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Christianity
Article Free Pass- Introduction
- The church and its history
- The essence and identity of Christianity
- The history of Christianity
- The primitive church
- The internal development of the early Christian Church
- Relations between Christianity and the Roman government and the Hellenistic culture
- The early liturgy, the calendar, and the arts
- The alliance between church and empire
- Theological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries
- Liturgy and the arts after Constantine
- Political relations between East and West
- Literature and art of the “Dark Ages”
- Missions and monasticism
- The Photian schism and the great East–West schism
- From the schism to the Reformation
- Christianity from the 16th to the 20th century
- Contemporary Christianity
- Christian doctrine
- The nature and functions of doctrine
- Scripture and tradition: the apostolic witness
- Evangelism: the first teaching about the God of Jesus Christ
- Catechesis: instructing candidates for baptism
- Liturgy: the school and feast of faith
- Ethics: obeying the truth
- Aversion of heresy: the establishment of orthodoxy
- Apologetics: defending the faith
- Restatement: respecting language and knowledge
- Inculturation: respecting places and peoples
- Dogma: the most authoritative teaching
- Consensus: patterns of agreement
- Theology: loving God with the mind
- Symbolics: creeds and confessions
- Development: the maturation of understanding
- Schism: division over substantial matters
- Controversy: fighting over the faith
- Ecumenism: speaking the truth in love
- God the Father
- God the Son
- God the Holy Spirit
- The Holy Trinity
- Anthropology
- What it is to be human
- The human as a creature
- The human as the image of God
- Human redemption
- The problem of suffering
- The resurrection of the body
- Progressive human perfection
- The “new man”: The human being in the light of Christ
- The “reborn human”
- Human liberation
- Joy in human existence
- The charismatic believer
- Christian perfection
- Fellow humans as the present Christ
- The church
- Church tradition
- Eschatology
- Expectations of the Kingdom of God in early Christianity
- Expectations of the Kingdom of God in the medieval and Reformation periods
- Expectations of the Kingdom of God in the post-Reformation period
- The role of imminent expectation in missions and emigrations
- Eschatological expectations and secularization
- Concepts of life after death
- Aspects of the Christian religion
- Christian philosophy
- Christian mysticism
- Christian myth and legend
- The Christian community and the world
- The relationships of Christianity
- Christian missions
- Ecumenism
- Christianity and world religions
- Related
- Contributors & Bibliography
- Year in Review Links
- Introduction
- The church and its history
- The essence and identity of Christianity
- The history of Christianity
- The primitive church
- The internal development of the early Christian Church
- Relations between Christianity and the Roman government and the Hellenistic culture
- The early liturgy, the calendar, and the arts
- The alliance between church and empire
- Theological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries
- Liturgy and the arts after Constantine
- Political relations between East and West
- Literature and art of the “Dark Ages”
- Missions and monasticism
- The Photian schism and the great East–West schism
- From the schism to the Reformation
- Christianity from the 16th to the 20th century
- Contemporary Christianity
- Christian doctrine
- The nature and functions of doctrine
- Scripture and tradition: the apostolic witness
- Evangelism: the first teaching about the God of Jesus Christ
- Catechesis: instructing candidates for baptism
- Liturgy: the school and feast of faith
- Ethics: obeying the truth
- Aversion of heresy: the establishment of orthodoxy
- Apologetics: defending the faith
- Restatement: respecting language and knowledge
- Inculturation: respecting places and peoples
- Dogma: the most authoritative teaching
- Consensus: patterns of agreement
- Theology: loving God with the mind
- Symbolics: creeds and confessions
- Development: the maturation of understanding
- Schism: division over substantial matters
- Controversy: fighting over the faith
- Ecumenism: speaking the truth in love
- God the Father
- God the Son
- God the Holy Spirit
- The Holy Trinity
- Anthropology
- What it is to be human
- The human as a creature
- The human as the image of God
- Human redemption
- The problem of suffering
- The resurrection of the body
- Progressive human perfection
- The “new man”: The human being in the light of Christ
- The “reborn human”
- Human liberation
- Joy in human existence
- The charismatic believer
- Christian perfection
- Fellow humans as the present Christ
- The church
- Church tradition
- Eschatology
- Expectations of the Kingdom of God in early Christianity
- Expectations of the Kingdom of God in the medieval and Reformation periods
- Expectations of the Kingdom of God in the post-Reformation period
- The role of imminent expectation in missions and emigrations
- Eschatological expectations and secularization
- Concepts of life after death
- Aspects of the Christian religion
- Christian philosophy
- Christian mysticism
- Christian myth and legend
- The Christian community and the world
- The relationships of Christianity
- Christian missions
- Ecumenism
- Christianity and world religions
- Related
- Contributors & Bibliography
- Year in Review Links
The role of imminent expectation in missions and emigrations
The great missionary activities of Christian history in most cases have been based upon a reawakened imminent expectation, which creates a characteristic tension. The tension between the universal mission of the church and the hitherto omitted missionary duties, as well as the idea that the colossal task must be accomplished in the shortest time possible, renders comprehensible the astonishing physical and spiritual achievements of the great Christian missionaries. After the inundation of Christian areas of Africa and Asia by Islam, Franciscan missionaries in the 13th and 14th centuries, enduring incredible hardships, went by land and by sea to India, China, and Mongolia to preach the gospel. In a similar way, the missionary movement of the 18th and 19th centuries also proceeded from such eschatological groups within Protestantism.
The expectation of the Kingdom of God, in the form of the imminent expectation, plays a strong role in emigration movements. Great masses of European Christians again and again set out for Palestine with a sense of finding there the land of their salvation and being present when Christ returns there to establish his Kingdom. Mass pilgrimages to Jerusalem took place in 1033 and again in 1064–65, and the Crusades can be seen as a form of pilgrimage whose participants held eschatological concerns. The peasants of the so-called “People’s Crusade” and the knights of the First Crusade were clearly motivated by apocalyptic anxieties, and Count Emicho of Flonheim, who led the massacres of the Jews in Germany, may have seen himself in the role of the Last Emperor. The eschatological strain of the Crusades can also be noted in the Crusade sermons of Bernard of Clairvaux in 1147, who kindled enthusiasm to liberate Jerusalem with reference to the pressing terminal dates of the end time.
A great number of the attempts undertaken to found radical Christian communities in North America may be viewed as anticipations of the coming Jerusalem. The emigration movement toward America was influenced by beliefs in eschatologically fixed dates (e.g., Columbus). Puritans who traveled to America in the 17th century and Quakers, Baptists, and Methodists in the 18th century believed that America was the “wilderness” promised in the Revelation to John. William Penn gave the name Philadelphia to the capital of the woodland areas ceded to him (1681) because he took up the idea of establishing the true church of the end time, represented by the Philadelphia community of the Revelation to John. The same influence holds true for the emigration of German revivalists of the 18th and early 19th centuries to Russia and Palestine. The “Friends of the Temple”—Swabians who went with Christoph Hoffmann to Palestine in 1866—and the Swabians, Franks, Hessians, and Bavarians, who after the Napoleonic Wars followed the call of Tsar Alexander I to Bessarabia, were all dominated by the idea of living in the end time and preparing themselves for the coming Kingdom of God. In Tsar Alexander I they saw the “eagle…as it flew in midheaven” (Revelation 8:13), which prepared the “recovery spot” for them in the East upon which Christ will descend.
As had occurred earlier in Christian history, eschatological expectations in the modern age sometimes turned violent. The intensely apocalyptical ideas of David Koresh, for example, led him and other Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, to a tragic end.
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People
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(German theologian and church historian)"/>
(German theologian and church historian)"/> Adolf von Harnack (German theologian and church historian)
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al-Ḥākim (Fāṭimid caliph)
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(Flemish theologian)"/>
(Flemish theologian)"/> Cornelius Otto Jansen (Flemish theologian)
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(king of Scotland)"/>
(king of Scotland)"/> David I (king of Scotland)
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(Dutch humanist and scholar)"/>
(Dutch humanist and scholar)"/> Desiderius Erasmus (Dutch humanist and scholar)
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Elaine Pagels (American scholar)
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(German theologian)"/>
(German theologian)"/> Ernst Troeltsch (German theologian)
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(German theologian)"/>
(German theologian)"/> Ferdinand Christian Baur (German theologian)
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(king of Denmark)"/>
(king of Denmark)"/> Harald I (king of Denmark)
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(Bohemian religious leader)"/>
(Bohemian religious leader)"/> Jan Hus (Bohemian religious leader)
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(Czech philosopher)"/>
(Czech philosopher)"/> Jerome Of Prague (Czech philosopher)
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Jesus Christ
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(English philosopher)"/>
(English philosopher)"/> John Locke (English philosopher)
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John Toland (British author)
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(Mohawk chief)"/>
(Mohawk chief)"/> Joseph Brant (Mohawk chief)
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(Spanish architect)"/>
(Spanish architect)"/> Juan de Herrera (Spanish architect)
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Keshab Chunder Sen (Hindu philosopher and social reformer)
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(German religious philosopher)"/>
(German religious philosopher)"/> Martin Buber (German religious philosopher)
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Martin E. Marty (American historian of religion)
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(mother of Jesus)"/>
(mother of Jesus)"/> Mary (mother of Jesus)
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Mary Hannah Fulton (American physician and missionary)
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Matthias Flacius Illyricus (European religious reformer)
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Michael Psellus (Byzantine philosopher, theologian, and statesman)
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(Italian artist)"/>
(Italian artist)"/> Michelozzo (Italian artist)
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Mieszko I (duke and prince of Poland)
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Minh Mang (emperor of Vietnam)
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(Danish bishop and poet)"/>
(Danish bishop and poet)"/> N.F.S. Grundtvig (Danish bishop and poet)
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(German religious leader)"/>
(German religious leader)"/> Nikolaus Ludwig, count von Zinzendorf (German religious leader)
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Nikolay Aleksandrovich Berdyayev (Russian philosopher)
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Olaf I Tryggvason (king of Norway)
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Olaf II Haraldsson (king of Norway)
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Pelagius (Christian theologian)
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(American theologian)"/>
(American theologian)"/> Philip Schaff (American theologian)
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(French philosopher)"/>
(French philosopher)"/> Pierre Bayle (French philosopher)
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Pseudo-Dionysius The Areopagite (Syrian author)
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(German theologian, scientist, and philosopher)"/>
(German theologian, scientist, and philosopher)"/> Saint Albertus Magnus (German theologian, scientist, and philosopher)
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(Russian painter)"/>
(Russian painter)"/> Saint Andrey Rublyov (Russian painter)
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(Christian bishop and theologian)"/>
(Christian bishop and theologian)"/> Saint Augustine (Christian bishop and theologian)
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(Anglo-Saxon historian)"/>
(Anglo-Saxon historian)"/> Saint Bede the Venerable (Anglo-Saxon historian)
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(Christian Apostle)"/>
(Christian Apostle)"/> Saint Paul, the Apostle (Christian Apostle)
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Saint Theophilus of Alexandria (Egyptian theologian)
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Sir Sigmund Sternberg (British philanthropist and entrepreneur)
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(Danish philosopher)"/>
(Danish philosopher)"/> Søren Kierkegaard (Danish philosopher)
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(king of Hungary)"/>
(king of Hungary)"/> Stephen I (king of Hungary)
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(American missionary and educator)"/>
(American missionary and educator)"/> Susan Lincoln Tolman Mills (American missionary and educator)
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Theōdūrus Abū Qurrah (Syrian bishop)
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Tu Duc (emperor of Vietnam)
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(grand prince of Kiev)"/>
(grand prince of Kiev)"/> Vladimir I (grand prince of Kiev)
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(prince of Bohemia)"/>
(prince of Bohemia)"/> Wenceslas I (prince of Bohemia)
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(British missionary)"/>
(British missionary)"/> William Carey (British missionary)
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Places
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Armageddon (biblical place)
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(ancient city, Israel)"/>
(ancient city, Israel)"/> Caesarea (ancient city, Israel)
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(Ireland)"/>
(Ireland)"/> Clonmacnoise (Ireland)
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(Spain)"/>
(Spain)"/> El Escorial (Spain)
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Le Temple (prison, Paris, France)
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(monasteries, Greece)"/>
(monasteries, Greece)"/> Metéora (monasteries, Greece)
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(mosque, Córdoba, Spain)"/>
(mosque, Córdoba, Spain)"/> Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba (mosque, Córdoba, Spain)
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(mountain, Greece)"/>
(mountain, Greece)"/> Mount Athos (mountain, Greece)
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(ridge, Jerusalem)"/>
(ridge, Jerusalem)"/> Mount of Olives (ridge, Jerusalem)
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(Italy)"/>
(Italy)"/> Rome (Italy)
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(monastery and church, Assisi, Italy)"/>
(monastery and church, Assisi, Italy)"/> San Francesco (monastery and church, Assisi, Italy)
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School of Alexandria (institution, Alexandria, Egypt)
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(ecclesiastical state, Europe)"/>
(ecclesiastical state, Europe)"/> Vatican City (ecclesiastical state, Europe)
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(Scotland, United Kingdom)"/>
(Scotland, United Kingdom)"/> Whithorn (Scotland, United Kingdom)
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Topics
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(Christianity)"/>
(Christianity)"/> Annunciation (Christianity)
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apocrypha (biblical literature)
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apologetics (Christianity)
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(Christianity)"/>
(Christianity)"/> Apostle (Christianity)
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(Christianity)"/>
(Christianity)"/> Ascension (Christianity)
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(Christianity)"/>
(Christianity)"/> Assumption (Christianity)
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(Christianity)"/>
(Christianity)"/> baptism (Christianity)
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(denomination)"/>
(denomination)"/> Baptist (denomination)
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(biblical literature)"/>
(biblical literature)"/> Beatitude (biblical literature)
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(sacred text)"/>
(sacred text)"/> Bible (sacred text)
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biblical literature
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canon law (religion)
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catechism (religious manual)
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(liturgical vessel)"/>
(liturgical vessel)"/> chalice (liturgical vessel)
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(doctrine of Christ)"/>
(doctrine of Christ)"/> Christology (doctrine of Christ)
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church (Christianity)
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Church Father (Christianity)
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church year (Christianity)
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city mission (Christianity)
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confirmation (Christianity)
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creationism
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(religious symbol)"/>
(religious symbol)"/> cross (religious symbol)
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(Christianity)"/>
(Christianity)"/> ecumenism (Christianity)
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gospel music
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heresy
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(Jesus Christ)"/>
(Jesus Christ)"/> Incarnation (Jesus Christ)
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justification (Christianity)
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kerygma and catechesis (Christian theology)
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Kingdom of God (Christianity)
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Kirishitan (religion)
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(Christianity)"/>
(Christianity)"/> Last Supper (Christianity)
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(philosophy and theology)"/>
(philosophy and theology)"/> logos (philosophy and theology)
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Lord’s Prayer (Christianity)
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(theology)"/>
(theology)"/> Mariology (theology)
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ministry (Christianity)
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moral theology
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(biblical literature)"/>
(biblical literature)"/> New Testament (biblical literature)
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oratorio (music)
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(religion)"/>
(religion)"/> ordination (religion)
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original sin (theology)
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Passion music (vocal music)
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patristic literature (Christianity)
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(Christianity)"/>
(Christianity)"/> Protestantism (Christianity)
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Religionsgeschichtliche Schule (biblical criticism)
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Roman Catholicism
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Second Coming (Christianity)
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Sunday school
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theological liberalism (religion)
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tithe (almsgiving)
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