Christian culture is a very spiritual culture and thus, finds supreme expression in the personalities of saints (Heierman, 1919). Saints are the men and women who followed the Christian way of life in an exemplary manner throughout their life (Heierman, 1919). The saints influenced culture in two ways. First, because they were spiritual leaders, and second by mirroring perfection and the ideals of Christian behaviour toward which people are to aspire (Heierman, 1919). There is an extraordinary range of human character and behaviour on which the seal of approval of sainthood has been placed. There are saints who are Christian statesman and warriors, yet there are also visionary and eccentric saints (Heierman, 1919). If Christianity was based solely on the lives of saints, it might easily be supposed that Christianity is a religion that gives free reign to all varieties of religious experience (Heierman, 1919). However, the importance of saints is not limited simply to their lives and legends. What is more important is the place they hold in the Church. It is in the Church that the subjectivity of the saints’ lives is subordinated to the objectivity of the liturgical order (Heierman, 1919).
Church history too often concentrates its attention on theological controversies and delivers Christian history (Heierman, 1919). The lives of saints bring people of the Church into contact with the inner life of Catholicism. The saints demonstrate how the Christian tradition has found expression in new creative personalities, which are characteristic of time and place in which the saint lived (Heierman, 1919). The lives and legends played a leading part in Christian teaching and education. They reached all people through not only l...
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...ted to Jesus, are all what allowed her to be recognized as a saint. These characteristics of her life also challenge and support Christian teachings. Her supposed repentance of a sinful life supports how important repentance is to Christianity. Further, her devotion to Jesus Christ from the time she met him to her death supports the Christian teaching of devotion to Christianity. However, Mary Magdalene also challenges Christian teachings by challenging Christianity to venture into unknown territories. Further, by simply being a woman and being the apostle to the apostles, Mary Magdalene challenges the notion of men being superior to women inherent in Christianity. As such, when the life of Mary Magdalene and why she is a saint is examined in concordance with Christianity, it becomes evident that St. Mary Magdalene challenges and supports Christian teachings.
With the hindsight of the 1960s, it is easy for us to view how influencers of the era have reformed and revitalised the Christian tradition to a great extent. Because of this hindsight of the 1960s, an era in which the zeitgeist was full of intellectuals, poets, musicians and authors, we can see the traditions of Christianity were considered to be backward to a world that was changing in terms of beliefs and ethics as society embraced these social reforms. The statement then clearly reflects Pope John XXIII and his impacts on Catholicism. Pope John XXIII recognized these changes and through his leadership, the impacts he had on Christianity had a substantially large influence over the Catholic Church as he ultimately altered the Christian tradition by creating the Vatican II. By doing so, he adjusted traditional Church Scriptures (ressourcement), involved himself with promoting ecumenicalism and also interfaith-dialogue as well as becoming engaged in the modern world (aggiornamento), therefore meeting the needs of the evolving society by revitalising the old traditions.
Through the close study of two of the aspects shown in the diagram, their contributions allow Christianity to be considered a living religious tradition. The significant contributions of Pope John XXIII, during both his papal and Pre-papal life have had everlasting effects on not only Catholicism, but Christianity as a whole and lead to the sense of Christianity being a living religious tradition. His works include two Papal encyclicals, Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris, along with his work being Apostolic Delegate of Greece and Turkey. Moreover, The significant practice of Baptism has further contributed to Christian being considered a living religious tradition as it accounts for the premise of most Christian beliefs to be initiated, especially in terms of salvation and affirming the beliefs in the trinity and following the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Francis of Assisi is one of the most influential personalities in the entire world. In the book ‘Francis of Assisi: Performing the Gospel Life,’ Cunningham recounts the life of this humble monk who lived in the medieval times, and shaped the Christian life, which spread in Western culture throughout the rest of history. I believe Cunningham accurately accounts for the life of Francis of Assisi, and in doing so; he provides a trajectory of the Christian faith from its early and historical proponents through its fusion with western culture, and its subsequent spread throughout the world.
Jenkins, Phillips. The Lost History of Christianity. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. Print. Phillips, Jonathan.
One statement Brown makes about Mary Magdalene is that the early church created a “smear campaign” against Mary Magdalene to conceal the truth that she was married to Jesus. After his crucifixion, Mary fled to France where she had a daughter, Sarah. Leigh Teabing, a friend of Robert Langdon’s explains, "Magdalene was no such thing. That unfortunate misconception is the legacy of a smear campaign launched by the early Church. The Church needed to defame Mary Magdalene in order to cover up her dangerous secret-her role as the Holy Grail” (Brown 320). No evidence exists that proves the church started this story to cover up her marriage to Jesus. Pope Gregory VI did connect her with the unnamed prostitute in Luke 7:36-50, but the biblical text does not explicitly state that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. The grail relics including the bones of Mary Magdalene and documentation confirming the bloodline were kept secret and hidden in Rosslyn Chapel. The Sangreal documents, the Purist documents, and the Magdalene diaries are supposedly the documentation that explains and tells the whole story about Mary Magdalene and her relationshi...
Blessed Raymond of Capua. The Life of Saint Catherine of Siena . Trans. George Lamb. New York: P.J. Kennedy and Sons, 1960.
Roles of the Catholic Church in Western civilization has been scrambled with the times past and development of Western society. Regardless of the fact that the West is no longer entirely Catholic, the Catholic tradition is still strong in Western countries. The church has been a very important foundation of public facilities like schooling, Western art, culture and philosophy; and influential player in religion. In many ways it has wanted to have an impact on Western approaches to pros and cons in numerous areas. It has over many periods of time, spread the teachings of Jesus within the Western World and remains a foundation of continuousness connecting recent Western culture to old Western culture.-
"EXPLORING THEOLOGY 1 & 2." EXPLORING THEOLOGY 1 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2014.
Theme in “Defender of the Faith” can be interpreted in many varying ways, some of which are life-long lessons and others to the relation between faith and the individual.
With this in mind, the objective of this essay is to focus on the main ideas of each theologian, and discuss how each theologian’s ideas are compensatory to the other. This is important because even though each theologian’s writings were inspired by the harsh realities of the societies, and also by the effect each writer experienced in their moment in history, their critiques specifically of Christian institutions remain a consistent amongst all three writings. Furthermore, not only are their critiques consistent, but their goals for providing new frameworks for the future of the Church and Christian discipleship are consistent as well.
Gecser, Otto, Jozef Lazlovsky, Balázs Nagy, Marcell Sebők, and Katalin Szende. Promoting the Saints: Cults and Their Contexts from Late Antiquity until the Early Modern Period. New York: Central European University Press, 2011.
With this foundational knowledge of the novel discussed, the article will now analyze the quality of Tanner’s work—the strengths and weaknesses, and consider Tanner’s potential bias. In regards to strengths, the novel is organized very well and considers many facets that pertain to the Catholic Church. Moreover, New Short History of the Catholic Church does possess quite a great deal of weaknesses. Tanner poorly represents women in Roman Catholic history, mitigates the Church’s faults, and pretentiously puts the Church upon a pedestal. The latter two weaknesses culminate to exemplify Tanner’s inherent bias toward the Church.
Mary Magdalene was a woman who was a mystery to many people for centuries. She was mentioned only a handful of times in the New Testament. Even though she was only mentioned a few times she carried a lot of character. To this day there is not an extended amount of information to help support people’s thoughts and ideas about this woman.
The Story of Christianity is a very informative summation; a continuation of Volume 1 which covered the beginning of the church up to the Protestant Reformation, while Vol. 2 dealt with the Protestant Reformation up to more modern time period. This author delivers a more comprehensive and deeper look into the development of Christianity, which includes particular events which had transpired throughout the world; particularly how Christianity has expanded into Central and South America. Gonzalez opens up this book with the “Call for Reformation,” where he shares with his readers the need for reform; the papacy had started to decline and was corrupt, in addition to the Great Schism, which had further weakened the papacy (p.8). The author explains how the church was not the only issue but that the church’s teachings were off track as well, seeing that the people had deviated from...
Can you imagine running away and leaving everyone you love and care about? St. Dymphna had to when she was only 14 years old. In this essay I will tell you what a saint is and about the life of St. Dymphna.