Always Reforming: A History of Christianity Since 1300

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Mercer University Press, 2001 - 375 pages
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One of the most important slogans of the Protestant Reformation was the Latin phrase Ecclesia semper reformanda -- "the Church is always reforming". This theological principle, so central to the work of the Reformers, is the unifying theme of Craig D. Atwood's history of Christianity in the modern era.

Surveying Christianity's development over the past seven hundred years, Atwood tells the story of the demise of a unified Christendom in the face of change and division. In highly readable prose, the author spotlights Christian thinkers' repeated efforts to reform the church, as well as the divisions and frequent warfare sparked by these efforts.

The idea of reforming the church has a two-fold thrust. It means rectifying abuses or errors in the institutional church and bringing the church back into line with its original purpose. As Atwood unfolds the story, each century brought more splintering of the institutional church and more diversity within the various denominations. Reforming the church also meant reshaping the Christian religion itself to meet the demands and challenges of a new day. Christianity had to adapt or become a relic of a bygone era. For the modern period in particular, Christianity has been continually reforming and adapting to new social situations. In the process, thousands of different Christian churches have developed. Always Reforming explains the origins and development of a bewildering array of churches that have arisen since Martin Luther's reformation first tore the "seamless robe of Christ".

Arising out of the author's college teaching of modern Western religious history, the book gives special attention to women and other long-silenced voices in thehistory of Christianity. It is a vivid narrative of men and women of faith who have tried to make sense of the Christian gospel in a complex and ever-changing world.

 

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Table des matières

Creating a Christian Society in the Old World and the New
161
The Enlightenment
175
Religion of the Heart
197
Methodism and the Great Awakening
215
The Nineteenth Century
229
Catholicism Eastern Orthodoxy and Nationalism
231
NineteenthCentury American Evangelicalism
242
Liberalism
254

Renaissance Humanism
68
The Protestant Reformation
79
The Reformation in Germany
81
The Swiss Reformation
92
The Radical Reformation
104
The Spread of the Reformation and the Wars of Religion
113
The Reformation in England
124
The Catholic and CounterReformations
143
The Final Wars of Religion
153
Religion of the Heart in the Age of Reason
159
New Sects and Secularism
269
Missions to the World
280
The Twentieth Century
299
Christianity and Two World Wars
301
Modernism Ecumenism and Fundamentalism
315
Vatican II and the Modern Catholic Church 338
350
Suggested Readings
355
Index
363
Droits d'auteur

Expressions et termes fréquents

Fréquemment cités

Page 78 - Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that "the just shall live by his faith." Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the "justice of God" had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly...
Page 195 - One day when I had been walking solitarily abroad, and was come home, I was taken up in the love of God, so that I could not but admire the greatness of his love. While I was in that condition, it was opened unto me by the eternal light and power...
Page 14 - in the beginnings," but "in the beginning" God created the heavens and the earth. Indeed we declare, announce, and define that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff.
Page 78 - My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that 'the just shall live by faith.
Page 20 - Christ; and that all men, of every rank and condition, including the pope himself, are bound to obey it in matters concerning the Faith, the abolition of the schism, and the reformation of the Church of God in its head and its members.
Page 141 - The authority of the pope is equally with others a dominion of reason, God has conferred this rule on St. Peter and his successors, that they might lead the flocks confided to their care into everlasting blessedness. A pope should know that those over whom he exercises this rule are free men ; not according to his own pleasure must he command, or forbid, or dispense, but in obedience to the rule of reason, of God's...
Page 239 - BORN EQUAL*" and are endowed with uncdienaUc RIGHTS by their CREATOR, in the blessings of life, libetty, and the pursuit of happiness — then there can be no just reason, as a cause, why he may or should not think, and judge, and act for himself in .matters of religion, opinion, and private judgment. For what right hath any man to meddle with that which Joes not concern hitnff If all men are "equal and independent" in their INDIVIDUAL capacity — yet it is equally self-evident that they are dependent...
Page 251 - The Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and The Critique of Judgment (1790).
Page 239 - Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989).

Informations bibliographiques