conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is a description for a book titled A History of the Christian Church about History, Christian, Church with the genre: Religion & Spirituality, Religious Studies?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Since publication of the first edition in 1918, A History Of The Christian Church by the author has enjoyed outstanding success and recognition as a classic in the field. Written by an eminent theologian, it combines in its narrative a rare blend of clarity, unity, and balance. Mr. the author, Yale Professor of Divinity, covers the origin of the church, its early development, the changes of the middle ages, the course of the Reformation, the modern church, culminating with a section on American Christianity. Unhesitatingly frank in its opinions, and with an extensive list of recommendations for further reading.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the first four paragraphs for the book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A History of the Christian Church
  Erasmus was, above all, a man of letters, who addressed the issues of his time with consummate wit and an unrivaled command of Latin style, put forth unsparing criticism of the clergy and civil rulers, and withal was moved by a deep sincerity of purpose. Convinced that the church of his day was overlaid with superstition, corruption, and error, that theology had been subverted by a barren, contentious dialectic, and that the monastic life was too often ignorant and unworthy, he had yet no wish to break with the church that he so freely criticized. He was too averse to strife to have sympathy with the Lutheran revolution, the "tumults" of which repelled him, and too undogmatic in his religion to approve Luther's radical assault on traditional doctrine. He was also too clear-sighted not to see, and too honest not to expose, the prevalent evils and abuses of the contemporary church and the Renaissance papacy. Hence, neither side in the great struggle that broke out in the latter part of his life fully understood him, and his memory was long condemned by polemical writers, both Protestant and Catholic.
  The Enchiridion is the fullest presentation of Erasmus's positive theology, which he called the "philosophy of Christ" (philosophia Christi). Christianity is depicted as a universal, essentially ethical religion, anticipated by the philosophers of antiquity and attaining its consummate expression in Christ's Sermon on the Mount. This religion is interior and spiritual, the "cult of the invisible" in the midst of worldly life, and it is animated by love for Christ and the resolve to follow in his footsteps. Erasmian thought was thus at root "optimistic," for knowledge of the truth entails the ability to do the truth, though divine grace must also assist to this end. The evident differences between Erasmus and Luther on the cardinal issues of "sin and grace" and the freedom of the human will were to lead to their famous literary exchange of 1524–1525 (see VI:2) and to a decisive parting of the ways between Erasmian humanism and Lutheran solafideism. Yet Luther and the other Protestant reformers held much in common with, and remained indebted to, Erasmus and the Christian humanists, above all in their educational preference for the Bible and the church fathers over and against the Scholastic doctors, and in their cultivation of the classical and biblical languages. The influence of Erasmus is also to be seen in the sacramental theology of such reformers as Zwingli and Oecolampadius, who came to the Reformation by way of humanism and who maintained the basic Erasmian principle that the life of the spirit is not nourished by external, corporeal things, including the physical body of Christ (see VI:3). Moreover, many of the Catholic reformers of the later sixteenth century were heirs of the Erasmian reform program, however impolitic it was to admit this. Thus, even though he had become a "heretic" to both sides by the time of his death, Erasmus's tireless labors had borne much fruit.
  Though humanism exerted a greater influence in Germany at the beginning of the sixteenth century than in any other land beyond the Alps, the same impulses were stirring elsewhere. The efforts of Francisco Jiménez in Spain have already been noted (see V:16). One must add, however, that his humanistic scholarship was mainly philological in character and was used in the service of a militant Catholic orthodoxy, so much so that the Spanish church and culture proved most inhospitable to Erasmian ideas. Thus, in Spain the new learning buttressed the old theology.
  In England, serious study of Greek and of the classics was introduced at Oxford in the 1490s by William Grocyn (1446?–1519) and Thomas Linacre (1460?–1524), both of whom had studied in Italy. The leader of the Christian humanists in England became John Colet (1467?–1519) who had heard the lectures of Grocyn and Linacre at Oxford. Under their influence, he went to Italy in 1493 and there developed a keen interest in Neoplatonic mysticism, as conveyed by the Florentine Platonists. Upon his return to England in 1496, he began lecturing at Oxford on the Pauline epistles, and in this connection he stirred Erasmus to biblical studies. Colet was not a distinguished classicist. His prime contribution was to introduce a literary and historical method of interpreting the Pauline texts, relating them to their historical setting and examining their rhetorical structure in order to lay bare their spiritual content. In his judgment, the Scholastic theologians had contaminated the "doctrine of Christ" with their "profane philosophy." Colet also endeavored to improve the education and morals of the clergy, and to this end he founded St. Paul's School in London in 1508.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is four more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Wesley would have preferred to have all preaching done by ordained men, but few of the clergy were sympathetic with the movement. A lay preacher, Joseph Humphreys, was helping him as early as 1738; but extensive use was not made of this arrangement until 1742, when Thomas Maxfield became regularly the earliest of what soon became a considerable company. The growth of the movement developed other lay officers: "stewards" to care for property, teachers for schools, "visitors of the sick" for the duties implied. At first, Wesley visited all the societies, which were chiefly in the regions of London and Bristol, but the task soon became too great. In 1744, he had the preachers meet him in London—the first of the "annual conferences." Two years later, the field was divided into "circuits," with traveling preachers and more stationary leaders to "assist chiefly in one place." Then an "assistant," later called a "superintendent," was placed in charge of each "circuit." Wesley endeavored by suitable publications to aid the intellectual development of his lay preachers and secured study as far as possible. He tried in vain to obtain episcopal ordination for them, but he would not allow the sacraments to be administered by unordained men.
  While Wesley stood theologically on the common basis of evangelical doctrinal tradition and regarded his societies as part of the Church of England, two disputes led to considerable controversy. One was regarding perfection. Wesley believed it possible for a Christian to attain right ruling motives—love to God and to his neighbor—and that such attainment brought freedom from sin. To Wesley's cautious and sober judgment, this was an aim rather than a frequently completed achievement—however it may have appeared to some of his followers. No man was ever more positive than he that salvation evidences itself in a life of active, strenuous obedience to the will of God.
  A second dispute was regarding predestination. Whitefield was Calvinistic. A hot interchange of letters took place between the two evangelists in 1740 and 1741, though their good personal relations were soon restored in large measure. Whitefield found a supporter, in 1748, in Selina, Countess of Huntingdon (1707–1791), a wealthy widow, a convert to Methodism, but far too dominant a character to yield to Wesley's insistent leadership. She would be her own Wesley, and, like Wesley, founded and superintended societies and chapels—the first in Brighton in 1761, thus beginning "Lady Huntingdon's Connection." She made Whitefield her chaplain. Her "Connection" was Calvinist. In 1769, the predestinarian controversy broke out with renewed intensity. At the conference of 1770, Wesley took a strongly Arminian position, and he was defended by his devoted disciple, the Swiss John William Fletcher (1729–1785), who had settled in England and accepted a living in the established church at Madeley, where he did notable work. The effect of the controversy was to confirm the Arminian character of Wesleyan Methodism. Yet "Lady Huntingdon's Connection" of Calvinistic Methodists must be regarded as a parallel rather than as a hostile movement. Its fundamental spirit was essentially the same as that of the Wesleys.
  Thomas Scott (1747–1821), Newton's successor in Olney, was best known for his Family Bible with Notes, a commentary of immense popularity on both sides of the Atlantic. Richard Cecil (1748–1810) in later life was one of the most influential preachers in London. Joseph Milner (1744–1797) made Hull an Evangelical stronghold and won much influence through his History of the Church of Christ, continued after his death by his brother, Isaac, in which he emphasized the development of Christian biography rather than the disputes of Christianity. Isaac Milner (1750–1820) was long a professor in Cambridge and aided in making the tone of that university largely Evangelical, a work which was continued there by Charles Simeon (1759–1836).
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about Wesley, Church, England, derived, seemed, paralyzing.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Wesley would have preferred to have all preaching done by ordained men, but few of the clergy were sympathetic with the movement. A lay preacher, Joseph Humphreys, was helping him as early as 1738; but extensive use was not made of this arrangement until 1742, when Thomas Maxfield became regularly the earliest of what soon became a considerable company. The growth of the movement developed other lay officers: "stewards" to care for property, teachers for schools, "visitors of the sick" for the duties implied. At first, Wesley visited all the societies, which were chiefly in the regions of London and Bristol, but the task soon became too great. In 1744, he had the preachers meet him in London—the first of the "annual conferences. " Two years later, the field was divided into "circuits," with traveling preachers and more stationary leaders to "assist chiefly in one place. " Then an "assistant," later called a "superintendent," was placed in charge of each "circuit. " Wesley endeavored by suitable publications to aid the intellectual development of his lay preachers and secured study as far as possible. He tried in vain to obtain episcopal ordination for them, but he would not allow the sacraments to be administered by unordained men. 
  While Wesley stood theologically on the common basis of evangelical doctrinal tradition and regarded his societies as part of the Church of England, two disputes led to considerable controversy. One was regarding perfection. Wesley believed it possible for a Christian to attain right ruling motives—love to God and to his neighbor—and that such attainment brought freedom from sin. To Wesley's cautious and sober judgment, this was an aim rather than a frequently completed achievement—however it may have appeared to some of his followers. No man was ever more positive than he that salvation evidences itself in a life of active, strenuous obedience to the will of God. 
  A second dispute was regarding predestination. Wesley, like the Church of England generally of his time, was Arminian, but he had derived a special parental hostility to Calvinism, which seemed to him paralyzing to moral effort. Whitefield was Calvinistic. A hot interchange of letters took place between the two evangelists in 1740 and 1741, though their good personal relations were soon restored in large measure. Whitefield found a supporter, in 1748, in Selina, Countess of Huntingdon (1707–1791), a wealthy widow, a convert to Methodism, but far too dominant a character to yield to Wesley's insistent leadership. She would be her own Wesley, and, like Wesley, founded and superintended societies and chapels—the first in Brighton in 1761, thus beginning "Lady Huntingdon's Connection. " She made Whitefield her chaplain. Her "Connection" was Calvinist. In 1769, the predestinarian controversy broke out with renewed intensity. At the conference of 1770, Wesley took a strongly Arminian position, and he was defended by his devoted disciple, the Swiss John William Fletcher (1729–1785), who had settled in England and accepted a living in the established church at Madeley, where he did notable work. The effect of the controversy was to confirm the Arminian character of Wesleyan Methodism. Yet "Lady Huntingdon's Connection" of Calvinistic Methodists must be regarded as a parallel rather than as a hostile movement. Its fundamental spirit was essentially the same as that of the Wesleys. 
  Thomas Scott (1747–1821), Newton's successor in Olney, was best known for his Family Bible with Notes, a commentary of immense popularity on both sides of the Atlantic. Richard Cecil (1748–1810) in later life was one of the most influential preachers in London. Joseph Milner (1744–1797) made Hull an Evangelical stronghold and won much influence through his History of the Church of Christ, continued after his death by his brother, Isaac, in which he emphasized the development of Christian biography rather than the disputes of Christianity. Isaac Milner (1750–1820) was long a professor in Cambridge and aided in making the tone of that university largely Evangelical, a work which was continued there by Charles Simeon (1759–1836).
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the last five paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Protestant Reformation: preludes and forerunners, , , , , –55, , , , , , , , , ; Luther, –33; divisions, –441; Zwingli, –47; Anabaptists, –55; established in Germany, –65; in Scandinavia, –68; in Switzerland, –71; Calvin, –80; in England, –96; in Scotland, –501; Catholic response, –14; controversies, –34; close of, ; place in history, –68
  Roman Catholic Church (after East-West schism), , –276, , , –47, , –58, –85, –93, –496, –26, , , , , , –73, , , –79, , , , –75, , , , , –701, , –5, –9. See also Papacy; Canon law; Rome, church and see of
  Rome, church and see of, –32, , , –42, , , , , , , , –77, , –86, , , , , , , –112, , , , , , , –53, , , , , –71, , , , , –79, , , , , , , –97, , –9, , , –25, –236, –53, , –57, , , , –91. For later history see Roman Catholic Church; see also Papacy
  Synods, , ; Alexandria (362 A.D.), –42; Antioch (268 A.D.), (330 A.D.) 136; (341 A.D.), (379 A.D.), –6; Aries (353 A.D.), see also Council of Aries); Augsburg (1527 Martyr's Synod), , ; Bethlehem (1672), ; Brixen (1080), ; Constantinople (360 A.D.), –40 (see also Council of Constantinople); Diamper (1599), ; Dort (1618–1619), , ; Épernay (846 A.D.), , ; Hertford (673 A.D.), ; Lateran (1049), ; Mainz (848 A.D.) ; (1049), ; Mantua (1064), ; Metz (863 A.D.), ; Milan (355 A.D.), ; the Oak (403 A.D.), ; Orange (529 A.D.), , ; Örebro (1529), ; Reims (1049), ; Rome (314 A.D.), (377 A.D.), (430 A.D.), (649 A.D.), (731 A.D.), (1059), (1075), ; Sirmium (357 A.D.), ; Sutri (1046), ; Tyre (335 A.D.), –37; Whitby (664 A.D.), –25; Worms (1048), (1076),. See also Synodical government; and entries beginning Council of
  I. Church history. I. Norris, Richard Alfred. II. Lotz, David W., 1937–. III. Handy, Robert T. IV. Title.