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No nation, institution, empire or dynasty has helped shape the world more than the Catholic Church. Armies have marched upon one another. Kings have risen and fallen. Ideological and political movements have taken hold of entire continents. Diseases and plagues have ravished millions.And through it all, Holy Mother Church has endured, standing as the one source of light in a world so often covered by shadows.In this thrilling narrative, Phillip Campbell, author of the best-selling Story of Civilization series, takes children on a journey through Church history, beginning at Pentecost when Peter and the other apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and preached in the streets of Jerusalem, all the way through the pontificate of John Paul II and into modern times. Campbell's storybook style brings the narrative to life for young readers, taking them back in time and awakening a love and appreciation for history.Children will discover: The triumphs and struggles of the early Church The heroic stories of the martyrs An army of saints who witnessed to Christ, including Benedict, Augustine, Francis, Dominic, Elizabeth of Hungary, Catherine of Siena, Thomas More, The Little Flower, Maximilian Kolbe, and more. Popes who helped shape Church teaching through encyclicals and councils, including Leo XIII, Pius IX, and John Paul II Crusaders who fought for Christendom Marian apparitions like Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fatima How events like the Protestant Reformation, the Avignon Papacy, and the Second Vatican Council affected the Church and the world. Through it all, young readers will see how the Church remained in the world but not of it, surviving wars, heresies, and the rule of tyrants, and keeping her arms spread ever open to welcome wounded souls into the Body of Christ.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Catholic Church

Christian Church

History of religions

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Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	06 juillet 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781505113204
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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THE STORY OF THE CHURCH
THE STORY OF THE
CHURCH
FROM PENTECOST TO MODERN TIMES
Phillip Campbell
TAN
Copyright © 2020 TAN Books, PO Box 269, Gastonia, NC 28053
All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Cover and illustrations by Chris Pelicano
ISBN: 978-1-5051-1319-8
Published in the United States by
TAN Books
PO Box 269
Gastonia, NC 28053
www.TANBooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter 1: Christ and the Apostles
Chapter 2: The Apostolic Age
Chapter 3: The Apologists
Chapter 4: Roman Persecutions
Chapter 5: Dissent and Heresy
Chapter 6: Christian Monasticism
Chapter 7: The Triumph of the Church
Chapter 8: The Benedictines
Chapter 9: A Time of Missionaries
Chapter 10: Rome and the Byzantines
Chapter 11: The Carolingians
Chapter 12: Dark Days for the Papacy
Chapter 13: The Struggle Against Lay Authority
Chapter 14: The Crusading Ideal
Chapter 15: Monastic Reform Movements
Chapter 16: The Mendicant Orders
Chapter 17: Scholasticism
Chapter 18: Kings Versus Popes
Chapter 19: The Babylonian Captivity
Chapter 20: The Great Western Schism
Chapter 21: Late Medieval Mysticism
Chapter 22: The Outbreak of Protestantism
Chapter 23: Trent and the Counter-Reformation
Chapter 24: The Jesuits
Chapter 25: Missions Abroad
Chapter 26: Jansenism and Gallicanism
Chapter 27: The Age of Revolution
Chapter 28: After the Revolution
Chapter 29: The Age of Pius IX
Chapter 30: A New Century With New Challenges
Chapter 31: Under Fascism and Communism
Chapter 32: The Church in the Second World War
Chapter 33: The Second Vatican Council
Chapter 34: Hopes and Fears
Chapter 35: The Pontificate of Pope St. John Paul II
Chapter 36: The Church in the Twenty-First Century
Index
INTRODUCTION
The History of the Church
What do you think about when you walk into your church each Sunday? Do you pay much attention to the statues and symbols you see? Do you give a lot of thought to the words you hear and the prayers you pray? It’s easy for Catholics to get into a routine when we go to Mass—to just focus on practical things like being on time, finding a place to sit, or getting wild kids to behave.
But when you go to Mass, you may not realize that your Church is built on over two thousand years of history, not to mention thousands more years from the Old Testament. The Mass you are taking part in—celebrating—plugs you into a religious tradition that goes all the way back through the centuries to the time of Christ and the apostles, and even beyond to the days of the Israelite kingdom, the teachings of Moses, and the wanderings of Abraham.
This book tells the story of the Catholic Church, the family of God established by Jesus Christ when he came to earth over two thousand years ago. The Church is a supernatural reality founded through God’s divine plan for the eternal salvation of the human race and is protected and guided by the Holy Spirit. But it is also a very human thing, made up of millions of men and women throughout time, each with their own ideas, personalities, and gifts they bring to the Church. This book tells the story of these people throughout the ages and how they each, in their own way, contributed to the building up of the kingdom of God. We will encounter many saints—as well as many villains—in this magnificent story.
We’ll revisit a lot of your favorite stories as well as introduce you to some tales you’ve probably never heard. For example, did you know St. Peter was crucified upside down? Did you know the Desert Fathers lived in caves and battled the devil? Did you know Byzantine imperial soldiers once went on a mission to paint over religious images across the East? Or that St. Benedict of Aniane was once a Frankish warrior named Witiza? Did you know a pope once dug up the body of a deceased pope and put his corpse on trial? Have you heard of St. Hildegard, the marvelous visions she had, or the beautiful music she composed? Did you know the Carmelites once lived in the Holy Land until they had to flee from the Muslims? Or that one time there were three separate men all claiming to be the pope? Or that Pius VII was held captive by Napoleon? Did you know St. Thérèse of Lisieux met Pope Leo as a young girl and wept in his presence? Did you know Pope John Paul II was nearly assassinated, or that Pope Benedict XVI was the first pope to resign from the papacy in over five hundred years?
There are so many things to learn about the Church’s history! We could spend our whole lives studying it and not exhaust the rich stories and marvelous lessons. We couldn’t hope to uncover the entire treasury of history in this little book. For that reason, we have had to pick and choose which saints, stories, and events from history to include, so please forgive us if one of your favorite saints or stories didn’t make it in!
Whether you are an expert in Church history or new to the study of it, one thing that should be clear from this book is how the Catholic Church shaped the world we live in. More importantly, it is like a ship that keeps us safe through the tumults of history, carrying us securely to heaven across the rocky seas of the world. It is our hope that you will be inspired by the stories in this book to strive to reach those heavenly shores.
CHAPTER 1
Christ and the Apostles
Searching for Hidden Meaning
Everywhere we look, life is full of meaning. Think of something like a birthday cake. On the surface, it looks very simple. It’s a soft, sweet food made from a mixture of flour, eggs, sugar, and other ingredients, baked and often decorated with candles. But, of course, there’s much more to a birthday cake than what it’s made of. A birthday cake calls to mind a person’s life and their achievements and celebrates their presence with us. It conjures up all sorts of emotions.
Our whole world is like this. Familiar places, people, a beautiful sunset, a lovely flower—anything can be meaningful in one way or another. Part of what it means to be human is to find meaning in things. Sometimes the meaning comes from our own experiences with things, like a toy that’s special because you’ve had it for a long time. Other times, something is meaningful because of a hidden value or quality it has, like a simple rock that looks plain on the outside but contains a gold nugget within.
In short, things are often more than what they seem. And to be human is to seek and discover the truth and meaning behind things.
This book is about the history of the Catholic Church, an institution that is definitely more than what it seems. On the outside, the Church looks like any other human organization, with all its buildings and property and people who run things. And like other religions, it has sacred books, candles, vestments, ministers, altars, and all sorts of rituals. But the Catholic Church is not like other human institutions. It is much, much more. Why?
Because it comes from God.
In this way, the Church resembles its founder, Jesus Christ. Imagine standing in the stable of Bethlehem on the first Christmas morning and looking at the child Jesus. What would we see? We’d see a little baby, not much different than any other baby boy. But there is so much more to Jesus than we can see with just our eyes! He is God who became flesh, the fullness of divinity dwelling in bodily form, as the Bible says. In that little baby are all the treasures of grace available to mankind.
The Church is called the Body of Christ. Just as the divine and human natures come together in the person of Christ, so Christ is present in the Church through the Holy Spirit, whom Pope Leo XIII called the “soul of the Church.” Like Jesus, the Church is both human and divine.
Pentecost
With this background, let’s dive into the actual story of the Church.
After the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, our Lord commanded his disciples to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem, after which they would be empowered to go out and preach the Gospel to the world. The beginning of the Catholic Church goes back to the building in Jerusalem where the disciples faithfully carried out the will of Jesus, waiting in expectant prayer for the promised Holy Spirit.
Let’s pause for a moment to enter that room to see what this historic moment was like:
________
The large upper room was crowded with men and women huddled in prayer. Numbering about one hundred and twenty in all, this room full of people was all that remained of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified a little over a month ago. But that same Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared triumphantly, urging his followers to wait for the coming of the Spirit in Jerusalem.
The people stood, heads lifted and arms held aloft, for such was the ancient posture of prayer. Some recited the psalms, some prayed the prophecies of the Old Testament, others called out to God in their own words from the depths of their heart.
At the center of this gathering were the apostles of Christ, those men chosen to be special witnesses of his resurrection and lead the Christian community. The word apostle means “one who is sent”; the leaders of the disciples were called the apostles because they had been sent by Christ to preach and to teach. Joining the apostles were also the Blessed Virgin Mary and other women.
It was still morning when suddenly a great wind rushed through the room! The people cried out, not in fear, but in ecstasy, for it felt as if their very hearts had been filled with a kind of holy fire. Any lingering fears or doubts they may have still had melted away as their spirits were strengthened in faith, hope, and love. Joy welled up and overflowed. Many began laughing or weeping. This, however, so