Apr 9, 2010

Is this the end of “Historical Jesus” studies?

Mar 7, 2010

N.T. Wright talks about what’s actually important in Genesis.
 
 
 
 

Nov 2, 2009

In fact, I find illusory “cycles” far less rewarding than the notion of “attractor states” … or pitfalls that seem relentlessly to pull in cultures, because of repetitive traits in human nature.

Oct 26, 2009

There's a segment of modern evangelicalism that hates and fears Hallowe'en, calling it a continuation of satanic/pagan/Druid worship. Modern Wiccans don't help by celebrating their Samhain on this date. But does that Celtic origin story hold up? A look at the calendar might shed some light on the question.

Feb 3, 2009

For the first Anglo-Saxon Christians, Easter was the central point of the year, the moment when by baptism they entered the new life in Christ about which they had heard from the missionaries sent from Rome and from Ireland. it was not to them an arbitrary date but the pivot of the whole of the cosmos, the central moment when reality was revealed in the face of Jesus Christ... That the missionaries who preached the Gospel to them should differ about the date on which this Paschal mystery should be celebrated was both confusing and scandalous; where external practice was not something separate from internal faith, the implications of such division were not trivial. More…

Nov 26, 2008

This wall painting, depicting the Healing of the Paralytic, is the earliest known representation of Jesus, dating from about 235 AD. The painting was found in 1921 on the left-hand wall of the baptismal chamber of the house-church at Dura-Europos on the Euphrates River in modern Syria.

Oct 7, 2008

St. Augustine Lives on in the Great Theological Conflicts of Today. When it comes to St. Augustine, the great fifth-century bishop of Hippo, Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox all have a similar reaction: none of us quite know what to do with him. Or at least that was my impression, based on the conference I attended at Fordham University last June.

Sep 11, 2008

The Didachē is a short catechism, probably written in Syria during the second half of the 1st century. The Didachē is concerned with practical discipline and does not deliberately teach doctrine, but from the writer's assumptions we learn a great deal about the development of the early Church in his generation.

Sep 4, 2008

Other writers of history record the victories of war and trophies won from enemies, the skill of generals, and the manly bravery of soldiers, defiled with blood and with innumerable slaughters. But our narrative of the government of God will record the most peaceful wars waged in behalf of the peace of the soul,

Aug 7, 2008

Pietism made its appearance as a distinct historical movement within Protestantism, at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, around 1690-1730. 1 Its aim was to stress "practical piety," as distinct from the polemical dogmatic theology to which the Reformation had initially given a certain priority. Under different forms and in various "movements," it has not ceased to influence Protestantism, and indeed also the spiritual life of other churches, to this day...