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Great Christian Thinkers - 19 St. Ambrose of Milan
Great Christian Thinkers - 19 St. Ambrose of Milan
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Ambrose of Milan Holy Bishop Ambrose, about whom I now speak to you, died in Milan in the night between 3 and 4 April 397. It was dawn on Holy Saturday. The day before, at about five o’clock in the afternoon, he had settled down to pray, lying on his bed with his arms wide op…
Great Christian Thinkers - 28 St. Benedict of Nursia
Great Christian Thinkers - 28 St. Benedict of Nursia
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Benedict of Nursia Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism, is also the patron of my pontificate. I begin with words that St. Gregory the Great wrote about St. Benedict: “The man of God who shone on this earth among so many miracles was just as brilliant in the eloquent …
Great Christian Thinkers - 33 St. Isidore of Seville
Great Christian Thinkers - 33 St. Isidore of Seville
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Isidore of Seville Saint Isidore of Seville was a younger brother of Leander, archbishop of Seville, and a great friend of Pope Gregory the Great. Pointing this out is important because it enables us to bear in mind a cultural and spiritual approach that is indispensable for …
Great Christian Thinkers - 42 John Scotus Erigena
Great Christian Thinkers - 42 John Scotus Erigena
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
John Scotus Erigena Though a noteworthy thinker of the Christian West, John Scotus Erigena’s origins are nonetheless obscure. He certainly came from Ireland, where he was born at the beginning of the ninth century. But we do not know when he left his island to cross the channel a…
Great Christian Thinkers - 47 St. Anselm
Great Christian Thinkers - 47 St. Anselm
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Anselm The Benedictine abbey of Sant’Anselmo (St. Anselm) is located on the Aventine Hill in Rome. As the headquarters of an academic institute of higher studies and of the abbot primate of the Confederated Benedictines, it is a place that unites within it prayer, study, and …
Great Christian Thinkers - 48 Peter the Venerable
Great Christian Thinkers - 48 Peter the Venerable
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Peter the Venerable Peter the Venerable takes us back to the famous abbey of Cluny, to its decor (“decorum”) and nitor (“clarity”), to use terms that recur in the Cluny texts - a decorum and splendour that were admired especially in the beauty of the liturgy, a privileged way for…
Great Christian Thinkers - 62 St. Gertrude the Great
Great Christian Thinkers - 62 St. Gertrude the Great
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Gertrude the Great St. Gertrude the Great brings us once again to the monastery of Helfta, where several of the Latin-German masterpieces of religious literature were written by women. Gertrude belonged to this world. She is one of the most famous mystics, the only German wom…
Great Christian Thinkers - 63 St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Great Christian Thinkers - 63 St. Elizabeth of Hungary
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Elizabeth of Hungary Another great woman of the Middle Ages who inspired the greatest admiration is St. Elizabeth of Hungary, also called St. Elizabeth of Thuringia… Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by Pope Benedict XVI
Parallel Lives of Jesus - 9 The Walking on the Water
Parallel Lives of Jesus - 9 The Walking on the Water
by SPCK - Edward Adams
The Walking on the Water The story of Jesus’ walking on the water appears in three of the four Gospels: not, as one might expect, in the three Synoptic Gospels, but in Matthew, Mark, and John. Luke does not include this episode; he moves directly from the feeding miracle to the c…
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 17 Theology of Sexual Practice Joining the Body
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 17 Theology of Sexual Practice Joining the Body
by SPCK-Kenneth E. Bailey
Theology of Sexual Practice Joining the Body This homily presents the second half of Paul’s theological foundation for sexual ethics (6:13-20). He offers his views in a marvellously structured apostolic homily with ten cameos. The text is displayed in figure 2.4(1)… Taken from Pa…
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 13 Entrepreneurs in the Bible
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 13 Entrepreneurs in the Bible
by SPCK - Michael Volland
Entrepreneurs in the Bible We can identify various figures in the Bible and in Christian history whose faith in God has resulted in their adopting what might be described as an entrepreneurial approach to their collaboration with God…
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 34 Resurrection and Ethics
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 34 Resurrection and Ethics
by SPCK-Kenneth E. Bailey
Resurrection and Ethics In each of the four previous essays Paul placed his theological teachings in the centre of the essay and positioned the ethical problem under discussion on the outside, around that centre. For example, in the first essay the ethical problem was the Corinth…
Great Christian Thinkers - 10 St. Athanasius of Alexandria
Great Christian Thinkers - 10 St. Athanasius of Alexandria
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Athanasius of Alexandria Continuing our re-visitation of the great teachers of the ancient Church, let us focus our attention on St. Athanasius of Alexandria… Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by Pope Benedict XVI
Imagining the Lectionary: This will be a sign for you (Advent 4C / Christmas Eve / Christmas Day)