Augustine of Hippo

In 386 a lecturer of rhetoric in Carthage, St Augustine (354-430), was converted to Christianity. Though he’d learnt the Christian faith from his Mother, Monnica, doubts had began to creep in as a result of his Rhetoric studies and at the age of 19 a treatise by Cicero made him realize he should make truth his life search. For the next 10 years he was attached to the heretical Manicheanism beliefs and during this time his concerned mother sent a certain bishop to debate with him. The prelate found him to be too clever a disputant and the bishop counselled Monnica to "content yourself with praying for him." She went to her charge weeping and he sent her away saying, "Go, continue as you have done till now; it is impossible that the son of so many tears should perish."
Later he found himself in Milan, where Bishop Ambrose's sermons began to speak to his heart but he was still too entwined in the world to convert. After reading an account of the lives of Anthony and other Egyptian hermits, Augustine was thrown into deep inner turmoil but he was still unable to break free. However whilst walking through his garden, he heard a child saying in a sing-song voice "Take it and read it." Under a fig tree, Augustine read Romans 13 v13-14 and in tears he finally found the Savior that his mother had told him about. "As if the light of peace was poured in my heart and all the shades of doubt faded away", he later wrote in his spiritual autobiography Confessions.
The following year Bishop Ambrose baptized St Augustine in the Milan Easter vigil service on the night of Holy Saturday. In his book Confessions, Augustine described later the ceremony “I wept at the beauty of the hymns and canticles and was powerfully moved at the sweet sound of your churches singing…My feeling of devotion overflowed and the tears ran from my eyes and I was happy in them.” The hymn Te Deum, based on the text “Te Deum Laudamus”, (“We praise thee O God”) originated during this baptism.
In 391 Augustine visited the Mediterranean port of Hippo, 60 miles away, to set up a monastery there and one Sunday he attended Mass where the local Bishop Valerius was preaching. The aged bishop, who was looking for an assistant, preached the need for another ordained man in the town. The church members decided they want Augustine for this post and Valerius agreed however Augustine felt inadequate and declined. The congregation would have none of it and he was jostled to the front of the church where he was ordained on the spot. The new priest began devoting himself to the mastery of Scripture and within six years he was ordained Bishop of Hippo.
Augustine is generally held to be the greatest doctor of Christianity. He precached innumerable sermons, of which more than four hundred have come down to us. His orthodoxy prevented Catholicism being unduly influenced by alternative teaching. The great theologian developed many Catholic doctrines helping make infant baptism, belief in purgatory and the teaching that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church normal practice. In addition he encouraged ascetic monasticism and the use of relics.
Of his 96 known works a couple are known by all educated people. They are:
(a) His spiritual autobiography Confessions, a prose poem addressed to God spread over 13 books. It tells the honest, objective story of his childhood and education, his worldly views at this stage and his conversion to Christianity. He recounts the sins of his youth and how even his prayers of repentance are tainted with insincerity, “Give me chastity but not yet”, he wrote.
(b) His epic tome, City of God, split over 22 books, which took Augustine 13 years to complete. City of God is an answer to the question “Why did God allow Rome to fall to the Barbarians so soon after enveloping Christianity?” In it he argues that there are two cities, one earthly, Rome, which is bound to pass away in time and one the City of God, heavenly, founded on goodness and justice which will survive the onslaught of the enemy and will last eternally.
Tragically many in the church misunderstood Augustine's masterpiece, as their interpretation of his book was that the church should have its own empire ruled by bishops.

Attila

Attila (406-453) was the King of the Huns who was known as the “Scourge of God” as the Romans felt he was a punishment sent for sinful Christians by God. He twice attacked the Eastern Roman Empire to increase the quantity of tribute paid to him, 441–443 and 447–449, and then attacked the Western Roman Empire 450–452.
In 451 Attila and his fellow Huns were on the march in Gaul. The French withdraw more and more inside France until it seemed Paris would fall. However a Christian woman, Genevieve, promised the Parisians that if they prayed to God and don’t flee, Attila would not come. The “Scourge of God” was defeated at Châlons and was forced to retreat to the Parisians great relief.
Attila himself and his fellow Huns had a fairly superficial Arian Christian faith which at least helped them to maintain high certain standards of Christian morality and gave them a great respect for life and property, especially churches, Christian relics and treasures.

Atonement

The Talmud, which was compiled by the Jews in the 4th century, tells of how for centuries once a year on Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) a scarlet cord was tied to the horn of the scapegoat as the High Priest entered the Temple to make his annual sacrifice for the sins of the people. Every year this cord would miraculously turn white, indicating God’s acceptance of this sacrifice. Yet, according to the Talmud something strange happened one Yom Kippur: “Our Rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-coloured strap become white.”
The Temple was destroyed in 70AD, forty years before would b 30AD. I wonder what single event occurred then, which did away with the need for further sacrifices- so much so, that any attempt at doing so would be rejected?!

Mount Athos

In 961, The Great Laura, the first monastery on Mount Athos in northern Greece was built. By the 16th century there were twenty monasteries on the Greek mountain. The 3,000 monks living there forbade all females, whether human or animal, from setting foot on the Athos peninsular.
In 1775 Nicholas Kalliboutzes entered a monastic community on Mount Athos, taking the new name, Nicodemus. He devoted much of his time there to editing various writings about the theory and practice of prayer and his personally written books on spirituality were widely circulated. Arising from this, in the mid 1780s a spiritual revival broke out.

Atheism

Atheism is the non belief in, or the positive denial of, the existence of a God or gods.
Western atheism has its roots in pre-Socratic Greek philosophy, but did not emerge as a distinct world-view until the late Enlightenment. Criticism of Christianity became increasingly frequent in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in France and England. The first known atheist who bluntly denied the existence of any god, was Jean Meslier, a French priest who lived in the early 18th century. In 1785 the first ever openly atheistic book was published in Britain by Liverpool physician Matthew Turner. It was titled Answer to Dr Priestley's Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever. A few years later the French Revolution took atheism outside the salons and into the public sphere.
Three more landmarks in the progress of atheism followed in the first half of the 19th century:
(a) 1810 Two students at Oxford, Percy Shelley and Thomas Jefferson Hogg sent a radical anti religion pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism, to the heads of the colleges. Both students refused to answer questions about the pamphlet and were sent down.
(b) 1835 David Frederick Strauss, a 27-year-old German writer and theologian, published his critique The Life Of Jesus. In his controversial book, he dismissed the supernatural elements of the Gospel as a collection of historical myths created by popular legend and argued that it was the early church, which made Jesus into the Messiah. Therefore, he surmised, the Gospel accounts couldn't be taken as fact as they were written by people expressing their own faith. The Life Of Jesus aroused a great deal of passion from the church and Strauss received much criticism for his scepticism.
1841 The German philosopher, Ludwig Feuerbach, published The Essence of Christianity, which promoted humanistic atheism. The book argued that mankind had invented God as a spiritual answer to their needs, hopes and fears. His work was a great influence on Karl Marx.
The 20th century saw the political advancement of atheism, spurred on by interpretation of the works of Marx and Engels. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Soviet Union and other communist states promoted state atheism and opposed religion, often by violent means
A 2005 survey published in Encyclopedia Britannica found that the non-religious made up about 11.9% of the world's population, and atheists about 2.3%. This figure did not include those who follow atheistic religions, such as some Buddhists.

Astrology

Astrology is the Study of the relative position of the planets and stars in the belief that they influence events on Earth. It has no proven scientific basis, but has been widespread since ancient times. In Europe during the Middle Ages it had a powerful influence, as kings and other public figures had their own astrologers. In 1559 Queen Elizabeth was crowned Queen on a day chosen as propitious by her astrologer John Dee. Even the Vatican were influenced by astrology. Pope Julius II set the time of his coronation in 1503 according to astrological calculations, despite the fact that the church during the Renaissance frowned on the occult as bordering on heresy.
The power of the belief in astrology in the Middle Ages is reflected in the story of Astrologer Girolamo Cardono, who predicted his death on September 21st 1576. When he felt fine for most of the day, he decided to make his prediction come true by killing himself.
Many modern day public figures are still in thrall to the influence of the planets and stars. For instance for the next seven years after the assassination attempt on United States President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, his wife, Nancy, consulted a California Astrologer about the most favourable times and dates for major events in the president’s life.

The Assumption of the Virgin

In 1950 Pope Pius XII officially proclaimed as an article of faith, the Assumption of the Virgin, the long-standing Catholic belief that the Virgin Mary ascended bodily to Heaven after her death.

Francis Asbury

Francis Asbury (1745-1816) was the first bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church consecrated in the United States. He was forever on the go, touring the colonies and the Mississippi territory and developed the system of circuit riding for the frontier ministry. The pioneering bishop traveled an average of 5,000 miles (8,000 km) a year on horseback and established Methodism as one of the leading American denominations.
Asbury delegated authority to other Methodist lay preachers but had high standards. They had to be willing to get up at 4.00 in the morning for one hours Bible Study and to be outside by 5.00 to meet people going to work. He saw the new denomination grow from under 500 members to over 200,000 by the time of his death.

Jacobus Arminius

Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609) was a Dutch Protestant priest who from 1603 was professor of theology at Leiden in Holland. Arminius opposed John Calvin’s doctrine of predestination and asserted that forgiveness and eternal life are bestowed on all that repent of their sins and believe wholeheartedly in Jesus Christ. His theology is referred to as “Arminianism."
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, embraced Arminian theology and it became the basis of Wesleyan Methodism