History of Christian Thoughts Archives

Mater Misericordiae: Mary, Mother of Mercy

May 6, 2024

The title “Mother of Mercy” first appears with reference to Mary in the tenth century, in John of Salerno’s Life of Saint Odo (of Cluny). St. Odo died in 942 and John commemorates him a couple of years later, recounting that the Virgin appeared to St.

An Early Christian Saint for Our Time: St. Athanasius

May 2, 2024

Athanasius lived a long and varied life subject to philosophical, political, and theological controversies, violence, exile, and contentious relations with the most powerful rulers of his time: the Roman Emperors. Athanasius valiantly defended the Trinity at a time when this fundamental basis of Catholic theology

Cultural Sanctification: Engaging the World like the Early Church

April 11, 2024

By the end of the second century, Christians were thoroughly entrenched within Roman culture and social life. To begin with, their numbers were growing at a rate quite unsettling to many of their neighbors. At least in North Africa, said Tertullian, Christians had spread out rapidly: “Though

“The Truth of the Resurrection” by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

March 31, 2024

Editor’s note: The following excerpt is from Introduction to Christianity (2nd edition) by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Ignatius Press, 1990, 2004; pp. 301-10). To the Christian, faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an expression of certainty that the saying that seems to be only a beautiful dream

Lenten Kitchens

February 16, 2024

Do your Lenten traditions include a spring cleaning of your kitchen? For our Catholic ancestors, spring cleaning meant emptying the house of sugary treats to prepare for Lenten fasting. They used up their supplies of butter and sugar by baking desserts to eat during Shrovetide,

A Reappreciation of Pope Pius IX

February 8, 2024

On Feb. 7, we celebrate the feast day of Blessed Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, more popularly known of Blessed Pope Pius IX (who reigned as pope 1846-1878.) His cause for canonization, compared to many modern popes, especially those who have reigned since the Second Vatican Council,

The Twists and Turns That Led to the First Vatican Council

February 8, 2024

Note: We are sharing this article, originally published in June 2020, for the feast of Blessed Pius IX The approaching 150th anniversary of the promulgation of Vatican I’s Pastor aeternus (18 July 1870), which defined the dogma of papal infallibility, gives us good reason to pause

Pope Benedict XVI and the Breaking of Patterns

February 2, 2024

They broke a pattern. For over a century, nearly every man who had been elected successor of St. Peter had been a trained papal diplomat: Leo XIII (1878–1903), Benedict XV (1914–1922), Pius XI (1922–1939), Pius XII (1939–1958), John XXIII (1958–1963), and Paul VI (1963–1978) had

Lenin’s ugly legacy of identity politics

January 22, 2024

“I broke sharply with all questions of religion,” said Vladimir Lenin, with typical vituperation. “I took off my cross and threw it in the rubbish bin.” Such was a metaphor for the dark turn made by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who came to be known by

Time Toward Home: Richard John Neuhaus for Our Time

January 19, 2024

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus loved to say that “when we get to heaven, there will be a sign over the pearly gates that reads: ‘The New Jerusalem—From the Wonderful People Who Brought You New York City.’” “And if you didn’t like New York City,” he