FINALITÀ
Students, through the studies of several themes, will acquire a good knowledge of the evolution of the past two hundred years of Church History. They will gain a good sense of the challenges the Church had to face during this period; they will identify the different elements of the new awareness the Church acquired about her mission: One Church, in and for the world. They will discover the origins and development of several questions still very much part of today’s Church. They will better evaluate the role of Vatican II and its continuing enlightening role in the life of the Church.
ARGOMENTI
Introduction. I. Birth of a New Age. Church and State Relationships. A. Political evolution and its effects: 1789-1914. Age of revolutions (1789-1801), the divorce; Napoleonic Empire (1801-1815), enforced marriage; Restoration (1815-1848) good-old-time marriage still possible? Pius IX and the European States (1848-1878), the Church forced into freedom; Struggle of the Church (1878-1914) Is separation ‘the’ solution? The “Roman Question”: from temporal power to spiritual freedom. Separatism, a solution to Church and State relationships? B. Political evolution, its effects: 1914-Present Day. Papacy, a ‘voice in the desert’ (1914-1939); The Church, ‘Leaven in the dough’?(1939-today). II. The Church in New Relations with Society. The Social Question. III. Church and Modern World: The Syllabus; Modernism; Gaudium et Spes. IV. The Life of the Church in the World. Vatican I. The Missions: From foreign missions to Local Churches: Mission and Colonialism; Birth of the ‘Third Church’. Rebirth in England. Church and Churches: The Ecumenical movement. V. A Renewed Church in and for the World. Vatican II. The “changing” reality of the Church: Laity; Clergy. Some “structural” changes: Curia; Canon Law; New forms of presence. Conclusion. Evaluation of the period 1789-2014.
TESTI
AUBERT R. (ed.) Christian Centuries vol.5 (London, 1978); BARRY J. (ed.) Readings in Church History (Westminster, 1985); BELLITTO C.M., The General Councils: A History of the Twenty-One Church Councils from Nicaea to Vatican II (New York, 2002); BOKENLKOTTER Th., A Concise History of the Catholic Church (New York, 1979); COMBY J.-MAC CULLOCH D., From the Reformation to the Present Day, vol. 2 of How to read Church History (London, SCM, 1989); DUFFY E. Saints and Sinners (Yale, YUP, 1997); JEDIN H., History of the Church, vols. 7-10; LATOURETTE K.S., History of the Expansion of Christianity, vols. 4-7; MARTINA G., La Chiesa nell’età dell’assolutismo, liberalismo, totalitarismo, vols. 3-4 (Brescia, 1978); For the general background, see the General History of Europe in the Longman paperback edition (Open University Textbook): P.L. Ford, Europe, 1780-1830; H. Hearder, Europe in the XIX c.; J. Roberts, Europe, 1880-1945.