Author Archives: ndf@uoregon.edu

Team 2, Question 1

Posted on by under global christianity

Christianity had a huge impact on World War I in many different ways. One of the major roles of Christianity was through the countries involved in the war who used Christianity as a means of propaganda for backing their involvement. The portraying of the war as a  “Holy Crusade” really encourage the people of these countries to back the warfare going on in Europe. On the opposite end the Pope at the time, Pope Benedict XV, was against the war and saw it as millions of lives being loss. He went on to question the world and the followers of Jesus asking them how they could be so willing to kill their neighbors. Another role that came during and after WWI was the questioning of Christianity during the war. People didn’t understand how God and world could allow people to go out and kill one another on such a large scale. Soon after WWII broke out and the world was right back to where it was considering it a war of justice. Compared to WWI, Christianity played a lesser role but the questioning and separation grew stronger and I think the biggest reason for this was the Holocaust. Why was God doing this to the world? This trend of separating one self from the church did not end after the wars and would rather spread widely across Europe.

Secularization would contribute hugely to the decline of European Christianity. It would lead to major changes in European Christianity and everyday life for example it led to a drop in church attendance. This has lead to a dramatic increase in Europeans belief in God all the way up to today where Europe has some of the lowest numbers in church attendance around the world. The family life and Christianity have parted ways. Families are not baptizing their children in numbers that they use to, less and less children are being brought up within the church, and there has been a growing trend of people deciding not to get married. The rise in immigration has lead trends to both a destabilized and revitalizing Christianity in Europe. First destabilized, there has been rising number of immigrants coming to Europe who are Muslim which has challenged the dominance that Christianity has always had in European society. Immigration has also lead to revitalizing Christianity through immigrants from Africa and Asia who have brought and grown their Christian beliefs across Europe.

Across Europe Christianity have a significant commitment to truth and want to prove what is true through Christianity. The idea of proving what is true through Christianity hasn’t created a great divide in European society but has caused trend in discussion over religion and science having to become more align and accepting of one another. The European intellectual have judged the relationship between reason, science, and faith has grown and become a big trend throughout European history where science was something that was against God and punished by the church where now in more modern times the Church is losing its grasp on European society resulting in the decline in Europeans being involved with Christianity.

As we have learned throughout the course modern European life has been tremendously shaped by the enlightenment ideals of rationalism, empiricism, and skepticism. These forces have lead and will have an impact on the future of European Christianity. These ideas will threaten the future of Christianity if it does not become more giving or accepting to modern ideas. Truth will ultimately have to still be backed by facts and not opinions or interpretations. If Christianity doesn’t modernize then the modern European world will keep stepping further away from Christianity. This stepping away from Christianity will open the doors for a very different society that history has never seen before.

Team 2, Question 1

Posted on by under second great awakening

The Second Great Awakening was extraordinary time in the Protestant movement full of emotion, devotion and conversion. It started out in New England and wasn’t sparked by anti-intellectual connotations like other movements, catching the attention of some of the biggest theologians of this time. It was branded by engulfing oneself in the ideas of Jesus, the notion of loving your neighbor which would come under fire later. One of the key characteristics was individualism, individuals working towards a better more personal relationship with Christ. In the text it discussed how many societies formed at this time with the goal of making the gospel well known. Gonzales discusses in more detail about these societies, “American Bible Society, founded in 1816, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, founded six years earlier. The latter was the result of a covenant made by a group of students meeting on a haystack, who vowed to devote themselves to foreign missions” (Gonzales). These mission trips were focused many things like social causes such as slavery, women, and the spreading of the gospel to insure everybody had the opportunity to live their life as Jesus did. As touched on briefly above Women were a key characteristic, playing a big role in this period. The rate of conversions was the highest amongst women, women were creating societies and leading the charge amongst many social issues. The characteristic of individualism and its effect on women played a huge role in the placement of The Second Great Awakening in history.

Charles Finney has a stern personality that cast a large amount of judgment on mankind. He says that “religion is the work of man. It is something for man to do. It consists in obeying God with and from the heart. It is man’s duty” (Placher). Finney is judging man of all these, human nature, humanity’s normal relationship with God, and the mainstream efforts by churches to bring people to God. He judges and criticizes man because of the fact that man gets caught up in the scripture, interpreting and preaching to many people creating revival after revival causing “man” to really lose touch with God. God did not create man to go out and revive, revive, and revive, as Finney states “God is a sovereign, and it is very wrong for you to attempt to get up a revival, just because you think a revival is needed” (Placher).  He goes on to back revivalism in how it should be. If God wants to revive anything he will do it and he will pick somebody to carry out that act but its not going to be everybody and its not going to be a trend amongst men. This sums up Finney, he is degusted with man’s obsession of forming their own opinions, bringing people to God with that opinion, and forming these revivals because to him man must obey God and work towards God not be selfish and work against God.

Team 2, Question 1

Posted on by under reformation

Theological reformation was spreading like a plague from the spark that Luther had casted onto the Catholic church. To Luther’s surprise this spark lite the fire of reformation that would spread and even go against Luther as we find with Müntzer and the reformers at Münster. Through the examination of the “Vindication and Refutation”, Müntzer’s Sermon, the Rothmann’s Restitution, and the story of Jan van Leiden’s fate we will dig deeper into this great theological reform of this period in time.

Through the examination of the “Vindication and Refutation” we will see deeper into Müntzer hatred toward Luther and the reason why. Müntzer once considered himself a member of Luther’s had developed this hatred, but because of Luther’s badmouthing about Müntzer to the point where his own peers depicted him as Satan or some kind of devil all because he himself had reformed off of Luther’s own ideas. Müntzer has a big issue with the socio-economic state of society. The idea of theft is viewed by Müntzer as a very common occurrence. This wrongdoing of taking advantage of others Müntzer believed will lead to punishment because these kind of acts are wrong and have been stated to be wrong by God.

The Müntzer Sermon really gives us an idea of what he was truly about. He felt that he was a messenger for God, a prophet. This sermon was rather a hearing granted to Müntzer by a group of nobles and princes. Müntzer turned it into a sermon and is probably why today it is something we study. He portrays himself as the prophet with a very important message from God. That message is that they these nobles must be God’s tools. If they are to be His tools they must live a life with God and restrain from the unnecessary things in life. As long as they life their life accordingly and use the sword of God to defend him from the godless they will be protected. He backs these statements up with references to biblical passages to reinforce the message he is giving him because he wants them to know that the sword is not what they should be thankful for but the power of God.

Through the development of the Anabaptist and their strong beliefs in Müntzer’s ideas came what would become known as the “New Jerusalem” in Münster. The creation of the “New Jerusalem” and its first assigned “New King David”, Jan Mathijs  who was killed soon after they caught the attention of many, especially those of the Catholic Church and protestants. This community had some very extremist qualities and were very devoted to the old testament. Jan Van Leiden would take the seat that Mathij once held but in 1535 the strong Catholic and protestant armies came in and took back the city of Münster killing the majority of the peasant Anabaptists.

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