When the Roman Empire first regarded the early church as a
branch of Judaism, Christianity was legally protected. Eventually the profession of Christianity
became a crime, and the degree of persecution or tolerance wavered according to
the whims of the reigning emperor and the local ruler. Increased martyrdom brought on the
development of apologetics and theological precision in addressing controversy
and fostered order in the life of the church. Sometimes Christians felt
protected from state persecution, but periods of fierce official persecution
were common.
When
Diocletian in 303 stepped up the Roman persecution of Christians, he perceived
the church as a political threat, a state within a state, developing an
establishment paralleling his government.
He ordered churches destroyed, clergy imprisoned, sacred books confiscated,
and rampant martyrdom of believers. Only
in April 311 was an Edict of Toleration of Christians issued, and in 313 the
Emperor Constantine promulgated the Edict of Milan, which granted freedom of
conscience. When Constantine transferred
his capital from Rome to Byzantium the spread of Christianity coincided with
the spread of the Roman Empire.
Desiring
Christianity to be as united as the law and citizenship of the empire,
Constantine convoked church councils to settle theological questions and
disputes under imperial supervision. In
May 325 the first general council met in Nicaea. The bishops attended at government
expense. Constantine himself
participated and took positions, advocating a universal creed. Following that first council the debates
continued in matters of Christology, and imperial interference played a
part. Any departure from official
Christian orthodoxy was regarded as a state crime.
Subsequent
councils were called by imperial rulers with the expectation that a united
religion would mean a united empire. But
this backfired, and the opposite occurred.
Schisms proliferated. By the
close of the sixth century there was confusion and serious disaffection from
orthodox Christianity, and consequently from the Constantinople
government. In those parts of the empire
where the churches did not accept the Council of Chalcedon (451), Christians
were heavily taxed for disagreeing with the doctrines supported by the
emperor. Some parts of the empire
suffered abuse and persecution from Byzantine Christians. The invasion of the Persians into parts of
Byzantium only aggravated the situation.
With the
seventh-century Muslim invasion, some Christians welcomed the Muslim Arabs,
because often the Islamic protection was better than that of Constantinople or
the Persians. With this new regime
Christians were given a special but secondary status in society (dhimmi)
which offered government protection. But
there was a price to pay, a special tax (jizya), in addition to laws
imposing constraints on dress and manners, and forbidding the riding of
animals. The use of religious symbols in
public was forbidden, and there were prohibitions against building or repairing
churches, ringing bells, and the public display of crosses. Non-Muslims were not allowed missionary
activity, and Muslims were forbidden to convert to Christianity.
This two-tiered
system made the Christians second- class citizens but allowed them to live
peacefully side by side with the Muslims and others. But this millet system reinforced the
divisions among churches and splintered Christianity. Some Christians succumbed to Islam rather
than remain in a subordinate social standing.
Yet Christianity thrived in many places, and Christians remained the
majority in that region into the ninth century.
In these
times Eastern and Western Christianity became increasingly estranged
religiously and politically. Western
Latin Christianity was more strongly adversarial toward Islam. This resulted in the Crusades of the eleventh
to thirteenth centuries. The Crusades
began as a desire to free the Holy Land from the Muslims, but ended with the
sack of Constantinople and the Eastern churches. Western Christianity oppressed the Christian
East. Christian nations oppressed the
Muslims. Because Islam did not recognize
the separation of religion and government, the Muslims failed to see the
difference between local Christians of the East and the hostile Western
Christian governments that mounted the Crusades.
Several
Muslim dynasties ruled following the Crusades.
The last was the Ottoman Empire, which established its capital in
Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453. The
Ottomans reinforced the subordinate status of Christians and Jews through the millet
system. The Ottoman caliph considered
“Armenian” those Christians who rejected the Council of Chalcedon. This led to frictions and internal quarrels
in the differing millets. In the
latter times of the Ottoman Empire European nations opened commercial contacts
in the Near East and Middle East. The
European powers requested the right to protect their trading clients, often
Christians. Different governments protected
different churches, and this aligned Eastern churches with European political
centers. Gradually this disrupted the millet
system as European governments wanted equality of citizenship for Eastern
Christians.
With Islam,
religion and government are joined in the service of God, and the same person
usually provides both religious and civic leadership. The Islamic ideal is a worldwide Muslim
community (‘ummah) in which politics and religion are one, and racial
and ethnic distinctions are not important.
The Qur’an and other Islamic religious books are the foundation for the
legal system, and there is no institution parallel to the Church. Christian religious leaders always had
difficulty convincing their Muslim rulers of their civic loyalty because they
also wanted to be in contact with the foreign religious hierarchy. The protection by European governments
increased the doubts about the civic loyalty of Eastern Christians.
With the demise of the Ottoman
Empire after World War I, European nations assumed mandates in some parts of
the former empire to form nation-states in which citizenship would be based on
one’s place or residence or birth rather than on religion, and in which
religious organizations would be free from government control. This was in opposition to the ideal of ‘ummah,
the united community under single governance with economic, social, and
legal practices based on religion.
Today these
two opposing views are still in contention, and vie for acceptance. In the Middle East we find as much diversity
among governments concerning church and state as in the West. Eastern Christian minorities still struggle
for equality of citizenship.
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