Big Ideas Simply Explained - The Religions Book

["JUDAISM 199 WOMEN CAN BE RABBIS GENDER AND THE COVENANT IN CONTEXT P aradoxically, while Jewish allowing women to participate identity is traditionally in rituals and as witnesses, and KEY MOVEMENT transmitted matrilineally bringing in bat mitzvah ceremonies Feminism in Judaism (p.175), women have been excluded (the female equivalent of the bar from participation in the observance mitzvah). Women were \ufb01nally WHEN AND WHERE of Judaism for much of its history. admitted into rabbinical schools in Late 20th century, Until the 19th century, the idea the 1980s. Today, only Orthodox US and Europe of women reading from the Torah Judaism still holds out against the to a congregation, for example, ordination of women rabbis, but in BEFORE or leading prayer as a cantor was all branches of the faith, women are 19th century The Reform considered heretical; the notion of taking an increasingly active, if not movement emerges in a female rabbi was unthinkable. leading, role in the synagogue. \u25a0 Judaism, and with it the question of women taking However, with the foundation The festival of Hanukkah is a fuller role in the covenant. of liberal Reform Judaism, and celebrated here by Barbara Aiello, the especially in the progressive \ufb01rst female rabbi in Italy. Granting girls 1893 The National Council Reconstructionist movement, equal access to religious education has of Jewish Women is founded the subject of women\u2019s role in the transformed their role in Judaism. after the World Parliament covenant became an issue of of Religions in Chicago. increasing importance. The \ufb01rst woman rabbi was ordained in the 1912 The Women\u2019s Zionist Reform movement in Germany in Organization of America, 1935. In the US, the UK, and Hadassah, is founded. elsewhere in Europe, real pressure for change came with the rise of 1922 The idea of ordaining feminism in the 1970s. The Reform women rabbis is discussed at movement in the US ordained the Central Conference of its \ufb01rst woman rabbi in 1972, and American Rabbis, but no three years later a female cantor. agreement is reached. Following this lead, other branches of Judaism began to initiate reforms, 1935 The \ufb01rst woman rabbi, Regina Jonas, is ordained in See also: God\u2019s covenant with Israel 168\u201375 \u25a0 Writing the Oral law 182\u201383 Berlin, Germany. \u25a0 Progressive Judaism 190\u201395","CHRISTI FROM 1ST CENTURY CE","ANITY","202 INTRODUCTION Jesus is born Jesus is cruci\ufb01ed by The Roman emperor Christianity becomes in Roman Judea: Judea\u2019s Roman rulers. Constantine issues the the of\ufb01cial religion he is believed by Christians believe that Edict of Milan, allowing Christians to be the he rises again three the Christian faith to of the Roman Son of God born to days later and ascends be freely practiced. Empire; converts the Virgin Mary. include Augustine to heaven. of Hippo. C.4 BCE C.30\u201336CE 313 CE 380 CE C.26 CE 1054 CA. 44\u201368CE 325 CE Jesus is baptized by All but one of the The Nicene Creed During the Great John the Baptist and apostles, John, is established at the Schism, Christianity his ministry begins. are martyred. Council of Nicea and is divided into Western later rati\ufb01ed as the (Roman Catholic) and universal creed of Eastern (Orthodox) the Christian Church. branches. C hristianity takes its Christians give great signi\ufb01cance sacraments. Especially signi\ufb01cant name from the Greek word to the story of Jesus\u2019s cruci\ufb01xion, are the sacraments of baptism and christ\u00f3s, a translation of resurrection, and ascension to the Eucharist\u2014the taking of bread the Hebrew word for messiah, or heaven. It is the central belief of and wine, as Jesus instructed his anointed one. This title was given Christianity that Jesus suffered, followers at the Last Supper. Others to Jesus by a Jewish sect who died, and was buried, before being include con\ufb01rmation, holy orders considered him to be the Messiah resurrected from the dead\u2014in (the ordination of ministers), \u2014the savior prophesied in the order to grant salvation to those confession, the anointing of the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible\u2014and who believe in him\u2014and that sick, and matrimony\u2014although the Son of God in human form. he then ascended to heaven not all of these are accepted by Christians believe that Jesus\u2019s to rule alongside God the Father. every Christian denomination. arrival on earth heralded a New Covenant or New Testament Implicit in this belief is the Persecution to adoption with God that followed the Old acceptance that Jesus was, as the From its beginnings in Roman Testament covenants between Son of God, God incarnate, both Judea to its status as the religion God and the Jewish people. human and divine, and not merely with most adherents in the world a prophet. This led to the concept today, Christianity has shaped The main beliefs of Christianity of the Trinity, that the one God the culture of much of Western are based on the life and teachings exists in three distinct forms\u2014the civilization. The early Christians of Jesus as recorded by his Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. were persecuted by both Jewish followers in the 1st century CE authorities and the Roman Empire, in the Gospels (meaning \u201cgood The life of Jesus also provides and many were put to death. news\u201d) and the Epistles (or letters) a framework for the rituals of Nevertheless, the faith persisted of the New Testament. Christian worship, the most important of which are known as","CHRISTIANITY 203 A series of religious A rival papacy Martin Luther John Wesley wars, the Crusades, to Rome is initiates the Protestant founds the Methodist Reformation in Germany movement, and other is launched by the established in Protestant Churches Catholic Church to Avignon, France. by publishing his recapture Jerusalem 95 Theses, criticizing emerge in Europe. from Muslim clerical abuses. occupation. 1095\u20131291 1305 1517 17TH\u201318TH CENTURIES 1274 1478 1562\u201398 1925 Thomas Aquinas The Spanish Inquisition, Catholics and The Scopes Monkey publishes Summa the most notorious of the Protestants wage Trial pits evolutionary Theologica, which inquisitions instituted to becomes the basis for war in France theory against of\ufb01cial Catholic dogma. suppress heresy, is founded (known as the Biblical Creation. by King Ferdinand and Wars of Religion). Queen Isabella. under the leadership of the early Church over papal authority\u2014the initially condemned: only centuries Church. Gradually, Christianity so-called Great Schism\u2014divided after his death was it adopted as came to be tolerated by Roman Christianity into two distinct of\ufb01cial Catholic dogma. leaders, and, after the Council of branches, the Western (Roman Nicea, where a universal Christian Catholic) Church and the Eastern The Renaissance of the 14th creed was agreed, it was eventually (Orthodox) Church. Christianity and 15th centuries heralded a new adopted as the of\ufb01cial religion of also faced a challenge from the challenge to the authority of the the Roman Empire in 380 CE. Islamic Empire from the 8th Church in the form of humanism century on, and, through the and the beginnings of a scienti\ufb01c From then on, Christianity 12th and 13th centuries, fought Golden Age. The revival of interest became a powerful force in the a series of Crusades to recapture in classical learning prompted political and cultural life of Europe Jerusalem from the Muslims. criticism of the Catholic Church, and the Middle East. Its in\ufb02uence and the Protestant Reformation spread rapidly and produced such Church power was triggered by publication of thinkers as Augustine of Hippo, The Catholic Church retained Martin Luther\u2019s 95 Theses in 1517. a convert to Christianity, who its in\ufb02uence in Europe, and its Protestantism began to \ufb02ourish in integrated Greek philosophical dogma dominated learning and northern Europe and paved the way ideas into the doctrine. With the culture throughout the Middle for new Christian denominations. decline and fall of the Roman Ages. Philosophical and scienti\ufb01c Of the roughly 2.2 billion Christians Empire, power in Europe moved ideas were often seen as heretical, worldwide today (around a third of to the popes, who were considered and even the great Thomas Aquinas the world\u2019s population), more than the natural successors of the found his application of Aristotelian half are Catholic, roughly one third apostles and the \ufb01rst bishops. reasoning to Christian theology are Protestant, and the remainder In the 11th century, a split in the are Orthodox. \u25a0","204 IN CONTEXT JESUS IS THE KEY FIGURE BEGINNING Jesus of Nazareth OF THE END WHEN AND WHERE JESUS\u2019S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD 4 BCE\u201330 CE, Judea BEFORE c.700 BCE The Jewish prophet Isaiah foretells the coming rule of God. 6th century BCE During the exile of the Israelites in Babylon, the prophet Daniel has a vision of the end of oppressive earthly kingdoms. c.450 BCE The arrival of the day of the Lord is a key theme for Jewish prophets. AFTER 1st century CE The \ufb01rst Christians take Jesus\u2019s message throughout the Roman Empire. 20th century The kingdom of God becomes a major theme in Christian theology and ethics. I n 63 BCE, the Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem, putting an end to a century of Judean self-rule and turning the region into a Roman client state. Rome was the last in a long line of invading forces, which stretched back over 500 years and included Babylon, Persia, Greece, Egypt, and Syria. This repeated loss of sovereignty had dented national pride and caused religious consternation, challenging the Jewish concept of themselves as God\u2019s chosen people. Key Jewish religious texts from previous centuries (such as the prophetic work of Isaiah) had promised that a time would come","CHRISTIANITY 205 See also: The promise of a new age 178\u201381 \u25a0 Jesus\u2019s divine identity 208 \u25a0 Entering into the faith 224\u201327 \u25a0 Awaiting the Day of Judgment 312\u201313 There is a lack of justice and peace in kingdoms ruled by humans. God promised to ful\ufb01ll our hopes for justice and Jesus of Nazareth peace at the end of time, in a kingdom He rules. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Jesus has taught and shown us how to in the Roman province of experience the forgiveness, peace, Judea, in around 4 BCE, with the extraordinary claim that and justice that God promised. his mother Mary was a virgin. Little is known about Jesus\u2019s Jesus\u2019s ministry therefore marks early life, but it is most likely the beginning of the kingdom of God: that he was schooled in the Jewish scriptures and religion. the beginning of the end. It is believed that he may have shared his father\u2019s occupation when Israel\u2019s God would be the as a carpenter, and lived and acknowledged ruler of the whole worked in Nazareth. world. He would bring in a system of justice and peace for all through When Jesus was around his appointed representative, 30 years old, he embarked known as the Messiah (meaning upon a ministry of teaching anointed one). This would be and healing across the area the climax of world history, so the where he lived. According to prophecy said: the end of the old, the Gospels, he drew huge existing era and the beginning of crowds with his engaging God\u2019s era. However, given the new stories, radical teaching, Roman occupation, this kingdom and astonishing miracles, of God seemed a distant dream. but paid special attention to 12 followers, or disciples. Announcing a new world Preaching to his band of disciples, However, his message about In around the late 20s CE, a Jesus gave the core message of his God\u2019s kingdom soon attracted Jewish rabbi called Jesus began ministry: the awaited arrival of God\u2019s the censure of the authorities. a brief, but extraordinary, ministry kingdom had become a reality. He was betrayed by Judas, throughout Roman-occupied Israel. \u276f\u276f one of his disciples, and arrested and condemned to death on fabricated charges. Three days after Jesus had been cruci\ufb01ed, reports were made that his tomb had been found empty and that he had appeared to his disciples, resurrected from the dead.","206 JESUS\u2019S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD Jesus\u2019s miracles, such as the healing of the blind, af\ufb01rmed that, just as Jesus went among the poor and the outcast, so God invited everyone, regardless of status, into his kingdom. parables (stories used to illustrate his message) he compared God\u2019s kingdom to the yeast in a batch of dough. In another, he described the kingdom as acting like seeds sown in the ground. Both yeast and seeds take time to produce results, growing almost imperceptibly, but are slowly and surely at work. Jesus\u2019s core message was that God was now king, and the lame A new religion God\u2019s long-awaited kingdom was would jump for joy. The biblical Jesus invited those who heard now arriving. Some people who accounts of Jesus\u2019s ministry are full him to allow God\u2019s kingdom and heard his message thought that he of stories of healings just like these. its values into their own lives intended to raise an army to expel In addition, Jesus said there was without delay. He taught that the the Romans. However, his goal was no longer any barrier to entering kingdom of God is both now, and not Israel\u2019s political independence, God\u2019s kingdom. Until that time, the not yet, here, that it has begun but the liberation of the entire Jewish faith had viewed non-Jews and continues to grow whenever world from all evil. According to as beyond salvation, along with people choose to live by the rule a collection of Jesus\u2019s teachings, those people who failed to adhere of God, embracing his values known as the Sermon on the Mount to God\u2019s laws (sinners), but Jesus and experiencing healing and (found in the Gospel of St. Matthew said that even these groups would forgiveness. However, Jesus also in the New Testament), Jesus be welcomed into the kingdom. acknowledged that there would announced that God\u2019s kingdom Jesus demonstrated the forgiveness be a future moment when, at the now held sway over both heaven of sinners by sharing meals\u2014one of climactic end of the present world and earth, and that under this new the most intimate and meaningful order, God\u2019s rule would triumph rule the distorted values of human of Jewish activities\u2014with social over all other kingdoms. When this kingdoms would be overturned. outcasts and religious renegades. day of judgment arrived, it would God\u2019s kingdom, he said, belonged The future was likened to a be too late to decide to be part of not to the greedy, the self-assured, banquet prepared by God, to and the warriors, but to the poor, which people from all over the Blessed are the poor in the meek, and the peacemakers. world would be invited. spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. All are welcome But people were confused: wasn\u2019t Jesus (Matthew 5:3) Jesus\u2019s message was manifested the kingdom of God supposed to in his actions. Centuries earlier, the be the climax of world history? Jewish prophet Isaiah had said that If so, why did the world not end when God\u2019s kingdom came, there with Jesus\u2019s announcement? The would be wonderful miracles of answer that Jesus gave them was healing: the blind would be able to that the kingdom would not arrive see, and the deaf able to hear that all at once, as most people had expected. In one of his many","How can the end have a beginning? Jesus said CHRISTIANITY 207 that the \ufb01nal replacement of our present world with the kingdom of God would be delayed, giving people The time is ful\ufb01lled. time to secure themselves a place in that kingdom God\u2019s kingdom is by believing in him. arriving! Turn around FUTURE WORLD ORDER: GOD\u2019S KINGDOM and believe Coming of Day of the good news. Christ Judgment Jesus (Mark 1:15) Present-day PRESENT WORLD ORDER: HUMAN KINGDOMS God\u2019s new world. This gave his the Lord\u2019s Prayer, taught by Jesus champion movements for social message a note of urgency. People himself, asks that God\u2019s kingdom change; for example, Martin Luther needed to make a decision now; far come on earth \u201cas it is in heaven.\u201d King and the civil rights movement from being a distant dream, the In offering this prayer, Christians in the United States, Gustavo end had already begun. are asking for the earthly advent of Guti\u00e9rrez and the liberation of the God\u2019s kingdom now, even as they poor in South America, and The idea that Jesus marked the wait for it to arrive in fullness at Desmond Tutu and the end of beginning of the end led directly the end of present world history. apartheid in South Africa. to the separation of Christianity from its Jewish roots. The early God\u2019s kingdom today The end of all things followers of Jesus claimed that Historically, the Christian church The idea that Jesus\u2019s ministry they no longer had to wait to has sometimes understood the marked the beginning of the discover who God\u2019s Messiah \u201ckingdom of God\u201d or \u201ckingdom of end is known in theology would be, because Jesus was heaven\u201d as a purely spiritual realm by the term inaugurated that Messiah\u2014the one God had that leaves the physical world eschatology. Eschatology is a appointed to bring his kingdom to unaffected. But in the early 20th word that itself evolved from two earth. However, Jesus\u2019s opponents century, New Testament scholars Greek words meaning \u201clast\u201d and refused to believe this and decided began to take a new interest in the \u201cstudy,\u201d and it refers to the study to silence him by killing him. When Jewish context of Jesus\u2019s ministry, of the end of things, or the end of Jesus\u2019s followers did not give up and since then Jesus\u2019s message all things\u2014the end of the world. their beliefs even after Jesus died, about the kingdom of God has had To Christians, Jesus\u2019s message and in fact enlarged on them\u2014by an especially prominent place in about God\u2019s kingdom gives claiming that God had confounded Christian theology. By paying Christianity an inaugurated Jesus\u2019s opponents by raising him closer attention to the background eschatology: the end of all things from the dead\u2014it became clear of Jesus\u2019s original message, the was inaugurated (begun but not that their faith, led by a \ufb01gure who political and economic implications completed) by his message. The could not be conquered by death, of the arrival of God\u2019s kingdom fact that the presence of God\u2019s was something new and distinct have become clearer. Christians kingdom today in the lives of within the catalog of religions. now believe that the kingdom Christians can still only be occurs wherever present reality called the beginning of the end From the earliest days, and its values are transformed is a reminder that the Christian Christianity has been de\ufb01ned by by the rule of God, a belief that faith still looks toward a \ufb01nal, the conviction that Jesus\u2019s ministry has inspired many Christians to de\ufb01nitive action by God. \u25a0 was the beginning of the end. One of the key prayers of Christianity,","208 GOD HAS SENT US HIS SON JESUS\u2019S DIVINE IDENTITY IN CONTEXT M any ancient kings and humankind\u2014through the symbolic emperors claimed that to the literal. The last of these was KEY BELIEVERS they had been adopted claimed by the \ufb01rst Christians as Early Christians by the gods, thereby giving the truth. They pointed to the themselves divine legitimacy extraordinary miracles of Jesus\u2019s WHEN AND WHERE to rule. On their deaths, some, ministry decribed in the Gospels, 1st centuryCE, communities such as Julius Caesar, were and especially to his resurrection around the Mediterranean elevated to divine status\u2014a from the dead, as evidence of his process that was known as unique place in God\u2019s plan. BEFORE apotheosis\u2014and worshipped. From c.500 BCE Jewish God has become human scriptures use the term son In the Gospels, Jesus calls God The early Christians also claimed of God to describe God\u2019s his Father many times, in ways that that Jesus\u2019s divine status was earthly representative. are open to many interpretations, unlike that of other rulers. Jesus from the broadest\u2014that God, as was not adopted by God as c.30 CE Jesus is arrested the creator, is the Father of all a reward for his obedience; rather, and accused of blasphemy Jesus had always been God\u2019s Son, by the Jewish authorities for You are the Christ, even from before his birth, and so claiming to be the son of the Son of the he shared God\u2019s divine nature God. He is sent for trial by the living God. throughout his human life. Roman governor Pontius Pilate on charges of sedition, and Matthew 16:15 This idea, known as the condemned to death. incarnation, became a central belief of Christianity. It is the AFTER opposite of apotheosis; in the 325 CE The Nicene Creed incarnation, the eternally divine states that Jesus is the Son of God took on humanity in divine Son of God, using the the person of Jesus. God had phrase \u201cof one substance sent his divine Son into the world with the Father.\u201d as a human in order to bring his kingdom from heaven to earth. \u25a0 451 CE The Chalcedonian Creed af\ufb01rms Jesus as both See also: Beliefs for new societies 56\u201357 \u25a0 The promise of a new age 178\u201381 fully God and fully human. \u25a0 A divine trinity 212\u201319 \u25a0 The Prophet and the origins of Islam 252\u201353","CHRISTIANITY 209 THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS IS THE SEED OF THE CHURCH DYING FOR THE MESSAGE IN CONTEXT O n 9 March 203 CE, two The early martyrs went to their young mothers\u2014a Roman deaths willingly, believing that their KEY DEVELOPMENT noblewoman, Perpetua, example would seed Christianity\u2019s Persecution of the and her slave Felicity\u2014were led message into other hearts and minds. early Christians into the arena at Carthage with other Christians, where they were were willing to be put to death WHEN AND WHERE \ufb02ogged, mauled by wild beasts, rather than renounce their belief c.64\u2013313 CE, Roman Empire and \ufb01nally executed. The story that Jesus was the world\u2019s divinely of these two female martyrs was appointed and rightful ruler, BEFORE recorded in The Passion of Perpetua both intrigued and attracted c.30 CE Jesus is cruci\ufb01ed, and Felicity, in order to inspire nonbelievers. having told his followers to other Christians to stay committed expect persecution in turn. to their faith even when threatened This understanding of with persecution and death. martyrdom assisted the growth 1st century CE In response of Christianity throughout history, to oppression by the Roman Death brings life because it gave Christians the authorities in Jerusalem, The theologian Tertullian, writing con\ufb01dence that even the most Christianity becomes an in Carthage at that time, developed violent opposition to their message underground movement, and a Christian understanding of was not a sign of failure, but rather Christians leave the city and martyrdom, noting that \u201cThe blood the seed of success. \u25a0 spread out across the Empire. of the Christians is the seed.\u201d The Roman emperors intended their AFTER waves of persecution to deter 3rd century A breakaway citizens from embracing a faith Christian sect opposes that put the authority of Jesus readmitting to the Church above that of the state. However, those who had renounced their as Tertullian argued, far from faith to avoid persecution. being an obstacle to the growth of Christianity, persecution helped it 16th century Catholic and to spread. The fact that Christians Protestant factions in Europe persecute each other, each See also: God\u2019s covenant with Israel 168\u201375 \u25a0 Faith and the state 189 seeing their suffering as proof \u25a0 The Protestant Reformation 230\u201337 \u25a0 The rise of Islamic revivalism 286\u201390 of their faithfulness.","210 THE BODY MAY DIE BUT THE SOUL WILL LIVE ON IMMORTALITY IN CHRISTIANITY IN CONTEXT God does not change. W hat happens when we die? Do we continue KEY FIGURE God\u2019s relationship to exist in some form or Origen with humans therefore does our entire being disintegrate like our bodies? Many thinkers in WHEN AND WHERE will not change. the ancient world considered these 3rd century CE, Egypt and questions and the issues arising Palestine Human bodies die, so God\u2019s from them. Greek thought was unchanging relationship in\ufb02uential in the Roman Empire, BEFORE cannot be with them. and Plato\u2019s ideas on these subjects 4th century BCE The Greek gained widespread support in the philosopher Plato popularizes Humans must have centuries before Jesus\u2019s birth, Socratic teaching that death is immortal souls, so that death, and resurrection. the separation of the immortal soul from the mortal body. their relationship with Plato\u2019s thinking was dualist. God can go on. He believed there were two parts c.30 CE At the time of Jesus\u2019s to human life: the physical body, death, Jewish thought is The body may which constantly changes and divided: the Pharisees believe die but the soul eventually dies; and the thinking in an actual, bodily resurrection soul, which exists eternally. after death for God\u2019s faithful, will live on. while the Sadducee sect In the third century CE, the denies any form of afterlife. theologian Origen of Alexandria explained elements of the Christian AFTER message using terms from Greek 13th century Dante\u2019s Divine philosophy. In particular, he Comedy encapsulates the developed Plato\u2019s thinking into medieval view of the soul\u2019s a Christian understanding of the journey after death. soul that would last for centuries. 1513 The Fifth Lateran Only souls matter Council of the Church declares Like Plato, Origen believed that the immortality of the soul to while human bodies are mortal be orthodox Christian belief. and die, souls are immortal. For Origen, however, the immortality of the soul is a direct implication","CHRISTIANITY 211 See also: Physical and mental discipline 112\u201313 \u25a0 Man as a manifestation of God 188 \u25a0 The ultimate reward for the righteous 279 showed that this was possible for Origen those who believed in him. However, after Origen, less emphasis was Origen was born to Christian placed on bodily resurrection, and parents in Alexandria, North much Christian teaching focused Africa, in around 185 CE. When exclusively on the state of the soul Origen was 17, his father was before death and its fate after martyred, and Origen took death. The souls of those who had up a life of disciplined study, rejected God were considered to becoming a respected thinker be spiritually dead, and would live both inside and outside the out their immortality in hell. Church. The bishop of However, the souls of those who Alexandria appointed him had embraced Jesus\u2019s message head of the catechetical would ascend to a state of school, instructing new perfection with God in heaven. Christian converts before their baptism. After a dispute with According to Origen, the soul is A modern perspective the bishop, Origen moved to the part of us that returns to God after Recent Christian thinkers have Caesarea in Palestine, where death. Artists found this hard to convey suggested that Origen relied too his writings included an without giving the soul, and indeed God, heavily on Platonism. A growing eight-volume defense of a human appearance; this 16th-century movement in Christian theology Christianity against one of its panel shows St. Paul and the Trinity. rejects dualism (the separation critics, the philosopher Celsus. of body and soul), teaching instead of God\u2019s unchanging nature. that the life of the soul after death is Around 250 CE, Origen Since God cannot change, the possible only if God also resurrects a was tortured by the Roman relationship he has with humans person\u2019s body. Another widespread authorities in an attempt to cannot end once their bodies belief today is that of conditional make him renounce his faith. disintegrate. Therefore there must immortality: immortality is only Origen refused, and was be a part of the human that does given to those who have believed released. However, he died a not die, and this is the soul. A in Jesus, and not to everyone. \u25a0 few years later, in 254 CE, most typical Platonist, Origen thought likely as a result of injuries the soul was far more important sustained while he was being than the body, which was a persecuted for his faith. distraction from a spiritual life. Key works Hell and heaven \u2026the soul, having a Origen\u2019s teaching shaped the substance and life of c.220 De Principiis (First popular Christian understanding its own, shall, after its Principles): the \ufb01rst systematic of salvation from that moment on. departure from the world, rendition of Christian theology Unlike the Platonists, the writers of be rewarded according 248 On Prayer; On Martyrdom; the Hebrew Bible had not separated Against Celsus the soul from the body. If there was to its deserts. going to be any life after death at Origen all, then a person\u2019s body would need to be raised from the dead to go along with its soul. Jesus\u2019s bodily resurrection from the dead","GOD IS THREE AND GOD IS ONE A DIVINE TRINITY","","214 A DIVINE TRINITY There is only one God. But Christians experience God in three ways. IN CONTEXT God, the Father Jesus, the Son The Holy Spirit, KEY TEXT of Jesus, who of God, who who is with The Nicene Creed sent him to the came to the world that he world to bring Christians now WHEN AND WHERE had created. that Jesus has 4th century CE, Nicea God\u2019s kingdom. and Constantinople returned to his Father. BEFORE 500BCE Jewish daily prayer These three (Father, Son, and Spirit) are completely united in includes the Shema, af\ufb01rming what they do, even though each one has a particular role. that God is one (monotheism). God is both three and one\u2014a trinity of divinity. 1st century CE Christians worship Jesus and the Holy Spirit with the God of Israel. c.200CE Tertullian explains the Trinity as \u201cthree persons of one substance.\u201d AFTER c.400CE St. Augustine\u2019s The Trinity (De Trinitate), gives an analogy of the Trinity based on three elements of human life: mind, knowledge, and love. 20th century Trinitarian theology, starting with the doctrine of the Trinity, thrives with theologian Karl Barth. I n a math test, it is safe to A standardized way of speaking Judaism is monotheistic, so is assume that 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, but about God, known as the doctrine Christianity\u2014Christians, like Jews, not so in a theology exam. One of the Trinity, was settled upon by believe in just one God. But how of the most notorious conundrums of members of the early Church some could the \ufb01rst Christians claim to the Christian faith is that to describe 300 years after the death of Jesus. be monotheistic if they worshipped God, 1 + 1 + 1 = 1, not 3. Some of A range of ideas had emerged as both Jesus as God and the God the greatest Christian theologians the faith spread across the Roman whom Jesus called Father? And have struggled to explain how Empire and beyond, so Church how did this relate to the Spirit, God can be three distinct persons leaders articulated the doctrine whom Jesus said he would send, so (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) yet as a response. that God\u2019s presence would remain remain only one God. However, with Christians? Since the Spirit this idea, which is known as the Rooted in Judaism was also worshipped as God, did doctrine of the Trinity, is a central The roots of Christianity are in this mean that Christians were plank in Christian theology, Judaism\u2014the religion into which tri-theists (believing in three gods) setting its understanding of Jesus was born and of which he rather than monotheists? God apart from other religions. claimed to be the Messiah. Just as The doctrine of the Trinity is an","CHRISTIANITY 215 See also: From monolatry to monotheism 176\u201377 \u25a0 Jesus\u2019s divine identity 208 \u25a0 The unity of divinity is necessary 280\u201381 The Trinity is portrayed as Son, Father, and dove\u2014inspired by Jesus\u2019 baptism, when the Holy Spirit \u201cdescended on him like a dove\u201d\u2014in this 17th-century fresco. attempt to answer these tricky questions, with the assertion that Christians worship one God in three persons. What Jesus taught and of the Holy Spirit\u201d (Matthew when God brought peace and As the Gospel writers recorded, 28:19). In accordance with these justice to the world. Jesus had Jesus referred to God as his Father teachings, the early Christians said and done things that only God throughout his ministry. The worshipped Jesus. After all, he had could say and do: as he had implied implication of this teaching was made it possible for everyone who during his life, Jesus was God. clear, Jesus was God\u2019s Son and he believed to be part of God\u2019s family claimed the same divinity as God. (a status previously only accorded Similar but not the same He also spoke about his close to the Jews), forgiving their past The doctrine of the Trinity emerged relationship to the Spirit: \u201cthe rebellion against God and assuring in response to a series of other Holy Spirit, whom the Father will them that they would be included answers that the early Christians \u276f\u276f send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you\u201d (John 14:26). Jesus again hinted at the shared divinity of the three persons of God in the Great Commission, a statement in which he commanded his followers to \u201cmake disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son The Nicene Creed We believe in one God, By the start of the 4th century CE, of the Trinity\u2014that would be the Father almighty\u2026and Christianity had spread across acceptable to all Christians. in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Roman Empire. With such a This creed would be recited in the only begotten Son of wide appeal, it was increasingly churches and would help steer God\u2026and in the Holy Spirit, dif\ufb01cult to establish a uniform Christians away from heretical the Lord and lifegiver\u2026 understanding of the faith. The beliefs, especially those of the Emperor Constantine saw the Arians (see p.216). In 381CE, Nicene Creed problems these differences were Emperor Theodosius called causing, so he called a council of another council, this time in Church bishops from all over his Constantinople. The 325CE creed empire to meet in Nicea in 325CE. was clari\ufb01ed and expanded, He encouraged the bishops to resulting in the Nicene Creed, agree a statement of faith\u2014in which is still recited today in particular, to de\ufb01ne the nature churches all over the world.","216 A DIVINE TRINITY St. Athanasius of Alexandria is characteristics of God, because, as were truly God. They solved the remembered for his staunch theological a Son, he must have been born. An problem of whether God is one or defense of Trinitarianism against the Arian dictum about the Son of God three by maintaining that Father, teachings of Arianism. He had a key stated that \u201cthere was once when Son, and Spirit are three modes role in drafting the Nicene Creed. he was not\u201d: there must have been of the one God\u2019s being. This idea a time before the Son of God was is known as modalism. judged to be wrong, or heretical. born, when God existed without One such idea was Arianism\u2014the him. In their view, this logic proved Father, Son, and Spirit can be theology of Arius (c.250\u2013336 CE), that only the Father was truly God. thought of as masks available to an a Christian leader in Alexandria, One of the words used to describe actor in a play. There is only one Egypt\u2014which emphasized the Son was homoiousios, which actor, but he can play three parts, monotheism so strongly that it is a Greek term meaning \u201cof similar simply by wearing three different denied the deity of the Son and, substance.\u201d The Son was \u201cof masks. At \ufb01rst, this might seem by implication, of the Spirit. For similar substance\u201d to the Father, like a good way to describe how Arius, only the Father was truly but not the same. God is experienced: sometimes God. Although the Son was to be Christians encounter him as the honored for having the closest The Arians had preserved Father, at other times as the Son, possible relationship with the monotheism, but at the expense and still other times as the Spirit. Father, the Son was still only a of the Son and the Spirit. This representative of the Father\u2019s deity, was potentially disastrous for the However, if Christians only ever and did not share that deity. Christian faith, since the central encountered God\u2019s three masks, claim of Christians was that through how could they be sure that they This tallied with some aspects the life, death, and resurrection of had met God himself? After all, of accepted Christian thinking: one Jesus\u2014the Son of God\u2014God people can wear masks in order to of the essential characteristics of himself had saved them. If the Son hide their true identity. What if God God was that he was uncreated\u2014 of God was not truly God, then how wore the masks to pretend to be he had no beginning as well as could they be sure that God really something he is not? And so, instead no end to his life. The Arians did want to forgive them their sins of talking about masks or modes, therefore argued that since children and receive them in his kingdom? Christian theologians began to have to be born, the Son of God use the Greek term hypostases, could not possess all the essential At the Council of Nicea in which was translated into Latin as 325 CE, Arianism was condemned personae, or persons. They posited when its central tenet, that the Son that God is three hypostases of one was homoiousios with the Father, ousia (Greek for essence\/being\u2014in was rejected. Instead, Jesus was Latin, substantia, or substance), declared to be homoousios, which means \u201cof the same substance.\u201d God is divided without This distinction made all the division, if I may put it difference\u2014it was agreed that like that, and united in the Son utterly shares the Father\u2019s division. The Godhead deity. Consequently, it was accepted that the Son had no is one in three and beginning\u2014God has always been the three are one... a Father and a Son, together with Gregory of Nazianzus the Holy Spirit. Persons, not masks A second answer deemed heretical to the question of the Trinity was given by a 3rd-century CE priest in Rome, Sabellius, and his followers. Unlike the Arians, the Sabellians af\ufb01rmed that the Son and the Spirit","CHRISTIANITY 217 Every act which extends same way that people share their separate gods? The easy answer from God to the creation\u2026 common humanity. There are just is that if the Trinity was understood originates with the Father, three persons of the one divine as three separate gods, Christians proceeds through the Son, substance\u2014Father, Son, and Spirit. could not be certain that the God of the story of Jesus Christ had and is completed by By using the language of anything to do with the God who the Holy Spirit. hypostases or persons, Christian they believe created the world, or thinkers were able to avoid the who is at work in the world today. Gregory of Nyssa problems of Sabellius and modalism. It was agreed that Father, Son, and The idea of a Trinity safeguards so three persons of one substance. Spirit were not three masks worn the unity of God\u2019s relationship Such theological reasoning involved by a mysterious divine actor, just with the world. Traditionally, the stretching the meaning of human as there is no ideal human lurking Father is seen as the one who terms in order to express the somewhere behind all the humans created the world, the Son is the magnitude of God appropriately. who have ever lived. Instead, there one who came into the world to Some of the theologians who are three persons (Father, Son, and save it, and the Spirit is the one achieved this most successfully Spirit) who, together, are God. who transforms the world into the were the Cappadocian Fathers: place God wants it to be. It is Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Understanding the Trinity important that these are seen as Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa Why is it important to Christians one God working in three ways (Basil\u2019s younger brother), who lived that one God is worshipped in toward the same goal\u2014to share in the late 4th century CE. They three persons, rather than as three God\u2019s love with the world\u2014not \u276f\u276f explained the difference between ousia and hypostases (substance The Trinity comprises three distinct persons who and persons) by giving an example: are not interchangeable, yet share the same divine ousia is humanity as a general substance, and this divine substance is present in category, while each hypostasis only these three persons. is an individual human. Every person has their humanity The Father is not The Son in common with other people; but at the same time, each person has is God is individual characteristics that make them who they are. De\ufb01ning is not is not humanity accordingly would involve stating \u201cwe experience is one common humanity in billions of persons,\u201d followed by listing The Holy every person who has ever lived, Spirit is living, and will live. In this de\ufb01nition of the Trinity, the persons of the Trinity have their divinity in common, in the","218 A DIVINE TRINITY Red rose petals fall inside the Pantheon, Rome, at the end of Pentecost Mass, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit onto the disciples on the day of Pentecost. three times, as if telling the same story from three different, but complementary, perspectives. This repetition, maintains Barth, re\ufb02ects what God\u2019s existence is really like\u2014whatever God does, he does as Father, Spirit, and Son. De\ufb01ning principle The doctrine of the Trinity is often considered one of the most obscure and complicated aspects of Christian theology. Nonetheless, Christians hold to the doctrine because they believe it re\ufb02ects a vital characteristic of God. Just as in the debates with the Arians and Sabellians in the 4th century CE, the idea of the Trinity is essential to orthodox Christian faith. Groups, such as the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses and the Unitarians, who hold con\ufb02icting views on this issue are generally not considered authentically Christian by the mainstream Church. One interesting development in recent times has been the notion of the social Trinity, in which the cooperation of the three persons of as three Gods pulling in three of speech to explain the Trinity: As Father, Son, and Spirit different directions. Augustine the Father is the one who speaks, are three, they are three (p.221) explained that it is this love the Son is the word that is spoken, agents of what the one that binds the Trinity together. and the Spirit is the breath by God does with creatures. which the word is spoken. By far Metaphors of the Trinity the most in\ufb02uential Christian Robert Jenson Over the centuries, many people theologian of the 20th century was have tried to identify metaphors Karl Barth (1886\u20131968), a Swiss for the Trinity in order to explain pastor and professor. He came up how three can be one, and one with a helpful guide for trinitarian three. For instance, St. Patrick\u2014a thinking, which has been embraced 5th-century CE missionary who took by much contemporary theology. Christianity to Ireland\u2014used the The doctrine of the Trinity means image of a three-leaf shamrock. that whatever is said about the Others have used the analogy Christian God, has to be said","the Trinity is seen as a model for While Christians of different CHRISTIANITY 219 human community. Since God can denominations understand the only be God as long the relationships Holy Spirit in different ways, Gifts of the Holy Spirit between Father, Son, and Spirit are the Pentecostal movement of the maintained, so humans, made in 20th century did much to raise Many spiritual gifts are God\u2019s image, can only be truly the public pro\ufb01le of the Spirit. recognized in the Christian human as they maintain meaningful The movement was named after Church. For believers, these relationships with God and others. the day of Pentecost, when Jesus gifts are given by God to the sent the Spirit to his disciples. On Church to help it do the work The Trinity and the Spirit that day, the Spirit is said to have of God\u2019s kingdom in the world. The Spirit often seems like the appeared as a \ufb02ame above the heads The gifts are for three main forgotten person of the Trinity. of the disciples, who were \ufb01lled with purposes: ministry, motivation, Perhaps this is because the debates the Holy Spirit. This enabled them and manifestation. of the 4th century CE were primarily to preach in languages that had about the relationship between been previously unknown to them. Christians maintain that Jesus, Son of God, and God the the Spirit enables some people Father, so the Spirit received only a The idea of the Holy Spirit\u2019s to perform special roles within brief mention in the creeds. It might transformative power is central the Church. These ministry also be because the Spirit seems the to Pentecostal Christians. They gifts include full-time callings most dif\ufb01cult of the three persons believe that believers may be taken to be a pastor or an evangelist. to comprehend, a situation made over by the Holy Spirit in the way Motivational gifts are practical more confusing by the use of the in which the Spirit took hold of the gifts that encourage the work older English term Holy Ghost\u2014 disciples. This very intense, personal of the church: these include from the word gast, meaning \u201cspirit.\u201d experience is called a baptism by prophecy, teaching, giving, the Holy Spirit, and worshippers leading, or showing mercy. According to the Gospel of actively seek this spiritual renewal John, Jesus told his followers that over and above their normal Sometimes, the Spirit\u2019s he would send God\u2019s Spirit to be Christian life. activity is seen in a special with them after he had left them way, such as in tongues and ascended into heaven. Because Charismatic Christianity (speaking with unlearned the Spirit was supposed to transform Since the 1960s, the charismatic words in order to praise God), the lives of God\u2019s followers from the movement has introduced the healing, or other miracles. inside out, so that they would live Pentecostal enthusiasm for the These gifts are called the kind of holy lives that God Spirit into other denominations. manifestations, which show wanted them to, the Spirit then The word charismatic comes from the Spirit is at work. became known as the Holy Spirit. charismata (Greek for \u201cgift of grace\u201d) and refers to the spiritual The Bible says that the The name of Father, Son, gifts which are evidence of the Spirit helps to produce good and Spirit means that Spirit\u2019s activity among Christians, fruit in the lives of Christians: God is the one God including gifts such as healing, Christians grow into \u201clove, joy, in threefold repetition\u2026 prophesying, and speaking in peace, patience, kindness, Karl Barth tongues (or other languages). goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control\u201d The pronounced role of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22\u201323). in the Pentecostal and charismatic movements has prompted the Church to think through its understanding of all three persons of the Trinity, if it is not to inadvertently sideline one or more. The idea of the Trinity remains as vital now as ever, informing how Christians speak about the God they believe and worship. \u25a0","220 GOD\u2019S GRACE NEVER FAILS AUGUSTINE AND FREE WILL IN CONTEXT D o we choose God, or does theologian Augustine to come up God choose us? This with a way of explaining how God\u2019s KEY FIGURE question has troubled choice relates to human choice. Augustine of Hippo Christian thinkers since the earliest days of the Church. At its The Pelagian controversy WHEN AND WHERE heart is the tricky philosophical Augustine was propelled into the 354\u2013430 CE, issue of free will, translated into debate over free will in the early present-day Algeria the context of the Christian faith. 5th century when Pelagius, a Celtic It took the brilliant mind of the monk, arrived in North Africa. The BEFORE From c.1000 BCE The Jews Salvation is by God\u2019s grace, understand themselves to not human capability. be chosen by God because of his grace, not by virtue of The human will is weak. God\u2019s grace cannot fail. their inherent goodness. The weak human will God gives grace to c.30 CE Jesus teaches his always choose sin people to enable them followers about grace: \u201cYou over God. didn\u2019t choose me. I chose you.\u201d to choose him. AFTER Humans are thus not 418 CE Augustine\u2019s teaching free to choose God. on grace is accepted by the Church and Pelagius is condemned as a heretic at the Council of Carthage. 16th century Calvin develops Augustine\u2019s thought in his doctrine of predestination, which becomes a central element of the theology of the Protestant Reformation.","CHRISTIANITY 221 See also: God\u2019s covenant with Israel 168\u201369 \u25a0 Why prayer works 246\u201347 \u25a0 Striving in the way of God 278 humans his grace (his saving Augustine of Hippo help), and because God is all- powerful, whatever he does must Aurelius Augustine was born be effective. Those humans who in 354 CE in Thagaste, North receive God\u2019s grace are at liberty to Africa. He was brought up make their own decision to choose as a Christian by his devout God, rather than sin. Augustine mother, but renounced his maintained a careful balance: faith during his youth and God\u2019s choice does not replace led a dissolute life for several human choice, but rather makes years. After studying Greek it possible for humans to choose. philosophy in Carthage, he embraced Manichaeism, a In infant baptism, Christians believe Predestination Persian religion, but returned that the stain of sin is washed away. Augustine\u2019s concept, which to Christianity after being Pelagius argued that because infants became known as the doctrine impressed by the sermons have not developed free will, they of predestination, was adopted of Bishop Ambrose in Milan could not have sinned. by Protestant reformers, notably and the example of the desert John Calvin. In some extreme hermit Anthony (p.223). controversy was initially about the statements of predestination, the baptism of infants. Pelagius argued idea that God\u2019s grace cannot fail Augustine was baptized that there was no need for infants was emphasized at the expense of on Easter Day in 387, and by to be baptized to wash away the human freedom, reducing human 396 he had been appointed stain of sin, as was generally the decisions to inconsequential acts, Bishop at Hippo. He preached belief of the time. He maintained because God has already decided and wrote proli\ufb01cally about that sin was a result of human free what will happen\u2014the so-called theological controversies until will, and since he believed infants paradox of free will, by which, his death in 430. He is rightly had not developed free will, they many argue, that predestination regarded as one of the great could not have sinned. Moreover, if robs humans of free will. Augustine\u2019s Christian thinkers, and his children chose to follow God\u2019s way idea of grace is a valuable way of teaching has continued to as they developed free will while maintaining the balance between in\ufb02uence Christian thought growing up, there would be no God\u2019s choice and that of humans. \u25a0 throughout the Western world. need for them to be baptized at all. Recognized as a saint by the God extends his mercy Anglican and Catholic Church, Augustine disagreed with to humankind not because he was awarded the highly nearly everything Pelagius said. honored title, Doctor of the He argued\u2014based as much on they already know him, Church, in the 13th century. experience as on logic\u2014that it is but in order that they impossible for humans to choose Key works freely to follow God\u2019s way. From may know him. birth, the weak-willed human Augustine of Hippo 397\u2013400 CE Confessions veers toward choosing what is 413\u2013427 CE The City of God wrong, an idea that became known as original sin. In order to choose God, Augustine believed that humans need God\u2019s help\u2014which is precisely why baptism is so important. God chooses to give","222 IN THE WORLD, BUT NOT OF THE WORLD SERVING GOD ON BEHALF OF OTHERS IN CONTEXT Christians have to live N owadays, monasteries in the world. are sometimes thought KEY MOVEMENT of as relics from a bygone Monasticism The world is full of age. However, when they began distractions from God. to \ufb02ourish in the early medieval WHEN AND WHERE period, after the collapse of the From 3rd century CE, By retreating from the world, Roman Empire in the 5th century, Mediterranean monks and nuns can focus they were at the forefront of on their spiritual life. society. In a Europe that, culturally BEFORE speaking, was entering what 2nd century BCE\u20131st Without distractions, they can we now know as the Dark Ages, century CE Within Judaism, pray for and seek to better monasteries became beacons of ascetic Essenes gather in the world around them. learning and innovation. These monastery-type communities powerful institutions embodied in order to live lives of purity Monasticism is about a central idea in Christianity: and abstinence. being in the world, that some people can be set apart but not of the world. from the demands of conventional AFTER living in order to focus on leading 529 CE St. Benedict establishes a spiritual life that will be of bene\ufb01t a monastic community in Italy; to others as well as themselves. An in 817 his Rule becomes the important aspect of monasticism authorized set of precepts for has always been praying for people all monks in Western Europe. in the wider world. 11th century St. Francis and From caves to cloisters St Clare found the Franciscan Monasticism has its roots in the order of monks, and the Order lives of the \u201cfathers and mothers\u201d of St. Clare for nuns. who lived in the Egyptian desert, from the 3rd century CE. These early 16th century Monasteries monks and nuns had retreated from that are seen as too wealthy the world in order to live simple and corrupt are closed during lives of devotion and prayer. They the Protestant Reformation took Jesus\u2019s words seriously\u2014 in Europe. \u201cWhat good is it to gain the whole","CHRISTIANITY 223 See also: Self-denial leads to spiritual liberation 68\u201371 \u25a0 Higher levels of teaching 101 \u25a0 The purpose of monastic vows 145 \u25a0 Immortality in Christianity 210\u2013211 \u25a0 The Protestant Reformation 230\u201337 In the 3rd century CE, one of the \ufb01rst desert hermits, St. Anthony, attracted thousands of followers, who settled in caves around him; this monastery was eventually built at the site in Egypt. world but lose one\u2019s own soul?\u201d\u2014 populated environments, the idea (founded in the 6th century) and and so became ascetics, giving up of retreating from the world in order the Cistercians (12th century) worldly possessions and marriage to nurture spiritual life persisted. offered hospitality and charity to focus on their spiritual lives. as well as prayer. Throughout The world was understood to be a A life for others the Middle Ages, monasteries place of many temptations, which However, monasteries were not remained centers of education. could distract a person from the simply spiritual refuges from the Monks and nuns copied and ways of God. As an antidote to the outside world. At a time when most illuminated precious manuscripts, busyness of life, the ascetics sought Christians were peasants, working and passed on their knowledge. quiet, contemplative prayer. It was long hours simply to survive, the According to the monastic ideal, said that, \u201cJust as it is impossible monks and nuns worshipped and retreating from the world gave to see your face in troubled water, prayed on their behalf. Monastic them the time and energy to so also the soul, unless it is clear of groups such as the Benedictines serve the world in God\u2019s name. \u25a0 alien thoughts, is not able to pray to God in contemplation.\u201d As monasticism spread out from the desert and into Europe, caves were superseded by specially designed buildings that became known as monasteries. Many were built around a cloister, an enclosed courtyard or garden used for meditation. Although monasteries had moved from the desert to more Eastern monasticism In the Eastern Christian church While Western European practices, they still embody there is only one monastic order, monasticism is renowned for the idea of separation from the which follows the instructions for its great communal buildings, world for the sake of a spiritual monastic life written by St. Basil. many Eastern monasteries follow life, and for the bene\ufb01t of others. an older tradition of monks and One of the holiest places in nuns living in relative isolation Eastern monasticism is Mount from each other, inspired by Athos in Greece, the Holy St. Anthony. Another extreme, Mountain, which has some of early Eastern monastic tradition the oldest monastic buildings was practiced by the Stylites, in the world. This isolated such as St. Simeon, who lived on peninsula is completely the top of pillars, fasting, praying, autonomous and set apart and preaching. Although Eastern from the world; women are not monasteries have slightly different permitted access to the land.","224 IN CONTEXT THERE IS NO KEY MOVEMENT SALVATION The Fourth Lateran OUTSIDE Council THE CHURCH WHEN AND WHERE ENTERING INTO THE FAITH 1215CE, Rome BEFORE 1st century CE The \ufb01rst Christian communities form. 313 CE The Roman Emperor Constantine publishes the Edict of Milan, allowing Christians to worship freely. 1054 The Great Schism divides the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. AFTER 1545\u201363 The Council of Trent reaf\ufb01rms the seven sacraments against Protestant calls for two. 20th\u201321st century The ecumenical movement af\ufb01rms that all Christians, regardless of denomination, are part of one worldwide Church. I s it possible to be a Christian without also being a member of the Church? Many people today would answer \u201cyes,\u201d pointing out that Jesus did not provide his disciples with instructions for setting up a religious institution. Some would contend that, in order to be a Christian, it is suf\ufb01cient to have a personal belief in Jesus, without even belonging to the Church, in any of its denominations. Despite this argument, being a member of the Church has been considered an essential element of Christian faith for most of its history. At \ufb01rst, in the years following Jesus\u2019s death and resurrection, Christians simply","CHRISTIANITY 225 See also: God\u2019s covenant with Israel 168\u201375 \u25a0 Faith and the state 189 \u25a0 The central professions of faith 262\u201369 \u25a0 Awaiting the Day of Judgment 312\u201313 The \ufb01rst Christian message This message was spread was that believing in Jesus through the world by the Church. led to salvation. Since the Church carried this message by its words The Christian hell and actions (sacraments), to belong to the Church and Throughout Christian history, receive its sacraments was the same as being saved. ideas of hell have symbolized the threat of exclusion from If this is so, then the There is no salvation God\u2019s salvation. In Jesus\u2019s opposite is true. outside the Church. teaching, the word used for hell, Gehenna, referred to adapted the religious gatherings idea that the group had been a real place outside the walls at Jewish synagogues, from which called out by God to share the of Jerusalem, the Valley of the many of the early believers were message of Jesus with the world. Son of Hinnom. It is thought drawn. Like the Jews, Christians that sacri\ufb01cial burnings of came together to pray and Mother Church children once occurred here, sing, share food, and read the By the mid-3rd century CE, the and the place was considered Scriptures. For Christians, this theologian Cyprian had made cursed. This gave rise to the meant the Hebrew Bible, which it clear that belonging to the popular image of hell as a became known to them as the Old Church was a nonnegotiable place of permanent \ufb01re. Testament, and a new collection element of Christian faith, not an of documents about Jesus and optional extra. At this time many During the Middle Ages, his signi\ufb01cance, known as the Christians were suffering intense the horrors of hell became New Testament. persecution from the Roman a regular theme in religious authorities because of their faith; art, reminding people of As the Christian message some had renounced their beliefs in their need to stay within spread into the non-Jewish world, order to save their lives. Church the Catholic Church if they Christian gatherings developed leaders were unsure what course wanted to escape the threat their own identity and were named they should take with such people. of eternal torment. ecclesia, from the Greek, meaning They questioned whether to \u276f\u276f \u201ccalled out.\u201d This referred to the More recently, Christian thinkers have suggested that Jesus did not mean that there was an actual place called hell where those who failed to accept his message would be punished forever. Hell was just his name for an existence without God. Since God is understood to be the author of life, to be without his presence is simply nonexistence, or everlasting death.","226 ENTERING INTO THE FAITH readmit them to the Church if they political and economic importance You cannot have God truly repented, or whether to exclude of Rome itself during this early for your Father, if you them and let them form their own, period, the Bishop of Rome was do not have the Church separate communities. Cyprian was increasingly seen as the leader of adamant that the Church should the whole Church, and by the for your mother. forgive them and allow them back, 6th century was the only bishop Cyprian, The Unity since in his understanding there called the pope (from a Greek could be only one true Church, and word meaning \u201cfather\u201d). of the Church it was impossible for people to be saved outside it. He likened the Papal power increased during Fouth Lateran Council of Church Church to Noah\u2019s Ark in the the medieval period. Although at leaders in 1215, Pope Innocent III Old Testament story of the \ufb02ood, \ufb01rst the Pope\u2019s preeminence was reasserted his authority over the commenting that just as the only seen as a useful way to ensure the powerful bishops in the Eastern people who were saved were those unity of the Church, by the start of Church at Constantinople, Antioch, on the Ark, so too the only people to the 11th century, Eastern Greek- Alexandria, and Jerusalem. be saved from God\u2019s judgment of speaking church leaders felt they evil were those in the Church. were being unfairly dominated by In Western Europe, the Roman the Western, Latin-speaking Pope. Catholic Church, presided over by By Cyprian\u2019s time, the Church In 1054, in the Great Schism, the the Pope, was seen as the only true had already developed a clearly Church split into Eastern and family of faithful Christians until de\ufb01ned structure. Deacons and Western branches, citing doctrinal the end of the Middle Ages. The priests led local congregations, differences as well as the issue of dominance of the Roman Catholic while bishops and archbishops papal authority. However, the Pope Church in medieval life added weight were responsible for slightly larger in Rome still claimed to be leader of to the idea that it was impossible to geographical areas. Partly due to the the worldwide Church, and at the be saved outside the Church. The seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church mark different stages of Christian life. Partaking in the sacraments shows membership of the Church; being part of the Church is, Catholics believe, necessary for salvation. Con\ufb01rmation Seven sacraments While the Church had established Baptism Eucharist massive political and economic in\ufb02uence during the medieval Matrimony period, its main power was spiritual. It understood that one of its main Holy orders Penance functions was to bring visibility to the spiritual union between God Extreme unction and his people. Because the Christian relationship with God seemed intangible by nature, it was more convenient to assess Christian faith by the state of a person\u2019s relationship with the Church. Within the Church, special rites were used to mark different stages of the Christian life. Known as","CHRISTIANITY 227 There is one Universal the close relationship between teaching from Peter, one of Jesus\u2019s Church of the faithful, a husband and wife was thought closest disciples and considered the outside of which there is to mirror the close relationship \ufb01rst pope, anyone who rejected the absolutely no salvation. between God and his people. teaching of the pope was held to be rejecting the teaching of Jesus. Fourth Lateran Receiving the sacraments was Unrepentant heretics (believing in Council a clear indication that a person anything other than the teachings remained a member of the Catholic of the Catholic Church) faced the sacraments, these rites were Church, and so could rely on being punishment of excommunication: physical actions that had spiritual saved by God. Church legislation they were removed from the Church signi\ufb01cance. Originally, the early was therefore developed to guide and forbidden from receiving Church celebrated only two both priests and lay people as to sacraments until they changed their sacraments\u2014baptism and the how the sacraments should be minds. If they died before giving up Eucharist\u2014tracing them back to properly used. They were considered their heresies, they could expect to the example and teaching of Jesus so important that the clergy were miss out on God\u2019s salvation and to himself. However, during the Middle forbidden from making a pro\ufb01t from endure the horrors of hell. Ages, their number increased to doing their duties. At the Fourth a total of seven, all of which were Lateran Council, it was decreed At the end of the Middle Ages, offered with the authority of the that all Christians should receive the monopoly on salvation by the Catholic Church. These were: the Eucharist at least once a year at Catholic Church was challenged by baptism (the moment a person Easter, and should also confess their the Protestant Reformation (p.230\u2013 enters the Church and their sin is sins and do penance at least once 37). No longer could a single Christian washed away); con\ufb01rmation (the annually. The prayers of a priest at institution claim that there was no point at which a person receives the bedside of a sick person were possibility of salvation outside itself. the gift of God\u2019s Holy Spirit to help considered so essential that doctors However, the idea that salvation is live a Christian life); the Eucharist were required to call a priest to not possible outside the wider (a regular celebration of the attend to the patient before they did Christian Church has persisted forgiveness achieved by the death their own work. These important among many Christian groups. \u25a0 and resurrection of Jesus); penance regulations ensured that the Church (the actions speci\ufb01ed by a priest in offered the sacraments freely and St. Peter, close disciple of Jesus and order for a person to be reconciled regularly, and that Church members martyred in Rome, is the source of papal with God after confessing sin); received what was offered. prerogative. His authority is thought to extreme unction, otherwise known be inherited by the popes, and so to as the last rites (anointing and Avoiding damnation reject their word is to reject Jesus. giving comfort and the assurance Like other Church councils before of forgiveness to the dying); and holy and after it, the Fourth Lateran orders (when a person decides to Council made it clear that to reject spend their life serving God within the sacraments of the Catholic the Church). The last of the seven Church was to remove oneself from rites was marriage, which was the Church and so also to lose the considered a sacrament because salvation offered on behalf of God. If the Church was to be seen as the mother of the faithful, then anyone who was not a child of the Church could not enjoy salvation. Special condemnation was reserved for people who not only failed to receive the sacraments themselves, but also taught others to reject them. Since it was believed that the popes of the Roman Church had inherited and passed on true","228 THIS IS MY BODY, THIS IS MYBLOOD THE MYSTERY OF THE EUCHARIST IN CONTEXT In the sacrament of But the elements in the the Eucharist, Christians Eucharist are bread and KEY FIGURE wine, not \ufb02esh and blood. Thomas Aquinas experience the real presence of Jesus. WHEN AND WHERE 1225\u201374 , Europe The accidents of the Aristotle distinguishes bread and wine are between substance and BEFORE clearly unchanged. accidents (the form or From 300 BCE Jews add the attributes of something). drinking of a cup of wine that has been blessed to the eating So it must be the substance This is the mystery of unleavened bread during that is converted from bread of the Eucharist. the Passover meal. and wine into the body and 1st century CE St. Paul writes blood of Jesus. with instructions for the early Christians as they regularly B efore his arrest and eventual of Bread. But over the centuries, celebrate Jesus\u2019s last meal cruci\ufb01xion, Jesus shared the meaning and signi\ufb01cance of with his disciples. a Passover meal of bread his words have been the subject and wine with his disciples, saying, of huge controversy. In what sense 1215 CE The Fourth \u201cThis is my body\u201d and \u201cThis is my does the bread and wine change Lateran Council de\ufb01nes the blood.\u201d Since then, this ritual has into the body and blood of Jesus? Eucharist as one of seven been celebrated by Christians in essential sacraments for an act of worship known variously In the 13th century, the great the Catholic faithful. as the Eucharist, Holy Communion, medieval theologian Thomas the Lord\u2019s Supper, and the Breaking Aquinas developed the theory AFTER of transubstantiation. He drew 16th century The Protestant Reformers reject the concept of transubstantiation, generally favoring a more symbolic understanding of Jesus\u2019s words.","CHRISTIANITY 229 See also: Beliefs for new societies 56\u201357 \u25a0 Entering into the faith 224\u201327 \u25a0 The Protestant Reformation 230\u201337 The presence of Christ\u2019s wine. This was important because true body and blood in this Christians believe that the Eucharist is a sacrament, a sacred act that is sacrament cannot be thought to embody a religious truth detected by sense, nor (p.226). If Jesus were not present understanding, but by when the bread and wine were shared, the sacrament would lose faith alone. its meaning and signi\ufb01cance. Thomas Aquinas When is bread not bread? Holy Communion is fundamental to on the recently rediscovered According to Aristotle, substance the faith of nearly all Christians. Roman philosophy of Aristotle to clarify is the unique identity of an object Catholic and Orthodox Christians previous teaching about the or person\u2014the \u201ctableness\u201d of believe in transubstantiation; others Eucharist. Aquinas\u2019s teaching a table, for example. Accidents see it more as a symbolic act. became the of\ufb01cial doctrine of are the attributes of the substance, the Roman Catholic Church. and can change without its identity was converted into that of the altering\u2014a table might be wooden, body and blood of Jesus (hence The purpose of Aquinas\u2019s and blue, but if it was metal and the term transubstantiation\u2014 teaching was to explain how the pink it would still be a table. \u201cto change from one substance to real presence of Jesus could be another\u201d). However, the accidents found in the elements of bread and For Aquinas, this meant that or attributes of the bread and wine it was possible for the substance remained, so the real presence of or essence of an object or person Jesus in bread and wine was to be (such as Jesus) to be found in the believed, but not physically seen. \u25a0 accidents or attributes of other objects (such as bread and wine). He said that it was also possible for one object to be converted into another object: so, as the priest prayed over the bread and the wine, the substance of bread and wine Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas is acclaimed as contribution to Christianity the greatest theologian in the was his use of Greek philosophy, medieval scholastic movement, notably the work of Aristotle, which was characterized by a to explain and defend Christian new method of contemplating the theology. Known as \u201cThomism,\u201d Christian faith in an academically his system of theology became rigorous way. Aquinas was born the standard within Catholic to a noble family in Roccasecca thinking for centuries. Aquinas near Naples in 1225. While at the died at the age of 49 in 1274, university in Naples, Aquinas while he was traveling to the joined the recently established ecumenical Council of Lyon. Order of Preachers (later known as the Dominican Friars). He Key works continued his studies in Paris and Cologne, subsequently becoming c.1260 Summa contra Gentiles a highly regarded teacher in the c.1265\u201374 Summa Theologica Catholic Church. His major (Sum of Theology)","GOD\u2019S WORD NEEDS NO GO-BETWEENS THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION","","232 THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION IN CONTEXT T he Roman Catholic Scripture, and maintained that Church was a formidable salvation could only come from KEY MOVEMENT institution in the late personal faith rather than from The Reformation Middle Ages. From his palace in following the Church\u2019s decrees. Rome, the Pope had power not only WHEN AND WHERE over Europe\u2019s religious life, but Renaissance Europe 16th century, also over its politics and economics. By the 16th century, Europe had Western Europe The Church was a major landowner, begun to shake off the old ideas of and, through the feudal system, medieval life. The horizons of the BEFORE many peasants found themselves known world were expanding 1382 John Wycliffe publishes indebted to it for their homes and rapidly, with Spanish, Portuguese, the \ufb01rst major translation of livelihoods, as well as for the care and French explorers following in the Bible into English. of their souls. At the other end of the wake of Columbus\u2019s voyage to the spectrum, it was in the best the Americas in 1492. Transport 1516 The Christian Humanist interests of nobles and rulers to and trade were \ufb02ourishing as a thinker Erasmus publishes a maintain good relations with the result of advances in seafaring, new edition of the Greek New Church, obeying its laws, and including a new route around Testament, which includes his paying tithes and taxes. Africa to India. new Latin translation. However, in the \ufb01rst decades In Europe, the feudal system AFTER of the 16th century, a spiritual and was being abandoned in favor 1545\u201363 The Council social revolution shifted power of new kingdoms and city-states of Trent is convened. As away from the Catholic Church, controlled by rulers interested in representatives of the Catholic initiating a new chapter in the improving the economic prosperity Church, the group condemns history of Christianity in Europe. of their territories. Culturally, the Protestant movement. This revolution, now known as the artists, philosophers, and scientists Protestant Reformation, was based were rediscovering the classical 1563 The Heidelberg on the idea that God could be learning of the past, in a loosely Catechism is published, known and worshipped directly, connected movement known as offering a Protestant statement without the need for an authorized the Renaissance. In short, a new of faith for both Calvinists and hierarchy of priests to act as world was arriving and it seemed Lutherans. It becomes an intermediaries. The reformers that the Church, with its ancient in\ufb02uential Reformed catechism. placed the teachings and traditions traditions and structures, was set of the Church under the authority of to have a smaller role within it. The Bible was written The \ufb01rst Christians Restricting the Bible to in the common language of were encouraged to study Latin during the Middle the Scriptures to make Ages meant that most the day (the Old Testament their own mind up about people could not make in Hebrew, the New up their own minds Testament in Greek). Christian faith. about what it said. God\u2019s word needs no Translating the Bible go-betweens. into the vernacular meant that everyone could read and hear God\u2019s Word for themselves.","CHRISTIANITY 233 See also: The power of the shaman 26\u201331 \u25a0 The personal quest for truth 144 \u25a0 St. Augustine and free will 220\u201321 \u25a0 Mystical experience in Christianity 238 Martin Luther preaches from the the churches be certain that their which claimed to release people pulpit in this painting in the Church priests were teaching them what from the threat of suffering for their of St. Mary in Wittenberg. The presence the Bible really contained? How sins in purgatory after their death. of the cruci\ufb01ed Christ is a symbol of a could they check the truth of Indulgences had been available direct relationship with God. what they heard? in the Catholic Church for many centuries, but Luther was appalled Misunderstanding God Con\ufb02ict with Rome at Tetzel\u2019s blatant sales tactics, Church services in the Middle Ages The Reformation began because which frightened people with were held in Latin, a language that a German monk, Martin Luther, terrible images of how much their most people did not understand. believed that people were being deceased loved ones were suffering The authorized version of the deceived\u2014sometimes unwittingly in purgatory. \u201cAs soon as the coin Bible\u2014a 4th-century translation \u2014by the priests and leaders of the in the coffer rings, the soul from \u276f\u276f from the original Hebrew and Greek Catholic Church of the day. by St. Jerome known as the A Christian is a Vulgate, meaning \u201ccommonly used\u201d Luther was angered by the perfectly free lord of all, \u2014was also written in Latin. As a preaching of the Dominican Johann subject to none. A Christian result, most churchgoers relied Tetzel, who had arrived in the is a perfectly dutiful servant upon their priests to explain the villages near Wittenberg, Saxony, truths of Christianity to them. where Luther was a parish priest of all, subject to all. Priests held considerable power and university professor. Tetzel Martin Luther over their congregations and was essentially on a fundraising tended to advocate the traditions of mission for the Church: in Rome, the Catholic Church, rather than Pope Leo X was raising money to going back to the original texts. build a vast church, the Basilica of St. Peter; and, closer to home, Although this meant that there the German Cardinal Albrecht was a consistency to Catholic needed to repay a loan taken out to teaching across Europe, there defray the expenses of his position. were obvious dangers as well. Tetzel had been authorized to sell For instance, how could people in certi\ufb01cates, called indulgences,","234 THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION Pope Julius II is shown in this 19th-century painting in the process of instructing Bramante, Michelangelo, and Raphael to start work on the Vatican and St. Peter\u2019s Basilica. purgatory springs,\u201d Tetzel warned, the Church, and declaring him and Scriptures for them. Anyone could and many of Luther\u2019s parishioners his followers to be heretics. Luther read the Bible and come to a clear duly paid for the indulgences in was invited to retract his views, understanding of God\u2019s way of the hope of purchasing salvation. but he refused, and even burned salvation, which, for Luther, did his copy of the Pope\u2019s document. not involve indulgences, popes, Luther had become \ufb01rmly or many of the other practices of convinced, from his studies of the Authority of the Scriptures the Catholic Church. Bible, and especially the Book of Luther\u2019s meaning was clear: even Romans in the New Testament, though the Pope may have been the Luther\u2019s rejection of tradition that salvation was a free gift leader of the Church, he was not in favor of returning to original from God to those who have faith, the \ufb01nal authority when it came to biblical sources fell on fertile soil not something to be bought. He matters of faith. The \ufb01nal authority in the early 16th century. The recorded his objections to the was God\u2019s word itself, as recorded Humanist movement (not to be sale of indulgences in 95 theses, in the Bible, otherwise known as confused with modern, secular or statements, which he sent to the Scriptures. Luther held that it humanism) was already seeking to his bishop, the Prince of Mainz, was not necessary for Christians recover the classical learning that and reportedly pinned to the door to rely upon the traditions and had been forgotten during the Dark of the church in Wittenberg. teachings of the Church to come Ages. Christian Humanists such A copy of the theses found its way to a true knowledge of God and as Desiderius Erasmus (1466\u20131536) to a printer, and the publication salvation. Instead, Christians could encouraged their students to study became an overnight bestseller. bypass these human traditions, the original languages of the Bible which were often inaccurate (Hebrew for the Old Testament and Far more was at stake than anyway, and discover truth directly Greek for the New) and the writings the collection of funds for a pope\u2019s from the Bible. This would later of the very \ufb01rst Christians, the building project and an archbishop\u2019s be expressed by the Latin phrase Church Fathers. The Reformation pocket: Luther\u2019s protest raised sola Scriptura, \u201cScripture alone\u201d: encouraged everyone to join in by the issue of authority within the the Reformers were convinced that reading the Bible for themselves. Catholic Church. In 1520, Pope people do not need middle men Leo X responded by publishing a to interpret the meaning of the Those who preach document explaining how Luther indulgences are in error had misrepresented the teaching of when they say that a person is absolved and saved from every penalty by the pope\u2019s indulgences. Martin Luther","Luther has been sent into Germany could soon read the CHRISTIANITY 235 the world by the genius of Scriptures for themselves. Before discord. Every corner of it long, both French and English Martin Luther has been disturbed by him. translations were printed, and All admit that the corruptions these fueled the spread of Martin Luther was born in Reformation ideas throughout Germany, in 1483. He gave up of the Church required Europe. Alongside Bibles, the law school in order to become a drastic medicine. printing presses of Europe churned a monk, after nearly being Erasmus out hundreds of pamphlets and hit by a lightning bolt in a books written by the Reformers, thunderstorm. By 1508 he A revolution in print which were eagerly consumed by was teaching theology at While the direct engagement of people thirsty for new ideas. the University of Wittenberg, people with the Scriptures was a where he was also a priest. central plank of the Reformation, Protest and schism Luther\u2019s studies led him to there remained a large obstacle. At \ufb01rst, Luther and his followers his key insight, which would Many people were illiterate, simply wanted to bring about develop into the doctrine of and even if they could read, the reform within the Catholic Church, justi\ufb01cation by faith: God Bible was available only in Latin, hence their name, Reformers. declares Christians to be and only to a select few, because However, in a series of church righteous in his sight simply every copy had to be written out by meetings known as \u201cdiets\u201d (similar on account of their faith in hand. Earlier attempts to translate to sessions of a parliament), it Him, and not because the Bible into the vernacular had became clear that the Catholic of anything good they been resisted strongly by the Church would not accept the might do (or, in the case Catholic Church. As far back as demands of the Reformers, which of indulgences, might buy). 1382, John Wycliffe had translated included independence from the Luther\u2019s challenge to the the Bible into English, but it was Pope, services in the local language pope\u2019s authority made him a not available to all. rather than Latin, and marriage for wanted man, but he refused the clergy. Hopes for reform of the to recant. He spent the rest of By Luther\u2019s day, however, the Catholic Church were \ufb01nally dashed his life preaching and writing, printing press, which had been at the Diet of Speyer in 1529. and by the time he died in invented by Johannes Gutenberg 1546, the Lutheran Church in nearby Mainz in 1440, had Luther\u2019s followers submitted a was well established. revolutionized the publishing \u201cLetter of Protestation,\u201d refusing process. Luther harnessed this new to submit to the authority of the Key works technology: he set out to translate Church. From then on, they took the Bible into the German language on the new name of Protestants, 1520 Appeal to the German as it was spoken by ordinary people, which expressed their rejection Ruling Class, calling for publishing the New Testament of Catholic authority in favor of reform of the church. in 1522 and the whole Bible in their newfound con\ufb01dence in 1534 the Luther Bible 1534. The combination of Luther\u2019s interpreting the Bible themselves. (translation of Old and colloquial language and the relative New Testaments). cheapness of the printed Bible Political support meant that Christians across The Protestant movement was backed by a number of German princes who took advantage of Luther\u2019s religious revolt to secure the political independence of their states. They began suppressing the Catholic faith and Church in\ufb02uence within their territories, adopting the motto, Cuius regio eius et religio (\u201cWhoever is the \u276f\u276f","236 THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION ruler, his must be the religion\u201d). denominations emerged following \u2026 Scripture, gathering In other words, they demanded the Protestant Reformation. While together the impressions the right to impose the Church Protestants were agreed that the of Deity, which, till then, of their choice upon their people. authority of the Roman Catholic lay confused in our minds, Church was to be rejected, they dissipates the darkness, and Once established, the Protestant could not agree on a uni\ufb01ed shows us the true God clearly. principle changed both the religious alternative system of thought. and the political landscape of Disputes between some Protestant John Calvin Europe forever. It gave other rulers movements were at times as the grounds they needed to remove \ufb01erce as those between the The Counter-Reformation their kingdoms from the control of Catholics and Protestants. In a sense, the Catholics had been the Pope. The English Reformation, right about controlling the means for example, began when King Protestant proliferation of communication with their \ufb02ock: Henry VIII, a one-time opponent of Three main Protestant strands without the regulation of papal the reformers, sought to curb the arose from these turbulent times: authority, the Church was no longer Pope\u2019s authority in order to divorce Lutherans, who followed the ideas united in its thinking. To try to his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and of Martin Luther; Presbyterians, stem discontent over corruption marry Anne Boleyn. who were in\ufb02uenced by the work and worldly attitudes, and reclaim of John Calvin (see opposite); and lost souls from the Protestants, the Protestantism gave rise to a Anglicans, moderate Protestants Catholic Church launched a number of new branches of the based in England who kept hold Counter-Reformation. In 1545, Church, known as denominations. of many aspects of Catholicism Catholic leaders met in the Italian While the Catholic Church had the other movements rejected. city of Trent, aiming to reestablish been the only Church in Europe the superiority of the Catholic for centuries, a whole host of Church against the rising tide of Protestantism. By the end of the The Reformation depended upon Council of Trent, which spanned the widespread dissemination of the 18 years to 1563, traditional Catholic Christian scriptures. The Bible was doctrines had been reaf\ufb01rmed, translated into the vernacular, printed but reforms were also introduced in the presses, and distributed. addressing the unacceptable practices of the clergy that had sparked the Reformation. An Index of Forbidden Books was published, naming 583 heretical texts, including most translations of the Bible and the works of Erasmus, Luther, and Calvin (the Index was enforced until 1966). A church building","CHRISTIANITY 237 Churches built in northern Europe for Protestant congregations, such as this Lutheran church in Vik, Iceland, are often plain in design, eschewing any embellishment or decoration. program was started, with enough to entice the Protestants light.\u201d After the so-called Dark the intention of constructing back to the fold. From then on, Ages, the Protestant spirit sought great new churches with space Europe was host to a marketplace to shed the skin of medieval for thousands of worshippers, and of different churches, each vying for Catholicism and embrace a new acoustics designed\u2014for the \ufb01rst the hearts and minds of Christians. world of ideas. It was especially time\u2014for vernacular sermons. While Catholicism could claim a con\ufb01dent that reading and hearing Ignatius Loyola, a former soldier long and illustrious heritage, the the Bible in a language that could and the son of a Spanish nobleman, idea of Protestantism seemed to be clearly understood would lead was charged with setting up match the spirit of the age. One of to a relationship with God that the Society of Jesus, an order of the mottos of the Reformation was was uncluttered by priests, popes, missionaries also known as the post tenebras lux, \u201cafter darkness, and indulgences. \u25a0 Jesuits, who were willing to go anywhere without regard to their own safety, to spread Catholicism. The Church also used a process known as the Inquisition to reassert its authority, prosecuting people accused of heresy and using often brutal methods to extract the truth from the accused. Exit from the Dark Ages The Counter-Reformation was partly successful in Italy, Spain, and France, but changes made to the Catholic structures elsewhere were minimal, and certainly not John Calvin Born in northern France in 1509, Calvin stressed humanity\u2019s John Calvin came into contact sinfulness and inability to know with Christian Humanism while God without the study of at the University of Bourges, Scripture; he emphasized God\u2019s where he devoted himself to sovereignty, which meant God theological study. During this could freely give the gift of period, he experienced a religious salvation to whoever he chose. conversion that caused him to Followers of Calvin, known break with the Roman Catholic as Calvinists, established Church and join the growing churches around the world that Protestant movement. Forced to became known as presbyterian, \ufb02ee France, Calvin became a from the Greek for \u201celder.\u201d minister in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1536 to 1538, then Strassburg Key works (now Strasbourg) until 1541, before returning to Geneva, where he 1536 Institutes of the Christian remained until his death in 1564. Religion (\ufb01rst Latin edition)","238 GOD IS HIDDEN IN THE HEART MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE IN CHRISTIANITY IN CONTEXT F rom the earliest days of reciting authorized prayers, mystics Christianity, Christians advocated silent contemplation of KEY FIGURE believed that Jesus had God. This often led to overwhelming Teresa of Avila made it possible for them to have experiences of God\u2019s love. Mysticism a direct relationship with God. has been embraced by many WHEN AND WHERE However, some Christians struggled Christians because it requires 16th century, Spain with worship in churches, \ufb01nding neither priests nor prayer books it too ritualistic. A quest for an to guide the believer, only a BEFORE intensely personal experience of personal communion with God. From3rd centuryCE Monks God emerged in the later Middle and nuns adopt lives of Ages, as a reaction to formalized The interior journey solitude in the desert in order worship. It became known as One of the classic works on mystical to escape worldly distractions Christian mysticism. Rather than experience was written by Teresa and focus solely on God. following the usual pattern of of Avila (1515\u20131582), a Spanish Carmelite nun. In The Interior c.1373 The English mystic Castle, Teresa narrates the journey Julian of Norwich recounts of the Christian soul through six her visions in Sixteen rooms in a castle until it reaches Revelations of Divine Love. the seventh, innermost room, where God dwells. Each room represents 16th century A new emphasis a more intimate level of prayer until on personal communion with the soul achieves the goal of perfect God, instead of ritual, leads to union with God\u2019s life, which Teresa the Protestant Reformation. described as \u201cspiritual marriage.\u201d \u25a0 AFTER In a male-dominated Church, some 1593 Teresa of Avila and fellow of the most renowned mystics were Spanish mystic John of the women, such as Teresa of Avila (left), Cross, a major \ufb01gure in Catherine of Siena (1347\u20131380), and the Counter-Reformation, Julian of Norwich (c.1342\u20131416). establish the Discalced, or Barefoot, Carmelites, a more See also: Self-denial leads to spiritual liberation 68\u201371 \u25a0 Man as a manifestation contemplative form of the of God 188 \u25a0 Su\ufb01sm and the mystic tradition 282\u201383 monastic order.","CHRISTIANITY 239 THE BODY NEEDS SAVING AS WELL AS THE SOUL SOCIAL HOLINESS AND EVANGELICALISM IN CONTEXT T he Industrial Revolution By salvation I mean not barely posed a new challenge for deliverance from hell or going KEY FIGURE Christianity. While a select John Wesley few enjoyed unprecedented wealth, to heaven, but a present thousands of people in towns and deliverance from sin. WHEN AND WHERE cities endured perilous working John Wesley 18th century, UK conditions and suffered ill health and extreme poverty. In Britain, BEFORE brothers John and Charles Wesley, 1st century CE Jesus preaches both Anglican priests, responded to to open-air gatherings, which the needs of a changing society with anyone may attend. He a message of social holiness. John reportedly urges his followers Wesley described social holiness as to feed the hungry, clothe the a faith that was not just private and naked, and care for the sick. internal, but publicly engaged with the social issues of the day. Late 17th century The Pietist movement in The Christian message that experience of Christianity Continental Europe stresses In May 1738 the Wesleys were could transform individuals and practical Christian living. deeply moved by reading the society. They were at the forefront works of Martin Luther and came of important movements, such as AFTER to a new understanding of the the abolition of the slave trade, 19th century In the US, the necessity of faith for salvation. the trade union movement, and Wesleyan and Free Methodists The experience had a profound the provision of free education are active in the anti-slavery effect on their ministry and caused for working-class children. The abolitionist movement. them to join a growing number of Wesleys\u2019 followers became evangelicals who took the Christian known as Methodists, after 1865 William Booth, a message out of churches, preaching the methodical, practical way Methodist minister, founds in marketplaces, \ufb01elds, and homes. in which they applied their faith the Salvation Army with the Evangelicals fervently believed to meet the needs of others. \u25a0 mission of saving bodies as well as souls. See also: Living in harmony 38 \u25a0 Let kindness and compassion rule 146\u201347 \u25a0 The Sikh code of conduct 296\u2013301","SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES DO NOT DISPROVE THE BIBLE THE CHALLENGE OF MODERNITY","","242 THE CHALLENGE OF MODERNITY IN CONTEXT Science uses human The Bible records the reason to discover facts religious experience KEY MOVEMENT Protestant Liberalism about the world. of its authors. WHEN AND WHERE Science describes Christian experience 19th century, Europe\/US \u201chow\u201d the world exists explains \u201cwhy\u201d the BEFORE as it does. world is as it is. From late 17th century Pietism develops within the \u201cHow\u201d and \u201cwhy\u201d are different, Lutheran Church. but complementary, questions. From 1780s Immanuel Kant\u2019s Scienti\ufb01c advances do not philosophy champions reason. disprove the Bible. 1790s The Romantic movement gains in\ufb02uence in Europe as an alternative to the Enlightenment. AFTER 1859 Charles Darwin\u2019s publication of On the Origin of Species results in tension between a conservative view of the Bible and science. 1919 Theologian Karl Barth\u2019s commentary on the Romans marks the end of liberalism and the start of neoorthodoxy (the new orthodoxy). T he idea that the earth The positions of the Church and In the 13th century, for instance, revolves around the sun, of Galileo differed because of the medieval theologian Thomas rather than the other the different ways in which they Aquinas (p.229) had encouraged way around, is today accepted arrived at truth. According to the the systematic exploration of the as fact. However, in the early Church, truth was revealed by God, natural world. He took it for granted 17th century, this theory, which and was supported by passages in that a deeper understanding of had been published by the Polish the Bible that suggested the earth creation would lead to a better astronomer Copernicus in 1543, was at the center of the universe. knowledge of the creator. was in direct opposition to the Science, on the other hand, used teachings of the Catholic Church experimental observations\u2014 This mutual respect was and sparked a controversy that Galileo was a pioneer of using the conceivable as long as the results of embroiled the \ufb01nest natural telescope in astronomy\u2014to build scienti\ufb01c reasoning coincided with scientists of the day. Most notably, theories about the workings of the the concept of \u201cdivine revelation\u201d Galileo Galilei, a mathematician in world. Until well into the medieval (truth communicated by God to Florence, was condemned as a period, these two methods had humans through Scripture) but not heretic for supporting the theory. existed happily side by side. when the two thought systems reached different conclusions.","CHRISTIANITY 243 See also: The Protestant Reformation 230\u201337 \u25a0 The compatibilty of faith 291 \u25a0 Jewish Science 333 \u25a0 The Church of Christ (Scientist) 337 While both Catholic and Protestant a cultural movement that had Friedrich denominations of the Church been born out of a reaction against Schleiermacher insisted that their faith in divine what was perceived as the soulless revelation was well placed, it rationalism of the Enlightenment. Friedrich Schleiermacher was seemed obvious to many that the The Romantics emphasized born in 1768 in Breslau (then results of experiment and reason the importance of feelings and Prussian Silesia), the son of a were far more reliable. Dif\ufb01cult emotions in human life at a time reformed clergyman. He was questions were soon being asked when ideas and objects in the educated by the Moravian that would shake the foundations world were being valued purely Brethren, a strict Pietist sect, of Christian belief across the for their scienti\ufb01c credibilty and before moving to the more modern Western world, and by the usefulness. Schleiermacher realized liberal University of Halle to end of the 18th century the Church that as long as Christian belief study theology and philosophy was in danger of losing popular was assessed according to the (focusing in particular on the support as people increasingly same criteria and at the same level work of Kant). When he moved doubted the rationality and as scienti\ufb01c knowledge, it would be to Berlin in 1796, he was relevance of the Christian faith. considered unreasonable. Instead introduced to key members In response, Christian thinkers of trying to prove the truth of of the Romantic movement. needed to articulate, in a radically Christianity as though it were Schleiermacher became a new way, how religion and science, a scienti\ufb01c theory (as many of his professor of theology at Berlin faith and reason, could coexist. predecessors had), he translated University in 1810. When he it into the realm of feelings, as died in 1834, his radical From facts to feelings championed by the Romantics. \u276f\u276f reinterpretation of doctrine This new era of Christianity was had given rise to a completely heralded by the German theologian Romanticism valued emotion new form of theology known Friedrich Schleiermacher (see above reason and the senses above as theological liberalism, right). While working as a hospital the intellect. The movement found which would be a dominant chaplain in Berlin, he had come expression in the art, literature, and intellectual force in Europe into contact with Romanticism, philosophy of the early 19th century. and the United States for a century. Key works 1799 On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers, Schleiermacher\u2019s most radical work on theology. 1821\u201322 The Christian Faith, Schleiermacher\u2019s major work of systematic theology.","244 THE CHALLENGE OF MODERNITY Friedrich Schleiermacher identi\ufb01ed true opportunity to recover what he religion with a speci\ufb01c type of feeling. It was considered to be at the very heart distinct from knowledge or activity and was of the Christian religion, which an end in itself. Knowledge, was simply, \u201ca sense and taste action, and feeling for the in\ufb01nite.\u201d In his book were different but The Christian Faith (1821\u201322), related realms. Schleiermacher systematically reinterpreted Christian theology Feeling as a description of Christian experience. For example, according Knowledge Action to him, a statement such as \u201cGod exists\u201d does not make any claim about the actual existence of God; instead, it describes a person\u2019s feeling that he or she is dependent upon something that is beyond him or herself. He emphasized that science and and feeling belongs to religion. A record of experience faith were not in competition: they Schleiermacher believed that the In the mid-19th century, a number should be seen as complementary problem facing Christianity was of scholars, primarily based in because they both focused on that it had often focused too heavily Germany, were using a form of different aspects of human life. on knowledge and action, and analysis known as historical too little on feeling. In doing this, criticism to look at biblical texts. Rede\ufb01ning religion Christianity had opened itself up They studied the Bible\u2019s original Schleiermacher\u2019s most signi\ufb01cant to attack by the rationalism of the sources from the Middle East to idea was his rede\ufb01nition of the modern world. On the one hand, reinterpret its content within a nature of religion. In his \ufb01rst scienti\ufb01c reason disputed some historical context. By focusing important book on the subject, of Christianity\u2019s fundamental on the ways in which the Bible Religion: Speeches to its Cultured beliefs, such as the miracles had been composed and compiled Despisers (1799), he discussed three and resurrection of Jesus. On the as a set of human documents, realms of human life: knowledge, other hand, the philosophy of Kant this analysis appeared to strip action, and feeling. Although he and others saw morality as based the sacred text of its supernatural recognized that these three realms on universal principles, rather are necessarily related to each than on the contents of the Bible. The self-identical essence other, he was convinced that they The challenge to Christianity posed of piety is this: the ought not to be confused: according by science and philosophy did not, to him, knowledge belongs to however, disturb Schleiermacher; consciousness of being science, action belongs to ethics, on the contrary, it presented an absolutely dependent, or, which is the same thing, of being in relation with God. Friedrich Schleiermacher","CHRISTIANITY 245 origins (the belief that it was of relegated to history while science Clergymen carry a symbol of peace, divine authorship). The result was moved forward to shape the future indicating their opposition to nuclear that, for many people, the Bible of the world. By assigning religion arms. Critics of theological liberalism could no longer be referred to as and science to different spheres argued that an emphasis on personal the inspired word of God. of human life (religion to feeling, feelings encouraged indifference to and science to knowledge), he important issues in the world. Friedrich Schleiermacher\u2019s view, was successful in establishing a however, helped to rescue the Bible means by which they could coexist. misuses of science and knowledge from what some perceived to be \u2014such as genocide, the arms race, irrelevance. He claimed that since However, while many Christians and nuclear armament\u2014in the religion relates fundamentally to embraced Schleiermacher\u2019s modern world, Christian theology experience, the Bible is supremely thesis as a solution to the friction would need to be based on more important as a record of religious between science and religion, than private feelings. experience. It can therefore be used others were dissatis\ufb01ed with as the ultimate guide to Christian what they saw as the relegation Today, Christian thinkers still experience, as believers compare of Christian faith to the sphere of face the challenge of explaining to their own feelings of dependence feelings. They also identi\ufb01ed peple how they can trust what the on God with those described an unintended consequence: Bible says about God, when what within the sacred text. Christianity could no longer claim it says about the world is often to have an authoritative voice in the disputed by scienti\ufb01c reasoning. This approach to the Bible public sphere if it was associated Many Christians would answer became known as the liberal most strongly with an individual\u2019s with a modi\ufb01ed form of view, as opposed to the more feelings, since feelings are always Schleiermacher\u2019s argument. The conservative view, which insisted personal. This seemed to be at Bible talks about the same reality \u2014in the face of this historical odds with the original message as that described by science, criticism\u2014that the Bible contained of Christianity, which concerned history, politics, and other social facts about God, and not just facts the arrival of God\u2019s kingdom in sciences. However, it simply about human experience. Tension the whole world (not just in private answers different questions: between these two views has religious experience) and indicated not, \u201chow did this come to be?\u201d shaped Protestantism ever since. an important societal role. but \u201cwhy did this come to be?\u201d Science and faith\u2014the \u201chow?\u201d Unintended consequences Taking a stand and the \u201cwhy?\u201d\u2014do not disprove Schleiermacher developed his idea In the 20th century, the liberal each other, but complement each of religious experience in order to movement was strongly criticized other. They help Christians to reach protect Christianity from being by a new generation of scholars, a more complete understanding including the eminent Swiss of the universe that Galileo Christian doctrines theologian Karl Barth. He was observed through his telescope. \u25a0 are accounts of particularly appalled that his liberal theology teachers had failed to take the Christian religious a principled stand against the rise affections set of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s, forth in speech. and claimed that this was because Schleiermacher\u2019s theology had Friedrich Schleiermacher been allowed to become far too in\ufb02uential within the Church. He maintained that a private Christian experience could be too easily indifferent to the needs of the world outside. Barth argued that for Christianity to be successful in opposing some of the obvious","246 WE CAN INFLUENCE GOD WHY PRAYER WORKS IN CONTEXT F from the earliest times, that every detail of the future is Jewish and Christian mapped out in advance. In this KEY MOVEMENTS theologians have latter representation, God is Process theology wrestled with complex issues immune to appeals from humans and open theism surrounding the nature of God for help because he has absolute and the relationship of God to prior knowledge of the outcome WHEN AND WHERE humankind. To some he is a of every situation. Late 20th century, vengeful God, who not only US and Europe stands in judgment at the end of The relevance of prayer time, but also chooses whether or How the relationship between BEFORE not to respond to those who pray. God and the things that happen is From prehistory Many To others, he is perceived as an understood has deep implications primal belief systems use all-knowing presence who has for the role of Christian prayer. prayer and ritual to seek decided the course of world history If God already knows the past, the favor of supernatural and has reasons for all events, so present, and future, then prayer\u2014 forces or beings. God knows everything The future hasn\u2019t First millennium BCE that exists. happened yet, so it The Bible tells that God answered Moses\u2019s prayer doesn\u2019t exist. to change his mind about destroying the Israelites after We can in\ufb02uence what Therefore, the future is still they worship the golden calf. the future becomes by our open to change. prayers and actions today. AFTER 1960s The Liberation Theology movement in South America emphasizes social and economic justice, maintaining that God responds especially to the prayers of the poor and oppressed in society.","CHRISTIANITY 247 See also: The battle between good and evil 60\u201365 \u25a0 Divining the future 79 \u25a0 Devotion through puja 114\u201315 \u25a0 Jesus\u2019s message to the world 204\u2013207 \u25a0 Augustine and free will 220\u201321 Theologians of hope God\u2026is so related to The rejection of traditional God, and open theism. In the the world that there is theological concepts such later 20th century, a group between him and that as God\u2019s foreknowledge (his of theologians emerged who world a \u201cgive-and-take\u201d\u2026 awareness of future events), have been loosely termed the immutability (his unchanging \u201ctheologians of hope.\u201d These He is in\ufb02uenced by nature), and impassibility include, in Germany, J\u00fcrgen what happens. (his freedom from emotion Moltmann and Wolfhart W. Pittenger and independence from other Pannenberg, and in the US, beings) was not con\ufb01ned to any Robert Jenson. One of their one school of theology during principal arguments was that the 20th century. The ideas because the future does not have been labeled in various yet exist\u2014even for God\u2014the ways, including process essential characteristic of theology, the openness of Christianity is hope. communicating with God by he has prior knowledge of it, but on earth, since he lived a human offering verbal praise or requests, takes no preventive action\u2014as life, with all its limitations. through thoughts and meditations, may be evident, for example, in his Consequently, if the future does or in the form of deliberate acts of knowledge, even before the creation, not yet exist for either humans worship\u2014seems irrelevant. Merely that humans would bring suffering or God, then it can be truly open. telling God what he already knows and wickedness into the world. Seen from this perspective, God would carry no hope of changing is not a distant observer but an what will happen. However, if the The future is open active participant in the historical future is not already determined The classic Christian view of process, a presence who listens by God and is truly open, then God\u2019s foreknowledge depends to the prayers and appeals prayer becomes an essential part upon the belief that God exists of people, responding to their of shaping that future. outside of time, so that what is needs and walking beside them in the future for human beings in their journey through life. \u25a0 Inside the mind of God (and hence is nonexistent and Although Christian theology unknowable) is in the past for The misuse of weapons of war, has traditionally regarded God as God (and therefore both exists such as nuclear bombs, indicates the omniscient, possessing a complete and is knowable). However, this human capacity for evil\u2014in the future knowledge of all things past, present, view owes more to ancient Greek as well as the past. Does God know and future, in the 20th century some philosophy than genuine Christian about this and choose to do nothing? theologians began to reject the idea thinking. The Bible describes a of his foreknowledge (knowledge God who actively accompanies his of the future). If God knows what people through time, not simply will happen, then the future must watching them from a distant already be set in stone, which, they position outside of time. Moreover, argued, would remove true freedom Christians believe that the coming and spontaneity from history. This of Jesus as a human being should would also raise questions about be understood as the clearest God\u2019s essential goodness, and indication that God is not outside whether he is complicit in evil if of time or the reality of human life","ISLAM FROM 610 CE"]