Christ Book Critique Everett Ferguson's book Church History, Volume One: from Christ to Pre-Reformation explores the relationship between the church and secular historical events. Since the inception of the Christian religion, those in positions of leadership have utilized the faith in the religion to extend power to the followers, often coming into conflict with secular leaders such as kings and queens. The book covers an extended period of time and deals thoroughly with the various struggles of the Christian religion and specifically the Catholic Church. The book also explains the writing of the Christian Bible and explains the ways that the religion spread until it eventually became the most influential belief practice in the western world. In the text, the author makes several arguments regarding this dynamic which deal with specific periods in Christian history including the first rise of Christianity in the waning Roman Empire, the growth of the papacy as the supreme power in the Christian religion, and finally the conflicts that arose between Christians and other...
The Roman Empire had been the preeminent power in the world for a long time when Christianity began to have an impact on the society. More and more people were becoming interested in the monotheistic religion and were shying away from the Roman religion with its many Gods and hedonistic mythology. The conversion of the populous was what led Roman leaders to accept the new faith, rather than an individual change to the belief system. Rather than a theological issue, the conversion to Christianity was in fact political (Ferguson 2005, 88). Ferguson is not the first person to put forth this theory about Roman conversion, but he does provide factual data concerning the declination of the political power of those who help onto Roman polytheism. It is possible that the leaders of Rome became interested in Christianity in the centuries following…Catholic church and public policy have remarked that the members of American clergy in general, without even excepting those who do not admit religious liberty, are all in favour of civil freedom; but they do not support any particular political system. They keep aloof from parties, and from public affairs. In the United States religion exercises but little influence upon laws, and upon the details of public opinion; but it
Catholic Church in Spain and the United States The Catholic Church has been a very significant religious and political institution in the Europe. Its origins can be traced to a thousand years when Christianity was itself in its infancy. It was a symbol of colossal authority and was much regarded as an institution that was as similar to the installed governmental mechanism of any nation state. Its power and influence spread
..is particularly strong among younger Catholics and weekly Mass attendees." (Fleming, 2008, p.1) Fleming (2005) writes that the decline in support for capital punishment on the part of Catholics is "a salutary reminder that good arguments can change minds." (Fleming, 2008, p.1) Summary and Conclusion This brief review has demonstrated that the earlier views of the Catholic Church on the death penalty has experienced a shift over time and that the majority
Catholics believe that baptism is necessary for the removal of the inborn sin that is part of all human beings simply because they are human and not divine like God. The second sacrament is confirmation which signifies that "the person has become an adult in the eyes of the church and confirms the promise made by others at baptism" (Thompson, 155). The third sacrament is of the Eucharist which re-enacts
This happened because of the fact that many Catholic individuals could not resist the temptation of joining and supporting the Nazis as their power grew. Considering that doing otherwise would have had terrible consequences for them, it seems normal that they did not dare to rise against Nazism. With claims like "The Church must enter completely into the Third Reich, it must be co-ordinated into the rhythm of the
Jesus of history, is the reflection of the social importance of Jesus in religious pretext, Jesus was famous in his region because he attempted to modify and improve the social and ethical setup of the society. Christ of Faith is the same Jesus, but not the one who is handling hardships from society, and is the one who struggled to improve the religious understanding and scope of people, to bring
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