By Father Stephen Freeman I am a child of the 50’s. I became aware of the world around me in the 60’s. I finished college and seminary in the 70’s (and have embarrassing pictures to prove it). I could go on with my decadal memories. I daresay no people at any time have been more aware of time labels and how the fashions and trends of those periods shaped their lives. Of course, the labels
By the Middle Ages, however, with the rise of humanism and rationalism, there were already the beginnings of a breach between Christianity and a self-sufficient humanity. In Byzantium, and spreading into Franciscan Italy, there was an attempt, supported by a theology of the transfiguration of the body and the earth, to transfigure the renaissance, to divinize humanism. But this last phase of Byzantine culture, which seemed so promising, was swamped by Asian influence, while Western
The Love of Enemies The theologians of violence forget the Beatitudes. The theologians of non-violence forget that history consists of tragedies. But amongst the violence of history, it is the duty of Christians to manifest the love of enemies, which is the strength of Christ himself. The love of enemies, exercised in the most extreme circumstances, is the only cure for our political neurosis, the desire to escape one’s own death while projecting it on
The essence of God the Trinity is love, so personal existence directed towards God can only be existence in communion. ‘By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother’ (1 John 3.10). In St Matthew’s overpowering portrayal of the Judgement, Christ says to those who are truly
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