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Chapter 16: The Religious Development of Christianity
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, the student should be able to:
• Recall the main historical events in the early life of the Catholic Church.
Chapter Summary
The word “catholic” means universal, yet it came to be the appellation for the single
organized institution that expressed the Christian religion after the middle of the second century.
The development of a system of doctrine and an ecclesiastical organization portended a growth
and power that eventually extended into a strong political force with attendant issues of its own.
The chapter traces the gradual crystallization of doctrine (e.g. apostle’s Creed, Nicene Creed)
through confrontation with heresies and the growth of power embodied in the Papacy.
The decline of the Papacy in the fourteenth century was an inevitable result of changes in
nation states, growth of a middle class and recognition by the “common people” that religious
authorities often fell very short of the standards to which the common people were held. The
Protestant Reformation gave form to many of these issues and resulted in the irreconcilable split
of the Western Church. Martin Luther of Germany provides a starting point, but soon the
Protestant movement had splits of its own often associated with Nation state boundaries. The
resulting Catholic Reformation was too little and too late. In the 17th and 18th century additional
religious strife in Europe provided further impetus for the emergence of yet more Protestant
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ongoing confrontation between science and faith which was brought to bold relief by the
formulation of evolutionary theory. The apparent conflict between science and religion has
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
II. The Ancient Catholic Church (150-1054 CE)
A. Heresies Rooted in Greek Thought
1. Gnosticism and Docetism
2. Marcion’s Proposed Canon
1. Was Christ “Created”?
2. The Nicene Creed
F. Christological Issues
1. Two “Natures” or One?
2. The Creed of Chalcedon
G. The Growth of the Papacy
1. His Life
2. Augustine on God
3. Augustine on Human Nature
4. Augustine on the Church and History
J. The Division of the Church into East and West
III. The Eastern Orthodox Churches
A. Eastern Orthodox Doctrine
2. The Zenith of Papal Power: Innocent III
B. Medieval Creativity
1. The Cathedrals
C. Female Mystics
D. The Decline of the Papacy in the Fourteenth Century
E. The Movement toward Individualism, Freedom, and Reform
V. The Protestant Reformation
A. Some Precipitating Factors
B. Martin Luther
1. The Spiritual Quest
2. The Ninety-Five Theses
1. France
2. The Netherlands
3. England
4. Scotland
G. Other Early Protestants: The Anabaptists
VI. The Catholic Reformation
A. The Council of Trent
VII. Crosscurrents in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
A. The Puritans
B. The Baptists
A. The Erosion of Papal Power
E. Pope Paul VI: Humanae Vitae
F. John Paul II: World Tensions and Ecumenism
X. Protestantism in the Modern World
A. Deism in the Eighteenth Century
B. Pietism
C. Methodism: The Wesleys
3. Countercurrents
XI. Recent Theological Trends
A. Black Theology
B. Liberation Theology
E. Global Christianity
Discussion Questions
1. What events led to the Protestant Reformation?
4. Are there any similarities between the proliferation of Christian sects or religions and the
various sects in Judaism? Are the same processes operating when variations of one religion
develop?