Robert Louis Wilken’s The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity (Yale University Press, 2012) is an ambitious survey of Christian history, from one of America’s most accomplished religious historians. Wilken is William R. Kenan Professor of History of Christianity Emeritus at the University of Virginia, an associate at the St. Paul Center for […]

Called To Communion is delighted to welcome two new members to our team of contributors, Casey Chalk and Jason Kettinger.

The following post is not intended to offer an academic or theological defense of purgatory or the practice of granting indulgences as Called to Communion has already discussed these doctrines and practices at great length. For readers interested in a thorough treatment of indulgences, purgatory, and pilgrimages, see Bryan Cross’ article from January of 2011. […]

When we read the Bible, one of the most important things that we need to do is to read it typologically. A biblical type is any person, place, thing, or event that pre-figures something that comes later and becomes its fulfillment (antitype). Thus, one who reads the Bible typologically “discerns in God’s works of the […]

This past Friday, July 5, Pope Francis released his first encyclical letter, titled Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith). In this letter he notes that Pope Benedict had “almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith,” and adds “as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a […]

A number of years ago, before I became Catholic, I received a phone call from a moderator of a private internet discussion group to which I had belonged for nine years, informing me that I was being removed from the group. The news was painful. Officially I was being removed because of my views, which […]

This is a guest post by Daniel Edward Young. Daniel is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern College (Iowa) where he teaches political theory, international relations, and comparative politics. He received his Ph.D. from Temple University. His scholarly interests include the intersection of political theory and international relations, the history of political thought, […]

Some interest has been generated in online news media by Pope Francis’s recent homily in which he affirmed that atheists can accomplish some good in the created order, which provides a “meeting place” for them and religious believers. The Pope went on to say that atheists have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. I immediately took this […]

Included in the May 2013 issue of First Things is Ephraim Radner’s review of Candida Moss’s book, The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom (HarperOne). I found Moss’s arguments against the historicity of early Christian martyrologies to be particularly familiar and interesting in the light of some recent discussion over at Jason […]

Called To Communion is delighted to welcome Joshua Lim to our team of contributors.