0. Introduction

Question 1

What are the 6 eras (chapters) we’ll study in this course?

Answer 1

1. The Renaissance and the century of reforms (1400-1648)
2. The geographic expansion of the Church (16th-17th centuries)
3. The Church in the 17th and 18th centuries (17th-18th centuries) [Enlightenment]
4. From the Restoration after Napolean to Pope Leo XIII (1821-1878)
5. The Church and the Modern World from Leo XIII to Vatican II (1878-1958)
6. Vatican II and Beyond (1958-present)

Question 2

What are 3 main themes of the course?

Answer 2

1. Christianity as a historical religion
2. The historical critical method
3. The development of doctrine

Question 3

What are two examples of the importance of history for Christianity?

Answer 3

1. Jesus’ Birth: St. Luke pays particular attention to details of historical events.
2. The Resurrection: Why so many people believed so fervently that Jesus rose from the dead.

Question 4

What is the historical critical method? Name one limitation, a problematic concept and its fundamental flaw.

Answer 4

It’s an approach in the 18th and 19th century that seeks to understand the works in the context of their own times. It’s limitation is that attempts to explain anything supernatural in natural terms. Some skeptics would go so far as to demand more proof than historians do for the existence and acts of Roman emperors, for example.

Some made up new theories, eg, that Christ was a social rebel, but we don’t have records because the early Christians weren’t interested in that aspect.

This gives rise to the notion that the Jesus of History is different from the Christ of Faith. The latter is the one we can study with historical-critical method, the latter is the one we accept with faith.

The “fundamental flaw” is that it calls all traditional beliefs into question but doesn’t provide an alternative, just competing theories.

Question 5

What was Newman’s “development of doctrine” a response to? What distinction did the Protestants not make?

Answer 5

It’s an answer to the attempt to appeal to Scripture over Tradition. The Gospel is a seed of Revelation that awaits exposition.

John Henry Newman listed 7 criteria to distinguish developments from corruptions. Protestants didn’t make that distinction.