A Living Text.

St. Irenaeus discusses the Gnostic leader Carpocrates and his followers, and in so doing, hints at the origin of icons. He says of these heretics: They style themselves Gnostics. They also possess images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of material; while they maintain that a likeness of Christ was made…

One fundamental justification for “venerating” images as opposed to worshipping them (as if this is different) is that we are not really doing anything to the icon, but to the saint or God behind the icon. And yet, that is exactly what an ancient worshiper of Zeus would have said. Alain Besancon writes: The biblical…

In her book The Formation of Christendom, Judith Herrin writes: It was in their role as intercessors between man and God that the icons commanded particular devotion. Numerous legends of women, whose inability to conceive a child (or sometimes, more particularly, a son) was removed by prayers directed to icons, reflect an anxiety common to…

Thomas F. Mathews says that Christian icons “…grew out of a strong tradition of pagan panel paintings of the ancient gods…” (p. 179) Mathews points to some glaring examples of this transfer from paganism to eastern Christianity. …a fresco painted directly on a house wall in Karanis to serve as a permanent icon shows the…

Arnold Samuelson was a young man who met Hemingway and ended up working on his boat for a year. Hemingway told him to read these books in order to be a writer: “Here’s a list of books any writer should have read as a part of his education,” he said, handing me the following list:Stephen…

Matthew McNaught describes a Nigerian Islamic movement that imitates African Pentecostal Christianity: NASFAT targeted the professional class and those aspiring towards it, founding a university, running networking groups, and offering management courses presenting the Prophet Muhammad as an exemplary businessman. The movement encouraged the participation of women, some of whom ascended to leadership roles. NASFAT-linked…

Former AMiA and C4SO priest Jay Greener who was investigated and resigned in 2022 has now emerged in the odd Kevin Donlon led group “the Anglican Union.” The Anglican Union split from what is left of AMiA for reasons unknown. When he resigned, the public statement from C4SO said: Because he is canonically resident in…

People are talking about the Jesus Movement a lot again lately. It is a subject that endlessly fascinates me as I grew up on the tail end of it as a kid. My memories of it are just hazy, but still it was something of the water that we swam in back then. Keith Green…

Is fame ever good for anyone? Or does it ultimately poison and destroy anyone who achieves it? Fame meaning not just Hollywood, Nashville, or Broadway, but being the famous professor who shakes up the field, the pastor who has a huge church and influence, or the politician who makes a mark. In his book The…