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…
The reason why I have not posted anything in the past week or so will soon become obvious. As I’ve been looking at the next section of my “Ways of the Worldviews” manuscript, I see that it is somewhat of a hodgepodge of material, and quite frankly, I haven’t been in the mood to try…
One of the things I have come to realize as I have read up on Christian history is that the impact Christianity had on all areas of life cannot be over-stated. Ever since the Enlightenment, Church history has largely suffered slander, whereas most people associate the time of history between the rise of Constantine and…
On October 28th, 312 AD, the tetrarch Constantine defeated his fellow tetrarch Maxentius, at the battle of the Milvian Bridge. The night before the battle Constantine had a heavenly vision—the famous Chi-Rho (the first two letters in the name “Christ”)—and heard a voice say, “In this, conquer!” That experience marked Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. He…