-2 Alan Kreider는, 교회(사실상 모든 교회 역사에서)의 핵심 전환점은 콘스탄틴 황제가 개종한 후 교회 생활과 교리 교육의 초점이, '기독교 행동'에서 '기독교 교리'로 .... 어거스틴(콘스탄틴 ..

영국 맨체스터에있는 Manchester Wesley Research Center 국제 대표. Asbury Theological Seminary (1996-2006)의 전 선교사 및 신학 교수; 2007-2012 토론토 틴데일 신학교 웨슬리 연구 교수. 브라질 상파울루에서 가르치고 목회했습니다. 미시간 주 디트로이트; 일리노이 주 시카고. 스나이더 박사의 주요 관심사는 현재와 미래의 세상을위한 예수 그리스도와 그분의 왕국의 능력과 관련성입니다. 작품에는 와인 스킨 문제, 왕의 공동체, 그리고 가장 최근에는 예수와 포카 혼 타스 : 복음, 선교, 국가 신화가 포함됩니다.
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The most important book of 2016 is The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, by Alan Kreider (Baker Academic, 2016, 321 pp.).

I say this after considerable thought—after reading the book carefully and after having heard Alan speak and introduce the book at the ESJ School Missiology Seminar at Asbury Seminary last spring.

When I say “most important,” I mean much more significant and relevant than the many useful “missional church” or “missio” books and blogs that continue to flow forth.

patient-fermentThe significance of The Patient Ferment of the Early Church is that it shows us (better than any other book) what the early church really was, what it was up to, and what it was up against. Kreider traces the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire and astutely explains its dynamics in historical, sociological-anthropological, and practical discipleship terms. He gives considerable attention to the actual sociology of the early church, including the key roles of women and common folks. His last two chapters—on Constantine and Augustine—drive home the main lessons of the earlier chapters.

 

Kreider는 로마 제국에서 기독교의 부상을 추적하고 역사적, 사회학적-인류학적, 실제적인 제자도라는 용어로 기독교의 역학을 예리하게 설명합니다. 그는 여성과 서민의 주요 역할을 포함하여 초대 교회의 실제 사회학에 상당한 관심을 기울였습니다. 콘스탄티누스와 어거스틴에 관한 그의 마지막 두 장은 이전 장의 주요 교훈으로 이어집니다.

 

 Kreider는 1차 소스와 2차 소스를 모두 매우 광범위하게 사용합니다. Cyprian, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Pachomius 및 Lactantius와 같은 주요 인물이 두드러지게 나타납니다. 이름은 모르지만 기독교 공동체의 현장 생활과 도시 생활을 구성한 수많은 일반 사람들도 마찬가지입니다.로드니 스타크(Rodney Stark)의 기독교의 부상(및 기타 책), 램지 맥뮬렌(Ramsay MacMullen)의 로마 제국을 기독교화(및 기타 책), 에버렛 퍼거슨(Everett Ferguson)의 초기 기독교 배경(및 기타 책) 등과 같은 많은 주요 2차 자료도 신중하게 사용됩니다. . 내가 아는 초대교회에 관한 중요한 책은 하나도 없습니다. (이 책에는 훌륭한 광범위한 색인도 있습니다.)이 책은 시간과 공간 모두에 대해 미묘한 차이가 있고 명확합니다.Kreider는 “초대 교회”가 하나가 아니라 여러 개였다는 것을 보여줍니다. 이것은 부정적인 것이 아니라 긍정적인 것입니다. 교회는 시간이 지남에 따라 끊임없이 변화했습니다. 그것은 다른 장소에서 다양한 모드를 취했습니다. 문화는 항상 요인이었습니다. 여러 사례를 통해 Kreider는 교회가 어떻게 항상 문화에 적응하고 대부분은 긍정적이지만 때로는 부정적인 방식으로 토착화했는지 자세히 설명합니다. 평화의 입맞춤에 대한 그의 광범위한 논의는 이와 관련하여 매혹적입니다."환자 발효"에 대한 Kreider의 주요 아이디어는 오늘날 매우 관련이 있습니다.교회는 전략이나 프로그램, 심지어 광범위한 전도나 저술을 통해서가 아니라 그리스도와 같은 공동체 생활의 질을 통해 놀라운 영향을 미쳤습니다. Kreider는 Cyprian의 격언을 한 번 이상 반복합니다.

Here are five things I especially like about the book:

The book is thoroughly researched.
Kreider makes remarkably extensive use of both primary and secondary sources. Key figures such as Cyprian, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Pachomius, and Lactantius figure prominently. So do the myriad common people whose names we don’t know but who made up the on-the-ground and in-the-cities life of the Christian community.

Many key secondary sources are also thoughtfully used, such as Rodney Stark’s The Rise of Christianity (and other books), Ramsay MacMullen’s Christianizing the Roman Empire (and other books), Everett Ferguson’s Backgrounds of Early Christianity (and other books), and many more. No significant book on the early church that I am aware of is missing. (The book also has a fine extensive index.)

The book is nuanced and clarifying as to both time and space.
Kreider shows that “the early church” was not one, but many. This is a positive, not a negative. The church was constantly changing over time. It took on varying modes in different places. Culture was always a factor. With multiple examples, Kreider details how the church was always adapting to culture, inculturating mostly in positive but also sometimes in negative ways. His extensive discussion of the kiss of peace is fascinating in this regard.

Kreider’s main idea of “patient ferment” is highly relevant today.
The church had its remarkable impact not through strategy or programs or even extensive evangelism or writing, but through the Christ-like quality of its community life. Kreider repeats more than once Cyprian’s aphorism, “We do not speak great things but we live them.”

“Unlike many churches today,” Kreider writes, churches in the early centuries “did not try to grow by making people feel welcome and included. Civic paganism did that. In contrast, the churches were hard to enter. They didn’t grow because of their cultural accessibility; they grew because they required commitment to an unpopular God who didn’t require people to perform cultic acts correctly but instead equipped them to live in a way that was richly unconventional.” The early church’s witness “was a product not of what Christians said but of how they lived” (149). Kreider is here referring specifically to the early document called Apostolic Tradition, but the point applies more generally. The Christian movement grew patiently “because of the intriguing wholesomeness of its life” and community—not by evangelistic efforts or missional strategies other than embodied witness and catechesis (169). The church itself was mission.

 

  Kreider는 "오늘날의 많은 교회와 달리 초기 세기의 교회는 사람들이 환영받고 소속감을 느끼도록 함으로써 성장하려고 하지 않았습니다. 시민 이교도가 그렇게 했습니다. 그에 비해 교회는 들어가기가 어려웠다. 그들은 문화적 접근성 때문에 성장하지 않았습니다. 그들은 사람들이 제의 행위를 올바르게 수행하도록 요구하지 않고 오히려 매우 비인습적인 방식으로 살도록 준비시켜 주신 인기 없는 신에 대한 헌신을 요구했기 때문에 성장했습니다.” 초대 교회의 증거는 “그리스도인들이 말한 것이 아니라 그들이 어떻게 살았는가의 산물”(149항)이었습니다. Kreider는 여기서 사도 전통이라는 초기 문서를 구체적으로 언급하고 있지만 요점은 더 일반적으로 적용됩니다. 기독교 운동은 구체화된 증거와 교리 교육(169항) 이외의 전도 노력이나 선교 전략에 의해서가 아니라 “생활과 공동체의 흥미로운 건전함 때문에” 끈기 있게 성장했습니다. 교회 자체가 선교였습니다.이 책에서 (나에게) 유쾌한 놀라움 중 하나는 이제 처음 3세기 동안 교회가 지속적으로 그리고 지속적으로 예수 그리스도와 특히 산상 수훈을 계속 지적했다는 것입니다. 또 다른 놀라운 사실은 이사야서 2장과 미가서 4장이 메시아와 주님께서 “열방 중에서 심판하시며 많은 백성을 책망하실 날에 대한 약속과 함께” 계속 얼마나 중요한지였습니다. 그들이 그들의 칼을 쳐서 보습을 만들고 그들의 창을 쳐서 낫을 만들 것입니다. 민족이 민족을 치러 칼을 들지 아니하며 다시는 전쟁을 배우지 아니하리라”(인용, pp. 91-92). 오리겐은 이 본문(즉, 사 2:2-4; 미가 4:1-4)이 “모든 신자가 알고 있는 것”이라고 말했습니다.

One of the pleasant surprises (to me) in the book is now consistently and insistently the church in its first three centuries kept pointing to Jesus Christ and especially to the Sermon on the Mount. Another surprise was how important Isaiah 2 and Micah 4 continued to be, with their promise of the Messiah and the day when the Lord “shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (quoted, pp. 91-92). Origen said this text (that is, Isa. 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-4) “is one that all believers knew.”

 

 

How did they learn it? Catechesis.

Patient catechesis.
This is the unifying theme throughout the book. The essential point: Catechesis was not in the first instance about doctrine, but about daily living, way of life. Here Kreider’s theme of “patient ferment” comes into play.

Early-church catechesis, once it developed systematically in the second century, often took up to three years. “Given the magnitude of the issues with which catechists and students were struggling, thee years wasn’t a long period of time,” Kreider notes. “The issues of teaching and character formation that the catechists and catechumens dealt with must have taken considerable time simply to talk about. It would take far more time for them to be lived—to become habitual, second nature, embodied in the habitus of the apprentices becoming Christians.” Although there was “no general three-year catechumenate” in the early church, Kreider says, three years was not uncommon (177).

Most catechumens persevered and were fully formed. Some however dropped out along the way. This was good—a safeguard against diluting Christian discipleship.

Patient ferment and habitus are two interrelated themes here. Kreider uses the sociological concept habitus to mean the incarnation of the gospel into people’s whole being—mind, emotions, body. “It is habitus that constitutes our profoundest sense of identity; that forms our deepest convictions, allegiances, and repulsions; and that shapes our response to ultimate questions—what will we life for, die for, and kill (or not kill) for” (40). And importantly: People’s habitus can be changed, re-formed. This is what early church community and catechesis in fact did.

Christian mission, then, was not intentional outreach but the result of intentional formation. Christians weren’t mainly activists. They were patient, allowing the ferment, the leaven, of the gospel to change the world, assured that God is sovereign and his Spirit is working. In his second chapter, “The Good of Patience,” Kreider points out that Justin, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Lactantius all wrote about patience. Yet these writings are largely ignored today. They are crucially important, Kreider believes, for understanding how early Christians understood gospel, church, and mission.

 

 그들은 그것을 어떻게 배웠습니까? 교리 교육.환자 교리 교육.이것은 책 전체에 걸쳐 통일된 주제입니다. 요점: 교리 교육은 처음에 교리에 관한 것이 아니라 일상 생활, 생활 방식에 관한 것이었습니다. 여기에서 Kreider의 "환자 발효"라는 주제가 작용합니다.초기 교회 교리 교육은 일단 2세기에 체계적으로 발전하면 대개 3년이 걸립니다. Kreider는 "교리학자와 학생들이 어려움을 겪고 있는 문제의 규모를 감안할 때 몇 년은 긴 시간이 아닙니다."라고 말합니다. “교리학자와 예비신자가 다루었던 가르침과 성품 형성의 문제는 단순히 이야기하는 데 상당한 시간이 걸렸을 것입니다. 그들이 그리스도인이 되는 견습생의 습관으로 구현되는 습관적이고 제2의 천성이 되기까지는 훨씬 더 많은 시간이 걸릴 것입니다.” Kreider는 초대 교회에 “일반적인 3년제 수련생”이 없었지만 3년이 드문 일이 아니었다고 말합니다(177).대부분의 예비 신도들은 인내했고 완전히 형성되었습니다. 그러나 일부는 도중에 탈락했습니다. 이것은 좋은 일이었습니다. 그리스도인의 제자도가 희석되지 않도록 보호하는 것이었습니다.환자의 발효와 아비투스는 여기에서 서로 관련된 두 가지 주제입니다. Kreider는 사회학적 개념인 아비투스를 사용하여 사람들의 마음, 감정, 몸 전체에 복음이 성육신하는 것을 의미합니다. “우리의 가장 심오한 정체성을 구성하는 것은 아비투스입니다. 그것은 우리의 가장 깊은 신념, 충성, 반발을 형성합니다. 그리고 그것은 궁극적인 질문에 대한 우리의 응답을 형성합니다. 우리는 무엇을 위해 살고, 죽고, 죽이지 않을 것입니까?”(40). 그리고 중요한 것은 사람들의 습관이 변경되고 재형성될 수 있다는 것입니다. 이것이 초대교회 공동체와 교리교육이 실제로 한 일입니다.그러므로 기독교 선교는 의도적인 전도가 아니라 의도적 양성의 결과였다. 기독교인들은 주로 활동가가 아니었습니다. 그들은 오래 참음으로 복음의 누룩이 세상을 변화시키도록 했고, 하나님은 주권자이시며 그의 영이 역사하신다는 것을 확신했습니다. 그의 두 번째 장인 "인내의 선"에서 Kreider는 Justin, Alexandria의 Clement, Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian 및 Lactantius가 모두 인내에 대해 썼음을 지적합니다. 그러나 이러한 저술은 오늘날 대부분 무시됩니다. Kreider는 초기 기독교인들이 복음, 교회, 선교를 어떻게 이해했는지 이해하는 데 결정적으로 중요하다고 믿습니다.

Kreider shows that a key turning point in the church (in fact in all church history) was when, after the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, the focus of church life and catechesis shifted from Christian behavior to Christian doctrine. From actual living to theology. The catechetical process was shortened and the focus shifted from behavior to belief (274–77). This likely will appear a great oversimplification to some, but Kreider makes his case well.
Augustine (post-Constantine) comes off relatively negatively here: The key figure who gave theological rationalization to the church’s use of state power to enforce orthodoxy. Kreider maintains that Augustine drove a wedge between inner disposition and outward action—directly contradicting, in effect, Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. This of course required a reinterpretation, a spiritualizing, of the Sermon on the Mount. It also opened the door to split-level discipleship: “Counsels of perfection” for the spiritually elite; compromise with culture’s values and practices for most Christians (262, 292).

Augustine “knew he was innovating,” Kreider says (289), and in ways we rightly question today. In perhaps the book’s biggest understatement, Kreider says, “The implications of this [shift from action to intention] for the history of mission are weighty” (291).

 

 

Kreider는 교회(사실상 모든 교회 역사에서)의 핵심 전환점은 콘스탄틴 황제가 개종한 후 교회 생활과 교리 교육의 초점이 기독교 행동에서 기독교 교리로 옮겨갔을 때임을 보여줍니다. 

 

실제 생활에서 신학까지. 교리 교육 과정은 단축되었고 초점은 행동에서 믿음으로 옮겨졌습니다(274-77). 이것은 일부 사람들에게는 지나치게 단순화된 것처럼 보일 수 있지만 Kreider는 자신의 사례를 잘 만듭니다.어거스틴(콘스탄틴 이후)은 여기에서 상대적으로 부정적으로 나옵니다. 교회가 정통성을 강화하기 위해 국가권력을 사용하는 것에 대해 신학적 합리화를 제공한 핵심 인물입니다.

 

Kreider는 어거스틴이 내적 성향과 외적 행동 사이에 쐐기를 박았다고 주장합니다. 이는 산상 수훈에서 사실상 직접적으로 모순되는 예수님의 가르침입니다. 이것은 물론 산상 수훈에 대한 재해석, 영성화를 요구했습니다. 그것은 또한 영적 엘리트를 위한 “완벽한 조언”과 같은 단계적 제자도의 문을 열었습니다. 대부분의 기독교인을 위한 문화의 가치와 관행과 타협합니다(262, 292).아우구스티누스는 “그가 혁신하고 있다는 것을 알았다”고 Kreider가 말했습니다(289). 그리고 오늘날 우리는 어떤 면에서 정당한 질문을 던집니다. 아마도 이 책에서 가장 절제된 표현으로 Kreider는 “선교의 역사에 대한 이것[행동에서 의도로의 전환]의 의미는 중대합니다”(291항)라고 말했습니다.

 

 

결론

 

 

초대교회는 전도나 사회개혁을 강조하지 않았습니다. 그것은 제자도와 기독교 공동체 형성을 강조했습니다. 전도와 사회 개혁이 뒤따랐다. 사실 초대교회는 전도와 사회개혁의 구분을 인위적으로 여겼을 것입니다. 왜냐하면 그들의 초점은 예수 그리스도와 하나님 나라의 확실한 약속이었기 때문입니다.

 

  오늘날의 분명한 요점: 각 시대와 문화 환경에서 교회는 예수 그리스도를 위해 굳건히 서서 걸을 수 있고 더 큰 영향을 미칠 수 있는 진정한 그리스도인을 형성하기 위해 개종/제자/교리 교육의 과정이 얼마나 오래 그리고 얼마나 엄격한지 결정해야 합니다. 그들보다 주변 사회에.나는 Kreider의 Patient Ferment를 교회, 선교, 제자도에 관한 가장 중요한 최근 책 중 하나와 간단히 비교하는 것으로 끝맺습니다. Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivate Apostolic Movements (2판, 수정된 부제; Brazos Press, 2016). Hirsch는 교회에 대한 가장 현재의 생각을 운동으로 종합하고 적용합니다. Kreider의 Patient Ferment 옆에 설정하면 무엇을 찾을 수 있습니까?Hirsch의 통찰력 있는 책은 교회를 “사도 운동”으로 설명하는 데 도움이 됩니다. 그러나 그것은 성령의 능력을 받은 단순한 일상적인 그리스도인의 삶의 프로그램할 수 없는 결정적인 역할을 강조합니다. Kreider의 책은 우리를 처음으로 돌아가게 하고 초기 예수 추종자들이 어떻게 일상 생활에서 기독교 제자도를 실천하고 성령에 의존했는지 보여줍니다. 예수 중심이지만 이론이나 전략이나 “패러다임”에 대한 숙고는 없습니다.이 두 책은 함께 읽으면 유용합니다. 그러나 Kreider의 Patient Ferment는 최근 몇 년 동안 내가 본 어떤 것보다 훨씬 더 중요합니다.2016년, 2017년에 가까워졌습니다. 오늘날의 교회(특히 서구)가 마침내 신자와 교인이 아닌 제자를 삼는다는 것이 무엇을 의미하는지 재발견할 수 있을까요? 영향력의 흐름이 문화에서 교회로 흐르는 것보다 교회에서 문화로 더 많이 흐르는 예수 추종자들의 공동체를 형성하기 위해?

 
Conclusion

The early church did not emphasize evangelism or social reform. It emphasized discipleship and Christian community formation. Evangelism and social reform followed. In fact the early church probably would have found the distinction between evangelism and social reform to be artificial, since their focus was Jesus Christ and the sure promise of the kingdom of God.

An obvious key point for today: In each age and cultural setting the church must decide how long and how rigorous a process of conversion/discipleship/catechizing is necessary to form real Christians who can stand and walk steadfastly for Jesus Christ and have a greater impact on surrounding society than it has on them.

I end by briefly comparing Kreider’s Patient Ferment with one of the more significant recent books on church, mission, and discipleship: Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating Apostolic Movements (second edition, with revised subtitle; Brazos Press, 2016). Hirsch synthesizes and applies the best current thinking on the church as movement. Set it next to Kreider’s Patient Ferment, and what do we find?

Hirsch’s insightful book helps explain the church as “apostolic movement.” However it underplays the crucial unprogrammable role of simple daily Christian living empowered by the Holy Spirit. Kreider’s book takes us back to the beginning and shows how early Jesus followers put Christian discipleship into practice in daily living, relying on the Spirit—Jesus-centered, but without theory or strategy or the pondering of “paradigms.”

These two books can usefully be read together. But Kreider’s Patient Ferment is far more significant than anything else I’ve seen in recent years.

Here we are in 2016, nearing 2017. Will today’s church (especially in the West) finally rediscover what it means to make disciples, not just adherents and church members? To form communities of Jesus followers where the streams of influence flow more from the church into the culture than from the culture into the church?