Christian History Lesson 14 and 15

Lesson 14 masters of Christian history

A wish to be detached from the realities of the real world ie the events that are occurring to a life of solitude and sanctuary so as too assist ones soul in the after life .that is to say when turmoil is occurring people will look to faith for protection and for prayer .

 

Monastiscm in the east and west varied on several points firstly the west possibly due to climate was more regimented with persons being allocated tasks such as fishing farming baking rising at set times and prayers set to time while in the east the norm was to be an hermit with unusual trends such as Simon the Stylite who was buried to the neck when this failed he sat on a column for thirty years, another wondered naked around a city for fifty years.

 

The contributions of monasticism varied they became experimental farmers by cleaning rivers of drainage created farming methods such as rotation of crops and kept literature alive along with scholarships by training people to read and write in the monastery they also copied manuscripts so as to preserve teachings and became hospitals for the sick.

Lesson 15 master of Christian religion

          Roman bishops became powerful when Leo 1 came to power as pope he started to use his influence over all other bishops claiming Rome was first amongst equals when Constantine (emperor) moved the imperial capital to Constantinople this left the roman bishop as the strongest person in doctrine .

 

          Due to the number of mass conversions from the barbarians church law was to be enforced via the state as the church was deemed week Sunday became a major day in the calendar of the church as a day of prayer and reflection.  The number of sacraments / ceremonies increased such as marriage was deemed as a means of grace along with baptism on infants and confirmation.

 

            Using images as a means of assisting the illiterate barbarians through prayers became more common-placed.

 

          When the above are looked at this was the founding of the medieval church forming a uniformity in ritual / ceremony which then became tradition the practices are still used in the modern church today Sunday service weddings etc .

Christian Ethics Lessons 11 and 12 -- Derek Kemp

 

Christian Ethics course Lessons 11 & 12  Test 6

 

1.               Caritas is man's love of God: cupiditas is love of the world.

 

2.               Rejecting the eros idea excluding self-love and duties to self and limiting Christian love to unmotivated love of others creates an abstract ethic whereas the Christian ideal is to reach self-realisation through self-sacrifice.

         

3.               'To grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ' is Ephesians 14, v16

 

4.               God is the ultimate source of strength for the Christian.

 

5.               This quotation is TRUE.

 

6.               'Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands, take heed lest he falls' is found in 1 Corinthians chap 10, verse 12.

 

7.               Moral dullness may be the result of ignorance, willful moral blindness, unconscious self-deception or a mixture of all three.

 

8.               'Do not be conformed to this world.......' is found in Romans chap 12, verse2.

 

9.               The three types of action to challenge and change the structure of social evil and sin are: social service through social welfare and charitable institutions etc, social education by Christians speaking the truth in love and laying foundations for social action.

 

10.           LOVE is relevant to every human situation.

 

Derek Kemp

Master of Religion Lesson 17 - Andrew Longsden

The numerous issues and threats to Christianity at this time came from the East in the form of Islam this also came from Africa with the fall of the African church at about the same time was the conversion of the tribes in Europe even in the middle ages life was not dull in England which practiced Celtic Christianity this we are told brought confusion with different practices such as marriage Celtic Christian Monks could marry as such a meeting was conducted at a sea port called Whitby this is a fishing town know and has been for hundreds of years along with farm lands to its west .At this meeting it was decided the followers will adopt the Roman teachings and drop the Celtic tradition how many followers didn't follow I have not found out ,once this was decided the churches could continue teaching with agreed dates and practices the English churches became famous for their teachings.

 

The consequences of Islam was the loss of churches in both the East and Africa also with the fall or loss of  Jerusalem and the countries around it Constantinople also fell as Islam spread .

 

When several forms of the same belief argue anything could and can happen we have to bare in mind that borders where not manned by armed coast guards or militia as today as such lands where changed through marriage and conquest this would allow countries to switch religion in a time of crisis Islam tried to take hold of Spain with its convert or sword policy this resulted in the reverse happening the invaders where eventually removed and residents had to know become Christian or leave while before any belief was tolerated even the Jews had to convert to the will of the Country and its politics even though they had nothing to do with the invasions.

Chrisian History - Andrew Longsden

1. What factors contributed to the collapse of the Carolingian Empire?
   
   The Carolingian empire collapsed after the death of Charlemagne the reason for this being so was due to the Teutonic inheritance  which was not based upon primogeniture and therefore led to automatic division of lands and property systemic weakness and to the relative incompetence of his sons whose squabbles over the spoils furthered exacerbated the situation. After the death of Louis the Pious in 840, the hostility between his sons led to the establishment of political divisions roughly equivalent to later France and Germany which generated enduring conflict for the following eleven centuries. Other factors were the activities of invading peoples such as the Vikings, Slavs and Magyars at a time when the response was sporadic and disorganised and the impact of the evolving feudal system which was based upon a greater co-dependence between ruler and the most prominent subjects. Nonetheless, the legacy of the Carolingian Empire was considerable, arguably more significant for the future than its actual existence had been for the Europe of Charlemagne!
2. What is feudalism? How was the Church influenced by feudalism and how did it attempt to lessen the excesses of the feudal lords?
   
   Feudalism was a system based upon loyalty, service and obligations in return for landholding; The land holding would often be a small strip of land for which the peasant would work and give some of the fruits of labour to the land owner as well as to serve his lord in a form of military service in return for protection often the peasants could get a certain amount of time off for a pilgrimage some of these as far as the holy land.
3. What was involved in the Investiture Controversy? How did this plague church-state relations in the Middle Ages?
   
   The investiture controversy was not a plague in the sense of the black death more kings exerting their divine authority by electing persons in to church positions .what we had in the middle ages was land being acquired in vast amounts either by donations or acquisition also the church did not answer to the kings country they was stationed in this could have brought jealousy and in the short term helped to wards the creating of the church of England and numerous protestant countries .This could be due to kings expect spiritual guidance and not to be told to hand over property and titles.

 

 

Andrew Longsden