Examples to Support the Church History Sub

Examples to Support the Church History Sub-Strand – Years 7 - 10

YEAR 7

YEAR 8

Establishment / order / spread (c. 6BCE – c. 100CE)

Decline / dissent / attack(c. 650CE - )  The Dark Ages in Europe has been defined as being from the death of Augustine in 430 CE to the time of Thomas Aquinas ( d.1274)  By 652, the entire Arab world is Muslim.  The great centres of Christian learning- Jerusalem, Alexandria, Carthage and Antioch fall to Islam. Only Constantinople and Rome are left.   the great libraries of Europe are destroyed by invaders; end of much scholarship and learning  The monks in Ireland preserve knowledge through the copying of sacred texts  The rise in power of the pope of Rome as both religious and secular leader  Chair of Peter and symbol of unity to all Europe, the Papacy became a coveted prize for the noble families of Rome.  Popes were made and unmade, arrested, tortured and murdered in an unholy scramble for power and riches.  Charles, who drove back the Muslim advance on the West and became known as Charles the Great (Charlemagne), marched on Rome and had Leo restored as Pope.  On Dec 25th 800, Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope, and thus began his campaign to unite Europe under Christ.

The life and teachings of Jesus  The Jesus Movement as a sect of Judaism  Refer to Year 7 Sacred Texts: Old Testament and New Testament Foundations of the Church established by male and female disciples: Examples of male disciples:  In Acts: Stephen , Timothy, Philip, Barnabas, Cornelius, Aquila, JohnMark, Peter, John, James, Andrew, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, Paul, Silas Examples of female disciples:  In Romans: Phoebe, Prisca, Junia, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, Persis, Mary, Julia, Rufus’ mother, Nereus’ sister  In Philippians: Chloe, Euodia, Syntyche,  In Philemon: Apphia  In Acts: Mary Mother of Jesus, Sapphira, Tabbitha, Mary, Roda, Timothy’s mother, Lydia, Damaris, Priscilla, four daughters of Philip  In Colossians: Nympha  In 2 Letter to Timothy: Lois, Unice, Prisca, Claudia  In Gospels: Mary of Magdala, female supporters of Jesus (Source: Women in Early Church) Why and where did the earliest Church communities develop?  The five major centres of Christianity: Rome; ; Antioch, Jerusalem; Constantinople ; Alexandria  The roads of the Roman empire were both well-constructed and safe to travel (the Pax Romana) Significant Developments and Events  Oral accounts, and then later written accounts, of the sayings and deeds of Jesus begin to circulate

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Following Pentecost, house churches are the main meeting places for followers of Jesus; house churches were led by both men and women c. 35CE - martyrdom of Stephen after 35CE - conversion of Saul of Tarsus c. 45 CE – 60 CE Paul’s journeys throughout the ancient Mediterranean world c. 52CE – 67CE Paul writes letters to communities he visited and established c. 49CE ‘Council of Jerusalem’ resolves issue of Gentiles being admitted into Christianity c. 62CE – death of James; seat of spiritual authority for Christians moves from Jerusalem to Rome when Paul and Peter move to Rome c. 70CE – destruction of Jerusalem by Titus c. 70CE – c. 95CE Final versions of the four canonical Gospels written c. 90CE the Jewish synod at Jamnia expels the Christian sect from Judaism

 Ecumenical councils continued (- 787CE) in response to ongoing dissent and debates (e.g. the Monophysite debate and the Iconoclast debate) Establishment / order / spread  Carolingian Renaissance: o In 20 years, Charles, sometimes using a scorched earth policy, forcibly took and converted the pagan forces of Europe. o Having conquered Europe, Charles decided to improve the widespread ignorance of the faith- even among the clergy. o He established a centre for learning for bishops, then set up schools. o Charlemagne began his own renaissance- the Carolingian Renaissance and recovered the Irish literature preserved by the monks in Ireland. o 90% of all scripts we have today come from Charles’ scriptorium. Decline / dissent / attack  Viking invasions of England, Ireland, Scotland, France (late 700s – mid 800s CE)  Maygars invade Central Europe (late 800s CE)  Maygars defeated by Otto, King of the Franks (late 900s CE) Establishment / order / spread  Papacy restored; Europe once again a Christian empire (by 1000CE)  Tension between the Eastern and Western churches over the

Holy Roman Emperor leads to formal East-West schism between the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope of Rome (1054CE); Decline / dissent / attack  

Irreconcilable differences between Constantinople and Rome (e.g. the proper form of the liturgy and other external matters; clerical marriage, the bread used for the Eucharist, days of fasting) ongoing struggle for supremacy between the Western Church and state (from c. 1000CE – 1500s CE)

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Land ownership and the feudal system result in great wealth and power of the Church which led to the building of huge cathedrals, convents and monasteries. The struggle for power between Princes and the church in their lands continued as the Papacy in the West demanded more and more concessions for the Church In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a holy crusade to rescue Jerusalem and the Holy Land against Muslim infidels There were nine crusades in all, from 1095 to 1272. The crusades generated an antagonism against Christianity that still survives.

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Outspoken reformers arose from within the Church calling for reform against wealth and power and a return to true religious life. Reformers included: (St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), St Dominic (1170- 1221), Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Clare of Assisi(1194-1253), Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), The Albigensians (Cathars) (c. 1000s – 1200s CE), The Waldensians (late 1100s CE), John Wycliffe (1329-1384), John Huss (1374-1415), The church responds to challenges to its authority, rights or teachings by:

o Condemnation by Bishops or Rome o Attempts at convincing a change of heart or reconciliation through use of emissaries, preachers, or the influence of other secular leaders o Threats of interdict and excommunication of individuals and whole countries o Banishment from civilised society- e.g. Jews, Muslims o Trial by persecution for individuals, or military offensives for groups or countries o Death by burning or decapitation or strangling     

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The Church formalised this process with the institution of the Courts of the Clergy- The Holy Inquisition – by Pope Gregory IX in 1231. The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1378 during which seven Popes resided in Avignon, in modern-day France In 1378 the seat was moved back to Rome, while a disputing party continued to honour the bishop in Avignon as the head of the church. From 1378 to 1414 was a time of difficulty which Catholic scholars refer to as the "Papal or Western Schism“ A number of religious, social and environmental factors, positive and negative, resulted in a great clamour all over the Christian world for reform of the Church and society (14th century), e.g. o Widespread corruption and ignorance of Scripture in the Church o Superstitious and questionable practices such as extreme devotions to saints, sale of indulgences and the trade in relics and pilgrimages. o Un-Christian action by the Church- Crusades and Inquisitions o The establishment of Universities and building of Cathedrals o The Black Death devastates Europe and Asia o The invention of the Printing Press o The Renaissance of knowledge, the arts, science, medicine o The rise of individualism- a new worldview o The rise of the “middle class” The Protestant Reformation is a general term that describes the general

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upheaval in the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. Leaders of the Protestant Reformation include: Martin Luther (1483-1546); King Henry VIII (1491-1547), John Calvin (1509-1564), Desiderius Erasmus (1467-1536), Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531), Michael Sattler (1490 - 1527), Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), Martin Bucer (1491-1551), Philip Melancthon (14971560), William Tyndale (1494-1536). The early years of the reformation were mainly violence free, but rebellion by protestant groups against Catholic kings and princes led inevitably to war. Wars between Catholics and Protestants occurred in France, Spain), Germany and England between 1562 and 1649. In 1607 the separating Puritans, Calvin followers, fled England and persecution, for the New World. The control of knowledge has always been an issue for the Christian Church. Across history, the church has alternately encouraged and sponsored the preservation and search for knowledge and suppressed and destroyed it. The emergence of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment presented other challenges for the Christian Church (e.g. Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnaz, Loch, Berkeley, David Hume, Voltaire and Rousseau) If it wasn’t before, the Church became irrelevant to the lives of the increasingly literate society it sought to control.

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With secular as well as religious rebellion breaking out, “Protestants” no longer feared the wrath of Rome. Rome eventually realised that the reformation was much more than just a few rebels and responded by calling the Council of Trent in 1545. It represented a retreat of Catholicism into its own world for more than 400 years. One of the great “weapons” used by Rome in response to the reformation was the preaching of the newly formed religious Order, the Society of Jesus, formed by Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) in 1540. Catholic missionary activity to Africa, Asia, the Americas was to return vast

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Decline / dissent / attack: (c.30CE – c.100 CE)  

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Persecutions: Stephen (c. 35CE); James (c. 62CE); Peter and Paul (c. 67/8 CE); Nero’s persecutions of Christians (c. 64CE); Domitian’s persecution of Christians (c. 81CE – 96CE) Suspicion: reactions to new Jewish sect included suspicion from ruling Jewish classes, ridicule, disgust and horror from Romans (cf. Tacitus, the historian); tensions between Jews and Christians about membership and traditional beliefs and practices; Christians expelled from Rome under suspicion of causing tumults with Jews (c. 49CE) Heresies: Emergence of a gnostic segment of the new Christian community claiming a special revelation of the divine apart from the revelation of Jesus (e.g. reference made in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Jude)

wealth to the Catholic church and a surge in membership. European exploration and discovery, especially of Africa, Oceania and the Americas was motivated by a thirst for new ideas, knowledge and wealth and a genuine desire to bring (European) Christianity to these new worlds. Operating out of a world view of cultural superiority, European explorers, traders and missionaries converted and enslaved; colonised and destroyed existing cultures and replaced them with a white, European, medieval version of Christianity. Churchmen in Portugal, Spain, France, England, Holland and the American colonies stood by and did little about slavery of captured peoples. Unable to reconcile previous Church doctrine and literal Scriptural teaching with science, the Catholic Church retreated into Dogma and its old techniques to silence new scientific discoveries.

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Dissent: Paul’s letters reveal the struggles for unity within some of the early Christian communities (e.g. in 1 Corinthians – division of loyalties, schisms, authority) Paul’s dissent with the Jerusalem community led by Peter and James (c. 49CE) Separation from Judaism: c. 90CE the Jewish synod at Jamnia expels the Christian sect from Judaism

Re-establishment / reform/ order/ spread (c. 100CE– c. 410 CE) 

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From c. 110CE: Under the influence of Ignatius of Antioch, the early church is restructured: house churches were consolidated into public structures based on Roman civil government with elders/bishops, presbyters and deacons in authority; women lost their previous power and authority From c. 140CE – c. 165CE: Justin Martyr was the first of the apologists: strongly defended Christianity against accusations of ignorance and barbarism From c. 196CE: Tertullian was influential in forming the theology of the early western church (e.g. remarriage, fasting, martyrdom, suffering persecution) The writings of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, were formative in the early development of Christian theology, especially the episcopate, Scripture and tradition. He also attacked Gnosticism (c. late 2nd Century – early 3rd Century CE) Clement of Alexandria attempted to unite Greek philosophical traditions with Christian doctrine (c. 150CE – c.215 CE) Emergence of hierarchical model of Church (from c110CE): The City of God is modelled on the City of Rome; Christ and the Emperor were ‘pantocrators’; bishops and senators were secular and religious rulers Emergence of the monastic model of Church (from c 250CE): red martyrdom and white martyrdom; an alternative communal way of living the way of Jesus as opposed to the imperial Church Toleration and Religion of the state (c. 313CE – c. 410CE):  Conversion of Constantine (312CE)  Edict of Toleration (313CE)

 Council of Nicea (325CE)  Council of Constantinople (381CE) – one Creed  Conversion of Augustine (387CE)  The Canon of Scripture fixed (c405CE) At the beginning of the fifth century, the Roman Empire covered most of the known world. This underpinned the strength and cohesion of the Christian Church. For the Empire and Church, there was one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one Creed and one Canon of Scripture. Conquest meant compulsory conversion to Christianity. Decline / Dissent/ attack: (c.319CE – c. 650 CE)  Heresies: Seven ecumenical councils (from 325CE) to try to bring unity of faith to disputing Christian groups  Eastern and western empires and church:  Monasteries, churches and libraries all over Europe were destroyed; knowledge and learning lost (from c410CE)  Rome is looted and burned (410CE)  St Patrick brings Christianity to Ireland (432CE) and Ireland becomes overwhelmingly Christian (by c 471CE)  Monasteries in Ireland preserved learning and copied texts after the destruction of European libraries (from c 450CE)  Rome finally falls (c. 476CE)  The Empire and the Church move to the East (from c 476CE)  Emperor Justinian 1 (527 – 565CE) attempts to reunite the Church and Empire, both spiritually and physically.  Rise of Islam (from c 610CE) poses the greatest threat to the Eastern Church  The great centres of Christian learning (Jerusalem, Alexandria, Carthage and Antioch) fall to Islam (652CE)

Year 9 (1750 – 1918)

Year 10 (1918 – present)

Decline / dissent / attack Decline / dissent / attack  The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the times.  Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, moving from village life and farms to cities, from self-sufficiency and life around a village church to squalor and disease and godlessness.   

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The traditional authority of the church, the village, and the family were being undermined by impersonal factory and city life. Still locked in a medieval world view, most traditional church groups could offer no answer to the hunger for meaning in the miserable lives of city Unable to cope with religious and political revolutions, the Church was just as unable to cope with the enormous social upheaval faced by ordinary people. The inability of the church to respond to the Industrial Revolution, except with calls for increased piety and devotions, led Karl Marx (1818-1883) to accuse religion as conspiring with capitalism because it did nothing for people on earth, but consoled them with a promise of a better afterlife. In the latter half of the 19th century, atheism rose to prominence under the influence of rationalistic and freethinking philosophers. Many prominent German philosophers of this era denied the existence of deities and were critical of religion, including Ludwig Feuerbach, Arthur Schopenhauer, Max Stirner, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Scientific understandings were shaken by the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species in 1859. These developments in philosophical and scientific thought posed the greatest threat and challenge to the Christian Church since the Roman persecutions. The French Revolution (1793CE) represented the end of institutional Christianity in France. It was seen as a repudiation of the excesses of the

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The Church continues to be challenged by scientific advances, philosophical and rational world views, Modernism, secularism, materialism, capitalism and both the loss of traditional belief and the rising interest in alternative belief systems and its own abuse of power. Christianity faces the challenge of credibility. By the end of the 20th century, Christianity could no longer claim to speak for the world’s population: only 30% of the world nominate as Christian (circa 2 billion). In Europe, churches lie empty and Church leaders are calling for a new evangelisation of Europe. The majority of Christians now live south of the Equator and belong to the third and fourth world economically. The rise in interest and membership of other religions (e.g. Buddhism and Islam) has challenged Christianity’s perceived dominant status in many societies. The growth of atheism fuelled by scientific advances and rational world views continues to attack the credibility of religious belief (e.g. cf. the Australian 2011 Census figures) During WW11 (1939 – 1945), the Holocaust or Shoah (the systematic annihilation of six million Jewish people by Germany's Nazi regime over the period 30 January 1933 to 8 May 1945) challenged the Christian Church’s understanding of its relationship with the Jewish people.

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The Church responded either through an inward turning, conservative approach (‘ghetto mentality’; attempts to silence the religion/science debate) or through engagement with the culture using modern media (e.g. ‘tele-evangelists’ such as Rev Billy Graham, Christian radio broadcasts, ‘Big Tent Crusades’, commercial television channels provide free time for religious broadcasts such as in Australia today, megachurch movement ) The search for relevant religion that gave meaning to the horrors of World Wars and rampant capitalism led to the formation of new ways of worship and being Christian led by lay persons (e.g. Pentecostalism, religious sects, Another response to the challenges of the modern era, including sectarianism in

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Catholic Church and a declaration of the backwardness of religion. In Australia, religious sectarianism played a part in the conscription debate. However, the mateship that developed among Australians fighting together helped break down this religious sectarianism. The horror encountered by those in the trenches in World War 1 and the loss to those at home (35 million died) had lifelong effects and attempts to come to terms with ‘man’s inhumanity to man’ raised religious questions. If Christianity was the superior religion, how could Christians explain the devastation of the war. For many people, this meant a loss of faith and rejection of church. The Russian Revolution (1914 - 1921CE) raised the philosophical challenge of communism and ‘the Godless (secular) state’ for Christianity, particularly the Orthodox Church, and for all societies founded on Christian principles.

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In Ireland, devastated by the potato famine, a number of religious orders arose to care for the poor- e.g. the Irish Christian Brothers, Sisters of Mercy; Presentation Sisters. The 18th and 19th century Catholic Church retained a Medieval, hierarchical and monarchical world view, holding strict controls over its people in matters of faith and morals (e.g. The Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX in 1864, Papal Infallibility declared at First Vatican Council (1869 – 1870), condemnation of Modernism, Pope Pius X, 1907) The provision of education, and to a degree, health services to increase the opportunities for the poor became the focus of Catholic endeavour in the 18th and 19th centuries. Membership of male and female Religious Orders and Lay institutes which opened schools exploded (e.g. Jesuits, Franciscan, Dominican, Augustinian, Catherine McAuley; Nano Nagle; Edmund Rice; Don Bosco; Mary Ward, Elizabeth Seton and Mary MacKillop). John Wesley (1703 – 1791), an Anglican clergyman, set out to bring the Church of England into the modern age. His great contribution was to appoint itinerant, un-ordained preachers who travelled widely to evangelize and care for people wherever they were. Under the principles of the Wesleyan Methodists, as they became, the Church would go where the people were, rather than wait for them to come to it. Some Protestant denominations responded with Evangelical Crusades, to reach people not coming to church and to win back those alienated by

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Australia and in other parts of the world, was the desire for greater Christian unity or cooperation (ecumenism, World Council of Churches (1948), Uniting Church in Australia (1977), The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches returned to ‘close communion’ (1965) The Catholic Church’s response to the challenges of the modern world was dramatically transformed by The "Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican" (called Vatican II), which was called by Pope John XXIII and was in session from 1962 to 1965. It dramatically modernized and transformed church policies, with major changes to official theology and liturgy. The Pope himself called on all Catholics to “fling open the windows of the Church and let the Holy Spirit in”. The Catholic Church in Australian took the opportunity provided by the reforms of Vatican II to respond to the challenges faced at the local level (e.g. sectarianism; migration, multi-faith and multicultural society, a divided education system, loss of traditional faith practices, role of laity) Vatican II asserted the Church's support for freedom of religion and declared that the Jews were not responsible for the death of Jesus and recognized the possibility of salvation for Jews, Muslims, and Protestants (Nostra Aetate, 1965) Another response has been the rise of ‘religious spirituality’ as distinct from religious doctrine and belief has already had impact on the way Christians pray and celebrate Christian rituals and define their religious belief and church membership. In the 20th Century, the Church continued its staunch opposition to communism (e.g. in Australia, the ALP split and emergence of the DLP (1950s); Pope John Paul II’s involvement with Solidarity to free Poland from communism in the 1980s) In response to the extent of conflict in the world, the Church continues to contribute to the efforts to achieve lasting peace and security in the world (e.g. there have been at least 15 Vatican and other religious statements on peace http://omiusajpic.org/issues/integrity-of-creation/vatican-and-churchstatements/) The Church is a strong advocate and prominent voice for the environment and sustainability (e.g. Catholic Earthcare Australia by the Australian Bishops; Pope Benedict’s Statement on World Day of Peace 2010; Let the Many Coastlands Be Glad, 2004, Queensland Bishops; The Church in Oceania, Pope John Paul II, 2001; Catechism of the Catholic Church n.2415, On Holy Ground, c. 2006; Climate Change: Our Responsibility to Sustain God’s Earth, Australian Bishops, 2005; call

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Church theological bickering. William Booth (1829-1912) a Methodist preacher, established the Salvation Army to preach and do works of mercy on the streets as well as lighten people’s burdens with music. The Church response to the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment was varied. It included: provision of schooling for the masses, especially the poor; Bishops focused their energy on spiritual formation and education of their flocks; some Christians led political movements for the abolition of slavery, child labour and the emancipation of women (e.g. Puritans, Christian Chartists). The publication of Rerum Novarum (Pope Leo X111, 1891) addressed the conditions of the working classes and advocated for the rights and dignity of workers. This led to the formation of workers’ political parties across the world, including the formation of the Australian Labor Party (1891) The social, political and religious upheavals in Europe led to the movements of people to the British colonies, including America, Australia and New Zealand. Clergy and religious orders followed, and established themselves in those colonies, often bringing their old hostilities with them (e.g. sectarianism, competition between missionaries for new converts) The American War of Independence (1775-81) and the Writing of the Constitution (1791) not only guaranteed the separation of Church and State, but also went beyond tolerance to give all religion equal status- that is the freedom to practise all religions. By the end of the 18th century, voluntary Protestant missionaries (laity, couples, families and entire communities) flowed into Africa, Asia and Latin America. Their message was of an accessible God; of freedom of thought, speech and religion. In the 1820s in Utah, Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints .It was a response to the modern world, which they believed was going to hell. They were convinced the Kingdom of God on earth was imminent.

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for ‘ecological conversion’, John Paul II, 17 January 2001) In response to the challenge of loss of cultural identity as a result of globalisation, the Church continues to be an advocate for the rights and freedom of indigenous peoples (e.g. in Australia, The Heart of Our Country: Dignity and justice for our Indigenous sisters and brothers, Australian Catholic Bishops, 2006; ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL II TO THE ABORIGINES AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS, Alice Springs, 1986)