Introduction
Social, political, and economic changes have largely affected the history and rise of income security globally. As society has developed and changed, approaches to addressing poverty have changed as well. Throughout history, the Roman Catholic Church largely influenced social welfare through the delivery of church-based poor relief. Poor relief “encompass[es] all forms of aid, charity, and public assistance to the poor” (Kidd, 2005). The goal of poor relief is “to provide a safety net by which the poor could maintain a bare subsistence” (Kidd, 2005). There are many methods of delivering poor relief, and often the church and state have held conflicting views on the matter. The Roman Catholic Church’s approach in addressing poverty
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Although the creation of the welfare state has largely changed how income security is delivered today, historically the Roman Catholic Church played a large role in the delivery of poor relief.
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Prior to and during the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church primarily delivered poor relief through charity and mercy. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church viewed almsgiving as a necessary aspect of ensuring salvation. Kahl (2005) infers, “poverty was associated with powerlessness, manual labor, and social problems but this was outweighed by the glorification of the poor as an image of Christ” (p. 95). Individuals believed that donating their money to the church and giving alms directly to the poor would bring them closer to Christ and ensure their entrance into heaven (Kahl, 2005, p. 95-96). However, the occurrence of the Reformation largely impacted and restructured the Catholic method of delivering poor relief. Pullan (2005) noticed that a movement for social reform coincided with the Reformation (p. 449). Kahl (2005) describes the effect of
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450). TRANSITION SENTENCE? “In the course of the Counter-Reformation, Christian benevolence became an important part of Catholic renewal” (Kahl, 2005, p. 99). Although almsgiving and begging continued, the principle of caritas came to the forefront of Catholic poor relief (Kahl, 2005, p. 99). Michielse (2005) defines caritas as charity or good works to humankind, given out of God’s love (p. 3). The principle of caritas implied that poor relief was the responsibility of the Christian community, and therefore should be practiced by family, friends, and the church. Since compassion should be central to the giving of poor relief, the churches were the primary provider of help, rather than the state (Kahl, 2005, p. 101). Therefore, the Roman Catholic Church performed different forms of charity to help those in poverty. The common chest is one example of how charity was delivered in this era. Michielse (2005) describes this concept, saying: “all the alms intended for the poor were brought together in a common chest, deriving in part from the almshouses, poor tables, and so on” (p. 5). This system was of advantage as it
Whereas the term “Reformatio” signifies an ideal or something of perfect form, the Protestant Reformation was an attempt to purify the mid-16th century form of Christianity that had strayed from a past ideal. With this fall from the past, the church extended its realm of influence and became somewhat of a business rather than a sanctuary of virtue, faith and objectivity in the eyes of G-d. The church’s new spectrum of power also had the affect of suppressing peasants. Through dictating proper beliefs and a sort of uniform, elite culture that a good Christian should strive to fulfill, peasant culture was increasingly marginalized, deemed inferior to the ruling nobility and even subsequently disregarded in modern hindsight; this perceived inferiority contributed to the nobility’s exploitation of peasants. As the paramount representative of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther appealed to peasants through his repudiation of Church excess power, extension of influence beyond pure faith, and the nobility’s suppression of peasant culture. Although Luther wrote the Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants to German princes in 1525 to harshly condemn their rebellion, one could say the ideas promoted by the Reformation were in part responsible for the peasant’s desire to defend their own beliefs against oppressive nobility.
As a Dominican, poverty is upheld as being praiseworthy because the order renounces materialism such as possessions and family. At the time of Meister Eckhart’s life in the Middle Ages, there was a religious phenomenon known as imitatio Christi or the imitation of Christ; to live how Christ lived. Christ and his disciples lived in povert...
Wojtyla, Karol. "On Social Concern." Catholic Social Teaching. Office For Social Justice. 1 Nov. 2004 www.osjspm.org/cst/srs.htm
Crossan looked at how the firm belief in the bible that was held by Calvinists affected their identity in regard to poor reform. She references a document called ‘Discipline’ which was created by Calvinists in 1576. The document formulated four types of ministers for poor relief: priests, teachers, elders, and deacons. It were the deacons that the Calvinists saw as the primary supporters and enforcers of poor relief [14]. What this shows is that despite some close similarities between both Lutheranism and Calvinism, the Calvinists still maintained a strong focus of the church in regard to poor relief, rather than the Lutherans who took poor reform out of the control of the church and into the hands of the government and
In Jesus, we see that God has a ‘preferential option for the poor.’ As Gustavo Gutiérrez points out, Jesus in Matthew 25 proclaims a shocking identity “between a deed of love in behalf of the poor and a deed done in behalf of the Son of Man…to give one’s life for justice is to give it for Christ himself.” As such, the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed made a demand on us to work on behalf of the poor and marginalized in our area, opposing ways of life that did not benefit them.
St. Thomas Aquinas, placed charity in the context of the other Christian virtues and specified its role as “the foundation or the root” of them all.
Chapter one, ‘Beginnings at Assisi,’ offers a vivid description of the social, political, economic, cultural, demographic description of Assisi and its inhabitants. Here, the author describes the life of Francis and the situations and circumstances prompting his journey to spread the ideal gospel life to the world. This chapter is relevant in determining the circumstances that instigated a need for reforms in the Catholic Church. This chapter is applicable in my life because it offers insight on the fundamental Christian I can rely on in my daily life.
In de-emphasizing the role of the Church, it’s rituals, and offices, and supplanting them with a more direct and personal approach to God and spirituality; the Protestant Reformation, through the works of Martin...
[4] Vatican II theology “stressed a very different notion of the Church as the people of God, assigned a more important role to the laity, redefined the authority of the Pope over the hole Church and the bishops over the diocese” (Mainwaring 1986). Vatican II theology stressed the need for social justice and vowed to help the less fortunate, this came to be known as the option for the poor.
Christianity propagated charity as one of the necessary acts that a good Christian should follow. Graham Gordon believes that in Christianity, "Charity is considered chief of the Christian virtues," and that "Charity is commended by St. Paul for being the true way to the end which religious practices seek"(10). We can see that in being a chief virtue, charity is highly encouraged in the sense that helping others is considered to be a great deed of good doing. Therefore, we can draw the notion that those who wish to follow the "true way to the end," are those that contribute the most to the poor, as opposed to those mentioned by Walsh who see themselves as "not responsible for the welfare of human beings.
Gonzalez, Justo L. 1984. The early church to the dawn of the Reformation. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Catholic just one of many, excellent examples of the poor, and how easily we are
Saint Francis of Assisi was a uniquely spiritual man who gave up a life of wealth and position to lead a life of poverty in accordance and service to God. Embracing a life according to the Gospels, Francis went on to establish a Monastic Order, known as the Franciscans. In the midst of the political climate within the religious community of Italy, Francis emerged a champion for the poor and sick, with humility and no regard for himself. Francis exhibited his love for God through his love and admiration for all of God's creation including nature. The principles of Saint Francis are as relevant today as they were in thirteenth century Italy; service and love to all of God’s creation.
According to the Socialjustice.com (2014) website, a further feature of the Catholic provision, which affected the impact on social policy, was the overpowering character and the lack of the intellectual and theoretical base. Catholic religious co...
...ion in our country as we know it is greatly due to this rise of people who could no longer stand by while the church bargained with them for an imaginary passage to heaven. The Catholic Church has since reformed and condemned the selling of indulgences and has even attempted to repair its rivalry with the Lutheran Church, evidence that the effects of the Reformation are long reaching and continue to be revealed even today.