The Institutionalisation of the Early Church: Local Networks in Asia Minor
The origins of Christianity have been one of the most researched and debated subjects of the last 2000 years. A typical and often repeated phrase would look something like this: “it started out as a small Jewish sect and evolved to become the world’s leading religion.” This is very true, but to understand this process better, it is more fruitful to look into a more specific aspect of expansion. I for example have researched the gradually increasing institutionalisation and hierarchisation of the early church. They are closely interwoven and concern the increased unity of the church through the registering of social rules, norms, values, the acceptance of a set of texts for the New Testament, and the recognition of offices.
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Forming an early Christian congregation would involve setting people to perform different tasks. Unfortunately, very few sources describe these earliest organising principles. It is likely that the richer Christians acted as hosts by using their houses for gatherings, and enjoyed esteem through social status. From the end of the first century, the institutionalisation and hierarchisation processes seem to take a leap: they accelerated. Within the congregations established by the apostle Paul during 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s in Asia Minor and Europe several functions are given a more formal status, like bishop, deacon (diakonoi), and overseer (episkopoi). A very reasonable explanation is that the original authoritative figures, apostles like Paul, passed away one after the other. New sources of authority were to be established. Solutions arose in the appointment of bishops and the like.
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This study is important is such a way that it attempts to investigate how this Mediterranean-wide process of institutionalisation and hierarchisation has affected local, often small-scale, communities. Social Network Analysis can be especially useful for this, because then the social aspects of a network can be exposed. I have chosen for a qualitative perception of ‘SNA’, mainly because the sources from this period of time were not fit in my eyes to use in a quantitative manner. Max Weber’s model for authority proved to be useful, for it offered ways to access leadership figures and the attachment to the other nodes within a specific network.
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Ignatius of Antioch: Letters of Persuasion
To apply this form of SNA, I have zoomed in on the region of Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. One well known initiator and promulgator of the movement towards institutionalisation and hierarchisation was Ignatius of Antioch, a Syrian apostolic father. Around 110 AD he wrote letters to the Christian congregations of Ephese, Magnesia and Smyrea, all of which were cities located in western Asia Minor. He uses these letters to urge the Christians to “act in accord with the bishop’s mind” (Letter to the Ephesians 4.1), and his helpers, the presbytery. If one should not follow the leadership of the bishop, this individual “shows his arrogance by the very fact of becoming a schismatic” (Letter to the Ephesians 5.3). With these letters, Ignatius clearly attempts to impose his organisational ideal on other congregations in order to create unity within the Christian faith. It is an attempt to identify a Christian identity, and single out those “who have wrong notions about the grace of Jesus Christ” (Letter to the Smyreans 6.2), and who are at variance “ with God’s mind” (Letter to the Smyrneans 6.2). But the fact that Ignatius found it necessary to write to these congregations implies institutionalisation and hierarchisation needed helping hands, and that the church order was far from crystallised. These letters indicate that local christian networks from early second century Asia Minor likely had a fluid nature.
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Papias, the First Bishop of Hierapolis
The phrase ‘networks from Asia Minor’ is however, quite broad and can be sharpened considerably. Therefore, I have chosen to concentrate on the city of Hierapolis, which lies in the southwest of modern day Turkey. It was one of the major cities of the Lycus Valley and lied north of the river Meander, raised to about 350 meters above the valley floor. It originally functioned as a military stronghold for the Seleucids, being founded in the third century BCE. One of the most prominent figures to appear as officeholder in the literature of the 2nd century AD in Hierapolis was Papias. In fact, Papias is, as far as we know the city’s first bishop, having been in office approximately around the year 100 AD. He seems to have established himself as a leading church figure around the time when Ignatius of Antioch visited the nearby churches of Philadelphia and Tralleis. In accordance with the above letters from Ignatius, this was the period when both hierarchisation and institutionalisation were developing rapidly in western Asia Minor. Papias may have been one of the first individuals to seize the opportunities that this movement brought by asserting himself or being asserted as a bishop.
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The Nature of Networks |
Conclusion |
Historian Ullrich Huttner found out Papias was a very common name in and around Phrygia (central Anatolia) and a typical regional nickname. It is therefore likely to say that he came from this region and possibly even Hierapolis itself. The fact that this local individual gained authority makes Christianity in this region seem autochthonous of character. Whereas earlier, preachers and organisers like Paul established Christian communities in Asia Minor, authoritative figures now spawned from the congregations themselves. This is an important development in that it marks a shift in their self regulating capacities, for it was no longer necessary for leading figures to come from outside a network. In other words, the local Christian networks provided their own ecclesiastical order, even though this was officially still limited to only a bishop in Hierapolis.
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It thus becomes clear that the nature of the local Christian networks changed due to the increasing institutionalisation and hierarchisation of the early church around the beginning of the second century. A grand-scale development has visible consequences for the organisation of local Christian communities. With the advent of Papias as bishop, the Pauline community of Hierapolis no longer relied on external authoritative figures to lead them: they would now be led by one of their own.
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Suggestions for Further Reading
Huttner, Ulrich. Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley. Translated by David Green. Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2013.
Ehrman, Bart D. After The New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Stambaugh, J. and David Balch. The Social World of the First Christians. London: SPCK, 1986.
Wedderburn, Alexander J.M. A History of The First Christians. London: T&T Clark Ltd, 2004.
Torjesen, Karen Jo. “Clergy and Laity.” In The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies, edited by Susan Ashbrook Harvey and David G. Hunter. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Edwards, Mark. “The development of office in the early church.” In The Early Christian World, Volume 1, edited by Philip F. Esler. London and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2000.
Bobetz, Charles. “Cyprian of Carthage as Patron: A Social Historical Study of the Role of Bishops in Ancient Christian Communities.” Yale University dissertation; Ann Arbor: UMI, 1990.
Ehrman, Bart D. After The New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Stambaugh, J. and David Balch. The Social World of the First Christians. London: SPCK, 1986.
Wedderburn, Alexander J.M. A History of The First Christians. London: T&T Clark Ltd, 2004.
Torjesen, Karen Jo. “Clergy and Laity.” In The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies, edited by Susan Ashbrook Harvey and David G. Hunter. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Edwards, Mark. “The development of office in the early church.” In The Early Christian World, Volume 1, edited by Philip F. Esler. London and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2000.
Bobetz, Charles. “Cyprian of Carthage as Patron: A Social Historical Study of the Role of Bishops in Ancient Christian Communities.” Yale University dissertation; Ann Arbor: UMI, 1990.
Figures
Figure 1: Icon of the Martyrdom of St. Ignatius: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Antioch#/media/File:Ignatius_of_Antioch_2.jpg
Figure 2: Theatre of Hierapolis: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theatre_in_Hierapolis_5.jpg
Figure 3: Schematic view of the Lycus Valley: http://www.ntimages.net/Maps_Sat-views/imagemaps/Hier-Laodicea-Colossae.gif
Figure 4: The main thoroughfare of Hieroploisa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierapolis#/media/File:Hierapolis_colonnade.jpg
Figure 2: Theatre of Hierapolis: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theatre_in_Hierapolis_5.jpg
Figure 3: Schematic view of the Lycus Valley: http://www.ntimages.net/Maps_Sat-views/imagemaps/Hier-Laodicea-Colossae.gif
Figure 4: The main thoroughfare of Hieroploisa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierapolis#/media/File:Hierapolis_colonnade.jpg
Video
[1] https://youtu.be/7bzLrZBx_38
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