Early Days Of Christianity Research Articles

The Teaching of the Church in a Changing Cultural and Social Setting

The subject of this paper is to demonstrate the connection between the forms of preaching the Gospel in the context of today’s cultural, social, and political changes. Since the early days of Christianity, the Gospel message has been adapted to the changing environment. Currently, globalization and digitization are behind these changes. Information society is emerging, its main activities, including communication, being transferred to cyberspace. For this reason, actions aimed at adapting contemporary evangelical communication to this new situation need to be identified. There is a need for change in language and terminology. It is also necessary to utilize the latest IT solutions for evangelization. They should primarily operate in virtual reality, in which a significant number of people are already active. By doing so, it will be possible to follow Christ’s instruction to proclaim the Good News to all nations.

A Positive Side to Apophaticism: Prolegomena

The article synthetically presents positive aspects of apophaticism. It discusses its apologetic role, its importance in defending against magical thinking, its focus on experience, its openness to pluralism, and its inspirational role for a variety of disciplines in delimiting their cognitive boundaries. Some of the most important conclusions are: a) apophaticism played an important role in the early days of Christianity in polemics against both pagan cults and magical tendencies; b) already in ancient Greece apophaticism influenced the search not only for symbolic interpretations of Homer’s poems but also for religious experience; c) the limits of cognition discovered by theology are becoming a contemporary experience of other sciences (mathematics, physics).

Orthodoxy, Orthopraxy, and Locke’s Arguments for Toleration

A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) comprises John Locke’s mature thoughts on religious toleration. In it, Locke offers three political arguments against state religious coercion. He argues that it is impossible, impermissible, and inadvisable for the civil magistrate to enforce ‘true religion,’ which Locke defines as the ‘inward and full persuasion of the mind’ (Works, 6:10). Notwithstanding the various internecine conflicts within Christianity, conflicts which motivated Locke’s concern with toleration, all of the many-splendored sects of Christianity nonetheless share the notion that orthodoxy (correct belief) is required for salvation. Since the early days of Christianity, orthodoxy has represented the lowest-common-denominator obligation of adherents to Christianity. Locke’s political arguments in the Letter, at least in their first instance, assume an orthodox definition of “true religion.” This is likewise true of those who have either defended or criticized Locke’s arguments in the secondary literature. In contrast to Locke and his commentators, we will argue that the dominant characterization of “true religion” globally and throughout history does not concern correct religious belief as much as it concerns correct religious practice, or orthopraxy. Even though it has not received as much attention in the literature, Locke does discuss orthopraxy–what he calls ‘outward worship’–at length in the second half of the Letter (Works, 6:29-39). We will demonstrate how versions of all three political arguments for toleration can be redeployed to constrain the power of the magistrate within an orthoprax conception of true religion.

Leopold Cohn and the Evolution of Messianic Judaism into the Leading Missionary Movement among American Jews

Since the early days of Christianity, it was generally accepted that a person could be either a Jew or a Christian, but not both. This, however, changed in the late nineteenth century. Yitzhak Leib Josowitz was a young Jew who studied at Hungary’s top yeshivas and ordained as a rabbi. Shortly after settling in New York in 1892, he converted, ordained a priest, changed his name to Leopold Cohn, and became a missionary. Cohn promoted a relatively new missionary approach which encouraged Jews to retain their identity and traditions, but also to adopt Jesus as their messiah. This, he claimed, would not only make them better Jews, but would also win them a higher spiritual status than people who were born Christians. Cohn also convinced many Christians to donate to his mission, which he called The Chosen People. After his death in 1937 Leopold was succeeded by his son Joseph, who greatly expanded the mission’s outreach. In time the missionary approach Cohn developed was adopted by other missions and became known as Messianic Judaism. Today, the dozens of messianic missions have millions of members and one of the most active ones is Cohn’s Chosen People which continue its operation more than 125 years after its establishment.

U-11 Predictions About the Last Messenger Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) & Gospel of Bernabas (Research & Analysis)

According to Islam, the Gospel is the name of the revelation of Allah Almighty which revealed on Jesus Christ (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), as stated in the Qur'an: و اتینه الانجیل We have given him the gospel. But to Christians, the gospel refers to the biography of Jesus as it is evident from the study of currently available Gospels.According to the Bible – Acts of the Apostels, Barnabas is one among the first three personalities who dedicated their lives to Christianity. There was a Gospel attributed to Barnabas, which was of great importance in the early days of Christianity. However, at a conference in Nicaea in 325 later, it was decided that all the Gospels in Hebrew were to be destroyed, the Gospel of Barnabas would be destroyed. The orders were issued but somehow it remained till the present time.The contents of this Gospel are closer to the Islamic teachings than the other available Gospels, so Muslim scholars liked it and disliked it by Christian scholars.
 In this article, the Gospels and the evangelicals related to this Gospel are presented in an exploratory way to show the truth in the Christian world.
 In this article presents the anecdotes and predictions related to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) written in Gospel of Barnabās in an exploratory manner so that the truth is revealed to the Christian world.

Hıristiyanlıkta Kudüs’ün Kutsallaşma Süreci

Herhangi bir dinin müntesiplerince kutsal kabul edilen bir yerin aslında mekân olma açısından diğer yerlerden farkı yoktur. Ancak, sonradan kutsal addedilen bir mekân, bir toplumun dinî hayatının merkezinde yer alan, insan hayatına yön veren ve anlam kazandıran bir özelliğe de sahip olmaktadır. Bunun en güzel örneği Kudüs şehridir. Kudüs Yahudilikte ve İslam’da olduğu gibi Hıristiyanlıkta da kutsal kabul edilen bir şehirdir. Ancak Kudüs’ün Hıristiyanlar için kutsallık kazanması İsa Mesih’in ölümünden asırlar sonra gerçekleşmiştir. Zira yorum farklılığından ötürü Kudüs’ün Hıristiyanlığın ilk dönemlerinde kutsal olup olmadığı hususunda belirsizlik bulunmaktadır. Bu nedenle Hıristiyan tarihinin ilk dönemlerinde Kudüs’ün kutsallığından bahsedilemez. Hatta Kudüs’ün kutsallığı hususunda, İsa Mesih’in çarmıha gerilmesinden asırlar sonra Hıristiyan din adamları arasında tartışmalar da yaşanmıştır. Kudüs, bütün karşı çıkmalara rağmen Hıristiyanlar için kutsallığını zamanla tekrar kazanmıştır. Kudüs’ün kutsallığını kazanmasında Hıristiyan inancının şekillenmesinde etkili olan tarihi olayların bu şehirde gerçekleşmesi, İsa Mesih’in mezarı üzerine inşa edilen Kutsal Kabir Kilisesi’nin bu şehirde bulunması ve Hıristiyanların Kudüs’ü hac merkezlerinden biri olarak benimsemeleri etkili olmuştur.

From glutton to gourmet: is gourmandise still a deadly sin?

Drawing from historical literary works and contemporary French literature, this study [1] explored the evolution of the meanings of ‘gourmandise’ as a concept, from its early characterisation as a cardinal sin to a contemporary notion merging with visual textualisation. Furthermore, it argues that the twentieth century paved the way for a transformation in the meaning of gourmandise: its definition now emphasises a visual refinement characteristic, while retaining the element of excess as part of its appeal, thus making ‘gourmandise’ symbolic, accessible and acceptable to the general public.
 Although the word ‘gourmandise’ appeared in written documents at the end of the Middle Ages, its history is much older since its use dates back to the early days of Christianity, to the first monastic communities of the third and fourth centuries. In addition, while the term still exists today, its significance has had many variations over the centuries.
 While contemporary lexicographers define it as “the aptitude to appreciate the quality and delicacy of dishes” and the “excessive taste for the pleasure of the table” [2], its meaning has varied over the centuries [3] and is still contested. Philosophical, spiritual and social debates exist over whether the word depicts excess or moderation.
 In Western society, gourmandise refers to three denotations roughly corresponding to three historical periods. The earliest meaning refers to the big eaters, the heavy drinkers, and all the excesses of the table. Strongly negative, the word ‘gourmandise’ qualifies a horrible vice, one of the seven deadly sins codified by the Christian Church.
 Gradually, gourmandise was enriched by a second, positive sense, which would triumph in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and introduce the word ‘gourmet’ into European languages. While still reprobated by the Christian Church and moralists, gourmandise became a respectable epithet characterising amateur appreciators of good food, good wines and good company.
 The eighteenth century brought about a redefinition of the notion of gourmandise, all the more so as the influence of the Christian Church declined considerably. The works of Grimod de la Reynière and, a few years later, Brillat-Savarin saw a semantic change in the meaning of gourmandise, which has been attributed to the transition of an economy of scarcity to one of abundance [4, 5].
 The twentieth and twenty-first centuries brought a new era for gourmandise. With the advent of digital communication, people began to talk about their experiences more rapidly and to a wider audience. Eating out has become a social event, one which must be shared instantly. Gourmandise has become digital and focuses both on quality and quantity, retaining some of its original meaning but with a new visual dimension [5].
 Gourmandise is now part of everyday and professional life. It still includes the implications of excess, sharing and exchange, but now denotes transference in an increasingly seductive and interactive way. This rediscovered gourmandise is now voyeuristic instead of the gourmandise of the stomach.
 The findings of this study suggest that, while the meaning of gourmandise has evolved over a period of two millennia, the aspect of excessive food consumption has been retained from its beginnings right through to the twenty-first century. Paralleling its growing prestige within popular culture and social media, the discourse on gourmandise is thriving. Amidst the ‘explosion’ of food-related blogs, vlogs, websites and television programmes, gourmandise has become an engaging form of entertainment, trying to satisfy the appetites of a contemporary ‘food-crazed’ culture.
 The original research on which this article is based is available here http://hdl.handle.net/10292/12964
 Corresponding author
 Gilles Petit can be contacted at: gilles.petit@aut.ac.nz
 References
 (1) Petit, G. From Glutton to Gourmet: Is Gourmandise Still a Deadly Sin? Master’s Thesis, Auckland University of Technology, Jul 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10292/12964 (accessed Apr 20, 2020).
 (2) Gourmandise. Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française [online], 9th ed. https://academie.atilf.fr/consulter/Gourmandise?page=1 (accessed May, 2018).
 (3) Bantreil-Voisin, N. Gourmandise: Histoire d'un péché capital [online]. La Cliothèque, Jan 3, 2011. http://clio-cr.clionautes.org/gourmandise-histoire-d-un-peche-capital.html (accessed May 1, 2016).
 (4) Meyzie, P., Ed. La gourmandise entre péché et plaisir. Lumières 2008, 11. https://www.fabula.org/actualites/lumieres-ndeg11-la-gourmandise-entre-peche-et-plaisir_28260.php (accessed April, 2018).
 (5) Greene, C. Gourmands & Gluttons: The Rhetoric of Food Excess; Peter Lang Publishing: New York, 2015.

Светле слике Драгутина Илића

The paper explores the key characteristics and the reception of glorious images [svetla slika] in the work of Dragutin Ilic, who found the material for this type of a text mostly in the New Testament legends and Serbian history in the period of the struggle for the liberation from the Ottoman rule in the early 19th century. It also aims to establish a relationship between the image [slika – a short form of narrative fiction used in Serbian Realism] as an inter-genre used by the Serbian authors of the second half of the 19th century (including Dragutin Ilic) and the glorious image. In Ilic’s works the term glorious image entails a carefully selected topic and a clearly presented message. The first part of the research focuses on glorious images in the early days of Christianity, while the second part explores glorious images from the Serbian struggle for the “Holy Cross” (i.e. the anti-Ottoman liberation struggle). Ilic published these works both in periodicals and as books in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This analysis of glorious images and the insights stemming from it are placed in the frameworks of the literary history, literary theory and comparative studies. The main common denominator of this genre in Ilic’s works, it has emerged, is ideological: his glorious images offer the reader a model of life rooted in faith, suffering and sacrifice and governed by elevated ethical and Christian principles and traditionally valued virtues. Fully aware of its importance and meaning, Ilic cautiously approaches the demanding religious and literary subject matter, which he uses as the starting point for creating his New Testament glorious images, which occasionally results in psychologically unconvincing characters or compositional incoherence or an overemphasized moral of the story – or all three at the same time. Ilic’s distinctive humor and irony, typical of many of his works, are completely absent from his glorious images from the early days of Christianity. The in-depth psychological characterization of some literary characters (such as Herodias, Yair, Judas) gives these works of narrative fiction a special quality. The contemporary critics were divided in their evaluation of Ilic’s glorious images (Marko Car and Pavle Lagaric, for instance). This part of Ilic’s oeuvre offers a wealth of material and lends itself to various research approaches: from a comparative exploration of similarly conceived texts in European literature (Selma Lagerlof, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy) to an analysis of intertextuality, auto-images and hetero-images to the mechanics of fantastical elements.

On Richard Carrier’s Doubts

The Jesus Myth theory is the view that the person known as Jesus of Nazareth had no historical existence. Throughout the centuries this view has had a few but notable adherents such as Bruno Bauer, Arthur Drews, G.A. Wells, and Robert M. Price. Recently, Richard Carrier’s work On the Historicity of Jesus (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014) has attempted to reexamine the question in a rigorous academic fashion. According to Carrier, within the earliest days of Christianity, Jesus was not understood as a historic-human figure, but rather as a celestial-angelic being, akin to Gabriel in Islam or to Moroni in Mormonism, and only came to be understood as a historical person later. While Carrier’s hypothesis is problematic and unpersuasive, there are several key points related to his work that this article specifically challenges and critiques.

Estudio canónico sobre la viudez consagrada

An ancient Order of Widows existed alongside the renowned Order of Virgins from the early days of Christianity until well into the Middle Ages. The 2015 Synod of Bishops proposed that the order of consecrated widows be restored. This article provides an overview of the Ordo Viduarum in ancient and medieval history, and presents the reality of consecrated widowhood in the contemporary Latin-rite Church. Since the mid-twentieth century, orders of widows have emerged in various dioceses in Europe and the United States. There is no canon in the 1983 Codex Iuris Canonici in this regard, and only a very general provision is articulated in the 1990 Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium (c. 570). The article offers an exegetical commentary of canon 570, as well as considerations concerning practical matters remanded to particular law. The appendix includes examples of particular law and liturgies developed for this juridic institute.

Teach Us how to Pray: A Review of New Books by Episcopal Women

Teach Us How to Pray: A Review of New Books by Episcopal WomenWearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God. By Lauren F. Winner. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2015. 286 pp. $24.99 (cloth).A Lot of the Way Trees Were Walking: Poems from the Gospel of Mark. By Cynthia Briggs Kittredge. Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015. xv + 100 pp. $15.00 (paper).Learning to Walk in the Dark. By Barbara Brown Taylor. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2014. 200 pp. $24.99 (cloth).Grounded: Finding God in the World-A Spiritual Revolution. By Diana Butler Bass. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2015. 323 pp. $26.99 (cloth).In Lukes Gospel, in the days when Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem and has begun to tell his that he must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the religious leaders and be killed and then on the third day be raised, his closest circle of followers ask him to teach them how to He had just gone off by himself to a certain place to pray, alone with God, as was his spiritual practice. His followers notice, and when Jesus finishes praying, they confess to him their need to pray as he did: Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples (Luke 11:1).I like to think that, in that moment, Jesus learned something about his vocation. From the earliest days of his public ministry, Jesus had understood the purpose of his life and ministry to be about healing and proclaiming good news. After his discernment in the wilderness, he had returned to his hometown of Nazareth and stood up in the synagogue, full of the Holy Spirit, to reveal his mission. He would teach about the reign of God, what it was like and what it could be like on earth. He would proclaim that it was coming and already very near, especially for those most in need of it, the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, the oppressed. He would help to bring about the reign of God by his preaching and by his healing of lepers and paralytics, blind and deaf people, and those possessed by demons. He would also help to usher in the reign by suffering and dying. But it may not have been until this moment of expressed need, desire, and perhaps some gentle critique by his of his leadership compared with that of his cousin John the Baptist that Jesus realized his mission also was to be a teacher of prayer.He himself was a man of prayer, in close relationship with God his Father. It is no coincidence that, in Luke's Gospel, Jesus is praying in the moment of his baptism, when the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends upon him. His prayer and his power in the Spirit for mission are interwoven. His prayer emboldens and strengthens him for proclaiming and healing. But when he commissions his also to go forth into the villages to bring the good news and cure disease of every kind, Jesus may not have realized that they needed instruction in prayer for this ministry. They needed to know how to pray as he did. They needed a relationship with God as intimate as his. When his begin to learn that the mission of Jesus also will involve suffering and death, they become more aware of their need for prayer and beg Jesus to instruct them in nurturing intimacy with God. Lord, teach us to pray. And so Jesus does, starting with the suggestion that they address God with a name of tender endearment, one used by beloved children. Abba.Because Jesus instructed others in the art of prayer, teaching people how to pray is arguably one of the mission responsibilities of the Christian community. Not everyone within the community can be a teacher of prayer, for the Holy Spirit gives gifts for all kinds of different ministries. But some are so called.Interestingly, from the veiy earliest days of Christianity to now, women as well as men have significantly participated in this mission of Jesus, from the desert mothers and fathers, to Christian mystics of the medieval age, to spiritual directors and teachers of prayer in more recent times. …

Education and training, practical and scholarly knowledge in late medieval female convents

Women’s monastic foundations, since their appearance in the early days of Christianity, constituted a particular type of space for living and learning. Religious women had to have suffi cient command of Latin to carry out their liturgical duties; at the same time, their knowledge of Latin allowed them access to the scholarly traditions of the European Middle Ages. Since these women were excluded from public educational institutions, such as the Latin schools or the universities, as a rule nuns themselves assumed responsibility for educating the next generation of religious women. The various fields of knowledge taught in female foundations encompassed not only the theological, liturgical and literary, but also a sophisticated knowledge of administration and law that (in written form) was tailored towards the particular circumstances of managing, from within their monastic enclosure, the convent familia , its lands and economy. These fields of knowledge are reflected not only in the composition of their libraries but also in the written material pertaining to administration that is still preserved in monastic archives.

The Cost of Orthodoxy

The quest for orthodoxy began in the earliest days of Christianity, and has continued unabated until today, after two thousand years of church councils and theological argument. In the western church, the Council of Chalcedon (ad451) is generally taken to be a watershed, or even to have settled the most important questions. This was not the case in the east, where Chalcedon was immediately questioned, leading to the separation of the eastern churches. Byzantinists tend to suppose that the ending of iconoclasm in ad843 characterised the nature of Byzantine orthodoxy for the future. This paper argues that ‘orthodoxy’ was always fluid, and that its definition, and still more its imposition, were always fought over, and required constant effort, energy and an outpouring of oral and written argument. This effort was costly for institutions and individuals alike, and was far less successful than it seems.

Breastfeeding in Byzantine icon art

The Mary Galaktotrophousa is a representation of the Virgin breastfeeding the infant Jesus. The origin of this theme goes back to Antiquity when images of gods feeding humans were considered as an example that should be imitated by human. In the early days of Christianity, the Fathers of the Church recognized on the feature of Mary the ideal exemplary of maternity. The image of the Virgin breastfeeding the Holy Child, except the theological interpretation of the gesture, underline the fact that breastfeeding represents one of the most substantial gestures in the woman nature.

Medieval Saints’ Cults as International Networks: The Example of the Cult of St Katherine of Alexandria

Veneration of the saints was an important element of medieval piety and was pervasive throughout all levels of medieval society. In the early centuries of Christianity there was no formal process for declaring someone a saint and many cults were purely local affairs. However there were a number of saints who enjoyed an international cult. These were often major figures from the early days of Christianity, such as the apostles, the most famous perhaps being Peter, whose cult was centred in Rome at the heart of the western Christian establishment. For those cults that developed an international dimension, it is possible to view the transmission of the cult as creating a network or networks of individuals linked by their devotion to that particular saint. At one level this concept of a network is more metaphorical than actual. Individuals, unknown to each other, could share a common veneration for a particular saint. They were linked by their shared knowledge of the saint’s story, which provoked a common reverence. Indeed the actual transmission of the saint’s story can be considered to create a network of sorts as it passes from person to person, either by word of mouth or through the movement of written texts. A network of this sort can be considered to span both time and space.

What is it about the Book? Semantic and Material Dimensions in the Mediation of the Word of God

When the Christian Bible is referred to as the ‘Word of God’, the common understanding is that this refers to its textual content. There are, however, a variety of other uses made of the bible that point to an understanding of the Word of God as not just the textual content but also the material book itself. This article explores a number of uses of the physical bible as an instrument of spiritual mediation or power that have been practised since the early days of Christianity to the present time. Some of the understandings underlying these material practices are explored, along with differences in the religious-cultural context that sustain these different views, including the differences in religious hermeneutics between the oral and written word, the importance of the concept of the book in Christian identity, the relationship of fetishism and theological understanding, and cultural differences in understanding the relationship between textual and material signification.

The Sex Lives of Saints: An Erotics of Ancient Hagiology

According to Burrus, the title of this volume is not intended to be oxymoronic. Together with an intriguing dusk jacket showing a sepia reproduction of Papety’s‘‘The Temptation of Saint Hilarion,’’ the arresting title, and especially the sub-title, do indeed convey the book’s message—that all may not be quite right with the conventional view of saintly life, and that the idea of there being a repressive, sepia-hued perception of sexuality during the early days of Christianity can be challenged by a new exploration of the hagiographical texts, leading, as the present book purports to show, to the uncovering of an exuberant eroticism. The saints who are the subject of enquiry are those who comprise the‘‘Desert Fathers’’—devout Christians of the 4–5th centuries who fled the liberal life-styles of towns and cities to find spiritual retreat in the deserts of Palestine and North Africa. Themostnotable liveswere recordedbyStJerome(d.420) inhis ‘‘Vita S. Pauli, prima eremitae’’ (374–379) (and herein is also included the life of Paul’s saintly friend and desert companion, Antony), as well as the ‘‘Vita Malchi, monachi captivi’’ and ‘‘Vita S. Hilarionis,’’ of 391–392, all of which were collected intoamassive foliobyFrHeribertRosweyde in the 17thcentury as‘‘Vitae Patrum.’’Various English translations have followed (see http://www.vitae-patrum.org.uk/page2.html). The solitary lives of these men (and occasionally women, such as Pelagia and Mary of Egypt, both reformed harlots) were located at the very edge of existence—both geographically and biologically speaking. The sun scorched their bodies black, their hair was unkempt, they shunned contact with other eremites, they were a prey to madness and the visions that accompany extreme bodily privations:‘‘Then febyll ther wyttis and fallen to fondness, Sum into despeyer and sum to madnes.... Who clymyt hye, hys fall grete ys’’(see p. 181 in Waddell, 1998). The desert was the perfect receptacle for the life which they wished to cast off; and here, too, arose the opportunity of refinding and restoring the uncorrupted, essential human being within. Following such extended purgation, the desert fathers may well have concurred with William Blake who, in his ‘‘Proverbs of Hell,’’ had the insight that ‘‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.’’ In the desert was given the possibility of accomplishing the first step towards sainthood (it was not an easy step for, as St Jerome himself remarks in his epistle to the virgin Eustochium,‘‘How often, when I was living in the desert...did I fancy myself among the pleasures of Rome’’), and of setting desires above non-desires whence it might bepossible, at a secondstep taken uponreturn to society, to equilibrate the non-desires with the desires; that is, to know and, at the same time, not to know those excesses which now have the appellation of the ‘‘seven deadly sins.’’ Six of these (anger, covetousness, envy, gluttony, pride, sloth) relate to the immediate material needs of the body and the expressions of the emotional center. They are aspects of life as it is ordinarily led; they fall away in the contemplative silence of the desert. But what of the seventh deadly sin, lust? This is an experience (it might simply be called ‘‘libido’’) arising in the sex center. Not only does it relate, as do the other‘‘deadly sins’’in their more usual everyday form ameliorated by the internal ‘‘buffers’’of social propriety, to the well-being of the body and the psyche, but also (and more importantly) to a transcendent state of existence where sexual energy is revealed as the manifestation of a more fundamental generative energy (see also Bennett, 1975). This energy penetrates successive generations of living organisms and finds its most complex vehicle in man himself. Whereas the six bodily sins may be quelled by asceticism, the transcendent‘‘sin’’of lustmay bea hardernut tocrack (itwould takeanascetic to speak herewith authority!) since the P. W. Barlow (&) School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK e-mail: P.W.Barlow@bristol.ac.uk

Sobre judíos y judeoconversos en la Baja Edad media. Textos de controversias

The artiche after to allude to the texts of controversy of the early days of Christianity and some apologetas of the Visigoth period, goes to say about of the more modern polemicist era: Pedro Alfonso, Ramon Llull, Ramon Marti, Ramon de Penyafort, which worked to understand the texts Arabs and Jews to best them refute. These dialectical confrontantions resulted in spectacular theological debates as the famous Dispute of Tortosa, convened by Pope Benedict XIII. We make also a study about some writings against Jews, the significance of the preaching of Fr. Vicente Ferrer, the treaty Fortalitium fidei of Alonso de Espina, and others calling for the unity of Old Christians and Christian converts, as Scrutinium Scripturarum of Pablo de Santa Maria and the Defensorium Unitatis Christianae of his son Alonso de Cartagena.

Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches in Ghana and the African Culture: Confrontation or Compromise?

AbstractThe paper establishes the reality of conflict between Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches in Ghana and the African culture. It examines the history of this conflict since the early days of Christianity in Ghana as well as the causes of the conflict. It also looks at the effects of the conflict on the dialogue expected between Christianity and the African culture, mediation efforts by third party governance and civil society organizations, and the theological implications of the antagonism for the Christian engagement with other non-Christian religions, especially, Islam, which shares Africa with Christianity.

Haeres Petri: Leo I and Church Order

The exact nature of the authority of the Bishop of Rome was a subject for debate from the earliest days of Christianity. Few doubted that he occupied a special place in the life of the Church and exercised a special kind of authority, but the historical and theological foundations of that authority required articulation. The first Pope Leo, focussing on his relationship to the apostle Peter, presented one of the first coherent accounts of papal authority. In this essay the author clarifies the distinctions that need to be made between the various concepts that constitute the notion of authority – demonstrating, finally, that Leo's claims lie not in concepts of potestas or imperium but rather in concepts of firmitas, stabilitas, confirmatio and soliditas. This not only throws light on the growth of the Papacy in the first centuries but suggests ways of approaching similar questions in the present day.