CHURCH OF THE EAST
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Church History Course 001

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Perspectives and the study of Church History

The study of history is to acquaint oneself with the opinions and perspectives of people who lived a long time ago.

Context, Intention, Audience

We should consider how different authors from different parts of the world would portray the same event. We do not, and should not, expect an author of a history to be objective—therefore being able to, or capable of reporting the significance of an event from everyone's perspective. Therefore, when we read a report or history we always take into consideration the questions: Why did the author write the work? ( Intention ), What is the purpose of the work? What is the context of the author? ( Context ), and Who the work intends to speak to? ( Audience ).

Examples of the preceding from our history

As examples of the above, we will look at how a particular historical event was reported by different authors around the world.

The New Testament author, Paul, experiences a brief aspect of The Saviour's ministry only in Palestine . Paul reflects on his own frame of reference and translates his experience into the socio-political framework, religious language, and symbolism of his particular context. Let's take a look at his context. Paul is a young man. He is unmarried, which makes him different. He is a student in Judaic religious law under tutelage of Gamaliel, one of the finest professors of his time. Paul seems to have the financial resources to occupy himself with religious zeal, theological studies, and politics. He is also skilled as a tent maker, probably a craft he learned from his family's business in the northern city of Tarsus , the place he calls home. Paul is a Roman citizen. He speaks Aramaic, reads, and writes Greek. His studies are in Greek but political life (which interests him) is becoming increasingly more Latin. Paul perceives the message of Jesus correctly. He understands Jesus as declaring the Law of Moses (the highest law in the life of a Jew of the time) subject to the free spirit in humankind, and as inferior to the Dharma written in the hearts of all humans. Paul hears Jesus criticizing the priesthood and religious institutions of his faith, condemning it as an unjust and unnecessary joke intent on enslaving rather than liberating.

Paul reacts to the Truth as The Saviour expects him (us) to react. First, he is disturbed. Then he is amazed, and then he finds rest and peace in the Realization of Truth. In his initial anger, he vows to kill all the followers of The Way, and in fact causes the execution of Stephen (Acts of Apostles). Once he grasps the message in a spiritual sense, he ‘sees the light' and is amazed. Then, as he finds Peace, he returns to Tarsus to exist as a new person. Fourteen years later (about 15 years after the Crucifixion of Jesus) a disciple of The Way, Barnabas, is called to minister to the Roman society and he calls on Paul, living at home in Straight street in Tarsus to help him. Paul and Barnabas spend some time trying different angles to make the teaching of Jesus clear to the Greco-Roman society in Palestine . Once they found a recipe that worked for them, and cast the message (as they understood it) in terms, symbols and religious language acceptable to that audience they notified the older ascetic movement in Jerusalem of their intentions to start a new movement, or to start a ‘renewal' of sorts among that particular society. Paul starts to write.

He writes as a Jewish reformer proclaiming the message of The Saviour as a reformer of Paul's old religion. In terms of Judaist, symbolism Paul casts Jesus as the promised Messiah who suffered for the sins of his people. The Messiah's (Christos in Greek) death is the living sacrifice, a perfect lamb, the final blood sacrifice the wrathful God of the Hebrews needed to finally be appeased to take a merciful look at those who follow the teaching of the Messiah. Initially the teaching of the new movement is of egalitarianism (all is equal), mercy, love, and a peaceful (appeased) God. (Book of Galatians, for instance). Paul writes to an audience who understands the Jewish Holy Scriptures and terms of reference. Paul's intention, or agenda, is to show The Saviour is the Messiah of Judaism and saviour of those who follow him, and to break down the divisions between people (slaves, masters, servants, women, and men).

In later writings, Paul changes his mind about certain issues, or, Paul's works are edited to reflect a revised teaching as the enculturation process is ongoing. Paul's later writings instruct women not to go about with loose hair, slaves to be obedient to their masters, and citizens to be obedient to their rulers, and rulers to be fair to those serving under him. Paul's Jesus takes the familiar Hellenistic form of a son of God and early signs of aligning Jesus and his mother with familiar Hellenistic gods are seminal. By the 4 th century the Roman Emperor convened councils to formulate a creed and to decide on which scripture to put forward as the only true Scriptures of the western Bible. People opposing the Creed of Christianity were executed and exiled, and all books that were not selected by the councils for inclusion in the so-called canonical Bible were destroyed along with those who possessed or protected them. In 577CE a council condemned the original teaching of metempsychosis (reincarnation) and declared it and its proponents (and books speaking to it) as anathema (death itself). Hundreds of original Scripture were destroyed between those early centuries and the 18 th century.

Paul's adaptation of The Way to the Greco-Roman context started the Christian movement. Later Greek writings, such as the (Canonical) Gospels, continued the process of acculturation of The Way into the Greco-Roman context. Three hundred years later the process was so well refined that Christianity replaced almost every one of more than a hundred competitive religions in the Roman Empire . Christianity became the religious device of choice for the Emperors to adopt by which they would rule their people under one moral code, holding power of eternal salvation (or burning hell) over their heads—controlling not only one's quality of life in the here and now but also in the eternity after death. The Christian Church of the 6 th century served as government offices that recorded births, deaths, taxes, marriages, and divorces. The Christian Church became such as important political vehicle it soon became clear that whoever controls Christianity would gain control over the Empire. This was the cause of the split in the Empire that resulted in the Roman Catholic Church of the Latin Western Roman Empire and the Greek Orthodox Church of the Greek Eastern Roman Empire.

Interdenominational wars became the one significant mark of the Christian movement. Today there are more than six thousand sects in Christianity and most sects will have nothing good to say about the other, in fact, they still war amongst one another in many ways even though they still worship the old Roman Catholic Bible as the Word of God. Jesus' message of egalitarianism, peace, and love did however bring reform to the people of the west. Over the past two millennia, westerners became increasingly more humanitarian, egalitarian, and peaceful. It may be hard to believe that the only people who have ever started world wars on this earth are those people we now profess to have become increasingly more peaceful and respectful of others but it is frighteningly true. The West, like the left-brain and Yang, is filled with action and impetus. A review of its history will show that for every warmonger there will be at least a few outgoing and active disciples of peace and love. In the name of this offshoot (Christianity) of The Saviour's ministry, many good things have come to the world. One can only thank God deeply for these because God chose not to leave the West to its own destructive devices but to plant the seeds of peace among them through The Saviour our Lord. Today the Christian religion comprises more than a billion adherents

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The Lotus Sutra author, Gopananda, experiences a brief aspect of Yesu's ministry in North India . Gopananda reflects on his own frame of reference and translates his experience into the socio-political framework, religious language, and symbolism of his particular context. Let's take a look at his context. We don't know much about Gopananda's background except that he was born in on the edge of the Tarim basin. He was probably from Chinese descent and joined the monastery as a child. By the time our Tradition first mentions him Gopananda is a young Buddhist monk. He is fortunate enough to live in one of the richer monasteries in Northern India and goes about town every day with his begging bowl. On his daily route, he used to pass by a place where orphaned children camped. He experienced the presence of the children there as competition for his daily food. He was however thankful for a royal decree that compelled the public to support monks. The Buddhism of his day was a strictly monastic movement catering to males. There were many thousands of monasteries in Northern India , the Swat valley, China and North Eastern Afghanistan. Gopananda encounters Yesu and Mari Magadhalene for a brief moment, probably spending no more than a couple of weeks with the young Master. A portion of the story is told in Acts of Yesu The Saviour. He experiences the teaching of the Master as a condemnation of the Buddhist priesthood and its unnecessary complication of the simple message of the Buddha, making it inaccessible to the average person and excluding all persons outside the movement—even though they claim the right to live off the charity of those people. He also experiences Yesu's teaching as condemnation of the Buddhist movement for having a lack of compassion and for setting themselves higher than those outside of the monastery. Gopananda becomes convinced of the Master's movement to reform Buddhism.

Gopananda would later write a series of poems that explains Yesu's reformation doctrine in succinct form. He hoped to achieve a simplicity in Buddhist teaching that it sorely lacked (it has literally hundreds of authoritative Scriptures, many yet to be translated from Pali). His poems attempt to explain the simplified cosmology he learned from Yesu's teaching. The poems were later collected (and probably edited by adding a rather lengthy foreword) and circulated as the Lotus Sutra. Gopananda understands the Yesu to be the Saviour of Buddhism, the Maitreya Buddha, who incarnates (or appears) in the form of a man (bodhisattva) that embodies or personifies God's compassion for all creatures. He calls this incarnation the Avalokitesvara, the Lord who hears the cries of the entire world. Gopananda understands that because God is a loving God, and because God cares about the welfare of all beings, God will not allow obstacles such as the boundaries of culture, religion, ethnicity, gender or physical impairment or social status to deter any one from reaching out and receiving God's Grace, Peace, and blessings. In this new Buddhism, that The Saviour called ‘the great vehicle' (Mahayana), The Saviour can be known, approached and experienced by all creatures because he/she/it will appear to the seeker in the form that is most advantageous for the person at the time. Gopananda understands that God sets no limits and The Saviour will, by his ability as Avalokitesvara, appear as a man, a woman, a child, or an animal--whatever form will best serve the purpose of bringing peace, grace, and prosperity. Avalokitesvara hears the pleas of help of everyone all over the world and employs millions of helper spirits to execute the task of assistance. Avalokitesvara is portrayed as a Bodhisattva with the physical features of the Lord Yesu that Gopananda met, but with a thousand arms to illustrate his ability to help all beings.

The Mahayana reform movement gained almost immediate popularity. Buddhism was growing rapidly at the time but as an exclusivist religion. Gopananda's writings however made the grace of God available to every person male or female, child or king, beggar or socialite. The cult of Avalokitesvara spearheaded the Mahayana reformation movement and Buddhism clamoured to accommodate the sudden changes. Almost immediately iconic images of Maitreya Buddha, Avalokitesvara, and Sakyamuni Buddha started appearing for the first time in history and were shipped worldwide from the Swat and Gandhara areas. Within a few decades, the king had to convene an international council of Buddhists to make peace with one another and find ways to accommodate the changes. Mahayana Buddhism dominated over the old regime and reached as far as South as Sri Lanka , East to Japan and throughout China , West to Rome and North to Turkey —within a century. Foreign kings despatched learned men to travel to the Kushan kingdom to learn the new superior religion. Mahayana eclipsed most of the indigenous and often primitive natural religions in the eastern world.

Folklore, personal experience, and faith mingled over the years, The Magadhalene was later understood to be The Saviour's consort, and images of her appeared alongside that of Avalokitesvara. The Magadhalene ministry was rooted in the Sacred Sensuality Tradition and had great appeal especially among women. Her celestial image (after her death) was named Tara, the celestial consort of Avalokitesvara.

Whichever came first, the chicken or the egg, we cannot know today but history attests to it that not only did Buddhism's revival and reform benefit by The Saviour's ministry but Hinduism also. The cult of Siva and Sakti has much in common with that of Avalokitesvara and Tara. We know that the Lord was very active in the Hindu reformation process of the Bhagavad Gita tradition and it is therefore not surprising to see many similarities in folklore about Yesu and Krishna .

Avalokitesvara reflects the ideal of androgyny—the ultimate combination of our yin and yang forces, the true inner egalitarianism. Gopananda's simple poems reflected his context, spoke to the Buddhist audience, and aimed at making the presence of God available to all creatures. Today the Avalokitesvara (or Kwan Yin / Guanyin in Chinese) cult is the most popular in Buddhism all over the world—comprising hundreds of millions devotees.

The Eastern Bible author Thomas, experiences many years of The Saviour's ministry in Palestine , Judea , Syria , Kushan, and India . Thomas reflects on his own frame of reference to fully understand and translate the impact of the Ministry but like Mari the Magadhalene, and unlike most other authors of Scripture, his frame of reference was very much influenced by the intimate tuition and personal relationship he had with the historical person Yesu our Lord. Thomas ‘sat at the feet' of the Lord for at least 4 years and received not only teaching but also enlightenment from Him. Thomas' context is therefore comparable only to that of the Magadhalene (to an extent). However, the Lord despatches Thomas to minister in a culture that is vastly different to his own. Thomas' mother tongue, Aramaic, served him well to communicate the basics of every day life in Kushan (since its proximity to Persia, Parthia and Syria) but the area was undergoing political changes and the kings adopted Greek as the language of government. The common people in the very cosmopolitan area spoke a variety of languages not close enough related to either Greek or Aramaic for it to be of much help. Thomas therefore finds himself in the most cosmopolitan area of the 1 st century world, armed with a fair command of the two most influential languages of the time (Aramaic and Greek) but he cannot communicate freely. Thomas' task is also not to translate his experience and the Message into his own context, but to translate it into the cultural environment prevailing in the Kushan, China, and three distinctly different areas in India—a massive undertaking, to say the least. We learn from Acts of Thomas that he spent almost two years among the people of Kushan before he set out on his wandering mission, a time in which he learned the necessities of ministering to people in a foreign culture(s). Thomas is a young man, probably the youngest of the Palestinian apostles. He is unmarried because he entered the esoteric school of The Way as a young boy and never settled into normative life. He is a natural ascetic and often seems a little (maybe more than just a little) out of touch with normative human conduct. He does not respect social rules and frequently acts ungraceful, politically speaking, - a dangerous lifestyle for a controversial man frequenting the courts of kings. He is probably the most stubborn and fearless man in the history of The Way—a ferocious unstoppable menace of a character. However, one thing, and only that one thing scares Thomas witless—the thought of ministering to the Indians. The Lord had to force him by cunning to set course and fulfill his duty. He is a questioning fellow who requires proof of things but he is such a gigantic spiritual athlete that his soul is purely ready to receive the deepest truths when inspired to him. Thomas easily disregards physical appearances and often sees people's state of being rather than how they appear to other people. Thomas was born in a small desert town called Juliopolis on the (ever changing) border between Syria and Mesopotamia . Thomas and the Magadhalene are the first devotees to have called the celestial Lord (after the crucifixion), “my God”. It is rather common for westerners to call out ‘my God' many times a day but these two Saints of The Way we are describing here truly had only one God in mind.

Thomas would keep brief notes from his days with Yesu. His brief notes of some of the teaching he received from Yesu are in fact the only surviving notes any devotee of that time may have kept. Those notes are today referred to by the title that Thomas wrote for the collection, The Mystical Sayings of Yesu our Lord. Thomas employed authors to move around with him and capture the experiences in writing, but was insistent that the writings should be simple, humble, and easy to read. Remember that this was one of the Lord's complaints, that the Buddhist scriptures of that aea were too complicated. Acts of Thomas reads like a very good novel. The author could not write about Thomas' works and interaction with The Saviour in India (probably because he was not present with Thomas). Acts of Thomas follows Thomas around from the time of the start of the ministry to the Indo-Scythian king Gondophares and around Kushana. Thomas, it is written, then leaves the area to minister “all over India .” Acts of Thomas again picks up the story when Thomas returns to the Kushan.

Thomas did not write a work of history but he employed various professional authors to write under his guidance. We don't know much about the authors but we do know that Thomas was the editor of the books.

Thomas' literary works served The Way in many ways. Those works constitute the bulk of the Eastern Bible from the 2 nd century to the 5 th century. By the 6 th century the Eastern Bible appeared to have two books added to it, Wisdom and Songs of Songs. Church of the East never had any dealings in common with Christianity. It started as an Aramaic-Greek devotional gathering of members of The Way in the Kushan Empire and branched out to Turkey, Arachosia (Kandahâr in modern Afghanistan), Parthia (north-east of modern Iran), and South India and into western China. The Eastern Bible appealed to the higher educated and literate people in society and served in the royal courts as well. The more popular aspect of Church of the East was the cult of Avalokitesvara, probably because its teaching was simpler and readily understandable. The Way has always been an inner circle of dedicated students and secluded students. The Way has a long Tradition of being guarded by royal courts and princes as students (a bit about the story of the Magi who discovered The Saviour's incarnation could be read here).

The Thomas writings served as the foundation for the 3 rd century Manichean movement and inspired the Eastern Christians to challenge their Roman councils on various topics (to their peril, we must concede). During the tumultuous political period between the 3 rd century and the 9 th century in North India , Swat Turkey and China the following of devotees in contact with Church of the East's Thomas literature numbered many millions. One of the many offshoots that capitulated to Christianity, the Assyrian Church of the East, guesses the number of devotees to be as high as eight hundred million. However, political pressure from various sources who would kill, burn, rape and ravaged to be the religion of ‘choice' would all but annihilate Church of the East in the end. Between the designs of the warring Christians, the Huns, and eventually the brutal and cruel Islamic forces Church of the East was displaced and adherents were scattered all over the world (mostly being sold as slaves to Europeans—being the foundation of the Roma people (Gypsies) of today). But, as always and as ever, God so ordains that the light of The Way will always flicker to return at the opportune time to again ignite the Light that would cause reformation and new direction to serve all humankind.

The Thomas works of literature form a fall in a different class of history than most other works.

The esoteric theology author, Mari Magadhalene, experiences many years of close and intimate relationship with the historic person Yesu our Lord and Saviour. No person knew more about the life and teaching of the Lord than she did.

Let's take a look at her context. Living, walking, working, and witnessing with Yesu, shaped much of Mari's context. Her childhood experiences also made a significant impact on her life. Mari's parents were rich merchants in the city of Magadha in the monarchical state of Magadha in India . She lived an extraordinarily luxurious life and enjoyed an early education. However, all this came to a terrible end one day when her family was visiting at a Government official's residence in the city of Pataliputra . While the respective parents were engaged in their social hob-knobbing, the ten year-old Mari played with the host's children. At some point during that visit Mari and the government official's daughter engaged in investigative sexual play, probably satisfying a normal curiosity of a pubescent child. Someone, probably an older brother, who ran off to tell the story to the adults, discovered the two girls. The government-official parents were tremendously outraged and Mari's parents could appease them to a measure only by promising they would send their daughter away never to return to the kingdom. Her mother delivered Mari to an associate trader on his way to the Taxila who was instructed to sell her. Her parents obviously hoped that to get rid of Mari would improve their chances to survive the backlash of the unfortunate incident. The trader sold Mari to a brothel owner in Taxila who had to promise to keep her away from visiting dignitaries from Magadha . She was eventually moved to Srinagar where she served the carnal needs of traders, royalty, soldiers, and rich households (as performing artist in pornographic entertainment, or porn star). The story of exactly how Mari and Yesu our Lord met is told in Acts of Yesu our Lord and Saviour.

Mari's context, in sharp contrast to that of Thomas, is shaped by her particular experience of societal elite and sexually needy adults of various cultures (The Taxila / Srinagar area was very cosmopolitan during the time), and the greed and cruelty of pimps and a bigot society driven by materialism, greed and avarice. Mari would reflect on Yesu's teaching upon her own frame of reference and different things would stand out to be most striking to her than for the average hearer of the Lord's words. Mari was moved to compassion and almost immediately started working to free oppressed women and children. Eventually Mari would champion the Sacred Sensuality Tradition (foundations of Tantra Buddhism) that Yesu imparted to her and she served The Way as the first and foremost Apostle and minister.

Mari's audience was always situation-specific rather than culturally specific. Her primary audience was women and her aim was to liberate women and children by sharing with them the ‘Good News' that they have direct access to the Grace of God—access that was withheld from them by the political and religious leaders and doctrines and practices. Mari also brought to her audience Yesu's teaching of liberation from oppressive ethics and morals, giving hope to women who were destitute because of a history of rape, ‘being barren', divorce, widowed, or negatively labelled as unsavoury or adulteresses. Mari's secondary audience is men and women who desire to break free of spiritually impeding culturally conditioned thinking regarding both gender relations and humankind's relationship to sensual matters.

Mari worked among women in Kushan , Persia , Syria , Galilee , and Judea early on in her career. After the crucifixion of the Lord Mari was despatched to Africa to work among all people along the Nile River . Later she would convert the Kingdom of Aksum . When St. Thomas was martyred, the Lord sent Mari to return to that area of Northern India to position the Sacred Sensuality movement in that important growth point. We believe the liberation of women started with the work of Mari, the one Yesu our Lord used to call The Magadhalene (probably to differentiate between the different Maries in the entourage). Mari's writings are esoteric and are not yet read by anyone outside of the inner circle of The Magadhalenes. We can only guess what a history from Mari's pen would look like, had one been written. What we can glean from Mari's contribution to the study of history is to observe the relentless movement all over the world to afford to women and sensuality their rightful place in society—especially in terms of humankind's spiritual growth.

Summary

We can see from the examples cited above that, each of those seminal authors had their own unique Context, Intention (agenda or motive), and Audience. In consideration of these facts we can easily understand that each one of them, if they were to write a historical work or comment on Yesu's teaching, would deliver that work trough the mind-set formed by their particular frame of reference, from within their particular interests and within each one's particular means (in terms of language, writing skill, opportunity, etc).

To take a step back from a theological work to first enquire what the context, intention and audience of author is, is critical to understanding. It is true that wearing sunglasses with yellow lenses adds a tinge of yellow to everything in one's view. However, it is also true that a coloured lens not only adds a colour but also reduces the opposite colour in the spectrum—blue in this instance. The yellow lenses therefore also filter out blue light (and some ultra violet) from the picture. A person's context and culturally conditioned thinking influences his/her worldview and therefore colours his/her Truth accordingly.

Very few literary works of history pretend to deliver a balanced or objective view. Certainly, any work pretentious of that claim should be very well researched and would call for extraordinary qualification. Theological works are usually (probably 99.9%) presented from within very particular context and do not even consider the values of another context—and if it does pretend to that it should be investigated with great care. It is not wrong of an author to present her work in an exclusive manner—it is in fact standard practice. To learn about the worldview of the Southern Baptist Christians one would rather study the works of recognised Southern Baptists. One would not want to learn about the worldview and spirituality of Tibetan Magadhalenes from a Southern Baptist or a professed atheist academic scholar at the University of Gluttony in a materialistic society—unless of course, one desires to learn how professed atheist academic scholars from University of Gluttony in a materialistic society view the Tibetan Magadhalenes' worldview, but then one must still consider the author's intention and intended audience.

Authors adapt their work to appeal to the work's intended audience. An author can, for instance, write a twenty-page book, ‘History of The Way from 3000BCE to 2003' intended for grade school students in Central Africa . Another work with the same title may be fife thousand pages written by a theologian in The Way hoping his work will appeal to North American researching for post-graduate thesis.

Another example of the importance of the intended audience is that of religious denomination. A devotee from within a Hindu culture in India , hoping to learn more about the doctrine of non-interference would do well to read something intended for his context rather than reading a work written by a devotee from a Christian context aimed at the Greek Orthodox woman's league of Lebanon .

Every literary work has intent, a purpose, agenda, or motive. Intent of purpose can often be deduced from a work's title. The explicitly stated title of the book, Mystical Sayings of Yesu our Lord and Saviour' tell us that its intention is to list mystical sayings uttered by Yesu our Lord and Saviour. For some unexplained reason this book is known to Christians as ‘The Gospel of Thomas'. This error misstates the intention of the book. A Gospel is a particular literary device that follows a pattern as seen in the New Testament writings. Its intention is to forward the theology of a particular sect by narrating a chronological history of Yesu's ministry, deeds and teaching to their people, interspersed with theological slants and presentations particular to the sect.

Some works intend to educate or make certain things clearer by discussion and reference. Another work again intends to explain a cult's particular viewpoints (usually with the intention to win converts) – a genre known in theology as apologetics. An example of apologetical works is Gospels.

What would the Context, Intent, and Audience of this particular work be?

The intent of this work is easy to see because its title has the word ‘course' in it. It intends to impart information. One should therefore expect the work to follow some format recognized as typical or functional for courses. The title also states that this course deals with a certain level – it is a Primer.

The intended audience for a course is usually students. This course is presented in a format that should identify it as material used within the movement and is therefore not aimed at the public.

Because this is an official document, it is safe to assume that the work either is a collaboration of authors or was subject to editing / approval by the organisation. We will therefore not take a very hard look at the author's context because the overriding context is that of being a document delivering a denomination-specific view on a topic. What is the context of the organisation? It is a North American branch of The Way, delivering services to Anglophone North Americans, most of whom recently joined the movement.

The primary author is an ordained minister in The Way, a Magadhalene teacher, a student of theology holding a post-graduate degree and various other diplomas in world religions, philosophy of religion, and biblical studies. English is his second language; he resides in North America and has studied and worked in Africa and in India .

We find that generally the context of the author of material representative of an organisation fades in relevance because the context of the organisation dictates context to the author.

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