The World's Christians. Douglas Jacobsen

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СКАЧАТЬ This geographic shift was the result of two developments. The first development was the so‐called “barbarian” invasion of the western Roman Empire, and the subsequent conversion of these non‐Roman people to Christianity. That process began in 496 with the conversion of King Clovis of France and was mostly complete by the year 1000, when Christianity reached Scandinavia. The second development was the rise and spread of Islam, which effectively ended the Christian domination of north Africa. As a result, Western Europe began to be considered as Catholic territory, and Catholic Christians began to view themselves as Europeans.

These five centuries were a time of considerable social disorder in Europe. As older political structures faltered and then collapsed, Catholic bishops often assumed some local governmental responsibilities, and the Pope, as the Bishop of Rome, became the only individual who had any authority over the entire region. The resulting social structure, which mixed religious and political concerns, came to be known as Christendom. Not surprisingly, European Christendom was fraught with disputes as church leaders and local governmental leaders clashed over who was ultimately in charge. The situation became even more complex in 781 with the creation of the Papal States, a separate country which included almost all central Italy and over which the Pope ruled as monarch. (Today’s Vatican City is the last remnant of this ancient Catholic nation.) The social disorders of this era had a permanent influence on Catholic theological beliefs, including a new emphasis on the sacrifice and the death of Christ. This new emphasis found visual representation in the crucifix, which became an important object of Catholic devotion during the closing years of this period (see Figure 2.5).

      The high and late middle age: 1000–1500

      Catholicism developed its mature form as a religious tradition during the high middle age, between the years 1000 and 1350. During this time, the Catholic Church formally approved and codified many of the doctrinal commitments that still characterize Catholicism around the world today, including the seven sacraments, belief in transubstantiation (that the bread and wine of the Eucharist become the actual body and blood of Christ), and purgatory. Additionally, celibacy was mandated for parish priests, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was formulated, the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe were built, and Christianity’s first universities were founded. This was also, however, when Catholic Christians became increasingly intolerant of people different from themselves. This intolerance led to the Crusades (military campaigns undertaken for the purpose of reclaiming the Holy Land as Catholic territory) and to widespread persecution of Jews and people declared to be heretics.

      Catholic developments in the later middle age (1350–1500) were even more complex and religiously disorienting. For almost seventy years (1309–76), the papacy was relocated from Rome to the French city of Avignon, and after the popes finally returned to Rome there was an extended period (1378–1417) when two lines of opposing popes fought each other and claimed to be the true pope. During these same years (1340–1400), Europe was ravaged by the bubonic plague. Called the “Black Death,” this awful disease killed roughly a third of the European population. The impact on Catholicism was substantial. Confidence in the institutional church declined, and other ways of trying to connect with God (especially mysticism) became more popular, helping to set the stage for the Protestant Reformation of the early 1500s.

      Modern Catholicism: 1500 to the present

      The last five centuries have brought both tremendous growth and frequent challenges to the Catholic Church. Even before 1500, Catholic Christianity had begun to expand beyond Europe and that expansion exploded in the sixteenth century. The Catholic monarchs of Spain and Portugal led the way with their colonization of the west coast of Africa and conquest of Latin America. New missionary orders were also created, most notably the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), which introduced Catholicism to India and East Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But while Catholicism was expanding elsewhere, it was being challenged in Europe by the rise of the Protestant movement. Eventually about a third of the landmass of Western Europe and a sixth of its population would be won over by this new, alternative post‐Catholic Christian tradition.

The eighteenth century brought new challenges to Catholicism. The Enlightenment, the rise of modern science, and the beginnings of democratic politics began to undermine long‐held Catholic practices and beliefs. Anti‐Catholic sentiments fueled the French Revolution (1789). The Catholic Church regrouped under Pope Pius IX, who held office from 1846 to 1878, the longest papal reign in history. His famous Syllabus of Errors (1864) denounced almost everything modern about the modern world, including democracy, freedom of the press, and “secular” (non‐church‐controlled) public education. Ultimately, the public power of Catholicism declined both in Europe and elsewhere, but at the same time the power of the papacy within the Church dramatically increased. In 1800, the Pope directly appointed fewer than 5 percent of the Church’s bishops. Today, every Catholic bishop in the world is directly appointed by the Pope, and the Catholic Church is more centrally controlled than at any previous time in history.

Figure 2.5 The Gero Cross (pictured here) is the oldest known crucifix made in Western Europe north of the Alps. It is about six feet high and is displayed in the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in Cologne, Germany. DEA/N. CIRANI/Getty Images.

Figure 2.6 Timeline showing key events in Catholic history.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The authoritarian and antimodern posture that characterized the Catholic Church in the nineteenth century continued well into the twentieth century, when the new threat of atheistic Communism kept the Church on guard. Beneath the surface, however, new ideas about Catholic faith and life were being generated. Those new views were pushed to center stage in the early 1960s when Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council to reassess the place of Catholicism in the modern world. He believed the Church needed an aggiornamento (a major updating and reorientation), and he asked the council to provide the blueprint. Vatican II produced sixteen documents that did precisely what the Pope asked, but since then differing interpretations of these documents have produced a growing rift between more progressive and more conservative Catholics worldwide. In recent years, the Catholic Church has also been roiled by thousands of accusations of sexual abuse by priests and by evidence of widespread efforts on the part of bishops and other Church leaders to ignore or cover up this immoral behavior. This sex abuse crisis has undermined trust in the Catholic Church around the world and has placed the future of Catholicism itself in jeopardy. (See Figure 2.6 for a timeline showing key events in Catholic history.)

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

      1 Allen, John L., Jr. (2009). The Future Church: How Ten Trends Are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church. New York: Doubleday.

      2 Bellitto, Christopher M. (2002). The General Councils: A History of the Twenty‐One Church Councils from Nicaea to Vatican II. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.

      3 Boekenkotter, Thomas (1990). A Concise History of the Catholic Church, revised and expanded. New York: Doubleday.

      4 Buckley, СКАЧАТЬ