Religion: QUAKERISM (FRIENDS/QUAKERS). Protestant

Protestant, Religion Protestant, Protestant Religion. Christianity.QUAKERISM (FRIENDS/QUAKERS):

QUAKERISM (FRIENDS/QUAKERS)

This prophetic-mystical movement developed in England around George Fox (1624-91) and his teaching and preaching. His followers first called themselves “children of the light” or simply “friends” – based on Jesus' words to his disciples, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14) – and later corporately took the name of the “Religious Society of Friends”. “Quakers” was an early derisive nickname, associated with the tremblings of the Friends at their meetings. No longer considered derisive, this title is now also used by Friends of themselves.

Fox was convinced that the church* had become apostate, and even reformation “in root and branch” could not re-capture the authentic Christian community of the 1st century. So beginning again on early apostolic beliefs, Fox erected a church. It would depend directly on the risen Lord, and its members would function equally without mediation or rite and clergy but with the biblical gifts of the Spirit and the “inward light of Christ” – men and women equally under the direct headship of Christ. Friends' meetings for worship or for business held the holy expectancy that Christ would be in the midst wherever “two or three are gathered” in his name (Matt. 18:20), inspiring them to speak, enabling life to be transformed and empowering ministries to the world with the same self-giving love that he bore on the cross.

In 1676, Robert Barclay published (in Latin) Apology for the True Christian Divinity , which has never been displaced as the standard systematic treatment of Quaker theology.

The Quakers' early resistance in England to civil laws of religion that included oaths and marks of civil deference and to military service made the Friends targets of legal and popular oppression and imprisonment; more than 400 died from the lack of sanitation. Many fled to the American colonies. The majority sought refuge in Pennsylvania under William Penn (1644-1718), himself a Quaker. Elsewhere several Friends were persecuted; four were hung for religious dissension in Boston, 1659-61.

Social action is characteristic of the Friends. They “have been more concerned with the here and now than with the hereafter. They have sought in many different ways to improve the societies in which they live – locally, nationally, and internationally.” They look to the time when God's kingdom will come and his will be done; meanwhile, they are summoned “to exhibit to the world a kingdom mind-set, kingdom values and a kingdom life-style”. They are to be “the authentic counter-culture of a better way, the only way that holds true hope and the promise of life for humankind”. And they feel “the terrible pull of the unlimited liability for one another which the New Testament ethic lays upon them” (Douglas Steere).

Religion Universe: PENTECOSTALS (Protestant)

Protestant, Religion Protestant, Protestant Religion. Christianity.PENTECOSTALS:

PENTECOSTALS

The 20th-century Pentecostal movement affirms a post-conversion work of the Holy Spirit.* This work is designated baptism in the Spirit, generally understood as empowerment for mission* and ministry,* and is said to represent the restoration of the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Cor. 12:8-10 (see charism(ata) ). Of these gifts, speaking in tongues has particular significance for most Pentecostals as the initial evidence of baptism in the Spirit.

First-generation Pentecostals saw the Pentecostal movement as a revival with distinctive characteristics. It was the latter rain, a downpour of Holy Spirit in the last days before the parousia, comparable in power only to the spring rain of the New Testament church. It was the full gospel, completing the restoration of the gospel established by the Reformation and furthered by Wesleyan sanctification.* It was the “foursquare gospel”, manifesting Jesus as Saviour, Healer, Baptizer in the Holy Spirit, and Coming King. It was the apostolic faith, identical with the supernatural faith of the first Christians. It was Pentecostal, because in baptism in the Spirit each believer experiences a personal Pentecost, with God restoring the divine endowments of the church poured out at Pentecost* but lost through later apostasy and unbelief. These terms have influenced the name of many Pentecostal denominations.

Most Pentecostal histories hold that the Pentecostal movement stems from the ministry of Charles Parham, around 1900-1901 in the US; he first linked baptism in the Spirit with glossolalia. The movement's explosion beyond a local Holiness revival in Kansas and Texas resulted from the multiracial Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles, 1906-1909, under the black pastor William J. Seymour. Further impetus came from Parham's mission in Zion City, Illinois, in late 1906. Within two years of the Azusa Street outbreak, the Pentecostal movement had centres throughout the US, in many northern European countries, in India and China, and in West and South Africa. The following years saw its establishment in Latin America, especially in Brazil and Chile, and more missions in Africa and Asia.

The Pentecostal movement initially had a strong eschatological orientation (see eschatology ). It emphasized that Pentecost had to be preached throughout the world before the imminent return of the Lord. Many Evangelicals denounced the Pentecostal movement for unbridled emotionalism, spiritual deception and the subordination of scripture to experience. Strongest opposition was from among Holiness groups. They had been a matrix for Pentecostal concepts and provided most Pentecostal recruits in North America and Europe.

Despite this Evangelical rejection, the Pentecostal movement in America and Europe adopted conservative Evangelical doctrine, pre-millennial eschatology and a fundamentalist approach to biblical exegesis. In the USA this process was cemented by white Pentecostal membership in the National Association of Evangelicals, from its founding in 1943.

The Pentecostal movement's rapid spread led to the formation of Pentecostal denominations and independent ministries. We can distinguish four categories: (1) Holiness churches which add baptism in the Spirit as a third blessing after regeneration and sanctification, e.g. the black Church of God in Christ (1907), the Church of God of Cleveland, Tennessee (1907) and the Pentecostal Holiness Church (1911); (2) two-stage Pentecostals, mostly from a Reformed background, who profess baptism in the Spirit as a “second blessing”, e.g. the Assemblies of God (1914), the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (1919); (3) the Oneness Church, which rejects the Trinity,* affirms a modalist Christology, and baptizes only in Jesus' name, e.g. the United Pentecostal Church (origins in 1914, formed in 1945); and (4) churches which restore the offices of apostle and prophet on the basis of Eph. 4:11, e.g. the Apostolic Church (1918).

Other major figures in the Pentecostal movement were Lewi Pethrus of Sweden, who strongly defended the autonomy of each assembly; Smith Wigglesworth, an itinerant British evangelist; Aimee Semple McPherson, American evangelist; Donald Gee, British educator; and Nicholas Bhengu, an African prophet. Missionary heroes include the American Lillian Trasher in Egypt, the Swedes Daniel Berg and Gunnar Vingren in Brazil, the Canadian C. Austin Chawner in Mozambique, and the English William Burton and James Salter in the Congo.

The Pentecostal movement has flourished among the poor and uneducated (hence the title of R.M. Anderson's study Vision of the Disinherited ). It appeals through its oral-gestural character, involving less conceptual forms of communication, such as hand-clapping, raised arms, dance, visions, dreams and prophecy, and through its participatory patterns, which characterize especially the earliest phases of the movement. Consequently, Pentecostal churches begin as bodies of fervent believers who exalt spiritual experience and wisdom over formal
education. Bible colleges and educational
institutions have followed only in the third and fourth generations.

Religion Universe: METHODISM (METHODIST) Protestant

Protestant, Religion Protestant, Protestant Religion. Christianity.METHODISM (METHODIST):

METHODISM (METHODIST)

“Methodist” originated as a pejorative designation by critics of the members of the Holy Club in Oxford, but John Wesley (1703‑91), its Anglican leader from 1729 and himself converted to serious Christian living in 1725, used it to mean a methodical pursuit of biblical holiness.*

Methodism, one of Protestantism's most influential evangelistic renewal movements, has become a worldwide communion. The current (2000) edition of the World Methodist Council Handbook states that worldwide Methodist membership now numbers about 38 million persons, whilst the Methodist world community, comprising both members and all those who come within the sphere of influence of the Methodist churches, now stands at over 75 million. Although the national churches have their own statements on doctrinal standards and church order, Methodism possesses a real unity* derived from the spiritual heritage which its principal founder, John Wesley, by his missionary preaching, and his brother Charles (1707‑88), by his colossal output of hymns and religious poetry, bequeathed to it.

John Wesley's missionary experience in the English colony of Georgia (1736‑37) was in many ways a failure, but it did provide him with the setting for shaping his concept of the small class under an appointed leader as the basic grouping for Bible‑centred Christian nurture, vital to the harmonious growth of the Methodist movement. With an increase of dependable collaborators, Wesley later constituted the itinerant pastorate in correlation with local Methodist societies, each composed of several classes. The itinerant pastorate bound these societies together in a form of living communion which avoided both the danger of fragmentation inherent in congregational church polity and the tendency towards static centralization in the Presbyterian churches (see church order ).

Returning to England from Georgia, Wesley experienced a second conversion on 24 May 1738. He received the grace to foresake reliance on his own efforts to attain perfection and to surrender himself totally, in loving trust, to the work of God's grace within him. Wesley thus became the instrument of divine power, which alone accounts for the stupendous missionary and pastoral achievement of his remaining 50 years as undisputed head of Methodism.

Religion Universe: LUTHERANISM (Protestant)

Protestant, Religion Protestant, Protestant Religion. Christianity. LUTHERANISM:

LUTHERANISM

The church reform initiated by Martin Luther in 1517 at Wittenberg, Germany, developed into a movement, became established under political rulers chiefly in Central and Northern Europe, survived in Eastern Europe and elsewhere until granted civic toleration, and spread by massive emigration especially to North America but also to Australia, South Africa and Latin America. It also grew by missionary activity in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the early 1900s Lutherans numbered about 80 million baptized persons. But at the start of the 21st century, the ravages of two world wars and the omission of the large number estimated within the membership of Germany's united churches has reduced the Lutheran total worldwide to an estimated 64 million.

Lutherans always considered themselves as part of the church* catholic and evangelical, bound to the scriptures, and confessing the faith* set forth in the three ecumenical creeds.* Although Lutherans vary among themselves in ways of worship – wherein the Lord's supper is central – and although they differ among themselves in forms of church organization – whether as national churches as in Scandinavia, or as Free churches as in most other parts of the world – Lutherans are doctrinally and legally identified by the same confession of faith which their political protectors had presented to the imperial diet at Augsburg in 1530. To whatever degree professed, the Augsburg confession (Confessio Augustana) and Luther's small catechism of 1529 (“the Bible of the laity”) have been the chief symbols of mutual recognition among Lutherans for more than 470 years.

Yet this basic concord has been no guarantee against disunity, whether born of doctrinal debates or ethnic, linguistic, cultural or other factors. Twin developments during the 20th century, however, have fostered Lutheran unity in new ways. One has been the creation of a global confessional fellowship, first through the Lutheran World Convention (LWC, founded in 1923) and then, since 1947, through the Lutheran World Federation* (LWF) – based in Geneva and now involving 133 member churches with approximately 60 million members in 73 countries. The other development has been Lutheran participation in the ecumenical movement, both in the World Council of Churches and in a broad range of bilateral dialogues (see dialogue, bilateral ), especially with the Roman Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.*

Religion Universe: EVANGELICALS (Protestant)

Protestant, Religion Protestant, Protestant Religion. Christianity. EVANGELICALS:

EVANGELICALS

The terms “evangelical” and “evangelicalism” had scant use until Erasmus and others derisively aimed them at what they saw as Lutheran narrowness and fanaticism. Luther used the terms for all Christians who accepted the doctrine of sola gratia , which he saw as the heart of the gospel (evangelion) . The treaty of Westphalia (1648) denominated both the Lutheran and the Reformed churches “evangelical”. By 1700 the term seems to have become in Europe a simple synonym for “Protestant” or, in
German-speaking areas, “Lutheran”. In Protestant Britain, however, the religious awakening led by the Wesleys and George Whitefield seems to have been
called the evangelical revival from
around 1750. Slightly later, advocates of
revival in Britain, both in the Anglican
and Free churches, called themselves
evangelicals. Their trademarks were deep moral earnestness, commitment to strict personal piety, faithfulness in private and corporate devotion and vigorous philanthropic enterprise. Since the introduction of Protestantism in Latin America during the 1800s, its adherents have preferred to call their churches and themselves evangelicals (evangélicos) rather than Protestant.

In London, in 1846, some 800 Europeans and North Americans formed the Evangelical Alliance to counter the political and spiritual revival of Roman Catholicism then in progress and, more positively, to coordinate various Protestant enterprises in missions, publishing and social reform. Its nine conservative theological tenets summarize the contents of the historic Protestant confessions of faith, but its implicit understanding of Christianity in practice rested on the religious bases developed in early pietism and in the evangelical revival.

In British North America, the first great awakening (1730s and 1740s) had emphasized the necessity for a graciously given personal experience of redemption* in Christ, for personal piety, including social concern, and for confessional orthodoxy. The second great awakening (early 1800s) intensified the experiential element, reduced and simplified dogmatic requirements, slowly institutionalized social concern and made the
revivalistic mode normative for the 19th century. The formation of a branch of the alliance in the United States in 1867 simply reflected a context already practising the style of Christianity which the
alliance advocated.

Between about 1865 and 1900, however, many came gradually to understand the personal evangelical experience central to all evangelical thought and action as a personal moment of spiritual illumination. This understanding encouraged an internalizing of the evangelical experience. The old language remained, but by the 1920s social action and theological reflection were suffering benign neglect among Evangelicals. They sought only a “clean heart and right spirit”.

By about 1900, American Methodism had divided into three parties, each seeing itself as “evangelical”. The liberals, bent on social action and theological modernity, were evangelical but with the accents of the social sciences. The conservatives, including the Holiness movement,* were evangelical in the sense of the word before the civil war. The mainstream insisted on a highly individualistic and private faith,* which meant that traditional terms and doctrines might carry non-traditional connotations. Thus the Wesleyan tradition as a whole made the very idea of evangelical equivocal.

Calvin's progeny in the US had also divided into three major parties in the late 1800s. The conservative party, with its centre at Princeton, owed much to Charles Hodge and considered US evangelicalism, especially revivalism, theologically and culturally suspect. A mildly activist liberal party, rooted in the work of Nathaniel Taylor at Yale, spoke the language of Evangelicalism, but its deeper concern was to reconcile the Reformed tradition and modern thought and culture.* The revivalist party, which claimed the mantle of Charles Finney, Asa Mahan and William Boardman, was led at the end of the century by D.L. Moody, R.A. Torrey and J.W. Chapman. But these later revivalists, who now inherited the name “evangelical”, displaced the radical social concern and perfectionism of their predecessors with a very different agenda: “conversion”, understood first and last as an internal religious experience; maintaining the authority of the Bible as the inerrant divine revelation;* and restoring Evangelicalism as the normative form of Christianity.

From the late 1890s, increasing liberal critiques compelled these Evangelicals to explain their position theologically. Here, they found the methods and categories of the conservatives congenial, though they resisted the Calvinist dogmatism and rationalism of the conservatives' systems. A new coalition would soon produce a new definition of “evangelical” among the Reformed.

By the late 1910s, the Reformed tradition fell into civil war, and it drew other traditions in. On one side was the liberal tradition; on the other was the revivalist-confessional coalition, under the names “conservative”, “evangelical” and “fundamentalist”. The revivalist party became increasingly Reformed and less inclined to revivalism; the conservatives opened up to Evangelicalism.

Conservative Wesleyanism, still evangelical in the 19th-century sense, recognized that its theological method and understanding of the Bible had more in common with the spirit of liberalism than with that of the Reformed Evangelicals. But certain liberal theological conclusions contradicted their deepest commitments. Often, then, they rejected specific theological insistences of the Reformed Evangelicals but joined them in the war against the liberal secularizing of Christ, the Bible and the work of the church. And, little by little, they muted their commitment to social involvement, in part for fear of identification with the social gospel of the liberals. But most also rejected the name “fundamentalist”, especially as the theological bases and separatist ethos of fundamentalism became clear (see fundamentalists ).

Religion Universe: BAPTISTS (Protestant)

Protestant, Religion Protestant, Protestant Religion. Christianity. BAPTISTS:

BAPTISTS

The modern Baptist movement began in 17th-century England. Separatists, unable to “purify” the Church of England, broke from the puritans and advocated separation from the state church (see church and state ). Among them were those who became convinced that infant baptism* was contrary to scripture. In 1607, to avoid persecution, a group led by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys left Gainsborough, England, for Holland, where freedom of religion was flourishing. There, after further study of
scripture, the whole congregation rejected their infant baptism and were baptized as believers in 1608. In 1611 Helwys and ten others returned to London to establish
the first Baptist church on English soil.

During their stay in Holland these early Baptist believers had contact with the Mennonites,* who had also become convinced of the scriptural basis for believers' baptism. The Mennonites and others were called Anabaptists, because they were accused of re-baptism – a charge they rejected because they did not consider infant baptism to be scriptural baptism. Thus, although not directly related to the Anabaptists, Baptists count this 17th-century movement as part of their spiritual history, and the rise of the Baptist movement must be seen in this context. With the rediscovery of the Bible through the Reformation, many former Catholic priests became even more radical than Luther in calling for reform. Seeing the danger of the union of church and state, they called for separation not only from the church but also from the state. Many, such as Balthasar Hubmaier, Felix Manz and Conrad Grebel of Switzerland, were persecuted, and some were killed for their convictions. Other representatives of this Nonconformist tradition of opposition to state control and infant baptism include the Waldensians of Italy, who trace their origins back to the 12th century.

Out of this small group of English Baptists, who were part of a spiritual movement for renewal, separation of church and state, believers' baptism, and a purified, conscious adult commitment to personal belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, a worldwide movement has developed. Today there are 42 million Baptist believers in 160 countries; if one includes children and the larger community of worshippers, they would number at least 65 million more, making the Baptists one of the largest Protestant groups in the world.

Religion: ANGLICAN COMMUNION (Protestant)

Protestant, Religion Protestant, Protestant Religion. Christianity. ANGLICAN COMMUNION:

ANGLICAN COMMUNION

The Anglican communion, as described by the Lambeth conference of bishops of 1930, is “a fellowship, within the one holy catholic and apostolic church, of those duly constituted dioceses, provinces or regional churches in communion with the see of Canterbury ”. These churches “uphold and propagate the catholic and apostolic faith and order as it is generally set forth in the Book of Common Prayer”. They are “particular or national churches and, as such, promote within each of their territories a national expression of Christian faith, life and worship”. “Anglican” refers not to language or culture but to common ancestry in the Church of England. Today, on account of the varied courses taken by prayer book revision, one has to omit the reference to the Book of Common Prayer, but in other respects the description stands.

The Anglican communion began its separate life in the reign of the English king Henry VIII (d.1547). In 1533-34 the Church of England defied the pope and unilaterally asserted its autonomy under God as a local expression of the universal church. This step hardly altered the outward appearance of the church; the old mass, for instance, remained its central liturgy throughout Henry's reign. But the principle of autonomy was an explosive force which led to more profound and extensive changes.

In the reigns of Edward VI (1547-53) and of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), the Church of England followed largely Protestant ways and separated itself from the Church of Rome in doctrine and ethos as well as in structure. The cornerstones of this settlement were the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, which rooted the church in the life of the one nation, brought the whole country (in theory) into the one liturgical usage, and stamped an Anglo-Saxon literary style on Anglican worship for future generations. The changes, of course, were originally intended only for the one Anglo-Saxon nation of England.

How did this singular development become a worldwide “communion”?* From the same period, a parallel church in Ireland also became separated from Rome and reformed by monarchical decrees, though the bulk of the Irish people refused to separate themselves from the pope. Another independent Episcopal church developed in Scotland by the late 1600s – not established by law as the Church of England was. During the 18th century this church devised its own eucharistic rites and thus demonstrated its substantial independence from the Church of England, while it retained profound family ancestries, resemblances and ties in common with that church.

From 1633 onwards, the bishop of London had charge of all Church of England congregations beyond the shores of Britain, whether in the American or other colonies, or on the continent of Europe. No bishop of London ever visited such overseas congregations. Thus when in 1776 the American colonies declared their independence from England, the Church of England congregations there faced a crisis. The church in America suffered severe setbacks in the immediate post-war years because of its former association with the British crown and the number of clergy and prominent laity who had been loyalists during the war. Nevertheless, the church soon established its own separate identity. While no longer wanting to be viewed as under the British through the bishop of London, they also did not want to lose the principle and practice of episcopacy.*

Thus, the Connecticut clergy elected Samuel Seabury to be their bishop, and sent him to London for consecration in 1783. The archbishop of Canterbury could not legally give consecration without exacting an oath of loyalty to George III. Not wanting to swear loyalty to the king, Seabury was consecrated instead in 1784 in Aberdeen by three Scottish bishops who had no state connection. Seabury was the first Anglican bishop consecrated for service outside the British Isles.

In 1789 the American Anglicans formed a general convention. The convention modelled its church constitution on the new civil one, authorized a separate prayer book, and declared themselves the autonomous “Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States” (“Episcopal Church” has now become the official alternate name). Thus another adult member of the communion came to be. In 1910 this US church's general convention initiated a commission to bring about a worldwide conference of “all Christian communions” for “questions of faith and order”, and later sent delegations to Europe and the Middle East to issue invitations, which in 1927 resulted in the first Faith and Order conference.

Slowly Anglicans in other nations or colonies followed the American pattern. They were settlers on plantations or belonged to companies with private chaplains, or they were the evangelistic result of Anglican voluntary overseas missionary societies of clergy and laity, such as the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1699), the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (1701) and the Church Missionary Society (1799).

The growing Anglican communities asked the Church of England for bishops. They were consecrated for Nova Scotia (1787) and for other Canadian provinces soon after, and then for Calcutta (1814), Jamaica (1824), Australia (1836), New Zealand (1841) and various parts of Africa from 1853 onwards. Because they were ministering in English colonies, these bishops and their dioceses were viewed as in some respects part of the Church of England, though their structural and organizational problems were very complex. In New Zealand the first bishop, Selwyn (1841-68), held a synod of church people, though such a move was impossible in England itself. In South Africa in the early 1860s Gray, the bishop of Cape Town, attempted to depose the bishop of Natal, Colenso, for heresy.* Colenso appealed to the judicial committee of the Privy Council in London, which in 1865 confirmed him in his episcopate.

At this Colenso decision, agitation arose in the Anglican churches around the world. The church in Canada proposed a common conference “of the members of our Anglican communion” to consider common problems; the archbishop of Canterbury would convene it. From this came the first Lambeth conference in 1867, with 76 bishops in attendance (Lambeth palace is the archbishop's residence in London). The conference took great care not only to tiptoe around the case of Colenso (who was not invited) but also to ensure that the status of the proceedings was not that of a deliberative synod, but only of a consultative conference.

Since 1867 Lambeth conferences have been held every ten years, except during the two world wars. The conference's authority remains consultative, not legislative or executive. The archbishop of Canterbury issues the invitations, and thus he decides in doubtful cases who are proper members. To this day, over against this consultative character of the Lambeth conferences, the self-governing churches of the Anglican communion individually enjoy an autonomy comparable to that which the Church of England claimed for itself at the Reformation.

Since the second world war more and more autonomous provinces (or churches, like the Church of England, comprising more than one province) have been created; today there are 38. In recent years inter-
Anglican structures or agencies have appeared: at present, the Anglican Consultative Council* and the biennial primates' meeting in addition to the Lambeth conferences.

It is very difficult to measure the strength of the Anglican churches. In England , because of the state establishment of the Church of England, all the baptized are traditionally viewed as Church of England persons unless they themselves indicate otherwise. This measure would indicate 20-30 million members, far more than the number who worship on Sundays (attendance is under 1 million). In other provinces, a roll of members may reflect actual church strength more accurately. Similarly, the ratios of bishops to congregations, bishops to clergy, and bishops to lay worshippers vary enormously, and one can gain no good comparison of strength from the numbers of bishops. Thus, for example, it was reckoned in the past that the US bishops made up too high a percentage of the Lambeth conference, but in recent decades the bishops of Africa, Asia and Latin America have caught up with them.

Religion: REFORMED/PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES

Protestant, Religion Protestant, Protestant Religion. Christianity. REFORMED/PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES:

REFORMED/PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES

Although “reformed” often refers to all churches which were shaped by the Reformation of the 16th century, there were already by the end of that century ecclesiae reformatae which distinguished themselves under that name from the Lutheran churches. The distinctions were both in doctrine and in form of church government.

These churches were often described as Zwinglian or Calvinist, names the churches themselves resisted, declaring that they sought to be reformed according to the word of God.* While grateful for the witness of the reformers, they were convinced that a reformed church is also semper reformanda (always to be reformed) in accordance with the divine purpose.

When the Swiss reformation spread to Scotland, great emphasis came to be laid upon achieving a polity which was both scriptural and effective for continuous reformation (see church order ). Presbyterianism was held by many to be such a polity, while courageous minority groups opted for a Congregational order, over against the authority of either bishop or council. From this historical development there emerged the churches of continental Europe called Reformed and those of Great Britain and Ireland called Presbyterian or Congregational/Independent.

Along the paths of exile and in the
settlements of trade and empire, the European movement steadily expanded throughout the world. The World Alliance of
Reformed Churches* reported, in 2001, 215 churches with well over 70 million members and adherents in 107 countries.

The distribution of these millions around the world is very uneven. The centres of strength, with numbers over a million each, are Australia, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, South Africa, Scotland and Switzerland. Yet strength is not only in numbers, and minority churches have a proud record. In Mediterranean countries, in Latin America, in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, churches with total membership only of thousands have endured under persecution and repression, often winning the respect of other Christians and of the surrounding community. One of the frequently used symbols of Reformed/Presbyterian churches is the burning bush; though burning, it was not consumed.

Theology

These churches did not intend at the Reformation or in their more recent foundings to begin a new church* or to teach new doctrine. They commonly affirm the doctrines of the Apostles'* and Nicene* Creeds; their confessions are attempts to expound the central themes of the scriptures. They have disagreed among themselves about the use of creeds* and confessions to test the orthodoxy of members and ministers, but they have always emphasized the importance of declaring the truth through word and sacrament.

Main emphases of Reformed teaching have been the sovereignty and authority of God,* the lordship of Jesus Christ* as the divine Saviour, and the centrality of scripture* as the rule of faith and life. In relation to these positive doctrines of divine rule and revelation,* many theologians of this tradition have also emphasized the total dependence of created humankind upon God, the utter lostness and depravity of sinners and the consequent need of a saving action by God which by prevenient grace* draws the sinner back to a right relationship with the Creator and Redeemer. If these emphases then become the basis for a logical extrapolation of doctrine, a harsh predestinarian view of salvation* and damnation can emerge. The developments within the Reformed family of churches have tended towards a return to the primary emphases on divine lordship and grace, but past doctrinal controversies are by no means over. They are often revivified when ecumenical discussion takes place.

Religion: REFORMATION (Protestant)

Protestant, Religion Protestant, Protestant Religion. Christianity. REFORMATION:

REFORMATION

The ecumenical understanding of the Reformation has been dominated by a re-assessment of Martin Luther. In large part the concentration on Luther has been prompted by Roman Catholic historians who, far more than their Protestant counterparts, have identified the origins of the Reformation with Luther's religious crisis and subsequent career. While Catholic historians like Alexandre Ganoczy, Kilian McDonnell and Jacques Pollet have made substantial contributions to the study of Calvin and Zwingli, the principal energies of Catholic historians engaged in the study of Protestant origins have traditionally been devoted to an evaluation of Martin Luther.

Until the end of the 19th century, Catholic historiography was dominated by the essentially negative portrayal of Luther drawn by the Catholic polemicist Johannes Cochlaeus in his famous book Commentary on the Acts and Writings of Martin Luther (1549). Since medieval Catholic theology taught that heresy* is more a matter of will than intellect, more a defect of character than a failure of understanding, Cochlaeus attempted to account for Luther's heresy by identifying the defects of his character that prompted his apostasy from Rome. As Cochlaeus saw matters, Luther was a proud and self-centred man, driven by his appetites and utterly lacking in religious seriousness.

The attack on Luther's character was not altogether abandoned by Catholic historians in the early 20th century, as the writings of Jacques Maritain and G.K. Chesterton demonstrate. Nevertheless, the traditional picture of Luther's religious development was modified by the work of two Catholic scholars, Heinrich Denifle and Hartmann Grisar. In 1904 Denifle, a medieval historian then an archivist in the Vatican library, published a two-volume study of Luther's early theology entitled Luther and Lutheranism in Its First Development . Luther had claimed that he had been taught to regard the righteousness of God described in Rom. 1:16-17 as the punishing righteousness with which God justly punishes sinners. As Luther later recounted it, his theological breakthrough occurred when he realized that the righteousness of God in this passage refers, not to God's punishing righteousness (iustitia activa) , but to the righteousness with which God makes sinners just (iustitia passiva) .

Denifle examined a wide range of medieval commentaries on Rom. 1 and concluded that Luther's claim about the medieval exegetical tradition could not be sustained. Even though Luther alleged that all of his teachers identified the righteousness of God in 1:16-17 with God's punishing activity, Denifle could not find a single Catholic commentator who did so. Without exception they identified the iustitia Dei with God's reconciling gift to the sinner. It seemed therefore to Denifle that Luther's critique of Catholic theology rested in large measure on his ignorance of the very tradition he presumed to criticize.

Although Denifle had introduced the question of theological causes for the Reformation, he was not inclined to press his point in such a way as to mitigate the traditional Catholic attack on Luther's character. On the contrary, Denifle was only too happy to catalogue what he regarded as Luther's besetting sins: pride, spiritual negligence, intemperance and unchastity. He was even willing to accept the scurrilous rumour that Luther, like Francis I, was a victim of syphilis. “Luther,” Denifle cried, “there is nothing divine in you!”

Unlike Denifle, the Jesuit historian Hartmann Grisar was less interested in Luther's theological development than in his psychological profile. Grisar argued that Luther was psychologically unbalanced, haunted by an abnormal hatred of good works. The doctrine of justification* by faith alone, codified in the confessional books of the Reformation churches, originated out of Luther's compelling inner need to offer a theological rationalization for his uncontrolled lechery, drunkenness and gluttony. What Cochlaeus and earlier Catholic critics had attributed to flaws in Luther's character, Grisar was inclined to attribute to abnormalities in his psychological composition.

A new era in the ecumenical re-evaluation of the Reformation was inaugurated by the publication in 1939-40 of the two-volume study The Reformation in Germany by the Roman Catholic historian Joseph Lortz. Lortz broke decisively with the older Catholic tradition of scholarship that blamed the Reformation on flaws in Luther's character. He accepted the view, advocated by Luther himself, that, as an Augustinian friar, Luther had been a morally upright and decent man who had followed in scrupulous detail the rules and regulations of his order. Lortz was even willing to defend, against Catholic critics like Denifle, the unpopular proposition that Luther was a profoundly Christian theologian, whose theology of the cross and doctrine of assurance touched on deep themes in the gospel. From Lortz's perspective the tragedy of the Reformation could not be traced to moral grounds, as traditional Catholic historiography had argued, but to theological causes.

Lortz regarded the theology of Aquinas as the finest flowering of the medieval Catholic tradition. Unfortunately for 16th-century Europe, Luther was not trained at Cologne in the authentically Catholic theology of Aquinas, but at Erfurt in the “fundamentally uncatholic” theology of William Ockham. Luther studied the commentaries and writings of Gabriel Biel and Pierre d'Ailly, disciples of Ockham, whose theology, Lortz believed, reflected the unclarity and confusion that marked the later middle ages. Luther correctly perceived many of the problems inherent in Ockhamistic theology and made a genuinely Catholic protest against its distortions of the Catholic theological tradition. However, because Luther was not schooled in the theology of Aquinas, he went to what Lortz regarded as unwarranted extremes in his theological critique of Ockhamism and so lapsed into heresy. Nevertheless, even as a heretic, he was not guilty of moral turpitude, as Cochlaeus had argued, but only of theological subjectivity. From Lortz's perspective, the schism* in the Western church might have been avoided if only Luther had studied the balanced, Augustinian theology of Aquinas.

A new note in the Catholic re-appraisal of Luther was sounded by Otto Pesch in his massive study of the doctrine of justification in the theology of Aquinas and Luther. Unlike Lortz, who bemoaned the absence of the stabilizing impact of the theology of Aquinas on Luther, Pesch argued that Luther and Thomas held very similar understandings of grace.* They differed not so much in what they said as how they said it. Thomas wrote sapiential theology that described in an objective and detached way the unfolding of the creative and redemptive acts of God, whose being conditions, but is unconditioned by, the things he made. Luther wrote existential theology from the perspective of an engaged believer who stands in the presence of a living God of grace and judgment, who has called the believer by name. In Pesch's opinion, differences in theological style and method have led historians to over-estimate the differences between Luther and Thomas and to misunderstand and misjudge their substantial agreements. To recover an understanding of the theological agreements between Luther and Thomas, often hidden beneath the real, but far less significant, disagreements in style, would itself represent an important ecumenical step forward for Protestants and Roman Catholics.

Protestant historians, with some notable exceptions, have made fewer contributions to the study of Catholic reform in the 16th century than Catholic historians have to the study of Protestant origins. While Protestant historians have engaged in their own wide-ranging re-assessment of the major Protestant reformers, their principal contribution to the ecumenical re-assessment of the Reformation has centred in their re-evaluation of the theological and religious situation in the Western church on the eve of the Reformation. No longer content with a confessionally biased description of religious life in the later middle ages, Protestant historians from Reinhold Seeberg and Adolf Martin Ritter to Bernd Moeller and Heiko Oberman have attempted to reconstruct a more accurate picture of the milieu in which the Reformation was born. Especially important in this re-assessment has been the study of late medieval scholastic and mystical theology from Ockham and Thomas Bradwardine to Biel and John of Paltz.

Religion: INTRODUCTION Protestant(General)

Protestant, Religion Protestant, Protestant Religion. Christianity. INTRODUCTION (General):

INTRODUCTION (General)

Just as the disciples of Christ were only belatedly called Christians, so too those who supported the Reformation were called Protestants only from 1529 onwards. This was the date of the second diet of Speyer, when five princes of the holy Roman empire and 14 free cities “protested” against the decision taken three years earlier which had granted the princes (or cities) the right to decide as sovereigns what the religion of their subjects should be. In support of their stand they affirmed: “In matters which concern the honour of God and the salvation of our souls, every individual must stand alone before God and give an account.” Until then the Protestants had been called by different names – Lutherans, Evangelicals, Huguenots. The term “Protestantism” has more than a negative side to it. Rather, it is an affirmation of the freedom of faith.*

One might think that Protestantism arose out of a challenge to the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, such as the sale of indulgences, the second-rate quality of the lower clergy or the dissolute life-style of the higher clergy. But these abuses had been denounced already for over a century. Hence, the Reformation would have been original only in succeeding, at least partially, where others had failed. But at a more profound level, the Reformation criticized the importation of the Roman tradition into the gospel, such as the doctrines of purgatory, Mariology, the veneration of saints and the power of the clergy. Even here Protestantism is not wholly original, for it owes something to humanism, which commended a return to the primary documents – in this case, the holy scriptures. Many humanists, however, did not become Protestants; the most famous example was Erasmus (1467-1536).



The development of Protestantism



The real originality of Protestantism lies in its fresh reading of the Bible, which led Martin Luther (1483-1546), an Augustinian monk and theologian, to claim that Christians are “justified”, i.e. they become righteous in the sight of God, not by their works and the merits which derive from these, but by God’s grace* alone, received in faith and not by means of works (see justification). Even if human beings or the individual conscience approves these works, God in his holiness cannot accept them as righteous, for human beings are sinners through and through, and their works are evil (see sin). Only the redeeming work of Christ is pleasing to God, and in his grace God “reckons to us” the righteousness of Christ. Our righteousness is therefore external (forensis), for we are not its source, which does not mean that it is unreal, for God does accomplish what he tells us and promises to us in his creative word. Having become good trees, by grace alone, we bear good fruits, in so far as we continue to have faith in Christ crucified and raised. In turn, this faith is not a work; it is a gift of God, awakened in us by the Holy Spirit.*

Protestantism thus developed a new understanding of faith. Faith is not primarily intellectual assent to doctrines which the church,* its councils and the pope formulate. First and foremost, faith is a personal bond of trust in Christ and recognition of the rightness of the judgments which God pronounces on sinful human beings. At least in the beginning, Protestants unanimously recognized the ancient ecumenical symbols or creeds,* and even drew up their own doctrinal confessions of faith: Augsburg confession (1530), confession of La Rochelle (1559 and 1571), Scots confession (1560), second Helvetic confession (1560), Westminster confession (1646), etc. But these confessions are not standards with absolute authority. Only holy scripture – in so far as, in Luther’s words, it is the bearer of Christ – has the force of the ultimate standard or court of appeal (norma normans); the confessions are standards only to the degree that scripture confirms them (norma normata).

Polemics naturally accused the Reformation of moral laxity because of its claim that works do not save. This censure is unfounded. While works cannot produce salvation,* they are nonetheless an essential to demonstrate that we have not received the righteousness of Christ in vain – or as the Heidelberg catechism (1563) says, to give evidence to God of our gratitude. This is the true basis of a rigorous Protestant ethic.

This ethic is all the more rigorous in that while Roman Catholic tradition progressively reduced good works to prayer, pilgrimages, charitable gifts, etc., Protestantism for both Luther and Calvin re-
established the dignity of work* in the world, hence Luther’s struggle against monastic vows, in which he saw a flight from Christian responsibilities in the world, the city and the family. Hence also Calvin’s doubtless bolder initiatives to encourage trade and industry. Calvin’s exegesis of relevant Old Testament passages clearly shows that they condemned loans at exorbitant interest rather than loans at interest rates that were intended to increase production. The clerical profession has no pre-eminent status for Christians; those who work to ensure a livelihood for their family, the prosperity of their town and help for the deprived are as worthy of respect as the minister entrusted with the proclamation of the word of God. One’s trade, according to Luther, is also one’s calling or vocation.*

This rehabilitation of secular work led certain sociologists and historians, especially Max Weber in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-1905), to look for the origins of the capitalist quest in the Protestant ethic. But one must note, as Weber explicitly does, that it was the puritan spirit which above all provided the religious foundations and created the necessary mental attitudes for capitalist enterprise, at least in its beginnings. This thesis continues to find critics, who so far have managed only to clarify a thesis which in its essentials retains its full value.

Protestantism sought to reform the church from within but failed in this respect because of the intransigence of popes and the holy Roman emperor. The Protestant churches were compelled to constitute themselves as separate churches. But even before the schism* was completed, they evolved an ecclesiology different from Rome’s. For a start, they asserted that the pope and even councils could be mistaken, that scripture remains the supreme arbiter, that it has a clarity of its own and that its obscure parts are clarified by its more self-evident passages. This was in embryo the modern idea – accepted by Protestantism and in large measure by Roman Catholic theologians today – that there is a canon within the biblical canon.*

Furthermore, while the Roman Catholic Church maintained that there is no church except where there are priests ordained by a bishop who is within the apostolic succession and in communion with the pope as the successor of Peter, the Reformation maintained that the church exists wherever the word of God* is rightly proclaimed and where the sacraments* instituted by Christ (i.e. only the two sacraments of baptism* and the Lord’s supper, or eucharist*) are administered in agreement with the gospel. The church is a community of sinners who have been forgiven and, prompted by the Spirit, are brought together by the word of God.

Patently in its definition of the church, Protestantism gave pride of place to the event by which the people are brought together through the word, as compared with the institution as a socio-historical phenomenon. This is not to claim that Protestantism rejected all ecclesial institutions. As the schism moved towards its completion, it adopted a variety of institutional forms in its various denominations, but all of these institutions were marked by their collegial character and by the increasing role of the laity* in the government of the church (see church order).

Defining faith as a relation of personal trust in the Lord meant depriving the church of its power as an institution. No longer did the church mediate and dispense salvation, even as a secondary cause. Its one role is to proclaim and bear witness to the salvation which God effected in Christ, and to do so in the most varied ways – by preaching, administering the sacraments and declaring forgiveness (no longer itself doing the forgiving), and by mutual aid, service and the care of souls. Thus the church was made subordinate to the redeeming work of Christ, and ecclesiology depended on Christology. The church is a second reality. But it is not a secondary one, for it is and remains the Body of Christ, and all whom God has justified are brought into the church (in particular, by baptism); this body is called to grow in unity* and holiness.* Though the church has a divine foundation, it is not in itself a divine reality, and as an earthly institution it has its limitations. God alone knows who the true believers are; it is not up to the ecclesiastical institution to make this decision. This view explains why the practice of excommunication* eventually lost a great deal of its significance in the churches of the Reformation.

The ecclesiastical dispute with Rome has naturally been accompanied by a profound difference in regard to the ministry (see ministry in the church). That the ministry is an essential is not disputed in churches which resulted from the Reformation. But pastors are not priests, in that they have no special character or power which would distinguish them from laypeople. In principle, although pastors are ordained to their ministry, laypersons can carry out the same activities if the occasion arises and if they are called upon to do so by the constituted authorities. Already in 1520 Luther framed the Protestant doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, stating that all baptized Christians “can pride themselves on already being priests, bishops and pope”. But he added, “It is not appropriate for each person to fulfill the same office”, because of his concern for order and his respect for each person’s calling.

The question of the nature of the ministry remains a stumbling block in the ecumenical dialogues begun some decades ago between the Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Difficulties over the mutual recognition of ministries remain a serious barrier in the quest for unity. The three confessions have been able to reach agreement on recognizing baptism, which in any case may be validly administered by a layperson, according to the Roman Catholic Church. But in regard to the Lord’s supper (or eucharist), there is no such recognition. According to present Roman Catholic teaching, there are certain values in the Lord’s supper celebrated in the Protestant churches, but the Lord’s supper is defective because it is not presided over by a minister considered validly ordained in the apostolic succession. Hence intercommunion* and a fortiori intercelebration are not possible. Rome does extend, within certain limits, eucharistic hospitality to baptized Protestants, but this is a one-way hospitality.

The current stage of the problem is found in connection with the 1982 WCC Faith and Order document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry,* prepared by Protestant, Orthodox and Roman Catholic theologians. This document clearly shows that there has been some convergence on questions of ministry, but some responses still pose a continuing deadlock: Protestantism cannot give up its concept of the priesthood of all believers, nor can it acknowledge that its ministers have an intrinsic power to effect sacraments.

To sum up so far, one can define Protestantism in the three classic formulas: sola gratia (grace alone), sola fide (faith alone), sola scriptura (scripture alone) – to which Calvin liked to add soli Deo gloria (to God alone be glory).

Religion: Christianity, PROTESTANTISM (PROTESTANT RELIGION)

Protestant, Religion Protestant, Protestant Religion. Christianity, PROTESTANTISM (PROTESTANT RELIGION):

PROTESTANTISM (PROTESTANT RELIGION)

Just as the disciples of Christ were only belatedly called Christians, so too those who supported the Reformation were called Protestants only from 1529 onwards.

The PROTESTANTISM topics are:

Introduction (General)
Reformation
Reformed/Presbyterian Churches
Anglican Communion
Baptists
Evangelicals
Lutheranism
Methodism
Pentecostals
Quakerism

Religion: EASTERN CATHOLIC CHURCHES

Catholic, Religion Catholic, Catholic Religion. EASTERN CATHOLIC CHURCHES:

EASTERN CATHOLIC CHURCHES

These churches, with an estimated total membership of more than 9 million, originated in very diverse circumstances and live in various situations. What they have in common is full communion* of faith* and sacraments* with the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) around the bishop of Rome, while retaining various Eastern liturgical and canonical traditions inherited from the mother churches from which they were separated by their union with the church of Rome. They were disparagingly called Uniates* by the Orthodox or Oriental churches because of negative memories of their origins and of their type of relationship with Rome or with the Orthodox churches of the same traditions.

On the RC side, these union attempts were generally founded on the principle of the union-council of Florence (1438-45): complete respect of the diversity of traditions within the unity of faith. But no Eastern Catholic church in fact traces its origin back to this council. In the context of the Counter-Reformation, the awareness of the ecclesial character of the Orthodox churches became blurred in the RCC, and the attempts to restore unity between the two churches slowly gave way to the “return” of individuals or small groups to the RCC.

In Eastern Europe, the reunion with Rome of certain communities – at times with their bishops – was strongly influenced by the socio-political situation, especially the changes of frontiers between countries with Catholic or Orthodox predominance. The union of the Ukrainians (Brest-Litovsk 1595-96) concluded at a time when these regions were under Polish authority. The union of the Ruthenians (Uzhorod 1646) and that of a group of Romanians ( Transylvania 1700) took place within the Austro-Hungarian empire. Of lesser importance were the Yugoslavian, Bulgarian, Slovak, Hungarian, Belorussian, Albanian, Russian and Greek Catholic churches. All belonged to the Byzantine-Slavonic tradition. The Ukrainian (about 3.7 million members), Ruthenian, Belorussian and Romanian Catholic churches were officially suppressed by force under communist regimes in the late 1940s; they survived only in their homelands underground or outside them, especially in Western Europe and North America.

In the Middle East the circumstances were very different. The Maronite church is a special case. Originating in the territory of Antioch (monastery of Beit-Marun) in the 4th century, it claims no historical consciousness of a formal break with Rome; and it renewed contact at the time of the crusades.* The Maronite church thus has no “Orthodox” counterpart, but belongs totally to the Catholic communion. All the churches of the Middle East lived in very difficult situations within the Ottoman empire . Under its law, as small minorities amid the Muslims they formed ethnic communities with their own separate legal status. Thus these churches readily welcomed the offer of help from Latin missionaries from the West, particularly since most of their members had no vivid awareness of an existing schism* with the RCC. The pastoral, intellectual and social activities of these missionaries slowly created, in different places, groups of laity and pastors who favoured union with Rome; eventually the union was proclaimed officially.

Rather than bringing about the union between the RCC and the respective other partners, the fait accompli was generally refused by the majority of the Orthodox, and new divisions resulted. With some important differences, this was the case with all the churches of the Middle East when some of their members became united with Rome: the Eastern Syrian or Nestorian tradition (Chaldeans, 1553), the Western Syrian tradition (Syrian Catholics, 1662), the Armenian tradition (Armenian Catholics, 1740), the Byzantine tradition (Greek Catholics or Melkites, 1724). Later on, the passage of individuals to the RCC led to the creation of Coptic Catholic (1895) and Ethiopian Catholic (1930) hierarchies.

Religion Universe: ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Catholic, Religion Catholic, Catholic Religion. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH:

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Where one begins the history of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) is itself a matter of theological judgment, fraught with serious ecumenical implications. Is Roman Catholicism (RC) a post-Reformation phenomenon, or is it the original form of the church?* Is “early Catholicism” to be found already in the New Testament, or is it an entirely post-biblical development? Catholic scholars, even very liberal ones such as Hans Küng, insist that Catholicism is present from the beginning, that the history of the RCC has its starting point within the NT rather than in the post-Reformation period.

If, indeed, one holds that RC is not simply a denomination within Christianity but its original expression, how does one deal with the historical fact that the earliest community of disciples gathered in Jerusalem, not in Rome? Indeed, the see, or diocese, of Rome did not even exist at the very beginning, nor did the Roman primacy.*

For many Catholics, the adjective “Roman” tends to obscure rather than define the reality of Catholicism. For them, the history of the Catholic church begins with Jesus' gathering of his disciples and with the eventual post-resurrection commissioning of Peter to be the chief shepherd and foundation of the church. Accordingly, it is not the Roman primacy that gives Catholicism its distinctive identity within the family of Christian churches but the Petrine primacy.

History

For the Catholic tradition, the classic primacy texts are Matt. 16:13-19, Luke 22:31-32 and John 21:15-19. Given their symbolism, the conferral of the power of the keys on Peter suggests an imposing measure of authority.* Yet this authority was not to be exercised in any absolute way, since from the beginning Peter is presented as consulting with the other apostles (see apostolicity ) and even being sent by them (Acts 8:14), and he and John act almost as a team (Acts 3:1-11, 4:1-22, 8:14). Nevertheless, the biblical images concerning Peter (fisherman, shepherd, elder, proclaimer of faith in Jesus, rock) continued in the life of the church and were enriched by additional ones: missionary preacher, great visionary, destroyer of heretics, receiver of the new law, gatekeeper of heaven, helmsman of the ship of the church, co-teacher and co-martyr with Paul.

According to tradition Peter was martyred and buried in Rome, the centre of the empire and eventually the centre of the RCC. During the first five centuries the church of Rome gradually assumed pre-eminence among all the churches. It intervened in the life of distant churches, took sides in theological controversies, offered counsel to other bishops on doctrinal and pastoral questions and sent delegates to distant councils. The see of Rome came to be regarded as a kind of final court of appeal, as well as a focus of unity* for the worldwide (“ecumenical”) communion* of churches. The correlation between Peter and the bishop of Rome became fully explicit during the pontificate of Leo I (440-61), who claimed that Peter continued to speak to the whole church through the bishop of Rome.

In the view of some other Christian communities, the RCC has its origin in the Edict of Milan (in 312, also known as the Edict of Constantine), whereby the church, now free from persecution, came to enjoy the status of an imperially protected and favoured religion. Thus we have the term “Constantinian Catholicism”.

By the beginning of the 5th century, German tribes began migrating through Europe without effective control. This movement, somewhat inaccurately called the barbarian invasions, lasted some 600 years. It changed the institutional character of Roman Catholicism from a largely Graeco-Roman religion to a broader European religion. The influence of Germanic culture on Catholicism was especially pronounced in the areas of devotion, spirituality and organizational structure. Church office became more political than pastoral, and imagery for Christ, the church and its leaders became increasingly militaristic.

When, at the beginning of the 8th century, the Eastern emperor proved incapable of aiding the papacy against the Lombards in northern Italy, the pope turned for help to the Franks. This new alliance led to the creation of the holy Roman empire, which began dramatically in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne. The line between church and state,* already blurred by the Edict of Milan, was now practically erased.

With the collapse of the Carolingian empire, however, the papacy fell into the hands of a corrupt Italian nobility. Only with the reformist pontificate of Gregory VII (1073-85) was the papacy's reputation restored. Papal prestige was even more firmly enhanced during the pontificate of Innocent III (1198-1216), who fully exploited the Gregorian teaching that the pope has supreme, even absolute, power over the whole church.

By the middle of the 13th century the classic papal-hierarchical concept of the church had been securely established, and the pope's power was said to embrace both church and state alike (the so-called two-swords theory). Newly elected popes were crowned like emperors, a practice that endured until suddenly discontinued by Pope John Paul I in 1978. Emphasis on the juridical, over against the communal, aspects of the church did not significantly subside, however, until the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

The historical bond between the church of Rome and the church of Constantinople came apart through a series of gravely unfortunate and exceedingly complex political and diplomatic manoeuvres, starting with the excommunication* of Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople in 1054, and culminating in the fourth crusade (1202-1204) and the sack of Constantinople by Western knights. Two attempts at bringing the two sides back together – at the councils of Lyons in 1274 and of Florence in 1439 – did not have lasting results. Indeed, the climate began to change for the better only with the election of Pope John XXIII in 1958, with the Second Vatican Council* and then with the historic pilgrimage of Pope Paul VI in 1964 to meet Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in Jerusalem,* the mother church of all churches.

By the beginning of the 14th century, other events had introduced a period of further disintegration of unity, reaching a tragic climax in the Protestant Reformation* of the 16th century (see Protestantism ). The confrontation between Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair over the latter's power to tax the church opened a wide breach between the papacy and the imperial authority. Then there were the scandalous financial abuses during the subsequent Babylonian Captivity of the papacy at Avignon, France (1309-78). There followed a rise in nationalism and anti-clericalism in reaction to papal taxes, and then papal authority itself came to be challenged on theological grounds by Marsilius of Padua and others. Conciliarism rose as a challenge to the prevailing monarchical concept of the church.

The Western schism* of 1378-1417 (not to be confused with the more serious and more enduring East-West schism between Rome and Constantinople) produced at one point three different claimants to the papal throne. The council of Constance (1414) turned to the new principle of conciliarism to end the schism, by asserting that a general council, not the pope, is the highest ecclesiastical authority. One claimant was deposed, a second resigned, and a third eventually died. Martin V was elected on St Martin's Day, 11 November 1417.

There were other, more immediate causes of the Reformation of the 16th century: the corruption of the Renaissance papacy of the 15th century, the divorce of piety from theology and of theology from its biblical and patristic roots, the negative effects of the Western schism and the rise of the national state – not to mention the powerful personalities of Luther, Calvin and Zwingli. The Reformation itself took different forms, so different that one should perhaps speak more precisely of reformations in the plural. The reformers of the right (Lutherans and Anglicans) retained essential Catholic doctrine but changed certain canonical and structural forms. The reformers of the left (followers of Zwingli and the Anabaptists) repudiated much of Catholic doctrine and sacramental life. The reformers nearer to the centre (Calvinists) modified both Catholic doctrine and practice but retained much of the old.

The Roman Catholic response, belated but vigorous, was given at the council of Trent* (1545-63), which was itself part of a broader movement known as the Counter-Reformation, conducted principally under the leadership of Pope Paul III (1534-49). The council proved to be the single most important event in the history of the RCC during the four centuries between the Reformation and the Second Vatican Council. By and large, the post-Tridentine RCC emphasized the doctrines, devotions and institutions that were most directly attacked by the Protestants: veneration of the saints,* Marian piety, eucharistic adoration, the authority of the pope and the bishops (see episcopacy ) and the essential role of ordained priests in the sacramental life of the church (see priesthood, sacraments ). Other important elements tended to be downplayed precisely because of their favourable emphasis by the Protestants: the centrality of Christ in theology and spirituality; the communal participatory nature of the eucharist* (“priesthood of all believers”) and the responsibility of the laity* in the life and mission* of the church.

Religion: Christianity, CATHOLICISM (CATHOLIC RELIGION)

Catholic, Religion Catholic, Catholic Religion. Christianity, CATHOLICISM (CATHOLIC RELIGION):

CATHOLICISM (CATHOLIC RELIGION)

The Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian body in the world. Over 1.1 billion people worldwide are considered members.

The CATHOLICISM topics are:

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
EASTERN CATHOLIC CHURCHES

Religion Universe: Taoism, YIN -YANG and THE FIVE AGENTS

TAOISM (DAOISM), Religion TAOISM (DAOISM), TAOISM (DAOISM)Religion. YIN -YANG and THE FIVE AGENTS:

YIN -YANG and THE FIVE AGENTS

Yin and Yang refer to the two opposite but complementary forces exercised by all things in the universe. From the previous articles, it is clear that Yin and Yang are already implied by the concept of Vital Breath. The Vital Breath of Oneness circulates; the Infinite is the Supreme Ultimate; the movement and stillness of the Supreme Ultimate give birth to Yin and Yang, which in turn generate the motions and changes of everything in the universe. The Five Agents are categories referring to the fundamental ingredients of the universe. They are named after wood, fire, earth, metal and water, but do not simply refer to these five concrete substances. Rather, they represent a basic framework or mental model by which all phenomena can be classified into five types. The Five Agents are the basic ingredients of the universe.


Yin-Yang is intrinsic to the universe


The source of Yang is Dao. The Laozi states that Dao gave birth to the primordial organic unity, from which are derived the two opposite forces, which interpenetrate each other, giving birth to the myriad beings. The backside of all beings is Yin while their front side is Yang; the Vital Breaths of Yin and Yang cross-penetrate until they reach a harmonious state. (<>) The generation of Yin and Yang by Dao creates the most fundamental forces of the universe, which are both in opposition and in unity. These Vital Breaths are both mutually opposite and mutually generating. At the same time, they are intrinsic to every thing. Ying-Yang's unity in opposition expresses itself in countless ways. Speaking of the human species, there are male and female; the human person has a spiritual (yang) and a material (yin) dimension; Spirit can also be divided into Yin Spirit and Yang Spirit; and the same goes for Vital Breaths. As for Heaven and Earth, Heaven is Yang and Earth is Yin; mountains are Yang and waters are Yin, etc. Mountains, water, grass, wood, earth, stones, ghosts, spirits, and so on all contain Yin and Yang aspects.

Religion: Taoism, COSMOGONY

TAOISM (DAOISM), Religion TAOISM (DAOISM), TAOISM (DAOISM)Religion. COSMOGONY:

COSMOGONY

Fundamental Difference Between the Daoist Theory of Universal Evolution and the Christian Concept of the Creation by God

The question of whether the universe has always existed as it does now is a most interesting, but also most perplexing one. Countless are those who, over the past thousands of years, have deeply pondered over this question and formulated what they considered to be the best answer, some going so far as to elaborate wonderful theories on the subject. Nonetheless, until today no consensus has emerged. Contemporary opinion tends to consider that the universe had a beginning, and that this beginning was a stage in the evolution of the universe -- looking at the universe as a whole, it has neither an absolute beginning nor an absolute end. Daoist Cosmogony has proposed a similar view of the universe for the past two thousand years. This theory of universal evolution is radically different from the Christian theory of the Creation of the universe by God. Daoism considers that universal evolution follows its own laws and is not the product of divine creation. Rather, it is the product of Spontaneous evolution under the control of the Great Dao. The highest divinity of Daoism, the Primeval Lord of Heaven, emerged during the evolutionary process, which he helps to push forward according to the circumstances. On the other hand, Christianity considers that God created the world out of absolute nothingness.

Initial speculations on the origin of the universe

Early on, Laozi had reflected on the origin of the universe. He considered that Heaven and Earth have not existed indefinitely. Dao preceded the formation of Heaven and Earth. The process of the generation of Heaven and Earth by Dao is resumed in the following formula: <> In other words, Dao generated the primeval unified whole, which divided into two opposing forces, whose interpenetration generated all beings. The two forces referred to by Laozi as the 'Two' are commonly considered to be designate Heaven and Earth. Later on, other Daoist theorists further reflected on the origin of the world and formulated systematic theories. These were discussed in the scripture The Source of Dao, which points out that before the formation of Heaven and Earth, there was nothing but limitless dark space, in which nothing existed. There was only Essential Vital Breath and Vital Breath of Spirit circulating everywhere. These Essential and Spiritual Vital Breaths refer to different functions of Dao, which formed the world and the myriad beings.

Religion: Taoism, ZHUANGZI (The Perfect Book of Nanhua)

TAOISM (DAOISM), Religion TAOISM (DAOISM), TAOISM (DAOISM)Religion. ZHUANGZI (The Perfect Book of Nanhua):

ZHUANGZI (The Perfect Book of Nanhua)

The Author of the Book of Nanhua :

Zhuangzi, named Zhou and styled Zixiu or Zimu, was a native of the kingdom of Song (i.e., northeast of present-day Shangqiu, Henan) during the Warring States period. He lived about 369-286 BC, and was a mandarin of Qiyuan, Meng. Poor but fond of Dao, he did not yearn for wealth or power. It is recorded in the Bibliographies of Laozi, Zhuangzi, Shenzi, Hanfeizi and Liezi in the Records of the Historian that Zhuangzi had extensive learning and wrote over one hundred thousand words. His works are based on Laozi's theories. They inherit and develop Laozi's "Dao", which follows the example of Spontaneity and thus is in every place. Moreover, they stress that things come into being and change by themselves and negate the existence of any controller. They put forward the ideas that "the Vital Breath exists in everything", and that "the birth of a man is the convergence of the Vital Breath, which forms life, and the breaking-up of the Vital Breath causes death". Hence Zhuangzi became the founder of his school of teachings. During the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the doctrines of Laozi and Zhuangzi turned became the core of the teachings of Daoist Philosophy, and Zhuangzi was regarded as a Divine Man. In the second month of the first Tianbao year during the reign of emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty (AD 724), Zhuangzi was granted the title " Perfect Man of Nanhua ", and the Book of Master Zhuang written by him was titled the Perfect Book of Nanhua by imperial order. During the reign of emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty, he was granted the title "Perfect Sovereign of Numinous Subtlety and Original Pervasion".

Composition and Style:

The Book of Master Zhuang originally consisted of seven inner chapters, fifteen outer chapters, and eleven miscellaneous chapters, and the Book of Nanhua follows this composition. Scholars generally admit that the seven inner chapters were written by Zhuangzi himself and embody the magnificence of Zhuangzi's doctrines, spirit and writing style. The other chapters are elaborations and explanations, and some of them were written by Zhuangzi's disciples or supplemented by people of later ages. Now we briefly state the main theories of the seven chapters to show the essential content of the Book of Nanhua.

Religion: Taoism, LAOZI (Lao Tzu)

TAOISM (DAOISM), Religion TAOISM (DAOISM), TAOISM (DAOISM)Religion. LAOZI (Lao Tzu):

LAOZI (Lao Tzu)

Life of Laozi:


The chapter Bibliographies of Laozi, Zhuangzi, Shenzi, and Hanfeizi in The Records of the Historian records that "Laozi was a native of Qurenli of the town of Lixiang, in Ku County, in the State of Chu (i.e., to the east of Luyi, present-day Henan province). His family name was Li, his given name was Er, he was styled Boyang, and his posthumous title was Dan (which means the large flat outer edge of the ear). He was head of the imperial library of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty."

When Confucius went to Zhou and consulted Laozi about rites, Laozi said, "As for the person you mentioned, when his body and bones have dissipated, only his words continue to exist. A gentleman travels in a carriage when he is successful and walks downheartedly when he is not. I've heard that a good merchant hides everything and seems as if he has nothing, and a virtuous gentleman appears slow-witted. Get rid of your overbearing airs and excessive desires, of your posturing attitude and greed. They will do no good to you, and I tell you that just as it is." Confucius left and said to his disciples, "As for birds, I know they are able to fly; as for fish, I know they are able to swim; as for beasts, I know they are able to run. What runs can be stopped with nets, what swims can be stopped with fishing lines, and what flies can be stopped with arrows. As for dragons, I have no idea of their ascending to heaven by wind and clouds. Today I met Laozi, who's just like a dragon!"

Laozi cultivated Dao and its virtue. His learning focused on concealing oneself.

Having inhabited Zhou for long and seeing its decline, Laozi set off westward and arrived at the Pass (Hanguguan). Yin Xi, the official in charge of the pass, said, "Since you are going to live in seclusion, please write a book for me." So Laozi wrote a book of two parts, explaining Dao and its virtue in 5,000 words. Then he left, and it is unknown where he went.


Later, Zhuangzi wrote The Book of Nanhua to elaborate on Dao and its virtue. His significance to Daoist philosophy can be compared to that of Mencius in Confucian philosophy. Zhuangzi's contemporaries, such as Liezi, Huishi, Shendao, Tian Pian and Song Yan, carried forward Laozi's teachings. They made the learning of Laozi the origin of philosophical Daoism.

Laozi's Theories in the Qin and Han Dynasties:

The Bibliographical Records of The History of the Han Dynasty written by Ban Gu says, "People of the Daoist School probably originate from historians (maybe it indicates that Laozi was once a historian). They record successes and failures, what survives and what perishes, fortunes and misfortunes, the Dao of both ancient and contemporary times, and then they come to know the essentials and principles. Guard emptiness, and keep humble. This is the Art of Government. It is identical with Yao's conceding his throne to Shun and to what the trigram of Qian says in the Book of Changes. Humility itself leads to four benefits. (The Qian trigram combining Upper Earth and Lower Hill in The Book of Changes says, "It is the way of Heaven to diminish the full and augment the humble. Spirits and demons inflict calamity on the full and bless the humble. It is the way of men to hate the full and to love the humble. Humility in a position of honour makes one still more brilliant; and in a low position men will not (seek to) pass beyond it. Thus it is that the superior man will have a (good) issue (to his undertakings).") Humility is the advantage of sovereigns. As for those with no restraint, they do not care about rituals or kindness. Thus, it is said that purity and emptiness alone can help government."

Ban Gu summarizes the Daoist philosophy from the Confucian point of view and makes no subjective criticism. His summary shows a historian's manners, and Ban Gu makes a pertinent report. The books written by scholars of the Daoist School around that time which are recorded in the Bibliographical Records can be counted in the dozens. This fully shows that the theories of the Daoist School were already prosperous in the Qin and Han dynasties.

During the reign of emperors Wen and Jing at the beginning of the Han dynasty, the mother of the emperor, Lady Dou, who was interested in the Huang-Lao school, and Minister Cao Shen governed the country by using the theories of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi. They reduced penalties and taxation and let the people recuperate and multiply. The people benefited and the state was well governed. Laozi's teachings had good effects at the beginning of the Han dynasty. This fully shows that they were not empty talk.

Religion: Taoism, DAO (TAO)

TAOISM (DAOISM), Religion TAOISM (DAOISM), TAOISM (DAOISM)Religion. DAO (TAO):

DAO (TAO)

The Meaning of Dao

Firstly, Dao is the eternally existing Origin of the world: it knows no limits in space or time. According to Laozi, it is an undifferentiated whole which precedes the existence of Heaven and Earth. It is empty, silent and formless; it grows independently and is inexhaustible; and eternally revolves without ever stopping. It is the Source of all beings. In the Laozi it is said:

"There was something undifferentiated and all-embracing,
Which existed before Heaven and Earth.
Soundless and formless, it depends on nothing external
And stays inexhaustible.
It operates with a circular motion
And remains inextinguishable.
It may be considered the mother of all things under heaven".

It is so ancient, and so fundamentally different from all other beings, that it does not have a name, and cannot be described in ordinary language. However, in order to describe it, we cannot but give it a name, so it is called 'Dao', or also 'Great'.

Another Daoist theorist, Zhuang Zhou, also said in the chapter "The Great Patriarch" of the Book of Master Zhuang, that "Dao is a reality that can be trusted even though it has neither behaviour nor form; it can be transmitted from heart to heart, but not by words; it can be obtained but not seen. It is its own root, and existed prior to Heaven and Earth. It created the Spirits and Divinities, and gave birth to Heaven and Earth. It is higher than the Supreme Ultimate yet is not high; it is under than the Six Directions yet is not deep; it precedes all creation yet is not old; it is farther than the remotest antiquity yet is not distant".

The above makes clear that Dao is the origin of all existence; it is both the first and last of all beings, and knows no limits in time.

Dao is omnipresent:

The above also touches on space: according to Zhuangzi, Dao is also beyond limitations of space. The ancient concept of the Six Directions includes the four cardinal directions as well as above and below - in fact encompassing all space. That Dao is 'Under the Six Directions' means that Dao is great beyond all limitations of space. Even earlier, Laozi had said that Dao permeates our surroundings, so that it is impossible to say if it is to our left or to our right. Dao is a continuous and unbroken existence: should you wish to greet it, you would not see its head; should you wish to follow it, you would not find its tail. In a nutshell, Dao is omnipresent, and is not limited to any defined physical space.

Religion: Taoism, HISTORY OF TAOISM

TAOISM (DAOISM), Religion TAOISM (DAOISM), TAOISM (DAOISM)Religion. HISTORY OF TAOISM:

HISTORY OF TAOISM

Rooted in the ancient Chinese systems of beliefs, influenced by primitive shamanism and observation of natural cycles, Taoism recognises Laozi as its founder and Zhuangzi as one of its most brillant representatives. Early Taoism developed as an original answer to the bitter debates during the philosophically fertile time of the Hundred Schools of Thought, corresponding to the Warring States period. It was a time of seemingly endless warfare and chaos. This turbulent era gave rise to a kind of naturalistic quietism in accordance with the "process" of the universe: Tao. Action through inaction (wei wu wei), the power of emptiness, detachment, receptiveness, spontaneity, the strength of softness, the relativism of human values and the search for a long life, are some of its preferred themes.

Taoism is rooted in the oldest belief systems of China, dating from a time when shamanism and pantheism were prevalent. Elements of primitive Taoist thought include the cyclic progression of seasons, growth and death of sentient beings and their endless generation and questions about the origin of life. Observation of natural processes lead to divination pratices where the operator tries to detect opportunities in natural phenomenons (like crackles made in bones).

The oldest Chinese scripture is said to be the I Ching, a compilation of readings based on sixty-four hexagrams. The hexagrams are combinations of eight trigrams or gua, (collectively called bagua), resulting in sixty-four possible combinations. Laozi was intimately familiar with the I Ching, and the Tao Te Ching shows that he was profoundly inspired by it.

Religion : Taoism, TAOISM (DAOISM)

TAOISM (DAOISM), Religion TAOISM (DAOISM), TAOISM (DAOISM)Religion. TAOISM (DAOISM):

TAOISM (DAOISM)

Daoism is China's indigenous traditional religion; its name stems from 'Dao' being its highest object of faith.

The core of its belief is that by engaging in a process of Cultivation and Refinement, man can attain to a state of Immortality.

Daoist religion reveres Laozi as its Founder; its primary scripture is Laozi's Book of Dao and its Virtue.

Daoism has formed itself gradually over the ages, building upon the ancient Chinese worship of Heaven and Ancestors as its foundation, taking Daoist philosophy as its primary ideological source, absorbing concepts from the Yin-Yang, Mohist, Confucianist and Legalist schools, and adhering to the essential path of cultivation of the Magic and Immortality and Huang-Lao traditions.

Since its formation in the middle of the Eastern Han dynasty (25 - 220 AD), Daoist religion has undergone phases of formation, reform, flourishing and development, division into sects, and gradual decline, over a period of almost two thousand years.

Over the course of its long history of development, it has exercised a deep influence on Chinese government, economy, philosophy, literature, art, music, chemistry, medicine, health cultivation, breathing arts, and gymnastics, as well as China's ethnic relations, ethnic psychology and social customs.

Daoism has also accumulated a large quantity of scriptures and documents, temples and monuments, and sculptures and stone inscriptions, adding to the cultural treasury of the Chinese people and making significant contributions to the progress of human civilization.

Author: Jiang Sheng
Translator: David Palmer
Source: http://www.eng.taoism.org.hk/
(Courtesy of: Taoism Culture & Information Centre)




Similarities and differences between religious and philosophical Daoism
Religious Daoism 1 is the indigenous religion of China, which holds longevity and immortality as its highest object of faith. It advocates attaining Longevity 2 and Immortality 3 through a process of Nourishing Life 4 , Cultivation and Refinement 5 , and the practice of virtuous conduct, in order to escape death and reach eternity. Philosophical Daoism 6 is a current in the history of Chinese philosophy, while religious Daoism is a religion. However, the two are intimately related. The core concept of Daoist thought, `Dao' 7 , was inherited and transformed by Daoist religion, while Laozi, the founder of Daoist philosophy, was incorporated into religious Daoism as the `Supreme Venerable Sovereign' 8 divinity. The Book of Dao and its Virtue 9 and the Book of Master Zhuang 10 , classics of Daoist philosophy, became `Perfect Scriptures' 11 of religious Daoism. The inheritance and transformation of elements of Daoist philosophy by Daoist religion shows both the links between the two as well as the differences between them. We can say that the value orientations of religious and philosophical Daoism are fundamentally different

According to later scholars, the development of Daoist philosophy can be divided into three stages: Lao-Zhuang Daoist philosophy 12 of the pre-Qin era; Huang-Lao Daoism 13 of the Qin and Han dynasties; and the 'Science of Mysteries' 14 Daoist philosophy of the Wei and Jin dynasties. After the Wei and Jin, `Philosophical Daoism' became a thing of the past, as Daoist philosophy came to be completely replaced by Daoist religion