Understanding World Religions Chapter Twenty Christian History © 2011 Irving Hexham The ruins of Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire, England. Source: Photo by Irving Hexham. © 2011 Irving Hexham

Christian History Source: Richard Temple, Palestine Illustrated, London: W.H. Allen, 1888. In the public domain. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus as it was in the early nineteenth century.

Christian History Source: Anton Springer, Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte, Leipzig: Seemann, 1904. In the public domain. The empty tomb and claim that Jesus rose from the dead is the central claim of Christianity. Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3-30

Christian History Photo by Irving Hexham 2002. Iona Abbey, rebuilt after centuries of neglect in the mid-twentieth century. From the seventh to the late eight century Iona was the centre of Christian missions for northern Europe and one of the places that preserved classical education in the West.

Christian History Photo by Irving Hexham 2002. © 2011 Irving Hexham Martyrs Bay on the Island of Iona where in 806 eighty-six monks who had survived the Viking raid of 794 were slaughtered. Again and again in Christian history it seems as though the Church is about to be extinguished before it rises once more.

Christian History Photo by Irving Hexham 2002. © 2011 Irving Hexham The Cistercian monastery of Rievaulx near Thursk in Yorkshire. For centuries the Cistercians kept alive Christian traditions and converted pagan tribes on the borders of Europe.

Christian History Source: woodcut found in Georg Buchwald’s, Doktor Martin Luther, Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1914. In the public domain. © 2011 Irving Hexham The Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther, disguised as Junker Georg, or the knight George, during his stay in the Wartburg Castle.

Christian History Photo of the Wartburg by Jeremy Hexham. 2011. © 2011 Irving Hexham The Wartburg, Eisenach, Germany, where Martin Luther (1483-1546) translated the New Testament into German from the original Greek between 4 May 1521 and 1 March 1522.

Christian History Pictures from public domain sources. © 2011 Irving Hexham On the left the leader of the Catholic Counter Reformation, Ignatius Loyola (1495-1556), on the right John Calvin (1509-1564). The works of these men shaped the post-Reformation era.

Christian History Photo by Irving Hexham 2005. © 2011 Irving Hexham John Wesley (1707-1788) whose revivalist preaching created the Methodist Churches and helped shape modern evangelical religion.

Christian History Photo of Schleiermacher’s bust taken by Irving Hexham taken in 2008 at the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Theology at the Humboldt University, Berlin, where Schleiermacher taught and was a founding member. © 2011 Irving Hexham Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) who is known as “the father of modern theology.” His work also helped give birth to what became religious studies.

Christian History Photo by Irving Hexham of the memorial in the Dorotheenstädtische Friedhof (cemetery), Chausseestraße, Berlin. © 2011 Irving Hexham Memorial stone for Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945). Executed days before the concentration camp where he was held was liberated by American troops is body was cremated and the ashes scattered in a river in an attempt by Hitler to prevent anyone remembering him and other Christian Martyrs of the Third Reich.