I was delighted to read about the development of Christianity

In this assignment, I was ecstatic to learn about the evolution of Christianity through the centuries. It helped me understand how the faith evolved through the Middle Ages to become what it is now. The reading began by describing the church as a community of members, rather than a physical structure, as many people had assumed. I discovered from the reading that politics is an inevitable part of social life. They are the result of numerous concepts that develop about how to handle various facets of social existence. Individuals assume opposing positions and attempt to further their interests, culminating in political scenes. I learned that the Church has been awash with politics right from the medieval period.

The reading explains the power struggles within the church as time went on. From this explanation, I learnt that power is not good for anyone in the society because it is likely to compromise morality. Just like in the political world, power in the church comes with wealth. It is this wealth that brought corruption and misuse of power within the leaders of the church. Through the readings, I have confirmed that the split in religion actually did more good than bad just as Provost used to affirm in the lectures. It was necessary that different factions split up in order to avoid more wrangles. On the other hand, the divisions in Christianity could have also been initiated by less powerful individuals who thought that they stood no chances of rising to leadership. This is because the existing leaders had amassed a lot of wealth which they used to cling onto power. I have learnt that the initial reformation was based on struggles for power. However, this changed with the introduction of elitism by scholars like Martin Luther and John Calvin.

I had always thought about reformation of the church as a single event. I had not come across literature that could help me identify the differences between the modern church and that of the Roman times. The reading connects reformation of the church with changes in the politico-socio-economic system. The reformation was facilitated by the spread of ideas during the renaissance. Before this time, many people were not informed about the varying perspectives of Christianity. Improvement in the transport systems, formation of universities and settlements in the growing urban areas meant that people could access different ideologies. People were now paying more attention to their economic wellbeing because resources were in the hands of the few through feudalism. They became informed on differences between the two popes with each claiming that he was the true ruler of the church. This also came along with democracy that gave the people more discretion in deciding important political, social and economic affairs. From this explanation of issues surrounding reformation, I learnt that religion, especially Christianity, is not insensitive to what happens in the society. I have held the opinion that religion reacts slowly to changes in economic and political aspects in the society. The reading has taught me that religion changes to conform to the contemporary society. I came to understand why Provost brought up a lot of political discussions during class sessions to help us understand the reformation of the Church.

I came up with a number of questions in the course of the reading assignment. One of the issues that I questioned was the argument that the protestant reformation was limited to a certain period. In the contemporary society, I have witnessed how individualism and education still divides denominations. Individuals are coming up with varying interpretations of parts of the bible and other religious books each day. This makes them defy some of the existing guidelines on faith and go ahead to start their own denominations. Therefore, I think protestant reformation is a process that had a beginning but is continuous and is unlikely to end so long as the political, social and economic aspects of society continue changing.

I have heard Provost on multiple occasions tell us that Christianity is not about the deeds but rather the faith. However, the reading makes a claim that “Christianity has not failed so much as it has not been tried.” This claim follows the argument that the dark side of Christianity is that people are not following the deeds of the saints. It argues that if the two billion Christians replicated the actions of Mother Theresa by living lives of service and compassion the world would be a better place. Lecture 5 reading assignment and Provost’s words contradict this argument. The readings had taught me not to simply except good deeds from my Christian friends because on the virtue of being Christian. From my view one can only get involved in service and compassion if they want to. Therefore, claiming that Christianity has failed on this basis is contradictory to the earlier readings. This reading generally offers valid insights on development of Christianity after the early church and the nature of Christian faith.