The ground-breaking achievement in philosophy during the High Catholic Age was the revival of the study of Aristotle. Throughout the Byzantine Age, Christian theologians and philosophers gravitated toward interacting with the philosophy of Plato. His teachings on the idea of universals, the world of forms, and this material world of particulars being a shadowy reflection…
In my last post, I made it a point to show that one of the distinguishing features in the universities during the High Catholic Age was their fascination with and commitment to studying the natural sciences. That being said, it almost must be made clear that there was also a clear philosophical understanding in the…
As we continue our overview of what has been traditionally called “The Middle Ages,” but what I have chosen to call “The High Catholic Age,” we now come to the topic of the monastic movement and its impact on the culture, and the emergence of the university. Perhaps the most impressive achievement during the supposed…
There has often been a misguided assumption by many who have this strange impression that before the Crusades, Christianity had been a largely pacifist and “anti-war” religion for 1,000 years. Historical facts show this to be rather naïve. Even after the Roman Empire had become largely Christian, it still had to engage in various wars…
Much has been written about the Crusades, so I will not attempt to write yet another history about them. The Crusades, though, were incredibly significant on a number of political, economic, cultural levels, and for that reason I want to address them. Contrary to the modern narrative ever since the so-called “Enlightenment,” the Crusades were…
1054 AD marked a watershed moment for the respective histories of both the Eastern Byzantine Empire and what was soon to become Western Christendom. For the previous 300 years, the Byzantine Empire had lost much of its territory to the rising Islamic Empire, yet still was able to sustain much of its riches and splendor….
In this final post regarding Europe during the Byzantine Age (313-1054 AD), I want to touch upon two things: the impact of Charlemagne, and the threat of Islam. In the previous few posts, I pointed out that Constantine’s moving the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople had a tremendous impact on world history, not…
I have not been posting much these days, due to the fact I’ve been occupied with a few other projects. But for this post, my 300th post, I thought I’d dig out of the vault two short reactions I wrote on two posts by Ken Ham in which he attacks Deborah Haarsma at BioLogos, as…
I have not been posting too much this month because I have been busy with other things. Nevertheless, in light of a recent extensive Facebook discussion (and since I had to get my mind off the Cubs meltdown in the World Series), I thought I’d write this quick post. Let me say up front, I…
When it comes to Church history, we must always remember that oftentimes the true impact of Christianity is to be found far away from the halls of power. While the majority of popes in the West during the Byzantine Age were turning Rome into a brothel, there were countless devout and holy men and women…