Transcript Slide 1

4.3 A History of Christianity
Back to the Future
Fertile Question
• Can Christianity respond with one (or any)
authoritative voice to any of the great issues
facing the world, such as nuclear annihilation;
global warming; environmental Armageddon;
terrorism; the rise of militant Islam;
overpopulation; extremes of wealth and poverty;
global epidemics and natural disasters?
The Church in the 20th Century
• By the end of the 20th century,
Christianity could no longer
claim to speak for the world’s
population: only 30% of the
world nominate as Christian
(circa 2 billion)
• In Europe, churches lie empty
and Church leaders are calling
for a new evangelisation of
Europe.
The majority of Christians now live
south of the Equator and belong to
the third and fourth world
economically.
As in Roman times, to be Christian
is considered by many in the West
to be lacking in credibility,
laughable, irrational, out of date
and locked in past superstition .
Modernism
• In 1907, deeply conservative Pope Pius
X condemned Modern thought as
dangerous and heretical.
• His encyclical "Pascendi Dominici
Gregis" decried so-called "modernists"
in the Church who looked to new
discoveries and theories about human
experience and desire to explain
religious belief.
• The ensuing purge of Catholic thinkers
did not relent until Paul VI ended the
mandated "Anti-Modernist Oath" in
1967.
• In order to “protect” the church, he
instituted a secret Council of Vigilance
in every Diocese to keep check on
publications and teachings to ensure
that Modernism did not taint the
teaching of the Church.
• The works of liberal priests and
theologians were placed on the Index
of Forbidden Books.
Fundamentalism
• In Protestantism too, there
was a belief that the modern
world was deeply threatening
to ordinary people.
• There grew a belief that there
was less and less a place for
God in peoples lives.
• In Big Tent Crusades in the
United States, revival meetings
and evangelists called for a
return to the beginnings of the
church: a streamlined message
of belief in Jesus, and a belief
in the literal and factual truth
of the bible.
Pentecostalism
• The new and modern and
sophisticated world of the
twentieth century left “ordinary
folk” without a voice.
• In the Catholic tradition,
complex theology and dogma
was reinforced. Religious
services were in Latin.
• In Protestant churches, people
yearned for relevant religion
that gave meaning to the horrors
of World Wars and rampant
capitalism.
• Pentecostalism, with speaking in
tongues and miraculous cures
gave people the emotional
belonging and a “voice” in
society and religion again.
Christianity, Creation and Evolution
• The trial and conviction of biology
teacher John Scopes in 1925 in
Tennessee for teaching Darwin’s
theory of Evolution in a public
school brought to a head the
religion/science debate.
• Though overturned on a
technicality, the verdict resulted in
fundamentalist Christianity being
mocked and humiliated.
• The Church was forced to come to
terms with Biblical interpretation
and Truth.
• Later in the century, space travel
and theories of the origin of the
universe again plunged Christians
into crises of faith and
interpretation.
Tele-Evangelism
• While Fundamentalist
Christianity rejected the values
of 20th century life, it was quick,
in the United States at least, to
embrace the media inventions of
age.
• In 1924, Aimee Semple
McPherson, founder of the
International Church of the
Foursquare Gospel, began
broadcasting sermons from her
church owned radio station.
• Evangelical Christians owned
their own broadcasting, their
own Bible publications firms
and ran their own schools.
Healers and Entertainers
• Televangelism brought a
Christian message back to the
masses, first via radio and then
television.
• Some countries legislated for
commercial television channels
to provide free time for religious
broadcasts. This still exists in
Australia today.
• Stirring music, choirs,
orchestras, speaking in tongues,
dramatic preaching, healings,
simple messages linked to the
reality of peoples’ lives and large
donations meant large
worldwide audiences and riches
for this “modern” brand of
Christianity.
Billy Graham
• The most famous evangelist to make
use of television was Rev Billy
Graham who became known
worldwide for his broadcasts.
• It is said that Graham has preached
the Gospel in person to more people
than any other person in history.
• According to his staff, as of 1993
more than 2.5 million people have
"stepped forward at his crusades to
accept Jesus Christ as their personal
Savior“.
• As of 2008, Graham's lifetime
audience, including radio and
television broadcasts, topped 2.2
billion.
• Graham has been personal advisor
to every US president from Truman
to Obama.
Ecumenism
• Ecumenism mainly refers to
initiatives aimed at greater
Christian unity or cooperation. It is
used predominantly by and with
reference to Christian
denominations and Christian
Churches separated by doctrine,
history, and practice. The term
ecumenism refers to the idea of a
Christian unity in the literal
meaning: that there should be a
single Christian Church.
• The contemporary ecumenical
movement for Protestants is often
said to have started with the 1910
Edinburgh Missionary Conference.
• Eventually, formal organizations
were formed, including the World
Council of Churches in 1948.
• Dialogue between Protestant and
catholic churches continues, with
agreements being reached in some
areas of belief arising from the
Reformation.
The Second Vatican Council
• The "Second Ecumenical
Council of the Vatican" (called
Vatican II), was called by Pope
John XXIII and was in session
from 1962 to 1965.
• It dramatically modernized
and transformed church
policies, with major changes to
official theology and liturgy.
• This was the Catholic Church’s
true Reformation, this time
called by the Pope himself to
“fling open the windows of the
Church and let the Holy Spirit
in”.
Vatican II
• Liturgical changes included the
introduction Mass in local
languages instead of Latin.
• Theologically, the council deemphasized the centrality of
Mary while also adding a new
emphasis on individual and
personal holiness.
• It asserted the Church's support
for freedom of religion, declared
that the Jews were not
responsible for the death of
Jesus and recognized the
possibility of salvation for Jews,
Muslims, and Protestants.
• Other Christian churches were
now in different stages of
communion with Rome, rather
than excommunicated.
Catholics Divided
• Reactions among Catholics to
Vatican II fall into three
camps. "Liberal" Catholics,,
see Vatican II and the new
period that it marked in
Catholic history as
representing a significant
advancement in humanity’s
understanding of history and
evolution, which requires
changes in Catholic belief and
practice- that is reading the
“signs of the times” and
responding positively to them.
Reaction
• "Conservative" Catholics
(including the most recent
popes) hold that the decrees of
the Council, properly
understood, are wholly in line
with the historic Catholic faith,
and that they should not be
used as an excuse for
unwarranted innovations.
• Traditional" (or
"traditionalist") Catholics
regard the teachings of Vatican
II as problematic, or even as
heretical. Some created
churches which use the old
liturgies.
East and West
• The mutual anathemas
(excommunications) of 1054,
marking the Great Schism between
Western (Catholic) and Eastern
(Orthodox) branches of Christianity,
a process spanning several
centuries, were revoked in 1965 by
Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical
Patriarch of Constantinople.
• Vatican II saw the Catholic Church
use terminology of “degrees of
communion” rather than Christian
communities being “in” or not in”
communion.
• The Roman Catholic/Orthodox
relationship is described as being in
“close communion”. The Catholic
tradition recognises the validity of
Orthodox ordination and
sacraments.
The Future
• Given its history, it is difficult to imagine
what form Christianity will take in the
future.
• Within Christianity, the future seems to
revolve more around the challenge of
keeping fundamentalists and liberals
together in the same “Christian” church
rather than uniting different
denominations.
• Worldwide interest in Spirituality rather
than religious doctrine and belief has
already had impact on the way Christians
pray and celebrate Christian rituals.
• The rise in interest and membership of
other religions- Buddhism and Islam has
put the Christian Church on notice.
• There is optimism that the bitterness and
religious warfare among Christians can be
eradicated and that the church can be
truly “catholic” and ecumenical which
together mean embracing the whole world
of those who believe in Jesus Christ as
Lord.
• And that maybe the best Christians
can and should ever have hoped for.
End of Section 4 Part 3.
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