Pope Gregory VII
In the early church the two biggest players were the Greek Church and the Latin Church. The Greek Church was larger but the Latin Church was clearly second. I’m aware that there were other churches such as Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian and others. However, these churches were quite small and by the end of the sixth century, most of them had fallen into Monophysitism.
Joshua Harris
In the 1990’s Evangelical pastor Joshua Harris wrote a book called I Kissed Dating Goodbye. It’s a book that was really popular among Evangelicals and even Catholics. Last year he repudiated the book in the same way that Thomas Merton repudiated The Seven Storey Mountain. He recently announced that he and his wife were getting a divorce. He more recently announced that he no longer identifies as a Christian. By the way, yesterday I was on the phone with a friend talking about this and he said that Harris’ book was awful.
I’ve always wondered what book I would give to a liberal heretic if I ever met them. Obviously Fr. James Martin is the most famous one in the English speaking world so he occupies the heretic slot in the question. What book would I give to Fr. Martin? Of course, Fr. Martin could be replaced with Ted McCarrick, Cardinal Wuerl, or any of the pseudo-theologians who composed the Instrumemtum Laboris for the upcoming Amazon Synod.
Queen Isabella and King Fernando of Spain
The Protestant Reformation revolved along theological issues. However, church corruption was the spark that set off the theological powder keg. Keep in mind the doctrines that the reformers protested against were nothing new at the time of the 16th century.
I have long planned on doing YouTube videos. I kept putting it off and off and off until I realized I just needed to start. I kept on planning but then I just decided to contact someone to get an initial interview in. I called Sam Shamoun who I’ve talked to before. I wanted to talk to Shamoun because he’s a pioneer in the field of Islamic apologetics. He’s been arguing against Islam for over 20 years.
The Secret History by Procopius
I’ve made it one of my goals to read all of the available sources on the Romans, Persians, Arabs, and Muslims between 500 and 900 AD. I’ve also made it my goal to read the primary sources and stay away from what modern historians say. What was the relationship between the Roman Christians and the Arabs before and after Muhammad? There is certainly a lot to say.
Two nights ago Jeff Kran did a live stream and I thought up a formula. I actually thought up a formula for Islamic apologetics. My degree is in Engineering. Spending four years on that degree exposed me hundreds of formulas. I remember one time when I was in second year doing an assignment with my friend, a friend of mine in fourth year came over and told me a dirty little secret. He mentioned that every single formula learned in an engineering textbook has a computer program that can calculate it for you. Of course they don’t tell you this in these classes.
Abd Al-Jabbar
What does 21st century Islamic apologetics look like? It’s essentially just quoting liberals. There’s nothing Islamic about it. Now, what did Islamic apologetics look like in the 11th century? What type of apologetics would St. Peter Damian or St. Anselm of Canterbury have to deal with? The answer might surprise you.
Today is the day that people all over the country of France celebrate the revolutionaries storming the Bastille in Paris and ceasing weapons by force. This is the day that the revolutionaries took firm control of France and King Louis XVI became powerless to do anything.
Critique of Christian Origins by Abd Al-Jabbar
I’ve got to give credit to Brigham Young University. They have a good Arabic program and from this program they have something called the Islamic Translation Series. Medieval Islamic Arabic works are translated into English. The publication produces a parallel Arabic text and much commentary. It’s actually a very well done set of books. I certainly plan on buying more though they’re not the cheapest books around.