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INTRODUCTION
Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf was a pious nobleman who served in the court for the king of Saxony. Being a generous man, he allowed a small group of Moravian refugees to establish a village on his estate. This village was named Herrnhut, and under Zinzendorf’s leadership became a unique Christian community. Zinzendorf was one of the most influential leaders of the modern Protestant missionary movement. In addition, he was responsible for the rebirth of the Moravian Church, authored many hymns, and pioneered ecumenical evangelism. Nevertheless, above all, he launched a global missionary movement that set the stage for other missionaries such as William Carey and the “Great Century” of missions that would follow.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO MISSIONS AND LEGACY
Zinzendorf’s Approach to Missions
In 1731, Zinzendorf’s zeal for missions was sparked while attending the coronation of King Christian VI in Copenhagen. Zinzendorf met a Christian slave from the West Indies, who urged for someone to go back to his homeland and witness to his fellow slaves. When he returned to Herrnhut, two men willingly volunteered for this task. Thus, in 1732, Zinzendorf sent his first two Moravian missionaries to the West In¬dies. Moreover, these were the first Protestant missionaries sent on a mission from the modern missionary era. Many people refer to William Carey as the “father of modern missions.” However, this title belongs to Zinzendorf, who was engaged in modern missions 60 years before Carey. In 1735, a missionary group went to Geor¬gia, and then Penn¬syl¬van¬ia. Zinzendorf took special care sending missionaries into almost every part of the known world. Within 20 years, he sent missionaries to Greenland, Lapland, Georgian, Surinam...
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...ht. Nevertheless, if Zinzendorf’s example of the Night Watch was followed today it would have a major impact on world missions.
Moreover, Zinzendorf did not limit prayer to the evening hours. He also had the custom of incorporating the “Hourly Prayer.” Zinzendorf had a group of twenty-four men and women who pledged themselves to pray for one hour in the twenty-four period. Each person took turns and interceded for the needs of the community and its missionaries. To determine who would pray at what time, names were drawn by casting lots. The Moravians twenty-four-hour prayer chain started in 1727 continued unbroken for over one hundred years. Christians today can be motivated by Zinzendorf’s emphasis on praying for missionaries around the globe. Church groups and mission organizations could establish the same ideas and have a continued unbroken prayer before God.
Walter Rauschenbusch is widely regarded are a great American theological leader who is regarded as the founder of the social gospel movement in America, that transformed the church and the society in general . His main belief was that religion was not an individual activity or a phenomenon that affected only a single person. Instead, he believed that religion affected the entire society and therefore, the impetus for social reform and raising one’s voice against any sort of social evils or injustice should also come under the ambit of religion and church1. In this write-up an attempt is made to understand the religious philosophies of Walter Rauschenbusch and elaborate his principles of the social gospel movement. The Social Gospel movement also had a significant impact on the Protestant stream of thought prevalent in America .
Boniface Wimmer is regarded as one of the greatest missionaries of the nineteenth century. His mission was to establish a Benedictine monastery abroad in the United States to help the thousands of Catholic Germans who fled from their homeland in search of a better life. “Today, there are over thirty Abbeys and monasteries that take their root from Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B.” With the grace of God, Boniface Wimmer succeeded. He was considered to be a “man on a mission.” His tenacious attitude aided him in spreading the mission of the Benedictine Order across the Atlantic Ocean. The Benedictines were seen not only as missionaries, but also as teachers and priests. The strong sense of bonding and connection within the community was vital to the Benedictine Order then, as it still is today.
The Second Great Awaking consisted of new applications of religion that deviated from rationalism, which sparked promotion of democracy and freedom. The message of salvation rather than condemnation was evident in this movement as spoken by Charles G. Finney. He sought to remove sin from reformed churches and organize sinners to unity and freedom (Doc B). This practice showed the crucial democrati...
Francis of Assisi is one of the most influential personalities in the entire world. In the book ‘Francis of Assisi: Performing the Gospel Life,’ Cunningham recounts the life of this humble monk who lived in the medieval times, and shaped the Christian life, which spread in Western culture throughout the rest of history. I believe Cunningham accurately accounts for the life of Francis of Assisi, and in doing so; he provides a trajectory of the Christian faith from its early and historical proponents through its fusion with western culture, and its subsequent spread throughout the world.
There is a lot that has been said about the missionary trips of this distinguished servant of Christ which started about fourteen years after his transformation. His travels have left many Bible scholars confused about his powerful impact and how he founded of the Western Christian Church.
The thesis of this book is that George Whitefield (1714-1770) changed the nature of Christianity by promoting and conducting mass revivals that exploited the weaknesses of institutional Christianity.
Kittelson effectively composed the book and created the biography to be an interesting look into the life of Martin Luther. His successful usage of primary source documents and information compounded with his personal literary explanation of Luther’s journey toward reformation and peace with God. Kittelson’s book is not without humor either, he includes direct quotes and dialogue between Luther and Zwingli debating the Lord’s Supper. The insults and demonstrative behavior show Luther as he was, a reformer, who wished to convince others of the power of the gospel. This engaging study is both informative and engaging. Luther the Reformer is a good biography for anyone interested in Martin Luther’s life and interested in learning more about why his journey impacted not only the Roman church then, but the entirety of the Christian Church to this
Within mainstream society it seems as if there is not a great deal of emphasis on the contributions made by theologians in society, as well as contributions by theologians to religious thought. Particularly in Christendom, ecclesiastical assemblies are so consumed with vain ideas of worship, and content on hearing biblical messages that capitulate to their personal desires, that theological studies are often neglected. Yet the contributions theologians have made in society, and the impact these contributions have had on religious assemblies have been pivotal in guiding religious discourse on subjects such as ethics, morality, and social transformation. It is for this reason, that in this essay an attempt will be made to analyze three essays from three world-renowned theologians of the 20th century. The theologians are Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Walter Wink, all of which have produced the essays used for this analysis, and have written works that have completely challenged status quo religion, and changed the landscape of Christendom forever.
One important aspect of Quaker life to understand before reading An Account of the Travels, Sufferings and Persecutions of Barbara Blaugdone, is the use of traveling ministers to spread the Quaker religion around the world. The Society of Friends, given the popular name “Quakers”, originated in England in the seventeenth century and quickly spread to the English colonies, and later to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Turkey, and America (Sharpless 393). The most influential people in this rapid spread of the Quaker religion were the missionaries. While Quakers believed that “no one should preach the Word without a direct call from God”, they did believe that any one “male or female, old or young (395)” could receive this call. The truth of the matter was, however, that the majority of the traveling ministers in the seventeenth century were women.
O'Brien, Susan. 1986. “A Transatlantic Community of Saints: The Great Awakening and the First Evangelical Network, 1735-1755”. The American Historical Review 91 (4). [Oxford University Press, American Historical Association]: 811–32. doi:10.2307/1873323.
Reverend Josiah Strong's Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis inspired missionaries to travel to foreign nations.
St. Boniface, originally named Winfrith, was an extremely studious man, a converted monk, priest, missionary and finally martyr. Born in 672, near Exeter, England, St. Boniface at an early age developed a desire to follow the path of God and live a monastic life. Through non-stop prayer and religious practices, he tuned his mind and body to reach beyond the obstacles and enticements of everyday life at his young adult age. He was a major influence on society during his life and affected the lives and history of Germany permanently. Often called the “Apostle of Germany”, St. Boniface was a strong believer in the principles of the Church and truly wanted to open any pagan believers minds to the knowledgeable and rewarding path of the Christian life.
Throughout the Western culture, Christianity has played a crucial role in the spiritual life of many people. In fact, it is a one of the largest religion in the world with an estimating range from 2 to 3 billion Christians (Religions of the World: Numbers of Adherents; Growth Rates). Spreading with this worldwide religion, the idea that God is at the centre of daily life has a high importance to many people. In the early 20th Century, one of the significant developments of Christianity was the Pentecostal Movement (A Brief History of Christianity). More specifically, Pentecostalism is “the principles and practices of Pentecostal religious groups, characterized by religious excitement and talking in tongues”; its most remarkable detail is its emphasis of the Holy Spirit and the value of prayer (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). It has outspread around the world by the people who believed that they had experienced the marvelous moves of God.
Pentecostalism is considered one of the greatest universal movement that transformed immensely the history of Christianity. It emphasized a personal interaction with God facilitated by baptism of the individual by Holy Spirit (Alexander, 43). One of the proponents of Pentecostalism is William Seymour. He is regarded as the initiator of Pentecostal movement because of his fundamental teachings on the role of Holy Spirit in a Christian’s life (Heaton 35). Therefore, this research paper aims to describe the contributions of William Seymour to evolution of Pentecostalism. The guiding thesis is that Seymour orchestrated the Pentecostal movement that swept the nation all over the world, which later contributed to the creation of new religious denominations that shared common beliefs, practices, and customs.
Mitchell, Curtis C. 1984. "The case for persistence in prayer." Journal Of The Evangelical Theological Society 27, no. 2: 161-168. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed March 16, 2014).