Pocket Dictionary of Church History [1 ed.] 9780830867035, 9780830827039

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Pocket Dictionaryof

CHURCH HISTORY Nathan P. Feldmeth

InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com E-mail: [email protected] ©2008 by Nathan P. Feldmeth All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press. InterVarsity Press® is the book‑publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/ USA®, a student movement active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707‑7895, or visit the IVCF website at . Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Design: Cindy Kiple Images: Roberta Polfus ISBN 978-0-8308-6703-5 (digital) ISBN 978-0-8308-2703-9 (print)

Preface

“What’s past is prologue.”

—William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s enduring words in the epigraph above make an essential point about the importance of history. Trying to understand the present without knowing the past is like starting a play at the second act. In order to grasp the contemporary issues that face the church, we need a deep understanding of the Christian story. To find our way along the path of this history, we need a series of reference points. This volume in the Pocket Dictionary series is designed to provide the interested reader and student of church history with essential facts about the key personalities, movements, books and ideas that shaped the history of Christianity. One problem in writing such a dictionary is determining what to include and what to omit within the constraints of the project. Every scholar’s list will be unique and yet all would agree on certain central indispensable terms. The entries, although brief, are written with enough detail and “texture” to pique interest in the subject and point the way to further study. Most terms are provided in English, but some key titles are listed in their original language.

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Preface

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In order to avoid needless repetition, a system of cross-references, designated by asterisks (*), has been provided to link articles that share common themes, names, etc. Of special interest and value to the church history student is the chronological listing of personalities found at the end of the book. This century-by-century table is organized by birth date, providing the reader a quick and easy way to locate people within the flow of history. Preface

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A

Abelard, Peter (Pierre) (1079-1142). Perhaps the most influential Scholastic theologian of his age, Abelard rose to fame as a teacher at the *Cathedral School of Notre Dame in Paris. His lively classroom style attracted students from all over Europe to his lectures, but his career was dogged by theological controversy. His work Sic et Non (Yes and No) promoted the conviction that doubt was a valuable asset in doing theology. In this work, which had a profound impact upon Scholastic method, Abelard analyzed seeming contradictions in Scripture and the writings of the Fathers. Abelard’s views on the Trinity and the atonement were especially scrutinized. His teaching career was damaged in 1118 when it was revealed that Abelard had had an affair with Heloise, the orphaned niece of his colleague Canon Fulbert. His wide-ranging interests and prodigious learning are reflected in the variety of his writings, which include treatises on ethics and dialectics; a gloss on Porphyry; a confession, The Story of My Misfortunes; a major commentary on Romans; and a major work on the Trinity. Act of Supremacy. This act of the English parliament in 1534 during the reign of *Henry VIII made the monarch, rather than the Roman pope, head of the Church of England. This caused a formal breach with the Roman Catholic Church. This act was repealed by Henry’s daughter *Mary in 1554 soon after she became queen, but it was restored by Mary’s sister *Elizabeth upon her ascension to the throne in 1558, and it is still in effect. Acts of Uniformity. These were laws passed by the English parliament regarding the proper practice of religion in the realm. The first two such acts were instituted during the reign of King *Edward VI in 1549 and 1552, both in conjunction with the release of a new *Book of Common Prayer. The idea behind these laws was to force conformity to a Protestant and *Anglican practice of Christianity. When the Catholic Queen *Mary Tudor ascended to the throne after Edward’s death in July of 1553, she repealed the act of 1552. Mary’s Protestant sister *Elizabeth I published a revised Prayer Book in 1558 and with it a new Act of Uniformity designed to regulate religion in the kingdom according to her *via media mandate. This law remained in force until 1640.

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ad fontes

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ad fontes. A favorite Latin motto of sixteenth-century humanists, ad fontes literally means “to the fountain” or “to the spring.” The humanists sought to recover the best ideas and values of the classical world and introduce them in their own time, creating a new golden age in the era later historians would call the Renaissance. In like manner, Christian humanists returned to the Christian classics of the first five centuries in hopes of revitalizing the church of the Reformation era. adoptionism. In eighth-century Spain, the church wrestled with what would be called the “adoptionist controversy.” The key question in this issue concerned the human nature of Christ, whether he was the Son of God in essence or merely by adoption. The adoptionist position was promoted chiefly in Spain by Felix, bishop of Urgel (d. 818). As to Christ’s divinity, the adoptionists viewed the Logos as the true Son of God, the only begotten of the Father. As a man, however, Jesus of Nazareth was seen as the adopted Son of God, the firstborn of Mary. Emperor *Charlemagne asked his renowned scholar *Alcuin (c. 735-804) to respond to Felix, which he did in seven books entitled Contra Felicem. The orthodox position, as developed by Alcuin, was as follows: Jesus Christ is the one undivided and indivisible Son of God. The Virgin Mary gave birth to the eternal Son of God, and Christ is never called the “adopted Son of God” in Scripture. See also dynamic monarchianism; Theodatus. adventism. See Miller, William; White, Ellen. aeon. See Gnosticism. Albertus Magnus, St. (d. 1280). One of the dominant figures of high Scholasticism, Albertus Magnus, or “the great Albert,” made significant contributions as a scientist, philosopher, theologian and bishop. Born near Ulm in what is now southern Germany, Albert studied at the universities of Padua and Cologne before assuming the chair of Dominican theology at the University of Paris, where he mentored *Thomas Aquinas, among many others. His magnum opus was the highly influential Commentary on the Sentences of *Peter Lombard (1249). Albertus’s fascination with natural science was reflected in his work The Sum of All Creation (1246). He was consecrated bishop of Ratisbon in 1260.

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Alexandrian school

Albigensians (or Albigenses). This is a general term used to designate a heretical band in southern France in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Albigensians were a branch of the *Cathari and were considered so dangerous that Pope *Innocent III called for a special crusade against them. A radical reforming sect, the Albigensians held to a quasi-*Gnostic dualism in which all matter and flesh were deemed evil. This led to the rejection of the doctrine of *purgatory, marriage, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body and the use of the sacraments. Alcuin (c. 740-804). Born and raised in northeastern England and educated at the *Cathedral School of York, Alcuin was the product of the Northumbrian Renaissance, a flowering of theological, cultural and scientific learning that began with the monk scholar *Bede. Alcuin was invited by Emperor *Charlemagne to come to France and teach in the palace schools of the Carolingian Empire. Rising to become the abbot of St. *Martin of Tours, Alcuin distinguished himself as a churchman, exegete and theologian. In addition to producing numerous biblical commentaries, Alcuin wrote a major treatise on the Trinity; three key works against *adoptionism; and manuals on rhetoric, grammar and mathematics. He also supervised the production of a Bible written in a Carolingian minuscule and based on the *Latin Vulgate. See also dynamic monarchianism. Alexander, Archibald (1772-1851). When Princeton Seminary was founded in 1812, Archibald Alexander was the first professor appointed. Alexander, a native of Virginia, had been a Presbyterian since his conversion at the age of seventeen. His long and influential career included pastoring churches, most notably the Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia; leading revivals; and serving as the president of Hampden-Sydney College. At Princeton, Alexander’s influence was profound. His Scottish commonsense philosophy and commitment to the *Westminster Confession helped to lay the foundation for the “Princeton theology” that became so influential in the nineteenth century. Alexandrian school. Pantaenus is credited with the founding of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, Egypt, in the late second century. This school, set up for the propagation of the Christian faith, rose to prominence under the influential leaders *Clement of Al-

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allegorical interpretation

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exandria (died c. 202) and his student *Origen (185-254). The Greek culture so prominent in Alexandria promoted a strong *Platonic influence upon Alexandrian theology. Christianity was seen as the culmination of wisdom or, in Clement’s words, as “the highest philosophy.” Under Origen’s influence, the *allegorical method of interpretation flourished in Alexandria. In the fourth century, Alexandrian students sat under the instruction of Didymus the Blind. allegorical interpretation. This was one of the most influential approaches to biblical interpretation until the Reformation of the sixteenth century. The roots of allegorical interpretation reach back to the Golden Age of Greece and, in early Jewish hermeneutics, to Philo Judeas. In the beginning centuries of the Christian church, allegorical interpretation was identified with the *Alexandrian school and especially with its most famous scholar, *Origen. The key assumption in this hermeneutical approach is that the scriptural text contains several senses. The interpreter seeks to discover levels of meaning that lie beneath the literal sense of a text. The figure of Moses in the Exodus narrative, for example, can be interpreted allegorically as Jesus Christ, who comes to those enslaved in sin and leads them to salvation. Origen identified three primary senses: the literal, the moral and the spiritual. Later Latin fathers expanded the senses into four: the literal, the allegorical, the tropological (moral) and the anagogic (focusing on the end or the goal of the Christian life). allegory of the cave. *Plato’s Republic is the source this famous and influential illustration of the human condition as it struggles to identify what is essentially real. Human beings are depicted as chained on the floor of a vast cave, facing its back wall. A fire behind them casts shadows that the prisoners try to interpret. The shadows are generated by crude images of objects from the “real” world which lies outside the cave. One of those chained is released and taken out to what Plato calls the “world of *forms,” where he sees things as they truly are. Upon returning to his compatriots with the good news of his discovery, he is mocked and rejected. The meaning of the allegory, as Plato explains, is that the five senses keep humans bound to belief in a world of shadows, the material world that is in constant flux. The world of forms is a realm of eternal, unchanging ideas that are the essence of reality.

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Anabaptists

Allen, Richard (1760-1831). Born a slave in Philadelphia, Allen went on to become one of the founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). Allen began to preach soon after his conversion in 1777. After he purchased his freedom from a master he had led to the faith, Allen became a Methodist *circuit rider. His influence upon African American Christians continued to grow, and in 1794 he established the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he was consecrated as bishop five years later. Ambrose of Milan, St. (c. 339-397). Known as one of the greatest preachers of his age, Ambrose rose to prominence in Milan, where he was popularly supported for bishop even before his baptism and ordination as a priest. He was acknowledged as a leading opponent of *Arianism in Italy. Ambrose’s preaching played a major role in the conversion of *Augustine (386), later bishop of Hippo. His fluency in Greek and Latin allowed Ambrose to function as a conduit for Eastern theology flowing into the Latin West. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (founded 1810). Growing out of the Second Awakening in America, this early Protestant missions organization resulted from the intense desire that Samuel J. Mills and a small group of young men had to serve as foreign missionaries. They made incessant appeals to the Congregational church in Massachusetts, and in 1810 the American Board was founded to support American missions overseas. Soon Presbyterian and Reformed groups joined the group. In 1812 the first missionaries were sent out. The board also supported home missions among Native Americans some five years later. See also Judson, Adoniram. Ames, William (1576-1633). Cambridge-trained William Ames became an influential Puritan theologian in early seventeenthcentury England. He began to make his mark in Holland in 1613 as a champion of *Calvinism, over against *Arminianism. In that capacity, he attended the *Synod of Dort (1618-1619) as an adviser to the English Calvinists. His most influential work is called Medulla theologiae, or The Marrow of Sacred Theology. See also covenant theology; Hooker, Thomas. Anabaptists. This term was invented in the sixteenth century to describe a radical branch of Protestants who denied the valid-

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anchorite (m.), anchoress (f.)

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ity of infant baptism because it had little biblical precedent. The term Anabaptist is derived from ana, Latin for “again,” or “re,” as in “re-baptizer.” From the point of view of the Roman Catholic Church and major Protestant groups like the Lutherans, *Calvinists and *Anglicans, Anabaptists erred in allowing a second baptism. Anabaptists, for their part, did not consider infant baptism valid. In their view, the only true baptism was “*believers’ baptism,” requiring one first to come to faith before choosing to follow Christ in baptism. Arising first in Zurich under the reforming work of Ulrich *Zwingli, the Swiss Brethren were Anabaptists led by Conrad *Grebel, Feliz Mantz and George Blaurock. This group was pacifistic. In nearby Waldshut in southern Germany, Balthasar *Hubmaier planted Anabaptist faith along the lines of the Swiss Brethren. The work of Thomas Müntzer and the Zwickau Prophets in Germany introduced a militant strain of Anabaptists who were deeply connected with the Peasants Revolt of 1524. Apocalyptic visions led to the founding of the *Münsterites, who were led by Melchior Hoffman and Jan Mattys, the latter of whom led an invasion of the town of Münster, which became for a brief period an Anabaptist “kingdom.” In the Netherlands, Menno *Simons shepherded and organized the Anabaptists, who later took the name *Mennonites. These, too, were pacifistic and practiced nonresistance. anchorite (m.), anchoress (f.). One of the earliest examples of Christian *asceticism, the anchorite or anchoress was a hermit who left populated areas to seek a higher consciousness of God in isolation. The first anchorites lived in the deserts of Egypt or on islands in the Nile River. This tradition, which flourished in the medieval era, continues down to the present day and is incorporated in some monastic orders. Anglican, Anglicanism. The Church of England, or Anglican church, was formed in the Tudor period during the sixteenthcentury reigns of *Henry VIII, *Edward VI and *Elizabeth I. In 1534, Henry led the English parliament to establish the *Act of Supremacy, which placed the monarch as the head of the English Church in a clear break with the authority of the Roman pope. During the brief reign of Edward VI (1547-1553), Thomas *Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, guided Anglicanism toward

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Anselm of Canterbury, St. (c. 1033-1109)

the theology articulated by the major Continental reformers, *Luther and *Calvin. Their influence was clearly seen in a new creed, later to be called the *Thirty-Nine Articles, in the *Book of Common Prayer, which provided a new liturgical structure for worship, and in other reforms, including Communion in both kinds (the laity receives both the bread and the cup in Communion) and the elimination of celibacy as a requirement for the priesthood. During the latter half of the century, Elizabeth I worked to unify the church by establishing the *via media, or “middle road,” which borrowed freely from both Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. Protestant theology was embedded in a traditional liturgical structure in what came to be called “the Elizabethan Compromise.” This was reinforced by a revised Prayer Book and *Acts of Uniformity that sought to eliminate dissenters. The Anglican church of today is a worldwide communion that is renowned for its breadth of perspective and embraces a diverse body of Christians, including *Anglo-Catholic, evangelical and liberal parties. Anglo-Catholic, Anglo-Catholicism. The *Tractarian Movement of the 1830s sought to move the Church of England to a “high church” (traditional Roman Catholic liturgical) position on apostolic succession, auricular confession (confession to a priest), the holy sacraments and the nature of the church. Followers of this movement were called Anglo-Catholics. Anselm of Canterbury, St. (c. 1033-1109). One the most influential thinkers of the early Scholastic period, Anselm, born in Italy, rose to prominence in the church, first as the abbot of the monastery of Bec in Normandy and then in 1093 as the archbishop of Canterbury in England. In the great debate of his age, Anselm was a realist. His life’s motto, credo ut intelligam, or “I believe in order that I may understand,” was a clarion call to Christians to build a life of the mind solidly upon the foundation of faith in God. Anselm is best known for his ontological argument for the existence of God, which he developed in his philosophical work Proslogium (or Proslogion). His Cur Deus homo dealt with the doctrine of the atoning work of Christ: Christ came and died on the cross, not to pay a *ransom to Satan but to restore a harmony with God lost in the fall and to satisfy God’s honor. Thus it is known as the “satisfaction theory” of the atonement.

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Ante-Nicene

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Ante-Nicene. This term designates the period in the early church that precedes the *Council of Nicaea of 325. For example, one can refer to the Ante-Nicene fathers. Anthony (or Antony), St. (c. 251-356). Anthony was one of the most famous early Christian ascetics who gave away his possessions and withdrew to the Egyptian desert to live as a hermit. Disciples, drawn to his deep piety, were organized into a community of *anchorites who lived under a simple rule. *Athanasius, the champion of orthodoxy at the *Council of Nicaea and later bishop of Alexandria, wrote a biography, Life of Anthony, which helped to spread the idea of monasticism. See also asceticism. antinomianism. Literally this word means “against the law,” and carries the idea that because of God’s grace, Christians are not bound to obey any set of regulations as a means to please God. In the Reformation era of the sixteenth century, various *Anabaptist groups were branded antinomian, as was Anne *Hutchinson in early colonial America. Antiochene school. The church at Antioch became the center for a famous and influential school in the early church era. The Antiochene school was set against the *Alexandrian school, which was championed by *Origen and dominated by the *allegorical approach to the interpretation of Scripture. In Antioch the exegete Diodore of Tarsus (died c. 394) mentored three productive students: Theodore of Mopsuestia, John *Chrysostom and Theodoret of Cyrrhus. The Antiochene approach was marked by attention to *textual criticism, historical context and the philological nuances of biblical texts. This is not to say that the higher sense of a text was ignored. The Antiochenes used the word theoria to speak of a deeper meaning, always founded upon the literal meaning, that guided the soul. anxious bench, or mourner’s bench. One aspect of nineteenthcentury American revivalism was an area, usually in the front of a church, tent or auditorium, where people “in distress of their souls” could gather and be exhorted. In the frontier *camp meetings, the phrase “mourner’s bench” was common, while “anxious bench” was preferred by big-city revivalists like Charles G. *Finney. Apocrypha. The Apocrypha, literally “the hidden things,” consists of books contained in the Greek version of the Old Testament (the

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apologist

Septuagint) but not in the Hebrew text. These apocryphal works often function to complete an Old Testament book, as in the Additions to Daniel, or to fill in narrative history of the Jews, as with the book of Maccabees. The Christian church struggled with the issue of the canonicity of the Apocrypha. In the fifth century Jerome, the translator of the *Latin Vulgate, took a stand against inclusion of the apocryphal books, while Augustine, bishop of Hippo, argued for them. Although a council of the Roman Catholic Church authorized the apocryphal works as acceptable to be read in church services, several key figures in the history of the church continued to oppose their inclusion, including Pope *Gregory I (d. 604), *John of Damascus (eighth cent.) and Nicholas of Lyra (fourteenth cent.). In 1646 the *Council of Trent finally resolved the issue by accepting the Apocrypha as canonical albeit with the exclusion of six books. In 1566, Roman Catholic theologian Sixtus of Siena introduced the term deuterocanonical, i.e., of secondary canonicity, to describe the Apocrypha; this term has been widely accepted in church and academic literature. The Eastern Orthodox Church rejected the majority of the apocryphal books with the exception of Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus. The Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century rejected the entire Apocrypha. See also canon of Holy Scripture. Apollinarianism. This term designates the unique doctrine of Christ developed by Apollinarius the Younger (c. 310-c. 390), who became bishop of Laodicea in 360. Strongly anti-*Arian, Apollinarius sought to emphasize the full and complete divinity of Christ by suggesting that, as a man, he did not need moral development because the divine Logos replaced his human soul. This view was condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 381 in that it presented Christ as fully divine but not completely human. apologist. In general terms, an apologist is one who makes a defense of the faith in any age. The apologists of the early church were a group of early Christian thinkers who specialized in making a defense of the faith. In most cases, the apologists were firstgeneration Christians, converting to the faith as adults. Most members of this group were philosophers by profession and training. The name comes from the Greek apologia and means “to defend.” Among the most prominent of the apologists were *Aristides,

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apostolic fathers (a.d. 90-160)

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*Justin Martyr, Tatian, *Athenagoras, *Theophilus, Felix from the East and the Carthaginian *Tertullian, who influenced the West. The work of the apologists was basically twofold. On one hand, they argued before governors and magistrates that Christians did not deserve ill treatment but rather were good and loyal citizens of Rome. On the other hand, the apologists promoted the idea that Christianity was a morally and spiritually superior religion when compared with beliefs then popular in the Roman world. apostolic fathers (a.d. 90-160). A group of early church leaders who immediately followed the apostles chronologically, the apostolic fathers composed the second generation of ordained Christian leadership. We know of these men mainly through the works that they wrote which remain extant (some of which are anonymous). Among the most prominent of the apostolic fathers were *Clement of Rome, *Ignatius, *Papias, *Polycarp and Barnabas. Aquinas. See Thomas Aquinas. Arianism. Arianism was a prominent heresy that denied that the preincarnate Christ (the Logos) was co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father. Arius (d. 336) argued that Christ was created by God out of nothing and was therefore a creature. Christ was to be the instrument through which all subsequent creation would occur. Arius, a presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, was disciplined and finally exiled by his bishop for his unorthodox views. As Arius traveled in Palestine and Asia Minor, Arianism gained many followers, including several influential bishops. Emperor *Constantine I called the *Council of Nicaea in 325 to resolve this controversy. In that first ecumenical council (all bishops were invited to attend and deliberate), Arianism was deemed heretical. The orthodox view, championed by *Athanasius, held that Christ was homoousios, of the same “substance” as the Father. Aristides, St. (second cent.). Aristides was a philosopher from Athens who became a Christian *apologist. According the historian *Eusebius, Aristides presented his Apology to the emperor Hadrian in about 124. Long thought to have perished, this work was rediscovered in the nineteenth century. Aristides argued that Christians have a more complete faith and a deeper understanding of God than do pagans in that the Christian God is eternal and infinite.

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Asbury, Francis (1745-1816)

Aristotle (384-322 b.c.). Aristotle was a Greek philosopher of immense influence in a wide variety of fields, including biology, physics, cosmology, ethics, logic and education. Aristotle, a student at *Plato’s academy in Athens, founded a new school, the Lyceum, in that same city with the patronage of his own most famous student, Alexander the Great. Breaking from Plato’s view of reality because he denied the relative importance of objects in this world, which were seen as mere shadows of the eternal “*forms,” Aristotle argued that both the “forms,” which he called “universals,” and their corresponding “particulars,” individual objects, have reality and thus are worthy of study. Although *Origen and *Gregory of Nyssa valued Aristotle’s writings on logic, the Fathers of the early church were not generally fond of his ideas because they believed he denied the immortality of the soul. Late medieval Scholastic theologians, however, used Aristotle extensively in theological reasoning. This is especially true of *Thomas Aquinas, who borrowed extensively from Aristotle. Arius. See Arianism. Arminianism. This was the theological system identified with Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609) and articulated in the Remonstrance of 1610. Arminius, raised and educated in the Reformed tradition under Geneva’s Theodore *Beza, rejected many of *Calvin’s theological distinctives. At the heart of his critique of Calvin was a rejection of the doctrine of predestination. As Arminius argued, predestination makes God the author of sin, and that cannot be true. Arminianism includes an affirmation of freedom of the will, belief in general atonement and the assertion that salvation can be lost by the commission of a sin. John *Wesley adopted a modified Arminianism, and Wesleyanism has become the main conduit for the transmission of the view since the eighteenth century. Arminius, Jacobus. See Arminianism. Asbury, Francis (1745-1816). In 1771 John *Wesley sent fellow Englishman Francis Asbury as a Methodist missionary to America, where he displayed extraordinary organizational gifts and was chiefly responsible for the success and early growth of Methodism in the New World. When the American Methodist church was established in 1784, Asbury and Thomas

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asceticism

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Coke became superintendents and later the first American Methodist bishops. asceticism. In Christian tradition asceticism is linked to Christ’s admonition to his disciples to “deny themselves . . . and follow me” (Mk 8:34). The term is derived from the Greek askesis, which connotes disciplined training for war or, more commonly, for athletic competition. Thus a Christian was to train like an athlete in denying sin and things that lead to sinful thoughts and actions. Many early Christian ascetics lived as hermits in the desert regions around Egypt, abandoning the comforts of civilization in order to achieve a higher consciousness of God. assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A teaching of the church that dates from the late fourth century, the assumption of the virgin posits that Mary ascended into heaven shortly after her death, in the presence of many witnesses. Although lacking any New Testament support, this view became popular in both the Eastern and Western churches in the medieval era. It became an official Roman Catholic doctrine in 1950 with the papal bull of Pope Pius, the Munificentissimus Deus. Athanasius, St. (c. 296-373). Athanasius rose to prominence in the church when, at twenty-nine years of age, he argued forcefully at the *Council of Nicaea (325) against an *Arian view of Christ and in favor of that which would later be defined as orthodoxy. He had grown up in the city of Alexandria and risen in the church to the office of *deacon and secretary to Alexander, bishop of Alexandria. His success at Nicaea led to his consecration as bishop following Alexander’s death, a position he held for nearly forty years. Often out of favor with emperors and jealous churchmen, Athanasius was forced into exile on several occasions, once living for several months in the tomb of his father. Over his long career, Athanasius was very effective in promoting the spread of monasticism to Palestine, Asia Minor and farther west, most notably through his biography of the Egyptian monk *Anthony. Athenagoras (second cent.) Known as “the Christian philosopher of Athens,” Athenagoras was one of the clearest and most effective *apologists for Christianity in the second century. His Apology, probably written in 177 and addressed to Emperor Marcus Aurelius, focused on refuting false charges leveled against Chris-

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Augustine of Hippo, St. (354-430)

tians, including cannibalism and incestuous marriage. He also is believed to have written a major treatise, On the Resurrection of the Dead, and he was first among the apologists to defend the view of God as Three in One. Augsburg Confession (1530). The first Lutheran and, by definition, the first Protestant confession of faith, the Augsburg Confession was authored by Philipp Melanchthon under the supervision of Martin *Luther. It contains a delineation of twenty-one essential Lutheran doctrines, including salvation by faith alone, and a critical discussion of numerous Roman Catholic abuses of doctrine, for example, Communion in one kind, auricular confession, the celibacy of priests and the private Mass. This confession soon became authoritative for Lutherans. Augustine of Canterbury, St. (d. c. 604-609). Augustine was an Augustinian monk from the Roman monastery of St. Andrew who was commissioned by Pope *Gregory I to take the Roman Catholic faith to England in 596. He established a mission outpost in Kent, at what is now Canterbury, and led the king of that land, Ethelbert, to the faith. There is some evidence that the king’s wife, Bertha, was a Christian before her husband. Augustine went on to become the first archbishop of Canterbury. Augustine of Hippo, St. (354-430). Clearly one of the dominant figures of Latin (Western) theology, Augustine rose in the church to become the bishop of Hippo in North Africa, and through his written works had a profound impact upon the development of theology in the medieval and Reformation eras. His early days, and especially his spiritual pilgrimage, were delineated in the autobiographical work Confessions. Born in Tagaste, near Carthage, to a pagan father and a devout Christian mother, *Monica, Augustine lost his faith in his teens as he sought fame as a teacher of rhetoric. This began a search for truth in various philosophical systems, finally leading to *Manichaeism. Along the way he had taken a mistress and fathered a son, Adeodatus. Lured to Italy by the prospect of fame, Augustine taught in Rome and Milan. The sermons of *Ambrose, bishop of Milan, led to his conversion in 386. Augustine’s return to Africa began a rapid rise to prominence in the church. As bishop, Augustine’s intellectual gifts and rhetorical skills were put in service to the

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Authorized Version

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church in dealing with the Donatist and *Pelagian controversies and in writing key works, including The *City of God (a treatise on church and state), *On the Trinity, *On Christian Doctrine (a primer on the interpretation of Scripture) and many commentaries on books of the Bible. Authorized Version. See King James Version. Averroes (1126-1198). Averroes, or Ibn Rushd, was an ArabMuslim scholar and physician in Cordoba, Spain, who published works touching on law, theology and medicine. His respect for the ancient Greek philosopher *Aristotle led to commentaries on all of his known writings except Politics. Prior to the twelfth century, the Christian West knew very little about Aristotle’s ideas. Translations of Averroes’s Aristotelian commentaries into Latin deeply influenced the theological method of Scholasticism and especially the Christian scholar *Thomas Aquinas. Azusa Street revival (1906). The site of the greatest revival in modern *Pentecostal history, an abandoned warehouse used as a livery stable in downtown Los Angeles, subsequently called the Apostolic Faith Mission, became the focal point of the growing Pentecostal movement between 1906 and 1909. African American holiness preacher William J. *Seymour, recently arrived from Charles F. *Parham’s school in Houston, Texas, was holding services in a residence on Bonnie Brae Street when speaking in tongues began. Soon the fellowship had to move to 312 Azusa Street, where services were held daily (sometimes three times a day) for three years. Most modern Pentecostal fellowships in America can trace their history back to Azusa Street.

B

Babylonian Captivity of the church. During the years 1309-1377, the center of the Western church (Roman Catholic Church) was moved from Rome to Avignon, France. In this period, the papacy came under the influence of French kings before being restored to Rome. This era was dubbed “the Babylonian Captivity” in reference to the seventy years when the kingdom of Judah was in exile in Babylon. Martin *Luther wrote a work in the early sixteenth century on the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist using the same title.

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Basil of Caesarea, St. (c. 330-379)

Barmen Declaration (1934). As Nazi influences began to corrupt theology in Germany, Swiss professor Karl *Barth, among others, worked to produce and publish a statement of the *Confessing Church of Germany in Barmen, Germany. The Barmen Declaration emphasized that the church is founded upon God’s special revelation through Jesus Christ alone. Barth, Karl (1886-1968). Author of the monumental Church Dogmatics, a profoundly influential Protestant systematic theology, Karl Barth rose to importance in Europe after the 1919 publication of his Römerbrief, a commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, which called the church back to the key themes of the Reformation: the sovereignty of God, the sinfuless of humanity, human institutions and individuals, the centrality of the Word of God— Jesus Christ, and eschatology. Barth had studied at the universities of Tübingen and Marburg before taking two pastorates in Switzerland. He broke from his liberal training, in part due to the horrors of World War I; returned to the Bible; and was especially influenced by Paul’s epistles. Barth taught in several German and Swiss universities and influenced disciples around the world, including Dietrich *Bonhoeffer, and Reinhold and Richard *Niebuhr, as well as Jürgen Moltmann, Wolfhart Pannenberg and Thomas F. Torrance. During the Second World War, Barth opposed the Nazi movement and guided the *Confessing Church in Germany in writing the *Barmen Declaration. His theological position, dubbed “neo-orthodoxy” by some, was a clean break with the German liberal theology so influenced by Friedrich *Schleiermacher. Barth denied that natural theology had any role to play in God’s revelation. He held that God reveals by “breaking through” to humans in the divine person of Christ, the living Word. The Bible, when illuminated by the Holy Spirit, can become the Word of God to the individual, even though it contains the errors of human authors. Basil of Caesarea, St. (c. 330-379). Often called Basil the Great and distinguished as one of the three *Cappadocian fathers who helped to define orthodoxy at the *Council of Constantinople in 381, Basil lived as a hermit monk before being called out of seclusion in 364 to confront a resurgent form of *Arianism. Six years later, Basil followed *Eusebius as the bishop of Caesarea. Basil

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Battle of Tours

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wrote a major work on the Holy Spirit. He was renowned for his administrative abilities and his gift for organization. Battle of Tours. In this key battle of 732 (also known as the Battle of Poitiers), the Carolingian general *Charles Martel defeated a Muslim army that had pushed north into France. Charles Martel, known as “The Hammer,” drove the Islamic forces back over the Pyrenees Mountains, halting the northern expansion of *Islam into Western Christian Europe. Baxter, Richard (1615-1691). An English Puritan minister and prolific devotional writer, Richard Baxter exercised a profound influence over nonconformist English Christians in the seventeenth century. Largely self-taught, Baxter wrote nearly two hundred works of extraordinary diversity. His greatest acclaim came from The Saint’s Everlasting Rest (1650), a contemplation of the rewards of heaven, written when he was quite ill and with only the Bible as a resource. Baxter’s A Christian Dictionary (1673) was a massive work that defined complex theological terms for the laity, while his Catholick Theology (1675) was designed to promote peace and mutual understanding among denominational combatants. His Reformed Pastor was a manual for ministry, and his Call to the Unconverted (1658) a best-selling guide to personal evangelism. For almost twenty years, Baxter ministered to a small church in Kidderminster, Worcestershire (England), and led almost the entire population of handloom workers and their families to the Christian faith. Bay Psalm Book (first published in 1640). The first book published in English in the New World, The Bay Psalm Book’s longer title reads The Whole Booke of Psalms Faithfully Translated into English Metre. This early American hymnal was a mainstay of Puritan worship in the colonies. Becket, St. Thomas à (1120-1170). Rising in English public life through the practice of law, Becket became chancellor under King Henry II in 1155. A close friend of the king, he was known to side with his liege against the interests of the church. When Henry promoted him to become the archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, thus giving him the highest church office in England, Thomas began a transformation that eventually led to his canonization as a saint. Becket’s courageous stand for the church

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believers’ baptism

led to his murder in 1170 by four knights of King Henry while Becket was at prayer in Canterbury *Cathedral. His shrine at Canterbury became a destination for Christian pilgrims for centuries to come. Bede, St. (c. 673-735). Often called the Venerable Bede, this seventhcentury Anglo Saxon monk began his life in the church as an oblate, a child who is presented to monks or sisters to raise. His entire life was lived in a small corner of Northumbria, England. He never traveled more than fifty miles from his monastery at Jarrow, yet he became the most influential English scholar of his age and author of The Church History of the English People. A *deacon at age nineteen and an ordained priest by thirty, Bede’s chief ministries were education and scholarship. He wrote works on science, Latin usage and the lives of saints, and commentaries on books of the Bible. Beecher, Lyman (1775-1863). Best known as a revivalist and social reformer, Lyman Beecher was one of the most prominent churchmen of his age. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Beecher graduated from Yale University, where he was deeply affected by the godly Timothy *Dwight. Beecher served first as a Presbyterian, then as a Congregationalist minister, before becoming president of Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was active in opposing *Unitarianism and the abuse of alcohol, as well as advocating for the right of women to vote and for the abolition of slavery. Beecher’s daughter, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote the influential Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). Each of his seven sons entered the ministry. Beguines. The Beguines were women who organized a movement in thirteenth-century Holland, living in communities without taking binding monastic vows. The Beguines followed a rule which included celibacy, but they were free to own private property and could opt for marriage with no recriminations. Beguines were known for their communal prayer, simple piety and a strong personal devotion to Christ. believers’ baptism. This view holds that Christian baptism, in order to be genuine, must be preceded by genuine faith on the part of the Christian. Modern believers’ baptism developed in opposition to *paedobaptism, or infant baptism, although advocates

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Benedict of Nursia, St. (c. 480-c. 550)

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argue its New Testament origins. Believers’ baptism is a doctrine held by *Anabaptist, Baptist and many independent evangelical denominations. Benedict of Nursia, St. (c. 480-c. 550). Also called the Patriarch of Western Monasticism, Benedict was an influential monastic leader who penned the famous Benedictine Rule and also laid the foundation of the monumental monastery of Monte Cassino in central Italy. He began his Christian vocation in a cave as a hermit in 500, where he retreated to escape the temptations and clamor of Rome. Soon other *anchorites moved near him, and a loose monastic community developed. It is unclear whether Benedict ever thought of himself as having founded the Benedictine Order named after him. His sister was the redoubtable St. *Scholastica. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. (1090-1153). Leaving a life of wealth and ease that was his heritage as part of twelfth-century French nobility, Bernard became a monk at Citeux at the age of twenty-two. Some time later he influenced the choice of location for the first monastery of the new Cistercian Order. He chose Clairvaux and became the first abbot there. As a theological conservative in the Scholastic era, Bernard commanded great sway on the issues of his day. He stood against Peter *Abelard’s emphasis on reason in doing theology and campaigned against him at the Council of Sens in 1140. He favored and promoted the cult of the Virgin, with its emphasis on devotion to the Mary. He called for the Second *Crusade when Edessa fell to *Islam and renounced the failed crusaders as faithless when they did not succeed. Interestingly, he cut against the grain of church opinion in opposing the persecution of Jews. Bernard was a voluminous writer. Over five hundred of his letters remain to this day. His eighty-six sermons on the Song of Solomon are exceptionally vivid and forceful. In his theological work Grace and Free Will, he pondered the question of how the human will could do any good work of merit. Beza, Theodore (1519-1605). A prominent scholar of Greek at the University of Lausanne, Beza left the Roman Catholic Church at the age of twenty-nine to embrace the Reformation in Geneva. Somewhat milder in disposition than his famous mentor, John *Calvin, Beza was nevertheless a staunch defender of predestina-

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Bonaventure, St. (1217-1274)

tion. When Calvin died in 1564, Beza became his successor and the able defender of Reformed theology. He taught Greek and theology at the University of Geneva until he was seventy-seven years of age. Beza published a Greek New Testament in 1565, and his Theological Treatises (1582) were published in three volumes. Among them was “The Harmony of Protestant Confessions.” biblical criticism. A movement that began in Germany and quickly spread to Britain and America in the late nineteenth century, biblical criticism held the Bible to historical scrutiny like any other ancient text. Biblical criticism is often subdivided into *higher criticism, which deals with questions of authorship, dating and redaction, and *textual criticism (sometimes called lower criticism), which focuses on changes that appeared in ancient biblical texts as they were copied and recopied. Biel, Gabriel (1420-1495). Biel was first a student at and later on the faculty of the University of Heidelberg. Biel emerged as a theologian who could easily navigate between seeming contradictions. He acknowledged the supremacy of the pope in Rome yet subtly maintained the superiority of general councils in matters of doctrine. Although a nominalist, who claimed *William of Ockham as a mentor, Biel nevertheless was very tolerant of *realism. His theology has been masterfully analyzed by Heiko Augustinus Oberman in The Harvest of Medieval Theology. Oberman turned to Biel’s numerous sermonic materials to help interpret his formal works, On the Canon of the Mass and Commentary on the Sentences of *Peter Lombard. On the issues of sin, grace and salvation, Biel masterfully argued in favor of *Semipelagianism. Toward the end of his career he helped to found the University of Tübingen and served as a professor on the theological faculty. Bonaventure, St. (1217-1274). Bonaventure was an Italian-born Franciscan theologian who rose to lead that order and write the official biography of its founder, *Francis of Assisi. On the great intellectual issues of his day, Bonaventure was a conservative and aligned himself with *Augustine of Hippo and *Anselm of Canterbury in seeing the illumination of Scripture as more important than Aristotelian reason in doing theology. Bonaventure’s enduring influence came in his commentary on the Sentences of *Peter

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Lombard, which became a standard work for many generations of divinity students in western Europe. See also Aristotle. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich (1906-1945). As a Lutheran pastor and scholar, Bonhoeffer was active in the Nazi resistance movement in Germany and established an underground seminary for the *Confessing Church. His theological training had been at the universities of Tübingen and Berlin (Ph.D.), and Bonhoeffer did graduate work at Union Seminary in New York. He was deeply influenced by the Swiss theologian Karl *Barth. His best-known works are Life Together, Cost of Discipleship, Letters and Papers from Prison and Ethics. Bonhoeffer was involved in a failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He was apprehended, imprisoned for two years and executed by hanging on the eve of liberation. Boniface VIII (c. 1234-1303). Born Benedict Gaetani, the future pontiff rose steadily through the ranks of church administration as canon, *cardinal *deacon and cardinal priest before assuming the seat of St. Peter in 1294. Following in a tradition of expanding papal power exemplified by *Gregory VII and *Innocent III, Boniface’s confrontations with the powerful French king Philip the Fair revealed that despite papal bulls, most notably Unam sanctam, claiming ultimate power over every human being, Boniface could not force Philip into submission. Boniface of Germany, St. (c. 675-754). Born Wynfrith in Wessex, England, Boniface (a name given to him by Pope Gregory II) was an influential monk, missionary and scholar in the early medieval period. His missions work began in Frisia but focused mainly on the region of Hesse, where he confronted the religion of the Druids. According to tradition, Boniface chopped down the Oak of Thor at Geismar and built a pulpit with the wood. Consecrated bishop in 722, his work among the Germans was aided by Leoba, an English nun who came to serve by his side. Boniface founded numerous monasteries and in 746 was made archbishop of Mainz. He is buried at Fulda in Germany. Book of Common Prayer. A liturgical aid developed originally by Archbishop Thomas *Cranmer in 1548 for the Church of England, the first Book of Common Prayer was published the following year. Since then it has gone through many revisions, most notably a second edition under young King *Edward VI in 1552, an Eliza-

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Brainerd, David (1718-1747)

bethan revision in 1559 and a Restoration Prayer Book in 1662, still in use today. The Prayer Book contains morning and evening prayers, complete Psaltery, and services for almost all occasions, especially sacramental, including marriage and ordination. As the Church of England became an international movement, the Book of Common Prayer was published in Scottish, American, Irish and Canadian formats. The American version of 1789 had major updates in 1892, 1928 and 1979. Booth, William (1829-1912). Founder of the *Salvation Army in England in 1878, William Booth served as its first general. Coming out of Methodism, which he found too prescribed, Booth was fond of innovative evangelistic methods, including outdoor preaching, brass bands and taking Christian worship to the common people where they lived and worked, especially factories. His marriage to Catherine Mumford, a very effective evangelist in her own right, strengthened the movement, as did the publication of his book In Darkest England and the Way Out (1890). Bora, Katharina von (1499-1552). A Roman Catholic nun who left the convent, made her way to Wittenberg and in time became the wife of Protestant reformer Martin *Luther, Katharina von Bora became the quintessential pastor’s wife and ministered in many ways to her tempestuous husband. Although Luther married her more for practical than for romantic reasons, he grew to love her deeply and to depend upon her emotional stability and good common sense. Brainerd, David (1718-1747). Brainerd served as a Presbyterian missionary during the *Great Awakening in America. He is best known for the remarkable journal of his evangelistic mission to the Native Americans of the middle colonies in 1745-1746. Orphaned at the age of fourteen, he nevertheless was able to matriculate at Yale University but was dismissed before graduation for an off-handed remark that a certain tutor “had no more grace than a chair.” The Presbyterians licensed him to preach (he was later ordained), and he ministered to the Native Americans under the auspices of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (*SPCK). The revivalist Jonathan *Edwards, who was the father of Brainerd’s fiancée, published the journal after Brainerd’s untimely death.

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Brethren of the Common Life. A fourteenth-century communal brotherhood established by Gerhard Groote in Utrecht, this fellowship was designed to promote Christian spirituality and devotion to Christ. It was not a monastic order in that no vows were taken and members continued in their normal occupations. The key contribution of the Brethren was education. Schools were established in the Netherlands and in German lands in which children could be educated in the basics, including Christian doctrine, free of charge. Key figures who were members of the Brethren included *Thomas à Kempis, Pope Hadrian VI and *Nicholas of Cusa. Briggs, Charles Augustus (1841-1913). Briggs was a Presbyterian Old Testament scholar who touched off a firestorm of controversy when, in 1891, he delivered an address at Union Theological Seminary in New York on “The Authority of Holy Scripture.” In that inaugural lecture, he denied the verbal inspiration of the Bible. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church voted to block his appointment. Briggs averted a heresy trial by becoming an Episcopalian. He is best known today as one of the co-editors of the exegetical tool A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Brunner, Emil (1889-1966). An influential international theologian who taught in his native Switzerland as well as in America and Japan, Brunner, along with Karl *Barth, is clearly a key architect of the developing neo-orthodoxy movement which made a distinct break from modern liberal theology in the early 1920s. Brunner and *Barth subsequently disagreed over the issue of “natural theology.” Brunner, in Nature and Grace (1934), argued that the study of the created order, while not a basis for a personal relationship with God, did function to supply some knowledge of divine work that would be preparatory to spiritual growth. With this Barth adamantly disagreed. Brunner’s written works include The Divine Imperative (1932), which deals with ethics; The Divine-Human Encounter (1937), which considers the issue of understanding the difference between knowing about God and knowing him; and Dogmatics (1946-1960), his three-volume magnum opus. Bucer (or Butzer), Martin (1491-1551). A key reformer in Strasbourg, Bucer left his Roman Catholic roots and the Dominican

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Bultmann, Rudolf (1884-1976)

Order after hearing Martin *Luther debate in 1518 and identified himself with the reformers. He developed into one of the most irenic spirits of the Reformation. He actively promoted accord between Luther and *Zwingli and was instrumental in organizing the *Marburg Colloquy and other Protestant summits. After *Calvin’s exile from France, Bucer became a spiritual father to the young Frenchman who was later to become the key reformer in Geneva. Bucer’s theology gravitated from Lutheran to Zwinglian on the subject of the Eucharist and then developed into a hybrid position later in his life. When in 1548 imperial pressure forced him to leave Strasbourg, Bucer accepted Thomas *Cranmer’s invitation to come to the safe haven of England, where he assumed the post of Regius Professor of Theology at Cambridge University. He wrote numerous biblical commentaries and a short book, The Reign of Christ, which he dedicated to *Edward VI. Bullinger, Heinrich (1504-1575). A Swiss reformer who in 1531 succeeded Ulrich *Zwingli as the leader of the Reformation in Zurich, Bullinger had prepared himself theologically at the University of Cologne through intense work on the New Testament and early church fathers and had gained practical experience in several pastorates before coming to Zurich. Doctrinally, he gravitated toward Zwingli and away from *Luther on the issue of the Eucharist. His influence upon the Reformation in England was immense, as shown in his work The Decades of Henry Bullinger. One influential emphasis was Bullinger’s doctrine of the “conditional covenant,” in which God’s elective choice of an individual is conditioned upon sustained obedience. Bultmann, Rudolf (1884-1976). Bultmann was an influential theologian and New Testament scholar who spent most of his teaching career at the University of Marburg in Germany. His studies with form critic Herman Gunkel, among others, led to a reappraisal of the Gospels. Bultmann came to view the Gospel narratives as containing several layers of myth which had grown around the one central “bare fact” of Christ’s crucifixion. His challenge to exegetes and theologians of the 1940s and 1950s was to “demythologize” the New Testament. Bultmann emphasized the importance of the kerygma, or the proclama-

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Bunyan, John (1628-1688)

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tion of the saving nature of Jesus Christ for individuals. See also Formgeschichte. Bunyan, John (1628-1688). Best known for his allegory of the Christian life, The *Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan was an independent preacher in seventeenth-century England who came from Bedfordshire. Bunyan fought on the side of the Puritan Parliament against the Royalists in the English civil war. That, along with his dissenter inclinations and penchant for preaching without a license, landed Bunyan in jail for most of the years 1660-1672. During that time of incarceration he wrote extensively, including the powerful work Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. His Pilgrim’s Progress, which became an enduring Christian classic, was published in two parts, the first in 1678 and the second in 1684. Bushnell, Horace (1802-1876). Bushnell was a leading American liberal theologian in the second half of the nineteenth century. A graduate of Yale University, where he later returned as a tutor, Bushnell turned to the study of theology at the age of thirty-one, then pastored the North Congregational Church of Hartford, Connecticut, for the next twenty-six years. Bushnell’s use of the Bible was conditioned by his conviction that language is essentially symbolic and that meaning is relative to the experience of the hearer/reader. In grappling with the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, Bushnell developed a modalistic view in which he argued that God could be experienced in three different ways as Father, Son and Holy Spirit but remained essentially one.

C

Caedmon, St. (d. c. 680). Caedmon, revered as the “Father of English hymnody,” was a humble cowherd at Whitby Abbey. According to legend, one night in a vision he was given the gift of rhyming sacred verse. The Anglo-Saxon historian *Bede recorded all that we know of this simple Christian man. Sometime after Caedmon’s death, his shire became an important pilgrimage site in northern England. Only a fragment of one hymn remains extant today.

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Cambridge Platform (1649)

Calvin, John (1509-1564). The leading force in the Reformation in Geneva, Calvin was French by birth. Broadly educated in theology and law, he studied in Paris, Orléans and Brouges and came under the sway of *Christian humanism and the ideas of *Luther. In 1533, Calvin’s part in writing a reform-oriented speech delivered by Nicholas Cop led to his eventual exile from France. He lived in Basel then joined Guillaume *Farel in Geneva in the summer of 1536. Two years later, he and Farel were forced to leave the city due to negative reaction to their strict interpretation of church discipline and confessionalism. For three years he pastored a French congregation in Strasbourg at the invitation of Martin *Bucer. During this time, he married Idellette de Bure and fathered a son named Jacques. Calvin’s powerful and systematic mind led to his work The Institution of the Christian Religion, called simply Calvin’s Institutes. Returning to Geneva in 1541, he began a successful campaign of reform that led to the establishment of a virtual theocracy, which featured a *consistory that maintained standards of morality and enforced discipline. Calvin’s influence was immense and was effected through numerous biblical commentaries, letters, treatises and the Institutes, as well as personal influence upon other Reformation leaders like John *Knox, and Theodore *Beza. Calvin’s Institutes. The first and most complete Protestant systematic theology, On the Institution of the Christian Religion, was written by John Calvin in the sixteenth century and is commonly referred to as Calvin’s Institutes. Designed at first as an apologia for the newly minted Protestant faith and a plea to Francis I of France for toleration, the Institutes grew in size through numerous editions, from an initial six chapters in 1536 to eighty in the 1559 edition. This meticulous work is the doctrinal anchor for Reformed theology and has had a profound effect on Presbyterianism, Puritanism and various Reformed churches worldwide. Cambridge Platform (1649). Intending to carefully define New England non-separatist congregational Puritanism in view of the variety of viewpoints being presented in seventeenth-century colonial America, clerical and lay representatives met in Cambridge Massachusetts over a two-year period to craft this document. The

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camp meeting

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final Cambridge Platform, written by Richard Mather, defined congregational church government and in time became almost a constitution of Congregationalism. camp meeting. The period known as the Second Awakening (1790-1810) in American history was marked in western regions by the camp meeting, a unique strategy of frontier revivalists first employed in Tennessee and Kentucky. Because settlers were scattered over vast tracts of land, yearly or semiannual revivals were held in a centralized location. Often transdenominational in nature, the camp meetings attracted numerous revivalists and Christians of many different backgrounds. Camp meetings continued into the twentieth century in rural areas. Campbell, Alexander (1788-1866). Campbell, along with Barton W. *Stone, initiated a restoration movement in America sometimes called the Stone-Campbell Movement. Campbell was a Presbyterian who immigrated to America from Northern Ireland. He was motivated by the need to move beyond denominational tags, which he saw as divisive, to a simple name that would unite Christians. He helped to organize a Christian Association. The key to unity, according to Campbell, was to move away from creeds and restore a primitive form of Christianity. Campbell broke from his Presbyterian origins and united with the Baptists in 1812, but his view that baptism was for the remission of sins forced him to become independent. In 1832 his movement joined with Stone’s, and the Stone-Campbell Movement was born. Campbell founded Bethany College in Bethany, West Virginia, in 1840 and served as its first president. Cane Ridge revival. The Cane Ridge revival took place in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in 1801 and was one of the biggest *camp meetings in American revival history. The services were marked by “frontier religion,” extraordinary emotional manifestations on the part of many who attended, including jerking, barking, laughing exercises, *falling exercises or being “slain in the Spirit.” canon law. The Roman Catholic Church has developed a list of laws (canons), covering faith, morals and discipline, that are universally binding for the church. This list, titled Codex iuris canonici in its 1917 edition, was updated in 1983. Canon

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cardinal

law dates back to the *Council of Nicaea in 325, which produced twenty canons, and often draws upon papal decretals (authoritative letters of the pope), as well as numerous ecumenical councils, to formulate this authoritative list. The Orthodox Church and the Church of England also have their respective canon law. canon of Holy Scripture. A list of authoritative books of the Bible gradually defined by the early church. The word canon comes from a Greek word meaning “measuring rod.” First used for the biblical books by the Alexandrian scholar *Origen in the third century, the idea of an official canon was made necessary by numerous writings that claimed authority but were of spurious origin. The canon of Hebrew Old Testament books was received by the church from Judaism without question. A Greek Old Testament, however, called the Septuagint, contained a list of Second Temple–period works now called the *Apocrypha. Whether these should be included in the canon was the subject of an intense debate in the early fifth century. *Augustine of Hippo advocated in favor of the Apocrypha, but they were designated deuterocanonical. New Testament works were deemed to be authentic if they were written by or under the influence of an apostle and were consistent with apostolic doctrine. See also Alexandrian school; apostolic fathers. Cappadocian fathers. Three great theologians, all born in a region of Asia Minor called Cappadocia, brought final resolution to the *Arian heresy at the Council of Constantinople in 381. They were *Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea; his brother *Gregory of Nazianzus; and *Gregory of Nyssa. Capuchin Order. A Franciscan reform order formed in the sixteenth century with the goal of returning to earlier simplicity, the Capuchins take their name from their pointed cowl, called a capuce. The Capuchins focused on prayer and preaching and were an effective force in the Counter-Reformation. See also Catholic reformation; Francis of Assisi. cardinal. The Latin term cardo, or “hinge,” is the root of the English word cardinal. In the early church, cardinals were key officials attached to important churches and were called cardinal *deacons or cardinal priests. In the medieval age, cardinal bishops became

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special assistants to the pope in Rome, where most of them resided. In the eleventh century, Pope *Gregory VII was instrumental in investing the cardinals with a powerful voice in selecting future popes. In 1150 the cardinals formed a college with formal protocols and established officers. Today cardinals can be consecrated or deposed only by a pope, and they possess the rights and powers of bishops. Carey, William (1761-1834). “Expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God” was the life motto of William Carey, a British Baptist missionary to India. Working as a shoemaker in England, Carey had a remarkable ability to quickly master foreign languages, and after his conversion in 1779, he began to dream of taking the gospel to India. That dream became a reality in 1793 when he arrived in Bengal. He translated the New Testament into Bengali and, as the new century opened, began an academic career at the Fort William College in Calcutta, where he taught for thirty years. Carmelites. The Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel dates back to the twelfth-century *Crusades when Christian knights held parts of the Holy Land. A group of *anchorite monks built a church on Mount Carmel and dedicated it to Mary, the mother of Christ. The prophet Elijah became their model for contemplative prayer. When Palestine was lost to Christians due to the advance of *Islam, the Carmelites moved to Europe and received papal permission to establish monasteries. Women joined the order in the fourteenth century, establishing Carmelite nunneries. *Teresa of Avila was a Carmelite nun who established monastic houses in sixteenth-century Spain. Cassian, St. John (c. 360-430). Cassian was a monk and historian who researched the lives of the desert fathers and recorded their biographies in a work entitled Conferences. He carried Eastern monasticism to the West and helped to establish monasteries in eastern France. His book Institutes described the life of a monk and obstacles to living the godly life. Cathars (or Cathari). A general term describing several dissenting groups in twelfth-century Europe who desired to purify the church. Their theology was dualistic in that all matter, including flesh, was categorically evil, but spiritual things were by nature

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Catholic reformation

good. Christ, who could not have taken on an evil human body, they argued, was an angel. The doctrines of hell, resurrection and *purgatory were also rejected. Among the groups associated with the Cathars were the *Albigensians, *Arians and *Manichaeans. cathedral. From the Latin term cathedra for “chair” or “throne,” the word cathedral developed to define the local church in which the throne of the bishop sat. A period referred to as the Age of Cathedrals began in the late eleventh century and stretched through the sixteenth century. Massive churches in Romanesque and Gothic styles were built all over Christendom at great cost in materials and with high risk in construction. The medieval cathedral was truly a “sermon in stone,” in which the entire building—its layout, windows, ceilings, interior and exterior statuary and furniture—was designed to aid the believer in knowing and worshiping God. Catherine of Siena, St. (c. 1347-1380). One of but two women who have received the designation doctor of the church, Catherine was one of the most influential personalities in fourteenth-century Catholicism. She was born in Siena in the year that the bubonic plague first visited Europe and felt called to serve God from an early age. Joining the Dominican Order at the age of sixteen, she gave her life to a public ministry of serving the poor, the sick and those in jail. Many believed that she had the power to heal and even to raise people from the dead. As Catherine’s fame began to spread, she was invited to heal in Florence. Clearly a Christian mystic, she was deeply moved by visions that greatly influenced her time. Moved by a vision, she persuaded Pope Gregory XI to end the *Babylonian Captivity of the church and move its center back to Rome from Avignon, France. A lifelong focus on Christ’s suffering on the cross culminated in the stigmata that she claimed marked her body. Catherine also wrote about experiencing a mystical marriage to Christ. Catholic reformation. In the sixteenth century the Roman Catholic Church was engaged in a program of reform quite apart from the challenges of emergent Protestantism. Many of these reforms were motivated by *Christian humanism and embodied in reformers like *Erasmus of Rotterdam, John *Colet, Sir

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Thomas *More and John Fisher. In this effort, sometimes referred to as the Counter-Reformation, the church did respond to the issues raised by *Luther, *Zwingli, *Calvin and others with the *Council of Trent who sought to delineate and codify what Catholics believed. New monastic orders, such as the Society of Jesus or the *Jesuits, were established to reclaim lands lost to the Protestants. The Vatican issued an *Index of Prohibited Books to guide the faithful away from heretical teaching, and the Holy Office of the *Inquisition was used to purge the church of dangerous heretics. Celtic churches. Christianity in Ireland was renewed and advanced through the evangelistic efforts of *Patrick in the fifth century. Missionaries such as *Ninian and *Columba carried Celtic Christianity to Scotland. Aidan, trained at Iona on the extreme western coast of Scotland, planted the faith at Lindisfarne, in northern England. By the seventh century, Celtic missionaries called peregrini ministered in central Europe and beyond. Celtic monks were especially active in copying manuscripts and developed a unique style of text illumination evident in the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. The Celtic church was distinct from Roman Catholicism in several ways, including (1) their liturgical calendar, (2) the dress and haircut of the monks, (3) the freedom of Celtic priests below the level of bishop to marry, and (4) the authority of abbots and abbesses in church administration. Cenobitic monasticism. A stage in the development of monasticism, the cenobitic approach saw monks move from living in isolation as hermits, or *anchorites, to a more communal fellowship. The first of such communities was organized on an island in the Nile River of Egypt in the fourth century. Soon both monks and nuns lived in monastic communities surrounded by walls to insulate them from the outside world. Channing, William Ellery (1780-1842). A Congregational minister who came to epitomize *Unitarianism from the turn of the century on, Channing pastored the Federal Street Church in Boston for most of his career after graduating from Harvard University (see Harvard College) in 1798 and teaching there in various capacities. As his theology became progressively more liberal, he

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Charles V (1500-1558)

spoke out against the doctrines of the Trinity, total depravity and the substitutionary atonement of Christ. Charlemagne (c. 742-814). When he was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome on Christmas day 800, Charlemagne (Charles the Great) had tripled the size of the land controlled by the Carolingian rulers who preceded him. His empire consisted of modernday France, Germany, northern Spain and northern Italy, all of which he controlled through a strong central government. Charlemagne actively promoted Christian missions, the improved education of the clergy, liturgical reform and the Roman mass, but he was unwilling to give up aspects of his royal lifestyle condemned by the church (like having multiple wives). His efforts to invite the best and the brightest minds, such as the Northumbrian scholar *Alcuin, to enrich his people culturally led to what has been called the Carolingian Renaissance of the early ninth century. The empire of Charlemagne must not be confused with the Holy Roman Empire, which began in the tenth century, by which time his massive holdings had been lost by his warring children and grandchildren. Charles I (1600-1649). Charles was second in the line of Stuart kings of England and Scotland after his father, *James I. The grandson of Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, Charles had himself married to a Roman Catholic and desired to move the Church of England back to a place that was less *Calvinistic and more tolerant of Catholics. Faced with a growing Puritan party in Parliament who feared and opposed his moves back to traditional beliefs, Charles appointed William *Laud archbishop of Canterbury to curb the growth of Puritan influence. Laud enforced a “thorough policy” which would ensure a uniformity of worship. When in 1637 Charles and Laud insisted that his subjects in Scotland adopt a Prayer Book similar to that used in England, a rebellion took place leading to the *Covenanters movement. Tensions at home with a Puritan Parliament led to Civil War in 1642, which the royalists lost in 1648. The following year, Charles was publicly executed in London by a reactionary party called the Rump Parliament. Charles V (1500-1558). King of Spain and elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1519, Charles was one of the most power-

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Charles Martel (c. 690-741)

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ful rulers in Europe. He was active in supporting his aunt Catherine of Aragon in her unsuccessful bid to resist a divorce from King *Henry VIII of England. Viewing Lutheranism as a threat to unity, he sought to curtail its growth in the empire, first through the Diet of Augsburg in 1521, where *Luther was chastised, and then by open war against the Schmalkaldic League (see Schmalkaldic Articles). The 1555 Diet of Augsburg established a temporary “religious peace,” allowing a prince or duke to dictate which branch of Christianity would prevail in his lands. In that same year, Charles abdicated his leadership of the empire. Charles Martel (c. 690-741). Although not a king in his own right, Charles Martel was the virtual ruler of the Franks by 723. Dubbed “The Hammer,” Charles defeated an Arab *Islamic army at the defining *Battle of Tours (732) in southern France that halted Islamic penetration into western Europe and drove the enemy back over the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain. He did a great deal to solidify Carolingian control, and his son Pepin III took the title “king of the Franks.” Charles Martel was the grandfather of *Charlemagne. Chauncy, Charles (c. 1592-1672). An English-born Greek and Hebrew scholar who immigrated to New England and became the second true president of *Harvard College, Chauncy upheld a strict *Calvinist theology. Chauncy, Charles (1705-1787). Leader of the Old Light anti-revival movement within New England Congregationalism, Chauncy, after graduating from *Harvard College, became the pastor of the First Church in Boston. His Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England (1743) was an opening salvo in a controversy with Jonathan *Edwards and others regarding emotional excesses in revival, sometimes called “religious affections.” Theologically, Chauncy was identified with *liberalism and stressed the importance of human reason in interpreting Scripture; the benevolent love of God for humankind; and, toward the end of his life, universal salvation. Chauncy was also a vocal and effective advocate of the American Revolution. chiliasm. See millennialism. Christian humanism. Beginning in the fifteenth century, Christian humanism developed as an outgrowth of humanism with a

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City of God, The (416-422)

focus on the original languages of the Bible and the writings of the early church fathers. Christian humanists desired a renewed Christianity based upon the best models and ideas of the first five centuries. Prominent Christian *humanists include Lorenzo *Valla, *Erasmus of Rotterdam, John *Colet of London, Sir Thomas *More, Johannes *Reuchlin and Jacques *Lefèvre d’Étaples. Christian Science. An American Christian sect that was founded by Mary Baker Eddy in the late nineteenth century, Christian Science is based on the belief that sin, evil and illness are illusory and based on mistaken mental constructs which can be remedied by true teaching. God is seen as synonymous with good, truth, intelligence and true life. Eddy’s best-known work is Science and Health. The Mother Church of Christian Science is in Boston. circuit rider. This Methodist innovation was made necessary in America by the thinly populated frontier and paucity of ordained clergy. The Methodist minister would establish a circuit of churches or societies that he would regularly visit to preach, serve the Lord’s Supper, perform weddings and funerals, and care for souls. Circuit riders often doubled as teachers. This was a dangerous calling, with a high percentage of men not surviving even a decade after taking a circuit. Cistercians. The Cistercian Order, known as the white monks and named after their mother house of Citeaux, was formed in 1098. During the next century, it grew in importance due to the influence of *Bernard, who was a powerful abbot at the daughter monastery of Clairvaux. By the end of the thirteenth century, there were over seven hundred Cistercian monasteries. Monks in this order were known for their communal prayers and stress on manual labor, silence and strict dietary rules. Their houses were almost always built in remote areas and were unadorned and simple. City of God, The (416-422). *Augustine of Hippo’s monumental work, The City of God, was written in response to the attack upon Rome led by the Visigoth general Alaric in 410. Coming about a century after the Roman Imperial government began to embrace Christianity, some in the Senate argued that this fall of Rome was the direct result of the offense posed by the church against the pagan gods. In twenty-two books, Augustine first answered critics, arguing that Rome fell because of sin and internal cor-

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Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215)

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ruption, then criticized Roman culture, especially its glorification of violence and sensuality, and finally reminded Christians that there are two cities which must always be kept distinct, the “City of Man” and the heavenly oriented “City of God.” This work is a storehouse for influential Christian ideas on church and state, ethics, and marriage. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215). Clement was the student of Pantaenus, whom he succeeded as the head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria (c. 190), and the teacher of *Origen. Concerned that Christianity not be seen as an unsophisticated religion, Clement sought through his Address to the Greeks and other writings to reconcile his faith with the best of Greek philosophy. Although an active enemy of some *Gnostic teachings, such as the view that Christ did not have a human birth, his theology bears the marks of Greek philosophical influence. Clement of Rome, St. (late first cent.). Clement, one of the earliest of the *apostolic fathers, served as the second or third bishop of Rome and was almost certainly not the Clement mentioned in Philippians 4:3. Little is known about Clement, but there are two letters written to the church in Corinth (c. a.d. 96), called 1 Clement and 2 Clement, that are attributed to him. The first of these epistles is considered genuine. Clement wrote in a time when the church was desperately seeking stability because of sporadic persecution and heterodox teaching. It is not surprising that Clement’s message to the Corinthians stressed that God calls for order in all things. Christians were to obey their leaders. Interestingly, Clement makes no clear distinction between bishops and presbyters in terms of hierarchy. Cluny. Established as a reforming monastic movement in 909, the monastery at Cluny was founded by William of Aquitaine with the express purpose of being independent of secular control. Founding abbot Berno and his successor Odo built a brotherhood based on a return to strict Benedictine principles, deep spiritual life, the choir office and richly ornate corporate worship. Daughter monasteries, which numbered over one thousand, were not independent but were strictly controlled by the mother house, which in the twelfth century was the largest church in western Christendom and a major pilgrimage site.

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Confessing Church

Coffin, Henry Sloane (1877-1954). One of the most influential liberal leaders of the Presbyterian Church in the twentieth century, Coffin served the church as a pastor, most notably in the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, where he gained a national reputation for preaching. He also taught practical theology and homiletics at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he also served as president. A champion of liberal causes, Coffin opposed America’s entry into World War I and vigorously opposed *fundamentalism within the Presbyterian Church. Colet, John (c. 1466-1519). Son of a wealthy and powerful Lord Mayor of London, John Colet’s life was lived in humble service to the Church in England. Inspired by Christian humanists at Oxford, Colet traveled to France and Italy for further study then returned to the university with a new vision for how to interpret Scripture. His public lectures at Oxford on Paul’s epistles, beginning in 1497, laid a foundation for modern grammatico-historical exegesis. An ordained priest, Colet rose to become the dean of St. Paul’s *Cathedral in London. A committed educator, he used his family fortune to found St. Paul’s School for Boys, where over 150 boys could be schooled in Latin and Greek at no cost. Columba, St. (Colum Cille) (c. 521-597). A *Celtic missionary known as “the dove of the church,” Columba, of Irish nobility, left his homeland in 563 and founded the monastery of Iona on the western coast of Scotland. From that beachhead, Columba evangelized both the Picts and the Scots in the Highlands. Most of our knowledge of his exploits comes from the British historian *Bede. Columbanus, St. (d. 615). This *Celtic missionary left Ireland to preach in Gaul (modern France) and established at least two monasteries before conflicts with Roman Catholic bishops and his criticism of the king’s marital peccadilloes led to his exile. After ministering in Switzerland, he founded a monastery at Bobbio, north of Genoa, where he died. Bobbio became an important center for manuscript reproduction. Confessing Church. Arising in opposition to the German Christian Church movement sponsored by the Nazi Party, the Confessing Church was composed of German evangelicals and led by retired

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Congregationalist ecclesiology

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submarine commander Martin Niemöller, as well as Karl *Barth and Dietrich *Bonhoeffer. In 1934 the Confessing Church adopted the *Barmen Declaration. Clergy associated with the group were persecuted by the Nazi regime. Congregationalist ecclesiology. A form of church government that emerged from English Puritanism in the sixteenth century, congregationalism stresses the autonomy of the local church. Church leaders and ministers are elected by the congregation and are answerable to the local church alone. In colonial America, the Congregational Church developed and flourished. Many other Protestant groups embraced congregational governance, including Baptists, Charismatics and Independents. consistory. The word consistory is the general term for a church court or deliberative body. In Roman Catholicism, the consistory is made up of the College of Cardinals, which meets in ordinary session (only *cardinals in Rome) or extraordinary session (all cardinals worldwide) when called upon by the pope to deal with issues or crises in the church. In *Calvin’s Geneva (sixteenth cent.), the consistory defined Christian morality, advised the council on laws and tried heretics. The term is also used in Presbyterianism, the Church of Scotland and other Reformed fellowships for a church body that considers matters of discipline. Constantine the Great (272-337). Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus was the first Christian emperor of Rome. A measure of his impact on the issues of church and state is the fact that all but one of his successors were Christian. The son of *Helena and sub-emperor Constantius Chlorus, who ruled in the western realm of the empire, Constantine succeeded his father in 306. In 312 Constantine led his western army against Roman rival Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge. According to Lactantius, Constantine saw a vision of a cross the night before the battle and converted to Christianity. He then attributed the victory to his newfound faith. The next year, Constantine and his co-emperor Licinius issued the *Edict of Milan, which granted Christians religious freedom in the empire. By 324 Constantine had won undisputed imperial rule but was distressed to find the Christian church torn by a doctrinal disputation precipitated by the teaching of Arius of Alexandria. To resolve the *Arian controversy, Constantine called the church’s first

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Council of Chalcedon (451)

ecumenical council, the *Council of Nicaea, in 325. Sensing that the capital city was vulnerable to attack from the north, Constantine moved the center of imperial power east to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople. consubstantiation. Martin *Luther developed the eucharistic doctrine known as consubstantiation, which in time became closely identified with Lutheranism. The term is derived from two Latin words, con, or “with,” and substantia, or “substance.” Thus, for Luther there is a “real physical presence” of Christ in, under and around the Communion elements, but the bread and wine do not change in substance as in the Roman Catholic view of transubstantiation. See also Lateran Council, Fourth. Copernicus, Nicholas (1473-1543). A Polish astronomer and mathematician, Copernicus studied at the University of Cracow before becoming a canon in Frauenburg, where his uncle was the bishop. Although living before the invention of the telescope, Copernicus noted several anomalies in the motion of the planets that were not accounted for by the Ptolemaic theory of a geocentric universe (with the Earth at the center, standing still, and everything rotating around it). He developed an alternative model, the heliocentric (sun-centered) view, and delineated it in On the Revolution of Celestial Spheres. Published in 1543, the year he died, this work was not seen as a threat by the church until *Galileo’s observations of the heavens with a telescope confirmed it a half century later. In 1616 the Vatican placed Copernicus’s work on the Index of Forbidden Books. Council of Chalcedon (451). Called to deal with the Eutychian heresy, Chalcedon was the fourth ecumenical council of the church. The city was located just opposite Constantinople (Istanbul) on the Bosporus strait. Over five hundred bishops attended, and all but four were from the Eastern church. Nevertheless, the Roman church accepted nearly everything hammered out in the discussions. It was determined that *Eutyches tended to confuse the divine and human natures in Christ, and he was condemned as a heretic. Furthermore, the bishops affirmed that Christ is one Person existing in two natures, united without confusion, unchangeable, indivisible and inseparable. The divine nature of Christ is of the same substance as the Father, and the human nature of Christ

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Council of Constance (1414-1418)

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is the same as that of all humanity. Council of Constance (1414-1418). This sixteenth ecumenical council of the church was called by Emperor Sigsmund of the Holy Roman Empire to deal with the scandal of the *Great Schism and to address issues of heresy. For thirty-two years, two popes claimed universal authority in the church. The *cardinals met in Pisa to resolve this impasse in 1409 and selected a new pope, but those in Rome and Avignon refused to step down, and the crisis worsened: now there were three popes. With all the bishops of the Western church present at Constance to resolve the issue, the three sitting popes either abdicated or were deposed, and a new pontiff, Martin V, was elected. The council also dealt with various heretical teachings, including those of the late John *Wyclif of Oxford University, whose ideas, two hundred of them, were condemned and whose bones were then exhumed and publicly burned. Bohemian Jan *Hus (Huss), who resonated with Wyclif’s critique of the church, was promised “safe conduct” on his journey from Prague and then arrested as he entered Constance. Hus was tried and burned at the stake. The council did recognize the need for reforms and drew up a list of eighteen issues that needed attention. Almost one hundred years later, Martin *Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses, leading to the Protestant Reformation. Council of Constantinople (381). Called to resolve some remaining issues left over from the *Arian controversy, the Council of Constantinople, recognized as the second ecumenical meeting of the church, met with 150 Eastern church bishops in attendance. No one from the Western (Latin) church was represented. Led by the brilliant *Cappadocian fathers, *Gregory of Nazianzus and *Gregory of Nyssa, the council ratified the work done at Nicaea in 325 and condemned the overreaction known as *Apollinarianism. The creed now recited as the Nicene Creed was crafted at the Council of Constantinople. Council of Ephesus (431). The third ecumenical council was called by Emperor Theodosius II and met at Ephesus to resolve a challenge issued by Nestor, bishop of Constantinople, regarding the union of the human and divine natures in Christ. The council was convened by *Cyril of Alexandria before Nestor and most of his party had arrived in Ephesus. *Nestorianism was condemned,

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Council of Trent (1546-1563)

and Nestor was deposed and *excommunicated. Council of Orange (529). The Second Council of Orange, which was more an episcopal convocation than an ecumenical council, took place in Arausio in southern France. Thirteen bishops met to dedicate a new church but also used the occasion to address some lingering issues raised by *Augustine of Hippo and *Pelagius in their famous literary debate over a century earlier. The bishops’ twenty-five dogmatic canons were clearly geared to slow the progress of *Semipelagianism in Western churches. Council of Nicaea (325). Emperor *Constantine I summoned bishops to this first ecumenical council of the church to resolve the Arian controversy that threatened to divide the unity of Christendom. Arius, a presbyter from Alexandria, argued that the Logos and God the Father were of a different substance (in the preincarnate state), one a creature, the other eternal deity. The council of perhaps 250 bishops, sitting under the gaze of the emperor, rejected *Arianism and voted in favor of a creed put forth by *Athanasius of Alexandria in which he used the Greek word homoousios (of the same substance) to describe the Logos and the Father. The bishops went on to affirm twenty canons, or doctrinal propositions, thus laying a foundation for *canon law. Council of Pisa (1409). In an attempt to resolve the *Great Schism, which had divided the allegiance of the church between two rival popes for over thirty years, the College of Cardinals met in Pisa for a regional council that solicited input from various representatives of princes and kings. The *cardinals voted to depose the two sitting popes as schematics and to elect Alexander V as the new pope. Unfortunately, neither pope accepted their ruling, and Alexander took up residence in Pisa as the third pope claiming primacy. See also Council of Constance. Council of Trent (1546-1563). Called into session by Pope Paul III, the nineteenth ecumenical council of the church met to redefine Roman Catholic doctrine in view of the challenge and critique of a vigorous Protestant Reformation. Delegates did not meet continuously over the period but rather came together in three blocks of time. Voting was by individual bishop, not by nation (as in the decisive *Council of Constance). This ensured Italian control over the final pronouncements. In essence, Trent reaffirmed a slightly

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updated version of Thomistic doctrine: (1) both Scripture and church tradition were authoritative; (2) the *Latin Vulgate was the official version of the Bible; (3) meritorious works were necessary as a part of saving grace; (4) the sacraments numbered seven; (5) transubstantiation was the correct understanding of the miracle of the Mass, as opposed to *Lutheran, *Zwinglian and *Calvinistic eucharistic formulations; (6) the laity received only the bread in the eucharistic service; and finally (7) the doctrine of *purgatory, the issuing of *indulgences, the veneration of saints and *relics were affirmed. See also Lateran Council, Fourth. Counter-Reformation. See Catholic reformation. covenant theology. Sometimes referred to as federal theology (from foedus, the Latin term for “covenant”), this term refers to the covenants God makes with humankind. In the Garden of Eden, the covenant of works was seen as a contractual covenant between God and Adam in which obedience was rewarded and disobedience judged. The covenant of grace that followed the Fall was seen by *Calvin and others as an unconditional covenant that was clarified and strengthened by the Abrahamic covenant and the new covenant instituted with the death of Christ. A mainstay of *Puritan thinking, covenant theology was delineated by William *Ames in his The Marrow of Theology, a work which influenced the *Westminster Confession of 1647. Covenanters. In 1637, King *Charles I of England and Scotland attempted to foist a Prayer Book upon Scottish Christians, modeled after England’s *Book of Common Prayer. The following year a large crowd of Scots stormed out of St. Giles *Cathedral, the high kirk in Edinburgh, and assembled in Greyfrairs Churchyard where they signed a National Covenant affirming that they would never accept foreign domination of their church. Many dipped pens in their own blood to make their position clear. This event led to a bloody persecution of the Covenanters and a war between England and Scotland. Coverdale, Miles (1487-1569). Best known as a translator of the English Bible, Coverdale was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1514, but, through the influence of Robert Barnes, he soon embraced the Protestant Reformation. Forced to live in exile due to royal opposition to a vernacular text, Coverdale translated a

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Cromwell, Thomas (c. 1485-1540)

complete Bible in 1535 and had a significant role to play in the production of the Great Bible of 1539. During the brief reign of *Edward VI, the translator was consecrated bishop of Exeter but was forced to flee the country when *Mary Tudor assumed the throne. Under Queen *Elizabeth I, Coverdale identified with the growing Puritan party. Cranmer, Thomas (1489-1556). Cranmer was a leading reformer of the church in England and the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury. His life was intertwined with those of three monarchs, *Henry VIII, *Edward VI and *Mary Tudor. Educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he later became a fellow, Cranmer was ordained as a priest in 1523. After a brief stint as a diplomat to the court of Emperor *Charles V, he was recalled to England by Henry VIII and appointed archbishop in 1533. The king needed help extricating himself from a union with Catherine of Aragon, and Cranmer obliged him by annulling the marriage. A short time later, he joined Henry and Anne Boleyn as man and wife and became the godfather to their daughter, *Elizabeth. Progressively becoming more and more Protestant in theology, Cranmer wrote the Ten Articles and actively promoted the publication of an English vernacular Bible. In 1547 Edward VI ascended to the throne at nine years of age, and Cranmer exercised great influence over his education and religious development. Cranmer became the chief architect of the English Reformation under Edward with his production of the *Book of Common Prayer and a creed for the church later called the *Thirty-Nine Articles. He also led the young king in removing celibacy as a requirement for the priesthood and offering the Communion cup to the laity. Under Mary’s reign, beginning in the summer of 1553, his fortunes began to change. Cranmer, along with all Protestant leaders who remained in England during the Catholic queen’s ascendancy, was accused of heresy, defrocked, imprisoned and burned at the stake in Oxford. Cromwell, Thomas (c. 1485-1540). Rising quickly in the volatile world of English power politics under King *Henry VIII, Cromwell promoted both his own career as the king’s hatchet man and the Protestant cause. He was not only the chief prosecutor in the trial of Sir Thomas *More and in the dissolution of monasteries

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but also was a bold advocate for making an English Bible available to the laity. Cromwell fell out of favor with Henry when he arranged a fourth marriage for the king with Anna von Cleves. Political changes in Germany made the marriage less beneficial to England. This, along with the machinations of conservative foes, soon led to Cromwell’s conviction on charges of treason. He was executed. Crusades. Beginning in 1095 and continuing intermittently until the fourteenth century, the church, nobility, laity and even children of western Europe mounted massive military campaigns to the East with the general goal of wresting the Holy Land from Islamic hands. Pope Urban II called the First Crusade in response to the rise of Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor, who had recently converted to *Islam and persecuted Christian pilgrims passing through their region. At least four additional Great Crusades were launched with varying degrees of success but without ever accomplishing the primary goal. The many narratives of brutality toward enemy combatants as well as the general citizenry left a moral stain on this history, as did the violence meted out to Jews and other sectarian groups in Europe. The Crusades produced new monastic orders: the Hospitalers and the *Knights Templar. Cyprian, St. (d. 258). A major figure in early Latin theology, Cyprian, who converted to Christianity in 246, drew heavily upon the theological writings of *Tertullian, a fellow Carthagian. Just two years after his conversion Cyprian was chosen bishop of Carthage and was compelled to face the questions raised by Roman persecution, namely, what to do with lapsed Christians who seek readmission to the church? He advocated that a significant period of penance be demanded before full restitution was granted. Cyprain also argued against the valid ordination of *Novatian schismatics. He was a major defender of the supreme power of bishops in the church. Cyril of Alexandria, St. (d. 444). Consecrated bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, in 412, Cyril is known for his love of and success in theological conflict. Standing in the tradition of *Athanasius and the *Cappadocian fathers as a champion of orthodoxy, Cyril was the driving force behind the ecumenical *Council of Ephesus (431), where he opposed *Nestorianism. He actually assumed control of the council be-

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Darby, John Nelson (1800-1882)

fore the delegation supporting Nestor arrived and led the assembled bishops in condemning Nestorianism and its author. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. (c. 315-387). The *Council of Nicaea settled the issue of *Arianism in 325, but it did not by any means resolve the controversy. Many bishops as well as emperors continued to support the Arian viewpoint. Cyril, who became bishop of Jerusalem in 349 and was a staunch defender of Nicene orthodoxy, was himself banished from his see by those favoring Arianism, but he was recalled ten years later. His influential twenty-three catechetical lectures, delivered in 347-348, dealt with several issues of doctrine and Christian practice. Cyril was later dubbed doctor of the church.

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Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). Dante was a Florentine writer of great and enduring influence. His magnum opus, a narrative poem of one hundred cantos, The Divine Comedy, was inspired by vision of a girl, Beatrice, whom he saw in church when he was only nine years of age. He loved Beatrice for many years from afar, and when she died in 1290, he vowed to write a poem worthy of her. Dante’s poem was unique and powerful. It described the journey of its author through hell, *purgatory and heaven before returning to earth. The first leg of this otherworldly pilgrimage was in the company of the “shade” of the Roman poet Virgil, who acted as the author’s advisor and guide. Because Virgil was not a Christian, and thus could not enter purgatory, Beatrice was summoned from heaven to complete the tour. Dante’s imagery of hell was especially influential upon popular theology, and his incorporation of biblical, classical and mythological figures into the narrative foreshadowed emphases later developed in *humanism. Darby, John Nelson (1800-1882). Irish by birth, Darby lived most of his life as an English clergyman, first with the Church of England, then as the theological leader of the newly formed *Plymouth Brethren and finally as the founder of the Darbyites. Darby’s major theological work, Synopsis, laid down the foundations for a premillennial dispensational eschatology. *Dispensationalism, a periodization of human history into distinct time periods, or dispensations, during which God relates to humans

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in unique ways, was popularized in Darby’s frequent trips to America and contributed to the rise of *fundamentalism. See also millennialism. Darwin, Charles (1809-1882). Author of the revolutionary On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection (1859), Darwin picked up an ancient idea that life evolves from simple forms to great complexity over vast eons of time. His book gave the world a scientifically viable explanation of the mechanism for such development. After a brief stint as a medical student in Edinburgh and a lackluster first degree at Cambridge, Darwin circled the globe on the HMS Beagle (1831-1836) collecting specimens and insights. His Origin of Species introduced the ideas of survival of the fittest, *natural selection and speciation. Seen as a direct attack upon the Genesis record, Darwin’s work was severely criticized as anti-Christian. He applied the evolutionary theory to human life in his The *Descent of Man (1871). Although appreciative of the work of his parish church in Downe, England, Darwin ended his days as an agnostic. Davies, Samuel (1723-1761). A Presbyterian minister and evangelist during the American *Great Awakening, Davies was a tireless advocate for getting the “hot gospellers” of Pennsylvania’s *Log College licensed to preach in *Anglican-dominated Virginia. Later in life, he raised money for the fledgling College of New Jersey, where he served briefly as president in 1759. In time, this school became Princeton College, and later Princeton University. deacon. Derived from the New Testament Greek word for servant or minister, the office of deacon has always been one of service to the congregation and its leaders, presbyters, priests and bishops. Following a rite described in Acts 6 in which “seven men of good standing” were appointed, deacons have traditionally been ordained. In the Pastoral Epistles of the New Testament, deacons function in ministerial work, often in service to the poor. In the *Post-Nicene church, deacons assisted in worship but would not preside in the eucharistic service. Deacons serve in Protestant denominations in a wide variety of roles. Among Baptists, for example, the board of deacons functions much as the board of elders in other fellowships. Decius (d. 251). Emperor of Rome from 249 until he was killed in battle two years later, Decius is infamous for starting the first

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empire-wide persecution of Christians. He ordered that all Roman subjects must sacrifice to the traditional gods of Rome and have proof of such in the form of a certificate, or libel. Those who obtained these were known as libellatici. This practice led to a crisis later on when the church had to decide whether to forgive Christians who had obtained such certificates either by buying them on the black market or by sacrificing. deism. Called “the religion of the Enlightenment,” deism flourished in eighteenth-century France and England and soon found its way across the North Atlantic to New World hearts and minds. Deism, in its many varieties, was advanced by the discovery of the telescope, which charted the vast heavens, and the microscope, which glimpsed a world in a drop of pond water. Deists credited the “infinite architect” with fashioning the universe and infusing it with energy and orderly laws, like gravity. God’s work was done so well that he need not interact with his creation. For the deist, there is no divine revelation in Scripture, no God-man savior, no personal god who hears and answers prayer. God can be known in a general way, but only through the design of his creation. Deism in Enlightenment France was promoted by Voltaire, Denis Diderot and Jean Jacques Rousseau, and in America by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas *Paine and Ethan Allen, among many others. Descent of Man, The (1871). A key follow-up study to his On the Origin of Species, Charles *Darwin’s Descent of Man dealt directly with the question of human evolution. He argued that humans and higher primates (the great apes, for example) share a common ancestor on the evolutionary tree. devotio moderna. The Netherlands in the fourteenth century saw the rise of a new force within the Roman Catholic Church called the devotio moderna, or “modern devotion,” inspired by Gerhard Groote and popularized by *Thomas à Kempis’s The Imitation of Christ. Stressing the importance of inner spiritual development based upon devotion to Christ, this movement found expression in the *Brethren of the Common Life and quickly spread to Germany, France and Italy. Didache. A second-century manual on church practice and Christian ethics, the Didache, or The Teaching of the Lord Through the Twelve

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Apostles, offers the modern reader an invaluable glimpse of church life in the postapostolic period, including the practice of baptism, the Eucharist, fasting, prayer and ecclesiastical discipline. Diet of Speyer, Second (1529). The second of two diets, or assemblies, of the Holy Roman Empire called by Emperor *Charles V to deal with the growth of Lutheranism, the second diet became famous because of the protest of a group of princes who did not want imperial law to restrict the freedom of *Luther’s followers. This protest gave rise to the term Protestant, later applied to various reform movements in Europe as well as to Lutherans. Diet of Worms (1521). During the first five months of 1521 the young emperor *Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire called the princes and dukes together in southern German lands to deal with numerous issues. Toward the end of that parliament, in midApril, Martin *Luther, an Augustinian monk and professor at the University of Wittenberg, was summoned to give an explanation of his writings, which ran counter to Roman Catholic tradition. He was strongly admonished to recant, or take back, what he had said. After reflecting on his answer for a day, he stood before the august council on April 18 and delivered his famous “Here I Stand” speech, refusing to alter his position because his “conscience was captive to the Word of God.” Diocletian (245-313). One of the most powerful of Roman emperors, Diocletian rose to that pinnacle through a career in the army which recognized his gifts for leadership and administration. He was proclaimed emperor by his fanatically loyal troops and ruled from 284 until his abdication in 305. Wanting to streamline administration of the vast empire, Diocletian subdivided it into four regional areas of administrative control by instituting the tetrarchy. During the early years of his reign, the church experienced a period of relative peace, but this halcyon was followed by severe persecution that began in 303 and targeted higher clergy, church buildings and Christian laity. When Diocletian stepped down in 305, his successor, Galerius, continued the bloody rampage until 311. dispensationalism. In modern times, the term dispensationalism is most often associated with nineteenth-century theologian John Nelson *Darby, who was associated with the *Plymouth Brethren Church in England. Darby’s key work, Synopsis, clearly

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delineated human history into well-defined time periods called dispensations. In each dispensation, God demands different expressions of faith from believers. In the dispensation of law, for example, the faithful were obedient to the Mosaic code, but this no longer applied after the death of Christ, when the dispensation of grace began. Later teachers, such as C. I. Scofield (1843-1921), expanded the number of dispensations to seven periods. Each dispensation ended in judgment, and only a few, a remnant, survive that testing to begin the next dispensation. Important to this view is the idea that Israel is distinct from the church and the promises and covenants made to Israel do not necessarily apply to modern-day believers. docetism. An early Christian heresy associated with *Gnosticism, docetism denied the material nature of Christ and thus his true humanity. The term is derived from the Greek word dokeo, which means “to seem,” or “to appear,” and thus a docetic view would be that Christ only appeared to be human. A leading proponent of docetism was Serapion, a bishop of Antioch in the late third century. Domitian, Titus Flavius (51-96). A tyrannical Roman emperor who assumed the throne in 81, Domitian, according to the Christian historian *Eusebius, persecuted the church during his reign. Tradition holds that it was Domitian who exiled the apostle John to the isle of Patmos, where he received the visions recorded in the book of Revelation, or John’s Apocalypse. Donation of Constantine. According to legend, the first Christian emperor, *Constantine, who had yet to be baptized, was lying on his death bed waiting for Sylvester, the bishop of Rome who would perform the sacrament. Constantine felt that the baptismal rite would cleanse all sins up to the moment of baptism so that he could die in peace. Sylvester’s ministrations were rewarded by an imperial document, signed by Constantine, which awarded the pope not only wide-ranging authority over Christians in the empire but also over vast tracts of land in central Italy, later called the Papal States. In the fifteenth century Italian literary critic Lorenzo *Valla proved the document to be a forgery, probably written sometime after the seventh century.

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Donatism. A group of African schismatic rigorists in the fourth and fifth centuries, the Donatists objected to the readmission of traditors (Christians who had not kept the faith in the age of persecution) to the church. In 311, Caecillian was elected bishop of Carthage by local clergy over the objection of Numidian bishops who argued that Felix of Aphthungi, the man who consecrated Caecillian, was a traditor. The Numidians supported their own candidate for the bishopric of Carthage, one Majorinus. Donatus was the successor of Majorinus, and the party grew quickly under his leadership. *Augustine of Hippo wrote against the Donatists, and, after the Council of Carthage failed to dissuade them force was used to make them desist. The issue here was the essential unity of the church and the fear that the Donatists would promote schism. Du Plessis, David (1905-1987). Known as Mr. Pentecost, South African Du Plessis served as the General Secretary of the Apostolic Faith Mission and was active in the founding of the World *Pentecostal Fellowship. After his move to the United States in 1949, he identified with the Assemblies of God. Du Plessis’s career was marked by a deep commitment to ecumenism; he was the only Pentecostal invited to attend *Vatican II (1962-1965). Duns Scotus, John (c. 1266-1308). The Franciscan order produced the realist theologian and philosopher John Duns Scotus, whose name refers to his probable birthplace in Duns, Scotland. He was ordained in England before study at the universities of Oxford and Paris. His influence came not so much through his major theological tomes as through an original approach to theology, now called Scotism, which was a continuation of early Franciscan realist thinking grounded in *Plato and *Augustine of Hippo. Scotism subtly merged Augustinian elements with Aristotelian and Platonic ideas and used these to counter the dominant pronouncements of the school of *Thomas Aquinas. See also Aristotle; Francis of Assisi; Plato; realism and nominalism. Dunster, Henry (1609-1659). The first true president of *Harvard College, English-born Dunster had been a student at Cambridge University before immigrating to the American colonies in 1640. At Harvard, Dunster had a formative influence in shaping the curriculum and introducing the Cambridge model of education. His

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adoption of a *believers’ baptism position and his refusal to have his infant son baptized in 1653 led to his dismissal from Harvard. Dwight, Timothy (1752-1817). He was known as “Timothy Dwight of Yale,” the school from which he graduated. He then served as a tutor and from 1795 as president of the university. Dwight, the grandson of famed revivalist Jonathan *Edwards, was born in the family home in North Hampton, Massachusetts. He served as a military chaplain during the Revolutionary War and then as a Congregational minister in Connecticut, before taking the reins at Yale. Deeply concerned with the inroads made by *deism and rationalist *liberalism during the war years, Dwight used chapel services at Yale to systematically preach through the major doctrines of the church. During his presidency, revivals occurred at Yale, and at one point it was estimated that one-third of the student body was deeply affected by Christian renewal. dynamic monarchianism. Also called *adoptionism, this secondto third-century attempt to preserve the unity of God viewed Jesus as a perfect man who at a point in his life, usually believed to be his baptism, received the power (dynamis in Greek) of God and thus could fulfill the roles of messiah and savior. Key proponents included Theodotus, Artemon and *Paul of Samosata. This view was judged to be heretical. See also Alcuin.

E

Ebionitism (first to second cent. a.d.). Ebionites, literally the “poor men,” were an *ascetic Hebrew Christian sect located east of the Jordan River. They are of special interest for their radical theology. Jesus was seen as the natural son of Joseph and Mary, who received the Holy Spirit at his baptism. Ebionites also rejected the letters of Paul and maintained only Matthew of the four Gospels. Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation. Authored by *Bede, the Anglo-Saxon historian, this work was not only the first major attempt to trace the history of the church in England down through the seventh century, but was also a model for the developing fields of chronology and historical documentation. Eck, Johann (1486-1543). A renowned professor of theology at Ingolstadt University in Germany, Eck, born Johann Maier, was

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deeply influenced by biblical *humanism and produced a German vernacular Bible for Catholic use. In his famous Leipzig debate with *Luther in 1519, Eck championed papal authority and the doctrine of *indulgences. Eckhart, Meister (c. 1260-c. 1328). A German mystic theologian and member of the Dominican Order, Eckhart was a scholar at the universities of Paris and Cologne and a well-known vernacular preacher. His emphasis on the all-pervasive Gottheit, or “power of God,” that courses through everything in the universe and is the essence of reality led to charges of pantheism. Through this Gottheit, he taught that the soul can experience intimate contact with the divine and receive the living Word of God. Edict of Milan (313). Issued by Roman emperors *Constantine I and Augustus Licinius, the Edict of Milan legalized the Christian religion in the empire and formally ended persecution of the church. Edict of Nantes (1598). Signed by the French king Henry IV in the spring of 1598, the Edict of Nantes ended a long period of religious strife by granting rights and privileges to *Huguenots (French *Calvinists), including (1) the free exercise of religion, albeit with some areas, like Paris, excepted; (2) equality in civil laws; and (3) stipends for pastors and schools. In 1685, these rights were revoked by King Louis XIV. Edward VI (1537-1553). At the age of nine years, Edward Tudor succeeded his father, *Henry VIII, to the throne of England and became the sixth king of that name to rule. Edward was the son of Henry’s third wife, Jane Seymour, and ruled before his older sisters, *Mary and *Elizabeth, because of the tradition of *primogeniture. Nurtured and guarded by the Protestant archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas *Cranmer, Edward actively promoted the reformation of the English church. Under his reign, the *Book of Common Prayer was published, the *Six Articles were repealed, the English Bible was made available in all local churches and many Protestant bishops were consecrated. Edward died at the age of sixteen from natural causes. Edwards, Jonathan (1703-1758). Puritan Congregationalist pastor, revivalist and theologian, Edwards was one of the most influential thinkers of colonial America. A child prodigy, Edwards was awarded both a B.A. and an M.A. from Yale University before

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joining his grandfather, Solomon *Stoddard, in pastoring the Northampton Congregational Church in Massachusetts. In 1729 he became the sole pastor and led the church in a celebrated revival in the mid-1730s. Attacked by academic critics of emotionalism in religion, Edwards wrote A Faithful Narrative, the first salvo in the divisive “religious affections” controversy. In 1748 a dispute in the church regarding who may receive the Lord’s Supper led to Edwards’s departure. He worked as a missionary among local Native Americans. A decade later, he was invited to become the president of the College of New Jersey, later to be named Princeton, but died as the result of a smallpox inoculation just prior to his inauguration. Elizabeth I (1533-1603). The last Tudor monarch to reign as queen of England, Elizabeth was the child of *Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Ascending to the throne in 1558 after the death of her sister *Mary Tudor, Elizabeth quickly and deftly moved to secure her rule and to negotiate a religious compromise known as the *via media, or the Elizabethan Settlement, which borrowed elements from both Protestant and Catholic traditions. Known as the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth never married. In 1588 England‘s navy defeated the Spanish Armada, establishing Elizabeth as one of the most powerful rulers in Europe. Epicureanism. A popular philosophy that originated in Athens, Greece, Epicureanism was rooted in the teaching of Epicurus (342-270 b.c.). Drawing upon the atomic theory of Democritus, Epicurus taught that the random confluence of atoms raining down upon the earth resulted in all matter and was the ground of existence. Life was defined as the motion of atoms. At death, complex arrangements of atoms reverted to their basic forms. Thus, he held that there was no heaven or hell and no rewards or punishments in the afterlife. In view of these presuppositions, the great goal in life for Epicureans was to seek after true pleasure, which included reducing pain and fear through prudent behavior. This view should not be confused with wanton hedonism. Luke records that when the apostle Paul visited Athens, Epicurean philosophers were present (see Acts 17:18). episcopal church government. The traditional rule of bishops in the church is called episcopal after the Greek term for “bishop,”

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episcopos. In this form of governance, the bishop oversees all local churches, priests, presbyters, *deacons, etc. in his diocese or episcopal see. This is the government used by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches and many Protestant groups, including *Anglicans, Episcopalians, Methodists and Lutherans. Epiphany. A Christian feast celebrated on January 6 in the Eastern church in remembrance of the baptism of Christ. In the West, since the fourth century, the same feast has honored the coming of the magi to worship the newborn King. Erasmus, Desiderius (c. 1466-1536). Notably one of the most cosmopolitan theologians of the sixteenth century, Erasmus of Rotterdam played the role of a scholar-reformer but never broke formally with the church. He was known in his day as the “prince of humanists” and distinguished himself as an author, editor, biblical translator and exegete par excellance. Perhaps his most influential contribution was the 1516 New Testament he compiled, edited and translated into Latin. This “new instrument,” as he called the first edition, was the first printed Greek New Testament text and was used by many in the Reformation era. Erigena (Eriugena), John Scotus (c. 810-c. 877). A native of Ireland, John the Scot gained fame as a philosopher and theologian in the Carolingian court of Charles the Bald, emperor of the Franks. His theology was often questioned, and he was accused of pantheism in his Neo-Platonic treatise on God and nature, titled De Divisione Naturae. In a major treatise on predestination, John refuted the teaching of *Gottschalk. He also translated the very influential writings of Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite and other early Fathers of the church. eucharistic controversy. The early medieval church in the West worked to clarify the nature of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. In the ninth century, two monks from the monastery of Corbie in western France, *Radbert and *Ratram, promoted opposing views on the controversial issue. Radbert’s work, The Body and Blood of the Lord, argued that the elements of the altar contained the very flesh of Christ, transformed by a miracle each time the sacrament is celebrated. Ratram countered with an argument that affirmed a real presence of Christ in the Eu-

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charist, but denied that the substance of the elements changed to the very body of the Lord. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260-c. 340). Known as the father of church history, Eusebius is best known for his Ecclesiastical History, which is the main source for information on Christian history down to the mid-fourth century. Eusebius served as bishop of Caesarea and was an active participant in the *Council of Nicaea in 325, where he led the Compromise Party. Later he supported the orthodox view championed by *Athanasius of the *Alexandrian school. Eutyches (c. 378-454). A monk from Constantinople, Eutyches argued against the *Nestorian view of the nature of Christ and developed a view that the church later deemed heretical at the *Council of Chalcedon in 451. In essence, Eutyches held that after the incarnation, Christ had only one nature, the divine. The Logos absorbed his human nature, and thus Christ was not substantially like humans. This view was rejected by the church with the rationale that in order to be the redeemer, Christ had to be fully human while at the same time being undiminished deity. Eutyches was deposed and exiled. excommunication. This term indicates a formal and severe form of church discipline in which a Christian is deprived of fellowship with the church. In the Roman Catholic Church, excommunication can assume two levels of seriousness, greater and lesser excommunication. The latter involves exclusion from receiving the Lord’s Supper while the more severe censure excludes the member from all sacraments except *extreme unction. Excommunication does not extend to a believer’s relationship with God. Excommunication is also practiced by the Orthodox Church and most Protestant groups. Exsurge Domine (1520). This papal bull written by Pope Leo X was intended to bring reform-minded Martin *Luther to heel with a threat of *excommunication. The first lines of the document read: “Arise, O Lord, for a wild boar has broken loose in your vineyard.” Luther burned the bull in front of his students at Wittenberg University in a symbolic act of papal defiance. extreme unction (last rites). Recognized as a sacrament by the Roman Catholic Church, extreme unction is administered by an ordained priest to a dying Christian. Upon hearing the final con-

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fession, the priest absolves the penitent of the guilt of sin and provides grace, sometimes called “dying grace.”

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falling exercises. Associated first with frontier revivalism in early nineteenth-century America, the falling excercises, or “being slain in the Spirit,” a common occurrence in Kentucky *camp meetings, referred to the phenomenon of people being suddenly struck down and rendered unconscious as revivalists preached. Farel, Guillaume (1489-1565). An early Protestant reformer in French-speaking Switzerland, Farel worked in Basel and Neuchâtel prior to coming to Geneva. It was Farel who persuaded the young John *Calvin to join him there. When the two were expelled from Geneva in 1538, Farel returned to Neuchâtel and continued to implement the model he and Calvin had developed in Geneva. Feuerbach, Ludwig Andreas (1804-1872). After an initial study of theology at the University of Heidelberg, Feuerbach became the student of G. W. F. Hegel and was drawn progressively toward an anti-Christian viewpoint that denied the transcendence of God. Man, not God, was to Feuerbach the essence of reality. Feuerbach’s philosophy was deeply rooted in positivism, which valued only those precepts directly connected to the empirical data of science. Feuerbach’s thought had a great influence upon Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx. Ficino, Marsilio (1433-1499). An Italian humanist and philosopher, Ficino, under the patronage of Cosimo de’ Medici worked to found a Platonic academy in Florence. After a careful study of Greek grammar and literature, Ficino translated *Plato’s Dialogues as well as key works reconciling Platonic and Christian views. In 1473 Ficino was ordained as a priest, and fourteen years later became a canon in Florence. fideism. This describes a viewpoint that suggests that for many doctrines true belief can only be rooted in faith in God’s revelation. As a corollary, such belief is not obtainable through the processes of human reason alone. filioque (Latin for “and the son”). In an attempt to counter *Ar-

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ian claims that Christ was different from God the Father, a sixthcentury church council in Toledo, Spain, added the word filioque to a creed describing the procession of the Holy Spirit. The creed affirmed that the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son (John 14:26). The Eastern church objected to this addition, arguing that it exceeded what the Bible said about the procession of the Spirit, all the while affirming that Christ was co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. Also at issue in later discussions of filioque was the presumption on the part of the Roman church that the pope was supreme and universal in jurisdiction. The two positions became entrenched and tended to further divide the two branches of Christendom, becoming a major reason for the formal *Schism of 1054 between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Finney, Charles Grandison (1792-1875). A pioneer in American mass evangelism, Finney, following a dramatic conversion experience in 1821, gave up his pursuit of a legal career in Adams, New York, and was ordained by the Presbyterian Church. Three years later, he began to preach along the Eastern Seaboard. Finney introduced many innovations, or “new measures,” to the work of evangelism, including the protracted meeting, the *anxious bench and allowing women to pray in public meetings. After brief but successful pastorates in New York City, Finney accepted an invitation to join the faculty of *Oberlin College in Ohio in 1835 and assumed its presidency sixteen years later. Finney rejected *Calvinism and embraced a hybrid *Arminian theology, which is reflected in his numerous works on revivalism and systematic theology. As president of Oberlin, Finney figured prominently in the abolitionist movement and encouraged students to participate in the Underground Railroad that moved runaway slaves to the North and freedom. Formgeschichte (form history). A type of *biblical criticism, known as form criticism in English, Formgeschichte seeks to establish the structural form of a passage, for example within a psalm, in order to more fully and accurately understand its original meaning. The first step is to establish the genre of a text then, through a structural analysis of the passage, discern its social context, or Sitz im Leben. This approach was pioneered by German scholar

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Herman Gunkel in the late nineteenth century in Germany. forms (Platonic). In *Plato’s theory of reality, forms, or archetypal ideas, have eternal existence apart from human mind and are the true basis for all that is. The pursuit of the forms is for Plato the truest work of the philosopher. This idea is clearly illustrated in the *allegory of the cave found in his key work, Republic. Plato’s thinking about the nature of reality had a profound influence on Christian theological development. Formula of Concord (1577). A statement of faith designed to bring internal unity to the Lutheran Church with regard to a proper interpretation of the *Augsburg Confession, the Formula of Concord clarified doctrines of original sin, law and gospel; predestination and election; the sacraments; and adiaphora, or non-essential matters. Fosdick, Harry Emerson (1878-1969). Made nationally famous in 1922 by his sermon “Shall the *Fundamentalists Win?” Fosdick was an important voice for liberal Protestantism in the first half of the twentieth century. He argued from pulpits, in radio talks and through popular books that the doctrines of the virgin birth of Christ, a literal second coming of Christ and an inerrant Bible were not essential tenants of the Christian faith. Trained at Union Theological Seminary in New York, a school where he later served as a professor of practical theology, Fosdick was ordained as a Baptist. He pastored the Park Avenue Baptist Church, later renamed the Riverside Church, in New York City, and developed a nonsectarian, people-focused ministry of personal spiritual growth and social consciousness. Fox, George (1624-1691). Fox was the founder and guiding spirit of the Society of Friends in England, a group that would later be called the Quakers. He began a spiritual quest to find the true church in 1643. Failing that quest, he felt that God had led him to establish a new fellowship, which began in 1646. Based on the theology of the “*inner light,” in which the Spirit of God directly communicates with the individual, Fox’s movement abandoned the idea of a formal clergy in favor of a model of worship in which the Spirit could speak through any Christian man, woman or child present. The Quakers’ aggressive missionary activities, their nonconformist ways and their rejection of established religion led to their persecution, especially in the

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American colonies. Foxe, John (1516-1587). Foxe was an English Protestant martyrologist who collected a wealth of historical data and anecdotes in his massive Acts and Monuments of the Martyrs of the Christian Church, sometimes known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. After studying at Oxford University, Foxe became a fellow of Magdalen College, but during the reign of Queen *Mary Tudor he had to flee England for continental Europe, where he met and befriended several key Protestant reformers. Francis of Assisi, St. (c. 1181-1226). The wealthy son of a cloth merchant in Assisi, Italy, Francis was led by a vision to become a monk. Beholding beggars in Rome, he exchanged clothes with a man and dedicated his life to ministering to the poor. When his group of followers reached twelve in number, Francis wrote a brief rule for the order that would one day be known as the Franciscans. Francis was one of the first to experience the stigmata, the five wounds of Christ, in his flesh. His key works include Little Flowers and Canticle of the Sun. Francis Xavier, St. (1506-1562). Known as the Apostle to the Indies, Francis Xavier is renowned as one of the most famous and effective Roman Catholic missionaries in Christian history. Francis, named after the Xavier castle near his birthplace in Navarre, Spain, met *Ignatius of Loyola while a student at the University of Paris. The two men, along with four others, formed the Society of Jesus (the *Jesuits) in 1534. Francis was ordained three years later, and in 1539 he was sent as a papal legate (church ambassador) to the East Indies. His evangelistic efforts began in Goa, India, in 1542. By mid-century, Francis was preaching in Japan. He ended his days spreading the gospel in coastal China. Francis Xavier’s life and ministry became a model for Jesuit missionaries. Francke, August Hermann (1663-1727). Francke was a German pietest leader and a professor at the University of Halle. At Leipzig he came to know Philipp *Spener, who became Francke’s mentor. From 1691, Francke served as professor of Greek at Halle. A social reformer as well as an educator, Francke founded a “poor school,” an orphanage, a dispensary and a publishing house. Following Spener’s death in 1705, Francke was the key leader among German pietists.

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Frelinghuysen, Theodore (1691-c. 1748). Dutch Reformed pastor Theodore Frelinghuysen ministered in Raritan, New Jersey, in the mid-1720s, and under his preaching, sometimes described as “howling prayers,” revival in the American colonies first occurred. Frelinghuysen’s emotional approach to conversion divided the church and led to calls for his dismissal. However, the Classis of Amsterdam (the governing ecclesiastical body) found insufficient cause for so drastic an action. Frelinghuysen influenced Presbyterian Gilbert *Tennant, who became a notable revivalist. Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939). Viennese psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud dramatically influenced the developing field of psychology with his concepts of the unconscious mind, infantile sexuality and the nature of dreams. Freud was born into a nonreligious Jewish home and was fascinated with the psychological aspects of religion. His works Moses and Monotheism, Totem and Taboo, and especially The *Future of an Illusion argued that religions are the human responses to deep feelings of insecurity that naturally develop as a child matures. Freud was an atheist who believed that the enlightened individual would recognize religion as an illusion, and abandon it. Fuller, Charles E. (1887-1969). Fuller was a radio evangelist whose “Old Fashioned Gospel Hour” reached an estimated ten million people on Sunday evenings in the late 1930s. Fuller joined with Harold J. Ockenga in 1947 to found Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. fundamentalism. Christian fundamentalism began as a late nineteenth through early twentieth-century movement of conservative American and British clergy, laypeople and scholars who sought to affirm and defend the fundamentals of the faith: biblical inerrancy, the virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, and his imminent return. The movement progressed through many stages but was rooted in the perception that the Christian faith was under attack by late nineteenth-century scholars in the sciences of biology, geology, psychology and especially the new field of *biblical criticism. More progressive Christians, who sought to accommodate the findings of science with their beliefs and to “put Christian faith on a modern foundation,” were dubbed

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modernists. For the fundamentalists, the authority of Scripture was the crucial issue and the phrase “biblical inerrancy” took on new importance in the fight against modernism. Either the Bible was inerrant, they argued, or it had little real authority in whole or in part and would always be suspect. Two very different groups within conservative Protestantism, old school *Calvinists and *dispensationalists, joined forces for a time in early fundamentalism, as they were both strongly committed to the doctrine of inerrancy. Writers from these diverse camps contributed to the The *Fundamentals, published as a series of paperback books defending the faith and helping to define the movement. In 1925, news reports from the *Scopes Monkey Trial belittled the fundamentalist position, causing the movement to become more combative and less likely to dialogue with groups not aligned with biblical inerrancy. For many Christians, including evangelicals, the term fundamentalist carries a negative and even pejorative meaning today. Fundamentals, The. A series of twelve paperback booklets published by businessmen Lyman and Milton Stewart between 1910 and 1915, The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth were distributed to three million Protestant English-speaking ministers and teachers around the world. Authored by sixty-four conservative theologians, ninety-four separate articles were presented in both scholarly and popular styles. These works were conservative in approach and defended the doctrine of biblical inerrancy while directly attacking *biblical criticism and other perceived incursions of *liberalism into mainline Protestantism. See also fundamentalism. Future of an Illusion, The (1927). This influential work by Viennese psychoanalyst Sigmund *Freud argued that religion was rooted in a childish defense mechanism brought on by the realization that parents were fallible and mortal. Wanting to reclaim that lost security, Freud reasoned that the infantile mind projects a heavenly father upon the universe who is eternal, powerful and good. Thus, the argument ran, all religions share basic key elements brought about by this shared experience. Freud’s views on the origins of religion greatly influenced the developing scientific *humanism movement.

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Galilei, Galileo (1564-1642). An Italian mathematician and astronomer of extraordinary influence in his time, Galileo was the first to use a telescope to confirm the thesis advanced first by *Copernicus that the earth was not the center of the universe. In 1610 he published his first major work on cosmology, The Siderial Messenger, in which he recorded and drew illustrations based on his observations of the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus and mountains on the moon. Shortly thereafter, the Roman church began to collect information on the astronomer to be used in a disciplinary hearing that in 1630 forced Galileo to recant. He was allowed to live out his remaining years under house arrest, forbidden to teach or write. Gardiner, Stephen (c. 1497-1555). Caught up in the tumultuous events surrounding *Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Catholic Church, Gardiner, the master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, was sent by the king to Rome to argue for the annulment of his marriage to Queen Catherine of Aragon. His opposition to Protestantism stiffened during Thomas *Cromwell’s tenure as lord chancellor, and Gardiner was a key supporter of the *Six Articles, which promoted traditional Roman Catholic beliefs. Under the young king *Edward VI, Gardiner was imprisoned for a time, but he rose to power under Queen *Mary Tudor and became chancellor. From 1533, Gardiner served as the bishop of Winchester. General Baptists. This phrase is used to designate Baptists who hold to a free will position or modified *Arminianism. The term general refers to the atoning work of Christ’s bloodshed for all humanity. Gnosticism. This term denotes a religious philosophy popular in the second century a.d., although a lively academic debate exists regarding exactly when it began. The name derives from the Greek word gnos is, meaning “knowledge.” Gnostics sought a secret knowledge that was connected with human salvation, and most Gnostic teaching was rooted in the idea of a cosmic dualism. Everything in the universe was seen as falling into one of two categories: the immaterial or spiritual realm that was good or the material universe that was, by nature, evil. Various theories were suggested to explain the origin of matter, but Gnostics generally held that a God of pure spirit emanated spiritual beings called

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“aeons,” who had the power of emanation themselves. With each descending level of creation, the aeons became less and less like the pure God until one, generally called the “demiurge,” was so far removed from the wisdom of God that it created matter. Gnostics saw each person as a microcosm of the universe, containing both good (spiritual) and evil (material, i.e., the body) natures. Various Christian forms of Gnosticism were present in the second century, and each is designated by its founder or leading teacher, i.e., Valentinus, Basilides, etc. Christian Gnostics usually viewed some parts of the New Testament as the revelation of the pure God but tended to discount the Old Testament as the work of the demiurge. Anti-Gnostic Christian *apologists like *Irenaeus derided the Gnostic gospels that proliferated in the second century. Jesus Christ was often seen as the first aeon, sent to reveal truth to humanity. Since Christ was a spiritual being, Gnostics denied the incarnation and argued that Jesus only appeared to be human. Christian apologists designated this error concerning the nature of Christ as *docetism, and Gnosticism was seen as a pernicious heresy. Gottschalk (c. 804-c. 869). Best known as the champion of Augustinian double predestination (the theory that God predestines the “elect” to salvation and the non-elect to damnation) in an age when the church had moved away from that view, Gottschalk’s life was shrouded in controversy. His Saxon parents had presented the young Gottschalk as an oblate to the monastery of Fulda in Germany. When years later he sought to leave the order, his abbot, Rabanus Maurus, opposed him and he was transferred. At the monastery of Corbie, Gottschalk studied with *Ratram and became enamored with *Augustine’s anti-*Pelagian writings. He began to promote double predestination and was severely censured by the church. The synods of Mainz and of Quiercy condemned him, and the latter sentenced him to perpetual imprisonment until he repented of his error. He would not recant. Graham, William (“Billy“) Franklin (b. 1918). The most influential American evangelist of the twentieth century, Billy Graham’s success was tied to preaching a simple gospel message using the tools and methods of mass communication. Born in North Carolina, Graham became a Christian at the age of sixteen. He gradu-

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ated from Wheaton College and soon thereafter was ordained by the Southern Baptist Convention. He worked with Youth for Christ International before the 1949 Los Angeles crusade launched his career as a mass evangelist. One year later, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was formed. During the period of his active ministry, Graham gained the hearing of most U.S. presidents beginning with Eisenhower. Great Awakening (eighteenth cent.). The Great Awakening describes a sustained period of religious awakenings among Protestants in the American colonies from the 1720s until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1776. The revivals, often marked by fiery preaching, shouts of anguish and weeping on the part of the hearers, began in the middle colonies under the preaching of Dutch Reformed pastor Theodore *Frelinghuysen and Presbyterian Gilbert *Tennent. The center of the awakenings shifted to New England in the 1730s, exemplified by Congregationalist minister Jonathan *Edwards’s sermons in Northampton, Massachusetts. Then in the 1740s, the awakenings moved to the southern colonies, where Baptists like Shubal *Stearns continued to preach revival. Tying the awakenings together was the itinerant preaching of George *Whitefield, who led revivals in all thirteen colonies. The preaching of Whitefield and Edwards was harshly criticized by religious academics at Harvard and Yale, including Charles *Chauncy, for its appeals to emotionalism. Great Schism (1378-1417). This major rift in Roman Catholic church unity was called the Great Schism because two and then three rival popes claimed absolute authority in the church at the same time. Gregory XI, the last of the Avignon popes (see Babylonian Captivity), restored the papacy to Rome and then mysteriously died in 1378. His successor, Urban VI, was elected by the College of Cardinals and proved to be an active reformer but also exhibited erratic and bizarre behavior. A group of French *cardinals withdrew from Rome and elected their own “anti Pope,” Clement VII, who chose to set up his court in Avignon once again. This move created a church split along national lines. In an effort to resolve this embarrassing and divisive scandal, the *Council of Pisa was called in 1409, and a third pope, Alexander V, was elected, only to find that the other two pontiffs refused to step

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down. Finally, a general council of all Western bishops met in the *Council of Constance (1414-1418), and after securing the resignations of the three standing popes, appointed Pope Martin V to restore unity and order in the church in 1417. See also Schism of 1054 (sometimes also called the Great Schism). Grebel, Conrad (c. 1498-1526). Leader of the Swiss Brethren, an early group of *Anabaptists that arose in Zurich in the 1520s, Grebel was from a prominent local family. Educated in a humanist tradition at Vienna, Basel and Paris, and an early follower of *Zwingli, Grebel joined a group of men who advocated a strict separation from all ungodliness. The Swiss Brethren advocated *believers’ baptism and pacificism. In 1525, Grebel baptized a fellow Anabaptist adult who had been baptized as an infant. As the Zurich Council instituted laws against the Anabaptists, Grebel was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. He escaped and fled Zurich but soon died of the plague in his twenty-eighth year. Gregory I (c. 540-604). Known as “the Great,” Gregory I has been classified as the first medieval pope and clearly one of the most influential shapers of the Latin church in the early medieval era. Before becoming the bishop of Rome in 590, Gregory liquidated his vast family inheritance and worked tirelessly to aid the poor and to establish six monasteries in Sicily before becoming a monk himself in his seventh establishment in Rome. Using powerful gifts of administration, personal charisma and preaching, Gregory promoted Christian missions, collected and organized the chants of the church which bear his name, brought financial order to the Vatican, made peace with the Lombards, and wrote extensive works of biblical exposition, theology and *hagiography. He was especially influential in promoting and refining the emerging doctrine of *purgatory in the West. Gregory VII, St. (ruled 1073-1085). Born Hildebrand c. 1033, the man who was to become one of the most powerful popes of all time entered church life as a monk in Italy. His gifts of administration and shrewd political savvy made his advice indispensable to popes Gregory VI, Leo IX and Nicholas II. When his predecessor, Alexander II, died in 1073, Hildebrand was elected pope and became Gregory VII. In 1075, Gregory issued a decree forbidding lay investiture (the appointment of high

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church office by laymen, albeit political rulers of the highest order), which touched off a long struggle with Emperor Henry IV. Gregory’s famous papal bull, Dictatus papae, claimed the power to depose emperors. Gregory of Nazianzus, St. (c. 329-c. 390). One of the great preachers of the fourth-century church, Gregory was numbered among the three great *Cappadocian fathers who spoke and wrote with such power at the *Council of Constantinople in attacking *Arianism. After studies in Athens, where he met and befriended *Basil, Gregory became a monk, but was called out of seclusion to be ordained in 362 and a decade later was consecrated bishop. His most important writings are Five Theological Orations, one of which is a key work on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Gregory of Nyssa, St. (c. 330-c. 395). The younger brother of *Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa was one of the three influential *Cappadocian fathers who helped to define orthodoxy at the *Council of Canstantinople (381). Gregory rose in the church from monk to ordained priest and was consecrated bishop of Nyssa in 371. Renowned for his preaching and exegetical writings, Gregory produced numerous doctrinal treatises, including works on the virtues and blessings of virginity, the Trinity and the Holy Spirit. Gross Münster. This Romanesque church in Zurich was the center for the Reformation in German-speaking Switzerland under Ulrich *Zwingli in the early sixteenth century. Gross Münster means the “great minister.” Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645). A Dutch humanist theologian and jurist, Grotius wrote with passion and elegance against senseless wars, which in his day were often fought on religious grounds. Grotius rebelled against the *Calvinism so prevalent in his native Holland and wrote Resolution for Peace in the Church in 1619 as well as Annotations on the New Testament between 1641 and 1650. Gutenberg, Johannes (c. 1396-1468). A Mainz goldsmith, Gutenberg was a creative inventor who perfected a mold to cast movable type and a press for use in printing. His first books came off the press in the mid-1450s, and in 1461 he finished the famous Gutenberg Bible. Gutenberg’s inventions dramatically reduced the cost of book production and became a major stimulus to literacy, education and critical scholarship. See also printing with movable type.

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hagiography. From the Greek word hagios, meaning “saint,” hagiography is literature about saints, especially about martyrdom. In the early church period, Christians honored martyrs killed during the first three centuries of persecution by offering prayers at their graves, making pilgrimages to those sites and naming certain days of the church calendar for the saints. The *relics, or bodily remains of the saints, including clothing, instruments of torture and other related items, were sought after for their healing powers. In time, the saints in heaven were seen as intercessors who could hear and respond to the prayers of the living and pray on their behalf. The manner of death a martyr suffered had special bearing on the types of prayers directed to a given saint. People who write about the lives of saints are called hagiographers or martyrologists. Half-Way Covenant. In the mid-seventeenth century, Puritan Congregationalist leaders wrestled with the difficult question of whether second-generation American *Puritans who were baptized as children but had never evidenced Christian conversion could bring their children for baptism. After long and acrimonious debate, it was resolved that a compromise Half-Way Covenant would be established in which the children would be baptized but would not be allowed to receive the Lord’s Supper or vote until as adults they gave evidence of conversion. Hamilton, Patrick (c. 1504-1528). One of Scotland’s earliest Protestants, Hamilton came across Luther’s writings while a student in Paris. In 1527 he journeyed to Wittenberg and met both *Luther and *Melanchthon before returning to his homeland. His preaching and advocacy for reform drew criticism and censure. At St. Andrews, then the ecclesial capital of Scotland, Archbishop James Beaton charged him with heresy, and he was burned at the stake on February 29. Harvard College (founded 1636). The first school of higher education in North America, Harvard College was established for the express purpose of training Congregational clergymen for the colonies. Named after the Reverend John Harvard, who provided in his will for its foundation by a monetary gift and the bequest of

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his library, Harvard was shaped in structure and curriculum by its first true president, Henry *Dunster. In due course, Harvard grew away from its *Puritan roots and became a world-famous university and a bastion for progressive thought. Haystack Prayer Meeting (1806). Eight Williams College (western Massachusetts) students led by Samuel J. Mills met regularly for prayer in a grove of trees near the campus. In August of 1806, five of those undergraduates were caught in a thunderstorm while returning from their prayer meeting and took refuge in the lee of a haystack. While waiting for the storm to abate, they felt drawn to prayer, and when they finished, each of them felt called to foreign missions service. Historians of Christian missions date the start of the American foreign missionary movement to that gathering. Heidelberg Confession (1562). An early Protestant catechism written by two theologians, Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, in consultation with the University of Heidelberg theology faculty, this confession of faith became a doctrinal standard primarily in Holland and Britain. It is Reformed in tone (*Calvinistic) and was influenced in parts by Zurich reformer Heinrich *Bullinger. Helena (c. 255-c. 330). The mother of *Constantine, the first Christian emperor of Rome, Helena was the wife of Constantius Chlorus. After the emperor’s conversion to Christianity in 312, she became, with her famous son, a generous and energetic promoter of the growing church. In 326 she made a celebrated trip to the Holy Land in search of sacred *relics and was said to have discovered the true cross and the crown of thorns worn by Christ on Calvary. Helwys, Thomas (c. 1550-c. 1616). An early English Baptist, Helwys returned to England after a sojourn in Holland, where he had joined a separatist community. In 1612 he founded the first General Baptist congregation near London. Henry VIII (1491-1547). The second Tudor monarch to rule England, Henry, the son of Henry VII and father of *Edward VI, *Mary Tudor and *Elizabeth I, shaped the developing Church of England during his tumultuous reign. Foiled by the Roman pope in his desire to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, Henry officially broke from the church with the *Act of Supremacy

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in 1534 and established the *Anglican church with the reigning monarch at its head. Although he remained a Catholic doctrinally, and attempted to repress Reformation ideas and literature in the land, his suppressions of monasteries and appointment of Thomas *Cranmer as the archbishop of Canterbury greatly aided the cause of reform. Henry, Carl F. H. (1913-2003). Leading evangelical theologian Carl F. H. Henry rose from German immigrant roots in New York to become the first editor of Christianity Today in 1955. Converted at age twenty, Henry went to Wheaton College in Illinois and to Northern Baptist Seminary in Chicago, where he received a Th.D. in 1942. Six years later, he joined the original faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. A year before coming to Fuller, Henry had published The Uneasy Conscience of Modern *Fundamentalism, a call for evangelicals to engage in social and political aspects of life. From Fuller, Henry assumed the editorship at Christianity Today, a position he held until 1968. Three years later he published his major theological work, God, Revelation and Authority, in six volumes. Henry retired in 1978 after serving World Vision for four years as a lecturer at large. See also Fuller, Charles E. Hexapla (literally “sixfold”). The Hexapla was a masterful work of *textual criticism for its time, authored by the *Alexandrian scholar *Origen. By placing the Hebrew text of the Old Testament in a column next to a Greek transliteration of the same, followed by four Greek translations, including the Septuagint, a reader could compare one verse or passage in the six text versions. higher criticism. This discipline is a subcategory of *biblical criticism that deals with issues of the authorship, dating, transmission and historicity of a biblical text. Higher critical views began to emerge in the nineteenth century and were popularized by Julius *Wellhausen’s History of Israel, in which he articulated the documentary hypothesis of the origins of the Pentateuch. Hobart, John Henry (1775-1830). A key Episcopal leader in early nineteenth-century America, Hobart was consecrated bishop of New York in 1816. He quickly became the champion of the high church movement within Episcopalianism, emphasizing the value of liturgy in worship and the importance of apostolic succes-

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sion for ministry in the true church. Hodge, Archibald Alexander (1820-1886). A Presbyterian theologian and son of Princeton Seminary president Charles *Hodge, A. A. Hodge was an advocate for classic *Calvinism at Western Seminary in Allegheny (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) before joining the Princeton Seminary faculty in 1877. At Princeton he became the principal of the seminary and joined with like-minded colleagues to buttress the emerging *fundamentalist movement in America. His two most enduring works were Outlines of Theology and The Atonement. See also Alexander, Archibald. Hodge, Charles (1797-1878). Professor of theology and president of Princeton Seminary, Hodge left an indelible imprint upon modern American Presbyterian theology. Hodge is probably best known for his Systematic Theology. He also founded the scholarly journal The Princeton Review. Hodge’s advocacy for the inerrancy of Scripture and numerous articles in The Review played a significant role in the development of the early *fundamentalist movement. Holiness churches. Holiness is a general term describing a number of Protestant groups that emphasize a second work of grace in Christian sanctification. Following conversion, known as the first work of grace, the Holiness tradition teaches that believers can receive a second grace to achieve victory over the power of sin in their lives. Some in the Holiness tradition, like Phoebe *Palmer, held that entire sanctification was possible. Methodist Holiness revivalist Charles F. *Parham, who inaugurated *Pentecostalism in 1901, brought holiness into that tradition. Parham’s student, William J. *Seymour, brought it to the *Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles in 1906, and it spread to most charismatic groups from there. The largest Holiness body, the Church of the Nazarene, founded by Phineas F. Bresee in 1895, maintained a holiness emphasis but rejected speaking in tongues as a sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Hooker, Richard (c. 1553-1600). The leading *apologist for the Elizabethan Settlement in England, also known as the *via media, or “middle way,” Hooker was to have a marked influence on the Church of England for centuries to come. Educated at Oxford, where he later served as a professor of Hebrew, Hooker gave up the university upon his ordination. As master of the temple in

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London, he began a series of eloquent sermons in 1585 spoken in defense of the Church of England against Puritan attacks. In the same year, he published A Learned Discourse of Justification, Works, and How the Foundation of Faith Is Overthrown. In this work Hooker argued that Roman Catholics could be saved despite not fully grasping the meaning of *justification by faith. Hooker urged that the unity of the Christian church should be grounded on what unites all Christians, not on what divides them. In 1594 he released his magnum opus, Treatise on the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, which promoted a complex theory of the foundational nature of natural law. See also Elizabeth I. Hooker, Thomas (1586-1647). A student of Puritan theologian William *Ames, Hooker was exiled to Holland by the English archbishop *Laud in 1630. There he ministered to an English nonconformist church in Delft. In 1633 he immigrated to New England, where he played a key role in early colonial church controversies, including the rejection of Roger *Williams’s critique of Puritanism and the trial of Anne *Hutchinson. Hopkins, Samuel (1721-1803). An influential Congregational minister and theologian, Hopkins was a pastor in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, before moving to Newport, Rhode Island. There Hopkins laid the foundation for what would later be called the New England Theology with his highly influential work The System of Doctrines Contained in Divine Revelation (1793). One of his underlying ideas was that sin is, at its root, human selfishness. God’s work upon the heart of a Christian is meant to produce a “disinterested benevolence,” or pervasive goodwill, toward all people. On the practical side, Hopkins was one of the first Christian leaders in America to denounce slavery as a moral evil. Hubmaier, Balthasar (c. 1480-1528). An early *Anabaptist in southern Germany, Hubmaier was influenced by the Swiss Brethren of Zurich. Earning a doctoral degree from the University of Ingolstadt, Hubmaier was one of the most highly educated of early Anabaptists. His main ministry was in the town of Waldshut, Austria, first as a parish priest then as a Protestant pastor and civic reformer. He was persecuted and fled to Bohemia, where he was arrested and turned over to Austrian authorities, who demanded his extradition. Hubmaier was taken to Vienna and

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burned at the stake as a heretic. Huguenots. In the sixteenth century, French Reformed Protestants were known as Huguenots. The earliest group was established at Meaux in 1546 and experienced exponential growth within twenty years, expanding to over two thousand congregations by 1561. This sudden growth, together with the rising intolerance of France’s ruling elite, led to the horrific *St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572, which began an anti-Protestant blood bath that lasted for six weeks and resulted in over thirty thousand deaths. In 1598, the *Edict of Nantes gave Huguenots limited security and new civil rights. humanism. An intellectual and educational movement which developed markedly in the fifteenth century, humanism sought to discover and recover the best ideas, virtues and examples of classical Greek and Roman literature and bring them to bear upon a new “golden age” about to dawn in western Europe. To expedite this program, humanism emphasized the need to read classical literature in the original languages. Humanism was to some degree stimulated by *Islamic threats upon the Greek peninsula that resulted in a flow of ancient Greek documents and scholars into southern Italian centers of learning. In the sixteenth century, a Christian or biblical humanism sought to recover the essence of early Christian thought and put special emphasis on reading the New Testament in Greek and the early church fathers. Humanist Manifesto (1933). The twentieth-century American movement known as scientific *humanism formally outlined its views in the Humanist Manifesto. Significantly influenced by philosopher John Dewey, this document, signed by over thirty leading scientists, educators and philosophers, was a call to establish a secular religion that would place faith not in God but rather in scientific method. Hus, Jan (Huss, John) (c. 1372-1414). A Bohemian reformer and chancellor of the University of Prague, Hus came under the influence of the writings of John *Wyclif and began a translation of the Bible into Czech. This, along with his preaching, which questioned the legitimacy of papal authority and the selling of *indulgences, led to a growing antipathy between Hus and Rome.

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Summoned to the *Council of Constance, Hus was arrested, tried, condemned and burned at the stake in 1414. Many of his ideas about church reform were echoed by Martin *Luther a century later. Hutchinson, Anne (1591-1643). An English immigrant to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634, Hutchinson’s theological views and forthright criticism of John Wilson, Congregational minister of the Boston Church, led to her famous trial. Hutchinson held to the doctrine of the “*inner light,” in which the Holy Spirit bears direct witness to the spirit of an individual Christian, resulting in short-term prophecy and illumination of the biblical text. She also disavowed infant baptism. Charged with *antinomianism, Hutchinson was exiled along with her husband and children. The entire family was wiped out in an attack by Native Americans in New York. Hutterites. The followers of *Moravian *Anabaptist leader Jacob Hutter (d. 1536), the Hutterites are renowned for industry, communalism, the doctrine of divine vocation, and the sharing of goods and resources. Hutter taught that the love that God seeks to see engendered on earth cannot flourish in tandem with the accumulation of wealth and property by individuals. Severely persecuted in the late sixteenth century, the Hutterites experienced a resurgence in the nineteenth century and now number between forty and fifty thousand people, who reside mainly in the American Midwest and western Canada.

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icon. From the Greek word for “image,” the technical meaning of icon in church history is a flat picture of any size depicting Christ, Mary or the saints and painted in a distinctive Byzantine style to promote worship and veneration. Icons were used widely by Christians in the medieval period and are particularly identified with the Eastern Orthodox Church. Ignatius (c. 35-c. 107). An influential *apostolic father and bishop of Antioch, Ignatius was probably the second or third person to hold that office. He wrote seven letters that have been preserved, addressed to Christians living in Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles,

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Rome, Philadelphia and Smyrna, as well as a personal epistle to a fellow bishop, *Polycarp of Smyrna. Ignatius was devoted to Christ and longed to follow him in every way, including martyrdom. In his letter to the Romans, he extolled the virtues of martyrdom and considered it a special privilege to die for the faith. Concerned with the *Gnostic heresy and especially *docetism, Ignatius argued that Christ was both fully divine and completely human. He was a strong advocate for the authority of bishops, which he saw as essential for maintaining the unity of the church. Ten soldiers escorted Ignatius from Antioch to Rome, where he was martyred during the reign of Emperor *Trajan. According to tradition, he died in the Coliseum. Ignatius of Loyola, St. (c. 1491-1556). The founder of the *Jesuits (the Society of Jesus), Ignatius of Loyola began a journey of discipleship after sustaining a grave wound to his leg in battle. While recovering, he experienced a profound change of heart and began to develop insights into the spiritual life while in retreat at Manresa. He then pursued theological studies and was ordained. His book *Spiritual Exercises became the training manual for the new monastic order, founded in 1540, which was dedicated to the service of the pope. Organized along military lines, the first “general” of the Jesuits was Ignatius. immaculate conception. This doctrine asserts that the Mary was kept free from any taint of original sin from the instant of her conception. Many Fathers in the early church, such as *Justin Martyr and *Irenaeus, saw Mary as the new Eve. It was argued that only a sinless vessel could give birth to a sinless savior. This view was never endorsed by the Orthodox church and was denied in the Western church by many Scholastic theologians, including *Thomas Aquinas. Nevertheless, in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus of 1854, issued by Pope Pius IX, the immaculate conception of Mary became official dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. This view is not affirmed by most Protestant denominations. Index of Prohibited Books. The *Catholic reformation of the sixteenth century took steps to reform abuses in the church and also to counter the spread of heresy, schism and immorality, and especially Protestantism. To this end, the Vatican issued a periodically updated list of books to be shunned by Roman Catholics. Includ-

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ed among these forbidden works were the writings of the major reformers like *Luther and *Calvin and also scientific works that ran counter to established church tradition, as was the case with the writings of *Copernicus and *Galileo. indulgences. A major controversy of the Reformation era involved the sale of indulgences that, it was believed, could shorten the time a Christian would have to spend in *purgatory. In the sixteenth century an indulgence could be granted under the auspices of the pope, usually in exchange for a gift of money or land, to reduce the penalty of the “temporal consequences of sin,” i.e., unfulfilled penances. Martin *Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses focused mainly on the theological problems attendant to the sale of indulgences. inner light. A doctrine advanced by certain *Anabaptist groups of the sixteenth century, as well as *Quakers and others like Puritan Anne *Hutchinson, the inner light was a special personal revelation of the Holy Spirit to the heart of a believer. The recipient of the inner light might be blessed with short-term prophecy or a special illumination of Scripture. Anne Hutchinson predicted accurately the day her ship would arrive in the New World and attributed that to the inner light. Innocent III (r. 1198-1216). Born Lotario de’ Conti di Segni, the man who at thirty-eight years of age became Innocent III was one of the most powerful popes of the medieval era. He was elected bishop of Rome even before his ordination as a priest or consecration as a bishop. His skills as an administrator led to major reforms in the Roman Curia. Convinced that the church desperately needed one authority on earth under Christ, Innocent III used the papal interdict to bring kings and emperors to their knees in submission. He also instituted the *Inquisition against heretics and schematics in southern France. Inquisition. Beginning in the thirteenth century under the leadership of Pope *Innocent III, the church in the West began a campaign to root out heresy and schismatics through a system of mobile church courts that became known as the Inquisition. In later centuries, major inquisitions were conducted against witches, Jews, Muslims and, in the sixteenth century, Protestants. Often led by Dominican monks who served as inquisitors, the various inquisitions had the legal power to arrest, imprison, try and ex-

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ecute suspected heretics. See Spanish Inquisition. Investiture Controversy (1075-1122). This controversy was a bitter struggle between popes and secular rulers over the issue of investiture, or who had the right to select and appoint archbishops, bishops, abbots and priests. In 1075 Pope *Gregory VII ruled that any churchman invested by a layman, for example an emperor or king, would be *excommunicated. Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV opposed the papal ruling and set up a major confrontation between the powers of church and state. The emperor was brought to his knees, quite literally, before Pope Gregory. The Concordat of Worms finally settled the controversy in 1122. The compromise reached allowed the king to invest bishop or abbot with secular powers over the land he ruled, but the pope alone granted ecclesial authority. Irenaeus, St. (c. 130-200). One of the greatest Christian theologians of the second century, Irenaeus was born in Asia Minor but ministered and ruled as bishop in Lyons, southern Gaul (modern-day France). His major extant work, titled Against Heresies, contains a scathing attack on Valentinian *Gnosticism. In contrast to the secret knowledge of the Gnostics, Irenaeus argued that the Scriptures were clear and open to all who would seek to know. He stressed the “natural” sense of Scripture that would never contradict the “*rule of faith” or the living tradition of the apostles. Irenaeus’ *recapitulation theory of the atonement argued that Adam’s moral development as the head of humanity was stunted by the Fall. In his incarnation, Christ became a second Adam to recapitulate Adam’s ideal development and furnish humanity with a model of perfect humanity, as well as a redeeming savior. Islam. The third great monotheistic religion, Islam was well established in Arabia by the time its founder *Muhammad died in 632. The century that followed saw Islam, driven by military conquest, sweep from Mecca to Persia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, across Northern Africa, and up through Spain. The Qur’an (Koran) and the Sunna compose the holy books of Islam, and Muslims believe the former to have been revealed to the prophet by Allah. Islam continued to expand both to the east and to the west and, by the mid-fifteenth century, was threatening eastern Europe.

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James I (1566-1625). The first Stuart king of England and also monarch of Scotland, James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her husband, Lord Henry Darnley. James was known for his theory on the divine right of kings, the idea that to oppose a sovereign was to go against the will of God because God had brought that monarch to power. Because their king was raised (and ruling) in Protestant Scotland, England’s *Puritans looked to James for the support they did not get from *Elizabeth I. In that hope, they were bitterly disappointed. The king, according to law the head of the church in England, became increasingly hostile to Puritan demands, although he did support their new translation of the Bible into English in 1611, the King James Bible. Jarratt, Devereux (1733-1801). One of the few colonial *Anglican revivalists during the American *Great Awakening, Jarratt was ordained in 1763 and became the rector of the church in Bath, Virginia. His low-church views made him unpopular with his fellow churchmen but warmly accepted by Methodists. He parted company with the Methodists when they formally broke with the Anglican church. Jehovah’s Witnesses. Originally known as the Millennial Dawnists and the Russellites, after their founder Charles T. *Russell (1852-1916), the Christian sect of Jehovah’s Witnesses draws its name from Isaiah 43:10. Russell, a former Congregationalist and early leader of the YMCA, became fascinated with biblical prophecy, the Great Tribulation and the book of Revelation. Rejecting the orthodox view of the Trinity, Russell taught that Christ was an archangel. Witnesses propagated their faith through literature distribution in association with Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society (now known as Watchtower Bible and Tract Society), which was founded by Russell in Pittsburgh. See also millennialism. Jeremiad (seventeenth cent.). A uniquely American religious service and sermon type deeply rooted in Puritan *covenant theology, the Jeremiad was named after the weeping prophet of Israel, Jeremiah. Often preceded by days of prayer and fasting, the Jeremiad was a day-long service of exhortation on the types and evils of sin and the need for corporate and personal confession. This

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cathartic event was motivated by the conviction that God disciplined not only individuals for unconfessed sin but also churches and whole communities. Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymous Sophronius), St. (c. 348-c. 420). Famous as the translator of the *Latin Vulgate version of the Bible, Jerome was clearly the greatest Bible translator of his age. Born in Dalmatia and educated in Rome, Jerome entered church life as a monk near Antioch. While living in isolation, he added Hebrew to his knowledge of Greek and Latin. In 382 Damasus, bishop of Rome, persuaded him to come out of his hermit’s cave and begin work on the Latin version of the Bible, which he finished soon after 405. Jerome, with his expertise in Hebrew and Greek, was the obvious choice for such a project. He wrote commentaries on numerous books of the Bible, entered into the debate on the *canon of Holy Scripture and educated nuns in Rome. Toward the end of his life, he founded a monastery near Bethlehem. Jesuits (Society of Jesus). A dynamic monastic order started in the mid-sixteenth century by the Spaniard *Ignatius of Loyola, the Jesuit movement became one of the most powerful and effective forces used by the Roman church to counter the gains of Protestantism. Answering directly to the pope, Jesuit monks maintained strict, almost military discipline. They served primarily as educators and missionaries, most famously represented by *Francis Xavier, who ministered in Asia. Jesuits accompanied explorers in the Americas and established an extensive network of schools and libraries in North America. Joachim of Fiore (c. 1132-1202). A mystic Italian monk and abbot, Joachim founded the monastery of Fiore as a Cistercian establishment. His focus on the book of Revelation, especially Revelation 14:6, led to a radical scheme for world history divided into three ages. The first, the Age of the Father, was roughly equivalent to the time of the law of Moses. The second, the Age of the Son, began with the New Testament and lasted for forty-two generations. Finally, the Age of the Spirit, which he felt would begin in 1260, would be marked by love and peace on earth. His views were at odds with official church teaching and were condemned by Pope Alexander IV.

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John Chrysostom (c. 347-407). Known as Chrysostom the “golden-mouthed” due to his rhetorical prowess and powerful voice, John rose to be consecrated the bishop of Constantinople and was later dubbed doctor of the church. He began his life in the church as a hermit before becoming a *deacon then an ordained priest with a special commission to preach in Antioch. John was a member of the *Antiochene school of interpretation and stood against the subjective *allegorization of Scripture popular in his day. The end of his career as bishop was tragically marred by a conflict with the Empress Eudoxia that resulted in his exile and death. John of Damascus, St. (c. 675-c. 749). Often regarded as the last great Eastern Orthodox theologian, John, raised in Damascus, became a monk at forty years of age in Palestine. His key work, The Fount of Wisdom, was a synthesis of Orthodox thinking on philosophy, true faith and heresy. John is famous for defending the use of *icons in private devotion and public worship. In the divisive iconoclastic controversy, he wrote On the Divine Images: Three Apologies Against Those Who Attack the Holy Images. John of Leyden (1510-1536). John of Leyden was the leader of the radical, militant Münsterite *Anabaptist group that seized the northern German town of Münster and attempted to establish a kingdom of saints. Awaiting the return of Christ to Münster and the commencement of a thousand-year reign of peace on earth, John established a Christian realm marked by socialism and polygamy. He ruled as interim king. When the city was taken by a joint Catholic and Lutheran army, John was executed along with his wife, Divara, and his bones were raised in a cage on the side of the *cathedral, ending the Münsterite movement. Judson, Adoniram (1788-1850). The first American foreign missionary, Judson was a graduate of Brown University and Andover Seminary. As a member of the Congregational Church, he campaigned effectively for establishing the *American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1810). En route from Boston to India, Judson came to the conclusion that infant baptism was not biblical and subsequently lost the financial support of the Congregationalists. Baptists in America heeded the call to support him financially. His intended work in India was hampered by the

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outbreak of the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States. Taking the advice of the English missionary William *Carey, Judson began to minister in Burma, where he worked for the rest of his career in various capacities. Julian of Norwich (c. 1342-c. 1413). In 1377 Julian, a recluse who lived most of her adult life in a room attached to St. Julian’s Church in Norwich, England, received sixteen revelations over a two-day period. Her reflections upon those “showings,” as she called them, resulted in a work published some twenty years later, Revelations of Divine Love. The key themes in her writings are the passion of Christ and the true nature of the Holy Trinity. Recent interest has been generated by her musings on “Christ as Mother” and “God as Mother.” Julian the Apostate (c. 331-363). The nephew of Roman emperor *Constantine the Great, Julian assumed the imperial throne in 361. Raised as an *Arian Christian, Julian drifted into paganism and worked diligently to restore temples and the worship of traditional Roman gods. A man of scholarship and *ascetic discipline, Julian was the only non-Christian emperor after Constantine I. justification by faith. A Pauline emphasis (Ephesians 2:8-9) that became a major theme of the Protestant Reformation, justification by faith is the doctrine that salvation from sin, being declared righteous by God, is available to humanity through faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Justin Martyr, St. (c. 100-c. 165). One of the most prominent Christian *apologists of the second century, Justin, born in Samaria, studied classics and especially *Plato before his conversion. Continuing to wear the robes of a philosopher, Justin led schools in Ephesus and Rome. He took an inclusive view toward divine revelation and human wisdom and looked for the truth of God not only in the Bible but also in the best of human philosophy. His best-known works are Apology and Dialogue with Trypho. Justin focused his exegetical talents on Old Testament prophecy fulfilled in the Gospel records. Justinian I (483-565). Ruling the Byzantine Empire for thirty-eight years, Justinian’s great focus as emperor was the restoration of imperial greatness in the wake of the fall of Rome in the mid-fifth century. His remarkably productive reign included (1) introduc-

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ing an updated and highly organized legal system, dubbed the Corpus juris civilis, that among other things advanced civil religion with new laws against Jews, pagans and heretics; (2) reconquering lands in Africa recently lost to the *Vandals; and (3) promoting and financing a public building program of unmatched excellence crowned by the construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. When that massive basilica was completed in a brief ten years, Justinian is reported to have said, “Solomon, I have surpassed you.”

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Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804). A Prussian philosopher who would have a profound impact upon German rationalist thought, Kant rose from poverty in Königsberg, where he graduated from the university in 1740 with a degree in theology. Although he never left Prussia, his influence was immense on the issue of the place of reason and divine revelation. Two of his most influential works, Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Practical Reason, show the impact of Scottish thinker David Hume in shaping his thought. In ethics, Kant’s “categorical imperative” argued that in every significant moral decision, the individual should ask, “Would I affirm that my resolution of the issue at hand become a universal rule for similar situations?” This reasoning is based upon a conviction that the human mind can discern the “oughtness” of things through reason. Kierkegaard, Søren (1813-1855). Often called the father of existentialist philosophy, Kierkegaard was a native of Denmark and lived most of his life in Copenhagen. In rebellion against the pietism of his youth, he immersed himself in Hegelian philosophy while in college and fell into an immoral lifestyle. At twentyfive, Kierkegaard experienced conversion and began theological study. A broken engagement and subsequent bouts with severe depression led to a two-year stay in Berlin, which began a rich period of literary output, including Philosophical Fragments (1844), Stages of Life’s Way (1845), The Sickness unto Death (1849) and Attack upon Christendom (1855). Kierkegaard rejected both Hegel and Immanuel *Kant as guides in his quest for true meaning in

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life. He argued that real life is found in ethical action, which is more important than intuition, emotion or rationality. This truth dooms one to despair, however, in that as flawed creatures, we all fail ethically. That despair drives us to Jesus Christ, the God-man who transcends the finite. King James Version (1611). Named after the newly crowned Stuart king, *James I, who funded its production, the King James Version became a beloved English Bible soon after its publication in 1611. Motivated by a Puritan desire for an accurate text of Scripture, the Authorized Version, as it was also known, was not a fresh translation but a revision of the Bishop’s Bible of 1568, done by about fifty scholars using the best Hebrew and Greek texts available. In tone and style, it reflects the earlier English translations of William *Tyndale and John *Wyclif. King, Martin Luther, Jr. (1929-1968). His historic speech “I Have a Dream,” delivered in 1963, perhaps best epitomizes African American Baptist minister and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s quest for racial integration achieved through nonviolent confrontation. His theological training was at Crozer Seminary, where King graduated in 1951. Four years later he earned a Ph.D. from Boston University. His first church was in Montgomery, Alabama, where he led a highly visible bus boycott that made him a national figure. King became the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and as such led prayer vigils, boycotts and protests of various kinds, including marches on Washington, D.C. The two crowning legislative achievements of his life were the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed one year later. King was assassinated in April 1968 as he supported a refuse workers’ strike in Memphis, Tennessee. Kino, Eusebio (1644-1711). Born in Italy and shaped by the Jesuit Order of monks, Eusebio Kino was a highly educated man with university training in Austria, Germany and Spain. His destiny as a missionary-explorer took him far west to the barren sands of what is now Arizona, where he preached the gospel, baptized an estimated four thousand Native Americans, built missions and mapped the region, based on no fewer than forty expeditions. Eusebio’s San Xavier del Bac Mission still stands near Tucson, Arizona.

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Knights Templar (founded 1119). A military order, the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was founded during the Great *Crusades to protect Christian pilgrims traveling to and from the Holy Land. The Templars’ name derives from being housed on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Originally a Benedictine Order, the Templars became independent, with allegiance to the pope in Rome alone. The order spread, especially in Europe, and acquired massive land holdings and great wealth, becoming in effect a lending institution. In 1305 Phillip the Fair of France brought charges of heresy, blasphemy and sodomy against the Templars. The *Inquisition was called upon to collect evidence to support such charges and employed torture to do so. Pope Clement V formally suppressed the Templars in 1312 at the Council of Vienne. Knox, John (c. 1513-1572). Scottish Protestant reformer Knox was born in Haddington, East Lothian, and educated at the University of Glasgow and possibly at the University of St. Andrews. Although a Roman Catholic by training, Knox was won over to the Protestant faith by martyr George Wishar, and identified with the rebels who killed Archbishop Beaton and took over his palace in St. Andrews. Captured by the French, Knox was released and made his way to England and then to Geneva, where he pastored an English congregation and came under the sway of John *Calvin. Returning to Edinburgh in 1559, Knox became the chief Scottish reformer of the sixteenth century through his preaching in St. Giles *Cathedral and administrative work in fashioning a Scottish creed. Kuyper, Abraham (1837-1920). A strong advocate of classic *Calvinism in the Dutch Reformed Church, Kuyper ministered as a pastor, a churchman and a member of Parliament, and for four years, he served as the prime minister of the Netherlands. Kuyper was committed first and last to the absolute sovereignty of God in the history of humankind. As a student at Leiden University, he caught a vision for restoring the Dutch Reformed Church to conform to the doctrinal formulations of the *Synod of Dort. An impediment to that end, he felt, was state influence over the appointment of university professorships. To remedy the situation, Kuyper promoted the founding of The Free University of Amster-

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dam in 1880. Finally, Kuyper withdrew from the state church and united with the Free Church movement. He became a member of Parliament and in 1874 a leader in the lower house, the StatesGeneral. Kuyper was the Stone Lecturer at Princeton in 1898; his lectures were published under the title Calvinism.

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last rites. See extreme unction. Lateran Council, Fourth (1215). Assembled by Pope *Innocent III in Rome, a great council of the church met in the Lateran Palace to deal with heresy and to codify sound Catholic doctrine. It was the twelfth ecumenical council (as reckoned by the Latin church) and one of the greatest in terms of churchmen attending, including 71 patriarchs and *metropolitans led by the patriarch of Constantinople, 412 bishops, and over 900 abbots and priors. All were summoned to the Lateran Palace in Rome and presented with seventy canons already drawn up by the pope. The work of the delegates was to ratify those theological and ecclesiastical pronouncements. The first canon dealt with the sacrament of Eucharist, and it was in 1215 that the term transubstantiation was first used to describe the transition from bread and wine into the very body and blood of Jesus Christ. Innocent’s canons condemned false teachers like *Joachim of Fiore and instituted procedures and penalties against heretics and schismatics. The pope’s fourth canon urged the Eastern church to reunite with Rome, and his fifth stated that the primacy of the pope should be recognized by all Christians. Lateran Councils. The Lateran Palace in Rome was the seat of five ecumenical councils of the Roman Catholic Church from the twelfth through the sixteenth centuries. The First Lateran (1123) helped to end the *Investiture Controversy. The Second Lateran dealt with a minor schism in the church. The Third Lateran (1179) dealt with the election of the pope, restricting that election to at least two-thirds of the College of *Cardinals, and it also established that every *cathedral should found a school to train men for the priesthood. The *Fourth Lateran was called by Pope *Innocent III and codified the Eucharistic doctrine known as tran-

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substantiation. The Fifth Lateran (1512-1517) promoted minor reforms in the church on the eve of the Protestant Reformation. See also Lateran Council, Fourth. Latimer, Hugh (1485-1555). One of the most notable Protestant preachers of the early Tudor period, Latimer began university life at Cambridge as a staunch opponent of the Reformation. The testimony of Thomas Bilney led to Latimer’s conversion. His support of King *Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon began his rise in the *Anglican church. He became a royal chaplain and, after serving a pastorate in West Kington, was consecrated bishop of Worcester in 1535. Four years later, he resigned his episcopal see in protest over the *Six Articles of 1539. During the brief reign of *Edward VI, Latimer declined a bishopric in favor of preaching. In 1553, with the ascension of *Mary Tudor, Latimer was imprisoned for heresy. He languished in an Oxford jail and was burned at the stake in 1555 along with Nicholas Ridley. Latin Vulgate. The Christian scholar *Jerome, translating from Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, produced the Latin Vulgate version of Scripture in the early fifth century. This version of the complete Bible and *Apocrypha was destined to become the textus receptus (the received text) of the Roman Catholic Church. Beginning in 382 at the request of Damasus, bishop of Rome, Jerome finished the project shortly after 404. Laud, William (1573-1645). Rising both in academia as an Oxford scholar, fellow and university chancellor and in the church as a monk, priest and bishop, William Laud served as archbishop of Canterbury under King *Charles I. Known as an anti-Puritan, his “thorough policy” of liturgical reform proved to be very unpopular with the rising Puritan power in Parliament, and it was violently resisted in Scotland. Laud was impeached by the Long Parliament in 1641, and after a four-year incarceration in the Tower of London, he was executed on Tower Hill. Lefèvre d’Étaples, Jacques (Faber, Jacobus) (1455-1536). Prominent early French Christian humanist, Le Fevre studied classics in Paris and then completed his humanist training in Italy. An ordained priest and a monk, he became the librarian at the monastic library of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris. Le Fevre is known for making a French translation of the New Testament from Greek texts.

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Lent. Traditionally a fast in anticipation of Easter, the practice of keeping Lent began in the second century, although then it lasted for just three days. By the time of the *Council of Nicaea in 325, it was determined to be a forty-day fast in honor of Christ’s forty days in the wilderness. During this six-week period, just one simple meal was eaten, although the fast was broken on Sundays. From the ninth century on, especially in the Roman Catholic Church, Lent has become progressively more relaxed. As well as a time of fasting, Lent is a time of increased spiritual exercises and attention to the needs of the poor. Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (1729-1781). Clearly one of the most influential writers of the German Enlightenment and a formative voice for theological *liberalism, Lessing, the son of a Lutheran pastor, made his early mark as a playwright and drama critic. His efforts in editing the works of *Reimarus led to his eventual rejection of the historicity of the Bible. For Lessing, Christianity was at best an enlightened human moral system. His play Nathan der Weise epitomized these liberal virtues in its central character, Nathan, who was a kind, wise and tolerant Jew. Lessing’s key theological writing, Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts (The Education of Humankind) (1780), was followed by work on the origins of the Gospel narratives. liberalism. A term that has only become popular since the early nineteenth century, liberalism generally conveys an openness to nontraditional approaches in theology and political issues, but more broadly carries the connotation of optimism about the future and a confidence in change to bring about greater freedom and progress. Philosophically, liberalism is rooted in the developing rationalism of the Enlightenment. Today, the word liberal can be attached to the names of various groups, as in liberal Catholic, liberal Protestant and even liberal evangelical. liberation theology. Growing out of a Conference of Latin American Roman Catholic Bishops meeting in Medellín, Colombia, in 1968, liberation theology is rooted in the idea that Christian salvation must include and be based upon social, political and economic liberation. It seeks to develop a Christian faith from the perspective of the poor and oppressed. Peruvian theologian Gustavo Guitiérrez, who published A Theology of Liberation in 1971, is generally seen as a foundational thinker

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of the movement. Guitiérrez’s views are deeply influenced by the economic and sociological analyses of Karl Marx, and liberation theology seeks a fresh look at how the church may use socialism and communism to do the work of Christ. Often at serious odds with the Roman Catholic Church, liberation theologians like Leonardo Boff have been critically interrogated by the Vatican. Log College (founded c. 1726). Established as a training school for Presbyterian ministers in the American colonies by William *Tennent, the Log College, originally in Pennsylvania, was reorganized in 1746 and established as the College of New Jersey and, in due time, Princeton University. The men of the Log College, often called hot gospellers, were revivalist in orientation. Their success and growth led to the Old Side and New Side split in the Presbyterian Church. Lollards. In fourteenth-century England, the Lollards were the followers of John *Wyclif of Oxford University. Wyclif had advocated a vernacular English Bible and the importance of lay literacy. These two themes became defining principles for the Lollards. Though the Lollards were known for lay preaching, the English crown, especially Henry V in the early 1400s, associated the them with uprisings and rebellions and moved to suppress them. Lollardy became illegal after 1414, yet Lollards survived until being absorbed in the developing English Reformation of the early sixteenth century. lower criticism. See textual criticism. Luther, Martin (1483-1546). Born and raised in Saxony, in what is now northern Germany, Luther was educated in the University of Erfurt and headed for a career in law when in 1505 a summer thunderstorm changed the course of his life. He entered the Augustinian Order at Erfurt a short time later. Luther was ordained in 1507 and began a serious study of theology with an eye to teaching. A visit to Rome in 1510 troubled the monk deeply as he saw an affluent church showing signs of corruption. His appointment to the faculty of Wittenberg University gave him the freedom and a forum to search the Scriptures and begin his reforming work. While working on lectures, he came to understand that God’s grace was not to be earned by meritorious works but that Christ had finished the work of salvation, which was available by

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faith. In 1517, he posted his Ninety-Five Theses, calling the church to debate on the issue of *indulgences. This was followed by several writings directly challenging key points of Roman Catholic doctrine. In 1521, Luther was called before an imperial diet that met in the town of Worms, and he was pressured to recant. He would not, and after a brief sojourn at the Wartburg Castle, his work as a reformer moved into high gear. His marriage to a former nun, Katharina von *Bora, ended all connection with his life as a monk. Teaming up with Philipp *Melanchthon, a Greek professor at Wittenberg, Luther began to lay the foundations for Lutheranism. The two men wrote the *Augsburg Confession in 1530. See also Diet of Worms.

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Machen, J. Gresham (1881-1937). After a solid classics education at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Machen enrolled at Princeton Seminary in 1901. Upon graduation, he did advanced work in Germany before returning to the faculty at Princeton. The rest of his life was devoted to New Testament studies and teaching. At Princeton, Machen led the conservative faction of the faculty and was a central figure in the *fundamentalist versus modernist controversy. In 1923, he finished Christianity and Liberalism. He also wrote The Origins of Paul’s Religion (1921) and The Virgin Birth of Christ (1930). In 1929, he broke from Princeton and helped in founding Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Macrina the Younger, St. (c. 327-379). The eldest of ten children, Macrina is known best in the history of the early church as the devoted and godly sister of the *Cappadocian fathers *Basil the Great and *Gregory of Nyssa. Engaged to be married at age twelve, Macrina’s life’s course was altered by her fiancé’s sudden death. She refused other offers of marriage and devoted her time and energy to her family. When her mother died, Macrina led a small circle of Christian women in Pontus. Upon her death, her brother Gregory wrote a commemorative piece titled Peri psyches kai anastaseos (Dialogue on the Soul and Resurrection). Magna Mater. One of the dominant *mystery religions of ancient Phrygia in Asia Minor, the cult of the Magna Mater (the great

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mother) was also known as the Cult of Cybele, or Rhea. This ancient fertility figure was known in Rome by 200 b.c. Of special concern and interest to Christians, the cult honored a devotee of the Great Mother, one Attis, who died as the result of castrating himself to honor her. He was resurrected to become a god after three days in the tomb. Malleus maleficarum (The Hammer Against Female Witches) (1486). As a part of the inquisition against witches, Pope Innocent VIII in 1484 commissioned two Dominican monks, Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, to scour Europe, collecting information that might lead to the detection, arrest and execution of witches. The result of this investigation was the Malleus maleficarum, one of the best-selling books of the sixteenth century. Drawing upon folk theory regarding witchcraft, this work promoted spurious teachings about the nature of women. Manichaeism. A radical *Gnostic sect that grew quickly in the third and fourth centuries, especially in Egypt and Northern Africa, Manichaeism derives its name from Mani (c. 216-276), a Persian teacher. Akin to other Gnostic groups, the Manichaes held to a cosmic dualism; in this case, all things were composed of either light or darkness. These two forces were seen as locked in a cosmic struggle for dominance. The purpose of religious practice was to release light into the world and, by it, salvation. Followers of Mani assumed an ascetic lifestyle, including celibacy, abstinence from alcohol and the consumption of foods rich in seeds that were thought to contain light. *Augustine of Hippo was a member of a Manichaean sect in his youth but later broke from it and became a formidable opponent. See also asceticism. Marburg Colloquy (1529). A meeting between *Luther and *Zwingli intended to iron out differences and present a united Protestant front to the world, the Marburg Colloquy ended in discord. Called by Philip of Hesse to the neutral town of Marburg, Luther and Zwingli came with their respective entourages and participated in days of debate on key doctrinal issues. On fourteen out of fifteen points, they had substantial agreement, but on the matter of the presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, they could not agree and parted in bitterness.

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Marcella, St. (c. 325-411). The leader of the Roman Circle of women who were committed to the study of Scripture and to *ascetic practices, Marcella dedicated her villa on the Aventine Hill in Rome for this school. *Jerome found in the women of the Roman Circle eager and intelligent students who could grasp the grammatical complexities of Hebrew. Marcella became a nun in 360. She died in the aftermath of the sacking of Rome led by Alaric in 410. Marcion (d. 160). Known to Christian writers of the second century as the most notorious heretic of his time, Marcion of Pontus in Asia Minor was the son of a bishop who, according to tradition, *excommunicated him because of his immoral behavior. Marcion surfaced in Rome, where he built a sizable community around himself and began to proclaim a doctrine laced with *Gnostic elements. He denied that the God of the Old Testament, a God of harsh justice and divine wrath, was the same as the New Testament deity. Marcion is most famous for issuing for his followers, the Marcionites, a list of authentic books (later to be called a canon) that consisted of ten letters of Paul and the Gospel of Luke, from which the birth narrative of Christ was removed. He completely rejected the Old Testament as canonical. Marcion did not think that Christ was fully human but only appeared to be a man so that he could better communicate to believers. This early *Gnostic heresy was known as *docetism. See also canon of Holy Scripture. Marian exiles. During the brief reign of *Mary Tudor as queen of England (1553-1557), she, in an attempt to restore the Church of England to the Roman fold, unleashed a formidable persecution of Protestants in *Anglican church leadership. Many younger clergy opted for self-imposed exile rather than face a heresy trial and possible burning. Those who fled England during these years are known collectively as the Marian exiles. During *Elizabeth’s reign, most returned to England from various safe havens on the Continent. Marian martyrs. During 1555 and 1556, slightly more than three hundred English Protestants were publicly executed, mostly in flames, during the brief reign of Queen *Mary Tudor. These Marian martyrs were mainly higher clergy. Hugh *Latimer; Nicholas Ridley; and Thomas *Cramner, the archbishop of Canterbury, were the Oxford Martyrs, perhaps the most famous representatives of this group.

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Martin of Tours, St. (c. 316-397). Honored today as the patron saint of France, Martin ascended from paganism to become consecrated the bishop of Tours. Immediately following a dramatic conversion to Christianity while in the army of Rome, Martin became a catechumen and was shepherded by Hilary of Poitiers. In 360, the two men cooperated in founding Ligugé, the first monastic establishment in Gaul. Mary Tudor (1516-1558). The daughter of King *Henry VIII of England and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, Mary I was to play a key role in the tempestuous English Reformation. In 1544, the Act of Succession established that Mary would be in line for the throne after her younger brother Edward and before her younger sister *Elizabeth. When the Protestant brother died at fifteen in 1553, Mary came to power. In her desire to restore the old religion and reestablish the pope as the head of the English church, Mary took drastic steps to purge England of reformers by means of heresy trials that led to executions in 1555-1556 and, in time, to her infamous title, Bloody Mary. Mather, Cotton (1663-1728). A leading Congregationalist Puritan in Massachusetts, Mather was the son of Increase *Mather and grandson of John Cotton. His work Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft played a major role in touching off the Salem witch trials of 1692. A man of broad interests encompassing both theology and science, Mather wrote over four hundred works and was elected to England’s Royal Society. Mather, Increase (1639-1723). A leading figure in Boston church and intellectual life, Mather was the pastor of the Second Congregational Church and, during the period 1686-1701, the president of *Harvard College. He was an advocate of the uniquely American religious service called the *Jeremiad and promoted the *Half-Way Covenant. McCosh, James (1811-1894). One of Princeton University’s most influential presidents (1868-1888) and a highly influential philosopher in his own right, James McCosh was born and educated in Scotland, where he served as a parish minister. In 1852, he joined the faculty of Queen’s College Belfast, where he taught for eighteen years. His philosophical writings from this period reflect a lively evangelical faith that struggles to be reconciled with the

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best of current philosophical debate. In 1868, he was appointed president of the College of New Jersey, which would soon become Princeton College. McCosh is credited with moving Princeton toward becoming a university. Although he remained strictly orthodox in his Reformed faith, McCosh clearly accepted biological evolution and warned the church not to hide from its truth. McGready, James (c. 1758-1817). A *Scotch-Irish Presbyterian minister, McGready pastored a church in the Carolinas before moving to southwestern Kentucky and accepting a call to the Gaspar River Church. In July of 1800, he was the key leader in the development of a new method of evangelism, the *camp meeting, that was especially well suited to the far-flung settlers in that region. A year later, McGready and *Barton W. Stone presided over the massive *Cane Ridge revival in Bourbon County that attracted an estimated twenty thousand people and numerous revivalists. A new era had begun. McPherson, Aimee Semple (1890-1944). Founder of the Angelus Temple (1923) in Los Angeles and the International Church of the Four Square Gospel (1927), Sister Aimee, as thousands called her, was an evangelist, a healer, a social activist and a media star. Her doctrinal distinctives included perfectionism, speaking in tongues, Spirit baptism and adventism. The mysterious kidnapping and return of McPherson in 1926 only added to the drama of her ministry. meetinghouse. In colonial America, the meetinghouse was a simple rectangular single-story building constructed by the *Puritans and other groups. The meetinghouse functioned as a gathering place for both religious services and civic events. Among the first generation of Puritans, the meetinghouse was usually the first public building constructed. Mennonites. This is a general term describing a broad collection of *Anabaptist groups originating in Holland and Switzerland in the early sixteenth century. The Mennonites take their name from Menno *Simons, a Roman Catholic priest who converted to Protestantism and established numerous autonomous fellowships in Friesland, a province of the Netherlands today. Seeking to distinguish themselves from more radical and apocalyptically oriented Anabaptists of Münster, Ger-

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many, the Mennonites stressed *believers’ baptism, pacifism and a general call to practice “godly living.” Mennonite beliefs were codified in 1632 with eighteen articles of faith signed in Dordrecht, Holland. metropolitan. In the early development of church polity, the title metropolitan, which occurs first in the fourth canon of the *Council of Nicaea (325), refers to a bishop with provincial authority. Originally, there were five metropolitans: Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople and Rome. Local bishops came under the general authority of metropolitans, who often functioned to convene synods. millennialism. Also known as chiliasm or millenarianism, this is the eschatological view that Christ will reign physically for one thousand years upon a restored and renewed earth. This position, popular in the *Ante-Nicene era, and associated with premillennialism and *dispensationalism in the past two centuries, is grounded upon a literal interpretation of Revelation 20. In the early church period, *Papias, *Barnabas and *Irenaeus developed a chiliastic view based on a six-thousand-year scheme of world history—a millennium for each day of creation. The seventh day, the sabbath rest, was to be reflected in an earth blessed with peace and prosperity. In the modern era, millennialism was popularized by John Nelson *Darby, C. I. Scofield and Lewis Sperry Chafer, among others. Miller, William (1782-1849). A Baptist minister from the “burned over district” of upstate New York, Miller based his ministry upon fourteen years of Bible study with special focus on the books of Daniel and Revelation. His predictive preaching regarding the return of Christ attracted followers from among Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians, who collectively numbered between fifty and a hundred thousand at the height of Miller’s prominence. Although not breaking from their denominational groups, the faithful were called Millerites. When Miller set a oneyear period for Christ’s return, beginning in March of 1843, interest was extremely high. When the parousia failed to occur, a new and more specific date of October 22, 1844, was published. When this day came and went, Miller’s followers began quickly to melt away, many gravitating to other adventist groups.

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Millerites. See Miller, William. modalism. Also known as *patripassianism and Sabellianism, modalism was deemed a heretical doctrine by the early church. To preserve the unity of God and at the same time make sense of the doctrine of the Trinity, modalist teachers like Sabellius taught that one God appeared in three distinct modes: the Father in creation, the Son in redemption and the Holy Spirit in sanctification. Modalism falls under the larger category of *monarchianism, the attempt to defend the unity of God against charges of tritheism. monarchianism (second to third cents.). The general term for a theology that sought to guard the unity of God against charges of polytheism, monarchianism drifted toward heresy as it provided a rationale to explain how God could be one and yet three. One solution was *dynamic monarchianism, promoted by Theodotus, who argued that Jesus was adopted by the Father and empowered with divinity at baptism. The alternate view saw the Father taking on the aspect or mode of the Son and the Spirit for a time and thus is called modalistic monarchianism. Sabellius championed this view. See also adoptionism; Alcuin. Monica (c. 331-387). The mother of *Augustine, bishop of Hippo, Monica was remembered by her son as a woman of tenacious faith who would not allow him to turn away from God. When Augustine spurned Christianity and left North Africa for Italy, she followed him and his son, Adeodatus. Her prayers and dogged determination ended in joy with Augustine’s conversion in Milan and his reconciliation with Monica. She died near Rome on the journey home. monophysitism. In the early church era, those who held that Christ had but one nature, the divine, were known as monophysites. The term gained importance after the *Council of Chalcedon in 451. The orthodox view held that Christ has two natures, human and divine, that exist in one person. Monophysitism was most powerfully articulated in the fifth century by Severus of Antioch, who feared that the Chalcedonian emphasis on the two natures of Christ would promote *Nestorianism. Three eastern Christian groups from Armenia, Syria and Egypt united under the monophysite banner.

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monothelitism. The monothelite view emerged in the seventh century as a way to reunite *monophysites with the church. Literally meaning “one-will,” monothelitism suggested that Christ did indeed have two natures but only one will. After intense theological debate in the *Council of Constantinople (681), monothelitism was rejected, and it was affirmed that Christ had both a human and a divine will. Montanus (second cent.). The region of Phrygia in Asia Minor was the setting for the rise of one Montanus, a charismatic preacher who proclaimed himself to be “the mouthpiece of the Paraclete” and taught that the apostolic gifts of healings, prophecy and speaking in tongues had not ceased at the end of the apostolic period. His followers, the Montanists, adhered to strict *asceticism and demanded celibacy of their members. The theologian *Tertullian joined the Montanists. The church took a dim view of Montanists, in part because of their doctrines and also because Montanus allowed women to be prominent leaders. Moody, Dwight L. (1837-1899). One of the most successful revivalists of late nineteenth-century America, Dwight L. Moody’s life began in near poverty on a farm in Northfield, Massachusetts. A move to Boston at age seventeen to sell shoes led to Moody’s conversion through the faithful witness of a Sunday school teacher. A relocation to Chicago gave him opportunities for ministry and, after serving as a chaplain in the Civil War, he established a church in the Windy City. Teaming up with Methodist song leader Ira Sankey, Moody launched a revival career that took him across the Atlantic, where he preached to ever-growing crowds in the British Isles for two years. The revival came home to America with astonishing success. Moody was unique in many ways. He was the first major evangelist to accept premillennial views and promote biblical inerrancy, and thus he laid a foundation for twentiethcentury *fundamentalism. Moody was also an active supporter of Christian higher education and helped to found the Moody Bible Institute in 1886. It remains today on the same spot Moody selected on Chicago’s near north side. See also millennialism. Moravian Brethren. Descending from Czech Christians dating back to perhaps the fifteenth century, the Moravian church dates from the seventeenth century. Given financial and logistical sup-

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port by Count *Zinzendorf in the 1720s, the Moravians immigrated to America, establishing themselves in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Although recognizing many creeds as valuable, the Moravians do not require submission to a creed for membership. Worship is organized around Scripture-based liturgies. More, Thomas (1478-1535). Living during the turbulent days of England’s King *Henry VIII, More rose through the legal profession to become the lord chancellor of the realm. As such, he exercised considerable influence on matters of law, governmental policy and religion. A Christian humanist and close friend of *Erasmus of Rotterdam, More was a Catholic reformer but vociferously opposed Protestants like *Luther in Germany or William *Tyndale in England. His fall from power and eventual execution for treason resulted from his refusal to support Henry’s divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and the ensuing marriage to Anne Boleyn. More authored a powerful social and religious critique of England in his work, Utopia. Mormon. The Book of Mormon, translated by Joseph *Smith in the 1820s, tells the story of a godly race of early settlers in America who were reduced by warfare to only two, Mormon and his son, Moroni. According to the document, the two wrote their history on golden plates and buried them in a hillside in upstate New York, where Smith later claimed to discover them. Muhammad (c. 570-632). The prophet of *Islam, Muhammad rose from obscurity as a Bedouin orphan to found and lead one of the world’s great monotheistic religions. Believing that he was chosen to bring the message of Allah to the world, Muhammad dictated the sacred text, the Qur’an (Koran), to a scribe. In the century following Muhammad’s death, his religion swept east and west from the Arabian Peninsula. Today, Islam is the dominant religion in Northern Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, among other regions. Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior (1711-1787). A colonial-era organizer of American Lutheranism, Muhlenberg was born near Hanover, Germany, and educated for ministry in German universities. After ordination in 1739, he accepted a call to America to work in a Lutheran church in Philadelphia. Steering a course between pietism and more liberal Lutheranism, Muhlenberg organized and built

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a cohesive unity and promoted the creation of the Pennsylvania Ministerium to oversee the development of his denomination. Muhlenberg was distrustful of the revivalism that swept the colonies in the *Great Awakening of the eighteenth century. Münsterites (1530s). A radical branch of militant *Anabaptists led by various prophetic leaders seized the Westphalian town of Münster in 1534. Led by Jan Mathijs, the Münsterites established a “Kingdom of Christ” by driving out all residents who would not join them. Fired by *millennial hopes, Mathijs’s followers adopted a form of Christian socialism as well as polygamy. They were violently overthrown by a joint Lutheran-Roman Catholic force, and many fled to the Netherlands. In America, the stigma of Münster followed all Anabaptists and made their assimilation into colonial life difficult. Muratorian canon (late second cent.). The oldest extant canon list of New Testament books was named after its discoverer, L. A. Muratori, who first published it in 1740. This canon is very important in that it establishes that all the New Testament books except Hebrews, James, and 1 and 2 Peter were held to be authoritative by the early church by about a.d. 200. The canon list clearly rejected many spurious works of dubious authorship. See also canon of Holy Scripture. mystery religions. The mystery religions describe a group of secret religious practices that flourished in Greek and Roman cultures up until the fourth century a.d. The mystery religions presented a unique problem for the church in that many of their doctrines were similar to those believed and practiced by Christianity. One example of this is the famous *Magna Mater cult of Asia Minor, in which Attis, the son of the Great Mother, died and rose again to new life. Most mysteries involved special initiation experiences during which devotees would experience a special revelation from God. Among the most prominent of mystery religions were those that honored Demeter, Dionisius and Orphyus. mysticism, Christian. Throughout the history of the church, men and women of a mystical disposition have attempted to gain a higher awareness of God through meditation, spiritual disciplines, prayer and self-sacrifice. The mystic is not content with mere cognitive awareness of the divine but wants to “break

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through” and make direct contact with the divine. Among the most famous mystics were *Francis of Assisi, *Meister Eckhart, *Catherine of Siena, *Teresa of Avila and Girolamo *Savonarola.

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natural selection. A phrase coined by Charles *Darwin in contradistinction to the special selection carried out by animal breeders, natural selection described nature’s drive to select individuals that are best adapted to their respective environments. This concept, along with “survival of the fittest,” was foundational for Darwin’s theory of evolution. It was made popular by the publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, first published in 1859. neo-evangelical (mid-twentieth cent.). The term neo-evangelical was coined by Harold J. Ockenga (1905-1985) to describe an emerging movement in mid-twientieth-century American Protestantism. Neo-evangelicals sought to remain rooted in the core doctrines of Protestant orthodoxy while at the same time promoting an openness to scholarly dialogue with liberal and neo-orthodox theologians, as well as a renewed social and political awareness and concern for the poor and disadvantaged. This was a move away from the militancy of *fundamentalism toward a keener emphasis upon developing a Christian social conscience. Key to this movement was the founding of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. Ockenga served as the first president of Fuller. See also Fuller, Charles E. Neo-Platonism. A recently coined term, Neo-Platonism describes a philosophical school that began with Plotinus (a.d. 204-270) and lasted into the sixth century. Rooted in the writings of Plato, Plotinus’s Six Enneads introduced religious and mystical elements into Platonic philosophy, especially with regard to cosmology and creation narratives. Neo-Platonic concepts influenced several early church fathers and are clearly evident in the works of Augustine of Hippo. A fully developed synthesis of Christian and Platonic philosophy emerged in the work of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite during the early sixth century a.d. Nero, Claudius (a.d. 37-68). Nero was emperor of Rome from a.d. 54 until his death. The adopted son of Emperor Claudius, he ascended

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to the imperial throne at age sixteen after Claudius’s death. Early in his reign, the young emperor shocked the Roman patrician class when he murdered his mother and his wife, Octavia, as well as several possible competitors. His capricious rule spawned revolts in Judea, Africa, Spain and Gaul. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, rumors abounded that Nero ordered the fire of a.d. 64 that burned for two weeks in the city of Rome and then blamed the destruction on Christians. Nero’s persecution of the church took such bizarre and cruel forms that even Romans who opposed Christianity took pity on those believers who were torn apart by dogs or burned as macabre torches in the imperial gardens. According to tradition, Peter and Paul were martyred under Nero’s rule. After his death, some first-century Christians identified Nero with the beast of Revelation 13. Nestorianism. The theological controversy known as Nestorianism is rooted in the thought of Nestor, bishop of Constantinople, who died in 345. Nestor developed a reputation as a great preacher while a monk at Antioch. As bishop of Constantinople, he carried out several key reforms and wrote Bazaar of Heracleides, the only known extant work from his pen. The controversy centered on Nestor’s rejection of the term theotokos for the Virgin Mary. Theotokos, or “God bearer,” was inappropriate, he felt, since a human woman could not bear the eternal God. Rather, Nestor argued she should be called the “Christ bearer.” The position associated with Nestor, though it is not clear that he held to it, saw Mary giving birth to the human nature of Christ while along with it rode the divine nature. This view was condemned at the *Council of Ephesus in 351. New Learning. The New Learning in sixteenth-century Europe was the humanist emphasis upon the importance of mastering Greek, Latin and Hebrew as essential prerequisites to doing biblical study. Universities introduced these three biblical languages into their curricula during this period. By contrast, the Old Learning, championed by conservatives within the Roman Catholic Church, argued that the received Latin text was sufficient. Newman, John Henry (1801-1890). A key figure in the nineteenthcentury *Tractarian Movement in England, Newman was raised in an evangelical home but became the leading advocate of Roman Ca-

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tholicism of his day. After doing his first degree at Oxford, Newman was ordained as a *deacon in the Church of England and developed a reputation as a powerful, engaging preacher. In 1833 he, along with several others, began to write Tracts for the Times, which argued for an *Anglo-Catholic point of view. The ninetieth tract, written in 1841, was so pro-Catholic that Newman was censured by the *Anglican church. Four years later, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. He soon became a priest and, in 1879, a *cardinal. Niagara Bible Conferences (1883-1897). Annual summer prophecy conferences held in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, the Niagara Conference meetings promoted premillennial and *dispensational theology and laid a foundation for emerging American *fundamentalism. See also millennialism. Nicholas of Cusa (c. 1400-1464). A German exegete and theologian with strong Christian humanist interests, Nicholas of Cusa was introduced to Christian thought by the *Brethren of the Common Life movement. After studying law at Padua and theology at Cologne, Nicholas demonstrated brilliance as a linguist and was able to read and translate Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic, as well as his native German. Possessing strong critical instincts, he speculated that both the *Donation of Constantine and the Isidorian Decretals were fraudulent. By arguing that church general councils carried greater authority than the pope, Nicholas anticipated the Protestant Reformation. Toward the end of his life, he was reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church. Niebuhr, H. Richard (1894-1962). Richard Niebuhr, the younger brother of Reinhold *Niebuhr, served as a professor of Christian ethics at Yale University Divinity School. His work addressed the church’s role in society and ushered in a postliberal Protestant viewpoint. His key books, Christ and Culture (1951) and Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (1960), reflect the influence of both Karl *Barth and Ernst Troeltsch upon his thought. To Niebuhr, God is unchanging and absolutely transcendent (apart from nature) and, as Creator, makes ethical demands upon humanity. Human beings, by contrast, exist in a state of flux, perceiving God in unique ways according to their cultural and chronological perspective. Niebuhr’s focus was on how we relate to God and to others as “responsible selves.”

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Niebuhr, Reinhold (1892-1971). A very influential neo-orthodox American theologian and Christian ethicist, Niebuhr studied theology at Union Seminary in New York, where he criticized modern *liberalism as unable to address the ethical issued raised by a modern industrial society. His key works, Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932) and The Nature and Destiny of Man, take human individual sin very seriously while also addressing corporate evil. Christians must work through the democratic process, he urged, to curtail sin in its various manifestations, all the while recognizing that it is the heart of the individual human that must be changed by the grace of God. Ninian, St. (c. 360-432). The son of a British chieftain, Ninian, who became a bishop, is acknowledged as the first known Christian missionary to bring the gospel to what the Romans called Caledonia in present-day Scotland. He ministered to a people known as the Picts. Ninian is associated with the foundation of the Candida Casa, or White Church, at Whithorn and of the monastery of Rosnot in present-day Dumfries and Galloway. nominalism. See realism and nominalism. Novatianism. This was a schismatic movement that began in North Africa following the Decian persecution of the mid-third century, then spread to Rome. The defining question for the movement centered on whether a lapsed bishop (one who denied the faith under persecution or abandoned the flock to save his life), should be restored and, if so, under what conditions? Novatian, a Roman presbyter (not to be confused with Novatus, one of his North African counterparts), was a rigorist and denied a lapsed bishop’s right to continue in office, to baptize or to consecrate. There is evidence that Novatian was elected as a “counter bishop of Rome,” and that he required rebaptism of those formerly baptized by a lapsed bishop. Novum Testamentum (1516). This work, produced by the Dutch humanist *Erasmus of Rotterdam, was the first printed Greek New Testament and thus of monumental importance to the history of the Protestant Reformation. Erasmus, deeply concerned about the accuracy of the *Latin Vulgate translation because of possible transmission errors, collected the best Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and presented a printed passage

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from Scripture in Greek along with a fresh Latin translation of the same on the facing page. He also showed errors in the Vulgate through marginal notes. This New Testament went through several editions and was used by *Luther, *Calvin, *Zwingli and *Cranmer, among many others.

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Oberlin College (founded 1833). A progressive, evangelical Christian college founded by John J. Shepherd, Oberlin was known for admitting female students (the inaugural class was one-third women) and for its abolitionist sentiment. The appointment of nationally known revivalist Charles G. *Finney to the faculty and then to the presidency of Oberlin lifted its reputation. Finney was a strong proponent of the abolition of slavery, and Oberlin opened its doors to African Americans. Later on, Oberlin moved toward a more theologically liberal position and gained renown as the home of a respected music conservatory in the twentieth century. Ochino, Bernardino (1487-1564). An Italian *Capuchin monk and vicar general of the order renowned for his power of preaching, Ochino became a Protestant at fifty-four years of age. He formed a close link with fellow reformer *Peter Martyr Vermigli. Fleeing the *Inquisition in Italy, Ochino went to Geneva for two years and was deeply influenced by *Calvin. After a brief pastorate in Augsburg, he joined Vermigli in accepting an invitation to join the theology faculty of the University of Oxford (1547), then under the sway of the Protestant king *Edward VI. When *Mary Tudor ascended to the throne in 1553, Ochino left England and took refuge with the *Hutterite Brethren on the Continent. Oecolampadius, Johannes (Hussgen) (1482-1531). As a Christian humanist and Protestant reformer in German-speaking Switzerland, Oecolampadius chose his name because it was the Greek equivalent of his German surname (literally “house lamp”). Oecolampadius began his life in the church as a Roman Catholic. He studied law at Bologna and theology at the University of Heidelberg. Relationships with humanists Johannes

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*Reuchlin, Philipp *Melanchthon and especially *Erasmus of Rotterdam moved the young scholar to become a reformer. Oecolampadius helped Erasmus edit his *Novum Testamentum, the first printed Greek New Testament in Johannes Froben’s publishing house in Basel. In time, he became a professor of theology at the University of Basel and preacher at the Church of St. Martin. Toward the end of his life, he assisted Ulrich *Zwingli in the reformation of Zurich. On Christian Doctrine (early fourth cent.). A key work by Bishop *Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine deals primarily with the role of Scripture in the formulation of doctrine. Augustine lays out and defends several highly influential hermeneutical principles, including “scripture interprets scripture” and never use a difficult-to-understand “dark passage” in order to interpret a straight-forward “light passage.” While holding to the value of *allegorical interpretation, Augustine suggests that allegory should not be a basis for doctrine. On the Trinity. This defense of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity was written by *Augustine of Hippo over a twenty-year period beginning in 399. The essence of his argument is that the idea of one God existing eternally as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is not contrary to reason but is ultimately dependent upon faith. Origen (c. 185-c. 254). Perhaps the greatest Christian scholar of his age, Origen had a lasting impact upon the church through his *allegorical approach to biblical interpretation. Egyptian by birth, he lived a good part of his adult life in the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, where he headed the Catechetical School. Deeply influenced by Christian *asceticism, Origen led a disciplined life of fasting, vigils and poverty. *Eusebius recorded that Origen, after reading in Matthew 19:12 on the subject of becoming eunuchs for the kingdom of God, took the passage literally and emasculated himself. According to tradition, Origen wrote more than five thousand works, very few of which are extant today. His famous *Hexapla was a remarkable work of *textual criticism in which he compared the texts of six key versions of the Old Testament. Origen’s greatest theological work, On First Principles, dealt with the nature of God, heavenly

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beings, humanity, free will and Scripture. In interpreting the Bible, Origen argued for differing levels of meaning or sense in Scripture. Of these, the literal sense was of the least importance, far surpassed by the deeper spiritual senses. Origen left Egypt and established a school in Caesarea in 231. He was arrested and tortured in the Decian persecution of 250 and died a few years later. Oratory of Divine Love (founded 1497). The *Catholic reformation of the sixteenth century, sometimes called the Counter-Reformation, began with a small but influential group of Roman Catholic churchmen who banded together to form a fraternity called the Oratory of Divine Love. Led by Cajetan, later *Cardinal Cajetan, this body of laymen and priests worked tirelessly to reform the church and were especially successful in winning the more educated and cultured elements of Italian society back to lives of devotion and service to the faith. Owen, John (1616-1683). English *Puritanism’s premier *apologist for Reformed theology, Owen was influential as a writer, pastor, member of Parliament and dean of Christ’s Church, London. Owen identified first with the Presbyterian *Puritans, but in 1646 he became a Congregationalist. His preaching led to a close association with the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. He is best known today for his doctrinal treatises, including Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, Christologica, Brief Declaration and Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity, and Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). An early nineteenth-century *Anglican church reform movement, the Oxford Movement was built around John H. *Newman and E. B. Pusey. These men, among several others, wrote tracts calling the church back to holiness with an emphasis upon apostolic succession and a clear openness to Roman Catholic doctrine. This *AngloCatholic drift led to severe criticism from evangelicals. When Newman and others left the Church of England and became Catholics in 1845, the movement formally ended. In America, the Episcopal Church slowly became aware of the “tracts” and this helped to spark a high- versus low-church controversy. See also Tractarians.

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Pachomius, St. (c. 292-c. 346). An influential Egyptian Christian ascetic, Pachomius embraced his new faith in his early twenties. Often deemed the founder of *cenobetic monasticism, Pachomius invited *anchorites (solitary hermits) to join him at Tabenna, an island on the Nile, and form a loosely organized monastic commune. He functioned as a “proto abbot” for this group. See also ascetism. paedobaptism. Derived from the Latin for “infant baptism,” paedobaptism is the practice of numerous Christian groups, including Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, *Anglicans and Methodists, and is contrasted with *believers’ baptism, the doctrine held by Baptist and *Anabaptist groups who stress that faith must precede baptism. Paine, Thomas (1737-1809). The son of a Quaker, Paine won fame during the American Revolution with his incendiary pamphlets in favor of rebellion, such as Common Sense. After the war, he turned his pen against the European aristocracy and against the Christian church. Paine was a deist, and his work, The Age of Reason, was both a defense of *deism and an attack on Christian orthodoxy. Palmer, Phoebe W. (1807-1874). A Methodist lay revivalist, Palmer reworked John *Wesley’s doctrine of sanctification to a view of “entire sanctification,” which posited that a believer could become “perfect” by “laying her all upon the altar.” Christ would completely sanctify such a sacrifice. This view reached millions through her ten books and her preaching at *camp meetings around the country. Although she never spoke in tongues, Palmer did lay the foundations for modern *Pentecostalism with her teachings on Spirit baptism. Papias (c. 60-130). Papias served the church as the bishop of Hierapolis, located in Asia Minor. Only scant fragments of his Expositions of the Oracles of the Lord remain. Papias was a chiliast who believed that Christ was going to return to Earth and rule for one thousand years over a renewed world in which peace would prevail and food would be plentiful. See also millennialism. Pascal, Blaise (1623-1662). Famous in the worlds of mathematics (for his probability theory), science (for his arguments in support

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of a vacuum and experiments with a barometer), and religion (as a Christian *apologist of the first order), Pascal was a brilliant if idiosyncratic figure in seventeenth-century France. Converting to Jansenism, a modern revival of *Augustinianism, Pascal centered his faith on a personal experience of the risen Christ and lashed out against the *Jesuit Order. His key religious work, the Pensées, is an apologia for faith in Christ. In it, Pascal poses his famous “wager.” In simple terms, (1) if the triune God does not exist and an individual believes in him, there is no major loss; (2) if he does exist and a person does not believe, that one loses everything; (3) thus, the logical “bet” is to believe in God. Parham, Charles F. (1873-1929). The founder of American *Pentecostalism, Parham began ministry with the Methodist Episcopal Church and soon embraced holiness doctrine and became a revivalist. Parham founded the Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, where on January 1, 1901, his student Agnes Ozman both spoke in tongues and affirmed that that gift was the key indicator of baptism in the Holy Spirit. In 1905 Parham moved his school to Houston, Texas, from where Pentecostalism spread to Los Angeles in the preaching of William J. *Seymour, leader of the highly influential *Azusa Street revival. Parham’s influence ebbed following charges of sexual misconduct and his vocal advocacy of “British Israelism.“ Particular Baptists. A subset of Baptists that emerged in early seventeenth-century England, the Particular Baptists were *Calvinistic in doctrine and held to a “limited atonement” view. In this belief, the redeeming blood of Christ was efficacious only for the sins of the elect. Particular Baptists spread to America and flourished there, where they were sometimes called “Strict Baptists. Patrick of Ireland, St. (c. 389-c. 461). Known as the Apostle of the Irish, Patrick was born not in Ireland but in Roman Britain into a Christian family in Bannaven Taburniae, the location of which remains obscure to modern scholars. From his two extant writings, Confessions and Epistle, we learn the story of his abduction at age sixteen by sea raiders who sold him into slavery in Ireland. For six years, Patrick herded sheep until God, in a dream, told him to escape. His journey home, though dangerous and long, was finally successful. Not long after his return, another dream

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summoned Patrick back to minister to the Irish. After a time of religious training and Latin study, he began a long and successful ministry of preaching, planting monasteries and nunneries, ordaining priests, and educating the sons of Irish chieftains. patripassianism. Another name for modalistic *monarchianism, patripassianism, which literally means “God the father suffered,” is a doctrine that seeks to maintain the unity of God by arguing that the deity appears in three modes as Father-creator, Sonredeemer and Spirit-sanctifier. This view is also called Sabellianism. See also modalism. Paul of Samosata (c. 200-275). Paul of Samosata was consecrated the bishop of Antioch, a key Christian city in the third century, but was deposed in 268 because of his belief in a heretical Christology similar to that of Theodatus, who argued that the Logos of God merely rested upon the human Jesus, inspiring him in a way similar to that of the Old Testament prophets. Thus, according to Paul, there were two persons in Christ, one divine and one human. This view was identified with *dynamic monarchianism. Paula, St. (347-404). A Roman widow of considerable means who, upon conversion to Christianity, assumed a strict *asceticism as she joined the Roman Circle, Paula studied the Scriptures and Hebrew under *Jerome. Shortly before her death, she left Rome and founded a nunnery in Bethlehem. Paulicians (early medieval period). The origins of this Byzantine sect are shrouded in obscurity, with some authorities linking them to *Paul of Samosata. In doctrine, they clearly follow *Manichaean and *Gnostic lines in (1) denying the physicality of Jesus Christ; (2) distinguishing among the God of the Old Testament, the demiurge and the good God of the new revelation; (3) a basic dualism which posits that all matter is evil and that spirit (or the immaterial) is by nature good; and (4) a trust in only the writings of Paul and Luke. Peace of Westphalia (1648). Ending thirty years of religious strife in Europe, the Peace of Westphalia reaffirmed the Peace of Augsburg (1555) between Lutheran and Roman Catholic interests and settled territorial disputes for Bavaria, Brandenburg, France, Saxony and Switzerland.

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Peasants’ Revolt, German (1524-1525). A major uprising in what would now be southern Germany, Alsace and Austria, the Peasants’ Revolt was in essence a class conflict between the agrarian laborers, who were still suffering under feudal restrictions, and the nobility, who were allied with the church. The key issues included taxation, fishing regulations and hunting restrictions. The peasants hoped that *Luther, who had taken a stand against the church’s corruption, would become their champion. The reformer chose to remain out of this rather political fracas. Led by radical *Anabaptist Thomas Münzer, the peasants lashed out against the lords and were suppressed. Perhaps 150,000 people perished in the revolt. Pelagianism. This theological position emerged in the early fifth century in connection with the writings of the British monk *Pelagius. It was enhanced and developed by disciples after the death of Pelagius and came to affirm the ideas that original sin is not a sound biblical doctrine and that the human will is completely free to choose either good or evil. Individual salvation or damnation depends upon that choice. This view was rejected by the church largely because of the influence of *Augustine of Hippo. See Semipelagianism. Pelagius (d. c. 419). A devout British monk and theologian, Pelagius entered into a major theological dispute with Bishop *Augustine of Hippo on the issues of sin, grace and salvation. Pelagius traveled to Rome in about 400 and from there to North Africa and perhaps the Holy Land. See Pelagianism. Pentecostalism. As a general term, Pentecostalism designates a modern Protestant movement that affirms that the dramatic spiritual gifts of the original Pentecost, as described in Acts 2, are still bestowed upon Christians today. Most Pentecostals trace their origins to Charles F. *Parham and Bethel Bible College, where on January 1, 1901, both teacher and students spoke in tongues and felt that this experience was definite evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Parham’s school moved to Houston, Texas, where an African American preacher, William J. *Seymour, embraced the Pentecostal movement. A short time later, Seymour brought the movement to Los Angeles, establishing the 1906 *Azusa Street revival to which most American charismatic or Pentecostal fellowships are directly related.

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perpetual virginity. A doctrine developed in the early church period that the Mary remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus and throughout her life. Her marriage to Joseph was viewed as an accommodation to propriety and was never consummated. References to Jesus’ siblings in the New Testament were interpreted as allusions to cousins or near relatives. Peter Lombard (c. 1100-1160). Renowned as a Scholastic theologian and exegete, Peter Lombard wrote commentaries on the Epistles of Paul and the Psalms, but his key influence on late medieval theology came through the monumental mid-twelfth-century work, Sententiarum libri quatuor (Four Books of Sentences), known commonly in English as the Sentences of Peter Lombard. This work became the “gold standard” in universities for centuries. Peter was a professor of theology at the *Cathedral School at Notre Dame and bishop of Paris. Peter Martyr Vermigli (1500-1562). Florence-born Peter Martyr Vermigli was named after a thirteenth-century Dominican inquisitor, St. Peter Martyr, whose graphic murder was depicted by Fra Angelico in the convent of San Marco near the Vermigli home. The younger Peter Martyr, an Augustinian monk, quickly rose in that order to become the abbot of Spoleto Monastery in Umbria. Influenced by the exegetical writings of Ulrich *Zwingli and especially of Martin *Bucer, Peter’s sermons began to reflect Reformation ideals and themes. Bucer’s encouragement and support led to Peter’s appointment as professor of theology at the University of Strasburg in 1547. Later that same year, both Bucer and Vermigli accepted an invitation from Thomas *Cranmer to seek “safe haven” in Edwardine England, where they had some considerable influence upon the revised *Book of Common Prayer of 1552 and the English eucharistic debate commonly known as the Supper Strife. When Queen *Mary Tudor ascended the throne in 1553, Peter Martyr returned to the Continent to teach in key Protestant centers. pietism. See Francke, August H., and Spener, Philipp J. Pilgrim’s Progress, The (1678). Written by English dissenter John *Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress is a Christian allegory of spiritual warfare that unfolds in a dream. A pilgrim named Christian leaves his city and wanders through an allegorical landscape, encoun-

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tering the “slough of despond,” “Vanity Fair” and the “Celestial City,” among other famous symbols that have become a part of English parlance. Pilgrims. This was the name given to separatist Congregationalist *Puritans, mainly from England, who were among the earliest European colonists in North America. The Pilgrims left English shores in 1620 and settled in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts, establishing Plymouth Colony. Their motive in taking that dangerous and difficult voyage was freedom of religious expression. Plato (427-347 b.c.). Plato was a Greek thinker of immense influence upon Western philosophy and Christian theology. Plato spent most of his life in Athens, where he was the student of Socrates and later author of the influential Socratic Dialogues, as well as numerous works on a wide variety of subjects. Plato’s academy, in actuality a grove of trees where he taught, attracted the brightest minds in Athens, including *Aristotle. Plato’s philosophy was built upon a view of reality that posits a world of eternal ideas that exist apart from the human mind. These “*forms” are the essence of reality and the focus of Platonic inquiry. Plato taught that through a process of enlightened argument, which was called “dialectic,” truth about the forms could be recalled. Plato’s ideas on the nature of the soul and the human body had a profound impact on Christian thinkers such as *Origen and *Augustine of Hippo as well as on medieval and Renaissance-era theologians. See Neo-Platonism. Plymouth Brethren. Founded in Plymouth, England, in the late 1820s and influenced strongly by a former *Anglican priest, John Nelson *Darby, the Plymouth Brethren developed a distinctive fellowship in Britain and America. Their core teachings, a combination of *Calvinism, pietism and premillennial eschatology, were shaped by Darby’s work Synopsis. Plymouth Brethren churches have no clergy. Each congregation is autonomous and ruled by a plurality of elders. Their preaching is marked by biblical exposition. See also millennialism. Polycarp, St. (c. 69-c. 155). Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna and one of the last of the *apostolic fathers to die. He was a noted anti-*Gnostic writer who warned the church against *Marcionites and Valentinians. His only extant writing is a let-

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ter to the Philippian church. After a trip to Rome, Polycarp was arrested and, refusing to recant, died in flames after serving God for eighty-six years. According to tradition, he foresaw his death in a dream and warned his followers that he was soon to perish in fire. Post-Nicene fathers. Fathers of the early church who lived and wrote after the generation involved with the Council of Nicaea of 325 are referred to as Post-Nicene fathers. presbyterian church government. One of the three major forms of Protestant polity, the term presbyterian is almost a direct transliteration of the Greek word for “elder, ” presbyteros. Presbyterian ecclesiology is a rule by elders who are elected by vote of the congregation. Rooted in the theology of John *Calvin’s Reformation in Geneva, presbyterianism as a system of church government was linked to the Scottish Reformation and the work of John *Knox. The elders in a local church, or session, sit regularly with other elders in their area to form a presbytery, which supervises all aspects of church life in that locale. Once a year, a national or general assembly is held, to which all presbyteries in a country send representatives. priesthood of all believers. This phrase, which grew out of the German Reformation, is rooted in *Luther’s conviction that the true believer in Christ has full and immediate access to God while confessing sin and need not go through a human mediator or priest. Every believer is a priest in the act of confession. Luther did not mean to denigrate the office of pastor or the role of professional ministry; rather, he intended to move the church away from auricular confession (confession to a priest). primogeniture. The legal tradition in England and other countries that the firstborn male child in a family inherits the title, and the great bulk of his late father’s estate, is called primogeniture. Thus, a young son’s claim to the throne would trump those of his older sisters. printing with movable type (1450s). Among the most influential inventions of all time, Mainz goldsmith Johann *Gutenberg’s dual innovations of movable metallic type and a printing press revolutionized the production of books and documents through increased accuracy and reduced cost per page. This invention

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stimulated literacy and scholarship and introduced the concept of mass media, which has so dramatically shaped thought in the modern world. purgatory. The development of the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory was rooted in the early church period and developed markedly under Pope *Gregory I. To medieval Catholics, purgatory was seen as an antechamber to heaven, where Christians were purified through suffering. This doctrine was graphically illustrated in *Dante’s Purgatory, the second book of his Divine Comedy. All Christians who suffered in purgatory would eventually find peace and rest in heaven. This teaching was never accepted by the Eastern Orthodox Church and was clearly rejected by Protestant reformers as unbiblical. Puritans. Arising out of and in reaction to the Church of England in the late sixteenth century, Puritans were Protestants who wished to “purify” the Elizabethan church. The Reformation in England was stunted by the brief reign of *Mary Tudor, a staunch Roman Catholic. When *Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, she introduced a great compromise called the *via media that combined the liturgical elements of Roman Catholicism with Protestant doctrine. Puritans wanted to “strip England of the rags of popery” and return to a pure biblical faith. Repressed under Elizabeth, Puritans began to gain political power under Stuart kings *James I and his son *Charles I, finally seizing control of the government in 1649. In the American colonies, Puritans found a setting for their “grand experiment” in freedom of religion and profoundly influenced the developing American ethos in religious and political life.

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quietism. A seventeenth-century French movement championed by Madame Guyon and Archbishop Fénelon, Christian quietism promoted a radical spirituality based on the writings of the mystic nun *Teresa of Avila (sixteenth cent.), who described a “prayer of quiet.” The quietist seeks to surrender the personal will to God so completely that it is annihilated. Trust and rest in God is so absolute that there is no value in, and thus no need for, spiritual

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exercises. Although sin and temptation remain, they are no longer relevant because sin ceases to be sinful in the absence of a volitional will. Pope Innocent XI condemned this view in 1687.

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Radbert (Paschasius Radbertus), St. (c. 790-c. 860). A monk and later abbot of the monastery of Corbie in France, Radbert was both a biographer and exegete, but he is best known for his part in the “Eucharist controversy.” In 833, he wrote the first monograph on the Lord’s Supper, titled De corpore et sanguine Domini (Of the Body and Blood of the Lord). In that work, he clearly articulated the doctrine of the “real presence” of Christ in the elements and also that the host is changed into the “very flesh born of Mary.” One of his subordinates, a monk named *Ratram, or Ratramnus, responded by writing a treatise affirming the real presence of Christ but denying a change in substance of the elements. ransom-to-Satan theory of atonement. A theory of Christ’s atoning work popularized by *Origen in the third century and enhanced by *Gregory of Nyssa, the ransom theory argued that Christ gave his immortal soul as a ransom for the souls of all humanity held under Satan’s thrall. Not being omniscient, they reasoned, Satan could not foresee the act of God’s power that would restore Jesus Christ to life in the resurrection, allowing Satan to hold his captive for only three days. This view was dominant during the early medieval period but came under increasing criticism in the Scholastic era, most notably from *Anselm of Canterbury and Peter *Abelard. Ratram (Ratramnus) (d. c. 868). A monk at the French monastery of Corbie, Ratram wrote a response to his abbot *Radbert’s treatise on the nature of the Lord’s Supper. Radbert had argued that a change occurs in the substance of the bread and wine, a view that would later be called transubstantiation. In Ratram’s De corpore et sanguine Domini (Of the Body and Blood of the Lord), he followed *Augustine of Hippo, arguing that the sacraments of the altar are named for the things they signify, “blood” and “bread.” For the believing Christian, there is a real spiritual presence of Christ in the elements, which are indeed food for the soul and which con-

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vey virtue and power. Nevertheless, the elements remain bread and wine. See also Lateran Council, Fourth. Rauschenbusch, Walter (1861-1918). The leading American theologian of the *social gospel in America, Rauschenbusch began a two-year ministry in 1886 as the pastor of the Second German Baptism Church in New York City, in a section of the city known as Hell’s Kitchen. His theological training had been at the Rochester Theological Seminary, followed by advanced study in Germany, where he encountered higher-critical views. His conviction that the personal piety of his Baptist training was not sufficient to meet the challenges of urban twentieth-century America led him to develop ideas about a social gospel based on the model of Christ presented in the New Testament. Joining the faculty of Rochester Seminary, Rauschenbusch taught church history and wrote, among other works, Christianity and the Social Crisis, Christianizing the Social Order, and Theology for the Social Gospel. The wedding of his Christian social consciousness with higher-critical views of the Bible and progressive theology led to a conservative evangelical reaction against the social gospel and Rauschenbusch. realism and nominalism. A key debate emerged in the Scholastic era between realists and nominalists, who disagreed over the nature of “universals.” Humanity, for example, is a universal to which all men, women and children belong. Animals is a universal to which every insect, bird, mollusk, etc. belongs. The crucial question in this debate is, In what sense do the universal categories exist? Realism, in this philosophical context, draws its inspiration from *Plato (c. 427-c. 347 b.c.). For realists, each universal exists in its own right, apart from human mind and independent of the specific individuals who happen to belong to that category. Nominalism could better be described as conceptualism, because the nominalist holds that the universal is merely a concept of the human mind. For a nominalist, whether two things fall into the same universal category is solely based upon a human decision to call them by the same name. recapitulation theory of the atonement. *Irenaeus and other early church fathers developed a “recapitulation theory” rooted in Ephesians 1:10, where the apostle Paul argues that God in Christ

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sought “to gather up all things in him.” Christ, the New Adam, restored fallen humanity to full communion with God through his obedience and willingness to die. In so doing, Christ not only summed up all previous divine revelation in himself but also became the perfect man that Adam was intended to become but never achieved. Thus, Christ recapitulated Adam’s development and gave the world an example of perfect human righteousness. Reimarus, Hermann S. (1694-1768). An Enlightenment-era rationalist and a deist, Reimarus began to advocate a religion based on pure reason while a professor of Oriental languages at Hamburg. In this effort he was influential in the development of G. E. *Lessing’s thought. His critique of biblical texts led to a rejection of both divine revelation and the miracles of the New Testament. He accused New Testament writers of conscious fraud in constructing the text. relic. The remains of a saint, often in the form of bone, clothing, instruments of torture and similar items, are called “relics.” The collecting of saints’ relics began in the early church and continues down to the present day in the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. The traffic in relics flourished in the early church, stimulated by a reputedly successful fourth-century journey of *Helena, the mother of the Christian emperor *Constantine I, to the Holy Land to find the true cross of Calvary and the crown of thorns worn by Christ. Relics are believed to possess healing powers by many and are important in sanctifying a sacred space. Protestants traditionally reject the value and use of relics. Reuchlin, Johannes (1455-1522). In an age when acrimony between Christians and Jews was extreme, Reuchlin emerged as a champion of Christian tolerance. Trained in law and classical languages and drawn toward *humanism, Reuchlin was the first Christian in the Reformation era to master Latin, Greek and Hebrew. His De rudimentis Hebraicus (1506), a Hebrew grammar and lexicon written in Latin, gave Christian scholars access to the basics of the language. Drawn to the mystical Hebrew text the Kabbalah, Reuchlin began to formulate a universalist doctrine linking Christian, Jewish and Greco-Roman religions— arguing that they all originated in God’s mind and thus could maintain a basic unity. When a converted Jew named Johann Pfefferkorn called for

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an inquisition against Jews and the burning of Jewish literature, Reuchlin led the fight against him. Roman peace. The pax romana, or “Roman peace,” designated a period beginning in 27 b.c. with the ascendance of Augustus Caesar, who ended Roman civil wars, and ending with the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius in a.d. 180. This era, while not without armed conflict, was one of unusual political stability and cultural advance. There is little doubt that the Christian church was a key benefactor of the pax romana, as apostles, missionaries and their letters were able to move about the Roman Empire quickly and easily. Roman syncretism. Romans had an affinity for selective borrowing from the cultures around them, especially from peoples they had conquered, and this was clearly evident in Roman religion. Thus the traditions, characteristics and mythology of the Greek pantheon are reproduced in Roman tradition, so that, for example, Zeus is renamed Jupiter; Hera becomes Juno; and Ares, the god of war, is called Mars. Rome was very willing to honor any new god who might present itself, and the pontifex maximus, the high priest, would coordinate celebrations for the many deities. The only proviso made by Rome was that a group must not promote theirs as the only god, and it was on these grounds that a basic conflict with the Christian church was to develop. rule of faith (regula fidei). Drawing on Galatians 6:16, “as for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy,” *Irenaeus first coined the phrase “rule of faith” in the second century to designate the authentic teaching of the apostles. At this early point in Christian development, the complete New Testament was not available, and thus speakers and writers appealed to the rule of faith as a source of authority. Later church councils were to seek this rule in the collective wisdom of the bishops. Russell, Charles T. (1852-1916). Fascinated with the doctrine of Christ’s return to the earth, Russell founded Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence in 1879. His followers, who began in Pittsburgh and spread nationwide, became known as the Russellites and later the *Jehovah’s Witnesses.

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SPCK. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was established in England in 1698 to publish and distribute Bibles and Christian tracts. Founded by Thomas Bray, the SPCK worked in tandem with the *SPG (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts). It now has worldwide influence. SPG. An *Anglican missionary organization started by Thomas Bray in 1701, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts focused on promoting Anglican services and support for nationals living abroad as well as the evangelization of native populations. In 1965, the SPG became the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Sabellianism. See modalism. Salvation Army. Established by William *Booth in England in 1865, this evangelistic and social outreach organization is now an international effort that is especially strong in the United States. Headquartered in London, the “army” was organized in a military manner with Booth as the original “general.” Although thoroughly evangelical, the Salvation Army does not take part in the Christian sacraments. Salvationists worship in conventional church settings and evangelize in open-air meetings, almost always accompanied by brass bands. Workers volunteer at schools, hospitals, soup kitchens and shelters, and special social programs include prison ministry and recovery help for alcoholics. Savonarola, Girolamo (1452-1498). An Italian mystic and political reformer who rose to prominence in Florence as a Dominican monk, Savonarola is closely associated with the Monastery of San Marco. Influenced by the rising tide of biblical *humanism, Savonarola promoted Bible study in the original languages. In 1491, upon being appointed prior of San Marco, he began to preach in a prophetic, sometimes apocalyptic manner, based upon special revelations from God. Striking out against the ruling Medici family, Savonarola directed a revolution that eventually led to the establishment of the Republic of Florence. Failing to answer to the pope for his actions and pronouncements, he was *excommunicated in 1497. The following year public opinion

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turned against Savonarola, and he was arrested, tried, convicted, hanged and burned as a schismatic and heretic. Schism of 1054 (also known as the East-West Schism or Great Schism). Tensions between the Eastern and Western branches of Christendom gradually increased over several centuries, causing a major breach in 1054, a schism that has not yet been mended. The divisive issues included language differences (Eastern churches used a Greek rite and sacred text while the church centered in Rome used a Latin rite and the *Latin Vulgate); the *filioque clause, affirmed by the Western church as a part of the creed, but denounced by the *Council of Constantinople; the iconoclastic controversy, dealing with the use of images in worship; and, most contentious of all, the issue of ecclesiastical authority. The Roman Catholic Church had argued for the “primacy” of the pope since the fourth century and claimed that he held “universal authority” over the church. In 553, John IV, the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, claimed the title ecumenical patriarch. This dispute festered until Pope Leo IX sent legates (church diplomats representing the pope) to Constantinople in 1054 with instructions to formally condemn the use of the Eastern title ecumenical patriarch and to demand the adoption of the filioque clause. Refusal on both counts led to a formal *excommunication of the Eastern church and its leader. The Eastern patriarch, for his part, anathematized the pope and his followers. Attempts to mend the rupture were set back when a Western army, fighting in the Fourth *Crusade, sacked Constantinople in 1204. In a step toward reconciliation, leaders from Rome and Constantinople nullified the anathemas in 1965, but major issues remain unresolved. Schleiermacher, Friedrich (1768-1834). A monumental figure in the history of modern Protestant thought, Schleiermacher, influenced by his pietist upbringing as well as the Romantic movement that defined his time, argued that human intuition and powerful emotions are the essence of religion. He especially stressed the importance of that sense of absolute dependence and awe that humans feel for an almighty and infinite God. Raised and educated in a German *Moravian culture that he found to be overly restrictive, Schleiermacher enrolled in the University of Halle and immersed himself in a study of *Plato, *Aristotle and Immanuel *Kant. Ordi-

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nation as a Reformed pastor in 1794 led him to Berlin to work as a hospital chaplain and subsequently into an ever-widening circle of friends who defined German Romanticism. Schleiermacher went on to a professorship at Halle and, in 1809, to an appointment as dean of the faculty of theology at the University of Berlin. In 1799, he published On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers, a book designed to win back highly educated Europeans to the wonder and mystery of God. Other key works include A Brief Outline of Theology and The Christian Faith. Schmalkaldic Articles (1537). Written by Martin *Luther for possible use at a general council, the Schmalkaldic Articles were adopted by a gathering of Lutheran theologians and princes in Schmalkalden. The articles deny the authority of the pope; attack the practice of the Mass; and cast derision on the doctrine of *purgatory, prayers to saints and the entire institution of monasticism. Luther introduces the critique with a section on the essential doctrines with which there is no discord and concludes with a section delineating areas of Protestant disagreement, such as the various views on the celebration of the Eucharist. Scholastica, St. (c. 480-c. 543). Founder of the convent at Plombariola and twin sister of the famous monk *Benedict of Nursia, who himself founded Monte Cassino but fives miles away, Scholastica and her brother met every year for one day of “spiritual conversation.” On the last of these annual conversations, Scholastica urged her brother to prolong the discussion all night. When Benedict refused, a violent thunderstorm ensued and he was forced to remain. A few days, later his sister died. scientific humanism. A twentieth-century secular religion in American history that seeks to move away from theism to a reliance upon scientific method as the basis for truth and authority. Educational philosopher John Dewey, among others, signed a *Humanist Manifesto in 1933 outlining the goals and directions of this new movement. See also humanism. Scopes Trial. Touted in newspapers as the Monkey Trial, the case of John Scopes was brought to court in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. Scopes, a high school teacher, was accused of teaching *Darwinian evolution, which was contrary to state law. The American Civil Liberties Union funded Scopes’s cause and hired well-known

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attorney Clarence Darrow to head the defense. The state assembled a large team for the prosecution, led by nationally prominent William Jennings Bryan, a well-known *fundamentalist. Although the court ruled against Scopes, a conviction that was soon overturned, the trial of public opinion went against Bryan and *fundamentalism. Scotch-Irish (Scots Irish). In the early religious history of America, Presbyterianism was especially influenced by immigrants from Northern Ireland. These Irish Protestants (mainly Presbyterians and Congregationalists), hailing almost exclusively from Ulster, traced their roots to Scotland, some back to the early seventeenth century. A conservative estimate is that 250,000 Scotch-Irish immigrated to the American colonies by 1776. The Scotch-Irish tended to be conservative and insisted that Presbyterian ministers sign a document indicating their commitment to the *Westminster Confession. The term Scotch-Irish, now sometimes Scots Irish, was adopted to distinguish these Protestants from the Roman Catholic Irish immigrants who poured into America in the midninteenth century. See also presbyterian church government. Second Diet of Speyer (1529). See Diet of Speyer, Second (1529). Seekers. A radical Protestant sect that began in England in the seventeenth century and spread to the American colonies, the Seekers, believing that the true church of Jesus Christ no longer existed on earth, sought after a new church authenticated by the presence of new apostles. Roger *Williams of Rhode Island joined this group after a brief period as a Baptist. Most Seekers later joined Quaker fellowships. Semipelagianism. The Semipelagian view, as championed by Faustus of Riez (c. 408-c. 490), held that grace was crucial in salvation but that the initial steps toward Christian faith were to be taken by “free” human will. God would respond, in this view, by offering more grace, and thus a synergistic salvific process would ensue. See also Pelagianism. Serra, Junipero (1713-1784). As a Franciscan monk, Serra is famous for founding twenty-one missions along the coast of California in the eighteenth century. Born in Majorca, Spain, Serra studied at the Lullian University of Palma and was awarded the degree of doctor of theology. After ordination, he made his way to the New

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World and joined the Portola expedition in 1769, exploring the California coast from San Diego to San Francisco. Serra caught the vision of building a string of Franciscan missions, each one a day’s journey apart. Serra is currently being considered for elevation to sainthood. See also Francis of Assisi. Seymour, William J. (1870-1922). Leading revivalist of the *Azusa Street revival and pastor of the Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission in Los Angeles, Seymour rose from being the son of slaves to become one of the most influential personalities in the modern *Pentecostal movement. After studies in Charles F. *Parham’s school in Houston, Texas, Seymour was invited to hold meetings in the Los Angeles area. It was there that a charismatic revival began in 1906, lasting one thousand days with at least three meetings per day. Simon the Stylite (c. 390-459). The first and most famous of the “pillar saints,” Simon became an *anchorite (hermit monk) near Antioch at about the age of twenty. Ten years later, he began to fashion a low platform upon which he lived for the rest of his life. Year by year it grew as he raised it progressively higher until it was estimated to reach sixty feet above the ground. From this “pillar,” Simon would preach to and teach all who came to hear. He remained on his perch, never descending until his death. Simons, Menno (Simonszoon or Simon’s son) (c. 1496-1561). The leading theologian of the early *Anabaptists, Menno Simons was a Frisian by birth. Ordained as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church in 1520, he began a spiritual pilgrimage that ended with his confession of Anabaptist theology sixteen years later. Touched by the alienation and spiritual desolation of former *Münsterites who had settled in the Low Countries (the Netherlands), Menno Simons spent twenty-five years reuniting them and building them up in the faith. His emphases on *believers’ baptism, pacifism and the supremacy of the written Word of God over contemporary prophecy dynamically affected the Anabaptist movement and led to the establishment of the *Mennonites after his death. Six Articles. In 1539, King *Henry VIII of England imposed the Religion Act upon his realm, a law which is sometimes called “the whip with six strings” or, more commonly, the Six Articles.

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Having broken politically with Rome, Henry was eager to affirm his allegiance to sound Catholic doctrine and to halt the spread of Protestantism in England. The Six Articles affirmed transubstantiation, Communion in one kind (the laity receive only the bread in Holy Communion), clerical celibacy, monastic vows, the private Mass and confession to a priest. See also Lateran Council, Fourth. Smith, Joseph (1805-1844). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, also called the *Mormons, credits its origins to Joseph Smith. As a boy growing up near Palmyra, New York, Smith had a series of visions. In one of these revelations, an angel named Moroni directed Smith to a stone box where he would find gold discs describing the early history of North American peoples. This became, when translated, the Book of Mormon. Smith led a group of followers who formed a commune and embraced doctrines of “celestial marriage,” “multiple marriage” and “ progress towards Godlikeness.” Due to opposition and outright hostility, the Mormons followed Smith to Ohio and then to Nauvoo, Illinois. Smith was killed by a mob of vigilantes, and the movement split into many factions, the largest of which followed a new prophet, Brigham *Young, who led them on a monumental trek to the Utah Territory, where they flourished. social gospel. This phrase describes a late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century movement among progressive Protestants to view the gospel in broad terms, incorporating the biblical principles of justice, love and, above all, the example of Christ in ministering to the social needs of people. Two names among many helped to define the social gospel: Washington Gladden and Walter *Rauschenbusch. Beginning in 1876, Gladden published several works popularizing social ministry. Rauschenbusch, a German Baptist, had his practical theology challenged while a pastor in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, where he ministered among poor immigrant families. He later joined the faculty of Rochester Seminary and wrote Christianity and the Social Crisis, Christianizing the Social Order, The Social Principles of Jesus, and A Theology for the Social Gospel. The social gospel movement was to have a profound impact upon several mainline denominations. Society of Jesus. See Jesuits.

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Socinianism. A radical theology of sixteenth-century Protestantism, Socianism is named after Laeius and Faustus Sozzini, who were uncle and nephew, respectively. They promoted a rationalistic *Unitarianism that affirmed that all humans, including Adam and Christ, were subject to death. Christ did have a special relationship with God that was attested to, in their view, by his virgin birth and miraculous works. They also affirmed that God raised Christ from the dead and gave him divine authority. Salvation was given to those who diligently studied the Bible and followed the example of Christ. Sojourner Truth, or Isabella Baumfree (1797-1883). Born a slave in upstate New York, Isabella Baumfree was sold and separated from her family at the age of eleven, at which point she spoke only Dutch. A deep Christian faith sustained her through the vicissitudes of serving three slave masters, the last of whom forced her to marry a man called Thomas, with whom she had five children. She ran away from her master with an infant son and became a domestic worker in New York City, serving several religious communes. A spiritual experience in 1843 led to her name change, and she soon became a traveling preacher and evangelist who included abolition and women’s suffrage in her orations. It was at a women’s convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851 that Sojourner Truth delivered her most famous speech, which contained the memorable question, “Ain’t I a woman?” She continued to preach and lecture for several years until just prior to her death in Michigan in 1883. sola scriptura. One of Martin *Luther’s famous rubrics maxims, this phrase means “Scripture alone.” This should be understood in contrast to the Roman Catholic view that authority resides both in Scripture and in the “living tradition of the church,” i.e., the rulings of popes and general councils. Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834). In the late fifteenth century, Spain was deeply influenced by Islamic and Jewish as well as Christian belief systems. As devout Catholics, the joint monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella turned to the church to help them unify their country. They sought the pope’s permission to begin a Spanish Inquisition in 1478, specifically targeting crypto-Muslims and Jews as well as nonbelievers. Tomas de Torqemada (1420-1498), a

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Dominican monk, remained in that post for fifteen years, overseeing the execution of an estimated two thousand Spaniards. In the sixteenth century the Inquisition was brought to bear upon Protestants. This religious reign of terror was not officially suppressed until 1834. Spener, Philipp Jakob (1635-1705). Early leader of the German pietist movement, Spener called upon Lutherans to engage in small group meetings which stressed Bible study, prayer, mutual confession and spiritual accountability. These “pious colleges” began in his home and soon spread. Spener wrote a devotional classic called Pia desideria (Heart’s Desire) (1675). Pietism spread from Germany, where it was centered at Halle University, to North America. Spiritual Exercises, The (1541). A manual of spiritual reflection written by Jesuit founder *Ignatius of Loyola for his monks, The Spiritual Exercises was designed especially for use at a religious retreat. The text leads the penitent Christian through a series of imaginative prayers, ideally used under the supervision of a spiritual director. St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (August 23-24, 1572). A defining event for French *Calvinists (*Huguenots) in their conflicts with the state, the massacre was instigated by Catherine de’ Medici and resulted in a slaughter of *Huguenots, who numbered as many as ten thousand in France. Staupitz, Johann von (1460-1524). Vicar-general of the German Congregation of Augustinians and a doctor of theology, Staupitz is known chiefly for his role as Martin *Luther’s confessor and spiritual adviser during Luther’s time as an Augustinian monk in Erfurt. Staupitz was a key influence in the future reformer’s growth. He was instrumental in sending Luther on his defining “journey to Rome” and also in securing a teaching position for him at Wittenberg University. Stearns, Shubal (1706-1771). Leading Baptist revivalist in the *Great Awakening in the South, Stearns accepted a call to the Baptist Church in Sandy Creek, North Carolina, after ministering in Virginia. A dynamic and highly emotional preacher, his great influence in the 1760s led to the establishment of the Sandy Creek Association of Separate Baptists.

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Stoddard, Solomon (1643-1729). A Puritan Congregationalist minister in Northampton, Massachusetts, Stoddard figured prominently in a movement which relaxed the requirements for receiving the Lord’s Supper, allowing Christians who had been baptized but were not devout practicing Christians to receive the Communion elements. His grandson, Jonathan *Edwards, followed Stoddard in the Northampton pastorate. See also Half-Way Covenant. Stoicism. This philosophical system was based on the teachings of Zeno of Citium (335-263 b.c.), who posited a basic monism in which everything, including God, nature and humanity, is of one essence. The goal of the Stoic is to conform to the law of nature. The “Logos force” of God flows through nature like an invisible river, animating all things with order and beauty. A wise individual, taught Zeno, seeks to live in harmony with this force that determines destiny. To resist the law of nature is futile, like swimming against the stream. The early church was well aware of Stoic philosophy, and Luke records in Acts 17 that Paul encountered Stoics in Athens. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was a noted Stoic writer. Stone, Barton W. (1772-1844). Along with Alexander *Campbell, Barton Stone was a leading proponent of the Restoration Movement, and his followers became the nexus of the association known as the Christian Church or the Disciples of Christ. As a young man, Stone heard Presbyterian James *McGready preach and decided to join the denomination. Stone and McGready were both instrumental in organizing Kentucky’s *Cane Ridge revival of 1801. Three years later, Stone and his followers broke with the Presbyterian Church, which he felt was not consistent with the New Testament, especially in its creedal approach. As his movement grew, the Stonites rejected infant baptism in favor of “faith baptism” by immersion only and held that true baptism was for the remission of sins. Stone met Alexander Campbell for the first time in 1824, and soon the two movements began to converge. Campbell’s followers had adopted the name Disciples of Christ, but Stone’s were simply known as Christians. In 1832, the two groups met to formally unite into an association that is called the Restoration Movement. Barton Stone died in 1844 and was buried at *Cane Ridge, Kentucky.

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Synod of Dort (1618-1619). The *Arminian controversy prompted the Dutch Reformed Church to convene a special synod of Dutch, Swiss and British theologians. The great majority of those present supported a Reformed (*Calvinist) viewpoint, and the five points of Calvinism were ratified in April of 1619: unconditional election, limited atonement, total depravity, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints. Synod of Whitby (663-664). This was a local council called by the Northumbrian king Oswiu to resolve conflicts between *Celtic and Roman Catholic branches of the church in what is now northeastern England. The issues included the determination of Easter, the appropriate style of tonsure (monastic hair cut) and the celibacy of priests. The historian *Bede, who was there, affirmed that after vigorous debate, the cause of unity prevailed and *Celtic Christians who could not accept the Roman rite withdrew to Iona in Scotland.

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Tennent, Gilbert (1703-1764). A Presbyterian revivalist during the American *Great Awakening, Tennent began his preaching in the New Brunswick revival under the influence of Theodore *Frelinghuysen. His popular acclaim led him to preach in Boston, where he had great success but was also severely criticized by other clerics for his revivalistic emotionalism. His response, in a famous sermon, “The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry,” tended to harden the lines of division between supporters and critics of revival. Tennent, William (1673-1745). A Scottish immigrant to Pennsylvania, William Tennent was an influential Presbyterian educator who is credited with starting the *Log College, a Presbyterian training school, that was to become the College of New Jersey and later Princeton University. Teresa of Avila, St. (1515-1582). A Spanish saint, mystic and *Carmelite reformer, Teresa of Avila, or Teresa of Jesus, is one of but two women in the history of the Roman Catholic Church who have been designated doctor of the church by Rome. At twenty, she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation at Avila.

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At the age of forty, Teresa began a more mystical period in her life and received visions which led to several influential writings, including The Way of Perfection, a guide for her nuns; Life, a spiritual autobiography; Foundations; and The Interior Castle, the latter two being classics in spiritual discipline. These works, as well as her efforts to reform and found Carmelite monastic houses for women, have extended her influence to the present day. Tertullian, Quintus Septimius Florens (c. 160-c. 225). Called “the father of Latin theology,” this Carthaginian Christian thinker was to have extraordinary influence on the development of Christian thought in the West. Trained as a lawyer, Tertullian converted to the Christian faith shortly before 197. He became a leading *apologist for the church and argued eloquently for imperial toleration of Christians, who, he urged, were not enemies of the state. He also made the case that Christianity was vastly superior to other religions. Tertullian found no value in pagan philosophy and hammered away at *Gnosticism and other “perversions” of the truth. God’s truth, he argued, was to be found in the “living tradition of the apostles,” which was passed down from generation to generation in the church through apostolic succession. He had a powerful impact upon the developing doctrines of sin, forgiveness, penance and salvation. Tertullian, in or just prior to 202, openly associated with a charismatic sect known as the Montanists who followed the teaching on one *Montanus from Phrygia. Tertullian became the leading theologian of this group. textual criticism. As part of the broader field of *biblical criticism, textual criticism, or lower criticism, investigates the history of textual transmission. The text critic studies and compares variants from one manuscript to the other in order to determine which is the older. Textual criticism of the biblical text dates back to *Origen’s *Hexapla in the third century, but it developed dramatically with the advent of *humanism in the fourteenth century and especially with the works of Lorenzo *Valla and Desiderius *Erasmus in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, respectively. Thecla, St. (second cent.?). An early Christian missionary in Asia Minor, Thecla is known from “The Acts of Saints Paul and Thecla,” which forms a part of a general work titled The Acts of

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Paul. According to the text, Thecla was a contemporary of the apostle Paul and was persuaded by him to remain a virgin and become a missionary, yet internal evidence suggests a secondcentury composition date. Theodatus, “The Cobbler” (second cent.). A proponent of *adoptionism, or *dynamic monarchianism, Theodatus left Byzantium during the final decade of the second century. His proclamation in Rome that Jesus of Nazareth was born as a man and was adopted by God as the Christ at his baptism through the anointing of the Holy Spirit led to his *excommunication by Roman Bishop Victor. See also Alcuin; monarchianism; Paul of Samosata. Theophilus (late second cent.). Theophilus was an early Christian *apologist and bishop of Antioch. Only one of Theophilus’ works remains extant, his Apology. His argument stressed the superiority of the God of Christianity and the biblical account of creation over the prevailing Homeric mythology. Theophilus was the first to use the term trias (triad) to describe the Christian Trinity. Thirty-Nine Articles. The creed of the Church of England developed in the sixteenth century, the Thirty-Nine Articles, first issued in 1563, were trimmed down from an original list of forty-two articles formulated by Archbishop Thomas *Cranmer ten years earlier. Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471). The author of a classic of Christian work of spirituality, Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis, born in Kempen, Germany, was deeply influenced by the *Brethren of the Common Life, a fellowship he joined in Deventer. Later he became a part of the Augustinian monastery of Mount St. Agnes, near Zwolle. His life was spent in quiet meditation and included writing, preaching, manuscript copying and spiritual direction. Thomas Aquinas, St. (c. 1225-1274). Known as the angelic doctor, Thomas rose in the church through the ranks of the Dominican Order of monks to become the dominant figure in thirteenthcentury Scholasticism. Following a childhood in Italy, Thomas spent most of his adult life at the University of Paris, first as a student under *Albertus Magnus and then as a professor. During this period, he was deeply influenced by *Aristotle. Thomas’s Summa Theologica, or “sum of theology,” was a massive compendium of careful answers to key theological questions and had enormous influence for centuries.

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Tractarians. Followers of a nineteenth-century English church movement originally organized to emphasize the *via media (middle way) aspects of *Anglicanism, the Tractarians grew to emphasize and defend traditional Catholic doctrines. A series of pamphlets called Tracts for the Times gave rise to the name. The first two tracts gave an apologia (defense) of apostolic succession and the benefits of fasting. With time, the tracts evolved into learned treatises. One of the most prominent of the Tractarians was John Henry *Newman, who contributed twenty-seven tracts. In fact, Newman’s Remarks on Certain Passages in the *Thirty-Nine Articles led to such vigorous protests that the Tractarian movement was abandoned. See also Oxford Movement. Trajan (r. a.d. 98-117). Trajan, born in a.d. 53, was one of the ablest rulers of Rome during the Imperial period. He established internal order while subduing Roman foes north of the Alps. Trajan was credited with encouraging commerce and beautifying Rome with glorious building projects. His policy toward Christians developed in response to a request from Pliny, a governor in Asia Minor, and became the model until 251. Basically, Trajan affirmed that active profession of Christianity was a capital offense, yet Christians were not to be sought out. If they were brought before an official, they were to be given an opportunity to recant, usually demonstrated by offering a sacrifice to a pagan god. If unwilling to do this, they were to be executed. treasury of merit (treasury of the church). The teaching of a treasury of merit, a long-held tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, was reiterated and codified by the *Vatican II Council in the 1960s. It is based on the belief that the meritorious (good) works done by Christ, the apostles and the martyrs were far in excess of that necessary to complete the work of salvation. These excess works were deposited in a treasury that can be distributed by popes to the benefit of souls in *purgatory, allowing them to pass into heaven more quickly. This view was rejected the Protestant reformers. Tridentine Profession of Faith. This summary document of the Roman Catholic *Council of Trent (1545-1563) was a doctrinal confession of major importance and exerted a great influence for centuries to come. In most aspects, it reiterated the traditional

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Catholic teachings laid down by *Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century. Turner, Nat (1800-1831). A Virginia lay preacher and slave revolt leader, Turner received visions indicating that he would liberate his people. Astrological computations led him to choose August 22, 1831, for the revolt he led consisting of about sixty slaves who slaughtered fifty-seven white Virginians. He was arrested and executed in November of the same year. Turner’s revolt led to a tightening of restrictions against slave gatherings for any purpose. Tyndale, William (1494-1536). A gifted linguist and Bible translator, Tyndale was educated at Oxford and Cambridge universities, where he came into contact with Reformation ideology. In the early 1520s, he was refused permission to begin a translation of the New Testament into English and chose to exile himself to continental Europe to pursue the project. His first edition of the New Testament, translated from Greek manuscripts, was completed in 1525 and the next year reached his homeland, where it was violently attacked by the church and crown. Tyndale remained abroad for the remainder of his short life, writing theological treatises, introductions to books of the Bible and translations of several Old Testament works. He was arrested, imprisoned and executed by burning in 1536. His last words were, “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.”

U

uniformitarianism. Developed first in the field of geology, the principle of uniformitarianism holds that there are uniform rules that govern the processes of nature and that, given enough time, a uniform pattern will emerge. This idea was further developed by sociologists and applied to cultural development. It became influential in the study of religion as a means to gain insight into the early evolution of religious rites and beliefs. As an example, some researchers would hold that significant similarities exist between the religious practices of a modern primitive culture and an ancient Hebrew or Sumerian culture at the same level of development.

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Unitarianism. Unitarians emerged from Protestant Christian beginnings in the sixteenth century with a central focus on the unity of God and subsequent denial of the doctrine of the Trinity. Unitarians have no creed but hold to a very positive view of human nature and thus deny the Fall, the atoning death of Christ and future punishment. In America, Unitarianism emerged at the time of the Revolutionary War. One of the leading promoters of the movement in the early nineteenth century was William E. *Channing. In 1961, the American Unitarian Association joined with the Universalist Church of America and formed the Unitarian Universalist Association.

V

Valla, Lorenzo (c. 1406-1457). An Italian humanist and literary critic of the first order, Valla worked at various universities and wrote a highly influential work on The Elegancies of the Latin Language before coming to Rome and accepting the position of apostolic secretary about mid-century. His famous attack on the historicity of the *Donation of Constantine led to an interview with the *Inquisition. His Annotations on the New Testament, never published, was a bold attack upon the accuracy of the *Latin Vulgate and was instrumental in motivating *Erasmus of Rotterdam to edit his monumental 1516 New Testament in Greek and Latin. Vandals. A Germanic tribe that rose to prominence in the fourth century in the West, the Vandals embraced an *Arian form of Christianity. In the early fifth century, they moved through Gaul (France) and into Spanish lands, ultimately conquering Carthage in Northern Africa and making it their capital. In 455, the Vandals plundered Rome after its defenses had been seriously weakened by repeated invasions beginning in 410. Vatican I, or First Vatican Council (1869-1870). The twentieth ecumenical council of the church, Vatican I, was called by Pope Pius IX to deal with theological issues and challenges raised by advances in science, *liberalism and rationalism. The council of about eight hundred bishops approved a constitution, Dei filius, “The Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith.” This document clarified the Roman Catholic view of the divine inspiration

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of Scripture. A second and more controversial constitution, Pastor aeternus, dealt with the primacy of the Roman pope and papal infallibility. While this constitution was approved, many bishops, although privately affirming papal infallibility, did not favor a formal pronouncement on the subject. Vatican II (1962-1965). A council of the Roman Catholic Church called by Pope John XXIII and held in Rome, Vatican II’s purpose was to promote church renewal and update its teachings, organization and discipline. Changes that followed the council were dramatic: (1) a vernacular liturgy was instituted to replace the old Latin rites; (2) Communion of both kinds was affirmed for lay believers (the Christian receives both the bread and the cup in Communion); (3) a new emphasis was placed on community with other Christian fellowships; and (4) a new focus on the social needs of Third World countries was encouraged. via media. Latin for “middle path,” the via media described a remarkable compromise that helped to solidify the restored *Anglican church under *Elizabeth I. The English church, which began in 1534 during the reign of *Henry VIII, had undergone a vigorous reformation under the boy king *Edward VI, who was mentored by the Protestant archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas *Cranmer. When Edward died in 1553, his conservative and devoutly Roman Catholic sister, *Mary Tudor, used her power as queen to restore the pope to prominence in England. Upon Elizabeth’s succession, the country was badly divided. To foster unity, Elizabeth chose to walk a middle course, borrowing liturgy, church music, clerical vestments and other aspects of worship from the Roman tradition and melding them with Protestant doctrine to produce a new Anglican church. Vulgate. See Latin Vulgate.

W

Waldensians. Part of a movement long regarded as schismatic and heretical by the Roman Catholic Church, the Waldensians’ origins reach back to the twelfth century to one Valdes, or Waldo, of Lyons. By the next century, the Waldensians’ beliefs included (1) a distrust of the Roman church, (2) a commitment to preaching

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in the vernacular, and (3) serious doubts about the doctrines of *purgatory and prayers for the dead. During the fifteenth century, Waldensians in Germanic lands merged with the Hussites to form the Waldensian Brethren. See also Hus, Jan. Warfield, Benjamin B. (1851-1921). A Princeton Seminary professor and an influential writer in defense of orthodox Christianity, Warfield became a leading *apologist in America. For twenty years he edited The Princeton Review. He was renowned for his strict *Calvinism and his scholarly defense of biblical inerrancy. Wellhausen, Julius (1844-1918). A professor of Old Testament at the German universities of Halle, Marburg and Göttingen, Wellhausen was an influential higher critic. His History of Israel (1878) introduced the highly influential Documentary Hypothesis of the Pentateuch. Wellhausen, working along with Karl Graf, proposed at least four distinct sources to the five books of the Pentateuch. At a much later date, a redactor, or editor, collated the J, E, D and P sources into what became the received text. Wesley, Charles (1707-1788). The younger brother of the Methodist revivalist John *Wesley, Charles is best known today as the most prolific hymnist in English history with more than five thousand hymns to his credit. The first edition of hymns written by Charles (some in collaboration with John) was published in 1739, followed by numerous later hymnals. Among his best-known hymns are “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” “And Can It Be That I Should Gain,” “Rejoice, the Lord Is King” and “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.” Charles’s early life closely paralleled John’s in several key ways, including studies at Oxford University; association with the Oxford Methodists; ordination in the Church of England; missionary service in Georgia; a spiritual awakening on May 21, 1738; and ministry as an itinerant preacher. Although clearly influenced by John, Charles Wesley was a great thinker in his own right. At times, he was quite critical of his brother’s choices, disapproving of John’s break with the Church of England. Wesley, John (1703-1791). A leading revivalist of the eighteenth century and founder of Methodism, John Wesley was raised in Epworth, England, and educated at Christ Church College, Oxford. He became a fellow at Trinity College and helped to organize the Holy Club. Ordained in the Church of England, Wesley

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labored unsuccessfully as a missionary in the American colony of Georgia before returning to England and experiencing a religious conversion in 1738. Not welcomed in established churches, Wesley became an open-air revivalist and began a highly successful peripatetic preaching career, traveling over 200,000 miles and preaching an estimated 40,000 sermons. His Methodist Church profoundly influenced his native England, America, and, through missions outreach, the world. See also Wesley, Charles. Westminster Confession (1648). The creed of the Presbyterian Church in England and Scotland was set forth in the Westminster Confession, a highly influential creedal statement. A large group of commissioners labored in Westminster, England, for twenty-seven months in crafting the document, which contains thirty-three chapters and exemplifies Reformed theology. See also presbyterian church government. Whitby, Council of. See Synod of Whitby. White, Ellen (1827-1915). The founder of the Seventh-Day Adventists denomination, White’s parents were Methodists who were forced to leave that fellowship because they began to follow the adventist teachings of William *Miller, who predicted Christ’s return in 1844. In that year, White had the first of over two thousand visions. A pamphlet written by Joseph Bates led her to accept Saturday as the true sabbath day. White’s husband, James, began to publish the Review & Herald, among other works. White’s bouts with serious illness led to an intense interest in health reform. She advocated vegetarianism and numerous natural healing foods. White Horse Inn, The. A sixteenth-century pub located on the Cam River in Cambridge, the White Horse Inn became famous or notorious, depending upon one’s viewpoint. In the university town, during the early 1520s the inn became, in essence, a center for the dissemination of Reformation literature written by Martin *Luther and other Protestants. The locals referred to it as “little Germany.” Many future Protestant leaders, who were students at Cambridge, were frequent patrons. Whitefield, George (1714-1770). Rising from his humble post as a “drawer” in his family’s tavern, Whitefield matriculated at Oxford University, where he joined the Holy Club and came under the influence of John and Charles *Wesley. Upon graduation, he was or-

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dained in the Church of England and became an effective open-air revivalist in England, Scotland and the American colonies. Dubbed the Grand Itinerant because of his numerous travels, Whitefield was renowned for his persuasive sermons and great sincerity. His strong adherence to Reformed theology led to a break from the Wesleys. William of Ockham (c. 1300-1349). Educated at Oxford and the Sorbonne in Paris, English philosopher William of Ockham was a highly influential if unorthodox thinker. Openly questioning papal infallibility, he argued that the general councils of the church had greater authority than did the papacy. To William, the Scriptures were the final authority on earth. Such views led to his *excommunication after a summons to appear before the pope in Rome. William is well known for his Law of Parsimony, or “Ockham’s Razor,” a simple yet profound sentence: Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate (parts should not be multiplied unnecessarily). The gist of this statement is that when two theories both explain the available data, the more simple theory should be preferred. Williams, Roger (c. 1582-1650). After graduation from Cambridge University, Williams immigrated to Massachusetts and ministered as a *Puritan teacher in the Boston Church. His insistence on the separation of church and state and on fair dealings with Native Americans led to his exile from the colony in 1635. The next year, he founded Providence settlement, and he was instrumental in establishing the first Baptist church in the New World in 1639. Rhode Island colony was chartered by the crown as a place of religious toleration. Wolsey, Thomas (c. 1472-1530). Wolsey, a butcher’s son from Ipswich, became an ordained priest following a short tenure at Oxford University. He swiftly rose to power in England as he was consecrated bishop of Lincoln and York and was then almost immediately made *cardinal. Finally, he exercised formidable political power as the lord chancellor of the realm. His fortunes were to fall quickly with a failed attempt to persuade the pope to release *Henry VIII from his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He saw the king strip him of his power and confiscate his Hampton Court home. Wyclif (or Wycliffe), John (c. 1330-1384). An English scholartheologian who lived most of his life at Oxford, Wyclif is some-

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times called the “morning Star of the Reformation.” He anticipated many reforming themes later to find full expression in the sixteenth century. His insistence that the authority of individual churchmen was dependent upon being in a state of grace and that, when not in grace, the civil government had authority over church holdings was not well received in Rome. He insisted that the Bible was the sole and final authority for doctrine and that it should be made available to English Christians in their vernacular “mother tongue.” Wyclif found little evidence for the monastic life or the doctrine of transubstantiation in Scripture, and this last pronouncement led to his removal from Oxford. He died of a stroke while saying the Mass at his small country parish church in Lutterworth. Wyclif was to have lasting impact through his influence on the *Lollard movement in England and Jan *Hus in Bohemia. See also Lateran Council, Fourth.

X

Xavier, Francis. See Francis Xavier. Ximenes, Francisco (1436-1517). Although a humble and unassuming man who scorned the pomp that came with his elevated position in the Roman Catholic Church, Ximenes was clearly one of the most accomplished churchmen in fifteenth-century Spain. Highlights in his illustrious career include (1) attending his queen, Isabella, as her confessor in 1492; (2) being elevated to the office of archbishop of Toledo by 1495; (3) founding the University of Alcalá in 1499; and (4) becoming a *cardinal in 1507. His greatest contribution to scholarship was the Complutensian Polyglot Bible. Heading up and personally financing a team of scholars in Alcalá (known in Roman times as Complutum), he helped to develop a version of the Old Testament in which Hebrew, Latin and Greek texts of the same passage were displayed in parallel columns on the page. The New Testament portion juxtaposed the *Latin Vulgate with the best-known Greek texts available in his time. This monumental aid to *textual criticism amounted to six large volumes and took fifteen years to complete. Ximenes did not live to see its publication.

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Y

Young, Brigham (1801-1877). Brigham Young served as the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the *Mormon Church. Young was baptized as a Methodist before joining the Mormons in 1832. He assumed leadership in organizing the Mormon departure from Missouri in 1839 and became a senior apostle soon thereafter. When Joseph *Smith, the first president, was shot to death in 1844, Young became his successor and led the Mormons on the Great Migration to Salt Lake City, Utah. Young became the governor of the Utah Territory.

Z

Zinzendorf, Count Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von (1700-1760). A German pietist and founder of the *Moravian Brethren, Zinzendorf is famous for establishing the evangelical colony Herrnhut on his estate in Germany as well as other colonies in Europe and North America. Zwingli, Ulrich (or Huldreich) (1484-1531). The chief reformer of German-speaking Switzerland in the 1520s, Zwingli, after serving as a parish priest, was called to the *Gross Münster Church in Zurich in 1518. Having embraced *Christian humanism and especially the teaching of *Erasmus in his university days, Zwingli’s preaching began to resemble *Luther’s themes as he attacked monastic abuses, prayers to saints and the doctrine of *purgatory. In 1522 he directly challenged papal authority and openly declared himself a reformer with his Sixty-Seven Theses. Having won over the town council in open debate, Zwingli abolished the Mass in 1524 and removed all images from the Münster the following year. He met with Luther at the contentious *Marburg Colloquy in 1529. Zwingli’s career was cut short by a violent death at the Battle of Kappel in October of 1531.

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Chronology

Plato (427-347 b.c.) Allegory of the Cave (4th cent. b.c.) Aristotle (384-322 b.c.) Stoicism (c. 300 b.c.) Epicureanism Apocrypha

1st Century a.d.

Docetism Ignatius (c. 35-c. 107) Nero, Claudius, Roman emperor (37-68) Domitian, Titus Flavius, Roman emperor (51-96) Trajan, Roman emperor (c. 53-117; r. 98-117) Papias (c. 60-c. 130) Polycarp (c. 69-c. 155) Ante-Nicene Apostolic. Fathers (90-160) Justin Martyr (c. 100-c. 165) Clement of Rome (late 1st cent.) Ebionitism (1st-2nd cent.)

2nd Century

Anchorite Asceticism Didache Gnosticism Irenaeus (c. 130-200) Montanus (2nd cent.) Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215) Marcion (d. 160) Tertullian, Quintus Septimius Florens (c. 160-c. 225) Apologists Aristides (2nd cent.) Origen (c. 185-c. 254) Dynamic monarchianism Athenagoras (2nd cent.) Muratorian Canon (late 2nd cent.) Theophilus (late 2nd cent.)

3rd Century

Alexandrian School Allegorical interpretation

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Chronology

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Ransom to Satan Theory of Atonement Canon of Holy Scripture Diocletian, Roman Emperor (245-313) Decius, Roman emperor (d. 251) Hexapla by Origen Anthony (c. 251-356) Helena, St. (c. 255-c. 330) Cyprian (d. 258) Novatianism Eusebius of Caesaria (c. 260-c. 340) Pachomius (c. 292-c. 346) Athanasius (c. 296-373)

4th Century

On Christian Doctrine (early 4th cent.) by Augustine of Hippo Edict of Milan (313) Cyril of Jerusalem, St. (c. 315-387) Council of Nicaea (325) Marcella (c. 325-411) Cappadocian Fathers Gregory Nazianzus (329-390) Basil of Caesaria (c. 330-379) Gregory of Nyssa (330-c. 395) Julian “the Apostate,” emperor of Rome (331-363) Monica, St. (c. 331-387) Constantine I, Roman emperor (d. 337) Nestorianism Donation of Constantine Arianism Canon Law Apollinarianism Cenobite monasticism Ambrose of Milan (c. 339-397) Donatism Paula (347-404) Chrysostom, John, St. (c. 347-407) Jerome (c. 348-c. 420) Augustine, Aurelius, of Hippo (354-430) Ninian (c. 360-432), missionary to Scotland Cassian, John (c. 360-430) Eutyches (c. 378-454) Council of Constantinople (381) Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Patrick of Ireland (c. 389-c. 461) Simon the Stylite (c. 390-459) Pelagius (d. c. 419)

5th Century

Latin Vulgate Bible completed The City of God by Augustine of Hippo (416-422) Council of Ephesus (431)

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Chronology

Cyril of Alexandria, St. (d. 444) Council of Chalcedon (451) Monophysites Antiochene School Celtic church Scholastica, St. (c. 480-c. 543) Benedict of Nursia, St. (c. 480-c. 550)

6th Century

Columba (Colum Cille), St. (c. 521-597) Council of Orange (529) Pope Gregory I (c. 540-604) Filioque clause Muhammad (c. 570-632)

7th Century

Monothelitism Islam emerges Augustine of Canterbury (d. c. 604-609) Columbanus, St. (d. 615) Synod of Whitby (663-664) Bede (c. 673-735) Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation Boniface of Germany, St. (c. 675-754) John of Damascus (675-c. 749) Caedmon (d. c. 680) Charles Martel (c. 690-741)

8th Century

Battle of Tours Alcuin (c. 740-804) Charlemagne (c. 742-814) Adoptionists (780s) Radbert or Paschasius Radbertus (c. 790-c. 860)

9th Century

Gottschalk (c. 804-c. 869) Erigena (Eriugena), John Scotus (c. 810-c. 877) Ratram or Ratramnus (d. c. 868) Eucharistic. Controversy

10th Century

Cluny monastery founded (909) Cardinal, church office of, established

11th century

Pope Gregory VII (1033-1085; r. 1073-1085) Anselm of Canterbury(c. 1033-1109) Cathedrals Schism of 1054

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Chronology

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Investiture Controversy (1075-1122) Abelard, Peter (1079-1143) Bernard of Clairvaux, St. (1090-1153) Crusades, Great (11th cent.-13th cent.) Cistercians founded Cathars

12th Century

Peter Lombard (c. 1100-1160) Knights Templar (founded 1119) Becket, Thomas à (c. 1120-1170) Averroes (1126-1198) Carmelites Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) Waldensians Albigensians Innocent III, Pope (r. 1198-1216)

13th Century

Lateran Council (1215) Bonaventure, St. (1217-1274) Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) Boniface VIII, Pope (c. 1234-1303) Beguines Eckhart, Meister (c. 1260-c. 1328) Dante, Alighieri (1265-1321) John Dun Scotus (c. 1266-1308) Albertus Magnus (d. 1280)

14th Century

William of Ockham (c. 1300-1349) Babylonian captivity of the church (1309-1377) Wyclif or (Wycliffe), John (c. 1330-1384) Devotio Moderna Catherine of Siena, St. (1347-1380) Lollards Brethren of the Common Life Hus, Jan (Huss, John) (c. 1372-1414) Great Schism (1378-1417) Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471) Gutenberg, Johannes (c. 1396-1468)

15th Century

Nicholas of Cusa (c. 1400-1464) Valla, Lorenzo (c. 1406-1457) Council of Pisa (1409) Council of Constance (1414-1418) Biel, Gabriel (1420-1495) Ficino, Marcilio (1433-1499) Ximenes, Francisco (1436-1517) Christian humanism

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Chronology

Printing with movable type (1450s) Savonarola (1452-1498) Reuchlin, Johannes (1455-1522) Ad fontes (1460s) Le Fevre d’Etaples, Jacques (1455-1536) Staupitz, Johann von (1460-1524) Colet, John (c. 1466-1519) Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) Wolsey, Thomas “Cardinal” (c. 1472-1530) Copernicus, Nicholas (1473-1543) More, Thomas (1478-1535) Hubmaier, Balthasar (1480-1528) Oecolampadius, Johannes (Hussgen) (1482-1531) Luther, Martin (1483-1546) Zwingli, Ulrich (1484-1531) Cromwell, Thomas (c. 1485-1540) Latimer, Hugh (1485-1555) Malleus Maleficarum (1486) Eck, Johann (1486-1543) Ochino, Bernardino (1487-1564) Coverdale, Mies (1487-1569) Cranmer, Thomas (1489-1556) Farel, Guillaume (1489-1565) Ignatius of Loyola, St. (1491-1556) Bucer or (Butzer), Martin (1491-1551) Henry VIII, king of England (1491-1547) Tyndale, William (1494-1536) Simons, Menno (c. 1496-1561) Gardiner, Stephen (c. 1497-1555) Oratory of Divine Love (founded 1497) Grebel, Conrad (c. 1498-1526) Katharina von Bora (1499-1552)

16th century

Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) Bullinger, Heinrich (1504-1574) Hamilton, Patrick (c. 1504-1528) Francis Xavier, St. (1506-1562) General Baptists Calvin, John (1509-1564) Seymour, Jane (1509-1537) John of Leyden (1510-1536) Knox, John (c. 1513-1572) Capuchin Order Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) Novum Testamentum (1516), first printed Greek New Testament Foxe, John (1516-1587) Mary I, or Queen Mary Tudor (1516-1558) Beza, Theodore (1519-1605) Diet of Worms (1521) German Peasants Revolt (1524-1525) Calvin’s Institutes

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Chronology

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2nd Diet of Speyer (1529) Marburg Colloquy (1529) Consubstantiation Anabaptist Believers’ Baptism Augsburg Confession (1530) Münsterites (1530’s) Mennonites founded Elizabeth I, Queen of England (1533 -1603) Index of Prohibited Books Act of Supremacy (1534) Hutter, Jabob (d. 1536) Schmalkaldic. Articles (1537) Edward VI, King of England (1537-1553) Six Articles, England (1539) Jesuits founded The Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius Loyola (1541) Catholic. Reformation Huguenots founded in France (1546) Council of Trent (1546-1563) Antinomianism Book of Common Prayer Helwys, Thomas (c. 1550-c. 1610) Hooker, Richard (1553-1600) Acts of Uniformity (1560’s) Heidelberg Confession (1562) Tridentine Profession of Faith (1563) Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1563) Puritan origins in England Socinianism Marian exiles leave England under Mary I Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) James I, king of England (1566-1625) Arminianism St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (August 23-24, 1572) Laud, William (1573-1645) Ames, William (1576-1633) Formula of Concord (1577) Williams, Roger (c. 1582-1650) Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645) Hooker, Thomas (1586-1647) Hutchinson, Anne (1591-1543) Chauncy, Charles (c. 1592-1672) Edict of Nantes (1598)

17th Century

Charles I, king of England (1600-1649) Dunster, Henry (1609-1659) Baxter, Richard (1615-1691) Synod of Dort (1618-19) Pilgrims leave for New England Pascal, Blaise (1623-1662)

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Chronology

Fox, George (1624-1691) Quakers or “The Society of Friends.” Bunyan, John (1628-1688) Covenant theology Covenanters Spener, Philipp Jakob (1635-1705) Harvard College founded (1636) Mather, Increase (1639-1723) Bay Psalm Book (first published in 1640) Stoddard, Solomon (1643-1729) Peace of Westphalia (1648) Westminster Confession (1648) Cambridge Platform (1649) Half-Way Covenant Quietist origins in France Franke, August H. (1663-1727) Mather, Cotton (1663-1728) Tennent, William (1673-1745) Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (1678) Frelinghuysen, Theodore (1691-c. 1748) Reimarus, Hermann S. (1694-1768) The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK)

18th Century

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) Zinzendorf, Count Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von (1700-1760) Edwards, Jonathan (1703-1758) Tennent, Gilbert (1703-1764) Wesley, John (1703-1791) Chauncy, Charles (1705-1787) Stearns, Shubal (1706-1771) Muhlenberg, Henry (1711-1787) Serra, Junipero (1713-1784) Whitefield, George (1714-1770) Brainerd, David (1718-1747) Hopkins, Samuel (1721-1803) Davies, Samuel (1723-1761) Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804) Log College (founded c. 1726) Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (1729-1781) Jarratt, Devereux (1733-1801) Paine, Thomas (1737-1809) Asbury, Francis (1745-1816) Dwight, Timothy (1752-1817) Deism McGready, James (c. 1758-1817) Allen, Richard (1760-1831) Carey, William (1761-1834) Alexander, Archibald (1772-1851) Hobart, John Henry (1775-1830) Beecher, Lyman (1775-1863) Channing, W. E. (1780-1842)

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Chronology

150

Miller, William (1782-1849) Free Methodist Church Judson, Adoniram (1788-1850) Campbell, Alexander (1788-1866) Finney, Charles G. (1792-1875) Hodge, Charles (1797-1878)

19th Century

Turner, Nat (1800-1831) Darby, John Nelson (1800-1882) Cane Ridge Revival (1801) Young, Brigham (1801-1877) Newman, John Henry (1801-1890) Oxford Movement (Tractarian Movement) Camp meeting Falling exercises Bushnell, Horace (1802-1876) Feuerbach, Ludwig Andreas (1804-1872) Smith, Joseph (1805-1844). Haystack Prayer Meeting (1806) Palmer, Phoebe W. (1807-1874) Darwin, Charles (1809-1882). American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (founded 1810) McCosh, James (1811-1894) Kierkegaard, Søren (1813-1855) Hodge, Archibald Alexander, (1820-1886) White, Ellen (1827-1915) Circuit rider Booth, William (1829-1912) Plymouth Brethren founded Mormons formed Anglo-Catholic Oberlin College (founded 1833) Kuyper, Abraham (1837-1920) Moody, Dwight L. (1837-1899) Briggs, Charles A. (1841-1913) Wellhausen, Julius (1844-1918) Dispensationalism Anxious bench or mourner’s bench Warfield, Benjamin B. (1851-1921) Russell, Charles T. (1852-1916) Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939) On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1859) Rauschenbusch, Walter (1861-1918) Salvation Army established (1865) Seymour, William J. (1870-1922) The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin (1871) Parham, Charles F. (1873-1929) Coffin, Henry Sloane (1877-1954) Biblical criticism Formgeschichte (Form history) Niagara Conferences (1883-1897)

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151

Chronology

Bultmann, Rudolf (1884-1976) Jehovah’s Witnesses founded Fosdick, Harry Emerson (1878-1969) Machen, J. Gresham (1881-1937) Christian Science Barth, Karl (1886-1968) Fuller, Charles E. (1887-1969) Brunner, Emil (1889-1966) McPherson, Aimee Semple (1890-1944) Niebuhr, Reinhold (1892-1971) Niebuhr, Richard (1894-1962) Fundamentalism

20th Century

Charismatic movement Bethel Bible College Du Plessis, David (1905-1987) Azusa Street Mission Revival (1906) Bonhoeffer, Dietrich (1906-1945) The Fundamentals (1910-1915) Henry, Carl F. (1913-2003) Assemblies of God (1914) Graham, William Franklin “Billy” (1918- ) Scopes Trial (1925) The Future of An Illusion by Sigmund Freud (1927) King, Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) Scientific humanism Humanist Manifesto (1933) Confessing Church, Germany Barman Declaration (1934) Orthodox Presbyterian Church (founded 1936) Neo-Evangelicalism (mid-20th cent.) Vatican II (1962-1965) Liberation theology (1968)

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