Church History

Sack of Rome

410

Council of Carthage

418

Augustine Writes a Commentary on the Psalms

418

Agustine

430

Born to pagan father and Christian mother.
Rebels Christianity in his teens.
Joins 'Manichees' at 18.
Turned to Neoplatonism to find philosophical answers.

Council of Ephesus

431

Pope Leo

450

Council of Chalcedon

451

St. Patrick

500

Clovis

511

Barbarian chief who converted to Christianity.

Benedict

529

Becomes a monk at age 20

Justinian/Byzantine Empire

565

Gregory the Great become Pope

590

Augustine of Canterbury

600

Muhammad has a 'spiritual encounter' near the caves of Mecca

610

Muhammad dies

632

Christianity is brought to China by Alopen

635

The Catholics and Celtic churches met to debate which religion would rule Britain

664

Cluny founded

910

East-West Schism

1054

Turks Defeat Byzantine Army

1071

Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand) Papal Dictates

1075

Anselm

1093

Pope Urban II & The People's Crusade

1095

The First Official Crusade

1098

Jerusalem Taken

1099

Peter Abelard

1100

Bernard of Clairvaux & 2nd Crusade

1147

Saladin Captures Jerusalem & 3rd Crusade

1187

The Fourth Crusade

1202

The Fifth Crusade

1217

Thomas Aquinas

1225

The Inquisition

1231

Papal Election

1294

France and England go to War

1295

Jon Hus

1369

Francesso Petrarch

1374

John Wycliffe

1379

The Council of Constance

1414

Luther is born

1483

Zwingli is born

1484

Menno Simons

Period: 1496 to 1561

John Calvin is Born

1509

Martin nails the 95 Thesis to the church doors

1517

Zwingli begins preaching in Zurich

1519

Luther's "Tower Experience"

1519

Luther is Excommunicated

1520

Zulrich Supports Zwingli

1523

The Peasant's War

1524

Michael Sattler

1527

Zwingli's Death & Battle of Kappel

1531

Jan Matthijis

1534

Paul III is elected Pope

1534

Kingdom of Münster

Period: 1534 to 1535

Jacob Hutter

1535

Calvin writes the Institutes

1536

Calvin & Farel are expelled from Geneva

1538

Luther went to Wittenburg

1540

Calvin back in Geneva

1541

Council of Trent

1545

Luther dies

1546

The Roman Inquisition

1552

Bloody Mary I

1553

Pope Paul IV

1555

Queen Elizabeth I

1558

John Knox

1559

Scottish Reformation

1560

St Bartholomew's Day Massacre

1572

Act Against Puritans

1593

Wars of Religion/ Early Englightenment Period

Period: 1600 to 1700

King James of England

1603

Formerly king of Scotland since age 1
Allowed church reform as long as it did not cause him to lose power as king

King James held conference and replaced the rule of bishop to the Presbyterian system

1604

King James authorized his version of the Bible (KJV)

1611

"Book of Sports" is issued

1618

Synod of Dort

1618

The Mayflower sails for New England

1620

Galileo writes dialogue about the two major world systems

1630

Prayer Book Riot

1637

Descartes

1637

Civil War between Charles I and Parliment

1642

Philipp Jakob Spencer/ Pietist Movement

1670

King James II

1685

Isaac Newton discovers gravity

1687

John Locke writes Treatises on Civil Government

1690

Moravian Church Established

1727

George Whitefield

1732

Jonathan Edwards

1734

The Wesley brothers sail to Georgia

1735

Immanuel Kant

1740

You only know what you experience
Reason explains theory & ideas
Observation is subjective (personal interpretations of experiences)

You cannot truly know the world beyond yourself

William Wilberforce

1784

The French Revolution

1789

Commoners declare The Rights of Man
Abolish tithes
Regained church land
Bishops and priests were elected by the people
The church split - Catholics (loyal to Rome) and the Revolution
Peasants developed a democratic parliment
Aristocrats and “traitors” of the revolution were beheaded
Faith was replaced with ideas of reason

Napoleon Bonaparte makes himself “first consul” of France

1799

Friedrich Schleiermacher & Birth of Liberal Christianity & Romanticism

1799

Grew up pietist in Germany
Experienced intellectual doubts about atonement and the incarnation

Became a Reformed Chaplin in Berlin
Wrote Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers

Napoleon requires the Pope to crown him emperor, but ended up crowning himself

1804

Revivalist Charles Finney

1831

The American Anti-Slavery Society

1833

Joseph Smith publishes the Book of Mormon

1840

Karl Marx writes The Communist Manifesto

1847

Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species

1859

The First Vatican Council (the last ecumenical council)

1869

Called by Pope Pius IX
The agenda included many topics:
Marriage
Morals
Education
Duelling
The most important topic was papal infallibility
The Pope cannot err when speaking as a pastor to the people on subjects concerning faith and morals
The vote passed. The minority that disagreed formed the Old Catholics, but the rest approved total papal infallibility

Charles Parham and the Pentecostals

1900

Parham emphasised the gift of the Holy Spirit - speaking in tongues - that was given at Pentecost (Acts 2)
Lead a nationwide revival tour where his students could speak in tongues
Found that no one understood the “language” so tongues was then reserved for personal worship
Pentecostalism became a branch off the Holiness Movement
The 3rd blessing for a Christian was receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit

World Missionary Conference

1910

Denominational splits made missionary work hard
The conference gathered with 1,200 to discuss unification for missions
The International Ministry Council
Life and Work Movement
The Faith and Order Movement

First World War

1914

The war brought about changes in faith and toleration for religion
Christian liberals in America realized moral progress was not enough
Religion took the back burner and progress, entertainment, and politics became more important

Karl Barth

1922

A Swiss Reformed pastor
Most of Barth’s teachers signed a manifesto that agreed to the violence that started the war and believed that “salvation” was found in Germany victory

Barth publishes his commentary on Romans

1922

Condemned liberal Christianity
Christianity is about God, not us
The Bible is the Word of God and how we know him

Second World War

1939

Hitler pushes forward Nazi neo-paganism
Jews are discriminated against and many are killed
Pope Pius XI dies and leaves things to Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII did not try to stop Hitler
Christians learned through the Holocaust that Anti-Semitism needed to stop
State of Israel was established in 1948 but Islam fought back

Emil Brunner

1946

National Party in South Africa

1948

Introduced apartheid (a policy of segregation based on race)
Considered blacks to be inferior
Whites had absolute power
Banned marriage between whites and blacks
The Dutch Reformed Church agreed, but other churches did not

World Council of Churches (WCC)

1948

The ecumenical movement united Order and Faith with Life and Work
Formed in Amsterdam in 1948
Agreed to a simple Christian creed
Wanted local church to unit and worship together
Multiple evangelical churches dismissed it for being to liberal
Pope Pius XII accepted it

Communist China expels Christianity

1949

Foreign missionaries were pushed out
Chinese Christians looked forward to creating a “non-western” Christianity
Christians places were shut down

Martin Luther King leads the Bus Boycott

1955

Baptist pastor in Alabama
Fought for racial equality
Believed in peaceful boycotts to gain equality
King worked to remove segregation from local places and give black Americans the right to vote

The Charismatic Movement

1960

The Holiness Movement (post-civil war) → Pentecostalism → The Charismatic Movement
Spread teachings of Holy Spirit baptism to other churches
Gifts of tongues and healing

Second Vatican Council

1962

Almost stopped by the Cuban Missile Crisis
Pope John XXIII gathered 2,500 participants
Rahner and Kung were his chief theological advisors
Little was accomplished before Pope John’s death
Pope Paul VI was able to continue the council

March on Washington

1963

A peaceful protest lead by Martin Luther King Jr.
King gives his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech
1964 - Segregation is outlawed in the USA
Blacks earned the right to vote

The World Council of Churches (WCC) 4th Assembly

1968

Debated its mission policy
Missions = working to better society?
Missions = saving souls for Christ?
Agreement that missions was about both society and salvation

Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated

1968

Lausanne Movement

1974

Pope John Paul II

1978

Collapse of British Churches

Period: 1990 to 1999

Attendance dropped by a quarter through the decade
Census showed that at least three-quarters still had Christian beliefs

Fall of the Berlin Wall

1991

Church of England votes in favor of ordaining women priests

1992

Anglo-Catholics were not in favor of this vote
The decision was seen as a set-back to ecumenical discussion
Still, half of male ministers would not take communion with women

The Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship

1996

Charismatic Christians had been predicting a revival for many years
At the group received what they called the “toronto blessing”
A new, more intense form of spirituality was formed

Falling down, shaking, laughing, animal impressions
Manifestations of the spirit
The Toronto blessing and Alpha course promoted one another for evangelism

Osama bin Laden drives US armies out of Islamic lands

1998

Saudi Muslim leader
Declared defensive jihad against USA to liberate Jerusalem mosque
Believed God would reward Muslims who killed Americans and took their money
Al-qaeda network attacks US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania - killing 224 people

John Paul issues We Remember

1998

World Trade Center 911

Sep 11, 2001

Pope Benedict XVI

2005

Pope Francis

2013