The Patient Ferment of the Early Church

1. The Early Church's Growth Was Improbable and Mysterious

Why did this minor mystery religion from the eastern Mediterranean—marginal, despised, discriminated against—grow substantially, eventually supplanting the well-endowed, respectable cults that were supported by the empire and aristocracy?

Growth defied expectations. The early Christian church's expansion across the Roman Empire was surprising. It was a small, often despised movement from a peripheral region, facing significant disincentives like social stigma, legal opposition, and the threat of persecution and death. Unlike established cults supported by the elite, Christianity lacked state endorsement or widespread social acceptance.

Lack of conventional methods. The growth wasn't driven by organized mission programs, strategic planning, or public preaching. Early Christian leaders didn't write treatises on evangelism or employ accredited missionaries. Their worship services were often closed to outsiders, a practice that would seem counterintuitive for a movement seeking converts.

Attributed to divine work. Despite the lack of typical growth prerequisites, the church grew impressively in numbers and geographical spread. Early Christians themselves noted this with wonder, attributing it to the patient, invisible work of God, a "steady fermenting process" that operated spontaneously through ordinary believers.

2. Patience Was a Counter-Cultural Virtue Central to Christian Identity

Christian writers called patience the “highest virtue,” “the greatest of all virtues,” the virtue that was “peculiarly Christian.”

Patience was highly valued. Unlike Greco-Roman society, which often viewed patience as ignominious, especially for the powerless, early Christians elevated it to a preeminent virtue. They wrote treatises on it, seeing it as rooted in the character of God and visibly embodied by Jesus Christ.

More than endurance. Christian patience wasn't just passive suffering; it was an active, hopeful stance. It meant trusting God's timing, refusing to control events or be in a hurry, and abstaining from force or retaliation. This "strange patience" was noted by outsiders.

Source of resilience. Patience was crucial for Christians facing persecution, social pressure, and the crises of life like epidemics. It enabled them to endure difficulties, maintain integrity, and live distinctively, which paradoxically made their faith intriguing and attractive to others.

3. Habitus: Embodied Behavior Was the Primary Christian Witness

Their habitus—a term I have learned from French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu—enabled them to address intractable problems that ordinary people faced in ways that offered hope.

Actions spoke louder than words. Early Christians believed their lifestyle, their "habitus" or reflexive bodily behavior, was the most eloquent expression of their faith. They grew not primarily by winning arguments or intellectual debates, but because their habitual actions were distinctive and offered practical hope in addressing real-world problems.

Visible and intriguing. When challenged about their beliefs, Christians pointed to their actions. Their embodied behavior, shaped by patience and Christ's teachings, was visible to their neighbors and contemporaries. This included:

• How they conducted business
• How they responded to injury or offense
• How they cared for each other and outsiders

Enactment of the message. Their habitus was seen as an enactment of the gospel message itself. This visible difference intrigued some pagans, causing them to "wonder" and prompting them to investigate Christianity further, often leading to conversion.

4. Christian Communities Offered a Distinctive and Attractive Way of Life

Nothing else distinguishes the unjust from the just more than this, that in adversities the unjust man complains and blasphemes because of impatience, while the just man is proved by patience.

An alternative social reality. Christian communities created a counter-cultural space that contrasted sharply with the dominant Greco-Roman society. They were characterized by:

• Horizontality: Breaking down social barriers between rich/poor, slave/free, male/female.
• Mutual care: Providing extensive support for members, including burial, aid for widows, orphans, sick, and prisoners.
• Sexual discipline: Committing to chastity and fidelity, which was admired by some outsiders.

Intense common life. Unlike pagan associations that met infrequently, Christian groups met often, fostering deep face-to-face relationships and a strong sense of family ("brothers" and "sisters"). This density of community life was formative.

Visible difference. Outsiders observed these communities and their practices, often commenting with amazement, "Look... how they love one another." This visible difference, particularly their care for the vulnerable and their internal solidarity, was a powerful factor in attracting new members.

5. Women Played an Indispensable Role in the Church's Expansion

"[Women were] in the frontline,” understood in terms both “of a favourable position from which to evangelize and of vulnerability to attack.”

Majority of believers. Evidence suggests that women constituted the majority of early Christians from an early date. While rarely holding official leadership positions like bishop, they were essential to the movement's life and growth.

Active in spreading faith. Women were key participants in "migration mission," carrying their faith to new places through travel for work or family. They also formed networks and groups, sometimes starting Christian cells in places where no formal church existed.

Embodied witness. Women's embodied behavior was particularly impactful. They were active in caring for the poor, sick, and imprisoned. Their commitment to chastity and their courage in persecution, like Perpetua's, challenged pagan stereotypes and inspired both Christians and outsiders. Christian wives in mixed marriages also influenced their pagan husbands through their lifestyle.

6. Catechesis and Baptism Formed Believers' Character and Habitus

Christians are made, not born.

Intentional formation. Becoming a Christian was not automatic; it required intentional formation. The church developed rigorous processes of catechesis and baptism to shape the character and habitus of new members, recognizing that pagan habits were deeply ingrained.

Lengthy process. The catechumenate, the period of instruction before baptism, could last for years. It involved learning Christian teachings, memorizing scriptures, and practicing new behaviors, often guided by sponsors or "trainers." The goal was not just intellectual assent but a transformation of reflexive, embodied actions.

Baptism as a watershed. Baptism was the culmination of this process, seen as a "new birth" that empowered candidates to live the Christian life that had previously seemed impossible. It was a public declaration of identity and a commitment to the Christian way, often involving symbolic actions like stripping naked and renouncing old ways.

7. Worship Was the Secret, Energizing Core of Christian Life

They knew that worship services were to glorify God and edify the faithful, not to evangelize outsiders.

Closed to outsiders. For much of the pre-Constantinian period, Christian worship services were private and secret, closed to non-baptized individuals. This was due to concerns about security, the sacredness of the rites, and the belief that only those committed to the Christian life could properly participate.

Formative power. Despite being hidden, worship was the vital center of Christian life. Through practices like reading scripture, preaching, prayer, and the Eucharist, believers were:

• Energized and strengthened
• Formed in Christian character and habitus
• Bonded together as a community
• Experienced the presence and power of God

Source of resilience and witness. The encounter with God in worship empowered Christians to live distinctively in the world, cope with stress, and face dangers like persecution. This transformed life, visible to outsiders, was the primary means by which the church attracted new people.

8. Peacemaking and Care for the Poor Were Key Embodied Practices

Thus you laypeople should be like wise doves, at peace with one another, striving to fill the church, converting and taming those who are wild, bringing them into her midst.

Core Christian values. Peacemaking and compassionate care for the poor were not optional extras but fundamental expressions of Christian habitus, rooted in the teachings of Jesus and seen as essential for authentic worship and effective witness.

Peacemaking as worship. Communities like those described in the Didascalia apostolorum saw internal peace as a prerequisite for acceptable prayer and Eucharist. They developed rituals, like the deacon's call for reconciliation before the offering, to ensure relationships were right. The "kiss of peace" was a bodily enactment of this unity and reconciliation.

Care for the vulnerable. Christians were known for their extensive care for the poor, widows, orphans, sick, and prisoners, often going beyond their own members to help outsiders, even enemies during times of plague. This practical charity was a powerful demonstration of their faith.

9. Constantine's Rise Transformed the Church's Approach to Mission

Constantine was inviting the Christians to be realistic. Or was he simply being impatient?

Shift in context. Constantine's conversion (or identification) with Christianity fundamentally changed the church's position. From a persecuted minority, it became a favored religion, offered state support, privilege, and power.

New methods and mindset. Constantine's approach to promoting Christianity was instrumental and impatient, contrasting with the church's earlier patient ferment. He used state power, wealth, and legislation to:

• Favor the acceptable church (tax exemptions, building programs)
• Suppress religious rivals (pagans, heretics, Donatists)
• Impose Christian norms (Sunday rest, Christianizing laws)

Loss of patient tradition. This shift invited the church to abandon its tradition of patient, non-coercive mission based on embodied witness and voluntary adherence. While some Christians resisted, the allure of state power and the perceived need for unity led many to adopt Constantine's impatient, instrumental methods.

10. Augustine Redefined Patience, Justifying Coercion for Unity

Our patience is from him from whom our love comes.

Patience becomes conditional. Augustine, writing in a post-Constantinian world, articulated a view of patience that differed significantly from earlier African theologians like Cyprian. For Augustine, patience was a virtue rooted in God's grace and love, but it was not an absolute good.

Justifying coercion. Augustine argued that patience must be subordinate to love and the pursuit of church unity. This allowed him to justify using state power, including fines, confiscation, and exile, to compel "schismatic" Donatists and "heretical" Pelagians into the Catholic church. He famously argued that the church could "force them to come in."

Departure from tradition. This approach marked a departure from the earlier Christian tradition, which emphasized religious liberty and rejected coercion in matters of faith, believing that truth was demonstrated through patient living, not imposed by force. Augustine's influential redefinition of patience contributed to the development of Christendom's approach to mission and religious dissent.

Last updated: May 31, 2025