Following the era of the Reformation came the Enlightenment, or the “Age of Reason.” This time period brought an emphasis on the temporal world and earthly life, rather than preparation for life after death. While this way of thinking came to dominate Western thought, periods of renewed religious enthusiasm punctuated […]
Tag: Church History
The Reformation: Melanchthon and Zwingli
On October 31, 1517, in Wittenberg, Germany, a monk named Martin Luther nailed a list of ninety-five points for debate on the door of Castle Church. This document, known as the Ninety-Five Theses, challenged the Roman Catholic church’s view of salvation and papal authority. At the time, the Church held […]
The Biblical Canon
What does the biblical “canon” mean? The word “canon” comes from the Hebrew word qaneh and the Greek word kanon, which both mean “measuring rod.” According to this concept of a standard or rule for measuring things, the biblical canon is the collection of books that the church accepts as […]
The Schism of 1054: To Leaven or Not to Leaven
In AD 1054, the year of the Great Schism of the Christian Church, the Visigoths, the Franks, and other tribes had divided up the Western Roman Empire. However, the Eastern Roman Empire, later named the Byzantine Empire, remained united. Over the centuries between the reign of Constantine I and the […]
The Christian Empire: Constantine, St. Benedict, and the Monks
In 285 AD, the Emperor of the Roman Empire, Diocletian, decided that his territory was too large to rule by himself, so he split the empire in two. He maintained his rule in the eastern half and appointed Maximian to rule the western half. Diocletian and Maximian each held the […]