Hell is history. That’s good news for Jerry Lee Lewis, but bad news for Scotland’s Christian heritage. I doubt my ancestors shared the rocker’s panic about the eternal fire, but the presence of the devil was a cultural touchstone. The Broad and Narrow Way, which became enormously popular as a guide to biblical texts, as well as to desirable human conduct.
In religious studies, students can either undertake a full course or a short course. The top results for full-course entries were slightly below the overall average, with 6 per cent achieving A or A* grades. In the short course, 8 per cent of students achieved an A or A*. To give an idea of the standard required, most examination boards require 80 per cent for an A grade and 90 per cent for an A*. The short course results in particular should be a cause for celebration.
The archbishop of Canterbury has just announced a final throw of the dice to keep the family together. He plans a looser structure – not quite a divorce, but “sleeping in separate bedrooms”. It’s the right way forward. But it doesn’t go far enough.The Anglican communion began as the spiritual arm of British colonialism, with public-school soldiers exporting their style of prayer and hat-wearing, hymn-singing church throughout the empire.
In recent years we've come to think of atheism as an evangelical creed not unlike Christianity. An atheist, we tend to assume, is someone who thinks science should be the basis of our beliefs and tries to convert others to this view of things. In the type of atheism that's making the most noise today, religion is a primitive theory of how the world works - an intellectual error without human value, which we'd be better without.
Interreligious peace and harmony reigns in Indonesian village. A Marian shrine in Central Java, Indonesia, has become a beacon of interreligious peace and understanding for visiting groups of Muslims and Catholics. Dozens of non-Catholics have been coming to the shrine in Kerep village every day for their own version of contemplative prayer.
Chinese Bishop Vincent Zhu Weifang of Wenzhou was joined by 20 other priests in a protest outside government offices in Wenzhou city to stop the cross-removal campaign in Zhejiang province. The appearance of Bishop Zhu, 89, who walks with a cane, leading the July 24 protest inspired many local Catholics, sources told.
Authorities have stepped up persecution of underground Catholics in Hebei province with the detention of a bishop and a priest as well as the demolition of an altar that left two laywomen injured, all in separate incidents this month.
Bishops and archbishops claiming to represent 40 million Anglicans around the world have publicly endorsed a new breakaway network of churches set up outside the Church of England amid disputes over issues such as homosexuality.
The UK is one of the least religious countries in the world, according to a new study, but two thirds of the global population consider themselves to be religious. Click on the map inside to find out which countries are the most religious.
Fewer and fewer governments are willing to risk Beijing’s anger by being seen to be on amicable terms with the Dalai Lama. The reincarnation of Tibetan lamas became politicized when in 2007 China’s State of Religious Affairs Bureau issued its Decree No.5, ruling that reincarnations of all tulkus or living Buddhas, were only valid once approved by the state.
Authorities in northwestern China’s Qinghai province are blocking young Tibetan monks visiting home for the Lunar New Year from returning to their monasteries, demanding instead that they give up their robes and attend government schools, sources said.
The prelate called on Catholic teachers not to get tired of teaching "that God is the beginning and the end of all things, that he is the Father who wishes all to have life, and to have it to the full”. He reminded teachers of the dignity of their calling as "evangelizers within the world and its concerns”.
August 15, 2014 Pope Francis met young Catholics from across the region on Friday as Asia Youth Day kicked off in Solmoe, the birthplace of Korean Catholicism. Pope prays that God may 'light up the life of this vast continent'
Pope Francis has reinstated Father Miguel D'Escoto 29 years after he was suspended from priestly duties for his involvement in Nicaragua's revolutionary government in the 1970s, Catholic News Service reports..
I think he wants Catholics not to be more Protestant, but more Catholic. In other words, he wants Catholics to return to the zeal and passion of the saints and martyrs. He wants Catholics to re-learn the simple life of the apostles and take joy in the most elemental levels of the faith -- a life full of the Holy Spirit in a day to day relationship with Jesus Christ.
The courage of the Brigettines. · English sisters who saved Jews and deserting Germans. The subject of the plight of Jews in Rome during World War II continues to excite much interest, often generating more heat than light. The central task, however, is to discover the true stories of what occurred.
Invocation: The revolution is here: The organisation’s creator and Executive director Chris Smith speaks to Aleteia about the revolutionary organisation and the secret to its success. “Ultimately what we do is we try to help young people everywhere to hear, recognise, discern and then respond to the call of Christ in their lives.
“In keeping with a long, shadowy, legacy of antipathy, justices who happen to be Catholics… are branded and bullied by a group who only succeed in providing the latest example of a prejudice that has haunted us for centuries,” Cardinal Dolan said in his July 3 column for Catholic New York
The World Cup is now well under way. We’ve had some brilliant games and some wonderful goals. It is shaping up to be a great tournament. But is there a way for us to use the World Cup in our evangelism? The short answer is yes.
"You (the Chinese communists) can tie me up, can take me away, chop my head off, but not as a slave," said the cardinal in an online radio program yesterday evening. Hong Kong people should "not succumb to fate but maintain one's own dignity," the cardinal said.
