Introduction to Christianity

Front Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 7
INTRODUCTION FOR THE TEACHER......Page 15
NOTE TO STUDENTS......Page 20
PART I: BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR CHRISTIANITY......Page 22
Revelation and Religious Experience......Page 24
The Bible......Page 26
God as Creator......Page 29
God as Provident......Page 31
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 39
Jewish Interpretation of the Exile......Page 40
Hellenization and the Jews......Page 41
Jewish Hopes for a Kingdom of God......Page 43
The Jews Divided......Page 45
Summary of the Context......Page 47
The Life of Jesus......Page 48
The Account of Jesus in the New Testament......Page 49
Jesus and Jewish Expectation......Page 52
Conclusion......Page 55
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 56
The Experience of the Apostles......Page 57
Internal Conflicts in the Early Church......Page 59
External Conflicts of the Early Community......Page 64
Conclusion......Page 71
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 72
PART II: HISTORICAL ROOTS OF CHRISTIAN DIVERSITY: FROM CONSTANTINE TO MODERN TIMES......Page 74
CHAPTER 4 Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism: From the Fourth to the Fourteenth Centuries......Page 76
Points of Correspondence......Page 77
The Power of Rome as an Idea: Two Christian Models......Page 81
Liturgy and Doctrine in the Two Churches......Page 88
Medieval Christianity in the West......Page 92
Conclusion......Page 98
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 99
CHAPTER 5 Aspects of the Reformation......Page 100
The Historical Situation......Page 101
Religious Reform Before Luther......Page 103
Humanism and the Renaissance......Page 106
The Protestant Reformation......Page 109
The Catholic Reformation......Page 119
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 121
CHAPTER 6 The Reformation Continues: Christianity in the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries......Page 122
Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Christianity: Increasing Diversity......Page 123
The Eighteenth Century: Resettlement and Reformation......Page 127
The American Context......Page 132
Conclusion......Page 138
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 139
PART III: CHRISTIANITY IN THE MODERN WORLD: CONTEXT AND CREATIVITY IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES......Page 140
CHAPTER 7 Christianity and Modernity......Page 144
Secularization: The New Philosophy and Politics......Page 145
Challenges to Secularization......Page 148
Roman Catholicism and Modernity......Page 150
Protestantism and Modernity......Page 152
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 159
The Nineteenth Century: American Religious Diversity......Page 160
The Twentieth Century Previewed......Page 175
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 180
Understanding the Missionary Impulse......Page 182
Globalization and the Rise of World Christianity......Page 192
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 201
PART IV: CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN LIFE......Page 204
CHAPTER 10 Christians and the World......Page 206
Withdrawn Communities......Page 207
Dominating Postures......Page 213
Questions Raised by the Postures of Withdrawal and Domination......Page 220
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 222
CHAPTER 11 Christians and Their Culture......Page 223
The Posture of Adaptation......Page 224
Relationship of the Two Postures to Vital Issues......Page 226
Questions Raised by the Postures of Nonconformity and Adaptation......Page 235
Conclusion......Page 238
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 239
CHAPTER 12 Contemporary Christianity......Page 240
Liberal and Conservative Christianity......Page 241
Contemporary Issues......Page 246
Conclusion......Page 256
Focal Points for Discussion......Page 257
APPENDIX 1: The Order of the Books in the Old Testament......Page 258
APPENDIX 2: Synopsis of the Books of the Old and New Testaments......Page 260
APPENDIX 3: Early Christian Writers......Page 266
APPENDIX 4: Ecumenical Councils......Page 270
APPENDIX 5: Creeds and Confessions......Page 274
APPENDIX 6: A Summary of Structural Arrangements......Page 277
APPENDIX 7: Ecumenism and the World Council of Churches......Page 281
GLOSSARY......Page 283
INDEX......Page 297