European Religion and Pop Culture

ByChad Koehler and Michael Schill

Institutional Church

Focal point of communityChurch was the bookkeepers of society (births,

marriage, death, etc.)Financial support for the poorMain responsibility for these works lay with

local parish priest (last link in a chain of command leading up to the Pope)

Protestant Reformation

Culmination of ideas of reform originating from men such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, etc.

Combination of medieval religiosity and a desire to purify Christian belief.

Martin Luther preached that people were to be saved only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (church not as important in individual salvation)

Pluralism

Pluralism: the act of a state ruler also holding religious office; primarily took place in Germany.

Pietism o Protestant revival in Germanyo Divided into three aspectsa. Warm, emotional religion that everyone could experienceb. Reasserted the earlier radical stress on the priesthood of all believers (reducing the large gulf between the clergy and Christian laity) c. Pietists believed in the practical power of Christian rebirth in everyday affairso Methodists: Opposite of pietists, mocked as

“methodical”

Carnival

• Combination of religious celebration and popular recreation seen in festivals and processions

• Cockfighting and bullbaiting were two popular “blood sports” which took place during carnival. These were extremely popular with the masses, serving to draw crowds for sermons and preaching

Questions

Who were pietists? Name three reasons the institutional church

was important to the common people What sports were popular spectator events

during carnival?