People need a little nudging sometimes to get them to do things. That's why advertising is popular. We have signboards for many things but have you seen any for a house of worship?
Well, that would depend on how you view the church historically. In the beginning Christianity was terribly disorganized, and its various sects stopped agreeing with each other almost from the get-go. After that it was chiefly "managed" by two groups, the Copts (in Egypt) and the Gnostics (in Greece).
When Rome became Christianized, the Emperor decided that the religion needed to be made into a more manageable (read "controllable") form, so the Catholic Church was institutionalized, and rules were established. The Bishop of Lyons was appointed (in the mid 2nd century) to create a Christian Bible (i.e. the New Testament). At that time there were literally dozens of Gospels with widely varying content in existence. The Bishop of Lyons, who tended to order everything in his life into groups of four (because he believed the number 4 had special significance) not surprisingly chose four Gospels. He selected Matthew, Mark, and Luke (the "canonical Gospels") because they generally matched up well in terms of content. John, though quite different, was selected because it was deemed "safe". All the other Gospels were declared heretical and banned...along with all Christian sects that didn't accept Roman domination.
So you see, Happy, Jesus may be the reason for the religion, but the Bible and the church that we know were constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century. Some people would insist that the Roman church was operating under divine inspiration (and the Vatican would certainly WANT them to think that way), but it probably had more to do with politics and imperialism.
& i agree with moody minstrel. although we all know that christ is the head of the church, the earthly representation has been often politicised for its own gain. religion is a powerful tool to garner support for a political cause.
Creative marketing in evangelism or are these signs of bad times ?
ReplyDeleteSome people might say they are signs of End Times...
ReplyDelete(*chuckle chuckle*)
Some of those are pretty witty, but the last one is very inaccurate.
Joe, more like creative marketing as people are becoming more and more creative.
ReplyDeleteMM, how far off would you say it is off the mark?
Well, that would depend on how you view the church historically. In the beginning Christianity was terribly disorganized, and its various sects stopped agreeing with each other almost from the get-go. After that it was chiefly "managed" by two groups, the Copts (in Egypt) and the Gnostics (in Greece).
ReplyDeleteWhen Rome became Christianized, the Emperor decided that the religion needed to be made into a more manageable (read "controllable") form, so the Catholic Church was institutionalized, and rules were established. The Bishop of Lyons was appointed (in the mid 2nd century) to create a Christian Bible (i.e. the New Testament). At that time there were literally dozens of Gospels with widely varying content in existence. The Bishop of Lyons, who tended to order everything in his life into groups of four (because he believed the number 4 had special significance) not surprisingly chose four Gospels. He selected Matthew, Mark, and Luke (the "canonical Gospels") because they generally matched up well in terms of content. John, though quite different, was selected because it was deemed "safe". All the other Gospels were declared heretical and banned...along with all Christian sects that didn't accept Roman domination.
So you see, Happy, Jesus may be the reason for the religion, but the Bible and the church that we know were constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century. Some people would insist that the Roman church was operating under divine inspiration (and the Vatican would certainly WANT them to think that way), but it probably had more to do with politics and imperialism.
cute & very witty!
ReplyDelete& i agree with moody minstrel. although we all know that christ is the head of the church, the earthly representation has been often politicised for its own gain. religion is a powerful tool to garner support for a political cause.
MM, thank you for that history lesson. Very interesting and you really are a talking, thinking encyclopedia.
ReplyDeleteDoc said:
"religion is a powerful tool to garner support for a political cause."
I definitely agree on that. Unfortunately, the overlapping of these two can sometimes cloud the mind.