Sacramentum Mundi Online

Part of Middle Ages: 1. General 2. Middle Ages 3. Medieval Church In its widest sense, this term denotes the central section of a historical process taking place in three or more stages, whether this process is regarded as a progress, a decline, or a cycle. The concept of a “middle” epoch was implicitly known to Christian historical tradition, since the triple division of the Apostle Paul ( ante legem, sub lege, sub gratia) , which influenced later attempts to divide sacred history into periods (Joachim of Fiore: age of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit). Th…

Part of Middle Ages: 1. General 2. Middle Ages 3. Medieval Church The medieval Church, as here dealt with, is primarily the Church of the Frankish-German empire, Roman and Germanic in roots, in the period from its founding by Charlemagne until the Investiture Controversy. This “imperial” Church, enmeshed in the political organization of the Empire, was under the protection and power of the sacral kingship of the Franks and Germans. Recognized for the most part as a constitutive element of the Empire, and as…

Part of Middle Ages: 1. General 2. Middle Ages 3. Medieval Church A. Early Middle Ages 1. The Germanic confrontation with the ancient world. The concept of the Early Middle Ages was devised by modern historians to denote a sub-division of the Middle Ages distinguished from the preceding period of late antiquity and from the succeeding High Middle Ages. Its temporal limits have been variously assigned, its beginning being placed somewhere from the 4th century (Constantinian Era) to the 7th century (Arab Invasion) and i…

Millenarianism, also known as chiliasm (from the Greek for a thousand) is the expectation of a thousand-year reign of Christ on earth prior to the last judgment. The views underlying this expectation changed much in the course of history. 1. The biblical background. The immediate occasion was Rev 20:1–15, where, after the fall of Babylon, an angel binds Satan and casts him into the abyss for a thousand years. After that the just rise from the dead — the “first resurrection” — and reign with Christ on earth for a thousand years, during w…

Part of Miracle: 1. Theological 2. Miracles of Jesus A. Biblical Theology 1. Miracle and message. In the public life of Jesus as recorded in the gospels, the miracles occupy an important place, not only because of the number that are reported, but also because of their significance. They do not just appear as a profusion of wonderful happenings, on the margin of the message of salvation. They are themselves part of the gospel, the message of salvation in action. Though the synoptics practically always use the …

Part of Miracle: 1. Theological 2. Miracles of Jesus 1. Hermeneutical considerations, a) Every attempt to give a theological definition of miracles must start from those described in the biblical tradition. This follows at once from the unique theological dignity which is accorded these miracles in the teaching of the Church (cf. D 1790, 1813). Then there is the well-founded presumption in theology that the real miracle must be closely and intrinsically connected with the unique historical coming of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. (This su…

Part of Missions: 1. Church and Mission 2. Salvation of the Non-Evangelized 3. Theological Problem of Adaptation 4. Non-Christian Missions 5. Missiology A. Nature The word “mission”, so frequently used today day, has many different meanings, even within its strictly religious and Catholic context. There is the action of sending: Christ sends the apostles (cf. Jn 20:21) and the Church sends missionaries. There is the charge entrusted to the envoy. There is the accomplishment of this charge, under different aspects: the …

Part of Missions: 1. Church and Mission 2. Salvation of the Non-Evangelized 3. Theological Problem of Adaptation 4. Non-Christian Missions 5. Missiology 1. Vatican II affirms that missionaries should have a special knowledge of missiology as well as a general theological training. The missionary should “know the teachings and norms of the Church concerning missionary activity, the roads which the heralds of the gospel have traversed in the course of the centuries, the present conditions of the missions, and the methods now considered especially effective” ( Ad Gentes, art. 26). Th…

Part of Missions: 1. Church and Mission 2. Salvation of the Non-Evangelized 3. Theological Problem of Adaptation 4. Non-Christian Missions 5. Missiology Though we here use the term “mission” for the efforts of non-Christians to spread their religions, we are aware that we are using it in a transferred or derivative sense. The notion of “mission” is specifically Christian. Neither the term nor the idea occurs even in the ОТ. In the Christian Church, it means the extension of the mission of the word of God in the world…

Part of Missions: 1. Church and Mission 2. Salvation of the Non-Evangelized 3. Theological Problem of Adaptation 4. Non-Christian Missions 5. Missiology There is an apparent contradiction between the “classical” motives of the mission and modern notions of an “implicit” Christianity and an “anonymous” grace. But in fact the real motivation of the mission has become still clearer. The Christian knows that man must believe in God in order to be saved, and not only in God, but in Christ. Faith is not merely a positive c…

Part of Missions: 1. Church and Mission 2. Salvation of the Non-Evangelized 3. Theological Problem of Adaptation 4. Non-Christian Missions 5. Missiology 1. Adaptation is not a notion of which the theological content has been definitely established. But it is concerned with the relationship of the Church, of its theology, and of Christians to their vis-à-vis, or partner in history, to what is extra ecclesiam, to “the other”. Adaptation will be understood in terms of the theological significance given to “the other” in the one history of God’s dealings with ma…