The Via Egnatia, which ran from Constantinople in the east to Dyrrachium, Albania, in the west, was one portion of the more than 50,000 miles of well-built roads of the Roman Empire. It was along the Via Egnatia, in part, that St. Paul and his companions spread the Christian message, visiting friends and family, preaching […]
We have often engaged in discussions of various aspects of the New (Christian) Testament of the Bible; in fact, most of the posts in the Past category have something to do with either the Christian Testament or the social context of the early Jesus movement. We have pointed out the important role of women in […]
Books Paranormal: A New Testament Scholar Looks at the Afterlife. Self-published 2015; printed by Shires Press, Manchester Center, VT Goddess and God: A Holy Tension in the First Christian Centuries. Marco Polo Monographs 10. Warren Center, PA: Shangri-La Publications, 2006 Women and Worship at Philippi: Diana/Artemis and Other Cults in the Early Christian Era. Portland, […]
Evidence from Roman Imperial times is constantly being unearthed in archaeological excavations around the Mediterranean. The newly-discovered structures and artifacts frequently hold information that can teach us more about the people of antiquity. Since the Christian (New) Testament has been so influential in the history of the West, scholars who study Christian Testament texts and […]
Thank you for your interest in these blog posts! Here is a listing by topic for posts since October 2022. (Some posts appear in more than one category.) Social and Racial Justice, Diversity Resources and Some Good News For Black History Month 2023, 2/10/23 Celebrating Women’s History Month: A Reading List, 3/24/23 Science Meets Religion: […]
As we have seen in past posts, the early Jesus movement – which ultimately became Christianity – originated in a polytheistic environment: people of the Roman Empire worshiped multiple female and male deities. This means that Jesus himself, his earliest followers and those who later identified as Christians lived and worked among devotees of Aphrodite/Venus, […]
Philippi in northern Greece is an important city for the history of Christianity and a fascinating archaeological site. Here we will highlight a few features that raise important issues for modern contemplation, since Christianity has had such vast influence on the West. I will illustrate these points using photos of mine taken on site during […]
In several earlier posts, we have examined women who were leaders in the early Jesus movement – thus disproving the traditional argument of many Christian denominations that women could not (and therefore cannot) serve as leaders. We have shown how many anti-women assertions in the New (Christian) Testament of the Bible that have long been […]