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I. The Attack on Christianity
- a. The growth of scientific thinking as well as the forces of modernization presented new challenges to the Christian churches
- i. Industrializaiton and urbanization had adverse effect on religious institutions
- 1. Mass migration of people from country to city meant change from close-knit ties where church was key force to urban partterns of social life that excluded the church, which couldn’t control workers
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Political movements
- a. Political movements of the late 19th were hostile to churches (Xian)
- i. Beginning during 19th century Enlightenment and well into the 19th, European governments, especially in predominantly Catholic countries, imposed controls over church courts, religious orders, and appointments of the clergy
- 1. But after failure of the revolutions of 1848, governments were eager to use the church’s aid in reestablishing order and relaxed these controls
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Close Union
- i. Eventually, the close union of state authorities with established churches produced anticlericalism
- 1. Ex: French republican government substituted civic training for religious instruction in order to undermine the Catholic Church’s control of education
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1901
- a. 1901: Catholic teaching orders were outlawed, and four years later, in 1905, church and state were completely separated
- b. Scinece a threat to Christian churches and religion
- i. Darwin’s theory of evolution contradicted divine creation
- 1. By seeking to suppress Darwin’s books and forbid the teaching of the evolutionary hypothesis, the churches caused even more educated people to reject established religions
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Science a threat
- a. Science a threat to Christian churches and religion
- i. Darwin’s theory of evolution contradicted divine creation
- 1. By seeking to suppress Darwin’s books and forbid the teaching of the evolutionary hypothesis, the churches caused even more educated people to reject established religions
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Scientific spirit
- i. Scientific spirit encouraged biblical scholars to apply critical principles to the Bible, leading to higher criticisim
- 1. Ernst Renan: French Catholic scholar who wrote Life of Jesus, wwhere he questioned the historical accuracy of the Bible and viewed Jesus as human whose value was through his life and teaching
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Responses to the Church
- i. One: outright rejection of modern ideas/ forces
- 1. Protestant fundamentalist sects were important in maintaining a literal interpretation of the Bible
- a. The Catholic Church under Pope Pius IX took stand against modern ideas
- i. 1864: he issued Syllabus of Errors where he condemned nationalism, socialism, religious toleration, and freedom of speech and press
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Other responses
- i. Other response: Modernism= included attempt by the churches to reinterpret Christianity in light of new developments
- 1. Viewed Bible as book of useful moral ideas, encouraged Christinas to become involved in social reforms, and insisted that the churches must provide a greater sense of community
- a. Catholic church condemned it in 1907 and it went underground by WWI
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Other: Leo XIII
- i. Other: compromise, approach evident under Leo XIII
- 1. Permitted teaching of evolution as hypothesis in Catholic schools and responded to challenges of modernization in economic and social spheres
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De Rerum Novarum
- a. In his De Rerum Novarum, he upheld the person’s right to private property but criticized naked capitalism for poverty and degradation in which it had left the working classes
- i. Much in socialism was Christian in rinciple, but he condemned Marxist soiclaism for its materialist and antireligious foundations
- 1. Pope recommended that Catholics form socialist parties and labor unions of their own to help workers
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Others made effort
- i. Others made effort to win support for Christianity among the working-class poor and restore religious practice among the urban working classes
- 1. Sects of evangelical missionaries were successful
- a. Salvation Army by William Booth
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