European History SG - New and Renewed Forms of Christianity

Question 1

How did various movements address the crisis in Christianity that arose because of the Reformation?

Answer 1

• Roman Catholicism (go ask Pope for what it true)
• Rationalism (trust your own reason)
• Reformed Orthodoxy (find the right translations/doctrine = important - Westminster Confession)
• Pietism (methodism, don’t need to focus on secondary doctrine, focused on gospel and holy life)
• Spiritualism (quakers), whatever the Spirit guides them to do
  trigger: the Reformation

Question 2

Jacobus Arminius

Answer 2

• Dutch pastor and professor (originally Calvinist)
• asked to refute Dirck Koornherd’s beliefs on predestination
• after studying, he converted and became professor at University of Luden
• debates with colleagues, Gomarus, led to Arminianism (although still considered himself a Calvinist)
• people have free-will to choose, but God has foreknowledge

Question 3

Jakob Boehme

Answer 3

• German region of Sileria
• bored with long theological debates and began having visions
• Goertlitz shop at 25 - wrote Brilliant Dawn (visions and freedom of the spirit, inner life, Bible of him), found by local pastor and accused of heresy and forced to leave
• elector of Saxony to examine teachings, inconclusive

Question 4

George Fox

Answer 4

• English, cobbler’s apprentice
• life of wandering
• “inner light” - ordered by Spirit to share visions of Christians
• followers = “friends”/”quakers”
• sacraments and worship = abomination
• persecuted, beaten, jail
• pacifism
• infallible way of the light
• traveled to followers around the world (importance of community, interest in social problems)
• women = equal

Question 5

Emanuel Swedenborg

Answer 5

• Sweden
• aristocratic family
• philosopher
• vision to spiritual world - bring understanding to church, about 2nd coming of Christ
• followers founded Church of the New Jerusalem
• did not last

Question 6

Philipp Jakob Spener

Answer 6

• German Lutheran pastor - “father of Pietism”
• groups of Bible study and devotion - “colleges of piety”
• Pia desideria - “The Heartfelt Desire for God-pleading Reform”
• doctrine = not substitute for personal faith, focused on sanctification

Question 7

August Hermann Francke

Answer 7

• German Lutheran pastor
• similar to Spener
• the joy of Christian joy

Question 8

Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

Answer 8

• German Count and Bishop in the Moravian Church
• grew up as pietist, knew Francke and Spener
• joined community of Moravians in Herrnhut
• Bethlehem, Pa
• Salem, NC

Question 9

John Wesley

Answer 9

• Anglican priest
• founded holy club at Oxford (lead holy and sober life, take communion once a week, be faithful in personal devotionals, visit prisons regularly, and 3 hrs. every day studying Bible or devotionals)
• encounter with Moravians at sea during storm (terrified but calm, rethinks his salvation)
• Aldersgate street conversion (May 24, 1738)
• pastor in Georgia
• joined GW in open-air preaching (criticized by Anglicans authorities, “world is my parish”), separated over predestination
• formed Methodist society - not separate denomination (highly organized)
• lay preachers (not ordained), women
• reached people others couldn’t reach, (Industrial Revolution, uprooted people without ties to official people - America = frontier)
• break with Anglicans: -opposition from the Anglicans, decision to ordain ministers in America, legal need to register church buildings (1784)

Question 10

Church Councils

Answer 10

1. Synod of Dort- Netherlands, new Dutch translation, condemnation of Arminianism - supported Reformed Churches and Presbyterians, TULIP
2. Westminster Assembly- England, Calvinist orthodoxy, broader range of themes
   (Calvinism and predestination)

Question 11

George Whitefield

Answer 11

• similar experience at Aldersgate
• Calvinist
• preached emotionally in Georgia and England

Question 12

Quakers

Answer 12

• inner light/freedom of the spirit
• George Fox and Jakob Boehme (visions)
• sacraments and worship = abomination
• pacifism
• infallibility of the light
• interest in social problems
• importance of community

Question 13

Methodists

Answer 13

• began as organized societies to increase devotions in the Bible
• lay preachers (includes women)
• missions - Industrial Revolution and America, “world is my parish”
• opposition from Anglicans and separated

Question 14

Similarities, differences, positive, and negative affects between Pietism, Spiritualism, and Reformed Orthodoxy

Answer 14

Similarities: all searching for truth as a result of the Reformation, Reformed Orthodoxy and Pietism = high interest in the Bible
Differences: 1) only focused on doctrine, 2) truth can be found within yourself, not the Bible, 3) focused on the gospel and holy life
Positive: 1) value of correct church doctrine
2) value of the Holy Spirit
3) closer to God in a relationship
Negative: 1) no church will ever be perfect
2) places your desires above God
3) need fellowship of the church as well as personal devotional