Tag: Gnosticism

PWJ: S1E9 – MC B2C4 – “The Invasion”

Leave a comment

Dualism

In today’s episode, we continue working our way through Book II of “Mere Christianity”. In the previous chapter, C.S. Lewis had examined “Rival Conceptions of God”, especially pantheism. In today’s episode he looks at another possible contender, dualism, the idea that there are two independent and opposing powers locked together in an eternal battle…

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually, or through a service like iTunes, Google Play or Podbean. As always, if you have any objections, comments or questions, please send us an email through my website or tweet us @pintswithjack.

Episode 9: “The Invasion” (Download)

Read more

Eastern Icons and the Gospel of Thomas?

Leave a comment

ThomasIf you ever visit an Eastern Catholic or Eastern Orthodox parish, you’ll find them adorned with many icons and, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, these icons are dense with meaning.

At one point last year I brought a friend to my parish and we spent some time looking at the icons. He noticed that in the icons of the four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), each of them is holding a book, symbolic of the Gospel attributed him. He then noticed the icon of St. Thomas and asked a question which caught me off-guard:

“Is the scroll he’s holding a reference to the ‘Gospel of Thomas’?”

I had never considered that association before! You see, the “Gospel of Thomas” is a non-Canonical work from the mid 2nd Century and was rejected by the Catholic Church. Bishop Eusebius from 3rd Century described it as “the fictions of heretics”. Given all that, it’s rather unlikely that the scroll in Thomas’ hand in a Catholic Church is a reference to a heretical work of antiquity!

So…what does the scroll in the Apostle’s hand represent? In Eastern iconography, a scroll represents holy wisdom and indicates that the person preached and held the rank of apostle.

Christmas Thoughts

4 comments

Those of you who know me will know that I’m someone who is not a very “Christmas-y” sort of person…

Why?

Well, it’s probably partly because all my childhood recollections of school between September to January are dominated by memories of interminable carol rehearsals! I hate shopping at all times of the year, but especially during the Christmas rush. I hate picking up pine needles and I think fake trees are, well, fake. I don’t like the dark or cold which I usually associate with Christmas. I always look forward to the extraordinary liturgy of the Church at Easter, but at Christmas it is largely unchanged. And finally, nothing annoys me more than the saccharin-coated cheeriness which seems to be induced in people every December.

Read more