Religion and Theology

Civilization is connected to the progress in culture and establishment of social order in a society through its political and religious structures. Christianity has influenced a lot of changes in the world, more than any other religion in social order and philosophical thought. Christianity has been close knit to the values, practices and beliefs in Western culture. Its contribution can be linked to four major aspects of civilization which include the economic order, political organization, establishment of moral values and the search for knowledge. Christian teachings can be closely associated to the present day, justice and liberty enjoyed in most western societies which advocates for compassion in provision of all things.

The origin of Christianity can be associated to the Jews who were part of the Roman Empire. This religion established itself as a unique religion which has a collective doctrine, a structure and authority. This helped it to spread quickly within the Roman Empire and gained significant presence within every community in the Western Europe at that time. This helped the region to gain a common understanding in religious faith. During the period which Christianity came to being, Rome had control over quite a large part of Western world. Christianity diffused into the roman leadership which later spread to all its territories which were under its leadership.

During the reign of Constantine, Christianity was made a legal religion. As a result, Christianity gained an upper hand as its values were given a lot of consideration when passing laws. During this reign of Romans in major parts of Europe, the spread of Christianity flourished, which helped Christianity to grow from fellowship of a small grouping to greater numbers of people.  Most of the ideologies and thoughts in political and social life today have a lot of origin from the Roman leadership. As the Roman Empire expanded to most parts of Western world it brought with it values with regards to religion and leadership, which had a lot of foundation on religious faith.

Socially, Christianity has brought about intolerance in the society through its doctrine of believe in only one God, and for those who do not abide to this doctrine are regarded as pagans who will one day perish. In this society, Christianity enforced a strict and a one level of spiritual discipline. Due to the embracing of Christianity, the western worlds have found religion as a ground of treating strangers who do not abide to this faith with reservations. In addition, Christianity has great influence to its belief in Supreme Being God who has great control in all aspects of life.

Politically, Christianity has also imposed a lot of influence in promotion of equality among the Western societies. Through the doctrine all people are equal before the eyes of God Christianity has helped people to develop a sense of equal treatment to others regardless of any other affiliation which has endeared it among many people. This sense of equality among all members of the community has helped to develop an equitable society. This has found a lot of basis on the teaching of treating another person as your neighbor and doing to the others as you would like them to do unto you. The civilization in the Western world has had an outward approach in embracing other people due to the influence of Christianity. Christian teachings have a lot of regard to those in the authority. Through its structure in a society, Christianity has helped the society to embrace leadership which is composed of rulers such as kings, who work close together with religious figures such as bishops, and popes.

The expansive nature in Western civilization into other regions like the United States had a basis of the mandate given to the Christians by God to expand the reach of the religion to other people in the world. Economically, the individual strives to gain wealth at personal level has a basis in the Christian teachings where there is a lot of inference to the payments of hard work.

In the advent of theological and scientific thought, the embracing of knowledge in Western societies can be associated with the verse in the Bible which talks of the destructions experienced by people as a result of lack of knowledge. In pursuit to make clarifications in science and other fields, societies has been encouraged to seek knowledge not only in relation to Christian beliefs but all other fields.

Comparison and contrast among theologies of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Wesley
In his theology, Martin Luther considered the need to have a change in the church on how it perceived the issue of repentance. He based his argument on the scripture and questioned how pope could offer forgiveness to people whilst forgiveness could only be granted by God alone. He went ahead to criticize the belief held on the need to have good deeds so as to ensure one acquires salvation. According to him, salvation could only be guaranteed from faith alone, which is a component of a gift from God. He opposed the sale of indulgences in church as a form of punishment for the sins committed by the followers.  Luther saw it as a commercial undertaking which was not intended to safeguard the soul of a person but to gain revenue for the church. His movement in the new view of the doctrines in the church such as the justification through faith and the authority on the scriptures has had a lot of significance in the church reforms. His arguments led to his excommunication from Catholic Church. Most of his views were adopted by reformers of church and has formed a basis of argument for many Protestants in the modern day.

John Calvin is closely associated with the theology of Calvinism which has a lot of reference to the destiny of mankind and the issues that relate to wickedness and the autonomy of God on the life of a man. After the excommunication of Martin Luther, those who followed his doctrines started to form evangelical or protestant churches. The doctrine of Calvinism came at this period when the reformed churches were forming at a direction which was completely independent of the doctrines of Luther.
John Wesley brought about the theology of the order of the salvation under the foundation of the existence of original sin and the readiness of God to forgive man of his sins. According to his theology, the origin of sin is enshrined on the justification which progresses with sanctification and the final stage of glorification. The acknowledgement that God created us free of sin forms the justification. The occurrence of death is as a result of our connection to Adam. According to Wesley, the need for salvation is as a result of the requirement of humankind to attain justification which is a Godly state free of sin.