It would be against the law of God and nature if you were to remain a baby and thus become a spiritual dwarf. In 2 Peter , the Bible says that we are to grow. Christians need one another, we need to gather together to worship .. I have been brought up knowing the Lord Jesus all my life but it still is.
Table of contents
- Philosophy and Christian Theology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Born again
- Cookies on the BBC website
January 10, at 6: January 10, at 8: January 10, at January 11, at January 11, at 5: January 11, at 7: January 11, at 8: January 11, at 9: January 12, at 3: January 12, at 4: January 13, at 1: March 6, at May 1, at 7: July 12, at August 9, at 1: John Lee Oakley says: August 17, at 4: August 31, at 3: September 12, at 6: September 15, at 4: November 16, at 2: November 30, at 4: December 20, at 6: December 30, at 4: January 11, at 4: January 20, at 5: January 21, at 2: January 24, at 2: January 25, at Edward Adusei Poku says: February 11, at 5: Marvin Tom Reynolds says: February 12, at 9: Nashon Onzere Muhando says: March 24, at 9: Adi Marica tuikoro says: March 27, at 1: April 23, at 1: April 24, at April 28, at 5: May 7, at 9: May 30, at 2: May 30, at 5: June 1, at June 7, at 2: June 9, at June 12, at 4: June 22, at 2: June 21, at July 8, at 6: July 20, at 1: July 27, at 9: August 17, at 3: August 30, at 8: August 31, at September 25, at 5: Derrick Kofi Boamah Patterson says: September 26, at 2: September 28, at 2: October 5, at 3: October 10, at 5: October 12, at 6: October 20, at October 21, at 8: October 23, at 2: October 25, at November 3, at 7: November 16, at 4: November 17, at 4: November 20, at November 23, at 4: November 28, at 1: November 30, at 2: December 5, at 5: December 10, at December 11, at 4: December 26, at January 17, at January 17, at 1: January 17, at 4: February 6, at 8: January 26, at 3: February 3, at 4: February 9, at 1: February 10, at February 16, at 5: March 1, at 6: March 16, at 9: March 26, at April 1, at April 5, at 2: April 14, at April 16, at 5: April 20, at 8: April 21, at 3: April 22, at 6: April 24, at 6: May 2, at 9: June 4, at 6: And the message he hears there is that after all, God is indeed in control, through Jesus his Son, who has conquered death through his own victory over death.
Paul was born in Tarsu now in the south east of Turkey to a Jewish family. He had a dual identity as lots of Jews did in antiquity. He had a Jewish education, a Jewish way of life and abided by the Law of Moses. But was brought up outside of the homeland and was also at home in Greek culture, fluent in Greek, and had at least some understanding of the Greek or Roman cultural traditions. He was a Pharisee, one of a group of Jews who policed the boundary of the law and made sure that they and others were faithful to the law of Moses.
Paul was an extremely passionate Jew and he often uses the word 'zeal' of himself. One of the most fascinating stories about Paul is his incredible transformation on the Damascus road but one thing that doesn't change in this transformation is his passion. He just becomes passionate for a different cause. Paul gives us a brief description of what happens after his experience on the Damascus road. He says that he didn't go to Jerusalem immediately but that he went off to Arabia.
Arabia would be quite close to the northern part of Damascus, so he could have gone to reflect on what had happened. When he goes to Jerusalem, it appears that he is accepted and is instructed in the basics of Christianity. He stays with Peter for two weeks and presumably learns a little about Jesus from him.
Paul then disappears for a period and later reemerges in Antioch. Antioch in Syria which was the third biggest city in the Roman empire and becomes the center of the movement to expand this new Christian sect - this sect of Jesus the Nazarene. There are many different accounts of what happened when Paul was called back to Jerusalem. But it seems that there was a very strong movement amongt the followers of Jesus to convert Gentiles [non-Jews] into Jews. Following Christ was a Jewish movement; he was a Jewish Messiah. But Paul believed that the Gentiles were alive with the new life of forgiveness, acceptance and transformation and that that they didn't need to be circumcised.
Philosophy and Christian Theology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
So he brought this idea to the leaders in Jerusalem and the Jerusalem council agreed that Gentiles could become Christians without becoming Jews first. You can get some idea of Paul's passion when you read the letter in Galatians. A group of his converts had decided that they want to be circumcised and Paul is absolutely furious about this because he feels it compromises their very nature as Christians. You can almost feel him banging on the table or pacing round the room as he dictates the letter.
At one stage right towards the end of the letter he grabs the pen out of the scribe's hand and he says 'see with what large letters I am writing in my own hand'. Paul never shied away from conflict. Paul was a tough cookie. He could take all kinds of controversy and suffering. He has, in one or two of his letters, long lists of the things that he has endured. He writes about the number of times he's been beaten, the number of times he's been put in prison, the number of shipwrecks he's endured and he seems proud of them.
He was physically quite weak but he always attributed his staying power to the grace of God or the power of God. He had a strong sense of experiencing the power of God through suffering. The tradition is that women were submissive but at the end of Romans a letter of Paul's tells a different story. The letter is to be delivered by Phoebe, the first deacon we know of in the Christian church. She is also a benefactor or patron and very significant figure.
Paul also talks about Aquilla and Priscilla. Priscilla is usually named first when he mentions the couple which implies that she is the head of the household. He also talks about Andronicus and Juniar, one of whom may have been a female apostle. In fact we may have a situation where the apostle, the church founder, perhaps even the founder of the church of Rome, included a woman and the main leadership in Rome was by women. Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus is believed to have happened in 36 AD.
St Paul's Day is not a major feast day. The Catholic Encyclopaedia describes it as of comparatively recent origin and notes that it may have been observed originally to mark the transfer of his remains to their resting place in Rome. It is celebrated alongside the martyrdom of St Peter and is one of the oldest saints days in the Christian calendar.
Born again
In mediaeval times, people believed the weather on this day like that on St Swithin's Day to be an indicator of their fortune in the months to come. If Saint Paul's day be fair and clear, It doth betide a happy year; If blustering winds do blow aloft, Then wars will trouble our realm full oft, If clouds or mist do dark the sky, Great store of birds and beasts shall die; And if by chance to snow or rain, Then will be dear all sorts of grain.
In Address To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation , Luther attacked the corruptions of the Church and the abuses of its authority, and asserted the right of the layman to spiritual independence. In the Babylonian Captivity of the Church , he defended the sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, and Penance, but criticized the sacramental system of Rome, and set up the Scriptures as the supreme authority in religion.
In The Freedom of the Christian Man , he expounded the doctrine of salvation through justification by faith alone. The Augsburg Confession of , written by Philip Melanchthon and approved by Martin Luther, was the most widely accepted Lutheran confession of faith. Once Sola Scriptura became the norm, it became a matter of personal interpretation.
Huldrich Zwingli of Zurich, Switzerland was next, and he broke with Luther over the Eucharist, but his sect died out. The Anabaptists separated from Zwingli as they denied the validity of infant baptism; they survived as the Mennonites. While he agreed with Luther on the basic Protestant tenets of sola scriptura, salvation by faith alone, and the priesthood of all believers, he went even further on such issues as predestination and the sacraments. George Fox, the son of Puritan parents, founded the Quakers in England in Thomas More refused to attend the wedding, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London and later beheaded in Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral in Two major sects that split off from the Anglicans were the Baptists , founded by John Smyth in , and later the Methodists , founded by John Wesley and his brother Charles.
Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. On December 12, , Juan Diego was obedient to the Blessed Virgin Mary's instruction to gather beautiful roses in his tilma and take them to the Franciscan Bishop Don Fray Juan de Zumarraga on his third visit to appeal for the building of a Church as requested by Our Lady.
Juan Diego explained to the Bishop all that had passed. Then he put up both hands and untied the corners of crude cloth behind his neck. The looped-up fold of the tilma fell; the flowers he thought were the precious sign tumbled out on the floor. The Bishop fell on his knees in adoration before the tilma, as well as everyone else in the room.
For on the tilma was the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, just as described by Juan Diego, and is still preserved today in original condition in Tepeyac on the outskirts of Mexico City. Spanish conquistadors may have conquered the Aztecs in , but their ruthless behavior antagonized the people and conversions were few. Our Lady of Guadalupe conveyed the beautiful message of Christianity: It is no wonder that over the next seven years, from to , eight million natives of Mexico converted to Catholicism!
Indeed, the Blessed Virgin Mary entered the very soul of Central America and became an inextricable part of Mexican life and a central figure to the history of Mexico itself. A harbinger of things to come, Christianity would thrive in the Americas. Her appearance in the center of the American continents has contributed to the Virgin of Guadalupe being given the title "Mother of America. The Catholic Church reformed itself both through the positive work of renewal and through the impetus of the Protestant Reformation.
Efforts at reform had already begun with the Oratory of Divine Love in Genoa in The strict order of the Theatines was founded in and made significant efforts at the reform of the parish clergy. The Capuchins were founded in Italy in to restore the Franciscan Order to its original ideals.
Ignatius of Loyola began the Jesuit Order in Spiritual enrichment was kindled through the Spanish mystics St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. The Council of Trent marked an important turning point for the Catholic Church, for it provided clarity on the beliefs of the Church, and ecclesiastical discipline was restored. The doctrines established at Trent persist to this day. The Council addressed three areas: Seven major areas were included in doctrine: Both Tradition and Scripture were essential to the faith. The Latin Vulgate Bible was promoted as the only canonical Scripture.
There was a clear definition of the seven sacraments. The Mass, known as the Tridentine Mass, was given strict form and was celebrated only in Latin. The Latin Tridentine Mass provided unity for the universal Church, for it was the same Mass in every place and time. What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?
So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. Discipline involved strict reform and the establishment of the seminary system for the proper and uniform training of priests. The office of indulgence seller was abolished, and doctrine on indulgences was clarified. A Bishop was allowed only one diocese and residence was required, begun by the reformer St.
Charles Borromeo of Milan. Catholic Missionaries accompanied the explorers on their journeys, such as Christopher Columbus in , the Portuguese Vasco da Gama to Goa, India in , and Ferdinand Magellan to the Philippines in Francis Xavier exemplified the missionary movement, and has been recognized as second only to the Apostle Paul in his evangelical efforts.
The patron saint of missionaries, Francis Xavier sailed from Lisbon, Portugal and landed in Goa in His humble way had great impact on the local people, and he trained the young in the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. He was soon reported to have baptized 10, a month. He then headed to Cape Comorin, the southern tip of India, where he made many conversions of the fishermen there.
Andres de Urdaneta and the Augustinian monks sailed to Cebu, Philippines in He was a self-sacrificing man dedicated to protecting the natives, and received the name Motolinia for his life of poverty. He recorded in his book History of the Indians of New Spain the dramatic conversions following the appearances of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Dominican Bartholomew de Las Casas first went to the West Indies in as a soldier, but on viewing the horrendous enslavement of the native Indians through the Spanish encomienda system, was ordained as a Dominican priest in , the first ordination in America.
In his role as human rights advocate for the Indians, he is considered an early pioneer of social justice. Missionary efforts would continue to the New World for years to come. The history of the English Bible is intimately intertwined with the history of the Reformation. He served until his death in , when he was succeeded by his son, Charles I. It was a time when the English language reached its greatest expression in the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible.
King James as head of the Church of England commissioned a group of bishops and scholars to establish an authoritative translation of the Bible from the original languages into English in There were several English versions available, either as translations of the Latin Vulgate or from the Greek-Latin parallel New Testament of Erasmus; the ones that follow influenced the King James scholars.
John Wycliffe produced a hand-written English translation of the Latin Vulgate in His colleague, Miles Coverdale, completed Tyndale's work, which formed the basis for the Great Bible , the first authorized Bible in English, which was placed in every church in England. When the Catholic Queen Mary came to the throne in , further work had to be done on the European continent, and the Geneva Bible, the first to have numbered verses, was published in The King James Bible originally included the Apocrypha but in a separate section.
A literary masterpiece of the English language, the King James Bible is still in use today. Christopher Columbus reached America in the Bahamas on October 12, Following the discovery of Florida by Ponce de Leon in , St. Augustine, Florida became the first permanent European settlement in North America in , from which missionaries spread Catholicism to the Native American Indians.
Spanish explorations extended as far as Santa Fe, New Mexico, established in A wave of explorations to the New World continued. Samuel de Champlain explored the St. Christianity continued to thrive in the New World as our young Nation developed. Four of the original 13 English colonies were specifically chartered for religious freedom, as a refuge from religious persecution in England at the time. The settlers soon enacted the Toleration Act of Maryland and founded St. Mary's Chapel in St. William Penn and the Quakers settled in in Pennsylvania.
The Mennonites also moved to Pennsylvania in at the invitation of William Penn. The universal toleration offered in Pennsylvania continued to attract groups such as the Amish, Moravian Pietists, and Presbyterians. The period from through the eighteenth century was known as the Age of Enlightenment in Europe.
The time had come when men would set aside religious views and look to reason and social experience to guide society. It was the loss of Christian unity that led to the secularization of Western culture. Whereas Christendom provided one message to European society, the pluralism of religions provided different answers to questions about life and led to skepticism and conflict rather than unanimous thought. Discoveries in science had much to do with the Age of Enlightenment. Copernicus proposed the sun is the center of the solar system and the earth revolved around the sun.
Galileo Galilei , the first to use a telescope, confirmed that Copernicus was right and was condemned by the Catholic Church. Scientists such as Isaac Newton in physics and Robert Boyle in chemistry were pioneers and gave birth to technology, the application of science to practical problems, which led to the Industrial Revolution. Progress based on science and technology became a major goal of Western Society. Mankind was left without its mooring, and philosophers set out in different directions to provide meaning for humanity.
The critical Rationalism of Rene Descartes applied to philosophy the mathematical method so effective in science, that everything was questionable until it could be proved beyond all doubt. Blaise Pascal took a different stance and presented Pascal's Wager: John Locke applied reason to confirm revelation.
The political philosopher Baron de Montesquieu of France proposed that the best form of government would incorporate a separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches and would be based on the natural law. David Hume proposed a science of man, and is considered a pioneer in the social sciences. But Jean-Jacques Rousseau , considered the father of Romanticism, took an opposite approach and spoke of the noble savage, that man was happy only in his original native state, before government, laws, and politics chained mankind.
It was the German philosopher Immanuel Kant that defined the era: Unfortunately, the Age of Enlightenment ignored love, emotion, spirituality and concern for one's fellow man. It forgot that man is wounded by original and personal sin, and his reason is colored by desire and selfishness.
In fact, the Age of Enlightenment brought the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror , Naziism, Communism, and the twentieth century, with its two World Wars, the bloodiest century in history. Intellectual dryness and doctrinal religions prevalent during the Enlightenment Era led to a spiritual revival throughout Western Christian civilization, as seen with Pietism in Germany, Methodism in England and America, and the Great Awakening in the United States.
Philipp Jakob Spener of Germany wrote Pia Desideria in and spoke of a theology of the heart , placing emphasis on inner devotion and Christian living, and inspired the Pietist movement. Pietism especially influenced Nikolaus von Zinzendorf and the Moravian Church. John Wesley and his brother Charles provided light for Christianity during the Enlightenment. John Wesley, noted for his moving sermons, and his brother Charles, a poetic genius and hymn writer, began the Methodist movement in England, and set forth an evangelical revival throughout the British Isles, North America, and the world.
The two brothers were raised in the Anglican Church. Because of their strict method of living, they were soon called the Methodists. John Wesley experienced a heartwarming conversion experience at Aldersgate Street in London in He preached in the English countryside to the poor, and sparked a religious revival throughout England. He assured the people that all could be saved by experiencing God and opening their hearts to his grace.
George Whitefield made seven trips to America beginning in and was one of the most powerful evangelists ever. He, along with others, kindled a spiritual revival throughout the thirteen colonies known as the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening was the first national experience in America and did much to unite the American colonies. Revival during the Enlightenment Era fulfilled the human need for spiritual experience through Jesus Christ. The independence movement in the American colonies sparked an outcry for freedom of religion, such that Christianity flourished in the newly-formed United States of America.
Cookies on the BBC website
Every taxable resident was required to support the state established Church, no matter what their faith! This caused dissension in the Colonies such as in Maryland and Virginia, where Catholics in Maryland and Presbyterians and Baptists in Virginia objected to the unfair Anglican clergy tax.
Of those states with established Churches, Maryland became the first state to disestablish church and state following the Declaration of Independence. The Bill of Rights allowed the free exercise of religion and proliferation of Christian denominations during rapid westward expansion in America. Constitution and cousin of Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, became the first Catholic Bishop of Baltimore, a diocese which served the entire United States.
Two days after Thomas Jefferson wrote his highly quoted but out-of-context expression "wall of separation between Church and State" to the Danbury Baptists, he appeared on January 3, in the House of Representatives to hear the Baptist preacher John Leland lead an evangelical service on public property. Separation of Church and State did not preclude a vibrant public square. Recognizing the need to instill morals and values in our children, Bible reading and prayer continued in our public schools for years! Conversions by Evangelical Protestants and other Christian faiths provided the moral fabric for the new American nation after the Revolutionary War.
The Methodist movement proved most successful in North America. Methodist circuit-riders were effective missionaries in spreading the Christian faith from the South to settlers in the mid-West. It was left to the unlikely figure of President Abraham Lincoln to recognize the Christian culture of our Nation.
He appealed for "malice toward none, with charity for all … to bind the nation's wounds. An conservative Supreme Court that respected the free exercise of religion and our Christian heritage declared in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States that "This is a Christian Nation. The American Declaration of Independence of July 4, read all men are created equal, but slavery persisted. How could the Revolutionary War be fought for freedom without granting freedom to all?
The American Civil War reflected the Christian heritage of our Nation, for the moral issue of slavery troubled the hearts of Americans from our very beginning. The non-violent religious movement of the s and s emerged as the civil rights movement in the USA, which finally afforded racial equality for African-Americans, one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation!
The crusade arose within Negro Churches, the center of their life. African-Americans had begun to receive recognition in the fields of art, music, and sports. The arrest in Montgomery, Alabama of Rosa Parks , who was detained on December 1, for refusing to move to the back of the bus for a white person, sparked the drive for civil rights. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. The boycott lasted days until a Supreme Court decision ended segregation on city buses.
Reverend King then organized 60 pastors into the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to foster civil rights. Thomas Aquinas distinguished between just and unjust laws. Non-violent civil disobedience , advocated by John Locke, Henry David Thoreau, and Mahatma Gandhi, was employed by civil rights leaders against oppressive and unjust civil laws.
In general, one is obligated to obey civil laws that are just Matthew King Nebuchadnezzar Daniel 3: King Herod Matthew 2: Law itself is not meant for the righteous I Timothy 1: The early Christians refused to obey the Romans and suffered martyrdom rather than worship the Emperor. Kennedy announced on nationwide television on June 11, that he would submit Civil Rights legislation the following week. Augustine that an unjust law is no law at all. He urged non-violent protest to turn the tide in favor of racial equality.
The March on Washington, D. Martin Luther King Jr. Twentieth-century writers during the World Wars such as T. Eliot , Flannery O'Connor , Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day catalogued the spiritual bankruptcy of the twentieth century and called for spiritual renewal. John XXIII was welcomed with open arms by all of Christianity, for the Pope called not only for an intense spiritual cultivation of the modern world, but also sought Christian unity. The Second Vatican Council literally "reset the course" for the Catholic Church, a Church which had been described by some as a fortress Church embattled during the Enlightenment and the Modernist era.
To coin the expression of Hans Urs von Balthazar in , the time had come to raze the bastions of the Church. It was time for the aggiornamento of Pope John XXIII, the "opening of the window" of the Church to the outside world, "a translation of the Christian message into an intellectual language understandable by the modern world. The spirit of ecumenism and the change of heart towards all Christian brethren was truly a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Lumen Gentium declared "the one Church of Jesus Christ subsists in the Catholic Church, although many elements of sanctification and truth exist outside its visible structure, elements which impel toward catholic unity. The role of the laity to order temporal affairs to the plan of God was emphasized. Vatican II led to the creation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church , first published in and updated in A playwright, actor, and poet, he was born May 18, in Wadowice, Poland.
In he enrolled in the school of drama at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where he played goalie on the college soccer team. He entered an underground seminary in during the Nazi Regime, and was ordained a priest in after Poland fell under Communism. Oppression by the Nazis and Communists forged his dedication to freedom and human rights.
He earned a doctorate in theology in and a doctorate in philosopy in His first book was Love and Responsibility , on love and sexual morality, published in His highly successful play on love, The Jeweler's Shop , was published in and subsequently translated into 22 languages, and was made into a movie in Karol Wojtyla became Bishop of Krakow, Poland in He then became Archbishop of Krakow in and Cardinal in Following the day papacy of John Paul I, the Conclave of Cardinals elected the bright, personable, and vigorous Wojtyla the th Pope on October 16, The man lived his philosophy, that man is a relational being.
The world was his parish, as the loving and outgoing Pope made an unprecedented papal trips abroad. During his three pilgrimages to Poland, his repeated call for freedom and spiritual renewal was the turning-point that ultimately led to the non-violent collapse of Communism, symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, The world was moved when he forgave and visited the man who seriously wounded him in St.
Peter's Square on May 13, Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on May 29, He became a symbol of hope to the young with his inauguration of International World Youth Day in As expressed in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope , his belief in Jesus Christ as the hope for man in the Third Millennium was an inspiration for all. He urged all of us to hear the words Matthew On January 13, , he opposed the imminent pre-emptive strike against Iraq, stating war "is always a defeat for humanity.
His first encyclical, The Redeemer of Man , called the Church a "community of disciples" who follow Jesus Christ, "the center of the universe and of history. He commemorated Saints Cyril and Methodius in The Apostles to the Slavs in to encourage his fellow countryman during communist oppression. The Pope called for social justice in three encyclicals, On Human Work , On Social Concerns , and On the One Hundredth Year of Rerum Novarum , in which he emphasized the dignity of the individual, in the face of man being unjustly treated as a unit of production in a socialistic utilitarian world.
He renewed commitment to the missionary role of the Church in Mission of the Redeemer in He appreciated man's thirst for truth, as noted in his encyclical The Splendor of Truth , published in One of his favorite Scriptural quotes was John 8: You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Perhaps his most important was the widely read encyclical The Gospel of Life , published in , in which he defended the sanctity of life and described the culture of death - the evil of abortion and euthanasia.
In addition to pointing out those areas of study necessary for a true consensus of faith, he addressed the common bonds of unity in faith among all Christians: He emphasized the relation of Faith and Reason in an encyclical of the same name in His fourteenth and final encyclical On The Eucharist in its Relationship to the Church was released in His weekly general audiences in St.
Peter's Square led to his book on the Theology of the Body in He established Divine Mercy Sunday, which recognized the devotion of St. Pope John Paul II was truly the moral and spiritual leader of the entire world, as one can appreciate by the worldwide outpouring of love on his death April 2, John Paul II will be remembered for his emphasis on Christ and man, that the Gospel provides direction and supports the dignity of the human person. For "the truth is that only in the mystery of Christ the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light.
Four Courts Press, Dublin, Ireland,