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the dangers of establishment and corruption How did an obscure Jewish sect transform into medieval monasticism in Europe and beyond? We have traced the rise of Christianity in the West, especially following Constantine's conversion, which was in some ways a disaster for the church. While Constantine allowed the church liberty, he...
Pelagius: champion of 'free will' The location, North Africa. The time, early fifth century. And the villain this time is, in true Hollywood style, British. Pelagius was a monk, described by a contemporary as 'a fat dog stupefied with porridge'. But despite his reputation as a heretic, he did have a...
Is there a link between faith and health? Evidence from over 1,200 studies and 400 reviews has shown an association between faith and a number of positive health benefits, including protection from illness, coping with illness, and faster recovery from it. Of the studies reviewed in the definitive analysis, (3)...
Hero 4: Constantine, Arius and Athanasius This series looks at great characters from Christian history. This time we will look at three giants of the fourth century, starting with the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine. Famously, it all started with a vision of a flaming cross in the sky and a...
Marcion The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. (Dawkins, The God Delusion) (1) One of the...
HERO: Dr Luke - a doctor who wrote the highest impact text of all time The author of the third gospel is an obvious hero for medics. The 'beloved doctor' (1) wrote a gospel and Acts, accounting for about 30% of the New Testament. His training as a Greek physician prepared...
HERETIC: SATAN Heresy is a very unpopular and archaic word, but in fact there are many modern heresies. These are beliefs that contradict popular consensus, or 'orthodoxy' on important issues. Christians often agree with atheist friends on many issues, and want to defend important truths with them. For instance, it is...
New faces New Head of Student Ministries Alex Bunn interviews Giles Cattermole who starts on 25 January. Giles, let's start with your medical background. You have had quite a diverse training... Well, I qualified in 1995, my house jobs were in Newcastle, and I completed my basic surgical training in Winchester....
I was moving headfirst through a dark maelstrom of what looked like black boiling clouds. I felt that I was being beckoned to the sides. That frightened me. Ahead was a tiny dot of bright light that steadily grew and brightened as I drew nearer. I became aware that I...
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable’(Henry Mecken).[1] Many share Mecken’s view that real faith occurs in spite of evidence to the contrary. However, the fact is that everyone has a ‘faith’, a worldview they live by to understand the world, to...
