:: wikimiki.org ::
| Evangelicalism |
Evangelicalism
The word evangelicalism usually refers to a tendency in diverse branches of Protestantism, typified by an emphasis on evangelism, a personal experience of conversion, biblically-oriented faith, and a belief in the relevance of Christian faith to cultural issues. In the late 20th century and early 21st century, Protestant people, churches and social movements were often called evangelical in contrast to Protestant liberalism.
The term 'evangelical', in a lexical, but less-commonly-used sense, refers to anything implied in the belief that Jesus is the savior. The word comes from the Greek word for 'Gospel' or 'good news': ευαγγελιον evangelion, from eu- "good" and angel "message". To be evangelical would then mean to be merely Christian, that is, founded upon, motivated by, acting in agreement with, spreading the good news message of the New Testament.
In Western cultural usage, Evangelical has usually referred to Protestantism, in intended contrast to Catholicism. At different times, the name has developed nuances according to the controversies of the age:
- In Europe since the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, Lutheran churches have been called Evangelical churches, in contradistinction to the Reformed churches of Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and their associates.
- In the 17th century and onward, the Puritan party in the Church of England who sought to identify that church with the Reformed movement of the Reformation, who later withdrew from that Communion and became known by the derogatory names of "Non-Conformists" and "Dissenters", were also called the evangelical party.
- In the 18th century, the Wesleyan revival within the Church of England influenced the formation of a party of pietistic Anglicans, whose descendant movement is still called the "Evangelical party".
- In North American experience, particularly the United States of America, in the Great Awakenings, the term distinguished the supporters of revivalism. As compared to those who emphasized conversion as a prolonged process, and a result of Christian nurture, evangelicals looked for a single experience to mark the starting point of the Christian life.
The earliest meanings continue to be current, depending on the context. In the name, Evangelical Orthodox Church, for example, the word in the title of this Old Catholic group simply means "Christian". The Union of Evangelical Churches is Germany's national Protestant church, formed by the state-mandated union of Lutheran and Reformed churches. Similarly several churches have Evangelical in their title, meaning evangelical in the sense of "Protestant", but not necessarily part of the modern evangelical movement per se. For most of Protestant history the term 'evangelical' for a self-description has been used by both modernists and fundamentalists. However, in common contemporary parlance, the name has been all but relinquished to the "moderates", rather than liberals or fundamentalists.
Roots
The contemporary evangelical movement has its origins in the 18th century. In that period, the First Great Awakening was deeply influencing American religious life, while at the same time John Wesley and the Methodist movement were renewing British Christianity. Much of this religious fervor was a reaction to Enlightenment thinking and the deistic writings of many of the western philosophical elites.
The chief emphases of the fledgling Methodist movement as well as the Awakening were individual conversion, personal piety and Bible study, public morality often including Temperance and family values, and Abolitionism, a broadened role for lay people and women in worship, evangelism and teaching, and cooperation in evangelism across denominational lines (that is, interdenominationally).
In its early years, what was to become known as evangelicalism was largely a hybrid of the Reformed emphasis on doctrinal orthodoxy, and the pietist emphasis on the heart and a "personal relationship" with God. The movement saw a variety of liturgical styles and ministry approaches, though strong preaching, personal conversion (similar to Wesley's Aldersgate experience), and evangelism were common features.
Other key figures include: Jonathan Edwards, American Puritan preacher/theologian; George Whitefield, British Methodist preacher; Robert Raikes, who established the first Sunday School to prevent children in the slums entering a life of crime; Charles Wesley, popular hymn writer; and Francis Asbury, American Methodist bishop.
Doctrine
The Bible is accepted as reliable and the ultimate authority in matters of faith and practice. The Protestant Reformation doctrines of sola scriptura and sola fide are primary. The historicity of the miracles of Jesus and the virgin birth, crucifixion, resurrection, and Second Coming are asserted, although there are a variety of understandings of the end times and eschatology.
Commentators and historians describe four characteristics of evangelicals:
#Emphasis on the conversion experience, also called being saved, or new birth or born again after John 3:3. Thus evangelicals often refer to themselves as born-again Christians. This experience is said to received by "faith alone" and to be given by God as the result of "grace alone."
#The Protestant canon of the Bible as the primary, or only, source of religious authority, as God's revelation to humanity. Bible prophecy, especially as interpreted according to dispensationalism, is often emphasized. Thus, the doctrine of "sola scriptura" is often affirmed and emphasized.
#Encouragement of evangelism (the act of sharing one's beliefs) -- in organized missionary work or by personal encounters and relationships with others.
#A central focus on Christ's redeeming work on the cross as the only means for salvation and the forgiveness of sins.
These characteristics are similar to the Bebbington quadrilateral identified in his study of British evangelicalism.
John C. Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron in Ohio, found in the 2004 American Religious Landscape Report [http://pewforum.org/publications/surveys/green-full.pdf] that despite many variations, evangelicals in the United States generally adhere to four core beliefs:
#Biblical inerrancy
#Salvation comes only through faith in Jesus and not good works
#Individuals (above an age of accountability) must personally trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.
#All Christians are commissioned to evangelize
In regard to "Biblical inerrancy", a notable summit on Bible inerrancy was held in Chicago in 1978. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy was signed by nearly 300 noted evangelical scholars (see main article). There is no absolute consensus among evangelicals regarding Biblical inerrancy, however there is a general acceptance of Biblical authority.
Development
19th century
Evangelical Christians were a diverse group; some were at the forefront of movements such as abolition of slavery, prison reform, orphanage establishment, hospital building, and founding educational institutions.
In 1846, eight hundred Christians from ten countries met in London and set up the Evangelical Alliance. They saw this as "a new thing in church history, a definite organization for the expression of unity amongst Christian individuals belonging to different churches." However, the Alliance floundered on the issue of slavery. Despite this difficulty it provided a strong impetus for the establishment of national and regional evangelical fellowships.
Evangelicals, along with trade unionists, Chartists, members of cooperatives, the self-help movement and the Church of England were involved in setting up the temperance movements in the U.S.A., Ireland, Scotland and England.
William Booth, a Methodist minister, founded the Christian Mission in London, England on July 5, 1865. This became The Salvation Army in 1878 as it took on a quasi-military style.
20th century
Evangelicals today are at least as varied as ever. Some work entirely within their own denominations, others pay less heed to denominational differences and may be members of less formal and locally based, independent churches. Their focus may be on assisting their own members first and foremost, their inspiration being this emphasis of Paul in his New Testament letters. However, there remains the long-standing evangelical tradition of taking to needy areas practical assistance (e.g. medical, educational) along with the gospel, though eschewing attempts, at home or abroad, to influence society by means other than the gospel.
Others, particularly in the USA, are engaged in attempts at social improvement through political means. Evangelical activism might be expressed in literacy training, inner-city relief and food banks, adoption agencies, marriage counselling and spousal abuse mediation, day-care centers for children, and counsel and care for unwed mothers, or any number of other help and advocacy works. The popular perception seems to locate all of evangelicalism on the 'right' of political controversies, such as abortion, or the liberalizaton of the legal definitions of "family", "marriage", or "civil union" to include same-sex couples. This supposed uniformity is not actually the case; however there is some correspondence between theological and religious conservatism, and social conservatism, for obvious reasons.
The World Evangelical Fellowship (now Alliance) (WEA) was formed in 1951 by believers from 21 countries. It has worked to support its members to work together globally.
Within the broad denominations (often called "mainline denominations") evangelical movements are organizing within various structures, which are often referred to as the Confessing Movement. The theological call for the mainline churches to return to their evangelical roots is known as Paleo-Orthodoxy, especially within Methodism, where Thomas Oden is one of its best known spokesmen.
The movement represents a range of Protestant understandings of the Bible, liturgical forms, and church traditions - some of which are very non-traditional, and artistically conceived or innovative. On the average, evangelicals tend to be distrustful of reliance upon historical definitions of belief, if they are not qualified as being subordinate to the Bible; and yet, they may be inclined to refer to these documents of faith in defense of their understanding of the Bible. In controversies with those who favor a more highly structured liturgy, the evangelical party is usually the one in favor of a relatively more simple, casual and participatory form of worship, centered on preaching and the Lord's Supper (Eucharist), rather than more elaborate ceremony.
Especially toward the end of the 20th century, the secular media tended to describe traditional Christian believers as fundamentalists, including most evangelicals. However, in both movements, these terms fundamentalist and evangelical are not synonymous; the labels represent differences of approach which both groups are diligent to maintain.
Fundamentalism
At the turn of the 20th century, in light of modern scholarship gaining the majority view, Modernist Christianity in the Protestant denominations was producing novel understandings and/or interpretations of the role of the Bible for a Christian, and the Bible's teachings. These trends were seen by their opponents as a threat to Christian faith and the welfare of society, as accommodations to the Enlightenment and an abandonment of the principles of the Protestant reformation.
The Fundamentalist Movement was a conservative Protestant response in the USA to liberal trends in their churches. It was a movement to preserve what they saw as being a minimum orthodoxy, a fundamental Christianity, over against the liberals' abandonment of such basic features of a traditional understanding of the faith as, the inerrancy of the Bible, the virgin birth of Christ, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the authenticity of his miracles, and the belief that his death on the cross takes away sins. This defense of fundamental Christian tradition was called Fundamentalism, though in fact it was little more than orthodoxy as found in the official statements of faith of Protestant denominations.
Some Fundamentalists strongly advocated separation from those denominations and institutions in which modernism was dominant. Many of these identified the Fundamentalist cause with certain specific doctrines, approaches to culture, and styles of worship, preaching, or plans of church governance, which were not shared by their fellows - some of which, in fact, had only arisen in the previous century. Others strongly reacted against separatism and exclusiveness. They sought to distinguish their agenda to defend the fundamental orthodoxy familiar to their forebears, from the Fundamentalists who sought to establish a new orthodoxy. Some of the leaders of this broader party called themselves 'neo-evangelicals'.
Renewed Evangelicalism: Neo-evangelicalism
The Neo-Evangelical movement was a response among traditionally orthodox Protestants to fundamentalist Christianity's separatism, beginning in the 1920s and 1930s.
Neo-evangelicals held the view that the modernist and liberal parties in the Protestant churches had surrendered their heritage as evangelicals by accommodating the views and values of the world. However they saw the Fundamentalists' separatism and rejection of the Social gospel as an over-reaction. They charged the modernists with having lost their identity as evangelicals, and attacked the Fundamentalists as having lost the Christ-like heart of evangelicalism. They argued that the Gospel needed to be reasserted to distinguish it from the innovations of the liberals and the Fundamentalists; thus they coined the term, 'Neo-' (new or renewed) 'evangelicalism'.
They sought to engage the modern world and the liberals in a positive way, remaining separate from worldliness but not from the world — a middle way, between modernism and the separating variety of Fundamentalism. They sought allies in denominational churches and liturgical traditions, among non-dispensationalists, and trinitarian varieties of Pentecostalism. They believed that in doing so, they were simply re-acquainting Protestantism with its own recent tradition. The movement's aim at the outset was to reclaim the evangelical heritage in their respective churches, not to begin something new; and for this reason, following their separation from Fundamentalists, the same movement has been better known as merely, "evangelicalism". By the end of the 20th century, this was the most influential development in American Protestant Christianity.
The term neo-evangelicalism no longer has any reliable meaning except for historical purposes. It is still self-descriptive of the movement to which it used to apply, to distinguish the parties in the developing fundamentalist split prior to the 1950s. The term is now used almost exclusively by conservative critics to distinguish their idea of evangelicalism from this movement. Some liberal writers, speaking critically, might refer to neo-evangelicalism, or neo-fundamentalism, with comparably variable meanings.
Evangelical politics in the United States
Evangelicalism in the United States was prominently active in political movements which are now popularly considered to be important social advancements, such as Women's Rights and Suffrage, and Abolitionism. Evangelical influence was also evident in past movements which are now unpopular, such as prohibition and anti-immigration. But Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision rendered in 1973 preventing states from making laws that prohibit abortion, is the most prominent landmark of a new era of conservative evangelical political action, unprecedented in its intensity and coordination.
In the U.S. the Religious Right is influential especially in the Republican Party, and is often popularly perceived to be the political wing of the conservative Evangelical movement. The Bush Administration bases many of its policy directions on what it understands to be core conservative evangelical values. Consequently, criticism of controversial conservative political stances frequently falls on the evangelical movement as a whole, in the USA at least.
The mass-appeal of the Christian right in the so-called red states, and its success in rallying resistance to certain social agendas, is sometimes characterized by an otherwise unwilling, and secular, society as an attempt to impose theocracy on the country. While most who consider themselves evangelical oppose theocracy, there are indications that the belief is widespread among conservative evangelicals in the USA that Christianity should enjoy a privileged place in American public life according its importance in American life and history. Accordingly, those evangelicals often strenuously oppose the expression of other faiths in schools or in the course of civic functions. For example, when Venkatachalapathi Samuldrala became the first Hindu priest to offer an invocation before Congress in 2000, the September 21 edition of the online publication operated by the Family Research Council, "Culture Facts", raised objection:
:While it is true that the United States of America was founded on the sacred principle of religious freedom for all, that liberty was never intended to exalt other religions to the level that Christianity holds in our country's heritage. The USA's founders expected that Christianity--and no other religion--would receive support from the government as long as that support did not violate peoples' consciences and their right to worship. They would have found utterly incredible the idea that all religions, including paganism, be treated with equal deference.
Parachurch organizations
Parachurch organizations are a vehicle by which evangelical Christians work collaboratively both outside their and across their denominations to engage with the world in mission, social welfare and evangelism.
Through many decentralized organizations, parachurch organizations function to bridge the gap between the church and culture. These are organizations "alongside" (Grk: para-) church structures, and often seek to be less institutional, however over time, with growth and success, and in response to environmental pressures they can become more institutional.
Roles and organizations
Roles undertaken by parachurch organizations include:
- evangelistic crusade associations (patterned after the Billy Graham Association)
- evangelistic and discipleship ministries (such as The Navigators, Campus Crusade for Christ)
- music and print publishers, radio and television stations, film studios, online ministries
- study centers and institutes, schools, colleges and universities
- political and social activist groups
- welfare and social services, including, homeless shelters, child care, and domestic violence, disaster relief programs, and food pantries and clothing closets, and emergency aid centers
- self-help groups
- Bible study groups
- house churches
Globally
Globally, evangelicalism and Pentecostalism are among the most influential and fastest growing Christian movements. Growth in Africa and Latin America is especially rapid, and because it is not dependent on European and North American evangelical sources allowing greater diversity. An example of this can be seen in the African Independent Churches.
World Evangelical Alliance
The World Evangelical Alliance is now
:a network of churches in 121 nations that have each formed an evangelical alliance and over 100 international organizations joining together to give a worldwide identity, voice and platform to more than 335 million Christians[http://www.worldevangelical.org/wefinfo.html].
United States
Barna Research Group [http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=17] surveyed Christians in the United States in 2004 and asked nine questions to determine whether the respondent was an evangelical Christian. Seven of the questions asked were:
#Are you a born again Christian?
#Is your faith very important in your life today?
#Do you believe you have a personal responsibility to share your religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians?
#Do you believe that Satan exists?
#Do you believe that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works?
#Do you believe that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth?
#Do you believe that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today?
The survey methodology was not given on this website. The questions asked by the group do not necessarily represent all the characteristics of evangelical Christians. This survey found evangelicals to be a subset of the Born agains.
Although evangelicals are currently seen as being on the Christian Right in the United States, there are those in the centre and Christian Left as well. In other countries there is no particular political stance associated with evangelicals. Many evangelicals have little practical interest in politics.
Demographics
A 1992 survey (Green) showed that in the United States and Canada evangelicals make up both the largest and the most active group of Christians (surpassing both Catholics and Mainline or non-Evangelical Protestant groups).
On a worldwide scale evangelical Churches are (together with Pentecostals) the most rapidly growing Christian churches. The two are even beginning to overlap, in a movement sometimes called Transformationalism.
References
- Bebbington, David. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s. Unwin Hyman (London), 1989.
- Green, John, Guth, James, et.al. Akron Survey of Religion and Politics in America 1992. As quoted in Noll, Mark. Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Eerdmans, 1994.
See also
- Conservative Christianity
- Protestantism
- Orthodoxy
- Evangelism
- Mission
- Christian apologetics (A defense of Christianity)
- Christian right
- Christian left
- Summary of Christian eschatological differences
See the under Protestantism in the List of Christian denominations.
Movements
- Charismatic movement
- Ecumenism
- Confessing Movement
- Evangelical left
- Fundamentalism
- Neo-evangelicalism
- Paleo-Orthodoxy
- Pentecostalism
- Transformationalism
List of evangelicals: historical figures, scholars, authors, educators, leaders
Publications
- Christianity Today
- Lark News online newsletter satirizing evangelicalism
- Sojourners
Seminaries and Theological Colleges
- Asbury Seminary (Kentucky)
- Dallas Seminary (Texas)
- Fuller Seminary (California)
- Southern Seminary (Kentucky)
- Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Illinios)
- Wheaton College (Illinois)
- Moore College (Sydney, Australia)
Regional Groups
- Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
- Evangelical Movement of Wales
- National Association of Evangelicals
- Sydney Anglicans (the Diocese of Sydney is an influential evangelical group within the Anglican communion)
External links
Evangelical apologetics/theology:
- [http://www.apologetics.com/default.jsp?bodycontent=pages/articles.jsp&pagetitle=Articles Apologetics.com -articles]
- [http://www.christian-thinktank.com Christian Thinktank]
- [http://www.carm.org/apologetics.htm The Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry]
- [http://lionofjudah.tribulationforces.com/ Lion of Judah Christian Apologetics]
- [http://www.leaderu.com/menus/theology.html Probe Ministries -Christian Apologetics]
- [http://www.rbc.org/rtb/ Reasons to Believe]
- [http://www.apologeticsinfo.org/resource.html Apologetics Information Ministry]
- [http://hisdefense.org/Links/Authors/tabid/297/Default.aspx Academy of Christian Apologetics]
- [http://www.str.org/ Stand to Reason]
- [http://www.ses.edu/journal/ Christian Apologetic Journal]
- [http://www.eternalministries.org Eternal Ministries]
Research on Evangelicals:
- [http://www.barna.org/ Barna Research Group]
- [http://pewforum.org/publications/surveys/green-full.pdf 2004 American Religious Landscape Report PDF at The Pew Forum on Religion in American Life]
- [http://www.wheaton.edu/isae/ Institute for the Study of American Evangelicalism], Wheaton College
- [http://www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.content&cmid=693 Evangelicals in Methodism: Mainstream, Marginal or Misunderstood?] (British perspective)
Associations:
- [http://www.nae.net National Association of Evangelicals] (United States)
- [http://www.worldevangelical.org World Evangelical Alliance] has a list of evangelical organizations from many nations.
Category:Christian group structuring
Category:Christianity
Category:Theology
Category:Christian theology
ja:福音派
Protestantism
Protestantism is a movement within Christianity, representing a split from within the Roman Catholic Church during the mid-to-late Renaissance in Europe —a period known as the Protestant Reformation.
Commonly considered one of the three major branches of Christianity (along with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy), the term "Protestant" represents a diverse range of theological and social perspectives, churches and related organizations.
Definition and origins
Originally, "protestant" meant "to be a witness for something" rather than "to be against something", as the current popular interpretation of the word seems to imply. The prefix "pro" means "for" in Latin. The Latin adjective "protestans" refers to "a person who gives public testimony for something or who proves or demonstrates something." The term Protestant originally applied to the group of princes and imperial cities who "protested" the decision by the 1529 Diet of Speyer to reverse course, and enforce the 1521 Edict of Worms. The 1521 edict forbade Lutheran teachings within the Holy Roman Empire. The 1526 session of the Diet had agreed to toleration of Lutheran teachings (on the basis of Cuius regio, eius religio) until a General Council could be held to settle the question, but by 1529, the Catholic forces felt they had gathered enough power to end the toleration without waiting for a Council.
In a broader sense of the word, Protestant began to be used as the collective name for a sudden movement of separation from the Roman Catholic Church, the beginning of which is ordinarily connected with the public disputes raised by Martin Luther. Later, John Calvin, French theologian among the Swiss; Zwinglian, and Reformed churches figured prominently in a movement that embraced a wider, more international diversity of churches. A third major branch of the Reformation, which encountered conflict with the Catholics, as well as with the Lutherans and the Reformed, is sometimes called the Radical Reformation. Some Western, non-Catholic, groups are labeled as Protestant (such as the Religious Society of Friends, for example), even if the sect acknowledges no historical connection to Luther, Calvin or the Roman Catholic Church.
In German-speaking and Scandinavian lands, the word "Protestant" still refers to Lutheran churches in contrast to Reformed churches, while the common designation for all churches originating from the Reformation is "Evangelical".
As an intellectual movement, Protestantism grew out of the Renaissance and universities, attracting some learned intellectuals, as well as politicians, professionals, and skilled tradesmen and artisans. The new technology of the printing press allowed Protestant ideas to spread rapidly, as well as aiding in the dissemination of translations of the Bible in native tongues. Nascent Protestant social ideals of liberty of conscience, and individual freedom, were formed through continuous confrontation with the authority of the Bishop of Rome, and the hierarchy of the Catholic priesthood. The Protestant movement away from the constraints of tradition, toward greater emphasis on individual conscience, anticipated later developments of democratization, and the so-called "Enlightenment" of later centuries.
Basic theological tenets of the Reformation
During the Reformation, several Latin slogans emerged, illustrating the Reformers' concern that the authorities of the Church had distorted the message of justification before God, and salvation in Jesus Christ. The Reformers believed it was necessary to return to the simplicity of the Gospel in terms of the issues designated by these slogans. A protestant is a member or adherent of any denomination of the Western Christian church that rejects papal authority and some fundamental Roman Catholic doctrines, and believes in justification by faith.
The Solas
There were five Solas, four discussed here. The fifth, Soli deo gloria (to God alone the glory), was intended to underlie the other four. These slogans essentially became rallying cries to challenge the problems the Reformers believed they had identified, which are:
- Solus Christus: Christ alone.
:The Protestants characterized the dogma concerning the Pope as Christ's representative head of the Church on earth, the concept of meritorious works, and the Roman idea of a treasury of the merits of saints, as a denial that Christ is the only mediator between God and man.
- Sola scriptura: Scripture alone.
:Protestants believed that the Roman Catholic church obscured the teaching of the Bible, and undermined its authority, by following Tradition, regardless of whether it over-ruled or added to the doctrines of Scripture.
- Sola fide: Faith alone.
:The Protestants characterized the Roman Catholic concept of meritorious works, of penance and indulgences, masses for the dead, the treasury of the merits of saints and martyrs, a ministering priesthood who hears confessions, and purgatory, as reliance upon other means for justification, in addition to faith in Jesus and his work on the cross.
- Sola gratia: Grace alone.
:The Roman Catholic view of the means of salvation was believed by the Protestants to be a mixture of reliance upon the grace of God, and confidence in the merits of one's own works, performed in love. The Reformers posited that salvation is entirely comprehended in God's gifts, (i.e. God's act of free grace) dispensed by the Holy Spirit according to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ alone. Consequently, they argued that a sinner is not accepted by God on account of the change wrought in the believer by God's grace, and indeed, that the believer is accepted without any regard for the merit of his works - for no one deserves salvation.
Naturally, it proved easier to advocate separation from the Catholic Church (as the English Puritan "separatists" eventually did), than to form a single, positively united alternative. Also, the violent reaction by the Catholic leadership towards the Protestants certainly was designed to stamp them out, to make the problem "go away", not to solve it. On the theological front, the Protestant movement soon began to coalesce into several distinct branches. One of the central points of divergence was controversy over the Lord's Supper.
Real presence in the Lord's Supper
Although early Protestants were in general agreement against the Roman Catholic dogma of transubstantiation, which teaches that the substance of the bread and wine used in the sacrificial rite of the Mass is transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ (see Eucharist), with the subsequent logic that the wafer (being Christ), became worthy of worship; they disagreed with one another concerning the manner in which Christ is present in Holy Communion.
- Lutherans hold to an understanding closest to that of Real Presence (often characterized by critics by the term, "consubstantiation"), which affirms the true presence of Christ "in, with, and under" the bread and wine. Lutherans point to Jesus' statement, "This IS my body", while refusing to delve past Christ's words in order to describe just how this takes place. Lutheran teaching does, however, insist that Christ is present physically, rather than in a purely "spiritual" sense.
- Reformed teaching concerning the Lord's Supper ranges along the continuum from Calvin to Zwingli. The Reformed closest to Calvin emphasize the real presence, or sacramental presence, of Christ, saying that the sacrament is a means of saving grace through which the believer actually partakes of Christ, "but not in a carnal manner". Zwinglians deny that Christ makes himself present to the believer through the elements of the sacrament, but affirm that Christ is united to the believer through the faith toward which the supper is an aid (a view referred to somewhat derisively as memorialism).
- A Protestant holding a popular simplifiction of the Zwinglian view, without concern for theological intricacies as hinted at above, may see the Lord's Supper merely as a symbol of the shared faith of the participants, a commemoration of the facts of the crucifixion, and a reminder of their standing together as the Body of Christ.
In Christian theology, as the bread shares identity with Christ (which he calls, "my body"), in an analogous way, the Church shares identity with Him (and also is called "the Body of Christ"). Thus, controversies over the Lord's Supper only initially seem to be about the nature of bread and wine, but are ultimately about the nature of salvation, and therefore secondarily about the nature of the Church. And, indirectly, about the nature of Christ.
Authority
See the articles Lay, Ordained and Priesthood of all believers
Authority in the Church
Most Protestant churches fulfill similar rituals to Catholicism—chiefly baptism, communion, and matrimony—frequently varying or de-formalizing the rites.
Understanding of secular authority
- Lutheran - doctrine of the two kingdoms
- Reformed
- Radical - Anabaptist and peace churches
Later development
Protestants can be differentiated according to how they have been influenced by important movements since the magisterial Reformation and the Puritan Reformation in England. Some of these movements have a common lineage, sometimes directly spawning later movements in the same groups.
The German Pietist movement, together with the influence of the Puritan Reformation in England in the 17th century, were important influences upon John Wesley and Methodism, as well as through smaller, new groups such as the Religious Society of Friends ("Quakers") and the Moravian Brotherhood from Germany.
The practice of a spiritual life, typically combined with social engagement, predominates in classical Pietism, which was a protest against the doctrine-centeredness Protestant Orthodoxy of the times, in favor of depth of religious experience. Many of the more conservative Methodists went on to form the Holiness movement, which emphasized a rigorous experience of holiness in practical, daily life.
Beginning at the end of 18th century, several international revivals of Pietism (such as the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening), took place across denominational lines, which are referred to generally as the Evangelical movement. The chief emphases of this movement were individual conversion, personal piety and Bible study, public morality often including Temperance and Abolitionism, de-emphasis of formalism in worship and in doctrine, a broadened role for laity (including women) in worship, evangelism and teaching, and cooperation in evangelism across denominational lines.
Pentecostalism, as a movement, began in the United States early in the 20th century, starting especially within the Holiness movement. Seeking a return to the operation of New Testament gifts of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues as evidence of the "baptism of the Holy Ghost" became the leading feature. Divine healing and miracles were also emphasized. Pentecostalism swept through much of the Holiness movement, and eventually spawned hundreds of new denominations in the United States. A later "charismatic" movement also stressed the gifts of the Spirit, but often operated within existing denominations, rather than by coming out of them.
Modernism, or Liberalism, does not constitute a rigorous and well-defined school of theology, but is rather an inclination by some writers and teachers to integrate Christian thought into the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment. New understandings of history and the natural sciences of the day led directly to new approaches to theology.
In reaction to liberal Bible critique, Fundamentalism arose in the 20th century, primarily in the United States and Canada, among those denominations most affected by Evangelicalism. Fundamentalism placed primary emphasis on the authority and sufficiency of the Bible, and typically advised separation from error, and cultural conservatism, as important aspects of the Christian life.
A non-fundamentalist rejection of liberal Christianity, associated primarily with Karl Barth, neo-orthodoxy sought to counter-act the tendency of liberal theology to make theological accommodations to modern scientific perspectives. Sometimes called Crisis theology, according to the influence of philosophical existentialism on some important segments of the movement; also, somewhat confusingly, sometimes called neo-evangelicalism.
Neo-evangelicalism is a movement from the middle of the 20th century, that reacted to perceived excesses of Fundamentalism, adding to concern for biblical authority, an emphasis on liberal arts, co-operation among churches, Christian Apologetics, and non-denominational evangelization.
The ecumenical movement has had an influence on mainline churches, beginning at least in 1910 with the Edinburgh Missionary Conference. Its origins lay in the recognition of the need for cooperation on the mission field in Africa, Asia and Oceania. Since 1948, the World Council of Churches has been influential. There are also ecumenical bodies at regional, national and local levels across the globe. One, but not the only expression of the ecumenical movement, has been the move to form united churches, such as the Church of South India, the Church of North India, The United Church of Canada and the Uniting Church in Australia. There has been a strong engagement of Orthodox churches in the ecumenical movement.
Protestantism today
Evangelical and Pentecostal Protestantism are currently the fastest growing branches of Christianity in the world today.
Protestant denominations
Protestants often refer to specific Protestant churches and groups as denominations to imply that they are differently named parts of the whole church. This "invisible unity" is assumed to be imperfectly displayed, visibly: some denominations are less accepting of others, and the basic orthodoxy of some is questioned by most of the others. Individual denominations also have formed over very subtle theological differences. Other denominations are simply regional or ethnic expressions of the same beliefs. The actual number of distinct denominations is hard to calculate, but has been estimated to be over thirty thousand. Various ecumenical movements have attempted cooperation or reorganization of Protestant churches, according to various models of union, but divisions continue to outpace unions. Most denominations share common beliefs in the major aspects of the Christian faith, while differing in many secondary doctrines.
According to the World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) by David B. Barrett, et al, there are "over 33,000 denominations in 238 countries." Every year there is a net increase of around 270 to 300 denominations.
Protestant families of denominations
Please note that only general families are listed here (tens of thousands of individual denominations exist); some of these groups do not consider themselves as part of the Protestant movement, but are generally viewed as such by scholars and the public at large:
- Anabaptist and Baptist
- Anglican / Episcopalian
- Calvinist / Reformed and Presbyterian
- Lutheran
- Methodist / Wesleyan and the Holiness movement
- Pentecostal and Charismatic
- Quakerism
- Restoration movement
Number of Protestants
There are about 590 million Protestants worldwide. These include 170 million in North America, 160 million in Africa, 120 million in Europe, 70 million in Latin America, 60 million in Asia, and 10 million in Oceania. 27% of all Christians today are Protestants.
Well-known Protestant and Anglican religious figures
In alphabetical order by century
15th century
- Jan Hus, Czech reformist/dissident; burned to death by the Roman Catholic Church authorities.
16th century
- Jacobus Arminius, Dutch theologian, founder of school of thought known as Arminianism
- Heinrich Bullinger, successor of Zwingli, leading reformed theologian
- John Calvin, French speaking Reformer, theologian, founder of school of thought known as Calvinism
- Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII, leader of the English Reformation
- John Knox, Scottish Calvinist reformer,
- Martin Luther, German religious reformer, theologian, founder of the Lutheran church in Germany, founder of Lutheranism
- Philipp Melanchthon, early Lutheran leader
- Menno Simons, founder of Mennonitism
- Huldrych Zwingli, founder of Swiss reformed tradition
17th-19th centuries
- Jacob Amman, founder of the Amish church
- Francis Asbury, early bishop of American Methodism
- Jonathan Edwards, American Puritan theologian, Great Awakening reformist preacher, Calvinist
- George Fox, Founder of the Religious Society of Friends
- William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury under Charles I of England
- Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian considered founder of Liberal Christianity
- Joseph Smith, Jr., Self proclaimed Prophet, translator of The Book of Mormon, and founder of Mormonism
- Philipp Jakob Spener, "godfather" of the Pietist movement
- Charles Wesley, Anglican priest, Methodist leader, poet, & hymn writer
- John Wesley, Anglican priest, founder of the Methodist movement
- George Whitefield, Great Awakening reformist preacher
20th century
- Karl Barth, German theologian along with Emil Brunner known for Dialectical theology and Neo-orthodox theology
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian, involved in the resistance against Nazism and executed shortly before the end of World War 2
- Jerry Falwell, American evangelist and political activist
- Billy Graham, American evangelist
- Martin Luther King, Jr., peace and civil rights activist
- C. S. Lewis, apologist / fiction writer
- Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologion and ethicist
- Pat Robertson, American charismatic/fundamentalist leader
- Paul Tillich, Lutheran existentialist theologian
- Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, peace activist
- John Howard Yoder, Mennonite theologian and ethicist
- Nicky Gumbel, Anglican British evangelist
21st century
- John B. Cobb, theologian, involved in Process Theology
- Franklin Graham, American evangelist (son of Billy Graham)
- Stanley Hauerwas, American Christian theologian and ethicist
See also
- Anti-Catholicism
- Anti-Protestantism
- Protestant Reformation
- Protestant work ethic
- Christian timeline for Renaissance & Reformation
- Christianity
- Christian eschatology
External links
Defense of Protestant Christianity:
- [http://www.ccir.ed.ac.uk/~jad/glb_sola.html Is Sola Scriptura a Protestant Concoction? by Dr. Greg Bahnsen ]
- [http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9508/opinion/leithart.html Why Protestants Still Protest by Peter J. Leithart]
- [http://lionofjudah.tribulationforces.com/world_religions/catholic.html Protestant criticisms of Roman Catholicism]
- [http://www.apologeticsinfo.org/resource.html Apologetics Information Ministry]
Criticisms of Protestant Christianity:
- [http://protestantism.blogspot.com/ Anti-protestant analysis]
- [http://catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0097.html Why Only Catholicism Can Make Protestantism Work] by Mark Brumley
Miscellaneous:
- [http://catalystresources.org/issues/303balmer.html The Future of American Protestantism] from Catalyst (United Methodist perspective)
Category:Reformation
Category:Christianity
ko:개신교
ms:Protestan
ja:プロテスタント
EvangelismEvangelism is the preaching of the Christian Gospel, or by extension any other form of preaching or proselytizing.
The word evangelist comes from the Koine Greek word εὐάγγελος ("eu-angelos"), meaning bringer of good news. The Koine expression for good news, εὐάγγελιον ("eu-angelion") is used to refer to the four Gospels in the New Testament; and thus the Evangelists are also the authors of the four Gospels -- traditionally known as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Evangelists
For many groups, a church planter is called an evangelist. Sometimes, the regular minister of a church is called an evangelist in a way that other groups would typically use the term pastor. Among these groups is the Church of Christ and organizations such as The Foundation for Evangelism. The evangelical movement in Protestant Christianity encompasses denominations and parachurch organizations such as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association which, among other characteristics, focus on evangelism and the drawing-in of new converts. In common parlance, the title of evangelist is most easily associated with those who lead large meetings like those of Billy Graham, possibly in tents or existing church buildings, or those who address the public in street corner preaching, which targets listeners who happen to pass nearby on the street.
Evangelical sociological modeling
Some evangelical groups plan their conversion strategies using extremely precise sociological modelling of the world's entire population.
The Joshua Project divides the world's population into ethnic/religious groups which it terms people groups. As of October 5, 2005, it estimated a total of about 16,000 people groups, of which 6,900 were considered unreached (not converted), and that the total number of people in these unreached people groups is about 2.5 billion. [http://www.joshuaproject.net/]
The group publishes data for all 16,000 of these groups concerning the degree to which a people group is considered to be converted to one of the major world religions. Its modelling includes a parameter called the Joshua Project Progress Scale, which combines different parameters, including, e.g. the percentages of people considered evangelical or adherent to a religion, and parameters estimated by people studying evangelism, such as the Johnstone Church Planting Indicator (CPI) and the IMB-SBC World Evangelization Status Indicator. The scale varies from 1.0 for the least converted people groups to 4.2 for the most converted. [http://www.joshuaproject.net/scale.php]
This data is made available for evangelical groups around the world, such as Pilgrim Mission in Poland, to plan their evangelising priorities. [http://www.pielgrzym.net/mission.html]
Biblical quotes
A more strict biblical definition of evangelist would equate to a missionary:
- Ac 21:8 (KJV) And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the [evangelist], which was one of the seven; and abode with him.
- 2Ti 4:5 (KJV) But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
Well-known evangelists
Well known evangelists include (in roughly chronological order):
- The Apostle Paul
- Pope John Paul II
- John Wesley
- Jonathan Edwards
- George Whitefield
- Charles Grandison Finney
- Charles Spurgeon
- Dwight L. Moody
- Billy Sunday
- Aimee Semple McPherson
- Billy Graham
- Dr. Bill Bright
- Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones
- Kathryn Kuhlman
- Harry Denman
- Oral Roberts
- Ray Comfort
- Reinhard Bonnke
- Benny Hinn
- Joyce Meyer
- Jesse Duplantis
Some other evangelists are:
- William M. Branham
- Brother Jed
- Wes Morris
- Luis Palau
- John Sung
- Stephen Tong
- Ray Vaughn
- Adam Woeger
- Arnold Murray
- Sherry Shriner
Non-traditional uses
By metaphorical extension, evangelism may also refer to any form of recruitment or spreading-the-word for a group or movement seen as ideological or committed: hence, for instance, open source evangelism.
In the context of commercial enterprises which develop or foster a cult following and religious-like fanaticism, the term evangelist can become an unofficial or even an official role/title. This usage was pioneered by Guy Kawasaki in Apple Computer's marketing of the Apple Macintosh (see Apple evangelist) and later amplified and codified by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba with their book, "Creating Customer Evangelists."
See also
- Evangelical Movement of Wales
- Evangelicalism
- Great Commission
- Internet evangelist
- Missions
- Televangelism
- The Foundation for Evangelism
- Missionary Dating, a liberal take on evangelism in pop culture
- Dawah, a similar category in Islam
External links
- [http://www.soulreachnow.com/ the ministry of Tom Elie] - an evangelism and resources to world religions guide Website.
- [http://www.livingwaters.com/ LivingWaters.com, the ministry of Ray Comfort] - an evangelism resources Website.
- [http://www.evangelismencyclopedia.org/ EvangelismEncyclopedia.org,] - a wiki devoted to Biblical Evangelism.
- [http://e-vangelist.true.ws e-vangelist website for online evangelism]
Category:Christian missions
Category:Christian interfaith and secular relations
Bible
The Bible (sometimes The Book, Good Book, Word of God, The Word, or Scripture), from Greek (τα) βιβλια, (ta) biblia, "(the) books", plural of βιβλιον, biblion, "book", originally a diminutive of βιβλος, biblos, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos, meaning "papyrus", from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported this writing material), is the classical name for the Hebrew Bible of Judaism or the combination of the Old Testament and New Testament of Christianity ("The Bible" therefore actually refers to at least two different Bibles). It is thus applied to sacred scriptures. Many Christian English speakers refer to the Christian Bible as "the good book" (Gospel means "good news"). For many people, their Bible is the revealed word of God or an authoritative record of the relationship between God, the world, and humankind.
Both Bibles have been the most widely distributed of books. It has also been translated more times, and into more languages, than any other book. The complete Bible, or portions of it, have been translated into more than 2,100 languages. It is said that more than 5 billion copies of the Bible have been sold since 1815, making it the best-selling book of all-time.
Because of Christian domination of Europe from the late Roman era to the Age of Enlightenment, the Christian Bible has influenced not only religion, but language, law and, until the modern era, the natural philosophy of mainstream Western Civilization. The Age of Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution in Europe and America brought skepticism regarding the divine origin and historical accuracy of the Bible and Bible prophecy. Scholars such as Professor Peter Stoner and Dr. Hawley O. Taylor have argued that Bible prophecy is of a remarkable nature and did not happen by mere chance. Skeptics counter, however, that there have been notable figures like Porphyry of Tyros and the scholar Gustave Holscher who have made criticisms of Bible prophecy. With that being said, many still view the Bible as a great work of literature, including important reflections on morality, and dramatic love poetry such as the Song of Solomon.
Although the term "Bible" is most often used to refer to Jewish and Christian scriptures, "Bible" is sometimes used to describe scriptures of other faiths. Thus the Guru Granth Sahib is often referred to as the "Sikh Bible". In the early years after the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830, it was sometimes known as the "Golden Bible". The word "bible" (in lower case) is also used to refer to any tome which incorporates comprehensive and/or authoritative coverage of its subject.
As the original meaning of the word indicates, the Jewish and Christian Bibles are actually collections of several books, considered to be inspired by God or to record God's relationship with humanity or a particular nation.
The Hebrew Bible
God.]]
The Hebrew Bible (also known as the Jewish Bible, or תנ"ך, Tanakh in Hebrew) consists of 24 books. Tanakh is an acronym for three parts of the Hebrew Bible: the Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim.
Torah
The Torah, or "teaching" is also known as the five books of Moses, thus Chumash or Pentateuch (Hebrew and Greek for "five," respectively).
The five books are:
- I Genesis (Bereishit בראשית),
- II Exodus (Shemot שמות),
- III Leviticus (Vayikra ויקרא),
- IV Numbers (Bemidbar במדבר) and
- V Deuteronomy (Devarim דברים)
The Torah focuses on three moments in the changing relationship between God and people.
- The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of the creation (or ordering) of the world, and the history of God's early relationship with humanity.
- The remaining thirty-nine chapters of Genesis provide an account of God's covenant with the Hebrew patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (also called Israel), and Jacob's children (the "Children of Israel"), especially Joseph. It tells of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home in the city of Ur, eventually to settle in the land of Canaan, and how the Children of Israel later moved to Egypt
- The remaining four books of the Torah tell the story of Moses, the greatest Hebrew prophet, who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs. His story coincides with the story of the liberation of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, to the renewal of their covenant with God at Mount Sinai, and their wanderings in the desert until a new generation would be ready to enter the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses.
Traditionally, the Torah contains 613 mitzvot, or commandments, of God, revealed during the passage from slavery in the land of Egypt to freedom in the land of Canaan. These commandments provide the basis for Jewish law Halakha and are elaborated in the Talmud.
The Torah is divided into fifty four portions which are read in turn, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy, each Sabbath. The cycle ends and recommences at the end of Sukkot.
The Two Torahs
By the Hellenistic period of Jewish history, Jews were divided over the nature of the Torah. Some (for example, the Sadducees) believed that the Chumash contained the entire Torah, that is, the entire contents of what God revealed to Moses at Sinai and in the desert. Others, principally the Pharisees, believed that the Chumash represented only that portion of the revelation that had been written down (i.e. the Written Torah or the Written Law), but that the rest of God's revelation had been passed down orally (thus composing the Oral Law or Oral Torah). Orthodox Jews today believe that the Talmud consists of the Oral Torah committed to writing.
The Four Sources
Although Orthodox Jews generally believe that the Torah was given to the Children of Israel at Sinai "Min Hashamayim", from the heavens — that is, that God actually dictated the words of Torah to Moses atop Mount Sinai — most Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jews, as well as many liberal Christian scholars, now accept the Documentary hypothesis. This theory posits that the Written Torah has its origins in earlier sources who lived during the time of the monarchy, labeled J (Yahwists), E (Elohim), D (Deuteronomists), and P (Priests). These in turn may go back to oral traditions and/or drew on (and sometimes parodied) earlier ancient Near Eastern mythology. The documentary hypothesis posits that these four distinct traditions (or sources) are evident in the Torah. Julius Wellhausen, who in the late 1800s gave this hypothesis a definitive formulation, suggested that these sources were edited together or redacted during the time of Ezra, perhaps by Ezra himself.
Jewish scholars who accept the documentary hypothesis differ as to whether these sources were or were not divinely inspired, and differ over the nature and extent of their obligation to the 613 commandments and the body of law represented in the Oral Torah, although each branch of Judaism recognizes both the Written and Oral Torahs as central to Jewish tradition, whether it be conceived of as sacred, national, or cultural.
The documentary hypothesis has not been without its critics. For example, evangelical Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen, and Gleason Archer, have sharply criticized and rejected the documentary hypothesis using various lines of argumentation, as has the critical scholar R. N. Whybray.[http://www.equip.org/free/DW035.htm][http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/moses.html][http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/apologetics/AP0404W3.htm][http://answering-islam.org.uk/Campbell/s3c1.html]
Nevi'im, or "Prophets," tells the story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy, its division into two kingdoms, and the prophets who, in God's name, judged the kings and the Children of Israel. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians and the conquest of the Kingdom of Judea by the Babylonians, and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Portions of the prophetic books are read on the Sabbath (Shabbat). The Book of Jonah is read on Yom Kippor.
According to Jewish tradition, Nevi'im is divided into eight books. Contemporary translations subdivide these into seventeen books.
The eight books are:
- I. Joshua or Yehoshua [יהושע]
- II. Judges or Shoftim [שופטים]
- III. Samuel or Shmu'el [שמואל] (often divided into two books; Samuel may be considered the last of the judges (his sons were named judges, but rejected by the people) or the first of the prophets; it was he who negotiated on behalf of the Children of Israel with God to anoint a King)
- IV. Kings or Melakhim [מלכים] (often divided into two books)
- V. Isaiah or Yeshayahu [ישעיהו]
- VI. Jeremiah or Yirmiyahu [ירמיהו]
- VII. Ezekiel or Yehezq'el [יחזקאל]
- VIII. Trei Asar (The Twelve Minor Prophets) תרי עשר
- 1. Hosea or Hoshea [הושע]
- 2. Joel or Yo'el [יואל]
- 3. Amos [עמוס]
- 4. Obadiah or Ovadyah [עבדיה]
- 5. Jonah or Yonah [יונה]
- 6. Micah or Mikhah [מיכה]
- 7. Nahum or Nachum [נחום]
- 8. Habakkuk or Habaquq [חבקוק]
- 9. Zephaniah or Tsefania [צפניה]
- 10. Haggai or Haggai [חגי]
- 11. Zechariah Zekharia [זכריה]
- 12. Malachi or Malakhi [מלאכי]
The Torah and the Nevi'im have an epical quality, although they have no human hero (Moses and David are, in many ways, anti-heros; one may consider the Children of Israel collectively to be the hero of the epic, or, if one must chose a single character, God)
Ketuvim, or "Writings," were, according to critical scholars, mostly written during or after the Babylonian Exile and were among the last books to be canonized. According to Rabbinic tradition, many of the psalms in the book of Psalms are attributed to King David; King Solomon wrote three books: Song of Songs in his youth, Proverbs at the prime of his life, and Ecclesiastes at old age; and the prophet Jeremiah wrote Lamentations. The Book of Job is the only Biblical book that centers entirely on a non-Jew. The book of Ruth tells the story of a non-Jew (specifically, a Moabite) who married a Jew and, upon his death, the ways of the Jews; according to the Bible, she was the great-grandmother of King David. Five of the books, called "The Five Scrolls" (Megilot), are read on Jewish holidays: Song of Songs on Passover; the Book of Ruth on Shavuot; Lamentations on the Ninth of Av; Ecclesiastes on Sukkot; and the Book of Esther on Purim. Collectively, the Ketuvim contain lyrical poetry, philosophical reflections on life, and the stories of the prophets and other Jewish leaders during the Babylonian exile. It ends with the Persian decree allowing Jews to return to Judea to rebuild the Temple.
Ketuvim contains eleven books:
- I. Tehillim (Psalms) תהלים
- II. Mishlei (Book of Proverbs) משלי
- III. `Iyyov (Book of Job) איוב
- IV. Shir ha-Shirim (Song of Songs) שיר השירים
- V. Ruth (Book of Ruth) רות
- VI. Eikhah (Lamentations) איכה [Also called Kinnot in Hebrew.]
- VII. Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) קהלת
- VIII. Esther (Book of Esther) אסתר
- IX. Daniel (Book of Daniel) דניאל
- X. Ezra (often divided into two books, Book of Ezra and Book of Nehemiah) עזרא
- XI. Divrei ha-Yamim (Chronicles, often divided into two books) דברי הימים
Translations and editions
The Tanakh was mainly written in Biblical Hebrew, with some portions (notably in Daniel and Ezra) in Aramaic.
Some time in the 3rd century BC, the Torah was translated into Koine Greek, and over the next century other books were translated as well. This translation became known as the Septuagint and was widely used by Greek-speaking Jews and, later, by Christians. It differs somewhat from the Hebrew text as standardized later (Masoretic Text).
From the 800s to the 1400s, Rabbinic Jewish scholars known as the Masoretes compared the text of all known Biblical manuscripts in an effort to create a unified standardized text; a series of highly similar texts eventually emerged, and any of these texts are known as Masoretic Texts (MT). The Masoretes also added vowel points (called niqqud) to the text, since the original text only contained consonants. This sometimes required the selection of an interpretation, since words can differ only in their vowels, and thus the meaning can vary in accordance with the choice of vowels to insert. In antiquity other variant readings existed, some of which have survived in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea scrolls, and other ancient fragments, as well as being attested in ancient versions in other languages.
Versions of the Septuagint contain several passages and whole books additional to what was included in the Masoretic texts of the Tanakh. In some cases these additions were originally composed in Greek, while in other cases they are translations of Hebrew books or variants not present in the Masoretic texts. Recent discoveries have shown that more of the Septuagint additions have a Hebrew origin than was once thought. While there are no complete surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew texts on which the Septuagint was based, many scholars believe that they represent a different textual tradition from the one that eventually became the basis for the Masoretic texts.
The Jews also produced non-literal translations or paraphrases known as targums, primarily in Aramaic. They frequently expanded on the text with additional details taken from Rabbinic oral tradition.
See below for a partial list of contemporary English translations.
The Christian Bible
targum
The Septuagint was generally abandoned in favour of the Masoretic text as the basis for translations into Western languages from Saint Jerome's Vulgate to the present day. In Eastern Christianity, translations based on the Septuagint still prevail. Some modern Western translations make use of the Septuagint to clarify passages in the Masoretic text that seem to have suffered corruption in transcription. They also sometimes adopt variants that appear in texts discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. (For more information, see the entry on Bible translations).
The Old Testament
The collection of books that the majority of Christians (including members of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches) call the Old Testament include not only the 24 books of the Jewish Tanakh, but also certain deuterocanonical books preserved in the Greek of the Septuagint. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes seven such books (Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch), as well as some passages in Esther and Daniel, that are not included in the Jewish Scriptures. Various Orthodox Churches include a few others, typically 3 Maccabees, Psalm 151, 1 Esdras, Odes, Psalms of Solomon, and occasionally even 4 Maccabees. Protestants in general do not recognize these books as truly part of the Bible, though they may print them along with the books they do recognize.
The New Testament
The New Testament is a collection of 27 books with Jesus as its central figure, written in Koine Greek in the early Christian period, that almost all Christians recognize as Scripture. These can be grouped into:
- The Synoptic Gospels
- The Gospel of John
- The Acts of the Apostles
- The Pauline Epistles
- The General Epistles
- Revelation - John "the divine", traditionally identified as John the Apostle.
Original language
Most scholars believe that all of the New Testament was originally composed in Greek. The three main textual traditions are sometimes called the Western text-type, the Alexandrian text-type, and Byzantine text-type. Together they comprise the majority of New Testament manuscripts. There are also several ancient versions in other languages, most important of which are the Syriac (including the Peshitta and the Diatessaron gospel harmony) and the Latin (both the Vetus Latina and the Vulgate).
A few scholars believe in Aramaic primacy - that parts of the Greek New Testament are actually a translation of an Aramaic original, in particular the Gospel of Matthew. Of these, a small number accept the Syriac Peshitta as representing the original, while most take a more critical approach to reconstructing the original text.
Historic editions
The earliest printed edition of the New Testament in Greek appeared in 1516 from the Froben press. It was compiled by Desiderius Erasmus on the basis of the few recent Greek manuscripts, all of Byzantine tradition, at his disposal, which he completed by translating from the Vulgate parts for which he did not have a Greek text. He produced four later editions of the text.
Erasmus was a deeply religious Roman Catholic, but his preference for the textual tradition represented in Byzantine Greek text of the time rather than that in the Latin Vulgate led to him being viewed with suspicion by some authorities of his Church.
The first edition with critical apparatus (variant readings in manuscripts) was produced by the printer Robert Estienne of Paris in 1550. The type of text printed in this edition and in those of Erasmus became known as the Textus Receptus (Latin for "received text"), a name given to it in the Elzevier edition of 1633, which termed it the text "nunc ab omnibus receptum" ("now received by all"). On it the Churches of the Protestant Reformation based their translations into vernacular languages, such as the King James Version.
The discovery of older manuscripts, such as the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus, led scholars to revise their opinion of this text. Karl Lachmann’s critical edition of 1831, based on manuscripts dating from the fourth century and earlier, was intended primarily to demonstrate that the Textus Receptus must finally be rejected. Later critical texts are based on further scholarly research and the finding of papyrus fragments dating in some cases from within a few decades of the composition of the New Testament writings. It is on the basis of these that nearly all modern translations or revisions of older translations have, for more than a century, been made, though some still prefer the Textus Receptus or the similar "Byzantine Majority Text".
The canonization of Scripture
For Judaism, it is commonly thought that the canonical status of some books was discussed between 200 BC and around 100 AD, though it is unclear at what point during this period the Jewish canon was decided.
To the books accepted by Judaism as Scripture, Christianity subsequently added those of the New Testament, the 27-book canon of which was finally fixed in the 4th century. As indicated above, Christianity also mostly considers certain deuterocanonical books to be part of the Old Testament, though Protestantism in general accepts as part of the Old Testament only the books in the canon of Judaism and uses the term Apocrypha for the deuterocanonical books. The Protestant Old Testament has a 39-book canon– the number varies from that of the books in the Tanakh because of a different way of dividing them – while the Roman Catholic Church recognizes 46 books as part of the Old Testament. For details, see Books of the Bible.
Canonicity is distinct from questions of human authorship and the formation of the books of the Bible, questions discussed in the entries on higher criticism and textual criticism.
Biblical versions and translations
In scholarly writing, ancient translations are frequently referred to as 'versions', with the term 'translation' being reserved for medieval or modern translations. Information about Bible versions is given below, while Bible translations can be found on a separate page.
The original texts of the Tanakh were in Hebrew, although some portions were in Aramaic. In addition to the authoritative Masoretic Text, Jews still refer to the Septuagint, the translation of much of the Bible into Greek, and the Targum Onkelos, an Aramaic version of the Bible.
Early Christians produced translations of the Hebrew Bible into several languages; their primary Biblical text was the Septuagint. Translations were made into Syriac, Coptic and Latin, among other languages. The Latin translations were historically the most important for the Church in the West, while the Greek-speaking East continued to use the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament and had no need to translate the New Testament.
The earliest Latin translation was the Old Latin text, or Vetus Latina, which, from internal evidence, seems to have been made by several authors over a period of time. It was based on the Septuagint, and thus included books not in the Hebrew Bible.
The ever-increasing number of variants in Latin manuscripts induced Pope Damasus, in 382, to commission his secretary, Saint Jerome, to produce a reliable and consistent text. Jerome later took it on himself to make a completely new translation directly from the Hebrew of the Tanakh. This translation became the basis of the Vulgate Latin translation. Though he also translated Psalms from Hebrew, the earlier Septuagint-based version, slightly revised by him, is the text that was actually used in Church and is included in editions of the Vulgate. This includes the deuterocanonical books, also revised by Jerome, and became the official translation of the Roman Catholic Church.
See Origin and Growth of the English Bible for a chart on how the English Bible came to be.
The Introduction of chapters and verses
; see Tanakh for the Jewish textual tradition.
The Hebrew Masoretic text contains verse endings as an important feature. According to the Talmudic tradition, the verse endings are of ancient origin. The Masoretic textual tradition also contains section endings called parashiyot, which are indicated by a space within a line (a "closed" section") or a new line beginning (an "open" section). The division of the text reflected in the parashiyot is usually thematic. The parashiyot are not numbered.
In early manuscripts (most importantly in Tiberian Masoretic manuscripts, such as the Aleppo codex) an "open" section may also be represented by a blank line, and a "closed" section by a new line that is slightly indented (the preceding line may also not be full). These latter conventions are no longer used in Torah scrolls and printed Hebrew Bibles. In this system, the one rule differentiating "open" and "closed" sections is that "open" sections must always begin at the beginning of a new line, while "closed" sections never start at the beginning of a new line.
Another related feature of the Masoretic text is the division of the sedarim. This division is not thematic, but is almost entirely based upon the quantity of text.
The Byzantines also introduced a chapter division of sorts, called Kephalaia. It is not identical to the present chapters.
The current division of the Bible into chapters and the verse numbers within the chapters have no basis in any ancient textual tradition. Rather, they are medieval Christian inventions. They were later adopted by many Jews as well, as technical references within the Hebrew text. Such technical references became crucial to medieval rabbis in the historical context of forced debates with Christian clergy (who used the chapter and verse numbers), especially in late medieval Spain. Chapter divisions were first used by Jews in a 1330 manuscript, and for a printed edition in 1516. However, for the past generation most Jewish editions of the complete Hebrew Bible have made a systematic effort to relegate chapter and verse numbers to the margins of the text.
The division of the Bible into chapters and verses has often elicited severe criticism from traditionalists and modern scholars alike. Critics charge that the text is often divided into chapters in an incoherent way, or at inappropriate points within the narrative, and that it encourages citing passages out of context, in effect turning the Bible into a kind of textual quarry for clerical citations. Nevertheless, even the critics admit that the chapter divisions and verse numbers have become indispensable as technical references for Bible study.
Stephen Langton is reputed to have been the first to put the chapter divisions into a Vulgate edition of the Bible, in 1205. They were then inserted into Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the 1400s. Robert Estienne (Robert Stephanus) was the first to number the verses within each chapter, his verse numbers entering printed editions in 1565 (New Testament) and 1571 (Hebrew Bible).[http://www.fuller.edu/ministry/berean/chs_vss.htm][http://www.theexaminer.org/history/chap6.htm]
See also
- Islamic view of the Bible
- Adam and Eve
- List of alleged inconsistencies in the Bible
- The Bible and history
- Bible translations
- Bible chronology
- Biblical archaeology
- Biblical canon
- Biblical inerrancy
- Books of the Bible
- Dating the Bible
- Gutenberg Bible
- History of the English Bible
- Jewish Biblical exegesis
- Letters from the Earth, by Mark Twain
- Metanarrative
- New Testament view on Jesus' life
- Origin and Growth of the English Bible
- Study Bible
- Tanakh
- Ten Commandments (ethical)
- Ten Commandments (ritual)
- Jesus
References
- Anderson, Bernhard W. Understanding the Old Testament (ISBN 0139483993)
- Dever, William B. Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did they Come from? Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003. ISBN 0802809758.
- Head, Tom. The Absolute Beginner's Guide to the Bible. Indianapolis, IN: Que Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0789734192.
- Miller, John W. The Origins of the Bible: Rethinking Canon History Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. ISBN 0809135221.
- Silberman, Neil A. and colleagues. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0684869136.
- [http://www.geocities.com/stonerdon/science_speaks.html Peter, Stoner Science Speaks, Chapt | | |
