As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
Most of us took our church history classes1 in Bible college or seminary (or both) because we had to complete another requirement to graduate. Of course, there were some famous episodes within the last 2,000 years of Christian history that we wanted to know about.
“Over the years, the prayer has often been attributed to other Christian writers, including Thomas Aquinas, Augustine and Francis of Assisi. Many people might be surprised to discover that, far from being penned in an ancient European monastery, the Serenity Prayer was written less than a century ago in a cottage in western Massachusetts.” - RNS
“Baptism has a marginal role in this picture. Yet baptism is central to the Christian life: commanded by Jesus, taught by the apostles, and honored, practiced, and contemplated from church fathers like Augustine of Hippo and Cyril of Jerusalem through Protestant reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin.
“…most of those celebrating may not care too much about who Saint Patrick was, nor the story of his conversion and devotion to the gospel that impacted not just Ireland, but all of Western civilization.” - IFWE
“The first group of people to claim evangelical as a noun was the Evangelical Voluntary Church Association in England in the 1830s…. In the US, 100 years later, the evangelist Billy Graham started using the word as a term for people who supported his ministry.” - C.Today
“The amulet shows that Christianity had spread further north into Germania more quickly than we previously realized. We know there was a robust presence of Christianity north of the Alps in places like Lyons, Gaul (modern-day Lyon, France), where Irenaeus ministered as a priest from AD 161–80.” - TGC
“In North America, MennoMedia is releasing a new study Bible that features the reflections of 597 Bible study groups from 18 Anabaptist faith groups.” - RNS
“Time for a shout-out to Anabaptism, a Protestant wing of the church marking its 500th year anniversary this January, 2025. The marker traces to the time in 1525 when Geoge Blaurock, a Catholic priest, was baptized (re-baptized, actually) by Conrad Grebel in the home of Felix Manz in Zurich, Switzerland.” - Juicy Ecumenism
The Dead Sea Scrolls, Jesus’ claim to be God, date of Gospel of John, the canonical gospels vs. non-canonical “gospels” - YouTube
“This New Year marks the 1,700th anniversary of [the Nicene Creed], which was produced by bishops attending Christianity’s first recognized ‘ecumenical’ (that is, universal) council, as opposed to regional councils and synods.” - Religion Unplugged
Discussion