Towards the second millennium

On July 14, 1789, the French peasants stormed the Bastille prison in Paris. This symbolic action started the French Plebeian Revolution, which broke down the “old system” and drew on the spirit of the Enlightenment, calling for “freedom, equality and fraternity”, and overthrowing the divine rule of the monarchy and the exploitation of the nobility and the senior clergy. Although the revolution ended with the dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), it still opened up a new era.

The 60 years following the French Revolution (1789-1859) were a period of revolution in Europe. The aristocracy and the old system were overthrown during this period. In the first half of the revolution, the middle class was the master of the movement and the common people were only their pawns to overthrow the old system; In the second half of the revolution, the poor lower classes became the initiators of the revolution, while the middle class, who had just come to power as the new aristocracy, became the target of attack. After Napoleon gained power in 1799, he conquered almost the entire European continent. However, after the defeat of the Russian expedition in 1812, his defeats continued. In 1814 he was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba. Following the defeat of the battle at Waterloo, he was finally exiled to St. Helena, an island off the coast of Africa. Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria immediately convened the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815 to restore the old system before the French Revolution and divide the empire established by Napoleon. The Austrian Prime Minister Metternich (1773-1859) became the representative of this movement. The restoration of the old system led to the revival of the Spanish Inquisition; Italy resumed its harsh taxation policy under the feudal system; and the Germanic freedom of speech and press was lost. The British Parliament made laws that blatantly favored large landowners. The enlightened Russian Emperor also rose to suppress the freedom of the people. The revolutions in Spain and Italy in 1820, in Greece in 1829 and in France in 1830 showed the failure of the policy of Metternich to preserve the old system. Since then, the working class started to demand an equal division of power with the middle class and set off a democratic movement. Following the spirit of the French revolution, they believed that the social system was not a natural law, but a man-made order, and therefore a constitution had to be established setting the standard; coupled with the prevailing concept of the state and the demand for freedom and liberty led to the establishment of modern states in the West, initially a constitutional sovereign, and then became democratic republics.

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After the middle of the 18th century, Europe was weak due to its sparse population, wars and civil disorder, and became increasingly indifferent to colonization. Even those who lived in the colonies, such as the Portuguese in Goa or the British in Madras, they were only staying temporarily, protecting their land and not interfering in the political, religious, cultural and social affairs of the region. But after the Industrial Revolution, the Westerners, having mastered power and speed, took the funds and enthusiastically came to the New World, not only as merchants and guests, but to conquer the natives, expand their kingdoms, exploit them, and resettle the growing population of their own countries. In addition to absorbing economic benefits, they also imported Western culture, customs and social systems. Therefore, Britain, France, Holland, Germany and Italy established colonies in different parts of the world. At that time, Spain and Portugal, the two leading colonial powers had retreated, and their dependencies in South America, such as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina, declared their independence one after another, and dissociated themselves from them in the early 19th century (1810-1830).

At this time, new inventions and applications in machinery and electricity formed a worldwide industrial revolution. Science had crossed between religion, ethnicity, language, and geographical distances and became the basis of all modern learning, the instrument of progress, and the driving force of industry and commerce. England was the center of this era, which led to the factory system and the creation of modern cities, and consequently created two classes in society, the capitalists and the workers, which led to disputes and animosity between employers and employees. In this context, Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Engels and others promoted the great influential Socialism.

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Since the second half of the 19th century, two phenomena of direct relevance to the world have arisen in European history.
1) The convenience of transportation and the rapid increase in the speed of communication have shortened the geographical distance and brought the world closer together.

2) As a result of the Industrial Revolution, there was an urgent need for industrial raw materials and markets for finished products, so Europe seized colonies around the world and developed a new imperialism. These two phenomena directly influenced the history of Europe in the 19th century; and the history of the world was centred on Europe.

In 1914, Germany and Austria started a war with other Western countries, which eventually turned into a national war that lasted for 4 years. 40 million people died, which is commonly known as the First World War (1914-1918). In February 1917, during the First World War, the Russian people rose up in revolution, shouting the slogan “Bread, Land, Peace”, and finally they abolished the rule of the Tsar. In October the same year, Lenin (1870-1924) led the Communist Red Army based on Marx’s ideas, occupied Moscow, and turned the original civilian revolution into a proletarian revolution. After several years of operation, Lenin overcame the economic, political, power and racial difficulties in Russia and in 1922 established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) to coordinate the military, economic, transportation, trade and even legislative affairs in more than a dozen neighboring republics. This bloc is completely different from the Western social system after the industrial revolution. It has become a major threat to the Western world in terms of political ideals, military power, and production methods.

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After the First World War, countries were exhausted. Poverty, chaos and unemployment were common phenomena. Between 1929 and 1930, the West and the United States suffered an economic recession, which made the whole Europe and the United States poor and unable to help anybody In this difficult situation, Germany was burdened with the heavy debt of reparations to the victorious powers, and soon followed the Nazi-National-Sozialistishe Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei (National Socialist Party of Germany) led by Hitler (1889-1945). In 1933, Hitler came to power and immediately eliminated dissent, promoting nationalism, racism, militarism, refusing to pay reparations, and later occupying Austria and Czechoslovakia, as well as forming alliances with Benito Mussolini of Italy (1883-1945), who implemented fascism, and Japan, who advocated militarism. Within 6 years from 1939, with Germany’s invasion of Poland, a chain of wars broke out in Europe, the United States, Asia and Africa, provoked by the three Axis powers - Germany, Italy and Japan; the total number of soldiers killed in this war was 15 million. In 1943, Italy switched to the Allied front. After the fall of Berlin in 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. In the same year, the United States dropped 2 atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, forcing the Japanese Emperor to surrender unconditionally to the Allies on August 14, ending the Second World War (1939-1945).

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After the war, devastation was rife, the United Nations (U.N. 1945) was established as a symbol of “the desire for peace of all mankind”. The United Nations replaced the League of Nations (1920-1946) with the aim of maintaining international peace and promoting international law; for since mankind does not wish to perish in war, it has to learn how to live together in peace.

However, the world soon fell back into a confrontational tension. Europe temporarily stepped down from its leading role, but the Soviet Union, representing the communist countries, and the United States, which steadily took the helm of the capitalist countries, were secretly competing. The competition is multifaceted. In armaments, each competed to build up its military strength and produced new weapons. In science and technology, each sought to be the leader. Economically, both sides fought for markets and supplies of industrial materials. Diplomatically, each side entered into various alliances: the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO 1949), the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO 1955), and the Warsaw Pact (1955) etc. In fact, this was the so-called “Cold War” period. Sometimes, this Cold War was fought outside the Soviet Union and led to occasional wars, such as the Korean War (1950-1953), the Vietnam War (1961-1975) and several wars in the Middle East (1967, 1973).

During this period (1950-1960), Europe gradually recovered, its population grew and society began to flourish, the European countries had a tendency to rebuild Europe’s position in the world, which led to the establishment of the Common Market (1957) and the rise of De Gaulleism (1890-1976) in France. After almost a century of colonial rule, most of the people of Asia and Africa became independent in the middle of the 20th century (1945-1965), for a number of reasons. The first was the awakening of the national spirit of the Asian and African peoples, which was influenced by the democratic spirit of the West. Secondly, after the First (1914-1918) and Second (1939-1945) World Wars, the colonialists were too weak to take care of them. Then, the historical and economic materialism and analysis of socialism was a great theoretical stimulus, coupled with the strong advocacy of the independence movement of national liberation by the communist countries and the practical support of the military; in this case, colonialism was gone forever. Although the newly independent states were still militarily and economically dependent on certain powers, the situation was different because the center of gravity of world political power was dispersed.

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Between the Soviet and U.S. blocs, some of the newly independent countries were reluctant to take sides and remained neutral in order to receive economic aid from both sides at the same time. These so-called “non-aligned” countries played an important role in the race for the balance of power in the world. China, which became a communist country in 1949, was gradually waking up and actively participating in this world community. While truly independent democracies were emerging, the world was becoming more and more interdependent.

First, real-time communication systems, such as satellite relay, television, and radio fax, as well as fast transportation, such as the Boeing 747 and the Concord supersonic airliner, had facilitated the development of communication and tourism, making the world a smaller place.

Secondly, multinational corporations were expanding around the world, shaping the type and nature of development in their countries and regions. This non-political force had become an invisible force in international politics. Consumerism, caused by the need to sell the finished product, had turned all nationalities into consumers who only accept the dictates of advertising.

Moreover, in terms of armaments, some countries exported a lot of military industrial products, while other countries were willing to suppress the livelihood of their people in order to buy military weapons. This mentality of maintaining independence had the effect of creating mutual dependence. The competition among major powers for nuclear weapons had reached the point where they were capable of destroying the entire human race, constantly threatening global security. In addition, since the resources to sustain human existence were limited and the environment for human existence had certain rules, countries should not waste natural resources such as wood, oil, food, etc. Facing the pollution in the atmosphere, sea and air, and noise, all countries must share the responsibility. The exploration of space is also the common desire of all mankind for the universe beyond the earth.

Christian Preaching
(from 1789 to 1980s the 20th Century )

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In the 200 years after the French Revolution (1789), the world in which human beings lived had produced certain great ideals and inventions, and the whole world had undergone great changes, revolutions, wars, and great emancipation of human beings, and it became a whole. The “world” was finally able to break through the atmosphere and fly into space.

The Christian community seems smaller in this ‘big’ world, and is gradually experiencing what their teachers called the ‘little flock’.

During this period, Christians continued to preach to the world, but their preaching was coloured in some particular way, and this was directly influenced by a very strong psychological element. Following the days of 1789, the Church was psychologically affected - the world and the Church were quite simply separated. The Church was clearly separated from the world since its birth; then it was a weak and humble community, eager to penetrate the Roman Empire of that time; but now, with its large structure, the Church, had always been in a privileged position, but the world was indifferent and turned its back on the Church. Gradually, the Church lost its secular power. In 1870, even the Papal State was taken by Italy. In terms of social and intellectual status, the Church could no longer stand in a position of supremacy due to scientific progress and the freedom of personal development. These facts, first of all, clearly gave the Church a “persecuted mentality”, a moaning of pain from loss on the one hand, and to defending itself from injury on the other. The second is a “triumphal state of mind,” which was a failure externally leading to a victory spiritually in ruling. Finally, a “worshiper’s mentality; due to being trapped in a small circle, this focus on devotional worship, was on the one hand an expression of contempt and rejection of the world, and on the other hand an investment in atonement, merit, personal salvation and reward after death. However, in a positive way, Christians had also shown a constant search for renewal during these two centuries. This “reformer’s mentality” became a very vibrant mainstream in the Church beginning in the mid-20th century.

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Moreover, the Church, in a situation where “the power is gone,” focuses on spiritual reign. To achieve this, the Church first affirms itself as a complete social organization (Perfect Society) and requests the world to recognize this. At the top of this pyramidal organization is the Pope, who has supreme divine authority. This triumphal state of mind against the world was most evident at the First Vatican Council (Vatican I, 1869-1870), where the most dominant figure was the then reigning Pope Pius IX (1792-1878, elevated to the papacy in 1846). At that Council, the Roman Pontiff was declared as having the Primacy in the Church and Infallibility of Faith and Ethics. During this period, reverence for the Pope became a marker of a triumphant mentality in spiritual rule. The absolute obedience to the Pope after the revival of the Jesuits also served as a model. A list of errors was published, Syllabus of errors, to make absolutely certain that the Church had the right answers at a time when philosophy and science were still trying to figure out what to do; but often these answers were merely the result of reasoning based on Natural Law, which became the basis of faith, for example, on divorce, birth control, abortion, private property rights, etc. In this way, the Church gradually became a defendant of ethics and an authority in the defense of Natural Law. Pius IX went on to summarize his own papal declarations against the fallacies of errors into eighty propositions, known as the [Syllabus of Errors (1864).]

When Pius XI became Pope in 1922, he adopted as his papal motto ‘Pax Christi in Regno Christi’ (The Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ), and in his 1925 encyclical he establishing the Feast of Jesus Christ the King. He stated that Jesus had legislative, judicial and executive powers. This was a spiritual rule, which includes both the laity and the unbaptized. This triumphant spirit of rule was evident in the priesthood supremacy within the Church’s organization and activities. Since 1859 the National College established in Rome, showed the centralized rule of the Church in organizational terms, and the Canon Law of the Latin Church, subsequently promulgated in 1917, was a powerful instrument for the implementation of this rule and uniformity. For example, the Code of Canon Law provides that the Pope’s representatives might interfere in the internal administration of the local Church, that bishops should visit Rome every five years, and that many regional cases must be referred to the Holy See.

During this period, the Pope repeatedly issued powerful encyclicals in various fields, making local bishops the officials to carry out these orders. For example, the use of Latin in the formation of the priests and the use of the Thomas Aquinas’ doctrines as a standard. These triumphalist proclamations were like the proverbial “emperor behind closed doors”; the more firmly the doors being closed, the louder the noise became; but they had no impact to the outside world.

The Church, in its constantly traumatized situation, focused on spiritual leadership, but in practice encouraged various kinds of worship based on individual spiritual practice and personal salvation. These devotions, on the one hand, were the responsibility of the Church to pray for the sins of the world and on the other hand, the church uses them for training and forming the faithful. However many Catholics, including lay people, clergy and scholars, saw the need of an awakening. The most basic awakening of Catholics was to initiate certain movements to re-acquaint themselves with the Bible and different forms of proclaiming the Gospel. The Liturgical movement aimed at reforming the liturgical celebration in which the faithful could truly participate. The movement of Christian unity. The movement for Catechetical instruction. The movement of Christian workers, movement for a better world, Pentecostal movement etc. These movements continued their difficult work not without difficulties and misunderstandings. The energy of these movements literally exploded when John XXIII announced the opening of a new Ecumenical Council, Vatican II. Like small streams flowing down from different mountains form a big river that brings life to arid land, so the movements that preceded Vatican II were the carriers of the material that became the agenda of Vatican II. The 16 documents of Vatican II approved almost unanimously by the pope and the bishops coming from all over the world remains a milestone in the history of the Church and its mission in today’s world.

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After the awakening, Christians manifested their enthusiasm and hope in many ways. First, Christians re-focused on their role in the world, and took on their mission of leaven as lay people, which led to the creation of many new organizations with the laity as their main force. At the same time, the Church’s administrative organization was being renewed in accordance with the broad principles of collective leadership and adaptation to new circumstances. There were also signs that the Church itself was moving toward a global Church, constantly taking up new stance.

Modern forms of democratic organization had awakened the Church to the need to modify the monarchical approach in administration in which it had been accustomed. Therefore, based on the principle of collective leadership in the early days of the Church, a new structure was established at all levels within the Church. For example, the Synod of Bishops was held at the ecumenical level, the Episcopal Conferences are held at the regional level, the Council of Priests and the Pastoral Council were established at the diocesan level, and the Parish Council was established at the parish level.

In 1967, the Permanent Diaconate was reinstated for single or married persons in order to meet modern social conditions. In many parts of South America and Africa, where the traditional parish system of the Church had not functioned effectively, the Basic Christian Community had emerged as a socially meaningful organization. Firstly, the Church found that the West, which had always been the centre of the Church, was in fact no longer the place with the largest number of Christians, so it had to shift and expand its focus. In this process, the Church respected diversity in theology, such as third world theology, liberation theology, and theological diversity, such as the Pentecostal Movement, Eastern meditation, etc., as well as liturgical diversity, such as African liturgical dances, Indian-styled liturgical objects, etc.

In breaking away from Western circles, the Church had elevated itself outside the West from a status of transplantation to one of self-sustaining status. It became natural to invest in local culture and to employ local talent. The localization of the Church had given the whole Church an international dimension and had enabled it to address the various religions of the world and to be concerned with world-wide issues such as world peace, human development and human rights.