Tag: jesus

Uncategorized1 Comment

The Culture of encounter

rrn69

Hope is the first autobiography in history ever to be published by a Pope. Pope Francis, the first Latin American and the first Jesuit to head the Catholic Church, goes where no pontiffs have not dared, originally intended this book to appear only after his death, but the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope have moved him to make this precious legacy available now. Written over six years, this complete autobiography starts in the early years of the twentieth century, with Pope Francis’s Italian roots and his ancestors’ courageous migration to Latin America, continuing through … Continue reading The Culture of encounter

Uncategorized1 Comment

Humanity’s deepest desires, fears and hopes

rrn69

MacCulloch notes that for the vast majority of people throughout this history, marriage was a “contract between two men” that is between two fathers. And  that “When church weddings did start appearing, patchily, in the fourth century, the Church did not offer them to all the faithful”. Three categories of marriage emerged: the “Glorious ( imperial elite) , the “middle” ( imperial officers), and the “vile” (everyone else), with the vast majority of unions in the last category having no involvement from the Church at all. He rebukes contemporary Christians for asserting that there is a “Christian understanding of marriage” … Continue reading Humanity’s deepest desires, fears and hopes

UncategorizedLeave a comment

I don’t think you know what’s coming – ecstatic misery

rrn69

A story of live and astronomy told over the course of twenty years through the lives of two improbable best friends Thomas Hart, a journalist on the Essex Chronicle, and Grace Macauley (17),  small and plump, with skin that went brown by the end of Maym and who is “by nature a thief if she found a thing to be beautiful , but not hers”. worshipers at the Bethesda Baptist chapel in the small fictional Essex town of Aldleigh.  Thomas who is 50 and writes a column for the newspaper on scientific and astronomical topics, which brings him into connection … Continue reading I don’t think you know what’s coming – ecstatic misery

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On the Brink of fear & disaster

rrn69

Philip Notman, an acclaimed medieval history professor whose fondness for Emerson’s scariest quote “ I  am glad to be on the brink of fear”, attends a conference in Bergen, Norway. On his return to London, and to his wife and son, something unexpected and inexplicable happens to him, and he is unable to settle back into his normal life. Seeking answers, he flies to Cadiz to see Inés, a Spanish academic, with whom he shared a connection at the conference, but his journey doesn’t end there. A chance encounter with a wealthy, elderly couple sends him to a house on … Continue reading On the Brink of fear & disaster