This week in class we learned about Christianity.

The core belief of Christianity is that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for the sins of humanity and was resurrected three days later so that people may be saved. One thing that is central to Christianity is the Holy Trinity. Christians believe that there is one God, but God has three different figures. There is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

One thing that caught my attention about what we learned this week was the persecution of Christians in Rome. For the Romans, Christianity represented a loss of power from the Roman Empire, and the Romans wanted to stop the spread of Christianity. This, however, is a direct tie back to the Sermon on the Mount which we read parts of this week. Jesus said: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” People who were Christian at the time could remember this and be confident and encouraged in staying true to Christianity and to Jesus. People in power want to keep their power, as it seems to be with the persecution of Christians in Rome. We read the letters between Pliny and Trajan together in class. We noticed that while the Romans were concerned with the fact that people were Christians, they were not concerned with Christians’ morals.

Another thing I found interesting was the Council of Nicaea and the Nicaean Creed. The purpose of the Council of Nicaea was for the Roman emperor Constantine to unify Christians in the Roman Empire under one common set of beliefs. The Nicaean Creed was made by the Council of Nicaea to set a clear statement of belief for Christians. In the Nicaean Creed, there are sections about the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Christian church. The reading also informs that the Council of Nicaea chose which texts would be used as official Christian documents. Some gospels besides Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written, but they were not included in the Christian Bible. I wonder how the official Christian texts and the Nicaean Creed were decided upon. If many people brought their differing views of Christianity to the Council of Nicaea, how was it decided which beliefs would become standard Christian beliefs? How long did the Council of Nicaea meet before everyone agreed on a creed and the texts that would become part of the Christian religion?

The history of early Christianity is something that people do not learn much about very often. Although many Christian churches reference the formation of the early Christian church, Christian religious services may not go into much specific detail about it. I might read about the formation of the early Christian church outside of school, and I would be interested to learn about how Christian churches started in places other than the Western world. I imagine that it may be much less acceptable to be a Christian in places like the Middle East where Islam is the dominant religion.

Speaking of Islam, that is the next religion we are going to be learning about in the coming weeks!