People of God: The History of Catholic Christianity Book

	Preface	ix
Chapter 1	Introducing the Early Church
	Church Authority After the Apostles	1
	What Does 'Church' Mean to You?	2
	Christian Identity: The Church's Self-image	3
	The Age of Persecution	4
	Why the Church Survived and Flourished	5
	An Emperor Becomes Christian	6
	How Constantine's Conversion Affected Church Authority	6
	Other Changes in the Church After Constantine's Conversion	7
Focus 1	The Early Church: Where Geography Made History	8
Focus 2	When Did the Roman Catholic Church Begin?	10
Chapter 2	The Early Church Defines Orthodox Christianity
	Religious Education Questions in the Early Church	12
	Gnosticism: The Church Confronts Heresy	13
	Arianism and the Council of Nicea	13
	Enter the Holy Spirit	14
	The Council of Constantinople	15
	Another Controversy: 'Mother of God' or 'Mother of Jesus'	15
	The Council of Chalcedon	16
Focus 3	Philosophy in the Service of Faith: 'Homoousios'	17
Focus 4	The Power Behind the Councils: The Role of the Holy Spirit in Formulating Doctrine	18
Chapter 3	The Fall of Rome and the Rise of the Western Church
	The Western Church During the Age of Barbarian Invasion	21
	New Challenges in an Age of Chaos	22
	The Church as Preserver of Order and Stability	23
	Ambrose: A Bishop Provides Social Order and Stability	23
	The Continuing Development of Papal Authority	24
	Working Out a Theory of Papal Primacy	25
Focus 5	Trouble for the Future: The Origins of the Donatist Controversy	26
Focus 6	The Early Church's Most Famous 'Character' Gives Christianity the Bible: Saint Jerome and the Vulgate	27
Chapter 4	Concluding the Age of the Church Fathers
	Pelagius's Challenge: Grace Versus Free Will	31
	Ordinary Catholic Life in the Age of Augustine	32
	Devotion to Mary and the Saints	34
	Monasticism: The Laity Starts a Movement	34
	Leaving the Era of the Fathers: A Church in Transition	35
Focus 7	Leaving the Age of the Fathers--and Mothers--of the Early Church	37
Focus 8	Are We Pelagian Today, Years After the Early Church Condemned Pelagianism?	38
Chapter 5	Papacy and Empire Vie for Control of the Church
	Enter the Franks	40
	Who Controls the Church--King or Pope?	41
	Charlemagne: A New Constantine Tries to Control the Church	42
	The Church 'Goes to the Dogs' (The First Time)	42
	Lay Investiture	43
	The Dog Dies (The First Time)	44
	Phase One: Cluny	44
	The Origins of Priestly Celibacy	45
	The Cardinals	45
	Phase Two: The Gregorian Reform	46
	The Tide Turns in Favor of the Popes	47
Focus 9	The Catholic World in Charlemagne's Day: Who Were Our Ancestors in the Faith?	48
Focus 10	A Day in the Life of an Average Parish Priest, About A.D. 1000	50
Chapter 6	Catholics, Byzantines and Muslims
	Constantinople: The Splendor of the Christian World	53
	Islam: A New Faith Comes to Birth in the East	55
	Internal Affairs in Byzantium	55
	The Iconoclast Controversy: What Role Do Images Play in Practicing the Faith?	56
	The Byzantines Quarrel With the Roman Catholic Church	58
	Differences in Everyday Piety From East to West	58
	Schism: Two Churches Instead of One	59
Focus 11	Muslims Versus Christians: Overcoming False Stereotypes	60
Focus 12	The Filioque Controversy: Proceeding Versus Sending	61
Chapter 7	The Vanishing Dream of Catholic Christendom
	The Concept of 'Christendom'	64
	Pope Innocent III: A Powerful King in the Papal Office	64
	The Crusades	65
	The Crusades' Effect on the Church's Self-image	66
	The Laity's Impulse Toward Gospel Simplicity Sometimes Leads to Extremism	67
	Francis and Dominic	68
	Pope Boniface VIII: The Church Blunders Its Way Back Into Domination by the State	68
Focus 13	The Soul of an Age: Saint Francis of Assisi	70
Focus 14	Your 'Day in Court' Before the Inquisition	71
Chapter 8	The Church's Intellectual Life
	Christian Learning in Charlemagne's Empire	73
	Scholasticism: Scholarship in the Service of Faith	74
	Universities and the Rise of Nonreligious Learning	75
	Faith 'Versus' Reason, or Faith 'In Harmony With' Reason?	76
	'Realism' Versus 'Nominalism'	77
	University Scholars Seek Church Reform	78
Focus 15	Doctors of the Church	79
Focus 16	Anselm's 'Ontological Proof' for the Existence of God	80
Chapter 9	Everyday Life in the Catholic Middle Ages
	Life Structured as a Pyramid	82
	Spirituality: Experiencing Doctrine in the Heart	82
	Becoming Feminine Before God	83
	Daily Life in Parish and Diocese	84
	Hell and Purgatory	86
	An Age of Contradiction	87
Focus 17	The Age of the Feminine	88
Focus 18	Did the Catholic Church Hide the Bible From Believers in the Middle Ages?	89
Chapter 10	The End of the Catholic Middle Ages
	The 'Babylonian Captivity' of the Papacy	92
	New Concepts of Church Government	93
	The Western Schism: Not One Pope, But Two, Then Three	93
	The Conciliar Movement: An Aborted Attempt at Reform	94
	Living the Gospel in a Time of Chaos and Disruption	95
	The Black Death	95
	Social Unrest and Revolt	96
	The Hundred Years' War	96
	A Saint Dies, an Epoch Dies	97
Focus 19	'Whatever Happened to the Byzantine Church?'	98
Focus 20	The Catholic Church's 'Report Card' on the Eve of the Protestant Reformation	99
Chapter 11	Entering the Age of Reformation
	A Brief Story to Set the Mood	101
	Fact or Fiction?	104
	Change in the Air	105
	Europe the Tinderbox	106
Focus 21	Martin Luther and Pope Leo X: A Study in Contrasts	107
Focus 22	Was the Catholic Church Really 'All That Corrupt' on the Eve of the Reformation?	108
Chapter 12	The Reformation: Protestant Phase One
	'Here I Stand'	111
	The Road to Worms	113
	St. Peter's Basilica and the Controversy Over Indulgences	113
	Luther's Theology	115
	Luther: Champion of Freedom	117
Focus 23	Luther the Man: A Life Marked by Inconsistency	118
Focus 24	'Protestants' Versus Catholics	119
Chapter 13	The Reformation: Protestant Phase Two
	Radical Reform Efforts: The 'Left Wing'	121
	Religion or Power?	122
	Calvin's Theocracy	122
	Henry VIII and Anglicanism	124
	'Paris Is Worth a Mass'	126
Focus 25	Thomas More: Saint, Rebel or Patriot?	128
Focus 26	Healing the Breach: A First Step Toward Resolving the Theological Question That Underlies the Protestant-Catholic Split	129
Chapter 14	The Reformation: The Catholic Phase
	Catholic Reform Before Luther	131
	Catholicism Responds to the Protestant Reformation	132
	The Council of Trent	133
	The Jesuits: Putting Trent's Decrees Into Action	135
	Healthy Reform--and Reform to an Excess--Under Pope Paul IV	136
	Toward the Age of Religious Intolerance	137
Focus 27	Moving From the Council of Trent to Vatican II	138
Focus 28	Teresa of Avila: A Woman Contributes to Church Reform	139
Chapter 15	The Reformation: Its Bleak Aftermath
	Not Such Strange Bedfellows	141
	A Hatred-filled Continent	141
	England: Puritans Versus Anglicans Versus Catholics	142
	France: 'One King, One Law, One Faith'	143
	Germany in Shambles	146
	The Secular Age Is Born	147
Focus 29	Have American Catholics Sometimes Been More Jansenist Than Christian?	148
Focus 30	A Look at the Philosophes' Gospel: Enter the Modern Age	149
Chapter 16	The Church in the New World
	Catholic or European?	151
	Rome and the Age of Revolution	153
	Catholicism in America: A Struggle for Respectability	155
	Anti-Catholic Sentiment in America	155
	Anti-Catholicism After Independence	156
	Toward Respectability on the Home Front	157
Focus 31	The Spanish in America: Revising the Way We Understand American History	158
Focus 32	An American Catholic Hall of Fame--The 'Top Twenty-Five'	159
Chapter 17	The Church Reacts to The Modern World
	Pius IX--'Pio No-No'--as Pope	161
	The Fortress Mentality and the American Church	165
Focus 33	Isaac Hecker: A Catholic Ahead of His Times	167
Focus 34	The Sisters in America: How Could There Have Been a Church Without Them?	168
Chapter 18	The Path of Protestantism
	After Luther and Calvin	169
	John Wesley and Methodism	172
	Protestantism in America	173
	The Great Awakening	174
Focus 35	American Christians and Slavery	176
Focus 36	New Churches and New Religions in America	177
Chapter 19	The Age of Vatican II
	A 'Thaw' Begins	179
	Popes Who Looked Ahead	179
	Protestant Innovators	181
	The Second Vatican Council	183
	The Road Ahead	185
Focus 37	Pierre de Chardin: Was He an Unseen Presence at Vatican II?	186
Focus 38	Vatican II's Challenge: 'Church, Grow Up!'	187
Chapter 20	The Post-Vatican II Church
	The Call for Social Justice	190
	Sharing Church Authority	191
	Implications for the Future	195
Focus 39	Two Catholics Who Caught the Spirit of Vatican II	196
Focus 40	Summing Up: The 'Big Events' of Church History	197
Chapter 21	Visions and Boundaries
	Visionaries and Boundary-setters	200
	Equality in the Life of the Church	201
	Before We Close, a Word of Caution	207
	Timeline	209
	Glossary	229
	Index	235