At the dawn of the second millennium, authors from monasteries in Burgundy and northern Germany recorded the lives and deaths of two powerful and pious women, Mathilda (d. 968) and Adelheid (d. 999). Both were extolled as saints, exemplary figures guided by God and witnessing to His grace. Unlike most other holy women, however, Mathilda and ......
Agnellus' ""Book of Pontiffs of the Church of Ravenna"", written in the ninth century, is a source for the study of Italian history from the fourth to the ninth centuries. Agnellus seems to have been a well-born priest in the church of Ravenna, and his work is strongly coloured by his personal experiences. He wrote the book to demonstrate two ......
Contemporaries hailed the preacher and reformer Robert of Arbrissel (c 1045-1116) as a thunderclap of holy eloquence that lit up the Church - or they castigated him as a sponsor of sexual license. Robert has remained a controversial figure ever since, seen as a missionary to all manner of Christians, a heretic, a feminist, a founder of the ideal ......
Including over 260 brief biographies, and 33 entries, as well as a glossary of terms that help to explain the theology of the Roman Catholic Church, this title introduces the faithful to the day's feast or to the saint whose memorial is being celebrated.
In the nineteenth century, most people assumed that the "modern spirit" and Catholicism, the great "religion of authority," were irreconcilably opposed. However, some tried to combine the two in a reformed and modernized Catholicism. These efforts, and the reaction of the institutional Church against them, precipitated the Modernist Crisis. ......
Offers a comprehensive analysis and criticism of the development of modern Catholic social teaching from the perspective of theology, ethics, and church history.
Offers a comprehensive analysis and criticism of the development of modern Catholic social teaching from the perspective of theology, ethics, and church history.
Alan Millard here argues that written reports about Jesus could have been made during his lifetime and that some among his audiences and followers may well have kept notes, first-hand documents that the Evangelists could weave into their accounts.
Throughout its history, Christianity has adapted to contemporary society and culture in order to reach people effectively and have an impact on the world. This process often evokes controversy. Certainly this is the case in the current century, and so it was in the sixteenth. Robert Bireley argues that early modern Catholicism, the period known ......