amy- Early Christianity

What do we think about early Christianity? We can purely examine it from a human perspective, or we can examine it from the spiritual realm. I hope to have a good view of both. As I examine early Christianity from the human perspective, I start to really look at the difficulties of unity and function.

Because Christianity comes from Jewish roots, I would think that it would be a strange for Jewish-Christians to realize they must put aside the sense of pride and love for their nationality and go into the realm of accepting all peoples. Yet, in some ways, the Jews who would truly know the law would be able to comprehend the core ideas of Christianity by the concept that Jesus fulfills the Law and the new idea that His love has grafted in all nations.

On the other side, it would be difficult for the "Gentile" Christians to understand what was required after accepting this new, strange, perhaps even occult-like religion. To go from a polytheistic religion that focused mainly on worshiping the desires within humanity to a monotheistic religion that taught one to deny himself is an overthrowing of lifestyle. I would think that the phrase, "Where do we go from here?" would be common among the Hellenistic, Roman etc. Christians of the day.

The undercurrents among the nationalities and cultures is what interested me most in these discussions. Amidst all the adjustments of life, the Church itself was struggling to find the right path for believers to follow so they could spread Jesus' message most effectively. In my mind, I believe that the Roman Catholic Church was born of this deep desire for unity and function among early Christians. It seems to me this is why the Roman Catholic Church stresses a set of rules and regulations to the Christian within their church. Innately, these regulations and organizational tools are not bad, but taken to far can form another type of Law. Ironically enough, this is what the earliest Jewish believers also tried to do.