Religious Societies: Methodist and Evangelical 1738–1800

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 279-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Voluntary Activity ◽  
Church Courts ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Market Situation ◽  
Social Controls ◽  
The Church

One does not have to believe in free trade to recognize that in religion as well as economic life the erosion of a monopoly can provoke an uprush of private enterprise. It must be more than coincidental that two modern ‘church in danger’ crises which accompanied an erosion of Anglican hegemony - the Revolution of 1688 and the constitutional crises of 1828–32 – were followed by bursts of voluntary activity. Clusters of private societies were formed to fill up part of the space vacated by the state, as it withdrew itself further from active support of the establishment. After the Toleration Act perceptive churchmen felt even more acutely the realities of religious pluralism and competition. Anglicanism was now approaching what looked uncomfortably like a market situation; needing to be promoted; actively sold. Despite the political and social advantages still enjoyed by the Church, the confessional state in its plenitude of power had gone, and Anglican pre-eminence had to be preserved by other means. One means was through voluntary societies. The Society for the Reformation of Manners hoped by private prosecutions to exert some of the social controls once more properly exercised by the Church courts. The S.P.G. sought to encourage Anglican piety in the plantations and the S.P.C.K. to extend it at home by promoting charity schools and disseminating godly tracts. It was a task of voluntarism to reassert, as far as possible, what authority remained to a church which, because it could not effectively coerce, had to persuade.

The critical theory of democracy in Western political thought

2020 ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Ruqaya Saeed Khalkhal
Keyword(s):  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
The Church ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
Or Applications ◽  
The Ideal

The darkness that Europe lived in the shadow of the Church obscured the light that was radiating in other parts, and even put forward the idea of democracy by birth, especially that it emerged from the tent of Greek civilization did not mature in later centuries, especially after the clergy and ideological orientation for Protestants and Catholics at the crossroads Political life, but when the Renaissance emerged and the intellectual movement began to interact both at the level of science and politics, the Europeans in democracy found refuge to get rid of the tyranny of the church, and the fruits of the application of democracy began to appear on the surface of most Western societies, which were at the forefront to be doubtful forms of governece.        Democracy, both in theory and in practice, did not always reflect Western political realities, and even since the Greek proposition, it has not lived up to the idealism that was expected to ensure continuity. Even if there is a perception of the success of the democratic process in Western societies, but it was repulsed unable to apply in Islamic societies, because of the social contradiction added to the nature of the ruling regimes, and it is neither scientific nor realistic to convey perceptions or applications that do not conflict only with our civilized reality The political realization created by certain historical circumstances, and then disguises the different reality that produced them for the purpose of resonance in the ideal application.

East Germany

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Detlef Pollack ◽  
Gergely Rosta
Keyword(s):  
Structural Transformation ◽  
East Germany ◽  
External Factors ◽  
The Political ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
State Security ◽  
Security Service ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church

The case of East Germany raises the question of why religion and church, which had fallen to an unprecedentedly low level after four decades of suppression, have not recovered since 1989. The repressive church politics of the SED were undoubtedly the decisive factor in the unique process of minoritizing churches in the GDR. However, other external factors such as increasing prosperity, socio-structural transformation, and the expansion of the leisure and entertainment sector played an important role, too. In addition, church activity itself probably also helped to weaken the social position of churches. The absence of a church renaissance after 1990 can be explained by several factors, such as the long-term effects of the break with tradition caused by the GDR system, the political and moral discrediting of the church by the state security service, and people’s dwindling confidence in the church, which was suddenly seen as a non-representative Western institution.

The Political Theory of the Disruption

1916 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold J. Laski
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Political Principles ◽  
The Church

“Of political principles,” says a distinguished authority, “whether they be those of order or of freedom, we must seek in religious and quasi-theological writings for the highest and most notable expressions.” No one, in truth, will deny the accuracy of this claim for those ages before the Reformation transferred the centre of political authority from church to state. What is too rarely realised is the modernism of those writings in all save form. Just as the medieval state had to fight hard for relief from ecclesiastical trammels, so does its modern exclusiveness throw the burden of a kindred struggle upon its erstwhile rival. The church, intelligibly enough, is compelled to seek the protection of its liberties lest it become no more than the religious department of an otherwise secular society. The main problem, in fact, for the political theorist is still that which lies at the root of medieval conflict. What is the definition of sovereignty? Shall the nature and personality of those groups of which the state is so formidably one be regarded as in its gift to define? Can the state tolerate alongside itself churches which avow themselves societates perfectae, claiming exemption from its jurisdiction even when, as often enough, they traverse the field over which it ploughs? Is the state but one of many, or are those many but parts of itself, the one?

Roman Catholicism and Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 436-457
Author(s):  
Petr Kratochvíl
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The Political ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Global Nature ◽  
The Church ◽  
Hostile Attitude ◽  
The Catholic Church

This chapter explores the complex relationship between the Catholic Church and Europe over many centuries. It argues that the Catholic Church and Europe played a mutually constitutive role in the early Middle Ages and one would not be conceivable without the other. However, the Church gradually disassociated itself from Europe and vice versa. Since the Reformation, but even more strongly in the last two centuries, the Church’s attitude to Europe has become markedly more ambivalent, due to the rise of the European state, the hostile attitude of the Church to modern European social and political thought, Europe’s ongoing secularization, and the increasingly global nature of the Catholic Church. While the tension between the Church and Europe persists, the process of European unification marked a watershed in the Church’s relationship to Europe, given that integration is a key area in which the Church strongly supports the political developments of the continent.

The Reformation and the Establishment of Lutheranism in the Holy Roman Empire

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Whaley
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
General Population ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
The Political ◽  
Charles V ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
The Church

Martin Luther was a subject of the Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire. His emergence as a reformer was made possible by the sponsorship he received in Wittenberg. He owed his survival to the protection afforded him by the Elector when Emperor Charles V outlawed him and ordered that the papal ban of excommunication be enforced in the empire. The audience to which Luther appealed was the general population of German Christians, both lay and ecclesiastical, who wanted a reform of the church and the reduction of the pope’s influence over it. That his appeal resonated so widely and so profoundly had much to do with a combination of crises that had developed in the empire from the 15th century. That his reform proposals resulted in the formation of a new church owed everything to the political structures of the empire. These facilitated the suppression of radical challenges to Luther’s position. They also thwarted every effort Charles V made over several decades to ensure that the empire remained Catholic. Lutheranism became entwined with the idea of German liberty; as a result, its survival was secured in the constitution of the empire, first in 1555 and then in 1648.

scholarly journals John Glas and the Development of Religious Pluralism in Eighteenth-Century Scotland

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALASDAIR RAFFE
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Scottish Enlightenment ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Church Courts ◽  
The Church ◽  
Church Government

This article discusses John Glas, a minister deposed by the Church of Scotland in 1728, in order to examine the growth of religious pluralism in Scotland. The article begins by considering why Glas abandoned Presbyterian principles of Church government, adopting Congregationalist views instead. Glas's case helped to change the Scottish church courts’ conception of deposed ministers, reflecting a reappraisal of Nonconformity. Moreover, Glas's experiences allow us to distinguish between church parties formed to conduct business, and those representing theological attitudes. Finally, Glas's case calls into question the broadest definitions of the ‘Scottish Enlightenment’, drawing attention to the emergence of pluralism.

Convention and Conversion: Patterns in Late Medieval Piety

1998 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Kieckhefer
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Materialism ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Liberal Protestantism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Teachings ◽  
Ernst Troeltsch ◽  
The Church

Ernst Troeltsch is known to church historians largely for his classic threefold distinction of church, sect, and mysticism. In The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches, Troeltsch describes the church as an institution enmeshed with society and making accommodations to the world's imperfections; the sects, driven by a quest for purity, refuse to make accommodations or compromises, while the mystics stand aside from this conflict and concern themselves with “a purely personal and inward experience” in which “the isolated individual, and psychological abstraction and analysis become everything.” Troeltsch sees mysticism not as a phenomenon naturally at home within the church but rather as one that leads away from the establishment, and it is perhaps this perception in particular that gives his work lasting relevance. The assumption that mysticism veers naturally in an antiecclesial direction, and that its more orthodox manifestations are anomalies requiring explanation, remains very much alive in the literature. Indeed, from the perspective of cultural materialism, it is the political, antiecclesial, subversive bite of mysticism that is its most interesting feature. On this point liberal Protestantism and postmodernism have come together, theology and cultural studies have embraced. Troeltsch's schema thus retains relevance well beyond the sphere of historiography.

Time, Death, and the Next Generation: The Early Elizabethan Recusancy Policy, 1558–1574

1982 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-117
Author(s):  
John J. LaRocca
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The Political ◽  
Privy Council ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Social Composition ◽  
The Social ◽  
International Character ◽  
The Church

In a recent article, Caroline M. Hibbard noted that recent work on Tudor-Stuart recusancy has focused on the enforcement of royal and statutory policy on the local level and has examined the social composition of the recusant community. These studies have revealed that the recusant community was not dominated by priests, not subject to the political directives of the papacy, and not plotting rebellion. The problem inherent in these local studies, as Professor Hibbard points out, is that they do not explain why the English were anti-Catholic and they do not examine the international character of the English Catholic Community. This article is an attempt to view the recusant problem from the perspective of the monarch and the privy council, because both monarch and privy council were aware of the international character of Catholicism and both stated clearly in their policies toward recusants the grounds of their objection to the Catholic community. An analysis of the recusancy policy established by Elizabeth between 1559 and 1574 reveals that her primary objection to the recusants was not religious but political. The recusants denied a fundamental claim of the monarch: the headship of the church and, therefore, the claim that the monarch was the source of all power within the realm. This article, then, will examine the ways in which she wished to contain a minority who denied her supreme power in the realm and the circumstances which caused the queen and the council to change that policy.

scholarly journals O católico e o dilema da opção partidária à luz da Doutrina Social da Igreja

2019 ◽  
Vol 79 (314) ◽  
pp. 637
Author(s):  
Elvis Rezende Messias ◽  
Marcial Maçaneiro
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Social Doctrine ◽  
The Social ◽  
Doctrine Of The Church ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

O presente artigo desenvolve a relação entre fé e compromisso político, com foco na possibilidade de opção partidária por parte dos fiéis católicos, à luz dos critérios antropológicos e sociais da Doutrina Social da Igreja, da contribuição teológica de Ratzinger/Bento XVI e dos documentos do CELAM. Problematiza-se a questão de ser ou não possível, ao católico, optar por determinados partidos ou legendas, em vista da participação pública na tarefa política. Como se trata de uma postura política e crente do sujeito, esta questão é refletida sob luz teológico-social, a partir do evento pascal de Cristo, que na Encarnação assumiu a historicidade humana, inspirando na Igreja a proposição de um humanismo integral. Daqui promanam os valores que a Doutrina Social estabelece: respeito pela dignidade humana, promoção da justiça e da paz, em vista de uma sociedade inclusiva e solidária. Com tais critérios, examinam-se os modelos ideológicos do capitalismo e do comunismo, alertando para eventuais reducionismos, em atenção a um projeto de humanidade inspirado no Evangelho. Como resultado desta abordagem propõe-se um olhar sobre a opção partidária mais dialogal que polarizado, atento à dimensão antropológica da Política e aos critérios da Doutrina Social da Igreja, em vista da condução da vida pública. Abstract: The present article develops the relationship between faith and political commitment, focusing on the possibility of an option for a given party by the Catholic faithful, in the light of the anthropological and social criteria of the Social Doctrine of the Church, of the Ratzinger/Bento xvi’s theological contribution and of the CELAM’s (Latin American Episcopal Council) documents. We question whether it is possible, for the Catholics, to opt for given parties or legends, in view of the need for public participation in the political tasks. Since we are dealing with the subject’s political posture and beliefs, this issue is looked at in a theological social light, starting with Christ’s Pascal event that in the Incarnation adopted the human historicity, inspiring the Church with the proposition of an integral humanism. From this derive the values established by the Social Doctrine: respect for the human dignity, the promotion of justice and peace, having in view an inclusive and solidary society. With such criteria, we examine the ideological models of capitalism and communism, calling attention to eventual reductionisms having in mind a project of humanity inspired in the Gospel. As a result of this approach we suggest viewing the party option in a more dialogical and polarized way, observing the anthropological dimension of Politics and the criteria of the Social Doctrine of the Church, in view of the way public life is conducted.Keywords: Faith; Politics; Party option; Social Doctrine of the Church.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document