Rel100 Christianity

Front 1

4 BCE

Back 1

Most scholars agree:

• Jesus was born around ______________ (early inaccuracies in the Christian calendar led to the discrepancy between his actual birth date and the year zero).

• Jesus was Jewish.• Jesus spoke Aramaic (a local dialect related to Hebrew).

• Jesus was baptized by John the Baptizer before he began an itinerant religious ministry.

Front 2

a turbulent time

Back 2

Jesus was born into ______________. The land of Israel, his birthplace, was under Roman occupation. The Jewish people, who longed to govern themselves again, bitterly resented the Roman rule. Many Jews were looking forward to the coming of a Messiah whom earlier Jewish prophets described as "the anointed one."

Front 3

anointed one

Back 3

The phrase "______________" relates to the practice of anointing the heads of kings with olive oil. It suggests that the anticipated messiah would be a king or military ruler descended from the great King David. Other Jews of the era, including John the Baptizer, were predicting a coming apocalypse. They claimed God was sending his judgment upon the Jewish people for their sins against him.

Front 4

childhood and young adulthood

Back 4

According to the Christian Bible, Mary conceived Jesus through the action of the Holy Spirit when she was an unmarried virgin. Jesus was born to her in humble surroundings in Bethlehem shortly after she married her husband, Joseph. According to one Christian account (the gospel of Matthew), Jesus' birth was followed by the arrival of wealthy visitors "from the East" heralding Jesus as the promised Messiah. The Christian Bible records little information about Jesus' ______________ prior to the beginning of his public ministry when he was nearly thirty years old.

Front 5

the sort of society Jews could create through right behavior

Back 5

The central focus of Jesus' teaching was his vision of the kingdom of God. Some scholars claim that Jesus, like John the Baptizer, taught that God was about to destroy the old world and initiate a new one, a utopian kingdom of God. Others think that when Jesus referred to the "kingdom of God," he was speaking metaphorically about ____________________________ .

Front 6

two great commandments

Back 6

Jesus concentrated his teachings on what he called the "____________________________ ," which had long been a part of Jewish tradition: to love God and to love your neighbor. Jesus taught through parables, stories that carry a strong moral message. It is thought that Jesus also taught some version of the prayer variously known as the Lord's Prayer or the "Our Father."

Front 7

Jew

Back 7

All the evidence we have suggests that Jesus was a typical observant ______________ of his era. He disputed certain Jewish laws, as did most other prominent Jewish leaders in those difficult times of rapid social change. Jesus never described himself as "non-Jewish" or "beyond Jewish" in any way. Indeed, it seems that he kept a kosher diet and observed the Sabbath, attending synagogue regularly to pray.

Front 8

close relationship with God

Back 8

One thing that set Jesus apart from other Jews of his era was his ______________. Jews were taught to love and respect God and to follow God's commandments. It was not unusual for Jews to refer to God as "Father." But the gospel records describe Jesus interacting very personally with God, emphasizing God's closeness and compassion rather than emphasizing other views of God in Jewish theology such as master, ruler, or king.

Front 9

a generation after Jesus' death by the disciples who followed him

Back 9

It is possible that the notion of a father/son relationship between God and Jesus was constructed ____________________________. The evidence for this theory is that the earliest gospel, the gospel of Mark, only refers to God as "Father" four times; then, Luke uses the term fifteen times; Matthew, forty-nine. John, the Gospel written last, uses the term "Father" 109 times.

Front 10

late twenties

Back 10

Jesus probably began his teaching and preaching when he was in his ______________. He gathered around him a group of special followers whom he called disciples. Jesus mainly confined his preaching to moral lessons. Nevertheless, his ministry generated controversy among both the Roman authorities and some other Jews. Some feared Jesus would use his growing popularity to overthrow the Roman occupiers. Others feared the opposite: that Jesus would be too accommodating to the Romans.

Front 11

sedition

Back 11

Jesus had taught for only a few years when, sometime between 30 and 36 CE, around the time of Passover, he brought his disciples and other followers to Jerusalem. There he was quickly arrested and accused of ______________, of threatening Roman power. Pontius Pilate, the Roman leader who had been appointed governor of Jerusalem, condemned Jesus to death by crucifixion, a penalty the Jewish leaders were not permitted to impose. Pilate was later recalled from Jerusalem to Rome for his excessive cruelty.

Front 12

40

Back 12

According to Christians and Christian scripture, Jesus died on the cross, but was resurrected from the dead three days later. He appeared to his disciples, most of whom did not recognize him at first. He allowed them to touch his wounds and convince themselves that he was indeed Jesus. He exhorted his disciples to "Go forth to every part of the world, and proclaim the Good News to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15). The scriptures record that, ______________ days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven.

Front 13

Judaism

Back 13

In its earliest days, Christianity was a sect within ______________. The Jesus Movement was concentrated in Jerusalem under the leadership of James, one of Jesus' disciples (also possibly his brother). The beliefs of the Jesus Movement were straightforward: Jesus was the promised Messiah. Since the Messiah had already come, those in the Jesus Movement believed they were living in the final days” before God's judgment of the world and his institution of the kingdom of God.

Front 14

Saul

Back 14

The Jesus Movement came under sharp criticism from other movements within Judaism, especially that of the Pharisees. The Pharisees advocated a text and law-based Judaism (which was eventually to become the mainstream of rabbinic Judaism over the next two millennia). ______________, a tentmaker born in southern Turkey, was a Pharisee who traveled throughout the Middle East trying to stamp out the Jesus Movement.

Front 15

Paul

Back 15

In the midst of his persecution of the Jesus Movement and its followers, Saul had a mystical experience. While walking on the road toward Damascus, Saul saw a bright light and heard the voice of Jesus telling him that in persecuting Christians, Saul was actually persecuting him. Thereafter, Saul took the message of Christ to both Jews and Gentiles. His name was later changed to ______________. He traveled throughout the Roman Empire preaching the message that Jesus was the Messiah.

Front 16

the emergence of Christianity

Back 16

Paul made several key innovations in the theology of the Jesus Movement that drastically changed the course of Christianity. In fact, Paul, more than anyone else, was responsible for ______________ as a religion separate from Judaism. Paul did what Jesus asked him to do when he spoke to him on the road to Damascus: He took the message of Jesus to the Gentiles, encouraging them to convert to the emerging Christian movement.

Front 17

male

Back 17

The early Jesus Movement based in Jerusalem expected its followers to be Jews, either by birth or conversion. They were to recognize Jewish law and understand themselves as the people with whom God had made a covenant so many centuries before; the people to whom God had promised the Messiah. Some believed that if they were ______________, they had to be circumcised.

Front 18

Gentiles

Back 18

Paul believed that the ______________ did not need to become Jews or respect Jewish law to follow Jesus. For example, circumcision was not required. Converts from other religions could simply be baptized, as Jesus himself had been. More profoundly, much of Jewish law could be set aside. According to Paul, Jewish ritual law became irrelevant after the coming of Jesus because Jesus had superseded law (God's commandments) with grace: God's love.

Front 19

understanding

Back 19

Paul brought about a marked change in the emerging Christian religion's ______________ of Jesus. Like those in the early Jesus Movement, Paul saw Jesus as a spiritual teacher, a prophet, and the anticipated Messiah of the Hebrew scriptures. However, Paul saw Jesus as something else as well: a divine sacrifice, an attempt by God to bring about reconciliation between God and humanity.

Front 20

the doctrine of the atonement

Back 20

As Paul came to understand it, Jesus was the cosmic Christ. He was one with God. Through Jesus, God established a new relationship with humanity. God had always demanded a price for human sinfulness: death. Then, as an act of mercy, God sent his son who was without sin to accept that punishment on behalf of all humanity. This is known as "______________." God sacrificed Jesus as compensation for human sin, relieving human beings of that terrible burden. This is what Christians mean when saying, "Jesus died for our sins."

Front 21

the Second Temple

Back 21

Paul's version of Christianity was far more successful than that of the Jesus Movement centered in Jerusalem under the leadership of James, and other incipient forms of Christianity. The Jesus Movement suffered from the general disarray within Judaism that followed the destruction of ______________ in 70 CE. Paul, on the other hand, won enthusiastic converts among Gentiles throughout the Roman Empire.

Front 22

monotheism

Back 22

Why did Christianity spread so quickly? One reason some scholars have suggested is that many people in the Mediterranean region had been attracted to the idea of ______________ as lived out by the Jews. It was od, the difficult to convert to Judaism, however, and many of the laws that had to be followed may have seemed onerous to the practitioners of Greco-Roman religions. Toor ever them, Paul's version of Christianity may All are seated have seemed like a simpler and easier way to become monotheistic than converting to Judaism.

Front 23

the pagan religions of the Roman Empire

Back 23

Another possible reason for the rapid spread of Christianity may be that some of the religions and philosophies of the Roman Empire tended to regard the body and other material things as evil. Only the disembodied spirit was regarded as an unqualified good. Judaism, now in the form of Christianity, offered an earthier, more accepting attitude toward life on earth; one that would later change as Christianity developed in close contact with ______________.

Front 24

the Old Testament

Back 24

The vast majority of scriptures considered sacred by Christians are part of the Hebrew scriptures. What Jews call the Tanakh, or Hebrew scriptures, is called ______________ by Christians. Different branches of Christianity have selected slightly different books for inclusion in the Old Testament, but for the most part, the Tanakh and the Old Testament are the same.

Front 25

New Testament

Back 25

As is implied in the term Old Testament, for Christians there is a ______________ as well. The New Testament consists of all those books written after the origin of Christianity. For Christians, the writings contained in the New Testament articulate the significance of Jesus' life and the modifications Christianity made to the Jewish tradition. The ______________ is written in Greek, the lingua franca of the Mediterranean world during Jesus' lifetime.

Front 26

four basic types of texts

Back 26

There are ______________ in the New Testament. The first, called the gospels, are accounts of Jesus' life. The second, the Acts of the Apostles, is a single book that records the history of the early Jesus Movement. The third type is the epistles, letters from Paul and others to early Christian leaders and churches. The fourth type of text, Revelation, is also a single book, a series of prophesies apparently written in a symbolic code.

Front 27

27

Back 27

The ______________ books of the New Testament, along with many others, circulated among the early Christian community. The gospels and several of the major epistles were widely accepted by most Christian congregations. But they and the other books of the New Testament did not become scripture until a group of Christian leaders met in 367 CE to decide which texts were authoritative and which were not. The decision was not formally confirmed by the Christian leaders until 419 CE.

Front 28

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

Back 28

The four accounts of Jesus' life and teaching collectively known as the Gospels were written sometime between 70 and 100 CE. They were circulated in the early Christian community along with other gospels until about 150 CE when they were deemed authoritative and given the titles of their apparent authors: ________, __________, __________ and ______________ . All these authors either knew Jesus during his lifetime or received accounts of Jesus' life and teachings directly from Jesus' disciples.

Front 29

Q

Back 29

Many scholars believe that the authors of Matthew and Luke read the Gospel of Mark before composing their own gospels, along with another source document called "______________" that has since been lost. As a result, Matthew, Mark, and Luke have many similarities, though each also has its own distinctive tone. The three Synoptic Gospels are of different lengths, stress different aspects of the Jesus story, and appear to have been written for different audiences.

Front 30

Mark

Back 30

______________ is the shortest of the Gospels and is traditionally thought to be the earliest. ______________ addresses himself to a Gentile (non-Jewish) audience. His account of the life of Jesus begins with Jesus' public ministry as an adult and portrays him as the "servant of the Lord," the suffering Messiah. The earliest versions of ______________ seem to have ended with the discovery of Jesus' empty tomb, omitting any account of the resurrection.

Front 31

Matthew

Back 31

The Gospel of ______________ is thought to have been written between 75 and 80, though some scholars argue for a date as early as 50 CE. Unlike Mark, ______________ seems to be addressing a Jewish audience. He stresses the themes that would matter most to Jews: Jesus' fulfillment of Hebrew scripture and his identity as the Messiah described by the prophets. ______________'s text seems to identify Jesus as "the New Moses" and as the final interpreter of the Torah.

Front 32

Luke

Back 32

The Gospel of ______________ is traditionally dated to around 85 CE, though it may also have been written earlier. The longest of the Gospels, ______________, like Mark, appears to address a Gentile (non-Jewish) audience. Unlike Mark however, ______________ puts particular emphasis on Jesus' message of acceptance to the poor, the outcast, and the powerless. He sees Jesus' teachings as delivering a message of love, hope, and social justice.

Front 33

John

Back 33

Possibly composed as late as 90 or 100 CE, the Gospel of John was probably the last of the Gospels to be written. Stylistically, ______________'s gospel stands apart from the Synoptic Gospels. After the briefest of introductions, the Synoptic Gospels quickly settle into the narrative of Jesus' life and teachings. ______________, in contrast, gives a more spiritual framing to his story, starting with this sentence: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Front 34

the Acts of the Apostles

Back 34

The same person who authored the gospel of Luke probably wrote ______________. Both were written before or around 85 CE. In fact, at one point Luke and Acts may have been a single book. The account told in Acts begins shortly after Jesus leaves the earth. In an event called Pentecost, the disciples suddenly found they could speak in languages they did not know, and they were charged to go and preach the gospel of Jesus far and wide.

Front 35

epistles

Back 35

The oldest texts in the New Testament are les 2 not the gospels, but the Pauline epistles, letters from the apostle Paul to early Christian leaders and churches. Written between 50 and 60 CE, the ______________ include descriptions of the meaning of Jesus' life and death. They also provide instructions to the young churches on how they should conduct their services and behave toward one another.

Front 36

universal

Back 36

There is a group of letters commonly referred to as the ______________ (or catholic) epistles that seem to be addressed to all believers rather than to a particular individual or congregation. While Paul's letters seem to be addressed more to Gentile believers, the universal epistles speak more directly to Christians with a Jewish background. The universal epistles also expand on themes that were relatively neglected by Paul, such as the importance of doing good works.

Front 37

Revelation

Back 37

The final book of the New Testament, the book of ______________, stands in a category of its own, being neither a gospel, a record of the apostles' acts, or a letter to other Christians. Written in complex, symbolic language, Revelation seems to have been a coded language, full of images that now sound confusing, but that would have made sense to Christians who were being persecuted around the turn of the first century CE. Through its elaborate symbolic metaphors, ______________ assures early Christians that Jesus will eventually triumph over all the forces arrayed against him.

Front 38

Roman Coliseum

Back 38

For the first three centuries of the common era, paganism continued to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. As practitioners of a minority religion, Christians were sometimes persecuted, as in the celebrated stories of Christians being fed to the lions in the ______________. More often, however, Christians were tolerated in the Roman Empire and Christianity was able to grow and flourish.

Front 39

observant Christian

Back 39

Some early Christians were extremely devout and single-mindedly devoted to the new religion. But we know from sermons and other early Christian documents that many of those who practiced Christian rituals were also practicing Greco-Roman rituals from time to time, or were still attending synagogue. During this time, there was not yet a consensus on what it meant to be an ______________.

Front 40

homes

Back 40

Many early Christian churches met in members' ______________. This small community atmosphere created a comparatively egalitarian environment in which individuals of different social classes (including citizens and slaves) and different sexes were able to exercise leadership roles and freely debate the theology of the developing religion. By the second century CE, it was customary at house church meetings to share a meal called the agape meal, and to participate in a sacrament of communion, or eucharist. Other activities included reading from the scriptures, preaching, and prayer.

Front 41

Gnosticism

Back 41

During the early church period (the first four hundred years), one influential strand of thought was ______________. _____________ stressed that the individual's true home was in the world of gnosis or knowledge rather than in the material world, and that through contemplation one could return one's soul to this realm of pure knowledge.

Front 42

Nag Hammadi

Back 42

A cache of Gnostic texts discovered in the 1940s in Egypt has revealed that, in antiquity, there were Greco-Roman and Jewish Gnostics as well as Christian Gnostics. The recovered texts, collectively called the ______________, were written between the second and fourth centuries and offer a surprising window into early Christianity. The great variety of these texts illustrates how fluid Christian identity still was at that time.

Front 43

paganism

Back 43

After centuries as a minority religion, Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century CE. Inspired by his mother, Helena, who had converted to Christianity, the Roman Emperor Constantine brought the Christian church under government protection in 311 CE. He put Christian bishops into important governmental positions. After Constantine's death, the Emperor Julian tried to re-impose ______________ on the Empire, but he was ultimately unsuccessful. In 381 CE, Emperor Theodosius proclaimed Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Front 44

Augustine

Back 44

The most prominent Christian thinker during the early period of Christian history was ______________ (354-430 CE). At first he followed a Persian religious movement Manicheanism - that saw the spirit as good and the body as evil. Manicheanism included elements from several religions, including Christianity and Zoroastrianism, but its beliefs were unconventional and extremely controversial for mainstream Christians.

Front 45

bishop

Back 45

Augustine converted to Christianity as a young man, led by the example of his Christian mother, Monica. Augustine eventually became the ______________ of the city of Hippo in northern Africa. He wrote a key theological text called The City of God. In this book, Augustine melded Manichean beliefs with Christian ideals, completing the marriage of Judaism and Greco-Roman philosophy in Christian theology.

Front 46

original sin

Back 46

Augustine's teachings moved the young Christian church toward a more negative view of human nature. Early Christian theologians had been wrestling over the degree to which humans were inherently sinful; Augustine placed a greater emphasis on ______________: the belief that humans are unavoidably sinful from birth. Even the most righteous, saintly person should still be regarded as sinful, because every human inevitably falls short of the perfection of God. Augustine saw in Jesus Christ the grace necessary for the redemption of original sin.

Front 47

womanizer

Back 47

Early in his adulthood, Augustine had a reputation as a ______________. He believed matter was evil and marriage and procreation should be avoided, but, ironically, sex itself was fine. As a young man, he left behind a mistress and a child in Africa to become engaged to a woman in Italy. While awaiting his marriage, he had another mistress. When Augustine converted to Christianity, he renounced his sexual life and became deeply convinced that the pleasures of the body were an obstacle to true Christianity.

Front 48

Marriage

Back 48

Augustine preached a message of celibacy to the developing Christian church, insisting that the only appropriate use of sexual relations was for procreation. His teaching was highly influential. Prior to Augustine, monks (those living in isolation, questing after spiritual perfection) were expected to be celibate, but priests (those who led Christian congregations) were not. ______________ was not officially forbidden to priests in the Catholic church until 1139 CE, though people like Augustine recommended celibacy for all priests much earlier.

Front 49

church doctrine

Back 49

In its early years, Christianity was organized around the bishops who were the top religious leaders of the major cities of the Roman Empire, especially Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. These bishops would periodically meet to discuss matters of ______________.

Front 50

orthodoxy

Back 50

The bishops focused almost entirely on questions of ______________, or right belief, more or less to the exclusion of the earlier Jewish focus on orthopraxis, or right practice. At the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, for example, the bishops agreed that Jesus was of one substance with God the Father. At the Council of Ephesus in 431 CE, the bishops declared that Jesus was God from the time he was in his mother's womb. Finally at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE, the bishops stated that Jesus was fully human and fully divine, two natures in one person.

Front 51

the Trinity

Back 51

A key doctrine that constituted much of the debate in the early church councils was that of ______________, which states that God is of one nature, but has three "persons": Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Eventually, over the course of several church councils, God's three persons became a central feature of mainstream Christian theology. Today it is almost universally found in Christian churches worldwide. For example, baptism, the principal rite of Christianity, is almost universally performed with this trinitarian formula: "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

Front 52

theology

Back 52

Through the work of the councils of the bishops, the church settled on a number of basic beliefs to which most Christians subscribe. These beliefs clearly demonstrate the influence of Paul and Augustine on the development of Christian ______________:• Jesus is the incarnation of God.• Jesus is the savior of the world.•Jesus' suffering and death are a substitute sacrifice on behalf of all those who have faith in him.• Humanity has a sinful character.• Humans cannot save themselves.• Through faith in Christ, believers can be sanctified.• Jesus' life was thoroughly human; his life is a model for human behavior.• Love is the central human virtue.

Front 53

Nicene Creed

Back 53

The ______________ summed up the beliefs codified by the bishops. Adopted at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and modified at subsequent councils, the ______________ is still recited in many churches today. It forms the Credo, the central part of the Latin mass. It has been set to music often and is memorized by many Christians.

Front 54

Constantinople

Back 54

In 330 CE, after numerous military victories in the Near East, the Emperor Constantine moved the seat of the Roman Empire to the city of Byzantium, which he renamed after himself: ______________. When Constantine died seven years later, the Roman Empire was split into western and eastern halves to be ruled by Constantine's two sons. Wars of conquest were extremely common. Within a century of Constantine's death, the Roman Empire was collapsing under the force of external threats. In 410 CE, Rome was sacked by the Goths. After 476 CE, only the eastern half of the Empire remained.

Front 55

western and northern Europe

Back 55

After the fall of Rome, different states and principalities ruled simultaneously in ______________. Still centered in Rome in the person of the Pope, the church remained a unifying force throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. Though there were many different kingdoms, many aspects of Roman culture persisted through Christianity. For example, Latin was the language of worship services and priestly robes mimicked clothing worn by Roman nobles.

Front 56

Byzantine Empire

Back 56

Even after the church lost direct political and military authority over western Europe, it retained its power in what had been the eastern half of the Roman Empire, centered in Constantinople. Called the ______________, it remained intact for many centuries until its defeat by the Ottomans, a Muslim empire, in 1453 CE.

Front 57

pope

Back 57

In early Christian times, church doctrine was determined by councils of bishops from all the major cities of the Roman Empire. Because Rome was the seat of the empire, its bishop gradually became more important and was eventually elevated over the others to the status of ______________: a religious authority who could, by himself, rule on matters of church doctrine. To officially rule on church doctrine in the Eastern church, patriarchs (figures much like the early Christian bishops) from many different geographical areas had to achieve consensus.

Front 58

much in common

Back 58

Since the split between the Western and Eastern churches in 1054 CE, the Western church has been known as the Roman Catholic church. The Eastern church goes by the general term Eastern Orthodoxy or Orthodox Christianity. While the two churches still have ______________, over the centuries they have developed significant differences in theology, worship, and church governance.

Front 59

icons

Back 59

The Eastern Orthodox Church faced one of its greatest challenges when Emperor Leo III of the Byzantine Empire outlawed the use of all religious images of Jesus, Mary, and the angels in 730 CE. These are called ______________. The emperor may have done this in hopes of fostering better relations with the emerging religion of Islam, which forbade the use of religious images (as Judaism had before it).

Front 60

Eastern Orthodox churches

Back 60

Icons continue to be important in ______________ today. Orthodox churches are filled with images of Jesus, Mary, and the saints, often in larger-than-life-sized frescoes, paintings, or mosaics. It is customary for those entering an Orthodox church to stand before an icon, make the sign of the cross over their face and torso, and kiss the icon reverently.

Front 61

somewhat different ways

Back 61

Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches share most of the same beliefs. Over time, however, they have come to interpret the life of Jesus in ______________. The Catholic church emphasizes the doctrine of the atonement as developed by Paul and refined by Augustine. The Catholic view is that Jesus died as a substitute sacrifice for sinful humans. In keeping with this, God is often seen in the role of divine judge.

Front 62

Monasticism

Back 62

______________ is the practice of individual Christians dedicating their entire lives to a more perfect communion with God and Jesus. The earliest monastics were called the desert fathers. Even before the fall of the Roman Empire, this important strand was developing within Christianity. Monasticism would become significant for both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Front 63

desert fathers

Back 63

The ______________ mainly followed practices of asceticism. They restricted their physical comfort in an effort to enhance their spiritual life. For example, they limited their food intake or slept on rocky ground. The monastic movement grew dramatically after the Roman Empire officially adopted the Christian religion. Once everybody in the Empire was considered Christian, more devout Christians could show the special depth of their faith through monasticism.

Front 64

Benedict of Nursia

Back 64

As the monastic movement became more popular, efforts were made to provide more structure to the life of a monk. The leading figure in this effort was ______________ (480-547 CE), famous for having written The Rule for Monks. This book describes how economically self-sufficient monasteries could be operated smoothly, nourishing the spiritual perfection of a group of monks committed to vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Front 65

Greek, Eastern, Russian, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian Orthodox

Back 65

Today is a Western and Eastern churches are Nona by variety of terms. What terms are included in Eastern Orthodox?

Front 66

Medieval era

Back 66

The monastic rules developed by Benedict provided a foundation upon which many other monastic orders constructed themselves. The monasteries served essential social functions in both the Eastern and Western churches during the ______________. At a time when most people were poor farmers working other people's land, the monastery provided a place where individuals could devote themselves to learning and the arts.

Front 67

Monasteries

Back 67

______________ provided individuals the option of a lifestyle without the often exhausting and demoralizing tasks of bearing and rearing children, many of whom died before reaching adulthood. This was especially important for women, who essentially were choosing between motherhood and the religious life. As nuns, women could cultivate spiritual and intellectual skills closed to them in ordinary life.

Front 68

mysticism

Back 68

The monasteries offered an environment for the development of Christian ______________. The mystical tradition of seeking direct experience of God was a part of Christianity from its inception and remains a vital movement. Christian mystics teach that God desires to dwell in each person's heart. By opening oneself to God's presence through quiet, contemplative prayer, one can be infused by God's love. This experience is valuable for the individuals who enjoy direct communion with God and for those who come in contact with them, since they exude their consciousness of God.

Front 69

Christendom

Back 69

The Medievalperiod in Europe, during which the Christian church monopolized institutional religion throughout the continent, is sometimes referred to as the era of ______________. Most Europeans of this era were not monks, nuns, or priests, and were in fact illiterate. Christianity as they experienced it was a mix of what the church taught, the religious ceremonies and holidays the church celebrated, and their continuing practice of folk religious practices that may not have had the imprimatur of the church, but were nevertheless quite popular.

Front 70

the Virgin Mary

Back 70

Medieval Christianity was strongly characterized by devotion to ______________. This was especially true at the popular level where Mary was regularly feted in parades and festivals. The impulse to worship Mary was present from the inception of Christianity, no doubt in part because the gentile converts of the Roman Empire were accustomed to worshiping goddesses (of which there were none in Christianity).

Front 71

God bearer

Back 71

By the fifth century CE, the church responded to the grass roots movement of devotion to the Virgin Mary by declaring her to be the "theotokos," or "______________.” By 1100 CE, devotion to Mary increased to the point that she was frequently more prominent in the icons and images of churches than was Jesus. She played a central role in both popular piety and monastic life.

Front 72

taint

Back 72

In the nineteenth century, the Roman Catholic church began ratifying beliefs about Mary that had been held since Medieval times by ordinary Christians. In 1854, the Catholic church declared that Mary was "immaculately conceived." This does not mean that Mary, like Jesus, was the product of a virgin birth, but rather that Mary was born without the ______________ of original sin that characterizes all other human beings.

Front 73

ascended into heaven

Back 73

In 1950, the Pope proclaimed that when Mary died, she, like her son Jesus before her, bodily ______________. From there she can now act as an intercessor, helping people's prayers reach the ears of God. Mary continues to play a large role in the religious life of many Catholics worldwide. Indeed, in some countries and in some churches, a stranger who knew nothing of Christian theology could be forgiven for thinking that Mary is the principal object of devotion in Catholic Christianity.

Front 74

Pilgrimage

Back 74

______________ was a popular form of devotion in Medieval Christianity. Pilgrims traveled to important Christian sites for spiritual purposes. Most often, these sites were in Europe and included especially large and elaborate cathedrals, icons credited with special powers, and places where it was believed that Mary or one of the saints had appeared either in life or in spirit. Probably the single most popular pilgrimage site was Compostela in Spain, where an enormous cathedral was built around the tomb of Saint James.

Front 75

Jerusalem

Back 75

One pilgrimage site outside Europe was the city of ______________, the site of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection. In the eighth century CE, Jerusalem came under the control of the growing Arab Empire. Christian access to what was considered "the holy land became more restricted, frustrating and angering many Christians.

Front 76

bloody wars

Back 76

Beginning in the eleventh century CE, under the auspices of the Catholic church, European Christians launched a series of ______________ against the Muslim powers in the Middle East. Called "the Crusades," the aim of these battles was to win back Christian control over Jerusalem. The Crusaders successfully captured Jerusalem and held it for nearly two hundred years. However, well before reaching Jerusalem, the Crusaders wreaked havoc, leaving many corpses in their path.

Front 77

goals

Back 77

In the heat of their religious fervor, the Crusaders slaughtered whole communities of Jews for the crime of being"Christ-killers." As the Crusaders blundered southward, they killed innumerable Orthodox Christians whom they confused with Muslims. Ironically, one of the ______________ of the Crusades was to reunite the Christian church. The unhappy cases of mistaken identity did nothing to repair the recent rift between the Western and Eastern churches.

Front 78

Inquisition

Back 78

As the Crusades continued in the holy land, the Inquisition brought the spirit of religious intolerance home to Europe. In 1184 CE, Pope Lucius initiated the Inquisition, a concerted effort to stamp out heresy, or false belief. Jews and Muslims were forced to wear distinctive dress; Christians found guilty of heresy were questioned, tortured, and sometimes burned to death. The Inquisition did not reach every corner of Europe due to lack of organization and authority. Pockets of religious tolerance thrived; many Catholic bishops did not enforce the dictates of the ______________.

Front 79

Israel

Back 79

In 1291, the Christian Crusaders lost their last toehold in ______________. In all ways, it seemed the Crusades had been disastrous. They deepened the rifts between Catholic and Orthodox Christians, Christians and Jews, and Christians and Muslims. Also, they never achieved their stated goal of creating a Christian Middle East. There was at least one positive and lasting impact of the Crusades, however: renewed contact between Europe and the Middle East. European culture benefited greatly.

Front 80

Greek philosophy and metaphysics

Back 80

Science, mathematics, and medicine were more advanced in the Muslim world. The Crusaders brought knowledge of these sciences back to Europe on their return. Following the Crusades, lines of trade and commerce were opened. The cultural contact with the Near East affected European Christianity as well. For the most part, Europeans in the Medieval era were unfamiliar with Greco-Roman texts. Through contact with the Muslim world, Europeans became reacquainted with ______________, particularly with the work of Aristotle.

Front 81

The Philosopher

Back 81

The philosophy of Aristotle was incorporated directly into Christianity through the efforts of the most influential Christian theologian since Augustine: Thomas Aquinas. Thomas was a monk who entered the monastery when he was five years old. He had the advantage of an excellent education, eventually including exposure to the works of Aristotle. In his own writing, Thomas referred to Aristotle simply as "______________."

Front 82

divine revelation

Back 82

Thomas was particularly interested in distinguishing between what could be known through the careful observance and analysis of the natural world and what knowledge was accessible only through ______________. Thomas reserved an important place for divine revelation, but he greatly expanded the realm of what Christians (and non-Christians) could know of God's will through reason and logic alone.

Front 83

the Messiah

Back 83

Thomas's vision was broad and rational. It laid a foundation for an orderly Christian universe that did not necessarily despise all who had failed to recognize Jesus as the Christ, ______________ , the Son of God. However, there were other forces at work in Christianity and in European society during the latter Middle Ages. Ultimately, the fires of religious intolerance and division were stoked still further.

Front 84

a modern plague

Back 84

The bubonic (or black) plague savaged Europe a century after Thomas lived. From 1348 to 1350 CE, a quarter to a third of the European population succumbed to the disease, which was spread by seafaring rats. (By contrast, AIDS, often described as "______________," has killed approximately .002% of the U.S. population.) Some Europeans simply viewed the plague as a particularly horrible disease; but many Christians feared it was the result of divine judgment upon them for having tolerated the Jews of Europe, who had failed to accept God's son, Jesus Christ.

Front 85

within; without

Back 85

As the fifteenth century dawned, the Catholic church was struggling with corruption ______________ and rebellion ______________. Church officials clamped down ever harder on religious minorities (Christian and otherwise) whose beliefs were not those recognized as correct doctrine by the church. Torquemada, the famous Spanish Inquisitor who was named “Grand Inquisitor" by the Pope, oversaw the expulsion of all Jews and Muslims from Spain in 1492.

Front 86

political alliances

Back 86

Internally, the Catholic church's reputation was suffering from various ______________. The Pope was kidnapped and brought to live in France in the course of European infighting during the fourteenth century. For most of the fourteenth century, the Pope reigned from southern France rather than Rome. Due to strife between France and Rome, occasionally there were two and even three individuals who were proclaimed Pope simultaneously.

Front 87

major discord was brewing in Europe

Back 87

Amidst the upheaval of the Crusades, the black plague, the Inquisition, church corruption, and the fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire in 1453, ____________________________ . Yet the fifteenth century also brought the beginnings of the Renaissance and a new flowering of Christian mysticism that added depth and richness to the Catholic church. It was into this enormously complex and dynamic environment that the Protestant Reformation came, leading to a level of fragmentation in the Christian church unseen before then.

Front 88

preservation of literacy and learning, offering women intellectual and spiritual opportunities, a quiet retreat for contemplative prayer, patronage of the arts

Back 88

What social functions were provided b monasteries during the medieval era?

Front 89

431 CE

Back 89

What year was this believed: Mary is "theotokos," or "God- bearer"

Front 90

1854 CE

Back 90

What year was this believed: Mary was immaculately conceived

Front 91

1950 CE

Back 91

What year was this believed: Mary bodily ascended into heaven when she died

Front 92

Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Jews

Back 92

Who were the victims of the Crusader's excessive enthusiasm for their task?

Front 93

to stamp out heresy

Back 93

What was the goal of the Inquisition?

Front 94

The Inquisition, the Crusades, church corruption, the bubonic plague, and the fall of the Byzantine Empire

Back 94

What factors led up to the successful rebellion against the Catholic Church in Western Europe?

Front 95

decisive split

Back 95

The ______________ of Catholicism into the Roman Catholic church and the group of denominations called Protestantism was initiated by a German monk named Martin Luther. Luther was not alone in questioning the doctrine and practices of the Roman Catholic church. Unlike other heretics before him, however, Luther amassed the necessary political and military strength to resist Catholic attempts to rein him in.

Front 96

nationalism

Back 96

Initially, Luther's grievances against the Catholic Church were ones that others also spoke of at that time. Especially in countries far from Rome, there was resentment of the Church's wealth. Many felt that income produced in northern Europe was being unjustly redirected to southern Europe, simply because that was where Rome, the seat of the Roman Catholic church, lay. This was essentially a political and economic protest against centralized authority related to the rise of ______________ in Europe. It was not fundamentally a religious objection.

Front 97

deceased

Back 97

A portion of the Church's income was garnered through the practice of selling what were called "indulgences." Individuals could buy indulgences from the Catholic church. In exchange for their money, these individuals received a certificate from the Pope saying their time in purgatory (a sort of way station for souls not fully prepared to enter heaven) would be either shortened or eliminated altogether. Individuals could even buy indulgences on behalf of ______________ loved ones.

Front 98

selling indulgences

Back 98

Popes and Roman Catholic councils forbade the practice of ______________, but it persisted. It was to this corruption that Martin Luther first addressed himself. In what would today be described as a "flame war," Luther and Roman Catholic officials took turns writing inflammatory pamphlets directed at one another. Within five years, Luther and his teachings had been officially condemned by Rome.

Front 99

antichrist

Back 99

Following his condemnation by Rome, Luther came under the military protection of Prince Frederick III of Saxony who agreed to fight off any attempts on the part of the Catholic Church to silence Luther (and thereby gain greater national sovereignty for Germany). For his part, Luther abandoned his earlier calls for ending specific corruptions in the Church and began advocating a complete break. He labeled the Pope the "______________" and called for broad and deep changes in Christian theology and practice.

Front 100

judgment

Back 100

If the Protestant Reformation began with essentially political and economic disputes, under Luther profound religious disputes developed as well. The changes Luther sought in the Church's theology and practice were driven by deeply personal spiritual crises that Luther weathered in his young adulthood. Luther was a passionate man, eager to give his all to pleasing God and living as a Christian should. Yet he persistently felt that he could not live up to his own exacting standards and he feared God's harsh ______________, which he felt he deserved.

Front 101

self-condemnation

Back 101

Luther was finally able to give up his ______________ by realizing that his salvation lay in the grace of God. God, Luther came to believe, gave his grace freely to saints and sinners alike, if only they trusted in him. Luther concluded that his efforts to live as a perfectly upright Christian monk were not only doomed, but misplaced. Original sin condemned Luther to failure, to imperfection. Fortunately, God had sacrificed his son on Luther's behalf, on behalf of all, such that moral perfection was no longer what God demanded.

Front 102

sola fides

Back 102

In many ways, Luther's experience recapitulated that of Paul (whose letters, included in the New Testament, were inspirational for Luther). When Paul converted to Christianity, he taught that faith in Christ superseded the need for Jewish religious law. It was not one's "works” (behavior) that mattered, but rather one's faith in God's grace, proven through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus. Luther summed up this belief in the Latin phrase ______________, "by faith alone." Also called "justification by faith," this doctrine became a keystone of Protestant thought.

Front 103

compared to scripture

Back 103

Another element in Luther's movement for reformation was his reliance on scripture. The Roman Catholic church had long held that Christianity was based both on scripture and the traditions of the Christian church. Luther argued instead that scripture alone (sola scriptura) should be authoritative for Christians. In one stroke, Luther's assertion that ordinary Christians could read scripture and interpret it themselves decimated the authority structure built up over the centuries by the Roman Catholic Church. Tradition, Luther said, was as nothing ______________.

Front 104

authority of scripture

Back 104

Luther's criticism of the Catholic Church did not end with his proclamation of the ______________. If scripture were the sole authority for the Christian, other figures to whom authority was granted within Roman Catholicism were completely unnecessary. Luther cut a wide swath through Catholic tradition, saying there was no justifiable religious use for the veneration of Mary or the saints.

Front 105

laity and clergy

Back 105

According to Luther, there was no essential difference between ______________. All were simply individuals before God. Austerities like fasting or living a monastic life were meaningless if it was through faith alone that the Christian was justified. Likewise, there was no point in priestly celibacy. Luther took his own conclusion to heart, marrying a former nun and settling down to raise six children with her.

Front 106

under Roman Catholicism

Back 106

In spite of Luther's wide-ranging changes to Catholic theology, he left Christian worship services much the same as they had been ______________. Luther continued the traditions of communion, the bread and the wine, and baptism since they were found in the New Testament. To this day, Lutheran and Catholic worship services are structurally similar to a sometimes surprising degree.

Front 107

reformation

Back 107

The ______________ begun by Luther quickly spread to countries throughout central and northern Europe. John Calvin was the next major thinker to articulate a Reformed Christian theology. Calvin was a French humanist who became a Christian at the age of twenty-four. His conversion was a response to Luther's Protestant theology and to Calvin's own religious vision in which God demanded that Calvin work to restore the church to its original purity.

Front 108

equality

Back 108

Like Luther, Calvin stressed the ______________ of all individuals before God and the need for each individual to read and interpret scripture for oneself. Calvin's emphases were somewhat different than Luther's. Calvin insisted on a wide gulf between the ultimate power and majesty of God and the sinful nature of people. He resisted any notion whatsoever of human identification with the divine.

Front 109

saved

Back 109

According to Calvin's theology, the vast power and majesty of God was made manifest in the doctrine of double predestination. According to this doctrine, before the creation of human beings, indeed before all time, God had decreed that some humans would be ______________ and others would be damned. Furthermore, God knows before an individual is born whether that person will be saved or damned, independent of any choices made by the individual in life.

Front 110

damned

Back 110

The doctrine of double predestination claimed that people could never know who is to be saved and who is to be damned; only God can know. Calvin insisted that God cannot be accused of arbitrariness in the doctrine of double predestination. All humans deserve to be ______________, said Calvin. If some are spared through God's infinite mercy, people can only be grateful.

Front 111

salvation and heaven

Back 111

On the face of it, it would appear that the doctrine of double predestination would be a counsel of despair. If one can do nothing to change one's fate, why not spend life doing whatever one desires? Yet,Protestants inspired by Calvin sought to live their lives as austerely, diligently, and perfectly as possible. Their purpose was not to change their fate, which was immutable, but to attempt to reassure themselves they were among those destined for ______________.

Front 112

heritage

Back 112

The church born of Calvin's new theology was not called the Calvinist church (as Luther's had been called the Lutheran church); it was simply called the Reformed Church. The Reformed Church flourished in Holland and Scotland, and parts of Germany, Switzerland, and France. The Puritans, who first colonized North America, were also followers of Calvin's theology. Today, churches called Reformed, Presbyterian, or Congregationalist are generally Calvinist in ______________.

Front 113

long and serious

Back 113

Unlike Luther, Calvin made dramatic changes in the Christian worship service. Since the service focused on scripture rather than on any sort of ritual (such as communion), the pulpit, from which the minister spoke and the Bible was read, moved toward the center of the church, while the altar was moved to the side or done away with entirely. Services were generally ______________, with no consideration given to comfort.

Front 114

Defender of the Faith

Back 114

The third major Protestant reformer was not a monk, priest, or theologian like the others. He was Henry VIII, King of England. His split from the Roman Catholic church was a matter of convenience rather than conscience. Initially, Henry responded to the stirrings of Protestant Reform by staunchly adhering to Catholicism. He even earned the title of "______________" from the Pope.

Front 115

divorce his wife

Back 115

Henry VIII, who had no male heirs, wanted to ______________ and marry a lady of the court. He sought an annulment of his marriage from the Catholic Church but it was denied. In response, Henry withdrew his allegiance to Rome and declared that, henceforth, the Catholic churches in England would belong to the newly created Church of England, of which Henry was the supreme head.

Front 116

granted

Back 116

As one of its first acts, the Church of England ______________ Henry VIII a divorce from his wife (and, later, from several subsequent wives). Apart from its willingness to give the King whatever he desired, surprisingly little changed in the English churches during Henry's lifetime. The Church of England was essentially the Catholic Church renamed and overseen locally instead of from faraway Rome.

Front 117

closer

Back 117

The tide of Reform sweeping central and northern Europe was strong in the sixteenth century. Once Henry VIII died, the leaders of the Church of England adopted many of the changes advocated by the Protestant Reformers. It took more than a century for the tumult to settle. Over the long run though, the Church of England remained ______________ to Catholicism than any of the other Protestant churches.

Front 118

the United States

Back 118

Today, the Church of England lives on as the Anglican Church in England and the Episcopal Church in ______________ (and elsewhere). Its worship services are quite similar to those of Catholicism. Like Catholicism, the Episcopal Church has a top-down bureaucratic structure with higher officials appointing and overseeing priests on a local level. Episcopal priests can marry, however. Mary and the saints are not venerated as they are in Catholicism, though greater attention is paid to them than in some other Protestant denominations.

Front 119

going far enough

Back 119

From the beginning of Luther's agitation against the Catholic church, some Europeans caught up in the whirlwind of changing theology and shifting political alignments felt that Luther and other mainstream Protestant reformers were not ______________. Especially among the lower classes, the message received from the Protestant reformers was a strongly democratic, even anarchistic one. If individuals were responsible for reading and interpreting scripture for themselves, the state should have no involvement in religion. Perhaps it should not exist at all.

Front 120

Thomas Muntzer

Back 120

The movement that called for an end to the religious authority of the state was called the Radical Reformation. At the extreme were those, like ______________ and his followers in Germany, who saw in the Protestant Reformation an opportunity to overthrow not only Roman Catholic priestly authority, but all civil authorities as well. These revolts were quickly crushed, not by the Roman Catholic Church, but by the new Protestant churches, who were also intensely interested in preserving their authority.

Front 121

Anabaptists

Back 121

The Anabaptists formed another part of the Radical Reformation. They were called “Anabaptists" (meaning "re-baptize") because they insisted that baptism should be a voluntary commitment on the part of an adult individual, as it was in the New Testament, and not a rite performed on unknowing infants. Unlike the Muntzerites, the ______________ were pacifists, believing that true Christianity precluded any violence toward another human.

Front 122

persecuted

Back 122

Following the Protestant injunction of sola scriptura, Anabaptists turned to the New Testament and made a profound effort to live as the earliest Christians lived. In their thinking, this meant that they, like the early Christians, must have no connection to civil government. As the New Testament said, they should be "in the world, but not of it." The Anabaptists were ______________ by both the Roman Catholic and emerging Protestant churches.

Front 123

religious wars

Back 123

The profound social unrest created by the Protestant Reformation prompted many years of ______________ between northern Europe, where the Protestant Reformation's success was nearly total, and southern Europe, which remained dominantly Catholic. The worst fighting was in central Europe, where there was an active contest among both individuals and countries for allegiance to either the Protestant or Catholic church.

Front 124

witches

Back 124

Another outgrowth of the Protestant Reformation and its attendant social chaos was the widespread persecution of presumed ______________ throughout Europe. Through most of the Middle Ages, it was believed that witchcraft did not exist: that there were no magical evil powers in the world as created by God. Indeed, it was considered heresy to believe in witchcraft, though undoubtedly some Christians did.

Front 125

public executions

Back 125

As the Protestant Reformation was on the rise, the attitude toward witchcraft was reversed. Beginning in the fourteenth century, the Catholic church taught that witchcraft existed and that it was a danger to all good Christians. The Protestant churches taught this from their inception. Both Protestants and Catholics believed that witchcraft had to be stamped out by whatever means necessary. The "means necessary" was usually torture to elicit confession. This led to particularly gruesome ______________, such as burning people alive.

Front 126

witchcraft

Back 126

Witchcraft persecutions fell particularly hard on the women of Europe, who were disproportionately singled out as practitioners of evil magic and the worship of Satan. Many factors contributed to the witchcraft persecutions. Certainly one was that wars between Protestants and Catholics had left both churches feeling as if they were on shaky ground. By turning attention to an external threat, that of ______________, the rift between Protestants and Catholics could appear less significant.

Front 127

the Catholic Reformation

Back 127

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were an era of reform not only for the budding Protestant Churches, but for the Roman Catholic Church as well. Voices within the Catholic Church had been calling for reform even before Martin Luther began his protests. After the Protestant Reformation, this led to a process of internal reform known variously as "______________" or "the Counter Reformation."

Front 128

unreachable goal

Back 128

The Catholic bishops met at Trent between 1545 and 1563 to respond to the Protestant Reformation and to reaffirm the Catholic Church as a vital religious, social, and political force. At first the bishops struggled to achieve reconciliation with the Protestant Churches. By 1551, however, it was clear that reconciliation was an ______________. The bishops turned toward questions of internal reform.

Front 129

Council of Trent

Back 129

The ______________ responded to some of the issues that triggered the Protestant Reformation. It outlawed the selling of indulgences; it set new standards for the training and oversight of priests; and it limited the role of bishop to help prevent further abuses of power.

Front 130

Latin

Back 130

Faced with the challenge posed by the Protestant Reformers, the Council of Trent reaffirmed many traditional Catholic teachings and practices. It retained the use of ______________ in church services; it insisted that tradition, along with scripture, was an important source of Christian theology and practice; it retained the veneration of Mary and the saints; and, perhaps most importantly, it reasserted claims of priestly and papal authority.

Front 131

innovation and fragmentation

Back 131

No one, except perhaps the Eastern Orthodox Church, came out of the Reformation unchanged. Changes in church doctrine and governance were striking. Such a dramatic fissure in the Christian oy Church would have far-reaching implications. Once the dam had burst, Christian unity, which had been fairly well maintained even across the divide between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, gave way completely to Christian ______________.

Front 132

today

Back 132

Today, Christians are spread over six continents. Christian practice is extremely diverse. In spite of strong centralized authority, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy have always had some localized variations. These continue ______________. The Protestant Church, rebelling against the authority of Catholicism, contains almost unimaginable variety.

Front 133

baptism

Back 133

Following centuries of tradition, Christian practices are most carefully detailed within the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Both these churches count seven sacraments, or actions, of the church that are believed to directly access God's presence. The seven sacraments are:• ______________ • eucharist• confirmation• reconciliation• marriage• holy orders• unction.

Front 134

ritual immersion

Back 134

Baptism, ______________ of the body in water, dates back to Jesus' time. Baptism is related to the Jewish practice of mikvah, a ritual cleansing thought to purify the body and soul. In addition to its other functions, mikvah had long been used to convert non-Jews to Judaism. Jesus advocated that his followers be baptized as a sign of their repentance and their commitment to turn away from sin. Jesus himself was baptized.

Front 135

adults

Back 135

Baptism is variously interpreted among Christians today as the washing away of original sin; the acceptance of Jesus as the one who has suffered the punishment for one's own sins; or as the means by which a person becomes Christian. Initially, baptism was the total immersion of a person's body in water, after the fashion of the Jewish mikvah. It was a ritual performed on ______________.

Front 136

commit

Back 136

Within the first couple of centuries after Jesus, Christians began baptizing their infants to ensure they would not go to hell if they died before reaching adulthood (as so many children did). Around the same time, it became customary to perform the rite of baptism by sprinkling water rather than by total immersion. Infant baptism is the most common practice today, but some Protestant denominations practice adult baptism, believing that only adults can ______________ themselves to Christ.

Front 137

blessed bread and wine

Back 137

Eucharist, sometimes called "communion," is the sacrament of blessing and consuming bread and wine as part of a worship service. Eucharist, like baptism, has Jewish roots. Blessing bread and wine is a common practice, and a part of the ritual through which Jews welcome in the weekly Sabbath holiday. As a Jew, Jesus routinely ______________ before meals.

Front 138

last supper

Back 138

According to New Testament sources, shortly before Jesus was crucified, he had supper with his disciples (presumably a Passover seder). At this "______________," Jesus blessed the bread and wine and told his disciples to do this in remembrance of me." This injunction is the origin of the Christian sacrament of eucharist.

Front 139

transubstantiation

Back 139

In Catholic interpretation, the bread and wine of the eucharist become the body and blood of Christ after the priest's blessing. This belief is called ______________. The bread and the wine continue to look, smell, and taste like bread and wine, but they mystically become of the same substance with Jesus' body and blood. In other words, the bread and wine are the body and blood of the sacrifice that atones for human sin.

Front 140

consubstantiation

Back 140

Some Orthodox Christians and most Protestants interpret the eucharist somewhat differently than do Catholics. For example, in the sixteenth century Martin Luther replaced the doctrine of transubstantiation with one he called "______________": the belief that Jesus was present with the bread and wine, but that the bread and wine did not become his body and blood. Many Protestant denominations treat the eucharist as symbolic, a ritual metaphor for Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.

Front 141

confirmation

Back 141

The sacrament of ______________ arose in response to the practice of infant baptism. Baptism ensured that the children of Christian parents would not be damned to hell, but it removed the voluntary aspect associated with adult baptism. The sacrament of confirmation is a service in which the individual rededicates him or herself to Christ and Christianity. Usually performed on young teens, confirmation gives individuals who were baptized as infants the opportunity to make a conscious choice of Christianity.

Front 142

sacraments

Back 142

Like Roman Catholics, most Protestant denominations that practice infant baptism practice confirmation as well. Those that practice adult baptism often incorporate a ritual called “infant dedication” in which parents bring their newborn baby before the church and promise to raise it in the Christian faith. The Orthodox Church combines the ______________ of baptism and confirmation in one service for infants.

Front 143

reconciliation

Back 143

Catholic and Orthodox churches provide for the continuing removal of the harmful effects of sin through the sacrament of ______________ or confession. The individual goes to a priest and describes or "confesses" their sins. The priest prescribes for them a penance, a set of actions that will bring them back to reconciliation with God. Usually penance consists of a fixed number of prayers.

Front 144

confession of sins

Back 144

Like Catholics and Orthodox Christians, most Protestants recognize a need for the ______________. However, Protestants pray directly to God for the forgiveness of their sins because they do not believe that individuals require an intermediary between themselves and God. This is a generally a private matter and therefore is not considered a sacrament.

Front 145

marriage

Back 145

The ______________ between two individuals, a man and a woman, is considered a sacrament within the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Because the churches officiate over marriages, they also set rules for divorce. For example, the Catholic Church regards marriage as a permanent sacrament, so remarriage after divorce requires special action by the Church. This special action typically takes the form of an "annulment” of the marriage. Rather than saying that the marriage failed, it is saying that it never actually occurred on a sacramental level.

Front 146

holy orders

Back 146

The sixth Catholic and Orthodox sacrament is that of ______________, the ordination of priests. The Church reserves for itself the right to decide who can act as a priest, an intermediary between people and God. The Church confirms its choices in the sacrament of holy orders. Most Protestant denominations also ordain priests or ministers as a way of officially recognizing the special status of these individuals. For Protestants, ordination itself is rarely considered a sacrament.

Front 147

extreme unction

Back 147

The final Catholic and Orthodox sacrament is unction, the blessing of the sick. When seriously ill, a person may call for a priest who will come to anoint the ailing individual with oil and say prayers. This sacrament used to be called "______________" and was typically reserved for people who were believed to be near death, providing them one final opportunity to be cleansed of sin. Now, individuals are more often encouraged to view unction as appropriate for non-terminal illnesses as well, as a way of providing comfort and healing to the ill and their families.

Front 148

pray

Back 148

Christians ______________ in many different ways. The tradition of scripted prayers that has been and still is a key part of Judaism carried over into Christianity. Especially in the Orthodox Church, but also in Roman Catholicism and some Protestant denominations, much of the regular worship service consists of prayers that are unchanging. Some are repeated daily, others weekly; another set are added for the celebration of particular religious holidays. Prayers are written in a prayer book to which all congregants have ready access.

Front 149

prayer

Back 149

Christian ______________ can be vocalized or silent, public or private. All Christians have traditions of solitary prayer that are left to the individual's moods and needs. Many Protestant denominations also create new communal prayers during every worship service. Ministers and congregants alike may offer up whatever prayers seem appropriate to the situation or occasion.

Front 150

public worship services

Back 150

More than some other religions, Christianity centers around ______________ that all church members are expected to attend regularly. In spite of a few key differences, Catholic and Protestant worship services can be quite similar. They are usually composed of a regular program of prayers, hymns, Old and New Testament readings, choral responses, a sermon, a collection of monetary offerings to the church, and the eucharist.

Front 151

Bible study classes

Back 151

Worship is only one of the many functions fulfilled by most Christian churches. Churches frequently offer ______________ for children and adults, prayer groups, opportunities for congregants to socialize with one another, and fund-raising projects such as bake sales or craft fairs. Christian churches also often try to serve their communities with projects aimed at feeding or housing the poor, nursing the sick, or influencing public policy through political campaigns.

Front 152

sacred art

Back 152

Historically, the Christian church served as a key patron of and inspiration for the arts. Entire periods of European art history are characterized primarily by ______________, from painted icons and stained glass to sculpture and architecture. Images of Jesus and Mary and basic symbols, such as the cross, formed a foundation for the Christian aesthetic language. Even before Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Christian aesthetic came to incorporate numerous features, including saints, angels, and Bible stories.

Front 153

convert

Back 153

Christianity has had an enormous influence on musical traditions, particularly in Europe. Though there have always been secular musical traditions in Europe, composers were well compensated, usually by the church, to create sacred music. Even today, composers frequently set Christian sacred texts to music. For example, the contemporary British composer John Tavener was so attracted to Orthodox Christian music traditions that he incorporated Byzantine elements into his compositions. He eventually became a ______________ to Orthodox Christianity.

Front 154

the liturgical year

Back 154

The Christian holidays together form a pattern known in the Orthodox and Catholic churches (and in some Protestant churches as well) as "______________.” This is the calendar through which the Christian church annually recreates the drama of Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection, as well as the new life Christians may experience through their faith in him.

Front 155

Advent

Back 155

The liturgical year begins on the last Sunday in November with ______________. Advent consists of four weeks of preparation for Christmas. Many Christians keep an "Advent wreath" both at church and at home. On the first Sunday of Advent, a single candle is lit on the wreath. Then, one additional candle is lit each Sunday until, on the Sunday immediately before Christmas, four candles are burning.

Front 156

Stations of the Cross

Back 156

These are the ______________:

• Jesus is condemned to death• Jesus bears his cross• Jesus falls for the first time

• Jesus meets his mother• Simon helps Jesus bear his cross• Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

• Jesus is condemned to death• Jesus bears his cross• Jesus falls for the first time• Jesus meets his mother• Simon helps Jesus bear his cross• Veronica wipes the face of Jesus• Jesus falls the second time• Women weep over Jesus• Jesus falls the third time• Jesus is stripped of his clothes• Jesus is nailed to the cross• Jesus dies on the cross• Jesus is taken down from the cross• Jesus is laid in the sepulchre

• Jesus is condemned to death• Jesus bears his cross• Jesus falls for the first time• Jesus meets his mother• Simon helps Jesus bear his cross• Veronica wipes the face of Jesus• Jesus falls the second time• Women weep over Jesus• Jesus falls the third time• Jesus is stripped of his clothes• Jesus is nailed to the cross• Jesus dies on the cross• Jesus is taken down from the cross• Jesus is laid in the sepulchre

• Jesus falls the second time• Women weep over Jesus• Jesus falls the third time

• Jesus is stripped of his clothes• Jesus is nailed to the cross• Jesus dies on the cross

• Jesus is taken down from the cross• Jesus is laid in the sepulchre

Front 157

Advent

Back 157

The liturgical year begins on the last Sunday in November with ______________. Advent consists of four weeks of preparation for Christmas. Many Christians keep an "Advent wreath" both at church and at home. On the first Sunday of Advent, a single candle is lit on the wreath. Then, one additional candle is lit each Sunday until, on the Sunday immediately before Christmas, four candles are burning.

Front 158

the coming

Back 158

Advent means "______________." In theological terms, it celebrates the incarnation: God's coming to earth in human form. Advent emphasizes God's intention to be present in the world, and to share in the ordinary pains and sufferings of human beings. Advent is the counterbalance against tendencies in Christianity to regard God as infinitely superior to and distant from human beings.

Front 159

Saturnalia

Back 159

The birth of Jesus is celebrated on December 25th. No one knows for certain when Jesus was born. Of the four gospels, only Matthew and Luke give a detailed account of Jesus' birth. Initially, the Jesus Movement paid little attention to Jesus' birth, focusing instead on his crucifixion and resurrection. As the early church attracted more gentile converts, the church began to celebrate the Roman festival of ______________ (the winter solstice) as Jesus' birthday.

Front 160

Christmas Eve

Back 160

Today, Christmas is an extremely popular holiday in many dominantly Christian countries, particularly the United States. As such, it is celebrated by Christians, non-Christians, and nominal Christians alike. Traditional veneration of the fourth-century Christian bishop Saint Nicholas has morphed into a legend about Santa Claus, a jolly fat man who lives at the North Pole and brings gifts to children all around the world on ______________.

Front 161

Epiphany

Back 161

The Christmas season ends on January 6th, with the holiday of ______________. ______________ celebrates the coming of the three wise men to visit the infant Jesus. According to tradition, the wise men came from the East," a place of great learning and wisdom. The fact that the wise men recognized Jesus as exceptional underscores his divine nature and the destiny he was to live out. The foreignness (non-Jewishness) of the wise men presages the universality to which Christianity quickly aspired.

Front 162

Lent

Back 162

______________ is the holiday that follows Epiphany in the liturgical year. Lent consists of forty days of preparation for Easter. It is a solemn, inward time. Often Christians will give up a favored food or activity to better concentrate on the self-examination and identification with Jesus' suffering and death that characterizes this period.

Front 163

Mardi Gras

Back 163

Many Christian cultures have traditionally scheduled a day or week of extreme self-indulgence immediately prior to Lent, knowing that such excess is forbidden during the coming weeks until Easter. This party or feast is called "______________," "Fat Tuesday," or "Carnival." It is an especially popular holiday in southern European and Latin American cultures. Mardi Gras is tolerated, but not sanctioned, by the Roman Catholic Church.

Front 164

Ash Wednesday

Back 164

The first day of Lent is Ash Wednesday. Roman Catholics and some Protestants celebrate ______________ with special church services during which the priest places a smudge of ash on the forehead of each member of the congregation. The ash is to remind Christians of the inevitable fact of human death and the importance of asking forgiveness for one's sins.

Front 165

Palm Sunday

Back 165

The solemn preparation begun with Lent reaches a new level of anticipation with "Holy Week," which culminates in Easter. Holy Week begins with ______________, a celebration of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem with his disciples and other followers several days before his crucifixion. According to gospel accounts, Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem with waving palm branches, a scene that is recreated in many Christian churches on Palm Sunday.

Front 166

Maundy Thursday

Back 166

The Thursday of Holy Week is called ______________. ______________ is a remembrance of the last supper Jesus had with his disciples. During the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the practice of communion or eucharist when he asked his disciples to remember him when they blessed the bread and wine. ______________ also reminds Christians of Jesus' injunction that Christians be servants to the world, since at this last supper Jesus served his disciples and washed their feet

Front 167

Good Friday

Back 167

The Friday of Holy Week commemorates the crucifixion of Christ. Frequently there are worship services lasting for the entire period that Jesus is thought to have hung on the cross. There are special musical works to mark Jesus' “passion" (his suffering and death) and liturgies may recreate the "stations of the cross": a series of events occurring as Jesus carried his cross up the hill to be crucified. The mood is somber. Historically, some Christian cultures have reenacted the crucifixion on ______________ by tying or even nailing a volunteer to a wooden cross.

Front 168

Holy Week

Back 168

By Good Friday, the anticipation of Easter (the day of Jesus' resurrection) becomes intense for those observing the rituals of ______________. For Orthodox Christians, ______________ peaks during a Saturday night vigil that begins mournfully. The mood shifts abruptly at midnight with the officiating priest's cry of "Christ is risen!” The congregation responds, "He is risen indeed!” and a flame first lit by the priest is passed from candle to candle throughout the dark church.

Front 169

Easter

Back 169

Protestants frequently celebrate ______________ with "sunrise services” held in the early hours of ______________ Sunday, sometimes outdoors. These are especially joyous services. Christians celebrate Jesus' victory over death. Just as Christians are invited to share in Jesus' sufferings on the cross on Good Friday, they are expected to share in his resurrection on ______________.

Front 170

new life

Back 170

Early Christianity continued other religious traditions surrounding the winter solstice with the holiday of Christmas. Likewise, some of the elements of Easter celebrations are tied to the coming of spring. Easter melds Jesus' resurrection with the new life of nature as the days begin to grow longer. Eggs, a symbol of ______________, are frequently a symbolic part of Easter celebrations. In the United States, this takes the form of hiding eggs to be found by children. In many Orthodox countries, eggs are dyed dark red and then smashed together to see which will break first.

Front 171

ascension

Back 171

The holiday marking the ______________ of Jesus into heaven is celebrated forty days after Easter. According to gospel accounts, for forty days after his resurrection from the dead, Jesus appeared repeatedly to the disciples, giving them encouragement and further teaching. On the fortieth day, Jesus ascended bodily into heaven to join God the Father.

Front 172

Pentecost

Back 172

Ten days after Ascension comes ______________, which commemorates an event described in the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus' disciples were gathered together, feeling lost, since Jesus had finally left them to ascend into heaven. Suddenly they experienced what they described as an inrushing of the Holy Spirit. Miraculously, they began to speak fluently in languages they did not know beforehand. The miracle quickly drew a crowd. The disciples began to preach about Jesus' resurrection to those assembled. Pentecost is celebrated as the birthday of the Christian Church and is a time for baptisms.

Front 173

lesser holidays and saints' days

Back 173

In Roman Catholicism and some Protestant churches, the portion of the liturgical year between Pentecost and Advent is known as "ordinary time." However, especially in the Catholic and Orthodox churches, ordinary time is filled with ______________. Virtually every day of the year is associated with a particular saint. Individuals may hold special feasts on the day of the saint whose name they share.

Front 174

pious belief

Back 174

One of the most important holidays between Easter and Advent comes on August 15th, when Catholic and Orthodox Christians celebrate the "falling asleep" (the death) of Mary. Tradition states that when Mary's tomb was opened three days after her death, it, like her son's, was empty. She had been taken up bodily into heaven. Most Catholic and Orthodox Christians believed this as early as 600 CE. It was not confirmed by the Pope until the 1950 doctrine of the assumption of the blessed Virgin Mary. Among Orthodox Christians it remains a "______________" rather than church dogma.

Front 175

denominations

Back 175

If a visitor from deep in the heart of Christendom in 1300 CE Europe were to visit the twenty-first century, two great changes would undoubtedly be notable. First, a religion once dominated by two large church organizations has now splintered into a stunning variety of self-proclaimed "churches" or "______________." Second, Christianity has made itself at home all over the world.

Front 176

the Protestant Reformation

Back 176

In spite of the split between the eastern and western churches, the Christianity practiced in England and Russia, Holland and Asia Minor were strikingly similar for the first 1500 years of Christian history. This unity collapsed dramatically in the years following ______________.

Front 177

Lutheran Church

Back 177

The groups that call themselves Christian are now so diverse that an outside observer might be surprised to learn they all consider themselves part of a single religious tradition. Some, such as the ______________, teach that Jesus was God come to earth to save humanity. Others, such as the Unitarian Universalist Church, regard Jesus as a wise person from whom everyone can learn good moral values.

Front 178

Church of England

Back 178

The Puritans, a Protestant group who followed the strict Calvinist doctrine of double predestination, settled in North America. By the eighteenth century, North America was home to Protestant churches descended from all the major branches of the Protestant Reformation. For example, the North American Episcopal Church stems from the ______________.

Front 179

Medieval Europe

Back 179

North America also attracted religious rebels who were hoping to escape state-controlled religions in Europe. Individuals and groups who would have been condemned of heresy and persecuted out of existence in ______________ were able instead to define their doctrines and seek new members in America. As a consequence, many new and different denominations sprang up.

Front 180

state

Back 180

The separation of church and ______________ in the United States provided fertile ground for the growth of new versions of Christianity. the eighteenth century, a style of lively preaching and worship developed in the United States, often led by itinerant preachers who would gather "a meeting" in one community, inspire the locals to become Christians or renew their Christian faith, and then move on to the next community. This is known as revivalism. Revivalism developed in part through contact with African forms of worship brought over by African slaves.

Front 181

Protestant themes

Back 181

Revivalism crossed denominational boundaries, bringing together many types of Protestant Christians. Preachers demanded enthusiastic commitment of the individual to Jesus as one's personal savior and stressed other ______________: the sufficiency of scripture alone; the need for faith; a direct relationship to God and to the person of Jesus; and the demand that each individual rely on his or her own conscience. Ironically, this emphasis on the similarities of all Protestants led not to a unification of the Protestant churches in America, but to their multiplication.

Front 182

Civil War

Back 182

One cause of increasing divisions in the Protestant churches in America was the ______________. Established denominations such as the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists separated into northern and southern branches. The Presbyterian and Methodist churches reunified in the 20th century; the Baptists still have not.

Front 183

Independents

Back 183

The social environment of the United States also provoked religious creativity. Some of these denominations were Protestant in familiar ways, merely taking a slightly different slant in worship or community practices. Others are better described as "______________," since they are rather far removed from the Protestant Reformation both historically and doctrinally.

Front 184

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Back 184

Amidst the religious creativity of the American environment, some"Independents" pushed hard on what others considered the limits of Christianity. ______________ (Mormons or LDS) originated in 1820 in upstate New York when Joseph Smith had visions of God and Jesus. Smith claimed that he was divinely directed to gold tablets (The Book of Mormon) that told of God's dealings with preconquest Americans, including a visit to America by Jesus Christ following his resurrection. The church was officially organized on April 6, 1830, and was seen as a restoration of the early church of Jesus Christ led by prophets and apostles.

Front 185

polygamy

Back 185

The Mormon addition of colorful new doctrines to Christianity, as well as the practice of ______________ (later banned in 1890), outraged more traditional Christians. In time the Mormons fled west to escape persecution and establish their own community in the Salt Lake Valley (Utah). Led by Brigham Young, successor to Joseph Smith, the Mormon pioneer movement in the mid-1800s brought saints from the eastern United States and across northern Europe to the western frontier. Largely through its missionary work, today the church has become a significant global religion with more than half of its twelve million members living outside the United States.

Front 186

Christian Science

Back 186

During the late 19th century, other religious leaders arose to form new denominations in the United States. Mary Baker Eddy, having explored a variety of religious approaches, founded ______________ on the belief that the material world has no real existence and can be successfully manipulated by spiritual practices. Her church, The Church of Christ, Scientist, was tremendously appealing to Americans who sought a religion that was "rational" and "logical," but still spiritually powerful. Though much reduced in numbers, ______________ continues to attract new members to the present day.

Front 187

anxiety

Back 187

The religious face of the United States changed dramatically when large numbers of Catholics began to immigrate to America from southern Europe and Ireland in the nineteenth century. Initially, there was real ______________ among more established Americans that Catholic immigrants would destroy the fabric of American Protestant life.

Front 188

Catholic

Back 188

As late as 1960, when John F. Kennedy, Sr., was elected President, there were those that feared that a ______________ President could not effectively govern the United States, since ultimately he would do whatever the Pope told him to do. Today, however, Catholicism is as American as Protestantism. In fact, Catholicism is the most populous form of Christianity in the United States.

Front 189

Non-Christian

Back 189

______________ immigrants have also changed the face of American religion. The first and still the largest influx of ______________ to America was the Jewish migration from Europe, which began in the early nineteenth century and mushroomed dramatically in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Front 190

Muslims

Back 190

Today, there are nearly as many ______________ as Jews in the United States. Hindus and Buddhists have also made homes for themselves in America. They have frequently won non-Asian American converts to their religions as well. For most of the history of the United States, religious choice meant choosing among Christian denominations. Now it means choosing among all the religions of the world.

Front 191

world

Back 191

Today, there are nearly as many Muslims as Jews in the United States. Hindus and Buddhists have also made homes for themselves in America. They have frequently won non-Asian American converts to their religions as well. For most of the history of the United States, religious choice meant choosing among Christian denominations. Now it means choosing among all the religions of the ______________.

Front 192

The Ecumencial Impulse

Back 192

As the once firm hold of Protestants on America began to disintegrate in the face of non-Protestant and non-Christian immigration, Protestant churches often felt a compelling need to merge rather than to continue to splinter. Denominations that had previously split were reunited. In 1837, the Presbyterian church split into “New School" and "Old School” factions based on subtle differences in interpretation of the doctrine of the atonement. In 1869, they reunited. More dramatically, different Protestant churches began forming organizations to discuss and act upon shared commitments.

Front 193

The National Council of Churches

Back 193

______________ (NCC) was formed in 1950 to bring Christians of all denominations into a single ecumenical organization that could benefit Christianity in America as a whole and foster cooperation on shared charitable and political projects. ______________ now includes not only many different Protestant denominations, but Orthodox Christian churches as well. Though the Roman Catholic church is not an official member, it participates in certain initiatives and Catholic observers are often present at NCC decision-making meetings.

Front 194

Pentecostalism

Back 194

While the National Council of Churches has provided a top-down forum in which Christians emphasize their commonalities, a strong charismatic grass roots movement has unified a large group of Christians across America and around the world. These Christians, rich and poor, black and white, have been united by their shared desire to make Christianity central to their lives and to experience ecstatic forms of Christian worship. This movement is called ______________.

Front 195

(glossolalia)

Back 195

The Pentecostal movement is usually traced back to a single meeting of a small mission church in Los Angeles in 1906. There, in the midst of a worship service, people began to "speak in tongues" (______________.) They spoke in strange, unearthly languages that filled them with a sensation of spiritual bliss. Their speech was interpreted as the blessing of the Holy Spirit. The movement was rapidly named “Pentecostal," because the experience of speaking in tongues was similar to the experience of Jesus' disciples at Pentecost who were suddenly able to speak in foreign languages.

Front 196

Last Days

Back 196

Many people interpreted the ecstatic experience of "speaking in tongues” as a sign that the "______________" had come and that Jesus would soon return to earth to judge all humans. The Pentecostal movement has proven extremely hardy over the last century, outlasting many scholars' predictions for it. It has also established a significant presence in other countries. Especially in Latin American countries, Pentecostalism has linked itself with both Catholicism and Protestantism.

Front 197

imperialism and colonialism

Back 197

During the past five hundred years, Christianity has spread throughout the world. Christianity mainly rode on the coattails of European ______________. As Europeans colonized countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, they brought Christianity with them. Where a European country's army made inroads, colonists and missionaries were sure to follow, or, in some cases, even to lead.

Front 198

attractive

Back 198

When European Christians settled in lands new to them, they created new nations that were predominantly Christian. Europeans, and later Americans, also sought to convert other populations to Christianity. Missionaries traveled to foreign lands to bring the good news of Jesus, and also to offer tangible assistance to native populations in the form of literacy or medicine. Certainly there was some cultural pressure to convert to Christianity; at times this was accompanied by military force. Undoubtedly many converted simply because they found Christianity ______________.

Front 199

growth

Back 199

More people in the world identify themselves as Christians than as followersof any other religion. Following the withdrawal of European and American political and military control from former colonies, especially in Africa and Asia, Christianity continues to grow. As Christianity spread to new lands, it often blended with local customs and religions. New native denominations are arising where Christianity was formerly overseen by Western denominations. Often, these native denominations are the leading edge of the ______________ of Christianity today.

Front 200

pragmatic

Back 200

Though now composed of independent nation-states, Latin America was for many years made up entirely of Spanish and Portuguese colonies. The conquistadores, those military commanders who conquered the native populations, brought priests with them who worked to convert entire native populations to Roman Catholicism. The Catholic church was ______________, permitting a certain flexibility in its liturgy and ritual practices to accommodate converts accustomed to other religions. Latin American Catholicism has a unique flavor. Today, Latin America is also home to many Protestant churches.

Front 201

presence

Back 201

European imperialists in Asia did not force AIL Di conversion of native populations, as was often the case in Latin America. The Asian countries were more densely populated and undan had strong unifying religious traditions of their own. Nevertheless, European and American missionaries traveled in Asia, from India to Japan, building a small but significant Christian ______________. In some Asian countries, such as South Korea and the Philippines, missionary activities were m extremely effective. In those countries today, Christians are as numerous as Buddhists, and sometimes more so.

Front 202

Africa

Back 202

In the course of European imperialism, ______________, more than any other continent, was divided into smaller territories and controlled by a greater number of European powers. As a result, missionary activity in ______________ was quite varied in approach and by denomination. Today Christianity is growing most quickly in ______________, where native Africans are taking control of Christian churches first planted by European and American denominations.

Front 203

secular

Back 203

In Europe, the continent where Christianity grew and thrived for so many years, Christianity is comparatively weak. In surveys, the majority of northern Europeans indicate they do not attend worship services, do not believe that Jesus was the son of God, and, often, that they do not believe in God at all. Much of Europe, the traditional homeland of Christianity, can now be described as "______________" or "post-Christian."

Front 204

the secularization thesis

Back 204

For a portion of the twentieth century, partisans of "______________" believed that all first-world Christian countries would give up religion altogether with the advance of science and material prosperity. This has been somewhat true in Europe, but not in the United States where Christianity in its many forms continues to attract and retain adherents.

Front 205

non-white

Back 205

There are about two billion Christians in the world, nearly one-third of the world's population. This proportion may continue to rise with conversions and high birthrates among certain Christian populations. Amidst this growth, the face of Christianity is changing dramatically. Statisticians predict that by the year 2050, four-fifths of all Christians will be ______________, and that the important centers for Christianity will no longer be Rome or London, but Seoul or Nairobi. Christianity is not what it was even one generation ago, but it still thrives as a dynamic religion, forever remaking itself.

Front 206

hostility between Christians and Muslims deepened, Christians held Jerusalem for nearly two hundred years, Europeans acquired much philosophical and scientific learning from the Islamic Empire.

Back 206

As a result of the Crusades ___________

Front 207

everyone deserves hell.

Back 207

According to Calvin's doctrine of double predestination ______

Front 208

to love God and to love your neighbor

Back 208

What did Jesus teach?

Front 209

Certificates you could buy to get time off from purgatory.

Back 209

What were "indulgences"?

Front 210

Henry VIII's earnest desire for a divorce from his first wife.

Back 210

The Church of England was the result of ________

Front 211

367 CE

Back 211

When did Christian leaders decide which books would be included in the New Testament?

Front 212

Latin

Back 212

What was the language of worship in the Roman Catholic Church prior to the 20th century?

Front 213

hostile

Back 213

The attitude of the Pharisees toward the Jesus movement was _______________

Front 214

veneration of the Virgin Mary.

Back 214

The divine female component of Greco-Roman paganism continued to some extent in Christianity in the form of __________

Front 215

quite similar to Roman Catholic worship services.

Back 215

Christian worship services as designed by Martin Luther were _____________

Front 216

Monica

Back 216

Who was Augustine's mother?

Front 217

Martin Luther

Back 217

Who was the first successful Protestant reformer?

Front 218

Jews, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims.

Back 218

During the Crusades, Christian soldiers killed __________

Front 219

sedition.

Back 219

Jesus was crucified on charges of ____________

Front 220

had special authority for leading others to correct Christian faith and practice.

Back 220

Luther believed that priests ___________

Front 221

The annual cycle of Christian holidays.

Back 221

What is the liturgical year?

Front 222

forty days after Easter

Back 222

The holiday of Ascension comes __________

Front 223

four weeks of preparation for Christmas

Back 223

What is Advent?

Front 224

January 6

Back 224

The holiday of Epiphany falls on ___________

Front 225

his mother, Mary, was a virgin

Back 225

What was unusual about Jesus's conception, according to Christianity?

Front 226

Mary Baker Eddy

Back 226

Who was the founder of Christian Science?

Front 227

because Europeans and Americans colonized much of the globe in the last several centuries.

Back 227

The major reason that Christianity is found in throughout the world is _______________

Front 228

a German Reformer who led a peasants' revolt against the German government.

Back 228

Who was Thomas Muntzer?