Terrywoodenpic
Oldest Heretic
History of Christianity (SIN and Confession)
There is a very interesting History of Christianity being broadcast on Thursday evenings by the BBC.
It is by Dairmaid MacCulloch an Oxford Professor of Christianity.
This week it was about The Catholic Church and next will be about the Orthodox Catholics.
One of the most interesting points, for me, was about the introduction of confession in the 6th century.
It did not start as we might expect in Rome, but in a small Island Monastery on Skellig Michael off the Kerry coast. It seems that the Celtic Christians devised a Tariff of penances for sins and introduced a system of confession, penance and absolution. This rapidly spread throughout the Catholic world.
It was this practice that eventually became the central issue to split the Christian world.
Another Issue that was raised was the belief of Augustine of Hippo that Original sin was started by the sin of Adam and Eve, and that we are essentially corrupt and that this sinfulness is passed on through the sex act. This has of course come down to the present day, in the form of the belief that sex is sinful.
To have such a central issue to be based on a Mythical story is clearly tragic, and has created a self supporting structure. If either the Adam and Eve story or the sinfulness of sex is refuted, then a large part of Christian Dogma falls with it.
There is a very interesting History of Christianity being broadcast on Thursday evenings by the BBC.
It is by Dairmaid MacCulloch an Oxford Professor of Christianity.
This week it was about The Catholic Church and next will be about the Orthodox Catholics.
One of the most interesting points, for me, was about the introduction of confession in the 6th century.
It did not start as we might expect in Rome, but in a small Island Monastery on Skellig Michael off the Kerry coast. It seems that the Celtic Christians devised a Tariff of penances for sins and introduced a system of confession, penance and absolution. This rapidly spread throughout the Catholic world.
It was this practice that eventually became the central issue to split the Christian world.
Another Issue that was raised was the belief of Augustine of Hippo that Original sin was started by the sin of Adam and Eve, and that we are essentially corrupt and that this sinfulness is passed on through the sex act. This has of course come down to the present day, in the form of the belief that sex is sinful.
To have such a central issue to be based on a Mythical story is clearly tragic, and has created a self supporting structure. If either the Adam and Eve story or the sinfulness of sex is refuted, then a large part of Christian Dogma falls with it.
