Final - Christian Heritage

Roots of Modern Theology

Modern Period = The Long 19th Century

Liberal Theology = Theological embrace of “modernism” theology that operates with “modern” sensibilities

Three Features of Modernism

  1. Primacy of Reason

    • against Anselm’s “faith precedes reason”

  2. Scientific Explanations

    • Cosmology: need for God?

    • Miracles: questions reliability of miracles

  3. Optimism about Human Progress

    • Natural goodness of humanity (this world rather than heavenly salvation

View of the Bible, Modernists

  • A human book rather than a divinely inspired text

Higher Biblical Criticism

  • Use of analytical tools that questioned traditional ideas of authorship of
    biblical books and historicity of some cherished beliefs

Friedrich Schleiermacher

  • Father of Modern Liberal Theology

  • The Feeling of Absolute Dependence - Foundation of Doctrine

Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Christology

  • Jesus was fully God-conscious - a veritable existence of God in him

  • Jesus is Savior as perfect example

  • Jesus was fully human, not divine in the Nicaean sense (not homoousios)

Ludwig Feuerbach - real boogeyman of modern theology

  • God as an imaginary projection of the human subconscious

Fill-In-the-Blank

Modern Theology = Post-Enlightenment Theology - theology that is shaped by the consequences of the Enlightenment

Primacy of Reason - reason, rather than Scripture or tradition, is the supreme authority for theological method

Napoleon Bonaparte - “What place does God have in your account of the origins and workings of the universe?”

The idea that Moses was the author of the first five books of the Bible

Scientific Explanations as in growing confidence in scientific explanations

Historical Jesus Studies - reconstruction of the life and teachings of Jesus by critical historical methods

Friedrich Schleiermacher - Professor of Theology and University Preacher, University of Burlin

Absolute Dependence - the feeling of absolute dependence is a God-consciousness

Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism

  • name: to defend the “fundamentals” of the faith

  • against modernist/liberal theology

Key Belief: Inerrancy

  • Inerrancy: all material, theological, scientific and historical, is without error when correctly interpreted (aka the bible in its original autograph is completely without error as it is divinely inspired)

Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, 1978

  • to reject inerrancy is to begin a slippery slope into liberalism and unbelief

Challenges to Inerrancy

  • no autographs today, only manuscripts (oral traditions)

  • is a modern idea (Post-reformation era)

Five Points of Fundamentalism

  1. the bible is true and contains no errors

  2. Christ was virgin born

  3. Christ died on the cross as man’s substitute

  4. Christ rose again from the dead, physically and bodily

  5. Christ is coming again to this earth - physically and bodily

Heresy trial of Charles A. Briggs

  • “The Authority of Holy Scripture” (1891)

  • superstituion, verbal inspiration, authenticity, inerrancy, laws of nature

William B. Riley

  • The Menace of Modernism

  • Founder of the World Christian Fundamentals Association

Strategy to defeat Modernists

  • remove evolution from public schools

  • remove liberal/modernists from employees of the denomination

Buter Act, Tennessee 1925

  • against teaching evolution in school

Scopes “Monkey” Trial, 1925

  • over teaching evolution in schools

  • fundamentalists has won the battle but not the war

  • John Scopes, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan

Fill-In-the-Blank

The Bible in its original autographs is completely free of error

  • vs. manuscripts (no autographs today)

Charles Hodge “Princeton Theologians”

  • Inerrancy 19th century definition: all material (scientific, mathematics, historical) without error when correctly interpreted

Presbyterian and Baptist denominations in North America battled 1920s-1930s

Fundamentalists v Modernists controversy: some modernists lost their jobs

The Social Gospel

Social Gospel Background

  • Latter 19th Century - the age of big business

Siding with Wealth - Andrew Carnegie

  • Wrote The Gospel of Wealth

  • supported progressive taxation, estate taxes, and philanthropy

Charles Sheldon: In His Steps (1896)

  • “What Would Jesus Do?”

Walkter Rauschenbusch - Theology of the Social Gospel

  • key idea: realizing the kingdom of God on earth

  • support for labor, economic, social justice

  • social salvation

  • redeem social structures

  • Bible is social gospel - social justice is Christian

American Civil Right Movement as Social Gospel Movement

  • MLK, advocate non-violent approach to civil disobedience

  • Civil Rights Act, 1964

Fill-In-the-Blank

Raw Capitalism - unregulated capitalism

Carnegie - The Gospel of Wealth

  • God blesses the rich

  • The poor deserves their plight

persons involved in solidaristic guilt; evil powers are social powers like exploitation

Pentecostal-Charismatic Tradition

Pentecostals

  • Based on Acts 2 - Tongues, Baptism of the Holy Spirit

  • Baptism of the Holy Spirit = speaking in tongues (Glossolalia)

Non-Penetecostals

  • Tongues help give birth to the Church but just a gift

  • In the 19th C. Holiness Churches began describing Entire Sanctification as the “baptism of the Holy Spirit”

Charles Parham

  • founder of Pentecostal - claimed tongues was evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit

  • Agnes Ozmen claimed to speak Chinese → Apostolic Faith being restored

William Seymour

  • second founder of American Pentecostalism

  • Holiness background

  • Azura Street Revival: Tongues, Prophecy, Being Slain in Spirit, Healings, 24 hour prayer

    • Parham - tried to takeover

    • Seymour → turned away from Tongues as the only sign of the Spirit Baptism

Aimee Semple McPherson and the Foursquare Gospel

  • the Angelus Temple in LA

  • Foursquare Gospel:

    • Conversion

    • Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Tongues as sign)

    • Divine Healing

    • Imminent Return of Christ

Global Pentecostalism

  • multiple founders, multiple influences

  • Pandita Ramabai and the Mukti Revival in India - Spiritual revival with dramatic manifestations swept to Mukti Mission

    • year earlier than Azura Street Revival

Pentecostal Denominations

  • Assemblies of God

  • Church of God

  • International Church of the Foursquare Gospel

  • Church of God in Christ

Charismatic Movement - 1960s

  • Charismatic is one who remains in a non-Pentecostal denomination but affirms the Pentecostal beliefs about the gifts of the Spirit

  • do not insist that speaking in tongues is the only official sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit

Fill-In-the-Blank

Xenolalia - They spoke a known language, they did not know when they were filled with the Holy Spirit

Glossolalia - They spoke a divinely given ecstatic speech which was understood as human languages by the hearers

Wesley’s idea of Holiness or Entire Sanctification

Christian Perfection

  • entire sanctification/Holiness

  • Second blessing is distinct form conversion - instantaneous vs gradual

  • not sinless perfection, but ‘perfect love’; sinless motive

  • “Holiness” churches emphasize sanctification, following Wesley

William Seymour Azusa Street Revival: 1906 - goes out to LA

McPherson - Radio Evangelist

Pandita Ramabai did the Mukti Revival takes place at Mukti Mission

Latter Councils

Council of Trent

  • intermittently met from 1545-1563

  • The Council of Trent defines the Catholic churches relation to non-Catholoic churches relation to non-Catholic traditions for 400 years

  • reformation of morals and practice advocated, but not teachings of Church (simony, sale of indulgences)

  • defined dogma and unified Catholic Church against Protestantism

  • Responds to Protestant Charges - Martin Luther a teacher of heresy (after some earlier attempts to find some common ground with Lutheranism failed)

  • Affirmed

    • Scripture and Tradition

    • Latin Vulgate

    • Bible includes deuterocanonical books (Apocrypha)

    • Papacy final judge of Scripture

    • Seven Sacraments

    • Faith + Works for Salvation

  • Rejected - Luther (teacher of heresy), “Index of Prohibited Books” created (1559-1966) with Reformers (Luther, Calvin) and Protestant scholars writing in sciences

    • Justification by faith alone

    • Priesthood of Believers → believers do not have equal

    • those who reject the church’s hierarchy

    • those who reject infant baptism

Pius IX (Pio Nono) and Vatican I

  • Before Vatican I

    • Immaculate Conception of Mary, 1854

    • Syllabus of Errors, 1864 - a comprehensive attack against modernism in 80 propositions

      • against separation of church and state, freedom of press or worship, public schools under state supervision, rationalism, and communism

  • Vatican 1, 1870

    • to reassert faith in revelation

    • Dogma of Papal infallibility

      • Ex cathedra (from the seat)- Infallible on questions of faith and morals; when exercising office of pastor of all Christians

      • primacy of pope affirmed - “The full plentitude of supreme

John XXIII and Vatican II

  • John XXIII

    • election: 77 years old

    • observers thought transitional pope with “caretaker administration”

    • calls for worldwide council three months after becoming Pope

    • Purpose of the council: aggiornamento - renewal, updating

    • sixteen documents produced

  • Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy

    • vernacular liturgy instead of strictly Latin Mass

      • litgury, a world of signs and symbols, should be intelligable to facilitate congregational participation of the people of God

      • have “legitimate variation and adaptations” - permits use of unique ethnice and cultural symbols in specific locations

    • Communion in both kinds

    • new emphasis on Scripture and sermon in liturgy

  • Dogmatic Consitiution on the Church

    • Church is the People of God

      • Pre-Vatican II: Church a hierarchal institution to which people belong for spiritual benefits

      • Vatican II: pilgrim people of God sharing in Christ’s mission

    • Pre Vatican II: Laity participated only in mission of hierarchy

    • Vatican II called “lay apostolate” which participates “in the saving mission of the Church”

  • Decree on Ecumenism

    • describes a restoration rather than a return (return was pre-Vatican II language)

    • “separated brethren” Christians who are not Catholic

Summary: The Council of Trent defined the Catholic Church’s relation to non-Catholic traditions for 400 years → Vatican II defines the Catholic Church’s relation to non-Catholic traditions today

Fill in the Blank

Council of Trent

  • Affirmed Eucharist as Transubstantiation and conducting Mass in Latin

  • Scripture is in Latin, not other translations like German

  • Immaculate Conception of Mary, 1854

Vatican I

  • Dogma of Papal infallibility

    • Ex cathedra (from the seat)- Infallible on questions of faith and morals; when exercising office of pastor of all Christians

Vatican II

  • Purpose of the council: aggiornamento - renewal, updating

  • Communion in both kinds

  • Vatican II called “lay apostolate” which participates “in the saving mission of the Church”

Liberation Theology

Contextual theology: theology that affirms its contextuality

  • Context provides new and valuable insights into the meaning of Scripture, of the gospel, of doctrines, etc

Existence of Non-Contextual Theology?

  • Contextual theology argues:

    • All theology is contextual. A theology that claims to be universal and free of every contextual bias is simply blind to its own contextuality.

    • Contextual theologians claim that what they are doing is recognizing the manner in which context impacts perspective, and affirming it openly rather than obscuring it by unfounded claims of universality.

Liberation Theology: a variety of contextual theologies, each focusing on the issues of oppression and discrimination in its particular context

  • Common features:

    • preferential option for the poor

    • salvation includes liberation from all expression of sinin the present order

    • promotes the practice of justice and love at both the personal and the societal/structural level

    • Focus on practice - faith as orthopraxis rather than merely orthodoxy

orthodoxy and orthropraxis - no such thing as “right belief” without “right practice” draws in Amos and Matthew

Theologies of liberation

  • black theology

  • feminist theology

  • womanist theology

  • latin American theology

  • latinx theology

  • mujerista theology

  • minjung theology

  • queer theology

Gustavo Gutierrez

  • Peruvian Catholic Theologian

  • Dominican Priest

  • Context of Reflection: Latin American LT

    • social and economic injustice responsible for poverty in Latin America

  • Professor, Pontifical Univerity of Peru Emeritus Professor, Notre Dame

  • Coined the term ‘Theology of Liberation’

James Cone

  • Grew up in racially segregated Bearden, AR

  • BA, MA, PhD – Northwestern Uni

  • Professor of Systematic Theology, Union Theological
    Seminary

  • Influenced by MLK, Malcolm X, Karl Barth

  • Seminal figure in the development of Black Theology
    & Liberation Theology

  • One of the most creative, influential, & important
    Theologians of the latter 20th century

  • Blackness - Literal and Symbolic

Rosemary Radford Reuther

  • Catholic Therlogian

  • Context of Reflection: Feminist Theology

    • experiences of women under the conditions of patriarchy

  • Important Contribution to

    • eco-theology

    • gender theory

    • biblical studies

  • Sexism and God-Talk - God/ess

  • God and Gender? does not have a gender, masculine pronouns; however, feminine language and imagery also get used

Fill In the Blank

Contextual Theology

  • preferential option for the poor

  • focus on practice

Sexism and God-Talk (1983) - God/ess

World Christianity

Special interest:

  • indigenous expressions of the Christian faith

  • Underrepresented communities of faith

    • Asia, Africa, Latin America

    • Marginalized Communities of the North Atlantic World

    • Experiences of Women

Geographical Terms

  • - Europe and North America

    • Western World

  • Majority World - Asia, Africa, Latin America

    • Third World

    • Global South

Christian Expansion

  • early spread 100-1000CE

    • Roman Empire to India

    • Ireland, Arabia, Ethiopia by 500

    • Atlantic (Spain) to Pacific (China) by 650

    • Emergence of Islam 632

  • The Great Contraction

    • Christianity in Asia begins diminishing by 1100

    • Persecution

  • 800CE more than 50% of Christians living in Africa and Asia

  • 1500 85% in Europe 15% in Africa and Asia

  • 1500 to Present

    • Catholic Global Missions take off in 1500s

    • Protestant Global Missions take of in 1800#

    • Carried along by European military force and Colonization

    • Indigenous contributions to Christianity have always existed

    • Global Identity in the 20th C

      • Local Christians adapting to local cultures and local needs

Implications

  • Western traditions not the norm

  • Don’t ignore the global Christian identity

  • True Christian engagement requires global conversations

  • New forms of listening, conversations, and cooperation are needed

What’s missing?

Indigenous Contributions to the Christian Story & Identity

  • Histories

  • Expressions

  • Experiences

•From majority world Christians  

Fill in the Blank

Majority World - Asia, Africa, and Latin America

North Atlantic World - Western world

Inculturation and Contextualization

FINAL EXAM REVIEW

SATURDAY 2PM

REVIEW SHEET ON CANVAS

2 SHORT ANSWERS

MODERN THOUGHT OR MODERN THEOLOGY CHARACTERISTIC -

  • THE THREE FEATURES

  • PRIMACY OF REASON

  • SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATIONS - GROWING CONFIDENCE

  • OPTIMISM ABOUT HUMAN PROGRESS - ACHIEVED ON EARTH AND IGNORE HEAVENLY PROMISE

  • HIGH BIBLICAL CRITICISM

  • BIBLE IS A HUMAN BOOK WITH ERRORS NOT A PRINCIPALLY DEVINELY INSPIRED

  • THE TWO GUYS - FEURBACH OR SCHLEMACHER (SPECIFIC MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS AS WELL)

VATICAN II SHAPED CATHOLICISM'S VIEW OF NONCATHOLIC CHRISTIANS - FRIENDLY, DECREE ON ECUMENISM: “SEPARATED CHURCHES AND COMMUNITIES”

READING QUIZZES 18-24 ONLY ONE QUESTION

FUNDAMENTALISM

  • FIVE FUNDAMENTALS

WALTHER RAUSENBUSCH - CENTRAL TENETS SOCIAL GOSPEL THEOLOGY

FOUNDERS OF PENTECOSTALISM

  • WILLIAM SEMOUY

  • PANDITO RAMBABAY??????

  • AIMEE SIMPLE MCPHERSON

  • CHARLES PARHEM????

COUNCIL OF TRENT, VATICAN I AND VATICAN II

(UPDATES OF VATICAN II)

  • RESTORATION OF CHURCH NOT RETURN OF CHURCH - NONCATHOLIC CHRISTIANS

  • NOT IN LATIN LITERGURY

LIBERATION THEOLOGY

  • GUSTAVO

  • JAMES CONE

  • ROSEMARY RADFORD REUTHER

1500-1900 MAJORITY OF CHRISTIANS LIVED WHERE? EUROPE, NORTH ATLANTIC

TODAY? BRAZIL, MAJORITY WORLD

QUESTIONS

CHARLES HODGE PRINCETON THEOLOGIANS’ INERRANCY DEFINITION - BIBLE IS WITHOUT ERRORS IN THE ORIGINAL AUTOGRAPH

WESTERN WORLD IS NOW NORTH ATLANTIC

RAW CAPITALISM - SOCIAL GOSPEL → WORKER’S TREATMENT, POOR WAGES AND WORKING CONDITIONS, CUTTING CORNERS

TENNESSEE MADE IT ILLEGAL TO TEACH EVOLUTIONS KNOW THE STATE

PENTECOSTALISM - JOHN WESLEY TAUGHT LIVING WITH PERFECT MOTIVES - HOLINESS AND ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION → HOLINESS CHURCHES

BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT - GIFT OF TONGUES AS BATHING IN HOLY SPIRIT

WHICH COUNCIL DEFINED TRANSUBSTANTIATION - COUNCIL OF TRENT

LIBERATION THEOLOGY - PRACTICE OF THEOLOGY, TEACHES NO SUCH THING AS ORTHODOXY WITHOUT ORTHOPRAXES??