Crumbs from the Table

The Age of Enlightenment was a intellectual movement in Europe arguably from the mid-1600s until the start of the 1800s.   The roots of the Enlightenment included a reaction to the religious conflict ensuing from the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, as well as new discoveries in science. These coalesced into a period of thought which emphasised the capacity of human reason to attain knowledge, and no longer needing to rely on the authority of tradition or claims to supernatural revelation. The mood of the Enlightenment can be summed up in the motto, "Sapere aude!" (Dare to know!) One precursor of the Enlightenment was Rene Descartes, a Frenchman residing in the Netherlands, who famously doubted everything apart from his own existence, affirming "I think therefore I am." He published "A discourse on method" in 1637. Another figure at the start of the movement was the German polymath Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1714).   Many people consider the Enlighten...

The indigenous population of the British isles were Celtic peoples such as the Picts in the north of what is now Scotland, and various tribes of Britons.  In the year 43 AD, the southern part of Britain (without most of what is now Scotland) was invaded by the Romans and integrated into their expanding empire. The Romans retained control of much of Britain until they withdrew in the year 410, leaving the Britons to fend for themselves and defend against attack from the Picts in the North and the Irish in the west.  It was at this time that Germanic peoples living in what is now northern Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, known collectively as "Anglo-Saxons", migrated across the North Sea and settled the eastern half of Britain, bringing with them Germanic languages and dialects which over time developed into what we recognise as "English". King Arthur, who may have been legendary figure, was possibly a leader of the post-Roman Britons as they sought, unsuccessful...

Last night I attended a meeting of the Lancashire Reformed Baptist Fellowship at Ashton Baptist Church in Preston. There were 53 of us present representing many of the 14 churches in the fellowship, and the atmosphere was one of warm Christian friendship, and also a desire to pray and to hear about the issues covered by the visiting speakers from the Christian Institute . After a chance to catch up with others over tea and coffee in the church hall, which I thoroughly enjoyed, we moved through into the main church to pray together and to hear the talk. The prayer lasted for about 30 minutes and we lifted up the local churches and the work of the gospel in the north west. It is encouraging that a number of churches have had multiple baptisms in recent months.  It is also encouraging that several churches have been running courses for those exploring Christianity. The talk lasted for the remainder of the time, and concluded shortly after 9pm.  The subject was "Westminster throu...

Die Erweckung (literally, "the Revival") is a name for the revival of evangelical Christianity in Germany in the 1800s. It has overlap with the Réveil in Switzerland, France and the Netherlands, and also with the second Evangelical Revival in Britain and the Second Great Awakening in America. The Pietist movement, which began during the Baroque era around 1675 under the leadership of Philip Spener, had waned by the 1730s. By this time, Halle university, originally founded by Pietists and a flagship of the movement, became a centre for rationalism under academics such as Christian Wolff (1679–1754).  In the interim, Pietism was kept alive in part by a network of small groups (the Diaspora) which followed the spirituality of the Moravian Christians, a movement similar to Pietism but with its own church structures under the leadership of Von Zinzendorf. There was also the Basle-based Christentumsgesellschaft founded by Urlsperger in 1780, a society founded to counter the ratio...

The future Emperor Constantine embraced the Christian faith in 312. From that time (or shortly before), Christianity went from being a persecuted minority religion to enjoy "most favour religion" status. In 380, Emperor Theodosius I went as far as to outlaw all but "catholic Christianity". So what impact did Christianity have on society in the Roman Empire, particularly during the first century of its ascendancy 312-410? In an article dating back to 1986, MacMullen asked this very question. He focused on five areas where Christianity could have had an impact: slavery, sex, the theatre and gladiatorial games, cruel judicial punishments and corruption. MacMullen's conclusion was, sadly, that Christianity had little or no impact on these key areas during the period 312-410, and any improvements during the early Christian period had already begun beforehand. Others have taken a more favourable view.   One area omitted by MacMullen in his analysis, but described by P...

The Croatian people originally lived in the Carpathian region (W. Ukraine) and in the early 600s migrated to their present homeland in the Balkans on the eastern coast of the Adriatic sea. They were evangelised and baptised by priests from Rome in the 600s, and therefore became part of the Latin-speaking western Catholic church centred in Rome (as opposed to the eastern Orthodox church with its headquarters at Constantinople). The initial "conversion" of the Croats probably focused on the elite, and it was only during the course of later phases of Christianisation that the Croats were fully Christianised. Reorganisation of church jurisdictions under the Franks brought the Croatian church under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchal see of Aquileia.  Croatia became a kingdom in 925 and fought wars with Bulgaria. Croatia reached its height under king Petar Kresimir IV (1058-1074/5). In the 1102, Croatia and Hungary were ruled by the Hungarian king Coloman. Croatia was invaded by t...