The Apostolic Era

The Early Church

Beyond the Roman Empire

World Christianity

 

© 2003 David Koeller.  All rights reserved.

 

The Secularization of Western Society

1600-2000
  • 1598: The Edict of Nantes
  • 1624: Sir Herbert of Cherbury: "De veritatae"
  • 1625: Hugo Grotius: "De jure belli et pacis" on international law.
  • 1695: John Locke: The Reasonableness of Christianity.
  • 1697: Pierre Bayle: Historical and Critical Dictionary

  • 1695-1795: The Enlightenment

    • 1748: David Hume: "Philosophical Essay Concerning Human Understanding"
    • 1762: J. J. Rousseau: "The Social Contract"
    • 1763: Voltaire: "Treatise on Toleration"
  • 1707: Isaac Watts: "Hymns and Spiritual Songs."
  • 1722: Herrnhut founded by Count Zinzendorf.
  • 1730: Matthew Tindal: "Christianity as Old as Creation."
    • John and Charles Wesley found Methodism.
  • 1746: Jonathan Edwards: "A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections"
  • 1783: Moses Mendelssohn: "Jerusalem."
  • 1790: Jews in France granted civil liberties.
  • 1799: Friedrich Schleiermacher: "Reden uber die Religion" ('Talks on Religion").
  • 1829: Catholic Emancipation Act in Britain.
  • 1836: Charles Finney: "Lectures on Revivals of Religion."
    • David Friedrich Strauss: "The Life of Jesus."
  • 1838: Auguste Comte founds sociology.
  • 1841: Ludwig Feuerbach: "The Essence of Christianity"
  • 1843: Søren Kierkegaard: "Either/Or"
  • 1848: Marx and Engels: "The Communist Manifesto"
  • 1864: Cardinal Newman: "Apologia pro vita sua"
    • Pope Pius IX issues "Syllabus errorum."
  • 1870: First Vatican Council promulgates the teaching of papal infallibility.
  • 1871: Charles Darwin: "The Descent of Man."
  • 1883: Friedrich Nietzsche: "Also sprach Zarathustra."
  • 1900: Sigmund Freud: "The Interpretation of Dreams."
  • 1902: William James: "The Varieties of Religious Experience."
  • 1906: Albert Schweitzer: "The Quest for the Historical Jesus."
  • 1918: Oswald Spengler: "The Decline of the West."
  • 1923: Martin Buber: "I and Thou"
  • 1927: Martin Heidigger: "Sein und Zeit" ("Being and Time")
  • 1932: Karl Barth: "Christian Dogmatics."
  • 1934: Reinhold Niebuhr: "Moral Man and Immoral Society."
  • 1941: Rudolf Bultman: "New Testament and Mythology"
  • 1948: World Council of Churches founded.
  • 1950: National Council of the Churches of Christ organized.
  • 1954: Billy Graham holds his first series of crusades.
  • 1962: Vatican II.
 Resources

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Text copyright 2003 by David W. Koeller.  All rights reserved.