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History and Religion

2022-10-09T09:57:52-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Apostolic Foundation of the Roman Church

Last updated on: October 9, 2022 at 9:57 am By Nicholas Gulda

The dual apostolicity of the Roman church was a fact well known to the Early Church Fathers. Not only did Peter and Paul labor there, but they were also ultimately martyred in the imperial capital making their residence permanent in a certain sense.[1] This apostolic pedigree became a useful tool for second and third century apologists such as Irenaeus of Lyons and Gaius in combatting Gnosticism.[2] Thus the appearance of the first extant episcopal lists of the... Read more

2022-10-02T10:05:20-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Patriarch Kirill and the Idea of Combatants as Martyrs

Last updated on: October 2, 2022 at 10:05 am By Nicholas Gulda

Comments that the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church made earlier this week caused something of a stir on the internet. As the Associated Press reports, Patriarch Kirill gave a sermon this past Sunday wherein he assured his listeners that “If someone, driven by a sense of duty, the need to fulfill an oath, remains true to his calling and dies in the line of military duty, then he undoubtedly commits an act that is tantamount to a sacrifice”. ... Read more

2022-09-25T14:51:32-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The “Ascension of Isaiah” and the Martyrdom of St. Peter

Last updated on: September 25, 2022 at 2:51 pm By Nicholas Gulda

Background: According to tradition, the Apostle Peter eventually came to the imperial capital, labored there for a time, and was ultimately martyred there by the Roman authorities. From a strictly historical perspective, Peter’s martyrdom at Rome is so well attested to in the ancient literary sources that the Lutheran theologian Oscar Cullman concluded that, “were we to demand for all facts of ancient history a greater degree of probability, we should have to strike from our history books a... Read more

2022-09-17T22:37:59-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Rome, Babylon, and 1 Peter 5:13 Revisited

Last updated on: September 17, 2022 at 10:37 pm By Nicholas Gulda

“The church that is in Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you: and so doth my son Mark.” (1 Peter 5:13, DRB) Introduction: In an older post, I had discussed the meaning of the reference to ‘Babylon’ in 1 Peter 5:13, and included the three most common interpretations of the text. The first, that it is a cryptic reference to Rome, is the oldest, has the support of ancient writers, and is the one favored by the majority... Read more

2022-09-13T06:45:23-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

September 11, a 1998 Fatwa, and an Unfortunate Comment

Last updated on: September 13, 2022 at 6:45 am By Nicholas Gulda

Introduction: Today on the memorial of September 11, 2022 many Americans (as well as others) reflect upon a major tragedy that took the lives of many, and provoked a major paradigm shift with respect to U.S. foreign policy. The ripples of that horrible day still affect countless individuals, as well as the world as a whole. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on the “why”, to explore some of the religious rhetoric leading up to... Read more

2022-09-05T11:32:19-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Origins of the Denial of Peter’s Roman Sojourn

Last updated on: September 5, 2022 at 11:32 am By Nicholas Gulda

Background: For the first thirteen centuries of Christianity it was accepted as a given that the Apostle Peter, before the end of his life, came to Rome, labored there for a period, and ultimately was martyred there. It was not until the advent of the Waldensian sect in the High Middle Ages that the first doubts on this question were expressed, and this seemingly in connection with their assertion that the Sacred Scriptures were the only means for... Read more

2022-08-29T20:00:45-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Mary, Mother of God and the Council of Ephesus:

Last updated on: August 29, 2022 at 8:00 pm By Nicholas Gulda

St. Cyril of Alexandria at the Council of Ephesus, Francisco Meneses Osorio, Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville (Wikimedia Commons). Introduction: Today, January 1, marks the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, in the Catholic Church. It is beyond the scope of the present post to present the history of the feast day, as well as to detail the Christological debate associated with the title Theotokos (“God-bearer”), formally declared at the Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431. What follows then... Read more

2022-08-29T20:05:38-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Francis Dvornik on Canon XXVIII of Chalcedon

Last updated on: August 29, 2022 at 8:05 pm By Nicholas Gulda

Pope St. Leo the Great, by Francisco de Herrera el Mozo, Museo de Prada. (Wikimedia Commons) The Council of Chalcedon was convened in A.D. 451 in order to combat the heresy of Monophysitism. While Nestorianism – condemned at the previous Council of Ephesus twenty years prior and historically attributed to Nestorius – held that Christ is two persons (one Divine and one human), Monophysitism swung to the opposite extreme. It posited that the human nature of Christ was swallowed up... Read more

Byzantium

Catholicism

The Papacy

2022-08-29T20:04:49-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Political Polarization at the Dawn of the Spanish Civil War

Last updated on: August 29, 2022 at 8:04 pm By Nicholas Gulda

José María Gil Robles, 1933.(Wikimedia Commons) In his monograph on the Spanish Civil War, Stanley Payne dedicates a chapter to what he calls “the breakdown of democracy”, wherein he narrates the unravelling of the Spanish Second Republic. In it, he includes a number of citations from some of the key players which give significant insight into what they were witnessing and how they were processing it at the dawn of the civil war. This post seeks to introduce and contextualize... Read more

Catholicism

Spain

The Crusades

2022-09-17T15:38:06-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Rome, Babylon, and 1 Peter 5:13

Last updated on: September 17, 2022 at 3:38 pm By Nicholas Gulda

Madonna and Child with Saints Peter and Mark and Three Venetian Procurators, by Giovanni Bellini and Workshop, 16th c. (Wikimedia Commons). In wrapping up his First Epistle, the Apostle Peter makes a cryptic reference to his location, stating that, “The church that is in Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you: and so doth my son Mark.”[1] The “Mark” referenced here is the author of one of the four Gospels, and whom according to tradition, was a companion of the... Read more

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