The Good Word

We are coming to the end of our course ldquo The Cradle of Early Christianity rdquo after time spent journeying from Athens to Thessalonica to Philippi to Pergamum modern Bergama nbsp Smyrna modern Izmir Ephesus and Constantinople Istanbul nbsp We have surveyed the ruins of numero

In Chapter 3 Luke presented a traditional story about what occurred around the time of Jesus baptism this story in the main agrees with what we read nbsp Matthew and Mark nbsp But it is Luke who returns for a moment to that coming of the Spirit upon Jesus in order to explain a purpose for tha

I have been musing about what it means to be beginning Ordinary Time for 2010 In one sense the term has a simple liturgical meaning Ordinary Time begins on the Monday after the Second nbsp Sunday of the Year The Baptism of the Lord There is paradoxically no first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Certainly the changing of water into wine is an astounding accomplishment its being the first miracle story told by John nbsp about the public life of Jesus shows its ability to make clear the identity of Jesus nbsp It was the first of Jesus signs and the disciples believed in him nbsp Bu

The strange thing about studying early Christianity in Turkey is that there are not a lot of Christians left in Turkey the lands that were home to so much of the earliest growth and development of Christianity and the location of all seven of the first Ecumenical Councils As we discuss how Christi

For reasons having to do with airline flights we trace the Apostle Paul s journey through Greece backwards at least Paul s first journey through Greece described in Acts which is often titled The Second Missionary Journey Acording to Acts 17 1-15 and 1 Thessalonians itself Paul was persecute

The manifestations of what God is doing for creation in Jesus continue apace suggesting that there are even more facets for exploration than we have seen to date liturgically rich though the past weeks have been The template today is complex the Isaian servant closely resembling Moses declares

We went on a tour of classical Athens today with stops at the Acropolis and the Parthenon which sits majectically upon it and the ancient Agora In between quite literally we went to the Areopagus called Mars Hill by the Romans The Areopagus associated with the Greek god of war Ares and m

I want to position my reflection between two catalysts nbsp First is Karen Armstrong rsquo s assertion that mythos or sacred narrative assists us to review and experience deeply the many facets of the human predicament notably here the choice between Good and Evil Second is the genre of imaginat

I want to wish all readers of this blog a Happy New Year I also want to let you know that I will be leaving for Greece and Turkey tomorrow with Dr Pavel Gavrilyuk and 25 students to explore the sites of ancient Christianity When able I will try to post on the sites the readings for our course