Were There Culture Wars In the Early Church?

I know the story of the first deacons. It was a response to the need for equitable distribution of food for Jewish and Greek widows. I rarely give any thought to the “back story” or context.

As a Vincentian, I tend to focus on how this addressed the need for the organization of charity. Vincent famously pointed out that the poor we serve suffer from a lack of organization in our charitable services. Acts chapter 6 addresses this need for better organization.

This season I am immersing myself in lectures and commentaries on the Acts of the Apostles. I see how much I missed of the back story. I see more and more how relevant the book of Acts of the Apostles is to the church today.

The story of the first deacons is the tip of the iceberg of “culture wars” in the early church.

Culture wars in the early church?

I am just coming to appreciate that this unequal distribution is part of a larger story of the culture wars of the first 100 years after Christ. 

Within Judaism there were many deeply divided factions. Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots … each had their strongly held views of what it meant to be a Jew, They could not understand each other.

Identifying them by their accents, Jews from Jerusalem looked down on Jews from Galilee. How much more disdain did they feel towards Hellenistic Jews from beyond the “promised land”? Those differences were especially palpable and relevant in a culture where ethnic purity was valued.

Remember how horrified the Pharisees were when Jesus consistently did not follow rules of ritual cleanliness.  He shared and delighted in table fellowship with unclean tax collectors, sinners, lepers … with all. He apparently said nothing about traditional dietary and ritual laws.

All these differences carried over as people from each of these groups began to follow Jesus. They brought with them their deep-seated cultural biases. The new Gentile followers “didn’t understand” Jewish rituals and seemed to ignore them. This horrified Jewish Christians.

These differences were very apparent in the sacred meal we know as the Eucharist.

In the Acts of the Apostles we will see how Peter, prompted by Paul, guided the community to move beyond these dietary culture wars.

Fast forward

Martin Luther King famously said…

“We must face the sad fact that at eleven o’clock on Sunday morning when we stand to sing ‘In Christ there is no East or West,’ we stand in the most segregated hour of America.”

But segregation is not limited to the color of one’s skin. In the Catholic Church today, Eucharist is also segregated by attitudes towards other issues – language, taking communion in the hand, practices about music, and various cultural styles of celebration.

Pope Francis has said

“We learn that the Eucharist is not only a reward for the good but also the strength for the weak and for sinners. It is forgiveness and sustenance which helps us on our journey”

This was something dear to the heart Pope Pius X over 100 years ago. He faced relatively recent centuries of “tradition” of limiting communion to something like once a year. He broke with that “tradition” and recommended receiving Eucharist frequently.

Perhaps we can learn something from the interaction of Peter and Paul today.

Wondering

• How might we still be struggling with liturgical culture wars?
• How did the early Christians survive without a Roman Missal or even a Tridentine Missal?
• Do I see Eucharist as a reward for the good or strength for the weak and sinners?

Click below for an audio version of this Vincentian Mindwalk