LECTURE I
THE EASTERN CHURCH AND
THE CHRISTIAN ENVIRONMENT OF ARABIA
FROM one point of view the triumph of Islam in the
East in the seventh century A.D. may be regarded as
the judgement of history upon a degenerate Christianity.
The degeneration of the Church may be said to have begun
in the fourth century. The seeds of it were present
earlier, but they could not well develop in a persecuted
Church. When the Church was freed from the danger of
persecution by the accession of Constantine, they began
to develop rapidly. To my mind the evil was not, as
is often held, the alliance of the Church with the State,
or at any rate not that in itself. True, the fact that
Christianity became then the recognised and prevailing
religion, brought worldliness into the Church. That
would probably have happened apart from any relation
to the State so soon as Christianity ceased to be persecuted
as such, and by its own success became fashionable.
It is true too that ultimately the alliance of Church
and State became so close that the bishops and other
high dignitaries of the Church became, in a manner,
State officials. So much was the |
