CHRISTIANITY
712
CHRISTIANITY
ficiency left by the regulation of Blessed John Bap-
tiste d"e la Salle forbidding members of his congrega-
tion to go on missions singly, whereas in many places
there were need and means of maintenance for only
one brother. The first novices, consequently, were
trained under the Christian Brothers, whose rule was
to a large extent adopted. The congregation was
recognized by the Holy See in 1851 and canonically
erected by Brief of Leo XIII, 13 March, 1891. The
members are bound by the simple vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience. From the mother-house
at Ploermel foundations were made in England,
Africa, Asia, America, and Oceania. In 1886 the
first brothers arrived in Montreal and were shortly
afterwards introduced into the United States. Owing
to the French Law of Associations of 1901, the
mother-house was transferred to Taunton, England.
In 1903 the congregation comprised 3000 members,
with 420 educational institutions, including a num-
ber of orphanages, agricultural schools, trade schools,
and boarding schools, the total number of students
being 75,000.
Keller, Les congregations religieuses en France (Paris, 1880), 628 sqq.; Heimbuchek in Kirchenlcx., X, 1967; L.WEILLE, Jean-Marie de la Mennais 1780-1860 (Paris, 1903).
F. M. Rudge.
Christianity. — In the following article an account is given of Christianity as a religion, describing its origin, its relation to other religions, its essential nature and chief characteristics, but not dealing with its doctrines in detail nor its history as a visible organization. These and other aspects of this great subject will receive treatment under separate titles. Moreover, the Christianity of which we speak is that which we find realized in the Catholic Church alone; hence, we are not concerned here with those forms which are embodied in the various non-Catholic Chris- tian sects, whether schismatical or heretical.
Our documentary sources of knowledge about the origin of Christianity and its earliest developments are chiefly the New Testament Scriptures and various sub-Apostolic writings, the authenticity of which we must to a large extent take for granted here, as with much less grounds we take for granted the authen- ticity of "Caesar" when dealing with early Gaul, and of Tacitus" when studying the growth of the Roman Empire. (Cf. Kenyon, "Handbook of the Textual Criticism of the N. T.") We have this further warrant for doing so, that the most mature critical opinions amongst non-Catholics, deserting the wild theories of Baur, Strauss, and Renan, tend, in regard to dates and authorship, to coincide more closely with thr Catholic position. The Gospels, Acts, and most of the Epistles are recognized as belonging to the Apostolic Age. " The oldest literature of the Church ", says Professor Harnack, "is, in the main points and in most of its details, from the point of view of literary history, veracious and trustworthy. . . . He who at- tentively studies these letters (those i.e. of Clement and Ignatius) cannot fail to see what a fullness of tra- ditions, topics "I preaching, doctrines, and forms of organization already existed in the time of Trajan [a. d. 98-117], and in particular churches had reached permanence" i < 'lm nmlogie der altcliristlichen Lit- teratur, Bk. I, pp. 8, 11). Other points will, of course, be touched on and other results assumed, which are more fully and formally treated under Jesus < 'iihist; Church; Revelation; Miracles. For clearness' sake we shall arrange i he subject under the following chief heads: I. ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY AND ITS
Relation- with Other Religions; II. The Essen- tials of Christianity; III. The Divine Purpose in Christianity.
I. Origin of Christianity and its Relation with Other Religions. — Christianity is the name given to that definite 1 system of religious belief and practice which was taught by Jesus Christ in the
country of Palestine, during the reign of the Roman
Emperor, Tiberius, and was promulgated, after its
Founder's death, for the acceptance of the whole
world, by certain chosen men among His followers.
According to the accepted chronology, these began
their mission on the day of Pentecost, a. d. 29, which
day is regarded, accordingly, as the birthday of the
Christian Church. In order the better to appreciate
the meaning of this event, we must first consider the
religious influences and tendencies previously at work
in the minds of men, both Jews and Gentiles, which
prepared the way for the spread of Christianity
amongst them. The whole history of the Jews as
detailed in the Old Testament is seen, when read in
the light of after events, to be a clear though gradual
preparation for the preaching of Christianity. In
that nation alone, the great truths of the existence
and unity of God, His providential ruling of His
creatures and their responsibility towards Him, were
preserved unimpaired amidst general corruption.
The ancient svorld was given to Pantheism and crea-
ture-worship; Israel only, not because of its "mono-
theistic instinct" (Renan), but because of the periodic
interposition of God through His prophets, resisted in
the main the general tendency to idolatry. Besides
maintaining those pure conceptions of Deity, the
prophets from time to time, and with ever increasing
distinctness until we come to the direct and personal
testimony of the Baptist, foreshadowed a fuller and
more universal revelation — a time when, and a Man
through Whom, God should bless all the nations of the
earth. We need not here trace the Messianic predic-
tions in detail; their clearness and cogency are such
that St. Augustine does not hesitate to say (Retract.,
I, xiii, 3): "What we now call the Christian religion
existed amongst the ancients, and was from the begin-
ning of the human race, until Christ Himself came in
the flesh; from which time the already existing true
religion began to be styled Christian". And thus it
has been remarked that Israel alone amongst the na-
tions of antiquity looked forward to glories to come.
All peoples alike retained some more or less vague
recollection of a Paradise lost, a remote Golden Age,
but only the spirit of Israel kept alive the definite
hope of a world-wide empire of justice, wherein the
Fall of Man should be repaired. The fact that, event-
ually, the Jews misinterpreted their oracles, and iden-
tified the Messianic Kingdom with a mere temporal
sovereignty of Israel, cannot invalidate the testimony
of the Scriptures, as interpreted both by Christ's own
life and the teaching of His Apostles, to the gradual
evolution of that conception of which Christianity is
the full and perfect expression. Mistaken national
pride, accentuated by their galling subjection to Rome
led them to read a material significance into the pre-
dictions of the triumph of theMessias, and hence to lose
their privilege of being God's chosen people. The
wild olive in St. Paul's metaphor (Rom., xi, 17) was
then grafted upon the stock of the Patriarchs in place
of those rejected branches, and entered upon their
spiritual inheritance.
We may trace, too, in the world at large, apart from the Jewish people, a similar though less direct prepara- tion. Whether due ultimately to the Old Testament predictions or to the fragments of the original revela- tion handed down amongst the Gentiles, a certain vague expectation of the coming of a great conqueror seems to have existed in the East and to a certain ex- tent in the Roman world, in the midst of which the new religion had its birth. But a much more marked predisposition to Christianity may be noticed in cer- tain prominent features of the Roman religion after the downfall of the republic. The old gods of Latium had long ceased to reign. In their stead Greek philos- ophy occupied the minds of the culture, 1, whilst the populace were attracted by a variety of strange cults imported from Egypt and the Fast. Whatever their
