1.
Anathema (band)
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Anathema are a British rock band from Liverpool. The band was founded as Pagan Angel in 1990 by the three Cavanagh siblings, John, and singer Darren White, as a death/doom band, at the time White was the only singer of the band. The following year, Jamie left and was replaced by Duncan Patterson, under this line-up, Anathema released their first EP, The Crestfallen, and their first album, Serenades. In 1997, John left the band, and was replaced by Shaun Steels for the album Alternative 4. Both Patterson and Steels left the year, replaced by Dave Pybus. The band released their sixth album A Fine Day to Exit in 2001, shortly after the release, Pybus announced his departure and was replaced by the bands original bassist, Jamie Cavanagh, reuniting the three brothers in the band for the first time since 1991. Smith left Anathema in 2011, and Vincent and Daniel both assumed the function of keyboardist for the ninth album, Weather Systems, in 2012. The same year, Cardoso, the bands live keyboardist since 2011, the bands tenth studio album called Distant Satellites was released on 9 June 2014 via Kscope. Anathema formed in 1990 as a metal band, initially going by the name Pagan Angel. In November of that year, the recorded their first demo. This demo caught the attention of several bands and labels from the English metal scene, at the beginning of 1991, the band gained a lot of attention with the release of their second demo entitled All Faith Is Lost, resulting in a four-album deal with Peaceville Records. Their first release under the label was The Crestfallen EP in November 1992 and they took the material from that album on the road, touring with Cannibal Corpse. Serenades, Anathemas debut LP, attracted a lot of mainstream attention, Anathemas first European tour was in 1994, and was closely followed by gigs at the Independent Rock Festival in Brazil. In May 1995, vocalist Darren White parted with the band, rather than recruiting a new vocalist, the band decided that guitarist Vincent Cavanagh should assume Whites role. This new formation debuted by touring with Cathedral in the United Kingdom and it also showed the band starting to take a direction akin to Gothic metal. The next member to leave the band was drummer John Douglas and he was replaced by Shaun Steels, formerly of Solstice, who would also later play drums for My Dying Bride. The release of Eternity came in 1996, relying more on atmospheric sounds, and starting the transition to clean vocals, a European tour followed the albums release. Alternative 4 was released in 1998, during this time the band underwent many line-up changes
2.
New Testament
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The New Testament is the second major part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity, Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture. The New Testament has frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world and it reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Both extended readings and phrases directly from the New Testament are also incorporated into the various Christian liturgies, the New Testament has influenced religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom and left an indelible mark on literature, art, and music. In almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books, John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Others give a date of 80 AD, or at 96 AD. Over time, some disputed books, such as the Book of Revelation, other works earlier held to be Scripture, such as 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Diatessaron, were excluded from the New Testament. However, the canon of the New Testament, at least since Late Antiquity, has been almost universally recognized within Christianity. The term new testament, or new covenant first occurs in Jeremiah 31,31, the same Greek phrase for new covenant is found elsewhere in the New Testament. Modern English, like Latin, distinguishes testament and covenant as alternative translations, John Wycliffes 1395 version is a translation of the Latin Vulgate and so follows different terms in Jeremiah and Hebrews, Lo. Days shall come, saith the Lord, and I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel, for he reproving him saith, Lo. Days come, saith the Lord, when I shall establish a new testament on the house of Israel, use of the term New Testament to describe a collection of first and second-century Christian Greek Scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian. In Against Marcion, written circa 208 AD, he writes of the Divine Word, by the 4th century, the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius, a 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin Institutiones Divinae and that which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the Old, but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The canon of the New Testament is the collection of books that most Christians regard as divinely inspired, several of these writings sought to extend, interpret, and apply apostolic teaching to meet the needs of Christians in a given locality. The book order is the same in the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, the Slavonic, Armenian and Ethiopian traditions have different New Testament book orders. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament narrates the life, death, the word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning good news or glad tidings. The gospel was considered the good news of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and the redemption through the life and death of Jesus, Gospel is a calque of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion
3.
Old Testament
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Its counterpart is the New Testament, the second part of the Christian Bible. The books that comprise the Old Testament canon differ between Christian Churches as well as their order and names. The most common Protestant canon comprises 39 books, the Catholic canon comprises 46 books, the 39 books in common to all the Christian canons corresponds to 24 books of the Tanakh, with some differences of order, and there are some differences in text. The additional number reflects the split of texts in the Christian Bibles into separate books, for example, Kings, Samuel and Chronicles, Ezra–Nehemiah, the books which are part of a Christian Old Testament but which are not part of the Hebrew canon are sometimes described as deuterocanonical. In general, Protestant bibles do not include books in its canon. The Old Testament consists of translations of many books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. The canon formed in stages, first the Pentateuch by around 400 BC, then the Prophets during the Hasmonean dynasty, and finally the remaining books. The Old Testament contains 39 or 46 or more books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch, the books, the wisdom books. For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions, for the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the spelling when referring to them in the New Testament. The Talmud in Bava Batra 14b gives a different order for the books in Neviim and Ketuvim and this order is also cited in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7,15. The order of the books of the Torah is universal through all denominations of Judaism and they are present in a few historic Protestant versions, the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version. Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon, several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the Latin Vulgate, formerly the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings follow, there is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC. The two Books of Chronicles cover much the material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC. Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah, were finished during the 3rd century BC. Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two to four Books of Maccabees, written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC and these history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament. God is consistently depicted as the one who created or put into order the world, the Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel, but includes instructions for proselytes as well
4.
Pope Gregory XI
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Pope Gregory XI was pope from 30 December 1370 to his death in 1378. He was the seventh and last Avignon pope and the most recent French pope, in 1377, Gregory XI returned the Papal court to Rome, ending nearly 70 years of papal residency in Avignon, France. His death shortly after was followed by the Western Schism and he was born Pierre Roger de Beaufort in Maumont in the modern commune of Rosiers-dÉgletons, Limousin, around 1330. The nephew of Pope Clement VI, he succeeded Pope Urban V at the conclave of 1370 and was the seventh. During his pontificate, vigorous measures were taken against proponents of Lollardy, which had found acceptance in Germany, England, and other parts of Europe. Efforts were made to corrupt practices in the various monastic orders, such as collecting fees from persons visiting holy sites. Gregory confirmed a treaty between Sicily and Naples at Villeneuve-lès-Avignon on 20 August 1372, which brought about a permanent settlement between the kingdoms, which were both papal fiefs. The Decadicon was submitted to Pope Gregory XI in the part of the 1370s by French canonist. Gregory formally condemned fourteen articles of the Sachsenspiegel in 1374 and nineteen propositions of Wycliffes On Civil Dominion in 1377 and his decision to return to Rome is supposedly attributed in part to the incessant pleas, demands, and threats of Catherine of Siena. A return had been attempted by Gregorys predecessor, Urban V, but the demands of the Hundred Years War brought him north of the Alps again, and Avignon was still the seat of the Bishop of Rome. The project of returning again to Rome was delayed by a conflict between the pope and Florence, known as the War of the Eight Saints, the pope put Florence under interdict during 1376. The return of the Curia to Rome began on 13 September 1376 and was concluded with the arrival of Gregory XI on 17 January 1377, Gregory XI did not long survive this trip, dying in Rome on 27 March 1378. He was buried the day in the church of Santa Maria Nuova. After his death the College of Cardinals was pressured by a Roman mob that broke into the chamber to force an Italian pope into the papacy. The Italian chosen was Urban VI, soon after being elected, Urban gained the Cardinals enmity. The cardinals withdrew from Rome to Fondi, where they annulled their election of Urban and elected a French pope, Clement VII, subsequently, the Western Schism created by the selection of rival popes forced the people of Europe into a dilemma of papal allegiance. This schism was not resolved fully until the Council of Constance was called by a group of cardinals, boldly, the council deposed both current popes and, in 1417, elected Martin V as their successor. The chaos of the Western Schism thus brought about reforming councils and gave them the power over who was elected, le voyage de Grégoire XI ramenant la Papauté dAvignon à Rome, 1376-1377 suivi du texte latin et de la traduction franç. de lItinerarium Gragerii XI de Pierre Ameilh
5.
Paul the Apostle
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Paul the Apostle, commonly known as Saint Paul, and also known by his native name Saul of Tarsus was an apostle who taught the gospel of the Christ to the first century world. He is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age, in the mid-30s to the mid-50s AD, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul took advantage of his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to minister to both Jewish and Roman audiences, according to writings in the New Testament, Paul was dedicated to the persecution of the early disciples of Jesus in the area of Jerusalem. He was struck blind but, after three days, his sight was restored by Ananias of Damascus, and Paul began to preach that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah, approximately half of the book of Acts deals with Pauls life and works. Fourteen of the books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul. Seven of the epistles are undisputed by scholars as being authentic, Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not asserted in the Epistle itself and was already doubted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It was almost unquestioningly accepted from the 5th to the 16th centuries that Paul was the author of Hebrews, but that view is now almost universally rejected by scholars. The other six are believed by scholars to have come from followers writing in his name. Other scholars argue that the idea of an author for the disputed epistles raises many problems. Today, Pauls epistles continue to be roots of the theology, worship, and pastoral life in the Catholic and Protestant traditions of the West. Augustine of Hippo developed Pauls idea that salvation is based on faith, martin Luthers interpretation of Pauls writings influenced Luthers doctrine of sola fide. The main source for information about Pauls life is the material found in his epistles, however, the epistles contain little information about Pauls past. The book of Acts recounts more information but leaves several parts of Pauls life out of its narrative, such as his probable, some scholars believe Acts also contradicts Pauls epistles on multiple accounts, in particular concerning the frequency of Pauls visits to the church in Jerusalem. It has been assumed that Sauls name was changed when he converted from Judaism to Christianity. His Jewish name was Saul, perhaps after the biblical King Saul, a fellow Benjamite, according to the Book of Acts, he inherited Roman citizenship from his father. As a Roman citizen, he bore the Latin name of Paul—in biblical Greek, Παῦλος. It was quite usual for the Jews of that time to have two names, one Hebrew, the other Latin or Greek. Jesus called him Saul, Saul in the Hebrew tongue in the book of Acts, later, in a vision to Ananias of Damascus, the Lord referred to him as Saul, of Tarsus
6.
Koine Greek
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It was based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties. Koine Greek displayed a wide spectrum of different styles, ranging from more conservative literary forms to the vernaculars of the time. As the dominant language of the Byzantine Empire, it developed further into Medieval Greek, Koine Greek remained the court language of the Byzantine Empire until its dissolution in 1453, while Medieval and eventually Modern Greek were the everyday language. Literary Koine was the medium of much of post-classical Greek literary and scholarly writing, such as the works of Plutarch, Koine is also the language of the Christian New Testament, of the Septuagint, and of most early Christian theological writing by the Church Fathers. In this context, Koine Greek is also known as Biblical, New Testament and it continues to be used as the liturgical language of services in the Greek Orthodox Church. The word koinē is the Greek word for common, and is understood as referring to the common dialect. The word is pronounced /kɔɪˈneɪ/, /ˈkɔɪneɪ/ or /kiːˈniː/ in US English, the pronunciation of the word in Koine gradually changed from Greek pronunciation, to Greek pronunciation. Its pronunciation in Modern Greek is, the term was applied in several different senses by ancient scholars. Others chose to refer to Koine as the Alexandrian dialect or the dialect of Alexandria, the former was often used by modern classicists. Koine Greek arose as a dialect within the armies of Alexander the Great. Under the leadership of Macedon, their newly formed common variety was spoken from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt to the Seleucid Empire of Mesopotamia and it replaced existing ancient Greek dialects with an everyday form that people anywhere could understand. The passage into the period, known as Medieval Greek. The post-Classical period of Greek thus refers to the creation and evolution of Koine Greek throughout the entire Hellenistic, the linguistic roots of the Common Greek dialect had been unclear since ancient times. During the Hellenistic period, most scholars thought of Koine as the result of the mixture of the four main Ancient Greek dialects, ἡ ἐκ τῶν τεττάρων συνεστῶσα. The view accepted by most scholars today was given by the Greek linguist Georgios Hatzidakis, who showed that, despite the composition of the Four, the stable nucleus of Koine Greek is Attic. In other words, Koine Greek can be regarded as Attic with the admixture of elements especially from Ionic, the degree of importance of the non-Attic linguistic elements on Koine can vary depending on the region of the Hellenistic World. The literary Koine of the Hellenistic age resembles Attic in such a degree that it is mentioned as Common Attic. Koine Greek was therefore considered a form of Greek which was not worthy of attention
7.
Hebrew Bible
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They are composed mainly in Biblical Hebrew, with some passages in Biblical Aramaic. The term does not comment upon the naming, numbering or ordering of books, the term Hebrew Bible is an attempt to provide specificity with respect to contents but avoid allusion to any particular interpretative tradition or theological school of thought. Hebrew Bible refers to the Jewish biblical canon, in its Latin form, Biblia Hebraica, it traditionally serves as a title for printed editions of the Masoretic Text. Many biblical studies scholars advocate use of the term Hebrew Bible as a substitute to terms with religious connotations. Hebrew Bible Old Testament without prescribing the use of either, however, he accepts that there is no reason why non-Christians should feel obliged to refer to these books as the Old Testament, apart from custom of use. Modern Christian formulations of this tension include Supersessionism, Covenant Theology, New Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism, in terms of canon, Christian usage of Old Testament does not refer to a universally agreed upon set of books but, rather, varies depending on denomination. The Hebrew Bible includes small portions in Aramaic, written and printed in Aramaic square-script, the books that constitute the Hebrew Bible developed over roughly a millennium. The oldest texts seem to come from the 11th or 10th centuries BCE and they are edited works, being collections of various sources intricately and carefully woven together. Since the 19th century, most biblical scholars have agreed that the Pentateuch consists of four sources which have been woven together and these four sources are J, D, E and P sources. They were combined to form the Pentateuch sometime in the 6th century BCE and this theory is now known as the documentary hypothesis, and has been the dominant theory for the past two hundred years. The Deuteronomist credited with the Pentateuchs book of Deuteronomy is also said to be the source of the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, several editions, all titled Biblia Hebraica, have been produced by various German publishers since 1906. Between 1906 and 1955, Rudolf Kittel published nine editions of it,1966, the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft published the renamed Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in six editions until 1997. Since 2004 the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft has published the Biblia Hebraica Quinta, other projects include, Hebrew University Bible Project Hebrew Bible, A Critical Edition Biblical canon Books of the Bible Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible Torah Brueggemann, Walter. An introduction to the Old Testament, the canon and Christian imagination, the People of Ancient Israel, an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper and Row,1974. Sinai and Zion, An Entry into the Jewish Bible, archived from the original on 14 March 2012. The Ancient Near East, Volume I, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press. An abridgement of Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament Noth, how the Bible Became a Book. The Old Testament, A Literary History, hebrew-English Tanakh, the Jewish Bible Complete, fully vocalized, contilated, Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible, together with the classic English translation by the Jewish Publication Society
8.
History of early Christianity
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The history of early Christianity covers the period from the its origins to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. The first part of the period, during the lifetimes of the Twelve Apostles, is believed to have been initiated by the Great Commission of Jesus. The earliest followers of Jesus comprised an apocalyptic, Second Temple Jewish sect, though Pauls influence on Christian thinking is said to be more significant than that of any other New Testament author, the relationship of Paul of Tarsus and Judaism remains a matter of dispute. Early Christianity gradually grew apart from Judaism during the first two centuries of the Christian Era, it established itself as a predominantly gentile religion in the Roman Empire. In the Ante-Nicene Period, following the Apostolic Age, both diversity and unifying characteristics lacking in the apostolic period emerged simultaneously. Part of the trend was an increasingly harsh rejection of Judaism. By the beginning of the Nicene period, the Christian faith had spread throughout Western Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, and to North Africa and this corresponded with the Maccabean Revolt directed against the Seleucids. Historian H. H. Ben-Sasson has proposed that the Crisis under Caligula was the first open break between Rome and the Jews, Judaism at this time was divided into antagonistic factions. The main camps were the Pharisees, Saducees, and Zealots, the Gospel accounts show the ministry of Jesus as falling into this pattern of sectarian preachers with devoted disciples. According to the Gospel writers, Jesus preached for a period of one to three years when he was in his early 30s, in the early 1st century AD. The gospels give Jesus method of teaching as involving parables, metaphor, allegory, proverbs, and his ministry of teaching, healing the sick and disabled, and performing various miracles culminated in his execution at the hands of the Roman authorities in Jerusalem. Shortly thereafter, a belief in Jesus bodily resurrection spread rapidly through Jerusalem, beginning with his closest disciples. This event provoked the Apostles to embark on a number of campaigns to spread the Good News. Most New Testament scholars agree that Peter had some sort of position among the Twelve. The Christian church sees the Apostolic Age as the foundation upon which its history is built. Earliest Christianity took the form of a Jewish eschatological faith, the apostles traveled to Jewish communities around the Mediterranean Sea, and attracted Jewish converts. Within 10 years of the death of Jesus, apostles had spread Christianity from Jerusalem to Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica, Cyprus, Crete, the book of Acts reports that the early followers continued daily Temple attendance and traditional Jewish home prayer. Other passages in the gospels reflect a similar observance of traditional Jewish piety such as fasting, reverence for the Torah
9.
Excommunication
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The word excommunication means putting a specific individual or group out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group, Excommunication may involve banishment, shunning, and shaming, depending on the religion, the offense that caused excommunication, or the rules or norms of the religious community. 1 Corinthians 5, 1-8 directs the church at Corinth to excommunicate a man for sexual immorality, in 2 Corinthians 2, 5-11, the man, having repented and suffered the punishment by the majority is restored to the church. In Romans 16,17, Paul writes to mark those who cause divisions contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them. Also, in 2 John 1, 10-11, the writer advises believers that whosoever transgresseth and he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed, within the Catholic Church, there are differences between the discipline of the majority Latin Church regarding excommunication and that of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Excommunication can be either latae sententiae or ferendae sententiae, according to Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, excommunication does not expel the person from the Catholic Church, but simply forbids the excommunicated person from engaging in certain activities. g. A thus excommunicated bishop cannot validly invest a priest as pastor of a vacant parish and they are urged to retain a relationship with the Church, as the goal is to encourage them to repent and return to active participation in its life. These are the effects for those who have incurred a latae sententiae excommunication. Since excommunication excludes from reception of the sacraments, absolution from excommunication is required before absolution can be given from the sin that led to the censure, in many cases, the whole process takes place on a single occasion in the privacy of the confessional. For some more serious wrongdoings, absolution from excommunication is reserved to a bishop, another ordinary and these can delegate a priest to act on their behalf. Such ceremonies are not held today, and instead are simply announced by the bishop, interdict is a censure similar to excommunication. It too excludes from ministerial functions in public worship and from reception of the sacraments, in the Eastern Catholic Churches, excommunications is imposed only by decree, never incurred automatically by latae sententiae excommunication. A distinction is made between minor and major excommunication and those on whom minor excommunication has been imposed are excluded from receiving the Eucharist and can also be excluded from participating in the Divine Liturgy. They can even be excluded from entering a church when divine worship is being celebrated there, the decree of excommunication must indicate the precise effect of the excommunication and, if required, its duration. They are to be removed from participation in the Divine Liturgy, and they are deprived of the right to vote or to be elected. Minor excommunication is roughly equivalent to the interdict in Western law, under current law, an excommunicate is never vitandus. Persons belonging to an Eastern Catholic Church are never subject to a latae sententiae punishment, according to the Code of Canon Law of 1917, the excommunications reserved to the Apostolic See were grouped in three categories, those reserved 1
10.
Heresy
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Heresy /hār ə sē/ is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs. A heretic is a proponent of such claims or beliefs, the term is usually used to refer to violations of important religious teachings, but is used also of views strongly opposed to any generally accepted ideas. It is used in particular in reference to Christianity, Judaism, the word heresy is usually used within a Christian, Jewish, or Islamic context, and implies slightly different meanings in each. The founder or leader of a movement is called a heresiarch. Heresiology is the study of heresy, according to Titus 3,10 a divisive person should be warned two times before separating from him. The Greek for the phrase divisive person became a term in the early Church for a type of heretic who promoted dissension. In contrast correct teaching is called not only because it builds up the faith. The Church Fathers identified Jews and Judaism with heresy and they saw deviations from orthodox Christianity as heresies that were essentially Jewish in spirit. The use of the word heresy was given currency by Irenaeus in his 2nd century tract Contra Haereses to describe. He described the beliefs and doctrines as orthodox and the Gnostics teachings as heretical. He also pointed out the concept of succession to support his arguments. By Roman law the Emperor was Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs of all recognized religions in ancient Rome. To put an end to the doctrinal debate initiated by Arius, Constantine called the first of what would afterwards be called the ecumenical councils and then enforced orthodoxy by Imperial authority. The first known usage of the term in a context was in AD380 by the Edict of Thessalonica of Theodosius I. Prior to the issuance of this edict, the Church had no state-sponsored support for any particular legal mechanism to counter what it perceived as heresy, by this edict the states authority and that of the Church became somewhat overlapping. One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and state was the sharing of state powers of legal enforcement with church authorities and this reinforcement of the Churchs authority gave church leaders the power to, in effect, pronounce the death sentence upon those whom the church considered heretical. The edict of Theodosius II provided severe punishments for those who had or spread writings of Nestorius and those who possessed writings of Arius were sentenced to death. For some years after the Reformation, Protestant churches were known to execute those they considered heretics
11.
Manichaeism
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Manichaeism was a major religious movement that was founded by the Iranian prophet Mani in the Sasanian Empire. Manichaeism taught a dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process which takes place in history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light. Its beliefs were based on local Mesopotamian gnostic and religious movements, Manichaeism was quickly successful and spread far through the Aramaic-Syriac speaking regions. It thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world, Manichaean churches and scriptures existed as far east as China and as far west as the Roman Empire. It was briefly the main rival to Christianity in the competition to replace classical paganism, while most of Manichaeisms original writings have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived. An adherent of Manichaeism is called, especially in older sources, Mani, an Arsacid Persian by birth, was born 216 AD in Mesopotamia, which was ruled by Persia, then within the Sassanid Empire province of Asuristan. According to the Cologne Mani-Codex, Manis parents were members of the Jewish Christian Gnostic sect known as the Elcesaites, Mani composed seven writings, six of which were written in Syriac Aramaic. The seventh, the Shabuhragan, was written by Mani in Middle Persian and presented by him to the contemporary King of Sassanid Persia, Shapur I, in the Persian capital of Ctesiphon. Although there is no proof Shapur I was a Manichaean, he tolerated the spread of Manichaeism, while Manichaeism was spreading, existing religions such as Zoroastrianism were still popular and Christianity was gaining social and political influence. Although having fewer adherents, Manichaeism won the support of many high-ranking political figures, with the assistance of the Persian Empire, Mani began missionary expeditions. The date of his death is estimated at AD 276–277, Mani believed that the teachings of Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus were incomplete, and that his revelations were for the entire world, calling his teachings the Religion of Light. Manichaean writings indicate that Mani received revelations when he was 12 and again when he was 24, with the discovery of the Mani-Codex, it also became clear that he was raised in a Jewish-Christian baptism sect, the Elcesaites, and was influenced by their writings as well. It taught him truths which he developed into a religion and his divine Twin or true Self brought Mani to self-realization. He claimed to be the Paraclete of the Truth, as promised in the New Testament, Manichaeisms views on Jesus are described by historians, Jesus in Manichaeism possessed three separate identities, Jesus the Luminous, Jesus the Messiah and Jesus patibilis. Jesus the Messiah was a historical being who was the prophet of the Jews, however, the Manichaeans believed he was wholly divine. He never experienced human birth as notions of physical conception and birth filled the Manichaeans with horror, since he was the light of the world, where was this light, they asked, when he was in the womb of the Virgin. Jesus the Messiah was truly born at his baptism as it was on occasion that the Father openly acknowledged his sonship
12.
Cyril of Alexandria
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Cyril of Alexandria was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. He was enthroned when the city was at the height of its influence, Cyril wrote extensively and was a leading protagonist in the Christological controversies of the late-4th and 5th centuries. He was a figure in the Council of Ephesus in 431. Cyril is well-known due to his dispute with Nestorius and his supporter Patriarch John of Antioch and he is also known for his expulsion of Novatians and Jews from Alexandria and for inflaming tensions that led to the murder of the Hellenistic philosopher Hypatia by a Christian mob. Historians disagree over the extent of his responsibility in this, the Roman Catholic Church did not commemorate Saint Cyril in the Tridentine Calendar, it added his feast only in 1882, assigning to it the date of 9 February. This date is used by the Western Rite Orthodox Church, yet the 1969 Catholic Calendar revision moved it to 27 June, considered to be the day of the saints death, as celebrated by the Coptic Orthodox Church. The same date has been chosen for the Lutheran calendar, the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches celebrate his feast day on 9 June and also, together with Pope Athanasius I of Alexandria, on 18 January. Little is known for certain of Cyrils early life,376, in the small town of Theodosios, Egypt, near modern-day El-Mahalla El-Kubra. A few years after his birth, his maternal uncle Theophilus rose to the position of Patriarch of Alexandria. His mother remained close to her brother and under his guidance and his writings show his knowledge of Christian writers of his day, including Eusebius, Origen, Didymus the Blind, and writers of the Church of Alexandria. In 403 he accompanied his uncle to attend a synod in Constantinople, Theophilus died on 15 October 412, and Cyril was made Pope or Patriarch of Alexandria on 18 October 412, but only after a riot between his supporters and those of his rival Archdeacon Timotheus. According to Socrates Scholasticus, the Alexandians were always rioting and he began to exert his authority by causing the churches of the Novatianists to be closed and their sacred vessels to be seized. Orestes, Praefectus augustalis of the Diocese of Egypt, steadfastly resisted Cyrils ecclesiastical encroachment onto secular prerogatives, crowds gathered to read the edict shortly after it was posted in the citys theater. Cyril sent the grammaticus Hierax to discover the content of the edict, the edict angered Christians as well as Jews. At one such gathering, Hierax, read the edict and applauded the new regulations, many people felt that Hierax was attempting to incite the crowd into sedition. Orestes had Hierax tortured in public in a theatre and this order had two aims, the first was to quell the riot, the other to mark Orestes authority over Cyril. In response to Cyrils threat, the Jews of Alexandria grew even more furious and they plotted to flush the Christians out at night by running through the streets claiming that the Church of Alexander was on fire. When the morning came, the Jews of Alexandria could not hide their guilt, because of this, the feud between Cyril and Orestes intensified, and both men wrote to the emperor regarding the situation
13.
Rite
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A rite or ritual is an established, ceremonial, usually religious, act. Within Christianity, rite often refers to what is called a sacrament. In Roman Catholicism, for example, the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is one of the three that are referred to as the last rites, because they are administered to someone who was dying. The other two are Penance and Eucharist, since the Second Vatican Council, Anointing of the Sick is administered to those who are seriously ill but not necessarily in immediate danger of death. The term rite became widely used after the Second Vatican Council when the traditional sacraments were done away with, while rite is often used synonymously with sacrament, it is technically incorrect to say that one received a rite because the sacrament is what is received. The ritual consists of the prayers and actions that the minister of the sacrament performs when administering a sacrament. Therefore, it is incorrect to say one has received the last rites as that person has really received the last sacraments by a minister following a ritual that has performed the sacramental rite. The word rite is often applied to what are sometimes known as the five lesser sacraments, confirmation, reconciliation, matrimony, holy orders. The term rite refers to a body of liturgical tradition usually emanating from a specific center. Examples include the Roman Rite, the Byzantine Rite, and the Sarum Rite, such rites may include various sub-rites. For example, the Byzantine Rite has Greek, Russian, for a full list of Christian liturgical rites, see Christian liturgy. Of these, the largest is the Latin Rite or Western Church, there are also several Eastern Catholic Churches or Rites. For a full list of Catholic liturgical rites, see List of Catholic rites and churches, in North America, Freemasons have the option of joining the Scottish Rite and/or the York Rite, two appendant bodies that offer additional degrees to those who have taken the basic three. Ambrosian Rite Ceremony Chaldean rite Process Art Rites, a Confucian philosophical concept Ritual Primitive Scottish Rite Rite of Spring
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Eucharist
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The Eucharist /ˈjuːkərɪst/ is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches. Through the Eucharistic celebration Christians remember Christs sacrifice of himself on the cross, the elements of the Eucharist, bread and wine, are consecrated on an altar and consumed thereafter. Communicants may speak of receiving the Eucharist, as well as celebrating the Eucharist, Christians generally recognize a special presence of Christ in this rite, though they differ about exactly how, where, and when Christ is present. While all agree there is no perceptible change in the elements, Catholics believe that they actually become the body. Some Protestants view the Eucharist as an ordinance in which the ceremony is not as a specific channel of divine grace. Do this in remembrance of me, the term Eucharist is that by which the rite is referred by the Didache, Ignatius of Antioch and Justin Martyr. Today, the Eucharist is the still used by Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians. Other Protestant denominations rarely use this term, preferring either Communion, one remains hungry, another gets drunk. Communion or Holy Communion are used by some groups originating in the Protestant Reformation to mean the entire Eucharistic rite. The term Communion is derived from Latin communio, which translates Greek κοινωνία in 1 Corinthians 10,16, the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ. The phrase appears five times in the New Testament in contexts which, according to some and it is the term used by the Plymouth Brethren. The Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar are common terms used by Catholics, Lutherans and some Anglicans for the consecrated elements, Sacrament of the Altar is in common use also among Lutherans. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the term The Sacrament is used of the rite. Among the many terms used in the Catholic Church are Holy Mass, the Memorial of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The term Mass is probably derived from the fact that the Roman rite celebrates the Eucharist with unleavened bread and this explains why the Eastern Catholic Liturgies are never referred to as the Mass. Eastern rite Liturgies are celebrated with leavened bread, although the prevailing theory is that it is derived from the Latin word missa, a word used in the concluding formula of Mass in Latin, Ite, missa est. The reverse is more likely. The word dismissal probably came about because the Mass signaled the time for the Catechumens to leave, thus, the term Misa came to imply a mission, because at the end of the Mass the congregation are sent out to serve Christ
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Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
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Sacred mysteries
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Sacred mysteries are the areas of supernatural phenomena associated with a divinity or a religious ideology. Beliefs of the religion which are public knowledge but cannot be explained by normal rational or scientific means. Mysticism may be defined as an area of philosophical or religious thought which focuses on mysteries in the first sense above, a mystagogue or hierophant is a holder and teacher of secret knowledge in the second sense above. In some, parts of the doctrine were apparently known to priests. They included the Eleusinian Mysteries, Mithraism, the Cult of Isis, the Cult of Sol Invictus, Mystery traditions were popular in ancient Greece and during the height of the Roman Empire, and as discussed below, parts of Early Christianity used secrecy in the same way. Although the term is not used equally by all Christian traditions, to name but a few key examples, these include the nature of the Trinity, the Virgin Birth of Jesus, and the Resurrection of Jesus. These are mysteries in the sense that they cannot be explained or apprehended by reason alone, the word mysterion is used 27 times in the New Testament. It denotes not so much the meaning of the modern English term mystery, in the biblical Greek, the term refers to that which awaits disclosure or interpretation. The position, if not the terminology, of other Christian churches is essentially the same, as the Age of Persecution ended, the secrecy was gradually relaxed. But the term continued to be used, and the word is used in the Eastern Orthodox churches to describe mysteries. Hence Pope Paul VIs papal encyclical of 3 September 1965 on the Eucharist was titled, from its opening words, in the Roman Rite Catholic Mass within or immediately after the formula of consecration of the wine, the celebrant says Let us proclaim the mystery of faith. The term is used in Eastern Christianity to refer to what the Western Church currently calls Sacraments and Sacramentals, thus, for instance, the Council of Trent declared there to be exactly seven sacraments. The Eastern Churches, in contrast, have never defined the Mysteries in such precise terms, and, though the Western Church teaches that the consecrated bread and wine of the Eucharist are one Sacrament, the Divine Liturgy refers to the Eucharist as the Mysteries, in the plural. Orthodox Christians have always received Holy Communion in both species, and even reserve both in the tabernacle, the Sacred Mysteries can be defined as those holy acts through which the Holy Spirit mysteriously and invisibly confers Grace upon man. Christian life is centered in the Mystery of the Incarnation of Christ, however, the redemption of man is not considered to have taken place only in the past, but continues to this day through theosis. The Sacraments, or Sacred Mysteries are the most important means by which the faithful may obtain union with God, Christians believe that God is present everywhere and fills all things by his Divine grace, and that all of creation is, in some sense, a sacrament. However, they believe that He is more specifically and intensively present in particular and reliable manners which He Himself has established, in several other religions, knowledge of some esoteric parts of the doctrine or teachings is reserved only for certain members. This has been a feature of Tantric Buddhism, Hinduism, Catharism, some parts of Shia Islam, in traditional Judaism, study of much of the mystical tradition of Kabbalah is reserved for scholars
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Schism
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A schism is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a religious body. It is also used of a split within an organization or movement or, more broadly. A schismatic is a person who creates or incites schism in an organization or who is a member of a splinter group. Schismatic as an adjective pertaining to a schism or schisms, or to those ideas, policies. In religion, the charge of schism is distinguished from that of heresy, since the offence of schism concerns not differences of belief or doctrine but promotion of, or the state of, however, schisms frequently involve mutual accusations of heresy. In Roman Catholic teaching, every heresy is a schism, while there may be some free of the added guilt of heresy. Liberal Protestantism, however, has often preferred heresy over schism, mcCord drew a distinction between them, teaching, If you must make a choice between heresy and schism, always choose heresy. As a schismatic, you have torn and divided the body of Christ, in Buddhism, the first schism was set up by Devadatta, during Buddhas life. This schism lasted only a short time, later, the early Buddhist schools came into being, but were not schismatic, only focusing on different interpretations for the same monastic community. In the old texts,18 or 20 early schools are mentioned, later, there were the Mahayana and Vajrayana movements, which can be regarded as being schismatic in origin. Each school has various subgroups, which often are schismatic in origin, for example, in Thai Theravadin Buddhism there are two groups, of which the Dhammayut has its origin partly in the Mahanikaya, and is the new and schismatic group. Both Mahanikaya and Dhammayut have many subgroups, which usually do not have schismatic origins, Tibetan Buddhism has seen schisms in the past, of which most were healed, although the Drukpa school centred in Bhutan perhaps remains in a state of schism from the other Tibetan schools. The words schism and schismatic have found their heaviest usage in the history of Christianity, to denote splits within a church and these words have been used to denote both the phenomenon of Christian group splintering in general, and certain significant historical splits in particular. A distinction is made between heresy and schism, heresy is rejection of a doctrine that a Church considered to be essential. But, when for any reason people withdraw from communion, two distinct ecclesiastical entities may result, each of which then, or at least some of its members, may accuse the other of heresy. In Roman Catholic Church canon law, an act of schism, like an act of apostasy or heresy, as stated in canon 1312 §1 1° of the Code of Canon Law, this penalty is intended to be medicinal, so as to lead to restoration of unity. This nuanced view applies especially to the Churches of Eastern Christianity, the First Council of Nicaea distinguished between schism and heresy
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Salvation
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Salvation is being saved or protected from harm or being saved or delivered from a dire situation. In religion, salvation is stated as the saving of the soul from sin, the academic study of salvation is called soteriology. In religion, salvation is the saving of the soul from sin and it may also be called deliverance or redemption from sin and its effects. Salvation is considered to be caused either by the grace of a deity, by free will and personal efforts through prayer and asceticism, religions often emphasize the necessity of both personal effort—for example, repentance and asceticism—and divine action. In contemporary Judaism, redemption, refers to God redeeming the people of Israel from their various exiles and this includes the final redemption from the present exile. Judaism holds that adherents do not need personal salvation as Christians believe, jews do not subscribe to the doctrine of original sin. In Judaism, salvation is related to the idea of redemption. God as the spirit and Creator of the World, is the source of all salvation for humanity. So redemption or salvation depends on the individual, Judaism stresses that salvation cannot be obtained through anyone else or by just invoking a deity or believing in any outside power or influence. The Messiah is not considered as a divine or supernatural being but as a dominating human influence in an age of universal peace. When examining Jewish intellectual sources throughout history, there is clearly a spectrum of opinions regarding death versus the afterlife, possibly an over-simplification, one source says salvation can be achieved in the following manner, Live a holy and righteous life dedicated to Yahweh, the God of Creation. Fast, worship, and celebrate during the appropriate holidays, by origin and nature, Judaism is an ethnic religion. Therefore, salvation has been conceived in terms of the destiny of Israel as the elect people of Yahweh. In the biblical text of Psalms, there is a description of death, the first reference to resurrection is collective in Ezekiels vision of the dry bones, when all the Israelites in exile will be resurrected. There is a reference to individual resurrection in the Book of Daniel and it was not until the 2nd century BCE that there arose a belief in an afterlife, in which the dead would be resurrected and undergo divine judgment. Before that time, the individual had to be content that his posterity continued within the holy nation, the salvation of the individual Jew was connected to the salvation of the entire people. This belief stemmed directly from the teachings of the Torah, in the Torah, God taught his people sanctification of the individual. However, he expected them to function together and be accountable to one another
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Great Lent
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In many ways Great Lent is similar to Lent in Western Christianity. There are some differences in the timing of Lent and how it is practiced, One difference between Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity is the calculation of the date of Easter. Most years, the Eastern Pascha falls after the Western Easter, and it may be as much as five weeks later, occasionally, like Western Lent, Great Lent itself lasts for forty days, but in contrast to the West, Sundays are included in the count. Great Lent officially begins on Clean Monday, seven weeks before Pascha and runs for 40 contiguous days, the next day is called Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday. Fasting continues throughout the week, known as Passion Week or Holy Week. The purpose of Great Lent is to prepare the faithful to not only commemorate, the totality of the Byzantine Rite life centers around the Resurrection. Lent is not for the sake of Lent itself, as fasting is not for the sake of fasting, rather, these are means by which and for which the individual believer prepares himself to reach for, accept and attain the calling of his Savior. Therefore, the significance of Great Lent is highly appraised, not only by the monks who increased the length of time of the Lent. The Orthodox lenten rules are the monastic rules, in the Byzantine Rite, asceticism is not exclusively for the professional religious, but for each layperson as well, according to their strength. As such, Great Lent is a sacred Institute of the Church to serve the individual believer in participating as a member of the Mystical Body of Christ and it provides each person an annual opportunity for self-examination and improving the standards of faith and morals in his Christian life. Through spending more time than usual in prayer and meditation on the Holy Scripture and the Holy Traditions of the Church, the foods traditionally abstained from are meat, fish, eggs and dairy products, wine, and oil. According to some traditions, only oil is abstained from, in others. Since strict fasting is canonically forbidden on the Sabbath and the Lords Day, wine, if the Great Feast of the Annunciation falls during Great Lent, then fish, wine and oil are permitted on that day. However meat and dairy are eschewed entirely until the fast is broken on Easter Sunday, besides the additional liturgical celebrations described below, Christians are expected to pay closer attention to and increase their private prayer. According to Byzantine Rite theology, when asceticism is increased, prayer must be increased also, the Church Fathers have referred to fasting without prayer as the fast of the demons since the demons do not eat according to their incorporeal nature, but neither do they pray. This is to illustrate that the season is anticipatory, leading up to the greatest Sunday of all. During the Great Fast, a service book is used, known as the Lenten Triodion. The Triodion begins during the Pre-Lenten period to supplement or replace portions of the regular services and this replacement begins gradually, initially affecting only the Epistle and Gospel readings, and gradually increases until Holy Week when it entirely replaces all other liturgical material
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Feast of Orthodoxy
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The Feast of Orthodoxy is celebrated on the first Sunday of Great Lent in the liturgical calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Church. The Feast is kept in memory of the defeat of Iconoclasm. Despite the teaching about icons defined at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787, at the end of the first session, all made a triumphal procession from the Church of Blachernae to Hagia Sophia, restoring the icons to the church. This occurred on 11 March,843, the Synod decreed that a perpetual feast on the anniversary of that day should be observed each year on the First Sunday of Great Lent, and named the day, the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The name Orthodoxy has gradually affected the character of the feast, originally commemorating only the defeat of Iconoclasm, the commemoration has gradually come to be understood in a more general sense as opposition to all heterodoxy. In this way, though its first occasion is not forgotten and this is shown by its special service. After Orthros and before the Divine Liturgy, a procession is made with icons to some destined spot, meanwhile, a Canon, attributed to St. Theodore of Studium, is sung. Once the procession arrives at the place, the Synodicon is proclaimed aloud by the deacon and this Synodicon begins with the memory of certain saints, confessors and heroes of the faith, to each of whose names the people cry out, Eternal Memory. Then follows a long list of heretics of all kinds, to each of which the answer is and these heretics comprise all the major opponents of the Orthodox Faith, Arians, Nestorians, Monophysites, Monothelites, Iconoclasts, and so on. Then comes again Eternal Memory to certain pious emperors, from Constantine the Great on, there are inevitably differences between the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic lists, as well as minor differences between the Synodika of individual national churches. The Orthodox acclaim Photius, Michael Cerularius, other anti-Roman patriarchs and they curse Pope Honorius among the Monothelites, the opponents of Hesychasm. The Synodicon used by Greek-Catholics tends to omit a large number of these names, in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia anathemas were added against modernism and ecumenism. The liturgical texts for the Canon, Synodicon etc. and the rubrics will be found in either Triodion, the theme of the day is the victory of the True Faith over heresy. This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith, also, the icons of the saints bear witness that man, created in the image and likeness of God, becomes holy and godlike through the purification of himself as Gods living image. The First Sunday of Great Lent originally commemorated the Prophets such as Moses, Aaron, the Liturgys Prokeimenon and alleluia verses as well as the Epistle and Gospel readings appointed for the day continue to reflect this older usage. The name of this Sunday reflects the great significance which icons possess for the Orthodox Church and they are not optional devotional extras, but an integral part of Orthodox faith and devotion. The debate involved important issues, the character of Christs human nature, the Christian attitude towards matter, icons are held by the Orthodox to be a necessary consequence of Christian faith in the Incarnation of the Word, Jesus Christ. Icons are considered by Orthodox Christians to have a sacramental character, however, the Orthodox always make a clear doctrinal distinction between the veneration paid to icons and the worship which is due to God alone
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Iconoclasm
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Iconoclasm is the destruction of religious icons and other images or monuments for religious or political motives. Over time, the word, usually in the form, has also come to refer to aggressive statements or actions against any well-established status quo. It is a frequent component of political or religious changes. The term does not generally encompass the destruction of images of a ruler after his death or overthrow. Conversely, one who reveres or venerates religious images is called an iconolater, in a Byzantine context, Iconoclasm may be carried out by people of a different religion, but is often the result of sectarian disputes between factions of the same religion. The Church Fathers identified Jews and Judaism with heresy and they saw deviations from orthodox Christianity and opposition to the veneration of images as heresies that were essentially Jewish in spirit. The degree of iconoclasm among Christian branches greatly varies, Islam, in general, tends to be more iconoclastic than Christianity, with Sunni Islam being more iconoclastic than Shia Islam. Akhenatens actions are described thusly, In rebellion against the old religion, public references to Akhenaten were destroyed soon after his death. Comparing the ancient Egyptians with the Israelites, Jan Assmann writes, For Egypt, in the eyes of the Israelites, the erection of images meant the destruction of divine presence, in the eyes of the Egyptians, this same effect was attained by the destruction of images. In Egypt, iconoclasm was the most terrible crime, in Israel. It is more probable that these traditions evolved under mutual influence. In this respect, Moses and Akhenaten became, after all, the period after the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian evidently saw a huge increase in the use of images, both in volume and quality, and a gathering aniconic reaction. In the Eastern Roman Empire, government-led iconoclasm began with Byzantine Emperor Leo III, the religious conflict created political and economic divisions in Byzantine society. It was generally supported by the Eastern, poorer, non-Greek peoples of the Empire who had to frequently with raids from the new Muslim Empire. On the other hand, the wealthier Greeks of Constantinople, and also the peoples of the Balkan and Italian provinces, within the Byzantine Empire the government had probably been adopting Christian images more frequently. One notable change came in 695, when Justinian IIs government added an image of Christ on the obverse of imperial gold coins. The change caused the Caliph Abd al-Malik to stop his earlier adoption of Byzantine coin types and he started a purely Islamic coinage with lettering only. As a result, individuals attacked statues and images, however, in most cases, civil authorities removed images in an orderly manner in the newly reformed Protestant cities and territories of Europe
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Synod
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A synod /ˈsɪnəd/ historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word refers to the governing body of a particular church. It is also used to refer to a church that is governed by a synod. The word synod comes from the Greek σύνοδος meaning assembly or meeting, originally, synods were meetings of bishops, and the word is still used in that sense in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Sometimes the phrase general synod or general council refers to an ecumenical council, the word synod also refers to the standing council of high-ranking bishops governing some of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches. Similarly, the governance of patriarchal and major archiepiscopal Eastern Catholic Churches is entrusted to a permanent synod. The synod in the Western churches is similar, but it is distinguished by being limited to an assembly of bishops. The term is found among those Eastern Orthodox Churches that use a Slavic language, kievan Rus chronicles record the first known East Slavic church sobor as having taken place in Kiev in 1051. Sobors were convened periodically from then on, one notable assembly held in 1415 formed a separate metropoly for the church in the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian lands, such diocesan sobors may be held annually or only occasionally. However, in use, synod and council are applied to specific categories of such meetings. A synod generally meets every three years and is designated an Ordinary General Assembly. However, Extraordinary synods can be called to deal with specific situations, there are also Special synods for the Church in a specific geographic area such as the one held November 16-December 12,1997, for the Church in America. The pope serves as president of an assembly or appoints the president, determines the agenda, and summons, suspends, thereafter they continued by the hundreds into the sixth century. Those authorized by an emperor and often attended by him came to be called ecumenical, today, Council in Roman Catholic canon law typically refers to an irregular meeting of the entire episcopate of a nation, region, or the world for the purpose of legislation with binding force. The pope alone has the right to convoke, suspend, and dissolve an ecumenical council, he presides over it or chooses someone else to do so. The vacancy of the Holy See automatically suspends an ecumenical council, laws or teachings issued by an ecumenical council require the confirmation of the pope, who alone has the right to promulgate them. The role of the pope in a council is a distinct feature of the Catholic Church. Plenary councils, which are meetings of the episcopate of a nation, are convoked by the national episcopal conference
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Constantinople
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Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
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Cathedral
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A cathedral is a Christian church which contains the seat of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. The counterpart term for such a church in German is Dom from Latin domus ecclesiae or domus episcopalis, also Italian Duomo, Dutch Domkerk, when the church at which an archbishop or metropolitan presides is specifically intended, the term kathedrikos naos is used. In addition, both the Catholic Church and Orthodox churches have formed new dioceses within formerly Protestant lands for converts, consequently, it is not uncommon to find Christians in a single city being served by three or more cathedrals of differing denominations. In the Catholic tradition, the term cathedral correctly applies only to a church houses the seat of the bishop of a diocese. The abbey church of a territorial abbacy serves the same function, the Catholic Church also uses the following terms. A pro-cathedral is a parish or other church used temporarily as a cathedral, usually while the cathedral of a diocese is under construction, renovation and this designation applies only as long as the temporary use continues. A co-cathedral is a cathedral in a diocese that has two sees. A proto-cathedral is the cathedral of a transferred see. The cathedral church of a bishop is called the metropolitan cathedral. The term cathedral actually carries no implication as to the size or ornateness of the building, nevertheless, most cathedrals are particularly impressive edifices. The building is now under renovation and restoration for solemn dedication under the title Christ Cathedral in 2018, in the ancient world the chair, on a raised dais, was the distinctive mark of a teacher or rhetor and thus symbolises the bishops role as teacher. A raised throne within a hall was also definitive for a Late Antique presiding magistrate. The history of cathedrals starts in the year 313, when the emperor Constantine the Great personally adopted Christianity, in the third century, the phrase ascending the platform, ad pulpitum venire, becomes the standard term for Christian ordination. During the siege of Dura Europos in 256, a complete Christian house church, or domus ecclesiae was entombed in a bank, surviving when excavated. Otherwise the large room had no decoration or distinctive features at all, in 269, soon after Dura fell to the Persian army, a body of clerics assembled a charge sheet against the bishop of Antioch, Paul of Samosata, in the form of an open letter. Characteristically a Roman magistrate presided from a throne in a large, richly decorated and aisled rectangular hall called a basilica. The earliest of these new basilican cathedrals of which remains are still visible is below the Cathedral of Aquileia on the northern tip of the Adriatic sea. The three halls create a courtyard, in which was originally located a separate baptistery
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Monastery
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A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone. A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, a monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary. These may include a hospice, a school and a range of agricultural and manufacturing such as a barn. In English usage, the monastery is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics, historically, a convent denoted a house of friars, now more commonly called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in specific ways. The earliest extant use of the term monastērion is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo in On The Contemplative Life, in England the word monastery was also applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, and were served by canons secular, however, some were run by monasteries orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation. They are also to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St Georges Chapel, in most of this article, the term monastery is used generically to refer to any of a number of types of religious community. In the Roman Catholic religion and to some extent in certain branches of Buddhism, there is a more specific definition of the term. Buddhist monasteries are generally called vihara, viharas may be occupied by males or females, and in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may often be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can also refer to a temple, in Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are often called gompa. In Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, a monastery is called a wat, in Burma, a monastery is called a kyaung. A Christian monastery may be an abbey, or a priory and it may be a community of men or of women. A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order, in Eastern Christianity, a very small monastic community can be called a skete, and a very large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra. The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the life of an anchorite. In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, mandir, koil, or most commonly an ashram, jains use the Buddhist term vihara
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Lection
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A lection, also called the lesson, is a reading from Scripture in Liturgy. The custom of reading the books of Moses in the synagogues on Sabbath is an ancient one. Since the prophetic books were written after the books of Moses, readings from them began later, but were in existence at the time of Jesus. This element in worship was taken over with others into the Christian divine service, as may be gathered from passages in the gospels such as St Luke 4. During early Christianity, readings began to be made from the writings of the Apostles, mention of this is found within the New Testament itself, for example in Colossians 4,16 and in First Thessalonians 5,27. The oldest manuscripts of the Gospels have marginal marks, and sometimes actual interpolations, from the 2nd century onwards references multiply, though the earlier references do not prove the existence of a fixed lectionary or order of lessons, but rather point the other way. Tertullian about half a century later makes frequent reference to the reading of Holy Scripture in public worship, there are traces of fixed lessons coming into existence in the course of the 3rd century. Origen refers to the Book of Job being read in Holy Week, in the 4th century are such references are frequent. St Basil the Great mentions fixed lessons on certain occasions taken from Isaiah, Proverbs, St Matthew, in the Apostolical Constitutions a service is described which is required of the church. First come two lessons from the Old Testament by a reader, the whole of the Old Testament being made use of except the books of the Apocrypha, the Psalms of David are then to be sung. Next the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of Paul are to be read, finally the four Gospels are to be read by a deacon or a priest. Whether the selections were ad libitum or according to a table of lessons is not mentioned. The third Council of Carthage in 397 forbade anything but Holy Scripture to be read in church, gospel Book Lector Lection, Lectionary, Encyclopædia Britannica,1911. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
27.
Parable
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A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, a parable is a type of analogy. Some scholars of the gospels and the New Testament apply the term parable only to the parables of Jesus. Parables such as The Prodigal Son are central to Jesus teaching method in the canonical narratives, the word parable comes from the Greek παραβολή, meaning comparison, illustration, analogy. It was the name given by Greek rhetoricians to an illustration in the form of a fictional narrative. Parables are often used to explore concepts in spiritual texts. The Bible contains numerous parables in the Gospels section of the New Testament and these are believed by some scholars to have been inspired by mashalim, a form of Hebrew comparison. Examples of Jesus parables include the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, mashalim from the Old Testament include the parable of the ewe-lamb and the parable of the woman of Tekoah. In Sufi tradition, parables are used for imparting lessons and values, recent authors such as Idries Shah and Anthony de Mello have helped popularize these stories beyond Sufi circles. A mid-19th-century example, the Parable of the window, criticises a part of economic thinking. A parable is a tale that illustrates a universal truth. It sketches a setting, describes an action, and shows the results and it may sometimes be distinguished from similar narrative types, such as the allegory and the apologue. A parable often involves a character who faces a dilemma or one who makes a bad decision. Although the meaning of a parable is not explicitly stated, it is not intended to be hidden or secret but to be quite straightforward. The defining characteristic of the parable is the presence of a subtext suggesting how a person should behave or what he should believe. Aside from providing guidance and suggestions for proper conduct in ones life, parables express an abstract argument by means of using a concrete narrative which is easily understood. The allegory is a general narrative type, it also employs metaphor. Like the parable, the allegory makes a single, unambiguous point, an allegory may have multiple noncontradictory interpretations and may also have implications that are ambiguous or hard to interpret
28.
Good Shepherd
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The Good Shepherd is an image used in the pericope of John 10, 1-21, in which Jesus Christ is depicted as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Similar imagery is used in Psalm 23, in the Gospel of John, Jesus states I am the good shepherd in two verses, John 10,11 and 10,14. From John 10, 11-18, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hand, and not a shepherd, who doesnt own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them, the hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesnt care for the sheep. I know my own, and Im known by my own, even as the Father knows me, I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold, I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd, therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father and this passage is one of several sections of Johns Gospel which generate division among the Jews, There was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings. Many of them said, He has a demon and is mad, why do you listen to Him. Others said, These are not the words of one who has a demon, several authors such as Barbara Reid, Arland Hultgren or Donald Griggs comment that parables are noticeably absent from the Gospel of John. These sources all suggest that the passage is described as a metaphor than a parable. The image of the Good Shepherd is the most common of the representations of Christ found in Early Christian art in the Catacombs of Rome. The image continued to be used in the centuries after Christianity was legalized in 313, images of the Good Shepherd often include a sheep on his shoulders, as in the Lukan version of the Parable of the Lost Sheep. Online IMAGE Collection of the Good Shepherd
29.
Ectenia
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An Ektenia, often called by the better known English word litany, consists of a series of petitions occurring in the Eastern Orthodox/Byzantine Catholic liturgy. The prevalent ecclesiastical word for this kind of litany in Greek is Συναπτή synaptê, for the use of litanies in the Western Churches, see litany. A litany is normally intoned by a deacon, with the choir or people chanting the responses, as he concludes each petition, the deacon raises the end of his orarion and crosses himself, if there is no deacon serving, the petitions are intoned by a priest. This ektenia is also called the Litany of Peace because of the petition, In peace. Litany of Supplication--so called because most of the end with the deacon saying. let us ask of the Lord, to which the choir responds, Grant. At the divine liturgy, this litany may also be augmented with special petitions, little Litany --so called because of its brevity, being only three petitions long. Litany of the Catechumens --at the Divine Liturgy, this litany traditionally ended the part of the service which the catechumens were permitted to attend and these are unique in that the deacon exclaims, Wisdom. Before the priest says the ecphonesis, special Litanies--litanies that occur only in particular services, usually be in the form of special petitions that are added to the Great Litany, or unique litanies that occur in only one service. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts contains the litanies found in the forms of the divine liturgy. One unique litany during this service is the Ektenia for Those Preparing for Illumination, Litany Vespers Listen to the Great Litany in Slavonic The Litany before the Lords Prayer Hierarchical Divine Liturgy
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Bishop
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A bishop is an ordained, consecrated, or appointed member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within these churches, bishops are seen as those who possess the full priesthood, Some Protestant churches including the Lutheran and Methodist churches have bishops serving similar functions as well, though not always understood to be within apostolic succession in the same way. Priests, deacons and lay ministers cooperate and assist their bishop in shepherding a flock, the earliest organization of the Church in Jerusalem was, according to most scholars, similar to that of Jewish synagogues, but it had a council or college of ordained presbyters. In, we see a system of government in Jerusalem chaired by James the Just. In, the Apostle Paul ordains presbyters in churches in Anatolia, in Timothy and Titus in the New Testament a more clearly defined episcopate can be seen. We are told that Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete to oversee the local church, Paul commands Titus to ordain presbyters/bishops and to exercise general oversight, telling him to rebuke with all authority. Early sources are unclear but various groups of Christian communities may have had the bishop surrounded by a group or college functioning as leaders of the local churches, eventually, as Christendom grew, bishops no longer directly served individual congregations. Instead, the Metropolitan bishop appointed priests to each congregation. Around the end of the 1st century, the organization became clearer in historical documents. While Ignatius of Antioch offers the earliest clear description of monarchial bishops he is an advocate of monepiscopal structure rather than describing an accepted reality. To the bishops and house churches to which he writes, he offers strategies on how to pressure house churches who dont recognize the bishop into compliance. Other contemporary Christian writers do not describe monarchial bishops, either continuing to equate them with the presbyters or speaking of episkopoi in a city, plainly therefore we ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself — Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians 6,1. Your godly bishop — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 2,1, therefore as the Lord did nothing without the Father, either by Himself or by the Apostles, so neither do ye anything without the bishop and the presbyters. — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 7,1. Be obedient to the bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ was to the Father, and as the Apostles were to Christ and to the Father, — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 13,2. Apart from these there is not even the name of a church, — Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallesians 3,1. Follow your bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father, and the presbytery as the Apostles, and to the deacons pay respect, as to Gods commandment — Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnans 8,1. He that honoureth the bishop is honoured of God, he that doeth aught without the knowledge of the bishop rendereth service to the devil — Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnans 9,1
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Abbot
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Abbot, meaning father, is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as a title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The word is derived from the Aramaic av meaning father or abba, in the Septuagint, it was written as abbas. At first it was employed as a title for any monk. The title abbot came into general use in western monastic orders whose members include priests. An abbot is the head and chief governor of a community of monks, the English version for a female monastic head is abbess. In Egypt, the first home of monasticism, the jurisdiction of the abbot, or archimandrite, was, sometimes he ruled over only one community, sometimes over several, each of which had its own abbot as well. Saint John Cassian speaks of an abbot of the Thebaid who had 500 monks under him, by the Rule of St Benedict, which, until the Cluniac reforms, was the norm in the West, the abbot has jurisdiction over only one community. Monks, as a rule, were laymen, nor at the outset was the abbot any exception, for the reception of the sacraments, and for other religious offices, the abbot and his monks were commanded to attend the nearest church. This rule proved inconvenient when a monastery was situated in a desert or at a distance from a city, the change spread more slowly in the West, where the office of abbot was commonly filled by laymen till the end of the 7th century. The ecclesiastical leadership exercised by abbots despite their frequent lay status is proved by their attendance, thus at the first Council of Constantinople, AD448,23 archimandrites or abbots sign, with 30 bishops. The second Council of Nicaea, AD787, recognized the right of abbots to ordain their monks to the inferior orders below the diaconate, abbots used to be subject to episcopal jurisdiction, and continued generally so, in fact, in the West till the 11th century. The Code of Justinian expressly subordinates the abbot to episcopal oversight, in the 12th century, the abbots of Fulda claimed precedence of the archbishop of Cologne. It has been maintained that the right to wear mitres was sometimes granted by the popes to abbots before the 11th century, but the documents on which this claim is based are not genuine. The first undoubted instance is the bull by which Alexander II in 1063 granted the use of the mitre to Egelsinus, abbot of the monastery of St Augustine at Canterbury. Of these the precedence was yielded to the abbot of Glastonbury, until in AD1154 Adrian IV granted it to the abbot of St Albans, next after the abbot of St Albans ranked the abbot of Westminster and then Ramsey. Of course, they always and everywhere had the power of admitting their own monks, the power of the abbot was paternal but absolute, limited, however, by the canon law. One of the goals of monasticism was the purgation of self and selfishness
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Protodeacon
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Protodeacon derives from the Greek proto- meaning first and diakonos, which is a standard ancient Greek word meaning assistant, servant, or waiting-man. The word in English may refer to any of various clergy, Protodeacon is an honorific rank given to certain married deacons in Eastern Christian churches. In the Russian Orthodox Church it is a title given to married deacons, as a mark of which. The senior deacon of a cathedral or principal church may be awarded the title of protodeacon, in the Greek usage, the chief deacon who is attached to the person of a bishop is called an archdeacon. In the Slavic usage a protodeacon or archdeacon wears a distinctive orarion, the title of protodeacon is an award, not a distinctive order of ministry, so while a man may be ordained a deacon, he is said to be elevated to the rank of protodeacon. This elevation may be awarded only by the deacons own ruling bishop, the rite of elevation is identical for both a protodeacon and an archdeacon, and is normally done during the Little Entrance of the Divine Liturgy. A protodeacon has precedence when serving with other deacons, regardless of the date of his own ordination to the diaconate, if several protodeacons serve at the same time, their order of precedence is determined by the date of their elevation. In the Roman rite, the senior Cardinal Deacon is the Cardinal Protodeacon of the Holy Roman Church and he has the privilege of announcing the new Popes election and name in the Habemus Papam announcement given from the central balcony at St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City State. In the past, during papal coronations, the Proto-Deacon also had the honor of bestowing the pallium on the new pope and crowning him with the papal tiara. However, in 1978 Pope John Paul I chose not to be crowned and opted for a papal inauguration ceremony. As a result, the Cardinal protodeacons privilege of crowning a new pope has effectively ceased, however, the Proto-Deacon still has the privilege of bestowing the pallium on a new pope at his papal inauguration. “Acting in the place of the Roman Pontiff, he also confers the pallium upon metropolitan bishops or gives the pallium to their proxies. ”The current Cardinal Proto-Deacon is Renato Martino
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Ecumenical council
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The word ecumenical derives from a Greek term which literally means the inhabited world, but which was also applied more narrowly in antiquity to refer to the Roman Empire. Starting with the ecumenical council, noteworthy schisms led to non-participation by some members of what had previously been considered a single Christian Church. Thus, some parts of Christianity did not attend later councils, or attended, Bishops belonging to what became known as the Church of the East only participated in the first two councils. Bishops belonging to what became known as Oriental Orthodoxy participated in the first four councils, acceptance of councils as ecumenical and authoritative varies between different Christian denominations. Disputes over christological and other questions have led certain branches to reject some councils that others accept, the Church of the East accepts as ecumenical only the first two councils. Oriental Orthodox Churches accept the first three, both the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church recognise as ecumenical the first seven councils, held from the 4th to the 9th century. In all, the Roman Catholic Church recognises twenty-one councils as ecumenical, anglicans and confessional Protestants accept either the first seven or the first four as ecumenical councils. Such decrees are often labeled as Canons and they often have an attached anathema, the doctrine does not claim that every aspect of every ecumenical council is infallible. Both the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches uphold versions of this doctrine, protestant churches would generally view ecumenical councils as fallible human institutions that have no more than a derived authority to the extent that they correctly expound Scripture. Church councils were, from the beginning, bureaucratic exercises, written documents were circulated, speeches made and responded to, votes taken, and final documents published and distributed. A large part of what is known about the beliefs of heresies comes from the documents quoted in councils in order to be refuted, most councils dealt not only with doctrinal but also with disciplinary matters, which were decided in canons. Study of the canons of councils is the foundation of the development of canon law. Canons consist of doctrinal statements and disciplinary measures – most Church councils, of the seven councils recognised in whole or in part by both the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church as ecumenical, all were called by a Roman Emperor. The emperor gave them legal status within the entire Roman Empire, all were held in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. The bishop of Rome did not attend, although he sent legates to some of them, Church councils were traditional and the ecumenical councils were a continuation of earlier councils held in the Empire before Christianity was made legal. The first seven councils recognised in both East and West as ecumenical and several others to such recognition is refused were called by the Byzantine emperors. This too ceased to be considered an ecumenical council, of the twenty-one ecumenical councils recognised by the Roman Catholic Church, some gained recognition as ecumenical only later. Thus the Eastern First Council of Constantinople became ecumenical only when its decrees were accepted in the West also
34.
Sacrament
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A sacrament is a Christian rite recognised as of particular importance and significance. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites, many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of the reality of God, as well as a means by which God enacts his grace. Sacraments signify Gods grace in a way that is observable to the participant. The Catholic Church recognises seven sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Marriage, many Protestant denominations, such as those within the Reformed tradition, identify two sacraments instituted by Christ, the Eucharist and Baptism. The Lutheran sacraments include these two, often adding Confession as a third sacrament, the English word sacrament is derived indirectly from the Ecclesiastical Latin sacrāmentum, from Latin sacrō, from sacer. This in turn is derived from the Greek New Testament word mysterion and these seven sacraments were codified in the documents of the Council of Trent, which stated, CANON I. During the Middle Ages, sacraments were recorded in Latin, even after the Reformation, many ecclesiastical leaders continued using this practice into the 20th century. On occasion, Protestant ministers followed the same practice, since W was not part of the Latin alphabet, scribes only used it when dealing with names or places. In addition, names were modified to fit a Latin mold, for instance, the name Joseph would be rendered as Iosephus or Josephus. The Catholic Church indicates that the sacraments are necessary for salvation, the Church applies this teaching even to the sacrament of baptism, the gateway to the other sacraments. It states that Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed, catechumens and all those who, even without knowing Christ and the Church, still sincerely seek God and strive to do his will can also be saved without Baptism. The Church in her liturgy entrusts children who die without Baptism to the mercy of God, in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, the sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions, the Church teaches that the effect of the sacraments comes ex opere operato, by the very fact of being administered, regardless of the personal holiness of the minister administering it. The sacraments presuppose faith and through their words and ritual elements, nourish, strengthen, through each of them, Christ bestows that sacraments particular grace, such as incorporation into Christ and the Church, forgiveness of sins, or consecration for a particular service. The Eastern Orthodox tradition does not limit the number of sacraments to seven, however it recognizes these seven as the major sacraments, which are completed by many other blessings and special services. Some lists of the sacraments taken from the Church Fathers include the consecration of a church, monastic tonsure, more specifically, for the Eastern Orthodox the term sacrament is a term which seeks to classify something that may, according to Orthodox thought, be impossible to classify. According to Orthodox thinking God touches mankind through material means such as water, wine, bread, oil, incense, candles, altars, icons, how God does this is a mystery
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Bell, book, and candle
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The phrase bell, book and candle refers to a Latin Christian method of excommunication by anathema, imposed on a person who had committed an exceptionally grievous sin. Evidently introduced by Pope Zachary around the middle of the 8th century, in current practice a simple pronouncement is made to anathematize formally. The ceremony was described in the Pontificale Romanum up until the time of the Second Vatican Council, subsequent post-conciliar editions of the Pontificale omitted mention of any particular solemnities associated with excommunication. The ceremony traditionally involved a bishop, with 12 priests with candles, however, the rite of anathema as described in the Pontificale Romanum only prescribes the candles to be dashed to the ground. The frightful pronouncements of the ritual were calculated so as to strike terror into the ones so excommunicated and this form of excommunication was inflicted on Robert II of France by Pope Gregory V for his marriage to Bertha of Burgundy in the year 996, because Bertha was his cousin. He was later reconciled with the Church after negotiations with Gregorys successor Pope Silvester II, the dramatic nature of the ritual has lent itself to frequent depictions in culture and media. In the 1958 film Bell, Book and Candle, based on the play by John Van Druten, in the film Becket, Archbishop Thomas Becket excommunicates Lord Gilbert with something resembling a bell, book and candle ceremony. However, the bells are rung at the start, no book is in evidence, in Lord Jim, Richard Brooks film interpretation of Conrads book, the character Gentleman Brown says, Ring the bell. Never heard the sentence of excommunication. In the television film The Good Witch, Cassandra Nightingale owns a shop called The Bell, Book, in Jean-Paul Laurens painting, The Excommunication of Robert the Pious, the officiants have just excommunicated Robert as per the ritual, and left the quenched candle behind. In the video game Hugo 3, Jungle of Doom, a bell, book, Bell, Book, and Candle is the name of a quest in the video game Kingdoms of Amalur, Reckoning. In the video game Majesty, The Fantasy Kingdom Sim, one of the first and easiest missions one can play is named The Bell, The Book, in it, the player must retrieve the three stolen artifacts from monster-infested ruins and shrines. The Bell of Opening, The Book of the Dead, Star Wars Galaxies, the Star Wars themed MMORPG, references bell, book, and candle in the quest dialogue from Ree-yees in the games Jabbas Palace theme park. In Sam & Max season 2, episode 5, Whats New, the antagonists use a bell, a book, and a candle to open a portal to a flaming pit in hell. The protagonists manage to escape, and use a ritual to send the antagonists to their doom. An important quest in the video game Wizardry IV similarly involves the use of bell, book, in the early text-based computer game Zork, the player must gather a bell, a book, and a candle in order to gain access to the lowest regions of Hell. Peter Hammills song Empresss Clothes from the album Sitting Targets contains the line, You carry the bell, book, I need a bell, book and candle to keep your ghost away. Boos recording was used on the episode of Emmerdale when Tricia Dingle died, the song was also recorded by Eddi Reader and appears on her CD Angels and Electricity
36.
Latin Church
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The Latin Church, commonly called Roman Catholic Church, sometimes Western Church, is the largest autonomous particular church sui iuris within the Catholic Church, applying Latin liturgical rites. There are 24 such sui iuris particular churches within the Catholic Church, all the other particular churches sui iuris, of which there are 23, originated farther east and are, therefore, collectively known as the Eastern Catholic Churches. Because of the migrations, members of all of these particular churches sui iuris are no longer confined to their areas of origin. A person is a member of or belongs to a particular church, a person also inherits or is of, a particular patrimony or rite. Since the rite has liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary elements, Particular churches that inherit and perpetuate a particular patrimony are identified by metonymy with that patrimony. Accordingly, rite has been defined as a division of the Christian church using a distinctive liturgy, is considered equal to the Latin rite within the Church. It thus used the rite as a technical designation of what may now be called a particular church. Church or rite is used as a single heading in the United States Library of Congress classification of works. The last known use was Pope Pius XII in Humani generis who taught that the Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one. Most ecclesiologists - experts in the theology of the Church itself - instead use Roman Catholic to refer exclusively to the Latin Church. The reasons for this are that each of the 24 Catholic Churches sui iuris have a modifier - Maronite, Ukrainian, Roman, etc. - and that Latin and Roman are virtually interchangeable. Further, as Adrian Fortescue noted in his article in the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia, today, the most common Latin liturgical rites are the Roman Rite, the Ambrosian Rite, the Mozarabic Rite, and variations of the Roman Rite. The 23 Eastern Catholic Churches share five families of liturgical rites, the Latin liturgical rites, like the Armenian, are used only in a single sui iuris particular church. In the Eastern Churches these sacraments are usually administered immediately after baptism, celibacy, as a consequence of the duty to observe perfect continence, is obligatory for priests in the Latin Church. Rare exceptions are permitted for men who, after ministering as clergy in other churches and this contrasts with the discipline in most Eastern Catholic Churches. In the Latin Church, a man may not be admitted even to the diaconate unless he is legitimately destined to remain a deacon. Marriage after ordination is not possible, and attempting it can result in canonical penalties, Latin Mass Church of Rome Particular church General Roman Calendar Eastern Catholic Churches Catholic Encyclopedia, Latin Church
37.
Communion (religion)
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The bond uniting Christians as individuals and groups with each other and with Jesus is described as communion. The term is derived from Latin communio and this basic meaning of the word predates its Christian uses. The Greek term κοινωνία appears in the New Testament, but nowhere in the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint, as a noun, or in its adjectival or verbal forms, it is found in 43 verses of the New Testament. In addition, the noun is found in manuscripts in Ephesians 3,9. Communion between particular groups, the most remarkable instance of which was that between Jews and Gentiles III, Communion in the Body and Blood of Christ IV. Sharing in divine revelation and with God himself, by metonymy, the term is used of a group of Christian churches that have this close relationship of communion with each other. An example is the Anglican Communion, the communion of saints is the relationship that, according to the belief of Christians, exists between them as people made holy by their link with Christ. The term communion is applied to sharing in the Eucharist by partaking of the bread and wine. Sometimes the term is applied not only to this partaking but to the whole of the rite or to the consecrated elements, open communion Closed communion Koinonia NAS Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible with Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Robert Porter Lynch, Ninon Prozonic, how the Greeks created the First Golden Age of Innovation. Richards, Lawrence O. Expository Dictionary of Bible Words, thayer, Joseph H. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing House
38.
Roman Pontifical
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The Roman Pontifical, in Latin the Pontificale Romanum, is the Latin Catholic liturgical book that contains the rites performed by Bishops. However, it does not include the rites for the Mass or the Divine Office, because of the use of the adjective pontifical in other contexts to refer to the Pope, it is sometimes mistakenly thought that the Pontificale Romanum is a book reserved to the Pope. It could be argued that it is the book of those entitled to the use, in contexts, of the pontificalia. The earliest pontificals date from the ninth century. From the mid-tenth century, one compilation, known to historians as the Pontificale Romano-Germanicum, became dominant. Under Clement VIII, a version was published for the use of the entire Roman Rite. It was reprinted by authority with many variations many times, until 1962, after which it was recast and restructured according to the decisions of the Second Vatican Council. The service book should not be confused with the collection of papal annals called Liber Pontificalis, in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches, the equivalent of the Pontifical is the Archieratikon. This book is often in a format and contains only those portions of Vespers, Matins. It also contains those rites which are performed only by a bishop
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Second Vatican Council
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The Second Vatican Council, fully the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and informally known as Vatican II, addressed relations between the Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, many of these changes remain divisive among the Catholic faithful. At the same time, the worlds bishops faced challenges driven by political, social, economic, some of these bishops sought new ways of addressing those challenges. The First Vatican Council had been nearly a century before but had been cut short when the Italian Army entered the city of Rome at the end of Italian unification. Pope John XXIII, however, gave notice of his intention to convene the Council on 25 January 1959 and this sudden announcement, which caught the Curia by surprise, caused little initial official comment from Church insiders. In various discussions before the Council actually convened, John XXIII often said that it was time to open the windows and he invited other Christians outside the Catholic Church to send observers to the Council. Acceptances came from both the Eastern Orthodox Church and Protestant denominations as internal observers, but these observers did not cast votes in the approbation of the conciliar documents. Pope John XXIIIs announcement on 25 January 1959 of his intention to call a general council came as an even to the cardinals present. The Pontiff pre-announced the council under a full moon when the faithful with their candlelights gathered in St. Peters square, after which, he instructed the people to go back home and give their children a kiss of goodnight, from the Pope himself. He had tested the idea only ten days before one of them, his Cardinal Secretary of State Domenico Tardini. Although the Pope later said the idea came to him in a flash in his conversation with Tardini, two cardinals had earlier attempted to interest him in the idea. They were two of the most conservative, Ernesto Ruffini and Alfredo Ottaviani, who had already in 1948 proposed the idea to Pope Pius XII and who put it before John XXIII on 27 October 1958. These groups, composed mostly of members of the Roman Curia, produced 987 proposed constituting sessions, attendance varied in later sessions from 2,100 to over 2,300. In addition, a number of periti were available for theological consultation—a group that turned out to have a major influence as the council went forward. Seventeen Orthodox Churches and Protestant denominations sent observers, more than three dozen representatives of other Christian communities were present at the opening session, and the number grew to nearly 100 by the end of the 4th Council Sessions. Pope John XXIII opened the Council on 11 October 1962 in a public session, what is needed is that this certain and immutable doctrine, to which the faithful owe obedience, be studied afresh and reformulated in contemporary terms. For this deposit of faith, or truths which are contained in our time-honored teaching is one thing, roncalli, Angelo Giuseppe, Opening address, Council, Rome, IT.13 October 1962 marked the initial working session of the Council. That days agenda included the election for members of the ten conciliar commissions, each would have sixteen elected and eight appointed members, and were expected to do most of the work of the Council
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Anathem
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Anathem is a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2008. Major themes include the interpretation of quantum mechanics and the philosophical debate between Platonic realism and nominalism. Anathem is set on and around the fictional planet Arbre, thousands of years before the events in the novel, the planets intellectuals entered concents to protect their activities from the collapse of society. The avout are allowed to communicate with people outside the walls of the concent only once every year, decade, century, or millennium, the narrator and protagonist, Fraa Erasmas, is an avout at the Concent of Saunt Edhar. His primary teacher, Fraa Orolo, discovers that a spacecraft is orbiting Arbre – a fact that the Sæcular Power attempts to cover up. Orolo secretly observes the alien ship with a camera, technology that is prohibited for the avout. Erasmas becomes aware of the content of Orolos research after Orolo is banished from the Mathic World for his possession, but the presence of the alien ship soon becomes an open secret among many of the avout at St. Edhar. Shortly after that, the Sæcular Power evoke many avout from Saunt Edhar, Erasmas and several companions, on Fraa Jads suggestion, decide to seek out Orolo. During the discussions between Orolo and Erasmas, a spacecraft lands in Orithena, on the very site of the ancient Mathic worlds Analemma. A female alien is on board, but dead of a recent gunshot wound and she has brought with her four vials of blood – presumably that of the aliens – and much evidence about their technology. Shortly thereafter, the aliens propel a massive metal rod at a nearby volcano, Orolo sacrifices his life to ensure the safety of the dead aliens remains and her blood samples, an event that leads to his canonization as Saunt Orolo. Erasmas then travels to the concent of Saunt Tredegarh – where he was expected to have gone when evoked – to attend the Convox. This is a joint conference of the avout and the Sæcular Power, dedicated to dealing with the military, political, and technical issues raised by the existence of the alien ship in Arbres orbit. Much research is done on the samples Orolo sacrificed his life to save, the mulitple-worlds interpretation of the cosmos is discussed in great detail by the high-level avout at successive evening meals to which Erasmus performs the duties of a servant. In this section of the novel, it becomes plain that Laterre is our own Earth, which serves as a higher plane of existence for Urnud and Tro. He explains that the aliens are experiencing internal conflict between two factions, the currently ruling faction intends to attack and raid Arbre for its resources in order to repair their spaceship, while the opposing faction favors open negotiation. Jules Durand offers to assist the avout of Arbre in resisting the ruling faction of the aliens, fearing alien attack after Durand has been exposed, the avout evacuate Saunt Tredegarh and all the other concents on Arbre simultaneously. Erasmas and his comrades are taken to a distant sanctuary, where they receive training for a mission to board the alien ship, three people – including Fraa Jad – are issued detonators
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Anathema". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). "Anathema". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.