The first foreign missionary society, founded in 1810. It was formed on the initiative of a group of students at the new Congregational Andover Theological Seminary.The leader of the group was Samuel J. Mills. [tags]American-Board-of-Commissioners-for-Foreign-Missions, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Foreign-Missions, history[/tags]  

The doctrine that through self-torture, or self-denial, one can discipline himself to reach a high state, spiritually or intellectually. [tags]Asceticism, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history[/tags]  

In 1147, this mystic called for the Second Crusade while the kingdom of Jerusalem faced its first crisis. As one of Christendom’s most influential churchmen and abbot he pursued Peter Abelard as devoutly as he preached the Second Crusade. Felt that faith brooked no dispute and worked to have Abelard…

Controversy between the Protestant and Catholic cantons in Switzerland led, on 11 October 1531, to a battle at Kappel between Zurich and its Catholic neighbors. In the course of the battle Zwingli lost his life. Thus, the leadership of the reformation in Zurich fell to Heinrich Bullinger. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent,…

A well known Gnostic. He was seen by John the Disciple at Ephesus in a bath, causing John to run out screaming. [tags]BlogRodent, Cerinthus, church-history, ChurchRodent, history[/tags]  

Bishop of Rome, about A.D. 96, he wrote a letter to the church at Corinth, and eighty years later it was still their custom to read Clement’s letter at public worship. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Clement-of-Rome, history[/tags]  

(397) This council published the list of books compiled by Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria in 367 as an accepted N.T. canon. [tags]Athanasius, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Council-at-Carthage, history[/tags]  

Bishop of Rome (366-384), he marked the transition to the new day for Old Rome. He was able to fuse the old roman civic and imperial pride with Christianity. Claimed that due to the merit of the Apostles Peter and Paul’s martyrdom in Rome, they could be claimed as Roman…

From the Gk, "to seem." the title comes from their teaching that Christ was not really a man, he was a spectral appearance. He only "seemed" to suffer for man’s sins since divine phantoms are incapable of dying. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Docetism, history[/tags]  

(1820-1895) The son of a wealthy German factory owner. In 1845 the French authorities expelled Marx, and together Karl Marx and Engels went to live in Brussels. In January 1848 Marx and Engels published the famous Communist Manifesto. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Friedrich-Engels, history, Karl-Marx[/tags]  

An inflammatory reformer preaching in Geneva. In 1536 he influenced Calvin to take up the reforming cause in Geneva with him. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Reformation, William-Farel[/tags]  

When the young emperor Charles V declared Luther an outlaw after the diet of Worms, Luther had 21 days for safe passage to Saxon before the sentence fell. Luther was saved from arrest and death by the prince of Saxony, Duke Frederick the Wise, whose domains included Wittenberg. The Duke…

In 1377 the aged Pope Gregory XI re-entered Rome, and shortly passed away. In haste the College of Cardinals elected a new pope, Pope Urban VI. In August the cardinals suddenly informed all Europe that the people of Rome had forced the election of an apostate to the chair of…

From 1562 to 1598, France suffered a series of civil wars between Roman Catholics and French Calvinists (or Huguenots). When both parties reached the point of utter fatigue they agreed to a territorial compromise in the royal Edict of Nantes (1598). The Huguenots gained religious freedom and political control of…

(340-420) Fourth century translator of the Bible into the Latin (the Vulgate). A pioneer in monastic scholarship. He began his career as a hermit in the Syrian desert, but found that he could exorcise his sexual temptations only by occupying his mind with a tough intellectual discipline. He took up…

In 1921 Kimbangu was a young man preparing to join a Baptist church when he felt called of God to preach the gospel. He responded and the revival movement he soon led so alarmed the Belgian Congo (now Zaire) government officials seized him and sent him to jail for life.…

Although shaped by evangelical culture, Lincoln never joined a church and found himself at home with no particular creed. His language and thought, however, were formed by the Bible, and from it he learned that no one could interpret precisely what the will of God was for the nation. "In…

(1818-1883) Born in Rhineland, at Trier, of German-Jewish parents who had been converted to Christianity, Marx obtained his doctor’s degree after studying the ideas of philosopher Georg Hegel. Turning to journalism to earn a living he went to Paris, where he became interested in socialistic ideas. He and Friedrich Engels…

In 1920, Curtis Lee Laws, Baptist editor of the Watchman-Examiner, called "fundamentalists" within the Northern Baptist Convention to a conference in Buggalo, New York. This group of conservatives, popularly called "The Fundamentalist Fellowship" were moderate conservatives. They believed that the modernists were surrendering the "fundamentals" of the gospel: the sinful…

(1801-1890) Vicar of the University Church and a commanding figure in the academic community. Supporter of John Keble, Fellow of Oriel College. Joined by Edward Pusey, professor of Hebrew, their preaching and writing turned their protests against their loss of representation (Anglican clergy) in Parliament into a movement. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history,…

Other than Jesus, perhaps the most influential man to shape the course of Christianity that has ever lived. Had been educated in the strictest Jewish tradition and had studied under the famous rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem, Paul spoke Greek fluently and was familiar with Greek thought and literature. He could…

The king of France during the turn of the 14th century. In 1296, Pope Boniface VIII issued a Clericis Laicos threatening excommunication for any lay ruler who taxed the clergy and any churchman who paid those taxes without papal consent. But Philip, with King Edward of England, resisted and he…

Ernst Troeltsch early in the twentieth century called Protestantism a "modification of Catholicism" in which Catholic problems remain, but different solutions are given. The four questions that Protestantism answered in a new way are: How is a person saved? Where does religious authority lie? What is the church? And what…

In the early nineteenth century an artistic and intellectual movement arose called Romanticism. This was a way of looking at life through feelings. Romanticism insisted that man was no cog in human society, he was a vibrant part of nature. Revolting against society’s rules, human reason and traditional authority, romanticism…

Some in the Puritan movement grew impatient for change in the Church. Shortly after the Hampton Court Conference, little groups of believers began to meet for worship as they felt the Bible taught them — not according to bishops and prayer books. They were determined to obey God even if their…