October 31, 2017

116 Introduction (Five Hundred 1)

47 minutes

500 years ago, there was only one Christian denomination throughout most of the world. 500 years ago, the church and the government killed those who resisted tradition. 500 years ago, no one could read the bible in their own language. How did we get from there to here? Discover the wild and exciting story of Christianity for the last 500 years, so you can understand how the world ended up the way it is now, avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, and gain inspiration from heroic people who made a difference.

In this first lecture, you’ll learn:

1. What the religious world was like 500 years ago in Europe

2. Precursors to the Reformation, including John Wycliffe and Jan Hus

3. The movement called humanism, including Gutenberg’s printing press and Desiderius Erasmus

All the notes are available here as a pdf.

—— Notes ——

Three aims for this class:

to understand why the world is the way it is now

to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past

to gain inspiration from heroic people who made a difference

I want to talk about Martin Luther, but first need to do some background

key person

reason why this class if 500 instead of 600 or 400

on Oct 31st 1517 he started the Reformation (i.e. the changing of Christianity)

before we can understand what he reformed, we have to understand what was already there

Three points for today:

Setting the Scene

Precursors of the Reformation

Humanism

1| Setting the Scene

life and death

no electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, gas heat, computers, phones, facebook, cars, postal service

thinly populated (black death in 14th)

high infant mortality

15-35% of infants died before first birthday

10-20% of children died before 10

agricultural subsistence

65-90% were peasants or small farmers

suffering and death were pervasive (bad medical care, famine, epidemic disease, war)

highly stratified society, most stay at same status they were born into

towns had extreme differences in wealth

beliefs/practices

infant baptism

church as God’s instrument of salvation on earth

death => eternal torment in hell, purgatory, heaven

needed right belief and right behavior, which was determined by church

faith was not enough for salvation, needed concrete actions

authority on the basis of apostolic succession and good standing with hierarchy

hierarchy: pope, bishops, local priests

religious orders: monks, nuns,

contemplative orders: Benedictines, Cistercians, etc. cloistered lives of prayer and devotion

mendicant orders: Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, etc. served through preaching, teaching, missionizing, and hearing confessions

weekly mass with Eucharist as weekly sacrifice to God (transubstantiation)

priest’s words make bread and wine Christ’s actual body and blood

sacraments: means by which God dispenses grace through priests who claimed authority on the basis of apostolic succession

baptism, penance, communion, confirmation, matrimony, extreme unction, and holy orders

communion was only once a year before which one did confession and penance to cleanse sins

processions and pilgrimages (relics)

vigorous practices

books of hours were most common printed book 50 years before Reformation

endowing masses, paying for urban preachers, paying for church upkeep

many were taking their faith seriously

anti-cler

...more

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By Sean P Finnegan

4.8

150150 ratings

October 31, 2017

116 Introduction (Five Hundred 1)

47 minutes

In this first lecture, you’ll learn:

1. What the religious world was like 500 years ago in Europe

2. Precursors to the Reformation, including John Wycliffe and Jan Hus

3. The movement called humanism, including Gutenberg’s printing press and Desiderius Erasmus

All the notes are available here as a pdf.

—— Notes ——

Three aims for this class:

to understand why the world is the way it is now

to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past

to gain inspiration from heroic people who made a difference

I want to talk about Martin Luther, but first need to do some background

key person

reason why this class if 500 instead of 600 or 400

on Oct 31st 1517 he started the Reformation (i.e. the changing of Christianity)

before we can understand what he reformed, we have to understand what was already there

Three points for today:

Setting the Scene

Precursors of the Reformation

Humanism

1| Setting the Scene

life and death

no electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, gas heat, computers, phones, facebook, cars, postal service

thinly populated (black death in 14th)

high infant mortality

15-35% of infants died before first birthday

10-20% of children died before 10

agricultural subsistence

65-90% were peasants or small farmers

suffering and death were pervasive (bad medical care, famine, epidemic disease, war)

highly stratified society, most stay at same status they were born into

towns had extreme differences in wealth

beliefs/practices

infant baptism

church as God’s instrument of salvation on earth

death => eternal torment in hell, purgatory, heaven

needed right belief and right behavior, which was determined by church

faith was not enough for salvation, needed concrete actions

authority on the basis of apostolic succession and good standing with hierarchy

hierarchy: pope, bishops, local priests

religious orders: monks, nuns,

contemplative orders: Benedictines, Cistercians, etc. cloistered lives of prayer and devotion

mendicant orders: Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, etc. served through preaching, teaching, missionizing, and hearing confessions

weekly mass with Eucharist as weekly sacrifice to God (transubstantiation)

priest’s words make bread and wine Christ’s actual body and blood

sacraments: means by which God dispenses grace through priests who claimed authority on the basis of apostolic succession

baptism, penance, communion, confirmation, matrimony, extreme unction, and holy orders

communion was only once a year before which one did confession and penance to cleanse sins

processions and pilgrimages (relics)

vigorous practices

books of hours were most common printed book 50 years before Reformation

endowing masses, paying for urban preachers, paying for church upkeep

many were taking their faith seriously

anti-cler

...more

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116 Introduction (Five Hundred 1)

116 Introduction (Five Hundred 1)

More shows like Restitutio

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Reasonable Faith Podcast

Unbelievable?

BibleProject

Trinities

Java with Juli - Making Sense of God and Sex

LHIM Weekly Bible Teaching

The Biblical Unitarian Podcast

Ask NT Wright Anything

One God Report

The Shawn Ryan Show

Bible Feed

Unitarian Christian Alliance

Transfigured

The Best of You