FINALITÀ
This course is designed to assist students, through the studies of several themes, to acquire a worthy knowledge of the evolution of the past two hundred years of Church History.
ARGOMENTI
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 the 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
Learning Outcomes:
• Students 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.
TESTI
Professor’s notes
Bibliography:
Aubert, R. Edited by.Christian Centuries. Vol. 5. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1978.
Barry, J. Edited by. Readings in Church History. Maryland: Christian Classics, 1985.
Bellitto, C.M.The General Councils: A History of the Twenty-One Church Councils from Nicaea to Vatican II, Mahwah: Paulist Press, 2005.
Bokenlkotter, Th. A Concise History of the Catholic Church, Fairfield: Rainbow Books, 2004.
Comby, J. and D. MacCulloch. How to read Church History. Vol. 2. From the Reformation to the Present Day. New York: Crossroads Publishing, 1999.
Duffy, E. Saints and Sinners, Yale: Yale University Press, 1997.
Ford, P.L. Europe, 1780-1830. London: Longman, 1989.
Hearder, H. Europe in the XIX c. London: Longman, 1988.
Jedin, H. History of the Church, vol. 7-10. New York: Crossroads Publishing, 1993.
Latourette, K.S. History of the Expansion of Christianity. Vol. 4-7. Charlston: Nabu, 2011.
Longman. The General History of Europe. (in the paperback edition: Open University Textbook).
Martina, G. La Chiesa nell’età dell’ assulotismo, liberalismo, totalitarismo. Vol. 3-4 Brescia, 1978.
Roberts, J. Europe, 1880-1945. London: Longman, 1989.