A Time of Hope and Change

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-12
Author(s):  
Brian Patrick McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Individual Choice ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The World ◽  
Saint Bernard Of Clairvaux ◽  
Gregorian Reform ◽  
Saint Bernard ◽  
History Books

This chapter discusses how the world into which Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was born in 1090 was full of hope and promise. The search for intimacy would come to characterize Bernard's life and helps explain why he joined a monastery. At the same time, however, he benefited from other factors in creating his life. A few decades before Bernard was born, the Western Church had experienced the upheaval of what many history books call the Gregorian Reform. This movement can be called the first medieval reformation, for it brought about a genuine reformation or restructuring of the Christian Church. Bernard came to the monastery as an adult, and the new monasticism that he joined insisted on individual choice. In this sense, Bernard and his contemporaries would discover the meaning of Christianity as manifested in the words of Jesus, emphasizing the consent that comes from the heart instead of the gesture's symbolic assent.

The World after the Schism: One Thing after Another, 1140–1145

2020 ◽  
pp. 141-180
Author(s):  
Brian Patrick McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Peter Abelard ◽  
The World ◽  
Saint Bernard Of Clairvaux ◽  
Saint Bernard ◽  
The Trinity

This chapter studies how, in the years that followed the final departure of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux from Italy, he encountered what might be called “one damn thing after another,” the chaos that makes up the very stuff of history and human life. Probably during Lent of 1139, he faced his first challenge. His friend and later biographer, William of Saint-Thierry, sent him a brief treatise attacking the theology of Peter Abelard. Sometime between May of 1139 and June of 1140, Bernard composed a fairly lengthy treatise attacking what he considered to be the heresies of Abelard, concerning the doctrines of the Trinity and the Redemption. He addressed it to no less a person than Pope Innocent II, the very man from whom he temporarily had broken off contact because of Innocent's refusal to reinstate Cardinal Peter of Pisa. The Abelard affair thus forced Bernard to get back in touch with Rome and abandon the solitude he must have sought at Clairvaux after the death of his brother Gerard.

A Saint’s Origins

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-29
Author(s):  
Brian Patrick McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Great Intensity ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
The Third ◽  
Liturgical Year ◽  
Religious Vocation ◽  
The World ◽  
Saint Bernard Of Clairvaux ◽  
The Military ◽  
Saint Bernard ◽  
Duke Of Burgundy

This chapter traces the origins of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. The site of Bernard's birth is a hill on the outskirts of Dijon, the capital of Burgundy. He was the third of seven children born to Tescelin Sorus and Aleth of Montbard. Bernard's father and brothers took their place in the world in order to serve secular lords, especially the Duke of Burgundy. Later in life, Bernard seems to have shown no aversion to the military persuasion. He helped invent a way of life that combined monasticism and knighthood. Praying at night and fighting during the day became, thanks to Bernard, a commendable religious vocation. Bernard's attachment to knights, in the hope of their becoming monks, is also shown in a story about how some young knights found their way to Clairvaux. Meanwhile, the story of Bernard's participation in the mystery of Christ's birth indicates that as a child he took part with great intensity in the liturgical year and made Christian symbols an integral part of his life.

Conflict and Financial Scandal on History, Culture, and Politic

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (03) ◽  
pp. 20628-20638
Author(s):  
Anik Yuesti ◽  
I Made Dwi Adnyana
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Spiritual World ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
The World ◽  
Financial Scandals ◽  
Financial Transparency ◽  
The Church ◽  
Transparency And Accountability

One of the things that are often highlighted in the world of spirituality is a matter of sexual scandal. But lately, the focus of the spiritual world is financial transparency and accountability. Financial scandals began to arise in the Church, as was the case in the Protestant Christian Church of Bukti Doa Nusa Dua Congregation in Bali. The scandal involved clergy and even some church leaders. This study aims to describe how the conflict occurred because of financial scandals in the Church. The method used in this study is the Ontic dialectic. Based on this research, the conflict in the Bukit Doa Church is a conflict caused by an internal financial scandal. The scandal resulted in fairly widespread conflict in the various lines of the organization. It led to the issuance of the Dismissal Decrees of the church pastor and also one of the members of Financial Supervisory Council. This conflict has also resulted in the leadership of the church had violated human rights. Source of conflict is not resolved in a fair, but more concerned with political interests and groups. Thus, the source of the problem is still attached to its original place.

The Role of the Christian Church in Combating 21st Century Racism

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-231
Author(s):  
Clara M. Austin Iwuoha ◽  
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The World ◽  
Racial Harmony ◽  
Race And Religion ◽  
The Church

The demons of racism, bigotry, and prejudice found in society at large are also found in the Christian Church. Despite the very nature of Christianity that calls on Christians to be a counter voice in the world against evil, many have capitulated to various strains of racism. Some Christian denominations have begun to explore racism in the Church and have developed responses to addressing the issues in both the Church and the world. This article examines the historical context of race and religion in the Christian Church, and addresses the current efforts of some Christian denominations to become proactive in the struggle against racism. Jesus, in His Word, calls believers to pursue peace and oneness. The paper holds that racial harmony and racial unity are possible, but there are many false, old and d beliefs that will have to be crushed under the hammer of God's Word in order to get to a place of real peace.

Early Latin Discussions of the Eternity of the World in the Thirteenth Century

Traditio ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 171-197
Author(s):  
Richard C. Dales
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
The World ◽  
Preceding Period

Although the doctrine of the eternity of the world had evoked much concern and opposition among the Fathers of the Christian Church, it ceased to engage the attention of Latin Christian writers during most of the early Middle Ages. When interest in the question revived during the twelfth century, it was nearly always considered in the context of Plato's Timaeus or Boethius’ De consolatione philosophiae. By 1270, the issue seemed to be between the supporters and the opponents of Aristotle. Although the story of Latin discussions of the eternity of the world during the 1260s and 1270s has been quite thoroughly investigated, the preceding period from about 1230 to 1260 has been largely ignored. It is the purpose of the present study to elucidate this neglected stage in medieval discussions of the eternity of the world and to show its relationship to the earlier and later periods.

Sorcery accusations unleashed: the Lele revisited, 1987

Africa ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Catholic Priests ◽  
Local Case ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

AbstractThe case described—an anti-witchcraft movement headed by two Catholic priests—occurred among the Lele of the Kasai (then in Zaire) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The information was received during a brief visit in 1987. This small, local case of rage against sorcery is set in a broader context. Some nations support institutions whose express purpose is to detect, disable and punish occult evildoers, such as sorcerers, and demons. Western theology is not currently attuned to answering the questions that plague Africans about the causes of evil in the world, the causes of illness and death, questions which their pagan traditions answer all too plausibly in terms of sorcery. Some Christian denominations have defined their doctrine concerning demons in a way that accommodates local sorcery beliefs. Where the subject is barely mentionable African Christians are unable to contribute to the developing moral philosophy of the Christian Church. The novitiate training for the Catholic African clergy can give no special guidance in dealing with pastoral problems to which the pagan religion had ready answers.

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