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St. Melito and The OT Canon
2007-10-29 22:10:00
St. Melito, the bishop of Sardis, was regarded as a prophet in his day according to Eusebius. Unfortunately, most of his voluminous work has disappeared. From what remains extant, we can tell he was a gifted writer. Like most of the Eastern bishops, he held to the tradition of celebrating Easter on whichever day of the week it fell on (as opposed to the Western tradition which celebrated it only on Sunday). He is mentioned specifically as a source when Polycrates writes to Pope Victor on the subject. Clearly, Melito was one of the great heroes of the East.St. Melito gives us the first known Christian canon of the Old Testament. Here it is:I accordingly proceeded to the East, and went to the very spot where the things in question were preached and took place; and, having made myself accurately acquainted with the books of the Old Testament, I have set them down below, and herewith send you the list. Their names are as follows:-The five books of Moses-Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,...
More About: Canon , Anon

Irenaeus on the Valentinian Heresy Regarding Mary
2007-10-29 13:52:00
From Pelikan's book - Mary Through the Centuries -Irenaeus, to whom we owe the first large-scale exposition of the parallel between Eve and Mary, is likewise one of the sources from whom we learn that such a hesitancy among the followers of the Gnostic teacher Valentin us had led them to assert that Jesus had not been "born" of the Virgin Mary in the usual sense at all, but had "passed through Mary as water runs through a tube," not only without birth pangs but without the involvement of the mother except in a purely passive sense.His source is Irenaeus Against Heresies 1.7.2:There are also some who maintain that he also produced Christ as his own proper son, but of an animal nature, and that mention was made of him by the prophets. This Christ passed through Mary just as water flows through a tube; and there descended upon him in the form of a dove at the time of his baptism, that Saviour who belonged to the Pleroma, and was formed by the combined efforts of all its inhabitants.It ...
More About: Heresy , Lent , Eres

Patristic Carnival V - Reminder
2007-10-27 15:02:00
Just a reminder, yours truly is hosting the Patristic Carnival V. The deadline for submissions will be this coming Wednesday, October 31st. You can offer submissions at the carnival site or they can be e-mailed to patristics-carnival@hotmail.com.
More About: Reminder , Remi

Athenagoras & The Bodily Resurrection
2007-10-25 23:37:00
In his defense ‘On the Resurrection of the Dead’, Athenagoras argues against the sensibilities of his time for a bodily resurrection. The objections then are not far from the objections we would still expect to encounter today – such a thing seems to be a physical impossibility. At this point, a brief clarification on the difference between a bodily resurrection and merely a ‘resurrection’ is in order.The difficulty we have is when we end up making too great a distinction between the soul and the body. Indeed, they are two different entities but as Athenagoras points out, they are inseparable in the resurrection. (We will return to this later.) There is a tendency today, especially in Protestant circles, to view the soul-body relationship as a spirit trapped inside of a robot. We go too far when reiterating “it’s only a shell” at a funeral to reassure ourselves of the apparent uselessness of the body. But the sanctity of the body is derived from the fact that...
More About: Then , Rect

Athenagoras: Marriage is for Procreation
2007-10-25 17:57:00
I was listening to another lecture by Peter Kreeft yesterday in which he said he, as a Calvinist, took a course on Church history. The professor warned the class that they all needed to be able to give a defense when Catholics claimed that the early Church was Catholic and that Protestants broke off. He said the Catholic Church had gone astray and the Reformers restored the Church to her primitive roots ... you know the story... So Dr. Kreeft (not Dr. at the time of course) asked "so you mean to tell me that if I, as a Calvinist, used a time machine and went back to worship with the early Church I'd feel more at home than a Catholic would?" The professor said "yes". Dr. Kreeft thought, "Great. All I have to do is read the early Church fathers and see what they had to say". Of course he did read the fathers and now he's a Catholic. It's hard to see how some people can be so willingly self deceived. At any rate, I say all this to lead up to the point of my post. Around 175 ...
More About: Marriage , Then

300 Anglicans to be Received into the Catholic Church
2007-10-25 14:43:00
Read the whole article here. H/T NotMyOpinionUP to 300 Irish Anglicans could soon be joining the Roman Catholic Church to the traditional hymn tune 'Faith of Our Fathers'.A report in today's 'Irish Catholic' newspaper claims that three Church of Ireland parishes are Romeward-bound, and may soon be received by Pope Benedict into full communion with the Catholic Church .This change of denominational allegiance is part of a long-standing doctrinal feud over the ordination of women.It's nice to have some good news every now and then.