Part 1 of 2 of Review of Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016
This work of Alan Kreider’s has been without doubt one of the most important books I have read. While we may not align with Kreider theologically in several areas (for example, he is a pacifist and an anabaptist Mennonite) what he has left with this book is something that I think every pastor should read.
In this first part of a two-part review, I will record the highlights, while in the second part, I will offer some reservations and reflections.
Readibility
Although Kreider’s work is quite readable, I would not rate it is as highly accessible for the average reader. He writes like an academic! Nevertheless, it is well worth persevering with, to grasp his message.
Research
Kreider makes some bold assertions that requires significant level of evidence if they are to be held credible. Thankfully, he does provide this. Kreider’s work is well-researched, not surprising as he is a first-rate historian, being Harvard-trained, with teaching appointments that include Oxford.
Highlights
Instead of reviewing each part of the book, I thought it worthwhile to highlight the following points Kreider makes:
- The early church was not at all intentional about its “missional strategy” in the way we modern churches are. If we can say the early church had any “strategy” it was their focus on the need for patience (e.g. patience in suffering, patience in doing good).
For example, Justin writing in the second century wrote, “by our patience and meekness [Christians will] draw all men from shame and evil desires” (p.16). This theme can be detected as the dominant theme in the writings of the church fathers such as Justin, Clement, Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius.
- The early church’s “strategy of patience” had its outworking in many ways – including distinctive business ethics, sexual ethics, ethics around the treatment of women and children, care for the poor, refrain from taking part in violence, refrain from compelling, and prayer having a central place in the life of the community (pp.93-130).
- Perhaps the key outworking of this “strategy of patience” was the focus on spiritual formation of new members via catechesis (which we might call a learning program). The early church recognised that the integrity of the church depended on the quality of its members. Christians that spoke like Christians but acted like pagans would soon mean that the church would no longer be Christian (p.176).
Catechumens (those trained by catechists in this program of catechesis) were to embody what he calls a “habitus” of a patient Christian witness. Catechists wanted to see the “reflexes” of their catechumens changed so they behaved in a manner that truly accorded to what they thought was Christian.
Catechumens were required to memorise Bible passages, imitate their role models, and adopt practices such as standing when praying, replenish stocks of food and clothing, and receive visitors hospitably (pp.133-184). There is plentiful documental testimony of the nature of catechising during that era e.g. Cyprian’s writings, the Didache, Apostolic Tradition, the sermons or Origen, Didaskalia Apostolorum (“Teaching of the Apostles”, from the third Century). Generally, catechumens were only baptised once the catechists were satisfied that their habitus had reached a sufficient level (often after 3 years if the catechumens were earnest). Interestingly, catechumens were not required to undertake training in missions.
- Given that the early church did not admit pagans to its worship services (and even catechumens were not allowed at the Lord’s Supper), non-believers’ exposure to Christianity was almost entirely limited to their interactions with Christians. And given that Christians were discouraged from talking about doctrine to non-believers, it is this “habitus” of patient witness that mostly attracted unbelievers to Christianity.
For example, in 256 Cyprian wrote “Beloved brethren, we are philosophers not in words but in deeds; we exhibit our wisdom not by our dress, but by truth; we know virtues by their practice rather than through boasting of them; we do not speak great things but we live them” (p.13). According to Tertullian, non-Christians would say “Look!… The Christians’ meeting may be private, but their effects can be seen in people’s lives” (p.58).
- While there are accounts where the early church experienced rapid growth in certain areas, Kreider is convinced that in most cases the growth probably would have occurred quite incrementally.
The tremendous growth of the early church in the first few centuries before Constantine’s conversion occurred slowly but steadily over many generations. Women were perhaps the church’s most active “evangelists” able to enter places as slaves where often men could not (pp.83ff). But if we estimate that on average each man and each woman attracted one other man and woman, the compounding effects over a few hundred years would have been very powerful (pp.129-130).
- It was only in the latter years of Constantine (the emperor who converted to Christianity in A.D. 312) and Augustine (5th century) that the church changed its tune from patience witness to more “impatient” modes of strategizing for growth e.g. using the state’s power and money to assist the church’s program for growth (pp.245-296).
While Lactantius appealed to Constantine to honour the weak, deal with evil patiently, and promote religious liberty, Constantine was emphatic that he would be a Christian “on his own terms” (p.260). Constantine denounced paganism and embarked on a Christianisation of the law with heavy penalties on what he saw to be immoral practices. He saw himself duty-bound to use the state’s power and wealth to ensure concord, and according to Kreider, while before Constantine “growth was a mystery, the product of God’s invisible power”, after Constantine there was a shift from “mystery to method” (p.267).
Significantly, he saw hypocrisy in Christians (that is, behaviours that didn’t quite match up with one’s profession) as a “necessary by-product of a new form of mission that valued numbers more than lifestyle, rationality more than habitus”. Also, “Constantine’s use of state power was not to root un-Christian behaviour out of the church but rather to root heresy out of society (p.268).”
With Augustine, patience as a virtue became something that was ambivalent – “It might be bad – if not directed to a just cause – or good if it was” (p.282). Rather, the highest virtue for Augustine was not patience but love. This opened the way for “impatient” modes of witness where love could be “deployed” to justify “strong-armed policies” e.g. state-imposed fines, confiscation, and exile (p.285).
Obviously, questions arise over the extent of the applicability of Kreider’s findings to the church today. The next part of the review will deal with some possible reservations, before I consider what principles may still be applicable to the evangelical church today.
– Bryan Kim