The goal or purpose of the Christian life can be stated several different ways. Fortunately, by reading the great Christian spiritual life teachers of the past I discovered in scripture GodвЂ™s desire for the Christian life. Significant movements within the broader Christian world and sometimes transcending denominational boundaries are Pentecostalism, Charismatic Christianity, Evangelicalism, and fundamentalism.When I was finishing seminary I was frustrated because I still didnвЂ™t know what the real purpose of the Christian life was other than to become like Christ, which seemed vague. The Oriental Orthodox churches constitute one of the oldest branches of the tradition but had been out of contact with Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodoxy from the middle of the 5th century until the late 20th century because of a dispute over Christology (the doctrine of Jesus ChristвЂ™s nature and significance). Its largest groups are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the Protestant churches. It has a constituency of more than two billion believers. It has become the largest of the worldвЂ™s religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. Ecumenism since the start of the 20th centuryД¬hristianity, major religion stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century ce.

Ecumenism in the 17th and 18th centuries.Orthodox and nondenominational missions.Missions to South East Asia and the Pacific.The tendency to spiritualize and individualize marriage.Intellectualism versus anti-intellectualism.Theological and humanitarian motivations.Church and state in Eastern and Western theology.The church and the Byzantine, or Eastern, Empire.The Magi and the Child of Wondrous Light.Messianic secrets and the mysteries of salvation.Characteristics of Christian myth and legend.Negative mysticism: God and the Godhead.Arguments from religious experience and miracles.Christian philosophy as natural theology.History of the interactions of philosophy and theology.Eschatological expectations and secularization.The role of imminent expectation in missions and emigrations.

Expectations of the Kingdom of God in the post-Reformation period.

Expectations of the Kingdom of God in the medieval and Reformation periods.

Expectations of the Kingdom of God in early Christianity.

Veneration of places, objects, and people.

New liturgical forms and antiliturgical attitudes.

The вЂњnew manвЂќ: The human being in the light of Christ.

The basis for the doctrine of the Trinity.

Conflict between order and charismatic freedom.

Contradictory aspects of the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of the Virgin Mary and holy Wisdom.

Different interpretations of the person of Jesus.

The belief in the oneness of the Father and the Son.

Characteristic features of the Christian concept of God.

Schism: division over substantial matters.

Development: the maturation of understanding.

Inculturation: respecting places and peoples.

Restatement: respecting language and knowledge.

Aversion of heresy: the establishment of orthodoxy.

Catechesis: instructing candidates for baptism.

Evangelism: the first teaching about the God of Jesus Christ.

Scripture and tradition: the apostolic witness.

Christianity from the 16th to the 21st century.

The Photian schism and the great East-West schism.

Political relations between East and West.

Theological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries.

The early liturgy, the calendar, and the arts.

Relations between Christianity and the Roman government and the Hellenistic culture.

The problem of jurisdictional authority.

The internal development of the early Christian church.

The contemporary social, religious, and intellectual world.

The relation of the early church to the career and intentions of Jesus.

The relation of the early church to late Judaism.

The essence and identity of Christianity.

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Christian ways of life