Forgiveness and Consolation in the Religious Thought of Erasmus

1965 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 110-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas N. Tentler
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Religious Issue ◽  
Roman Catholics ◽  
The Church

No religious issue in the Reformation was debated more bitterly than the theory of the forgiveness of sins. To Roman Catholics forgiveness meant the sacrament of penance, and its necessity was so evident to John Eck that he called auricular confession ‘the nerves of our religion and of Catholic discipline'. To Luther forgiveness meant personal certitude and salvation by faith—it meant the destruction of the Roman Catholic sacrament of penance. So important were these doctrines to Lutheranism that Melanchthon could completely summarize Luther's contribution to the church as his teaching of'the correct manner of penance and the correct use of the sacraments'. Significantly, Melanchthon adds this proof that Luther's greatness lies in these reforms: ‘many consciences testify this to me'.

Two Autobiographical Narratives of Conversion: Robert Hugh Benson and Ronald Knox

1998 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-253
Author(s):  
George Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Autobiographical Narratives ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Church

Ever since the Reformation, and increasingly since the example set by Newman, the Church of England has had to contend with the lure of Rome; in every generation there have been clergymen who converted to the Roman Catholic Church, a group either statistically insignificant or a momentous sign of the future, depending on one’s viewpoint. From the nineteenth century Newman and Manning stand out. From the first two decades of the twentieth century among the figures best remembered are Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914) and Ronald Arbuthnot Knox (1888–1957). They are remembered, not because they were more saintly or more scholarly than others, but because they were both writers and therefore are responsible for their own memorials. What is more, they both followed Newman in publishing an account of the circumstances of their conversion. This is a genre which continues to hold interest. The two works demonstrate, among other things, the continuing influence of Newman’s writings about the identity of the Church.

Martin Luther and the Reformation: A Reflection on the Five-Hundredth Anniversary

Horizons ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-147
Author(s):  
David M. Whitford
Keyword(s):  
Martin Luther ◽  
World Federation ◽  
Hundredth Anniversary ◽  
Joint Declaration ◽  
Common Representation ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The World ◽  
Roman Catholics ◽  
The Church ◽  
Neutral Ground

I once quipped in a class that I wondered if the Martin Luther portrayed in some books would even be able to recognize the Martin Luthers of other works. Would Erik Erikson's sexually repressed, rebellious Luther recognize the confident and assertive Luther of the recent popularly aimed biography How a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World? The five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation seems an apt moment to reflect a bit on the place and significance of Martin Luther in the Reformation and the church. The anniversary year will see at least a half-dozen new biographies, numerous conferences, and nearly ubiquitous commemorations. As we mark this year, what portraits are now being drawn? What conclusions? Is there any hope of synthesis and common representation, or shall we each have our own Luther, few of whom recognize the other? Since the last centennial of the Reformation, scholarship on the Reformation generally and Luther specifically has emerged from the tight quarters of confessionalized history. In 1917, there were no commemorations. Luther was celebrated by Protestants and lamented by Roman Catholics. There was little in the way of neutral ground between those two poles. In 1999, the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican issued a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. In 2016, Pope Francis traveled to Sweden to participate in a joint commemoration of the Reformation with a Lutheran (and female) bishop. Such would have been unthinkable in 1917, or 1817, or 1617. As Luther has been released from the confessionalized walls that held him so long, what image do we see now? In what follows, I would like to reflect on three aspects of the “new” or “newer” Luther that has emerged.

scholarly journals Celebrating the feasts of the Old Testament in Christian contexts

2006 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdel Le Roux
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church

Many early Christian churches incorporated a number of non-biblical, even “pagan” symbols and rituals into their liturgy (e. g. the origin of Christmas). They were contextualized into the church by a brand new Christian content to them. From its first inception Christianity attempted to slander and suppress the pagan myths and rituals in the name of its own message. This, however, does not alter the fact that the church also sought some connections in the sphere of myth. Since the Reformation many Protestant churches have tended to “cleanse” the church from all forms of symbols and rituals that could be reminiscent of its earlier connection with the Roman Catholic Church. The article argues that this left an emptiness, a longing for symbols and rituals which usually form an essential part of a normal religious experience. The Old Testament has both a “deficit” and a “surplus” which might have an abiding significance for Christians. It has become clear from archaeological discoveries that Jewish societies formed an integral part of early Christian societies.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
D. G. Hart
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
The Press ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Roman Catholics ◽  
The Church ◽  
Church Teaching ◽  
John Courtney Murray

This chapter focuses on how Roman Catholics became prominent players in conservative circles and provides an understanding on the affinity and tension between national and Roman Catholic traditions and ideals. It describes John F. Kennedy's kind of Roman Catholicism, which Americans and the press found acceptable. It also mentions John Courtney Murray, who was considered a potential breakthrough for Roman Catholicism that harmonizes church teaching with national ideals, unlike Kennedy whose electoral victory was an example of religious indifference. The chapter talks about Pope Leo XIII's 1899 condemnation of Americanism or adjustment of the church to freedom, democracy, and popular sovereignty as Roman Catholics were still laboring under papal opposition to modernity in the 1950s. It refers to John T. Noonan, Jr., who authored important books about the church's evolving moral theology.

William Perkins and His Contemporaries on “Free Will”

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-44
Author(s):  
Richard A. Muller
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Assurance Of Salvation ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Roman Catholics ◽  
The Church

William Perkins’ thought on grace and free choice belongs to the context of the Elizabethan Settlement and developing English Reformed theology in an era of polemics with Roman Catholic adversaries. The works in which he deals with this issue exposit and defend English Reformed theology, address matters of doctrinal definitions, and deal with problems of piety, conscience, and assurance of salvation. Perkins’ several expositions of the problem of human freedom were written during a period of ongoing debate, sparked by the Reformers, between Protestants and Roman Catholics over this issue, particularly in relation to the economy of salvation and the question of the catholicity of Protestantism. His context in the particular historical stage or moment of this debate is also of significance. He has been variously identified in scholarship as a distinctly English churchman and prominent apologist of the Church of England, a “father of Puritanism,” an exponent of early Reformed orthodoxy, a supralapsarian Calvinist, and one among several ancestors of the anti-Arminian line of English theology in the early modern era.

Anglo-Catholicism in the Church of England, 1895–1913: Abbot Aelred Carlyle and the Monks of Caldey Island

1983 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-224
Author(s):  
Rene M. Kollar
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Anglican Church ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
High Church ◽  
The Church ◽  
Seal Of Approval ◽  
Established Church

From 1906–13, Abbot Aelred Carlyle (1874–1955) enjoyed immense popularity as an Anglo-Catholic, and, according to some, could have easily become the spokesman for this section of the Anglican Church. Through perseverance and diplomacy, he singlehandedly founded the first Benedictine monastery in the Church of England since the Reformation. Unlike others who sought and failed to bring Roman Catholic practices into the Established Church, Abbot Carlyle enjoyed the explicit ecclesiastical sanction of an Archbishop of Canterbury for his work, and with this seal of approval he could dismiss critics and disbelievers. By 1910, Abbot Carlyle and his community on Caldey Island, South Wales, had become a paradise for High Churchmen. The Abbot's charismatic and hypnotic personality attracted many who nostalgically longed for the glories of a medieval and united Christendom. Armed with a High Church theory of Benedictinism, Caldey became an enclave of ritualism, the “naughty underworld” of the Edwardian Anglican Church. Caldey was, at its peak, an exemplar of pre-Reformation Roman Catholic monasticism. In 1913, the experiment was in ruins. Carlyle refused to yield to the reforming zeal of the Bishop of Oxford and his attempts to force Caldey to conform to the comprehension of the Anglican Church. The result was sensational: a group of monks renounced the church of their baptism and sought admission to the Church of Rome.

Roman Catholics and Baptists in Dialogue

Ecclesiology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-92
Author(s):  
David M. Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Christian Initiation ◽  
Roman Catholics ◽  
The Church

This article provides an overview of the latest report of formal conversations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Baptist World Alliance, The Word of God in the Life of the Church (2010), drawing attention to points of ecclesiological interest. It begins by sketching the report’s historical and theological context in Baptist-Roman Catholic relations and dialogue before considering the aims, scope and methodology of the conversations. The article comments on the report’s treatment of its main themes: Scripture and tradition; Christian initiation; Mary as a model of discipleship; and the ministry of oversight. The article concludes that the report is a substantial theological convergence statement of broad ecumenical interest and significance.

The Protestant World and Mariology

1966 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-73
Author(s):  
George A. F. Knight
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Early Church ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Church

In various parts of the Protestant world a re-examination of the question of Mariology has been entered upon. Now that we are in sincere dialogue with Rome, and Protestantism and Orthodoxy are united in fellowship in the World Council of Churches, it has become incumbent on Protestants to cease to be merely negative to the Mother of our Lord. Simply because our Roman Catholic brethren hold doctrines about her that Protestants do not appreciate does not mean that the Virgin Mary should have no theological significance for the Churches of the Reformation. Ten years ago an article from my pen, entitled ‘The Virgin and the Old Testament’, appeared inThe Reformed Theological Review(of Australia), Vol. XII, No. 1. That article was occasioned by an uneasy reaction to a reading of the section entitled ‘Mariology’ inWays of Worship, being the Report of a Theological Commission of Faith and Order in preparation for the Lund Conference of 1952. I acknowledge my indebtedness now to my former article, and thank the editor of theRTRfor permitting me to expand it here.The Protestant has to satisfy himself that any doctrine he holds is securely rooted in Scripture. For the early Church ‘Scripture’ meant only the Old Testament. And to it the Church undoubtedly turned as it sought to understand the place of the Virgin Mary in the Gospel it was preaching to Jews and Gentiles alike, and thus to understand her relationship to her Saviour Son.

The Development of Canonical Jurisprudence in the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England

Ecclesiology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-325
Author(s):  
Gordon Arthur
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church ◽  
Degree Of Similarity

AbstractThis paper offers a theological examination of the legal theory underlying the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church from the time of Gratian onwards, and of the Church of England since the Reformation, comparing the latter with parallel developments in English Common Law. Despite their very different contexts, structures and emphases, a surprising degree of similarity emerges, which may provide a basis for further discussion and convergence in the future.

scholarly journals Institutions, Corruption/Prosperity, and Religion (A), (B), (D), (1), (3), (6)

2021 ◽  
pp. 77-123
Author(s):  
Jason García Portilla
Keyword(s):  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
German Revolution ◽  
Roman Catholics

AbstractThis chapter characterises the relations between religion, institutions, and the transparency–prosperity nexus. It explains how economic prosperity, democracy, and transparency are part of a feedback loop that constitutes a single phenomenon. More importantly, this chapter deepens the institutional analysis by concentrating on the particular historical influence of religion on the different legal traditions in Europe and the Americas. It is the cornerstone of Part 3 and, as such, of the entire book.The Reformation brought forth a wide range of modern institutions. Among these, education and democracy are the most crucial ones for ensuring prosperity/transparency outcomes. Likewise, Protestantism has impacted the secularisation of the state in Protestant countries (and also in Roman Catholics, albeit to a lesser, more indirect extent). Protestantism fosters horizontal power relations and secular-rational attitudes towards authority. Thus, such egalitarian and secular attitudes are linked to greater transparency and prosperity.The Lutheran German Revolution formed the basis of the various later Protestant, dissenting revolutions and legal traditions (i.e. British and American). Some of its concepts (e.g. separation of state functions from the church; state-sponsored education) permeate all modern legal systems to this day and ended the monopoly of Roman canon law.Regardless of the advances made by Roman Catholicism in the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II: 1962–1965), corporatist ideologies remain prevalent, mostly in Latin America. But while Roman Catholic discourse has shifted, the institutional inertia persists and maintains the hierarchical status quo and longstanding feudal structures.

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