The Hellenistic Jewish literature is the best evidence of the influence exercised by Greek thought upon the "people of the book." The first urgent need of the Hellenistic Jews in Alexandria was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible...
I remember asking a young person, “What would it take to get you to go to church?” He said, “A great deal of courage to actually be seen coming into the building by my friends.”
The first linguistic concept I would like to throw into the discussion – like a Molotov cocktail - is the distinction between lingua franca and vernacular.
In the latter half of the fourth century, a nun named Egeria, from what is now Spain, went on a pilgrimage to the sites of Biblical history in Egypt and Palestine. Here she recounts the Holy Week from Palm Sunday to the feast of the Resurrection.
Patrick in his own words. There is no other God, nor ever was before, nor shall be hereafter, but God the Father, unbegotten and without beginning, in whom all things began, whose are all things...
If the rich history of the Celtic churches is a fairly recent discovery, their spirituality may be an even more surprising resource for a life-affirming, holistic, and faithful way of life for Christians in this "postmodern" world and, more importantly, the world of the future...
I'm pleasantly surprised by this book. From excerpts I knew she would be discussing the grey zone between liturgical, sacramental, material Christian blessings and prayers, and frankly pagan magical beliefs.
We're all familiar with the image of three men on camels, traveling trackless sand dunes by starlight: “Field and fountain, moor and mountain, / Following yonder star.” But how accurate are our Hallmark greeting cards?