Tag: history

Last week (24 September) the Times published a story about a remarkable piece of detective work by the University of California, San Diego which seems to confirm the existence of the nation of Edom in the 11th century B.C., “before any king reigned over the Israelites” (Genesis 36:31). The University’s work of “cyber-archaeology” compared the

By Graham Harter I was interested recently to see that historian Tom Holland, in his new book Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, refers to the change in the meaning of the word ‘saint’ down the centuries of Christianity. Anybody who has read the New Testament will be aware that, there, the term ‘saints’

There is a recurrent charge that the mediaeval (Catholic) Church taught that the Earth is flat. It frequently does the rounds whenever people wish to point out the antediluvian nature of some other group’s beliefs — whether that be Christians, Republicans in the U.S., or whoever. But did the mediaeval Church actually teach that the

What is the ‘literal’ interpretation of Genesis 1—3, the chapters detailing the creation of the world and the fall of man? Happily this is a question which the great theologian Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354—430) answers in his twelve-volume work ‘On the Literal Meaning of Genesis’ (Latin De Genesi ad Litteram), completed in the year

In the modern world we often assume that our ancestors in the Middle Ages were simply gullible about Christianity. But is this really the case? In the first of a series of reflections on Anselm of Canterbury’s ‘Why God Became Man’ (Cur Deus Homo), I will consider this question. Of course, people in Europe didn’t

One of the books I read during my etimasthe summer break was Peter J. Williams’ Can We Trust the Gospels? In it, Dr. Williams puts forward a range of considerations why the four Gospels of the New Testament are not only credible, but should be believed. He explicitly does not claim that the truth of

“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he… would be justified in silencing mankind.” John Stuart Mill, On Liberty[1] One of the obvious phenomena in UK society over the last few years

I would like to share here three of the great legal declarations pertaining to freedom of thought, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression in the UK. We need constantly to remind ourselves of these great legal principles, because what has been clear for over a decade is that these freedoms are now under serious

I recently read the Proslogion of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, written in 1077-78, together with the written criticism of Anselm’s argument by Gaunilo, a monk of Marmoutiers, and Anselm’s subsequent reply. In Gaunilo and Anselm’s correspondence over the Proslogion we see a wonderful example of how to argue graciously — an example which has a

According to Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109, the existence of God is proven from his being ‘that-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought.’ He sets forth this proof in his work, the Proslogion, written in 1077-78.[1] I recently had the joy of reading it in Anselm, Brian Davies, and G. R. Evans, The Major Works, Oxford World’s Classics