scholarly journals The Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Diamper and the Machinations of Religious Colonization

Author(s):  
Shimi Paul Baby

The Synod of Diamper is, arguably, amongst the most significant milestones in the history of St. Thomas Christians in Kerala. This Synod was convened in the church at Udayamperoor, Kochi, Kerala, from June 20 to June 26, 1599. As is documented, it was Archbishop Alexis De Menezes of Goa who convoked this Synod. 200 decrees were passed during the nine sessions which were held during the Synod; these decrees, in toto, became a turning point in the history of Christianity in Kerala. Primarily, the Synod of Diamper was a religious/theological one. However, its subsequent decisive role in the history and culture of Kerala also gave the Synod a social face. A close scrutiny of the canonas [canon] reveals that these decrees were formulated with a consideration of only Christian practices that were prevalent and familiar in the West [Occident]. In a grimly ironic sense, the canonas overtly attempts a coax-hoax, whereby the Christians of Kerala would be coerced to follow the rules of the occidental version of Christianity; and this disciplining would be aided by various methods including expulsions from parish, ex-communication, etc. One big fallout of this scenario was that the Christians of Kerala, who till then had a variegated co- existence with different cultures, were forced to take up an exclusive and singular notion of Christian culture. Through these canonas, many of the existing socio- cultural customs of the Christians of Kerala were abolished; an attempt to sculpt the socio-cultural life of this native populace and bring it in accordance with the image of the Christian that the West upheld.  This article aims to reveal the methodology through which the Institutionalized Western Theological-agencies, by means of constant surveillance and an enforced seclusion-exclusion axis, exerted power on regional and native Christian group.

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry Pillay

The Protestant Reformation is one of the greatest turning points in the history of Christianity. In some senses, it is described as a ‘theological revolution’ which led to the emergence of the Protestant movement and the separation of the Church. This research explores some of the theological themes that became the turning point of Christianity. These themes are sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria. This article attempts to briefly explore these essential theological principles of the Reformation and assess its relevance for today in light of new realities, encounters and theological developments. It pays particular attention to the realities of the Global South, mainly South Africa, and shows how these can form a basis for renewal and transformation of Reformed theology and practice today. In this sense, the article establishes that the ‘theological revolution’ continues into the 21st century bringing about ecclesiastical, social and cultural change.


1971 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Rowell

Universalism, the belief that all men will eventually be saved, is a suspect doctrine in the history of Christian theology. Although there are undoubtedly a number of passages in the New Testament which seem to present this as the final goal of the Divine intention in creation, and as having been brought about at great cost through the redemption effected by Christ, the Church as a whole has always been suspicious of a belief which seems subversive of morality and appears to undercut all evangelistic motives. Nevertheless, the vision of all things returning into unity with God, the ⋯ποκατ⋯στασις τ⋯ν παντ⋯ν, has contnually haunted Christian theologians, and has been espoused by some of the greatest names in the history of Christianity. The Greek Fathers, in particular Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, were, despite some discordant voices, advocates of it, and they have numerous successors. In the West the concern with the boundaries and limits of the Church, which marked the theologies of Cyprian and Augustine, meant that the universalist vision was regarded with greater suspicion, and in the Middle Ages it became the preserve of sectarian groups, opposed to the official Church, and hoping for a new and juster social order, initiated by God, in which all men would share.


1950 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Florovsky

The Iconoclastic controversy was undoubtedly one of the major conflicts in the history of the Christian Church. It was not just a Byzantine conflict; the West was also involved in the dispute. It is true, however, that the West never followed the East in the theological argument, nor did it suffer all the implications and consequences of the Byzantine theology of the Icons. In the history of the Christian East it was, on the contrary, a turning point. All levels of life were affected by the conflict, all strata of society were involved in the struggle. The fight was violent, bitter, and desperate. The cost of victory was enormous, and tensions in the Church were not solved by it. The Church in Byzantium has never recovered again her inner unity, which had been distorted or lost in the Iconoclastic strife.


Author(s):  
Peter Linehan

This book springs from its author’s continuing interest in the history of Spain and Portugal—on this occasion in the first half of the fourteenth century between the recovery of each kingdom from widespread anarchy and civil war and the onset of the Black Death. Focussing on ecclesiastical aspects of the period in that region (Galicia in particular) and secular attitudes to the privatization of the Church, it raises inter alios the question why developments there did not lead to a permanent sundering of the relationship with Rome (or Avignon) two centuries ahead of that outcome elsewhere in the West. In addressing such issues, as well as of neglected material in Spanish and Portuguese archives, use is made of the also unpublished so-called ‘secret’ registers of the popes of the period. The issues it raises concern not only Spanish and Portuguese society in general but also the developing relationship further afield of the components of the eternal quadrilateral (pope, king, episcopate, and secular nobility) in late medieval Europe, as well as of the activity in that period of those caterpillars of the commonwealth, the secular-minded sapientes. In this context, attention is given to the hitherto neglected attempt of Afonso IV of Portugal to appropriate the privileges of the primatial church of his kingdom and to advance the glorification of his Castilian son-in-law, Alfonso XI, as God’s vicegerent in his.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 87-106
Author(s):  
Nazlı Ece GEYİK ◽  
Musa BİLİK

The fact that the Ottoman Empire was an exotic and mysterious Eastern country has been an important issue that has great meaning for Western orientalist engraving artists. The natural landscape, topographic image, mosques, palaces, daily life and the Bosphorus of Istanbul which is the capital of the Empire, were important elements that lived in the engravings of many painters. After going to Europe, many of these painters turned their paintings into an album with the technique of Engraving. These albums have survived to the present day as a historical document introducing the socio-cultural life of the Ottoman Empire. 18. in the century, Sultan III. During Selim's period, there were serious changes and transformations in the cultural sense. During this period, the Ottoman palace opened its doors to Western artists, and a culture that developed under the influence of the West began to gain a place, especially in Istanbul. In this article, after briefly mentioning the history of Engraving art, information is given about the life of the Orientalist Painter Melling, who grew up under the influence of the Renaissance period in Europe and turned his face to the East. After mentioning the artist's work as a painter and architect in Istanbul, his relationship with Hatice Sultan, the sister of Sultan Selim III, and the dimensions of this relationship were evaluated. It is aimed to examine the change and transformation of the palace and the socio-cultural structure of the period through the Neşetabad Palace engraving made by Melling.


Author(s):  
Ewa Wipszycka

The Canons of Athanasius, a homiletic work written at the beginning of the fifth century in one of the cities of the Egyptian chora, provide us with many important and detailed pieces of information about the Church hierarchy. Information gleaned from this text can be found in studies devoted to the history of Christianity of the fourth and fifth centuries, but rarely are they the subject of reflection as an autonomous subject. To date, no one has endeavoured to determine how the author of the Canons sought to establish the parameters of his work: why he included certain things in this work, and why left other aspects out despite them being within the boundaries of the subject which he had wished to write upon. This article looks to explore two thematic areas: firstly, what we learn about the hierarchical Church from the Canons, and secondly, what we know about the hierarchical Church from period sources other than the Canons. This article presents new arguments which exclude the authorship of Athanasius and date the creation of the Canons to the first three decades of the fifth century.


2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Editorial Office

Ephesians: Empowerment to walk in love for the unity of all in ChristThe stem cell debateDarwin and intelligent designThe fathers of the church: A comprehensive introductionSpiritual emotions: A psychology of Christian virtuesThe Bonhoeffer legacy post-holocaust perspectiveWondrously shelteredDietrich Bonhoeffer: A life in picturesA people's history of Christianity, Vol. 5 Reformation ChristianityDefeating depression: Real help for you and those who love youMartin Luther's message for us todayJurgen Moltmann Eine Lebensgeschichte, herausgegebn von W RaumA broad place: An authobiographyRender to God: New Testament understanding of the divine


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-333
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kangwa

The history of Christianity in Africa contains selected information reflecting patriarchal preoccupations. Historians have often downplayed the contributions of significant women, both European and indigenous African. The names of some significant women are given without details of their contribution to the growth of Christianity in Africa. This article considers the contributions of Peggy Hiscock to the growth of Christianity in Zambia. Hiscock was a White missionary who was sent to serve in Zambia by the Methodist Church in Britain. She was the first woman to have been ordained in the United Church of Zambia. Hiscock established the Order of Diaconal Ministry and founded a school for the training of deaconesses in the United Church of Zambia. This article argues that although the nineteenth- and twentieth-century missionary movement in Africa is associated with patriarchy and European imperialism, there were European women missionaries who resisted imperialism and patriarchy both in the Church and society.


1952 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilhelm Pauck

It is customary to describe and interpret the history of Christianity as church history. To be sure, most church historians do not emphasize the special importance of the “church” in the Christian life they study and analyse; indeed, they deal with the idea of the church, with ecclesiological doctrines and with ecclesiastical practices as if they represented special phases of the Christian life. But, nevertheless, the fact that all aspects of Christian history are subsumed under the name and title of the “church” indicates that the character of Christianity is held to be inseparable from that of the “church”; the very custom of regarding Christian history as church history indicates that the Christian mind is marked by a special kind of self-consciousness induced by the awareness that the Christian faith is not fully actualized unless it is expressed in the special social context suggested by the term “church.”


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