The Golden Age of the Church
I heartily enjoyed this blog post written by Vincent, hailing from the Orthodox tradition, and rebuffing the myth of a “golden age” of the Church:
The Golden Age of the Church – Franciscan Mafia
There wasn’t one.
This is a myth and it is something often curiously thrown in the face of Orthodox Christians as a supposed “refutation” of our claims regarding the Apostolic Faith.
We don’t believe there was ever a “golden age” of the Church.
Sure, it would’ve been interesting to live during the thousand-or-so years’ reign of Byzantium, but that was one of the most violent eras of the Church! Yes, Christianity was the State religion of the time, and yes the emperors (well, many of them) were God-fearing and helped push the agenda of the Faith and preserve, protect and maintain peace throughout the empire through the Church and Her influence, but there were far more problems than can easily be recounted.
Those ignorant of this time period and indeed of the Orthodox Faith in general like to suggest that our claims regarding Apostolic succession, the Ecumenical Councils and the conciliar view of Ecclesiology (just as examples) are somehow rendered moot by the fact that the Church was essentially in turmoil and utter chaos from the very beginning. The reality is, however, that this is all part and parcel of not only our Theology of the Church but also why we believe the way we do regarding everything from Tradition to Icons.
Tags: Church Life, Religion Society