Introduction: Today on the memorial of September 11, 2022 many Americans (as well as others) reflect upon a major tragedy that took the lives of many, and provoked a major paradigm shift with respect to U.S. foreign policy. The ripples of that horrible day still affect countless individuals, as well as the world as a whole. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on the “why”, to explore some of the religious rhetoric leading up to... Read more
Background: For the first thirteen centuries of Christianity it was accepted as a given that the Apostle Peter, before the end of his life, came to Rome, labored there for a period, and ultimately was martyred there. It was not until the advent of the Waldensian sect in the High Middle Ages that the first doubts on this question were expressed, and this seemingly in connection with their assertion that the Sacred Scriptures were the only means for... Read more
St. Cyril of Alexandria at the Council of Ephesus, Francisco Meneses Osorio, Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville (Wikimedia Commons). Introduction: Today, January 1, marks the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, in the Catholic Church. It is beyond the scope of the present post to present the history of the feast day, as well as to detail the Christological debate associated with the title Theotokos (“God-bearer”), formally declared at the Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431. What follows then... Read more
Pope St. Leo the Great, by Francisco de Herrera el Mozo, Museo de Prada. (Wikimedia Commons) The Council of Chalcedon was convened in A.D. 451 in order to combat the heresy of Monophysitism. While Nestorianism – condemned at the previous Council of Ephesus twenty years prior and historically attributed to Nestorius – held that Christ is two persons (one Divine and one human), Monophysitism swung to the opposite extreme. It posited that the human nature of Christ was swallowed up... Read more
José María Gil Robles, 1933.(Wikimedia Commons) In his monograph on the Spanish Civil War, Stanley Payne dedicates a chapter to what he calls “the breakdown of democracy”, wherein he narrates the unravelling of the Spanish Second Republic. In it, he includes a number of citations from some of the key players which give significant insight into what they were witnessing and how they were processing it at the dawn of the civil war. This post seeks to introduce and contextualize... Read more
Madonna and Child with Saints Peter and Mark and Three Venetian Procurators, by Giovanni Bellini and Workshop, 16th c. (Wikimedia Commons). In wrapping up his First Epistle, the Apostle Peter makes a cryptic reference to his location, stating that, “The church that is in Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you: and so doth my son Mark.”[1] The “Mark” referenced here is the author of one of the four Gospels, and whom according to tradition, was a companion of the... Read more
Pope Innocent III (r. 1198-1216).(Wikimedia Commons) In his work Innocent III and the Crown of Aragon: The Limits of Papal Authority, Damian Smith shares the words that Giovanni Capocci is supposed to have said to that Pope: ‘Your words are God’s words, but your works are those of the Devil.’ As Smith notes, Innocent III (d. 1216) had his supporters and critics, and while I am unfamiliar with Capocci, he was obviously a critic.[1] The book is broadly concerned with... Read more
Inmaculada, Alonso Vázquez, Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla(Wikimedia Commons). This past summer, I was reading Jessica Coope’s monograph on the Martyrs of Córdoba. While discussing the religious climate in the ninth-century capital of al-Andalus, she says the following: “…[B]y the ninth century a hadith was generally accepted which states that all babies are squeezed at birth by Satan (that is why they cry), but that Mary and Jesus escaped this contact with the devil; behind this tradition seems to... Read more
Saladin, 16th c. (Wikimedia Commons) In my very first blog post, “A Primer on the Crusades”, I stated that, “Saladin…seems to have been largely forgotten about in the Muslim sources until more recent times.” While recently reading Paul Cobb’s book on the Crusades from an Islamic perspective, I discovered that this view has been challenged.[1] In a footnote on the topic, Cobb writes: “The notion that modern Muslims had to be ‘reminded’ of Saladin has deep roots in the modern... Read more
(Image from Amazon.com) Rudolph Peters. Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam (Second Edition.) Princeton. Markus Wiener Publishers, 2008. vii – 183 pgs. Bibliography. This work serves as an introduction to the Islamic doctrine of jihad (“struggle”), showing how the doctrine has been understood and explained by Muslims throughout the ages (vii.) It is composed as a reader, consisting of a number of essays by the author as well as primary sources on the topic by Muslim authors. For the most... Read more
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