Theology 2
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
Background: The Roman Empire (13-20)
By 47 BCE Caesar had won the civil war against Pompei, and soon became dictator, planning a major reconstruction of republican government. He was assassinated in 44, however, by a conspiracy of senators acting to save the Republic. Marcus Antonius then stepped forward as major claimant to power, while the Senate coalesced around Octavian, an heir listed in Caesar's will. After indecisive battles, the two put off final conflict in a second triumvirate, including Lepidus. Finally, the former two broke, and in 30 BCE, Octavian defeated Mark Antony at Actium. In the next twenty years, Octavian (now named Augustus) created the Principate, a new form of Roman government giving increased powers to a non-elective Princeps who would evolve into Emperor by the mid-first century CE.
Chapter1: Jesus Christ And The Founding Of The Church (28-29,54)
The church is that The Body of Christ (all of us); willed by God, Founded by Christ, and guided by the Holy Spirit.and there were Four Marks of the Church: One- One, consistent teachingHoly- Comes directly from Jesus (mission, founder, aim-the holiness of its membersCatholic- Universal (for everyone)Apostolic- "sent forth" and also according to the history of the Catholic Church beginning with the life of Jesus Christ until the present day. It is both Spiritual and Physical, in that it is guided by the Holy Spirit and dependent on the free choices of individuals in history under two facets of the church history:Spiritual (guidance of the Holy Spirit) and Physical (free choices of individuals in history) and during lifetimes, the Apostles transmitted their episcopal power and authority to their fist successors who given the duty to protect and transmit Christ's teaching.
Chapter2 : The Early Christians (62-66, 82-mid84)
Chapter3: Persecution of " the Way"(94-95, 102- top 104,119-120)
Chapter4: The Church Fathers and Heresies ( 128-top134, 137-139, 142-143, 148-top154)
and the Apostle's Creed was not written by the Apostles, but represent's their teachings; dates back to the beginning of the Church; no one knows who or why it was written, but it might have been a response to Gnosticism. Aries was a priest in Alexandra and under the suspicions of certain Catholic faithful,and she found a wide following became the part of the Western Church that means its impacts was large and lasting. And the council of Nicaea in 325. Called be Emporer Constantine, because he wanted unity within his empire; attended by 318 bishops; condemned Arianism; "homousios;" produced the Nicene Creed.
Chapter5: Light In The Dark Ages (178-180, 184, 187-188, 190-top191)
Chapter7: The Great Schism(276-278, top 280)
Chapter9: The Crusades; The Inquisition(326, 328, 331-333, 337)
- The first crusade: Considered to be the most organized; did not have any support from the Kings of Europe; Germans, Normans (Northern France and Southern Italy), and the Southern French were groups of armies; they traveled to Constantinople separately and often picked up locals where they went; money was not a motivator because they often went into debt by being in a Crusade. it was overall very successful because they retook Nicaea, Antioch, and Jerusalem (Pope Urban died before he found out they retook Jerusalem), but this was followed by a brutal massacre of most of the Muslim population of Jerusalem; success was owed to the political division of the Turks, which were divided into 4 feudal states; this lasted for 200 years; Muslims were allowed to maintain their property, livelihood, and religion
- The Second Crusade: Two kings from France and Germany led this crusade; they joined their armies at Damascus but failed to recapture the city so the crusaders went home in disgrace (failure)
The Inquisition:
I learned about the Inquisition: Pope innocent III gave permission for this to happen, was issued in order to make Spain a purely Catholic Country, intended to convert all Jews and Muslims to Catholicism, later tried to convert protestants. If they didn't convert they were burned at the stake or killed in various methods. Pretty much was meant to make everyone catholic or kill him or her all under the permission of the Pope. The Pope did not establish the Inquisition as a distinct tribunal. The procedure for inquisition began with a month long" term of grace" proclaimed by the inquisition to appear before the inquisitor. The trial began. But the accused was not given the right to know the names of his accusers, given the right to submit a list of names of his alleged enemies. The judges were assisted by a con cilium permanent composed of other sworn judges. The Ultimate decision was usually pronounced with a solemn ceremony. So, during the periods of the Church's history, the era of the Crusades shows both lights and shadows. Without compromising objective moral truth, judgment must take into careful consideration the zeal and uncompromising faith in Christ's Church.
Chapter10: The High Middles Ages( 342-348, 356-358, 360, 362. 368. bottom 373, 376)
- Northern Universities:formed by professors to protect their interests; teachers determined the curriculum *University of Paris (most known for Theology)
- Southern Universities: formed by students to insure their safety and quality of education; students here held authority over their teachers, and determined much of the curriculum *University of Bologna
- Education before Universities : before students wanting to learn a skill or trade would do an apprenticeship, but then then many people began studying from expert teachers to master their dicipline; the universities ushered a period of intellectual growth
- academic coursework called Stadium Generale, which included the study of theology, law, medicine( physics and arts.
- St. Francis: son of a wealthy merchant. had a conversion experience at the age of 22 after being wounded in battle. he then began a life of penance and poverty. many of the townspeople called him a madman. he was inspired by passages from the gospel about Jesus telling his disciples to give away all of their belongings and follow him. he received the stigmata in 1224, and died in 1226
- St. Dominic joined a Benedictine monastery but then wanted to follow the lead of St. Francis by living a life of poverty. he set out preaching and trying to convert Albigensians, he believed it was important to be well-educated for this task. he had a vision of Mary, who gave him the Rosary to use as a means of converting the Albigensians. he died in 1221
Chapter11: The Plague; The Hundred Years War; Joan of Arc( 399-400, 404-406)
- The Plague: The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. The people who gathered on the docks to greet the ships were met with a horrifying surprise: Most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were still alive were gravely ill. They were overcome with fever, unable to keep food down and delirious from pain. Strangest of all, they were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus and gave their illness its name: the “Black Death.” The Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the mysterious Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population. It is not hard to understand the devastating impact that such a pandemic can have on a society and also the church can not explain the plague during that time.Besides suffering the plague along with every one else, jews were accused of poisoning wells, and causing the plague.
- Hundred Years War(1337-1453): The name the Hundred Years’ War has been used by historians since the beginning of the nineteenth century to describe the long conflict that pitted the kings and kingdoms of France and England against each other from 1337 to 1453. Two factors lay at the origin of the conflict: first, the status of the duchy of Guyenne (or Aquitaine)-though it belonged to the kings of England, it remained a fief of the French crown, and the kings of England wanted independent possession; second, as the closest relatives of the last direct Capetian king (Charles IV, who had died in 1328), the kings of England from 1337 claimed the crown of France.King Henry V destroyed the elite of the French aristocracy and overwhelmed the king of France at Agincourt in 1415. A succession of young incompetent and partially mad kings left France demoralized and subject to the English crown. The future of France looked bleak.But his military successes were not matched by political successes: although allied with the dukes of Burgundy, the majority of the French refused English domination. Thanks to Joan of Arc, the siege of Orleans was lifted (1429). Then Paris and the lle-de-France were liberated (1436-1441).
Chapter12: The Renaissance( 424, 429-431, 457)
The Renaissance was a turning away from the Scholasticism of the Middle Ages and its Theocentric view of life toward classic literary texts, Greco-Roman civilization, a reawakening of a sense of human greatness, and an anthropocentric view of life. At the doctoral level, a person would study medicine to become a doctor; logic, philosophy, and theology to become a theologian; and law to be a lawyer. The humanists thought that Medieval education lacked the moral purpose of making people wiser and more virtuous. And here is information I learned about the humanism: An intellectual and literary movement that began in the city-states of Italy during the late fourteenth century. Moving away from the Scholastic education of the Medieval era, the humanists thought that education had a moral purpose, the end of which was to make the individual a better, wiser, and more virtuous human being. To achieve this, they aimed to base every branch of learning on classical Greek and Roman culture. the contradictions of the renaissance are no better exemplified than in the lives of the popes of that period.
Chapter13: The Protestant Reformation; The English Reformation( 464-465, 468-top472, 479-top 484, 496-497)
- The Protestant Reformation: The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era. In northern and central Europe, reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry VIII challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian practice. They argued for a religious and political redistribution of power into the hands of Bible- and pamphlet-reading pastors and princes. The disruption triggered wars, persecutions and the so-called Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church’s delayed but forceful response to the Protestants. Martin Luther (1483-1546) was an Augustinian monk and university lecturer in Wittenberg when he composed his “95 Theses,” which protested the pope’s sale of reprieves from penance, or indulgences. Although he had hoped to spur renewal from within the church, in 1521 he was summoned before the Diet of Worms and excommunicated. Sheltered by Friedrich, elector of Saxony, Luther translated the Bible into German and continued his output of vernacular pamphlets.
- The English Reformation: In England, the Reformation began with Henry VIII’s quest for a male heir. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could remarry, the English king declared in 1534 that he alone should be the final authority in matters relating to the English church. Henry dissolved England’s monasteries to confiscate their wealth and worked to place the Bible in the hands of the people. Beginning in 1536, every parish was required to have a copy. After Henry’s death, England tilted toward Calvinist-infused Protestantism during Edward VI’s six-year reign and then endured five years of reactionary Catholicism under Mary I. In 1559 Elizabeth I took the throne and, during her 44-year reign, cast the Church of England as a “middle way” between Calvinism and Catholicism, with vernacular worship and a revised Book of Common Prayer.After Henry’s death, England tilted toward Calvinist-infused Protestantism during Edward VI’s six-year reign and then endured five years of reactionary Catholicism under Mary I. In 1559 Elizabeth I took the throne and, during her 44-year reign, cast the Church of England as a “middle way” between Calvinism and Catholicism, with vernacular worship and a revised Book of Common Prayer.
Chapter15: Exploration and Missionary Movements ( 544-top551, 552, 556-bottom557, mid564, mid570, mid574)
- While Europe was divided along religious and political lines in the sixteenth century. These missionary expeditions followed in the wake of the new explorations throughout the world. After the fall of Constantinople, it became increasingly difficult and costly to receive goods from the East through the Ottoman Turks, and the farther west one lived, the more expensive were those imported goods. Spanish and Portuguese interests wanted to find a way to bypass Turkish and Italian middlemen.Prince Henry the Navigator’s school employed cosmographers and mathematicians to improve the quality of maps, charts, and navigational techniques. The compass and astrolabe were important new navigational instruments. The new caravel could sail against the wind, through high seas, and in shallow waters. Columbus wanted to reach India by sailing westward. The Portuguese were committed to opening an eastern route to India around Africa, so they were not interested. The Spanish, wanting to compete against Portugal, were open to alternate routes. Pope Alexander VI was called upon in 1493 to negotiate a division of the discovered lands. And the Pope drew up the " Line of Demarcation" which decided to Spain all newly discovered lands 100 leagues west of the Azores and beyond , and it ceded to Portugal all newly discovered lands east of this line.
- In North America the Spanish and French Catholic settlers saw the native people as human beings who should be protected, who could learn Spanish or French culture, and who could be converted and intermarry with Europeans. The English and Dutch Protestant settlers tended to see the natives as reprobates who may be killed and their lands seized.Many early settlers were opportunistic adventurers—who were prone to mistreating and enslaving local peoples—or government officials who violated the native peoples’ human rights.Though they left no written records, they were influenced by heretical Nestorians, which had proliferated in Mesopotamia; enjoyed a high status in Indian society; and had an archdeacon in charge; parish councils; a liturgy that included days of fasting and abstinence; and churches similar in style to Hindu temples and Jewish synagogues.
- Pizarro, fearing a trap from Emperor Atahuallpa, invited the emperor to his camp. When the emperor arrived with thousands of unarmed nobles, Pizarro assassinated a majority of the nobles and arrested and executed the emperor.
- The early missionaries had a difficult time eradicating the superstition of the Indian people. Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego three times. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was a message to all the people of America.
Chapter 16: The Age of Enlightenment( 580- top 581, 586-top587, 593-595)
- King Louis' France: Hobbes paints a grim portrait of human beings as selfish beasts who, left to their own devices, lead lives that can only be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Hobbes thought that the state must impose unity from an absolute authority to control the natural human tendency toward mutual hostility. Original Sin has damaged the original human condition; however, with God’s grace and the proper exercise of free will, every person can cooperate with grace to express true love of neighbor. This view is permeated by hope and optimism in contrast to Hobbes’s pessimistic view of fallen human nature.
- This way of knowing collects empirical data from which general principles are derived. Aristotle used deductive knowledge, which begins with general principles known to be true and draws new conclusions from them. Based on closer observation of the movement of the sun, planets, and stars, Copernicus posited that the Ptolemaic model of the universe, in which the earth is in the center, did not explain the motion of the stars as well as a heliocentric model, wherein the earth and other bodies revolve around the sun. After having agreed to abandon his assertions about the Copernican system, he published his greatest work, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World, which defends the Copernican theory and ridicules the geocentric position. Churchmen demanded that he present his findings as a hypothesis rather than fact. When he refused, he was arrested and confined to his villas in Siena and Florence, where he continued to pursue his work.
- Deism is a rationalist philosophy that teaches that God created the universe with its laws and guiding principles, set it in motion, and then withdrew from it. He is more like a watchmaker who builds a watch, winds it up, and then leaves it to run on its own than an immanent God who is involved in the affairs of the world.
Chapter19: The rise of soviet Communism; The Rise of Nazism; Pope Plus Xll And World War II( 700-701, top 713, 716,717, 719-721, 724)
2 world wars -70,000,000; totalitarian systems - Fascism, Nazism, communism; emergence of organized terrorism & genocide -6 million Jews & 1.65 million Cambodians; development of nuclear weapons – 120,000 died in Hiroshima & Nagasaki; religious persecutions, abortion and euthanasia – 46 million each year; “clash of civilizations” - West vs. Militant Islam.
- The Rise of Soviet Communism: Soviet Communism was the driving force behind much religious & political persecution that cost millions of lives for 70 years. During Stalin’s dictatorship, nearly 50 million “opponents” were either executed or sent to gulags (Siberian prison camps) Both Catholic & Orthodox Churches destroyed or desecrated – before 1917, 54,000 churches in Russia (300 of them were Catholic); by 1939 fewer than 100 churches existed (2 were Catholic) Mary’s apparition at Fatima, Portugal urged many to pray for the conversion of Russia. And there were three secrets: 1. ground apparently dead" 2.A vision of Hell said to refer to the two world wars 3. Predicted Russia would one day return to Christianity Involves martyrdom and suffering, including a man "clothed in white" who "falls to the Rerum novarum presented alternative to socialist & Marxist theories & Pius XI’s encyclical Divini Redemptoris critical of Communism (1937)
- Pope Plus Xll and World War II: Secretary of State for Pope Pius XI; March 2, 1939 elected Pope taking the name Pius XII Pius’ experience during WWI & as Nuncio to Germany made him realize that any attempt to speak out against Nazism would, result in tremendous suffering for Catholics. Therefore the Holy See was officially, publicly neutral, yet the pope privately and he offered to support anti-Hitler measures. In 1943 when Germany occupies Rome, Pius told monasteries & convents to shelter thousands of Jewish refugee. Evidence exists that shows Hitler had Nazi SS prepare a plan to assassinate Pius XII Because of Pius’ humanitarian support, prominent Jews (Albert Einstein) and Jewish organizations praised Pope Pius for his extraordinary charity. Jews, Gypsies and Poles were targets of Nazi genocide.
- individual gifts to be used in the service of allInspired by the Holy Spirit ~ encouraged Biblical studies with use of modern analysis such as historical-critical
- The Mystical Body of Christ ~ Church as a communion whose members play complementary roles; God gives methods
- The Rise of Nazism: A blend of nationalist totalitarianism, racism aimed especially at Jews, neopaganism, and the moral nihilism of the nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, this political party, headed by Adolf Hitler, seized power in 1933 and initiated policies that sought to strengthen and unify Germany in order to bring about an expansive New World Order based on Nazi ideals. Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party, grew into a mass movement and ruled Germany through totalitarian means from 1933 to 1945. Founded in 1919 as the German Workers’ Party, the group promoted German pride and anti-Semitism, and expressed dissatisfaction with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the 1919 peace settlement that ended World War I (1914-1918) and required Germany to make numerous concessions and reparations. Hitler joined the party the year it was founded and became its leader in 1921. In 1933, he became chancellor of Germany and his Nazi government soon assumed dictatorial powers. After Germany’s defeat in World War II (1939-45), the Nazi Party was outlawed and many of its top officials were convicted of war crimes related to the murder of some 6 million European Jews during the Nazis’ reign.
Chapter 20: Vatican II; Pope St. John Paul II ( 738- top 741, 745- 746, 749-750, 752-753)
- Vatican II :
- December 25, 1961 – Humanae Salutis (For the Salvation of Man) – In formally convoking the Council, Pope John speaks of “the world in a state of great spiritual poverty and the Church so vibrant with vitality”
- Pope John believed that the Church could give great solutions to the problems of the time; the Church would update itself in order to meet the great spiritual needs of the time.
- 2,860 bishops of the world meeting (including our own bishop of Rockville Centre, Bishop Walter Kellenberg).
- Representatives of other religious bodies would be invited; it was also one of the major media events of the 1960’s.
- After initiating the Council, eight months later Pope John would die from stomach
- Pope ST. John Paul II: Karol will return to a Communist occupied Poland; here he will do pastoral work along with teaching in the seminary and the Catholic University of Lublin; he will do much of his pastoral work with young people. He will write many books, poetry, and plays; his most famous book will be Love and Responsibility, dealing with issues of love and marriage. Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is born in Wadowice, Poland, on May 18, 1920; his mother will die when he is a young child. As a young man he will live through two major events which will greatly effect his life: World War II and the Nazi occupation of Poland, and the Soviet Communist occupation of Poland. Karol Wojtyla will be elected pope on October 16, 1978, taking the name, John Paul II, being the first non-Italian pope in more than 450 years, and the first ever Slavic pope. His first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis (Redeemer of Man), will summarize his program as pope: that the destiny and dignity of the human person can only be understood in the light of Christ; he will also declare the year 2000 a Jubilee Year. John Paul will be instrumental in helping to bring down the Soviet Empire; he will visit countries around the world, and initiate large gatherings of young people in events called World Youth Days. Pope John Paul II will work strongly toward Christian unity, reunion with the Eastern Orthodox, diplomatic relations were opened with the nation of Israel, and he would apologize for past faults of Catholics against non-Catholics.
Chapter 21: The Church Of Immigrants to The U.S.; Slavery; The Church In the U.S.: present and future( 768- 771, 777, 781)
- The Church of Immigrants to the U.S.: there were few reasons to follow the church immigrant to the U.S.: In Europe, farm land was becoming scarce. Farm families could barely support themselves. Political or religious persecution drove people from their homes. In Russia, there were pogroms, or organized attacks on Jewish villages. Armenian Christians in the Ottoman Empire were also persecuted.Political unrest drove people from their homes. For example, a revolution in Mexico caused thousands of Mexicans to flee. Due to immigration and higher birth rates, the growth of American Catholicism was remarkably rapid.
- Slavery: Although Pope Gregory XVI had condemned the slave trade in 1839, Catholic leadership in the United States, preoccupied with the problems of an immigrant community, had little to say about the issue. In fact, many Catholics supported the legal institution of slavery. Large number of Catholics fought on both sides in Civil War. Of the four million salves emancipated in1863, an estimated 100,000 were Catholics
- The Church in the U.S.: present and future: American values offer a congenial setting for Catholicism. Others maintain that the founding documents are grounded in the rationalism of the eighteenth century Enlightenment. In recent decades the conflict between religion and secularism has become an ongoing culture war, the Catholic Church faced a problem: An American Catholic. A number of diocese and religious orders throughout the United Sates are showing hope in the form of a small resurgence of priestly vocations. The history of the Church had demonstrated throughout the centuries that the witness of holiness will push the kingdom of God forward in the United Sates. Modern-day saints living and working for Christ in the world will show what it means to be a Catholic and an American.