Category Archives: Church History

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Book Review: Pope Peter by Joe Heschmeyer

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Whenever there is a bestseller I always need to read it.  If a book has been on the top of the New York Times bestseller list for ten weeks or so I have to read it; even if I’ve never read anything by the author, if anything just to know what the culture is thinking.  The same applies to books in the religious realm in which the book Pope Peter by Joe Heschmeyer fits the bill.  Catholic and Protestant YouTubers are talking about this book and Heschmeyer is having quite a few interviews.  I decided to take the plunge and read it.

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That book changed me…

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I want to give a follow up on the book that I talked about in my last post; the St. Robert Bellarmine book on purgatory.  To make a long story short, that book really changed me.  St. Robert Bellarmine makes an airtight case for purgatory using both testaments, the Church fathers and Church councils.  To make a long story short, purgatory exists and St. Robert Bellarmine has proved it beyond reasonable doubt.

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St. Robert Bellarmine, Peter Vermigli, and Muhammad

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I’ve been reading a lot of St. Robert Bellarmine lately thanks to the brilliant translating done by Ryan Grant at Mediatrix Press.  I’ve been reading his book on Purgatory and think that it tells some pretty interesting things about Church history.  I want to comment on one thing that he said and draw some other historical conclusions with other examples.

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Book Review: The Church and the Papacy by Trevor Jalland

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A fellow apologist that I know highly recommended The Church and the Papacy by Trevor Jalland.  Jalland was an Anglican scholar who lived in the 20th century.  The more I do research, the more I realize that Anglicans in the 1800s and the early 1900s wrote some pretty amazing stuff.  I’ve scoffed at Anglicans before but I honestly do want to take that back because they have a rich intellectual tradition.  This book was originally published in 1942.  I’ve typically only reviewed newer books on this website but I couldn’t let this one go.  It’s out of print but used copies are available.

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St. Optatus of Milevis – A Forgotten Church Father

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I hope that all of my readers had a Merry Christmas.  It’s not a normal Christmas but I think that we can agree that the last thing we can call 2020 is normal.  Who knows what 2021 will bring.  There is a Church Father that is extremely neglected in Church History.  Most people don’t know his name and even fewer people have read his writings.  In the Christian East he’s essentially unknown and in the West the situation is slightly better and do I mean slightly.  His name is Optatus of Milevis and he lived in the 4th century.

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The Plague of Justinian vs. The Coronavirus

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I’ve tried to avoid talking about the Coronavirus and the pandemic but I’m just getting really tired of it.  At the end of the day people will have lost jobs, livelihoods, savings, all because a of a bad flu season.  There is no reason for this lockdown.  As someone who reads a lot of Church history, I want to share some history.

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Refuting Michael J Kruger’s Misuse of St. Jerome

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In late September I joined William Albrecht and Erick Ybarra on Reason and Theology to talk about the monarchial episcopate in the early Church.  Together we looked at the early documents to show that in fact, the Church of Rome had a monarchial bishop from the very beginning.  The idea was to disprove the revisionist theory that the early Roman Church was governed by a college of presbyters as opposed to having one monarchial bishop above the presbyters.

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One of the most important doctrines of the early Church

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Above is a great lecture by Sam Shamoun on baptism.  Sam Shamoun is one of my favourite Youtubers and he’s a great.  I also admire the fact that he doesn’t tolerate people going off-topic or being sectarian in the chat.  I’d recommending watching at least two of his videos every week.

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St. Cyprian and two kinds of Schism

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In my attempts to read the Church fathers and hunt for the mysterious Islamic Christians who don’t seem to exist, I’ve been reading the works of St. Cyprian of Carthage; a third century Church father who was martyred in 258 AD.  He had to deal with the issue of the Novatian Schism.