Christian Heritage Exam 3

Imputed Righteousness

• view of Luther

• the righteousness of God is not what condemns sinners, but rather its what saves them

• God accepts and justifies us by righteousness

• it is the heart of the gospel message that God gives to us his own righteousness

• God the judge looks upon us sinners and sees the righteousness which was placed upon us because of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross

• It could not be on our own righteousness (as humans)

• Justification is external and ___ to humans

Imparted Righteousness

• is the result of the transformative work that occurs within believers as we are progressively made righteous through the power of the Holy Spirit.

• The concept of ___ ___is closely tied to spiritual growth and maturity. As believers yield to the Holy Spirit, they bear the fruit of righteousness

• is an internal state in which righteousness is __ to humans

• In Luther’s opinion it would be to attribute some merit to our works and lead us back to Pelagianism

Martin Luther

• ___ born into a middle-class German family (1483)

• Became an Augustinian monk, rigorous order

concern for salvation

• Appointed as a professor at the University of Wittenberg (1512)

Lectures on the book of Romans

New understanding of salvation: justification by faith

• the Three Pillars: Sola scriptura, Sola gratia, Sola fides

• wrote 95 Theses

generally well recieved by public

your whole life should be penitent

indulgences encourage complacency

If the pope can empty purgatory ….. why doesn’t he just do it?

→ doesn’t criticize purgatory yet

shows general dislike for pope

• Factors at play (when 95 theses is written)

Nationalism (of the Germans)

was posted up on Halloween

• Leipzig debate (1519)

Debate between Eck and Luther

→ Eck got Luther to admit he agreed with some of Huss’ (heretic) ideas

Questioning the authority of the pope

• Exsurge Domine (1520)

Leo X called on Luther to recant

→ Luther doesn’t recant and keeps writing

Martin Luther (writings and pt 2)

To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520)

⚬Priesthood of all believers

⚬Authority of Scripture

⚬Political support from German nobles

Babylonian Captivity of the Christian Church (1520)

⚬reduced sacraments from 7 to 2 (baptism and eucharist)

• His criteria for sacraments

must be in the Bible

its uniquely Christian/ only Christians do this

• Stance on eucharist

states that the eucharist is with the bread and wine (spiritually) but not actually

→ disagrees with transubstantialism

The Freedom of a Christian (1520)

further developed justification by faith

Diet of Worms

• Imperial diet called by HRE Charles V

→ meeting to see if __and Catholic church could be reconciled

→ safe for ___ because cities of Worms is in Germany

• ___explains and refuses to recant

Edict of Worms

declared ___ a heretic

Prince Francis of Saxony protected ___

→ why he wasn’t executed

• Legacy of ___

translated Bible into German

Luther’s Response to Erasmus

• wrote The Bondage of the Will in response to __

• His argument was that as sinful fallen creatures we are held captive to the will of Satan so that we can only will what Satan wills

  → He uses an image of our will as a beast of burden standing between two riders (God and Satan)

  → If God rides it, it goes and wills what he desires and vice versa with Satan

• Problem for humans is that we don’t get to choose the rider

• Since the Fall caused by original sin the default rider for all human wills in Satan

• Will can do nothing good

• Can’t even turn to God for help

• To be saved and justified then, there is nothing that we can do

Luther’s Justification by faith

• is the foundation of the Protestant movement

• the believer must have faith

  → Faith is the response to the gospel

• “Faith is produced and preserved in us by preaching why Christ came, what he brought and bestowed, what benefit it is to us to accept him”

  → But its not the sinners choice to respond in a particular way (That too is a gift from God)

• Justification comes to us by grace throug faith

• Justification is purely a gift from God and we can recieve it only by responding in faith to the message of the gospel

Pelagianism

• The view originating from Pelagius (c. 354-c. 420), that grace is not necessary for salvation and that through their own efforts people can live without sin (potentially be perfect)

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

• was a Dutch Christian humanist scholar and theologian from Rotterdam

• His groundbreaking printed edition of the Greek New Testament was an expression of the humanist stress on original languages

• He was sympathetic with the impulse for church reform, but pushed for this to come from within (specifically for clerical abuses and doctrine)

• affirmed human cooperation with God in the process of salvation

• Rediscovered early church thinkers writing in Greek

• Emphasized Scripture and practices of early church

• Disputed against Luther on free will

• thought freedom of the will was necessary for a life of virtue

  → There is no virtue if its not freely chosen

• He urged people to turn from their sinful ways by applying their will to the good actions they knew they should be doing

  → not done apart from the grace of God (they work together)

• Thought that Luther got it wrong in implying that the will was evil by nature

• Luther responded by writing The Bondage of the Will

Indulgence

• The remission, granted by the Catholic church and based on the merits of Christ and the saints, of part or all of the temporal and purgatorial punishments due for sins

Treasury of Merit

• a concept that indulgences were based on

• developed in 13th century through the thought of Alexander of Hales, Albertus, Magnus, and Thomas Aquinas

• It claimed that the saints and the Virgin Mary did good works, performed penance, and suffered so much more than was required for the forgiveness of their own sins that there was a stockpile of these leftover for use by others

• And once the sufferings of Christ himself were added to this ___ it was infinite and inexhaustible

Book of common prayer

• King Henry VIII made Thomas Cranmer Protestant theologian at Cambridge University, Archbishop of Canterbury

• → Cranmer was diligent to “Protestantize” England as much as Henry VIII would allow

• Under King Edward, Cranmer created ____

  → the official prayer book of the Anglican church

consisted of morning and evening offices and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist

• Due to backlash Crnmer wrote a second edition with even more Protestant ideas and key ideas from reformed theologians in switzerland and germany

• Queen Elizabeth had this revised during her reign

William Tyndale

• a english scholar and reformer

• published two editions of his English New Testament- the first English translation to be based on the Greek text

  → thus making it available to the people in England in their own tongue

• He was tried and found guilty of heresy, and martyred in 1536

• But his work continued to be significant force of the English reformation

The thirty-nine articles

• created under Queen Elizabeth after the death of Queen Mary

• Elizabeth longed to unite the various factions of the english church

• pushed for via media (middle wy) between Protestantism and Catholicism

• Under her leadership, the __was written

→ This was a doctrinal statement, whereby it was mandated that all bishops and priests be in agreement with its teachings

• No support from Protestantism or Catholicism towards this

  → further developed into a schism between the two

Puritans

• thought Anglican reforms reforms were not far reaching enough

  → thought it necessary purify the church even more

• wanted further reform in terms of doctrine, ecclesiology and even personal peity

• they desired to cleanse the church to make it more in line with what they took to be the biblical portrait of the early Christian church

  → should only include things mentioned in the Bible itself

• believed many practices in the English church were unbiblical and needed to be eliminated (kneeling, wearing of vestments, and bishops authority over other ministers)

• believed personal religious experience wih God was fundamental for a minister and held that society should be a unified whole

Westminster Confession of Faith

• was a document commisioned by the English Parliament

  → for the purpose of reorganizing the Church of England along Puritan principles

• Various positions of church government were represented, with Presbyterian being the prevalent view

• Regarding theological positions, however, there was uniform agreement on Reformed, Calvinistic theology

• Never fully accepted by the Church of England yet became a fundamental statement of faith for Presbyterians in England and Scotland

Quakers (Society of Friends)

• Another separatist or non-conformist group emerged from the English Puritans known as the __

• got their name because of their spiritual trembling and shaking which occurred during prayer meetings

• founded by George Fox who had a religious experience that changed his life

  → came to believe that God could speak to any person directly, through what he called “Inner light”

• they maintained that every human has the voice of God within, and this voice can be heard if a person quiet herself and listens to the guiding presence

• The Inner Light is very central to their belief

  → it was so important that all outward religious signs were abolished, including sacraments and rituals

• They sought simple lives, to include women as eligible for all ministerial roles, and to emphasize peace and unity regardless of race, class, and sex

• they stood strongly for religious freedom and became leaders in the anti slavery movement in England

• They refused to participate in wars or to swear oaths, and like Anabaptists they were fiercely persecuted

Council of Trent

• An official response to the Protestant Reformation which lasted from 1545-1563 and instituted reforms within Roman Catholicism

Episcopal (Church Government)

• from the Greek term for “overseer” or “bishop”

• the __ form of church government is one in which bishops govern

• Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and Anglicans all have __ polities, and they maintain that their bishops are in direct succession of the New Testament apostles and so share in Christ’s authority to govern the church

Congregational (church government)

• the __ form of church government is one in which every local congregation is independent or ecclesiastically autonomous

• Many Puritans have this form of polity, as do Baptists, Anabaptists, and in recent times many non-denominational churches

Presbyterian (church government)

• from the Greek term for “elder”

• the __ form of church government is one in which a group of elected lay elders or presbyters govern

• ___ and Reformed Churches have polities

Natural theology

• A branch of theology in which it is maintained that the existence of God can be demonstrated through the use of reason unaided by special revelation (e.g the design argument)

• uses reason to attempt to demonstrate the existence and attributes of God (typically through the traditional “proofs” like the Cosmological Argument or Teleological Argument) often as a supplement to revelation

• it denies that reason can prove most of what is accepted in traditional Christian theology and asserts that religion should confine itself only to what reason can prove

René Descartes (1596-1650)

• a contemporary of Galileo and was deeply influenced by Galileo’s scientific theories and by the Church’s treatment of him

• he was Catholic and sought to remain in the Church’s good graces even while pursuing the new science that was emerging and challenging the authority of the Church

• In claiming to set the teachings of the Church on firmer footing, he actually undermined those teachings

• wrote the Meditations on First Philosophy

  →it is separated into 6 days and written as journal entries in which he works through the problem of knowing with certainty

• he famously aimed to purge himself of all the beliefs he had acquired that might possibly have been false, so he began with doubting all that could be possibly be doubted

• he invoked the logical possibility that there could be some great but malign power (an evil genius/ demon) which constantly deceived him so any belief he formed was wrong

• “I think, therefore I am"

  → he found a certain foundation for all knowledge in the realization that there could be no doubting that he experienced his own mental states in a way that was immune to doubt and therefore he himself must exist as a center of consciousness

• foundation of all certainty was located in the subjective psychological realm

• Two distinct realms: the subjective realm of consciousness and the objective world that’s external to one’s consciousness

• the internal mental realm of thoughts and feeling → “mind”

• the external realm of trees and tables and bodies → “matter”

Deism

• a view which affirms God as creator of the world but rejects any further divine involvement or interference in the world; when coined in the 17th century, the term referred to those who believe in God on the grounds of reason, but reject the divinity of Christ and Christian revelation

• often termed the “clockmaker” theology and posits God as the supreme engineer who constructed mechanical system, wound it up, and now stands back and watches it go

Five Articles (deism)

• Lord Herbert of Cherbury wrote De veritate (On Truth)

  → in it he developed a system or method of discovering truth which is based on the natural capacities or faculties of human

  → he determined the set of religious beliefs he thought all reasonable people should come to by application of their reason

1. There is a supreme God

2. People have an obligation to worship this diety

3. Worship is to be identified with a practical morality

4. People must repent of sin and abandon it

5. There will be rewards and punishments in the afterlife

• set the stage for further development of natural religion and allowed for people to profess belief in God without having to take sides in the sectarian strife of the early 17th century

Arminianism

• Generally refers to the Protestant beliefs, originating with Jacob Arminius in the late 16th century, which affirm human free will and rejects the Calvinist view of predestination

• believed human beings must exercise their free will in accepting the gift of salvation which is offered by the grace of God

• advocated synergism - the doctrine that salvation is effected by God in cooperation with human will

• This view resulted in the Remonstrance of 1610 (views of students of Arminius)

  1. God predestines for salvation those who will believe and persevere in their faith

  2. Christ’s death was for all people, but only those who believe benefit from it

  3. People cannot do, think, or will anything that is truly good apart from the grace of God

  4. The grace offered by God to people can be resisted

  5. It may be that true believers abandon their faith and so lose the saving grace they once had

  • This resulted in the Synod of Dort (TULIP) → the official statement of the reformed church (5 points of Calvinism)

    1. Total depravity

    2. Unconditional election

    3. Limited Atonement

    4. Irresistible Grace

    5. Perseverance of the saints

Pietism

• A Protestant reform movement that began in the 17th century, which emphasized the need for personal holiness

• arose as a response to cold orthodoxy, moral laxity, and godless secularism

• also emerged as a reform movement within Lutheranism

Revivalism

• brought on by Piests, John Wesley and the Methodists, and Jonathon Edwards and the Puritans

• it rejuvenated Christian faith, brought the heart back into religion and later spawned Evangelicalism

• challenged the authority of clergy of established churches

• and challenged people to live holy lives

Pia Desideria (1675) (Spener)

• was an important figure in a new Protestant movement of the heart

• he wrote ___ in which he critiqued the Lutheran state church and offered guidance for its reform

• his teachings were condemned by the Lutheran church

• By the time of his death, Pietism and spread through Luthern churches

Three themes of pietism (with lasting impact)

• Conversion as manifest in a heartfelt, inward experience

• a focus on the Bible and its application to daily life and spiritual growth

• Personal Holiness, reflected both in one’s inward thoughts and outward lifestyle

John Wesley (1703-1791)

• founded the Holy Club with Charles and George Whitefield in response to the growing deism at their university

  →purpose of the group was to study scripture and encourage one another to live holy lives devoted to God

• He became the groups leader and all members agreed to follow certain spiritual practices and to engage in regular social action, including frequent visitations to the sick and preaching to the incarcerated

• had a methodological approach to spiritual life and personal holiness, they became known as the Methodists

• founded Methodism

• He preached gospel of forgiveness, assurance,and holiness

• He helped the unemployed devise ways of earning, cared for the poor, denounced slavery, and advocated for prison reform

• —, Charles, and George Whitefield unleashed a revival in england - one that became viral, spreading throughout England and elsewhere including the american colonies

• he affirmed the Reformed dogma, sola scriptura, and believed Bible was the supreme authority of doctrine and practice, he also agreed with Anglican theologians that tradition and reason are crucial in understanding/interpreting scripture

• Agreed with Piests and Moravians that personal experience is central experience to fully grasping christian faith and truth

• (Above) known as Wesleyan Quadrilateral

• He affirmed the reformed dogma, sola gratia et fides, and also affirmed Arminian emphasis of the role of human will and responsibility in relgious life

• denied predestination of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin

• believed someone could reach Christian perfection

Methodism

• A Protestant revival movement, the roots of which are traced back to John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield; it is known primarily for its Arminian theology, mission work, and stress on personal holiness

• emerged as a reform movement within Anglicanism

• emphasis on sanctification

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

• influential in Methodism

• He took holy orders in the Anglican Church so he could travel with John on a mission to the New World

  → After what he and John perceived to be a failure in the American colonies, they traveled back to england

  → Soon after they returned him and John would have religious experiences that changed their lives and ministry

• Together they oversaw the Methodist revival which transformed england

• He was a powerful preacher, but is most known for his 7,000 hymns which proved to be and effective force for advancing the Methodist movement

  → “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, “Jesus, Lover of my Soul”, “O for a thousand Tongues to sing” and “Christ the Lord is Ris’n Today”

George Whitefield (1714-1770)

• Influential in Methodism

• was a friend of John and Charles Wesly and co founder of the Holy Club

• While he was a Calvinist theologically, he was also formative in the development of Methodism

• he formed along with others the Calvinistic Methodist Association

• His preaching provided astounding dividends, especially in America, for he ushered in a spiritual revival in the colonies equivalent to the Methodist revival in England and Ireland

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

• leading figure in America in a spiritual revival

• was a Puritan scholar and preacher

• his sermons were meticulously manuscripted, based on reflective exegesis and careful study

• frequently preached on human sinfulness and the absolute dependence on God for salvation

• most well known sermon is “Sinners in the hand of an Angry God”

• his theology was God’s glory and soverignty

• affirmed Calvinistic monergism in which God, as soverign, determines all things, including who is saved and who is not

• Human will is so deeply affected by the fall and by human sin that it is totally depraved

• as depraved sinners the only thing we want is evil

• primarily responsible for the great revivaly (great awakening) in New England

Revivalism (Charles Finney, Peter Cartwright)

• Peter Cartwright was a Methodist revivalist who is known for his participation in the Second Great Awakening on the American frontier

• wrote The Great Revival: The Jerks

  → is Cartwright’s autobiography and chronicles the physical manifestations believed to be the Spirit’s work in the revival meetings

  → talked about convulsive jerking during songs or sermons

  → thought the jerking as a judgement sent from God first to bring sinners to repentance and secondly to show professors that God could work with or without means and that he could work over and above means

• Charles Finney often called the “father of modern revivalism” was one of the key figures of the second great awakening of the early 19th century

• His revival methods— “new measures” like the anxious bench and protracted meetings— revealed a move away from the Calvinistic “surprising works of God” gradual conversion experiences of the first great awakening to more free will-friendly instantaneous conversion events

• also was involved in social reform

• Revivalism

  → emphasizes revival methodology that came to characterize most American evangelism in the 19th and 20th century

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)

• was an escaped slave who became a well known social reformer an international statesman

• urged for the equality of all people including african americans, native american, immigrants, or women

• In this selection of writing which was from his autobiography that helped the abolitionist cause highlights the inconsistencies in the religion of American Christians who are in union with slaveholders

• Slavery and Christianity

→ Christianity of Christ (is good) vs. Christianity of this land (very bad)

→ states all the horrible things people have done to slaves but profess they are christians

Richard Furman (1755-1825), defense of slavery

• most influential Baptists in antebellum America

• was a leader in promoting missions and education and served as the first president of the Triennal Conventions→ the first national organization of Baptists

• wrote most well known Southern defenses of slavery on behalf of South Carolina Baptists

• it reveals how biblical literalism read through the lenses of Southern culture and white supremacy defended the institution of slavery

• A Defense of Slavery

  → slavery is established by the holy spirit

  → uses Hebrews as example for slavery in the Bible

• if slavery was evil then why did the Apostles tolerate it

• States the Christian Golden Rule is never to be urged against that order of things which the divine government has established

Lessing's Ditch

• this ditch separates us from the events of the past

• it prevents us from using the past to ground traditional beliefs of orthodox Christianity

  → because we are relying on other people’s account

• he discounts historic creeds of Christianity

• Religious truth becomes moral truth, which is discovered through reason

Schleiermacher on Religious Experience

• he recognizes the whole of my conscious existence, that being itself, must come from some other source besides myself and that this source is not in any way dependent on me

Christology "from below"

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Leap of faith…

Karl Barth (1886-1968), neo-orthodoxy

Dialectical theology (4 emphases)

Barth's interpretation of election

The Barmen Declaration

Kingdom of God in liberal theology

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)

Walter Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel

Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976) and demythologizing

Five Fundamentals

Fundamentalism

Soul Competency (baptist view, Edgar Mullins)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Biblical inerrancy

Charles Briggs (1841-1913) (modernist scripture view)

William J. Seymour (1870-1922), pentecostal

Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944)

Helen Barrett Montgomery (1861-1934)

Evangelicalism (4 major ideas)

Gospel of Prosperity (Russell Conwell)

Vatican II (1962-1965)

• A council of the Roman Catholic church, from 1962-1965, which recognized the need for the modern world

Dorothy Day (1897-1980), Catholic worker movement

Process theology (with 3 central tenets)

Open theism

Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation

Oscar Romero (1917-1980)

James Cone (1938-2018), black liberation theology

Pentecostalism

• A 20th century Evangelical movement distinctive for its teaching on the necessity of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers in emulation of the apostles at Pentecost

  → including speaking in tongues

• is a christian renewal movement in both the Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions that emphasizes personal experiences of God and the baptism of the holy spirit, manifested primarily through speaking in tongues

• acceptance of charismatic gifts or gifts of the Holy spirit

Emergent Church Movement

Mujerista Theology

Womanist Theology

Ecological theology

• is a theology of Christian ecological stewardship is developing that focuses on our moral, religious, and political responsibilities with regard to the planet and the various environmental and ecological threats that it faces

Astrotheology

• rcent branch of theology that focuses on theological issues about the cosmos, notably whether the discovery of life beyond Earth would have theological import and what it might mean with respect to such doctrines as the Incarnation and the afterlife

Comparative theology

• is a recent field in theology that, in an open and dialectical manner, explores the values and goals of human beings as they are expressed in the major world religions — seeking ultimate meaning and purpose in the process

• compare and take into account other religions

Christian nationalism

Postmodernism (shifts)

• Absolutes to Relativity

• Objectivity to Subjectivity

• Meaning to Interpretation

• Unity to Diversity

• Reason to Emotion

• Argument to Narrative

• Parts to Wholes

• Knowledge to Power

Billy Graham (1918-2018)