Christianity (History)

REQUIRED BOOKS � Dale T. Irvin and Scott W. Sunquist, History of the World Christian Movement, vol. 1: Earliest Christianity to 1453 (Orbis Books, 2001). BR145.3. I78 2001 � John W. Coakley and Andrea Sterk, Readings in World Christian History, vol. 1: Earliest Christianity to 1453 (Orbis Books, 2004). BR145. 3. R43 2004 � Roger E. Olson, The Story of

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS Bettenson, Henry. Documents of the Christian Church. (Oxford paperback, second ed.). This is a record of crucial letters and texts of official church proclamations that shaped the direction of church leadership in the history of the church. Gonzalez, Justo, The Story of Christianity, Volume I (Abingdon; paper ed.) [for use in elaborating theological developments at crucial junctures] Irvin, Dale, and Sunquist, Scott, eds., History of the World Christian Movement (Earliest Christianity to 1453), (Orbis, 2001). (abbreviated HWCM) [main secondary textbook] Kerr, Hugh T., ed. Readings in Christian Thought. (Abingdon paper ed.). A concise collection of selected texts illustrating style and message of major writiers in the history of Christian thought (through the modern era). Note: the first and fourth texts will be used through the second semester. Collateral texts: Rand McNally Historical Atlas of the World (paperback ed.)

The main topic field of this study is a scientific view of the little-known destinies of the Pannonian duke Kocel, the son of Pribina from Nitra. Author more closely presents a summary of political, military and religious relations that were developed in the area of a far-reaching foreign and domestic politics of Kocel from the beginning of his reign until the peak of his power. In the late 60‟s of the 9 th century, his court became an important centre of mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius, as evidenced by written and archaeological sources. The attractiveness of topic mainly consists in boosting of professional discussion in recent years.

The author studies the role of Christianity in two forms of 9th century political ethics in the history of Great Moravia, represented by the Great Moravian rulers Rastislav and Svatopluk. Rastislav’s conception predominantly uses the pre-Erasmian model of political ethics based on the pursuit of welfare for the country and its inhabitants by achieving the clerical-political independence of Great Moravia from the Frankish kingdom and, moreover, by utilising Christianity for the advancement of culture, education, literature, law and legality, as well as by spreading Christian ethics and morality in the form of the Christian code of ethics expressed in ethicallegal documents. Svatopluk’s political conception was a prototype of Machiavellian political ethics, according to which one is, in the interest of the country and its power and fame, allowed to be a lion and/or a fox. Svatopluk abused Christianity in the name of achieving his power-oriented goals. Great Moravia outlived Rastislav;...

The main topic field of this study is a scientific view of the little-known destinies of the Pannonian duke Kocel, the son of Pribina from Nitra. Author more closely presents a summary of political, military and religious relations that were developed in the area of a far-reaching foreign and domestic politics of Kocel from the beginning of his reign until the peak of his power. In the late 60‟s of the 9 th century, his court became an important centre of mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius, as evidenced by written and archaeological sources. The attractiveness of topic mainly consists in boosting of professional discussion in recent years.

The article calls attention to a neglected source for the over-all "look and feel" of the Glagolitic alphabet as it was first created by Constantine the Philosopher circa 863 ad. This source is the variant forms of the Greek and other alphabets (including Hebrew and Arabic) that consist of so-called Brillenbuchstabe (otherwise charactères à lunettes or ring-letters). These variant alphabets were employed chiefly for esoteric purposes, including astrological and magical ones. Because of their limited use, they have largely been overlooked in standard handbooks of Greek and Oriental paleography. An interest in such subjects as astrology and magic comports poorly with routine assumptions about the inner lives of Medieval Saints such as Constantine. Relying on the extant primary sources for Constantine's life, however, the article shows that his education, interests and mystical inclinations make a familiarity with some of these esoteric alphabets virtually certain. Thus it is historically plausible that such alphabets were among the inspirations for the general style, that is, the "look and feel", of the letters of Constantine's original glagolitic alphabet.

KARDASH, Ostap. An Attempt at Delineation of the Eastern Missionary Route of the Clergy of Passau on the Lands of the Post-Avar Danube Region During the First Half of the 9th Century. The article is devoted to the problem of reconstruction of the possible eastern missionary routes of the clergy of the Diocese of Passau in the Danube region in the first half of the 9th century. By the analysis of the Carolingian diplomas of the 820s and 830s, some diplomas of the last quarter of the 10th century, as well as a significant amount of archaeological data, the eastern vector of missionary activity of monks from the Diocese of St. Stephen is outlined on the lands in Marcha orientalis, mentioned in the diplomas of Louis I the Pious (823) and the Bavarian King Louis II (833 and 836), and which were situated mainly along the both banks of the Danube and its tributaries. The author concludes that these possessions represented a holistic "ecclesial bond", a missionary route that passed through the main monasteries, which were under the church jurisdiction of Passau, as well as through the ancient Roman ways and trade routes that were located in the above-mentioned possessions. In the 830s, after joining of new landholdings around the River Leitha and the Vienna Woods to the Passau's sphere of influence the outlined missionary route reached even the boundaries of the Moravians' settlement.

In this book Michael van Dussen's aim is to work out the patterns and networks of textual communication between england and Bohemia at the time of Richard II and the early Lancastrian kings, something that has not yet been done for this combination. The purely quantitative method (as used, for example, by neddermeyer in his graphics), is not adequate in van Dussen's view as it cannot explain the movement of books. Although england's book production was modest at that time by comparison with europe, it was of some significance for the new studium in Prague because of the interaction between the universities of Paris and Oxford. The author wants to place heretical 'Lollard-Hussite communication' (see below), whose importance he does not deny, into a wider chronological and factual context. As the Bohemian king at this time also wore the Roman-German crown, van Dussen regards his contact with the Holy Roman empire as a whole as relevant. The author also wants to explore whether the longstanding council of constance, a large, centralized book market with numerous tracts, put an abrupt stop to Lollard-Hussite communication. It might have been more interesting for the reader, however, not to find out the outcome of the study in the Foreword.

John Wycliffe argued for a state church model where the King can usurp the land of the Church due to its fall into mortal sin, apostasy, and in disobeying the Levitical priestly order and Apostolic order of Christ to own the earth for Christ the King by paradoxically not owning any land at all. This theology of dominion paved the way for the English Reformation with King Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy and Thomas Cranmer paving the way for Anglican theology, which much of Evangelical theology is descended from.

Reviewed by: prof. Phdr. Ivan hlaváček, csc. prof. Phdr. Petr Vorel, csc. © Tomáš Černušák, Jaroslav Pánek, Josef Žemlička, zdeňka hledíková, antonín Kalous, Tomáš Parma, Jitka Jonová, Jaroslav Šebek © ČTK (photo on the cover) IsBn 978-80-7286-292-4 [5]

The medieval period is marked by a dramatic rivalry between the Pentarchy, and their attempts at territorial and conversional dominion; this is especially so with, notably, the Roman Catholic Church and the ... within. Both Churches were extremely formidable powers and wished to extend their influence to all corners of the globe. In order to achieve this goal, it is clear, conversion was key. This power strug...individuals that played a fundamental role in the strengthening and control of these two opposing Churches: the first being Clovis I, King of the Franks, who converted to Roman Catholicism in 496 A.D., and the other is Boris I of Bulgaria, who converted to Byzantium Christianity in 864 A.D....of many pagans residing under their rule, thus strengthening the influence and authority of their respective churches.

The gospel according to Matthew contends that in answer to Jesus of Nazareth’s searching question to his disciples about who the Son of Man was, Simon Peter affirmed that Jesus was “the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus responded in turn: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16.16-19). For many Christians, this exchange between Jesus and Peter not only marked the formation of the church, but also secured a foundation for this institution that could weather any vicissitude of human history, for it was a house built upon the most stable of rocks, not one built upon the ever-shifting sand (Cf. Mt 7.24-27). And yet to read the history of Christianity as an institution, or collective of believers and practitioners, that remained impervious to change would be to ignore or deny the profound developments, both positive and negative, that occurred throughout the history of this major world religion. This course will guide students through the many twists and turns, zeniths and nadirs, unities and diversities, reforms and regressions of the history of Christianity, beginning with its ostensible foundation in the first century CE up until the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. This history will be traced from both “above,” through more “official” sources produced by various leaders and theologians within Christianity, and from “below,” through the writings and material remains of Christian laity. This dual approach seeks to ensure that the history of Christianity is recovered in all of its rich variety and complexity.

The date which marked the start of the protestant faith was not the celebrated 31 October 1517, the day when Luther nailed his theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg castle, but actually almost a hundred years before when Hus died on the stake. The tumultuous Council of Constance (1414-1418) where this took place was meant to restore order in the deeply divided church of the fifteenth century. Hus and his followers were the first to break with the Church of Rome. From the popular Hussite movement later arose the first Protestant church organisation.

The article discusses the similarities between the writings of Jan Hus and Leonardo Boff. The author attempts at explaining them by conducting a comparative study, including text analysis and elements of prosopography. Appa- rently, comparable socio-economic conditions and biographies may have influenced the works of the two theologians.

Departing from the Karl Jaspers’s prominent conception of the 800 – 200 BCE as the Axial Age, the author argues that from the late 15th century and especially from the mid-18th century up to now the world is experiencing a second Axial Age, that is a new period of radical change of the whole human culture paradigm. Among many other significant differences between the two Axial Ages, the author emphasizes the difference in the place and role of religion in the transformation processes with special reference to the present-day fortune and foreseeable future of Christianity in what is usually called the ‘Christian World’, or ‘Christiandom’ in the historical retrospect. The article finishes with pointing out the paradox that while globalization is making the world more and more integrated, the dechristianized atheistic consciousness of those who belong to the civilization that heads the globalization process represents the world as progressively fragmentary and unsystematic.

Проблема истории властных отношений и институтов является сегодня одной из наиболее актуальных для целого ряда научных дисциплин: антропологии, истории, политологии, культурологии, философии. Особое значение данная проблематика имеет для все более активно развивающихся ныне междисциплинарных исследований в области общественных наук. Целью авторов коллективной монографии является изучение на материалах большого количества конкретных обществ древности, средних веков и раннего нового времени, комплекса явлений, обусловленных тем фундаментальным, но зачастую не понимаемым и игнорируемым фактом, что политическая культура, политическая организация являются частью, проявлением и отражением типа культуры, присущего данной цивилизации в целом. Этот цивилизационный тип культуры, разнящийся в разных цивилизациях, и определяет многообразие, вариативность темпов, форм, направлений, пределов социокультурной эволюции, в том числе форм и объема сакрализации власти и ее носителей. Книга рассчитана на ученых (антропологов, историков, политологов, философов, культурологов,), преподавателей и учащихся вузов, а также на широкий круг любителей истории и культуры.

For 11 years in the role of Project Manager & Editorial Assistant, Jessica Richard coordinated between 1100 writers for the “Dictionary of South Asian Christianity” which was subsequently published as the The Oxford Encyclopedia of South Asian Christianity, a two-volume encyclopedia covering for the first time the 2000-year old story of Christianity in India and its neighbouring countries. “Looking at Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives, alongside India, as well as Myanmar, Afghanistan, and the global South Asian diaspora, the Encyclopaedia celebrates the trans-cultural, migratory, and unique nature of South Asian Christianity.”