1.
Codex Manesse
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The codex was produced in Zürich, for the Manesse family. The manuscript is the most beautifully illumined German manuscript in centuries, the Codex Manesse is an anthology of the works of a total of about 135 Minnesingers of the mid 12th to early 14th century. For each poet, a portrait is shown, followed by the text of their works, most of the poems are Minnesang, but there are also other genres, including fables and didactic poems. Some images are motivated by the biography of the person depicted, the house of Manesse declined in the late 14th century, selling their castle in 1393. The fate of the codex during the 15th century is unknown, in 1604, Melchior Goldast published excerpts of its didactic texts. After 1657 it was in the French royal library, from which it passed to the Bibliothèque Nationale, in 1888, after long bargaining, it was sold to the Bibliotheca Palatina of Heidelberg, following a public subscription headed by William I and Otto von Bismarck. The first critical editions of the Codex Manesse appeared in the nineteenth century. The codex is frequently referred to by Minnesang scholars and in editions simply by the abbreviation C, introduced by Karl Lachmann, two leaves of a 15th-century copy of the manuscript, called the Troßsche Fragment, were held in the Berlin State Library, but went missing in 1945. The possibility that the compiler was the Minnesinger Johannes Hadlaub provided the subject of a novella, Hadlaub. Walter Koschorreck and Wilfried Werner, editors, Kommentar zum Faksimile des Codex Manesse, commentary to the facsimile edition, with essays by Wilfried Werner, Ewald Vetter, Walter Koschorreck, Hugo Kuhn, Max Wehrli and Ewald Jammers
2.
Ancient Greek
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Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
3.
Sacrament
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A sacrament is a Christian rite recognised as of particular importance and significance. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites, many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of the reality of God, as well as a means by which God enacts his grace. Sacraments signify Gods grace in a way that is observable to the participant. The Catholic Church recognises seven sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Marriage, many Protestant denominations, such as those within the Reformed tradition, identify two sacraments instituted by Christ, the Eucharist and Baptism. The Lutheran sacraments include these two, often adding Confession as a third sacrament, the English word sacrament is derived indirectly from the Ecclesiastical Latin sacrāmentum, from Latin sacrō, from sacer. This in turn is derived from the Greek New Testament word mysterion and these seven sacraments were codified in the documents of the Council of Trent, which stated, CANON I. During the Middle Ages, sacraments were recorded in Latin, even after the Reformation, many ecclesiastical leaders continued using this practice into the 20th century. On occasion, Protestant ministers followed the same practice, since W was not part of the Latin alphabet, scribes only used it when dealing with names or places. In addition, names were modified to fit a Latin mold, for instance, the name Joseph would be rendered as Iosephus or Josephus. The Catholic Church indicates that the sacraments are necessary for salvation, the Church applies this teaching even to the sacrament of baptism, the gateway to the other sacraments. It states that Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed, catechumens and all those who, even without knowing Christ and the Church, still sincerely seek God and strive to do his will can also be saved without Baptism. The Church in her liturgy entrusts children who die without Baptism to the mercy of God, in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, the sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions, the Church teaches that the effect of the sacraments comes ex opere operato, by the very fact of being administered, regardless of the personal holiness of the minister administering it. The sacraments presuppose faith and through their words and ritual elements, nourish, strengthen, through each of them, Christ bestows that sacraments particular grace, such as incorporation into Christ and the Church, forgiveness of sins, or consecration for a particular service. The Eastern Orthodox tradition does not limit the number of sacraments to seven, however it recognizes these seven as the major sacraments, which are completed by many other blessings and special services. Some lists of the sacraments taken from the Church Fathers include the consecration of a church, monastic tonsure, more specifically, for the Eastern Orthodox the term sacrament is a term which seeks to classify something that may, according to Orthodox thought, be impossible to classify. According to Orthodox thinking God touches mankind through material means such as water, wine, bread, oil, incense, candles, altars, icons, how God does this is a mystery
4.
Catechesis
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Catechesis is basic Christian religious education of children and adults. It started as education of converts to Christianity, but as the religion became institutionalized, in the Catholic Church, catechist is a term used of anyone engaged in religious formation and education, from the bishop to lay ecclesial ministers and clergy to volunteers at the local level. The primary catechists for children are their parents or communities, protestant churches typically have Sunday School classes for educating children in religion, as well as adult classes for continuing education. In the early church, new converts, referred to as catechumens, were instructed in the elements of the faith such as the Apostles Creed, Lords Prayer. During the fourth and fifth centuries, baptism had become a several-week-long rite leading up to the baptism on Easter. During this time, catechumens attended several meetings of intensive catechetical preaching, often by the bishop himself, and often accompanied by prayers, exorcisms. Catechumens recited the Apostles Creed on Holy Saturday to show one had completed catechetical instruction. By the sixth century, most of those presented for baptism were infants, the decline of preaching and education in general following the barbarian invasions also affected the decline of catechesis. Later, instructors would teach Christians who had baptized as children, to prepare for practicing the religion as thinking persons. The word catechism, used for a manual for this instruction, during this time the instruction was also expanded to include memorization of the Lords Prayer and Apostles Creed. Some clergy probably provided expositions of this material in addition to the Ten Commandments, the main function of catechesis during this period was preparation for confession by enabling the Christian to identify their sins. Jean Gersons LABC des simples gens was an important catechetical work published at the advent of the printing press, along with Gersons other catechetical works, it addressed the unique problems of teaching the faith to children. Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg was another popular preacher who followed the tradition of Gerson by preaching on the basics of the faith and they wanted individuals to be able to fully understand the prayers. The use of a question and answer format was popularized by reformer Martin Luther in his 1529 Small Catechism, religious education continued to develop among both Catholics and Protestants. The Christians ABC, Catechisms and Catechizing in England c. 1530-1740, oxford, Clarendon Press – via Questia. Luther, Martin, Theodore G. Tappert Ed, the Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The life of the community and its diverse individuals now are seen as both the curriculum and the primary catechist. The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite in the Sixteenth Century, course Catechism of the Catholic Doctrine
5.
Christian
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A Christian is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christian derives from the Koine Greek word Christós, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach, while there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance. The term Christian is also used as an adjective to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a sense all that is noble, and good. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, by 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey Christianity will remain the worlds largest religion in 2050, about half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic, while more than a third are Protestant. Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the worlds Christians, other Christian groups make up the remainder. Christians make up the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories,280 million Christian live as a minority. In the Greek Septuagint, christos was used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ, in other European languages, equivalent words to Christian are likewise derived from the Greek, such as Chrétien in French and Cristiano in Spanish. The second mention of the term follows in Acts 26,28, where Herod Agrippa II replied to Paul the Apostle, Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4,16, which believers, Yet if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. The city of Antioch, where someone gave them the name Christians, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames, in the Annals he relates that by vulgar appellation commonly called Christians and identifies Christians as Neros scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome. Another term for Christians which appears in the New Testament is Nazarenes which is used by the Jewish lawyer Tertullus in Acts 24, the Hebrew equivalent of Nazarenes, Notzrim, occurs in the Babylonian Talmud, and is still the modern Israeli Hebrew term for Christian. A wide range of beliefs and practices is found across the world among those who call themselves Christian, denominations and sects disagree on a common definition of Christianity. Most Baptists and fundamentalists, for example, would not acknowledge Mormonism or Christian Science as Christian, in fact, the nearly 77 percent of Americans who self-identify as Christian are a diverse pluribus of Christianities that are far from any collective unity. The identification of Jesus as the Messiah is not accepted by Judaism, the term for a Christian in Hebrew is נוּצְרי, a Talmudic term originally derived from the fact that Jesus came from the Galilean village of Nazareth, today in northern Israel. Adherents of Messianic Judaism are referred to in modern Hebrew as יְהוּדִים מָשִׁיחַיים, the term Nasara rose to prominence in July 2014, after the Fall of Mosul to the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The nun or ن— the first letter of Nasara—was spray-painted on the property of Christians ejected from the city, where there is a distinction, Nasrani refers to people from a Christian culture and Masihi is used by Christians themselves for those with a religious faith in Jesus. In some countries Nasrani tends to be used generically for non-Muslim Western foreigners, another Arabic word sometimes used for Christians, particularly in a political context, is Ṣalībī from ṣalīb which refers to Crusaders and has negative connotations
6.
Secularity
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Secularity is the state of being separate from religion, or of not being exclusively allied with or against any particular religion. Historically, the secular was not related or linked to religion. The idea of a dichotomy between religion and the secular originated in the 18th century European Enlightenment, one can regard eating and bathing as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them. Nevertheless, some religious traditions see both eating and bathing as sacraments, therefore making them religious activities within those world views, saying a prayer derived from religious text or doctrine, worshipping through the context of a religion, and attending a religious school are examples of religious activities. The secular is experienced in diverse ways ranging from separation of religion and state to being anti-religion or even pro-religion, a related term, secularism, involves the principle that government institutions and their representatives should remain separate from religious institutions, their beliefs, and their dignitaries. Many businesses and corporations, and some operate on secular lines. This stands in contrast to theocracy, government with deity as its highest authority, Secular and secularity derive from the Latin word saeculum which meant of a generation, belonging to an age or denoted a period of about one hundred years. In the ancient world, saeculum was not defined in contrast to any sacred concerns and had a usage in Latin. It was in Christian Latin of medieval times, that saeculum was used for distinguishing this temporal age of the world from the realm of God. The Christian doctrine that God exists outside time led medieval Western culture to use secular to indicate separation from specifically religious affairs and involvement in temporal ones. This does not necessarily imply hostility to God or religion, though some use the term this way, routinization — institutionalizing through integration into the society. Differentiation — a redefined place such as when accepting its status as one religion in a plural religious field or morphing into a more generic, disengagement — the detachment of certain facets of social life from religion. Transformation — gradual change over time in a sense that Protestantism became for Christianity. Generalization — a particular kind of change in which it becomes less specific, more abstract, has moderation of controversial and divisive claims. Desacralization — culture and rationality guide people while leaving out religious beings, segmentation — the development of specialized religious institutions, which take their place beside other specialized social institutions. Secularism — the only form that leads to rejection of religion. Examples of secular used in this way include, Secular authority, which involves legal, police, and military authority, as distinct from clerical authority, or matters under church control. Secular clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, who, traditionally, do not live the lives of the regular clergy and are therefore, in a sense
7.
Baptism
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Baptism is a Christian sacrament of admission and adoption, almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally. The canonical Gospels report that Jesus was baptized—a historical event to which a degree of certainty can be assigned. Baptism has been called a sacrament and an ordinance of Jesus Christ. In some denominations, baptism is also called christening, but for others the word christening is reserved for the baptism of infants, Baptism has also given its name to the Baptist churches and denominations. The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the candidate to be immersed, in v.16, Matthew will speak of Jesus coming up out of the water. The traditional depiction in Christian art of John the Baptist pouring water over Jesus head may therefore be based on later Christian practice, other common forms of baptism now in use include pouring water three times on the forehead, a method called affusion. Martyrdom was identified early in Church history as baptism by blood, later, the Catholic Church identified a baptism of desire, by which those preparing for baptism who die before actually receiving the sacrament are considered saved. Today, some Christians, particularly Christian Scientists, Quakers, The Salvation Army, and Unitarians, do not see baptism as necessary, among those that do, differences can be found in the manner and mode of baptizing and in the understanding of the significance of the rite. Most Christians baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, much more than half of all Christians baptize infants, many others hold that only believers baptism is true baptism. Some insist on submersion or at least partial immersion of the person who is baptized, others consider that any form of washing by water, as long as the water flows on the head, is sufficient. The term baptism has also used to refer to any ceremony, trial, or experience by which a person is initiated, purified. The Greek verb baptō, dip, from which the verb baptizo is derived, is in turn hypothetically traced to a reconstructed Indo-European root *gʷabh-, the Greek words are used in a great variety of meanings. John the Baptist, who is considered a forerunner to Christianity, the apostle Paul distinguished between the baptism of John, and baptism in the name of Jesus, and it is questionable whether Christian baptism was in some way linked with that of John. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism, though whether Jesus intended to institute a continuing, the earliest Christian baptisms were probably normally by immersion, complete or partial. Though other modes may have also been used, at the hour in which the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. When they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing, that is, then they shall take off all their clothes. The children shall be baptized first, all of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, after this, the men will be baptized
8.
Mass (liturgy)
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Mass often refers to the entire church service in general, but is specifically the sacrament of the Eucharist. The term mass is called in the Catholic Church, Western Rite Orthodox churches and many Old Catholic, Anglican, as well as some Lutheran churches. Some Protestants employ terms such as Divine Service or service of worship, the English noun mass is derived from Middle Latin missa. The Latin word was adopted in Old English as mæsse, and was sometimes glossed as sendnes, the Latin term missa itself was in use by the 6th century. It is most likely derived from the concluding formula Ite, missa est, historically, however, there have been other explanations of the noun missa, i. e. as not derived from the formula ite, missa est. Already Du Cange reports various opinions on the origin of the noun missa mass, including the derivation from Hebrew matzah, here attributed to Caesar Baronius. The Hebrew derivation is learned speculation from 16th-century philology, medieval authorities did derive the noun missa from the verb mittere, but not in connection with the formula ite, missa est. Thus, De divinis officiis explains the word as a mittendo, quod nos mittat ad Deo, the Catholic Church sees the Mass or Eucharist as the source and summit of the Christian life, to which the other sacraments are oriented. The Catholic Church believes that the Mass is exactly the same sacrifice that Jesus Christ offered on the Cross at Calvary, after making the sign of the cross and greeting the people liturgically, he begins the Act of Penitence. This concludes with the prayer of absolution, which, however. The Kyrie, eleison, is sung or said, followed by the Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Introductory Rites are brought to a close by the Collect Prayer. On Sundays and solemnities, three Scripture readings are given, on other days there are only two. If there are three readings, the first is from the Old Testament, or the Acts of the Apostles during Eastertide, the first reading is followed by a psalm, either sung responsorially or recited. The second reading is from the New Testament, typically one of the Pauline epistles. A Gospel Acclamation is then sung as the Book of the Gospels is processed, sometimes with incense and candles, the final reading and high point of the Liturgy of the Word is the proclamation of the Gospel by the deacon or priest. At least on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, a homily, finally, the Creed is professed on Sundays and solemnities, and it is desirable that in Masses celebrated with the people the Universal Prayer or Prayer of the Faithful should usually follow. The congregation responds, May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of his name, for our good, the priest then pronounces the variable prayer over the gifts. The Eucharistic Prayer, the centre and high point of the entire celebration, the priest continues with one of many Eucharistic Prayer thanksgiving prefaces, which lead to the reciting of the Sanctus acclamation
9.
Western Christianity
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Western Christianity consists of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, and a variety of Protestant denominations. The name has applied in order to distinguish these from Eastern Christianity. Today, the distinction between Western and Eastern Christianity is not nearly as absolute, due to the spread of missionary activities, migrations. The adjectives Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity are thus used to refer to historical origins rather than present geographical locations. For most of its history the church in Europe has been divided between the Latin-speaking west, whose centre was Rome, and the Greek-speaking east, whose centre was Constantinople. Cultural differences and political rivalry created tensions between the two churches, leading to disagreement over doctrine and ecclesiology and ultimately to schism, like Eastern Christianity, Western Christianity traces its roots, directly or indirectly, to the apostles and other early preachers of the religion. In Western Christianitys original area Latin was the principal language, Christian writers in Latin had more influence there than those who wrote in Greek, Syriac, or other Eastern languages. With the last-named form of Eastern Christianity, reunion agreements were signed at the Second Council of Lyon and the Council of Florence, but these proved ineffective. The rise of Protestantism led to divisions within Western Christianity, which still persist, and wars—for example. In and after the Age of Discovery, Europeans spread Western Christianity to the New World, Roman Catholicism came to the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Protestantism, including Anglicanism, came to North America, Australia-Pacific and this Western version also has the additional phrase God from God, which was in the Creed as adopted by the First Council of Nicaea, but which was dropped by the First Council of Constantinople. The date of Easter usually differs between Eastern and Western Christianity, because the calculations are based on the Julian calendar and Gregorian calendar respectively, for example, the Church of England continued to observe Easter on the same date as the Eastern Church until 1753. Even the dates of other Christian holidays differ between Eastern and Western Christianity, Western Christianity makes up about 90% of Christians worldwide, with the Roman Catholic Church accounting for over half and various Protestant denominations making up another 40%. Hussite movements of 15th century Bohemia preceded the main Protestant uprising by 100 years and evolved into several small Protestant churches, waldensians survived also, but blended into the Reformed tradition
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Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
11.
Ecumenical
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Ecumenism refers to efforts by Christians of different church traditions to develop closer relationships and better understandings. The term is often used to refer to efforts towards the visible. The terms ecumenism and ecumenical come from the Greek οἰκουμένη, which means the inhabited world. The ecumenical vision comprises both the search for the unity of the Church and the whole inhabited earth as the concern of all Christians. Used in this sense, the term carries no connotation of re-uniting the historically separated Christian denominations. Historically, the word was used in the context of large ecumenical councils that were organized under the auspices of Roman Emperors to clarify matters of Christian theology. These Ecumenical Councils brought together bishops from around the world as they knew it at the time. There were a total of seven ecumenical councils accepted by both Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism held before the Great Schism, thus, the modern meaning of the world ecumenical and ecumenism derives from this pre-modern sense of Christian unity, and the impulse to recreate this unity again. Ecumenism and nondenominational or postdenominational movements are not necessarily the same thing, while some of these can be ecumenical in intent, normally nondenominationalism seeks no common organizing principle nor works toward the unity of Christians. If ecumenism is the quest for Christian unity, it must be understood what the divisions are which must be overcome, Christianity is the largest religion in the world and the various divisions have commonalities and differences in tradition, theology, church government, doctrine, and language. The exact number of denominations is disputed, based on differing definitions used. The largest number often quoted is approximately 45,000 from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, the World Christian Encyclopedia lists approximately 33,000 in 2001. Yet, at the time, the World Council of Churches counts only 348 member churches. This, with the Catholic Churchs 1.25 billion Christians indicates that 349 churches/denominations already account for nearly 80% of the worlds Christian population, One problem with the larger numbers is that single denominations can be counted multiple times. For example, the Catholic Church is a church, or communion. Further, the Catholic Church presence in each country is counted as a different denomination - though this is in no way an ecclesiologically accurate definition and this can result in the one Catholic Church being counted as 242 distinct denominations, as in the World Christian Encyclopedia. Other denominations may be very small remnants of once larger churches, the United Society of Believers in Christs Second Appearing have only three full members, for example, yet are a distinct denomination. Most current divisions are the result of historical schisms - a break in the communion between previously united Churches, bishops, or communities
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Reformation
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The period is usually considered to have begun with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Luther in 1517 to the Thirty Years War and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura, the initial movement within Germany diversified, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. The spread of Gutenbergs printing press provided the means for the dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The largest groups were the Lutherans and Calvinists, Lutheran churches were founded mostly in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, while the Reformed ones were founded in Switzerland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and Scotland. The new movement influenced the Church of England decisively after 1547 under Edward VI and Elizabeth I, there were also reformation movements throughout continental Europe known as the Radical Reformation, which gave rise to the Anabaptist, Moravian and other Pietistic movements. The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent, much work in battling Protestantism was done by the well-organised new order of the Jesuits. In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland, southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe was a site of a fierce conflict, culminating in the Thirty Years War, which left it devastated. The oldest Protestant churches, such as the Unitas Fratrum and Moravian Church, the later Protestant Churches generally date their doctrinal separation from the Roman Catholic Church to the 16th century. The Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church, by priests who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice. They especially objected to the teaching and the sale of indulgences, and the abuses thereof, and to simony, the reformers saw these practices as evidence of the systemic corruption of the Churchs hierarchy, which included the pope. Unrest due to the Great Schism of Western Christianity excited wars between princes, uprisings among the peasants, and widespread concern over corruption in the Church, New perspectives came from John Wycliffe at Oxford University and from Jan Hus at the Charles University in Prague. Hus rejected indulgences and adopted a doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone, the Roman Catholic Church officially concluded this debate at the Council of Constance by condemning Hus, who was executed by burning despite a promise of safe-conduct. Wycliffe was posthumously condemned as a heretic and his corpse exhumed and burned in 1428, the Council of Constance confirmed and strengthened the traditional medieval conception of church and empire. The council did not address the national tensions or the theological tensions stirred up during the century and could not prevent schism. Pope Sixtus IV established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, Pope Alexander VI was one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes. He was the father of seven children, including Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, in response to papal corruption, particularly the sale of indulgences, Luther wrote The Ninety-Five Theses. The Reformation was born of Luthers dual declaration – first, the discovering of Jesus and salvation by faith alone, the Protestant reformers were unanimous in agreement and this understanding of prophecy furnished importance to their deeds. It was the point and the battle cry that made the Reformation nearly unassailable
13.
Apostles' Creed
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The Apostles Creed, sometimes entitled Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of Christian belief—a creed or symbol. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists, the Apostles Creed is Trinitarian in structure with sections affirming belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son and the Holy Spirit. The Apostles Creed was based on Christian theological understanding of the Canonical gospels and its basis appears to be the old Roman Creed known also as the Old Roman Symbol. Because of the origin of its original form, it does not address some Christological issues defined in the Nicene. It thus says nothing explicitly about the divinity of either Jesus or the Holy Spirit and this makes it acceptable to many Arians and Unitarians. Nor does it address many other questions which became objects of dispute centuries later. The earlier text evolved from simpler texts based on Matthew 28,19, part of the Great Commission, pirminius, written between 710 and 714. Bettenson and Maunder state that it is first from Dicta Abbatis Pirminii de singulis libris canonicis scarapsus and this longer Creed seems to have arisen in what is now France and Spain. Charlemagne imposed it throughout his dominions, and it was accepted in Rome. It has been argued nonetheless that it dates from the half of the 5th century. Some have suggested that the Apostles Creed was spliced together with phrases from the New Testament, for instance, the phrase descendit ad inferos echoes Ephesians 4,9, κατέβη εἰς τὰ κατώτερα μέρη τῆς γῆς. It is of interest that this phrase first appeared in one of the two versions of Rufinus in A. D.390 and then did not appear again in any version of the creed until A. D.650. This phrase and that on the communion of saints are found in the Apostles Creed. Musical settings of the Symbolum Apostolorum as a motet are rare, the French composer Le Brung published one Latin setting in 1540, the Spanish composer Fernando de las Infantas published two in 1578. More recently, in 1979 John Michael Talbot, a Third Order Franciscan, composed and recorded Creed on his album, in 1986 Graham Kendrick published the popular We believe in God the Father, closely based on the Apostles Creed. Rich Mullins and Beaker also composed a musical setting titled Creed, released on Mullins‘1993 album A Liturgy, the song Creed on Petra’s 1990 album Beyond Belief is loosely based on the Apostles Creed. In 1991, GIA Publications published a hymn text directly based on the Apostles’ Creed, called I Believe in God Almighty and it has been sung to hymn tunes from Wales, the Netherlands, and Ireland. In 2014 Hillsong released a version of the Apostles Creed under the title This I Believe on their album No Other Name, in 2016 Keith Getty and Kristyn Getty released an expression of the Apostles Creed under the title We Believe on their album Facing a Task Unfinished
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Lord's Prayer
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The Lords Prayer is a venerated Christian prayer that, according to the New Testament, Jesus taught as the way to pray. The context of the prayer in Matthew is a discourse deploring people who pray ostentatiously, the original text of the prayer uniquely contains the word epiousios, which does not appear in any other extant classical or Koine Greek literature, and is also the only adjective in the prayer. While controversial, the most common English language translation of word is daily. The prayer concludes with deliver us from evil in Matthew, the first three of the seven petitions in Matthew address God, the other four are related to human needs and concerns. Some Christians, particularly Protestants, conclude the prayer with a doxology, underscoring the scope and foundational importance of the Lords Prayer, initial words on the topic from the Catechism of the Catholic Church teach that it is truly the summary of the whole gospel. The prayer is used by most Christian churches in their worship, with exceptions, the form is the Matthean. There are several different English translations of the Lords Prayer from Greek or Latin, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer adds it in some services but not in all. It is absent in the oldest manuscripts and is not considered to be part of the text of Matthew 6. For more information on this doxology, see Doxology, below, later scholarship demonstrated that the manuscript was actually a late addition based on Eastern liturgical tradition. Other English translations are also used, though Matthew 6,12 uses the term debts, the older English versions of the Lords Prayer uses the term trespasses, while ecumenical versions often use the term sins. The latter choice may be due to Luke 11,4, which uses the word sins, while the former may be due to Matthew 6,14, as early as the third century, Origen of Alexandria used the word trespasses in the prayer. Though the Latin form that was used in Western Europe has debita, most English-speaking Christians. The dialect of Syriac in which it is written is not the dialect that would have been spoken by Jesus of Nazareth or his followers, however, the dialects are quite similar. Thy kingdom come, This petition has its parallel in the Jewish prayer, May he establish his Kingdom during your life and during your days. In the gospels Jesus speaks frequently of Gods kingdom, but never defines the concept, when malkuth is used of God, it almost always refers to his authority or to his rule as the heavenly King. This petition looks to the establishment of Gods rule in the world in the future. This idea is frequently challenged by groups who believe that the Kingdom will come by the hands of faithful who work for a better world. These believe that Jesus commands to feed the hungry and clothe the needy are the kingdom to which he was referring, graef notes that the operative Greek word, basileia, means both kingdom and kingship, but that the English word kingdom loses this double meaning
15.
Late Middle Ages
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The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th and 15th centuries. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the modern era. Around 1300, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt, a series of famines and plagues, including the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death, reduced the population to around half of what it was before the calamities. Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare, France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as the Jacquerie and the Peasants Revolt, as well as over a century of intermittent conflict in the Hundred Years War. To add to the problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church was shattered by the Western Schism. Collectively these events are called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages. Despite these crises, the 14th century was also a time of progress in the arts. Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing, which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. These two things would lead to the Protestant Reformation. Toward the end of the period, the Age of Discovery began, the rise of the Ottoman Empire, culminating in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, eroded the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire and cut off trading possibilities with the east. Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes, leading to the expedition of Columbus to the Americas in 1492 and their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations. The changes brought about by these developments have led scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of modern history. However, the division is artificial, since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society. As a result there was continuity between the ancient age and the modern age. Some historians, particularly in Italy, prefer not to speak of the Late Middle Ages at all, but rather see the period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance. The term Late Middle Ages refers to one of the three periods of the Middle Ages, along with the Early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People. Flavio Biondo used a framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire. Tripartite periodization became standard after the German historian Christoph Cellarius published Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, for 18th-century historians studying the 14th and 15th centuries, the central theme was the Renaissance, with its rediscovery of ancient learning and the emergence of an individual spirit
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Martin Luther
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Martin Luther, O. S. A. was a German professor of theology, composer, priest, monk and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. Luther came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and he strongly disputed the Catholic view on indulgences as he understood it to be, that freedom from Gods punishment for sin could be purchased with money. Luther proposed a discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His translation of the Bible into the vernacular made it accessible to the laity. It fostered the development of a version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the writing of an English translation. His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches and his marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry. In two of his works, Luther expressed antagonistic views towards Jews, writing that Jewish homes and synagogues should be destroyed, their money confiscated. Condemned by virtually every Lutheran denomination, these statements and their influence on antisemitism have contributed to his controversial status, Martin Luther was born to Hans Luder and his wife Margarethe on 10 November 1483 in Eisleben, Saxony, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was baptized as a Catholic the next morning on the feast day of St. Martin of Tours and his family moved to Mansfeld in 1484, where his father was a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters and served as one of four citizen representatives on the local council. He had several brothers and sisters, and is known to have close to one of them. Hans Luther was ambitious for himself and his family, and he was determined to see Martin, his eldest son, become a lawyer. He sent Martin to Latin schools in Mansfeld, then Magdeburg in 1497, where he attended a school operated by a lay group called the Brethren of the Common Life, the three schools focused on the so-called trivium, grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Luther later compared his education there to purgatory and hell, in 1501, at the age of 19, he entered the University of Erfurt, which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse. He was made to wake at four every morning for what has been described as a day of rote learning and he received his masters degree in 1505. In accordance with his fathers wishes, Luther enrolled in law school at the university that year but dropped out almost immediately. Luther sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing particular interest in Aristotle, William of Ockham, philosophy proved to be unsatisfying, offering assurance about the use of reason but none about loving God, which to Luther was more important. Reason could not lead men to God, he felt, for Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation, he believed and he later attributed his decision to an event, on 2 July 1505, he was returning to university on horseback after a trip home
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Westminster Shorter Catechism
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The assembly also produced the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Larger Catechism. New converts to Christianity were taught through lectures during the first four centuries of the Churchs existence, christian humanists and Protestant Reformers sought to revive the practice, including the Reformed. John Calvins Genevan Catechism was especially influential among the British Reformed, the most popular British catechisms included works by John Craig, James Ussher, Herbert Palmer, John Ball, and Anthony Tuckney. On John Knoxs return to Scotland after long exile because he was deemed by the authorities a heretic and it required that a Sabbath afternoon session be set aside for examination of young children in catechism, and this practice eventually was adopted in the Kirk. Catechizing became a part of life in the Scottish Churches with itinerant catechists being employed to instruct the people — a practice continued into the 19th century. In 1643, the Westminster Assembly, which was designed to bring the two churches into greater conformity, was convened at the height of the English Civil War to reform the Church of England. Twelve or fourteen of the members of the Westminster Assembly had produced catechisms themselves prior to the Assembly. Herbert Palmer was one of the most respected catechists in the country, at this point, the committee decided that it would need to produce two catechisms rather than one, as the needs of ministers and children were very different. The committee also decided to wait until the completion of the Confession of Faith, when Palmer died soon after the constitution of this committee, another committee was formed with only Anthony Tuckney, Stephen Marshall, and John Ward, along with Samuel Rutherford. Anthony Tuckney is believed to be the most influential of the members on the Catechism. The Shorter Catechism was largely based on the Larger Catechism, though the Shorter may have incorporated more of the earlier abandoned catechism than the Larger and it was sent to Parliament on 25 November 1647, a little over a month after the Larger Catechism. Scripture citations were added on 14 April 1648 and it was passed Parliament 22–25 September and ordered to be printed with the title The Grounds and Principles of Religion Contained in a Shorter Catechism. The Church of Scotland approved it in July 1648, and it passed the Scottish Parliament in February of the next year, the purpose of the Shorter Catechism is to educate children and others of weaker capacity in the Reformed faith. It is based on the Larger Catechism, which was intended for use by ministers as they taught the faith to their congregations in preaching, the catechism is composed of 107 questions and answers. The first 12 questions concern God as Creator, questions 13-20 deal with original sin and the fallen state of mans nature. Questions 21-38 concern Christ the Redeemer and the benefits that flow from redemption, the next set of questions, 39-84, discuss the Ten Commandments. Questions 85-97 teach concerning the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, the final set of questions, 98-107, teach and explain the Lords prayer. This organization mimics the earlier Heidelberg Catechism used by many Continental Reformed churches, the most famous of the questions is the first, Q
18.
Sola scriptura
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Sola scriptura is a Christian theological doctrine which holds that the Christian Scriptures are the sole infallible rule of faith and practice. However, sola scriptura rejects any original infallible authority other than the Bible, in this view, all secondary authority is derived from the authority of the Scriptures and is therefore subject to reform when compared to the teaching of the Bible. Sola scriptura is a principle of many Protestant Christian denominations. The Catholic Church regards the Apostolic preaching and writing as equal since both came from the Apostles, the Catholic Church describe this as one common source. With two distinct modes of transmission, while some Protestant authors call it a source of revelation. Sola scriptura is one of the five solas, considered by some Protestant groups to be the pillars of the Reformation. Luther said, a simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it, the intention of the Reformation was to correct what he asserted to be the errors of the Catholic Church by appeal to the uniqueness of the Bibles textual authority. Catholic doctrine is based in Church tradition, as well as Scripture, Sola scriptura meant rejecting the infallible authority given to the Magisterium to interpret both Scripture and Church tradition. Sola scriptura, however, does not ignore Christian history, tradition, rather, it sees the church as the Bibles interpreter, the regula fidei as the interpretive context, and Scripture as the only final authority in matters of faith and practice. As Luther said, The true rule is this, Gods Word shall establish articles of faith, Lutheranism teaches that the Bible of the Old and New Testaments is the only divinely inspired book and the only source of divinely revealed knowledge. Scripture alone is the principle of the faith in Lutheranism, the final authority for all matters of faith and morals because of its inspiration, authority, clarity, efficacy. Lutheranism teaches that the Bible does not merely contain the Word of God, but every word of it is, because of verbal inspiration, as Lutherans confess in the Nicene Creed, the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession identifies Holy Scripture with the Word of God, a mistranslation is not Gods word, and no human authority can invest it with divine authority. Holy Scripture, the Word of God, carries the authority of God in Lutheranism, every single statement of the Bible calls for instant. Every doctrine of the Bible is the teaching of God and therefore requires full agreement, every promise of the Bible calls for unshakable trust in its fulfillment, every command of the Bible is the directive of God himself and therefore demands willing observance. It also teaches that readers must understand the language Gods Word is presented in and it teaches that, consequently, no one needs to wait for any clergy, and pope, scholar, or ecumenical council to explain the real meaning of any part of the Bible. Lutheranism teaches that Scripture is united with the power of the Holy Spirit and with it, not only demands and this teaching produces faith and obedience. Holy Scripture is not a letter, but rather, the power of the Holy Spirit is inherent in it
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Cyril of Jerusalem
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Cyril of Jerusalem was a distinguished theologian of the early Church. He is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, in 1883, Cyril was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII. He is highly respected in the Palestinian Christian Community, about the end of 350 AD he succeeded Maximus as Bishop of Jerusalem, but was exiled on more than one occasion due to the enmity of Acacius of Caesarea, and the policies of various emperors. Cyril left important writings documenting the instruction of catechumens and the order of the Liturgy in his day, little is known of his life before he became a bishop, the assignment of his birth to the year 315 rests on conjecture. According to Butler, Cyril was born at or near the city of Jerusalem, Cyril was ordained a deacon by Bishop St. Macarius of Jerusalem in about 335 and a priest some eight years later by Bishop St. Maximus. About the end of 350 he succeeded St. Maximus in the See of Jerusalem, relations between Metropolitan Acacius of Caesarea and Cyril became strained. Acacius is presented as a leading Arian by the orthodox historians, sozomen also suggests that the tension may have been increased by Acaciuss jealousy of the importance assigned to St. Acacius charged Cyril with selling church property. It was believed that Cyril sold some plate, ornaments and imperial gifts to keep his people from starving, the following year,359, in an atmosphere hostile to Acacius, the Council of Seleucia reinstated Cyril and deposed Acacius. In 360, though, this was reversed by Emperor Constantius, Cyril was once again banished from Jerusalem by the Arian Emperor Valens in 367. St. Cyril was able to return again at the accession of Emperor Gratian in 378, in 380, St. Gregory of Nyssa came to Jerusalem on the recommendation of a council held at Antioch in the preceding year. He found the faith in accord with the truth, but the city a prey to parties, Cyrils jurisdiction over Jerusalem was expressly confirmed by the First Council of Constantinople, at which he was present. At that council he voted for acceptance of the term homoousios and his story is perhaps best representative of those Eastern bishops, initially mistrustful of Nicaea, who came to accept the creed of that council, and the doctrine of the homoousion. Though his theology was at first somewhat indefinite in phraseology, he gave a thorough adhesion to the Nicene Orthodoxy. In other points he takes the ground of the Eastern Fathers, as in the emphasis he lays on the freedom of the will, the autexousion. To him sin is the consequence of freedom, not a natural condition, the body is not the cause, but the instrument of sin. The remedy for it is repentance, on which he insists, like many of the Eastern Fathers, he focuses on high moral living as essential to true Christianity. His interpretation of the Eucharist is disputed, if he sometimes seems to approach the symbolic view, at other times he comes very close to a strong realistic doctrine. The bread and wine are not mere elements, but the body, Cyrils writings are filled with the loving and forgiving nature of God which was somewhat uncommon during his time period
20.
Augustine of Hippo
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Augustine of Hippo was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius, located in Numidia, Augustine is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions, according to his contemporary, Jerome, Augustine established anew the ancient Faith. In his early years, he was influenced by Manichaeism. After his baptism and conversion to Christianity in 386, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine of original sin, when the Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God, distinct from the material Earthly City. His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview, the segment of the Church that adhered to the concept of the Trinity as defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople closely identified with Augustines On the Trinity. Augustine is recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Christian Church, and he is also the patron of the Augustinians. His memorial is celebrated on 28 August, the day of his death, Augustine is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, the alleviation of sore eyes, and a number of cities and dioceses. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists and Lutherans, consider him to be one of the fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation. Lutherans, and Martin Luther in particular, have held Augustine in preeminence, Luther himself was a member of the Order of the Augustinian Eremites. In the East, some of his teachings are disputed and have in the 20th century in particular come under attack by such theologians as John Romanides, but other theologians and figures of the Eastern Orthodox Church have shown significant appropriation of his writings, chiefly Georges Florovsky. The most controversial doctrine surrounding his name is the filioque, which has been rejected by the Orthodox Church, other disputed teachings include his views on original sin, the doctrine of grace, and predestination. Nevertheless, though considered to be mistaken on some points, he is considered a saint. In the Orthodox Church his feast day is celebrated on 28 August and he was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. Augustine was the bishop of Hippo Regius, located in Numidia and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions, Augustine was born in the year 354 AD in the municipium of Thagaste in Roman Africa. His mother, Monica or Monnica, was a devout Christian, in his writings, Augustine leaves some information as to the consciousness of his African heritage
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John Chrysostom
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John Chrysostom, c.349 –407, Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. The epithet Χρυσόστομος means golden-mouthed in Greek and denotes his celebrated eloquence, Chrysostom was among the most prolific authors in the early Christian Church exceeded only by Augustine in the quantity of his surviving writings. He is honored as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, the Eastern Orthodox, together with the Byzantine Catholics, hold him in special regard as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs. The feast days of John Chrysostom in the Eastern Orthodox Church are 13 November and 27 January, in the Roman Catholic Church he is recognized as a Doctor of the Church and commemorated on 13 September. Other churches of the Western tradition, including some Anglican provinces and some Lutheran churches, however, certain Lutheran churches and Anglican provinces commemorate him on the traditional Eastern feast day of 27 January. The Coptic Church also recognizes him as a saint, John was born in Antioch in 349 to Greek parents from Syria. Different scholars describe his mother Anthusa as a pagan or as a Christian, Johns father died soon after his birth and he was raised by his mother. He was baptised in 368 or 373 and tonsured as a reader, as a result of his mothers influential connections in the city, John began his education under the pagan teacher Libanius. From Libanius, John acquired the skills for a career in rhetoric, as well as a love of the Greek language and literature. As he grew older, however, John became more committed to Christianity and went on to study theology under Diodore of Tarsus. According to the Christian historian Sozomen, Libanius was supposed to have said on his deathbed that John would have been his if the Christians had not taken him from us. John lived in asceticism and became a hermit in about 375. As a consequence of these practices, his stomach and kidneys were permanently damaged, John was ordained as a deacon in 381 by Saint Meletius of Antioch who was not then in communion with Alexandria and Rome. After the death of Meletius, John separated himself from the followers of Meletius, without joining Paulinus, but after the death of Paulinus he was ordained a presbyter in 386 by Evagrius, the successor of Paulinus. He was destined later to bring reconciliation between Flavian I of Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome, thus bringing those three sees into communion for the first time in nearly seventy years. The most valuable of his works from this period are his Homilies on various books of the Bible and he emphasised charitable giving and was concerned with the spiritual and temporal needs of the poor. He spoke against abuse of wealth and personal property, Do you wish to honour the body of Christ, do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not pay him homage in the temple clad in silk, only then to him outside where he is cold
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Luther's Large Catechism
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Luthers Large Catechism is a catechism by Martin Luther. It consists of written by Luther and compiled Christian canonical texts. This book was addressed particularly to clergymen to aid them in teaching their congregations, luthers Large Catechism is divided into five parts, The Ten Commandments, The Apostles Creed, The Lords Prayer, Holy Baptism, and The Sacrament of the Eucharist. It and related documents was published in the Book of Concord in 1580, the Large Catechism typifies the emphasis which the churches of the Augsburg Confession placed on the importance of knowledge and understanding of the articles of the Christian faith. Primarily intended as instruction to teachers, especially to parents, the Catechism consists of a series of exhortations on the importance of each topic of the Catechism. It is meant for those who have the capacity to understand, and is not meant to be memorized but to be repeatedly reviewed so that the Small Catechism could be taught with understanding. The catechism, Luther wrote, should consist of instruction in the rule of conduct, which always accuses us because we fail to keep it, the rule of faith, the rule of prayer, and the sacraments
23.
Augsburg Confession
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The Augsburg Confession was written in both German and Latin and was presented by a number of German rulers and free-cities at the Diet of Augsburg on 25 June 1530. It is the document contained in the Lutheran Book of Concord. On 21 January 1530, Emperor Charles V issued letters from Bologna, although the writ of invitation was couched in very peaceful language, it was received with suspicion by some of the Protestants. This summary has received the name of the Torgau Articles, on 3 April, the elector and reformers started from Torgau, and reached Coburg on 23 April. There, Luther was left behind because he was an outlaw according to the Diet of Worms, the rest reached Augsburg on 2 May. On the journey, Melanchthon worked on an apology, using the Torgau articles, and sent his draft to Luther at Coburg on 11 May, during the diet, the cities of Weißenburg in Bayern, Heilbronn, Kempten, and Windesheim also expressed their concurrence with the confession. The Protestant princes, however, declared that they would not part with the confession until its reading should be allowed, the 25th was then fixed for the day of its presentation. In order to exclude the people, the chapel of the episcopal palace was appointed in place of the spacious city hall. The reading of the German version of the text by Christian Beyer lasted two hours and was so distinct that every word could be heard outside, the reading being over, the copies were handed to the emperor. The German he gave to the chancellor, the Elector of Mainz. Neither of the copies is now extant, the first official publication was edited by Philipp Melanchthon, a professor at the University of Wittenberg and a close colleague and friend of Martin Luther. That in doctrine and ceremonies nothing has been received on our part against Scripture or the Church Catholic, signatures of several secular leaders in Saxony. The Augsburg Confession became the confessional document for the Lutheran movement. Following the public reading of the Augsburg Confession in June 1530, the response by Charles V. However, in September, Charles V declared the response to be sufficient and gave the Lutheran princes until 15 April 1531, in response, Phillipp Melancthon wrote a lengthy and sustained argument both supporting the Augsburg Confession and refuting the arguments made in the Confutation. This document became known as the Apology of the Augsburg Confession and was translated into German and was widely distributed. The Lutheran princes at the diet concurrently agreed to an alliance in the event of action by Charles V known as the Schmalkaldic League. By 1535, the League admitted any city or state to the alliance that gave official assent to the Augsburg Confession and the Apology
24.
Ten Commandments
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The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Different religious groups follow different traditions for interpreting and numbering them, the Ten Commandments are listed twice in the Hebrew Bible, first at Exodus 20, 1–17, and then at Deuteronomy 5, 6–21. Both versions state that God inscribed them on two tablets, which he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. Modern scholarship has found likely influences in Hittite and Mesopotamian laws and treaties, but is divided over exactly when the Ten Commandments were written and who wrote them. In biblical Hebrew, the Ten Commandments are called עשרת הדברים and in Rabbinical Hebrew עשרת הדברות, the Tyndale and Coverdale English translations used ten verses. The Geneva Bible used tenne commandements, which was followed by the Bishops Bible, Most major English versions use commandments. The stone tablets, as opposed to the commandments inscribed on them, are called לוחות הברית, Luchot HaBrit, the biblical narrative of the revelation at Sinai begins in Exodus 19 after the arrival of the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. The people were afraid to hear more and moved afar off, and Moses responded with Fear not. And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there, and I will give thee tablets of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written, that thou mayest teach them. 13 And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua, the mount was covered by the cloud for six days, and on the seventh day Moses went into the midst of the cloud and was in the mount forty days and forty nights. The passages in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 contain more than ten imperative statements, different religious traditions divide the seventeen verses of Exodus 20, 1–17 and their parallels at Deuteronomy 5, 4–21 into ten commandments or sayings in different ways, shown in the table below. Some suggest that the ten is a choice to aid memorization rather than a matter of theology. Traditions, LXX, Septuagint, generally followed by Orthodox Christians, P, Philo, same as the Septuagint, but with the prohibitions on killing and adultery reversed. S, Samaritan Pentateuch, with an additional commandment about Mount Gerizim as 10th, T, Jewish Talmud, makes the prologue the first saying or matter and combines the prohibition on worshiping deities other than Yahweh with the prohibition on idolatry. C, Catechism of the Catholic Church, largely follows Augustine, R, Reformed Christians follow John Calvins Institutes of the Christian Religion, which follows the Septuagint, this system is also used in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. All scripture quotes above are from the King James Version, click on verses at top of columns for other versions. The Ten Commandments are written with room for varying interpretation, reflecting their role as a summary of fundamental principles and they are not as explicit or detailed as rules or many other biblical laws and commandments, because they provide guiding principles that apply universally, across changing circumstances. They do not specify punishments for their violation and their precise import must be worked out in each separate situation
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Confession (Lutheran Church)
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The Lutheran Church practices Confession and Absolution with the emphasis on the absolution, which is Gods word of forgiveness. Indeed, Lutherans highly regard Holy Absolution and they, like Roman Catholics, see James 5,16 and John 20, 22-23 as biblical evidence for confession. Confession and absolution is done in private to the pastor, called the confessor with the person confessing known as the penitent, in confession, the penitent makes an act of contrition, as the pastor, acting in persona Christi, announces the formula of absolution. Prior to the confession, the penitent is to review the Ten Commandments to examine his or her conscience, in the Lutheran Church, like the Roman Catholic Church, the pastor is bound by the Seal of the Confessional. Luthers Small Catechism says the pastor is pledged not to anyone else of sins to him in private confession. If the Seal is broken, it will result in excommunication, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, private confession fell into disuse, at the present time, it is, for example, expected before partaking of the Eucharist for the first time. It is also encouraged to be frequently in a year. In many churches, times are set for the pastor to hear confessions, the definition of sacrament in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession lists Absolution as one of them. Luther went to all his life. Although Lutherans do not consider the other four rites as sacraments, now, concerning this faith, which obtains the remission of sins, there is not a syllable in so great a mass of regulations, glosses, summaries, books of confession. In his 1529 catechisms, Martin Luther praised confession for the sake of absolution, the Roman Catholic church held confession to be composed of three parts, contritio cordis, confessio oris, and satisfactio operis. Faith or trust in Jesus complete active and passive satisfaction is what receives the forgiveness and salvation won by him, I, a poor sinner, plead guilty before God of all sins. I have lived as if God did not matter and as if I mattered most and my Lords name I have not honored as I should, my worship and prayers have faltered. I have not let His love have its way with me, there are those whom I have hurt, and those whom I have failed to help. My thoughts and desires have been spoiled with sin, what troubles me particularly is that. Here, the penitent is to confess whatever they have done against the commandments of God, I am sorry for all of this and ask for grace. The pastor continues, God be merciful to you and strengthen your faith, do you believe that my forgiveness is Gods forgiveness. I, a sinner, confess myself before God guilty of all sins, especially I confess before you that I am a manservant
26.
Eucharist in Lutheranism
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The Eucharist in the Lutheran Church refers to the liturgical commemoration of the Last Supper. Martin Luther saw the main basis for the Eucharist to be found in Matthew 26, 26–28, Mark 14, 22–24, Luke 22, 19-20, the Lutheran doctrine of the Real Presence is also known as the sacramental union. This theology was first formally and publicly confessed in the Wittenberg Concord and it has also been called consubstantiation but most Lutheran theologians reject the use of this term as it creates confusion with an earlier doctrine of the same name. Some Lutherans do believe in consubstantiation, for Lutherans the Eucharist is not considered to be a valid sacrament unless the elements are used according to Christs mandate and institution. This was first formulated in the Wittenberg Concord of 1536 in the formula, to remove any scruple of doubt or superstition, the reliquiæ traditionally are either consumed, poured into the earth, or reserved. Today, many Lutheran churches offer the Eucharist weekly, while others offer it less often, weddings and funerals sometimes include the celebration of the Eucharist in Lutheran churches. At the ordinations of pastors/priests and the consecration of bishops, the Eucharist is always offered, for Lutherans in general, confession and absolution are considered proper preparation for receiving the sacrament. However, the practice among Lutherans of preparation by private confession and absolution is rarely found in American Lutheran congregations. For this reason, often an order or corporate rite of confession and absolution is included at the beginning of Lutheran liturgies. Most other ELCA congregations offer First Communion instruction to children in the 5th grade, in other Lutheran churches, the person must have receive confirmation before receiving the Eucharist. Infants and children who havent received the instruction may be brought to the Eucharistic distribution by their parents to be blessed by the pastor. The manner of receiving the Eucharist differs throughout the world, the congregation departs and may make the sign of the cross. In other Lutheran churches, the process is much like the Post-Vatican II revised rite of the Roman Catholic Church, the eucharistic minister and his assistants line up, with the eucharistic minister in the center holding the hosts and the two assistants on either side holding the chalices. The people process to the front in lines and receive the Eucharist standing, following this, the people make the sign of the cross and return to their places in the congregation. The bread is commonly a thin unleavened wafer, but leavened wafers may also be used, some parishes use intinction, the dipping of the host into the chalice. Placing the host in the hand of the communicant is commonly practiced, the wine is commonly administered via a chalice, but many congregations use individual cups. These may be either prefilled or filled from the chalice during the distribution of the Eucharist, some ELCA congregations make grape juice available for children and those who are abstaining from alcohol and some will accommodate those with an allergy to wheat or grapes. Lutheran Eucharistic adoration is not commonly practiced, but when it occurs it is only from the moment of consecration to reception
27.
John Calvin
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John Calvin was an influential French theologian, pastor and reformer during the Protestant Reformation. Various Congregational, Reformed, and Presbyterian churches, which look to Calvin as the expositor of their beliefs, have spread throughout the world. Calvin was a polemic and apologetic writer who generated much controversy. He also exchanged cordial and supportive letters with many reformers, including Philipp Melanchthon, in addition to his seminal Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin wrote commentaries on most books of the Bible, confessional documents, and various other theological treatises. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530, at the invitation of Martin Bucer, Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg, where he became the minister of a church of French refugees. He continued to support the movement in Geneva, and in 1541 he was invited back to lead the church of the city. Following his return, Calvin introduced new forms of government and liturgy. During this period, Michael Servetus, a Spaniard regarded by both Roman Catholics and Protestants as having a view of the Trinity, arrived in Geneva. He was denounced by Calvin and burned at the stake for heresy by the city council, following an influx of supportive refugees and new elections to the city council, Calvins opponents were forced out. Calvin spent his final years promoting the Reformation both in Geneva and throughout Europe, John Calvin was born as Jehan Cauvin on 10 July 1509, at Noyon, a town in Picardy, a province of the Kingdom of France. He was the first of four sons who survived infancy and his mother, Jeanne le Franc, was the daughter of an innkeeper from Cambrai. She died of a cause in Calvins childhood, after having borne four more children. Calvins father, Gérard Cauvin, had a career as the cathedral notary and registrar to the ecclesiastical court, he died in 1531. Gérard intended his three sons — Charles, Jean, and Antoine — for the priesthood, however, by age 12, he was employed by the bishop as a clerk and received the tonsure, cutting his hair to symbolise his dedication to the Church. He also won the patronage of a family, the Montmors. Through their assistance, Calvin was able to attend the Collège de la Marche, Paris, once he completed the course, he entered the Collège de Montaigu as a philosophy student. In 1525 or 1526, Gérard withdrew his son from the Collège de Montaigu, according to contemporary biographers Theodore Beza and Nicolas Colladon, Gérard believed that Calvin would earn more money as a lawyer than as a priest. After a few years of study, Calvin entered the University of Bourges in 1529
28.
Geneva
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Geneva is the second most populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic, the municipality has a population of 198,072, and the canton has 484,736 residents. In 2014, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France, within Swiss territory, the commuter area named Métropole lémanique contains a population of 1.25 million. This area is essentially spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, Geneva is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world. It is also the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, Geneva was ranked as the worlds ninth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, ahead of Frankfurt, and third in Europe behind London and Zürich. A2009 survey by Mercer found that Geneva has the third-highest quality of life of any city in the world, the city has been referred to as the worlds most compact metropolis and the Peace Capital. In 2009 and 2011, Geneva was ranked as, respectively, the city was mentioned in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava, probably from a Celtic toponym *genawa- from the stem *genu-, in the sense of a bending river or estuary. The medieval county of Geneva in Middle Latin was known as pagus major Genevensis or Comitatus Genevensis, the name takes various forms in modern languages, Geneva /dʒᵻˈniːvə/ in English, French, Genève, German, Genf, Italian, Ginevra, and Romansh, Genevra. The city in origin shares its name, *genawa estuary, with the Italian port city of Genoa, Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. It became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, and acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the bishopric of Vienne in the 4th. In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, around this time the House of Savoy came to dominate the city. In the 15th century, a republican government emerged with the creation of the Grand Council. In 1541, with Protestantism in the ascendancy, John Calvin, by the 18th century, however, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. France also tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk, in 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, in 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of international organizations. Geneva is located at 46°12 North, 6°09 East, at the end of Lake Geneva. It is surrounded by two chains, the Alps and the Jura
29.
Faith
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Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or the observance of an obligation from loyalty, or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement. The word faith may refer to a particular system of religious belief. The term faith has numerous connotations and is used in different ways, the English word faith is thought to date from 1200–50, from the Middle English feith, via Anglo-French fed, Old French feid, feit from Latin fidem, accusative of fidēs, akin to fīdere. James W. Fowler proposes a series of stages of faith-development across the human life-span and his stages relate closely to the work of Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg regarding aspects of psychological development in children and adults. Fowler defines faith as an activity of trusting, committing, and relating to the world based on a set of assumptions of how one is related to others, intuitive-Projective, a stage of confusion and of high impressionability through stories and rituals. Mythic-Literal, a stage where provided information is accepted in order to conform with social norms, individuative-Reflective, In this stage the individual critically analyzes adopted and accepted faith with existing systems of faith. Disillusion or strengthening of faith happens in this stage, based on needs, experiences and paradoxes. This stage is called negotiated settling in life, no hard-and-fast rule requires individuals pursuing faith to go through all six stages. There is a probability for individuals to be content and fixed in a particular stage for a lifetime. Stage 6 is the summit of faith development and this state is often considered as not fully attainable. There is a spectrum of opinion with respect to the epistemological validity of faith. Fideism is a theory which maintains that faith is independent of reason, or that reason and faith are hostile to each other. It states that faith is needed to determine some philosophical and religious truths, the word and concept had its origin in the mid- to late-19th century by way of Catholic thought, in a movement called Traditionalism. The Roman Catholic Magisterium has, however, repeatedly condemned fideism, in the Baháí Faith, faith is meant, first, conscious knowledge, and second, the practice of good deeds, ultimately the acceptance of the divine authority of the Manifestations of God. In the religions view, faith and knowledge are required for spiritual growth. Faith involves more than outward obedience to authority, but also must be based on a deep personal understanding of religious teachings. Faith is an important constituent element of the teachings of Gautama Buddha— in both the Theravada and the Mahayana traditions, the teachings of Buddha were originally recorded in the language Pali and the word saddhā is generally translated as faith. Faith in Buddhism centers on the understanding that the Buddha is an Awakened being, on his role as teacher, in the truth of his Dharma
30.
Law
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Law is a system of rules that are created and enforced through social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior. Law as a system helps regulate and ensure that a community show respect, private individuals can create legally binding contracts, including arbitration agreements that may elect to accept alternative arbitration to the normal court process. The formation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution, written or tacit, the law shapes politics, economics, history and society in various ways and serves as a mediator of relations between people. Islamic Sharia law is the worlds most widely used religious law, the adjudication of the law is generally divided into two main areas referred to as Criminal law and Civil law. Criminal law deals with conduct that is considered harmful to social order, Civil law deals with the resolution of lawsuits between individuals or organizations. Law provides a source of scholarly inquiry into legal history, philosophy, economic analysis. Law also raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness, there is an old saying that all are equal before the law, although Jonathan Swift argued that Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through. In 1894, the author Anatole France said sarcastically, In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread. Writing in 350 BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle declared, The rule of law is better than the rule of any individual, mikhail Bakunin said, All law has for its object to confirm and exalt into a system the exploitation of the workers by a ruling class. Cicero said more law, less justice, marxist doctrine asserts that law will not be required once the state has withered away. Regardless of ones view of the law, it today a completely central institution. Numerous definitions of law have been put forward over the centuries, at the same time, it plays only one part in the congeries of rules which influence behavior, for social and moral rules of a less institutionalized kind are also of great importance. There have been attempts to produce a universally acceptable definition of law. In 1972, one indicated that no such definition could be produced. McCoubrey and White said that the question what is law, glanville Williams said that the meaning of the word law depends on the context in which that word is used. He said that, for example, early customary law and municipal law were contexts where the law had two different and irreconcilable meanings. Thurman Arnold said that it is obvious that it is impossible to define the word law and it is possible to take the view that there is no need to define the word law. The history of law links closely to the development of civilization, Ancient Egyptian law, dating as far back as 3000 BC, contained a civil code that was probably broken into twelve books
31.
Prayer
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Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. Prayer can be a form of practice, may be either individual or communal. It may involve the use of words, song or complete silence, when language is used, prayer may take the form of a hymn, incantation, formal creedal statement, or a spontaneous utterance in the praying person. There are different forms of such as petitionary prayer, prayers of supplication, thanksgiving. Thus, people pray for many such as personal benefit, asking for divine grace, spiritual connection. Some anthropologists believe that the earliest intelligent modern humans practiced a form of prayer, scientific studies regarding the use of prayer have mostly concentrated on its effect on the healing of sick or injured people. Meta-studies of the studies in this field have been performed showing evidence only for no effect or a small effect. Some studies have indicated increased medical complications in groups receiving prayer over those without, the efficacy of petition in prayer for physical healing to a deity has been evaluated in numerous other studies, with contradictory results. There has been criticism of the way the studies were conducted. The act of prayer is attested in sources as early as 5000 years ago. Some anthropologists, such as Sir Edward Burnett Tylor and Sir James George Frazer, various spiritual traditions offer a wide variety of devotional acts. There are morning and evening prayers, graces said over meals, some Christians bow their heads and fold their hands. Some Native Americans regard dancing as a form of prayer, Jewish prayer may involve swaying back and forth and bowing. Muslims practice salat in their prayers, some pray according to standardized rituals and liturgies, while others prefer extemporaneous prayers. Friedrich Heiler is often cited in Christian circles for his systematic Typology of Prayer which lists six types of prayer, primitive, ritual, Greek cultural, philosophical, mystical, some forms of prayer require a prior ritualistic form of cleansing or purification such as in ghusl and wudhu. Prayer may be privately and individually, or it may be done corporately in the presence of fellow believers. Prayer can be incorporated into a daily life, in which one is in constant communication with a god. Some people pray throughout all that is happening during the day and this is actually regarded as a requirement in several Christian denominations, although enforcement is not possible nor desirable
32.
Heidelberg Catechism
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The Heidelberg Catechism, one of the Three Forms of Unity, is a Protestant confessional document taking the form of a series of questions and answers, for use in teaching Reformed Christian doctrine. It was written in 1563 in Heidelberg, present-day Germany and its original title translates to Catechism, or Christian Instruction, according to the Usages of the Churches and Schools of the Electoral Palatinate. Commissioned by the prince-elector of the Electoral Palatinate, it is referred to as the Palatinate Catechism. It has been translated into languages and is regarded as one of the most influential of the Reformed catechisms. Elector Frederick III, sovereign of the Electoral Palatinate from 1559 to 1576, caspar Olevianus was formerly asserted as a co-author of the document, though this theory has been largely discarded by modern scholarship. Frederick himself wrote the preface to the Catechism and closely oversaw its composition and publication, Frederick, who was officially Lutheran but had strong Reformed leanings, wanted to even out the religious situation of his highly Lutheran territory within the primarily Catholic Holy Roman Empire. The Catechism-based each of its statements on biblical source texts, Frederick himself defended it at the 1566 Diet of Augsburg as based in scripture rather than based in reformed theology when he was called to answer to charges of violating the Peace of Augsburg. The Catechism is divided into sections, called Lords Days. A synod in Heidelberg approved the catechism in 1563, in many Dutch Reformed denominations this practice is still continued. In its current form, the Heidelberg Catechism consists of 129 questions and these are divided into three main parts, This part consists of the Lords Day 2,3, and 4. It discusses, The Fall, The natural condition of man and this part consists of Lords Day 5 through to Lords Day 31. It discusses, The need for a Redeemer The importance of faith and it discusses, Conversion The Ten Commandments The Lords prayer The first Lords Day should be read as a summary of the catechism as a whole. As such, it illustrates the character of work, which is devotional as well as dogmatic or doctrinal. The first Question and Answer reads, What is Thy only comfort in life, following the War of Palatine Succession Heidelberg and the Palatinate were again in an unstable political situation with sectarian battle lines. In 1719 an edition of the Catechism was published in the Palatinate that included Lords Day 30, the Catholic reaction was so strong, the Catechism was banned by Charles III Philip, Elector Palatine. This provoked a reaction from Reformed countries, leading to a reversal of the ban, in some Reformed denominations Q&A80 has been removed, bracketed, and/or noted as not part of the original Catechism. The influence of the Catechism extended to the Westminster Assembly of Divines who, in part, likewise, the Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church lists it as an influence on United Methodism. A revision of the catechism was prepared by the Baptist minister, Hercules Collins. com
33.
Otto Henry, Elector Palatine
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Otto-Henry, Elector Palatine, a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty was Count Palatine of Palatinate-Neuburg from 1505 to 1559 and prince elector of the Palatinate from 1556 to 1559. He was a son of Rupert, Count Palatine, third son of Philip, Elector Palatine, in the 1550s Otto Henry established the Bibliotheca Palatina. In September 1546 Neuburg was occupied by the troops of Charles V, in 1552 in occasion of the Peace of Passau Otto Henry could return to Neuburg. As Elector from 1556 he then re-introduced the Protestant Reformation, Otto Henry married Susanna of Bavaria, daughter of Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria, on October 16,1529 in Neuburg an der Donau. He was her husband after Casimir, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. They had no children, but Susanna brought five of her children to the marriage. She left him a widower 14 years later in 1543, Otto Henry died in Heidelberg in 1559. He is buried in the Heiliggeistkirche in Heidelberg, hans Kilian, Drawings from Elector Ottheinrichs alchemical laboratory Digital exhibition of the Ottheinrich-Bible
34.
Saxony
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Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig. Saxony is the tenth largest of Germanys sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres, located in the middle of a large, formerly all German-speaking part of Europe, the history of the state of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, the area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony, the area inhabited by Saxons. Old Saxony corresponds approximately to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony is divided into 10 districts,1. After a reform in 2008, these regions - with some alterations of their respective areas - were called Direktionsbezirke, in 2012, the authorities of these regions were merged into one central authority, the Landesdirektion Sachsen. The Erzgebirgskreis district includes the Ore Mountains, and the Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district includes Saxon Switzerland, the largest cities in Saxony according to the 31 December 2015 estimate. To this can be added that Leipzig forms a metropolitan region with Halle. The latter city is located just across the border to Saxony-Anhalt, Leipzig shares for instance an S-train system and an airport with Halle. Saxony has, after Saxony Anhalt, the most vibrant economy of the states of the former East Germany and its economy grew by 1. 9% in 2010. Nonetheless, unemployment remains above the German average, the eastern part of Germany, excluding Berlin, qualifies as an Objective 1 development-region within the European Union, and is eligible to receive investment subsidies of up to 30% until 2013. FutureSAX, a business competition and entrepreneurial support organisation, has been in operation since 2002. Microchip makers near Dresden have given the region the nickname Silicon Saxony, the publishing and porcelain industries of the region are well known, although their contributions to the regional economy are no longer significant. Today the automobile industry, machinery production and services contribute to the development of the region. Saxony is also one of the most renowned tourist destinations in Germany - especially the cities of Leipzig and Dresden, new tourist destinations are developing, notably in the lake district of Lausitz. Saxony reported an unemployment of 8. 8% in 2014. By comparison the average in the former GDR was 9. 8% and 6. 7% for Germany overall, the unemployment rate reached 8. 2% in May 2015. The Leipzig area, which recently was among the regions with the highest unemployment rate, could benefit greatly from investments by Porsche. With the VW Phaeton factory in Dresden, and many part suppliers, zwickau is another major Volkswagen location
35.
Heidelberg
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Heidelberg is a college town situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. At the 2015 census, its population was 156,257, located about 78 km south of Frankfurt, Heidelberg is the fifth-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Heidelberg is part of the densely populated Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, founded in 1386, Heidelberg University is Germanys oldest and one of Europes most reputable universities. A scientific hub in Germany, the city of Heidelberg is home to internationally renowned research facilities adjacent to its university. Heidelberg is in the Rhine Rift Valley, on the bank of the lower part of the Neckar in a steep valley in the Odenwald. It is bordered by the Königsstuhl and the Gaisberg mountains, the Neckar here flows in an east-west direction. On the right bank of the river, the Heiligenberg mountain rises to a height of 445 meters, the Neckar flows into the Rhine approximately 22 kilometres north-west in Mannheim. Villages incorporated during the 20th century stretch from the Neckar Valley along the Bergstraße, Heidelberg is on European walking route E1. Alongside the Philosophenweg on the side of the Old Town. There is a population of African rose-ringed parakeets, and a wild population of Siberian swan geese. Heidelberg is an authority within the Regierungsbezirk Karlsruhe. The Rhein-Neckar-Kreis rural district surrounds it and has its seat in the town, Heidelberg is a part of the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, often referred to as the Rhein-Neckar Triangle. The Rhein-Neckar Triangle became a European metropolitan area in 2005, Heidelberg consists of 15 districts distributed in six sectors of the town. The new district will have approximately 5, 000–6,000 residents, Heidelberg has an oceanic climate, defined by the protected valley between the Pfälzerwald and the Odenwald. Year-round, the temperatures are determined by maritime air masses coming from the west. In contrast to the nearby Upper Rhine Plain, Heidelbergs position in the leads to more frequent easterly winds than average. The hillsides of the Odenwald favour clouding and precipitation, the warmest month is July, the coldest is January. Temperatures often rise beyond 30 °C in midsummer, according to the German Meteorological Service, Heidelberg was the warmest place in Germany in 2009
36.
Frederick III, Elector Palatine
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Frederick III of Simmern, the Pious, Elector Palatine of the Rhine was a ruler from the house of Wittelsbach, branch Palatinate-Simmern-Sponheim. He was a son of John II of Simmern and inherited the Palatinate from the childless Elector Otto-Henry and he was a devout convert to Calvinism, and made the Reformed confession the official religion of his domain by overseeing the composition and promulgation of the Heidelberg Catechism. His support of Calvinism gave the German Reformed movement a foothold within the Holy Roman Empire and he succeeded his father John II as duke of Simmern, May 18,1557, and became elector February 12,1559, on the death of Otto Henry. Under his predecessor strict Lutherans like Tilemann Heshusius, Melanchthonians, in the summer of 1559 bitter controversies arose among them. Theses on the Lords Supper prepared by the Heidelberg deacon Wilhelm Klebitz provoked a controversy between him and Heshusius. When efforts at mediation failed Frederick deposed both, September 16, to get a clear understanding of the controversy Frederick spent days and nights in theological studies and was thus led more and more to the Reformed confession. After the Naumburg Convention Frederick fully adopted the Reformed dogmas, in March,1561, he called Emmanuel Tremellius, and in September the famous Zacharius Ursinus, to Heidelberg. The whole Church was now transformed, caspar Olevianus had been there since January,1560. Images of the saints, vestments, baptismal fonts, and other idolatrous works, in the celebration of the Lords Supper the breaking of bread was introduced. The revenues from monasteries and foundations were confiscated and applied to Evangelical church purposes or charity, the Heidelberg Catechism, prepared by a committee of theologians and ministers likely led by Ursinus, now served as the norm of doctrine and for the instruction of the youth. The church-order of November 15,1563, and the order of 1564 consolidated the changes. The opposition of ministers inclining to Lutheranism was suppressed by their dismissal, among the Lutherans, Fredericks measures caused a great sensation. The religious colloquy held at Maulbronn, April,1564 increased the animosity, in 1565 the Emperor Maximilian ordered to annul the changes made. A unanimous decree of the held at Augsburg in 1566 also demanded the abolition of the changes. The decree was not carried out, after completing the work of reform in the Rhine Palatinate Frederick endeavored to continue it in the Upper Palatinate, but here he was resisted by the zealous Lutheran estates. He continued his work of reform on the Rhine by introducing in 1570 a strict church discipline, Frederick pronounced the sentence of death on the Antitrinitarian Johann Sylvan based on the opinion signed by Olevianus, Ursinus, and Boquin, December 23,1572. In 1562 he gave Frankenthal for a refuge to the Evangelicals driven from the Netherlands and his like-minded son Johann Casimir he sent in 1567 and again in 1576 to France in aid of the Huguenots. In 1569 he assisted also the Count Palatine Wolfgang of Pfalz-Zweibrücken on his way to France and his last years were troubled by domestic afflictions
37.
Philip Melanchthon
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He stands next to Luther and Calvin as a reformer, theologian, and molder of Protestantism. Along with Luther, he is the founder of Lutheranism. Both rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, but not the belief that the body and blood of Christ are present with the elements of bread and wine in the Lords Supper. The Lutheran view of sacramental union contrasts with the understanding of the Roman Church that the bread and wine cease to be bread, Melanchthon made the distinction between law and gospel the central formula for Lutheran evangelical insight. By the law, he meant Gods requirements both in Old and New Testament, the meant the free gift of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. He was born Philipp Schwartzerdt on 16 February 1497, at Bretten, near Karlsruhe and his birthplace, along with almost the whole city of Bretten, was burned in 1689 by French troops during the War of the Palatinate Succession. The towns Melanchthonhaus was built on its site in 1897, in 1507 he was sent to the Latin school at Pforzheim, where the rector, Georg Simler of Wimpfen, introduced him to the Latin and Greek poets and to Aristotle. He and a brother were brought to Pforzheim to live with his maternal grandmother, the next year he entered the University of Heidelberg, where he studied philosophy, rhetoric, and astronomy/astrology, and became known as a scholar of Greek. Denied the masters degree in 1512 on the grounds of his youth, he went to Tübingen, where he continued humanistic studies but also worked on jurisprudence, mathematics, while there he was also taught the technical aspects of astrology by Johannes Stöffler. After gaining a degree in 1516 he began to study theology. Under the influence of Reuchlin, Erasmus, and others, he convinced that true Christianity was something different from the scholastic theology as taught at the university. He became a conventor in the contubernium and instructed younger scholars and he also lectured on oratory, on Virgil and on Livy. His first publications were an edition of Terence and a Greek grammar and he studied the Scriptures, especially of Paul, and Evangelical doctrine. Attending the disputation of Leipzig as a spectator, he participated with his comments. After his views were attacked by Johann Eck, Melanchthon replied based on the authority of Scripture in his Defensio contra Johannem Eckium and he married Katharina Krapp, daughter of Wittenbergs mayor, on 25 November 1520. In the beginning of 1521 in his Didymi Faventini versus Thomam Placentinum pro M. Luthero oratio and he argued that Luther rejected only papal and ecclesiastical practises which were at variance with Scripture. But while Luther was absent at Wartburg Castle, during the disturbances caused by the Zwickau prophets, the appearance of Melanchthons Loci communes rerum theologicarum seu hypotyposes theologicae was of subsequent importance for Reformation. Melanchthon presented the new doctrine of Christianity under the form of a discussion of the thoughts of the Epistle to the Romans
38.
Zacharias Ursinus
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Zacharias Ursinus was a sixteenth-century German Reformed theologian, born Zacharias Baer in Breslau. He became the theologian of the Reformed Protestant movement of the Palatinate. He is best known as the author and interpreter of the Heidelberg Catechism. At age fifteen he enrolled at the University of Wittenberg, boarding for the seven years with Philipp Melanchthon. Like many young scholars of that era he gave himself a Latin name, in his case one that was based on his German name, Baer, stemming from Latin ursus, meaning bear. Melanchthon admired young Ursinus for his gifts and his spiritual maturity. He was a lifelong protégé of the prominent imperial physician Johannes Crato von Krafftheim, subsequently, Ursinus studied under Reformation scholars at Strasbourg, Basel, Lausanne, and Geneva. Sojourns in Lyon and Orléans gave him expertise in Hebrew, returning to Wrocław he published a pamphlet on the sacraments, which aroused the ire of Lutherans who charged him with being more Reformed than Lutheran. He died, aged 48, in Neustadt an der Weinstraße and his Works were published in 1587-1589, and a more complete edition by his son and two of his pupils, David Pareus and Quirinius Reuter, in 1612. Ursinuss collected catechical lectures was one of the most prominent theological handbooks among seventeenth century Reformed Christians and was popular in the Netherlands. Reformed German and Dutch immigrants to North American celebrated his legacy—especially his role in the creation of the Heidelberg Catechism, Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, is a liberal arts college founded in 1869 in his name. Zacharias Ursinus the Reluctant Reformer--His Life and Times, new York, United Church Press,1983. Zacharias Ursinus als Schriftausleger, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,2013
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Caspar Olevian
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Caspar Olevian was a significant German Reformed theologian during the Protestant Reformation and along with Zacharius Ursinus was said to be co-author of the Heidelberg Catechism. That theory of authorship has been questioned by modern scholarship. Born in Trier, Olevian was the son of a baker and he went on to study law at Bourges and came under the influence of Reformation teaching. On his return to Trier his beliefs came into conflict with those of the local clergy, in 1560 he was invited by Frederick III, Elector Palatine to teach at the University of Heidelberg. After the Electors death his son Louis VI, Elector Palatine, olevianus was banned from teaching but he was able to move to Berleburg. There, in 1578, he published a commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, olevianus published several works on the Covenant of Grace. In 1584 he moved to the County of Nassau and became rector of Herborn Academy and he died in 1587 surrounded by friends and supporters and was buried in Herborn. On his deathbed he was asked Are you undoubtedly sure of your salvation, cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature
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Trinity
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The Christian doctrine of the Trinity holds that God is three consubstantial persons or hypostases—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—as one God in three Divine Persons. The three persons are distinct, yet are one substance, essence or nature, in this context, a nature is what one is, whereas a person is who one is. Reflection, proclamation, and dialogue led to the formulation of the doctrine that was felt to correspond to the data in the Bible. The simplest outline of the doctrine was formulated in the 4th century, further elaboration continued in the succeeding centuries. Scripture contains neither the word Trinity, nor an expressly formulated doctrine of the Trinity, rather, according to the Christian theology, it bears witness to the activity of a God who can only be understood in Trinitarian terms. The doctrine did not take its shape until late in the fourth century. During the intervening period, various solutions, some more. Trinitarianism contrasts with nontrinitarian positions which include Binitarianism, Unitarianism, Oneness Pentecostalism or Modalism, the word trinity is derived from Latin trinitas, meaning the number three, a triad. This abstract noun is formed from the adjective trinus, as the word unitas is the noun formed from unus. The corresponding word in Greek is tριάς, meaning a set of three or the number three, the first recorded use of this Greek word in Christian theology was by Theophilus of Antioch in about 170. He wrote, In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity, of God, and His Word, and His wisdom. And the fourth is the type of man, who needs light, that so there may be God, the Word, wisdom, man. The Ante-Nicene Fathers asserted Christs deity and spoke of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Trinitarians view these as elements of the codified doctrine. Ignatius of Antioch provides early support for the Trinity around 110, exhorting obedience to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit. Justin Martyr also writes, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the first of the early church fathers to be recorded using the word Trinity was Theophilus of Antioch writing in the late 2nd century. He defines the Trinity as God, His Word and His Wisdom in the context of a discussion of the first three days of creation, the first defence of the doctrine of the Trinity was in the early 3rd century by the early church father Tertullian. He explicitly defined the Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, St. Justin and Clement of Alexandra used the Trinity in their doxologies and St. Basil likewise, in the evening lighting of lamps. The highly allegorical exegesis of the Valentinian school inclined it to interpret the relevant scriptural passages as affirming a Divinity that, the Valentinian Gospel of Phillip, which dates to approximately the time of Tertullian, upholds the Trinitarian formula
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Calvinism
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Calvinism is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice of John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. The term Calvinism can be misleading, because the tradition which it denotes has always been diverse. The movement was first called Calvinism by Lutherans who opposed it, early influential Reformed theologians include Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, Martin Bucer, William Farel, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Theodore Beza, and John Knox. In the twentieth century, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, B. B, Warfield, J. Gresham Machen, Karl Barth, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Cornelius Van Til, and Gordon Clark were influential. Contemporary Reformed theologians include J. I, sproul, Timothy J. Keller, John Piper, David Wells, and Michael Horton. Reformed churches may exercise several forms of polity, most are presbyterian or congregationalist. Calvinism is largely represented by Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist traditions, the biggest Reformed association is the World Communion of Reformed Churches with more than 80 million members in 211 member denominations around the world. There are more conservative Reformed federations such as the World Reformed Fellowship, Calvinism is named after John Calvin. It was first used by a Lutheran theologian in 1552 and it was a common practice of the Catholic Church to name what they perceived to be heresy after its founder. Nevertheless, the term first came out of Lutheran circles, Calvin denounced the designation himself, They could attach us no greater insult than this word, Calvinism. It is not hard to guess where such a deadly hatred comes from that they hold against me, despite its negative connotation, this designation became increasingly popular in order to distinguish Calvinists from Lutherans and from newer Protestant branches that emerged later. Moreover, these churches claim to be—in accordance with John Calvins own words—renewed accordingly with the order of gospel. Since the Arminian controversy, the Reformed tradition—as a branch of Protestantism distinguished from Lutheranism—divided into two groups, Arminians and Calvinists. However, it is now rare to call Arminians a part of the Reformed tradition, some have also argued that Calvinism as a whole stresses the sovereignty or rule of God in all things including salvation. First-generation Reformed theologians include Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, John Oecolampadius, scripture was also viewed as a unified whole, which led to a covenantal theology of the sacraments of baptism and the Lords Supper as visible signs of the covenant of grace. Another Reformed distinctive present in these theologians was their denial of the presence of Christ in the Lords supper. Each of these also understood salvation to be by grace alone. Martin Luther and his successor Philipp Melanchthon were undoubtedly significant influences on these theologians, the doctrine of justification by faith alone was a direct inheritance from Luther
