The Modern Schism

by Marty, Martin E.

• ISBN13: 9781620325223
• ISBN10: 1620325225
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-09-01
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Pub

Summary

The reality of the secular has come to obsess modern religious thinkers, notes Martin E. Marty. This volume analyzes from the first time the complex story of THE MODERN SCHISM, an episode in the cultural and spiritual history of the West which has had fateful consequences for contemporary society.Dr. Marty argues that during the previous century, there occurred a cluster of events more devastating to--and potentially more hopeful for--Christianity than anything that happened during such similar periods as the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. He traces three different types of secularization which together make up the "modern schism," shows how they have developed in the West, and where they are leading man today.By contrasting the ways in which the old Christian order was attacked in Europe, ignored in England, and transformed in America, the author points to present alternatives to that order and what they mean for society.

Author Biography

Martin E. Marty is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where for 35 years he taught religious history in three faculties. Since 1956 he has been on the masthead of the Christian Century and is editor of Context. He specializes in American religious history and headed the six-year "Fundamentalism Project" of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds the National Medal of Humanities and the medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was honored with the National Book Award for Righteous Empire in 1971. An ordained Lutheran minister, he frequently also writes on theological themes.

Table of Contents

The Modern Schism: An Episode in the West	p. 9
To Speak of Schism	p. 11
When, Where, How?	p. 13
Decline and Fall for Western Religion?	p. 15
Towards Utter Secularity: A Clash of Doctrines on the Continent	p. 18
The Oldest Daughter: France	p. 21
The Political Church	p. 24
Competing Secular Religions	p. 30
Inside Catholicism	p. 32
Balance Sheet on France	p. 33
German Catholicism	p. 34
Protestant Germany	p. 37
Ambitious Theology, Relentless Enemies	p. 42
The World that Demanded Interpretation	p. 50
Religious Nationalism	p. 54
Towards Mere Secularity: 'Everydayishness' in England	p. 59
Change: Subtle but Dramatic	p. 61
Moderate Christianity, Moderate Enlightenment	p. 64
Divided Roman Catholicism	p. 66
Methodism Gone to Seed	p. 68
The Industrial Revolution	p. 70
Problems in the Churches	p. 72
Evangelical Attempts to Prevent Schism	p. 75
Anglican Attempts to Hold Things Together	p. 78
Christian Socialism	p. 80
The Autonomy of Political Theory	p. 84
Stresses in the Darwinian Age	p. 86
Spokesmen for Doubt	p. 92
Towards Controlled Secularity: Transformed Symbols in America	p. 95
The American Contrast	p. 96
A Third Style of Change	p. 98
An Experiment with Textbooks	p. 101
Transformed Symbols	p. 102
Illustrations from Family Histories	p. 104
The Environment for the Events: Evangelical Empire	p. 109
Life in the Evangelical Empire	p. 111
Threats to the Evangelical Custodians	p. 117
New Persons on a New Scene	p. 119
A Common Religion	p. 124
The Perception of Change	p. 125
Enter the Foreign Visitors	p. 128
Freedom to endorse the Status Quo	p. 130
Manifest Destiny and National Mission	p. 133
The Symbolic Gloss	p. 137
The New Religion and the New Society	p. 138
Towards Secular Education and Science	p. 140
An Afterword About Afterward	p. 143
Notes to the Text	p. 145
A Bibliographical Essay	p. 150
Index	p. 185
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