Title Details

The reformer movement split the Church leading off to an era of several confessions — Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Calvinistic, Anglican —, to conflicts and to religion wars. The world-wide mission led to the conquest of new territories. In the midst of the civilization resulting from the Enlightenment and from the changes caused by the French Revolution, Christians lived in a naturalistic and adverse sociocultural and philosophical context and moved away from the modern world — apostasy of intellectuals and the laboring class. In spite of the initiatives of Vatican II, it seems that this withdrawal is not overcome yet. In this synthesis the author describes and interprets historical concatenations which led from reforms in the life and teaching of the Church to ecumenical effort. He emphasizes the historical function exerted by Christians in this period: defense of the Transcendent against rationalism and immanency; maintenance of a moral law against positivism, relativism and separation between morals and the several human activities; and subordination of all human activities to the person, who is saved from ambushes of liberal, economic and social individualism, and from the dangers of racism, nationalism, totalitarianism, and imperialism.