church-history
Historical studies on the development of Christian doctrine, early church writings, councils, and controversies.
ANCIENT WITNESSES TO MARY’S ASSUMPTION Paid Members Public
Courtesy of William Albrecht. All emphasis is mine. Ephrem the Syrian “I am about to enter into His living Paradise, and in the place in which Eve succumbed, I shall glorify Him. For of all created women, He was most pleased with me, and He willed that I should be
ANCIENT COMMENTARIES ON REVELATION 12 Paid Members Public
Courtesy of William Albrecht. All emphasis is mine. Testament of Joseph, Chapter II 72 And hear ye, my children, also the vision which I saw. 73 There were twelve harts feeding: and the nine were first dispersed over all the earth, and likewise also the three. 74 And I saw
MONEPISCOPACY IN THE EARLY CHURCH Paid Members Public
Monepiscopacy, also called monarchical episcopate, refers to a single bishop chosen to preside and rule over the church with a college of presbyters and deacons. The evidence shows that this was an early and widespread practice of the universal church. In fact, a strong case can be made that this
THE CHRISTOLOGY OF ADAM AND ISAAC Paid Members Public
In this post I will be looking at specific early Christian apocryphal and pseudepigraphic writings, which give us an idea of the early Christological views held during that period. Some of these sources are believed to have originally been Jewish works that subsequently underwent revision and redaction by Christian scribes.
CLEMENT OF ROME AND CHRIST’S DEITY Paid Members Public
In this post I will quote from a letter attributed to Clement of Rome, which was written to address the Ephesian churches’ deposing their elders. The epistle has been dated to the last three decades of the first century, with the most common date of composition placed at the end
EARLY CHURCH ON SACRAMENT OF PENANCE Paid Members Public
The following is taken from EWTN’s article which can be accessed here: Sacrament of Penance in the Early Church. Author: Fr. William Most SACRAMENT OF PENANCE IN THE EARLY CHURCH 1. Epistle of Pope St. Clement, probably c 95 AD: 51.3: “For it is good for a person
EARLY CHURCH ON PUBLICLY CONFESSING SINS Paid Members Public
The following has been adapted from the Catholic Answer’s article, which can be accessed here: What the Early Church Believed: Confession. Over time, the forms in which the sacrament of confession has been administered have changed. In the early Church, publicly known sins (such as apostasy) were often confessed
LUTHER’S PRAISE OF MARY Paid Members Public
The following citation is taken from William Cole’s article, “Was Luther a Devotee of Mary?,” found in Marian Studies, Volume XXI, 1970, p. 131: In a Christmas sermon of 1531, Luther speaks of Mary as the “HIGHEST WOMAN AND THE NOBLEST GEM in Christianity after Christ.” He goes on