what is church? who is church?
TRANSCRIPT
What is
Church?
Who is
Church?
The church is a sign of the mystery of God’s love.
In the church, we share a journey of faith.
God has made known to us
the mystery of his will…
to gather up all things in him, things in
heaven and things on earth.
Ephesians 1:9a, 10b
The church is our home, where we are the family of God.
How does the church offer you a home-
like place?
When we care for a
lamb, we are tender
and careful.
How do you experience
God caring for you
in the same way?
A look at Church History
• From Jesus to Benedict XVI
What is CHURCH?
• The mystical Body of Christ—St. Paul
• The Vine and the Branches—Jesus as told by John
• God’s Family—Ephesians
• God’s building—Psalms, Matthew and Corinthians
• Jesus’ Little Flock—The good shepherd parable
• The people of God—Vatican II
What is CHURCH?
• Our church is one just like our God is one.
• It is holy, as Divine Love is holy.
• It is catholic, meaning universal
• It is built on the foundation of the twelve apostles.
Pentecost: Birth of the Church
• On the fiftieth day after Jesus’ death, Jesus kept his promise and sent the advocate, The Holy Spirit.
Three
thousand were
added to the
fold that day.
Early Church: 30-80 AD A Jewish sect
• Communal life
• A refuge for widows and children
• Missionary in nature
• The services were in the homes
Rapid spread• Strong infrastructure
• World was at peace
• Spiritual unrest
Conversion of Paul 40’s AD
• Among the Jewish leadership
• Watchdog of the faith
• A tent maker
• On the road to Damascus
The Council of Jerusalem (49AD)
• Development of the Creed– Apostles creed
• What do we do with Gentiles? – Jewish laws
• Circumcision
• Dietary
• Sexual ethics.
Early Leadership • Five Christian centers:
Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Byzantium, and Rome
Early Missions• Paul
– Missionary journeys
– Many letters
– Imprison-ment
Persecutions
• Under the emperor Nero– Persecutions of Christians in Rome
60’s AD (CE)
– Martyrdom of Peter and Paul 63 AD (CE)
Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple
• Destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD (CE)
Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple
• The Western or Wailing Wall Today
The Gospels
Writing of the Gospels 65-100 AD (CE)
At least 30 years after Jesus
• Mark: 55-65 Gentile audience
• Matthew 60-75 Jewish audience
• Luke 60-75 Greek audience
• John 90+ General audience
Epistles (40-80 CE)
• Writing of the Epistles: 40-80’s
• Paul
• John
• Peter
A Persecuted Church 60-313 AD
• Second Century– Authority
– Scriptures,
– Creed, and
– Hierarchy
A Persecuted Church 60-313 AD
• Apostolic Fathers and apologists (defenders of the faith)
• Martyrs
• Heresies
An Accepted Church
• Edict of Toleration, February 313– Constantine
– Allowed religious freedom
– Did not alienate the pagan practices at first
– Returned land and gave generous donations.
– Allowed clerics important privileges
– Changed laws to be more ―Christian‖
– Passed on title of Supreme Pontiff
An Accepted Church
• What about Church leadership. We use to have four seats of leadership, now we have a pope!
What’s next…
…..A council
An Accepted Church
• Council of Nicea 325– Called by Constantine to unify the
church
– 300 bishops gathered
– Defined the nature of God
– We got a creed
An Accepted Church
• Church Fathers– Athanasius (295-
373)• Drew parallels
between Adam and others from the OT and Christ.
An Accepted Church
• Church Fathers– Ephraem of Nisibis
(306-373)• God became man so
that we might share in his immortality.
An Accepted Church
• Church Fathers– Basil of Ceasarea
(330-379)• Organized charity
(famine)
• Organized community living (monastic life)
• Concerned for unity
and orthodoxy in the
church
An Accepted Church
• Church Fathers
– Gregory of Nyssa
(335-394)
• All will know that
you are a Christian
by the love you
show for your
neighbor
An Accepted Church
• Church Fathers
– John Chrysostom
(354-407)
• Every Christian
must be concerned
for the salvation of
his brothers
An Accepted Church
• Church Fathers
– Ambrose of Milan
(333-397)
• Advice on prayer, pray
often and pray alone
• Set up help for the
poor
• Introduced hymn
singing to the Western
church
An Accepted Church
• Church Fathers
– Jerome (347-420)
• All will know that you
are a Christian by the
love you show for your
neighbor.
• Revised the Latin text
of the Bible (Vulgate)
An Accepted Church
• Church Fathers
– Augustine (354-430)• St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo remains
one of the most influential authors of church doctrine, and the continued transmission and relevance of his texts for almost 1600 years serve as witness to his broad influence. While the author of many works, he is most well known for his biographical Confessions and his master work The City of God
• Church Father: Benedict
– Founder of western monasticism, born at
Nursia, c. 480; died at Monte Cassino in 543
Benedict was the son of a Roman noble of
Nursia, a small town near Spoleto, and a
tradition, which St. Bede accepts, makes him a
twin with his sister Scholastica. His boyhood
was spent in Rome, where he lived with his
parents and attended the schools until he had
reached his higher studies.
An Accepted Church
An Accepted Church
Council of Chalcedon 451
• two natures of Christ, Christ is
one person in two natures.
• Primacy of the Bishop of Rome
When we put on Christ like a garment, we become “other Christs” to each other.
How do you experience this?
As you…have received Christ…continue
to live your lives in him, rooted and
built up in him…abounding in
thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • The Middle ages
– For the first three centuries Rome
persecuted Christians
– Then for the next two, Rome and the
Christian church blended.
– But the empire was very sick in the
500s
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • Barbarian Invasions
• Monasticism and Missionary work
• Islam
• Papal States
• Holy Roman Empire
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • East West conflict
– War over icons
– Emperor Leo III (726) destroyed an icon.
– Language misunderstandings
– Close to Islam
– Purification of popular religion
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • Church Fathers
– Cyril and Methodius The
princes of the Slavs ask for
master educators to teach
them Christian ways . They
did good work. Developed an
alphabet for the Slavonic
language that eventually
became what is known as
the Cyrillic today.
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • East West conflict
The West or Roman
•Doctrine and faith were
separated
•Changes in liturgy and
standards were being
developed and mandated.
•Celibacy was the norm (or
at least married men
renounced sexual relations
with their wives.
The East or Greek
•The ritual was faith in action.
•To change the liturgy meant
changing faith
•Bishops and Monks were
celibate –but not the priests
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • Christendom 1100-1300
– Society and church intertwined
– Importance of the Papacy
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • The Papacy
• The Crusades
• Monasticism
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • Sacraments for the average person
– Baptism• Usually a few days after birth
• Everyone in western civilization was baptized
– Confession • Required to confess at least once a year
– Eucharist• Even the very pious received Eucharist only a few times in
their life.
• Seeing the host elevated was believed to grant special virtues.
– Matrimony• As of the 13th century it becomes part of the seven sacraments
• Most did not understand the Latin ritual
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • Religious education for the average person
– Most learned by osmosis
– Parents were to teach• The Our Father
• The Ten Commandment
• Seven deadly sins
• Seven cardinal virtues
• Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
• Seven sacrament
– Pilgrimages became important
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • Religious Art
– Honor and devotion to God
– Education for the masses
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • Challenge and defense (1100-1300)
– Defending the Holy Places
– Challenges • Jews and discrimination (no, Hitler learned from
us)
– Missions to China
– Anyone disagreeing with the church is a heretic.
– Some grass roots groups were seeking to find and live the truth, however with them being lay groups they didn’t have proper supervision.
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • Church Fathers
– Dominic 1170-1221 • All the evidence goes to show
that St. Dominic was a man of remarkable attractiveness of character and broadness of vision; he had the deepest compassion for every sort of human suffering. The order that he founded was a formative factor in the religious and intellectual life of later medieval Europe; its diffusion is now world-wide.
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • Church Fathers
– Francis of Assisi 1181-1226
• Born of a wealthy textile
merchant. He heard the call
and took on poverty bring
Christ to the poor. He rebuilt
the church at St. Damian.
Many others joined him as fries
dedicated to helping the needy
and building the church.
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • Church Fathers
– Thomas Aquinas
– Born to an aristocratic family living in Roccasecca, Italy, Thomas Aquinas joined the Dominican order while studying philosophy and theology at Naples. Later he pursued additional studies in Paris where he was exposed to Aristotelean thought by Albert the Great and William of Moerbeke.
The Rise and Fall of
Christendom 500-1500 • The real world
– War• One hundred year War
– Plague• Over a third of Europeans died in the
Black Death
– Death• As people tried to explain their grief, they
scapegoated the Jews
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• Much of Europe is becoming nation
states.
• Great militaries
• With the Great Schism and the
conciliar crisis the papacy has lost
some of it’s power
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• Martin Luther
1483-
– Martin was a monk
– Saw injustice in the
church
– Talked with
leadership and was
ignored
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• Luther’s 95 theses 1517– 1. Repent!
– 4. Penance remains while self hate remains
– 8. Penance can only be imposed on the living
– 27. Believed one can buy their way out of purgatory is wrong
– 50. The pope would not approve of the selling of indulgences.
– 62. The true measure of the church is the sacrosanct gospel of the glory and grace of God.
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• Luther’s 95 theses 1517
– Faith and Works
– One can go to heaven with faith alone
– One can go to heaven with faith and
good works
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• John Calvin
– Born to an upper
middle class family
in France, John
Calvin emerged as
one of the most
important figures
of the Reformation.
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• John Calvin– Having studied for the priesthood at Paris in
his youth, Calvin turned his attentions to civil and canon law in Orleans when his father became disaffected with the clergy. Calvin showed an early predilection for theology and for the study of Greek and Hebrew. Exposed to the ideas of Luther while he was still in Paris, Calvin's writing indicate that he had definitely moved into the Protestant camp by 1533. On November 1 of that year, he delivered a speech in which he attacked the established church and called for reforms.
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• The Church in England
– Although the other two looked at a
change in theology. King Henry VIII
wanted a divorce.
– Thomas More, July 6, 1535 was
executed.
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• Council of Trent 1545-1563
– No council had ever achieve so much.
– It defined a large number of points of
dogma which had never been precisely
defined in the past and demanded
reforms in all the areas of pastoral
care.
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• Decisions from the Council of Trent
– Holy Scripture is inspired
– Free will over justification
– There are seven sacraments and all instituted by Christ.
– The real presence in both the bread broken and in the cup shared.
– Mass must be celebrated in Latin and with an ordained clergy member
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• Decisions from the Council of Trent
– There is a holy priesthood founded by
Jesus.
– We must educate seminaries.
– One must marry in the presence of a
parish priest
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect• Church Fathers
– St. Ignatius of Loyola
was born in 1491 in
Azpeitia in the Basque
province of Guipuzcoa
in northern Spain. He
was the youngest of
thirteen children.
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect• Church Mother
– St. Teresa of Avila
(1515-1582)
• A doctor of the church
• a mystic
• Founded the many
Carmelite convents
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• Religious Revolution
– Church leadership
– More education
– Less power for the Pope
– exegesis
– Jansenism (heresy)
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• Philosophical Revolution “ I think
therefore I am” Descartes
– Atheism
– A moral
– liberalism
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• Scientific Revolution
– The sun and earth? Revolution
– Darwin
– Travel, missions
– Medical knowledge
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• Political Revolution: American and
French 18th century
– Separation of faith and power
The Reformation and Western
Schism and it affect
• 1860’s Italy unites the whole
peninsula Pope loses the Papal
States: political power
First Vatican Council
• 1869-70 First Vatican Council
– God is not of the same substance as
anything else
– The one true God can be seen in good
works
– Science cannot answer everything
– Papal infallibility
Social Encyclicals
• Social Encyclicals Rerum Novarum,
Pope Leo XIII May 15, 1891)
– For the workers
Ecumenical Movement
begins 1900’s • We were converted by our
missionaries.
• We were forever changed by our
wars
• We learned of other cultures.
Pope John XXIII 1959-63
• was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli at Sotto
il Monte, Italy, in the Diocese of Bergamo on
25 November 1881. He was the fourth in a
family of 14. The family worked as sharecroppers. He entered the Bergamo
seminary in 1892.
• From 1901 to 1905 he was a student at the
Pontifical Roman Seminary. On 10 August
1904 he was ordained a priest in the church of
Santa Maria in Monte Santo in Rome's Piazza
del Popolo. He was an elegant, profound, effective and sought-after preacher.
Pope John XXIII 1959-63
• When Italy went to war in 1915 he was drafted as a sergeant in the medical corps and became a chaplain to wounded soldiers. When the war ended, he opened a "Student House" for the spiritual needs of young people.
• On 19 March 1925 he was ordained Bishop and left for Bulgaria. and abandonment to Jesus crucified.
• In 1935 he was named Apostolic Delegate in Turkey and Greece
• . When the Second World War broke out he was in Greece. He tried to get news from the prisoners of war to their families and assisted many Jews to escape by issuing "transit visas" from the Apostolic Delegation. In December 1944 Pius XII appointed him Nuncio in France.
• At the death of Pius XII he was elected Pope on 28 October 1958, taking the name John XXIII. His pontificate, which lasted less than five years, presented him to the entire world as an authentic image of the Good Shepherd. Pope John XXIII died on the evening of 3 June 1963, in a spirit of profound trust in Jesus and of longing for his embrace.
Second Vatican Council
1962-65Dialogue with Catholic
• Dialogue with other Christians
• Dialogue with all people
Vatican II
Vatican II is a revolution that can only be compared to Copernicus’ proving that the earth goes around the sun, not vice versa—and its deepening of the Church’s consciousness of who we really are.
--Karl Rahner
Vatican II
Religious Liberty
All people are from one community
There is hope for all people to be chosen by God.
We must dialogue with the world
Pope Paul VI 1963-1978
Finished Vatican II
Humanae Vitae
www.vatican.va
Pope John Paul I 1978
The September Pope
Pope John Paul II 1978- 2005
Most traveled
Most Saints named
Most prolific writer
Loved for a
generation
Pope Benedict 2005-present
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and International Theological Commission, Dean of the College of Cardinals, was born on 16 April 1927 in Marktl am Inn, Germany. He was ordained a priest on 29 June 1951.
Pope Benedict 2005-present
From 1946 to 1951, the year in which he was ordained a priest and began to teach, he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Munich and at the higher school in Freising. In March 1977, Paul VI elected him Archbishop of Munich and Freising and on 28 May 1977 he was consecrated, the first diocesan priest after 80 years to take over the pastoral ministry of this large Bavarian diocese. On 25 November 1981 he was nominated by John Paul II Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; President of the Biblical Commission and of the Pontifical International Theological Commission.
Four Marks of the Church
One
Holy
Catholic and
Apolistic
ONE
• It is important for us Christians to remain in unity. – Charity
– Profession of faith
– Common worship
– Succession of bishops and leadership
HOLY
• The church is founded in love, and only in love. And because of this, it is holy– the holy people of God. – The Spirit fills us with divine love
calling us to be holy as God is holy.
– Love is the vocation which includes all others
CATHOLIC
• The church is Universal – Where Christ is, there is the church
– Rome holds our various communities together
– Christians, baptized and faithful who live in a certain,but not quite complete communion with the Catholic church
– Orthodox churches this communion is so strong that shared Eucharist is possible.
CATHOLIC
• The church is Universal – And those who have not received the Good
News are also treated to the People of God.
– We are closely linked to the Jewish people because they were first to hear the Word.
– We are also connected with the Muslins of the world who share belief in one God, and who share the faith of Abraham
APOSTOLIC
• The church is strives to announce the Good News – That God is Divine Love,
– That the Kingdom of God is near
– That God is revealed in Christ
– And that the Spirit of Love remains with us…
APOSTOLIC
• The church is strives to announce the Good News – That God is Divine Love,
– That the Kingdom of God is near
– That God is revealed in Christ
– And that the Spirit of Love remains with us…
APOSTOLIC
• The church is strives to announce the Good News – The church is connected to Jesus’ own
apostles who were the first witnesses and were sent on mission
– The church hands on a living tradition of faith
– Through the bishops in union with the pope, the church continues to teach, make holy ,and be guided by the Holy Spirit.
We Christians rejoice and celebrate our faith!
What brings you joy and makes you sing?
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