• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!
  • Welcome to our archives. No new posts are allowed here.

Ye are the body

I

it's just me

Non Bidenary
DP Veteran
Joined
Jul 2, 2014
Messages
21,016
Reaction score
3,209
Gender
Undisclosed
Political Leaning
Undisclosed
Just received a copy of a book I have been reading on PDF, don't know if it is available in the public domain or not.

Ye Are The Body: A People's History Of The Church

Here's what some of the reviewers say on Amazon and Good Reads:

Bonnell Spencer,OHC, has written a classic history text for students. Coming from an Anglo-Catholic tradition, Spencer does a masterful job of including a view of theology for each historical period, so you can see how Christianity has been shaped down through the ages. He has helpful historical charts in the back of the book, which help a student review for a history exam. This book has been used in many prep schools to teach church history to teenagers.
As an adult, I used this text to review for cannonical exams for ordination.
Some critics have said the Spencer seems to gloss over some subtle issues in church conflict, but his purpose is to give a flowing overview of church history.
Needless to say, I recommend this book for confirmation and new member instruction in Episcopal churches. Canon Robert D. Askren+
Click to expand...

Seminal work on the delicate work carried out in the preservation of the primitive faith through the Engish Reformation.
Click to expand...

It has been a long time since I wept after reading a history book. Bonnell Spencer, an American Anglo-Catholic, ripped out my heart once he reached the great tragedy known as the Reformation. This was not accomplished by cheap literary ploys, but rather for a full and well-articulated ecclesiology that Spencer traces throughout the church's entire history. The author does a great job in tracing the great trends, strands, and debates of a complex story with brevity. The only element hurting the book is its age; Spencer makes some predictions about the coming church history that simply did not come to pass in the 50 or so years following. I would highly recommend the first 4/5 or so of the book to everyone, while recommending the entirety to Anglicans. It is by far the best common-man's church history.
Click to expand...

You can get these facts in other books bought separately, this is the first one I have seen that covers this much ground in one volume. Protestants and pseudo-Protestants will often claim that the Catholic Church did not exist until Constantine made it legal. In reality, Spencer shows that Catholic teachings have existed since the Apostles first propounded it, and he gives names and dates of saints we have all heard of in chronological order. He gives the names of heretics who existed in the Church at that time who recanted and those who did not recant, but through it all he describes how the teachings we believe today have come down through history.

I have often heard the claim that Constantine was responsible for making Trinitarian theology the norm, in reality, Constantine simply wanted to unite the church because he thought it would unite the empire. It didn't really make any difference to him what the Church believed as long as it (east and west) believed the same thing. Spencer describes how Trinitarian theology finally won out and gives the history behind it.
 
Who are among the heretics? What is said about Cramner?
 
I've never heard anyone claim that the Catholic church was not existent until Constantine lifted the ban and went so far as to make it the official religion of Rome.

I can't speak for anyone else, but from what I know, I was thinking that the CC was first truly created the second the Christians started to look for converts outside of the Jews (thanks to Saint Paul?). Then it truly became the "Universal" church.
 
Luftwaffe said:
I've never heard anyone claim that the Catholic church was not existent until Constantine lifted the ban and went so far as to make it the official religion of Rome.
Click to expand...

Ask a Jehovah's Witness.
 
nota bene said:
Who are among the heretics? What is said about Cramner?
Click to expand...

Well, Arius, of course, who you know about, and Eusebius, oddly enough, was a sympathizer of Arius. Pelagius. Theodore of Mopsuestia was the Bishop who started the heresy known as Nestorianism, which gets its's name from Nestorius, one of his pupils. Sabellius (Modalism), Appolonariaus (Appolinarianism, Jesus had no human mind), and Monophysitism, the position that, after the union of the divine and the human in the historical Incarnation, Jesus Christ, as the incarnation of the eternal Son or Word (Logos) of God, had only a single "nature" which was either divine or a synthesis of divine and human, which started in the Eastern Church.

The single biggest thing about Cranmer (other than the historical notes we are all aware of) is that he was a proponent of Receptionism, which is the belief that the true body and blood of Christ are present in the Eucharist, but only to those who receive it in faith. This is in contrast to the teaching of the RCC that the Eucharist is the true body and blood of Christ, period, or the Protestant and pseudo Protestant belief that the Eucharist is only a symbol.
 
Luftwaffe said:
It's hard to converse with them, I don't like them.

Besides, even if they did believe that. Who cares? They're so tiny and insignificant.
Click to expand...

It's a common belief among evangelicals as well.
 
Luftwaffe said:
It's hard to converse with them, I don't like them.

Besides, even if they did believe that. Who cares? They're so tiny and insignificant.
Click to expand...

Because the truth is important. They go door to door spreading this nonsense and too many people take it as Gospel.
 
nota bene said:
Who are among the heretics? What is said about Cramner?
Click to expand...

By the way, many of these heresies are still around. Many people will post the very same heresies from Church history on this forum and others, sometimes they are aware of the historical significance, sometimes not.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom