History_according_to_the_Catholic_Church
History according to the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church's perspective on history
History according to the Catholic Church is the theological interpretation of humanity's and Israel's past as recorded in the Bible, the present times, and the future of the world by the Catholic Church. It is not the same as a timeline of the Catholic Church or an ecclesiastical history of the Catholic Church, but the church's perspective on history - in other words, a combination of Catholic origin myth and eschatology. In academic theology, the field of Church history develops and contributes to the Catholic Church's understanding of history. The church believes its foundation by Jesus marks the end-times, because Judaism believes that the messiah will come in the end-times. While the church accepts much of the Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament - the existence of God, divine inspiration, the exodus to the promised land, Babylonian captivity, etc. - the church does not agree with everything Judaism believes. The church interprets many scriptural events literally (whereas Judaism interprets them symbolically), applies the messianic prophecies to Jesus (whereas Judaism discounts certain scriptural verses as messianic prophecies and rejects Jesus' claims to messiahship and divinity), and applies Jewish self-identity to the church. For example, where Judaism believes that the world was created for the sake of Israel, the church teaches that the world was created for the sake of the New Israel (the church itself); and where Judaism is centered on God and his Torah, the church is Christocentric (since Christ is believed to be God and his Word). This article divides Catholic perspectives into two pieces: official interpretations, as presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and unofficial interpretations, as presented by certain media.
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