Monasticism, also commonly called Monarchism, is a special form of religious community life where the people separate themselves from normal the ways of life to pursue an idea of perfection or a higher religious experience. Monasticism entails Asceticism, the practice of disciplined self-denial. This asceticism may include fasting, silence, a prohibition against personal ownership, and…
The four Gospels are neither histories of the life of Christ nor biographies. They are portraits of the person and work of the long-promised Messiah, Israel’s King and the world’s Savior. As portraits, they present four different poses of one unique personality. Matthew by the Holy Spirit presents Christ as King, Mark as Servant, Luke…
Joseph was born in the royal line of King David, but in his time the descendents of David no longer held power or wealth. He left his ancestral home of Bethlehem in Judea to become a builder and carpenter in the town of Nazareth in Galilee. There he met Mary and became engaged to her.…
Jacob’s Ladder is a film which draws specific conclusions on exactly what takes place in a person right before death, and the afterlife which await them. Hell is seen as a temporary stop where people’s memories and attachments are taken away so that they can enter heaven cleansed of their past life in order that…
Introduction Hinduism – stands for the faith and the way of life for most of the people who live in India. Hinduism is such an ancient religion that it had many types of beliefs and religious practices. Around 1750 BC Aryan invaders from central Asia settled in North – West India and introduced their own…
For nearly four hundred years Gothic style dominated the architecture of Western Europe. It originated in northern France in the twelfth century, and spread rapidly across England and the Continent, invading the old Viking empire of Scandinavia. It confronted the Byzantine provinces of Central Europe and even made appearances in the near East and the…
The Hebrews viewed war as a holy act. War was thought of in this way because they believed that it was God’s will that they fight and that they would win if he wanted them to. In their early days the Hebrews had no permanent army and relied on all Hebrew men over 20 to…
922 B.C. Israel breaks up after the death of Solomon. Splits into a northern and southern kingdom with Shechm the capital of the northern half and Jerusalem as the capital of the southern half. 876 B.C. King Omri makes Samariai new capital. 842 B.C. Queen Jezebel imposes the cult of Baal. The people revolt and…
Yom Kippur is the most important holidays for the Jewish. It is a time for people to seek forgiveness from others. Yom Kippur is important because it comes just before the Jewish New Year so that people can have a fresh start for the New Year. Yom Kippur also gives people a chance to look…
Among world leaders, there is no one like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, religious and political leader of Tibet and winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize. Brought up from an unusual childhood, he became head of the state of Tibet at age 16, and was later forced into exile by the Chinese government. Despite…
Corinthians, the seventh book of the New Testament, was written by Paul to get across that Jesus is alive (15:3-18) and that we will be resurrected (15:35-38), among other things. Today there is no dispute that Paul is the author of I Corinthians. “Both external and the internal evidence for the Pauline authorship are so…
“The term “Conservative” had been attached to the moderates by the Reformers because the moderates had branded them as radicals. This name hardly describes the movement aptly. Conservative Judaism, is the American version of the principles of positive historical Judaism. The conservatives accept the findings of modern scholarship that Judaism is the product of a…
Paganism is an ancient type of religion which has quite an inauspicious reputation today. There are many types of paganism, most date back thousands of years, which include Wicca, Witchcraft, Paganism, and a few other lesser known and practiced variations. Yet all of these religions are similar and share common beliefs. Wicca is the most…
The word Christmas comes from the old English “Cristes maesse” meaning Christ’s Mass. The Holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. The actual birthday of Jesus is not known; therefore, the early Church Fathers in the 4th century fixed the day around the old Roman Saturnalia festival (17 – 21 December), a traditional pagan festivity.…
Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was born on April 2,1928, in Columbia, South Carolina. He was son of Mrs. Marie M. Simon Bernardin, and the late Joseph Bernardin. Cardinal Bernardin attended Catholic and public schools and the University of South Carolina in Columbia. He was later accepted as a candidate for the priesthood by Most Rev. John…
Nicholas Ferrar was assumed to be born in 1592. I have found that his most probable birth date was in February of 1593. This is due to the usual calendar confusion: England was not at that time using the new calendar adopted in October 1582. It was 1593 according to our modern calendar, but at…
Bishop Francis X. Ford was a well educated, enormously gentle man that was kicked, beaten, insulted, and surrounded by hatred. All this because of one man’s beliefs. He was born in Brooklyn in 1892. He was the founder of the Maryknoll Missionaries and was the first bishop of Kwantung, China. He was killed in the…
Barnabas was a native of the island of Cyprus. His birthplace makes him a Jew of the Diaspora, the dispersion of Jews outside Palestine or modern Israel. He was originally named Joseph but the apostles called him Barnabas, he probably acquired this name because of his ability as a preacher. The name Barnabas was understood…
The Bhagavad-Gita begins with the preparation of battle between the two opposing sides: on the left stands the collected armies of the one hundred sons of Dhritarashtra and on the right lie the soldiers of the Pandava brothers. Warring relatives feuding over the right to govern the land of Kurukshetra, both forces stand poised and…
A heresy which arose in the fourth century, and denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ. DOCTRINE First among the doctrinal disputes which troubled Christians after Constantine had recognized the Church in A.D. 313, and the parent of many more during some three centuries, Arianism occupies a large place in ecclesiastical history. It is not a…