Good Christian Research Articles

Understanding the Good: Medieval Inquisitions and Modern Religion

Abstract This essay responds to scholarly arguments that “religion” arose in the particular circumstances of the modern West, distinct chronologically and conceptually from medieval religio. It argues that in the Middle Ages, Christian persecution helped to form that very notion of religion. It does so via the register of heresy inquisitions conducted by Bishop Jacques Fournier in Pamiers (1318–1325), which contains a curious and overlooked Occitan phrase: entendensa del be (“understanding of the good”). In three provocative ways, entendensa del be helps us to reconsider the origins of “religion.” First, one possibility is that the phrase represents an organic proto-religion among the heretics known as Good Christians. A second possibility is, conversely, that scribes presented an insignificant phrase as a technical term, helping to identify the group as heretical. This would highlight coercive inquisitorial agency in reinterpreting language and behavior, anticipating early-modern and modern constructors of “religion.” Third, by its links to troubadour culture, the phrase reminds us how in Occitania, conquest and resistance intertwined with inquisition's policing of “religious” behavior in a way that resembles claims for modernity. Regardless of which possibility, and most importantly, we discover how medieval persecution helped to form modern religion.

Pentingnya Pendidikan Agama Kristen (PAK) Dalam Pembentukan Karakter Mahasiswa

Christian Religious Education Lessons on the formation of a person’s character is a very serous thing to be improved and fostered. The example of a Christian’s life will be even more important if that person can bring a very good Christian life and be able to implement his faith in the midst of his own social life. Christian religious education must be seriously improved, because it is related and is an intergal (whole) part in the development and improvement of human life as a whole. Which is assigned to every human being as God’s representative in proclaiming the Word of Truth in the midst of the world. Someone who has studied Christian education well is able to show positive behavior (good character), has different strengths in his actions. He has healthy ideas, faith, hope and optimism. Positive ideas emanate from his mind, as well as the law of attraction, where positive results will be attracted to people who think positively. Realization of Christian Religious Education is said to be isgnificant because it is beneficial in increasing the formation of good character and having a positive self-concept. So thus someone will appear confident with all the capabilities and wholeness owned.

Decent exposure: young women mixing schooling and sharpness in Lira City

ABSTRACT We examine ‘exposure’ as a new subjectivity among young women in Lira City in northern Uganda. Socialising with men in bars, ‘managing’ boyfriends, being a good Christian wife, are all ways of mixing experiences of formal education with the challenges of navigating a way forward in the complex and evolving context of Lira City. Young women strive to acquire skills of hustling, networking and navigating social situations, which they begin to develop during their time in school and university. They continue to cultivate these skills as they move into early adulthood. Lira City is a landscape where new government legislation, the advocacy work of NGOs, the mass expansion of Uganda’s education system, and unstable marriages, create new opportunities as well as challenges for young women.

Inquisition and Purity of Blood in Portugal during the Seventeenth Century

The aim of this paper is to analyse the role played by the Portuguese Holy Office in the process of social discrimination against New Christians, that is, those who were considered to be descendant of Jews converted to Christianity in the late fifteenth century. This article focuses specifically on the different and changing attitudes of the Inquisitors General to the issue of purity of blood during the seventeenth century. In the course of that century, some people considered to be New Christians (with fama or nota) managed to join the Portuguese Holy Office. Nevertheless, this was not due to the fact that Inquisitors General and members of the General Council rejected discrimination using theoretical, religious and moral arguments, but to the impossibility of achieving undoubtful knowledge about the origins of those seeking to join the Inquisition. At the same time, once racial discrimination became institutionalised within the Inquisition during the final third of the sixteenth century, the Inquisitors General became less concerned about the allegations of impure blood made about some of its ministers, so long as it could be demonstrated that they were good Christians and of use to the institution, or else capable of contributing to the specific personal interests of the tribunal’s rector. Nevertheless, not all supposed or real conversos succeeded in joining the Holy Office, as evidenced by cases of self-exclusion and the numerous proofs of “purity of blood” that were not approved. To address these questions, we turn to the proofs of “purity of blood” carried out by the Portuguese Inquisition, as well as to correspondence and documents from other institutions of the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies.

The Dialogue Between Faith and Reason According to John Paul II and Thomas Aquinas

Some individuals opt for unquestioning their faith, while others lean more toward reason and distance themselves from faith. The former extreme can lead to anarchic and uncontrolled religious militancy within society, whereas the latter extreme can result in the waning of faith. This study aims to address the placement of the dialogue between faith and reason. The qualitative method, utilizing in-depth literature, is employed for this investigation. The Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio and the writings of Thomas Aquinas were selected as key sources to delve into this topic. The results of this study indicate that discourses about the interaction between faith and reason do not always coexist, there are times when reason is sidelined and there are times when reason is upheld as the main truth. Being a good Christian requires constant effort to have a dialogue between faith and reason. Through this process, faith is enriched by reason, while reason is enlightened by the illuminating light of faith.

Educazione e formazione: l’approccio, le sfide e la risposta audace di Edmund Bojanowski. Education and Training: Edmund Bojanowski’s Approach, Challenges and Bold Response

Edmund Bojanowski, an esteemed Polish pedagogue who lived in the XIX century, dedicated his life to the creation of education services for small children in his country, (which he called Ochronki (= protection), and to the training of the women instructors (Ochroniarki = the protectors). His objective was a preschool education inspired by Catholic values, as man was created “in the image and likeness of God”; he envisioned a system that would raise good citizens and good Christians, enabling them to tackle the challenges of life. Blessed with a strong educational vocation, he put great effort in preparing the women instructors for this task, providing them with both pedagogic knowledge and rigorous moral principles, as well as promoting critical thinking and sense of responsibility, with the authority borne of love for the true good. He strived to promote these abilities in his instructors, so that they would transfer them to the children; he felt these qualities transform knowledge into life wisdom, and allow a person to live with dignity and respect for oneself and others. These core beliefs were also the basis for the creation of a religious order of nuns.

Women’s emancipation movement in Old Kingdom Romania. Sequences of a paradigm shift

The present paper highlights some of the contrasts and inconsistencies accompanying women's emancipation process in the Old Kingdom of Romania. In the second half of the 19th-century, Romanian society witnessed a paradigm shift best translated into the increasingly active role of women in society. It wasn't a sudden change in women's status but a gradual adaptation of the collective mind to new cultural contexts (political, social, economic, and technological). Withal, the women's emancipation movement can be understood as part of the modernization puzzle, "the best of all worlds," requiring the full involvement of both sexes. Urban elite representatives, organized in feminist societies, campaigned for women's civil and political rights, overcoming the official discourse centered on the "natural" differences between men and women. Another battle was fought to dismiss the socially constructed gender differences that destined men to public spaces and power roles while women remained cloistered in their homes. In other words, the Romanian society was willing to cultivate the woman only in her capacity as a mother (metaphorically, mother of the nation), wife, and good Christian, and less as a full-fledged citizen. As Romanian society matures and culture increases, the "feminist cause" gains more consistency, advocating for legal and economic equality, followed by political rights. Also, by navigating the list of permissions and prohibitions, women found new ways to overcome the sexual division of roles.

El poder unitivo del abrazo: reciprocidad franciscano-dominica en Geroglífico Sagrado de Alonso de Hita

In this paper I analyse Geroglífico Sagrado de la amistad más verdadera y vivo traslado de la divina y celestial en los gloriosos patriarcas Sancto Domingo y San Francisco (1692) by Alonso de Hita. My research explores how the allusions to the hug between St Francis of Assisi and Saint Dominic de Guzmán serve to promote the importance of the Franciscan and Dominican communities. As a result, I mention the relevance of the pair predication-caritas has in the book, I enquire how the hug represents the theological evolution of the members of the L’Ordine dei Frati Minori and La Orden de predicadores. In addition, I examine the foundation of the Franciscan-Dominican covenant of friendship. Finally, I mention the motifs that make of St Francis and St Dominic the prototypes of the good Christian.

«Если не обратитесь и не будете как дети, не войдете в Царство Небесное»: место и роль «детей» в духовно-нравственной реформе Савонаролы

Introduction. The Dominican preacher Girolamo Savonarola’s theme of attracting children to carry out spiritual and moral transformations in Florence at the end of the 15th century is extremely attractive to researchers. The authors of scientific works examined the phenomenon of “Friar’s boys”, comparing it with the practices of treating children in other European cities; focusing on the carnival inversion inherent in both secular and religious celebrations; considering the features of the evolution of the ritual life of the city on the Arno. Additional nuances in understanding the logic of the Florentine prophet’s actions in relation to children can be revealed based on the analysis of Savonarola’s sermons dedicated to “simplicity” as the basis for reforming the modern community of believers. Materials and methods. Applying the methods of terminological and hermeneutical analysis of source texts should help to achieve the goal of research. Analysis. An integral part of the general transformation of morals in Florence was the “children's reform”, which Savonarola began to implement at the turn of 1495–1496. Homilizing the need to cultivate the “simplicity of Christian life”, the monk proclaims the “simple people” as the main protagonists of the reform of the Church. At the same time, judging by the sermons of the Dominican, “simplicity”, being the main quality of a true Christian, is manifested to an even greater extent in “children”: firstly, based on their belonging to the age of “innocence”, when under the influence of the adult world the “purity of heart” has not yet been lost and no attachment to “excessive” material goods has been acquired; and, secondly, due to their fairly rapid abandonment of bad habits and conversion to pious life in response to the call of the city prophet. Results. Thus, the “simplicity” of the Old Testament Ruth, whom the monk set as an example for the adult population of the city, was superimposed with the gospel call to “be like children”, accompanied by the promise of gaining the Kingdom of Heaven. At the same time, the “spiritual festivals” in the God’s chosen city made it possible not only to present the results of the accomplished transformation of “children”, but also opened up the opportunity for the older generation, having accomplished the “age” inversion and feeling themselves in the New Jerusalem, to gain incentive to continue working at their own transformation into a “good Christian”.

María del Pilar Sinués: una traductora de obras edificantes

"María del Pilar Sinués (1835-1893) wrote more than a hundred works, most of them novels. She also collaborated with magazines and participated in different cultural institutions. The author was a representative of traditional Christian values, and her writings dealt with, and intermingled, literature and pedagogy. She dedicated much of her time and effort to translation; however, her contributions in this regard are less well known. In fact, Sinués de Marco, like Joaquina García Balmaseda (1837-1911) and Faustina Sáez de Melgar (1834-1895), devoted most of her time to translating French works which were published in the main newspapers of her time. This essay discusses how she translated into Spanish the novels of many writers, some of them well known, such as Alfred Musset (1810-1857), Paul Féval (1817-1887) and Hendrik Conscience (1812-1883) and others not so renowned, such as Mauricio Barr (1862-1923), Mathilde Bourdon (1817-1888), and Gyp (1850-1932). The writer’s interest in translating foreign novels that served to educate women and transform them into good Christians will also be analyzed, highlighting how Sinués promoted edifying, formative, and orthodox novels."

Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom

Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom

Heroes

What human values would you deny to save your life? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, a group of families are on vacation touring Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater when they hear gunshots. While most are confused, one attuned man realizes the danger and quickly gets the children safely into the basement. The remaining group is then confronted by men with guns looking to sort out, and kill, everyone who are not Christian. They are, they say, trying to bring America back to its true values and roots. An offended black man confronts them, but they assure him, they aren’t racists, they are good Christian men. They kill a Jewish man, who makes clear while he believes Jesus was a good man, but not the son of God. The narrator’s husband is then picked next and asked to confirm his Christian faith. His wife knows he’s an atheist and tries to will him to lie. Instead, her husband confesses both his Canadian citizenship and his lack of Christian faith, and is killed. Shortly thereafter police snipers show up and show the gunmen dead. The families are safe, but the narrator must now explain to their two children in the basement, that their father is dead.

“Ascolta, ragazzo, il mio consiglio”: l’acrostico parenetico di Ignazio Diacono, e un altro acrostico di incerta attribuzione

“Listen to my advice, my boy: the paraenetic acrostichon by Ignatios the Deacon, and another one uncertain”: The paper offers a new critical edition of the dodecasyllabic acrostichon by Ignatios the Deacon based upon the seven extant manuscripts written within the 16th century. The brief paraenetic poem is a combination of form and function: the twenty-four lines have a mnemonic purpose directed to both listeners and readers, and the sententiae which every line is constituted of are the moral vademecum for any good Christian, whether a pupil or a reader. The appendix offers a new, if provisional, critical text of the acrostichon Ἄνω πτέρωσον (Anō pterōson)—whose ascription to Ignatios is rather uncertain—in the light of a new witness, i.e., Marc. Gr. Z. 491 of the 13th century.

Paradisi e voli angelici nello spettacolo e nell’iconografia in Italia nel lungo Quattrocento

At the beginning of the 15th century, stage machines were developed in Florence to set up the mysteries of the Annunciation, Ascension and Pentecost in some churches of the city. The architect-engineer Filippo Brunelleschi, according to Giorgio Vasari, perfected the structure. These apparatuses represented heaven in three dimensions, with God the Father and his angels personified by live singers and musicians who hovered in the air in a whirlwind of dances of lights and sounds. The aim of this essay is to show, on the one hand, that the function of these apparatuses was to offer the faithful an imaginary of heaven, inspired by the model of Dante’s Comedy, which they had never seen before in the pictorial representations widespread in places of worship; and, on the other hand, that the image of heaven as a place of delight, light and infinite joy was intended to directly stimulate the emotional sensitivity of believers, encouraging them to behave as good Christians in order to enter it after death. In addition to the emotional impact aroused on the public by these stage sets, is taken into consideration the visual and kinetic suggestion that this new representation of heaven exerted on artists, both Florentine and non-Florentine, irreversibly influencing their figurative lexicon, as evidenced by the numerous iconographic sources examined. Finally, some examples of reworking of Brunelleschi’s machines in non-Florentine contexts and for themes other than religious ones are analysed, as in the case of the Feast of Paradise, created in Milan by Leonardo da Vinci in 1490, and in various representations, sacred and profane, set up in Ferrara between the end of the 15th century and the first years of the 16th century.

GENERASI MUDA YANG BERKARAKTER DAN BERMORAL: WHY NOT?

This journal discusses the moral education of today's children from a Christian perspective. The term today's children in Indonesia is better known as Kids Age Now. Kids Age Now is actually an allusion to the unnatural behavior of today's children. Education that is distanced and moral is a series of basic moral principles and the virtues of attitudes and character that children must have and make habits from a beginner's time until they become obedient to God. This research is a library research with a literature study approach through reference sources, such as books, articles, journals, and other scientific sources used in the discussion of this research. To deal with the problems of Kids Age Now, morals that are sourced from the Bible and Christian youth activities are needed. The goal is that today's children become children who have good character and are commendable. Being a Christian youth with character and morals is not easy, because Christian youths with character and morals are youths whose behavior follows the teachings of Christ, have Bible-based morals, are able to be good Christian youths, and do the right things and what Christ wants.

(Не)ожиданная смерть императорского сына: клеймо самоубийцы в картине мира средневековых людей

The author analyses fragments of medieval chronicles describing the circumstances of the death of Henry (VII) of Hohenstaufen (1211-1242) in order to find out how close medieval chroniclers came in their texts to the idea that Henry’s death was actually a suicide. Practically all of 13th and 14th century authors put forward not one but several accounts of how Henry had passed away, the version that involved suicide being one among many others. That was their way of lessening that glaring fact of suicide in the eyes of their audiences. At the same time, contrary to what we would assume given the Christian mentality of medieval society where suicide was considered a gravest sin, there was no blaming of Henry in 13th and 14th century chronicles. Quite the contrary, even those chroniclers who were monks showed compassion for Henry’s fate in their texts and described his funeral as if the deceased had died a natural death. That means that medieval historiographers wanted Henry to be remembered as a good Christian.

„Nieobecny dyskurs” o potencjale politycznym edukacji religijnej w Polsce

The issue of the “political turn” in the context of religious-pedagogical reflection in Poland should be considered – in some sense – as “absent discourse”. Despite this, one of the leading tasks of the Catholic Church, and thus of religious education in Polish schools, is to shape believers so, that they are not only good Christians, but also citizens, aware of their rights and obligations. Based on this assumption, in the first step of the theoretical analysis, the relations between the Church itself and politics were presented. Then, the “broadened” and at the same time pro-democratic horizon of the religion lesson was outlined. Finally, the religious and pedagogical perspectives were presented, not only directly related to the political dimension of religious education in Poland, but also challenging it in terms of content, structure and concept.

Beyond the Underdog Mentality: Philo-Semitism amongst Protestant Rescuers in Wartime Ukraine

AbstractIn Ukraine, as was the case across occupied Europe, while most residents of any given locality divided into bystanders, collaborators, and accomplices during the Holocaust, a minority turned to rescue work. Faith-motivated rescue work by large institutions or individuals representing prominent branches of Christianity is well documented; its prevalence exemplifies the critical role that the altruism of individual members of the clergy, laity, and religious orders played in the survival of many Jews. However, rescuers from less prominent denominations of Christianity, amongst them Baptists, Evangelicals, Seventh-day Adventists, and Sabbatarians, are less spoken about, although these rescuers were often equally as motivated to rescue and more poorly resourced to do so due to disadvantageous political circumstances. Some scholars suggest that it was their “underdog” identity that made such groups empathize with persecuted Jews, but primary testimony offers an even more intriguing perspective: it was the philo-Semitic underpinnings of some members of the minority Protestant denominations in question that provided a broad theological basis for rescuing Jews, transcending the sociopolitical phenomenon of the common underdog mentality and even more widespread ecumenical obligations for being a good Christian.

James Silas Calhoun: First Governor of New Mexico Territory and First Indian Agent by Sherry Robinson

Reviewed by: James Silas Calhoun: First Governor of New Mexico Territory and First Indian Agent by Sherry Robinson Jerry Thompson James Silas Calhoun: First Governor of New Mexico Territory and First Indian Agent. By Sherry Robinson. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2021. Pp. 390. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index, appendix.) After serving eighteen difficult months as the first governor of New Mexico Territory, James Silas Calhoun departed Santa Fe for Washington in May 1852 as crowds from Tesuque, Santa Clara, and Nambé Pueblos saw him off. Suffering from scurvy and unable to stand, the governor rode in a bed in an ambulance in the wagon train of James Hubbell. From St. Louis, he hoped to go on to Washington and then to his home in Georgia. At Fort Union, the post commander, Major James H. Carleton (not John H. Carleton as indicated throughout the text), certain the governor would not reach the states alive, had a wooden coffin made for him. Calhoun died at Hickory Point, thirty-eight miles west of Westport, Missouri, on June 30, 1852. Appointed governor by President Millard Fillmore, Calhoun had taken the oath-of-allegiance on a platform under the portal of Santa Fe's Palace of the Governors. As governor, Calhoun faced daunting problems, seeing as many as fifty visitors a day, making numerous appointments, dealing with the turbulent politics of the territory, and ordering a census. There was not one cent in the territorial treasury, and many of the Indigenous tribal groups in New Mexico were restless and hostile. Although born into poverty in 1799 at Boggy Gut Creek, Georgia, and orphaned at an early age, Calhoun rose to become the mayor of Columbus, Georgia, an able lieutenant colonel of volunteers during the war with Mexico, and American consul in Havana, Cuba, where he learned Spanish. Calhoun arrived in New Mexico as the first Indian agent in 1849 during a turbulent time. "Matters in this territory are in a most deplorable condition—infinitely worse than you possibly can imagine," Calhoun wrote (137). Moreover, the state of Texas was continuing to press claims to all the land east of the Rio Grande, including settlements such as Albuquerque and Santa Fe. In fact, Texas was threatening to send an army of 2,500 men to take eastern New Mexico by force, if necessary. Governor [End Page 271] Peter H. Bell warned he would arrest any military officer who interfered. In Washington, President Zachary Taylor threatened to take command of the U.S. Army in New Mexico and hang Texan interlopers as traitors. Anxious about expansionist Texans, Nuevomexicanos feared they would be "forced into an unnatural and repugnant association with Texas" (165). Robinson disputes historian Howard Lamar's theory that Calhoun, an ardent Whig, created a political machine of sorts in the territory. Not long after arriving in Santa Fe in the late summer of 1849, Calhoun headed west with Lieutenant James Hervey Simpson in an expedition into Navajo country. Although Calhoun possessed great sympathy for the Native Americans, one of the misfortunes during the expedition was the killing and scalping of the six-feet, six-inch Navajo chief Narbona, who was said to be in his eighties and crippled with arthritis. With respect to many of the Native Americans, Calhoun, like many of the citizens and military in the territory, believed in "compulsory enlightenment," even at the point of a bayonet, if necessary (129). Besides the Navajo, the Comanche and Apaches should be "penned up" and made to cultivate the soil, Calhoun argued. Following the misplaced logic of both the Spanish and Mexicans, Calhoun, like many others, thought Native Americans should become good Christians rather than maintain their own beliefs. Calhoun also asked the legislature to pass a law to prohibit free Blacks from the territory. Perceptibly, Calhoun brought on the fury of abolitionists. Robinson points out there were only seventeen free Blacks in the territory at the time, including Jim Beckwourth, who ran the best saloon in Santa Fe. Using numerous quotes from primary and secondary sources, and sixty illustrations, Robinson spins a compelling and entertaining biography of Calhoun that is exceptionally well researched and soundly written. Nothing in Calhoun's life is left...

The Background to “Fight the Good Fight” in 1 Timothy 1:18, 6:12, and 2 Timothy 4:7

Abstract The combined wording in 1 Tim 1:18 of στρατεύω + στρατεία can be rendered in English “fight the fight,” “battle the battle,” or more generally “perform military service” or “serve in a military campaign.” The combination surprizingly occurs often throughout Greco-Roman literature to express a patriotic warfare idiom for good character revealed by persevering through warfare or military campaigns. This idiom is applied to Timothy to demonstrate his good Christian character and reputation over against the false teachers’ bad character. The idiom also occurs often in a legal context to affirm a person’s character and good reputation, which qualifies a person to be an officer of the court or endorses a person’s character before the court in a legal dispute, showing him to be worthy of an innocent verdict. In 1 Timothy this idiom is used in a legal context (accompanied repeatedly by the μάρτυς word group, as in the Hellenistic occurrences of the idiom) that demonstrates and acquits Timothy’s character and reputation before the false teachers. The redundant word combination of ἀγωνίζομαι + ἀγών (“struggle the struggle”) in 1 Tim 6:12 and 2 Tim 4:7 is recognized by commentators as a development of the phrase in 1 Tim 1:18. In the Greek world, this also is a well-worn idiom used in the same way as the στρατεύω + στρατεία expression, most likely highlighting the difficulty of the fight. This is why the expression ἀγωνίζομαι + ἀγών is synonymous with the expression in 1 Tim 1:18, even with the added adjective “good.” This is also why some English translations even translate the redundant expressions in 1 Tim 1:18, 1 Tim 6:12, and 2 Tim 4:7 as “fight the good fight,” clearly seeing στρατεύω + στρατεία and ἀγωνίζομαι + ἀγών as synonymous. This lexical study of Greco-Roman backgrounds endorses the conclusion that the two expressions are idioms and are synonymous.