The First Urban Churches 5

Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Jacob M. Baum

This chapter begins part 1 of the study by attending to the production of worship practices in fifteenth and early sixteenth century Germany as a political economic problem. The narrative of the Reformation as a de-sensualizing force relies on the construction of late medieval Christianity as intensely ritualistic and hypersensual: particularly during the rite of the Mass, late medieval worship mobilized not only ostentatious gestures, images, and textiles, but also bells, organs, choirs, incense, and a complement of expensive liturgical vessels to overwhelm churchgoers with a multi-sensory theatrical spectacle. However, as systematic scrutiny of church inventories shows, this level of sensuous worship was an expensive proposition and, as such, was something that only the wealthiest urban churches could hope to approximate. In reality, producing sensuous worship before the Reformation was much more variegated than commonly assumed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 75-89
Author(s):  
Luoying ZHAO

Since the reform and opening up, China has been developing through the stages of old urbanization and new urbanization. In recent years, with the rise of county economy? the new urbanization centered on county towns> as an important way to promote the urbanization of the population transferred from rural areas,has played a significant role in the changes of Christianity in urban and rural areas. Based on the ease study of L County in central Henan, this paper analyzes the new trend of the flow of Christian believers and the changes of churches in county towns and rural areas from five aspects: number and population characteristics of Christian believers? church activities and participation of Christian believers>theological personnel training? theological construction and finantial offerings. The study finds that the gap between urban and rural churches has further widened, the uprooted settlement of immigrant in county towns has led to a sharp drop in the number of rural Christian believers>a growing aging population>single and simplified church activities> the lost of theological talents> the rc-cmcrgcncc of heretical cults in rural areas, and shrinking finantial offerings. ’I'hc decline and fall of rural churches has become a general trend. Although the development of urban churches is on the rise as a whole> it also faces many challenges and difficulties.


1990 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hunter

The singing of metrical psalms, canticles, some anthems and a few hymns in the ‘old way’ constituted almost the sole musical activity in English parish church services after the Restoration. By the start of the eighteenth century a reform was under way. Parish clerks ceased to line out the psalms for the benefit of congregations. As the clergy and gentry generally disdained to assist the improvement of music and only the wealthiest urban churches could afford organs, congregations took their lead from choirs trained by itinerant singing-masters. Church music became divided between the art music of cathedrals, chapels and rich parishes and the popular psalmody performed elsewhere.


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