Deck 6: The Life of the Early Church

Question 1

What does eschaton refer to?

A) Salvation
B) A Gnostic term for heaven
C) The final period of human history
D) Unity of the church

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What is apocalyptic literature?

A) Science fiction about space wars
B) Science fiction about world wars
C) Spiritual warfare in the soul
D) Earthly battles being aligned to cosmic battles

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The author identifies the beast whose name can be enumerated as 666 in the Book of Revelation as:

A) Nero
B) Satan
C) Lucifer
D) Decius

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following best describes the author's take on the Bible's understanding of the end of the world?

A) Neither clear nor consistent
B) A highly symbolic but clear storyline
C) A literal storyline that is difficult to fathom
D) A thousand-year reign of Christ

Question 5

Which of the following was the author's understanding of the Book of Revelation?

A) It should be read like a literal prediction of the end of the world
B) It should be read as a symbolic prediction of the end of the world
C) It should be read as a depiction of what was taking place during early church history
D) It should be read as a way to understand one's soul

Question 6

Which of the following best characterizes the church's stance on apocalypticism?

A) It remained strong until the medieval period
B) By the mid-first century, it was waning
C) It lost much of its hold through the second and third centuries
D) It was denounced in the third century

Question 7

What is a catechumen?

A) Someone training to be a minister
B) A persecutor of Christians
C) Someone training to become a Christian
D) Someone who leads the Christian assembly

Question 8

According to the author, when was the first time someone could observe the Eucharist?

A) On ordination
B) On becoming a presbyter
C) On baptism
D) Anytime

Question 9

Which of the following best represents the focus of baptism?

A) Dying and rising
B) Remission of sins
C) A new life
D) All of the above

Question 10

What does the term Eucharist literally mean?

A) Sacrifice
B) Rejoicing
C) Communion
D) Thanksgiving

Question 11

The author notes two prominent themes in the Eucharist. They are:

A) Communion and sacrifice
B) Proclamation and rejoicing
C) Community and love
D) Death and resurrection

Question 12

Does the author think that the early church believed the Eucharist was a sacrifice?

A) No, Christ was the only sacrifice
B) Yes, it aligns the original sacrifice of Christ and the ongoing sacrifice of the church
C) No, Jewish Law had been replaced by the gospel
D) Yes, Christ continues to be ritually sacrificed

Question 13

Does the author think that the early church believed the consecrated bread and wine in the Eucharist was literally the body of Christ?

A) Yes, and it was based on the incarnation of Christ where God and physical natures were united
B) No, it was understood as symbolic and not real
C) Yes, the early church had a kind of magical understanding
D) No, he called this deicide

Question 14

What is the Liturgy of the Hours?

A) References the number of times Eucharist was celebrated on Sunday
B) References the fact that the Eucharist lasted three or more hours in the early church
C) References daily meetings for prayer
D) References daily private prayer of Christians in their homes

Question 15

What best characterizes the early church's sense of the Roman culture?

A) It was considered modestly moral, but nothing like Christianity
B) It was considered actually quite moral, but not the Roman authorities
C) It was considered often more moral than the church itself, which is why Christians were challenged to become much better
D) It was considered a place of greed, anger, and lust

Question 16

What happened to Christians who betrayed the faith under persecution?

A) They were accepted back, but only after years of repentance
B) They were accepted back rather quickly, given their suffering
C) They were not accepted back unless they publicly proclaimed their faith to the Roman authorities
D) They were permanently excommunicated

Question 17

Were Christians allowed to continue to sin after baptism?

A) No, they proclaimed that the true Christian was freed from sin
B) Yes, small sins were tolerated, but grave sins were dealt with severely
C) Yes, but they had to go to confession to a priest
D) The author does not address this issue

Question 18

What is the Order of Penitents?

A) A religious order of monks who prayed for the sins of the church
B) An executive order by a bishop that the whole community had to fast, pray, and wear sackcloth to repent
C) A long period of time for Christians guilty of grave sins to repent
D) The imperial order to persecute Christians

Question 19

What does asceticism literally mean?

A) Starving
B) Fasting
C) Exercise
D) Discipline

Question 20

Christians strove for apatheia. What did this mean?

A) They were no longer controlled by their passions
B) They were indifferent to the world and its ways
C) They strove to suffer for the sake of the faith
D) They strove to live a life totally devoted to prayer

Question 21

According to the author, were the church fathers suspect of sex?

A) Yes, it was a prime example of the passions
B) Yes, but only if one lusted outside of marriage
C) No, they celebrated the goodness of family life
D) No, they believed everything created by God was good

Question 22

What did Paul recommend about marriage?

A) Those unmarried he counseled to remain unmarried unless they were aflame with passion
B) Those unmarried could only marry believers
C) Those unmarried should find a spouse quickly, but make sure they are pure of heart
D) Those unmarried should wait until Jesus returned to marry in the kingdom of God.

Question 23

Did early Christianity's understanding of consecrated virginity align with or break with Judaism?

A) It was virtually identical: Marriage was good and being consecrated to God was good
B) It aligned with the Jewish Nazarite vow, which John the Baptist appears to have taken
C) It deviated from Judaism, which believed the world's pleasures ought to be enjoyed in moderation
D) It deviated from Judaism only in the sense that Christians had more consecrated virgins

Question 24

Regarding marital sex, Pope Gregory I advised which of the following?

A) It was lawful, but the couple should not enter a church for a while
B) It was lawful, but only if the couple had no unholy desires
C) It was lawful, but afterwards the couple had to pay a sex tax
D) It was lawful, but only if the couple were blessed by their priest first

Question 25

According to the author, what was one of the assets of consecrated virginity for women?

A) They could become nuns
B) They could be available to become priests
C) They could become free from the financial burdens of family life
D) They could break out of a culturally restricted life

Question 26

Augustine describes a saint veneration that his mother used to perform. What was it?

A) She prayed to saints to make her son a Christian
B) She celebrated a memorial meal of cakes, bread, and wine at their graves
C) She threw a party on the anniversary of saints' martyrdom
D) She developed the Rosary to pray to Mary

Question 27

The author describes early Christian understanding of saints' graves as:

A) The watering ground of the resurrection
B) The epicenter of knowledge of good and evil
C) The poles where heaven and earth met
D) The sadness of loss and the hope of glory

Question 28

How did the author explain intercessory prayers by saints?

A) They were still part of the body of Christ, and it would be similar to having other living Christians pray for them
B) They were now Christified and thus had spiritual power
C) They longed to hear the needs of the faithful
D) They became like angels, standing before God's throne

Question 29

The author likened the early Christian understanding of a saint to:

A) A magician
B) A Roman army
C) A Jewish mystic
D) A Roman patron

Question 30

Which of the following best characterizes the early church's understanding of saint veneration?

A) Widely endorsed by the church
B) Widely endorsed by laypeople, but church leaders saw it as a problem
C) Only a small number of Christians actually endorsed it
D) It was only endorsed when the church was persecuted, and then gradually discredited

Question 31

The Book of Daniel is an apocalyptic book.

Question 32

Jesus never preached actual apocalypticism.

Question 33

The author claims that the Book of Revelation should not be read as an apocalyptic text.

Question 34

The author believes that early Christians saw the world as they experienced it as not their home.

Question 35

Being plunged into water during baptism represented entering into the tomb of Christ.

Question 36

According to the Didache, it is preferable to baptize Christians from a font of water in the church building.

Question 37

Those being baptized would be anointed several times.

Question 38

According to the author, the earliest Christians did not regularly celebrate the Eucharist until two or three decades after Jesus died and rose.

Question 39

The early church literally believed the Eucharistic bread and wine were the body and blood of Christ.

Question 40

Many early Christians went to church to celebrate the Eucharist on a daily basis.

Question 41

Early Christianity believed that one who was legitimately baptized would never sin again.

Question 42

In the early church, anyone who wanted to become a Christian was baptized.

Question 43

Christian marriages took on the same patriarchal assumptions of the Roman culture.

Question 44

The author describes saints as something like minor gods.

Question 45

The author says that the graves of saints themselves were believed to be holy.

Question 46

The early church thought that Jesus's return was imminent and ultimately discovered that it was not. Do you think there are implications to be gleaned from this when reading the Bible today, particularly those texts that assume an imminent second coming?

Question 47

The author thinks that the best way to read apocalyptic texts is to see them as expressions of the faith at the time they were written and not as predictions of the future. Evaluate his reasons for this and offer your own position and your own reasons.

Question 48

What is the significance of the Eucharist according to Paul and the church fathers?

Question 49

The early church believed that the consecrated bread and wine at the Eucharist was the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Given that it is unreasonable that early Christians believed in magic, in what ways could this unusual claim be understood intelligently?

Question 50

During its first few centuries, Christianity was a morally demanding endeavor. How do such demands compare with those of the church today, and what are the implications of this?