Dr. Woods's How The Church Built Western Civilization

The Catholic Church during the early 16th Century was rooted throughout Europe. The Church influenced every country and its respective monarchs through the Church’s wealth and power. The Catholic Church placed a tight hold on the general populace with individuals who went against the Church being branded as heretics and excommunicated. The wealth and power of the Church eventually caused the quality of the clergy to deteriorate. Priests became corrupt and subjected to their physical desires. They frequented taverns, gambled and kept mistresses. The reputation of the clergy were horrid as the general populace was relieved that “their priest [kept] a mistress” because it “[secured] their wives from seduction” The knowledge of the clergy degenerated as well as they were no longer required to learn and teach the Holy Scriptures because the Church dictated their actions. The pinnacle of the Church’s corruption was the sale of indulgences. An indulgence was the “extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment” sold by priests as a temporary relief from sins. The indulgences were then sold to the general populace for money as the monetization of a priest’s services. Johannes Tetzel was a prominent preacher of indulgences who relied on the money from the sales to subsidize the rebuilding of St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. The corrupt sales did not go unnoticed as Martin Luther, in an effort to stop the corruption of the Church, posted the 95 Theses on the door of a Castle

Nathan Hatch wrote this book to help understand American Christianity and the courses of action that have brought us to the present. The books states that Hatch is a professor at the University of Notre Dame where he teaches history and also works with graduate studies. However, a recent inquiry finds that he is president of Wake Forest University, a position he has held since 2005. A well renowned scholar, Hatch has been very influential in studying religion and history.

The Black Death and Great Famine of 14th century Europe were major crises, so when the Church, who was suppose to have an answer to everything, could not stop such occurrences, the people’s relationship with the Church was completely altered. Many scholars of the church died due to wide spread diseases and hunger ravaging Europe, leaving less adequate people behind to run the church. At the same time, those scholars that where alive did not give the people much hope or security because they were unable to give answers as to how to diminish these disasters. In return, the people slowly began to explore elsewhere for such answers, weakening the Church’s monopoly over the people’s every move. This expansion of thought brought about the emergence

The positive influence of Christianity is far reaching especially in the rich history and culture of Western Civilization despite a long standing ignorance or adamant denial of its contributions. The Bible itself is responsible for much of the language, literature, and fine arts we enjoy today as its artists and composers were heavily influenced by its writings. Paul Maier, in writing the forward to the book How Christianity Changed the World by Alvin J. Schmidt, says this about the profound impact Christianity has had on the development of Western Civilization:

The Catholic church is one of the best known religions today. Yet it was not like this before in the olden times. The Church was not reaching out into the outer peripheries. Many people in general did not know what Catholicism was. They were misguided by the pagan priests who taught them false teachings of tree-rock-sun worship. Every time the Church would attempt to evangalize these countries they would be thrown out or the evangalizers would be killed in barbaric ways. Yet 1 man stood out and managed to succesfully evangalize most of Prague and Poland. That mans name was St. Adalbert.

Not just any institution, the Catholic church yields power and influence on a global scale. Yet again, we see the presence of both an oppressor as well as the oppressed. The Catholic Church has been viewed as the ‘defender of all that is right and just’ throughout history because it claims that many of its unholy actions were carried out in the name of God. As we study history to make sense of the present, we can often become naïve, accepting ‘facts’ at face value. With that said, we form ‘silences’ just like in the historical narrative

Why do we own the Catholic Church for built the Western Civilization? Thomas E. Woods, Jr. stated in How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization; that “The church, in fact, built Western civilization”(1). Rather than presenting a story of the Church 's history, Woods chooses a topical approach, but he does so focusing on the history of the Church before the understanding and the writings of Gibbon. He covers the Church 's very important role in the conversion of the dangerous, wild people; the importance of related to monks as a preserver of western city or people; the Carolingian Renaissance; the development of the university; the coming into view of the Scientific Revolution; the beautiful art and related to the beautiful design and construction of buildings, and many more of the very old time in history period; the rise of international law in the Catholic argues against over the nature of the soul after meeting American Indians; pre-classical money flow or money-based studies; generous kindness and organization that helps people; and sense of right and wrong. The Catholic Church 's influence on the formation of labor unions in the eighteenth century was extremely significant because it was the church and science that help change the production of labor the Western civilization. Most people do not realize is that history experts of science have spent the past half-century extremely revising this set of things that most people believe now, arguing that the Church 's

Some form of religion can be found in every country around the world. The Constitution states that there is a separation of state and church in America’s government. Legally, the United States cannot declare a national religion that every citizen would have to follow. The First Amendment right of every citizen of the United States is the ability to follow any religion without fear of persecution from the government. However, many people would still define America as a “Christian nation.” and claim America was built upon Christian values. Steven K. Green debunks this claim in his book “Inventing a Christian America”. Steven Green is Fred H. Paulus Professor of Law and Affiliates Professor of History at Willamette University. At

When the Roman Empire collapsed, the Catholic Church was the only powerful authority not complete disrupted by the attack by barbarians. In fact, the work of great Popes is what helped their power increase even more. The newly christened barbarians, done by the Pope Gregory the Great, inaugurated a new age in Jesus Christ called Christendom. All culture in Christendom conformed to that of the Church’s, and, with its headquarters in Rome, the powerful “papal monarchs”, as they were called, controlled the machine that was the Catholic Church.

Many people believe that that the motivation of the Christian church is to radically “change the world”. However, through his book To Change The World, James Davison Hunter explains how this common believe is a misconception. Rather, he shows readers that, from a sociological perspective, while Christians thrive in many areas of life by reaching others individually, they fundamentally components of creating cultural change.

Before the start of the Renaissance, the Catholic Church influenced every aspect of society. The Renaissance and it’s ideals changed this. The Humanist movement opposed the Catholic Church’s involvement in the lives of the citizens. Humanists advocated for personal independence and individual expression, an idea that directly opposed the Catholic Church’s ideals. The Church believed that citizens should dedicate their lives to the service of God and by extension, the Church. The introduction of the idea that the Church does not control every aspect of society was revolutionary to Early Modern Western Civilization because it allowed people to pursue things that they had not been previously able to pursue because of the limitations the Catholic Church placed upon them. Although only the wealthy were able to dedicate all of their time to these pursuits, there were still significant advancements in art, literature, and science, all of which impacted Early Modern Western Civilization.

As I grew up I saw how the church created an ideology for my parents that justified its excessive exploitation of them and how they simply accepted this ideology even though it went against many of our best intrests. We missed meals on a regular basis because the church demanded 15% of all of our income when we had very little to give. In the text book it gave an example of medival European society; “the ruling class could promote its interest through the Church”. My parents church promoted it’s intrests and my parents simply accpted this ideology that caused major finacial strain on them and on

Examples of its corruption include negligence, ignorance, absenteeism and sexual immorality. The Popes who were supposed to be the overall leaders of the church oversaw these types of corruptions. The church was impure and this was beginning to have consequences for others. For example, a jealous husband could accuse his wife of unfaithfulness he could not prove. This was due to the carelessness of the church and it would leave the wife to be punished and tortured for no crime. Corruption is a clearly appalling thing, but complete sanction of corruption is worse, and this is exactly what the church was doing during the sixteenth century. The church was also involved in wrong teachings and the selling of indulgencies. People who had sinned during the time before the Reformation could pay the church ‘indulgencies’ to replenish them from any sinning. Having sins meant they would not be allowed to enter heaven. This was a major fear at the time and earned the Church a substantial monetary profit. Simony and nepotism was also a cause for change in the Catholic Church. People in the church would sell jobs or positions in the church, and it was common at the time for family members to favor one another when assigning jobs, therefore not always appointing people with experience or interest in the church. These people would make bad choices for the church and leave their communities with no suitable religious mentor. The incredibly corrupt systems of the church during the sixteenth century led to the Reformation occurring in

        Another point is the Catholic Church. From the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church has been viewed as corrupt. Throughout the story the Catholic

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.