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Chapter 24: Not Peace but a Sword (1913-60) – Part I
Happy New Year!
For our first meeting of 2015 for next week, please read the first three sections of Chapter 24: A War That Killed Christendom (1914-18); Great Britain: The Last Years of Christian Empire; Catholics and Christ the King: The Second Age of Catholic Missions.
American soldier dies during a German gas attack during WWI. May, 1918.
Please answer one of the following questions:
Chapter 23: To Make the World Protestant (1700 – 1914) – Part II
Joseph Smith receiving the golden plates from the Angel Moroni.
We will conclude our study of Chapter 23 by going over the last three sections: India: The Great Rebellion and the Limits of Colonial Mission; China, Korea, Japan; and America: The New Protestant Empire.
UPDATE: Chapter 23: To Make the World Protestant (1700 – 1914) – Part I
Last night we had a fruitful discussion about the first half of Chapter 23 – our essays are here.
The image above is a common argument atheists and non-believers have used to either discredit Christian-based ethics or Christianity altogether. Though in this chapter and other chapters of MacCulloch’s book have shown that Christianity (or the Church in general) has played a significant role in the history of slavery, there are some misconceptions about the type of slavery that the Bible mentions; Chris tackles this issue in his essay about slavery. There is a definite and serious responsibility all Christians should do in making sure that biblical verses be put into its proper geohistorical contexts for proper exegesis and hermeneutics to occur. Neglecting to do so will amount to serious misunderstandings and be a detriment to the gospel message, as the African-slave experience has shown.
Last night’s meeting reminded me of how special what we are doing at Project Augustine is. At times, when Christians are gathered in a small group setting to talk about spiritual matters, most are on their best behavior and may not be so upfront about what they truly believe in, fearing that they might be misunderstood or that their questions might be deemed silly at best or even heretical at worst. But not at Project Augustine. We’re pretty open – unabashedly open often in fact. Now, this style may or may not be to everyone’s liking of course. But this way of engaging Christianity really challenges us and stretches our knowledge of not only the church, Christianity, God, etc., but also ourselves and why we believe what we believe.
Do Plants Have Souls?
Plant neurobiology is a fascinating area of research in science that is going on today that explores how plants behave, learn, communicate, and respond with each other and their environment.
Here are some of my thoughts on this and how this research might relate with theology.
A Reply from one of our members about the 11/13 post.
Chris wanted to clarify his position on the post i made here about the conversation we had during our last meeting last month that concerned evolution – human evolution in particular.
Here is his statement:
“Perhaps I was unclear in my comments. I apologize.
With respect to whether God directly intervened to make man or it was done by strict
evolution, I am AGNOSTIC. We simply lack the knowledge to decide at this time.
MUCH MORE CRITICALLY, my real point may have been missed.
Whether by God or evolution may not be the real question. The real question is who or
what gives us humans eternal worth?
The real ‘Adam and Eve story’ may be that God DOES directly intervene to imbue us with
eternal value as a totally free gift by His infinite and unknowable Love and through pure fiat.
What does evolution have to do with it? Whether a man or a cockroach what value
without God’s Desire and Will? We could evolve for an infinite amount of time and
reach stupendous levels of intellect, cognition and morality, we will still be (star) dust
and to (star) dust we will return. We will not even possess consciousness of our existence.
What value?
(These are not statements but questions. I appreciate comment, if any. Thanks.)”
– Chris
What Does it Mean to be “Saved?”
When you ask your average Christian or evangelical what salvation means, more likely than not, he or she will respond with, “Jesus Christ died for your sins so that you will enter heaven after death, escape from the fires of hell, and instead spend eternity with Him.” And normally, they would equate that statement to be the basic meaning of the gospel.
However, that seems to be a very parochial understanding of the term ‘salvation’.
What did the Bible writers, especially the author of the Gospel of Luke, mean by the term ‘salvation’ or what it means to be ‘saved’?
Here’s an essay about the term ‘salvation’ here.
Chapter 23: To Make the World Protestant (1700 – 1914) – Part I
“Am I Not A Man And A Brother?” – 1787 medallion designed by Josiah Wedgwood for the British anti-slavery campaign
Hi everyone. Sorry to make this so late.
Tomorrow we will be covering the first three sections of Chapter 23: Slavery and Its Abolition: A New Christian Taboo, A Protestant World Mission: Oceania and Australasia, Africa: An Islamic or a Protestant Century?
Please answer one of the following questions:
UPDATE: Chapter 22 – Part II – “God is Dead.”
It has been a long time coming, but here are our essays for the last half of Chapter 22, focusing on the rise of Christian fundamentalism, biblical criticism, the “quest for the historical Jesus”, and the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.
It was good to get back in the swing of things after a little over a month and a half, and hopefully we’ll get the momentum back till we finish the book.
Chapter 22: Europe Re-enchanted or Disenchanted? (1815 – 1914) – Part II
Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)
We’re still alive! Trust me.
We were on hiatus because everyone’s schedule seemed quite packed last month, but we’re itching to come back.
Next Wednesday, we’ll finish up with the last three sections of Chapter 22: British Protestantism and the Oxford Movement, Orthodoxy: Russia and Ottoman Decay, Masters of Suspicion: Geology, Biblical Criticism and Atheism.
Please write a one page summary of one of the following questions:
- Describe the aims of the ‘Oxford Movement’ during the 1830s in England. What were its aims? Who were the Tractarians? What was the relationship between the Church of England and the State like at this time? What was John Henry Newman’s role during this period? And what were their fears about the Roman Catholic Church?
- Discuss the relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Orthodox Church (especially the Russian Orthodox Church) after the Russo-Turkish War of 1768 – 74. Why did the Russian Church tolerate the tsar’s tight control over the Church? How did Jews and Greek Catholics fair during the ‘Holy Alliance’ formed by Tsar Alexander in 1815? Why was the ‘Holy Alliance’ formed in the first place?
- Describe the role the Russian Orthodox Church played in the independence of Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire. How was the Ottoman Empire affected afterwards, especially the Ottoman rulers’ pursuit of Tanzimat?
- Discuss the impact of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution by natural selection. How did his books, On the Orgin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871), change how humankind was looked upon versus the biblical view of humankind? How are Darwin and his theory tied with his role in the anti-slavery/abolitionist movement? How did the relatively new science of geology change the perception of the Bible?
- Describe the rise of biblical criticism during the 19th century. Discuss the works of pastors and missionaries, like David Strauss and Albert Schweitzer, in their quests for the ‘historical Jesus’. How did perceptions of the Bible change because of higher criticism?
- Discuss the development of ‘Fundamentalism’ during the 1870s. What was it a reaction against? How and why did it form? How did it get its name? Discuss the roles Ira Sankey and D. L. Moody played in its rise. What are the central tenets of Fundamentalism?
- Discuss the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Describe his ‘God is dead’ philosophy. Discuss how his Lutheran upbringing molded some aspects of his anti-Christian rhetoric.
Hope to see everyone next Wednesday.
Project Augustine 