1. What were the new threats to Christianity at this time?
The Eastern church had to face the threat of Islam. Islam overran most of the Byzantine Eastern Empire and was finally turned back by Byzantine Emperor Leo III by A.D. 718. The Western church was also worried about Islam until it was stopped in its tracks at Tours in A.D. 732 with its subsequent gradual recession lasting until the joint Spanish Roman Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille and León finally kicked the Muslims out of Spain in 1492. The Western church also had to face a renewed effort from Scandinavian Vikings after the 8 th century A.D. The Eastern church also was threatened later by Slavs, Magyars, and Mongols.
On top of all this, the Western church had to spread the Gospel among the Teutonic tribes that had settled within the territory of the old Roman Empire. The Western church also had to convert those tribes in Spain, North Africa, and Italy who had accepted the unorthodox Arian Christianity and also the remaining pagans.
2. What were the consequences of the spread of Islam to the Christian church and to Europe?
Islam greatly impacted the religion and culture of Western Europe. Islam was the conduit through Arabic Spain for the Greek philosophy of Aristotle. The medieval scholastics tried to join Greek thought with Christian theology by using Aristotle's deductive reasoning as known through Averroes' translation of Aristotle's writings.
Western and Eastern Christianity became weak through the losses of people and real estate to Islam. The losses were worse in the Eastern church than it was in the Western church. The North African church vanished. Egypt and the Holy Land were lost. The Eastern church barely managed to keep the Muslim hordes from overrunning Constantinople until 1453. The Western church fared better in northwestern Europe through its mission activity. The Eastern church also had to worry about the issue of whether pictorial images can be used in churches. This issue, called iconoclasm, surfaced in part because the Muslims were accusing Christians of idolatry because it seemed to them that the Christians were worshiping the images in their churches.
3. Is it true or not true that when an internal row foments between people of two different kinds of Christianity within a country (like what happened in Spain in the 8 th century A.D.), it makes it easier for outside invaders of another religion altogether to overrun the country? Why or why not?
It is true. Arian Visigoths in Spain was a problem for the Roman pontiff. Recared, who ruled Spain from A.D. 586 to 601, proclaimed in A.D. 589 at the Third Council of Toledo that he had rejected Arian Christianity and embraced orthodoxy. Many of his nobles and Arian bishops took the same action. This was not a complete capitulation. Soon rows began between the orthodox and the Arians in Spain. This made it much easier for the Muslims to overrun Spain in the 8 th century A.D.
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