Trueman has Seemingly Lost his Mind

https://firstthings.com/pope-francis-my-worst-protestant-nightmare/

https://wng.org/opinions/an-office-of-great-cultural-significance-1746424321

These articles left me baffled but they demonstrate how cultural and political motivations have taken over and now drive the thinking of most Christians. Trueman in particular surprises me as he once passionately argued for a kind of sober detachment but now is at the forefront of culture war battles even being promoted by and collaborating with the likes of Charles Colson protege John Stonestreet.

Malachi Martin and Rich Church, Poor Church

Back in the 1990's I used to pick up some Malachi Martin works on occasion. He provides insider information about the Jesuits and the Vatican and while I've never agreed with him, I've always found him to be interesting.

I stumbled on his 1984 work 'Rich Church, Poor Church' in a pile of discount books and since it was only $1.50, I decided to pick it up. It was a work I had never encountered before.

The Heretic King of Bohemia

I recently finished Frederick Heymann's George of Bohemia: King of Heretics (1965, Princeton University Press). It's a weighty and laborious read but necessary for anyone seeking to understand the history of Hussitism.

Saving Christendom by Repackaging the Roman Beast

https://americanreformer.org/2023/10/providence-and-empire/

This unfortunate article was reposted at The Aquila Report and there seems to be more and more of this sort of thing as of late. The whole of theology (and even thought) is increasingly subordinated to the concerns and interests of Dominionist ideology and hence the growing concern with political and cultural thinking. Ironically, the more these 'civilisation' paths are pursued, the more readers are likely to turn to Rome as in many respects the narratives of the Magisterial Reformation and its legacy begin to collapse. And so in that regard one might say that such articles are doubly pernicious.

Norwich's History of the Papacy

Having recently finished Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy, by John Julius Norwich (first published in 2011), I must say I was in the overall – disappointed. My hopes were already diminished as I have interacted with some of his other works and found him to be wanting. This book was no exception. There were numerous errors and I found his analysis frustrating at many points. I wanted to give him another try as the nature of the volume intrigued me. He writes about topics that greatly interest me but there's something a bit off about his approach and degree of acumen.

Chiliasm, Totalitarian Cults, and The Pursuit of the Millennium

After many years I finally found the time to read Norman Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages first published in 1957. For all the attention this book has received I was quite disappointed.

Cohn's thesis rests on a cobbled together narrative that confuses popular impulse and superstition with religious conviction. He tries to argue that various utopian and chiliastic movements of the medieval period were the cultural and ideological precursors of twentieth century Nazism and Communism.

The First Reformation and Magisterial Reformation Contrasted

Recovering the First Reformation - Toward a Proto-Protestant Narrative of Church History (IX)

Another way of reviewing and emphasizing the characteristics of the First Reformation and the various proto-Protestant movements is to juxtapose and contrast them with the Magisterial Reformation and the type of Protestantism that it produced. This is seen in two areas – doctrine and ethics. Questions of Biblical authority and general understandings of how doctrine functions were answered differently. And, there were profound differences in how the First and Second Reformations interacted with society, power, wealth and the state. In other words the two movements had radically different concepts of ethics in light of the Scriptures – at which point we will begin.

Claudius of Turin and The Cross

Ninth century bishop Claudius (or Claude) of Turin sought to effect reformation within the Church. Originally from Spain he had contact with the court of Louis, son of Charlemagne and he ended up in Turin, at the heart of a region with an already long history of ecclesiastical dissent.

Inbox: Denomination Clarification

(Answering Questions #23)

Q. Regarding your post on Denominations- If the unity is found in the Spirit, how are denominations a hindrance? Don't they help bring groups of like minded people together? You said congregations will fellowship. Don't denominations create a way for that to happen?

A. No. They promote schism and try to find and establish unity in a man-made form.

Whether the denomination is rooted in a tradition... cultural, theological etc... or, in a lowest common denominator approach, it's still trying to find the unity through the creation of some kind of factional bureaucratic affiliation. The Scripture knows nothing of this.

The Real Issue Behind the Pseudo-Isidorean Decretals

During the Carolingian Period, about the middle of the ninth century 'a mysterious book,' as Schaff says, turned up in Christendom. The genuineness of the book did not really come into question until the 15th century and was not definitively repudiated until the 17th. Most likely it is the work of a Frankish Ecclesiastic, but this book of Decretals…now known as the pseudo-Isidorian Decretals profoundly shaped the Middle Ages.