The Early Church and Becoming a Christian Search

Ronald Quick

A few weeks ago I was reading about the early church and the process that one went through when they wanted to become a Christian.  If I remember correctly, it was a lengthy process and involved going from one stage to another (a total of 3 I think).  I believe it was in the Ancient Christian Commentary Series and Augustine was referenced.  My problem is that I remember so little specifics that I cannot find it again.

Thanks in advance,

Ron

Rosie Perera

The process of being "catechized" was indeed long and involved. I believe it was three years. You could search for things like catechesis, catechism or catechumens (new converts who were being prepared for baptism and full entry into the church). You could find them all using a wildcard search for catech*.

I haven't found what you were looking for in the ACC series and am not sure I'd recognize it as exactly what you'd seen before if I did come across it, but I do have The Origins of Christendom in the West by Alan Kreider (much cheaper as part of the Church Origins Collection), and there's a whole chapter (Chapter 8) on "Catechesis and Initiation" which includes lots of great information about the process. In particular it looks at what several of the Early Church Fathers had to say about the topic, including Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Cyprian, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose, and Augustine. I append the section on the latter (the others are equally detailed). Wow, I wish we had this much training of new believers nowadays!

Augustine: training to live in the Heavenly City

Augustine as Bishop of Hippo sits astride two ages, at the end of the ancient church and the beginning of the medieval church. He is usually remembered as a towering intellectual genius, the apex of Latin patristic theology and the seminal genius and authoritative church father of the Latin Middle Ages. Our concern here is with one aspect of Augustine’s pastoral work,⁹³ his activity as a catechist. For this, we are fortunate to have an admirable recent synthesis by William Harmless, who looks at Augustine’s material from an educator’s point of view.⁹⁴ As the Roman world in which he had been educated and lived was coming to an end in the West under the force of the migration of Germanic peoples, Augustine directed attention to the ‘City of God’, present as a spiritual reality in this world but having as its goal the future heavenly city. Although Augustine gave much attention, as we shall see, to life in the present world, his catechetical work is infused with a much more futuristic eschatology than is found in the Antiochians, John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia, who present an almost realized eschatology in their baptismal catecheses.⁹⁵

Augustine is the only church father from whom there survives a sampling of material from each of the four periods of initiation into the church: (1) pre-catechesis or evangelization (On Catechizing Beginners [or Cat. rud.]);⁹⁶ (2) the catechumenate proper (Sermon 132; Exposition of the Psalms, 81 [Lt. 80]; Tractates on the Gospel of John, 4, 10, and 11); (3) Lenten instructions to the competentes (Sermons, 56–59; 212–218); and (4) mystagogy (Sermons, 224–229; 260; 272).⁹⁷

Augustine’s On Catechizing Beginners, written perhaps in 399,⁹⁸ has been much studied, because, while revealing his ‘pedagogical acumen and psychological sensitivity’⁹⁹ it also offers both a long and a short sample of instruction.¹⁰⁰ I find it particularly noteworthy that Augustine’s recommendation of the content of the preliminary instruction (Cat. rud., 6.10) and both his long (16–25) and short (26.51–27.55) samples take the form of a survey of biblical and Christian history. This historical framework allows the catechist to adapt the presentation according to the needs of the hearers (Cat. rud., 15). Giving a salvation history overview was traditional, going back to Jewish roots,¹⁰¹ and recognition of this common method of presentation may to some extent account for the way many fathers make abundant use of the scriptures, assuming their hearers will have a framework into which to put their frequent references. Augustine, moreover, extends the biblical history to include the church up to his time (Cat. rud., 6.10; 24.44–45).¹⁰² He repeats some of his characteristic themes: the division of human history into seven ages (Cat. rud., 17.28; 22.39);¹⁰³ and the division of humanity into ‘two cities’ (Cat. rud., 19.31), which is comparable to the ‘two ways’ in earlier catechetical instruction and better known from his apologetic work, The City of God.¹⁰⁴ True Christians, he says, are ‘citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem’ (Cat. rud., 7.11). Most characteristic is Augustine’s emphasis on the two commands to love God and love neighbour: all scripture depends on them (Cat. rud., 4.8); the narration of God’s dealings with humanity all relate to the goal of love (6.10); the Decalogue can be reduced to these two commands (23.41); and they are the duties enjoined on Christians (27.55).¹⁰⁵ Augustine’s concern for ‘steadfast faith and a good life’ (Cat. rud., 25.47) prompts several warnings about the new converts being led astray by the various classes of sinners, the ‘chaff’ in the church who were Christians in name only (Cat. rud., 7.11; 14.21; 25.48; 27.55). His advice to close with an eschatological exhortation (Cat. rud., 7.11), although common enough in early Christian instruction, highlights the way in which the eschatological theme permeates the whole instruction—16.24–25 (‘rest that is hoped for after this life’); 17.27–28 (eternal blessedness in the seventh age); 24.45 (judgement); 25.46 (defence of the resurrection); 25.47–48 (sample exhortation).

Augustine’s sermons on the Psalms and on the Gospel of John were addressed to ‘all’, including catechumens, to whom he made a number of references.¹⁰⁶ The sermons on John focused more on doctrine and an intellectual understanding of the faith; those on the Psalms focused on spirituality and an affective grasp of the faith.¹⁰⁷ Augustine saw himself as a minister of the word, whose task was to ‘feed the [spiritually] hungry’ with the bread of life. The biblical text controlled his expositions.¹⁰⁸ Scripture has a moral core; its purpose is to cleanse the soul for the journey home to God.¹⁰⁹

Augustine repeats many themes expressed by the Greek fathers in their Epiphany sermons and their exhortations to catechumens to receive baptism.¹¹⁰ After developing the common interpretation of Israel’s crossing the Red Sea as a baptism in which past sins (= the Egyptians) are destroyed, Augustine challenges his hearers, ‘Why do you fear to come?’¹¹¹ He too contrasts Christian baptism with that of John the Baptist and explores the reasons for Christ’s baptism. One purpose was to serve as an example: ‘If I [Jesus] have received the baptism of the servant [John], do you disdain to be baptized by the Lord?’¹¹²

Like his Eastern counterparts, Augustine complains that the public entertainments were more popular than church: ‘For there are many that live not worthily of the baptism which they have received. For how many that are baptized have chosen rather to be filling the circus than this basilica’.¹¹³ He often complains of the many Christians who live evil lives and pull the church down.¹¹⁴ One of the key themes of the sermons on Psalms and John is that Christ as the inner Teacher exhorts to ascend to the heavenly Jerusalem by good works (Enarr. in Psalm., 112 [Lt 121]).¹¹⁵ ‘The people of God are the city of God’ (ibid., 125 [Lt 124.10]), so they have a foretaste of the heavenly joy; however, they remain exiles returning home (ibid., 126 [Lt 125.4]).¹¹⁶

Augustine alludes to activities of those undergoing the immediate preparation for baptism. Before coming to the water, there are fastings, tribulations, and prayers (Enarr. in Psalm., 81 [Lt. 80].10). The renunciations are given a moral thrust: as well as rejecting the realm of the devil, the candidate renounced ‘thefts, plunderings, perjuries, manslayings, adulteries, sacrileges, abominable rites, curious arts’ (ibid., 81.18). The catechumens ‘do not eat the flesh or drink the blood of the Son of Man’, for they ‘know not what Christians receive’ (Tract. in Ioh., 11.3, 4). So, we turn to Augustine’s Lenten instructions to the competentes.

In several works Augustine offered summaries of the Christian faith according to the baptismal creed. His Enchiridion, or Faith, Hope, and Love, written c.421, remains the best single introduction to his thought. The bulk of the work is a commentary on the ‘Apostles’ Creed’ (the faith: 9–113); the remainder takes up the Lord’s prayer (hope: 114–16) and the command to love (117–21)—the faith, prayer (liturgy), and love (morals) were his handbook summary of Christianity. On Faith and the Creed was a model explanation of the Apostles’ Creed delivered while he was still a presbyter to the North African bishops in synod (ad 393). At each article, the address takes note of the false teachings refuted by the Creed. On Christian Combat also covers the Creed in terms of positions to be rejected (13.14–33.35). Other summaries of the creed occur in sermons addressed to the competentes at the occasion of the delivery of the creed to them (traditio symboli) two weeks before their baptism (Sermons 212–14 and On the Symbol to Catechumens) and their recitation of it (redditio symboli) a week before their baptism (Sermon 215).

Sermon 214 is much more theological than 213. Augustine’s rhetorical flair for the paradoxical is evident in his characterization of the first nativity of the Son of God (from eternity) as of the Father without a mother; his second (on earth) as of a mother without a father (6). Another striking phrase is the description of the last resurrection as an end without an end (213.9). He describes the contents of the Creed as ‘arranged in a fixed order and condensed’, so as not to tax the memory of what the initiates are accustomed to hear in scripture and in sermons in church (1).¹¹⁷ As part of the disciplina arcani, they are admonished not to write down the Creed but to learn it by oral repetition (1; cf. 212.2).¹¹⁸

Although Ambrose and Cyril of Jerusalem interpreted the Lord’s Prayer after baptism, Augustine (as Theodore of Mopsuestia) did so before baptism, delivering the text of the prayer accompanied by a sermon of instruction on the same day as the first redditio symboli a week before baptism. ‘You have been taught the Creed first, so that you may know what to believe, and afterwards the Prayer, so that you may know upon whom to call … It is the believer’s prayer that is heard’ (Serm., 56.2; cf. 57.1).¹¹⁹ The first three petitions, he says, will never cease for all eternity; the remaining petitions have to do with life on this earth (19). Even these first three petitions are not for God but for one’s self. For example, the prayer for the kingdom to come is a petition that it come within us so we may be found within that kingdom. It is a prayer that a person lead a good life so as to partake of the kingdom that is to come (6).

The treatise On Faith and Works, written in 413, refutes the error that faith and baptism alone are sufficient for salvation without good works (Retractationes, 2.38) and that instruction for baptism should consist only of doctrines to be believed, with morals to be taught afterwards (Faith and Works, 1.1).¹²⁰ The particular concern of Augustine’s opponents in this treatise is adulterers, viz., those who were married to persons who had been previously married (passim, but esp. 19.35). Erroneous teaching and practice often expose the points of weaknesses that occasion the errors, and it may be that the position opposed in On Faith and Works grew out of the church’s practice of giving more attention to instruction in the faith and little explicit attention to morals. Augustine responds that repentance requires quitting one’s sins (8.12). When Paul affirmed salvation by faith, he did not mean that good works are unnecessary nor that it is enough to profess the faith and no more (14.21). Those to be admitted to baptism are those who believe in the Trinity (as in the Creed) and do penance for their sins (20.36). The one being prepared for baptism was to be zealous in attending instructions, exorcisms, and scrutinies (6.9). Augustine insisted that faith and morals belong together; one must have faith in order to live a good, Christian life (7.11). Those preparing for baptism are to be taught not only what to believe but also what to do in the Christian life (27.49). In practice, however, it seems that most of the moral teaching was done by way of the ceremonies of scrutiny and exorcism¹²¹ and not by systematic exposition. Moreover, it must be said that although Augustine protested against these laxists who said to make people Christians first and then teach them how to live, his support of coercion against the Donatists and support for infant baptism had the effect of establishing that very approach. In his argument against the Donatists and Pelagians, who in different ways held to an elitist view of the church as made up of the pure, he began ‘to edge, in carefully measured ways, towards a Church of the many’.¹²²

Augustine, like Theodore of Mopsuestia and John Chrysostom, did not wait until Easter week to explain baptism and eucharist, for there are many explanations of its significance in the works already surveyed.¹²³ He gave private catecheses on the eucharist to the newly baptized on Easter Sunday morning before they received it (Serm., 229 and 229A before the prayer; 227 and 272 before communion).¹²⁴ One of his Easter Sunday sermons says that he has treated the sacrament of the creed, the sacrament of the Lord’s prayer, the sacrament of the font and baptism; now it is time for the sacrament of the holy altar (228.3).¹²⁵

Augustine’s sermons delivered on Easter Sunday contain many direct references to those ‘reborn in Christ Jesus’, no longer competentes but now infantes (Serm., 224.1, 4; 225.4; 228.1, 2). He gave attention to sins to abstain from; adultery is prominent (224), but also mentioned is drunkenness (225.4). The older believers are admonished not to set a bad example, and the newly baptized are exhorted: ‘If you do not find what you may imitate, then be what somebody else may imitate’ (228.1, 2).

During the Octave of Easter, eucharistic liturgies were held daily, and Augustine preached twice daily to the older and the newer believers. His sermons explored especially the meaning of the resurrection, a doctrine closely associated with the theme of the city of God. Thus, Augustine’s mystagogy was not so much liturgical (as in other fourth-century representatives) as it was eschatological. To be incorporated into the church was not enough, for the church was a mix of wheat and chaff; hence Christians must keep their eyes fixed on the eschaton. A comparison of Augustine’s mystagogy with that of other fourth and fifth-century teachers shows a much greater emphasis on the endtime.¹²⁶

Hence, we have treated Augustine’s catecheses as ‘Training to Live in the Heavenly City’. This, as should be evident from even this brief survey, did not mean that Augustine had his head in the clouds. On the Sunday after Easter, he concluded his instructions to new converts on a practical moral note. ‘You have to return to the people; you have to mingle with the faithful; beware of imitating wicked believers’. Among his admonitions, the one that is elaborated on is, ‘Preserve your chastity’; other sins are only mentioned (Serm., 260).