Development of Catholic Church Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Development of Catholic Church - Research Paper Example This paper will discuss the development of the Catholic Church, the church fathers, their opponents, and the theological disputes the church fathers faced. The spreading of Christian religion was more successful in urban areas among people of low social class, aristocratic women and slaves. The first Catholic Church was not well organized, thus; they came up with a structured hierarchy where the Bishop had authority over clergy in his city. By the third century, many things had changed, and the Bishop of Rome solved problems that other Bishops could not solve thus acted as a court of appeal. The doctrine of the Catholic Church was refined by the church fathers. Many years later catholic teachings came to be defined by proto-orthodox teachings. Christians faced persecution due to their refusal to give up their God and worship the gods of the other religions. The non Christians and the authorities felt that Christians were threatening their peace and the prosperity of the Roman Empire, by annoying the gods. Christians faced accusation of incest and cannibalism due to their secrecy in their religious practice. Any unusual occurrence in the empire was blamed on the Christians claiming that the gods were angry, and this led to the persecution of more Christians in the Roman Empire. All residents, except the Jews, had to give sacrifices to the gods or risk being persecuted. However, all these events took a turn when Constantine became emperor of the Western Roman Empire. He declared that his victory was attributed to Christianity. He came up with a law that mandated the acceptance of all religions in the Empire. After the Western Roman Empire failure, there were competitions between the Catholic Church and Arianism to convert the Barbarian tribes. In the late 15th century explorers and the European missionaries spread Catholicism in America, Asia and Africa. The Catholic Church had Church fathers. Church fathers were early eminent Christian teachers, bishops and infl uential theologians. The church fathers faced a number of theological disputes. For, example, Jesus Christ in the Eucharist was a sign of contradiction to the early church fathers. Some people did not believe that the Eucharist was a representation of the body of Christ or the symbolic memorial of Christ’s death. The cross was also a point of dispute. It is believed that Jesus Christ died for man’s sin, yet the Catholics believe that we should obey God, love others and go through suffering and pain. This is a contradiction since Jesus suffered on the cross for man’s sins. Human embryo is also another contradiction. This was seen as a sign of dispute the church fathers engaged in because it is believed that, the embryo is already a human being and that human beings were created in the God’s likeness (Edward 23). Augustine of Hippo was a bishop of Regius. He believed that Christ’s grace is indispensable to the freedom of human Augustine was converted to Christianity after hearing the story of Placianus. This story inspired him and led to his conversion to Christianity. He gave up his social life and dedicated his life to serving God and practiced priesthood, including celibacy. According to him, his conversion was prompted by a voice he heard that was child like telling him, â€Å"tolle, lege† (â€Å"take up and read†). Augustine considered the fact that people believed the soul originated from God as