Gonzalez

Question 1

What was the first and most important task of early Christianity?

Answer 1

Define its own nature vis-a-vis the Jewish tradition, especially by serving missions to the Gentiles.

Question 2

Challenges to the early faith were known as what?

Answer 2

Heresies.

Question 3

González speaks of “three main branches of Christianity.” What are they?

Answer 3

Eastern, Roman Catholic, Protestant

Question 4

The most immediate cultural and religious context of the earliest Christian church was what?

Answer 4

Judaism

Question 5

When Constantine converted to Christianity – and thereby the faith was no longer
persecuted, but was hailed as the official religion of the Roman Empire – how did the
Christians feel about their new position in society?

Answer 5

Some were so grateful for the new situation that it was difficult for them to take a critical stance before government and society. Others went to remote places to live a monastic life. Others broke off, insisting they were the true church.

Question 6

Who was responsible for the hellenization of Palestine?

Answer 6

Alexander the Great

Question 7

What provoked the production of some of the earliest theological works in Christianity?

Answer 7

Heresies, rumors about acts of immorality, illogical doctrine.

Question 8

What is the meaning of the term “diaspora,” and to which religious group is it most often
used?

Answer 8

Dispersion and the Jews; the mixing of the Jews with various cultures.

Question 9

Throughout the first three centuries of Christianity, “the central act of Christian worship” –
the most important liturgical thing a Christian could do – was what?

Answer 9

Communion

Question 10

What does González say was “profoundly influential in the development of Christian
ethics”?

Answer 10

Stoic moral doctrine.

Question 11

The first “great teachers” of Christianity were called the what?

Answer 11

Apologists

Question 12

What was the name of the “Edict” which officially ended the formerly legal persecution of
Christians?

Answer 12

Edict of Milan

Question 13

Who does González say provoked the “worst persecution” of Christians?

Answer 13

Diocletian

Question 14

Finally freed from persecution, the Church began to produce some great what?

Answer 14

Teachers

Question 15

Christianity was originally made up of people predominately from the which class of
society?

Answer 15

The lower echelons

Question 16

What are the names of the men González refers to as the “apologists”?

Answer 16

Justin Martyr, Tatian, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Cyprian

Question 17

Who were the “Barbarians,” and what side of the Church (East or West) were they most
influential on?

Answer 17

Germanic tribes influenced the Latin-speaking Western Church

Question 18

Around the time of Constantine Christianity began (for the first time) to appeal to those of
which social-economic class?

Answer 18

The aristocracy

Question 19

During the Early Middle Ages the focus in the sacrament of communion (or the Lord’s
Supper) changed from what to what?

Answer 19

From a celebration to a funereal service

Question 20

Why did the main social-economic class of Christianity change during Constantine’s reign?

Answer 20

Because the Church began to enjoy a higher prestige and power

Question 21

The consequence of the theological controversies of the Early Middle Ages was the
development of a number of what, which still exist today?

Answer 21

Dissident or independent churches

Question 22

González indicates in his book that one of the main purpose of his book is to give readers
a particular view of Church History. What is that view? And why does González see it as
important?

Answer 22

Birds-eye view, a guide or compass so that people would look further into the history

Question 23

In an attempt to resurrect the ancient Western Roman Empire, in AD 800 the Pope crowned
what man emperor?

Answer 23

Charlemagne

Question 24

What was the greatest achievement of Byzantine Christianity?

Answer 24

Conversion of Russia

Question 25

What is the scholarly title for the translation of the Bible used by Jesus and His
contemporaries?

Answer 25

The Septuagint

Question 26

What is the “definitive” date of the “rupture” of relationships between the East and the
West?

Answer 26

1054

Question 27

Who or what were the “diaspora” Jews?

Answer 27

Those who spread beyond the borders of Palestine

Question 28

What event in Christian History is referred to as the “Great Western Schism”?

Answer 28

When the church had two popes, and even three, claiming the throne of St. Peter

Question 29

Apart from the books of the New Testament, the most ancient Christian books that have
survived are usually grouped under the title of what?

Answer 29

Apostolic Fathers

Question 30

The word “cenobitic” comes from a Greek root, and means literally what?

Answer 30

Life in common

Question 31

González gives a date that he says “is usually given as the beginning of the Reformation.”
What is that date?

Answer 31

1517, Luther posted his famous 95 theses

Question 32

The word “monk” means literally what?

Answer 32

Solitary

Question 33

What was the most important (or most dangerous) heresy of the early Christian church?

Answer 33

Gnostism

Question 34

Who, according to González, engaged in the persecution of Christians?

Answer 34

Nero, Domitian, Emperor Septimius Severus, Decius, Valerian, Diocletian, everyone until Constantine and Licinius

Question 35

The Mennonites were a reformation of what group?

Answer 35

Anabaptists

Question 36

The strong religious convictions of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries led to what?

Answer 36

Bloody wars that decimated the population.

Question 37

González informs us of a number of things about the First Council of Nicea (AD 325),
including where it fits in with the other ecumenical councils of the Church, what it was
called to condemn, and what it produced. Know the various things González teaches us
about this council.

Answer 37

It was called to condemn Arianism, that Jesus could not be God since God cannot share his substance with anything.
They decided that God the Father and God the Son were of one substance and that Jesus was Begotten.

Question 38

González refers to Gnosticism as “the most important” heresy to influence the early
Christian Church. What were Gnosticism’s “common elements” or teachings?

Answer 38

Matter is evil. Salvation is getting away from it. Special knowledge would help the believer escape from the material world. They denied the creation, incarnation, and final resurrection.

Question 39

Eusebius referred to the “new attitude” of the government to Christianity as “a miracle,” and,
because of this, called Constantine the “new” what?

Answer 39

David.

Question 40

What century does González refer to as “the great century of modernity,” and why?

Answer 40

19th century, this is when Christianity became truly universal.

Question 41

What period in Church History does González refer to as the “formative period”?

Answer 41

The ancient Church until the Edict of Milan

Question 42

What does González say the major difference was between the “path” of Protestantism and
Catholicism during the Nineteenth century?

Answer 42

Protestantism allowed itself to be swayed by the innovations of the modern world.

Question 43

Who does González say reformed the Western Church?

Answer 43

Monastics who held the papacy

Question 44

The Church produced its Christian canon in response to what?

Answer 44

Heresies or doctrines which threatened the Christian message

Question 45

Many Christians took up monasticism as a new form of asceticism because what was no
longer possible?

Answer 45

Heroic expression of the faith, of martyrs

Question 46

Who does González call “the greatest of the Christian apologists of the second century”?

Answer 46

Justin Martyr

Question 47

At the “high point of modernity” it was believed that “every human problem would
eventually be solved by means of” what?

Answer 47

Reason and technology

Question 48

During which era (e.g., The Ancient Church, the Christian Empire, the Early Middle Ages,
the High Point of the Middle Ages, the Late Middle Ages, etc.) did the Papacy reach its
height of prestige and power?

Answer 48

The High Point of the Middle Ages

Question 49

During which era (e.g., The Ancient Church, the Christian Empire, the Early Middle Ages,
the High Point of the Middle Ages, the Late Middle Ages, etc.) did the Papacy rapidly
decline?

Answer 49

Late Middle Ages

Question 50

In large measure, persecutions of Christians were based on a number of rumors and opinions
circulating among the populace. According to González, what were those rumors and
opinions?

Answer 50

Immorality, doctrine made no sense and was typical of people with no logical thought

Question 51

During the period of Christian persecution, González says that the “central act of worship”
was what?

Answer 51

Communion

Question 52

According to González, in the early Church, baptism traditionally took place on what
Sunday?

Answer 52

Easter Sunday

Question 53

What “militant group” defended “its cause by means of arms”?

Answer 53

Donatists, or Circumcellions

Question 54

When Augustine died in AD 430, what group were besieging the city of Hippo?

Answer 54

The Vandals

Question 55

The first and second ecumenical councils of Christianity (Nicaea and Constantinople) were
called primarily to deal with or combat what heresy?

Answer 55

Arianism