Catholic Church Research Paper

In history, understanding the past is key to foreseeing the future and understanding the roots of the present world. As such, understanding the beginnings of the early church gives us insight into the success of the Catholic Church today and its 1.2 billion followers. The major transformation of Catholicism today can be traced to its early days, in particular, the early first century AD. After the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, the apostles brought themselves to embrace the mission Jesus gave them, and in doing so, they began preaching the word of God to all nations. As Christianity was still developing, a man named Saul, once a persecutor of the early Christians, would experience a powerful vision of Jesus in heaven on the road to Damascus,

The early church had lots of characteristics. According to Acts 2:42-47, the church was teaching, worshipping, communal, selfless, and growing. This empowered people to join the apostles in their spiritual journey. The modern church still is all these things, but also an institution, a herald, a sacrament, body of christ, servant, and community of disciples. All of these characteristics are important to the church as a whole.

The beginning of church is said to have risen from the resurrection of Jesus. In fact after the Pentecost, the disciples were celebrating the blessing given to Moses at Mount Sinai in which he experienced the presence of God. After this experience, the disciples were believed to be bold, understanding and Courageous. These characteristics till this day are still celebrated on Pentecost Sunday and are used for the sacrament of Confirmation, which is receiving the responsibility of a Christian and accepting the Holy Spirit. Church has been the backbone of people's faith. It has given them a comforting home to pray and be one with God. Today, however, more people are practicing faith outside the church. The majority of followers believe in God and life after death, however, many have lack of interest in the church. Church must be looked as a community of disciples. The book uses a suggestion from a Roman Catholic theologian Avery Dulles. He suggests, "that most appropriate image of the church for our times is the church as a community of disciples"(pp. 157). I totally agree with his suggestion. In order for Christians to find fulfillment in ones faith, one must help others understand their faith. We need to be grounded in grace; by being a Christian community your focus on believing is responding freely to a personal call and

In the Medieval times, the Roman Catholic Church played a great role in the development of England and had much more power than the Church of today does. In Medieval England, the Roman Catholic Church dominated everyday life and controlled everyone whether it is knights, peasants or kings. The Church was one of the most influential institutions in all of Medieval England and played a large role in education and religion. The Church's power was so great that they could order and control knights and sends them to battle whenever they wished to. The Church also had the power to influence the decision of Kings and could stop or pass laws which benefited them in the long run, adding to this, the Church had most of the wealth in Europe as the

The Great Papal Schism is also known as the Western Schism that lasted from 1378 – 1417, during which the papacy (the position itself) was in great divide between three popes in the Roman Catholic Church. This political upheaval within the Roman Catholic Church caused distrust of the western civilization towards the church. It began after the Avignon Papacy or the more commonly referred to, “Babylonian captivity of the papacy” which was when the papal court was moved to France and French cardinals who later became popes from 1309-1378 resided in Avignon, France (a total of seven French popes by the papal names Clement V all the way to Gregory XI, who moved the court back to Rome) while being heavily influenced by the French kings; this also resulted to the decline of the papal power and authority (Miller, Study.com).

The Anglican Church was founded in the year 1534 having the direct cause being after a disagreement between the pope and the King of England. The church today has approximately 85 million members (Office, 2017) and is the second largest church in Australia behind the Roman Catholic Church. (En.wikipedia.org, 2017)

Catholicism dates back to a place outside the United States boarders. The Catholic Church mainly grew by immigration. It would be found in a place called the American Republic. The missionary which brought it to America began on the European soil. During much of the time that the Catholic religion was in the United States it was a missionary, which it struggled to stay afloat a lot. When people think of the Catholic religion they think people who are wealthy, and have political power. In the early time the Catholic Church did not have power, wealth, and influence it was not until later that this happened. This is what made them start the missionaries in the United States. The Catholic religion was the ones who had lest number of churches

The Great Schism or The Western Schism was kind of like a separation within the Roman Catholic Church. What happened was, three men/popes all claimed to be the one true pope. It lasted from 1378 to 1417. Many people had doubt about the true authority of the Church because of this, and many people came to preach/debate about it. Though, the schism was ended by the Council of Constance between 1414 and

The church had an organized, elaborate hierarchy with the pope as head. The head of the hierarchy in the church was the pope. The pope was the supreme power of the church and his followers. The pope was a representative of God. “The pope also had the power to influence the king and its advisors,” (mnsu.edu). Each church had its own hierarchy within. Next in line of power is the Bishop, he is the leader of the church. Bishops were usually very wealthy and dressed very nice. The bishop had its own duties to fulfill, for example he had the power to adjust the taxes, and also had the power to annul marriages. Next in line of power is the Parish Priest. The Parish Priest was the Priest of the church; he would say Mass, which was done in front of the church. He also had the duty of collecting taxes for the church. Also the Priests were usually the only ones who could read and write in the village (thinkquest). “Many

The general church is the branch of government in the Church of the Nazarene that effectively and efficiently connects the members and resources of our denomination to preserve our core values and beliefs and advance our mission to preach holiness, make Christ-like disciples in all the nations, and bring relief to the needy. Recognizing the strength and equality of all partners, the general church combines and apportions time and resources for global mobilization. Simply stated, we can accomplish more united as a global denomination than we ever could at the local church or district level.

Church, a six letter word that can have several different meanings depending on who you ask: believers, nonbelievers, people who just don’t care about religion…etc. But to me, if I made a definition for the word church is would be this: a physical place where God created in his plan that us followers created on earth a building where we gather and worship Him. While in the dictionary, the meaning of church is short, sweet and to the point, it is “a building used for Christian worship.” In the Bible, the word church is defined as “the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18, 24; 1 Cor. 12:12-13, 27-28; Rom. 12:5)” (Perks 23). So in a sense, the main idea of the definition of a church is a place where believers go to worship God. On the other

This paper will look into the primary reasons for the rise of the Roman papacy to power, and a few of the many things that aided the papacy in getting there. The fall of the Roman Empire is clearly a key factor in the rise of the papacy, so a look into the factors that caused the fall of the Roman Empire is essential. Secondly, a look into how the church positioned itself, to step into the vacuum of power left behind by the fall of the Roman Empire will prove to be needed. Lastly, there will be a brief look at the positive and negative ramifications that ensued from the churches rise to power. This paper will not be an exhaustive look into the rise of the papacy, but instead will provide a good place to start ones study into

It is no secret: the declaration that the Catholic Church headed by the Pope is Jesus Christ’s One True Church is not readily accepted by all followers of Christ throughout the world. Therefore, this Catholic doctrine potentially presents both a challenge and an opportunity in the area of evangelization. On the one hand, some Christians may see this as an arrogant and unbiblical assertion that impedes solidarity among all believers. Hence, they may state that this assertion sustains the division that exists among Christian churches and houses of worship.

Until this time, God was in charge of giving us many different ways by which we can be built up. The Church, now I am refering to the congregation, is one of this im-portant ways. Paul said, So Christ himself gave the apostles, the proph-ets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and be-come mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians

The Roman Catholic Church traces its history to the Apostles, mainly Peter. The Catholic Church is one of the branches of religions focused around Christianity. The Catholic Church was founded around the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Roman Catholic Church