A Brief History of Christianity

Contents Preface 1. The Responsibility to Remember: Introduction to the Historiography of Christianity Tradition and Confession 2. “The Law of Praying is the Law of Believing” The Roman Empire and its Political Achievements Hellenization and its Cultural Achievements Development of the Biblical Canon 3. Sibling Rivalry: Heresy, Orthodoxy, and the Ecumenical Councils The Structure of Tradition: Confession and Dogma Dogma as a Key to Christian Memory and Identity Heresy Jesus’s Relationship to God: The Doctrine of the Trinity From the Council of Nicaea to the Council of Constantinople Jesus and Humankind: Christology 4. The Heavenly City: The Augustinian Synthesis of Biblical Religion and Hellenism Augustine’s Path to Conversion Augustine’s Theological Contributions Augustine and Donatism The Pelagian Controversy 5. The Development of the Medieval Papacy Monasticism to Mission The Emergence of the Papacy Papacy and Empire The Gregorian Reform The Investiture Conflict The Crusades 6. Faith in Search of Understanding: Anselm, Abelard, and the Beginnings of Scholasticism Universities and Scholasticism Contributions of Early Scholastic Theology 7. The Medieval Church The Cultural and Theological Development of the Sacraments The Rise of the Mendicant Orders The Rise and Decline of Papal Authority The Decline of the Papacy Conciliarism 8. The Reformations of the Sixteenth Century The Reformation in Germany The Reformation in Switzerland The Reformation in France The Reformation in England Scandinavia and Eastern Europe Early Modern Catholicism The Reformations’ Aftermath 9. Pietism and the Enlightenment The Enlightenment The Catholic Church and the Enlightenment 10. Challenge and Response: The Church in the Nineteenth Century The Churches and the French Revolution From the French Revolution to the Congress of Vienna Church Reform in Germany: The Prussian Union Inner Mission and the Social Question The Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century Pope Pius IX and Vatican I From Kulturkampf to the Modernist Oath Nineteenth-Century Theology The Awakening Theological Currents Liberal Theology 11. The Christian Churches since World War I The Churches during National Socialism Developments in the Catholic Church after World War I The Ecumenical Movement Back to the Future: Christianity in Global Context Appendix: Periodization Glossary Further Reading Index