A People's History of Christianity Ancient Modern

Transcription

1 Ancient Modern

2 From Ancient to Modern Four moments in time Christian Origins: The Free-Thinking Church of Corinth Martyrs or Madmen: Religious fervor and martyrdom as people power Light in the Darkness: Popular people's movements beyond the monasteries and crusades The Unusual Suspects: The Renaissance, Reformation and battle for divine justice

3 From Ancient to Modern Final Session: Into Modernity and out the other end From the Reformation's birth of Protestantism as a global force To the emergence of the Modern Age and the 'progress of man' And then the collapse of progress and postmodern Christianity

4 Ancient Modern PART ONE: The Rise of the Modern Age

5 The Rise of the Modern Age The Industrialization of Human Relating Industrialization: Mid-18th century to mid-19th century: from hand production methods to machines, chemical manufacturing, iron production, water and steam power and development of machine tools, all fueled by extensive mining of coal Urbanization: People's lives changed radically with rising average income and population through emergence of the modern city with its factories, rural immigration and child labor

6 The Rise of the Modern Age The Globalization of Human Relating Much of this explosive growth was made possible by the parallel growth of the modern imperial age...the world in 1914

7 The Rise of the Modern Age The Supreme Confdence of the Modern Man The rise of empire and industrial progress gave modern humanity a confdence in the reach of our own achievements Historian Robert Mackenzie, writing in 1880: Human history is a record of progress...the nineteenth-century has witnessed progress rapid beyond all precedent, for it has witnessed the overthrow of the barriers which prevented progress' Scientifc advancements such as Darwin's Origin of Species (1859) led to view of being human as a species able to advance on its own merits and not as an outcome of providence

8 The Rise of the Modern Age The Birth of Liberal Protestantism & Biblical Criticism Friedrich Schleiermacher: Father of modern theology: our theological starting point is a feeling of 'absolute dependence' on God rather than a formulaic set of dogmas or beliefs. Rudolph Bultmann: concept of demythology: only faith in the kerygma, or proclamation, of the New Testament was necessary for Christian faith, not any particular facts regarding the historical Jesus

9 The Rise of the Modern Age Critical Biblical Reading

10 The Rise of the Modern Age Cautionary Notes on the Progress of Man Karl Marx: The alienation of man from his labor and from one another in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844: the product of work as an object alien and even hostile to us. Pope Leo XIII: Rerum Novaruni (1891), directed to The Condition of the Working Classes, hailed as one of the most important modern pronouncements on social justice.

11 The Rise of the Modern Age The Emergence of Modernity as an Age of the Grand Narratives of Progress

12 Ancient Modern REFLECTION: Do you look back on the last 200 years as two centuries of progress?

13 Ancient Modern PART TWO: th The 20 Century and Postmodernity's Angst

14 Postdmodernity's Angst The Great War and the Bubble Bursts World War I: Shell Shock was a term used during the First World War to describe the psychological trauma suffered by men serving on the war's key battlefronts In many ways the unprecedented 9 million combatant fatalities left human civilization shell shocked at the destruction it could visit upon itself

15 Postdmodernity's Angst The Holocaust and the Death of God World War II: Over 70 million fatalities, the deadliest war in human history Systematic attempt to annihilate Europe s Jews, disabled, homosexuals in the Holocaust, or Shoah, meaning 'catastrophe' Led Jewish and Christian theologians to declare the 'death of God' the age-old problem of theodicy

16 Postdmodernity's Angst Postmodern Doubt Jacque Derrida: Deconstruction: proposed the deconstruction of all texts where binary oppositions are used in the construction of meaning and value Michel Foucault: Archeology of Knowledge: drawing from Nietzsche and the relationship between knowledge and power, what can be said about certain categories of things

17 Postdmodernity's Angst Postmodern Theology John Caputo: The old God-of-power is displaced with the idea of God as an unconditional claim without force. As a claim without force, the God of weak theology does not physically or metaphysically intervene in nature. Everyday Theology: Beyond the grand narratives of organized religion, my truth is true to me

18 Ancient Modern REFLECTION: How do you think Christianity should relate to the world we live in today?

19 Ancient Modern PART THREE: From Angst to Action

20 Back to an Ancient Grand Narrative God's preferential option for the poor Liberation Theology emerged as a people's movement in Latin America in the face of the 'structural sin' of government oppression Biblical Grand Narrative of Exodus, God's intervention in human history for the poor recalled as base communities gathered in cycle of actionrefection

21 Back to an Ancient Grand Narrative Postcolonial Christianity A movement that returns the word of colonial spread of Christianity Interpolating indigenous elements into the Christian theological framework Example: South Korean Minjung Theology: Minjung, 'the people' made up of people who are ostracized by the larger community Other movements: Disability Hermeneutics, Queer Hermeneutics

22 Back to an Ancient Grand Narrative The American Context for a People's Christianity From Jerry Falwell to Al Sharpton, the voices in contemporary American Christianity have offered a wide diversity of people's narratives In an age of institutional decline, the question of what sort of grassroots Christianity will survive the century is an open question

23 Back to an Ancient Grand Narrative The People's Christianity on our Doorstep What will characterize that grassroots in our own part of the world?

24 Your Turn! What are you going to take from this series?