A God for Reformers

Question 1

WitchCraft

Answer 1

• Fear and anxiety grew
• Pope Innocent III
• –Summa Desiderantes
• Reasons for Witchcraft
• –Anti- Semitism
• –Revolt against a repressive religion and intolerable God

Question 2

The Reformation

Answer 2

• Attempt to address the anxiety people were feeling
• Heightened sense of individualism and a rise of nationalism
• Interior consequences of religion instead of expressing their faith externally
• Newly interpreted doctrines making faith harder to achieve than ever before
• Created violent changes

Question 3

Martin Luther

Answer 3

• Big believer in witchcraft
• Believed in a God of Wrath
• Doctrine of Justification
• – Man can not save himself
• Described as angry and violent person
• Intolerant

Question 4

John Calvin

Answer 4

• 2nd wave of the Reformation
• Progressive in his views
• Inspired the Puritan revolution in England
• “Once a Catholic always a Catholic”
• – Non believers subscribed to the puritan work ethic
• Predestination

Question 5

Huldrych Zwingli

Answer 5

• Interested in the social, political and economic side of religion
• Died of the Black plague
• – Surrendered himself to God during this time
• Created a idea that there is no need for mediators to connect with God
• – Christians were being re born again

Question 6

Predestination

Answer 6

• The question of the control that God exercises over the world
• A concept that God has actively chosen some people for damnation and as well as Salvation
• This concept became the distinguishing factor of Lutherans and Calvinists
• Point of view from other religions
• – Muslims
• – Greek Orthodox

Question 7

Puritans

Answer 7

• Belief based on Calvinism
• Became obsessed with Predestination
• – Created terror and anxiety
• Excessive self scrutiny
• – Clinically depressed and suicide
• Semi Divine life

Question 8

Ignatius of Loyola

Answer 8

• Emphasized direct experience of God and the need for revelation
• Spiritual exercise
• – Conversation with god that is painful or extremely joyful
• – Self examination
• – Lasted for 30 days
• Emphasized a Discipline Journey
• – Two emotions during spiritual exercise
  1) positive- God
  2) negative- Devil

Question 9

Atheism

Answer 9

• New kind of society based on science and Technology
• – God was unable to alleviate these fears and provide consultation
• The obsession of hell and eternal damnation lead to people becoming atheists
• – Religion dominated people’s life
• Allies with the Devil
• – Used as a insult
• Disgusted with the intolerance and blood shed
• Richard Hasker - 2 kinds of atheism
  1) tiny group that did not believe in God
  2) large group who lived as though God did not exist

Question 10

Post Reformation

Answer 10

Christians abandoned the imaginative God of the mystics and moved towards looking for enlightenment from a God of reason