CHRISTIANITY



CHRISTIANITY

1. It is a way of life, embodied in a corporate society or fellowship

centered on the worship of One God revealed to the world through

Jesus Nazareth.

a. Jesus lived as a human being for about thirty years and was

crucified by the Romans at Jerusalem between A.D. 29 and 33.

b. Based on the testimony of contemporary witnesses of that

time: Christians believe that he rose from the dead after

three days and was seen on numerous occasions during the next

forty days.

2. Jesus of Nazareth was believed to be the Christ (ie. the Messiah,

the annointed deliver promised to the Jews in the Old Testament.

a. It was built upon the revelation of One God given to the

Jews, but within one generation Christianity had made a tre-

mendous appeal to the non-Jewish or Gentile world of the

Hellenized Empire of Rome.

b. The Greek language and Greek thought forms became a part of

the new Christian gospel (euangelion - good news) from Saint

Paul onward.

3. The Universe and Time:

a. Plato and Aristotle had taught that the time process in un-

ending, each human civilization being succeeded by another.

b. Stoicism, the most popular philosophy of the 1st Century,

A.D., taught that the universe formed out of the divine fire

would be dissolved, after running its course, into the divine

fire again, to be succeeded over and over again throughout

all enternity.

c. Judaism: taught that this universe is the creation of the One

True God, who has throughout its history has shown his power

(and intervention) through a series of mighty acts which will

lead to the "day of the Lord".

* A day when evil will be conquered an a new dawn, in which

God will reign as king of peace and righteousness.

4. This idea of a final goal of history, of a purpose in creation, of

redemption from evil and of salvation for the individual was easy

to accept by those who were familiar with the many mystery

religions and cults of the Hellenistic world.

5. Christianity was a new way of life.

a. It made moral demands upon individuals, but it also filled

them with a new divine power (ie. the Holy Spirit).

b. Christians were promised a new quality (or existence) of be-

ing - "eternal life", which began now and continued into the

next world.

The Origins of Christianity

1. Both Jesus and his disciples who followed him in his early ministry

in Galilee and Judaea were all Jews by race and religion.

* They attended the synagogue, visited the Temple in Jerusalem,

kept the Jewish feast of the Passaover and other great festivals.

2. Jesus's claim to be the Messiah (ie. Christos, the annoited, the

Greek equivalent to the Hewbrew Messiah) would not have caused a

great deal of surprise among his contemporaries ------------------

there was a general expectation of the coming of a Messiah who

would free the Jews from Roman Rule and establish the Kingdom of

God (the Day of the Lord - ie. Issiah) on earth.

3. Jesus identified himself with the "Suffering Servant" as the

Messiah.

a. This identification saw its culmination by Jesus's crucifi-

xion on Calvary.

b. This attitude mystified his disciples and caused the Jewish

People to reject him as a true Messiah.

4. The origin of the Christian Church can not be primarily found in

the teachings of Jesus, but is found in the resurrection and glori-

fication of Jesus on Easter Day.

a. The historian can neither prove nor disprove the events of

the First Easter which are recorded in all of the Four

Gospels.

b. The issue is not whether one agrees or disagrees with the

Gospels, the point is something happened that resulted in a

new religious faith.

c. "Resurrection Faith" - the new faith was based on the idea of

hope of the "imminent second coming of the Lord".

5. The Spread of the Gospel

a. By the First Century A.D., as a result of the Diaspora, many

Jewish colonies existed outside of Palestine especially in

larger towns.

ie. Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome, Carthage, and Alexan-

dria.

b. It was through the synagogues of the Diaspora that Christi-

anity first spread and came in contact with the Gentile

(non-Jewish) World.

c. From Antioch, where the term Christian was first used (in

derision), Paul took the gospel to Jewish Centers in Asia

Minor and Greece ----------------- ultimately he went to

Rome where by tradition he was martyred with Peter (ca. A.D.

64).

d. Result: both Gentile and Jewish Converts were made, and by

the end of the First Century A.D. Christian Communities

(Churches) were established all around the Mediterranean.

e. By the Second Century: Christianity had spread to Egypt,

North Africa, and Gaul.

Organization and Worship of the Early Church

1. The word Church (ecclesia) means an assembly of the people -------

it is used in the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament to

translate the Hebrew word for the assembly, congregation or people

of God.

a. In the New Testament it usually means the whole body of

Christians, but the same word is used to refer to local

Christian Congregations.

ie. the Church in Antioch or at Corinth.

b. To Paul, there is only one Church which has many members.

"In one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether

Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free." (I Corinthians XVI:

19).

ie. The members of the one Church which is "the Body of

Christ".

2. Christianity arose (or emerged) out of Judaism -------------------

Paul also attended the synagogues in the cities of the Diaspora.

3. It was a natural process for the Early Church to model its organi-

zation on that of the synagogue which was directed by a local body

of elders.

a. The presbuteroi: (presbyters, or elders) of the Church in

Jerusalem are mentioned along with the apostles as its

leaders.

b. In the Gentile World Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in

every Church of their first missionary journey.

ie. the office was not confined to the Jewish-Christian

Church in Jerusalem.

c. In his letters to these Churches Paul subsequently referred

to elders as bishops (episcopoi), so that in the Gentile

Churches the terms were interchangeable.

4. The Role of Bishops

a. The term episkopos (bishop) denotes a personal funtion of

superintendence or oversight which was evidently exercised by

one of the college of presbyters in a Church.

b. Ignatius (d. ca. A.D. 117): in his Epistle to the Trallians,

he wrote -

"When you are in subjection to the bishop as Jesus Christ...

it is necessary that you should do nothing without the bish-

op, but be ye also in subjection to the presbytery. Like-

wise let all respect the deacons as Jesus Christ, even as

the bishop is also a type of Father, and the Presbyters as

the council of God, and the college of Apostles."

* A three-fold ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons is

clearly envisaged.

* The deaconate was an entirely new office, not derived from

the synagogue.

c. The Didache, an early Christian manual, compiled before A.D.

100 speaks of apostles and prophets (sometimes using the

terms interchangeably) and gives detailed directions for dis-

tinguishing between true and false prophets.

* It also gives an instruction to "appoint for yourselves

bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord."

d. Apostolic Succession: scholars in the episcopal tradition see

the origin of the espicopate in the appointment of local

bishops as direct successors of the apostles.

1. It originally meant a guarantee of the genuine tradi-

tion of the doctrine and teaching of the apostles,

handed down through a verifiable series of men, in

constrast to un-apostolic heretical teachings.

2. It eventually came to mean apostolic authority to or-

dain, sacramentally transmitted through an uninterrupt-

ed series of the "laying on of hands".

e. Scholars in the Presbyterian and allied traditions have re-

garded every presbyter as a bishop on the grounds that Paul

uses the terms interchangeably in his letters to the Gentile

Churches.

5. Consecration

a. Originally - Bishops could not be consecrated until their

prdecessors were dead.

1. Irenaeus was probably chosen and consecrated by his

fellow-presbyters at Lyons, in the same way as the

bishops of Alexandria were down to the fouth century.

2. In Milan and Carthage, the bishop was elected by the

people and consecrated by three bishops from neighbor-

ing communities.

b. By the middle of the second century, the function (or author-

ity) of consecration was exercized universally by the bishop.

6. Baptism and Circumcision

a. Membership of the Jewish faith was by virtue of birth and all

males had to be circumcized at eight days of age.

b. When Gentiles adopted Judaism they were first baptized (since

Gentiles were regarded as being in a state of ritual impur-

ity), and then circumcized.

c. Jesus commanded his disciples to "make disciples of all the

nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of

the Son and the Holy Ghost (Mat. XXVIII:19).

d. Baptism was regarded by Paul as the Christian Circumcision,

and the comparison of baptism with circumcision (ie. initia-

tion into the convenant with God) is frequent in the litera-

ture of Early Church Fathers.

* Instruction in the faith was required before a candidate

for baptism could be accepted.

e. The Didache, prior to A.D. 100 ------------ ordered baptism

in water in the name of the Trinity.

1. Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus (ca. 215) - the

Church had evolved a full baptisimal liturgy.

2. It included the washing away of sin (symbolically) in

water, annoiting with oil blessed by the bishop, and

first communion.

3. The normal time for baptism was on Easter Eve, followed

by first communion on Easter Day.

7. The Sabbath

a. The Christian Church inherited from Judaism the seven day

week culminating in the observance of Saturday as "the

Sabbath", which was for the Jew a day of rest from all work.

b. Willy Rordorf, a Swiss scholar, published (1968) an important

study entitled Sunday.

1. He maintained that the early Christians regarded the

duty of Sabbath observance as including the whole span

of life.

2. Sunday (the first day of the week) replaced the Sabbath

as a day of worship from the very beginning, and that

"right down to the 4th Century the idea of rest played

no part in the Christian Sunday.

c. Sunday was observed as a day of worship being a weekly com-

memoration of Easter, the day of resurrection.

1. Christians could not observe it as a day of rest until

the Emperor Contantine decreed it as such in 321.

2. Early Christians did not abandon the Sabbath (Saturday)

------------ both were kept as festivals marked by

the celebration of the Eurcharist.

8. The Eurcharist

a. The origin of the Christian Eurcharist lies in the Last

Supper, at which Christ inaugurated the New Convenant in his

blood on the night before his crucifixion.

b. By tradition (it has been disputed), the Last Supper took

place during the Passover Season ------------ thus, the

date of Easter is fixed on the Sunday following the Passover

full moon.

c. The Eurcharist came to be celebrated every Sunday as a weekly

commemoration of the ressurection.

1. By the early 3rd Century a daily celebration of the

Eurcharist is attested to by Cyprian in North Africa.

2. Prior to this period, the Eurcharist seems to have

been clebrated only on Saturday and Sunday and on

"station days", Wednesday and Friday which were fasting

days.

* these days were reminiscent of the older Jewish fasts

on Monday and Thursday.

d. There were also daily gatherings for prayer at dawn and at

dusk, the times of the ancient Jewish temple sacrifices.

9. Daily Worship In the Early Church

a. The content of the daily and weekly worship of Christians

was also modelled on that of the synagogue.

b. There were four main elements: prayer, singing of psalms

(collectively), scripture readings, and a sermon or homily

(on the Sabbath) based on scriptures that were read.

c. Greek was the liturgical language of Christians even at Rome

until the 3rd Century.

d. The earliest surviving texts of the Eurcharist (ca. 215) show

the service consisted of the four elements derived from the

synagogue.

1. The consecration of the bread and wine followed which

were offered to God as a sacrifical memorial

(anamnesis) of the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.

2. It was partaken (received) by the baptized members of

the Church as the body and blood of Christ, appointed

by Him at the Last Supper for communion with Him.

e. Asceticism found a place within Christianity from its very

earliest beginnings.

1. Fasting, celebacy, and renunciation of earthly posses-

sions was practiced by some Christians in their own

homes before St. Anthony (ca. 285) adopted the life of

a hermit in the desert of Egypt.

2. Other solitaries (ascetics) followed his example and

for mutual protection lived in loosely organized groups

of hermits (anchorites).

3. Ca. 320, Pachomius founded the first monastery for

monks living under a regular rule at Tabennisi on the

right bank of the Nile (coenobites).

4. Both forms of asceticism spread to the West.

* St. Basil (in 358-64) composed a monastic rule based

on that of Pachomius which became the basis of the

rule still followed by monks in the East.

* St. Benedict (6th Century) established the first

Benedictine Monastary at Monte Cassino in Italy under

a rule developed by him --------- it became the

basis of all subsequent forms of monasticism in the

West.

5. Prayer was common to all of these rules:

* A regular cycle of prayer for the day and night was

provided.

* Seven Canonical Hours were established and are con-

tained in the Medieval Breviary of the Western

Church.

Church and State

1. The Edict of Milan (Peace of Constantine) A.D. 312, issued by

Constantine and Licinius provided religious toleration for the

Christians.

* Christianity did not become the official religion of the Roman

Empire until the Edict of Theodosius in 380.

2. In the Fourth Century the emperors' objective was to preserve the

unity of the empire.

a. This attitude prompted imperial interference to maintain

unity within the Church which was torn by heresy and schism.

b. Donatism in North Africa was an anti-Roman nationalistic

movement among the Berbers of Numidia.

c. The Donatists claimed to be the true Chruch of the apostles

and martyrs, and refused to have any dealings with the state.

d. Emperor Honorius in 412 declared the Donatists outlaws, but

they survived this and the Vandal invasion of North Africa

------------ it was not until the 7th Century when Islam

destroyed both the Donatists and Catholics.

3. The Nature of Christ: The Arian Controversy of the Fourth Century

a. It arose out of the question of the relation of God the

Father to his Son, Jesus Christ.

b. Arius, an Alexandrian presbyter, maintained that the Son was

a created being who did not eternally exist and was a sort of

demi-god, subordinate to the Father.

4. Constantine summoned the first General Council of the Church at

Nicaea in 325.

a. The purpose was to settle the dispute over Arianism and

reunite the Church.

b. The Council condemned the teaching of Arius and produced a

Creed that declared that the Son is of one substance with and

co-eternal with the Father.

5. Theodosius I summoned the second General Council at Constantinople

in 381.

a. It endorsed the emperor's definition (380) of Catholicism.

b. It also condemned Arianism and Apollinarianism (which had

overstressed the divinity of Christ, in opposition to

Arianism.

* The Council also reaffirmed the Nicene Creed.

6. Fifth Century: Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Cyril,

Patriarch of Alexandria.

* the controversy was over the two natures of Christ (divinity

and humanity).

a. Nestorius over-emphasized the humanity of Christ, and so

opposed the tradition description of Mary as Theotokos

(mother of God).

b. He declared that Mary's proper title should be "Mother of

Christ", since she was the mother of the human nature alone.

c. Rome sided with Cyril of Alexandria ----------- eventually

the State was forced to intervene.

7. Theodosius II of the East and Valentinian III of the West summoned

a third General Council of the Chruch at Ephesus in 431.

* It condemned Nestorianism, and Nestorius was exiled to the

Egyptian desert in 435.

8. A further fifth-century dispute between the Patriarch of Alexandria

(supported by Rome) and the Patriarch of Constantinople.

a. The conflict: that after the incarnation there was only one

nature in Christ.

ie. Monophysitism (one natureism).

b. This belief was condemned by the fourth Gerneral Council of

the Church at Chalcedon in 451 (called by the Emperor

Marcian).

c. The Catholic Church both in the East and the West accepted

what is known as the Chalcedonian Definition of the Doctrine

of the Trinity.

"It maintained that Jesus Christ is one person, the Divine

World, in whom are two natures, the divine and human, per-

manently united before and after the incarnation, though

unconfused and unmixed.

d. This statement of belief, together with other doctrinal de-

finitions of the first four councils of the Church have ever-

since been accepted by Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant

Christians.

9. A Monphysite or Jacobite Church (named after the Syrian monk Jacob

Baradai, d. 578) broke away.

* today it has a Patriarch of Antioch and churches in Syria, Iraq,

Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Armenia, and Ethiopia.

The Church In the West:

1. The growth in power and influence of the see of Rome (sedes) be-

tween the second and fifth centuries was due primarily to the fact

that Rome was the capital of the empire until it was transferred to

Constantinople in A.D. 337.

a. The Petrine Doctrine: claims authority and jurisdiction over

churches by virtue of being the successors of the Apostle

Peter.

b. These claims were not always accepted by the ancient

Patriarchates of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and

Constantinople.

c. In the West the jurisdiction of the see of Rome had been

generally recognized by the time of Pope Leo (440-61).

* the first pope to be buried in St. Peter's in Rome.

2. The Church's organization was modelled on that of the Roman

Empire.

a. There was, in every metropolis or chief city of Each Pro-

vince, a superior magistrate over local magistrates of the

cities within the province.

b. The Church: there was a bishop in the metropolis whose

authority extended over other bishops in the province.

* he was known as a metropolitan or primate (archbishop).

3. Church Revenues

a. Church revenues were originally derived from the volutary

offerings of the faithfull.

b. The Biblical precedent of the Tithe or First Fruit (from

Deuteronomy XIV:22-26) was not exploited by the clery until

the 2nd half of the 6th Century in Merovingian Gaul.

c. From Contantine's time the property of the churches was first

confined to places of worship and burial grounds.

* from this it grew rapidly --------- even Constantine gave

land and houses to the Church.

4. Impact of the 5th Century: Barbarian Invasions

a. In 410 Rome was sacked by the Visigoth chief, Alaric who was

an Arian Christian.

b. Other Germanic Invaders (most of them non-Christian) crossed

the Rhine into Gaul, Spain and North Africa.

c. The Franks alone, under Clovis, were the first to be convert-

ed to Christianity.

d. Prior to 410, Christianity had reached Britain from Gaul.

1. The ancient British (or Celtic) Church was driven west-

ward into Wales, Cornwall and Ireland.

2. It was responsible for the reconversion of much of

England after the Anglo-Saxon invasions, and northern

Holland, southern Denmark and northwest Germany.

* This process continued through and beyond the Eighth

Century.

5. The Holy Roman Empire

a. The coronation of Charlemagne by the Pope in Rome in 800

created the Holy Roman Empire ----------- it also led to

conflicts between temporal and spiritual powers.

b. The Concordat of Worms: was a compromise of sorts.

1. 1122: Pope Calixtus II and Emperor Henry V settled the

question of lay investiture.

2. The emperor surrendered to the Church all investiture

of bishops with ring and staff (symbols of spiritual

authority).

3. The pope granted Henry the right to invest a bishop

with temporal possessions of his office by the touch

of his royal sceptre.

c. The struggle of lay investiture and papal supremacy in both

spiritual and temporal matters continued throughout the

Middle Ages.

d. Under Pope Innocent III, the papacy reached its hieght of

power (1198-1216).

1. When King John of England resisted the pope's nomina-

tion of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, he

placed England under an interdict.

ie. the ending of the administration of all sacraments

in England.

2. Innocent threatend Philip II of France with interdict,

excommunicated John of England, and forced the Holy

Roman emperor to pay homage to him.

3. The Fourth Lateran council in 1215 declared the

doctrine of Transubstantiation to be an article of

faith --------- anyone denying it would be eternally

damned.

4. Christians were also required to make a confession and

receive communion at least once a year.

* The Church's power of excommunication and interdict must be

viewed in the context of the people's belief that the only

defense against the fiends (powers) that attack the soul when

one dies was the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ.

6. Decline In Church Power (Temporal Influence)

a. Balance of Power was to shift ---------- by the time of the

Reformation in the 16th Century, the Papacy had become a tool

of the Holy Roman Empire.

b. Nationalism: a new identiy and independence was arising in

both England and France.

1. Both Edward I of England and Philip IV of France defied

Pope Boniface VIII.

2. Unam Sanctam (1302) --------- Boniface had asserted

in this papal bull that temporal powers are subject to

spiritual powers and that "it is altogether necessary

to salvation for every human creature to be subject to

the Roman Pontiff.

3. Boniface was taken prisoner by Philip's mercenaries in

Rome and died soon afterwards: the temporal power of

the papacy was broken.

c. The Great Schism (1378-1417) a period when there were rival

popes, one in Avignon (France) and the other in Rome.

1. A series of Church Councils followed culminating with

the Council of Constance aimed at unifying and reform-

ing the Church.

2. It united the Church, but any attempts at meaningful

reform failed ----------- the way was paved for the

Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.

7. Religon In Feudal Society (background of the Reformation)

a. The Medieval Western Church took for granted the existence

of rich and poor and of different callings which were divine-

ly appointed (the serf and the lord).

b. The Church attempted to achieve unity within Christendom that

was centered on obedience to spiritual and temporal author-

ity.

* the Crusades was one expression of this ideal.

c. Grace was believed to be otained by acquiring merit in the

sight of God by the performance of "good works".

d. Good Works included attendance at mass, paying for the saying

of masses, going on pilgramages, veneraton of the saints, and

doing penance.

e. A good deal of superstition was mixed with popular Christian-

ity of the later Middle Ages and sixteenth - century reform-

ers rejected the whole sacramental theology built on the

theory of human merit.

The Reformation

1. The struggle over spiritual and temporal authority, along with the

growing spirit of nationalism in England, France, Germany, and

Bohemia led to anti-papalism and anti-clericalism in the late

Middle Ages.

2. The failure of the General Church Councils of the 15th Century to

reform the Church, the increasing financial drain of national

treasuries by the Papal Curia, the decadence and worldliness of

monasticism and the clergy - all contributed to the growing skepti-

cism of the Church.

3. The Renaissance: Revival of Learning

a. The movement led to a new study of the scriptures, a new

demand for intellectual freedom, and the right of private

judgement (personal - individual).

b. The invention of the printing press was of paramount impor-

tance in the spread and general awareness of these ideas,

issues, and criticisms.

4. Old Traditions Retained: (ie. much of the traditional teachings and

practices of the Pre-Reformation Church).

a. They kept the three main creeds derived from the General

Councils of the 4th and 5th Centuries.

b. The belief in the Trinity, the two natures of Christ, the

fall and original sin, the atonement brought by the death of

Christ, his ressurection and ascension were all kept.

c. Protestants also retained the belief in the literal, infalli-

ble inspiration of the Old and New Testaments which were con-

sidered to be dictated by the Holy Spirit.

5. Chief Differnce: Protestants and Catholics

a. Rejection of the Roman Church's claim to be the sole inter-

pretor of the scriptures, and their refusal to give Church

Tradition the same authority as scripture.

b. Protestants maintained that the Scriptures were the sole

authority ((eventhough individual opinion and interpretation

varied among the reformers).

c. It was the Primitive Church that was to be the model and

pattern for subsequent development and evolution of the

Church.

Martin Luther (1483-1546): Salvation Through Faith

1. Through the study of the Bible (especially Paul's Epistle to the

Romans), that Martin Luther came to the opinion that Man can not

attain justification (a right relationship with God) by his own

works. (ie. the Catholic concept of "Good Works")

2. To Luther, it was only by faith in the saccrifice of Christ that

was offered on the Cross that one could gain salvation.

a. By "faith" Luther did not mean just intellectual agreement

(fides), but a rather child-like trust in the Redemeer.

b. Luther maintained that "Grace" is freely given by God, not

earned by human merit or bought through a papal indulgence.

3. 1517: Ninety-five Theses, Luther challenged the Church's teaching

on indulgences, and by his Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the

German Nation (1520) - he denounced the financial demands of the

Papacy.

a. He was excommunicated, and then outlawed by the Imperial Diet

at Worms (Edict of Worms - 1521).

b. Luther was hidden in Wurtburg Castle by his patron and pro-

tector, the Elector Frederick of Saxony -------------------

during this period he translated the Bible into German, and

wrote many tracts that were circulated throughout Germany.

4. After his return to Wittenburg, many German Princes and cities

accepted the evangelical teaching of Luther and allied themselves

with the Elector of Saxony.

a. The Latin mass was abolished and replaced by Luther's German

mass (1525).

b. Priests and monks began to marry (Luther himself marrying an

ex-Cistercian nun, Katherine von Bora, in 1525).

5. Lutheranism had spread into Scandanavia, France, and England.

a. It never took serious hold in France, and its influence in

England was dead after 1550 after which Zwingialism and

Calvinism left more permanent influence.

b. In Sweden, where bishops were retained (in constrast to the

"superintendents" set over the Land or State Churches in

Germany) a truly National Lutheran Church developed.

6. After the Confession of Augsburg (1530) drafted by Philip Melanch-

ton which marked the first break between Lutheran states and Rome

and the death of Luther (1546), Lutheran theology developed on

confessional lines into a new form of rigid-scholasticism.

Zwingli (1484-1531)

1. A parallel movement of reform had been in progress at Zurich and

other German Swiss cities.

2. Zwingli was educated in the humanist tradition, and lectured on the

New Testament attacking fasting, clerical celebacy, and the mass.

3. Relics and images were removed from their Churches in July 1524

and religious houses were dissolved in December.

* 4. The mass was abolished by the town council of Zurich and was re-

placed by Zwingli's German Service of the Lord's Supper at Easter

1525.

5. Other Swiss towns formed themselves into a Civic Christian Alliance

against those cantons which had remained loyal to Rome.

* Civil War broke out and Zwingli was killed at the Battle of

Cappel (1531).

6. The Protestant Reformation in German Switzerland was accomplished

by magistrates in town councils following the lead of local of

reformers like Zwingli.

7. At the Colloquy of Marburg (1529) whre Luther and Zwingli had met,

an agreement was reached between them on fourteen articles of re-

ligion.

a. Agreement on a fifteenth article (dealing with the Eucharist)

could not be reached.

b. Luther maintained his belief in the real presence of Christ

in the bread and wine, while Zwingli regarded the words of

Christ at the Last Supper, "This is my body" as purely

symbolic.

John Calvin (1509-64) in Geneva

1. In French Switzerland, the Reformation had already started in

Geneva under Guillaume Farel when John Calvin arrived in 1536.

* On his death-bed Calvin described the citizens of Geneva as a

"perverse and ill-natured people."

2. Geneva was ruled by a council responsible to the general council

of all citizens and there were factions and quarrels throughout

Calvin's life.

3. His first attempt to gain control affairs in both the Church and

State ended in failure and his departure to Strasbourg in 1538.

a. His departure was prompted when he and Farel refused to

accept the Liturgy of Berne imposed by Geneva's Council with-

out consultation.

b. He was the pastor of the French Congregation of Strasbourg

--------- where he was influenced and learned much from

Martin Bucer (1491-1551).

c. Bucer -------- emphasized the doctrine of predestination,

a restoration of a fourfold ministry (ie. New Testament) of

pastors, teachers, elders and deacons.

d. Bucer also provided a vernacular congregational litury in

French derived from the Latin mass.

4. Calvin had already published in 1535 the first edition of his

famous Institutes of the Christian Religion in Latin.

* An enlarged second edition appeared in 1539 (the final edition

in 1559) and a series of French editions from 1541.

5. On his return to Geneva, Calvin secured the adoption by the Council

of his Ordonnances Ecclesiastiques.

a. It established a Consistory of Pastors presided over by a

lay magistrate, and the establishment of a liturgy adopted

from the Strasbourg liturgy.

b. This Genevan liturgy was the basis of all Presbyterian litur-

gies, in Scotland and elsewhere, as well as Reformed Churches

of continental Europe until recent times.

c. The insitution of Elders which Calvin set up is also charac-

teristic of all Reformed Churches.

6. In 1555 - Calvin finally gained complete control of the Genevan

Consistory, and established the right of excommunication of here-

tics and evil-doers.

7. The main lines of Calvin's theologoy were a belief in original sin,

justification, and presdestination, and the authority of scripture.

a. Calvin also maintained a belief in the impenetrable mystery

of the absolute sovreignty of God.

b. He rejected the Medieval doctrine of transbustantiation, the

Lutheran doctrine of consubstantiation, and Zwinglian

symoblism in the Eucharist.

c. In the Institutes Calvin accepts the Eurcharist as a mystery

which one experiences rather than understands.

d. In his Little Treatise on the Lord's Supper (1542) in which

he insists that there is a real spiritual presence (and a

real spiritual partaking) in the Lord's Supper.

* though Calvin insists one should not think "that the Lord

Jesus may be brought down as to be enclosed under any

corruptible elements."

8. Calvinism was one of the greatest religious forces in the develop-

ment of the Prtotestant Reformation in Europe, and ultimately in

America.

a. From it developed the Presbyterian, Congregationlist, and

Baptist denominations.

b. In the 16th Century Calvinism (as expressed in the "Reformed

Tradition" stemming from the Zurich Agreement of 1549 between

Calvin, Farel, and Bullinger, the son-in-law and successor of

Zwingli, ie. between Calvinists and Zwinglians) spread rapid-

ly across France, the Low Countries, central and eastern

Europe, and also influenced the Reformation in England during

the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I.

The English Reformation as a Moderate Movement

1. In England more than any other European Protestant country, the

Catholic tradition of the Middle Ages was retained.

a. A threefold ministry of bishops, priests and deacons, toget-

her with the territorial division of England into two provin-

vinces (Canterbury and York) along with dioceses and par-

ishes.

b. It also retained Cannon Law of the Western Church and the

Ecclesiastical Courts inherited from the Middle Ages.

2. Under Henry VIII Parliament passed various acts abolishing the

jurisdiction of the "Bishop of Rome" and recognizing the sovereign

as the only supreme head of the Church of England.

* There were not significant changes in doctrine or worship.

a. The monasteries and other religious houses were dissolved in

1536 and 1539, their lands and revenues being taken over by

the Crown.

b. The Bible was translated into English and placed in all

Churches, while the use of images was prohibited.

3. During the reign of Edward VI (the Seymour family) the Latin mass

was abolished which was replaced in form by the liturgy in the

first Book of Common Prayer (1549) in English.

* There was increased influence of radical Protestants who favored

the theology of Bullinger and the Zurich Church, and a much more

Protestant second Book of Common Prayer (1552) was passed by

Parliament.

4. Queen Mary in 1553 brought about the restoration of the Latin Mass

and the jurisdiction of the pope over the English Church.

a. Foreign Protestants in England as well as many English Prot-

estants took refuge in such European cities as Frankfort,

Strasbourg, and Geneva.

b. Crammer, Ridley, Latimer and a few others were tried for

heresy and burnt at the stake.

5. The reign of Elizabeth I saw the final break with Rome and the

establishment of the Anglican Church as the national Church of

England.

a. It saw the re-establishment of royal supremacy and the Eng-

lish Book of Common Prayer.

b. The Thirty-Nine Articles were introduced to define the

dogmatic position of the Church of England in relation to the

controversies of the 16th Century.

6. Elizabethan England also contained Puritans who were not satisfied

that the so called "settlelment of religion" had carried reform far

enough in a scriptural direction.

a. They wanted to replace the episcopal system with a presby-

terian system.

b. Failing in these efforts ---------- they refused to conform

to the religion established by law.

ie. Non-Conformists.

c. They left the Church of England (hence, "Separatists") and

fled to Holland.

* They are the ancestors of the Independents or Congrega-

tionalists and the Baptists.

7. The Calvinist John Knox was instrumental in establishing the

Reformed Church of Scotland on the lines of Geneva.

a. It was based on a "Confessional Faith", a Book of Discipline

(1560), and had a liturgy based on the Forme Prayers (1556)

used by the English Congregation in Geneva and approved by

John Calvin.

b. Presbyteries were not systematically set up for another

twenty years ------------- Presbyterianism and Episcopacy

alternated in Scotland until Presybterianism finally triump-

ed in 1690.

The Counter Reformation

1. In Italy and Spain a great religious revival took place between

(ca. 1520-1580).

2. Associated with this revival was the founding of the Oratory of

Divine Love and various new religious orders such as the Society of

Jesus.

3. Their object was to restore the dignity and due observance of

divine service, to educate the clergy, and to preach the Catholic

faith.

4. The Roman Inquisition was established in 1542 by Pope Paul III to

bring an end to heresy, and shortly afterwards the "Index" of Pro-

hibited Books was set up.

5. The Council of Trent was in session at intervals between 1545 and

1563.

a. The Canons and Dogmatic Decrees of the Council defined Roman

Catholic doctrine.

b. It rejected the Lutheran Doctrine of justification by faith

alone, maintaining the equal authority of scripture and tra-

dition and the sole right of the Church to interpret scrip-

ture.

c. Probably the most important legislation concerned the

appointment and residence of bishops and the establishment of

seminaries in every diocese for the training of clergy.

6. The Jesuits played a leading role in the Catholic revival in those

countries which had not adopted Protestantism.

7. The Netherlands were divided: the seven northern provinces under

William of Orange were Calvinists while the ten southern provinces

remained Catholic.

8. Calvinism had taken hold in France and the Huguenots (French Cal-

vinists) were engaged in a civil war with the Catholic majority

from 1562-1598.

a. Henry IV by the Edict of Nantes granted full religious

toleration to the Huguenots.

b. Though France remained officially a Catholic nation until

1905 (state established Church).

The Struggle for Power

1. The 17th Century was filled with wars, sometimes religious wars

---------- resulting with various national chaurches consolidat-

ing their positions.

2. 17th Century Germany

a. Disputes within Lutheranism, and problems between Lutherans

and Catholics became characteristic.

b. Enforcement, after the Peace of Augsburg (1555), of unity of

belief in both Potestant and Catholic territories was rele-

gated to the belief of the ruler.

c. Calvinism began to make inroads within German territories

which led to the Thirty Years' War.

3. 17th Century England

a. Puritans continued their demands for the abolition of the

episcopacy and the prayer book.

b. 1620 - some of the Puritans sailed (in the Mayflower) and

established Congregationalism in New England.

c. The Church of England had already been established in

Virginia in 1607.

4. The Puritan Revolution

a. It achieved success in 1643 with the abolition of the monar-

chy and the episcopacy.

b. The Directory of Worship was substitued for the the Book of

Common Prayer.

c. The monarchy was re-established in 1660 under Charles II

along with the whole episcopal system and a revised prayer

book in 1662.

d. Non-conformists (Calvinists) achieved some relief by the

Act of Toelration of 1689 after which parliamentary control

over the Established Church superceded royal control.

5. During this struggle Quakerism was born:

a. lit. meaning the "seekers" who abandoned all traditional

Christian outward forms (ie. ministry, creeds, sacraments,

liturgy, systems of theology).

b. They waited in silence meditating on the Bible until they

felt the Holy Spirit within them enabling them to speak.

c. They stressed a communal life and works of charity inspired

by the experience of Christ through the Spirit.

d. Their great champion in America was William Penn (1664-1718)

-------------- today they are known as the "Society of

Friends".

Scepticism and Revolution

1. By the end of the 17th Century, the cult of reason had made con-

siderable progress and had become attractive to many.

a. Deists found God's law sufficiently manifest in nature and

denied the need for any supernatural revelation.

b. Deism in France was championed by Voltaire, Rousseau, and the

Encyclopedists.

2. The French Revolution

a. 1790 - The Civil Constitution of the Clergy: forced the

clergy to take an oath of loyalty to the nation, fixed their

income and abolished old diocesan boundaries.

b. The Reign of Terror saw a total dechristianization and a

closure of all Churches in Paris.

c. It was replaced with the cult of the Goddess of Reason,

Robespierre's Supreme being.

3. Napoleon's Coup d' etat

a. Napoleon regarded religion as necessary for France as a

guarantee of patriotism.

b. He formed the Corcordat of 1801 with Pope Pius VII ---------

the Catholic Church was not disestablished until 1905.

4. The defeat of Napoleon was followed by a revival of Catholicism in

France, Germany, and Austria.

a. This period saw the development of Ultramontanism (the

centralization of authority in the papacy).

b. 1870: a Vatican Council declared that the pope was infalli-

ble, by virtue of his office, on matters of faith and morals.

The Evangelical Revival

1. Rationalism produced in both England and Germany scepticism about

orthodox Christian belief.

a. This attitude was reinforced by discoveries of scientists and

the historical and bibilical critics of the 19th Century.

b. The industrial revolution produced social problems which

neither Catholics nor Protestants were able to deal with.

2. 18th Century England had witnessed an Evangelical Revival both

within and outside of the Established Church.

a. Followers of John Wesley (1703-91) left the Church of England

and founded the Methodist Movement.

ie. The Methodist Episcopal Church was destined to become the

largest Protestant Communion in the world.

b. There was a Catholic Revival within the Church of England

known as the Oxford Movement.

3. Christian Socialism (a movement started within the Church of

England) to arouse the conscience of the Church and nation to the

need for better housing, education and social conditions for the

working classes.

4. The unification Germany in 1871 and Italy in 1860 ----------------

resulted in 1870 in the end of temporal power of the Pope over Rome

and the Papal States.

ie. Prisoner of the Vatican until the Lateran Treaty with

Mussolini in 1929 (Pope Pius XI).

The Growth of the Ecumenical Movement

1. Methodists were the pioneers in denominational reunion (ie. the

healing of divisions within a denomination).

a. Union was achieved between the Weselyan and the Methodist

Episcopal Churches in Canada in 1833 (the Methodist New

Connexion joined in 1841) and the Methodist Church of Canada

in 1884.

b. 1857 three bodies of English Methodists joined together to

form the United Methodist Free Churches (yet the English

Methodist Church did come into existence until 1932).

c. In the United States a great schism ocurred in American

Methodism over slavery between the Methodist Episcopal Church

and the Methodist Episcopal Church - South in 1845.

* These two Churches joined with the Methodist Protestant

Church in 1939 to form the Methodist Church.

2. Since 1891 an International Council of Congregational Churches has

existed as an advisory body without administrative or judicial

powers.

3. Since 1905 most Baptist Churches have been associated in the

World Baptist Alliance, which also exercises no judicial control

over its member Churches.

4. The attempt to achieve wider reunion between different denomi-

nations really began with the publication of the Chicago-Lambeth

Quadrilateral adopted by the American Episcopal Church in 1886 and

reaffirmed by the Lambeth Conference of the bishops of the Anglican

Communion in 1888.

a. It asserted that Christian Unity can only be achieved (be

restored) by a return of all Christian Communions to the

principles of unity exemplified by the undivided Church

during its first ages of existence.

b. Which principles we believe to be the substance of the

Christian Faith and Order committed by Christ and His

Apostles to the Church unto the end of the world.

* This substance of Faith was further defined.

1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as

the revealed word of God.

2. The Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the

Christian Faith.

3. The two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

4. The Historic Episcopate locally adopted in methods of

its administration to the varying needs of the nations

and peoples called of God into the unity of His Church.

c. It is the last point (the episcopate) which has proved to be

the chief stumbling block to the organic union of episcopal

and non-episcopal Churches.

A New Spirit of Co-operation

1. The ecumenical movement has not been solely concerned with the

reunion of the divided Church.

a. Full Communion status was agreed between the Church of

England and the Church of Sweden in 1920 and with the Old

Catholics in 1931.

b. Very friendly relations have been established between the

Church of England and the Eastern Orthodox Church and, al-

though Pope Leo XIII declared Anglican Orders invalid in

1896, a new spirit of co-operation and mutual respect has

arisen between the Anglican and Roman Communions (largely

through the work of Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican

Council).

2. All the Historic Churches of Western Europe sent missionaries to

Africa, Asia, the Americas and other parts of the world.

a. It was in the "mission field" that the problem of inter-

communion and common endeavor arose acuteley (became an acute

problem).

b. The World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910 resulted

in the formation of the International Missionary Council

(formed in 1921) whose purpose was to co-ordinate the work of

all non-Roman Catholic missions.

c. Arising from the Edinburgh conference was the World Confer-

ence on Faith and Order (a necessity was recognized for ex-

cluding from a World Missionary Conference all discussions of

doctrianl disagreements).

1. But a conference was conceived of to deal specifically

with this issue (ie. Conference on Faith and Order).

2. The General Convention of the American Episcopal Church

supported this idea and World Conferences on Faith and

Order were held at Lausanne (1927) and Edinburgh

(1937).

d. The concern of many Christians that Churches internationally

ought to do something to prevent war had produced the World

Alliance for International Friendship through Chruches.

3. Social Problems: International Christian co-operation on social

questions led to the idea of a World Conference on Life and Work.

a. Purpose: to bring Christian conscience to bear on practical

problems of the contemporary world.

b. This idea was taken up by Archbishop Soderblom of Uppsala,

Sweden, and the first world conference was held at Stockholm

and a second one at Oxford in 1937.

c. 1937 - there was a second World Conference on Faith and Order

in Edinburgh ---------------- negotiations started in 1937

resulted in the union of "Life and Work" and "Faith and

Order".

d. The result was the establishment of the World Council of

Churches at Amsterdam in 1948.

1. The WCC has a permanent organization with offices in

Geneva ----------- its membership is restricted to

those Churches which accept our Lord Jesus Christ as

God and Savior.

2. It is a consultive body which has neither legislative,

nor judicial, nor executive power over member Churches.

* It is essentially an organ of inter-Church coopera-

tion.

Rapproachment with Rome

1. The World Council of Churches at its first meeting included repre-

senatives of about 150 Christian Communions, but no official repre-

senative of the Roman Catholic Church or of the Orthodox Churches.

2. Rome sent as an observer Charles Boyer, a French Jesuit professor

at the Gregorian University who was convinced that the Curia was

wrong in boycotting the ecumenical movement.

3. At Amsterdam Boyer met George Beel, Bishop of Chichester (Angli-

can), and so began a series of contacts between the Church of Eng-

land and the Church of Rome.

4. These contacts resulted in a meeting of Archbishop of Canterbury

Fisher with Pope John XXIII at the Vatican in 1960 and of Arch-

bishop Ramsey with Pope Paul VI in March 1966.

5. Archbishop Ramsey opened an Anglican Institute at Rome, as a place

of common prayer for both Anglicans and Roman Catholics.

* Anglican observers also attended the Roman Council known as

Vatican II. (John XXIII, October 1962 - Pope Paul VI, December

8, 1965.)

6. Christianity Today/the Future

* Does it have the capacity to overcome the scepticism of the

twentieth century.

* Many suggest that it needs to return to its roots as a his-

torical and yet supernatural religion of the spirit.

7. Recent Years (Paul VI, d. 1978)

a. Pope John Paul II, first non-Italian pope since 1522.

* Became known as the traveling pope.

b. 1982: he became the first pope to travel to Britain and at

Canterbury Cathedral he gretted the Anglican Archbishop

(Robert Runcie) as a "brother in Christ".

c. John Paul II has continued the conservatism of Paul VI, re-

affirming his encyclical against birth control and abortion

and declaring that the Church would never ordain women to

the priesthood.

d. Dissension within the Catholic Church ----------------------

has led to a movement toward a more conservative and tradi-

tional position.

e. Liberation Theology: (especially in Latin America) has sought

interpret the gospel as social revolutions against political

and financial dicatatorships.

f. Declining numbers in Chruch attendance in Europe has been

matched by increases in Africa where foreign missions have

been replaced, in part, by native evangelism.

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