Question

Religion class:

It can be argued that Eastern Christianity, Wester Christianity, and postcolonial Christianity offer three different models for understanding the relationship between church and state and the relation of Christianity to the non-Christian world: a Constantinian model, an Augustinian model, and a diaspora model. Explain these models, and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Answer 1

''Constantinian Shift is a term used by some theologians and historians of ancient times to describe the political and theological aspects and outcomes of the 4-th century process of constantine's integration of the imperial government with the church that began with the first council of Nicaea.''

When constantine became emperor of the western half of the Roman empire he also became the first Christian emperor of Rome. This had many repercussions for the Christian church. It provided both advantage and disadvantage to the church

When the Christian Constantine came to be emperor of the western half of the Roman empire the church benefited in many ways

Under constantine, Christian were able to practice openly. In 313 AD Constantine developed a new religious policy (Baynes 1939,688). This came to be known as the edict of milan. The policy allowed people to practice Christianity, and any relegion, that they chose. This effectively became a policy of religious tolerance of orthodox Christianity.

Although Constantine called himself a Christian, his conversion caused many disadvantages to the Christian church.

Nominalism began to be a problrm in the church. though it might be argued that Constantine created created freedom of religion, this is merely a technicality

The Augustinian Theoretical Model

During the late seventeenth and early eighteen centuries, children were considered to be ''small imbecillic'' creatures who need to be amused with frivolous pastimes. The belief was based on the Augustinian theoretical model, predominant at the time. This perception of children was based on the Christian concept of the postlapsarian man: man was conceived and born in sin. Thus, children were seen as beings who were innately evil, not instilled with Christian morals yet.

Strengths and Weakness of Augustinian model

ADVANTAGES-

*The idea that evil can arise when people exercise free will fits in with what we see in the world around us

* Aquinas - support Augustine and adds that natural evil is only from evil from our perspective (for example like a cat eating a mouse)

*Swinburne -agrees to the extent of saying death is a greater good as without it you'd never achieve anything as you'd have eternity to do things on earth

*Seems logical that God gave us free will and us disobeying it created evil which does not make us question the nature of god

DISADVANTAGES-

*The concept of evil being a privation yet not part of God's creation seems illogical

*people who are suffering may not find the theodicy convincing

*If god was omniscient he would already have known Adam and Eve would do the wrong thing so why did he tempt them?

A diaspora is a large group of people with a similar heritage or homeland who have since moved out of places all over the world. The Bible refers to the Diaspora of Jews exiled from Israel by the Babylonians But the word is now also used more generally to describe any large migration of refugees, language or culture. '' Diaspora first entered English in the late19th century to describe the scattering of Jews after their captivity.