Church History: Content
Year 7: 6BCE-650CE
Year8 650 CE- 1750 CE
Year 9 1750 CE- 1918 CE
Year 10 1918 CE- Present
Construction: Searching for Unity, Order, Authenticity
Construction: Searching for Unity, Order, Authenticity
Construction: Searching for Unity, Order,
Construction: Searching for Unity, Order,

Authenticity
 Catholic tradition continued to emphasise unity of belief
Authenticity
 Catholic and Protestant church membership continued to




















Jesus 6BCE-32 BCE
Paul’s Letters 50CE-65CE
Gospels Written 70CE-100 CE
Other Canonical writings 67CE-120CE
House Churches
Women and men lead Early Church
Many ministries, roles
Bishop, Presbyter, Deacon C 120CE
The Didache C 150 CE
The Shepherd of Hermas c
Apologists for Christianity
Early Church Fathers
Constantine
Edict of toleration
Religion of the Empire
Council of Nicea
Council of Constantinople
Constantinoplian/Nicean Creed
Canon of Scripture
5 great centres of Christianity











Irish Monks spread across Europe to restore Christianity after
pagan invasions
Carolingian Renaissance restores learning and clerical influence
across Europe
Europe re-converted to Christianity by 1000CE
Roman and Papal Supremacy restored by 1000CE
Crusades ordered to halt rise of Islam and reclaim Holy Land
Inquisition established to maintain unity of belief
Church in the world becomes wealthy and constructs a whole
“Christian Society”
Renaissance brings huge cathedrals, the arts and literature to
Christianity.
Wealth of Church used in part for humanitarian work- hospitals,
education, plight of poor.
Great monasteries constructed (church removed from the world)
which brought order and stability to lives of peoples and
communities.
Church Councils continued to define matters of faith and practice
The church based in Rome claimed secular as well as religious
authority over nations and lands, leading to disputes with heads of
state.




and personal piety through strict control over people’s
lives.
Emphasis on power of clergy over laity. Rome turns its
back on the modern world.
Huge growth in religious orders in response to social
conditions- poverty, industrial revolution, scientific
knowledge. Focus on education of laity.
Missionary activity continues and follows migration
patterns to New World and Oceania.
New ways of preaching Gospel in Protestant
denominations- going to where the people were-e.g.
Methodism, Salvation Army, Evangelical Tent Crusades




grow in the third world due to missionary activity and
population growth and to decline in traditional first world
countries.
Formal attempts at re-unification began in the 20th
Century, resisted at first by Rome, but boosted by a change
in Catholic attitude to other Christians and religions at
Vatican Council II.
Democracy and liberal education led to flatter authority
structures in Christian churches.
Change in attitude to Missionary work from conversion to
development. Christian involvement in serving the poor
and oppressed in the world increases.
Church in peace movements and anti-war stances;
publication of Encyclicals for peace, development of
peoples, social and economic justice; ecological conversion
dominate church teaching.
Deconstruction: Challenges to Unity, Order and
Deconstruction: Challenges to Unity, Order and
Deconstruction: Challenges to Unity, Order and
Deconstruction: Challenges to Unity, Order and
Authenticity
Authenticity
 Europe subject to invasions by forces from the North, East and
Authenticity
 Bitter sectarianism between Catholic and Protestant
Authenticity
 Wars, threat of nuclear annihilation, rampant capitalism










Disharmony in Paul’s churches
Paul and Peter disagree over Jewish and Gentile Christians
Expulsion of Christian sect from Judaism
Persecutions by Roman Emperors
Women removed as leaders of Churches
Heresies: Donatism; Arianism; Pelagianism
Division of Empire into East and West
Decline of power of Roman Empire
Invasion by cultures outside Empire (Barbarians)
Fall of Rome. Destruction of Christian Centres of Learning.












North West which lead to the decline of Christianity and
destruction of scholarship in many parts of Europe for 300 years (
600CE-900CE)
Rise of Islam continues to threaten the dominance of the Church,
especially in the East
Disputes over papal power, authority and issues of belief and
liturgy between Rome and Constantinople lead to schism
Eastern Church devastated by Western forces, leading to an
isolation of Orthodox Christianity, which has lasted to the present
Great wealth and power lead to corruption in the church of the
West: both the church in the world and often in monasteries.
Avignon Papacy (Western Schism) an example of this
Plagues and the Black Death devastated populations and led to a
crisis of faith among Christians everywhere.
The Renaissance was perceived as a threat to the complete
authority of the church over people’s lives.
The rise of secular states and kingdoms led to struggles for power
between the church and kings and princes.
Inquisition and Crusades examples of the worst excesses and
abuses of power and wealth of the Western church.
Period of simple faith, superstition and ignorance of clergy in the
Western Church- indulgences, relics and pilgrimages
Across Europe, scholars and thinkers began to revolt against church
corruption and power.
Rise of Printing Press and publication of Scriptures in vernacular
perceived as a threat by Church
Calls for reformation from Germany, Switzerland, England, and the
Low Countries posed the greatest threat to unity the church had
ever faced.





Christians continues- and carried to new countries such as
Australia and USA.
Lay Protestant missionaries “compete” with religious
Catholic missionaries for souls in Africa, Americas,
Oceania.
Emerging “isms” viewed as a threat by Catholic and
Protestant churches, but especially Rome: socialism,
egalitarianism, rationalism, capitalism; abolitionism,
modernism, atheism, agnosticism.
The social, political, scientific and industrial revolutions,
emancipation and democracy posed a threat to the
worldview of Catholicism and its methods of
evangelisation and church organisation.
Wars and revolutions, resulting in the horrific deaths of
millions, led to a crisis of belief across Christianity.
Agnosticism and atheism accompanied this new world:
people asked: Is God Dead?





and hedonism, terrorism and ecological crises lead to a loss
of faith among peoples of the first world.
Religion considered as irrelevant and impotent in many
people’s lives. Secularism, freedom and education led to a
rejection of teaching authority of church hierarchy.
Religion identified with wowserism, ignorance,
sectarianism, oppression, old and out-dated ideas and
world-views, and out of touch with the reality of people’s
lives. Vatican declaration against artificial contraception
perhaps the turning point for many Catholics.
Decline in power of Papacy over personal lives (especially
moral) of individual Catholics gathered momentum and
continues to the present.
Dramatic decline of religious orders in the First world.
Rise of interest in Eastern religions- Buddhism; and the Rise
of the influence of Islam





Protestant Christianity spreads across Europe: Christian Church in
the West divided between Churches loyal to Rome and multiple
denominations claiming a return to Bible-based authority. Some
national churches such as Church in England.
A period of bitter attack and counter-attack between churches and
countries loyal to Rome and Protestant countries and groups.
(1548 CE-1750 CE)
Wars of words and weapons break out across Europe in the name
of Christianity.
Ordinary people suffer from the excesses of both sides.
Christianity bitterly divided for centuries to come.
Reconstruction: Restoring Unity, Order and Authenticity Reconstruction: Restoring Unity, Order and Authenticity
 Council of Jerusalem
 Order and uniformity to church structures: Bishop,
deacon, presbyter
 Apologists for Christianity- Early Church Fathers
 Collation of written texts
 Edict of Toleration
 Church Councils respond to differences
 Common creed, canon of Scripture, authority structures
 Rise of Roman Pontiff as Supreme Head of Church
 Church structures take over civil authority in a declining
Empire.
 Church structures and roles take on model of Roman
Empire











Church in Eastern Empire continues to flourish (Constantinople)
until 1000CE
Christian learning preserved in Irish monasteries and returned to
Europe via missionary monks.
Reforms of Charles, Holy Roman Emperor, led to re-establishment
of the church in Europe and conversion of invaders.
Great thinkers and reformers arose in the church to counter
corruption and ignorance in the secular and monastic church
Western church response to dissent and challenge was often
brutal and scandalous: Inquisition torture; Interdicts placed on
whole nations and peoples.
Rome’s response to the Reformation was to excommunicate
reformers and to condemn calls for reform.
The Council of Trent, while a turning inward of Church of Rome,
did institute significant reform of clergy, liturgy and spirituality.
Counter-Reformation in Roman Catholic tradition- internal reform
and attempts to regain countries and peoples lost to protestant
Christianity.
Jesuits lead the catholic thrust to regain lost congregations
Catholic church, in response to the Reformation reforms its
structures in parishes and focuses on personal piety and
spirituality, and absolute unity. A catechism of beliefs produced.
Education of laity in faith.
Both Catholic and Protestant Christianity seek membership by
conversion through missionary activity in Asia, Africa, the Pacific
and the Americas.
Reconstruction: Restoring Unity, Order and
Reconstruction: Restoring Unity, Order and
Authenticity
 The Catholic response to the “isms” and revolutions in
Authenticity
 Second Vatican Council brought revolutionary change to





thought and social structures was an attempt to return to
the past and use old models of expulsion, censorship,
condemnation and control over people’s lives.
Papal Infallibility, decreed at Vatican I, became the
ultimate sign of Catholicism’s rejection of the modern
world
The Catholic church challenged the worst excesses of
rampant capitalism thorough publication of Social
Encyclicals.
Many Protestant churches returned to Early Church
models: lay-led, small communities that went out of
church buildings to where the people lived and worked:
street corners and town halls, tents and stadiums.
Protestant groups embraced new media in reaching outprint, radio.
Christian reformers joined great social reform movements
for the abolition of slavery, child labour and exploitation
of workers and the emancipation of women and working
classes.






Catholic Church, where church changed from rejecting the
modern world to embracing and evangelising it.
Protestant Christians embrace media and technology to
bring religion to the masses: televangelism; internet;
advertising.
Ecumenical movement sought to focus on what Christians
have in common, not what divides them. Christians sought
to work together in Missionary Development work,
education and social reform.
Role of Laity in Catholic Church leads to greater
involvement and a renewed membership.
Catholic schools the main tool for evangelisation and
support of faith in countries such as Australia and Third
World.
Migration of peoples brought change to the cultural
expression and observance of Christianity for Catholic and
Protestant churches.
Christianity came to terms with being one faith in a multicultural, multi-faith world and no longer the only influence
on secular governments.