Key Builders of the Church – 4. Thomas Aquinas
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- Written by: Dale
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Key Builders of the Church – 4. Thomas Aquinas
Born in 1225 near Aquino in Italy, Thomas studied at the University of Naples and became a Dominican friar at the age of 19. Soon after he went to Paris where he spent most of the rest of his life teaching theology.
Unlike Augustine he turned away from the traditions of thought that had developed from Plato and joined the growing group who looked to Aristotle for help. Aristotle’s influence was partly due to his rediscovery as a result of European interaction with Islam.
Thomas developed a detailed and closely argued system of explaining Christian theology that depended on observation and understanding of what God has made known – through creation but also through revelation, reason and the teaching of the church.
Too crowded? 12 Sep 10
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- Written by: Dale
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Too crowded?
Joy and I have just got back from a holiday in Coral Bay - where they had sunshine. We camped in a tent in a camp ground that must have held 500 people. Noise travels a long way at night so there were a few nights when various disputes broke out about who should be quiet.
Living with other people is often a strain, and camp grounds show the good and the bad of living at close quarters. Ordinary homes are similar although usually relations are helped by the mutual family love that keeps the family together.
Having a boarder or sharing a flat is different. In the absence of family love a bit more effort seems to be required to be together in a small space.
Love is one of the motives that leads people to want to live together, and the thing that sustains such living. Amazingly, it is a motive that God admits to. Imagine God needing to live with humans. No that is too hard to imagine. God doesn’t need humans.
Key Builders of the Church – 3. Anselm 29 Aug 10
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Key Builders of the Church – 3. Anselm
Anselm was born in Italy in 1033, moved to France for his education and entered a Benedictine monastery under a Prior named Lanfranc who later became Archbishop of Canterbury.
Anselm succeeded him as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093, although he spent some years in exile due to disagreements with William II (about the royal seizing of church lands and other matters) and his successor Henry 1. He rejected Henry I’s claim to be able to appoint bishops. This struggle between church and crown reached a climax some years later in the time of Archbishop Thomas Becket, although it was not finally resolved until the time of Henry VIII.
Anselm was one of the great thinkers of the medieval church.
What have you become? 22 Aug 10
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What have you become?
There is a scary verse in the Psalm we read last week (115.8), “Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” It’s talking about idols of course. The Psalmist says people who trust in idols that can’t hear or speak will become like that themselves.
But what about the people who serve only the Lord God? Does the same apply to them? Moses is the great example. His trips up the mountain to meet with God resulted in his face becoming so radiant that it spooked the Israelites who demanded he cover it up (Ex 34, 2 Cor 3).
A future like this awaits God’s children.
Key Builders of the Church – 2. Augustine 15 Aug 10
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Key Builders of the Church – 2. Augustine
In Milan, around 386, a confused teacher of philosophy was struggling with his sensuality and sin, trying to work out answers to the problem of evil, and wrestling with an internal conflict as to whether he was willing or not willing to become a Christian.
His mother Monica had prayed for him all his life, and had urged him to follow what he had heard as a child. But his life to this point had moved away from Christianity to the philosophy of the Manichees that tried to explain good and evil as two opposing principles of “light” and “darkness”. This did not satisfy and he moved towards Neoplatonism which asserted there was only one principle from which everything else emerged.
His contact with Ambrose, bishop of Milan, gradually moved his thinking back towards the Bible. But he was still unhappy and unsatisfied, especially as to how he could live a life free from his sensual lusts.
Read more: Key Builders of the Church – 2. Augustine 15 Aug 10
Back to Church?
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Back to Church?
Starting in Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom in 2004, Back to Church Sunday has now gone international. Back then 160 churches united agreed to have one Sunday when people could try church again - and receive a specially warm welcome.
In 2009, 82,000 people came back to church through the prayerful invitation of a friend in each of the 44 Church of England dioceses, Churches together in Scotland, the Church in Wales, Baptist Union of Great Britain, Methodist Church, United Reformed Church, Salvation Army and Elim Pentecostal Churches throughout the UK..
Now Back to Church Sunday has spread to churches in Argentina, New Zealand and Canada.
Back to Church Sunday was launched in Australia on 13th September 2009. 600 churches across 19 Anglican dioceses took part. On that day 12,000 people returned to church at the invitation of a friend.
Key Builders of the Church – 1. Athanasius 1 Aug 10
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Key Builders of the Church – 1. Athanasius
In the early years of the fourth century it might have been thought that the future of the church would be peaceful and smooth. The Roman Emperor Constantine had declared his faith in Christ and stopped the terrible persecution of Christians that Emperor Diocletian had begun a decade earlier.
But big debates were festering about the nature of Christ. Was he fully divine, or was he only a created being who shared the divine nature but was not equal with God the Father, as Arius and others suggested? Both Arius and Athanasius were clergy in Alexandria, in Egypt. The debate spread across the church and became so divisive that the Emperor called a Council of the whole church to resolve the issue.
Read more: Key Builders of the Church – 1. Athanasius 1 Aug 10