The article describes the archaeological discovery of Richard’s remains and plans to bury him at Leicester Cathedral, as well as the War of the Roses.
530 years after death, Richard III gets proper burial.
Category: medieval church
Cappadocia Cave Churches
This article includes some beautiful pictures of art in cave churches. Be forewarned that the article pages are riddled with annoying ads. Lord, have mercy.
Uncovering centuries in Cappadocia, Turkey with a Trafalgar tour – WorldNews.
How Islamic Scientists Read Up on Science
National Geographic recently posted an article by Book Talk editor, Simon Worrall. I was struck by this paragraph:
There is a tendency on the part of some Muslim scholars to exaggerate the accomplishments of Islamic science. And they don’t need to be exaggerated. During the golden age of Islamic science, which ended somewhere between A.D. 1100 and 1200, Muslim scientists were way ahead of their contemporaries in Christian Europe.
Although it is true that the Muslim scientists were ahead of the Christian Europeans at this point, the article might have mentioned how Muslim tribesmen learned scientific method. They read Arabic translations of scientific works, which were translated by Syriac Christians from the pagan, ancient Greeks. So ironically, Christians were responsible for those medieval Arabs knowing their scientific texts, which had been lost to the Christians in Europe (though not likely lost to the Christians in Byzantium).
A Reasonable Pig
At the abbey of Vale Royal, in the thirteenth century, part of the tenant’s rent was “a reasonable pig” or “half a customary pig.”
G. G. Coulton, “Medieval Village, Manor, and Monastery” (1925) p. 46.
Coulton’s chapter, “The Sporting Chance,” presents numerous and humorous examples of how things were measured during the medieval era. But as I read his book, I took note of an interesting comment about youth (p. 41). He cites a study by W. Hudson that records an amazing fact: a medieval peasant boy had to join a tithing group (think taxes) when he was twelve. By sixteen, he had come of age and was responsible for working his own patch of ground on the manor.
How stunningly different this is from the youth culture of today, which springs from the roaring 1920’s. In earlier modern culture, school typically went up to eighth grade (c. 14 years old), then one had to get a job or work full time on a farm. But about 100 years ago, affluence changed modern culture, making high school and then college expected rights of passage. Work is now greatly delayed, and as a result, so is personal responsibility.
In traditional churches, we still have our “reasonable pig” of confirmation taking place around 13/14 years of age. We expect our young people to make a most serious vow about following Christ. But then we drop all reasonable expectations. Too often, they take a Sunday morning job at the local restaurant, buy a car, and we do not see them again until they are in their twenties and want to marry. The church needs to have reasonable expectations on its youth as Christians and society had in the past. Otherwise, we foster a very distorted view of the Christian life.
Faith Seeking Understanding. Anselm. Luther
Over the centuries members of the Christian Church have struggled to understand and apply the relationship between faith and reason. For example, many Scholastic theologians during the Middle Ages taught that faith and reason were fully compatible. Luther and other Reformers argued that reason always went too far in trying to resolve the tensions that arise between faith and reason.
Reason usually does not want to follow faith but ends up having faith in itself—a form of idolatry. When this happens, reason stops being reasonable and becomes doubt and skepticism. As a philosophy, skepticism has been very attractive to some thinkers over the centuries (e.g., Cynics, Cartesians) but most people have never broadly embraced skepticism as a philosophy of life. Why? They sense that there’s something impossible and unreasonable about living in constant doubt. As I pointed out earlier, trust—faith—is not a luxury or a delusion. We are born dependent on others. We are born requiring trust in order to survive. We are designed to live by faith and by reason. Casting aside one or the other leads to disaster.
The motto of St. Anselm (c 1033–1109), “Faith seeking understanding,” provided a helpful warning to the early scholastic thinkers. It reminded them and us to live by faith and exercise reason with due humility. A famous saying of Martin Luther (1483–1546) builds on these important themes. When confronted by a council at Worms, Germany, and asked to recant of his teachings, Luther is reported to have said:
Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds and reasoning—and my conscience is captive to the Word of God—then I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither wise nor safe to act against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God’s help me! Amen.
Martin Luther supported the use of what we call sound reasoning but emphasized the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God, as the basis for faith and our relationship to God and His creation. So, we approach the Holy Scripture and life with our reason serving—not ruling—our faith so that we might believe and understanding. God help us! Amen.
church history review 