Posts Tagged ‘Christian history’
May 27th, 2009 | Comments Off
The collect for today, the Feast of The Venerable Bede (673-735), Monk, Historian, Doctor of the Church (source): Almighty God, maker of all things, whose Son Jesus Christ gave to thy servant Bede grace to drink in with joy the word which leadeth us to know thee and to love thee: in thy goodness grant [...]
Tags: Christian history, Christian saints, England
Posted in Art and Literature, Christianity, History, Prayers and Liturgy | Comments Off
April 27th, 2009 | 1 Comment
On Easter Day, Anglican Curmudgeon A.S. Haley posted a lengthy item about the Shroud of Turin, arguing that best current evidence strongly suggests that the shroud is the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ. I did not see that post until yesterday, via a link at Lent & Beyond. I have known about the Shroud [...]
Tags: Christian history, New Testament, Shroud of Turin
Posted in Christianity, History | 1 Comment »
February 7th, 2009 | 2 Comments
The Christian church flourished in the Middle East and Asia for over a thousand years. In the 14th century, however, Syriac Christianity came under attack in a series of adverse events—most importantly, Islamic rulers began a wide-ranging and sustained persecution of Christians. The church was forced to retreat to remote mountainous regions and borderlands, where [...]
Tags: Christian history, Eastern Christianity, Philip Jenkins, Technology
Posted in Christianity, History, Religious Liberty/Persecution | 2 Comments »
January 26th, 2009 | 1 Comment
Saint Gabriel Syriac-Orthodox Monastery, located in Tur Abdin, south-east Turkey, is the oldest functioning Christian monastery in the world. It was founded in 397, but its survival is now imperilled by a series of lawsuits launched by Muslim neighbours who are seeking to have the monastery closed or deprived of its land. [T]he future of [...]
Tags: Christian history, Eastern Christianity, Mor Gabriel, Persecution, Turkey
Posted in Asia-Pacific, Christianity, History, Religious Liberty/Persecution | 1 Comment »
January 17th, 2009 | 1 Comment
The collect for today, the Feast Day of St Antony the Great of Egypt (251-356), anchorite, abbot (source): Most gracious God, who didst call thy servant Antony to sell all that he had and to serve thee in the solitude of the desert: grant that we, following his example, may learn to deny ourselves and [...]
Tags: Christian history, Christian saints, Fine art
Posted in Art and Literature, Christianity, Prayers and Liturgy | 1 Comment »
January 12th, 2009 | Comments Off
The collect for today, the commemoration of the Right Rev John Horden (1828-1893), first Bishop of Moosonee, Missionary to the First Nations of Canada: O God, the Desire of all the nations, you chose your servant John Horden to open the treasury of your Word among the native peoples of Canada. Grant us, after his [...]
Tags: Christian history, Christian saints, Evangelism
Posted in Anglican, Canada, Christianity, History, Prayers and Liturgy | Comments Off
January 5th, 2009 | 1 Comment
In one of the great tragedies of church history, one of the most ancient Christian communities is being destroyed before our very eyes. The Assyrian, Chaldean, and Orthodox churches of Mesopotamia appear headed for a bloody end. As recently as 1970, Christians made up 5-6 percent of Iraq’s population; today, they are less than 1 [...]
Tags: Christian history, Eastern Christianity, Iraq, Persecution, Philip Jenkins
Posted in Asia-Pacific, Christianity, Religious Liberty/Persecution | 1 Comment »
I came across this disconcerting passage in How To Read A Church by Richard Taylor. Images of Jesus with a beard may also have developed through a wish to symbolize ugliness. There was some debate in the early Church as to whether Jesus was in appearance the most handsome, or the most repulsive of men. [...]
Tags: Christian history
Posted in Christianity, History, Personal | 4 Comments »
December 31st, 2008 | 1 Comment
Some contemporary biblical scholars and historians believe that the early church was awash with gospels, epistles, and apocalypses that are not found in today’s New Testament. These other texts, according to this view, were allowed to circulate within the early church more or less freely and were judged heretical and tossed out only after Emperor [...]
Tags: Bible, Christian history, Eastern Christianity, Monophysitism, Nestorianism, Philip Jenkins
Posted in Christianity, History | 1 Comment »
December 29th, 2008 | 2 Comments
For well over a thousand years, the world of Christianity looked something like this map, a flower with three petals—Africa, Asia, Europe—centred around Jerusalem. Not until around 1500 did Christianity and Europe become synonymous: Christianity became essentially European and Europe essentially Christian. Before then, the Christian church survived and flourished in Egypt and Ethiopia and [...]
Tags: Christian history, Eastern Christianity, Monophysitism, Nestorianism, Philip Jenkins, Western civilisation
Posted in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Christianity, History | 2 Comments »
December 17th, 2008 | Comments Off
Conrad Rudolph, Professor of Art History, University of California at Riverside, has digitally re-constructed a lost 12th-century mural. Hugh of Saint-Victor (1096-1141) originally created “The Mystic Ark”, probably as a wall painting, but it was subsequently lost. The mural is considered the most complex work of art from the medieval period. That digital reconstruction of [...]
Tags: Art history, Christian history, Conrad Rudolph, Fine art, Hugh of Saint-Victor, The Mystic Ark
Posted in Art and Literature, Christianity, History | Comments Off
December 16th, 2008 | 2 Comments
Three years ago this week, an ancient Armenian cemetery in the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan was destroyed in a stunning act of cultural vandalism. The Djulfa (Jugha in Armenian) cemetery was at one time filled with thousands of beautifully and intricately carved “khachkars” (literally, “cross-stones”), some dating back to the 8th century. In 1998 and [...]
Tags: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Barbarism, Christian history, Djulfa, Jugha, Persecution
Posted in Europe, History, International | 2 Comments »
November 20th, 2008 | Comments Off
The collect for today, the Feast Day of Saint Edmund (841-869), King of the East Angles, Martyr (source); O eternal God, whose servant Edmund kept faith to the end, both with thee and with his people, and glorified thee by his death: grant us the same steadfast faith, that, together with the noble army of [...]
Tags: Christian history, Christian saints, Fine art
Posted in Christianity, History, Prayers and Liturgy, United Kingdom | Comments Off
November 11th, 2008 | Comments Off
The collect for today, the Feast Day of St Martin (c 316-397), Monk, Bishop of Tours (source): Almighty God, who didst call Martin from the armies of this world to be a faithful soldier of Christ: give us grace to follow him in his love and compassion for those in need, and empower thy Church [...]
Tags: Christian history, Christian saints, Fine art
Posted in Art and Literature, Christianity, History, Prayers and Liturgy | Comments Off
October 12th, 2008 | 2 Comments
In recent years, Christians have been martyred in Turkey, Gaza, and elsewhere for professing the gospel of Christ. Powerful Muslim groups are seeking to criminalise any criticism of Islam or Mohammed. How should Christians respond? In medieval Cordoba, the capital of Muslim Spain (711-1492), Christians faced similar questions. Followers of Christ were tolerated and “protected” [...]
Tags: Christian history, Islamic teaching, Persecution, Spain
Posted in Christianity, History, Islam, Religious Liberty/Persecution | 2 Comments »