Why Did the Orthodox Win? A Wabash Professor Researches the Origins of Christianity
During the college admissions process, Wabash College admissions counselors often boast to prospects that the College’s professors are first and foremost teachers and mentors. The push to publish is not as great as at some of the behemoth-sized state research universities. However, that does not mean that Wabash professors neglect research or publishing. Dr. Robert Royalty of the Religion Department is an example of this. He is currently in the process of completing his second book, which has tentatively been entitled The History of Heresy and the Origins of Christianity.
Started in earnest in the fall of 2005, Dr. Royalty has spent much time in libraries poring over both ancient and modern documents with a critical mind. What he is writing is “a history of rhetoric and discourse” concerning the development of a Christian orthodoxy in the early history of the faith. Dr. Royalty is not concerned with the theological differences between “orthodox” and “heretics” per se, but rather the methods by which orthodox Christianity gained the upper hand in the theological struggles. Rather than studying doctrine, Dr. Royalty is focusing on theological politics.
The book is based on the premise that early Christians were a diverse group. They came from sundry backgrounds and carried with them different suppositions about the nature of Christianity. After Christ was crucified, there was no one group that held the mantle of “true” Christianity. There were many divisions. The disunity observed was not unique to Christianity. All faiths have had their dissenters and some level of disunity. However, the way in which Christianity dealt with that disunity is fairly unique, especially in comparison to its theological ancestor, Judaism. Within the Jewish faith, disagreements on the halakha (law) were dealt with through majority rule. Dissents were noted but were not considered reasons for expulsion from the Jewish faith. However, the exact opposite occurred with Christianity, where an “orthodox” party gained control of established Christianity, tolerated little dissention, and excluded the “heretics” from the faith. In his book, Dr. Royalty seeks to answer the question: “How did this happen?”
According to Dr. Royalty, this process started early during the Apostolic Era and can be seen in the epistles of St. Paul. In some of his writings, Paul is pre-heresiological. He seeks to negotiate with some of the dissent instead of simply squashing it. This is particularly present in 1 Corinthians, where, though he admonishes the Corinthians for bad behavior and practice, he does not condemn the dissenters as Satanic. However, this shifts as time goes on. Paul later starts to more willingly write people out of the Christian faith, such as the legalistic Judaizers in Galatians.
Perhaps another tactic of the orthodox party was to draw closer to the Roman Empire. In its infancy, Christianity was very eschatological in nature. Christians, such as Paul, were looking for Christ’s Second Coming to occur in the immediate future. Therefore, there was no great need to rebel against the Roman Empire. While the Roman Empire may have been anti-Christian, Christians had an obligation to obey the laws of Rome. As Paul wrote in Romans: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities…Pay to all what is due to them – taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due” (Romans 13:1,7). Paul’s attitude was essentially to ignore Rome and politics and instead focus on spirituality. After Paul was martyred and Christianity grew, this attitude changed as it became apparent that Christ was not going to reappear as soon as previously expected. Therefore, according to Dr. Royalty, the orthodox party adopted a worldview that reasoned that “if you’re going to be in a world, it might as well be a Christian world.” Therefore, Christians began to come out of the woodwork and deal with the Roman Empire. A growing attempt to make Christianity acceptable within the Roman Empire began. This, according to Dr. Royalty, can be evidenced in the Book of Acts, which “narrates a tradition of Christianity being at home in Rome.” Indeed, Acts plays to the Roman obsession with ancient religions by connecting Christianity to Judaism, hence giving the new faith an ancient lineage and legitimacy. Dr. Royalty also suggests that this Christian flirtation with Rome was also a political ploy by the orthodox party. By being more accepting of Rome, the orthodox were claiming to be good citizens, drawing a contrast against heretics who were more anti-Roman in nature. This would bring Roman political favor upon the orthodox, while the Roman political structure would view the other Christian parties as being illegitimate and worthy of destruction. This political tactic came to fruition during the times of Constantine, the Roman emperor who converted to Christianity and legalized the faith. Hence, the orthodox were able to push the heretics out of Christianity and become of the arbiters of the faith.
Dr. Royalty is nearly complete with his work. He hopes to have the rough draft finished by the beginning of this summer and desires to have the entire project completed by the end of 2008. He has sent various excerpts of the book to church historians and other theologians, and, according to Dr. Royalty, it has been received well. Indeed, a portion of the book served as the text of a lecture that the professor gave at Oxford University last year and of a Humanities Colloquium at Wabash College which was given this past December. Certainly, The History of Heresy and the Origins of Christianity will be a welcome and pleasant addition to the published works of the Religion Department of Wabash College.
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