1.
Augustine of Hippo
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Augustine of Hippo was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius, located in Numidia, Augustine is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions, according to his contemporary, Jerome, Augustine established anew the ancient Faith. In his early years, he was influenced by Manichaeism. After his baptism and conversion to Christianity in 386, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine of original sin, when the Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God, distinct from the material Earthly City. His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview, the segment of the Church that adhered to the concept of the Trinity as defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople closely identified with Augustines On the Trinity. Augustine is recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Christian Church, and he is also the patron of the Augustinians. His memorial is celebrated on 28 August, the day of his death, Augustine is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, the alleviation of sore eyes, and a number of cities and dioceses. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists and Lutherans, consider him to be one of the fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation. Lutherans, and Martin Luther in particular, have held Augustine in preeminence, Luther himself was a member of the Order of the Augustinian Eremites. In the East, some of his teachings are disputed and have in the 20th century in particular come under attack by such theologians as John Romanides, but other theologians and figures of the Eastern Orthodox Church have shown significant appropriation of his writings, chiefly Georges Florovsky. The most controversial doctrine surrounding his name is the filioque, which has been rejected by the Orthodox Church, other disputed teachings include his views on original sin, the doctrine of grace, and predestination. Nevertheless, though considered to be mistaken on some points, he is considered a saint. In the Orthodox Church his feast day is celebrated on 28 August and he was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. Augustine was the bishop of Hippo Regius, located in Numidia and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions, Augustine was born in the year 354 AD in the municipium of Thagaste in Roman Africa. His mother, Monica or Monnica, was a devout Christian, in his writings, Augustine leaves some information as to the consciousness of his African heritage
2.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
3.
Anno Domini
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The terms anno Domini and before Christ are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term anno Domini is Medieval Latin and means in the year of the Lord, There is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. This dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus of Scythia Minor, the Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world today. Traditionally, English followed Latin usage by placing the AD abbreviation before the year number, however, BC is placed after the year number, which also preserves syntactic order. The abbreviation is widely used after the number of a century or millennium. Because BC is the English abbreviation for Before Christ, it is sometimes concluded that AD means After Death. However, this would mean that the approximate 33 years commonly associated with the life of Jesus would not be included in either of the BC, astronomical year numbering and ISO8601 avoid words or abbreviations related to Christianity, but use the same numbers for AD years. The Anno Domini dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus to enumerate the years in his Easter table. His system was to replace the Diocletian era that had used in an old Easter table because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians. The last year of the old table, Diocletian 247, was followed by the first year of his table. Thus Dionysius implied that Jesus Incarnation occurred 525 years earlier, without stating the year during which his birth or conception occurred. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens briefly present arguments for 2 BC,1 BC, There were inaccuracies in the list of consuls There were confused summations of emperors regnal years It is not known how Dionysius established the year of Jesuss birth. It is convenient to initiate a calendar not from the day of an event. For example, the Islamic calendar begins not from the date of the Hegira, at the time, it was believed by some that the Resurrection and end of the world would occur 500 years after the birth of Jesus. The old Anno Mundi calendar theoretically commenced with the creation of the based on information in the Old Testament. It was believed that, based on the Anno Mundi calendar, Anno Mundi 6000 was thus equated with the resurrection and the end of the world but this date had already passed in the time of Dionysius. The Anglo-Saxon historian the Venerable Bede, who was familiar with the work of Dionysius Exiguus, used Anno Domini dating in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731. e. On the continent of Europe, Anno Domini was introduced as the era of choice of the Carolingian Renaissance by the English cleric and scholar Alcuin in the late eighth century
4.
Tiffany glass
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In 1865, Tiffany traveled to Europe, and in London he visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, whose extensive collection of Roman and Syrian glass made a deep impression on him. He admired the coloration of glass and was convinced that the quality of contemporary glass could be improved upon. His inventiveness both as a designer of windows and as a producer of the material with which to them was to become renowned. Tiffany wanted the glass itself to transmit texture and rich colors, the glass was manufactured at the Tiffany factory located at 96-18 43rd Avenue in the Corona section of Queens from 1901 to 1932. Some opalescent glass was used by several stained glass studios in England from the 1860s and 1870s onwards, notably Heaton, Butler, opalescent glass is the basis for the range of glasses created by Tiffany. Tiffany patented Favrile glass in 1892, Favrile glass often has a distinctive characteristic that is common in some glass from Classical antiquity, it possesses a superficial iridescence. This iridescence causes the surface to shimmer, but also causes a degree of opacity and this iridescent effect of the glass was obtained by mixing different colors of glass together while hot. Streamer glass refers to a sheet of glass with a pattern of glass strings affixed to its surface, Tiffany made use of such textured glass to represent, for example, twigs, branches and grass. Streamers are prepared from very hot glass, gathered at the end of a punty that is rapidly swung back and forth and stretched into long, thin strings that rapidly cool. These hand-stretched streamers are pressed on the surface of sheet glass during the rolling process. Fracture glass refers to a sheet of glass with a pattern of irregularly shaped, Tiffany made use of such textured glass to represent, for example, foliage seen from a distance. The irregular glass wafers, called fractures, are prepared from very hot, colored molten glass, a large bubble is forcefully blown until the walls of the bubble rapidly stretch, cool and harden. The resulting glass bubble has paper-thin walls and is shattered into shards. These hand blown shards are pressed on the surface of the glass sheet during the rolling process. Fracture-streamer glass refers to a sheet of glass with a pattern of glass strings, Tiffany made use of such textured glass to represent, for example, twigs, branches and grass, and distant foliage. The process is as above except that both streamers and fractures are applied to glass during the rolling process. Ring mottle glass refers to glass with a pronounced mottle created by localized, heat-treated opacification. Ring mottle glass was invented by Tiffany in the early 20th century, tiffanys distinctive style exploited glass containing a variety of motifs such as those found in ring mottle glass, and he relied minimally on painted details
5.
Stained-glass
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The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches, mosques, although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. Modern vernacular usage has extended the term stained glass to include domestic leadlight. As a material stained glass is glass that has been coloured by adding metallic salts during its manufacture. The coloured glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together by strips of lead. Painted details and yellow stain are used to enhance the design. The term stained glass is applied to windows in which the colours have been painted onto the glass. Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive an appropriate and workable design, and the engineering skills to assemble the piece. A window must fit snugly into the space for which it is made, must resist wind and rain, Many large windows have withstood the test of time and remained substantially intact since the late Middle Ages. In Western Europe they constitute the form of pictorial art to have survived. In this context, the purpose of a glass window is not to allow those within a building to see the world outside or even primarily to admit light. For this reason stained glass windows have been described as illuminated wall decorations, Stained glass is still popular today, but often referred to as art glass. It is prevalent in luxury homes, commercial buildings, and places of worship, artists and companies are contracted to create beautiful art glass ranging from domes, windows, backsplashes, etc. During the late Medieval period, glass factories were set up there was a ready supply of silica. Silica requires very high heat to become molten, something not all glass factories were able to achieve, such materials as potash, soda, and lead can be added to lower the melting temperature. Other substances, such as lime, are added to rebuild the weakened network, Glass is coloured by adding metallic oxide powders or finely divided metals while it is in a molten state. Copper oxides produce green or bluish green, cobalt makes deep blue, much modern red glass is produced using copper, which is less expensive than gold and gives a brighter, more vermilion shade of red. Glass coloured while in the pot in the furnace is known as pot metal glass
6.
Lightner Museum
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The Lightner Museum is a museum of antiquities, mostly American Gilded Age pieces, housed within the historic Hotel Alcazar building in downtown St. Augustine. This 1887 Spanish Renaissance Revival style building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the hotel was commissioned by Henry Flagler, to appeal to wealthy tourists who traveled south for the winter on his railroad, the Florida East Coast Railway. It was designed by New York City architects Carrère and Hastings, the firm also designed the Ponce de León Hotel across the street, now part of the campus of Flagler College. Both structures are notable for being among the earliest examples of poured concrete buildings in the world and these architects later designed the New York Public Library in New York City and the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D. C. After purchasing the building to house his collection of Victorian Era pieces in 1947. Lightner turned it over to the city of St. Augustine, the building is an attraction in itself, centering on an open courtyard with palm trees and a stone arch bridge over a fishpond. The second floor contains examples of cut glass, Victorian art glass, the Ballroom Gallery has oil paintings by Paul Trouillebert, Léon Comerre, and Albert Bierstadt. It also has sculptures by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and Randolph Rogers, National Register of Historic Places listings in St. Johns County, Florida Ossman, Laurie, Ewing, Heather. Media related to Lightner Museum at Wikimedia Commons Official website Floridas Smithsonian Historic American Buildings Survey No, fL-168, Alcazar Hotel,75 King Street, Saint Augustine, St. Johns County, Florida,8 photos,6 data pages,1 photo caption page
7.
Original sin
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The concept of original sin was first alluded to in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in his controversy with certain dualist Gnostics. Other church fathers such as Augustine also developed the doctrine, seeing it as based on the New Testament teaching of Paul the Apostle, tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose and Ambrosiaster considered that humanity shares in Adams sin, transmitted by human generation. The Jansenist movement, which the Catholic Church declared to be heretical, the story of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man represents a tradition among the Abrahamic peoples, with a presentation more or less symbolical of certain moral and religious truths. The idea of divine justice taking the form of punishment is also ubiquitous in the Hebrew Bible. St Pauls idea of redemption hinged on the contrast between the sin of Adam and the death and resurrection of Jesus. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. Up till then the transgression in the Garden of Eden had not been given great significance, as the Jesus scholar, Geza Vermes has said, Paul believed that Adams transgression in a mysterious way affected the nature of the human race. The primeval sin, a Pauline creation with no biblical or post-biblical Jewish precedent, was irreparable by ordinary human effort, the formalized Christian doctrine of original sin was first developed in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyon, in his struggle against Gnosticism. Irenaeus contrasted their doctrine with the view that the Fall was a step in the direction by Adam, with whom, Irenaeus believed. The Greek Fathers emphasized the cosmic dimension of the Fall, namely that since Adam human beings are born into a fallen world and they thus did not teach that human beings are deprived of free will and involved in total depravity, which is one understanding of original sin. During this period the doctrines of human depravity and the sinful nature of human flesh were taught by Gnostics. Christian Apologists insisted that Gods future judgment of humanity implied humanity must have the ability to live righteously, when Adam sinned, human nature was thenceforth transformed. Adam and Eve, via sexual reproduction, recreated human nature and their descendants now live in sin, in the form of concupiscence, a term Augustine used in a metaphysical, not a psychological sense. Augustine insisted that concupiscence was not a being but a bad quality, in Augustines view, all of humanity was really present in Adam when he sinned, and therefore all have sinned. Original sin, according to Augustine, consists of the guilt of Adam which all humans inherit, as sinners, humans are utterly depraved in nature, lack the freedom to do good, and cannot respond to the will of God without divine grace. Justo Gonzalez interprets Augustines teaching that grace is irresistible, results in conversion, Pelagius claimed that the influence of Adam on other humans was merely that of bad example. Augustine held that the effects of Adams sin are transmitted to his descendants not by example, a wounded nature comes to the soul and body of the new person from his/her parents, who experience libido. Augustines view was that human procreation was the way the transmission was being effected and he did not blame, however, the sexual passion itself, but the spiritual concupiscence present in human nature, soul and body, even after baptismal regeneration
8.
Invisible church
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Every member of the invisible church is saved, while the visible church contains some individuals who are saved and others who are unsaved. According to this view, Bible passages such as Matthew 7, 21-27, Matthew 13, 24-30 and this concept has been attributed to St Augustine of Hippo as part of his refutation of the Donatist sect. He was strongly influenced by the Platonist belief that reality is invisible. Others question whether Augustine really held to form of an invisible true Church concept. Includes not only the saints presently living on earth, but all the elect from the beginning of the world and he continues in contrasting this church with the church scattered throughout the world. In this church there is a large mixture of hypocrites. Pietism later took this a further, with its formulation of ecclesiolae in ecclesia. In Catholic doctrine, the one true Church is the society founded by Christ, namely. The theological concept una mystica persona refers not to an individual relation but to the unity of Christ with the Church and the unity of its members with him in her
9.
Predestination
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Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, in this usage, predestination can be regarded as a form of religious determinism, and usually predeterminism. There is some disagreement among scholars regarding the views on predestination of first-century AD Judaism, josephus wrote during the first century that the three main Jewish sects differed on this question. He argued that the Essenes and Pharisees argued that Gods providence orders all human events and he wrote that the Sadducees did not have a doctrine of providence. Biblical scholar N. T. Wright asserts that Essenes were content to wait for God to liberate Israel while Pharisees believed Jews needed to act in cooperation with God, in the New Testament, Romans 8–11 presents a statement on predestination. In Romans 8, 28–30, Paul writes, We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, and those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Biblical scholars have interpreted this passage in several ways, many say this only has to do with service, those he chose of service and is not about salvation. Catholic biblical commentator Brendan Byrne wrote that the mentioned in this passage should be interpreted as applied to the Christian community corporately rather than individuals. Another Catholic commentator, Joseph Fitzmyer, wrote that this teaches that God has predestined the salvation of all humans. Douglas Moo, a Protestant biblical interpreter, reads the passage as teaching that God has predestined a certain set of people to salvation, similarly, N. T. Instead, Wright asserts that Gods will works through that of humans to accomplish salvation. Origen, writing in the century, taught that Gods providence extends to every individual. He believed Gods predestination was based on Gods foreknowledge of every individuals merits, later in the fourth and fifth centuries, Augustine of Hippo also taught that God orders all things while preserving human freedom. Prior to 396, Augustine believed that predestination was based on Gods foreknowledge of whether individuals would believe, scholars are divided over whether Augustines teaching implies double predestination, or the belief that God chooses some people for damnation as well as some for salvation. Catholic scholars tend to deny that he held such a view while some Protestants, julian, bishop of Eclanum, expressed the view that Augustine was bringing Manichean thoughts into the church. For Vincent of Lérins, this was a disturbing innovation and this new tension eventually became obvious with the confrontation between Augustine and Pelagius culminating in condemnation of Pelagianism at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Pelagius denied Augustines view of predestination in order to affirm that salvation is achieved by an act of free will, the Second Council of Orange in 529 also condemned the position that some have been truly predestined to evil by divine power. Damascene teaches that peoples actions are done in cooperation with God
10.
Augustinian hypothesis
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The Augustinian hypothesis is a solution to the synoptic problem, which concerns the origin of the Gospels of the New Testament. The hypothesis holds that Matthew was written first, by Matthew the Evangelist, Mark the Evangelist wrote the Gospel of Mark second and used Matthew and the preaching of Peter as sources. Luke the Evangelist wrote the Gospel of Luke and was aware of the two Gospels that preceded him, unlike some competing hypotheses, this hypothesis does not rely on, nor does it argue for, the existence of any document that is not explicitly mentioned in historical testimony. Instead, the hypothesis draws primarily upon historical testimony, rather than textual criticism, adherents to the Augustinian hypothesis view it as a simple, coherent solution to the synoptic problem. Because of the similarity on primary points of contention, this hypothesis is also treated as an amendment to the Augustinian hypothesis. And, Of these four, it is true, only Matthew is reckoned to have written in the Hebrew language, Augustine also discussed the commonalities between the Synoptic Gospels, including the identical language found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Augustine was not the first to articulate this view, as Irenaeus and Origen, among others, however, Augustine was the first author to give a detailed scholarly textual analysis of the three texts interdependence, and to articulate a theory for the express purpose of explaining this fact. The Church Fathers who wrote about the order and authorship of the canonical gospels all supported some basic ideas of the Augustinian hypothesis. The fathers whose writings survive and who wrote about authorship are almost unanimous in agreement that Matthew the apostle was the author, wrote first, a number of sources in antiquity asserted that Mark wrote his Gospel after Matthew based on the preaching of Peter. Various elements of tradition are found in the writings of Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius. The text of the Gospel itself circulated with a title According to Matthew, in addition, the title According to Matthew is found in the earliest manuscripts. A number of scholars have argued that the title must be dated no later than 125, many contemporary scholars, however, believe it was originally anonymous. The earliest surviving references to the tradition are quoted by Eusebius, and different but related traditions appear in the works of Papias. A third ancient source, Irenaeus, also provides information about the traditions, especially that of Papias. These related traditions generally agree on the points of contention within the Augustinian hypothesis. Instead, slight disagreement is actually in favor of multiple, near identical traditions, According to Irenaeus, Papias was a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp, a man of primitive times, who wrote a volume in five books. Papias wrote that, Matthew compiled the sayings in the Hebrew language and it has been argued, because Papias does not cite an authority for his assertions concerning Matthew but does concerning Mark, that Matthew was already fully accepted at the time of his writings. This he did, making his gospel available to all who wanted it, when Peter heard about this, he made no objection and gave no special encouragement
11.
Augustinian theodicy
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As such, it attempts to explain the probability of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God amid evidence of evil in the world. They typically assert that God is perfectly good, that he created the world out of nothing, the entry of evil into the world is generally explained as punishment for sin and its continued presence due to humans misuse of free will. Gods goodness and benevolence, according to the Augustinian theodicy, remain perfect, Augustine of Hippo was the first to develop the theodicy. He rejected the idea that evil exists in itself, instead regarding it as a corruption of goodness, Augustine believed in the existence of a physical Hell as a punishment for sin, but argued that those who choose to accept the salvation of Jesus Christ will go to Heaven. In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas – influenced by Augustine – proposed a similar theodicy based on the view that God is goodness and he believed that the existence of goodness allows evil to exist, through the fault of humans. Augustine also influenced John Calvin, who supported Augustines view that evil is the result of free will and argued that sin corrupts humans, requiring Gods grace to give moral guidance. Hick regards evil as necessary for the moral and spiritual development of humans, the logic of Augustines approach has been adapted by Alvin Plantinga, among others. Plantingas adapted Augustinian theodicy, the free will defence – which he proposed in the 1980s – attempts to only the logical problem of evil. Some criticisms have also derived from science, as aspects of the Augustinian theodicy run contrary to scientific consensus regarding the beginning of the world. The Augustinian theodicy is a response to the problem of evil. Evidence of evil can call into question Gods nature or his existence – he is not omnipotent, not benevolent. Theodicy is an attempt to reconcile the existence and nature of God with evidence of evil in the world by providing explanations for its occurrence. The Augustinian theodicy asserts that God created the world ex nihilo, evil is not attributed existence in its own right, but is described as the privation of good – the corruption of Gods good creation. The Augustinian theodicy supports the notion of original sin, all versions of this theodicy accept the theological implications of the Genesis creation narrative, including the belief that God created human beings without sin or suffering. Evil is believed to be a just punishment for the fall of man, the free will of humans is offered by the Augustinian theodicy as the continued reason for moral evil, people commit immoral acts when their will is evil. Augustine of Hippo was a philosopher and theologian born in Roman Africa and he followed the Manichaean religion during his early life, but converted to Christianity in 386. His two major works, Confessions and City of God, develop key ideas regarding his response to suffering, in Confessions, Augustine wrote that his previous work was dominated by materialism and that reading Platos works enabled him to consider the existence of a non-physical substance. This helped him develop a response to the problem of evil from a perspective, based on his interpretation of the first few chapters of Genesis
12.
The City of God (book)
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The City of God Against the Pagans, often called The City of God, is a book of Christian philosophy written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th century AD. The sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 left Romans in a state of shock. He attempted to console Christians, writing even if the earthly rule of the Empire was imperiled. Christianity, he argued, should be concerned with the mystical, heavenly city, the book presents human history as a conflict between what Augustine calls the Earthly City and the City of God, a conflict that is destined to end in victory for the latter. The City of God is marked by people who forgot earthly pleasure to dedicate themselves to the truths of God. The Earthly City, on the hand, consists of people who have immersed themselves in the cares and pleasures of the present. Augustine’s thesis depicts the history of the world as universal warfare between God and the Devil and this metaphysical war is not limited by time but only by geography on Earth. Many Catholics consider Jacques-Bénigne Bossuets Discours sur lhistoire universelle or Speech of Universal History to be a second edition or continuation of The City of God and this book updates universal history according to Augustine’s thesis of universal war between those humans that follow God and those who follow the Devil. Holds that in her most benign Lord and Master can be found the key, the focal point, all of human life, whether individual or collective, shows itself to be a dramatic struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness. The Lord is the goal of history the focal point of the longings of history and of civilization, the center of the human race, the joy of every heart. Augustine provides a description of the contents of the work, However. Of these twelve books, the first four contain an account of the origin of these two city of God, and the city of the world. The second four treat of their history or progress, the third and last four, the book also explains good and bad things happen to righteous and wicked people alike, and it consoles the women violated in the recent calamity. Book II, a proof that because of the worship of the gods, Rome suffered the greatest calamity of all. Book III, a proof that the gods failed to save Rome numerous times in the past from worldly disasters. Book IV, a proof that the power and long duration of the Roman empire was due not to the pagan Gods, Book V, a refutation of the doctrine of fate and an explanation of the Christian doctrine of free will and its consistency with Gods omniscience. The book proves that Romes dominion was due to the virtue of the Romans and explains the true happiness of the Christian emperors, Book VI–X, A critique of pagan philosophy Book VI, a refutation of the assertion that the pagan gods are to be worshiped for eternal life. Augustine claimed that even the esteemed pagan theologist Varro held the gods in contempt, Book VII, a demonstration that eternal life is not granted by Janus, Jupiter, Saturn, and other select gods
13.
Confessions (Augustine)
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Confessions is the name of an autobiographical work, consisting of 13 books, by Saint Augustine of Hippo, written in Latin between AD397 and 400. The work outlines Saint Augustines sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity, modern English translations of it are sometimes published under the title The Confessions of Saint Augustine in order to distinguish the book from other books with similar titles. Its original title was Confessions in Thirteen Books, and it was composed to be read out loud with each book being a complete unit, Confessions is generally considered one of Augustines most important texts. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written, Professor Henry Chadwick wrote that Confessions will always rank among the great masterpieces of western literature. The work is not an autobiography, as it was written in Saint Augustines early 40s. It does, nonetheless, provide a record of his development of thought and is the most complete record of any single person from the 4th and 5th centuries. It is a significant theological work, featuring spiritual meditations and insights, in the work Augustine writes about how much he regrets having led a sinful and immoral life. He discusses his regrets for following the Manichaean religion and believing in astrology and he writes about Nebridiuss role in helping to persuade him that astrology was not only incorrect but evil, and Saint Ambroses role in his conversion to Christianity. The first nine books are autobiographical and the last four are commentary and he shows intense sorrow for his sexual sins, and writes on the importance of sexual morality. The books were written as prayers to God, thus the title, based on the Psalms of David, the work is thought to be divisible into books which symbolize various aspects of the Trinity and trinitarian belief. His infancy, and boyhood up to age 14, Augustine comes from a good family and has never wanted for food. In this book, he explores the question of why he and he explains the feelings he experienced as he ate the pears and threw the rest away to the pigs. Augustine argues that he most likely would not have stolen anything had he not been in the company of others who could share in his sin and he begins the study of rhetoric at Carthage, where he develops a love of wisdom through his exposure to Ciceros Hortensius. He blames his pride for lacking faith in Scripture, so he finds a way to seek truth regarding good, at the end of this book, his mother, Monica, dreams about her sons re-conversion to Catholic doctrine. Between the ages of 19 and 28, Augustine forms a relationship with an unnamed woman with whom he has a son. At the same time that he has returned to Tagaste, his hometown, to teach, things he used to love become hateful to him because everything reminds him of what was lost. Augustine then suggests that he began to love his life of more than his fallen friend. While Saint Augustine is aged 29, he begins to lose faith in Manichean teachings and he is unimpressed with the substance of Manichaeism, but he has not yet found something to replace it
14.
Plotinus
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Plotinus was a major Greek-speaking philosopher of the ancient world. In his philosophy there are three principles, the One, the Intellect, and the Soul and his teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition. Historians of the 19th century invented the term Neoplatonism and applied it to him, much of the biographical information about Plotinus comes from Porphyrys preface to his edition of Plotinus Enneads. His metaphysical writings have inspired centuries of Pagan, Islamic, Jewish, Christian, and Gnostic metaphysicians and mystics. Porphyry reported that Plotinus was 66 years old when he died in 270, eunapius reported that Plotinus was born in the Deltaic Lycopolis in Egypt, which has led to speculations that he may have been a native Egyptian of Roman, Greek, or Hellenized Egyptian descent. Plotinus had an inherent distrust of materiality, holding to the view that phenomena were an image or mimicry of something higher. This distrust extended to the body, including his own, it is reported by Porphyry that at one point he refused to have his portrait painted, likewise Plotinus never discussed his ancestry, childhood, or his place or date of birth. From all accounts his personal and social life exhibited the highest moral and spiritual standards, Plotinus took up the study of philosophy at the age of twenty-seven, around the year 232, and travelled to Alexandria to study. There he was dissatisfied with every teacher he encountered until an acquaintance suggested he listen to the ideas of Ammonius Saccas, upon hearing Ammonius lecture, he declared to his friend, this was the man I was looking for, and began to study intently under his new instructor. Besides Ammonius, Plotinus was also influenced by the works of Alexander of Aphrodisias, Numenius, after spending the next eleven years in Alexandria, he then decided, at the age of around 38, to investigate the philosophical teachings of the Persian philosophers and the Indian philosophers. In the pursuit of this endeavor he left Alexandria and joined the army of Gordian III as it marched on Persia. However, the campaign was a failure, and on Gordians eventual death Plotinus found himself abandoned in a hostile land, and only with difficulty found his way back to safety in Antioch. At the age of forty, during the reign of Philip the Arab, he came to Rome, there he attracted a number of students. He had students amongst the Roman Senate beside Castricius, such as Marcellus Orontius, Sabinillus, finally, Plotinus was a correspondent of the philosopher Cassius Longinus. While in Rome Plotinus also gained the respect of the Emperor Gallienus, an Imperial subsidy was never granted, for reasons unknown to Porphyry, who reports the incident. Porphyry subsequently went to live in Sicily, where word reached him that his teacher had died. The philosopher spent his days in seclusion on an estate in Campania which his friend Zethos had bequeathed him. According to the account of Eustochius, who attended him at the end, Plotinus final words were, Eustochius records that a snake crept under the bed where Plotinus lay, and slipped away through a hole in the wall, at the same moment the philosopher died
15.
Saint Monica
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Saint Monica, also known as Monica of Hippo, was an early Christian saint and the mother of St. Augustine of Hippo. Popular Christian legends recall Saint Monica weeping every night for her son Augustine, because of her name and place of birth, Monica is assumed to have been born in Tagaste. She is believed to have been a Berber on the basis of her name and she was married early in life to Patricius, a Roman pagan, who held an official position in Tagaste. Patricius had a violent temper and appears to have been of dissolute habits, Monicas alms, deeds and prayer habits annoyed Patricius, but it is said that he always held her in respect. Monica had three children who survived infancy, sons Augustine and Navigius and daughter Perpetua, unable to secure baptism for them, she grieved heavily when Augustine fell ill. In her distress she asked Patricius to allow Augustine to be baptized, he agreed, but Monicas joy and relief at Augustines recovery turned to anxiety as he misspent his renewed life being wayward and, as he himself tells us, lazy. He was finally sent to school at Madauros and he was 17 and studying rhetoric in Carthage when Patricius died. Augustine had become a Manichaean at Carthage, when upon his home he shared his views regarding Manichaeism. However, she is said to have experienced a vision that convinced her to reconcile with him, at this time she visited a certain holy bishop who consoled her with the now famous words, the child of those tears shall never perish. Monica followed her son to Rome, where he had gone secretly, when she arrived he had already gone to Milan. Here she found Ambrose and through him she ultimately had the joy of seeing Augustine convert to Christianity after 17 years of resistance. When she moved to Milan, the bishop Ambrose forbade her to use the offering of wine, since it might be an occasion of gluttony for those who were already given to drink. So, Augustine wrote of her, Mother and son spent 6 months of peace at Rus Cassiciacum after which Augustine was baptized in the church of St. John the Baptist at Milan. Africa claimed them, however, and they set out on their journey, stopping at Civitavecchia, Here death overtook Monica, and Augustines grief inspired the finest pages of his Confessions. Saint Monica was buried at Ostia, and at first seems to have been almost forgotten, Monica was buried near the tomb of St. Aurea of Ostia. It was later transferred to the Basilica of SantAgostino, Rome, anicius Auchenius Bassus wrote Monicas funerary epitaph, which survived in ancient manuscripts. The actual stone on which it was written was rediscovered in the summer of 1945 in the church of Santa Aurea, the fragment was discovered after two boys were digging a hole to plant a football post in the courtyard beside Santa Aurea. A translation from the Latin, by Douglas Boin, reads, Here the most virtuous mother of a man set her ashes
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Ambrose
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Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose, was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He was the Roman governor of Liguria and Emilia, headquartered in Milan, Ambrose was a staunch opponent of Arianism, and has been accused of fostering persecutions of Arians, Jews, and pagans. Ambrose was one of the four original Doctors of the Church and he is notable for his influence on Augustine of Hippo. Ambrose was born into a Roman Christian family about 340 and was raised in Gallia Belgica and his mother was a woman of intellect and piety. Ambroses siblings, Satyrus and Marcellina, are venerated as saints. There is a legend that as an infant, a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle and his father considered this a sign of his future eloquence and honeyed tongue. For this reason, bees and beehives often appear in the saints symbology, after the early death of his father, Ambrose followed his fathers career. He was educated in Rome, studying literature, law, Ambrose was the Governor of Aemilia-Liguria in northern Italy until 374, when he became the Bishop of Milan. He was a popular political figure, and since he was the Governor in the effective capital in the Roman West. In the late 4th century there was a conflict in the diocese of Milan between the Nicene Church and Arians. In 374 the bishop of Milan, Auxentius, an Arian, died, Ambrose went to the church where the election was to take place, to prevent an uproar, which was probable in this crisis. His address was interrupted by a call Ambrose, bishop, which was taken up by the whole assembly. Ambrose was known to be Nicene Christian in belief, but also acceptable to Arians due to the charity shown in matters in this regard. At first he refused the office, for which he was in no way prepared. Upon his appointment, Ambrose fled to a colleagues home seeking to hide, upon receiving a letter from the Emperor Gratian praising the appropriateness of Rome appointing individuals evidently worthy of holy positions, Ambroses host gave him up. Within a week, he was baptized, ordained and duly consecrated bishop of Milan and this raised his popularity even further, giving him considerable political leverage over even the emperor. Ambrose also wrote a treatise by the name of The Goodness of Death, according to legend, Ambrose immediately and forcefully stopped Arianism in Milan. He studied theology with Simplician, a presbyter of Rome, in the confrontation with Arians, Ambrose sought to theologically refute their propositions, which were contrary to the Nicene creed and thus to the officially defined orthodoxy
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Saint Possidius
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Possidius was a friend of Saint Augustine of Hippo who wrote a reliable biography and an indiculus or list of his works. He was bishop of Calama in the Roman province of Numidia, Possidius, after describing the death of Augustine, speaks of his unbroken friendship with him for forty years. He also, speaking of himself in the person, lets it be known that he was one of the clergy of St. Augustines monastery. The date of his promotion to the episcopate was, according to Tillemont and he followed St. Augustines example and established a monastery at Calama. At a council held at Carthage, Possidius challenged Crispinus, the Donatist Bishop of Calama, shortly afterwards one of Crispinuss clergy, bearing the same name as his bishop, attempted to assassinate Possidius. Legal proceedings were instituted against Crispinus, the bishop, who refused to punish his presbyter and he was condemned for heresy and was heavily fined, but at the intercession of Possidius the fine was not exacted. In 407, Possidius served, with St. Augustine and five bishops, on a committee appointed to adjudicate upon some ecclesiastical matter. In 408 he nearly lost his life in a riot stirred up by the pagans at Calama, in 409 he was one of four bishops deputed to go to Italy to obtain the protection of the emperor against the Donatists. He was one of the seven bishops chosen to represent the Catholic party at the collatio of 411, in 416 he assisted at the Council of Milevum, where fifty-nine Numidian bishops addressed a synodal letter to Innocent I, asking him to take action against Pelagianism. He joined with St. Augustine and three bishops in a further letter to Innocent on the same subject, and was at the conference between St. Augustine and the Donatist Emeritus. When the Germanic Vandals invaded Africa, he fled to Hippo and was present at the death of St. Augustine. His Vita S. Augustini, composed before the capture of Carthage, is included in all editions of the works of St. Augustine, and also printed in Hurters Opusc. His indiculus will be found in the last volume of Mignes edition of the works of St. Augustine, the Life of Saint Augustine, A Translation of the Sancti Augustini Vita by Possidius, Bishop of Calama. ISBN 1-889758-90-6 ISBN9781889758909 This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles. English translation of the Life of St. Augustine at the Tertullian Project, critical Latin text and English translation of the Life of St. Augustine in PDF form at Archive. org St. Possidius - Midwest Augustinians
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Thomas Aquinas
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Saint Thomas Aquinas O. P. was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He was an influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio and he was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology and the father of Thomism, of which he argued that reason is found in God. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, the works for which he is best known are the Summa Theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles. His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle form an important part of his body of work, furthermore, Thomas is distinguished for his eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Churchs liturgy. Thomas Aquinas is considered one of the Catholic Churchs greatest theologians, Pope Benedict XV declared, This Order. Acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the praises of the Pontiffs. The English philosopher Anthony Kenny considers Aquinas to be one of the dozen greatest philosophers of the western world, Thomas was most probably born in the castle of Roccasecca, located in Aquino, old county of the Kingdom of Sicily, c.1225. According to some authors, he was born in the castle of his father, though he did not belong to the most powerful branch of the family, Landulf of Aquino was a man of means. As a knight in the service of King Roger II, he held the title miles, Thomass mother, Theodora, belonged to the Rossi branch of the Neapolitan Caracciolo family. Landulfs brother Sinibald was abbot of the first Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino and it was here that Thomas was probably introduced to Aristotle, Averroes and Maimonides, all of whom would influence his theological philosophy. There his teacher in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music was Petrus de Ibernia, at the age of nineteen Thomas resolved to join the recently founded Dominican Order. Thomass change of heart did not please his family, in an attempt to prevent Theodoras interference in Thomass choice, the Dominicans arranged to move Thomas to Rome, and from Rome, to Paris. Political concerns prevented the Pope from ordering Thomass release, which had the effect of extending Thomass detention, Thomas passed this time of trial tutoring his sisters and communicating with members of the Dominican Order. Family members became desperate to dissuade Thomas, who remained determined to join the Dominicans, at one point, two of his brothers resorted to the measure of hiring a prostitute to seduce him. According to legend Thomas drove her away wielding a fire iron and that night two angels appeared to him as he slept and strengthened his determination to remain celibate. By 1244, seeing all of her attempts to dissuade Thomas had failed, Theodora sought to save the familys dignity. In her mind, an escape from detention was less damaging than an open surrender to the Dominicans
19.
Bonaventure
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Saint Bonaventure, born Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian medieval Franciscan, scholastic theologian and philosopher. The seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, he was also Cardinal Bishop of Albano and he was canonised on 14 April 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and declared a Doctor of the Church in the year 1588 by Pope Sixtus V. He is known as the Seraphic Doctor, many writings believed in the Middle Ages to be his are now collected under the name Pseudo-Bonaventure. He was born at Bagnorea in Umbria, not far from Viterbo, almost nothing is known of his childhood, other than the names of his parents, Giovanni di Fidanza and Maria Ritella. He entered the Franciscan Order in 1243 and studied at the University of Paris, possibly under Alexander of Hales, in 1253 he held the Franciscan chair at Paris. A dispute between seculars and mendicants delayed his reception as Master until 1257, where his degree was taken in company with Thomas Aquinas, after having successfully defended his order against the reproaches of the anti-mendicant party, he was elected Minister General of the Franciscan Order. On 24 November 1265, he was selected for the post of Archbishop of York, however, during his tenure, the General Chapter of Narbonne, held in 1260, promulgated a decree prohibiting the publication of any work out of the order without permission from the higher superiors. This prohibition has induced modern writers to pass judgment upon Roger Bacons superiors being envious of Bacons abilities. However, the prohibition enjoined on Bacon was a general one and its promulgation was not directed against him, but rather against Gerard of Borgo San Donnino. Gerard had published in 1254 without permission a heretical work, Introductorius in Evangelium æternum, thereupon the General Chapter of Narbonne promulgated the above-mentioned decree, identical with the constitutio gravis in contrarium Bacon speaks of. The above-mentioned prohibition was rescinded in Rogers favour unexpectedly in 1266, there, after his significant contributions led to a union of the Greek and Latin churches, Bonaventure died suddenly and in suspicious circumstances. The 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia has citations that suggest he was poisoned, but no mention is made of this in the 2003 second edition of the New Catholic Encyclopedia. The only extant relic of the saint is the arm and hand with which he wrote his Commentary on the Sentences and he steered the Franciscans on a moderate and intellectual course that made them the most prominent order in the Catholic Church until the coming of the Jesuits. His theology was marked by an attempt completely to integrate faith and he thought of Christ as the one true master who offers humans knowledge that begins in faith, is developed through rational understanding, and is perfected by mystical union with God. Bonaventures feast day was included in the General Roman Calendar immediately upon his canonisation in 1482. It was at first celebrated on the second Sunday in July, but was moved in 1568 to 14 July, since 15 July and it remained on that date, with the rank of double, until 1960, when it was reclassified as a feast of the third class. In 1969 it was classified as a memorial and assigned to the date of his death,15 July. Bonaventure was regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the Middle Ages, the German philosopher Dieter Hattrup denies that Reduction of the Arts to Theology was written by Bonaventure, claiming that the style of thinking does not match Bonaventures original style
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Martin Luther
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Martin Luther, O. S. A. was a German professor of theology, composer, priest, monk and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. Luther came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and he strongly disputed the Catholic view on indulgences as he understood it to be, that freedom from Gods punishment for sin could be purchased with money. Luther proposed a discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His translation of the Bible into the vernacular made it accessible to the laity. It fostered the development of a version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the writing of an English translation. His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches and his marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry. In two of his works, Luther expressed antagonistic views towards Jews, writing that Jewish homes and synagogues should be destroyed, their money confiscated. Condemned by virtually every Lutheran denomination, these statements and their influence on antisemitism have contributed to his controversial status, Martin Luther was born to Hans Luder and his wife Margarethe on 10 November 1483 in Eisleben, Saxony, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was baptized as a Catholic the next morning on the feast day of St. Martin of Tours and his family moved to Mansfeld in 1484, where his father was a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters and served as one of four citizen representatives on the local council. He had several brothers and sisters, and is known to have close to one of them. Hans Luther was ambitious for himself and his family, and he was determined to see Martin, his eldest son, become a lawyer. He sent Martin to Latin schools in Mansfeld, then Magdeburg in 1497, where he attended a school operated by a lay group called the Brethren of the Common Life, the three schools focused on the so-called trivium, grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Luther later compared his education there to purgatory and hell, in 1501, at the age of 19, he entered the University of Erfurt, which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse. He was made to wake at four every morning for what has been described as a day of rote learning and he received his masters degree in 1505. In accordance with his fathers wishes, Luther enrolled in law school at the university that year but dropped out almost immediately. Luther sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing particular interest in Aristotle, William of Ockham, philosophy proved to be unsatisfying, offering assurance about the use of reason but none about loving God, which to Luther was more important. Reason could not lead men to God, he felt, for Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation, he believed and he later attributed his decision to an event, on 2 July 1505, he was returning to university on horseback after a trip home
21.
John Calvin
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John Calvin was an influential French theologian, pastor and reformer during the Protestant Reformation. Various Congregational, Reformed, and Presbyterian churches, which look to Calvin as the expositor of their beliefs, have spread throughout the world. Calvin was a polemic and apologetic writer who generated much controversy. He also exchanged cordial and supportive letters with many reformers, including Philipp Melanchthon, in addition to his seminal Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin wrote commentaries on most books of the Bible, confessional documents, and various other theological treatises. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530, at the invitation of Martin Bucer, Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg, where he became the minister of a church of French refugees. He continued to support the movement in Geneva, and in 1541 he was invited back to lead the church of the city. Following his return, Calvin introduced new forms of government and liturgy. During this period, Michael Servetus, a Spaniard regarded by both Roman Catholics and Protestants as having a view of the Trinity, arrived in Geneva. He was denounced by Calvin and burned at the stake for heresy by the city council, following an influx of supportive refugees and new elections to the city council, Calvins opponents were forced out. Calvin spent his final years promoting the Reformation both in Geneva and throughout Europe, John Calvin was born as Jehan Cauvin on 10 July 1509, at Noyon, a town in Picardy, a province of the Kingdom of France. He was the first of four sons who survived infancy and his mother, Jeanne le Franc, was the daughter of an innkeeper from Cambrai. She died of a cause in Calvins childhood, after having borne four more children. Calvins father, Gérard Cauvin, had a career as the cathedral notary and registrar to the ecclesiastical court, he died in 1531. Gérard intended his three sons — Charles, Jean, and Antoine — for the priesthood, however, by age 12, he was employed by the bishop as a clerk and received the tonsure, cutting his hair to symbolise his dedication to the Church. He also won the patronage of a family, the Montmors. Through their assistance, Calvin was able to attend the Collège de la Marche, Paris, once he completed the course, he entered the Collège de Montaigu as a philosophy student. In 1525 or 1526, Gérard withdrew his son from the Collège de Montaigu, according to contemporary biographers Theodore Beza and Nicolas Colladon, Gérard believed that Calvin would earn more money as a lawyer than as a priest. After a few years of study, Calvin entered the University of Bourges in 1529
22.
Cornelius Jansen
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Corneille Janssens, commonly known by the Latinized name Cornelius Jansen or Jansenius, was the Dutch Catholic bishop of Ypres in Flanders and the father of a theological movement known as Jansenism. He was born of humble Catholic parentage at Acquoy then in the province of Holland, now in Gelderland, the Netherlands. In 1602 he entered the University of Leuven, then in the throes of a conflict between the Jesuit — or scholastic — party and the followers of Michael Baius, who swore by St. Augustine. After taking his degree he went to Paris, partly to improve his health by a change of scene, eventually he joined Du Vergier at his country home near Bayonne, and spent some years teaching at the bishops college. All his spare time was spent in studying the early Fathers with Du Vergier, in 1616 he returned to Leuven, to take charge of the college of St Pulcheria, a hostel for Dutch students of theology. Pupils found him a somewhat choleric and exacting master and a recluse from academic society. In the hope of suppressing their encroachments, Jansen was sent twice to Madrid, in 1624 and 1626 and he also crossed more than once the Dutch Calvinist–Presbyterian champion, Gisbertus Voetius, still remembered for his attacks on René Descartes. This became the object of his lectures, when he was appointed regius professor of scriptural interpretation at Leuven in 1630. Still more was it the object of his Augustinus, a treatise on the theology of St. Augustine. Its preparation was his chief occupation since his return to Leuven and he had introduced in this treaty a long development favourable to contrition. But Jansen, as he said, did not mean to be a school-pedant all his life, within two years he was however cut down by a sudden illness, the Augustinus, the book of his life, was published posthumously in 1640. They accused Jansenius of having misinterpreted St. Augustine, conflating Jansenists with Lutherans and this led Pope Innocent X to condemn in 1643 these 5 propositions in the Cum Occasione papal bull, and again ten years later, without attributing them to Jansenius in particular. The formulary controversy led Pascal to write the famous Lettres provinciales in which he attacked the Jesuits and their moral. Following this anonymous publication, the King sent spies everywhere, condemned the librarians, the Jansenists of Port-Royal, Antoine Arnauld, Pierre Nicole, la Mère Angélique, Soeur Agnès, etc. were forced to sign the formulary. The Jansenists reasoning was that the Pope had of course the power to condemn heretical propositions and this strategy would impose decades of theological disputes and debate. The controversy did not involve only Papal authority, but rather his authority concerning Biblical exegesis, further controversy led to the bull Unigenitus, issued by Clement XI in 1713, which marked the end of Catholic toleration of Jansenist doctrine. Up until the French Revolution, Jansenism would live on as a force in France. Anonymous Jansenists published a magazine called Nouvelles ecclésiastiques, which frequently featured anti-Jesuit propaganda, eventually, Jansenists would collaborate with independent-minded Gallicanists in promoting the Jesuits expulsion from France in 1764
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Augustinians
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The term Augustinians, named after Augustine of Hippo, applies to two distinct types of Catholic religious orders and some Anglican religious orders. Within Anglicanism the Rule of St Augustine is followed only by women, Augustine, a brief document providing guidelines for living in a religious community. The largest and most familiar, originally known as the Hermits of Saint Augustine, two other Orders, the Order of Augustinian Recollects and the Discalced Augustinians, were once part of the Augustinian Order under a single Prior General. The Recollect friars, founded in 1588 as a movement of the Augustinian friars in Spain, became autonomous in 1612 with their first Prior General. The Discalced friars became an independent congregation with their own Prior General in 1592 and they generally form one large community, which might serve parishes in the vicinity, and are organized into autonomous congregation, which normally are distinct by region. In a religious community, charism is the contribution that each religious order, congregation or family. The teaching and writing of Augustine, the Augustinian Rule, and it does not unduly single out the exceptional, especially favour the gifted, nor exclude the poor or marginalised. Love is not earned through human merit, but received and given freely by Gods free gift of grace and these same imperatives of affection and fairness have driven the order in its international missionary outreach. This balanced pursuit of love and learning has energised the various branches of the order into building communities founded on mutual affection, Augustine spoke passionately of Gods beauty so ancient and so new, and his fascination with beauty extended to music. He taught that to sing once is to pray twice and music is also a key part of the Augustinian ethos, the Canons Regular follow the more ancient form of religious life which developed toward the end of the first millennium and thus predates the founding of the friars. They represent a clerical adaptation of life, as it grew out of an attempt to organize communities of clerics to a more dedicated way of life. Historically it paralleled the lay movement of monasticism or the life from which the friars were later to develop. In their tradition, the added the commitment of religious vows to their primary vocation of pastoral care. As the canons became independent of the structures, they came to form their own monastic communities. The official name of the Order is the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, like the Order of Saint Benedict, it is not one legal body, but a union of various independent congregations. Though they also follow the Rule of St. Augustine, they differ from the friars in not committing themselves to corporate poverty, which is a defining element of the mendicant orders. Unlike the friars and like monks, the canon are generally organized as one community to which they are attached for life with a vow of stability. Their houses are given the title of an abbey, from which the canons then serve various surrounding towns, the religious superior of their major houses is titled an abbot
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Neoplatonism
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Neoplatonists were heavily influenced by Plato, but also by the Platonic tradition that thrived during the six centuries which separated the first of the Neoplatonists from Plato. In defining the term Neoplatonism, it is difficult to reduce the school of thought to a set of ideas that all Neoplatonic philosophers shared in common. The work of Neoplatonic philosophy involved describing the derivation of the whole of reality from a single principle, instead, the most concise definition of Neoplatonism casts it as a historical term. Thinkers of this period include Syrianus, Olympiodorus the Younger. Neoplatonism has been influential throughout history. In the Middle Ages, Neoplatonic ideas were integrated into the philosophical and theological works of many of the most important medieval Islamic, Christian, yeats and T. S. Eliot, among many more. The term Neoplatonism has a function as a historical category. On the one hand, it differentiates the philosophical doctrines of Plotinus, on the other, the term makes an assumption about the novelty of Plotinus interpretation of Plato. The term Neoplatonism implies that Plotinus interpretation of Plato was so distinct from those of his predecessors that it should be thought to introduce a new period in the history of Platonism. Some contemporary scholars, however, have taken issue with this assumption and have doubted that Neoplatonism constitutes a useful label and they claim that merely marginal differences separate Plotinus teachings from those of his immediate predecessors. Whether Neoplatonism is a meaningful or useful historical category is itself a central question concerning the history of the interpretation of Plato, for much of the history of Platonism, it was commonly accepted that the doctrines of the Neoplatonists were essentially the same as those of Plato. The Renaissance Platonist Marsilio Ficino, for instance, thought that the Neoplatonic interpretation of Plato was an authentic, contemporary scholars often identify the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher as an early thinker who took Platos philosophy to be separate from that of his Neoplatonic interpreters. However, others have argued that the differentiation of Plato from Neoplatonism was the result of a historical development that preceded Schleiermachers scholarly work on Plato. The most important forerunners of Neoplatonism are the Middle Platonists, such as Plutarch, Neoplatonism is generally a metaphysical and epistemological philosophy. Neoplatonism is a form of idealistic monism combined with elements of polytheism, although the founder of Neoplatonism is supposed to have been Ammonius Saccas, the Enneads of his pupil Plotinus are the primary and classical document of Neoplatonism. One of the features of Plotinus system, which was also taken up by subsequent Neoplatonists, is the doctrine of the One beyond being. For Plotinus, the first principle of reality is a simple, ineffable, unknowable subsistence which is both the creative source and the teleological end of all existing things. Although, properly speaking, there is no name appropriate for the first principle, the One is so simple that it cannot even be said to exist or to be a being
25.
Pelagianism
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Pelagianism is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without special divine aid. This theological theory is named after the British monk Pelagius, although he denied, at least at some point in his life, Pelagius was identified as an Irishman by Saint Jerome. Pelagius taught that the human will, as created with its abilities by God, was sufficient to live a sinless life, Pelagianism has come to be identified with the view that human beings can earn salvation by their own efforts. Pelagius rejected the Augustinian concept of grace, according to his opponents, Pelagius taught that moral perfection was attainable in this life without the assistance of divine grace through human free will. Augustine contradicted this by saying that perfection was impossible without grace because we are born sinners with a sinful heart and this charge would have carried added weight since contemporaries knew that Augustine had himself been a Manichaean layman before converting to Christianity. Augustine also taught that a persons salvation comes solely through a gift, the efficacious grace of God. Pelagianism was attacked in 415 at the Council of Diospolis, which found Pelagius to be orthodox, but it was later condemned in 418 at the Council of Carthage and this condemnation was ratified at the Council of Ephesus in 431. In De causa Dei contra Pelagium et de virtute causarum, Thomas Bradwardine denounced Pelagianism in the 14th century, little is known about the life of Pelagius, and although he is frequently referred to as a British monk, his origins are by no means certain. Augustine says that he lived in Rome for a long time. Bede refers to him as Pelagius Bretto, other sources place his origins in Brittany. He was certainly known in the Roman province, both for the harsh asceticism of his public life, as well as the power and persuasiveness of his speech. Augustine, a pillar of the Church, referred to him as “saintly” before their falling out, the teachings of Pelagius are generally associated with the rejection of original sin and of the practice of infant baptism. Although the writings of Pelagius are no longer extant, the eight canons of the Council of Carthage provided corrections to the errors of the early Pelagians. These corrections include, Death did not come to Adam from a physical necessity, new-born children must be baptized on account of original sin. Justifying grace not only avails for the forgiveness of past sins, the grace of Christ not only discloses the knowledge of Gods commandments, but also imparts strength to will and execute them. Without Gods grace it is not merely more difficult, but absolutely impossible to perform good works, not out of humility, but in truth must we confess ourselves to be sinners. The saints refer the petition of the Our Father, Forgive us our trespasses, not only to others, the saints pronounce the same supplication not from mere humility, but from truthfulness. Some codices containing a ninth canon, Children dying without baptism do not go to a place, since the non-reception of baptism excludes both from the kingdom of heaven and from eternal life
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Scholasticism
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It originated as an outgrowth of and a departure from Christian monastic schools at the earliest European universities. The Scholastic thought is known for rigorous conceptual analysis and the careful drawing of distinctions. Because of its emphasis on rigorous dialectical method, scholasticism was eventually applied to other fields of study. Some of the figures of scholasticism include Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Bonaventure. Important work in the tradition has been carried on well past Aquinass time, for instance by Francisco Suárez and Luis de Molina. The terms scholastic and scholasticism derive from the Latin word scholasticus and the latter from the Greek σχολαστικός, forerunners of Christian scholasticism were Islamic Ilm al-Kalām, literally science of discourse, and Jewish philosophy, especially Jewish Kalam. The first significant renewal of learning in the West came with the Carolingian Renaissance of the Early Middle Ages, charlemagne, advised by Peter of Pisa and Alcuin of York, attracted the scholars of England and Ireland. By decree in AD787, he established schools in every abbey in his empire and these schools, from which the name scholasticism is derived, became centers of medieval learning. During this period, knowledge of Ancient Greek had vanished in the west except in Ireland, Irish scholars had a considerable presence in the Frankish court, where they were renowned for their learning. Among them was Johannes Scotus Eriugena, one of the founders of scholasticism, Eriugena was the most significant Irish intellectual of the early monastic period and an outstanding philosopher in terms of originality. He had considerable familiarity with the Greek language and translated works into Latin, affording access to the Cappadocian Fathers. The other three founders of scholasticism were the 11th-century scholars Peter Abelard, Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury and Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury and this period saw the beginning of the rediscovery of many Greek works which had been lost to the Latin West. As early as the 10th century, scholars in Spain had begun to gather translated texts and, in the half of that century. After a successful burst of Reconquista in the 12th century, Spain opened even further for Christian scholars, as these Europeans encountered Islamic philosophy, they opened a wealth of Arab knowledge of mathematics and astronomy. Scholars such as Adelard of Bath traveled to Spain and Sicily, translating works on astronomy and mathematics, at the same time, Anselm of Laon systematized the production of the gloss on Scripture, followed by the rise to prominence of dialectic in the work of Abelard. Peter Lombard produced a collection of Sentences, or opinions of the Church Fathers and other authorities The 13th, the early 13th century witnessed the culmination of the recovery of Greek philosophy. Schools of translation grew up in Italy and Sicily, and eventually in the rest of Europe, powerful Norman kings gathered men of knowledge from Italy and other areas into their courts as a sign of their prestige. His work formed the basis of the commentaries that followed
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Jansenism
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Jansenism was a Catholic heretical theological movement, primarily in France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. The movement originated from the published work of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen. It was first popularized by Jansens friend Abbot Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, of Saint-Cyran-en-Brenne Abbey, through the 17th and into the 18th centuries, Jansenism was a distinct movement within the Catholic Church. The theological centre of the movement was the convent of Port-Royal Abbey, Paris, which was a haven for writers including Duvergier, Arnauld, Pierre Nicole, Blaise Pascal, Jansenism was opposed by many in the Catholic hierarchy, especially the Jesuits. Although the Jansenists identified themselves only as rigorous followers of Augustine of Hippos teachings, Jansenist leaders endeavored to accommodate the popes pronouncements while retaining their uniqueness, and enjoyed a measure of peace in the late 17th century under Pope Clement IX. However, further controversy led to the apostolic constitution Unigenitus Dei Filius, promulgated by Pope Clement XI in 1713, the origins of Jansenism lie in the friendship of Jansen and Duvergier, who met in the early 17th century when both were studying theology at the University of Leuven. Duvergier was Jansens patron for a number of years, getting Jansen a job as a tutor in Paris in 1606, two years later, he got Jansen a position teaching at the bishops college in Duvergiers hometown of Bayonne. The duo studied the Church Fathers together, with a focus on the thought of Augustine of Hippo. Duvergier became abbot of Saint Cyran Abbey in Brenne and was known as the Abbé de Saint-Cyran for the rest of his life, Jansen returned to the University of Leuven, where he completed his doctorate in 1619 and was named professor of exegesis. Jansen and Duvergier continued to correspond about Augustine, especially Augustines teachings on grace, upon the recommendation of King Philip IV of Spain, Jansen was consecrated as bishop of Ypres in 1636. Jansen died in a 1638 epidemic and this manuscript, published in 1640 as Augustinus, expounded Augustines system and formed the basis for the subsequent Jansenist Controversy. Jansen emphasized a particular reading of Augustines idea of efficacious grace which stressed that only a portion of humanity were predestined to be saved. Jansen insisted that the love of God was fundamental, and that only perfect contrition, Duvergier was not released until after Richelieus death in 1642, and he died shortly thereafter, in 1643. Jansen also insisted on justification by faith, although he did not contest the necessity of revering saints, of confession, Jansens opponents condemned his teachings for their alleged similarities to Calvinism. Pascal himself claimed that Molinists were correct concerning the state of humanity before the Fall, the heresy of Jansenism, as stated by subsequent Roman Catholic doctrine, lay in denying the role of free will in the acceptance and use of grace. Jansenism asserts that Gods role in the infusion of grace cannot be resisted, Catholic doctrine, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is that Gods free initiative demands mans free response—that is, humans freely assent or refuse Gods gift of grace. However, on August 1,1642, the Holy Office issued a decree condemning Augustinus, in 1602, Marie Angélique Arnauld become abbess of Port-Royal-des-Champs, a Cistercian convent in Magny-les-Hameaux. There, she reformed discipline after an experience in 1608
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Order of Saint Augustine
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In its establishment in its current form, it was shaped as a mendicant Order, one of the four great Orders which follow that way of life. The Order has done much to extend the influence of the Church, to propagate the Roman Catholic Faith, the Order has, in particular, spread internationally the veneration of the Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Good Counsel. St. Augustine of Hippo, first with friends and afterward as bishop with his clergy. Religious vows were not obligatory, but the possession of property was prohibited. Their manner of life led others to imitate them, epistola ccxi, otherwise cix, contains the early Augustinian Rule for Nuns, Epistolae ccclv and ccclvi De moribus clericorum. Between 430 and 570 this life-style was carried to Europe by monks and this system of life for cathedral clergy continued in various locations throughout Europe for centuries. As the first millennium came to an end, the fervor of this began to wane. At the start of the millennium, there was a revival in interest in the stricter form of clerical life. Several groups of canons were established under various disciplines, all with the Augustinian Rule as their basis, examples of these were the Congregation of canons in Ravenna, founded by the Blessed Peter de Honestis about 1100, as well as the Norbertines. Around the start of the 13th century, many communities, especially in the vicinity of Siena, Italy. These were often small and composed of laymen, thus they lacked the clerical orientation of the canons and their foundational spirit was one of solitude and penance. With time, some of the adopted a more outward looking way of life. As the number of hermit-priests increased, assisting the clergy in providing spiritual care for their neighbors became a larger part of their lives. In 1223 four of the communities around Siena joined in a loose association, at this time there were a number of eremitical groups living in such diverse places as Tuscany, Latium, Umbria, Liguria, England, Switzerland, Germany, and perhaps France. In 1243 the Tuscan hermits petitioned Pope Innocent IV to unite them all as one group, the bull also appointed Cardinal Riccardo Annibaldi as their supervisor and legal guide. The importance of this man in the foundation of the Order cannot be overstated, the delegates from other small religious communities met in Rome on 1 March 1256, which resulted in a union. Lanfranc Septala of Milan, Prior of the Bonites, was appointed the first Prior General of the newly constituted Order, ecclesiastical privileges were granted to the order almost from its beginning. Since the end of the 13th century the sacristan of the Papal Palace was always to be an Augustinian friar and this privilege was ratified by Pope Alexander VI and granted to the Order forever by a Bull issued in 1497
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Church Fathers
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The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church are ancient and generally influential Christian theologians, some of whom were eminent teachers and great bishops. The era of these scholars who set the theological and scholarly foundations of Christianity largely ended by 700 AD, the earliest Church Fathers, are usually called the Apostolic Fathers since tradition describes them as having been taught by the twelve. Important Apostolic Fathers include Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna and his epistle,1 Clement, was copied and widely read in the Early Church. Clement calls on the Christians of Corinth to maintain harmony and order and it is the earliest Christian epistle aside from the New Testament. Ignatius of Antioch was the bishop or Patriarch of Antioch. En route to his martyrdom in Rome, Ignatius wrote a series of letters which have been preserved, important topics addressed in these letters include ecclesiology, the sacraments, the role of bishops, and the Incarnation of Christ. He is the second after Clement to mention Pauls epistles, Polycarp of Smyrna was a Christian bishop of Smyrna. It is recorded that he had been a disciple of John, the options for this John are John, the son of Zebedee, traditionally viewed as the author of the Gospel of John, or John the Presbyter. Traditional advocates follow Eusebius in insisting that the connection of Polycarp was with John the Evangelist, and that he was the author of the Gospel of John. Polycarp tried and failed to persuade Pope Anicetus to have the West celebrate Passover on 14 Nisan, around 155, the Smyrnans demanded Polycarps execution as a Christian, and he died a martyr. Polycarp is recognized as a saint in both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, very little is known of Papias apart from what can be inferred from his own writings. He is described as an ancient man who was a hearer of John, Eusebius adds that Papias was Bishop of Hierapolis around the time of Ignatius of Antioch. In this office Papias was presumably succeeded by Abercius of Hierapolis, the name Papias was very common in the region, suggesting that he was probably a native of the area. The work of Papias is dated by most modern scholars to about 95–120. Despite indications that the work of Papias was still extant in the late Middle Ages, extracts, however, appear in a number of other writings, some of which cite a book number Those who wrote in Greek are called the Greek Fathers. Justin Martyr is regarded as the foremost interpreter of the theory of the Logos in the 2nd century, Irenaeus was bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, which is now Lyon, France. His writings were formative in the development of Christian theology. He was a notable early Christian apologist and he was also a disciple of Polycarp. His best-known book, Against Heresies enumerated heresies and attacked them, Irenaeus wrote that the only way for Christians to retain unity was to humbly accept one doctrinal authority—episcopal councils
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Western philosophy
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Western philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western world. The word philosophy itself originated from the Hellenic, philosophia, literally, the scope of philosophy in the ancient understanding, and the writings of the ancient philosophers, were all intellectual endeavors. Western Philosophy is generally said to begin in the Greek cities of western Asia Minor with Thales of Miletus and his most noted students were respectively Anaximander and Anaximenes of Miletus. Pythagoras, from the island of Samos off the coast of Ionia, pythagoreans hold that all is number, giving formal accounts in contrast to the previous material of the Ionians. They also believe in metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls, or reincarnation, Socrates The key figure in Greek philosophy is Socrates. Socrates studied under several Sophists but transformed Greek philosophy into a unified, Socrates used a critical approach called the elenchus or Socratic method to examine peoples views. He aimed to study human things, the life, justice, beauty. Although Socrates wrote nothing himself, some of his many disciples wrote down his conversations and he was tried for corrupting the youth and impiety by the Greek democracy. He was found guilty and sentenced to death, although his friends offered to help him escape from prison, he chose to remain in Athens and abide by his principles. His execution consisting in drinking the poison hemlock and he died in 399 B. C, Plato Socrates most important student was Plato. Plato founded the Academy of Athens and wrote a number of dialogues, some central ideas of Platos dialogues are the immortality of the soul, the benefits of being just, that evil is ignorance, and the Theory of Forms. Forms are universal properties that constitute reality and contrast with the changeable material things he called becoming. Aristotle Platos most outstanding student was Aristotle, Aristotle was perhaps the first truly systematic philosopher and scientist. He wrote books on physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, politics, Aristotelian logic was the first type of logic to attempt to categorize every valid syllogism. Aristotelian philosophy exercised considerable influence on almost all western philosophers, including Greek, Roman, Christian, Jewish, the Neoplatonic and Christian philosophers of Late Antiquity. Early medieval philosophy was influenced by the likes of Stoicism, neo-Platonism, but, above all, the prominent figure of this period was St. Augustinianism was the preferred starting point for most philosophers up until the 13th century. The foundations of many northern European universities were built in the Middle Ages by waves of Irish, Scottish & English monks from the Celtic Church begun by Columba, see Celtic Christianity. Erigena is said to have been stabbed to death by his students with their pens and his theology would today be called pantheistic, in keeping with Celtic resolutions of pagan and Christian philosophy
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Sack of Rome (410)
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The Sack of Rome occurred on August 24,410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric, at that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first by Mediolanum in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as the eternal city, the sack was a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike. This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, the previous sack of Rome had been accomplished by the Gauls under their leader Brennus in 390 or 387/6 BC. The sacking of 410 is seen as a landmark in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that The City which had taken the world was itself taken. The Germanic tribes had undergone massive technological, social, and economic changes after four centuries of contact with the Roman Empire, the Goths, one of the Germanic tribes, had invaded the Roman Empire on and off since 238. But in the late 4th century, the Huns began to invade the lands of the Germanic tribes, in 376, the Huns forced many Therving Goths led by Fritigern and Alavivus to seek refuge in the Eastern Roman Empire. Soon after, starvation, high taxes, hatred from the Roman population, the Goths rebelled and began looting and pillaging throughout the eastern Balkans. A Roman army, led by the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens, at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, Fritigern decisively defeated emperor Valens, who was killed in battle. Peace was eventually established in 382 when the new Eastern Emperor, Theodosius I, signed a treaty with the Thervings, the treaty made the Visigoths subjects of the empire as foederati. In 391, a Gothic chieftain named Alaric was declared king by a group of Visigoths, though the time this happened. He then led an invasion into Eastern Roman territory outside of the Goths designated lands, Alaric was defeated by Theodosius and his general Flavius Stilicho in 392, who forced Alaric back into Roman vassalage. In 394, Alaric led a force of Visigoths as part of Theodosius army to invade the Western Roman Empire, at the Battle of the Frigidus, around half the Visigoths present died fighting the Western Roman army led by the usurper Eugenius and his general Arbogast. Alaric was also enraged he had not been granted a higher office in the Imperial administration, when Theodosius died on January 17,395, the Visigoths considered their 382 treaty with Rome at an end. The Huns, at the moment, invaded Asia Minor. Theodosius had left power to men, but Stilicho claimed that Theodosius had awarded him with sole guardianship on the Emperors deathbed. Rufinus negotiated with Alaric to get him to withdraw from Constantinople, whatever the case, Alaric did march away from Constantinople to Greece, looting the diocese of Macedonia
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Visigoths
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The Visigoths were the western branches of the nomadic tribes of Germanic peoples referred to collectively as the Goths. These tribes flourished and spread throughout the late Roman Empire in Late Antiquity, the Visigoths emerged from earlier Gothic groups who had invaded the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Relations between the Romans and the Visigoths were variable, alternately warring with one another and making treaties when convenient, the Visigoths invaded Italy under Alaric I and sacked Rome in 410. The Visigoths first settled in southern Gaul as foederati of the Romans – a relationship established in 418, however, they soon fell out with their Roman hosts and established their own kingdom with its capital at Toulouse. They next extended their authority into Hispania at the expense of the Suebi, in 507, however, their rule in Gaul was ended by the Franks under Clovis I, who defeated them in the Battle of Vouillé. After that, the Visigoth kingdom was limited to Hispania, in or around 589, the Visigoths under Reccared I converted from Arianism to Nicene Christianity, gradually adopting the culture of their Hispano-Roman subjects. Their legal code, the Visigothic Code abolished the practice of applying different laws for Romans. Once legal distinctions were no longer being made between Romani and Gothi, they became known collectively as Hispani, in the century that followed, the region was dominated by the Councils of Toledo and the episcopacy. In 711 or 712, a force of invading African Moors defeated the Visigoths in the Battle of Guadalete and their king and many members of their governing elite were killed, and their kingdom rapidly collapsed. During their governance of the Kingdom of Hispania, the Visigoths built several churches that survive and they also left many artifacts, which have been discovered in increasing numbers by archaeologists in recent times. The Treasure of Guarrazar of votive crowns and crosses is the most spectacular and they founded the only new cities in western Europe from the fall of the Western half of the Roman Empire until the rise of the Carolingian dynasty. Many Visigothic names are still in use in modern Spanish and Portuguese, contemporaneous references to the Gothic tribes use the terms Vesi, Ostrogothi, Thervingi, and Greuthungi. Most scholars have concluded that the terms Vesi and Tervingi were both used to refer to one particular tribe, while the terms Ostrogothi and Greuthungi were used to refer to another. In addition, the Notitia Dignitatum equates the Vesi with the Tervingi in a reference to the years 388–391, the earliest sources for each of the four names are roughly contemporaneous. The first recorded reference to the Tervingi is in a eulogy of the emperor Maximian, delivered in or shortly after 291 and it says that the Tervingi, another division of the Goths, joined with the Taifali to attack the Vandals and Gepidae. The first known use of the term Ostrogoths is in a document dated September 392 from Milan and this would explain why the latter terms dropped out of use shortly after 400, when the Goths were displaced by the Hunnic invasions. Wolfram believes that the people Zosimus describes were those Tervingi who had remained behind after the Hunnic conquest, for the most part, all of the terms discriminating between different Gothic tribes gradually disappeared after they moved into the Roman Empire. The last indication that the Goths whose king reigned at Toulouse thought of themselves as Vesi is found in a panegyric on Avitus by Sidonius Apollinaris dated 1 January 456, most recent scholars have concluded that Visigothic group identity emerged only within the Roman Empire
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Religion in ancient Rome
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The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, and attributed their success as a world power to their collective piety in maintaining good relations with the gods. According to legends, most of Romes religious institutions could be traced to its founders, particularly Numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome, who negotiated directly with the gods. This archaic religion was the foundation of the mos maiorum, the way of the ancestors or simply tradition, as Rome came into contact with foreign cultures, and conquered them, foreign religions increasingly attracted devotees among Romans, who increasingly had ancestry from elsewhere in the Empire. The emperors promoted the Imperial cult around the empire, and this, ultimately, Roman polytheism was brought to an end with the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the empire. The priesthoods of public religion were held by members of the elite classes, there was no principle analogous to separation of church and state in ancient Rome. During the Roman Republic, the men who were elected public officials might also serve as augurs. Priests married, raised families, and led politically active lives, Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus before he was elected consul. The augurs read the will of the gods and supervised the marking of boundaries as a reflection of universal order, Roman religion was thus practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des, I give that you might give. Even the most skeptical among Romes intellectual elite such as Cicero, for ordinary Romans, religion was a part of daily life. Each home had a shrine at which prayers and libations to the familys domestic deities were offered. Neighborhood shrines and sacred such as springs and groves dotted the city. The Roman calendar was structured around religious observances, women, slaves, and children all participated in a range of religious activities. The Romans are known for the number of deities they honored. The Romans looked for common ground between their major gods and those of the Greeks, adapting Greek myths and iconography for Latin literature, etruscan religion was also a major influence, particularly on the practice of augury. The mysteries, however, involved exclusive oaths and secrecy, conditions that conservative Romans viewed with suspicion as characteristic of magic, conspiratorial, or subversive activity. Sporadic and sometimes brutal attempts were made to suppress religionists who seemed to threaten traditional morality and unity, one way that Rome incorporated diverse peoples was by supporting their religious heritage, building temples to local deities that framed their theology within the hierarchy of Roman religion. Inscriptions throughout the Empire record the worship of local and Roman deities. Because Romans had never been obligated to one god or one cult only
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Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
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Heaven
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According to the beliefs of some religions, heavenly beings can descend to earth or incarnate, and earthly beings can ascend to Heaven in the afterlife, or in exceptional cases enter Heaven alive. Some believe in the possibility of a Heaven on Earth in a World to Come, another belief is in an axis mundi or world tree which connects the heavens, the terrestrial world, and the underworld. In Indian religions, Heaven is considered as Svarga loka, and this cycle can be broken after a soul achieves Moksha or Nirvana. Any place of existence, either of humans, souls or deities, the modern English word heaven is derived from the earlier heven, this in turn was developed from the previous Old English form heofon. By about 1000, heofon was being used in reference to the Christianized place where God dwells, all of these have been derived from a reconstructed Proto-Germanic form *Hemina-. In Ancient Egyptian religion, belief in an afterlife is much more stressed than in ancient Judaism, Heaven was a physical place far above the Earth in a dark area of space where there were no stars, basically beyond the Universe. Their heart would finally be weighed with the feather of truth, almost nothing is known of Bronze Age Canaanite views of Heaven, and the archeological findings at Ugarit have not provided information. The 1st century Greek author Philo of Byblos may preserve elements of Iron Age Phoenician religion in his Sanchuniathon, in the Middle Hittite myths, Heaven is the abode of the gods. In the Song of Kumarbi, Alalu was king in Heaven for nine years before giving birth to his son, Anu was himself overthrown by his son, Kumarbi. The Baháí Faith regards the description of Heaven as a specific place as symbolic. The Baháí writings describe Heaven as a condition where closeness to God is defined as Heaven. For Baháís, entry into the life has the potential to bring great joy. Baháulláh likened death to the process of birth and he explains, The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother. Accordingly, Baháís view life as a stage, where one can develop. The key to progress is to follow the path outlined by the current Manifestation of God. Baháulláh wrote, Know thou, of a truth, that if the soul of man hath walked in the ways of God, it will, assuredly return, in Buddhism there are several Heavens, all of which are still part of samsara. Those who accumulate good karma may be reborn in one of them, however, their stay in Heaven is not eternal—eventually they will use up their good karma and will undergo rebirth into another realm, as a human, animal or other being. Because Heaven is temporary and part of samsara, Buddhists focus more on escaping the cycle of rebirth, Nirvana is not a heaven but a mental state
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Late antiquity
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Late antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages in mainland Europe, the Mediterranean world, and the Near East. The development of the periodization has generally been accredited to historian Peter Brown, precise boundaries for the period are a continuing matter of debate, but Brown proposes a period between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Generally, it can be thought of as from the end of the Roman Empires Crisis of the Third Century to, in the East, the early Islamic period, following the Muslim conquests in the mid–7th century. In the West the end was earlier, with the start of the Early Medieval period typically placed in the 6th century, beginning with Constantine the Great, Christianity was made legal in the Empire, and a new capital was founded at Constantinople. The resultant cultural fusion of Greco-Roman, Germanic and Christian traditions formed the foundations of the subsequent culture of Europe, the term Spätantike, literally late antiquity, has been used by German-speaking historians since its popularization by Alois Riegl in the early 20th century. Concurrently, some migrating Germanic tribes such as the Ostrogoths and Visigoths saw themselves as perpetuating the Roman tradition, Constantine confirmed the legalization of the religion through the so-called Edict of Milan in 313, jointly issued with his rival in the East, Licinius. Monasticism was not the only new Christian movement to appear in Late Antiquity, notable in this regard is the topic of the Fifty Bibles of Constantine. Within the recently legitimized Christian community of the 4th century, a division could be distinctly seen between the laity and an increasingly celibate male leadership. Celibate and detached, the clergy became an elite equal in prestige to urban notables. The Late Antique period also saw a transformation of the political and social basis of life in. The later Roman Empire was in a sense a network of cities, archaeology now supplements literary sources to document the transformation followed by collapse of cities in the Mediterranean basin. Burials within the urban precincts mark another stage in dissolution of traditional urbanistic discipline, overpowered by the attraction of saintly shrines, in Roman Britain, the typical 4th- and 5th-century layer of black earth within cities seems to be a result of increased gardening in formerly urban spaces. A similar though less marked decline in population occurred later in Constantinople. In Europe there was also a decline in urban populations. As a whole, the period of antiquity was accompanied by an overall population decline in almost all Europe. Long-distance markets disappeared, and there was a reversion to a degree of local production and consumption, rather than webs of commerce. The degree and extent of discontinuity in the cities of the Greek East is a moot subject among historians. In the western Mediterranean, the new cities known to be founded in Europe between the 5th and 8th centuries were the four or five Visigothic victory cities
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New Jerusalem
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The prophecy is recorded by Ezekiel as having been received on Yom Kippur of the year 3372 of the Hebrew calendar. It will be inhabited by people to live eternally in spirit form, not everyone will reside in New Jerusalem, as most will possibly stay on Earth. In the Book of Revelation in the New Testament, the city is called the Heavenly Jerusalem. The Babylonian threat to the Kingdom of Judah began as the Babylonian Empire conquered Assyria, Jerusalem surrendered without major bloodshed to Babylon in 597. An Israelite uprising brought the destruction of Nebuchadnezzar’s army upon Jerusalem in 586 BCE, the entire city, including the First Temple, was burned. Israelite aristocrats were taken captive to Babylon, the Book of Ezekiel contains the first record of the New Jerusalem. Within Ezekiel 40-48, there is an extended and detailed description of the measurements of the Temple, its chambers, porticos, Ezekiel 48, 30-35 contains a list of twelve Temple gates named for Israel’s tribes. The Book of Zechariah expands upon Ezekiel’s New Jerusalem, after the Second Temple was built after the exile, Jerusalem’s population was only a few hundred. There were no city walls until 445 BCE. In the passage, the author writes about a city wall of fire to protect the enormous population and this text demonstrates the beginning of a progression of New Jerusalem thought. In Ezekiel, the focus is primarily on the act of Temple construction. In Zechariah, the focus shifts to God’s intercession in the founding of New Jerusalem, New Jerusalem is further extrapolated in Isaiah, where New Jerusalem is adorned with precious sapphires, jewels, and rubies. The city is described as a free from terror and full of righteousness. Here, Isaiah provides an example of Jewish apocalypticism, where a hope for a perfected Jerusalem, as the original New Jerusalem composition, Ezekiel functioned as a source for later works such as 4 Ezra,2 Baruch, Qumran documents, and the Book of Revelation. These texts used similar measurement language and expanded on the limited eschatological perspective in Ezekiel, Judaism sees the Messiah as a human male descendant of King David who will be anointed as the king of Israel and sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem. He will gather in the lost tribes of Israel, clarify unresolved issues of halakha, Zechariah prophesied that any family among the nations who does not appear in the Temple in Jerusalem for the festival of Sukkoth will have no rain that year. Isaiah prophesied that the rebuilt Temple will be a house of prayer for all nations, the city of YHWH Shamma, the new Jerusalem, will be the gathering point of the worlds nations, and will serve as the capital of the renewed Kingdom of Israel. Ezekiel prophesied that this city will have 12 gates, one gate for each of the tribes of Israel
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History
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History is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory and it is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians and their works continue to be read today, and the gap between the culture-focused Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides remains a point of contention or approach in modern historical writing. In Asia, a chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals was known to be compiled from as early as 722 BC although only 2nd-century BC texts survived. Ancient influences have helped spawn variant interpretations of the nature of history which have evolved over the centuries, the modern study of history is wide-ranging, and includes the study of specific regions and the study of certain topical or thematical elements of historical investigation. Often history is taught as part of primary and secondary education, the word history comes ultimately from Ancient Greek ἱστορία, meaning inquiry, knowledge from inquiry, or judge. It was in that sense that Aristotle used the word in his Περὶ Τὰ Ζῷα Ἱστορίαι, the ancestor word ἵστωρ is attested early on in Homeric Hymns, Heraclitus, the Athenian ephebes oath, and in Boiotic inscriptions. History was borrowed from Latin into Old English as stær, and it was from Anglo-Norman that history was borrowed into Middle English, and this time the loan stuck. In Middle English, the meaning of history was story in general, the restriction to the meaning the branch of knowledge that deals with past events, the formal record or study of past events, esp. human affairs arose in the mid-fifteenth century. With the Renaissance, older senses of the word were revived, and it was in the Greek sense that Francis Bacon used the term in the sixteenth century. For him, historia was the knowledge of objects determined by space and time, in an expression of the linguistic synthetic vs. analytic/isolating dichotomy, English like Chinese now designates separate words for human history and storytelling in general. In modern German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages, which are synthetic and highly inflected. The adjective historical is attested from 1661, and historic from 1669, Historian in the sense of a researcher of history is attested from 1531. Historians write in the context of their own time, and with due regard to the current dominant ideas of how to interpret the past, in the words of Benedetto Croce, All history is contemporary history. History is facilitated by the formation of a discourse of past through the production of narrative. The modern discipline of history is dedicated to the production of this discourse. All events that are remembered and preserved in some authentic form constitute the historical record, the task of historical discourse is to identify the sources which can most usefully contribute to the production of accurate accounts of past. Therefore, the constitution of the archive is a result of circumscribing a more general archive by invalidating the usage of certain texts and documents
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Devil
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The Devil is, according to Christianity, the primary opponent of God. Islam identifies the Devil with all those who oppose Allah, some non-Abrahamic religions contain figures similar to the Devil, such as the Buddhist demon Mara and the Zoroastrian spirit Angra Mainyu. The Modern English word devil descends from the Middle English devel, from Old English dēofol, that in turn represents an early Germanic borrowing of Latin diabolus. This in turn was borrowed from Ancient Greek Greek, διάβολος, slanderer, from Greek, διαβάλλειν to slander, διά- across, through + βάλλειν to hurl, probably akin to the Sanskrit gurate he lifts up. In the New Testament, Satan occurs more than 30 times in passages alongside diábolos, in mainstream Judaism there is no concept of a devil as in mainstream Christianity or Islam. Texts make no direct link between the serpent that tempts Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis and the references to Satan are in Zechariah. For the Hasidim of the century, ha-satan was Baal Davar. In the Book of Wisdom, the devil is represented as the one who brought death into the world, a similar story is found in 1 Enoch, however, in that book, the leader of the Grigori is called Semjâzâ. In the apocryphal literature, Satan rules over a host of angels, mastema, who induced God to test Abraham through the sacrifice of Isaac, is identical with Satan in both name and nature. The Book of Enoch contains references to Sathariel, thought also to be Sataniel and Satanel, the similar spellings mirror that of his angelic brethren Michael, Raphael, Uriel and Gabriel, previous to his expulsion from Heaven. In mainstream Christianity the devil is usually referred to as Satan, some modern Christians consider the devil to be an angel who, along with one-third of the angelic host rebelled against God and has consequently been condemned to the Lake of Fire. He is described as hating all humanity, opposing God, spreading lies, other modern Christians consider the devil in the Bible to refer figuratively to human sin and temptation and to any immoral human system. Satan is often identified as the serpent who convinced Eve to eat the fruit, thus. He is also identified as the dragon in the Book of Revelation, beelzebub is originally the name of a Philistine god but is also used in the New Testament as a synonym for Satan. A corrupted version, Belzeboub, appears in The Divine Comedy, in Islam the Devil is referred to as Iblis or sometimes the Shaytan. Etymologically, Iblis means the desperate in Arabic, thus, the name Iblis can be seen as a sobriquet given to Shaitan after falling from Grace. The primary characteristic of the Devil, besides hubris, is that he has no other than the power to cast evil suggestions into the hearts of men and women. He was of the jinn and departed from the command of his Lord, then will you take him and his descendants as allies other than Me while they are enemies to you
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Divine providence
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In theology, divine providence, or just providence, is Gods intervention in the world. The term Divine Providence is also used as a title of God, miracles generally fall in the latter category. The word comes from Latin providentia foresight, prudence, from pro- ahead, the current use of the word has the sense of knowledge of the future or omniscience, understood as an attribute of God. In Acts 17 Paul says, t is he who gives to life and breath. In him we live and move and have our being, augustine of Hippo is perhaps most famously associated with the doctrine of Divine Providence in the Latin West. However, Christian teaching on providence in the high Middle Ages was most fully developed by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica. The concept of providence as care exercised by God over the universe, his foresight, in it, he presents and solves, according to Catholic doctrine, the most difficult issues as related to providence. This term is an part of John Calvins theological framework known as Calvinism, which emphasizes the total depravity of man. Gods plan for the world and every soul that he has created is guided by his will, in this mode of thought, providence is related to predestination. This concept remains prominent among many Protestant denominations that identify with Calvinism, in Lutheran theology, divine providence refers to Gods preservation of creation, his cooperation with everything that happens, and his guiding of the universe. While God cooperates with both good and evil deeds, with the deeds he does so only inasmuch as they are deeds. God concurs with an effect, but he does not cooperate in the corruption of an act or the evil of its effect. Lutherans believe everything exists for the sake of the Christian Church, according to Martin Luther, divine providence began when God created the world with everything needed for human life, including both physical things and natural laws. Of the services others provide us through family, government, and work, he writes, we receive these blessings not from them, since God uses everyones useful tasks for good, people should look not down upon some useful vocations as being less worthy than others. Instead people should honor others, no matter how lowly, as being the means God uses to work in the world, Divine Providence is a book published by Emanuel Swedenborg in 1764 which describes his systematic theology regarding providence, free will, theodicy, and other related topics. Both meanings of providence are applicable in Swedenborgs theology, in that providence encompasses understanding, intent, Divine providence relative to man is foresight, and relative to the Lord is providence. Swedenborg proposes that one law of divine providence is that man should act from freedom according to reason, Divine providence is discussed throughout Rabbinic literature, and in particular by the classical Jewish philosophers. These writings maintain that divine providence means that God is directing every minute detail of creation and this analysis thus underpins much of Orthodox Judaisms world view, particularly as regards questions of interaction with the natural world
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