Abstract
"This paper explains that Bossy focuses upon the decline of the Mass, specifically the Eucharist, during the reformation period. The author points out that, as the mass lost its power, it also ceased to be a unifying phenomenon within Western European society. The paper relates that the communal elements bound up within the sacrificial aspects of the Mass became antiquated.

From the Paper
"This is a brief review of John Bossy's, "The Mass as a Social Institution". As a leading authority in the field, it is unsurprising that Bossy's insight into the sociological and religious phenomenon otherwise known as the mass should be worthy of closer examination. To begin with, Bossy accurately notes that the pre-eminent place of the mass in pre-reformation Europe would be difficult to over-state (1983, 30). Max Weber once commented that the `great triumph' of the Judeo-Christian tradition was to create an over-arching and rational ethic that could effectively supersede moral values predicated upon kinship (29-30). "

Tags:bossy, religion, society

Abstract
This paper looks at how John Bossy in his book, "Christianity in the West 1400 to 1700" examines the type of traditional Christian community that existed in 1400 and then considers how it changed over the next three centuries into a different sort of religious community, a process he refers to as "translation." The year 1400, according to the paper, is appropriate as a starting point, because nothing happened that year, so Christianity is held in a sort of stasis for that period. This came after the Great Schism had been taking place for two decades, dividing the community into two parts, with two popes.

From the Paper
"The beginning point is when the Christian community was what we would now deem Catholic, while the end point involved a division into Catholicism and Protestantism, the latter being further divided into a number of specific sects based on some variation in beliefs. In 1400, the theory of salvation that prevailed was that of St. Anselm, a Benedictine theologian, a doctor of the church, the archbishop of Canterbury, and a Christian saint. Anselm is best known for an ontological argument for the existence of God, an argument that is still debated, and for an argument concerning a defense and explanation of free will. His view of salvation was that Adam and Eve had disobeyed God while in the Garden of Eden and so had "erected between themselves and him a state of offense which had entailed the exclusion from paradise" (3-4). Before man could be restored to a state of grace a price had to be paid. Bossy finds that there are two important axioms involved in this view: 1) the first is about satisfaction and holds that an act of retributive compensation must be paid to restore a relationship between two parties; and 2) the second involves kinship and holds that only those related to the offender by generation are involved in this process. This led Anselm to be obsessed with the issue of Christ's humanity, for Christ had to be human and so related to the original offenders in order to expiate the sins of mankind."

Tags:pope, schism, catholic, luther, christ, religion