1	The Twentieth Century The Best and the Worse of Times
2	The Great Age of Faith Although Christianity had established some churches outside of Europe and the Americas in 1900, the faith was predominant White, European, and Northern. By 2000, Christianity was strong on every continent and was predominantly Southern and Non-White.
3	Two Missionary Movements Up to 1960, the missionary outreach of the churches was predominately lead by mainstream Christians from the United States, Britain, and Germany. After 1960, the missionary movement was increasingly led by Americans from the more charismatic and evangelical churches. For mainstream churches, this marked the end of one of their great adventures.
4	Imperialism In the nineteenth century, the churches were often aided in their outreach by imperial policies that often provided missionaries with military protection. In the 1890s, for example, the Chinese, led by radical members of the Society of the Righteous Fist, rebelled against European influence and massacred the missionaries. The European powers and the United States invaded China and liberated the missionaries.
5	The Decline of Missions Among Protestants Was closely related to the decline of European imperialism. Central Idea: Independent Nations could only be evangelized by independent and indigenous churches. In many formerly missionary countries, the various denominations united after the end of imperialism to form their own congregations. For example, the Church of South India, formed in 1947.
6	Women Abroad By 1900 they were a majority of all missionary Betsy Stockton, an African American had been among the first women missionaries. 1822 The Sandwich Islands. Women gave missions a very service oriented cast: Hospitals Schools At Home; The Great Fund-Raisers for Missions The Generators of a Missionary Literature The Women’s Missionary Societies were the largest organizations governed by women in Europe and America
7	Missions to Women Men were usually not allowed to speak with women in such areas as India and China. Women missionaries were vital if the message was to affect women and children. Christian Women were understood as spreading a more liberal, if not radical, view of women around the world. The Bible Women, chosen from among the converts, often were the first women employed outside the home in many Asia countries.
8	Charlotte “Lottie” Moon Lottie Moon, a young woman from Virginia, was among those who died as a result of the Boxer Rebellion. She subsequently became a heroine to many Southern Baptist women who named their annual missionary offering after her.
9	Helen Barrett Montgomery Early Advocate of Missions Author of Western Women in Eastern Lands The Centenary Translation of the New Testament One of the first translations into everyday English First Women President Northern Baptist Convention.
10	The Hocking Report In 1932, Re-thinking Missions: A Layman’s Inquiry Appeared. Philosopher William Ernest Hocking had been the chair of the study Very critical of the lack of preparation of many American missionaries and of their ineffectiveness in their work
11	Great Missionary Conferences Edinburgh 1910, Jerusalem 1928, and Tambaram, Madras 1938. While only one non-westerner was part of Edinburgh 1910, the number of indigenous people progressive increased. These were major news events. Excellent Account of these in Timothy Yates Christian Mission in the Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press, 1992.
12	John R. Mott America’s Missionary Statesman Raised much of the money for the Great Conferences. Noted as a college speaker and leader Won the Noble Peace Prize in 1946.
13	E. Stanley Jones Noted Methodist Missionary to India. Here pictured in his Ashram. Very interested in the relationship of Christianity to Indian faiths. The Christ of the Indian Road. The Christ of the Round Table
14	Jones’ Most Important Question: Treasure Hunt E. Stanley Jones believed that the most important question before 20^th century theology was the relationship between the various world religions. His picture of all religions at a “round table”—no one is at the head—was very influential. Find Net References on the net to the question of the relationship between the various world religions. Who are the most important present-day advocates of inter religious dialogue?
15	Who Lost China? After the Second World War, the Chinese Communist consolidated their power in China. American Protestants, who had invested heavily in Chinese missions, were devastated. Long and serious debate over the great failure in China continued for many years. When the Bamboo Curtain lifted a little, Americans and Europeans were surprised to learn that Christianity had flourished in China despite systemic persecution.
16	Korea Korea has been one of the great surprises of Christian missions. Led by Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries, Christianity has become the faith of about one third of the Korean People. Interesting faith that is often centered on prayer.
17	Faith Missions Originally, the idea of J. Hudson Taylor, d. 1905, who established the China Inland Mission. A faith mission is supported, not by a denomination, but by friends and fellow congregants of a particular missionary. The faith missionary often has no guarantee of resources for his or her work.
18	Pentecostal Missions Began in earnest after 1960. Often faith missions not sponsored by a denomination. Heavy Use of Modern Media, especially, radio and tapes. Often reaching the dispossessed in rapidly changing environments.
19	Wycliffe Bible Translators In 1942, William Cameron Townsend took up the task of providing Bibles for the smallest linguistic communities. Today, the organization that he founded is working with many tribal peoples and is the primary means for saving many lesser used languages.
20	Treasure Hunt Find Websites Describing the Contribution of women from your tradition to missions. Locate the website of three Second or Third World Churches.
21	The Ecumenical Movements Types of Ecumenical Movements. Movements toward Church Union, especially among Christians of similar confessional backgrounds. Movements for Christian Cooperation The World Council of Churches Protestant Catholic Renewal The divisions among the Christian Churches had long been a scandal. Christ’s prayer had been that his followers would be one.
22	Movements For Union Between Similar Christian Bodies As Germany united in the 19^th century and, equally important, modernized, German churches sought ways to overcome the long standing division between Evangelical and Lutheran. The Church of the Old Prussian Union was the most successful of these early attempts at unity.
23	The Slow Course of German Union At the end of the Second World War, the German churches, although retaining their traditional provincial (Landkirche) organization, formed the Evangelical Church in German, that had the support of 17 provincial churches in the West. The provincial churches remained largely autonomous. The East German churches, withdrew from EKD, and formed their own union in 1947. Inner Communion, the most important issue from the past, was permitted.
24	Canada Most Important Cross-Denominational Union. In 1925, the Congregationalists, Methodists, and about 70% of the Presbyterians united to form one church. The Anglican Churches, whose ecumenical activities were restricted by their commitment to apostolic succession, did not join.
25	Methodists in the United States Two Major Unions 1939 The Northern and Southern Branches, divided by the Civil War, reunited. African Americans were confined to the Central Jurisdiction. 1968 The Methodist merged with the Evangelical United Brethren, itself a merger of the earlier United Brethren and the Evangelical United Brethren
26	United Church of Christ Formed in 1957 Most varied background theologically Christian Church united with the Congregationalists in 1931 to form the Congregational Christian Churches The Congregational Christian Churches united with the Evangelical and Reformed Churches in 1957. The Evangelical and Reformed Churches were largely composed of people of German ethnic background.
27	Lutherans in the United States Divided along ethnic lines in the 19^th century. Two large churches formed in the 1960s. The Lutheran Church In America: German, Slovak, Icelandic, some Finns, and some Swedes The American Lutheran Church: Norwegian, Danish, Ohio, Buffalo, and Texas Synods In 1988 These merged with a liberal splinter group from the Missouri Synod to form the The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Only major Lutheran group not included is the Missouri Synod.
28	Minor Quiz Do You Know What the Word, Synod, means? If not, use the Internet to find a quick working definition. One of the important words in modern Lutheranism is “confessionalism.” Find a quick and dirty definition on the Internet.
29	Obviously, These Are Not All the Denominational Unions. Treasure Hunt: Use the Net to find the history of Presbyterian Unions in the United States. What is the Uniting Church of Australia? Use the Web to Research the Question of Church Unions in the new South Africa.
30	Movements Towards Christian Cooperation The 19^th Century saw a revived interest in Christianity and Social Reform, particularly, in the United States, Germany, and Great Britain. Divided Churches, especially in the Anglo-America orbit, had little chance of influencing public policy
31	Two Great Reform Movements Temperance and Prohibition Gained new popularity after the Industrial Revolution made alcohol consumption more and more dangerous. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union The Anti-Saloon League The Social Gospel The Methodist Social Creed of 1907 Became the Basis for the Federal Council of Churches organized in 1908. The Methodist Social Creed was officially adopted by the Council in 1912 as the Social Creed of the Christian Churches.
32	The Formation of the National Council of Churches Established in 1950 Composed of twelve interdenominational agencies. Located at 475 Riverside Drive, New York, in a special building constructed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr Interestingly, it holds the copyright on both the RSV and the NRSV. Church World Service The Interchurch World Service Currently facing some serious reductions due to finances.
33	The World Council of Churches Ultimate Origin: The 19^th Century Missionary Movement The Union of Two Movements: Faith and Order: Concerned with theology and polity. Life and Work: Concerned with Christian Witness in the world. Founded in 1938 but did not meet until 1948
34	World Confessional Meetings Most Major Confessional Groupings established various world federations to help coordinate their ministries. These groups have only moral influence over member churches, but they have often been influential. The condemnation of South African Apartheid by the World Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches contributed to a change of heart in that country. The various Lambert Conferences of the Anglican communion have often shaped national churches. While these organizations have often given formal power to non-western churches, western churches have been the most willing to ignore these organizations when their decisions conflicted with national points of view.
35	Treasure Hunt Find a list of the various churches affiliated with the World Council of Churches Find the criteria for membership in this body? Who is excluded by this criteria? How does Roman Catholicism Relate to this body? Find your church’s world confessional body on the web? How many worldwide members confess a similar faith and practice.
36	Protestant Catholic Relations The refusal of Roman Catholicism to participate in the ecumenical movement before Vatican II often embittered Protestant Catholic relationship. Mixed Marriages remained a hot topic of debate through much of the century. The Roman Church claimed that all children had to be raised in the Roman Tradition.
37	Vatican II Signaled major changes in Protestant Catholic relations. Protestants were called “separated brethren” and Catholic-Protestant dialogues became more commonplace. Catholics began to participate more widely in ecumenical organizations, although Rome still refused to join those bodies officially. Shared communion remained a unresolved issue. Most Protestant denominations admit any believer to communion, although some require baptism.
38	More on Vatican II Held from 1962-1965 Came at the end of a long period of Catholic rejection of modernity. The new slogan was aggirornamento: to bring up-to-date. Many of the ideas had been developed earlier by theologians considered suspect by the Vatican. Most striking development was the new openness of the Church to religious liberty as a natural right, perhaps, because of the work of John Courtney Murray and James Ryan.
39	Some Vatican II Changes Tendency to replace nineteenth Neo-Thomism with more historical and biblical understandings of faith. Catholic biblical scholars quickly became leading figures in their disciplines. Democratic participation in church leadership Liturgical renewal. Linguistic and cultural translations of the mass into the languages of the people. End of some traditional practices, such as meatless Friday. Downplaying of confession and the cult of the saints. Promise of continued dialogue with the modern world.
40	What Did Not Happen Although the average Catholic, at least in Europe and America, practiced birth control, the church’s official position did not change. The anticipated end of clerical celibacy did not occur nor did was permission for women priests, even in the context of women’s religious orders, ever granted. Despite the ecumenically admired Dutch Catechism and the continued fruitfulness of Catholic theologians, new doctrinal changes did not occur. In many western countries, there was an increasing separation between Church and Catholic university. The Church did not live up to the promises of such post-Vatican II groups as Dignity to make increasing space for gay and lesbian Catholics.
41	The Vocation Crisis Great decline in the number of priests and women religious Many left the church to marry. Vatican II removed the tradition theological reasons for celibacy but did not formulate new teachings. Far fewer young men wanted to become priests, especially in the west, in part, because of the general economic prosperity of the times.
42	Post Vatican II’s Great Triumph I After the Russian Revolution, the Roman church adopted an unrelenting anti-Marxist and anti-Communist stance. The prayers after mass were for the end of Russian Communism. Catholics led the anti-communist crusades in the 1950s in the United States, France, England, etc. Despite the interest of some theologians in Latin America in liberation theology in the 1960s and 1970s, the official policy of the church did not change. Many of those theologians were eventually disciplined.
43	Greatest Triumph II With the election of John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) in 1978, the Church began to use its considerable strength in Eastern Europe to undermine the communist governments in that area. John Paul II’s leadership was a major factor in the eventual decline of Communism in the region.
44	Treasure Hunt Find the text of Vatican II on the Internet. Find websites on John Paul II and John XXIII. Locate the Secretariat for Christian Unity on the Web. Find Websites describing the work of Dignity and other Non-Traditional Catholic Organizations. Use the web to determine what theologians Boff, Kueng, and Schillebreckx have in common.
45	Churches and Social Changes After the First World War, churches faced new challenges from the secular world that, while they did not challenge church doctrine as such, did change the way that the churches related to their members.
46	The Media The most spectacular change was the rise of modern mass communication. Photography enters in the mid-nineteenth century Radio became an everyday item in America and Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. The Movies became a major cultural force at the same time. TV enters in the 1950s. By the 1990s, the Internet has joined these.
47	Media and Culture The Protestant churches had always been oriented toward the so-called cool media of print and speech. The new media have caused problems because they all rely on simplified presentations to make their points. Bullets in a Power Point instead of paragraphs; one, two, or three minute “spot” on the news. Conservative Evangelicals have historically used the new media to their advantage; liberal Christians fair less so. Most people learn about the world from one or more of the various media around them.
48	Christian Music Developed in the 1970s youth culture, especially, the so-called Jesus people. Used popular music, including rock, as the basis for a new form of music, often heavily influenced by Charismatic and Pentecostal practices. Often used the concert and other large scale youth events to spread the new music. Some Christian rockers became stars in their own right.
49	The Auto Even before the 1920s, new forms of transportation gave people alternatives for Sunday. The Auto, which became almost universal in 1920’s America and 1950’s Europe, made it easier to do something else on weekends. It was not that people necessarily became less religious, but they became far less observant.
50	Treasure Hunt Find historical information on the church and the media on the web. Find and listen to clips from Aimee Simple McPherson and Harry E. Fosdick, two great radio preachers. Locate the Old Fashioned Revival Hour’s Website. Why was the interesting mixture of rural image and urban reality so powerful. Find information on the history of Christian popular music.
51	Youth Cultures Became a marked phenomenon with the prosperity of the 1920s. Adolescence has become more extended throughout the 20^th Century. People mature physically faster and socially and culturally more slowly. Youth culture is, as William James noted at the turn of the century, a period of “moral holiday” in which young people stand apart from social norms and expectations. Youth music, whether Frank Sinatra, the teenage flame of the 1940s or Fifty Cent, features rebellion and the quest for autonomy. “I did it my way.”
52	Youth and Churches Churches have steadily lost their position in the successive youth cultures since the 1920s. Conservative Christians, perhaps because of their heavy emphasis on personal decision, have found it easier to fit into youth culture than more liberal churches, at least, since the 1960s. Liberal Churches witnessed the ‘secularization” of their most important youth assets, the YMCA and YWCA, in the 1940’s and 1950s.
53	Treasure Hunt Find information on the changes in youth culture on the net. Locate three sites devoted to Christianity and Youth.
54	Wars The Twentieth Century has been among the most brutal in human history: World War I World War II Korea The Cold War Various Wars of Liberation. Vietnam Iraq (twice)
55	The Great Failure War became a major issue for Christians with the unmarking of the First World War. The churches, both in the Central Powers and in the West, had pictured the War as a battle for civilization with the West adding democracy as a war aim. The end of the War revealed the hollowness of those claims, much to the embarrassment of the churches, who had supported the conflict uncritically.
56	Criticism of War After World War I, especially in Britain and the United States, every conflict has seen some believers critical of war or specific wars. In the 1930s, many churches were officially or unofficially pacifist. Even the conservative Southern Baptists changed their confession of faith to question war as a great social ill. Although they did not oppose World War II, the churches stood back far more from this conflict than from earlier or later international conflicts. The German churches were, to be sure, less critical than the American or British.
57	Vietnam The United States inherited this war from the French who had sought to continue to control Indochina after the Second World War. Vietnam had a substantial Catholic population that was strongly supported by many in the American hierarchy. Most Protestant churches developed substantial anti-War wings and many condemned the War as a colonial und useless waste of humans and treasure.
58	Post World War II Decline in the West American Christianity continued a revival movement, begun in the 1930s, until 1967, when church membership peaked. Among mainstream Christians, it has declined steadily ever since. In Europe, the secular trends of the 1920s and 1930s continued, especially in the West, and church attendance dropped to less than 10% of the population, except for England, where it remained at around 12%.
59	Great Age of Theology The period from 1920 to 1930 has been called the Theological Renaissance. Protestant Theology, which had been largely absorbed in historical and critical questions, re-entered the larger intellectual world. Every area of theological study, church history and biblical studies included, became re-invigorated.
60	Karl Barth 1886-1968 Rightly called the most important theologian after Schleiermacher. Urged Protestant Christians to return to the Bible, but in a non-fundamentalist way. Stressed the value of faith for the interpretation of culture. Reformulated many Christian teachings, including election, biblical authority, and eschatology. Still a major influence on European and American theology
61	Emil Brunner Karl Barth was too radical (and too intellectual) for many pastors and theologians. Emil Brunner, his fellow Swiss, was the most popular of the new theologians. Brunner drew much more on psychology and social philosophy to formulate his teachings. (This is one reason that he seems so dated today).
62	The Niebuhr Brothers America Produced Two Theologians of World Caliber: Reinhold Niebuhr, Professor at Union, NY H. Richard Niebuhr, Professor at Yale. Fittingly, both were Professors of Ethics Deeply concerned with the relationship between theology and social issues and philosophy. We have a class of readings for Niebuhr so more details are not needed.
63	Civil Rights and Theologies of Liberation In the United States, issues around race had been on the nation’s moral agenda almost from the founding of the original colonies. The Post-1950s period saw an increasing restlessness among African Americans who noted, often with bitterness, that their nation often sponsored the liberation of colonial people abroad.
64	Martin Luther King Deeply influenced by Gandhi’s quest for national independence in India and the effective use of non-violent resistance there. Powerful orator. Was able to build a coalition between liberal Euro-Americans and the Civil Rights Movement, partly, because he spoke the language of Protestant liberalism so well. Became a major American theological voice
65	Other Theologies of Liberation The way in which King combined Christianity and African American culture provided a model for later attempts to reformulate theology in terms of the liberation of women and gay and lesbian persons. You will study these in detail in other classes).
66	Women Enter Ministry Perhaps the most visible change in the churches, especially in Anglo-American countries, was the widespread entry of women into religious leadership. Largely in line with other developments in those same cultures. Women were entering into non-traditional occupations in record numbers. In many ways, the church was less open to women’s leadership than other aspects of American society.
67	Treasure Hunt Find the history of women’s ordination on line. Find photos of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King. Find audio files of Martin Luther King. Find material on gay and lesbian clergy.
68	End of Slides The Discussion of the Twentieth Century could be infinitely extended. These slides are only a bare introduction to a fascinating period. Clearly, they are more weighted towards the first half of the century. Thanks for reading and doing the Treasure Hunts.