(See also "Schleitheim Confession") A movement beginning on 21 January 1525 in the house of Felix Manz by men who believed that the Christian Church of the New Testament was not dictated by the secular government, i.e. separation of Church and State. Called Anabaptists by their opponents because they "re-baptized"…

A Christian philosopher at Athens. One of the first Christian Apologists to counter the accusations of the enemies of Christianity and point out the weaknesses of paganism. [tags]Apologists, Athenagoras, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history[/tags]  

Dismayed at the hundreds of divisions within Protestantism, in 1960, as chief executive officer of the United Presbyterian Church in USA, and later General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, he proposed that the Protestant Episcopal Church and Northern Presbyterians jointly invite the Methodists and the United Church of…

During the early stages of the Renaissance, when intellectuals (for example, Voltaire) aimed their critical disregard at the Church, several men wrote effectively against deism. Yet none of them proved more effective than Bishop Joseph Butler (1692-1752). His monumental work, The Analogy of Religion, virtually ended the debate for thinking…

While the application of this term may actually be more broad than indicated here, our text uses it to refer to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, or the Catholic Pentecostalism. Leaders traced its beginnings to the spring of 1966 when two laymen on the faculty of Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, realized…

After his election to the papacy (1523-34), Clement moved the Papacy to Rome to begin the 72 year Babylonian Captivity of the papacy, it was moved to Avignon, France. When Clement VII was selected, he ruled from Avignon while Pope Urban VI ruled from Rome. This began the Great Schism…

(381) The Second General Council of the Church. Involved in the christological debate, silenced Apollinarius’ teaching. Established that Christ is fully human. [tags]Apollinarius, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Council-at-Constantinople, history, Constantinople[/tags]  

(1809-1882) After studying medicine and preparing at Cambridge University for the ministry, Darwin became a naturalist. From 1831 to 1836 he studied the specimens he had collected while on a surveying expedition with the ship Beagle along the coast of South America. In 1859 Darwin published The Origin of Species–perhaps…

Founded by Spaniard Dominic Guzman (1170-1221), and given official approval in 1220, the preaching order was called "mendicant" meaning "begging" and the term "friar" (or brother) distinguished them from monks because, unlike monks, they went forth to live among people to preach and teach. Just as monastic housed had once…

(See "Church of England") In a sense England had two reformations, a constitutional one under King Henry VIII (1509-1547) and a theological one under the Puritans almost a century later. Under Henry nothing changed doctrinally. England simply rejected the authority of Rome. In this move, however, England forecast the future…

In 1908 thirty-one denominations joined in this Council. While the council was active in issuing pronouncements on social, economic and political questions, many conservative churchmen criticized its liberal theology. In 1950 it was absorbed by a larger body, the National Council of Churches of Christ. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Federal-Council-of-Churches, history,…

Contemporary and friend of missionary William Carey. Fuller resisted the prevailing Calvinistic idea among Baptists that preaching should avoid application to the hearers as well as appeals to conversion, lest the preacher interfere somehow in God’s election of his chosen people. By encouraging each other Carey and Fuller succeeded in…

(540-604) When for six months no pope ruled in St Peter’s basilica in early 590 AD, a monk named Gregory was elected to the papal office. He refused, fled the city for the forest and was eventually dragged back to Rome and was consecrated on 3 September 590. In terms…

Also called the Bohemian Brethren (Unitas Fratrum). The brethren flourished in Bohemia and Moravia at the time of the Reformation but had been nearly crushed during the Thirty Years War, and were subject to severe persecution. Under Moravian carpenter, Christian David, the Brethren had experienced the stirring of revival and…

Crucified under placard reading INRI: Iesus Naxarenus Rex Iudaeorum. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Planned for a company of followers to carry on his work. Worked with a faithful band of disciples for two years, taught them about life in the kingdom of God. Introduced them to a…

A restless activist who had at one point tried to point England in the direction of Calvinism. Fleeing England from Queen Mary I’s bloody persecution of Protestants, John went to the continent where he developed the theory that Protestants had the right to resist, by force if necessary, any Roman…

During the closing years of the seventeenth century, some believers, especially in England, tried to harmonize reason and faith. They argued that Christianity is totally reasonable but some truth comes by reason and some by revelation. Some things, like the existence of God, come by observing the heavens; while other…

The daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Spain. Succeeded her half-brother Edward VI to the English throne upon his death. Devoutly Catholic, she threatened England’s newfound independence from Rome. She sent nearly 300 Protestants to the burning stake earning her the title "Bloody Mary". Although she may…

When Eutyches began to defend monophysitism (the intimate combination of the human and divine natures in Christ so that they are actually one nature — the human nature absorbed by the divine), he was condemned as a heretic. The "Robber Council" at Ephesus (431) rehabilitated him, and then the Council of…

A Creed developed in the Council called by Emperor Constantine in 325 largely in response to Arianism. From this council emerged the Nicene Creed, which to this day is the standard of orthodoxy in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and some other churches: "I believe in one God the…

When Pope John XXIII died in the midst of preparations for an additional session during Vatican II, Cardinal Montini, Archbishop of Milan, succeeded to the Papacy. He immediately announced his intention to continue the Council. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, John-XXIII, Pope-Paul-VI[/tags]  

In Paris a group of thinkers and writers known as the Philosophes brought the Age of Reason to its climax. The philosophes were not philosophers devoted to an academic discipline. They were men of letters, students of society who analyzed its evils and advocated reforms. They aimed to spread knowledge…

"Quaker" was a derisive name. In 1650 Judge Bennett told George Fox that he knew that at the meetings of Fox and his followers people shook with emotion. So he told him, "you folk are the tremblers, you are the quakers." And the name stuck. When dissent from the Church…

In spite of pressures from Roman Catholic Europe in the West and from Islam in the East, a narrow corridor remained open to the north for Eastern Orthodoxy. In the ninth century Boris, king of the Bulgarians, was converted and in the tenth, Vladimir, grand prince of Kiev and of…

In 1553 this brilliant but erratic Spanish physician sought refuge in Geneva where Calvin’s enemies were challenging his authority. While Calvin wanted a more merciful death than burning for the heretic, he did support the silencing of the ill-balanced thinker. Servetus was burned at the stake. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history,…