Using the Past against the Papacy: Luther’s appeal to Church History in his Anti-Papal Writings

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 132-143
Author(s):  
Charlotte Methuen
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Church History ◽  
Early Church ◽  
The Past ◽  
Church Life ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

It is well known that Martin Luther found ultimate authority sola scriptura. The evangelical endeavour which he initiated and exemplified focused on the return to the gospel and the rediscovery of a church modelled according to scriptural lines. For the Reformers, the truly catholic church was that church which adhered most closely to the church established by Scripture. The early church, being chronologically closest to that established in Scripture, was more authentic, not yet affected by innovation. But how were the details of that church to be discovered? Scripture was not always informative on practical questions of church life and ecclesiastical order, and for these an appeal to church history was necessary. Drawing particularly on Scott Hendrix’s study of Luther’s attitude towards the papacy, and the studies by John Headley and others of Luther’s view of, and appeal to, church history, this essay explores the ways in which Luther used his knowledge of church history to define and support his developing critique of the papacy. It focuses on his early writings to 1521, but will also consider the later work Von den Consiliis und Kirchen (1539), a testimony to Luther’s growing interest in the history of the church.

Lamennais

1947 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waldemar Gurian
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Early Church ◽  
The Third ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Papal Infallibility ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

The history of the Catholic Church includes men who, after brilliant services to the Church, died outside her fold. Best known among them is Tertullian, the apologetic writer of the Early Church; less known is Ochino, the third vicar-general of the Capuchins, whose flight to Calvin's Geneva almost destroyed his order. In the nineteenth century there were two famous representatives of this group. Johann von Doellinger refused, when more than seventy years old, to accept the decision of the Vatican Council about papal infallibility. He passed away in 1890 unreconciled, though he had been distinguished for years as the outstanding German Catholic theologian. Félicité de la Mennais was celebrated as the new Pascal and Bossuet of his time before he became the modern Tertullian by breaking with the Church because Pope Gregory XVI rejected his views on the relations between the Church and die world. As he lay deathly ill, his niece, “Madame de Kertanguy asked him: ‘Féli, do you want a priest? Surely, you want a priest?’ Lamennais answered: ‘No.’ The niece repeated: ‘I beg of you.’ But he said with a stronger voice: ‘No, no, no.

scholarly journals Dampak Dikeluarkannya Edik Milano 313 bagi Kebebasan Gereja

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-45
Author(s):  
Jon Mister R. Damanik
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Church History ◽  
The State ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

Church history is not an outdated or outdated writing, but church history has an important role to play. Because in the history of the church there are important parts that can be used as a teaching for the church today. Chrestus is a term for followers of Christ, and Christians are used as an outlet for pleasure when they are persecuted, pitted against hungry animals, used as torches to light the garden, nearly 250 years of persecuted Christians have not been given freedom by the state even if there is a problem -problems like a fire whose cause is Christians because they do not worship their gods so that the gods are angry. The Edik Milan is a decree issued in 313 which greatly influenced the church's freedom to carry out religious activities. The meaning of Edik is: "an order carried out by the ruler." Milan is "the Roman state where Roman rule ruled." With the issuance of this Edict of Milan by Konstantin the Great, the ruler of the Roman empire gave a glimmer of hope in freedom of worship. Events that have occurred in the church in the past are a motivation for the church to keep carrying out the command of the Lord Jesus, namely to make all nations become His disciples. The church exists today because there was a church in the past, hope to continue learning about history because from history there will be a lot to know about what happened in the past as a positive lesson in the present.AbstrakSejarah Gereja bukan suatu tulisan yang tidak berlaku atau yang sudah usang, tetapi sejarah gereja memiliki peranan penting untuk dipelajari. Karena dalam sejarah gereja terdapat bagian-bagian yang penting untuk dapat dijadikan sebagai suatu pengajaran bagi gereja masa kini. Chrestus adalah suatu sebutan untuk pengikut Kristus, dan orang-orang Kristen dijadikan sebagai pelampiasan kesenangan pada saat mereka dianiaya, diadu dengan binatang lapar, dijadikan obor sebagai penerang taman, hampir 250 tahun orang-orang Kristen dianiaya tidak diberikan kebebasan oleh negara bahkan jika ada masalah-masalah seperti kebakaran yang penyebabnya itu adalah orang Kristen karena mereka tidak menyembah dewa mereka sehingga dewa murka. Edik Milan adalah suatu Surat Keputusan yang dikeluarkan pada tahun 313 yang sangat berpengaruh bagi kebebasan gereja untuk melaksanakan kegiatan ibadah-ibadah. Arti Edik adalah: ”perintah yang dilakukan oleh penguasa.” Milan adalah ”negara Roma tempat pemerintahan Romawi berkuasa.” Dengan dikeluarkan Edik Milan ini oleh Konstantinu Agung penguasa kekaisaran Romawi memberikan secercah harapan dalam kebebasan dalam melaksanakan ibadah. Peristiwa yang pernah terjadi pada gereja pada masa dulu adalah suatu motivasi bagi gereja untuk tetap menjalankan perintah Tuhan Yesus yaitu untuk menjadikan semua bangsa menjadi murid-Nya. Gereja ada pada hari ini karena ada gereja pada masa lalu, harapan teruslah belajar tentang sejarah karena dari sejarah akan banyak diketahui apa yang terjadi pada masa lalu sebagai suatu pembelajaran yang positif pada masa kini.

scholarly journals Migration history in South Africa as a lens for interpreting God’s mission: Towards a challenge for churches to embrace migrants

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Magezi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Church History ◽  
Early Church ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Migration History ◽  
God's Mission ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

This article challenges the church to embrace migrants by presenting migration history in South Africa during the era of European explorers as a lens for interpreting God’s mission. In avowing the aforementioned, it argues for migration history of the European explorers to South Africa as the way God has used in establishing the church in South Africa. However, in view of the subsequent colonialism and slave trade in South Africa that emerged from the period of European explorers, this article recognises the conception of slave trade and colonialism during the era of European explorers as an evil act. Notably, in bringing Joseph’s forced migration to Egypt as a theological lens to interpret some sinful acts that were embedded in the migration of European explorers to South Africa that also resulted in the establishment of the early church in South Africa, it contends that God’s purpose and plans are not frustrated or thwarted by human sin. God, in his grace and love to reach his remnant people with the gospel, utilises various migrations of European explorers to South Africa (regardless of how sinful they are) to advance his kingdom to South Africa. The notion of migration history in South Africa as a lens for interpreting God’s mission is utilised to challenge the churches to embrace migrants because God uses migration or migrants to advance his kingdom to all the earth. The article concludes by calling the church to embrace all migrants because humankind are usually unacquainted with the particular migrants that God is utilising to advance his kingdom.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article outlines theological research agenda for migration history in South Africa as a lens to interpret God’s mission. It considers migration history in South Africa during the era of European explorers as a tool that God used to advance his kingdom. As such, it is a theological interdisciplinary article integrating church history and mission. The contribution of this article lies in establishing the emergence of the early church in South Africa as a result of migration, which it utilises as a challenge for churches to embrace migrants.

Medieval Heretics as Protestant Martyrs

1993 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 185-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Euan Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Church History ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
Church Polity ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Articles Of Faith ◽  
The Church

Two themes which figure repeatedly in the history of the Western Church are the contrasting ones of tradition and renewal. To emphasize tradition, or continuity, is to stress the divine element in the continuous collective teaching and witness of the Church. To call periodically for renewal and reform is to acknowledge that any institution composed of people will, with time, lose its pristine vigour or deviate from its original purpose. At certain periods in church history the tension between these two themes has broken out into open conflict, as happened with such dramatic results in the Reformation of the sixteenth century. The Protestant Reformers seem to present one of the most extreme cases where the desire for renewal triumphed over the instinct to preserve continuity of witness. A fundamentally novel analysis of the process by which human souls were saved was formulated by Martin Luther in the course of debate, and soon adopted or reinvented by others. This analysis was then used as a touchstone against which to test and to attack the most prominent features of contemporary teaching, worship, and church polity. In so far as any appeal was made to Christian antiquity, it was to the scriptural texts and to the early Fathers; though even the latter could be selected and criticized if they deviated from the primary articles of faith. There was, then, no reason why any of the Reformers should have sought to justify their actions by reference to any forbears or ‘forerunners’ in the Middle Ages, whether real or spurious. On the contrary, Martin Luther’s instinctive response towards those condemned by the medieval Church as heretics was to echo the conventional and prejudiced hostility felt by the religious intelligentsia towards those outside their pale.

Slavery in the Early Church

2020 ◽  
pp. 38-63
Author(s):  
Mary E. Sommar
Keyword(s):  
Church History ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Early Church ◽  
General Reader ◽  
History Of ◽  
Specialist Knowledge ◽  
Church Law ◽  
The Church ◽  
Historical Periods ◽  
Insight Into

This is the story of how the church sought to establish norms for slave ownership on the part of ecclesiastical institutions and personnel and for others’ behavior toward such slaves. Chronicles, letters, and other documents from each of the various historical periods, along with an analysis of the various policies and statutes, provide insight into the situations of these unfree ecclesiastical dependents. Although this book is a serious scholarly monograph about the history of church law, it has been written in such a way that no specialist knowledge is required of the reader, whether a scholar in another field or a general reader interested in church history or the history of slavery. Historical background is provided, and there is a short Latin lexicon. This chapter discusses slavery in the first three centuries of Christianity.

scholarly journals Defence of Candidate Theses Performed at the Department of Church History of the Moscow Theological Academy

2020 ◽  
pp. 316-318
Author(s):  
Павел Евгеньевич Липовецкий
Keyword(s):  
Church History ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Academic World ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Church Life ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

Историк тем любезен человечеству, что спасает от безызвестности имена и события, сохраняет прошлое для будущего. Но особая «каста» среди историков – архивисты, люди, посвятившие всю свою жизнь работе в архивах. Склоняясь над грудами документов, историк-архивист выбирает из них самое ценное, чтобы сообщить о нём миру. Иногда такие сообщения способны перевернуть мир, иногда могут наделать шуму в научном мире, а иногда – дополнить уже известный нам портрет человека новыми чертами или неожиданными поступками. Протоиерей Виктор Лисюнин, успешно защитивший диссертацию 14 ноября 2019 г., относится к числу указанных тружеников-архивистов. На протяжении нескольких лет он упорно отыскивал и бережно собирал документальные свидетельства о служении святителя Луки (Войно-Ясенецкого) в Тамбовской епархии. Результатом стало кандидатское исследование, повествующее о разных аспектах церковной жизни под управлением святителя в конце 40-х гг. прошлого века на Тамбовской земле. The historian is so kind to humanity that he saves names and events from obscurity, preserving the past for the future. But a special "caste" among historians are archivists, people who have devoted their entire lives to work in archives. Bending over piles of documents, the historian-archivist selects the most precious of them in order to communicate them to the world. Sometimes such reports can turn the world upside down, sometimes they can make a splash in the academic world, and sometimes they can add new features or unexpected actions to the portrait of a person we already know. Archpriest Victor Lisiunin, who successfully defended his dissertation on 14 November 2019, is among these hard-working archivists. For several years he has persistently sought out and carefully collected documentary evidence about the ministry of St Luke (Vojno-Jasenetsky) in the Tambov diocese. The result was a doctoral research, telling about various aspects of church life under the saint's rule in the late 40s of the last century in the Tambov land.

scholarly journals Gnosticism, church unity and the Nicene Creed

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. F.C. Coetzee
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Church History ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Nag Hammadi ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
Nicene Creed ◽  
Age Of Aquarius ◽  
The Church

Gnosticism (derived from the Greek word “gnosis; knowledge”) is the well-known phenomenon or movement which dates from the first centuries of church history. The teaching of Gnosticism questioned and/or contradicted the teaching of the church on some of the fundamental truths of Scripture. Apart from Gnosticism, the Early Church also had to deal with the heresy of Arianism. In the Nicene Creed, formulated by the councils of Nicea (325 AD) and Constantinople (381 AD) the universal or catholic church responded officially to the heresies of both Gnosticism and Arianism. In the final edition of the Nicene Creed we also find an article on the unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity of the church. Both Gnosticism and Arianism posed a serious threat to the unity of the church.   In our times we experience a revival of ancient Gnosticism, both pagan and “Christian”. This revival is also called the New Age or the Age of Aquarius. Within the framework of this new worldview, we are witnessing a rediscovery of gnosis. The discovery and publication of certain ancient gnostic texts like the Nag Hammadi Codices, play a significant role in this revival. Consequently the canon of Scripture is questioned or openly rejected and also the creeds based on that Scripture.   The Nicene Creed played a major and decisive role in preserving and maintaining the unity of the church on the basis of the truth of Scripture. This age-old creed is today just as relevant and important in proclaiming and confessing the true faith and preserving the true unity of the church.

Ecumenism and Rome

1984 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-64
Author(s):  
T. F. Torrance
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Evangelical Churches ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Catholic Churches ◽  
The Church

Few people in our time have been more deeply concerned with thinking into each other again the inner substance of the evangelical and catholic emphases in the Church of Jesus Christ, than Oscar Cullmann. This has been especially evident in the way in which he has consistently sought to penetrate into the essential harmony of the Gospel that not only underlies the whole history of the Church but underpins the divisions between the Evangelical Churches and the Roman Catholic Church, bringing his unusually fresh understanding of the NT and the Early Church to bear constructively upon the areas of discord and friction, not least in respect of the concept of the Papacy. His many writings reveal unparalleled sensitivity and appreciation for the centrality of the biblical message, the sanctity of tradition and the continuity of worship in the redeemed life of the people of God, which have allowed him to bring together, without compromise, the concentration upon the core of the Gospel which has characterised the Evangelical Churches and the universal task and unifying order which have characterised the Catholic Churches.

scholarly journals Communicatio In Sacris Berbagi Kasanah Rohani Medium Membangun Persaudaraan di Antara Umat Kristiani Analisa Sejarah, Doktrin dan Iuris

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (29) ◽  
pp. 294-333
Author(s):  
I Ketut Gegel
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
John Xxiii ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Wide Possibility ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

In this paper, the author studies of Communicatio in Sacris as an act of sharing sacraments among Christians. This study begins with the author's observation regarding of relation among Christians at this time. In the past centuries, many dissensions happened and large communities were separated from full communion with Catholic Church. Each excludes others to take part in its own liturgy. However, it should be kept in mind, that unity which Christ willed, stood at the very heart of the Church’s mission. At every era, there have been figures who do not only defend the Church but also open the Church to other Christians, especially, in her liturgical services. It has begun a long the history of the Church. It is sufficient to simply to mention two of them. In 1244 Innocent IV allowed Dominicans to minister separated Christian communities by sharing the Eucharist with them. In modern age, John XXIII who led the 2nd Vatican Council  has brought Catholic Church even more open toward other Churches, giving a wide possibility to share sacraments with non Catholic. The purpose of all these actions is for the goodness of souls. The method used in this article is a qualitative research, by analyzing the Church view of communicatio in sacris. The author analyzed the Church documents: 2nd Vatican Council, Canon Law and other sources, including digital sources to support the analysis. From this study, the author found out that communicatio in sacris in its strict meaning means to share sacraments amongs Christians that becomes an instrument to foster fraternity among Christians. 

scholarly journals Early African Christianity–A Thematic Analysis

2020 ◽  
pp. 264-273
Author(s):  
Aidan Kwame Ahaligah
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Church History ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
Early Church ◽  
African Theology ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
The Church

This article is devoted to a thematic analysis of early or ancient African Christianity and its influence on ecclesial practices and thinking in contemporary Africa. Drawing on literature in the history of the church in antiquity this paper re-tells the story of how Africa and Africans in the first millennium developed and shaped World Christianity. Specifically, it discusses the contributions made to the early Church by the African Fathers of the faith, Origen and Augustine. The paper contest sentiments and perceptions that Christianity is a “white mans” religion and to reclaim African Christianity’s identity as a global religious culture which has existed since antiquity. Moreover, it argues that a lot is lost, with its attendant misinterpretations, when Christianity in Africa is only viewed as a result of the fruits of the nineteenth-century missionary activities. The paper contributes to the study of African Church history, the contextualisation/inculturation of the gospel, and African theology.

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