I want you to be learning from one another but obviously the writing for this assignment should be entirely your own work. Making use of the lecture, readings, and group conversation for each of the two class sessions, write a short one-page paper answering the questions:

How does this subject bring to light a challenge that the Church faces in the modern world (e.g., racism, environmental crisis, social or political instability)?
How has the Church responded to this challenge through development or change, and how might it respond even more faithfully in the future?

Answer:

Introduction:

The Church in the modern times has been facing several problems like that of the social or political stability. Other serious issues or challenges include that of the racism issues and environmental crises. All the things have been deconstructed in the modern age and the truth has to be looked at with a relative viewpoint. These facts of deconstruction are not logically coherent (Southern 2016). Apart from that, the conflict between the state and the church is on the all the time. There is always a contradiction of viewpoints of the Church and the State or the Government itself. Lives have been secularized by certain social and moral beliefs. This has become a big challenge for the Church as well (Southern 2016). Another issue or challenge exists in the condition of women within the church. The use of technology has decreased the participation of human life in the daily activities and that has caused many environmental crises (Montgomery 2013). The racial discriminations have been increasing in the recent times as the society is not able to handle these issues properly (Montgomery 2013). The interference of Churches is not well accepted by this issue. The ethnicity of the people and multiculturalism has been a supreme barrier in integrating the racism problems.  Other aspects like the inner problems within the Church itself have raised the social tensions as well.

Another impact that these churches had on these factors is the Protestant reformation. The church has been one of the primary institutions because of this Protestant reformation in Europe mostly (MacCulloch 2017). It can be said that many attempts had been done on the reforming the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. Most of the reformation that had been done was due to the economic and political spheres. Some groups have been formed in Europe like that of the Albigeness and Waldenes. They had been opposing the rules and customs imposed by the Roman Church and blood began to flow like water. Many things were said against the church and the topics were like pilgrimages, worship of the saints, papacy, relics and many other things. The Churches taught that the human beings needed to believe and have faith in God so that they could be rescued and their sins could be salvaged. The purgatory things teachings dictated that if people wanted to reach the waiting room of Heaven, they had to be faithful to God and God would relive all their pains and heal them effectively.  Christian monasticism was another impactful thing in the reign of the Church (Hannay 2017). This means the act of dwelling or living in a secluded manner from the entire society. The people who believe in these should be celibates and they should withdraw themselves from the society and the world. Thus the impact of the several forces on the Church has been very relevant for the social changes.

References

Hannay, J.O., 2017. The spirit and origin of Christian monasticism. Lulu. com.

MacCulloch, D., 2017. Tudor Church Militant: Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation. Penguin UK.

Montgomery, K., 2013. Pedagogy and privilege: The challenges and possibilities of teaching critically about racism. Critical Education, 4(1).

Southern, R., 2016. The Penguin History of the Church: Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages. Penguin UK.