensifying deprecation and negation of the practices and principles espoused by the\u00a0other . . . . A schismogenic dynamic, in short, is one that progressively transforms the engaged parties into \u2018structural antitypes,\u2019 as each side organizes itself as \u2018the inverse of the other\u2019 (Marthall Sahlins). Having started from a shared or common orientation, the contending factions are inexorably driven into providing principled rationales or justifications for their disagreements; in the course of placing excessive and pointed emphasis on those differences that form the grounds of disputation, contrapositional identity-markers come to the fore. Failing mediation or compromise, the escalating hostilities will issue in fissiparous rupture and the formation of autonomous or independent communities\u201d (154-5).<\/p>\n

Though this seemed to weaken the church, Bryant argues that the split enabled the Catholic party to become the preferred religion of the empire: \u201cthe Catholic\u2013Katharoi rupture had initiated a reorganization of Christianity\u2019s \u201cinternal\u201d field of action that would prove correspondingly facilitating. Where laxist, moderate, and rigorist elements had formerly counterbalanced and restrained each other within a unitary institutional assemblage, post-schism Christianity proceeded along bisected paths, in separate and antagonal Church establishments. . . .\u00a0With the expulsion\/exodus of its hardline constituency, the Catholic Church was henceforth free to pursue a reformist pastoral strategy better suited to both preserving and augmenting its membership ranks\u201d (165-66).<\/p>\n

In short, Bryant claims, the Catholic party both restored its lapsed members and widened Christianity\u2019s appeal, by \u201ca far-reaching redefinition and reorganization of Christian identity and experience around the privileged themes of \u2018divine compassion,\u2019 \u2018mercy,\u2019 and \u2018forgiveness\u2019\u201d (167).<\/p>\n

Bryant\u2019s argument depends in part on a questionable rigorist, millenniarian characterization of early Christianity. It\u2019s certainly not clear that an emphasis on compassion and forgiveness constitutes a \u201credefinition\u201d of the Christianity of the first century. Yet his overall storyline makes sense: The victory of the Catholic faction made it possible for Christianity to be the religion of the empire. Whether or not that <\/em>was a positive outcome is, of course, a debated question.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It would seem that a major schism would so weaken the church that it would be ill-suited to major expansion and growth. So it might seem. In his contribution to\u00a0Sacred Schisms, however, Joseph Bryant argues that the third-century schism between the Catholic and Katharoi factions actually facilitated the church\u2019s capacity to absorb the empire. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1402,1313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianization","category-schism"],"yoast_head":"\nSchism and Christianization<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It would seem that a major schism would so weaken the church that it would be ill-suited to major expansion and growth. So it might seem. 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