{"id":834,"date":"2010-06-02T07:09:52","date_gmt":"2010-06-02T14:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groansfromwithin.com\/?p=834"},"modified":"2011-07-06T20:08:29","modified_gmt":"2011-07-07T03:08:29","slug":"quotes-to-ponder-early-church-on-empire-and-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thepangeablog\/2010\/06\/02\/quotes-to-ponder-early-church-on-empire-and-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Quotes to Ponder: Early Church on Empire and Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Battle Between Constantine and Maxentius for ownership of the Empire. Constantine won and as a result the Empire eventually became a Christian nation. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Since I have been on the topic of empire\/nationalism\/violence\/military lately, I thought I\u2019d throw out some quotes,\u00a0 from the period between the Apostles and Constantine, that have challenged me.\u00a0 It is historically undeniable that the early church of the first three centuries was against employing violence in any situation.\u00a0 Something that is frustrating at times is that folks in the \u201cjust war\u201d camp (whom I respect as friends and sisters and brother is Jesus) often appeal to reason to defend their view.\u00a0 \u201cWhat if\u2026\u201d scenarios drive their rebuttals and often their view of scripture appeals to Old Testament texts as a model, when Jesus (the perfect revelation of God) ought to be our model.\u00a0 All that is to say, we ought to be willing to look at history and Scripture (and its trajectory as it flows from Old to New to Now) and build our case from there.<\/em> This post will list a few quotes that give witness to how the early church viewed nationalism and violence.\u00a0 How ought we respond to these quotations?\u00a0 How do they confront our views of nationalism and war?\u00a0 What are your thoughts on the importance of these witnesses to how we ought to understand the way of Jesus in modern times?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe professions and trades of those who are going to be accepted into the community must be examined.\u00a0 The nature and type of each must be established\u2026 brothel, sculptors of idols, charioteer, athlete, gladiator\u2026 give it up or be rejected.\u00a0 A military constable must be forbidden to kill, neither may he swear; if he is not willing to follow these instructions, he must be rejected.\u00a0 A proconsul or magistrate who wears the purple and governs by the sword shall give it up or be rejected.\u00a0 Anyone taking or already baptized who wants to become a soldier shall be sent away, for he ha despised God.\u201d\u00a0 \u2014 Hippolytus, 218 AD[1]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I do not wish to be a ruler.\u00a0 I do not strive for wealth.\u00a0 I refuse offices connected with military command.\u00a0 I despise death.\u00a0 \u2014 Tatian[2]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We ourselves were well conversant with war, murder, and everything evil, but all of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war.\u00a0 We have exchanged our swords for plowshares, our spears for farm tools\u2026 now we cultivate the fear of God, justice, kindness, faith, and the expectation of the future given us through the crucified one\u2026 the more we are persecuted and martyred, the more do others in ever increasing numbers become believers.\u00a0 \u2013 Justin, martyred in 165 AD[3]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI recognize no empire of this present age.\u201d\u00a0 \u2014 Speratus, Acts of the Martyrs[4]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 145.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, 143.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I have been on the topic of empire\/nationalism\/violence\/military lately, I thought I\u2019d throw out some quotes,\u00a0 from the period between the Apostles and Constantine, that have challenged me.\u00a0 It is historically undeniable that the early church of the first three centuries was against employing violence in any situation.\u00a0 Something that is frustrating at times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,62,65,73],"tags":[33,379,458,19172,19174,693,708],"class_list":["post-834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quote-to-ponder","category-nationalism","category-nonviolence","category-politics","tag-early-church","tag-hippolytus","tag-justin-martyr","tag-nationalism","tag-nonviolence","tag-speratus","tag-tatian"],"yoast_head":"\nQuotes to Ponder: Early Church on Empire 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