“Windows To Spirituality”
Women In The Catholic Church This article covers the role of women in the Catholic Church. Women play significant roles in the life of the Catholic Church, although excluded from the Catholic hierarchy of bishops, priests, and deacons. In the history of the Catholic Church, the church often influenced social attitudes toward women. Influential...
Canon Law Of The Catholic Church The canon law of the Catholic Church (“canon law” comes from Latin ius canonicum) is “how the Church organizes and governs herself”. It is the system of laws and ecclesiastical legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regulate its external organization and government and to order and direct the activities of...
Anti-Catholicism Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics or opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and/or its adherents. At various points after the Reformation, some majority Protestant states, including England, Prussia, Scotland, and the United States, turned anti-Catholicism, opposition to the Pope (anti-Papalism), mockery of Catholic rituals, and opposition to Catholic adherents into major political themes. The anti-Catholic sentiment which resulted from this trend...
Catholic Art Catholic art is art produced by or for members of the Catholic Church. This includes visual art (iconography), sculpture, decorative arts, applied arts, and architecture. In a broader sense, Catholic music and other art may be included as well. Expressions of art may or may not attempt to illustrate, supplement and portray in tangible form Catholic teaching....
Buddha’s Birthday Buddha’s Birthday (also known as Buddha Jayanti, also known as his day of enlightenment – Buddha Purnima, Buddha Pournami) is a Buddhist festival that is celebrated in most of East Asia and South Asia commemorating the birth of the Prince Siddhartha Gautama, later the Gautama Buddha, who was the founder of Buddhism. According to Buddhist...
Mediatrix In Catholic Mariology, the title Mediatrix refers to the intercessory role of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a mediator in the salvific redemption by her son Jesus Christ and that he bestows graces through her. Mediatrix is an ancient title that has been used by many saints since at least the 5th century. Its use grew...
Queen Of Heaven Queen of Heaven (Regina Caeli) is a title given to the Virgin Mary, by Christians mainly of the Catholic Church and, to a lesser extent, in Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and Eastern Orthodoxy. The Catholic teaching on this subject is expressed in the papal encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam, issued by Pope Pius XII in 1954. It states that Mary...
Saint Thomas Christians The Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians of India, Marthoma Suriyani Nasrani, Malankara Nasrani, or Nasrani Mappila, are an ethno-religious community of Indian Christians in the state of Kerala (Malabar region), who, for the most part, employ the Eastern and Western liturgical rites of Syriac Christianity. They trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The Saint Thomas...
Schism Of 1552 The schism of 1552 was an important event in the history of the Church of the East. It divided the church into two factions, of which one entered into communion with Rome becoming part of the Catholic Church at this time and the other remained independent until the 19th century. Although the Eliya line,...
Ecumenical Patriarchate Of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constantinopolitanus; Rum Ortodoks Patrikhanesi, İstanbul Ekümenik Patrikhanesi, “Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate”) is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches (or “jurisdictions”) that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, currently Bartholomew, Archbishop...
Eastern Christian Monasticism Eastern Christian Monasticism is the life followed by monks and nuns of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Church of the East and Eastern Catholicism. Eastern monasticism is founded on the Rule of St Basil and is sometimes thus referred to as Basilian. History Christian monasticism began in the Eastern Mediterranean in Syria, Palestine and Egypt where the Desert...
Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Tigrinya: ቤተ ክርስትያን ተዋህዶ ኤርትራ) is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches with its headquarters in Asmara, Eritrea. Its autocephaly was recognised by Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, after Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993. History See also: Timeline of Orthodox Tewahedo Origins Tewahedo (Ge’ez: ተዋሕዶ täwaḥədo) is a...
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, Yäityop’ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan) is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in sub-Saharan Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates back centuries, and has a current membership of about...
Eastern Orthodox Worship Eastern Orthodox worship in this article is distinguished from Eastern Orthodox prayer in that ‘worship‘ refers to the activity of the Christian Church as a body offering up prayers to God while ‘prayer‘ refers to the individual devotional traditions of the Orthodox. The worship of the Eastern Orthodox Church is viewed as the...
Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy (or Eastern Orthodox Christianity) is one of the three main branches of Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or “canonical“) Eastern Orthodox Church is organised into autocephalous churches independent from each other. In the 21st century, the number of mainstream autocephalous churches is seventeen; there also exist autocephalous...
Chaldean Catholic Church The Chaldean Catholic Church (ʿīdtha kaldetha qāthuliqetha; الكنيسة الكلدانية al-Kanīsa al-kaldāniyya; Ecclesia Chaldaeorum Catholica, ‘Catholic Church of the Chaldeans’) is an Eastern Catholic particular church (sui juris) in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church and is headed by the Chaldean Patriarchate. Employing in its liturgy the East Syriac Rite in the Syriac language, it is part of Syriac...
Church Of Christ (Latter Day Saints) The Church of Christ was the original name of the Latter Day Saint church founded by Joseph Smith. Organized informally in 1829 in New York and then formally on April 6, 1830, it was the first organization to implement the principles found in Smith’s newly published Book of Mormon, and thus its establishment...
Mormonism And Polygamy This article covers the relationship between Mormonism and polygamy. Polygamy (called plural marriage by Latter-day Saints in the 19th century or the Principle by modern fundamentalist practitioners of polygamy) was practiced by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from...
Mormons The “Book of Mormon” being published, its peculiar doctrines, including those just set forth, were preached in western New York and northern Pennsylvania. Those who accepted them were termed “Mormons”, but they called themselves “Latter-day Saints“, in contradistinction to the saints of former times. The “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day...
Islam And Abortion This article covers the relationship between Islam and abortion. Muslim views on abortion are shaped by the Hadith as well as by the opinions of legal and religious scholars and commentators. The Quran does not directly address intentional abortion, leaving greater discretion to the laws of individual countries. Although opinions among Islamic scholars...
