#Clement’s teachings on family roles in early Christianity

[mindfulldsliving]

Exploring Unity and Faithfulness in Clement's First Epistle: Lessons from Early Church Fathers

Clement’s First Epistle to the Corinthians offers a striking look into the early Christian church’s struggles and priorities. Written as a response to division and discord in the Corinthian congregation, it emphasizes unity, obedience, and service—principles that still resonate today. These early teachings encourage believers to live in harmony and remain faithful to Christ’s example. Exploring…

[santmat]

The Vegetarian Apostles (Leadership of the Original Jesus Movement)

As with pro-meat and pro-veg dueling sutras in Buddhism, early Christianity had both pro-meat writings (used by followers of Paul and the Romans) and pro-veg writings used by the Hebrew Christians affiliated with James and Peter. Since the Roman branch of Christianity didn't include much from the Apostles and other Hebrew Christian sources, even eventually declaring the Ebionites to be "heretics" and banning their writings, most of use haven't heard their version of things.  In my article, Uncovering A Vegetarian Jesus at the Beginning of Christianity, I gather together what survives of their teachings about vegetarian ethics. Below is excerpted from my comprehensive article on the vegetarianism of the Hebrew Christians (Ebionites): https://medium.com/sant-mat-meditation-and-spirituality/uncovering-a-vegetarian-jesus-at-the-beginning-of-christianity-9279741be7c4

I've also established online a page dedicated to the surviving scriptures of the Hebrew Christians, providing links to available scriptures online: Ebionite (Nasoraean, Jewish or Hebrew Christian) Scriptures and Vegetarian Gospels: https://santmatradhasoami.blogspot.com/2019/01/ebionite-nasoraean-jewish-or-hebrew.html

The Section of My Article Focusing on the Eventual Vegetarianism of the Apostles: The Vegetarian Apostles (Leadership of the Original Jesus Movement)

The first followers of Jesus, also known as Ebionites or Nazoreans, were not only kosher, but also strictly adhered to a vegetarian diet. The largest surviving collection of Ebionite scriptures is the Clementine Homilies and the Recognitions of Clement, which are vegetarian gospels that condemn animal sacrifice in any form. For example, the Book of Homilies states that God does not want animals killed at all (3.45), and condemns those who eat meat (7.4, 7.8). And the passages below also show that the Ebionites’ diet was vegan — plant-based (no eggs, no dairy, and no animal products mentioned).

“And the things which are well-pleasing to God are these: to pray to Him, to ask from Him, recognising that He is the giver of all things, and gives with discriminating law; to abstain from the table of devils, not to taste dead flesh, not to touch blood; to be washed from all pollution; and the rest in one word, — as the God-fearing Jews have heard, do you also hear, and be of one mind in many bodies; let each man be minded to do to his neighbour those good things he wishes for himself.” (Clementine Homilies 7.4)

“They [the Apostles] embraced and persevered in a strenuous and a laborious life, with fasting and abstinence from wine and meat.” (Eusebius, church father, Demonstratio Evangelica or “Proof of the Gospels”)

More from Saint Peter: Peter said, “I live on olives and bread, to which I rarely only add vegetables.” (Clementine Homilies 12,6; also see, Recognitions 7,6) And the earlier quoted vegetarian verse attributed to Peter is worth repeating again here: “The unnatural eating of flesh meats is as polluting as the heathen worship of devils, with its sacrifices and its impure feasts, through participation in it a man becomes a fellow eater with devils.” (Saint Peter, Clementine Homilies)

Matthew: “And happiness is found in the practice of virtue. Accordingly, the Apostle Matthew partook of seeds, and nuts, hard-shelled fruits, and vegetables, without flesh.” (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 1)

The Apostle Thomas: “He continually fasts and prays, and abstaining from the eating of flesh and the drinking wine, he eats only bread with salt, drinks only water, and wears the same garment in fine weather and winter, accepting nothing from anyone, and gives whatever he has to others.” (Acts of Thomas, chapter 20)

“John never ate meat.” (Church historian Hegesipp according to Eusebius, History of the Church II 2:3)

James the Just, Brother of Jesus, Head Apostle and the Next Leader of the Church, was a Vegetarian

Jesus had a brother. He’s referred to by scholars and historians as “James the Just”. According to a wide variety of sources, James became Jesus’s spiritual successor, the next leader of this group, referred to as the “Hebrew Christians” or “Ebionites”.

“James was a vegetarian.” (Prof. Robert Eisenman in, James the Just, The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls)

“James, the brother of the Lord, lived on seeds and plants and touched neither meat nor wine.” (Epistulae ad Faustum XXII, 3)

“James, the brother of the Lord was holy from his mothers womb; and he drank no wine nor strong drink, nor did he eat flesh.” (Hegesippus, quoted in The Church History of Eusebius, book 2, chapter 23)

And furthermore, wouldn’t everyone in Jesus’s family — brothers and sisters — be following the same diet and ethical code? On what planet would parents raise one child vegetarian from birth but another gets raised as a meat-eater?

Keith Akers makes some great observations in his article, Was Jesus A Vegetarian? “Eusebius says that James the brother of Jesus was a vegetarian, and in fact was evidently raised as a vegetarian (Ecclesiastical History 2.23). Why would Jesus’ parents have raised James as a vegetarian, unless they were vegetarian themselves and raised Jesus as a vegetarian as well? Eusebius also states (Proof of the Gospel 3.5) that all the Apostles abstained from meat and wine.”

And James became the successor of Christ and next leader of the Jesus Movement! The Gospel of Thomas, Saying 12: “The disciples said to Jesus; ‘We are aware that you will depart from us. Who will be our leader?’ Jesus said to him, ‘No matter where you come, it is to James the Just that you shall go, for whose sake heaven and earth have come to exist.’”(Bently Layton’s translation)

Though never seeing eye-to-eye with the original Jerusalem community on many things including the issue of meat eating, in his epistles even Paul the rogue Apostle, confirms this leadership role of James the Just, “the Lord’s brother” in Jerusalem, and he himself went to visit him to seek his blessings on a couple of occasions.

For the rest of the article, see: https://medium.com/sant-mat-meditation-and-spirituality/uncovering-a-vegetarian-jesus-at-the-beginning-of-christianity-9279741be7c4

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 17 September – St Robert Bellarmine S.J. Bishop, Confessor, Theologian, Professor, Writer, Preacher, Mediator, Doctor of the Church – Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino (4 October 1542 at Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy as Roberto Francesco Romolo – the morning of 17 September 1621 at Rome, Italy of natural causes)   He was buried in Rome and his relics were translated to the church of Saint Ignatius, Rome on 21 June 1923.    Patronage – • canon lawyers; canonists• catechists• catechumens• Cincinnati, Ohio, archdiocese of• Robert Barron (bishop)• Bellarmine University, Fairfield Univesity, Bellarmine College and School.  He was Beatified on 13 May 1923, Rome by Pope Pius XI and Canonised 29 June 1930, Rome by Pope Pius XI – he was named a Doctor of the Church by the same Pope a year later.   He is remembered as one of the most important cardinals of the Catholic.

Robert Bellarmine was born to an impoverished noble Italian family.   His early intellectual accomplishments gave his father hope that Bellarmine would restore the family’s fortunes through a political career.   His mother’s wish that he enter the Society of Jesus prevailed.   The young Bellarmine, a very small, frail but lively fellow excelled in his studies, especially Latin and Italian poetry.   It didn’t take long for it to become obvious that he wished to join the Society of Jesus.   The rector of the college described him as “the best of our school and not far from the kingdom of heaven”.   On completion of his studies, Bellarmine taught first at the University of Louvain in Belgium.   In 1576 he accepted the invitation of Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585) to teach polemical theology at the new Roman College.   When he was ordained in 1570, the study of Church history and the fathers of the Church was in a sad state of neglect.  He devoted his energy to these two subjects, as well as to Scripture, in order to systematise Church doctrine against the attacks of the Protestant Reformers.   He was the first Jesuit to become a professor at Louvain.

Robert Bellarmine spent the next 11 years teaching and writing his monumental Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian Faith., a three-volume defense of the Catholic faith against the arguments of the Protestant reformers.  Particularly noteworthy are the sections on the temporal power of the pope and the role of the laity.   To this day, it is considered one of the most important texts of Catholic theology ever written.   Three hundred years after its publication, it was called “the most complete defense of the Catholic teaching”.  A confidant to the popes, Bellarmine held a number of positions, including rector of the Roman College, examiner of bishops, Cardinal Inquisitor, archbishop of Capua, and bishop of Montepulciano.

Through his writings Bellarmine was involved in the political, religious and social issues of the time.  Bellarmine incurred the anger of monarchists in England and France by showing the divine-right-of-kings theory untenable.   He developed the theory of the indirect power of the pope in temporal affairs; although he was defending the pope against the Scottish philosopher Barclay, he also incurred the ire of Pope Sixtus V.  He argued with King James I of England and was a judge at the trial of Giordano Bruno.   Bellarmine also communicated the decree of condemning the Copernican doctrine of the movements of the earth and sun, issued by Congregation of the Index to Galileo Galilei in 1616.  Among many activities, Bellarmine became theologian to Pope Clement VIII, preparing two catechisms which have had great influence in the Church.

Much to the amazement of all, at the height of his career, at the age of 60, Pope Clement VIII appointed Robert Bellarmine the archbishop of Capua.   Bellarmine had never been in pastoral ministry.   Nevertheless, he began a new dimension of his priesthood with his usual enthusiasm.   He would spend the next three years introducing the reforms of the Council of Trent in his archdiocese.   He traveled everywhere, preaching to the people. He visited his clergy as well as religious men and women to encourage them to renew the Church.   He won the love of everyone.

The last major controversy of Bellarmine’s life came in 1616 when he had to admonish his friend Galileo, whom he admired.   He delivered the admonition on behalf of the Holy Office, which had decided that the heliocentric theory of Copernicus was contrary to Scripture.   The admonition amounted to a caution against putting forward—other than as a hypothesis—theories not yet fully proven.

Although he was one of the most powerful men in Rome and was made a cardinal by Pope Clement VIII on the grounds that “he had not his equal for learning.”   While he occupied apartments in the Vatican, Bellarmine relaxed none of his former austerities. He limited his household expenses to what was barely essential, eating only the food available to the poor.   He was known to have ransomed a soldier who had deserted from the army and gave most of his money to the poor.   Once he gave the tapestries from his living quarters to the poor, saying that the walls wouldn’t catch cold.   While he took little regard for his own comforts, he always saw to it that his servants and aides had everything they needed.

Robert Bellarmine died at Rome on September 17, 1621 at the age of 79.   If his early career featured brilliant polemics and his middle years gentle, loving, pastoral life, his final years brought him transcendent peace.   His writings turned spiritual.  He wrote several works, the classics being “The Ascent of the Mind to God” and “The Art of Dying”. He wrote that this was his way of preparing for death and to move closer to his God.  The process for his canonisation was begun in 1627 but was delayed until 1930 for political reasons, stemming from his writings.   In 1930, Pope Pius XI canonised him and the next year declared him a doctor of the Church.

(via AnaStpaul – Breathing Catholic)

[djgblogger-blog]

Pope Francis won't support women in the priesthood, but here's what he could do

http://bit.ly/2I7eYQ4

Pope Francis will not ordain women to priesthood. L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo Via AP

On March 13, Pope Francis will complete his first five years as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Since his election, Pope Francis has engaged the estimated 1.2 billion Catholics and innumerable non-Catholics worldwide with his frank, inclusive talk on issues as diverse as poverty and homosexuality. In fact, many observers seem confused by the church’s apparent willingness to reconsider traditions regarding some contentious issues, such as divorce.

However, Francis has drawn the line at extending full priesthood to women. Devout Catholics have spoken out boldly on both sides of this issue. But, that door, Francis has repeatedly said, “is closed.”

As a scholar specializing in both the history of the Catholic Church and gender studies, I believe Francis’ refusal comes from his unwillingness to challenge a foundational Catholic doctrine known as “apostolic succession.”

The Catholic Church has historically been unwilling to violate this doctrine.

Development of the priesthood

Based on the Gospels of Mark and Luke, it is apostolic succession that specifies how the Catholic Church acquired its authority and its ability to save souls. God gave the power of salvation – to “bind and loose” souls – to Christ who shared it with 12 male apostles. When the apostles chose their successors, the first bishops, they passed the power of salvation to those bishops through the sacrament of ordination. Through ordination, bishops have endowed priests with God’s authority up to the present day.

The origins of apostolic succession can be traced to the first centuries A.D. – a time when Christianity was illegal. Jesus had left his followers with no obvious blueprint for any type of formal church or priesthood. Christians were, thus, free to worship in their own ways, trying not to get caught.

This troubled Christian leaders such as Clement, a first-century bishop of Rome, and Irenaeus, a second-century bishop of Lyon. They believed it unlikely that such a diversity of practices could lead to heaven. Jesus, they wrote, must have left one true path to salvation. In the absence of clear direction, they traced this one path through the apostles and their recognized successors, the bishops.

This became a pivotal development in early attempts to organize a uniform Christian “church,” creating a formal clergy. Only ordained priests were authorized to celebrate the sacraments, a key source of God’s grace.

Anyone, for example, could pronounce ritualistic words over bread and wine, but unless that individual had been given the authority of the apostles through ordination, that bread and wine would remain mere bread and wine. There was no true sacrament, no saving grace. Such unauthorized persons, Irenaeus charged, were thieves, stealing the chance of salvation from the Christians they duped.

A matter of divine will

Approximately when and under what circumstances certain disciples were designated as the only “apostles,” numbered as 12, and selected as all male is a subject of much historical and theological debate. The church’s justifications for excluding women from apostolic succession have varied over centuries.

Before the 20th century, explanations for refusing women a place in the hierarchy of apostolic succession ranged from women’s inherent sinfulness to their divinely created inferiority to man.

Although the church no longer supports such reasoning, it does still exclude women from the priesthood by virtue of their sex. In its 1976 declaration, “Inter Insigniores,” the church proclaimed its loyalty to the model left by Christ to his followers – in other words, apostolic succession.

Since Christ was incarnated as male and all 12 original apostles were male, the church declared that God meant for males alone to exercise the priesthood. The church, in other words, does not consider the extension of ordination to women to be an issue of human rights but one of fulfilling the divine will, with which there can be no compromise nor accommodation.

What change-makers say

Representatives of the Women’s Ordination Conference. AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito

Many devout Catholics, even priests, disagree. Women’s Ordination Conference and Women’s Ordination Worldwide, two of the largest global organizations advocating for women’s ordination, count clerics, monks and nuns among supporters of their cause. As Benedictine nun Joan Chittister charged,

“The Church that preaches the equality of women but does nothing to demonstrate it within its own structures … is … dangerously close to repeating the theological errors that underlay centuries of Church-sanctioned slavery.”

These Catholics allege the refusal to ordain women is not God’s intent, and neither scripturally justified nor the original practice of the church.

These modern change-makers point to a body of credible scriptural, archaeological and historical evidence that women served as priests, deaconesses and even bishops alongside Jesus and during the first centuries of Christianity. Indeed, reputable evidence exists that it took centuries for male clerics to gradually exclude women from these positions.

This evidence suggests it could actually be a return to tradition to welcome women to the priesthood. The fact is that the church has changed its position on women and church roles in the past, such as when, in 1900, the church reversed its 600-year old mandate that nuns live and worship isolated behind convent walls. This freedom made new and diverse forms of religious life and service possible for women. The church could alter its position on women again, critics argue. As Roy Bourgeois, a priest defrocked for his support of women’s ordination, maintained, “There’s always the opportunity to change.”

What the pope can do

Yet the field on which such battles are fought is far from level, and those on the side of apostolic succession have the upper hand.

Although Francis is unlikely to allow women into the priesthood, it is within reason that he could lead in ordaining women to become deacons, as this would not necessarily violate apostolic succession. Deacons – along with bishops and priests – are one of the three ordained “orders” of ministers in the Catholic Church. Deacons are not priests, but they may preach, teach and lead in prayer and works of mercy.

The diaconate is often a stage on the road to ordination to the priesthood for men. During the Vatican’s Synod on the Family in 2015, Canadian Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Quebec encouraged his colleagues to expand women’s opportunities for leadership, including ordination to the diaconate, “to clearly show the world the equal dignity of women and men in the Church.”

Pope Benedict XVI suggested this almost a decade ago. Durocher, like Benedict, was careful to clarify that deacons are directed “non ad sacerdotium, sed ad ministerium,” meaning “not to priesthood, but to ministry.” While Francis has been firm in protecting doctrines such as apostolic succession, this is a move he could legitimately make.

Lisa McClain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

[blackkudos]

Mordecai Wyatt Johnson

Mordecai Wyatt Johnson (January 4, 1891 – September 10, 1976) was an American educator and pastor. He served as the first black president of Howard University, from 1926 until 1960. Johnson has been considered one of the three leading African-American preachers of the early 20th-century, along with Vernon Johns and Howard Thurman.

Early life

Johnson was born on January 12, 1890, in Paris, Tennessee. His parents were former slaves, his father was Reverend Wyatt J. Johnson and Carolyn Freeman (a preacher and mill worker) and his mother was a domestic worker for one of the prominent families in town.

Education

Mordecai studied primary school on a small elementary school in his native town. After it, he moved to Nashville where studied at Roger Williams University, then Memphis at Howe Institute in Memphis.

Later was transferred to the Atlanta Baptist College (now Morehouse College) where he completed his secondary and undergraduate education. During his college career, he was a member of the debating team and the Glee Club, a star athlete in three sports, and quarterback of the football team. Offered a faculty position at the college upon graduation, he taught English and economics and served a year as acting dean. He maintained a profound interest in economics throughout his career—an interest that was apparent in some of his major addresses.

After one year of teaching, he continued his education at the University of Chicago, where he received a second A.B. degree, and at the Rochester Theological Seminary in Rochester, New York, where he earned the B.D. degree. At Rochester he was profoundly influenced by the great "social gospel" advocate, Walter Rauchenbusch. His experiences there made an indelible impact upon his thinking and his entire career.

Johnson received his B.A. from Morehouse College in 1911, and second bachelor of arts degree from the University of Chicago two years later. He studied at several other institutions of higher education, including the Rochester Theological Seminary, Harvard University, Howard University, and the Gammon Theological Seminary.

Family

Mordecai Wyatt Johnson married Anna Ethelyn Gardner on December 25, 1916. They had five children: Carolyn Elizabeth Johnson, Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Jr., Archer Clement Johnson, William Howard Johnson, and Anna Faith Johnson.

Career

Following a brief stint as secretary of the western region of the Student Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), in 1917 he became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Charleston, West Virginia. He later founded a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Presidency of Howard University

On June 26, 1926, at the age of 36, Johnson was unanimously elected the eleventh President of Howard University, becoming the first African American to serve as the permanent head of that institution. Prior to his appointment Johnson had served as Professor of Economics and History at Morehouse. He had also served as Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Charleston, West Virginia.

During his tenure, Johnson appointed Charles Hamilton Houston as dean of the law school, and whom played a significant role in dismantling the Jim Crow laws.

Johnson raised millions of dollars for new buildings and for upgrading all of the schools. National honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa, were established on the campus of Howard.

During his administration, it was said that Howard had the greatest collection of African American scholars to be found anywhere. Notable scholars at Howard included:

Alain Locke, graduated from English and Philosophy at Harvard, and was the first African American Rhodes Scholar,

Ralph Bunche, professor of political science and later a Nobel Laureate;

Charles Drew, who perfected the use of blood plasma;

Percy Julian, a noted chemist;

and Sterling Brown, professor of English and noted Harlem Renaissance poet.

Johnson bring Howard university into national prominence and served as president of Howard for 34 years, since 1926 until his retiredment in 1960. In this time the enrollment at Howard University increased from 2,000 in 1926 to more than 10,000 in 1960.

Johnson the Orator

Johnson was an annual speaker for the Education Night at the National Baptist Convention, a speaker at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston, and spoke alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others at the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. He traveled 25,000 miles a year throughout the country speaking principally on topics such as racism, segregation, and discrimination. In 1951 he was a member of the American delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that met in London.

Awards and recognitions

In 1929, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) awarded Johnson the Spingarn Medal (its highest honor at that time), for Johnson's ability to secure annual federal funds to support the university's financial future.

Death

Mordecai Wyatt Johnson died on September 10, 1976, at the age of 86, in Washington, D.C.

Wikipedia