Podcasts about Christendom

Saint Athanasius, pillar of Orthodoxy and Father of the Church, was born in Alexandria in 275, to pious Christian parents. Even as a child, his piety and devotion to the Faith were so notable that Alexander, the Patriarch of the city, took Athanasius under his protection. As a student, he acquired a thorough education, but was more interested in the things of God than in secular learning, and withdrew for a time into the desert to sit at the feet of Saint Anthony (January 17), whose disciple he became and whose biography he later wrote. On returning to Alexandria, he was ordained to the diaconate and began his public labors for the Church. He wrote his treatise On the Incarnation, when he was only twenty. (It contains a phrase, still often quoted today, that express in a few words some of the depths of the Mystery of the Incarnation: God became man that man might become god.)   Just at this time Arius, a priest in Alexandria, was promoting his enticing view that the Son and Word of God is not of one essence with the Father, but a divine creation of the Father. This view, which (as Athanasius realized) strikes at the very possibility of mankind's salvation, gained wide acceptance and seemed for a time to threaten the Christian Faith itself. In 325, the Emperor Constantine the Great convoked a Council of the Church at Nicaea to settle the turmoil that the Arian teaching had spread through the Church. Athanasius attended the Council, and defended the Orthodox view so powerfully that he won the admiration of the Orthodox and the undying enmity of the Arians. From that time forth his life was founded on the defense of the true consubstantiality (homoousia) of the Son with the Father.   In 326, not long before his death, Patriarch Alexander appointed Athanasius to be his successor, and Athanasius was duly elevated to the patriarchal throne. He was active in his pastoral role, traveling throughout Egypt, visiting churches and monasteries, and working tirelessly not only to put down the Arian heresy, but to resolve various schisms and moral declines that affected his territory.   Though the Arian heresy had apparently been condemned once and for all at Nicea, Arius had many powerful allies throughout the Empire, even in the Imperial court, and Athanasius was soon subjected to many kinds of persecution, some local, some coming from the Imperial throne itself. Though he was Patriarch of Alexandria for more than forty years, a large amount of that time was spent in hiding from powerful enemies who threatened him with imprisonment or death. Twice he fled to Rome for protection by the Pope, who in the early centuries of the Church was a consistent champion of Orthodoxy against its various enemies. From his various hiding places, Athanasius issued tracts, treatises and epistles which helped to rally the faithful throughout Christendom to the Orthodox cause.   In 366, the Emperor Valens, fearing a revolt of the Egyptians on behalf of their beloved Archbishop, officially restored Athanasius to favor, and he was able to spend the last seven years of his life in peace. Of his forty-seven years as Patriarch, about seventeen were spent in hiding or exile. He reposed in peace in 373, having given his entire adult life, at great suffering, to the defense of the Faith of Christ.

ROK-14d Short Clip This hurricane of apostasy is blowing stronger, but it has been around for a long time. In fact, things were so bad in Christendom, the visible church of followers of Christ, about one hundred years ago, that the greatest Bible teachers of that generation banded together to put up the flag of [...] The post DO YOU KNOW TRUE DOCTRINE–ENOUGH TO RESIST THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST ALL AROUND US? appeared first on Discover the Book Ministries.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ makes no sense outside of the Narrative of the creation and the fall and the story of Abraham and Isaac.  The world's narrative (evolution) becomes rocks and thorns and the birds of the air in the field of the world. Building a Christian civilization -- rebuilding Christendom -- means clearing the field. This is the work of generations of Christian families, tribes, nations, and then Christendom.

Comprehending the Mystery of Godliness. Bruce R. McConkie. ACU Sunday Series. The Mystery of Godliness | Bruce R McConkie | 1985 https://youtu.be/EpXzTR-qNB0 157,736 views Jun 12, 2020 BYU Speeches 112K subscribers To us mortals, the infinite wisdom and power of God may always be, in part, a mystery. However, there are many things about His nature that we can know. This speech was given on January 6, 1985. Read the speech here: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/bruce-... Read more about Bruce R. McConkie here: https://speeches.byu.edu/speakers/bru... Subscribe to BYU Speeches for the latest videos: http://www.youtube.com/c/byuspeeches Read and listen to more BYU Speeches here: https://speeches.byu.edu/ Follow BYU Speeches: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/byuspeeches Twitter: https://twitter.com/byuspeeches Instagram: https://instagram.com/byuspeeches Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/byuspeeches © Brigham Young University. All rights reserved. "I rejoice in the privilege of presenting to the young and rising generation some basic concepts about the deepest and most profound doctrine of the gospel. It is the first principle of revealed religion, the great cornerstone upon which all else rests, the foundation for all of the doctrines of salvation. I shall speak of what the revealed word calls the mystery of godliness. If our vision is blurred where this doctrine and these concepts are concerned, or, if knowingly or unknowingly we have fallen prey to any of the false sectarian notions that abound with reference to them, our progress toward eternal life will be slow indeed. Comprehending the Mystery of Godliness A mystery, so the dictionary says, is “something beyond human comprehension.” Defining the word from a theological standpoint, it says a mystery is “an article of faith beyond human comprehension, as the doctrine of the Trinity.” How apt this illustration is! If there was ever something beyond human comprehension, it is the sectarian doctrine of the Trinity. This doctrine defines God and the Godhead as a three-in-one spirit essence that fills the immensity of space; it teaches that it and they are without body, parts, or passions; it acclaims that it and they are unknown, unknowable, and uncreated, and specifies, in the creeds, that unless we believe all these things we cannot be saved. It is true that finite man cannot comprehend his Infinite Maker in the full sense of the word. We cannot tell how gods began to be or from whence existent matter came. But we are duty-bound to learn all that God has revealed about himself and his everlasting gospel. If we are to gain eternal life we must come to know the Great God and his Only Begotten, whom he sent into the world. And this probationary estate is the appointed time to begin to know God, and to learn his laws, and thereby to start the process of becoming like him. If we do not so begin we shall never receive the promised reward. Because God stands revealed or remains forever unknown, and because the things of God are known only by the power of the Spirit, perhaps we should redefine a mystery. In the gospel sense, a mystery is something beyond carnal comprehension. The saints are in a position to comprehend all mysteries, to understand all doctrine, and eventually to know all things. These high levels of intelligence are reached only through faith and obedience and righteousness. A person who relies on the intellect alone and who does not keep the commandments can never, worlds without end, comprehend the mystery of godliness. There is probably more ignorance and confusion as to the mystery of godliness than there is about any other doctrine. As set forth in the three creeds of Christendom—the Nicene, the Apostles', and the Athanasian, which God himself said were an abomination in his sight—and as defined in the articles of religion of the various denominations, this doctrine is a mass of confusion and a mountain of falsity. Even in the Church, thanks to a lack of knowledge and to intellectuality and the worldly enticement to conform to the general beliefs of an apostate Christendom, there are those who have fallen prey to many false delusions about deity. By way of illustration let us note some of the problems. Who and What Is God? Is there a God? If so, who or what is he? Is he the laws and forces of nature? Or an image of mud or gold? Or is he Baal, the resurrected son of El to whom the Canaanites offered human sacrifices? Is he Allah or Buddha or the confusing and contradictory nothingness described in the creeds of Christendom? Is there such a thing as the Trinity in which the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three gods, and, yet one god, a god who neither hears, nor speaks, nor appears, as did the one worshipped by the ancients? Is God omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, or are these descriptive designations part of the legends of sectarianism? Are there three gods or one? Why does Jesus say his Father is greater than he, and Paul say Jesus is equal with the Father? Why the great scriptural emphasis on proclaiming that three gods are one, and that the Lord our God is one Lord?   Zach Williams, Dolly Parton - There Was Jesus (Official Music Video) https://youtu.be/37wV6D49iEY 28,810,460 views Apr 23, 2020 Zach Williams 828K subscribers Watch the official music video for “There Was Jesus” with Dolly Parton now. Listen to #ThereWasJesus everywhere: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/RescueSto... Check out my new Christmas album, I Don't Want Christmas to End: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/IDontWant... Connect with me: Email List: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/EmailSign... Facebook: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/facebookTm Twitter: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/ZWtwitterTm Instagram: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/ZWinstagr... Website: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/websiteTm There Was Jesus   Every time I tried to make it on my own Every time I tried to stand and start to fall All those lonely roads that I have travelled on There was Jesus   When the life I built came crashing to the ground When the friends I had were nowhere to be found I couldn't see it then but I can see it now There was Jesus   In the waiting, in the searching In the healing and the hurting Like a blessing buried in the broken pieces  Every minute, every moment Of where I been and where I'm going Even when I didn't know it Or couldn't see it There was Jesus   For this man who needs amazing kind of grace For forgiveness at a price I couldn't pay I'm not perfect so I thank God every day There was Jesus   On the mountain in the valleys (There was Jesus)  In the shadows of the alleys (There was Jesus) In the fire, in the flood (There was Jesus) Always is and always was I never walk alone   There Was Jesus Every time I tried to make it on my own Every time I tried to stand and start to fall All those lonely roads that I have travelled on There was Jesus When the life I built came crashing to the ground When the friends I had were nowhere to be found I couldn't see it then but I can see it now There was Jesus In the waiting, in the searching In the healing and the hurting Like a blessing buried in the broken pieces Every minute, every moment Of where I been and where I'm going Even when I didn't know it Or couldn't see it There was Jesus For this man who needs amazing kind of grace For forgiveness at a price I couldn't pay I'm not perfect so I thank God every day There was Jesus On the mountain in the valleys (There was Jesus) In the shadows of the alleys (There was Jesus) In the fire, in the flood (There was Jesus) Always is and always was I never walk alone Music by Zach Williams and Dolly Parton performing “There Was Jesus” (Official Music Video). #ZachWilliams #ChristianMusic #DollyParton

Comprehending the Mystery of Godliness. Bruce R. McConkie. ACU Sunday Series. The Mystery of Godliness | Bruce R McConkie | 1985 https://youtu.be/EpXzTR-qNB0 157,736 views Jun 12, 2020 BYU Speeches 112K subscribers To us mortals, the infinite wisdom and power of God may always be, in part, a mystery. However, there are many things about His nature that we can know. This speech was given on January 6, 1985. Read the speech here: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/bruce-... Read more about Bruce R. McConkie here: https://speeches.byu.edu/speakers/bru... Subscribe to BYU Speeches for the latest videos: http://www.youtube.com/c/byuspeeches Read and listen to more BYU Speeches here: https://speeches.byu.edu/ Follow BYU Speeches: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/byuspeeches Twitter: https://twitter.com/byuspeeches Instagram: https://instagram.com/byuspeeches Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/byuspeeches © Brigham Young University. All rights reserved. "I rejoice in the privilege of presenting to the young and rising generation some basic concepts about the deepest and most profound doctrine of the gospel. It is the first principle of revealed religion, the great cornerstone upon which all else rests, the foundation for all of the doctrines of salvation. I shall speak of what the revealed word calls the mystery of godliness. If our vision is blurred where this doctrine and these concepts are concerned, or, if knowingly or unknowingly we have fallen prey to any of the false sectarian notions that abound with reference to them, our progress toward eternal life will be slow indeed. Comprehending the Mystery of Godliness A mystery, so the dictionary says, is “something beyond human comprehension.” Defining the word from a theological standpoint, it says a mystery is “an article of faith beyond human comprehension, as the doctrine of the Trinity.” How apt this illustration is! If there was ever something beyond human comprehension, it is the sectarian doctrine of the Trinity. This doctrine defines God and the Godhead as a three-in-one spirit essence that fills the immensity of space; it teaches that it and they are without body, parts, or passions; it acclaims that it and they are unknown, unknowable, and uncreated, and specifies, in the creeds, that unless we believe all these things we cannot be saved. It is true that finite man cannot comprehend his Infinite Maker in the full sense of the word. We cannot tell how gods began to be or from whence existent matter came. But we are duty-bound to learn all that God has revealed about himself and his everlasting gospel. If we are to gain eternal life we must come to know the Great God and his Only Begotten, whom he sent into the world. And this probationary estate is the appointed time to begin to know God, and to learn his laws, and thereby to start the process of becoming like him. If we do not so begin we shall never receive the promised reward. Because God stands revealed or remains forever unknown, and because the things of God are known only by the power of the Spirit, perhaps we should redefine a mystery. In the gospel sense, a mystery is something beyond carnal comprehension. The saints are in a position to comprehend all mysteries, to understand all doctrine, and eventually to know all things. These high levels of intelligence are reached only through faith and obedience and righteousness. A person who relies on the intellect alone and who does not keep the commandments can never, worlds without end, comprehend the mystery of godliness. There is probably more ignorance and confusion as to the mystery of godliness than there is about any other doctrine. As set forth in the three creeds of Christendom—the Nicene, the Apostles', and the Athanasian, which God himself said were an abomination in his sight—and as defined in the articles of religion of the various denominations, this doctrine is a mass of confusion and a mountain of falsity. Even in the Church, thanks to a lack of knowledge and to intellectuality and the worldly enticement to conform to the general beliefs of an apostate Christendom, there are those who have fallen prey to many false delusions about deity. By way of illustration let us note some of the problems. Who and What Is God? Is there a God? If so, who or what is he? Is he the laws and forces of nature? Or an image of mud or gold? Or is he Baal, the resurrected son of El to whom the Canaanites offered human sacrifices? Is he Allah or Buddha or the confusing and contradictory nothingness described in the creeds of Christendom? Is there such a thing as the Trinity in which the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three gods, and, yet one god, a god who neither hears, nor speaks, nor appears, as did the one worshipped by the ancients? Is God omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, or are these descriptive designations part of the legends of sectarianism? Are there three gods or one? Why does Jesus say his Father is greater than he, and Paul say Jesus is equal with the Father? Why the great scriptural emphasis on proclaiming that three gods are one, and that the Lord our God is one Lord?   Zach Williams, Dolly Parton - There Was Jesus (Official Music Video) https://youtu.be/37wV6D49iEY 28,810,460 views Apr 23, 2020 Zach Williams 828K subscribers Watch the official music video for “There Was Jesus” with Dolly Parton now. Listen to #ThereWasJesus everywhere: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/RescueSto... Check out my new Christmas album, I Don't Want Christmas to End: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/IDontWant... Connect with me: Email List: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/EmailSign... Facebook: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/facebookTm Twitter: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/ZWtwitterTm Instagram: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/ZWinstagr... Website: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/websiteTm There Was Jesus   Every time I tried to make it on my own Every time I tried to stand and start to fall All those lonely roads that I have travelled on There was Jesus   When the life I built came crashing to the ground When the friends I had were nowhere to be found I couldn't see it then but I can see it now There was Jesus   In the waiting, in the searching In the healing and the hurting Like a blessing buried in the broken pieces  Every minute, every moment Of where I been and where I'm going Even when I didn't know it Or couldn't see it There was Jesus   For this man who needs amazing kind of grace For forgiveness at a price I couldn't pay I'm not perfect so I thank God every day There was Jesus   On the mountain in the valleys (There was Jesus)  In the shadows of the alleys (There was Jesus) In the fire, in the flood (There was Jesus) Always is and always was I never walk alone   There Was Jesus Every time I tried to make it on my own Every time I tried to stand and start to fall All those lonely roads that I have travelled on There was Jesus When the life I built came crashing to the ground When the friends I had were nowhere to be found I couldn't see it then but I can see it now There was Jesus In the waiting, in the searching In the healing and the hurting Like a blessing buried in the broken pieces Every minute, every moment Of where I been and where I'm going Even when I didn't know it Or couldn't see it There was Jesus For this man who needs amazing kind of grace For forgiveness at a price I couldn't pay I'm not perfect so I thank God every day There was Jesus On the mountain in the valleys (There was Jesus) In the shadows of the alleys (There was Jesus) In the fire, in the flood (There was Jesus) Always is and always was I never walk alone Music by Zach Williams and Dolly Parton performing “There Was Jesus” (Official Music Video). #ZachWilliams #ChristianMusic #DollyParton

Steven was in for Christmas Break and Dad commandeered him to speak at our local Holy Name Society.Steven based his discussion on a talk that he heard about the different ages of The Church.     This talk was based on the following book;   From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age by Monsignor James P. SheaChristendom is the age when the institution and structures that you come in contact with are Catholic and Christian.     This brings with it pros and cons.  The great intellects of the day study and reflect on matters of the Church.     The arts and culture are directed towards the Church.     Some of the cons of an age of Christendom are that people may look a the Church as a path to political power.     It is also more difficult to evangelize.It is clear that we are moving out of an age of Christendom to an Apostolic Age in which society is hostile to Christendom.    To be a Christian is to be countercultural.There are some pros to an Apostolic Age; Christians must be stronger in their faith.    Also, you don't have to go far to evangelize.The challenge for modern vocations is recognizing that we are in an Apostolic Age.   We can not rely on the old ways of an age of Christendom to provide vocations.

"It's time we reclaimed this wise saying. Our post-Christian culture may very well give us the opportunity to relearn the wisdom of doing so. Communities of followers of Jesus may grow smaller, commitment to his teaching more radical and real, and in time we may look like those with something valuable that others want and will seek to have." ~ Addison Hodges Hart   For the past few weeks, we've been journeying through the Sermon on the Mount following the ethics of Jesus and the ways of the Kingdom of Heaven. In this week's episode, our discussion delves into a bit of scripture that's often misunderstood. It involves valuing what is sacred.   "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." Matthew 7:6 Modern-day American Christendom uses the name of Jesus but has forgotten his teachings. The scared nature of wisdom has been dumbed down as we've tamed a faith that was never meant to be subdued.  Softening the edges of Jesus to fit the palatability of church culture is never the way to go. You lose everything in the process.  Then, after a while, you've got a religion that's more about selfishness and exclusion than it is about love and compassion. Sacrifice has been traded for comfort. The scared beauty has been lost. That doesn't mean that all hope is gone.  It can be regained easily. We just need to let go of franchised and institutionalized versions of the church. It's flawed and deceitful. The real ways of Jesus lead us far away from that and it's definitely a path worthy of taking that looks nothing like Christendom.   We'll talk about all that and more snark! Plus, this week's Christian Crazy features Hank Kunneman, Kat Kerr, Johnny Enlow, and more! Show notes Episode Timestamp: In the News: 5:00 Christian Crazy: 12:40 Christian Cringe: 20:30 Main Conversation/Sermon on the Mount: 25:20 Big thanks to these outlets that make the Christian Crazy possible: Right Wing Watch Christian Nightmares Friendly Atheist Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world. www.SnarkyFaith.com   *Last show of 2021.

Is it possible that conversations about the church might be interesting or even fascinating?   Rector's Cupboard was invited to partner with David Goa, a friend of the podcast (Sunny Boy, December 2020 and Most People are Better Than Their Theology, January 2020) to speak with others about the state and future of the church as we move from 2021 to 2022.   What is the church?  Who is the church?   Does the church play any important role in larger culture?  These conversations have an “on the ground” aspect to them and they seek to address larger questions of the place and identity of the Christian church in our society.   In this third episode of our special series we speak with Ross Lockhart, Dean at St. Andrew's Hall in Vancouver. In conversation with Ross we reflect upon the idea of the decline of the church and Christendom and how these may be positive things for Christian faith. 

A new MP3 sermon from DTBM, International is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: HOW DID WE GO FROM THE CHURCH IN ACTS TO WHAT WE SEE AS CHRISTENDOM TODAY? The Origin Subtitle: Life & Letters Of Paul, The Speaker: Dr. John Barnett Broadcaster: DTBM, International Event: Sunday Service Date: 12/29/2021 Length: 4 min.

181002AM REV 1-5-5 We have been h teaching NextGeneration students here in Rome this month, and in our free moments, we keep visiting more Biblical sites to study and ponder our lessons on Romans & Galatians. We have done the Seven Hills, The Circus of Nero/St. Peter's, the Ancient Churches, each of the Forums (Imperial, [...] The post HOW DID WE GO FROM THE CHURCH IN ACTS TO WHAT WE SEE AS CHRISTENDOM TODAY? The Origin of Romanism appeared first on Discover the Book Ministries.

In deze bijzondere episode spreek ik met Jessica de Kam van Nieuw Vrouwelijk Leiderschap. We kwamen elkaar al dansend tegen in Amsterdam. Deze vrouw, die een vat vol doorleefde wijsheid is, heeft echt een prachtige missie: "Vrouwen hun volle potentie, authenticiteit en magnetische aantrekkingskracht te laten herontdekken". We deden letterlijk een deep dive in een overvloed aan thema's. Zoek een rustig moment hiervoor, luister en ontdek: *Wat haar antwoord is op authentiek jezelf zijn. *Waarom veel Vrouwelijke Leiderschapstrainingen nog steeds de plank misslaan. *Waarom #metoo helaas niet iets is van de laatste jaren. *Hoe het Christendom heeft bijgedragen aan de ontkrachting van vrouwelijke wijsheid en magnetische aantrekkingskracht. *Waarom we niet weten wat de Heilige Graal eigenlijk is. *Hoeveel breinen we werkelijk hebben. *Wat ze bedoelt met "Je Lijf is Je Bedrijf". *Waarom de Mastermind voor veel vrouwen niet werkt en de vrouwencirkel toe is aan een fundamentele herwaardering. *Waar de Wet van Aantrekking in tekortschiet. *Wat er letterlijk gebeurt wanneer je een "Beyonceetje" doet. *Waarom je toegang tot hogere wijsheid krijgt juist als je ouder wordt. En nog veel meer.. Beluister deze rijke podcast. Ik kan me voorstellen dat het veel vragen bij je oproept. Je kunt deze aan me stellen op https://www.instagram.com/mariannehermsencom/ Liefs, Marianne

This week, we serve your pool heating solutions and take a moment to combat the Prince of Darkness himself.  CJ shows Taki Tik Toks on how to fix your braids, what the rural populace does in their downtime, and a super-neat party in a Subway. Also, we discuss a true renegade, a man who rebelled against the status quo and brought us some of the greatest television of all time.Come correct before waging war against Christendom, it's time for White Boy Struggles with Modernity.Website:https://www.wbswm.com/twitter: @cj_suiteInsta:@cjsweettoothTik Tok: @cjsuitetoothLike and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts-Spotify-StitcherAvailable on all platforms!

One of the things I love about prophecy in the Catholic sense is that it not only predicts the future, but tells the story of the past, and allows us to pace out our movement through the story of our God, Our Lord, and the Church. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/radio-free-catholic/support

The Map of Knowledge: How Classical Ideas Were Lost and FoundViolet Moller traces the journey taken by the ideas of three of the greatest scientists of antiquity – Euclid, Galen and Ptolemy – through seven cities and over a thousand years. In tracing these fragile strands of knowledge, Moller reveals the web of connections between the Islamic world and Christendom, connections that would both preserve and transform astronomy, mathematics and medicine from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

To the Church in Smyrna Revelation 2:8-11 by William Klock St. John's second letter sees us travelling up the road, about fifty kilometres north of Ephesus to the city of Smyrna. Ephesus may have been the chief city of the Roman province of Asia, but Smyrna was more ancient and a close competitor. It was a beautiful port city that the Greek geographer Strabo dubbed “the glory of Asia”. On the waterfront, at the bottom of Golden Street, the main thoroughfare, was the Tempe of Cybele. If you were a tourist and made your way up the street through the city, you'd pass other grand temples dedicated to Apollo, Askelpios, and Aphrodite. And at the end of the street, where it met the foothills, was the great Temple of Zeus. The Christians of Smyrna lived surrounded by the glory of the gods of Greece. But those weren't the only temples in Smyrna. The city fathers of Smyrna prided themselves on being forward-thinking and wisely pragmatic. Theirs had been the first of the cities of Asia Minor to align itself with Rome. In 197 B.C they appealed to the Senate for aid against Antiochus III and two years later, proving their loyalty, built the first temple in that part of the world to the goddess Roma. Through the Roman civil wars, they'd always managed to choose the side of the victor. Smyrna knew which way the wind was blowing. For their loyalty, the emperors granted Smyrna the status of “free city” and the construction of an imperial temple—and two more to follow in the years after the time period of Revelation. The citizens of Smyrna were loyal Romans. And that posed a problem for the Christians there as well. Look now at our text, it's just a short four verses beginning a 2:8. Jesus says: “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. As I've said before, Revelation is about tribulation, kingdom, and perseverance. Jesus' people live in the midst of tribulation and it's only going to get worse for them, and so Jesus addresses them first by reminding them who he is. As he speaks to each of these seven churches, Jesus calls to mind the image that John gave of him in Chapter 1. For the Ephesians he reminded them that he is the one who holds the seven stars in his hand and who walks in the midst of the lampstands. He sustains his church. For the Smyrneans he reminds them that he is the one who is first and last, the one who died and came to life. In each case, Jesus is urging his people to persevere in the midst of tribulation and he doesn't just say, “I know it's hard, but just do it.” He reminds them that he is with them. The kingdom is now. The kingdom is here. As his church, they are his kingdom and their king is with them. They're not walking through territory that is unknown to their Lord. Jesus has travelled this path before them and he stands with them now. That's what he's getting at in reminding them that he is the first and the last. He is the Lord of history. It was by Jesus—the word—that God created all things in the beginning and it is by him that God is now making all things new. And he is the one who was crucified and rose from the grave. Not only is that how he inaugurated his kingdom, not only is it how he broke the chains of death and sin and is making all things new, it's an apt exhortation in light of what the Christians in Smyrna are facing. They are united with Jesus—yes, in his suffering, but that also means they are united with him in his resurrection and have no reason to fear death. As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54). Now look at Jesus' message itself, verses 9-11: “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.' The first thing we should note is that Jesus has nothing bad to say about the people of this church. We can gather from the other letters that had there been a serious problem in Smyrna, Jesus would have mentioned it. These brothers and sisters were faithful. And that's just what's getting them into trouble. Jesus tells them that he's fully aware of their tribulation and their poverty—although he quickly adds that despite their poverty, they are in reality rich. This is in contrast to the Laodiceans who are materially rich, but whom Jesus condemns for being poor in faith. It's because of their faithfulness that the Smyrnean Christians are facing opposition. The immediate cause of the problem, he says, is that they've been slandered by “those who say that they are Jews and are not”. He goes so far as to call them a “synagogue of satan”. What does that mean? Given what we know of the historical situation in Smyrna, it's not too hard to piece together. At this point in time, the Romans weren't really the immediate problem. Until about the time of the Emperor Nero—during whose reign John wrote to these churches—Christians enjoyed a certain amount of freedom. Everyone in the empire was required to offer at least nominal worship to the emperor, but the Jews had made such a fuss over this and caused the Romans so many problems, that they'd been granted an exemption. They agreed to pray for and to offer sacrifices for the emperor and that allowed them to live in a somewhat uneasy tension with Rome. And for some decades Christians were seen as a Jewish sect and enjoyed the same privilege. But during Nero's reign that began to change. The empire didn't approve of new religions and the Jews about that time not only started distancing themselves from Christians, but were only too happy to insist that Christians weren't Jews and to point them out to the Roman authorities. Why would Jews do this? Some Jews were angry that many of their brethren along with Gentile god-fearers were becoming Christians. As far as they were concerned, Jesus was most decidedly not the Messiah. He was a criminal who had been crucified and anyone claiming he was the Messiah was a blaspheming heretic. They were also angered at the Christian approach to the law. And the idea that unclean Gentiles could become Jews apart from total obedience to the law, well, that just had them fuming. Think of Paul telling his story to Agrippa in Acts 26: “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.” (Acts 26:9-11) Jesus words to the Smyrneans about Jewish slander leading to Roman imprisonment fits with what we know from the historical record. Repeatedly in Acts we see unbelieving Jews working with the Romans and other Gentiles to persecute Christians. Paul refers to this in 1 Thessalonians and we read about it in Tertullian and in the Martyrdom of Polycarp, who was Bishop of Smyrna and martyred about ninety years later. Remember that people like Paul, when they became Christians, wouldn't have thought of themselves as having converted to a new religion. They were Jews and they continued to be Jews. It was simply that in fulfilling God's promises, Jesus had created a new and better way of being Jewish. So the Jews would go to the Romans to report Christians and would argue that these Christians, contrary to their claims, weren't actually Jews and their claims to be so were disturbing the status quo. Worse, they'd argue, these Christians were only use Judaism as a cover for their refusal to recognise the divinity and lordship of Caesar. And, particularly in a place like Smyrna, that sort of accusation could be disastrous, because the Smyrneans were zealous patriots of Rome and loyal worshippers of Caesar. In Smyrna the imperial cult permeated everything. Everyone, rich and poor, was required by law to offer sacrifices to the emperor. In Smyrna, the city fathers thought this so important, that they actually provided the citizenry with money from the treasury to purchase their offerings, just so no one would have an excuse not to. And so to have any real part in public life, in government, in trade, in a guild, in various social circles you had to take part in the imperial cult and from the time that John wrote it only got worse for Christians. The empire demanded its citizens proclaim the lordship of Caesar, but for the Christians that was impossible. Jesus is Lord. They knew it and they could not betray him. And that faith was the basis for their perseverance in the truth. This is just how it went down for Polycarp, one of the most famous martyrs of the early Church. At one particular festival, a Christian name Germanicus was thrown to wild animals in the arena and told to renounce Jesus. He refused and was killed, but seeing his faith only made the crowd angrier. They called for Polycarp, the bishop, to be brought next. He was seized and brought to the arena. He fearlessly confessed that he was a Christian and he was given the choice: Worship the divine Caesar or die. The Jews of Smyrna shouted, “This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, and the overthrower of our gods, he who had been teaching many not to sacrifice or to worship the gods.” Polycarp would not renounce his Lord and was sentenced to death. The account reports that despite being the Sabbath, the Jews were foremost in gathering wood for the fire to burn the bishop. And as the fire was laid, Polycarp said, “It is well. I fear not the fire that burns for a season, and after a while is quenched. Why do you delay? Come, do your will.” And as he was consumed by the flames he prayed, “I thank thee that thou has graciously thought me worthy of this day and of this hour, that I may receive a portion in the number of the martyrs, in the cup of thy Christ.” The mob that martyred Polycarp echoed the Good Friday mob that shouted to Pilate, “We have no king but Caesar! Crucify him!” Is it any wonder then that Jesus would appeal to his own death and resurrection as the root of faith and source of perseverance for these Christians? They were truly to share in the same suffering that he did, and so he reminded them: I am the one who died and came to life. And in the same way that the unbelief of those Jews who cried out for Jesus' crucifixion exposed them as false Jews by their rejection of the Messiah, so these Jews in Smyrna exposed themselves as false in rejecting the Messiah's people. That's where the “synagogue of satan” part comes from. And in accusing Jesus' people falsely, these unbelieving Jews show who they really belong to. It's much like Jesus statement in John 8: If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. (John 8:42-44) The Church is the true synagogue—the kingdom of God and the temple in which his Spirit dwells—and because of that Jesus' people need have no fear of tribulation. Jesus urges his people to persevere even as they are thrown into prison. That didn't quite mean the same thing then as it does now. Prison itself wasn't a punishment. Prison was where you were held pending trial or execution, which usually came swiftly. The devil would see them thrown in prison. For many of them, release from prison would mean execution. “For ten days you will have tribulation,” Jesus says. That's not so much a literal statement about how long this time of persecution will last. It's a reference to the first chapter of Daniel. Daniel and his three friends were tested for ten days as they went without eating the king's food. The point of the test was to see if they would come out the other side as healthy as the young men who at the king's choice food. The temptation was to compromise with pagan gods by eating from the king's table, eating meat that had been offered to idols. To eat at the king's table was also a symbolic act of loyalty—and remember that the king claimed to be divine. These young Jewish men just couldn't do that. What Jesus is saying is that this time of tribulation will test his people's loyalty to him in the same way that Daniel and his friends were tested. But it's not just a warning; it's also an exhortation. They will come out the other side of this time of testing vindicated, even though it may mean their deaths—because they have already been united with Jesus in his resurrection. “Be faithful unto death,” Jesus tells them, “and I will give you a crown of life….the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.” The “second death” is a rabbinic expression. John uses it again in Chapter 20. And if you look at the Targums, the rabbinic commentary on the Old Testament, it means exclusion from the resurrection. As St. Paul wrote in First Corinthians, Jesus it the firstfruits of the resurrection of the dead. Where he has gone, his people will surely follow if they are steadfast in faith. He has triumphed and holds the keys of death and hades. There will be tribulation, but we must persevere, following where Jesus leads and knowing that we face nothing that he has not faced himself. Now, what does this mean for us? There is a general application here for Christians everywhere. No matter how good times are for Christians, we will always face some kind of opposition. The empire and the Caesars that once persecuted and murdered the saints would, several hundred years later be conquered by the gospel and Caesar himself would bow his knee to Jesus. That part of the world over which Caesar had claimed his pagan lordship would gradually be transformed by the gospel into “Christendom”. And yet even then, there were pockets and times of resistance. Jesus reminds Christians everywhere in all times of the need to stand firm in faith. We are his kingdom and we not only must persevere, but we have every reason to do so. And it is by our perseverance, even to death, that our proclamation of the kingdom is validated—that it becomes credible in the eyes of the world and spreads. But, Brothers and Sisters, “Christendom” is no more. In our post-Christian world we face ever-increasing resistance and opposition. And whereas a few decades ago—I think of growing up during the Cold War—we tended to think of opposition in terms of Communism and an authoritarian government shutting churches and kicking in doors to search our houses for Bibles and march us off to prison, things have gone in quite a different direction—a direction I think even more troubling, in part because it's far more subtle and insidious. The Smyrnean Christians faced ostracism, imprisonment, and sometimes martyrdom because they refused to offer that pinch of incense to Caesar. In our day the pressure comes from a post-modern culture in which objective truth has been forsaken and replaced with whatever a person feels to be true. We have become our own gods, creating our own realities and truths. Nevermind that those truths are, in reality, false. And along with that—in combination with it—we've made everything about the therapeutic and about the self. The worst thing that can happen to a person is suffering. And this worldview is everywhere and permeates everything. If you struggle with same-sex attraction, you don't fight it; you embrace it. Anyone who tells you otherwise be damned, because not embracing it brings suffering, shame, and oppression. A man can claim to be a woman because who's to say he isn't—not biology, not genetics, not reality. Science is no longer the basis for truth, feelings are—and if you say otherwise, you're labelled a bigot and oppressor. In one of the latest applications of Critical Theory, a doctor who tells an overweight patient that his diabetes or heart disease is because he's overweight becomes an “oppressor”. If science makes us feel bad, well it's wrong—it's labelled “oppressive”. Once we allow our feelings to define our truth, there's no limit to how absurd the claims become. And we not only make our truths; we put ourselves at the centre of them. Our relationships are increasingly centre on self rather than others. Fix a relationship? Sacrifice for a relationship? No way. If someone is difficult or unpleasant—nevermind that we might be at least part of the reason for that—you cut them off and cut them out. As they say, “You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.” No, you've got to take care of yourself. In fact, we've now got a term for this obsession with self, “self care,” and it's fast becoming as idolatrous a cult as anything the pagan Greeks and Romans did. But all of this isn't just “out there”. The western Church has increasingly embraced what's been dubbed Moralistic Therapeutic Deism—the general belief that God wants nothing more for us than to be happy and good—however you define good. How we “do” church, how we worship, everything about the church is increasingly becoming centred on the self. Worship has been turned into an experience to be judged by how good it makes me feel. Biblical sermons have been replaced by pop-psychology and self-help. Commercialism increasingly dominates how we do things. We stop asking if what we do will please God and instead ask how it will increase our marketshare. And without any deep biblical and theological anchors, Christians are increasingly compromising the good—and truth and everything else—because it's easiest just to go with the cultural flow. The Church is leaving people utterly unprepared for the cultural tide that's now breaking over us. Rod Dreher wrote last year, ““Relatively few contemporary Christians are prepared to suffer for the faith, because the therapeutic society that has formed them denies the purpose of suffering in the first place, and the idea of bearing pain for the sake of truth seems ridiculous.” If you have a chance, find a copy of his book, Live Not by Lies, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it. And there's a flood of Christians now capitulating to the culture, offering their pinch of incense to the gods of post-modernism. It's become so common we now have a term for it: Deconstruction. And it grieves me to see friends and colleagues going through this process, sliding down this slippery slope that inevitably ends in apostasy. Once orthodox Christians face the pressure and the conflict between Church and culture and they begin to “deconstruct” their faith, pulling it apart piece by piece and then rebuilding it after reconsidering the pieces. It's so often presented as a faithful, mature, intellectual and spiritual exercise, but it's telling that in the end the result is the same very time. You end up retaining whatever bits of Christianity you can without being in conflict with the culture, and whatever is at odds, whatever causes conflict is cast aside. It's always the same bits discarded. The uniqueness of Jesus? Gone. A biblical sexual ethic? Gone. The reliability and authority of Scripture? That's gone too. Justice? Oh, they held on to that, they say. But the version of justice they've got after deconstruction is no longer the biblical understanding of justice; it's a post-modern concept of justice that has far more to do with Marxist ideology than it does the Bible. At least as often as not, you'll find that the person who has gone through this process has a close family member, often a child, who has “come out” as “gay” or “trans”. That's a difficult situation to be in. If you stand firm in faith, there's going to be conflict. But after deconstruction the conflict is gone. You can once again be at peace with yourself and with the world—and most importantly, no one out there can call you a hater or a bigot or whatever the insult of the month is. I've seen it happen over and over again. I've watched friends slide down this slope. I've watched pastoral colleagues slide down this slope. I've watched churches that slide down this slope—listening to one acquaintance locally whose last few sermons have been full of apologies for the sexist and patriarchal language of the Bible. Brothers and Sisters, if you find yourself apologising for the Spirit-inspired words of Scripture, stop. Now. Something's gone wrong. But this is the problem. Our culture values niceness and the therapeutic. The worst thing you could do in Smyrna was to be disloyal to Caesar. In our culture it's to make someone feel bad—even if they should. Shame, which until now we've always understood to be a positive in that it discourages us from doing things we know we shouldn't, well, now shame is a dirty word. And almost as bad as making someone else feel bad is to feel bad ourselves—to be in conflict with the mainstream, to be called out as a hater. Oddly enough, in the incoherence of post-modernism, the one time it is okay—and not just okay, but necessary—to shame someone is when they aren't on-board with the spirit of the age. And Brothers and Sisters, if you think it's hard to be called a hater or a bigot or intolerant, consider how difficult it is for our children. Especially if they've live in the environment of government schooling, they've been immersed in this culture to an extent you and I may struggle to grasp. This is why we need to be diligent and faithful in teaching them the faith, in discipling them, in ensuring they know what's true and what's false, and making sure they are not overcome by our therapeutic and self-centred culture. We need to recover a deep sense of the sinfulness of sin and of the holiness of God. We need to grasp the deepness of the love and grace and mercy of God and to recover a sense of the costliness of the sacrifice that Jesus made to show us that love and grace and mercy. And we need to know that if we are going to identify ourselves with Jesus, it means that we will walk with him in his suffering—in conflict with the gods and kings of this age—but that we do so in faith and in hope—even in joy—knowing that in doing so we are carrying his kingdom to the world and knowing that our kingdom hope is for life and for a world set to rights—truly set to rights by God's standards, which are far higher than those of our culture. It's not just about perseverance in the face of tribulation. We persevere—we will only persevere—because we know the deep truth of the kingdom: Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. Let's pray: O Lord, come among us, we pray, with your power and strengthen us with your great might; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set before us, your bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, be honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

"Langberg thinks the 83 percent from this latest survey may be surprisingly high for the public—but most significantly, she points out that the ‘numbers on the ground' are probably lower than the survey reveals. Survey respondents often answer surveys—especially those on sensitive topics—in a way that they think will be most presentable to the interviewer. The field of psychology even has a name for this phenomenon: the social desirability bias. “The church is far more protective of abusers than those numbers would indicate,” Langberg said. Put another way, answering a survey question is not the same thing as triggering a figurative earthquake in one's church community by reporting abuse. “Not many people would say they should stay [after abuse],” Langberg points out, but translating it on the ground, in real life, I think there will be a gap. As we know, when these things are exposed, there's almost always more than one victim and it has gone on for some time. There has been hesitancy to deal with it at all because of all the ‘damage' to the church that will have.” There's another curiosity in this survey: the other 17 percent, who didn't respond that child sexual abuse should permanently disqualify a pastor from ministry. CT found U.S. Sentencing Commission statistics stating that for Fiscal Years 2014-2018, 98.8 percent of sexual abuse offenders were sentenced to prison, and their average sentence was almost 16 years. Yet in the Lifeway study, ten percent of pastors told researchers that if a pastor has engaged in child sexual assault, that person should spend between 2-10 years away from ministry—or even less. (Seven percent did not know how long the pastor should spend away.) What is going through their heads? “I would assume... part of what's going through their head is: ‘we're sorry it happened, but he's repented and maybe even cried and we're called to forgive him,” Langberg said. That kind of thinking—not just in terms of the abuse, but in terms of scripture—is not being done well in Christendom." --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/antonio-myers4/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/antonio-myers4/support

Our guest for #336 is Dr. Thomas Millay, author of the new book Kierkegaard and the New Nationalism. Thomas is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and Baylor University and he currently serves a parish in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Nationalism is a globally resurgent phenomenon. From Britain to India to the United States of America, we find nations vociferously reasserting their own sovereignty, ethnic composition, and intrinsic superiority. Thomas J. Millay demonstrates how Kierkegaard's ascetic voice speaks directly to our present crisis.Kierkegaard and the New Nationalism: A Contemporary Reinterpretation of the Attack upon Christendom analyzes the late writings of Kierkegaard in light of this new relevance, for Kierkegaard's attack upon Christendom is also an attack upon nationalism. For Kierkegaard, taking on nationalism is not simply a matter of undermining false identity constructions. Attacking nationalism is a matter of renunciation: it requires ascetic discipline, such that the selfish motives at the core of one's identity construction are uprooted and replaced by a self-giving love marked by the willingness to suffer.

 Is music just getting worse and worse—or better?  Listen to Fr. Fessio, Vivian Dudro, and Joseph Pearce debate the meaning of tradition in art, with the help of Susan Treacy's Music of Christendom.Support the show (https://www.ignatius.com/Donation-P3578.aspx)

12/15/2021 – Ken Samples –Research scholar at Reasons to Believe, with a quick overview of the three major branches of Christendom.

As modern people, it's easy to forget that the Catholic mindset, properly understood is generational not periodic. It took five hundred years for Christendom to fall completely, just as it took nearly that long to build it. If we are successful raising our kids Catholic, and they pick up the Tradition and carry it for their kids, and so on, within 45 years we can tip the scales in our communities, and within 90 we can carry our people back to Christ. Catholics evangelize thru breeding and education. The world today is dying. They worship Death, and that's no way to live. They know it and we know it. We can outlast these heathens. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/radio-free-catholic/support

Fr. John Strickland announces the release of the third volume of his book series. The Age of Utopia: Christendom from the Renaissance to the Russian Revolution (store.ancientfaith.com/the-age-of-utopia) is a companion to the podcast, but, as he notes, contains quite a bit of material that is unique. Here he summarizes some of its content.

I discuss Blaise Pascal's passionate plea to Christendom and his famous wager. Also why "Cheap Grace" so enraged Pascal. In addition, I offer a wager to you the listener, which will revolutionize your life.

Gregorian chant comes from...the Jews! This and other surprising facts about early Western music as we discuss the first chapters of Susan Treacy's 2021 book The Music of Christendom: A History.Support the show (https://www.ignatius.com/Donation-P3578.aspx)

Pre-Destination by Dr. Elizabeth James-AkpojosevbeIn the short span of Dr. Elizabeth James-Akpojosevbe's Christian life, she has discovered that many people generally do not know why they were created. Each one of us has a purpose designed for our life by God. Man does not exist by chance. Many believe life is about growing up, going to school, getting married, and getting a job and/or starting a business. However, Elizabeth has discovered in the course of her walk with God that each one of us has been given a glorious destiny.Predestination: The Christian Experience is an insight into discovering the essence of being. Until one walks with God, one cannot discover that unique destiny that has been allotted to each. Hence a lot of people live drifting with the tide of life without meaning and direction. This book is unique because this topic is seldom addressed even in Christendom. Anyone who reads this book will find it compelling to know what their purpose in life is. It will draw people to God and will drive them to seek to know more about Him. The book will also enable the reader to re-order his priorities and be purposeful about their decisions for progress in life.About the AuthorDr. Elizabeth James-Akpojosevbe was a television producer for 25 years in her country of Nigeria. She obtained her first degree in Theater Arts from the premiere University of Nigeria, The University of Ibadan. In 1998, she was transferred by her job, an international television outfit, to the United States of America, but after six months she got tired of TV work and decided to give back to society because she believes God has been good to her, so she became a social worker.Her coming to the U.S. was God-ordained when God instructed her to commence preaching in the subways in New York, where she lives. This has been her passion and she has continued since then even while working. Hence she obtained her PHD in Christian Ministry.https://www.amazon.com/Pre-Destination-Dr-Elizabeth-James-Akpojosevbe-ebook/dp/B098TMTH7Vhttp://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/kpp12921.mp3  

Kwame Bediako was one of the great African theologians of his generation. Challenging the assumption that Christianity is a Western religion, he presented a non-Western foundation for theological reflection, expanded the Christian theological imagination, and offered a path forward for post-Christendom theologies. Kwame Bediako: African Theology for a World Christianity (Fortress Press, 2022) is the first full-length introduction to Bediako's theology. It engages Bediako's central concerns with identity – specifically what it means to be African and Christian in the aftermath of the failures of colonialism – the relationship of theology and culture, and the need of indigenous expressions of Christian faith for the health of theological reflection worldwide. Challenging stereotypical perceptions of African Christianity and pressing readers to interrogate their own theological convictions in light of cultural and societal presuppositions, this book examines the gift of Bediako's work not just for Africa but for the world. Byung Ho Choi is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History & Ecumenics, focusing on World Christianity and history of religions at Princeton Theological Seminary. His research interest lies in Indonesia and the Muslim dominant regions of Southeast Asia, from the postcolonial approach to Christianity and the coexistence of various religions, including the study of Christianity and the Islamic faith in a Muslim dominant society that includes challenges of ethnic diversity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Kwame Bediako was one of the great African theologians of his generation. Challenging the assumption that Christianity is a Western religion, he presented a non-Western foundation for theological reflection, expanded the Christian theological imagination, and offered a path forward for post-Christendom theologies. Kwame Bediako: African Theology for a World Christianity (Fortress Press, 2022) is the first full-length introduction to Bediako's theology. It engages Bediako's central concerns with identity – specifically what it means to be African and Christian in the aftermath of the failures of colonialism – the relationship of theology and culture, and the need of indigenous expressions of Christian faith for the health of theological reflection worldwide. Challenging stereotypical perceptions of African Christianity and pressing readers to interrogate their own theological convictions in light of cultural and societal presuppositions, this book examines the gift of Bediako's work not just for Africa but for the world. Byung Ho Choi is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History & Ecumenics, focusing on World Christianity and history of religions at Princeton Theological Seminary. His research interest lies in Indonesia and the Muslim dominant regions of Southeast Asia, from the postcolonial approach to Christianity and the coexistence of various religions, including the study of Christianity and the Islamic faith in a Muslim dominant society that includes challenges of ethnic diversity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

Kwame Bediako was one of the great African theologians of his generation. Challenging the assumption that Christianity is a Western religion, he presented a non-Western foundation for theological reflection, expanded the Christian theological imagination, and offered a path forward for post-Christendom theologies. Kwame Bediako: African Theology for a World Christianity (Fortress Press, 2022) is the first full-length introduction to Bediako's theology. It engages Bediako's central concerns with identity – specifically what it means to be African and Christian in the aftermath of the failures of colonialism – the relationship of theology and culture, and the need of indigenous expressions of Christian faith for the health of theological reflection worldwide. Challenging stereotypical perceptions of African Christianity and pressing readers to interrogate their own theological convictions in light of cultural and societal presuppositions, this book examines the gift of Bediako's work not just for Africa but for the world. Byung Ho Choi is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History & Ecumenics, focusing on World Christianity and history of religions at Princeton Theological Seminary. His research interest lies in Indonesia and the Muslim dominant regions of Southeast Asia, from the postcolonial approach to Christianity and the coexistence of various religions, including the study of Christianity and the Islamic faith in a Muslim dominant society that includes challenges of ethnic diversity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies

Kwame Bediako was one of the great African theologians of his generation. Challenging the assumption that Christianity is a Western religion, he presented a non-Western foundation for theological reflection, expanded the Christian theological imagination, and offered a path forward for post-Christendom theologies. Kwame Bediako: African Theology for a World Christianity (Fortress Press, 2022) is the first full-length introduction to Bediako's theology. It engages Bediako's central concerns with identity – specifically what it means to be African and Christian in the aftermath of the failures of colonialism – the relationship of theology and culture, and the need of indigenous expressions of Christian faith for the health of theological reflection worldwide. Challenging stereotypical perceptions of African Christianity and pressing readers to interrogate their own theological convictions in light of cultural and societal presuppositions, this book examines the gift of Bediako's work not just for Africa but for the world. Byung Ho Choi is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History & Ecumenics, focusing on World Christianity and history of religions at Princeton Theological Seminary. His research interest lies in Indonesia and the Muslim dominant regions of Southeast Asia, from the postcolonial approach to Christianity and the coexistence of various religions, including the study of Christianity and the Islamic faith in a Muslim dominant society that includes challenges of ethnic diversity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

Kwame Bediako was one of the great African theologians of his generation. Challenging the assumption that Christianity is a Western religion, he presented a non-Western foundation for theological reflection, expanded the Christian theological imagination, and offered a path forward for post-Christendom theologies. Kwame Bediako: African Theology for a World Christianity (Fortress Press, 2022) is the first full-length introduction to Bediako's theology. It engages Bediako's central concerns with identity – specifically what it means to be African and Christian in the aftermath of the failures of colonialism – the relationship of theology and culture, and the need of indigenous expressions of Christian faith for the health of theological reflection worldwide. Challenging stereotypical perceptions of African Christianity and pressing readers to interrogate their own theological convictions in light of cultural and societal presuppositions, this book examines the gift of Bediako's work not just for Africa but for the world. Byung Ho Choi is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History & Ecumenics, focusing on World Christianity and history of religions at Princeton Theological Seminary. His research interest lies in Indonesia and the Muslim dominant regions of Southeast Asia, from the postcolonial approach to Christianity and the coexistence of various religions, including the study of Christianity and the Islamic faith in a Muslim dominant society that includes challenges of ethnic diversity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Kwame Bediako was one of the great African theologians of his generation. Challenging the assumption that Christianity is a Western religion, he presented a non-Western foundation for theological reflection, expanded the Christian theological imagination, and offered a path forward for post-Christendom theologies. Kwame Bediako: African Theology for a World Christianity (Fortress Press, 2022) is the first full-length introduction to Bediako's theology. It engages Bediako's central concerns with identity – specifically what it means to be African and Christian in the aftermath of the failures of colonialism – the relationship of theology and culture, and the need of indigenous expressions of Christian faith for the health of theological reflection worldwide. Challenging stereotypical perceptions of African Christianity and pressing readers to interrogate their own theological convictions in light of cultural and societal presuppositions, this book examines the gift of Bediako's work not just for Africa but for the world. Byung Ho Choi is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History & Ecumenics, focusing on World Christianity and history of religions at Princeton Theological Seminary. His research interest lies in Indonesia and the Muslim dominant regions of Southeast Asia, from the postcolonial approach to Christianity and the coexistence of various religions, including the study of Christianity and the Islamic faith in a Muslim dominant society that includes challenges of ethnic diversity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-studies

This episode is the second in a two-part interview on decolonizing worship. My guests are again Becca Whitla, Marcell Silva Steuernagel, and Brian Hehn. In the first episode we talked about the importance of decolonizing worship as beginning steps for Christians and churches to repent of the Church's complicity in creating, promoting, and perpetuating colonial imperialism and white male supremacy, and also as a means of helping the church regain its relevance in an age of post-Christendom. The focus was upon understanding how the legacy of colonial imperialism and white male supremacy influences what happens each Sunday morning in worship and upon specific practices that can and should occur in local congregations to change and decolonize their experience of worship. In this episode we discuss how thinking about and practicing decolonizing worship requires broadening the focus not just on local practices and experiences but also on ecumenical, transcultural, and transnational factors. We begin to explore some of what those factors are and why those factors bear on the local congregation. As you will learn, conversations like these are just the start of the process. Many more such conversations need to be had and a great deal more experimentation and sharing of experiences will need to occur for important changes to be made that will help bring into joyful rhythm and harmony the body of Christ. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.

Monday Red Pill Diaries-On The First Monday In Advent Let Us Men Commit To The New Christendom With Fasting Monday's Mike Church Red Pill Diaries-On The First Monday In Advent Let Us Men Commit To The New Christendom With Fasting BIOGRAPHY Mike Church Biography – “Too Catholic For Satellite Radio” In May of 2015, Chris Ferrara wrote a bio pic essay on a talk-radio host who was then completely unknown to Catholic, talk-radio fans. The Mike Church Interview: A Remarkable Conversion to Tradition Changes the Face of Political Talk Radio Featured Chris wrote of me back then, words that were too kind but serve as a basis for this biography. Indeed, over the past year or so Mike Church has emerged as the only traditionally Catholic conservative in talk radio today, anywhere in the world. And I mean traditional. Not only during my appearances on the show, but now thematically, Mike has turned the longest running political talk show on Sirius Radio into an unabashed presentation of the Social Kingship of Christ, traditional Catholic moral teaching, and even the traditional Latin liturgy as the solution to what is evidently otherwise a terminal civilizational crisis. I have been invited on the show numerous times to defend all of these things explicitly, to speak of the one true Church, and even to call upon conservative Protestants to enter the Church if they are serious about saving our nation and our civilization. From there, on October 26, 2015, my 13 year run on Sirius Satellite Radio came to a close when my contract was not renewed. Chris would follow the above bio with an updated one titled, The Mike Church Show – Too Catholic For Satellite Radio. MIKE CHURCH BIOGRAPHY FACTS Born, February 2nd, New Orleans Begun talk-radio in 1992, WSLA, Slidell LA, I have been off air a total of 7 months since. Launched the Sirius Satellite Radio service as its FIRST – LIVE talk-show on 10 March, 2003. Promoted to Morning Drive on the SiriusXM Patriot Channel, May 2009, the 3rd most listened to show on the platform From July 2007 – present, founded Founding Father Films, wrote, produced, narrated and directed 9, full length audio features, two that made it to DVD! Returned to the Roman Catholic Church's Tridentine Mass and Tradition in 2013. Consecrated to Our Lady via de Montfort's formula in December 2014. I had been planning for SiriusXM to “whack me” since 2012 and had laid the structural groundwork for the next step in my career: launching the Veritas Radio Network and The CRUSADE Channel. On November 1st, 2015, in a video webcast for the press, I announced the VRN and that on November 15th, the Mike Church Show would be silent no more and would return to the air, this time on a platform custom built for LIVE talk radio. Smaller Government is Better! Avoid the Chastisement! It's your hitchhiker's guide to faux conservative news! Advent

Is there now a fourth branch of Christendom?

Tim Keller outlines the elements of a post-Christian evangelism dynamic that moves beyond traditional evangelistic methods. Guest René Breuel shares how his church attracts non-Christians through fellowship and friendship that demonstrates the power of the gospel. Apologist Lisa Fields explains how she equips churches to address the unique apologetic questions raised by Christians of African descent. 

Full Text of ReadingsThursday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 500All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is Dedication of Churches of Saints Peter and Paulof the Dedication of the Churches of Saints Peter and Paul St. Peter's is probably the most famous church in Christendom. Massive in scale and a veritable museum of art and architecture, it began on a much humbler scale. Vatican Hill was a simple cemetery where believers gathered at Saint Peter's tomb to pray. In 319, Constantine built a basilica on the site that stood for more than a thousand years until, despite numerous restorations, it threatened to collapse. In 1506, Pope Julius II ordered it razed and reconstructed, but the new basilica was not completed and dedicated for more than two centuries. St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls stands near the Abaazia delle Tre Fontane, where Saint Paul is believed to have been beheaded. The largest church in Rome until St. Peter's was rebuilt, the basilica also rises over the traditional site of its namesake's grave. The most recent edifice was constructed after a fire in 1823. The first basilica was also Constantine's doing. Constantine's building projects enticed the first of a centuries-long parade of pilgrims to Rome. From the time the basilicas were first built until the empire crumbled under “barbarian” invasions, the two churches, although miles apart, were linked by a roofed colonnade of marble columns. Reflection Peter, the rough fisherman whom Jesus named the rock on which the Church is built, and the educated Paul, reformed persecutor of Christians, Roman citizen, and missionary to the gentiles, are the original odd couple. The major similarity in their faith-journeys is the journey's end: both, according to tradition, died a martyr's death in Rome—Peter on a cross and Paul beneath the sword. Their combined gifts shaped the early Church and believers have prayed at their tombs from the earliest days. Saint of the DayCopyright Franciscan Media

This week on the show, we discuss the banality of evil and the pull between God and Satan. First up, Desmond and Duane look at the sobering allegorical German film Nothing Bad Can Happen. Then, Desmond goes solo on the Satanic Panic documentary The Acid King. Songs included: "The Nightmare of Being" by At the Gates, "Christendom" by Paradise Lost, "One Ninety-Six" by Acid King, and "Sermons of the Sinner" by KK's Priest. Send feedback to: dreadmediapodcast@gmail.com. Follow @DevilDinosaurJr and @dreadmedia on Twitter! Join the Facebook group! Support the show at www.patreon.com/dreadmedia. Visit www.desmondreddick.com, www.stayscary.wordpress.com, www.dreadmedia.bandcamp.com, www.kccinephile.com, and www.dejasdomicileofdread.blogspot.com.

This week on the show, we discuss the banality of evil and the pull between God and Satan. First up, Desmond and Duane look at the sobering allegorical German film Nothing Bad Can Happen. Then, Desmond goes solo on the Satanic Panic documentary The Acid King. Songs included: "The Nightmare of Being" by At the Gates, "Christendom" by Paradise Lost, "One Ninety-Six" by Acid King, and "Sermons of the Sinner" by KK's Priest. Send feedback to: dreadmediapodcast@gmail.com. Follow @DevilDinosaurJr and @dreadmedia on Twitter! Join the Facebook group! Support the show at www.patreon.com/dreadmedia. Visit www.desmondreddick.com, www.stayscary.wordpress.com, www.dreadmedia.bandcamp.com, www.kccinephile.com, and www.dejasdomicileofdread.blogspot.com.

Now is not a very popular time to be a Catholic. The culture which was once steeped in Christian ideals is now hostile to those same ideals and beliefs. In this episode, Jake and Brett discuss a book that's currently taking the Catholic world by storm which can help us understand this shift. “From Christendom to Apostolic Mission” is a short and pithy book that's easy to read and extremely relevant, giving us a lens through which to understand how the Church fits into the current culture. The return to an Apostolic age presents it's own opportunities and hope for a more authentic Church.   Key Quote: “We are at the end of Christendom. Not Christianity, not the Church. Christendom is the economic, political, and social life as inspired by Christian principles. That is ending. We live in it from day to day, and we do not see the decline.” - Bishop Fulton Sheen   Key Points Christendom refers to the society in which the Church is planted, a society that is animated by Christian principles  Christendom spanned from the reign of the Emperor Constantine to the 1960s The ‘Apostolic mode' is not a new mode of church - it goes back to the early church Apostolic Christianity leaves no room for duplicity, hypocrisy. It is the narrow way. The importance of being grounded in eternal truths Looking at the culture, not in an alarmist way but taking stock of the facts, it's not a popular time to be a Catholic Apostolic Mission calls us to live authentic, Christian lives   Discussion Questions Do you find it difficult to live out Christian values in our current culture? How does the shift to Apostolic Mission intimidate and/or inspire you as a Christian man? What's one area of your life that you feel called to greater authenticity and integrity in living your faith?   References From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age (book)   Connect with Way of the Heart: Facebook: @wayoftheheartpodcast Instagram: @wayoftheheartpodcast Website: www.wayoftheheartpodcast.com   Never miss out on an episode by hitting the subscribe button right now! Help other people find the show and grow as holy men by sharing this podcast with them individually or on your social media. Thanks!   Editing by ForteCatholic.com

Full Text of ReadingsMemorial of Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr Lectionary: 495All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is Saint JosaphatIn 1595, the Orthodox bishop of Brest-Litovsk in present-day Belarus and five other bishops representing millions of Ruthenians, sought reunion with Rome. John Kunsevich—who took the name Josaphat in religious life—was to dedicate his life, and die for the same cause. Born in what is now Ukraine, he went to work in Wilno and was influenced by clergy adhering to the 1596 Union of Brest. He became a Basilian monk, then a priest, and soon was well known as a preacher and an ascetic. He became bishop of Vitebsk at a relatively young age, and faced a difficult situation. Most monks, fearing interference in liturgy and customs, did not want union with Rome. By synods, catechetical instruction, reform of the clergy, and personal example, however, Josaphat was successful in winning the greater part of the Orthodox in that area to the union. But the next year a dissident hierarchy was set up, and his opposite number spread the accusation that Josaphat had “gone Latin” and that all his people would have to do the same. He was not enthusiastically supported by the Latin bishops of Poland. Despite warnings, he went to Vitebsk, still a hotbed of trouble. Attempts were made to foment trouble and drive him from the diocese: A priest was sent to shout insults to him from his own courtyard. When Josaphat had him removed and shut up in his house, the opposition rang the town hall bell, and a mob assembled. The priest was released, but members of the mob broke into the bishop's home. Josaphat was struck with a halberd, then shot, and his body thrown into the river. It was later recovered and is now buried in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. He was the first saint of the Eastern Church to be canonized by Rome. Josaphat's death brought a movement toward Catholicism and unity, but the controversy continued, and the dissidents, too, had their martyr. After the partition of Poland, the Russians forced most Ruthenians to join the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1964, newspaper photos of Pope Paul VI embracing Athenagoras I, the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, marked a significant step toward the healing of a division in Christendom that has spanned more than nine centuries. Reflection The seeds of separation were sown in the fourth century when the Roman Empire was divided into East and West. The actual split came over customs such as using unleavened bread, Saturday fasting, and celibacy. No doubt the political involvement of religious leaders on both sides was a large factor, and doctrinal disagreement was present. But no reason was enough to justify the present tragic division in Christendom, which is 64 percent Roman Catholic, 13 percent Eastern—mostly Orthodox—Churches, and 23 percent Protestant, and this when the 71 percent of the world that is not Christian should be experiencing unity and Christ-like charity from Christians! Saint of the DayCopyright Franciscan Media

In this second half of his response to a recent review of his books, Fr. John Strickland discusses his use of scholarly sources (The Age of Division required more than three hundred and fifty of them). He also reflects on how criticisms of his sources and his arguments may have been provoked by the unconventional way in which he tells the story of Christendom.

In this special edition of Paradise and Utopia, Fr. John Strickland responds to a recent review of the first two volumes of his books series. In it, he notes the failure to consider the books on their own terms. He uses the opportunity to elaborate what he considers a healthy vision of Christian historiography, one that supports what many consider the need for a "re-enchantment" of modern culture.

Dr. Chris Green thinks more deeply and more wonderfully on race, justice and pentecostalism than anyone you know. He is a prolific author and professor of Public Theology at Southeastern University. Rev. Kenneth Tanner is a priest, theologian, wise guide and kind colleague to many friends of Tent (including amongst others Brad Jersak and Brian Zahnd). Kenneth and Chris meet regularly for theological conversations, and were kind to allow Stephen to listen in and record. Along the way we talk about the incarnation, worship, reading, christendom, deconstruction, reconstruction and the deep goodness of Revelation.More from and about Kenneth Tanner can be found HERE.More from and about Chris Green HERE.All about the Open Table conferences and study sessions HERE.Has anything we make been interesting, useful or fruitful for you? You can support us by becoming a Fellow Traveller on our Patreon page HERE.

This time, we meet Basil of Caesarea, a man who sets for us an indelible precedent for how integrating our faith and works can help us navigate the pressures of empire, wealth, and civil religion. www.shemasd.org Script by Mark Bunnell Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

Roman Catholicism entered the mainstream of American national life the morning following the November 8, 1960 election when John F. Kennedy won and became the president. While it may seem strange to people who did not grow up in the era, but Protestant voters were wary of a Roman Catholic potentially serving as president of the United States. Yet the Vatican may have been even more wary of “Americanism.” While it did not necessarily inhibit Catholics from being Catholic it also was a form of exceptionalism that potentially risked the expansion of Christendom as understood by Catholics. In this episode, D. G. Hart explains the historical reasons why the relationship between Roman Catholicism and Americanism changed in the 1960s and how it continued to develop in subsequent decades. Darryl G. Hart is Distinguished Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan.

"We've Already Come Too Far To End This Now.” - Sang-Woo, Squid Game Squid Game is a popular Netflix series from Korea. It tells the story of debt-ridden individuals who are out of last chances when they receive a mysterious invitation to compete in the ultimate game of survival for possibility at a big cash payday and a reversal of fortune. The cutthroat game is ultimately for the viewing pleasure of the rich and powerful. It's a farcical, yet deadly look into the corrupt power structures that govern the world today and the lengths to which individuals will go to get ahead.   If Squid Game is a polemic tale about the moral corruption of society, why does it also seem so similar to the avarice, values, and aims of modern-day Christendom?  On today's show, we continue through Jesus' teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. Delving into topics like murder, adultery, and divorce should seem simple enough for the church, yet that's not what Jesus is doing in this scripture. He's pushing something new. Christ is reframing scripture in radically new ways to the contemporary culture. He's not talking about murdering, but about our aversion to love others. Christ is flipping religious norms as he presses his disciples and listeners to dig deeper.  Talk of adultery and divorce seem salacious and made of scandal, yet, Jesus makes them all about the value of the other in society. Here, Christ frames adultery as wrong because love is not predatory. Kingdom of God ethics are never about mere sin or feigning holiness; it's a press for a deeper understanding of what grace, love, equality, and compassion look like manifested in reality. In a time when much of Christendom seems to be drunk on seeking power, prestige, and perceived rightness, Jesus removes all of the bullshit. If we don't love, we don't know Him. Christianity was never about praying a prayer or solidifying your eternal destination; it's always rooted in sacrificial love and restoring dignity to those the world has forgotten.  Our modern-day Squid Church fueled by selfishness, judgment, piousness, and greed won't disappear anytime soon, but that's not the point. Christ called his disciples to a different way, and sometimes the pursuit of that way means walking away from unhealthy institutions, denominations, and churches for the glory of God - not despite it.  Sometimes the best way to win is to walk away from the game. Show notes Episode Timestamp: Notes on the show hiatus: 02:00 In the News: 10:00 Christian Crazy: 16:50 Main Conversation: 31:30 Book referenced: Taking Jesus at His Word: What Jesus Really Said in the Sermon on the Mount ~ Addison Hodges Hart Big thanks to these outlets that make the Christian Crazy possible: Right Wing Watch Christian Nightmares Friendly Atheist Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world. www.SnarkyFaith.com

In Episode 18 of Season 2, Drew and Mick look at the shift away from cultural Christianity in the west, helpful ways of appropriating deconstruction, and decoding how our use of language can complicate or mitigate the development in the church in a "post-liberal" vision for kingdom embodiment. Connect with us at ideologypc@gmail.com // Like what you found here? Feel free to share, subscribe, rate, and/or comment.

Some scholars who think about the history of Christendom link the notion that sex is sinful or dangerous for the soul to the fact that almost all Christian religious leaders in Europe from about the fifth century until the Reformation were celibate or at least paid lip service to practicing celibacy. If sex is good, why wouldn't priests allow themselves to marry and procreate? There must be something uniquely holy about depriving onself of sex which then implies that there must be something sinful or degrading about sex. The question of how and why we got the idea that priests should be celibate is not a minor one. It echoes across the culture and informs the way we think about sex across the Western world straight up to the present day.

♪♫This is Halloween!  This is Halloween!♫♪  Supporters on our Patreon and fans in our FB group chose the topics for today's episode (plus now there's a sub-reddit):  01:35 sorting Dracula fact from fiction 07:49 how horror stars got their stars 20:01 when did clowns become scary 23:29 the history behind zombies 28:38 movie monster fast facts!  Mentioned in the show: Overly Sarcastic's Frankenstein run-down Cutting Class podcast on Christopher Lee Oh No! Lit Class on The Phantom   Who needs a costume when you could wear this?!   Read the full script. Reach out and touch Moxie on FB, Twit, the 'Gram or email. Music by Kevin MacLeod  Sponsor: City of Ghosts Brandi B. asked that we sort fact from fiction on Vlad Dracula.  Personally, I can remember a time when I didn't know that Vlad the Impaler was thought to be the inspiration from Bram Stoker's genre-launching vampire Dracula.  Hop in your magic school bus, police box, or phone booth with aerial antenna, and let's go back to 15th's century Wallachia, a region of modern day Romania that was then the southern neighbor of the province of Transylvania.  Our Vlad was Vlad III.  Vlad II, his father, was given the nickname Dracul by his fellow Crusade knights in the Order of the Dragon, who were tasked with defeating the Ottoman Empire.  Wallachia was sandwiched between the Ottomans and Christian Europe and so became the site of constant bloody conflict.  Without looking it up, I'm going to guess that they failed, since the Ottoman Empire stood until 1923.  Dracul translated to “dragon” in old Romanian, but the modern meaning is more like devil.  Add an A to the end to denote son-of and you've got yourself a Vlad Dracula.   At age 11, Vlad and his 7-year-old brother Radu went with their father on a diplomatic mission into the Ottoman Empire.  How's it go?  No too good.  The three were taken hostage.  Their captors told Vlad II that he could be released – on condition that the two sons remain.  Since it was his only option, their father agreed.  The boys would be held prisoner for 5 years.  One account holds that they were tutoried in the art of war, science and philosophy.  Other accounts says they were also subjected to torture and abuse.  When Vlad II returned home, he was overthrown in a coup and he and his eldest son were horribly murdered.   Shortly thereafter, Vlad III was released, with a taste for violence and a vendetta against the Ottomans.  To regain his family's power and make a name for himself, he threw a banquet for hundreds of members of his rival families.  On the menu was wine, meat, sweetbreads, and gruesome, vicious murder.  The guests were stabbed not quite to death, then impaled on large spikes.  This would become his signature move, leading to his moniker Vlad the Impaler, but wasn't the only arrow in his quiver.  Facing an army three times the size of his, he ordered his men to infiltrate their territory, poison wells and burn crops.  He also paid diseased men to go in and infect the enemy.  Defeated combatants were often treated to disemboweling, flaying alive, boiling, and of course impalement.  Basically, you turn your enemy into a kabob and let them die slowly and, just as important, conspicuously.  Vlad's reputation spread, leading to stories we have trouble sorting from legend, like that he once took dinner in a veritable forest of spikes.  We do know that in June of 1462, he ordered 20,000 defeated Ottomans to be impaled.  It's a scale that's hard to even imagine.   When the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II came upon the carnage, he and his men fled in fear back to Constantinople.  You'd think Vlad was on the road to victory, but shortly after, he was forced into exile and imprisoned in Hungary. [[how?]]  He took a stab, no pun intended, on regaining Wallachia 15 years later, but he and his troops were ambushed and killed.  According to a contemporary source, the Ottomans cut his corpse into pieces and marched it back to Sultan Medmed II, who ordered them displayed over the city's gates.  History does not record where the pieces ended up.   Vlad the Impaler was an undeniably brutal ruler, but he's still considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history for protecting it against the Ottomans and a national hero of Romania.  He was even praised by Pope Pius II for his military feats and for defending Christendom.  So how did get get from Vlad Dracula, the Impaler, a warrior king with a taste for torture, to, 400 years later, Dracula the undead creature of the night who must feed on the blood of living, can morph into bats or mist, and must sleep in his native earth?  Historians have speculated that Irish author Bram Stoker met with historian Hermann Bamburger, who told him about Vlad III, which ignited some spark of inspiration, but there's not actually any evidence to back this up.  Stoker was actually the first writer that we know of to have a vampire drink blood.  Vampires are actually a common folklore baddie around the world, from the obayifo in Africa which can take over people's bodies and emit phosphorus light from their armpits and anus to the manananggal of the Philippines who can detach her torso from her legs so she can fly around with her organs trailing behind her and use her snakelike tongue to steal babies from the womb.  In Western culture, though, Vlad the Impaler became the basis for everything from Bela Lugosi's Dracula to Count Chocula.  That means he's also the source of the Twilight saga, truly one of history's greatest monsters.   Ronnie asked for “how some legends got their stars.”  I wasn't sure what that meant, so I asked for clarification.  No, I didn't, I launched off immediately and at a full gallop with the first interpretation that came to mind, as I do in all aspects of my life.  So let's talk horror actors and the Hollywood walk of fame.   Even if he weren't a recognizable face, Vincent Price is probably the most recognizable voice in horror history.  For folks my age, you probably heard him for the first time on Michael Jackson's Thriller.  Folks in their 30's might have heard him first as Prof. Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective.  Price wasn't always a horror icon.  He'd done theater, radio, including Orson Wells Mercury Theater of the Air, and other genres of films, but 1953's House of Wax, which was also the first 3D movie to crack the top 10 box office gross for its year, solidified his place in horror history.  It's almost odd that Price went into acting at all.  His father was the president of the National Candy Company and his grandfather had set the family up with independent means thanks to his brand of cream of tartar.  Price and his wife Mary wrote a number of cookbooks, one of which my mother had when I was young.  You cannot fathom my confused disappointment that it was just a regular cookbook full of regular, boring, non-scary recipes.  And now, for no other reason than it makes me smile, is another amazing voice, Stephen Fry, talking about Price on QI.:  Romanian-born Bela Lugosi was a classical actor in Hungary before making the move to movies.  In fact, he was already playing Dracula on stage when the movie was being assembled.  Lugosi wanted the role so badly he agreed to do it for $500 per week, about $9K today, only one quarter that of actor David Manners who played Jonathan Harker.  It was a good investment, I'd say, since everyone knows Lugosi and this was the first time I'd ever seen David Manners' name.  Though Lugosi turned down the role of the monster in Frankenstein, he was quickly locked into horror.  He appeared in minor roles in a few good movies, like “Ninotchka” with Greta Garbo, but mostly bounced like a plinko chip from mediocre to bad movies, with ever decreasing budgets.  His drug addiction probably had a cyclical relationship with his work prospects.  He died two days into filming the absolutely dreadful “Plan 9 From Outer Space” and was replaced by a much younger and taller actor and his ex-wife's chiropractor because he fit the costume.   Peter Lorre is a name you might not recognize, but you would absolutely recognize his overall aesthetic.  It's still being referenced and parodied to this day.  See the bad guy?  Is he short, with round eyes, and a distinctive way of speaking?  What you got there is Peter Lorre.  Hungarian-born Lorre struck out at 17 to become a star.  For 10 years he played bit parts in amateur productions, but in 1931 he got his big break in the German film “M,” and Hollywood took notice.  His first English-speaking role was in the Hitchcock thriller “The Man Who Knew Too Much.”  The character spoke English, but Lorre didn't.  Just like Bela Legosi during his first turn as Dracula, Lorre had to memorize his lines phonetically.  Imagine how difficult it must be to put the right pacing and inflection into a sentence when you don't know which word means what.  He continued portraying psychopaths until John Huston cast him in a quasi-comic role in “The Maltese Falcon” with Humphrey Bogart and Sidney Greenstreet, which led to lighter roles like the one he played in Arsenic and Old Lace.  If you never seen it, make it you next choice.  It's a comedy, but you can definitely watch it with your horror movies, since it's about a pair of serial killers hiding bodies in their cellar.   Arsenic and Old Lace also features a bad guy getting plastic surgery to avoid the police, which accidentally leaves him looking like Boris Karloff and he's really touchy about it.  I don't know why.  Even though he played many monsters and villains in his career, Karloff was said to actually be a kind, soft-spoken man who was happiest with a good book or in his garden.  We hear him narrate How the Grinch Stole Christmas every year.  He doesn't sing the song, though.  That's Thurl Ravenscroft, who was also the original voice of Tony the Tiger.  The title role in Frankenstein took Karloff from bit player to household name.  Karloff said of the monster, “He was inarticulate, helpless and tragic.  I owe everything to him. He's my best friend.”  By the way, if you're one of those people who delights in going “Um, actually, Frankenstein was the name of the doctor,” can you not?  We all know that.  And since it's the last name of the man who gave him life, aka his father, it's a perfectly passable patronym to use.  Oh and by the way Mr or Ms Superior Nerd, Frankenstein wasn't a doctor, he was a college dropout.  I refer you to my much-beloved Red at Overly Sarcastic Productions on YouTube for a thorough explanation of the actual story.  Penny Dreadful did get pretty close in their interpretation.   Here's a name more people should know, John Carradine.  Wait, you say, the guy from Kill Bill?  No, that's his son David.  Oh, you mean the FBI guy the sister was dating on Dexter.  No, that's his other son Keith.  Revenge of the Nerds?  No, that's Robert.  The patriarch John Carradine was in over 500 movies, big names like Grapes of Wrath and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, but he also did a lot of horror, though it could be a mixed bag — everything from Dracula in House of Dracula down to Billy the Kid vs Dracula.  Not always for the love of it, either.  Sometimes a gig's just a gig.  He told one of his sons, “Just make sure that if you've got to do a role you don't like, it makes you a lot of money.”  Good advice for many areas of life.  If you've got Prime Video or Shudder, look for The Monster Club.  It's an darling, schlocky little anthology movie, which they just don't seem to make anymore, starring Carradine and Vincent Price.     Jaime Lee Curtis could have been on this list since she was in 5 of the Halloween films, but I just don't think people think “horror” when they hear her name.   There were a few names surprisingly not set in the stones.  While ‘man of a thousand faces' Lon Chaney, who played the original Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame, has a star, his son, Lon Chaney Jr, who played the Wolfman, the Mummy and numerous other roles in dozens of horror movies, does.  Somehow, Christopher Lee doesn't either.  In addition to the 282 roles on his imdb page, he deserves a star just for playing Dracula 10 times and still having a career after that.  Also, he was metal as fuck, recording metal albums into his 80's and there was the time he corrected director Peter Jackson on what it's like when you stab someone, because he *knew.  My buddies over at Cutting Class diverged from their usual format to tell us all about his amazing life.   Over in the Brainiac Breakroom, (plug sub reddit, thank Zach), Alyssa asked for the history behind clowns being evil.  One day, a man dressed up as a clown and it was terrifying.  Thank you for coming to my TED talk.   No?  Okay.  Fine!  It's not like I have to research them and keep seeing pictures of clowns.  Clowns weren't really regarded as frightening, or at least a fear of clowns wasn't widely known, from the creation of what we'd recognize as a clown by Joseph Grimaldi in the 1820's until fairly recently.  David Carlyon, author, playwright and a former clown with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the 1970s, argues that coulrophobia, the fear of clowns, was born from the counter-culture 1960s and picked up steam in the 1980s.  “There is no ancient fear of clowns,” he said. “It wasn't like there was this panic rippling through Madison Square Garden as I walked up through the seats. Not at all.”  For centuries, clowns were a funny thing for kids — there was Bozo, Ronald McDonald, Red Skelton's Clem Kaddidlehopper and Emmet Kelly's sad clown– then bam!  Stephen King's hit novel “It,” the doll in “Poltergeist,” and every incarnation of The Joker.  It could be seen as a pendulum swing.  Clowns had been so far to the good side that it must have been inevitable they would swing *way the hell over to evil.   Not so fast, argues Benjamin Radford, author of the book “Bad Clowns,” who argues that evil clowns have always been among us.  “It's a mistake to ask when clowns turned bad because historically they were never really good.  Sometimes they're making you laugh. Other times, they're laughing at your expense.”  Radford traces bad clowns all the way to ancient Greece and connects them to court jesters and the Harlequin figure.  He points particularly to Punch of the Punch & Judy puppet shows that date back to the 1500s.  Punch was not only not sweet and loveable, he was violent, abusive, and even homicidal.   Maybe when isn't as important as why.  Why are some of us afraid of clowns?  Personally, I think it's their complete disregard for personal space.  Kindly keep your grease-painted face at least arm's length away.  The grease paint may be part of it.  It exaggerates the features.  The face is basically human in composition, but it's not.  It dangles us over the edge of the uncanny valley, where something makes us uncomfortable because it is *almost human.  The makeup obscures the wearer's identity, so we don't really know who we're dealing with.  Clowns also act in aberrant ways, contrary to societal norms and expectations, and that might subconsciously get our back up.  As for coulrophilia, sexual attraction to clowns…. I got nothing.  You do you.   Charlie asked for the real history behind popular horror icons, like werewolves, vampires, and zombies.  Even though the zombie craze held on longer than the 2017 obsession with bacon, most people don't know about them pre-George Romero's Night of the Living Dead.   The word “zombie” first appeared in English around 1810 in the book “History of Brazil,” this was “Zombi,” a West African deity.  The word later came to suggest a husk of a body without vital life energy, human in form but lacking the self-awareness, intelligence, and a soul.  The Atlantic slave trade caused the idea to move across the ocean, where West African religions began to mix with force Christianity.  Pop culture continually intermixes many African Diasporic traditions and portrays them exclusively as Voodoo. However, most of what is portrayed in books, movies, and television is actually hoodoo. Voodoo is a religion that has two markedly different branches: Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Vodoun. Hoodoo is neither a religion, nor a denomination of a religion—it is a form of folk magic that originated in West Africa and is mainly practiced today in the Southern United States.   Haitian zombies were said to be people brought back from the dead (and sometimes controlled) through magical means by voodoo priests called bokors or houngan. Sometimes the zombification was done as punishment (striking fear in those who believed that they could be abused even after death), but often the zombies were said to have been used as slave labor on farms and sugarcane plantations. In 1980, one mentally ill man even claimed to have been held captive as a zombie worker for two decades, though he could not lead investigators to where he had worked, and his story was never verified.   To many people, both in Haiti and elsewhere, zombies are very real and as such very frightening.  Think about it.  These people were enslaved, someone else claimed dominion over their body, but they still had their mind and their spirit.  What could be more frightening to an enslaved person than an existence where even that is taken from you?   In the 1980s when a scientist named Wade Davis claimed to have found a powder that could create zombies, thus providing a scientific basis for zombie stories, a powerful neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin, which can be found in several animals including pufferfish.  He claimed to have infiltrated secret societies of bokors and obtained several samples of the zombie-making powder, which were later chemically analyzed.  Davis wrote a book on the topic, “The Serpent and the Rainbow,” which was later made into a really underappreciated movie.  Davis was held up as the man who had scientifically proven the existence of zombies, but skeptic pointed out that the samples of the zombie powder were inconsistent and that the amounts of neurotoxin they contained were not high enough to create zombies.  It's not the kind of thing you can play fast & loose with.  Tetrodotoxin has a very narrow band between paralytic and fatal.  Others pointed out nobody had ever found any of the alleged Haitian plantations filled with zombie laborers.  While Davis acknowledged problems with his theories, and had to lay to rest some sensational claims being attributed to him, he insisted that the Haitian belief in zombies *could be based on the rare happenstance of someone being poisoned by tetrodotoxin and later coming to in their coffin.   Bonus fact: Ever wonder where we get brain-eating zombies from?  Correlation doesn't equal causation, but the first zombie to eat brains was the zombie known as Tarman in 1984's Return of the Living Dead.  This wasn't a George Romero movie, though.  It's based on a novel called  Return of the Living Dead by John Russo, one of the writers of Night of the Living Dead.  After Russo and Romero parted company, Russo retained the rights to any titles featuring the phrase “Living Dead.”    Cindra asked for movie monster facts.  The moon is getting full, so let's hit these facts muy rapido.   1922's Nosferatu was an illegal and unauthorized adaption of Bram Stoker's Dracula.  Stoker's heirs sued over the film and a court ruling ordered that all copies be destroyed.  However, Nosferatu subsequently surfaced in other countries and came to be regarded as an influential masterpiece of cinema.   Not a single photograph of Lon Chaney as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera (1925) was published in a newspaper or magazine, or seen anywhere before the film opened in theaters.  It was a complete surprise to the audience and to Chaney's costar Mary Philbin, whos shriek of fear and disgust was genuine.   In the original Dracula, Lugosi never once blinks his eyes on camera, to give his character an otherworldy vibe.  Francis Ford Coppolla did something similar by having Dracula's shadow move slightly independently, like the rules of our world don't apply to him.   Even though he starred in the film, Boris Karloff was considered such a no-name nobody that Universal didn't invite him to the premiere of 1931's Frankenstein.   Karloff's classic Mummy the next year did not speak because the actor had so many layers of cotton glued to his face that he couldn't move his mouth.   The Creature from the Black Lagoon's look was based on old seventeenth-century woodcuts of two bizarre creatures called the Sea Monk and the Sea Bishop.   To make a man invisible for 1933's The Invisible Man, director James Whale had Claude Rains dressed completely in black velvet and filmed him in front of a black velvet background.   The movie poster for The Mummy (1932) holds the record for the most money paid for a movie poster at an auction: nearly half a million dollars.   Boris Karloff's costume and makeup for 1935's Bride of Frankenstein were so heavy and hot that he lost 20 pounds during filming, mostly through sweat.  His shoes weighed 13 lb/6 kg/1 stone apiece.   The large grosses for the film House on Haunted Hill (1960) were noticed by Sir Alfred Hitchcock was inspired to make a horror movie after the seeing the box office gross for William Castle's House on Haunted Hill.   Filming the shower scene for Psycho was pretty mundane, but actress Janet Leigh was so terrified by seeing the finished product –thanks to the editing by Alma Reveill-Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann score– that she did not shower, only bathed, from the premier in 1960 to her death in 2004.  You can read more about Alma Revill in the YBOF book.   According to our friends Megan and RJ at Oh No! Lit Class podcast, the first use of Toccata Fuge in G Minor in a film was the 1962 Phantom of the Opera.  It's hard to imagine classic horror without it.   In Night of the Living Dead, the body parts the zombies ate were ham covered in chocolate sauce.  George Romero joked that they shouldn't bother putting the zombie makeup on the actors because the choco-pork made them look pale and sick with nausea anyway.   A lot of people know that Michael Myers' mask in the original Halloween was actually a William Shatner mask painted white.  They bought it because it was on clearance and the film had a small budget.  Most people don't know that Shatner later repaid the favor by dressing up as Michael Myers for Halloween.   Freddy Kruger's look was based on a scary drunk man Wes Craven saw outside his home as a child.  His glove made of leather and steak knives was actually inspired by Craven's cat.  Looks down at scratches on both arms.  Yeah, that checks out.  The idea of being killed in your sleep comes from real deaths of people who survived the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, only to die mysteriously later.   1987's The Monster Squad. With a werewolf, a mummy, Dracula, and Frankenstein's monster in the mix, the group looked suspiciously like the line-up of the 1930s and '40s Universal horror movies. To avoid confusion (i.e. lawsuits), filmmaker Fred Dekker made some subtle changes to his monsters, like removing Dracula's widow's peak, and moving Frankenstein's neck bolts up to his forehead. See? Totally different!   Yes, those were real bees in Candyman, even the ones in Candyman's mouth.  Tony Todd had a clause in his contract that he would get $1k for every bee sting he got during filming.  Even though juvenile bees with underdeveloped stingers were used, he still got $23k worth of stings.   You might think 1991's Silence of the Lambs was the first horror movie to win an Oscar, but Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde beat them to it by 60 years with Fredric March's Oscar for Best Actor.

Timothy J. Gordon studied philosophy in Pontifical graduate universities in Europe, taught it at Southern Californian community colleges, and then went on to law school. He holds degrees in literature, history, philosophy, and law. Currently, he resides in Mississippi with his wife and six children, where he writes and teaches philosophy and theology. For two thousand years, Christianity has taught, with startling specificity, that married men are patriarchs who should relate to their wives as Christ relates to His Bride, the Church, according to the dust jacket of Timothy J Gordon's latest book, The Case for Patriarchy (Crisis Publications). "Yet as feminism swept across Western society in recent decades, our understanding of patriarchy became corrupted, and men have been astoundingly swift in their forfeiture of their God-given patriarchal rights and duties." The blurb continues: "While The Case for Patriarchy articulates a position that is provocative in our day, it's a position that was without controversy for millennia. Why? Because Christians viewed patriarchy as a theological necessity according to the dictates of Christian Scripture and Tradition. "In these powerful pages, Timothy Gordon argues that Christ did more than establish a clerical patriarchy — an all-male priesthood. He also created a lay patriarchy of male householders who act as priests, prophets, and kings of their families. The supplantation of this patriarchy with a feminist “matriarchy,” Gordon argues, has proven to be the most devastating of all the subversive revolutions waged upon Christendom by the radical, secular Left." Gordon demonstrates that the Word of God single-handedly foils all the toxic plans of modern radicals, and centuries of Christian theology in the East and West have reinforced it, according to the blurb of his new book. "He pulls the curtain back on the “waves” of feminism that have swept over Western culture, and he refutes the methodology they employ to undermine men. Finally, he examines what the restoration of the Christian vocation should look like, as well as explores the patriarchal virtues that all men should exercise in their home and society." "Here is a book that boldly pushes back on the narrative that the patriarchy is dangerous to women and to society," we are told. "Indeed, it is a book that unapologetically seeks a restoration of Western society based on patriarchal order, where justice and the common good can triumph." --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/john-aidan-byrne0/support

Deacon Harrison Garlick interviews Andrew Willard Jones on Church and State. ENJOY THE SHOW AND WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE? SUPPORT TCMS, GET AWESOME THANK YOU GIFTS, AND HELP SPREAD THE WORD. http://www.patreon.com/thecatholicmanshow (Become a Patron! Over 40 interviews, a course with Karlo Broussard, a 10 part series on the domestic church, and free thank you gifts for supporting the show!) https://selectinternationaltours.com/catholicmanshow/ () Travel to Italy, the Holy Land, Scotland, or Europe. Take a Catholic pilgrimage cruise or mix in Faith and Food or Faith and Fitness. No matter where you travel with Select, you will be embraced by faith. All our trips feature daily mass, unparalleled access to sacred sites, local guides that speak your language, and excellent accommodations. We have been helping pilgrims put their feet in the places their faith began for over 30 years. We want to help YOU experience the fun and faith-enriching power of pilgrimage. https://selectinternationaltours.com/catholicmanshow/ (Click here) About our drink: N/A About our gear: https://www.amazon.com/Before-Church-State-Sacramental-Kingdom/dp/1945125144 (Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX) Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX by Andrew Willard Jones explores in great detail the "problem of Church and State" in thirteenth-century France. It argues that while the spiritual and temporal powers existed, they were not parallel structures attempting to govern the same social space in a contest over sovereignty. Rather, the spiritual and the temporal powers were wrapped up together in a differentiated and sacramental world, and both included the other as aspects of their very identity. The realm was governed not by proto-absolutist institutions, but rather by networks of friends that cut across lay/clerical lines. Ultimately, the king's "fullness of power" and the papacy's "fullness of power" came together to govern a single social order. The prevailing narrative of human history, given to us as children and reinforced constantly through our culture, is the plot of progress. As the narrative goes, we progressed from tyranny to freedom, from superstition to science, from poverty to wealth, from darkness to enlightenment. This is modernity's origin myth. Out of it, a consensus has emerged: part of human progress is the overcoming of religion, in particular Christianity, and that the world itself is fundamentally secular. https://www.amazon.com/Two-Cities-History-Christian-Politics/dp/1645851222 (The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics) In The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics, Andrew Willard Jones rewrites the political history of the West with a new plot, a plot in which Christianity is true, in which human history is Church history. The Two Cities moves through the rise and fall of empires; cycles of corruption and reform; the rise and fall of Christendom; the emergence of new political forms, such as the modern state, and new political ideologies, such as liberalism and socialism; through the horrible destruction of modern warfare; and on to the plight of contemporary Christians. These movements of history are all considered in light of their orientation toward or away from God. The Two Cities advances a theory of Christian politics that is both an explanation of secular politics and a proposal for Christians seeking to navigate today's most urgent political questions. About Deacon Harrison Garlick: Dcn. Harrison Garlick is a deacon, husband, and father who serves as the chancellor and legal counsel for the Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma. He also serves as a tutor for the http://www.alcuininstitute.org (Alcuin Institute for Catholic Culture) teaching in its Great Books program. https://www.christthekingcatholic.church/springnewsletter (Read his journey in the... Support this podcast