Jesus son of Joseph, Yoshua ben Yosef, is presented as the son of a carpenter of Nazareth, near the Lake of Kinneret (or Sea of Galilee) and the cities of Capharnaum and Tiberiad, in the region of Galilee. His mother was Mary, and his brothers Jacob, Yosef, Judah and Simon; he also had sisters. He was born around 4 BC, in the times of emperor August, when Israel was under the domination of the Roman Empire.
When he is about 30 he goes to listen to Ionakaan, or John the Baptist, maybe his cousin, an unconventional prophet living in the Perea desert, wearing fur and feeding on locusts, critical with king Herodes - which will end up having Ionakaan head cut - and preacher of conversion, symbolized by a baptism in the waters of River Jordan, according to tradition. The message of Ionakaan moves Jesus, who also asks to be baptized (the beautiful ritual formula was: “You are son of the Lord your God, let him bless and guard you. May his glance rest upon you, may he show you his face and grant you peace.”).
Jesus then goes to the desert (for forty days: a symbolic figure of the time period needed for an impact to reach bottom, to be assimilated). When he comes back from the desert, he turns his life upside down: stops being a carpenter and moves around gathering followers (the first ones are the fishermen Peter, Andrew, Jacob, John…) and doing three main things: preaching, denouncing and healing. He preaches the kingdom of God, the love of a Father who welcomes humans. He denounces hypocrisy, selfishness, poverty. He heals blindness, deafness, lameness, fear, death, everything that does not allow to see the Father, to hear the message, to walk towards the Kingdom.
Deeply Jew and at the same time critical with certain aspects of the Judaism of his time, Jesus considered that the norm had to be at the service of compassion, and not become a rigid system incapable of giving freedom and depth to the life of the people.
One of the better known preaching pieces attributed to Jesus, the Sermon of the Mountain, gathers some central points of his message. To it belong the so called "Beatitudes":
“God blesses those people who depend only on
him.
They belong to the kingdom of heaven!
God blesses those people who grieve.
They will find comfort!
God blesses those people who are humble.
The earth will belong to them!
God blesses those people who want to obey him more
than to eat or drink.
They will be given what they want!
God blesses those people who are merciful.
They will be treated with mercy!
God blesses those people whose hearts are pure.
They will see him!
God blesses those people who make peace.
They will be called his children!
God blesses those people who are treated badly for
doing right.
They belong to the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5, 3-10)
“Jesus looked at his disciples and said:
God will bless you people who are poor.
His kingdom belongs to you!
God will bless you hungry people.
You will have plenty to eat!
God will bless you people who are crying.
You will laugh!
But you rich people are in for trouble.
You have already had an easy life!
You well-fed people are in for trouble.
You will go hungry!
You people who are laughing now are in for trouble.
You are going to cry and weep!” (Lc 6, 20-21 and 24-25)
"You are like salt for everyone on earth. But
if salt no longer tastes like salt, how can it make food salty? All it is good
for is to be thrown out and walked on."
(Mt 5, 13)
"You are like light for the whole world. A city built on top of a hill
cannot be hidden, and no one would light a lamp and put it under a clay pot. A
lamp is placed on a lampstand, where it can give light to everyone in the
house. Make your light shine, so that others will see the good that you do and
will praise your Father in heaven." (Mt 5, 14-16)
Jesus is not against the Law, but he insists in the need to consider it as relative and put it at the service of the way of living he proposes. A way to present this will be to consider that it is necessary to go beyond the Law:
“You know that our ancestors were told, “Do not
murder” and “A murderer must be brought to trial.” But I promise you that if
you are angry with someone, you will have to stand trial. If you call someone a
fool, you will be taken to court. And if you say that someone is worthless, you
will be in danger of the fires of hell.
So if you are about to place your gift on the altar
and remember that someone is angry with you, leave your gift there in front of
the altar. Make peace with that person, then come back and offer your gift to
God.
(…)
You know the commandment which says, “Be faithful in
marriage.” But I tell you that if you look at another woman and want her, you
are already unfaithful in your thoughts. If your right eye causes you to sin, poke it out and throw
it away. It is better to lose one part of your body, than for your whole body
to end up in hell.
If your right hand causes you to sin, chop it off and
throw it away! It is better to lose one part of your body, than for your whole
body to be thrown into hell.
(…)
You know that our ancestors were told, “Don't use the
Lord's name to make a promise unless you are going to keep it.” But I tell you
not to swear by anything when you make a promise! Heaven is God's throne, so
don't swear by heaven. The earth is God's footstool, so don't swear by the
earth. Jerusalem is the city of the great king, so don't swear by it. Don't
swear by your own head. You cannot make one hair white or black. When you make a promise, say only “Yes” or
“No.” Anything else comes from the devil.
You know that you have been taught, “An eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth.” But I tell you not to try to get even with a person
who has done something to you. When someone slaps your right cheek, turn and
let that person slap your other cheek. If someone sues you for your shirt, give up your coat as
well. If a soldier forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. When
people ask you for something, give it to them. When they want to borrow money,
lend it to them.
You have heard people say, “Love your neighbors and
hate your enemies.” But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who
mistreats you. Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven. He makes the
sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do
right and for the ones who do wrong. If you love only those people who love
you, will God reward you for that? Even tax collectors love their friends. If
you greet only your friends, what's so great about that? Don't even unbelievers
do that? But you must always act like your Father in heaven." (Mt 5, 21-24 and 27-30 and 33-48)
Jesus considers that all hypocrisy should be avoided, asking for discretion both at the time of doing alms and at the time of praying:
“When you
do good deeds, don't try to show off. If you do, you won't get a reward from
your Father in heaven. When you give to the poor, don't blow a loud horn.
That's what show-offs do in the meeting places and on the street corners,
because they are always looking for praise. I can assure you that they already
have their reward. When you give to the poor, don't let anyone know about it. Then
your gift will be given in secret. Your Father knows what is done in secret,
and he will reward you.”
(Mt 6, 1-4)
"When you pray, don't be like those show-offs who
love to stand up and pray in the meeting places and on the street corners. They
do this just to look good. I can assure you that they already have their
reward.
When you pray, go into a room alone and close the
door. Pray to your Father in private. He knows what is done in private, and he
will reward you.
When you pray, don't talk on and on as people do who
don't know God. They think God likes to hear long prayers.
Don't be like them. Your Father knows what you need
before you ask.
You should pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
help us to honor your name.
Come and set up your kingdom,
so that everyone on earth will obey you,
as you are obeyed in heaven.
Give us our food for today.
Forgive us for doing wrong,
as we forgive others.
Keep us from being tempted
and protect us from evil.
If you forgive others for the wrongs they do to you,
your Father in heaven will forgive you. But if you don't forgive others, your
Father will not forgive your sins." (Mt 6, 5-15)
Jesus clearly considers that life is not to be devoted to accumulate wealth, but to develop oneself as a human being:
“Don't store up treasures on earth! Moths and rust can
destroy them, and thieves can break in and steal them. Instead, store up your
treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy them, and thieves
cannot break in and steal them. Your heart will always be where your treasure
is.” (Mt 6, 19-21)
“You cannot be the slave of two masters! You will like
one more than the other or be more loyal to one than the other. You cannot
serve both God and money.”
(Mt 6, 24)
Jesus insists in that trust is a fundamental attitude:
“I tell you not to worry about your life. Don't worry
about having something to eat, drink, or wear. Isn't life more than food or
clothing? Look at the birds in the sky! They don't plant or harvest. They don't
even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren't
you worth more than birds? Can worry make you live longer? Why worry about
clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don't work hard to make their
clothes. But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth wasn't as well clothed
as one of them. God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields,
even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. He will surely do
even more for you! Why do you have such little faith? Don't worry and ask
yourselves, “Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will
we have any clothes to wear?” Only people who don't know God are always
worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of
these. But more than anything else, put God's work first and do what he wants.
Then the other things will be yours as well. Don't worry about tomorrow. It
will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today." (Mt 6, 25-34).
He also insists in the need of not judging others, since only God knows the heart of human beings, and we always tend to see more the faults of the others that our own:
“Jesus said: Don't judge others, and God won't judge
you. Don't be hard on others, and God won't be hard on you. Forgive others, and
God will forgive you. If you give to others, you will be given a full amount in
return. It will be packed down, shaken together, and spilling over into your
lap. The way you treat others is the way you will be treated.
(…)
You can see the speck in your friend's eye. But you
don't notice the log in your own eye. How can you say, “My friend, let me take
the speck out of your eye,” when you don't see the log in your own eye? You
show-offs! First, get the log out of your own eye. Then you can see how to take
the speck out of your friend's eye.” (Lc 6, 37-38
and 41-42)
Jesus underlines the power of prayer:
“So I tell you to ask and you will receive, search and
you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive, everyone who
searches will find, and the door will be opened for everyone who knocks.
Which one of you fathers would give your hungry child
a snake if the child asked for a fish? Which
one of you would give your child a scorpion if the child asked for an egg?
As bad as you are, you still know how to give good
gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give the
Holy Spirit to anyone who asks.” (Lc 11, 9-13)
Jesus also has well in mind the centrality of the “golden rule”:
"Treat others just as you want to be treated." (Lc 6, 31)
Jesus devotes himself to diffuse his message until, about three years later (maybe less), the Jewish religious authorities consider him a public danger. After celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he is captured at the Gethsemane garden, taken to the Sanhedrin, which sentences him to death, and is examined, whipped, made fun of and crucified by the Roman authorities (the only ones that could implement death penalties), under the charge of impiety, in the 16th year of Roman Emperor Tiberius, around 30 AD.
Following the death of Jesus, his followers experienced the undeclining impact of his person and the strength and validity of his message, expressing this experience with images such as "Resurrection", "Ascension" and "Pentecost" (Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed, the Appointed, has returned to life, is to live forever, has gone to heaven and has sent the Spirit). His disciples mobilized and spread the message and the teaching of Jesus as much as they could; they became “apostles” (“sent people”). The testimony of their experience was gathered in a set of books called the New Testament, to which belong the letters sent to the new Christian communities that were being created in the Eastern Mediterranean - Antioch, Corinth, Thessaloniki , Ephesus, Caesarea, Alexandria, Philippi, etc. - and in Rome. Most of these letters, also called "epistles", are attributed to Paul of Tarsus, a Jew of Greek education, former persecutor of Christians who, five years after the death of Jesus, becomes suddenly converted in Damascus (so abruptly as when you fall from a horse) and becomes one of the most ardent promoters of the Christian message. Paul goes around the Mediterranean from 46 AD until his execution in Rome twenty years later, preaching orally and writing his letters, often related to internal disputes that occurred within the new Christian communities.
Also in the mid-sixties of the first century the first of the four Gospels, that of Mark, is written, though some recent hypotheses say that the first version of this Gospel - "Gospel" means "good news" - could have been written around the year 50 AD. Written in the mid-eighties are the Gospels of Matthew and Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, a book that captures the experience of the first Christian communities. The three Gospels mentioned so far are called "synoptic" because they summarize the life of Jesus and his preaching, in which he often used "parables" - plain stories with symbolic meaning. Towards the end of the first century the fourth gospel is written, that of John, more philosophical and dense than the other three - its symbol is the eagle, indicating that it is the one that flies higher -, as well as the book of Revelation, a text full of strange and fascinating images. The ensemble of the New Testament (Gospels, Epistles, the Facts of the Apostles and the book of Revelation), together with the Jewish TaNaK - that will be called the Ancient Testament - will constitute the Bible.
The founding period of Christianity is characterized by the contrast between two communities. On the one hand there is the "community of Jerusalem", Jewish followers of Jesus (called “Nazarenes”) who had a historical knowledge of him and kept at the same time the Jewish traditions; for them, Jesus was a great prophet who brought a new revelation from God to humans, of supreme importance. This vision is based on the teachings of Jesus, in his personal commitment to the needs of human kind, in its rejection of power and in the treatment he received, his violent death. The theology of the Jerusalem community especially emphasizes the novelty of the vision of God that Jesus brings, opposing the vision of God as an omnipotent Oriental King (highly spread even within the Jewish community) to the image of someone characterized by a humble birth, by having been bred in an insignificant village, by his patient acceptance of suffering and violence and by his ending as a broken human body hung on a cross.
On the other hand there were the " Gentile communities ", the result of the vision of Paul - a "direct revelation", source of his authority -, and of the preaching of Paul and his disciples in Greece and Rome. For them, Jesus is basically the savior who overcomes sin and death. The texts of this period that have reached us belong to this second group and follow its way of seeing things, but somehow the canonical Gospels reflect the fusion of these two approaches (the devotion to the historical person of Jesus and the vision of Jesus as savior). A fusion probably resulting from a certain agreement between the two sectors, which may have taken place around 48 AD, probably thanks to the fact that Peter, a major disciple of Jesus and leader of the Jerusalem community, and Jacob ben Yosef, brother of Jesus, accepted the idea that it was not necessary to adhere to the Jewish traditions in order to become a Christian (a follower of Christ, from the Greek Xristos, the Savior, term with which Jesus was designed). Due to the growing Jew animadversion towards the Christians, Peter had to leave Jerusalem (the transfer of Peter to Rome may reflect this agreement between the two initial communities and underline the trend to unify them). Jacob ben Yosef remained as head of the Jerusalem community until he was stoned in 62 AD by order of Anan, the high priest of the time.
Following the death of Paul, beheaded in Rome in 67AD during Nero’s persecutions (Peter will also die during these persecutions), as well as the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in70 A D,
the Christian centrality moved from Jerusalem to Rome. Christianity spread
throughout the Roman world, especially among the lower classes in urban areas, due
to the attractiveness of the proposal and certain ideological vacuum characterizing
the Roman Empire. It organized itself in local assemblies (ekklesia), that when large enough were presided by a bishop (episkopus, supervisor) chosen by the
community (bishops were also called “Pope”,
father, until in 1073 this denomination was reserved to the bishop of Rome, who
was Gregory VII).
Initially, the Roman Empire confronts Christianity and persecutes it, generating a certain amount of Christian "martyrs", people who preferred to die rather than renounce their beliefs and proclaim the divinity of the Roman emperor, one of the main ideological axes which sustained the Empire. In 313 the Edict of Milan of religious freedom in the Roman Empire is decreed by Emperor Constantine, opening the door to the appointment of Christianity as the official religion of the Empire (which formally took place in 380 with the Edict of Thessaloniki by emperor Theodosius). In 325 the Council of Nicaea takes place, providing the theoretical ground that will enable the development of Christianity as the official religion of the Empire. This inaugurated what has been called the "Christendom", a long period where Christianity and politics were closely linked. Nicaea proclaimed the consideration of Jesus as an integrant of the divine Trinity together with the Father and the Holy Ghost (“God is Three in One”), in a theological formulation that will insist in considering Jesus simultaneously as fully divine and fully human, formulation that tried to convey what was the experience of the Christian community, of the followers of Jesus: that if the divine goodness had to manifest itself in human shape, it would be in a person like Jesus, who “made good” wherever he went; when they considered the life and personality of Jesus, they saw something like God in a human shape.
In this early Roman period of Christianity there were fundamental contributions; in fact, it was the time in which the foundations of Christian spirituality and theology were set up. During the second century, the Gnostic movement gathered strength, becoming the first "heresy" (deviation) within Christianity. It was a version of Christianity that assumed earlier traditions derived from the influence of Persian Zoroastrianism and Hinduism in the Mediterranean area. The Gnostics believed the material world as fundamentally bad, from which one had to separate in order to reach a higher spiritual sphere where there was the divine spark which gave a soul to the humans, and this process was possible through knowledge (gnosis) of a divine savior who could liberate the soul; without this savior it was not possible to rescue the human soul. Christian Gnosticism identified Jesus with this divine savior, but came to formulations that led to its conviction, including the identification of Yahweh with the inferior god creator of the physical and evil world (from which derived some anti-Judaism, to join the one deriving from Jesus’ sentence to death) or the denial of the suffering and death of Jesus, since a divine being could not suffer or die; in fact, they claimed “docetism” (from dokein, “apparently”): Jesus only "seemed" human and the divine Savior who lived in Jesus' body went back to heaven before the Passion.
Gnosticism was fought by Irenaeus (130-202), bishop of Lyon. Irenaeus saw life as a process of refinement, growth and moral development, since human beings are adapted for the reception of virtue; a different view to the catastrophism of Augustine (354-430), bishop of Hippo, who considered the human condition as immersed in sin and misery. Origen also fought Gnosticism from rationalist positions and symbolic-allegorical interpretations of sacred texts. The fight against Gnosticism favored a more rigid and hierarchical structuring of the Christian community, that soon pivoted around the bishops and the primacy of the Church of Rome, seen as the successor to Peter and guardian of true faith. The major liturgical celebrations (Baptism and Eucharist) were also formalized.
On the other hand there were the " Gentile communities ", the result of the vision of Paul - a "direct revelation", source of his authority -, and of the preaching of Paul and his disciples in Greece and Rome. For them, Jesus is basically the savior who overcomes sin and death. The texts of this period that have reached us belong to this second group and follow its way of seeing things, but somehow the canonical Gospels reflect the fusion of these two approaches (the devotion to the historical person of Jesus and the vision of Jesus as savior). A fusion probably resulting from a certain agreement between the two sectors, which may have taken place around 48 AD, probably thanks to the fact that Peter, a major disciple of Jesus and leader of the Jerusalem community, and Jacob ben Yosef, brother of Jesus, accepted the idea that it was not necessary to adhere to the Jewish traditions in order to become a Christian (a follower of Christ, from the Greek Xristos, the Savior, term with which Jesus was designed). Due to the growing Jew animadversion towards the Christians, Peter had to leave Jerusalem (the transfer of Peter to Rome may reflect this agreement between the two initial communities and underline the trend to unify them). Jacob ben Yosef remained as head of the Jerusalem community until he was stoned in 62 AD by order of Anan, the high priest of the time.
Following the death of Paul, beheaded in Rome in 67AD during Nero’s persecutions (Peter will also die during these persecutions), as well as the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in
Initially, the Roman Empire confronts Christianity and persecutes it, generating a certain amount of Christian "martyrs", people who preferred to die rather than renounce their beliefs and proclaim the divinity of the Roman emperor, one of the main ideological axes which sustained the Empire. In 313 the Edict of Milan of religious freedom in the Roman Empire is decreed by Emperor Constantine, opening the door to the appointment of Christianity as the official religion of the Empire (which formally took place in 380 with the Edict of Thessaloniki by emperor Theodosius). In 325 the Council of Nicaea takes place, providing the theoretical ground that will enable the development of Christianity as the official religion of the Empire. This inaugurated what has been called the "Christendom", a long period where Christianity and politics were closely linked. Nicaea proclaimed the consideration of Jesus as an integrant of the divine Trinity together with the Father and the Holy Ghost (“God is Three in One”), in a theological formulation that will insist in considering Jesus simultaneously as fully divine and fully human, formulation that tried to convey what was the experience of the Christian community, of the followers of Jesus: that if the divine goodness had to manifest itself in human shape, it would be in a person like Jesus, who “made good” wherever he went; when they considered the life and personality of Jesus, they saw something like God in a human shape.
In this early Roman period of Christianity there were fundamental contributions; in fact, it was the time in which the foundations of Christian spirituality and theology were set up. During the second century, the Gnostic movement gathered strength, becoming the first "heresy" (deviation) within Christianity. It was a version of Christianity that assumed earlier traditions derived from the influence of Persian Zoroastrianism and Hinduism in the Mediterranean area. The Gnostics believed the material world as fundamentally bad, from which one had to separate in order to reach a higher spiritual sphere where there was the divine spark which gave a soul to the humans, and this process was possible through knowledge (gnosis) of a divine savior who could liberate the soul; without this savior it was not possible to rescue the human soul. Christian Gnosticism identified Jesus with this divine savior, but came to formulations that led to its conviction, including the identification of Yahweh with the inferior god creator of the physical and evil world (from which derived some anti-Judaism, to join the one deriving from Jesus’ sentence to death) or the denial of the suffering and death of Jesus, since a divine being could not suffer or die; in fact, they claimed “docetism” (from dokein, “apparently”): Jesus only "seemed" human and the divine Savior who lived in Jesus' body went back to heaven before the Passion.
Gnosticism was fought by Irenaeus (130-202), bishop of Lyon. Irenaeus saw life as a process of refinement, growth and moral development, since human beings are adapted for the reception of virtue; a different view to the catastrophism of Augustine (354-430), bishop of Hippo, who considered the human condition as immersed in sin and misery. Origen also fought Gnosticism from rationalist positions and symbolic-allegorical interpretations of sacred texts. The fight against Gnosticism favored a more rigid and hierarchical structuring of the Christian community, that soon pivoted around the bishops and the primacy of the Church of Rome, seen as the successor to Peter and guardian of true faith. The major liturgical celebrations (Baptism and Eucharist) were also formalized.
These early Christian centuries also saw the burst of a movement to "escape the world", led by the "Desert Fathers". It was launched in Egypt in the second century, with Anthony (late third century) as its best known name (in fact, in Egypt there were ascetic communities from the fourth century BC, perhaps influenced by Buddhism). Dissatisfied with the dominant social environment, groups of spiritual seekers went to the desert to isolate and properly follow their spiritual quest. They left few but rich written documents, starting a tradition of spiritual thought. In times of Anthony also appeared in Egypt, driven by Pacom (d. 346), a movement of monastic establishments (with a common rule of life not unlike the Buddhist Vinaya), a movement that in the late fourth century had spread throughout the Christian sphere.
Eminent thinkers filled a lot of volumes with their writings, starting the great body of Christian theology. Theology is the systematic thinking about the divine and the Greco-Roman world had a great capacity for systematic thought, as it was heir to philosophers of the magnitude of Plato and Aristotle. It was the time of the "Fathers of the Church," and there is a discipline, patristics or patrology, devoted to the study of their works. Among the many Fathers of the Church we find the names of Irenaeus of Lyon, Origen, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianz, Hilary, Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, Boethius, Cassiodorus, Isidor, the pseudo-Dionysus and John Damascene. The Fathers of the Church devoted themselves to clarify concepts such as the Trinity, the nature of Christ or the Holy Spirit, and to discuss the heresies of their time: Arianism, Nestorianism and Monophisism. All these issues were also discussed in a series of Councils of great theoretical ferment held in Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon between the fourth and the ninth century.
The great period of hegemony of Christianity in the West is the Middle Ages. The Church was favored by the vacuum left by the fall of the Roman Empire, and succeeded in affirming the Roman primacy. The Church provided cohesion, order, administration, and initiated the immense task of converting to Christianity the "barbarian" peoples invading the Empire. The other major challenge to the Church was the emergence of Islam in the seventh century, which moved the Western center of gravity from Italy to France (Italy will not regain centrality until the twelfth century, with the weakening of Islam). The clash between Rome and the Byzantine empire because of the iconoclast emperor Leo III the Isaurian (685-741), excommunicated in 731 by Pope Gregory III, as well as Roman reluctance towards the Lombards, lead Rome to favor the Franks of the Carolingian Empire (it should be remembered that in 732 Charles Martel stopped the Islamic invasion of Western Europe at the Battle of Poitiers). In 800 Charlemagne was crowned emperor by the Pope, a sign of the alliance between the Empire and the Roman Church. And as the Carolingian Empire quickly fell into fragmentation (a political fragmentation that will be usual in feudal Europe) the Church became the dominating force in Europe throughout the medieval period.
The medieval Church combined direct hierarchical organization (with bishops and priests playing the leading roles) with Augustinism as the dominant thought (man cannot achieve anything without the grace of God, that comes through the sacraments of the Church) and the contribution of monasteries (emphasizing that humans themselves, through asceticism and contemplation, have to achieve moral and spiritual perfection, to reach the vision of God). The monasteries were able to combine civilizing work (preservation and transmission of culture) with religious work. Saint Benedict (480-540), with his "pray and work" (ora et labora), launched the great Benedictine tradition in the sixth century.
The medieval Church combined direct hierarchical organization (with bishops and priests playing the leading roles) with Augustinism as the dominant thought (man cannot achieve anything without the grace of God, that comes through the sacraments of the Church) and the contribution of monasteries (emphasizing that humans themselves, through asceticism and contemplation, have to achieve moral and spiritual perfection, to reach the vision of God). The monasteries were able to combine civilizing work (preservation and transmission of culture) with religious work. Saint Benedict (480-540), with his "pray and work" (ora et labora), launched the great Benedictine tradition in the sixth century.
Mendicant orders were later added to Monasticism. Saint Francis and Saint Clara of Assisi started the Franciscan wave in the thirteenth century. Meanwhile, Domingo de Guzmán created in Toulouse the Dominican order of preachers to confront Catharism, a dualist movement with a strong political and intellectual impact. Among Dominicans there was the intellectual and spiritual explosion of Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest thinkers of all times: author of the Summa Theologica, written in Paris around 1270, he conciliated Aristotle's philosophy with Christian theology and defended the rationality of the Christian faith. It was a similar attempt to those of Anselm (1033-1109) and the Jew Maimonides (1135-1204). However, the Franciscan William of Ockham (1300-1349) considered reason and faith as two separate areas, inaugurating a new line of thought. The Dominicans were also hammers of heretics and promoters of the Inquisition: medieval religious history is dramatic (as are all periods in History), full of contrasts, among harsh and violent times.
The Middle Ages were also a time of mysticism (especially in Germanic lands, although the Anglo-saxon world produced in the fourteenth century an interesting anonymous text: "The cloud of unknowing") as well as a time of heresies. In 1173 in Lyon Pierre Vaudès, or Valdès, or Valdo, or Peter Waldo (1140-1206) had a religious experience that led him to a life of piety and simplicity; he gathered around him thousands of followers until they were driven out of the city; in 1184 Rome proclaims: "Let them be eternal anathema." The Valdensians refused obedience to the Pope and the bishops; believed that preaching and religious education were open to all who were capable, including women; that the Masses, prayers and charities for the dead were not helpful; that prayer is as effective in the church than outside of it; that the spiritual power is not conferred by the ordination by the hands of a bishop, but is given by God to each individual.
Beguines and begards appear in the early thirteenth century in northern France. Amaury teaches in Paris that "God is the essence of all creatures and the ultimate reality of all that exists"; his followers were convinced that the highest spiritual experience is to perform the divine life within the being of everyone, through silence and contemplation. And David Dinant said, "God, intelligence and matter are essentially identical" (a position that reminds of the monism of Shankara in India). Abbess Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was a pioneer in several domains. Meister Eckhart (1260-1327), Dominican and one of the greatest mystics of all times, was a contemporary of the great intellectual figure of medieval Catalonia, Ramon Llull (1232-1315), and of another literary and spiritual summit of the Middle Ages, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), who in the early fourteenth century wrote his "Divine Comedy". Eckhart studied in Paris and Cologne, where later on he worked, preached, discussed and was discussed, until he was accused of heresy (1329 papal bull). He wrote in Latin - the great common language of the intellectual Europe of the time -, and in German, being considered one of the creators of literary German. His sermons and treatises are of great spiritual density. Disciples of Eckhart were Tauler (1300-1361) and Ruysbroeck (1293-1381).
The Middle Ages were, from a religious point of view, a long and rich period, with Romanesque and Gothic, high level contributions to universal art and spirituality (is it possible not to feel the impact of the look of a Romanesque "Pantocrator" or the lean immensity of a Gothic nave?). With the great monastic, mendicant and military orders. With Saint Benedict and Saint Francis, the Rhenish mysticism, the theology of Thomas Aquinas and Meister Eckhart's sermons, both of them studying, discussing and wandering through Paris seven hundred years ago. With Gregorian chant...
The Middle Ages were, from a religious point of view, a long and rich period, with Romanesque and Gothic, high level contributions to universal art and spirituality (is it possible not to feel the impact of the look of a Romanesque "Pantocrator" or the lean immensity of a Gothic nave?). With the great monastic, mendicant and military orders. With Saint Benedict and Saint Francis, the Rhenish mysticism, the theology of Thomas Aquinas and Meister Eckhart's sermons, both of them studying, discussing and wandering through Paris seven hundred years ago. With Gregorian chant...
Parallel
to medieval Western Europe, in Eastern Mediterranean the Eastern Christian
tradition developed. A tradition that spread to the Slavic world, particularly
to Bulgaria, Serbia and Russia, and that continues to have an impact in the
personality of these nations. The separation of the Church of Rome and the
Eastern Church, a group of patriarchates gathered around the patriarchate of
Constantinople, - i.e., Byzantine Christianity -, gave rise to the so-called
Orthodox Church. The separation took place formally in the eleventh century (in
1054 the papal delegate, Cardinal Humbert, placed on the altar of St. Sophia a
bull of excommunication of Pope Leo IX against the patriarch of Constantinople,
Michael Cerulari), although it was a long process that may have started as
early as the fourth century. The Western Church will be called “Catholic” (“Catholic” means “universal”, in the sense that the
same doctrine was used by all the communities forming the Church).
Four points were explicitly mentioned as the cause of the divergence between the two churches: 1) the supremacy of the Pope, 2) the filioque clause in the Creed (so that the Holy Spirit comes also from the Son), 3) the doctrine of purgatory and 4) whether bread for the consecration of the Eucharist should be with or without yeast. However, the divergence between the two churches is far more deep and interesting; to the point that sometimes it suggests two separate kinds of religion. One emphasizes the justification of the human being, the other its divinity (Ireneus said that "God became man so that man could become God"); one emphasizes original sin, the other potential divinization; one contrasts matter and spirit, while the other emphasizes their interdependence; one emphasizes the proper formulation of dogmas, the other emphasizes the suitable form of worship and its proper performance; one sees the human being as guilty and Christ as a victim to expiate guilt, the other emphasizes the role of Christ as victorious over the forces of evil; one chooses a monarchical-hierarchical organization, underlining the role of the individual, while the other emphasizes the congregation of believers, which is where the authority lies, thus emphasizing the role of the community.
The Orthodox Church became strong in Russia with the Patriarchate of Moscow, especially with patriarch Nikon (1605-1681), so that Peter the Great, who reigned from 1682 to 1725, finished by removing this Patriarchate of Moscow and turning the Russian Orthodox Church into a State department. During the nineteenth century there was a flourishing of the "Eastern" and popular aspect of Russian Orthodox spirituality; the number of monasteries doubled, the figure of the staretzs as spiritual directors was consolidated and the "Jesus prayer" (continuous repetition of the phrase "Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me") became general practice.
It is worth approaching the Eastern Christian world. Its music and its splendid liturgy are impressive. Its icons are intense expressions of spirituality, the same models being repeated again and again, so suitable were they considered. It is a world capable of elevating the spirit in no time. There are many centuries of spiritual experience accumulated behind, many hours of prayer - such as the above mentioned "continuous prayer", compassed with rhythmic breathing, as a technique of permanent concentration in subtlety, leading to the "prayer of the heart" -; many pilgrimages, a lot of devotion as reflected by the anonymous "Sincere Stories of a Pilgrim to his spiritual father", where the Russian soul shows one of its dimensions.
The sixteenth century sees the appearance of another key milestone in the history of Christianity: the Evangelical or Protestant Reformation. This movement underlined the need to go back to the initial spirit of the Gospel, miscarried by the Catholic Church. It is a high level historical phenomenon that has modeled, by action or reaction, much of Western culture. The tensions between European nations and the rising of their imperial ambitions partly explain what happened, but the fact is that the imposing structure of the Roman Church, with only the Eastern Orthodoxy out of its control, received in the sixteenth century a meteoric impact with the separation of its orbit of the Anglo-Germanic world. Religion and politics were shocked by conflicts of interest, but also by the emergence of new ideas.
It is worth approaching the Eastern Christian world. Its music and its splendid liturgy are impressive. Its icons are intense expressions of spirituality, the same models being repeated again and again, so suitable were they considered. It is a world capable of elevating the spirit in no time. There are many centuries of spiritual experience accumulated behind, many hours of prayer - such as the above mentioned "continuous prayer", compassed with rhythmic breathing, as a technique of permanent concentration in subtlety, leading to the "prayer of the heart" -; many pilgrimages, a lot of devotion as reflected by the anonymous "Sincere Stories of a Pilgrim to his spiritual father", where the Russian soul shows one of its dimensions.
The sixteenth century sees the appearance of another key milestone in the history of Christianity: the Evangelical or Protestant Reformation. This movement underlined the need to go back to the initial spirit of the Gospel, miscarried by the Catholic Church. It is a high level historical phenomenon that has modeled, by action or reaction, much of Western culture. The tensions between European nations and the rising of their imperial ambitions partly explain what happened, but the fact is that the imposing structure of the Roman Church, with only the Eastern Orthodoxy out of its control, received in the sixteenth century a meteoric impact with the separation of its orbit of the Anglo-Germanic world. Religion and politics were shocked by conflicts of interest, but also by the emergence of new ideas.
Contrary to what the Roman Church thought, the Reformation argued that individuals could interpret the sacred book, the biblical text, directly, personally; this was already a major religious revolution by itself. The Bible became closer to the people and the ecclesiastical authority lost its monopoly as its interpreter. Liturgy and dogma were considered at the service of the individual spiritual process. The need for a central authority to which to submit in religious affairs was denied. The Roman authority was questioned, as well as the ecclesiastical and dogmatic Catholic notions. Protestantism is a passionate refusal of religious superficiality, insisting in that faith is not a simple question of belief but a response of the whole being, a personal phenomenon reaching the mind as well as the feelings and the will. Through faith, God becomes “my God”. The accomplishment of religious precepts, the fulfilment of good actions, the adherence to specific doctrines is not enough: all this has to lead to the transformation of the heart of the believer, of its attitudes, of its way of living. If one changes its heart, he will perform good actions, but performing good actions does not necessarily lead to the transformation of the heart. The human being in which the love of God has awakened the response of faith, the mobilization of all his being, is the one that can really love others; the key is in the interior. From faith in the goodness of God emanate all important things; without this faith, nothing will be as it should. And nothing has to take the place of God. Neither dogmas, nor sacraments, nor the Church, nor the Bible, nor personal religious experience can be considered an absolute, only God is God, nothing can be taken as God.
The figure which starts these dynamics - at least on the symbolic level - is Martin Luther (1483-1546), a German Augustinian monk, professor of theology at the Wittenberg University and specialist in biblical texts. Concerned about the issue of personal salvation, Luther concludes that it depends only on the faith in Jesus Christ, and that good works are not so much a way to reach salvation as a manifestation of salvation (“you perform good works because you have been saved, not in order to be saved”). The Church becomes for Luther simply the gathering of believers in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ becomes the only central reference. That meant no reference to the Pope as a sign of ecclesial backbone, providing theoretical ground to political positions contrary to Roman hegemony and to its representative, the emperor, who at the time was Charles V.
The figure which starts these dynamics - at least on the symbolic level - is Martin Luther (1483-1546), a German Augustinian monk, professor of theology at the Wittenberg University and specialist in biblical texts. Concerned about the issue of personal salvation, Luther concludes that it depends only on the faith in Jesus Christ, and that good works are not so much a way to reach salvation as a manifestation of salvation (“you perform good works because you have been saved, not in order to be saved”). The Church becomes for Luther simply the gathering of believers in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ becomes the only central reference. That meant no reference to the Pope as a sign of ecclesial backbone, providing theoretical ground to political positions contrary to Roman hegemony and to its representative, the emperor, who at the time was Charles V.
In October 31, 1517 Luther nailed to the door of the church in Wittenberg a document itemizing 95 points against the abuses of the Roman church. Point 62 said: “The real treasure of the Church is the Gospel”. Pope Leo X asked him to retract, and he refused. Luther was excommunicated in 1521, thus formally starting the process of separation of many churches in the Germanic, Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon areas from the Church of Rome, with the consequential theological discussions, political tensions, military struggles and terrible moments (as the sadly famous massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy in France the 24th of August 1572, in which thirteen thousand Huguenot protestants – three thousand in Paris - were assassinated).
Luther advocated the interpretation of the Bible by the believer (with no need, as we said, of the ecclesiastical authority- the so-called “magistery” – to be the official and unique determinator of the meaning of the texts). And Luther addressed the sacraments - ecclesial events of special importance because in them divine action, the "grace", is present - as paths for the growth of faith, essentially reducing them to Baptism and the Eucharist, rather than the seven who remained official for the Catholic Church.
Luther, out of the conviction that the only authority was the word of God and that consequently the important thing to do was to read and study the Bible, promoted the translation of the Bible into German, so that everybody could have access to its content (something that was facilitated by the recent invention of the print).
The Reformation got further diffusion with the contribution of other reformers such as Jean Calvin (1509-1564) and has deeply impacted the history of Europe and North America, as well as that of Christianity. Let us mention here a fairly unusual event: Cyril Lucaris, patriarch of Constantinople between 1621 and 1638, studied in his youth at Wittenberg and Geneva, and was attracted by the doctrine of Calvin. He tried to introduce issues such as predestination and salvation by faith only into the orthodoxy, but clashed with the rigid ecclesiastical structures of the Oriental church. Shortly after his death, his positions were declared anathema by a Synod of the Orthodox clergy, and the same happened to his followers. Perhaps Christians in Eastern Europe influenced by Protestantism experienced how this influence facilitated their conversion to Islam, which led to believe in a merciful God, whose will predestines all things and by the grace of which humans could be saved; maybe Islam somehow replaced Protestantism in South East Europe.
Due to the breaking of the principle of one only authority led by Protestantism, a variety of churches and communities with different characteristics emerged, enriching the religious scene. There stand the Evangelical or Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church - which has its origins in the preaching of Calvin -, the Anglican Church - official English version of the Reformation, which in North America has become the Episcopalian Church -, the Baptist churches, Methodism - founded by the English Anglican priest John Wesley (1703-1791) and which rooted in nineteenth century British working class; from it emerged in 1865 the "Salvation Army" - Congregationalism, Pentecostalism, etc. Let us finally mention the testimony of the austere and attractive "Quakers" or "Society of Friends", and the spiritual tradition of Afro-Americans, beautifully expressed in their songs (“negro spirituals”) and that in the twentieth century gave a figure like Martin Luther King.
Luther, out of the conviction that the only authority was the word of God and that consequently the important thing to do was to read and study the Bible, promoted the translation of the Bible into German, so that everybody could have access to its content (something that was facilitated by the recent invention of the print).
The Reformation got further diffusion with the contribution of other reformers such as Jean Calvin (1509-1564) and has deeply impacted the history of Europe and North America, as well as that of Christianity. Let us mention here a fairly unusual event: Cyril Lucaris, patriarch of Constantinople between 1621 and 1638, studied in his youth at Wittenberg and Geneva, and was attracted by the doctrine of Calvin. He tried to introduce issues such as predestination and salvation by faith only into the orthodoxy, but clashed with the rigid ecclesiastical structures of the Oriental church. Shortly after his death, his positions were declared anathema by a Synod of the Orthodox clergy, and the same happened to his followers. Perhaps Christians in Eastern Europe influenced by Protestantism experienced how this influence facilitated their conversion to Islam, which led to believe in a merciful God, whose will predestines all things and by the grace of which humans could be saved; maybe Islam somehow replaced Protestantism in South East Europe.
Due to the breaking of the principle of one only authority led by Protestantism, a variety of churches and communities with different characteristics emerged, enriching the religious scene. There stand the Evangelical or Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church - which has its origins in the preaching of Calvin -, the Anglican Church - official English version of the Reformation, which in North America has become the Episcopalian Church -, the Baptist churches, Methodism - founded by the English Anglican priest John Wesley (1703-1791) and which rooted in nineteenth century British working class; from it emerged in 1865 the "Salvation Army" - Congregationalism, Pentecostalism, etc. Let us finally mention the testimony of the austere and attractive "Quakers" or "Society of Friends", and the spiritual tradition of Afro-Americans, beautifully expressed in their songs (“negro spirituals”) and that in the twentieth century gave a figure like Martin Luther King.
Reacting against the Protestant phenomena the Catholic Church withdraw to herself, which was symbolized by the Council of Trento (1545-1563), which tried to strengthen its dogmatic, liturgical and legal discipline. In Spain, however, there are two elements that contrast with the mood in which Catholicism was closing itself: the great sixteenth century Spanish mystics, especially Juan de la Cruz (1542-1591) and Teresa de Ávila (1515 -1582), and the creation of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556). Juan de la Cruz is a first level mystic and one of the greatest Spanish poets. And the disciples of Teresa, the Carmelite nuns, still gather in monastic communities. The disciples of Ignatius continue making significant contributions to Christian spirituality today.
It is considered that some positions of the Reformation favored an ideology that promoted the development of capitalism in Western Europe (individual merit, sobriety, savings, seriousness at work, good use of time and resources, preventing their dispersion in worldly pleasures...). One of these positions considers economic success as a sign of the salvation of the person, a rather surprising position that could derive from a distorted interpretation of the Lutheran vision of the relationship between faith and good works. As we have seen, the Lutheran position was “you perform good works because you have been saved, not in order to be saved”; so that good works done are a sign of salvation. But here we see the replacement of “good works done” by “economic success obtained”… ”What we do” is replaced by “what happens to us”. This replacement, difficult to justify, will be used in defense of personal enrichment and will be full of historical consequences (sometimes, an apparently minor ideological nuance can have notorious practical effects).
The capitalist mentality gradually developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and broke out in Europe and the USA in the nineteenth century, with the great accumulation of capital and industrial development produced there (and the working class misery that accompanied the process). To this was added, at the ideological level, the fact that some considered that the phenomena of popular revolt, like the French Revolution, had their origin in the loss of respect for the institutions of society, which was the result of the religious indifference and laxity of morals of the upper classes. In reaction, there was a trend to more serious ideas and behaviors (which partly explain the rather rigid and conservative characteristics – in spite of notorious exceptions – of the nineteenth century in Europe, culminating in the Victorian era in Great Britain). Somehow, the nineteenth century is the most "successful" for modern Christianity if focus is placed at its institutional development, its external observances, its expansion to Asia and Africa (in America this expansion had taken place in the three preceding centuries) and the respect with what it was treated: Christianity was again the world hegemonic religion.
The mentality of what would be this expansive Christianity of the nineteenth century is reflected by this 1797 text of Charles Grant, director of the East India Company: "Given that world affairs are under the control of the supreme creator, and those distant lands (. ..) providentially placed in our hands (...) ¿is it not necessary to conclude that they were given to us, not only to get from them an annual profit, but in order to spread among its inhabitants, immersed since long ago in darkness, vice and misery, the light and benign influence of truth, the jewels of the well-regulated society, the improvements and conveniences of active industry? (...) At each step we move forward in this task, we must also honor the original purpose for which we visited India: the purpose, still so important to this country, of the extension of our trade". Missionary arrogance in India offended both Muslims and Hindus, and led to a riot in 1857; Queen Victoria had to proclaim that no one should be "no way favored, molested or hassled because of its faith or religious observance, but everyone had to equally enjoy the fair and impartial protection of the law." However, Christian missions in Asia and Africa lived their period of maximum splendor from 1858 on.
Japan is a peculiar case of the relationship between Asia and the West. When the Jesuit Francis Xavier arrived there in 1549, he was considered as a preacher of the religion of India... In the sixteenth century, Spanish Franciscans and Dominicans arrived, criticized by the Jesuits for working among the poorer classes; to these disagreements were added the tensions between Spaniards and Portuguese. In 1597, many Spanish missionaries and their converts were repressed. During the seventeenth century Spanish and Portuguese were expelled from Japan (to it had contributed the Protestant German and English traders, explaining the imperialist consideration Spain and Portugal had in Europe). Finally the Tokugawa rulers (1603-1867) banned Christianity in Japan.
Perhaps as a result of the Council of Trento, and therefore of the impact of the Protestant Reformation, the following four hundred years of Catholicism were, at the internal ideological and institutional level, of a slow evolution without major shocks, with some exceptions like the discussion in France around Jansenism in the seventeenth century (externally there was a very important shock: the French Revolution of 1789). So the closed Catholic spirituality of the nineteenth century is reached, in which context a Syllabus condemning certain liberal ideas (separation of church and state, primary education based on a common secular basis, recognition of values in religions other than Catholicism...) was published in 1864. Shortly after the First Vatican Council takes place (1869-1870, the first Catholic Council after Trento!), and in it the infallibility of the Pope when he speaks ex cathedra is proclaimed. Within this rather uncreative and politically conservative scenario, there were some attempts of renewal and more closeness to the problems of society, as the one initiated by Pope Leo XIII with the Rerum Novarum encyclical (1891), devoted to social justice, where the rights of the working class were supported. Shortly after, however, Pope Pius X condemned, in the Pascendi encyclical (1907), the "Catholic modernism", which tried to reconcile Catholicism with certain modern conceptions. In this rather grey context there were however some intellectual and spiritual contributions of great honesty and high density, such as the ones of Danish Soren Kierkegaard, who shocked the nineteenth century European spirituality, and some names of the French-speaking world that had significant influence in the Catholic spirituality of the twentieth century, from Charles Péguy to François Mauriac and Georges Bernanos, from Jacques and Raïsa Maritain to Emmanuel Mounier.
The stability of the Catholic Christian thought and its institutions will end with the celebration of the Second Vatican Council (initiated by Pope John XXIII in 1962 and completed by Paul VI in 1965). The Council brought together Catholic bishops in opening a renovating thought; the internal structure of the Church was reviewed, opening the door to more participation of lay people; it began a process of liturgical reform, and the relationship of the Church with the world was also reviewed, with a closer and positive look towards it. Revelation and religious freedom were discussed. A message of hope spread both within the Church and outside it. A whole generation of Christians put much effort in this process and placed high expectations in it. The Catholic Church was moving from a fearful and defensive attitude against the modern world to an open and welcoming one, and was doing that in an honest way, by conviction, not only as a strategy for survival. The Second Vatican Council generated much interest, many hopes. It was a rather unusual event, at least in its purposes and in its initial moments. There was a desire to overcome barriers and disagreements, to apologize for the old ways of not sufficient respect for the freedom of conscience; there was a wish to set up a dialogue with scientific thought and with the democratic conceptions of society.
Unfortunately, later on the institution felt fear, and the reform of the Second Vatican Council was left halfway. There had been some significant advancement in terms of openness to dialogue with the world, but not much in terms of doctrine, liturgy and ecclesiastical structures. Lay participation in Church dynamics remained on paper, restrained by a kind of distrust of the viability of instances of participation in the Church. The role of women remained subordinate. The liturgy was unable to adapt to the style of each community. The trend to dictate doctrine to tell people what it had to do not as a proposal or a suggestion but as an order, reappeared in areas such as the regulation of birth. The pontificates of John Paul II (1978-2005) and Benedict XVI (2005-2013) reflect this climate of prevention. Currently, however, the pontificate of Pope Francis (begun in 2013) shows signs of reconnection with the spirit of the Second Vatican Council and may open new trails in the Catholic dynamics.
In the post-council period the appearance of the "liberation theology" in Latin America was significant. Somehow this theology, that proclaimed the prophetic and religious dimension of social movements of popular liberation, was a result of two influences: first, the theology that was generated around the Second Vatican Council in Europe, the last major wave of innovative and consistent theology; second, the Christian-Marxist dialogue established during the Sixties between open Christian theologians and renovator Marxist philosophers. With the liberation theology, the socio-political dimension and the religious dimension were approaching in an opposite sense to what had been historically dominant (with valuable exceptions): the Catholic Church showed sensitiveness to the suffering of the people who lived immersed in poverty and oppression, starting in Latin America and then spreading to Asia and Africa. The objection that was made from Europe to this theology was that it did not take in sufficient account the cultural crisis that the West was experiencing, nor sufficiently incorporated the challenges set by modernity, by science and technology development, by consumerism; as well as not sufficiently addressing the issue of dialogue between religions. It was considered as a socially advanced theology but not very innovative theologically. Perhaps the current challenge of Catholicism is to develop, in addition to the liberation theology, which is a response to the material poverty of much of the world, a theology offering an answer to the spiritual poverty experienced by a another large portion of the world, assuming at the same time the task and the challenge of interfaith dialogue.
In the post-council period the appearance of the "liberation theology" in Latin America was significant. Somehow this theology, that proclaimed the prophetic and religious dimension of social movements of popular liberation, was a result of two influences: first, the theology that was generated around the Second Vatican Council in Europe, the last major wave of innovative and consistent theology; second, the Christian-Marxist dialogue established during the Sixties between open Christian theologians and renovator Marxist philosophers. With the liberation theology, the socio-political dimension and the religious dimension were approaching in an opposite sense to what had been historically dominant (with valuable exceptions): the Catholic Church showed sensitiveness to the suffering of the people who lived immersed in poverty and oppression, starting in Latin America and then spreading to Asia and Africa. The objection that was made from Europe to this theology was that it did not take in sufficient account the cultural crisis that the West was experiencing, nor sufficiently incorporated the challenges set by modernity, by science and technology development, by consumerism; as well as not sufficiently addressing the issue of dialogue between religions. It was considered as a socially advanced theology but not very innovative theologically. Perhaps the current challenge of Catholicism is to develop, in addition to the liberation theology, which is a response to the material poverty of much of the world, a theology offering an answer to the spiritual poverty experienced by a another large portion of the world, assuming at the same time the task and the challenge of interfaith dialogue.
The Protestant movement experienced a major milestone in 1948 with the creation of the "World Council of Churches" in Amsterdam (its headquarters are in Geneva today). Its purpose is to coordinate the action of the various Protestant churches and promote the organic union of these churches. It has also incorporated a number of Orthodox churches, but so far the Catholic Church has not joined it. In fact, the entire second half of the twentieth century experienced a boost of ecumenical tendencies that seek to promote dialogue and rapprochement between the various Christian denominations.
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