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1. Vatican I (1869–70) 1.1. Preliminaries Within the Roman Catholic tradition, the First Vatican Council is considered the 20th general council of the church, the first to be convened in the 324 years since the Council of Trent (1545–63). In the history of the church, this was the longest period between ecumenical councils. Given this length of time in which the church had not engaged in a systematic reflection on its own teaching and tradition, and given the enormous intellectual, political, economic…

The term “Roman Catholic Church” is a specific designation of the church that is in union with the bishop of Rome, known also as the patriarch of the West and the pope. Since some Eastern churches are also in union with the bishop of Rome but do not worship according to the Latin, or Roman, ritual (e.g., Melchite, Maronite, and Chaldean), the Roman Catholic Church most frequently speaks of itself as the Catholic Church, as can be seen in all 16 documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), and also throughout the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994; Catholic, Catholicity, 1.3; Chur…

1. Protestant Theology 1.1. Theology in Confrontation with the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Materialism 1.1.1. Theology in Relation to Church and State Protestant Despite the many similarities and convergent tasks that connected Protestant theology in many countries in the 19th and 20th centuries, there were significant differences, dependent on the relation of theology, church, and state or society. In central Europe and Scandinavia, theology was mostly an integral part of the state universities, except for countries where Protestants were a minor…