The Church Marches On

1
The Church Marches On

• Great Forces within Christendom

2
Forces

• Augustine
• Monasticism
• East and West Part
• St. Thomas Aquinas
• The Crusades
• Protestants
• New Christian Movements

3
St. Augustine

• An Impact Still Felt

4
St. Aurelius Augustine

• Born in North Africa
• The Father of Western theology
• Used the allegorical method of interpreting
  scripture
• The allegorical method recognizes the historical
  or literal, meaning of scriptures, and also seeks
  their symbolic, or spiritual, meaning.
• Augustines Confessions, a literary classic,
  still has a lasting effect on those who read it.

5
Controversy Pelagius and Augustine

• Pelagius and Augustine had two different views on
  the nature of humans.

6
One Will Against Another

• Pelagius believed that a person could choose and
  receive salvation.

• Augustine believed that although humans were
  created good originally that one could not choose
  salvation without the grace of God. Salvation
  owned no part to human choice.

7
The Result

• Augustine won out and Pelagius was declared a
  heretic

8
The Monastic Movement

• The Devout Come Forward

9
The Devout Monastics

• These are people who wanted to deny the sins of
  the flesh, the pleasures of the world and devote
  more time to their spiritual development and to
  seeking the Kingdom of God.
• They were men and women who lived in communes
  called monasteries and took vows to deny the
  flesh and the world in order to seek a greater
  communion with God.
• These vows usually included abstaining from sex,
  periods of fasting, and denying themselves
  comforts.

10
West versus East

• Roman Catholic and Greek Traditions

11
Church Governance

• Roman Catholic
• Rome became the center of power. Its bishop was
  the primary over other bishops.
• Latin was the dominant language

• Greek Orthodox
• Constantinople was the center of authority but
  its bishop was first among equals.
• Greek was the dominant language

12
The Split

• In 1054 the chasm was finalized.
• Both churches excommunicated each other.
• They had different beliefs with regard to
  worship, interpretation human
• nature, church government, etc.

13
St. Thomas Aquinas

• The Systematic Theologian

14
St. Thomas Aquinas

• He was born in 1225 and died in 1274.
• He was a gifted student.
• His famous writings Summa Contra Gentiles and
  Summa Theologica have had a profound effect on
  Christendom especially Roman Catholicism.
• He reconciled philosophy with theology.
• He used human reason to demonstrate divine wisdom.

15
The Crusades

• Christianitys Atrocities

16
The Crusades

• These were Holy Wars which Christians waged
  against Muslims to take back the Holy Land.
• Both Christians and Muslims had claims to these
  places.

17
Protestants

• The Reformation Begins

18
The Reformation

• These people wanted to change certain aspects of
  the church--they did not intend on breaking away.
• Martin Luther
• John Calvin
• Huldrych Zwinlgi
• King Henry VIII

19
Destined for Change

• Martin Luther
• He was a professor at a university when he wanted
  to address certain practices of the Catholic
  Church.
• He specifically wanted to address indulgences.
• He tacked his Ninety-Five Theses on a church door
  in Wittenburg in October of 1517.
• He believed that the Bible should be the source
  of faith for believers.
• He was later excommunicated for his views.

20
Another Change Maker

• John Calvin
• He argued that God and God alone had the power to
  remit sin.
• He also believed that sinners have not part in
  their salvation.
• He wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion
  which lays out his beliefs in a systematic way.
  This work has had a large impact on Protestant
  theology.

21
A Swiss Change Agent

• Huldrych Zwingli
• He also believed that the Bible was the sole
  authority in matters of faith.
• The Christian community directs human authority.

22
The Church of England

• King Henry VIII
• He was responsible for the formation of the
  Church of England (Anglican).
• He was not allowed to divorce Catherine of Aragon
  so that he could marry Anne Boleyn and therefore
  determined that the Pope had no authority over
  the Church of England.
• The services remained pretty much like the Roman
  Catholic.

23
Other Christian Churches

• Expressions of Christianity in Other Forms