The Study of Christian history and Christian practices, from my perspective, is imperative in the journey of any seminarian. Every major event of today has its roots in the history of our society and the history of the world. In the same way, Christian practices have their roots in the both the history and the historical practices of the Christian church. Our readings the Context Matters portal course and specifically the practices of the Christian church, are important for this same reason If we are to understand the “why” of why we do things we must look at how they have been done before and how they have been practiced in the past. The practices of the church or the practice of “doing” church have changed many times over the two-thousand years of the history of the Christian Church. It is well known that the first century Christian church met in homes and worshiped together as small family centric groups with several families participating. This model of church held true with some added administrative structures for over three hundred years. This model of Christian practices saw ...
The contemporary Church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch-supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are.”
With this in mind, the objective of this essay is to focus on the main ideas of each theologian, and discuss how each theologian’s ideas are compensatory to the other. This is important because even though each theologian’s writings were inspired by the harsh realities of the societies, and also by the effect each writer experienced in their moment in history, their critiques specifically of Christian institutions remain a consistent amongst all three writings. Furthermore, not only are their critiques consistent, but their goals for providing new frameworks for the future of the Church and Christian discipleship are consistent as well.
Because of religions importance in people�s live, many people chose to devote their lives to serve God and do the Church’s work. These monks and nuns lived apart from the world and lived in special communities called monasteries or nunneries. Monks and nuns promised to ...
From the Catholic observation point, the Church presents two parts: One representing its divine nature as the untarnished body of Christ, and one direc...
In this paper, I will be using Victor Turner’s concept of liminality to analyze the Christian rite of passage of baptism. Turner built upon Arnold van Gennep’s three-stage model of rites of passage, focusing on liminality rather than reaggregation and introducing the concept of communitas as the unstructured community during the liminal stage in which all members are equal. By using the anthropological lens of Turner to analyze baptism, specifically Jesus’ water baptism in the book of Mark, I hope to apply his concepts of liminality and communitas to the text to gain a deeper understanding of the model for modern Christian baptism rituals and interpretations, including Spirit baptism.
Through the close study of two of the aspects shown in the diagram, their contributions allow Christianity to be considered a living religious tradition. The significant contributions of Pope John XXIII, during both his papal and Pre-papal life have had everlasting effects on not only Catholicism, but Christianity as a whole and lead to the sense of Christianity being a living religious tradition. His works include two Papal encyclicals, Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris, along with his work being Apostolic Delegate of Greece and Turkey. Moreover, The significant practice of Baptism has further contributed to Christian being considered a living religious tradition as it accounts for the premise of most Christian beliefs to be initiated, especially in terms of salvation and affirming the beliefs in the trinity and following the teachings of Jesus Christ.
The main idea of deSilva’s work is to “recover the ideology of the early Christians.” His ultimately goal for recovering the ideology of the early church is improve the contemporary Church. deSilva carefully analyzes the Scriptures through the four core values, stated in the title of his book: honor, patronage, kinship and purity. Each of these values deSeilva devotes chapters to. deSilva gives cultural structure to the New Testament analysis and seeks the ancient Judaic and Greco-Roman cultural contexts.
Francis of Assisi is one of the most influential personalities in the entire world. In the book ‘Francis of Assisi: Performing the Gospel Life,’ Cunningham recounts the life of this humble monk who lived in the medieval times, and shaped the Christian life, which spread in Western culture throughout the rest of history. I believe Cunningham accurately accounts for the life of Francis of Assisi, and in doing so; he provides a trajectory of the Christian faith from its early and historical proponents through its fusion with western culture, and its subsequent spread throughout the world.
Throughout the Western culture, Christianity has played a crucial role in the spiritual life of many people. In fact, it is a one of the largest religion in the world with an estimating range from 2 to 3 billion Christians (Religions of the World: Numbers of Adherents; Growth Rates). Spreading with this worldwide religion, the idea that God is at the centre of daily life has a high importance to many people. In the early 20th Century, one of the significant developments of Christianity was the Pentecostal Movement (A Brief History of Christianity). More specifically, Pentecostalism is “the principles and practices of Pentecostal religious groups, characterized by religious excitement and talking in tongues”; its most remarkable detail is its emphasis of the Holy Spirit and the value of prayer (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). It has outspread around the world by the people who believed that they had experienced the marvelous moves of God.
Eastman, Roger. The Ways of Religion: An Introduction to the Major Traditions. Third Edition. Oxford University Press. N.Y. 1999
The Making of a Local Church by Francisco F. Claver begins to divulge into the complexities with adapting the Catholic Church
Gonzalez, Justo L. 1984. The early church to the dawn of the Reformation. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Church History in Plain Language is written by Bruce L. Shelley. This work focuses on the history of Christianity from 6 B.C. to the current period. It covers some of Christianity’s greatest events, theologians, and the various subsection of Christianity. Other than the events leading up to the death of Jesus, I had very little knowledge of Christianity’s history. After reading through the book, I have gained understanding on the Christian Councils, scholasticism, Christendom, and modern trends of Christianity.
Sonnenberg looks at the various different components that make up the bigger picture in the community aspect in a youth worship setting; these components are looked at systematically. In the article Sonnenberg and her fellow researchers addresses four aspects which are discussed theoretically which are the following: physical presence, empathetic and emotional equality, the opportunity to cross social and ecclesiological boundaries and sharing faith (Sonnenberg, Nel, Kock, & Barnard, 2015). In the quest to address the question the importance of these four aspects the researches firstly presented the importance of each of these aspects individually, by analysing previous research and looking at the background regarding these aspects (Sonnenberg, Nel, Kock, & Barnard, 2015). Additionally the researchers observed these four aspects in a practical manner by using various methods to collect data; the data was collected through pictures, videos, field notes, small group and individual interviews and conversations and through email correspondence (Sonnenberg, Nel, Kock, & Barnard, 2015). The leaders of the different organisations and youth groups were also interviewed (Sonnenberg, Nel, Kock, & Barnard, 2015). A study such as this is of great importance when it comes to a Church context but not only is relevant for the Church but for youth leaders and even how one goes about one’s daily
A response to the interpretation of Acts 4:32–36 as an endorsement of a type of communal living as being normative for the Christian church.