CH 501 Church History I

Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, Volume 1 (Story) Maxwell Staniforth, ed., Early Christian Writings (Staniforth) Roberta Bondi, To Pray and to Love Benedict of Nursia, Rule Hildegard of Bingen, The Windows of Faithhttps://place.asburyseminary.edu/syllabi/1401/thumbnail.jp

CH 501 Church History I

Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, Volume 1 (Story) Maxwell Staniforth, ed., Early Christian Writings (Staniforth) Roberta Bondi, To Pray and to Love Benedict of Nursia, The Rule Hildegard of Bingen, Windows of Faithhttps://place.asburyseminary.edu/syllabi/1706/thumbnail.jp

CH 501 Church History I

Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, Volume 1 (Story) Maxwell Staniforth, ed., Early Christian Writings (Staniforth) Roberta Bondi, To Pray and to Love Benedict of Nursia, The Rule Julian of Norwich, All Will Be Well Or Thomas à Kempis, True Serenityhttps://place.asburyseminary.edu/syllabi/2156/thumbnail.jp

Thoughts on the Importance of Attending Church

A short essay on the purpose and importance of church attendance. Excerpt: Today, many Christians have given up consistent attendance of worship services. This tendency is particularly pronounced among young adults. The reasons are numerous and varied. Among the complaints: the worship service is boring; it is impossible to find a church with both a style of worship and theology that is acceptable, and our lives are just too busy. There are surely more reasons for skipping church but these few will suffice to provide helpful and hopeful comment. Keywords: worship, church, Hebrews 10:24-25, C. S. Lewis, Benedict of Nursia

ST. BENEDICT: HIDDEN MEANINGS IN HIS STORY

Other articles are found on this site of a similar nature.St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of western monasticism, compiled the Rule of St. Benedict (RB), a guide for monastic organizations and common-sense living. Numerous works over the centuries have been written about RB and St. Benedict. Although myth and legend surround him, scholarly arguments and symbolic meaning abound concerning his traditional biography

ДОСВІД ДУХОВНО-МОРАЛЬНОГО ВИХОВАННЯ В ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКІЙ ПЕДАГОГІЦІ ІV–VІ СТОЛІТЬ (МАРТІН ТУРСЬКИЙ, БЕНЕДИКТ НУРСІЙСЬКИЙ, ФЛАВІЙ КАССІОДОР) (Experience of Spiritual and Moral Education in the European Pedagogics ІV–VІ Ages (Martin Turskiy, Benedict Nursiyskiy, Flaviy Kassiodor))

На основі теоретичного аналізу творчої спадщини Мартіна Турського, Бенедикта Нурсійського та Флавія Кассіодора розкрито зміст та узагальнено передовий досвід духовно-морального виховання особистості в Західній Європі ІV–VІ століть (On the basis of theoretical analysis of creative inheritance of Martin of Tours, Benedict of Nursia and Flaviy Kassiodor, front-rank experience of spiritually–moral education of personality in Western Europe of IV–VI of ages is exposed

Anthropology of the evangelical counsels in the school of St. Benedict of Nursia

Man is someone real and as such he is immersed in a world that is a task set to him as a person. Therefore, the whole world, as entirely coming from God, and entirely assigned to Him, is constantly bursting with its natural truth and good and, consequently, also beauty. This is an important perspective, both in the order of nature and in the order of grace, also because the synthesis and fulfilment of all values (perfections), which is personal fullness – holiness, is the ultimate reference of the human person to the Person of God. However, this perspective becomes comprehensible only in the field of the realism of the human person’s truth, goodness and beauty, related to their perfect Source, and therefore to the Truth, Goodness and Beauty of the Person of God Himself.In this sense, it can be said that God is the End of all perfections. Holiness itself is thus a specific peak of the elevation of human potentialities to a higher level of being. „Holiness, through the elevation of truth, goodness and beauty to the supernatural level, can fulfil the potential of human nature – reason and will, to their limits; and this fulfilment, in Christian thought, can only take place in visio beatifica, to which this life here and now is supposed to prepare us”. Let us add that the understanding and implementation of evangelical counsels: chastity, poverty and obedience, serve this growth in a particular way. The counsels are the evangelical factor stimulating and strengthening the work of the intellect and free will.Man is someone real and as such he is immersed in a world that is a task set to him as a person. Therefore, the whole world, as entirely coming from God, and entirely assigned to Him, is constantly bursting with its natural truth and good and, consequently, also beauty. This is an important perspective, both in the order of nature and in the order of grace, also because the synthesis and fulfilment of all values (perfections), which is personal fullness – holiness, is the ultimate reference of the human person to the Person of God. However, this perspective becomes comprehensible only in the field of the realism of the human person’s truth, goodness and beauty, related to their perfect Source, and therefore to the Truth, Goodness and Beauty of the Person of God Himself.In this sense, it can be said that God is the End of all perfections. Holiness itself is thus a specific peak of the elevation of human potentialities to a higher level of being. „Holiness, through the elevation of truth, goodness and beauty to the supernatural level, can fulfil the potential of human nature – reason and will, to their limits; and this fulfilment, in Christian thought, can only take place in visio beatifica, to which this life here and now is supposed to prepare us”. Let us add that the understanding and implementation of evangelical counsels: chastity, poverty and obedience, serve this growth in a particular way. The counsels are the evangelical factor stimulating and strengthening the work of the intellect and free will

Sv. Benedikt - odgovor na krizu vjere i kulture u Europi prema Benediktu XVI.

Toward the end of Cardinal Ratzinger’s mandate as the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he reflected upon the crisis of faith and culture in Europe and its causes, particularly the refusal by European Union ruling classes to put God’s name in the new European Constitution or acknowledge Europe’s Christian roots. Moreover, his writings reveal a personal and thoughtful approach to Benedictine monasticism and St. Benedict as a model for the spiritual renewal of Europe. The aim of this paper is to analyze places in Joseph Ratzinger’s works as a theologian, and later as Pope Benedict XVI, on the importance of imitating St. Benedict and studying his testimonies in response to Europe’s current crisis of faith and culture. Analyzing the Enlightenment culture that led to the secularist understanding of a Europe in which the place for faith is only found through political compromise and a tolerance of faith as long as it remains on the margins of social action, rather than serving as the spiritual driving force, Pope Benedict sees Europe’s fundamental disorder in the reductionism of the Enlightenment, in which reason is limited to empirical positivism. The ultimate consequence is the loss of the foundations of public morality, the negation of human dignity and the loss of freedom in a dictatorship of relativism that contradicts the fundamental starting points of the Enlightenment—namely, the desire for open-mindedness to the whole of reality in which God is encountered as the basis of all that exists, true humanity, open to true freedom through obedience to the Word of God, and the restoration of the foundation of democracy.Kardinal Ratzinger pred kraj svoga službovanja na čelu Kongregacije za nauk vjere sve više promišlja o krizi vjere i kulture u Europi i njezinim uzrocima, osobito potaknut odbijanjem vladajućih u Europskoj uniji da stave Božje ime ili da priznaju kršćanske korijene Europe u novom europskom Ustavu. Usporedo s tim događa se i njihovo osobno i misaono približavanje benediktinskom monaštvu i isticanje lika sv. Benedikta kao uzora duhovnoj obnovi Europe. Cilj ovoga rada jest analizirati sva ona mjesta u djelima teologa Josepha Ratzingera i kasnije pape Benedikta XVI. u kojima razmatra važnost sv. Benedikta u kriznim vremenima u kojima se Europa našla u njegovo vrijeme i mogućnosti da se u svjedočenju i uzoru za nasljedovanje istoga sveca pronađe odgovor i na sadašnju krizu vjere i kulture u današnjoj Europi. Analizirajući prosvjetiteljsku kulturu koja je dovela do sekularističkog shvaćanja Europe u kojoj se mjesto za vjeru nalazi samo kroz politički kompromis i toleranciju vjere koja ostaje na margini društvenoga djelovanja, a ne smije biti duhovna pokretačka snaga europskoga društvenog života, papa Benedikt vidi temeljnu bolest Europe u prosvjetiteljskom redukcionizmu u kojem se razum ograničava samo na prostor empirijskog pozitivizma. Krajnja posljedica je gubitak temelja za javni moral, negacija ljudskoga dostojanstva osobe i gubitak slobode u diktaturi relativizma koji protuslovi temeljnoj polazišnoj točki prosvjetiteljstva - naime, htjenju za apsolutnom slobodom koja nije jasno definirana. Papa stoga predlaže sv. Benedikta kao živi primjer otvorenosti uma za cijelu stvarnost u kojem se susreće Boga kao temelj svega što postoji, uči pravoj čovječnosti, otvara istinskoj slobodi kroz poslušnost Riječi Božjoj, a demokraciji vraća njezin temelj