CHRISTIANITY

This book encompasses an overview of the institutional and theological issues of Christianity during the period from Hilary of Poitiers until Ignatius of Loyola, i.e., from the 4th to the 16th centuries. It evaluates the impact that the great Christian teachers had on the development of Christianity during this period: teachers such as Paul, Hilary, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and Loyola. Luther's revolt with his 95 theses began the Reformation, so badly needed at the time. Some few years later, Ignatius and his followers began a Counter-Reformation. Bellarmine and Suarez, both Jesuits, were the principle disputants for the Roman offensive. Ignatius was a military man, strongly imbued with the 16th century Spanish vision of crusading idealism, and just the right antidote needed in Western Europe to bring the masses back to Rome. Ignatius gathered a band of like-minded men around him and established the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, in 1534. They understood themselves to be a company of light cavalry who freely placed themselves in the service of the Roman Church. Ignatius chose for his motto, Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam, (For the Greater Glory of God), and his loyal band of soldiers embarked on the ministry to educate the layity, not only in Catholic doctrine, but also in the great classics of humanist culture. The decrees of the Council of Trent were formative for the Catholic Church for the following four centuries and missionaries brought the Gospel to the New World as the Church prepared to face the challenges of the modern world.