Christianity in the 21st century

Trinity Church, Antarctica, a 15m-high siberian pine Russian Orthodox church that can accommodate up to 30 worshipers. It opened in 2004, and it is manned year-around by Orthodox hieromonk priests volunteering for the Antarctic assignment.

Christianity in the 21st century is characterized by the pursuit of Church unity and the continued resistance to secularization.

Catholic Church

Church of the Nativity of Mary - a catholic parish church in Karlova Ves, Bratislava (Slovakia).

Benedict XVI

With the election of Pope Benedict XVI, there was decentralized beatifications and reverted a decision of John Paul II regarding papal elections.^[1] In 2007, he set a Church record by approving the beatification of 498 Spanish Martyrs.

Major lawsuits emerged in 2001 claiming that priests had sexually abused minors.^[2]

Catholic-Orthodox dialogue

In June 2004, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I's visit to Rome afforded a meeting with Pope John Paul II, for conversations with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and for taking part in the celebration for the feast day in St. Peter's Basilica.

There was the Patriarch's partial participation in the Eucharistic liturgy; full participation in the liturgy of the Word, joint proclamation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in Greek, and as the conclusion, the final Blessing imparted by both the Pope and the Patriarch.^[3]

The declaration of Ravenna in 2007 re-stated the notion that the bishop of Rome is indeed the protos, although future discussions are to be held on the concrete ecclesiological exercise of papal primacy.

Francis

Since the election of Pope Francis in 2013, he has displayed a simpler and less formal approach to the office, choosing to reside in the Vatican guesthouse rather than the papal residence.^[4] Following the resignation of Benedict, Francis became the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere.^[5]

Protestantism

In February 2001, the United Methodist Church organized the Saint Brigid of Kildare Monastery. It is a Methodist-Benedictine residential monastery for women in Collegeville, Minnesota.

Postmodern Christianity has influenced the emerging church movement. Critics^[6] allege, however, that this movement's understanding of faith has led many of its adherents outside the bounds of traditional Christianity.

21st century Timeline 

• 2001 – New Tribes Missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham are kidnapped in the Philippines by Muslim terrorist group; Baptist missionary Roni Bowers and her infant daughter are killed when a Peruvian Air Force jet fires on their small float-plane. Though severely wounded in both legs, missionary pilot Kevin Donaldson landed the burning plane on the Amazon River.
• 2001 The Way of the Master founded
• 2003 the Mission Province is established in Church of Sweden: new era for confessional Lutheranism in Scandinavia.
• 2003 – Publication of Back To Jerusalem Called to Complete the Great Commission – Three Chinese Church Leaders with Paul Hattaway brings Chinese and Korean mission movement to forefront; Coptic priest Fr. Zakaria Botros begins his television and internet mission to Muslims in North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and western countries, resulting in thousands of conversions.
• 2004 – Four Southern Baptist missionaries are killed by gunman in Iraq
• 2005 Death of Pope John Paul II, election of Pope Benedict XVI
• 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District rules intelligent design as "unscientific", banning the teaching in American science classes and thereby dealing a major blow to creationism.
• 2006, July 18 World Methodist Council voted unanimously to adopt the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification
• 2006 Gospel of Judas a 2nd-century Gnostic account of Judas is shown on TV (discovered in the 1970s)
• 2006 – Abdul Rahman, an Afghan Christian convert, is forced out of Afghanistan by local Muslim leaders and exiled to Italy. Missionary Vijay Kumar is publicly stoned by Hindu extremists for Christian preaching.
• 2007 Kriol Bible completed, the first translation of the entire Bible into an Australian indigenous language
• 2007 The Creation Museum opens in Kentucky USA.
• 2007 – May 17 The Reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church after 80 years of a schism
• 2008 Conservative Anglicans indicate that they plan to split from liberal Anglicans in "The Jerusalem Declaration"

See also

• Genocide of Christians by ISIL
• History of Christianity
• History of Eastern Orthodox Churches in the 20th century
• History of Protestantism
• History of the Roman Catholic Church#Catholicism today
• History of Christian theology#Postmodern Christianity
• Timeline of Christianity#21st century
• Timeline of Christian missions#2000 to present
• Timeline of the Roman Catholic Church#21st century

References

1. Moto Proprio, De Aliquibus Mutationibus, June 11, 2007
2. Bruni, A Gospel of Shame (2002), p. 336
3. Report on Catholic-Orthodox Relations
4. Vallely, Paul (14 March 2013). "Pope Francis profile: Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a humble man who moved out of a palace into an apartment, cooks his own meals and travels by bus". The Independent. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
5. Cardinal Walter Kasper Says Pope Francis Will Bring New Life To Vatican II
6. Elliott, Paul M., "The Emergent Church's Retreat Into Pre-Reformation Darkness," The Trinity Review 292-293, Jan-Apr 2010

Further reading

• Farrell, Joseph P. God, History, & Dialectic: The Theological Foundations of the Two Europes and Their Cultural Consequences. Bound edition 1997. Electronic edition 2008.
• González, Justo L. (1985). The Story of Christianity, Vol. 2: The Reformation to the Present Day. San Francisco: Harper. ISBN 0-06-063316-6.
• Hastings, Adrian (1999). A World History of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-4875-3.
• Latourette, Kenneth Scott (1975). A History of Christianity, Volume 2. San Francisco: Harper. ISBN 0-06-064953-4.
• Nichols, Aidan. Rome and the Eastern Churches: a Study in Schism. 1992
• Shelley, Bruce L. (1996). Church History in Plain Language (2nd ed.). ISBN 0-8499-3861-9.

External links

• History of Christianity Reading Room: Extensive online resources for the study of global church history (Tyndale Seminary).
• Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Christianity in History
• Church History in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Historical Christianity, A time line with references to the descendants of the early church.