Final Flashcards
Deism
An alternative to orthodox religion or atheism in the seventeenth century.
Lord Herbert of Cherbury served as Deism’s first great figure. He held that true religion must be universal, in a sense that religion is natural to all humankind.
Such religion is based on five basic doctrines:
the existence of God,
the obligation to worship God,
the ethical requirements of such worship,
the need for repentance, and
reward and punishment.
David Hume attacked Deistic thought by claiming that if the relation of cause and effect is not truly rational, the proof that the Deists use for the existence of God (someone must have created this world) is no longer valid.
In spite of these critiques, Deism’s views continued to exist. (Gonzalez 241-2, 244, 247, 252)
Roger Williams
Originally a Puritan preacher.
After moving to Massachusetts, he was convinced in a separation of church and state.
He also declared that land the colonies occupied belonged to the Indians, and that the entire colonial enterprise was unjust and illegal.
When he was expelled from his church in Salem, he eventually settled in Narragansett, on lands purchased from the Indians, with a group of friends.
He traveled to England to establish an official colony, Providence, on the principle of religious freedom. In 1644, the Long Parliament recognized the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, to be governed as a democracy.
William’s church in Providence became Baptist. In the end, he declared all churches to be false. (Gonzalez 284-5)
Dwight Moody
The main figure in the early stages of the Protestant response to the urban challenges.
Through a method of simple and emotive preaching, he called people to repentance and to accept salvation offered in Jesus Christ.
He effectively adapted the old camp meetings to the urban religious scene.
However, because he was convinced that the conversion of the masses would lead to better living conditions in the cities, he did not criticize the conditions and social conditions that led to so much human suffering. (Gonzalez 337-8)
Half-way Covenant
Written in 1662, the Covenant sought to address a lack of candidates for church offices and civil service positions.
Participation depended on testimony of a conversion experience given to the community.
However, the second generation lacked the same religious fervency, and many people could not give witness to a conversion experience, which resulted in ecclesiastical and social crises.
The Covenant, a compromise, gives the second generation the right to have children baptized and participate in civil affairs but still limits the church leadership and reception of communion to those with a conversion experience. (notes on Christianity in the American colonies)
Vatican Council I
During the last decades of the nineteenth century, the papacy was openly opposed to such innovations as the separation of church and state, while also insisting on papal authority.
All of this reached a high point in the First Vatican Council, still under the direction of Pius IX.
The Council promulgated the dogma of papal infallibility on July 18, 1870, which limits the infallibility of the pope to when he speaks ex cathedra.
Many in the curia thought that this ended the age of councils and henceforth popes should rule the church as absolute monarchs.
Only once after this proclamation has the pope claimed to be making use of such authority. In 1950, Pius XII promulgated the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary. The promulgation of papal infallibility met with a moderate response. (Gonzalez 403-4, 442)
Syllabus of Errors
1864, As a reaction and fight against the secular political ideas circulating in Europe and the Americas, Pope Pius IX issued the encyclical Quanta cura, accompanied by the Syllabus of Errors.
The Syllabus listed eighty propositions that Catholics must reject including public schools under state supervision and the freedom of worship.
During the early development of Fascism in Italy, Pope Pius XI could see many commonalities with the principles of the Syllabus of Errors: a hierarchical understanding of society, a strong sense of authority, and a state dedicated to the enforcement of moral standards. (Gonzalez 402-3, 409)
Peace of Westphalia
In 1648, the treaty which officially ended the Thirty Years’ War.
The document uses the Peace of Augsburg as a template: each prince decides his own religion as long as they were Catholics, Lutherans, or Reformed and buildings and institutions were to revert to the ownership of the religious confessions that held them in the year 1624.
The end of the war saw a growing indifference to religion accompanied by the feeling that religious commitment should remain private, and not be carried into civil and political life.
Thus, the modern secular state began to develop, as did doubt regarding religious doctrine previously taken for granted. (Gonzalez 182-4, notes on Thirty Years’ War)
Oxford Movement
A renewal movement of the Church of England from 1833 to 1841 that began when Parliament attempted to cut the number of episcopal sees in Ireland. John Keble preached a sermon entitled “National Apostasy,” which criticized the interference of the government in church affairs.
The Oxford Movement led by a group of Oxford scholars and priests, particularly John Henry Newman, wrote 90 tracts which emphasized the authority of tradition, apostolic succession, and communion as the center of Christian worship.
While their theology was not new, the resurgence of catholic thought led to a renewed devotional life, the rebirth of monasticism in England, and a movement to bring back liturgical elements banned after the Reformation. (Gonzalez 360)
Charles G. Finney
(1792-1875), one of the most famous revivalists,
grew up Presbyterian and gave up his law practice to become a preacher.
He wrote books and taught revival tactics, including altar callings and the anxious bench.
He was progressive and advocated for equal rights for women as well as the abolition of slavery.
He founded the tabernacle in New York, which allowed women to speak and African Americans to integrate with the community.
As the president of Oberlin College, he led the transition into a co-ed institution. (Notes on Christianity in the United States)
Immaculate Conception
In 1854 Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of Mary to be church dogma. According to the dogma Mary herself was kept pure from all sin, including original sin, by virtue of her election to be mother of the Savior. This is most significant because it was the first time a pope defined dogma on his own without the support of a council. This is seen as a testing of the his authority, and since there was little resistance, it paved the way for the promulgation of papal infallibility. (Gonzalez)
Friedrich Schleiermacher
He was a Reformed, German theologian who argued that religion is grounded neither in pure nor practical or moral reason, but rather in Gefuhl–a German word for feeling.
This Gefuhl serves as the profound awareness of the existence of the One on whom all existence depends–both ours and that of the world around us.
He asserted that the function of theology is to explore and expound on the implications of that feeling of dependence at three levels: the self, its relations with the world,and its relations with God.
By thus insisting that religion is different from knowledge, he could interpret the central doctrines of Christianity in such a way that they did not contradict the findings of science. (Gonzalez 388-90)
Kulturkampf
In 1871, the first chancellor of Germany faced the ultramonatatism of the Catholic Church with distrust.
He thought that Catholics would place their loyalty to the Pope over their loyalty to the new united Germany.
The Culture Struggle from 1871-1887 prevented Catholics from holding any power in political or civil service positions and forced Catholic seminaries to submit to intense government inspections. (notes on 19th century Europe)
Social Gospel
A movement of a small core of liberals who devoted their efforts to exploring and showing the relationship between the demands of the gospel and the misery in which the urban masses lived.
Walter Rauschenbusch, leader of the movement, insisted that the social and economic life of the nations should conform to the requirements of the gospel, and showed that economic liberalism results in great inequity and social injustice.
The role of the community in Christianity must not be denied by an individualistic understanding of this faith.
While the movement shared the common optimism regarding human capabilities and the progress of society, the Social Gospel also feared that the so-called progress would take place at the expense of the poor. (Gonzalez 343, 397)
William Carey
A Baptist missionary from England who believed in the conviction that Christians had the obligation to preach the gospel in distant countries to people who had not heard it.
In 1793, Carey moved to Calcutta, eventually settling in Serampore because of the British East India Company’s ban on missionary efforts.
His two greatest accomplishments were translations of the Bible into thirty-five languages and his efforts to cut a custom of burning widows on their husband’s funeral pyres.
Through reports, Carey inspired many in Britain and the United States to found missionary societies.
In 1813, Parliament included a new charter for the BEIC granting missionaries free access to areas under company control.
While Carey’s work did not produce many converts, he set a firm foundation for a church in the land that others would continue. (Gonzalez 418, 422-3)
Five Fundamentals
As scholars began to examine inconsistencies and theories not see before, many people found these new methods unsettling.
Fundamentalism rose to push back against higher criticism with different streams of conservatism.
A Bible Conference held in Nigeria in 1895 decided on Five Fundamentals of Christianity:
Bible is inerrant,
deity of Christ,
Virgin Birth,
substitutionary theory of atonement, and
imminent second coming of Jesus.
Copies of the Fundamentals were shipped to every church supported by an oilman in Los Angeles. (notes on Christianity in the US and Vatican Council II)
