Posts Tagged ‘ Catholicism ’

The week from 17 March saw the inauguration of both the new Pope, Pope Francis, and the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. To mark that historic occasion the BBC broadcast a debate entitled Christianity at the Crossroads. The panellists were: Matthew Parris (MP) – former Conservative MP; Dr Anna Rowlands (AR) – Catholic theologian; [...]

The LDS church with some 14.7 million members is a fraction of the size of  the Roman Catholic church with over 1.2 billion. As with my last post however, I feel drawn to the similarities in the hierarchical organisations, and the institutions that assist with the day to day running of both organisations. The Catholic [...]

I’ve enjoyed reading about a recently discovered document scholars have dubbed “The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife.”  It’s just a scrap of papyrus that dates to around 150-200 AD, but it is causing a bit of a stir.  Dr. Karen King of Harvard University has recently translated the document and it contains the line, “Jesus said [...]

Canadian filmmaker and non-Christian Simcha Jacobovici (aka History Channel’s The Naked Archaeologist) is a magnet for Jesus relics.  In 2007 he claimed to locate Jesus’ tomb in Jerusalem – with Jesus and other family members intact.  His latest find is a pair of nails he posits were the crucifixion nails, found in Caiaphas’s tomb (the high priest of [...]

NT SS Lesson #2 In the year 4 BC (or thereabouts), Mary had a problem. She had been told that by the power of God she would conceive a child, who would be known as the Son of the Highest. She wasn’t told how to notify her family, her friends, or the man to whom [...]

A recent survey was launched to gauge how well people understand religion.  Interestingly, atheists & agnostics scored highest (65.3% correct).  They were followed closely by Jews (64.1%) and Mormons (63.5%).  After that there is a big drop to White Evangelical Christians (55%).  The lowest scorers were Hispanic Catholics (36.3% – ouch!).  The average respondent scored a 50%.