bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
L
aw,
W
illiam (1686–1761)
Authors: Lineham Peter
Published: January 2012

William Law was born into a prosperous family in King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire, England, in 1686. He entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1705, and graduated in 1708. He was ordained and elected to a fellowship at the university in 1711, but after offending the authorities in 1713, he declined to swear allegiance to George I in 1716 and was evicted from his fellowship. He thus became one of the Nonjurors, a group of separatist High Church Anglicans. He attacked Dr Benjamin Hoadly, the latitudinarian bishop, in his first publication,
Three Letters to the Bishop of Bangor
(1717), insisting that church authority should be based on apostolicity. He wrote an attack on Mandeville's satire on Christian moral principles,
Fable of the Bees
, arguing that the moral sense could not be reduced to naturalistic logic. In 1726 he wrote a pamphlet attacking “Stage‐Entertainment,” and in 1732 wrote a reply to the deist writer Matthew Tindal,
The Case of Reason
. About 1727 he was appointed as tutor to Edward Gibbon, the father of the classical historian, and lived at Putney until the death of Gibbon in 1736. He then returned to King's Cliffe for the rest of his life. His household included Mrs. Hutcheson and Hester Gibbon (the sister of his previous employer).
L
eo
XIII
,
P
ope (1810–1903; Pontificate from 1878)
Authors: McAlhaney Timothy M.
Published: January 2012

Leo was born Vincenzo Giaocchino Pecci in Carpineto in the Papal States. He studied at the Jesuit College in Viterbo (1818–1824), the Roman College (1825–1832), and the Roman Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics (1832–1837). In 1837 he was ordained a priest and made a domestic prelate. He served as papal delegate to Benevento (1838–1841), Spoleto (1841), and Perugia (1841–1843). In 1843 he was named papal nuncio to Belgium and promoted to bishop. During this period he became acquainted with the social and political issues that would define his pontificate.
L
ewis,
C
.
S
. (1898–1963)
Authors: Williams Will
Published: January 2012

Author, scholar, and Christian apologist, Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland on November 29, 1898. He was a writer of great breadth, making contributions to such varied genres as theology, philosophy, literary theory, children's fantasy, science fiction, poetry, autobiography and devotional material. While he was a youth, Lewis slipped happily into atheism, and this attitude was only reaffirmed upon being privately tutored under the atheist W. T. Kirkpatrick, who was a former headmaster of Lurgan College. Kirkpatrick was a rigorous logician whose training, ironically, Lewis would later use in defense of the faith. Lewis converted to theism in 1929 and to Christianity in 1931, while riding in his brother's motorcycle sidecar. During his time at Magdalen College, Oxford, Lewis was a member of a literary club called the Inklings, which included such members as J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Hugo Dyson. The Inklings were Christian men associated with Oxford University who would meet to discuss literature and to critique one another's writings, which tended toward the genre of fantasy.
Liberalism
Authors: Rios Christopher M.
Published: January 2012

As it relates to Christian theology, liberalism refers to a theological tradition that favors theological and intellectual freedom over traditional doctrines and external authority. Protestant liberalism began as an apologetic response to the challenges that the Enlightenment, romanticism, and modernism brought against Christian faith, and sought to present Christianity in a way that was acceptable to modern people. Liberal theology tried to affirm Christianity's validity by downplaying or redefining many of its traditional teachings.
Liberation Theology
Authors: Coulter Michael
Published: January 2012

Liberation theology is a theological movement that had a great presence in Latin America from the late 1960s into the 1980s. It attempted to bring about radical social reform based on the conviction that social transformation was central to the Christian gospel. The most influential theologians in the movement were Gustavo Gutiérrez from Peru, Leonardo and Clodovis Boff from Brazil, and Jon Sobrino, SJ, from El Salvador. Other figures include Archbishop Oscar Romero and Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ.
L
iele,
G
eorge (
c
.1750–1828)
Authors: Gerloff Roswith
Published: January 2012

The African American/Jamaican George Liele (or Lisle), called the “Negro prophet of deliverance,” is a key figure in the pre‐emancipation period, the Christianization of slaves, and the unfolding of a black theology of liberation and interculturation, both in North America and in the Caribbean. Born a slave in Virginia, but in 1773 set free by his master to exercise his spiritual gifts, he was ordained in 1775 and licensed to preach and sing salvation to the oppressed. He was, besides the Baptists William Byrd, Andrew Bryan, and David George, and the Methodists Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, one of the first African preachers and pioneers of independent Baptist churches in North America. His church in Silver Bluff in South Carolina and the Yamacraw Baptist Church in Georgia were the first in a string of well‐organized congregations under black leadership along the Savannah River which, distinct from mission stations, schools, or mere permission to attend camp‐meetings, became the social and cultural home of thousands of freed slaves after the Civil War. To avoid reenslavement, he escaped with 400 white families and 5,000 freed blacks and slaves on an army ship to Jamaica, where he founded the first “Ethiopian Baptist Church” at Kingston Race Course in 1784. In a sermon on Romans 10:1, he compared the fate of the slaves with Israel's bondage in Egypt who needed to be set free, and referred to the God of the bible as the God of the
African cosmos
who would turn suffering into victory — a first synthesis of African traditions and historical experience with the biblical message. In the
Covenant of the Anabaptist Church, Begun in America, Dec 1777, and in Jamaica, Dec 1783
, he placed the Baptist work formally under the protection of “King, Country and Law” and allowed into membership of the church only those who obtained permission from their masters. Thirty years before the arrival of the British Baptists, he with other American exslaves laid the foundation for overt African expressions of the Christian faith and the “freedom of the African soul.” They called for support from the BMS in London, motivated by lack of finance and the need to counteract mounting persecution and tightened legal restrictions and to channel the mission into more orderly Baptist patterns. From 1814 British Baptists rendered assistance not oversight.
Lindbeck,George (b. 1923)
Authors: Ashford Bruce Riley
Published: January 2012

American Lutheran theologian and professor of Historical Theology at Yale, George Lindbeck was a delegated observer at the Second Vatican Council, was prominent in ecumenical circles for almost 40 years, and is the patriarch of postliberal theology. With the publication ofThe Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Doctrine in a Postliberal Agein 1984, he rose to prominence as a shaper of late 20th century theology. This book, as well as his other books and articles, arise from and are driven by his involvement in ecumenical dialogue.
L
ippi,
F
ra
F
ilippo (1406–1469)
Authors: Kurian George Thomas
Published: January 2012

Florentine artist, a disciple of Masaccio. He was a monk in the Carmelite Convent in Florence.
Liturgical Books
Authors: Solomon Kenneth R.
Published: January 2012

Liturgical books are works, usually published under the authority of a denomination, that contain the texts and order necessary for conducting worship services. The books are generally designed to maintain order and orthodoxy within the worship practices of the denomination. Through the centuries, however, liturgical books have also become privatized, influencing the personal worship of individuals in their homes. In addition to worship life, liturgical books have also influenced the arts through their illuminations and liturgical poetry.
Liturgical Theology
Authors: Harmon Steven R.
Published: January 2012

Liturgical theology is the branch of Christian theological studies that seeks to articulate afresh the theological significance of the acts of Christian worship and to inform theologically the process of liturgical renewal in the church. As such it draws not only on the history of Christian worship and the disciplines of dogmatic and systematic theology, but also on the contributions of biblical studies that shed light both on the earliest history of Jewish and Christian worship and on the literary function of the canon of Scripture as a liturgical text.
L
lull,
R
amon (
c
.1235–1315)
Authors: Montgomery John Warwick
Published: January 2012

Llull — or Lullius (the Latin form of his name) — was a contemporary of Thomas Aquinas. Like Aquinas, he was a theologian in what James Walsh, one of the Roman Church's eulogists, has termed the “greatest of centuries,” since it was then that the church's enduring systematic theological formulations were developed.
Logos
Authors: Lamp Jeffrey S.
Published: January 2012

Logos
is a common Greek term with a wide range of meanings, typically with reference to communication, and so is frequently understood in the sense of “word, utterance,” and so on. In the Septuagint
logos
typically translates the Hebrew
dābār
, where
dābār
as “word” serves as an extension of the person who utters it. Thus the “word” of God is virtually coterminous with God's own personhood and connotes a revelatory act on the part of God toward human beings.
Lollards
Authors: Hill Bracy V.
Published: January 2012

Literary references to “Lollards” may appear as early as 1382. Origin of the derogatory term is uncertain, although it has been attributed to a Middle Dutch reference to mumbling and possibly to a Latin word for “tares.” In the early years, notable persons were accused of Lollardy including Sir Richard Stury, Sir John Montagu, Margery Kempe, Sir John Oldcastle, and Sir John Cheyne. After 1401, Lollards from the spectrum of society were condemned and executed; however, after 1430, most accused Lollards were artisans and tradespersons.
L
ombard,
P
eter (
c
.1095–1160)
Authors: Beiting Christopher J.
Published: January 2012

The
Sentences
of Peter Lombard, theologian and Bishop of Paris, became the de facto textbook on theology for the medieval period. Producing a commentary on it was the starting point for most of the great theologians of the Middle Ages. Born in Lombardy, Peter studied there (possibly at Bologna) and then at Rheims and Paris in France. In Paris he eventually taught at the cathedral school at Notre Dame, ultimately becoming a canon. At the end of his life, he was appointed Bishop of Paris.
L
uther,
M
artin (1483–1546)
Authors: Schmidt Alvin J.
Published: January 2012

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben in Saxony, Germany, on November 10, 1483. His father wanted him to study law, so in 1501 he sent him to study at the University of Erfurt. Four years later on a sultry day in July, 1505, a storm arose and a flash of lightning struck him to the ground. This prompted him to say, “St. Anne help me! I will become a monk.” Soon after, he enrolled in the Augustinian Cloister in Erfurt. Being religiously devout, he found that no matter how hard he tried to please God with his behavior, he still saw himself as an unforgiven sinner vis‐à‐vis a righteous God.
M
acedonian Christianity
Authors: Murdzhev Pavel
Published: January 2012

The geographical and historical region of Macedonia comprises roughly the territories incorporating what is today the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, Albania, the northern parts of Thessaly and Epirus in Greece, and the valley of the Struma river in Bulgaria.
Magisterium
Authors: Coulter Michael
Published: January 2012

The term “Magisterium” comes from the Latin
magister
, meaning “master” or “teacher.” The term is primarily used to describe the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. The First Vatican Council's 1870 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ,
Dei Filius
, speaks of those things which must be “believed with divine and Catholic faith” and says that they come from “the word of God, whether in Scripture or Tradition,” and they “are proposed by the Church, either by a solemn decision or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.”
M
alankara Orthodox
S
yrian Church
Authors: Childers J. W.
Published: January 2012

The story of Christianity on the Indian subcontinent is a long and complex one, rich with ancient tradition and marked by modern complexities. The name
Malankara
(or Malabar) designates a region on the southwest coast of India in the modern state of Kerala. According to Keralite tradition, Christianity came to the region through the preaching of the Apostle Thomas in the 1st century. Heirs to this tradition call themselves St. Thomas Christians and value their common history and Syriac liturgical legacy. Yet, due largely to the influence of non‐Indian churches in the wake of the Reformation, the community has become fragmented into several different denominations, with various Catholic, Protestant, and Oriental Orthodox affiliations.
Manichaeism
Authors: Woods Ryan T.
Published: January 2012

The most extensively diffused species of Irano‐Gnosticism, Manichaeism emerged from 3rd century Mesopotamia to include adherents from Europe, Central Asia, and China — “the only Gnostic system which became a broad historical force” (Jonas 1963: 206). It was also perhaps the most broadly stigmatized heresy in the history of religions, eliciting denunciations from Iranian clerics, a Roman emperor, Catholic bishops, and a Chinese emperor.
M
antegna,
A
ndrea (1431–1506)
Authors: Kurian George Thomas
Published: January 2012

Italian painter. A prodigy, he set himself up as an independent painter at the age of 17. His first major work was the
Life of St. James and St. Christopher
in the Ovetari Chapel of the Church of the Eremitani in Padua, which was completed in 1459 (and largely destroyed in 1944). His altarpiece for St. Zeno in Verona is a sacra conversazione,
Madonna and the Saints
, which unifies the traditional triptych into a single space. His most important surviving religious works are
Madonna and the Saints
,
the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian
,
Madonna della Vittoria
, and smaller Madonnas. His panels on the
Life of the Virgin
at the ducal palace in Florence are meticulous miniatures. His love of strong perspective comes through in his
Dead Christ
(1480), where Christ is bewailed by Mary and another of the holy women from the bottom of the cross. The frescoes Mantegna painted in the Belvedere for Pope Innocent VIII have been lost. By the time of his death he was widely honored and he had profound influence on later artists such as Bellini and Durer.
M
artin of Tours (C.316–397)
Authors: Gallagher Robert L.
Published: January 2012

A monk and bishop who pioneered Western monasticism in Gaul, Martin of Tours was born at Sabaria in Pannonia (present‐day Hungary), the son of a Roman tribune. At Pavia in northern Italy he became a catechumen at 10, and at 15 was enlisted by his father in the Roman army, where he served in Emperor Julian's bodyguard. Three years later, while a calvary officer stationed at Amiens in Gaul (present‐day France), he cut and gave half his military cloak to a beggar at the city gates. In a dream he saw Christ wearing the half cloak he had given to the poor man. This incident moved him to be baptized and to serve as a soldier of Christ.
M
arulus,
M
arcus (1450–1524)
Authors: Posset Franz
Published: January 2012

Marko Marulić, or Marulich, or Pecinić. Croatian. Born in Split, Croatia, on August 18, 1450 to a noble family. Split then belonged to the Republic of Venice. He attended the local school led by humanist laymen and may have had some training in law as he performed some administrative work in the community while mostly writing historical and religious works in Latin. As a bachelor he lived most of his life at the family estate. He was friends with Italian humanists and was influenced also by the
Devotio moderna
. He translated the
Imitation of Christ
(attributed to Thomas à Kempis) into Croatian. As a theological autodidact he worked on his
Repertorium
prior to 1500, a large collection of excerpts from classical authors, the Bible, and early Christian writers. From 1496 to 1499 he worked on the
Instruction on How to Lead a Virtuous Life Based on the Examples of Saints
, published in Latin in 1507. This work established his fame throughout Europe, as it was translated into Italian, German, Portuguese, French, and Czech, all prior to 1686. St. Francis Xavier carried this book with him on his mission journeys to the Far East. Further research will have to determine whether excerpts were translated into Japanese by Paulo Yôhô‐ken (1510–1599) and his son in the book
Sanctos no go‐sagyô no uchi nukigakkan dai‐ ichi
(Extracts from the Acts of the Saints, vol. 1), published by the Jesuit Mission Press in Japan, in 1591. His Latin
Carmen about the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ
(usually part of the
Instruction
) was edited separately at Erfurt, Germany, in 1514. In 1510 he wrote
The Deeds of the Kings of Dalmatia and Croatia,
and
Fifty Parables
, and in 1513
The Life of St. Jerome
. His
Evangelistarium
, a moral‐theological compendium of biblical texts, is known in a print of 1516, re‐edited in 1519 by the German humanist Sebastian Münster. The
Evangelistarium
was used by Thomas More and King Henry VIII. In 1518 he wrote
On the Humility and Glory of Christ
and
An Account of Illustrious Men of the Old Testament
, and in 1520–1521 on
The Last Judgment of Christ.
For his epic
Judith
of 1521 he earned the honorific title “Father of Croatian Literature.” He called upon Pope Adrian VI for help against the Ottoman armies. His
Davidias
tells the story of the biblical David in verse form, first edited in 1954. His
Praise of Hercules
was published posthumously in 1524. In it he lets the followers of Hercules compete with the followers of Christ. He was interested in local and national history, being a collector of inscriptions from cities in Italy and Croatia. His overall goal remained the renewal of Christianity, as he admired Erasmus of Rotterdam. As a lay theologian he became one of the great figures of European Renaissance Humanism. He died in Split on January 5, 1524 and is buried in the church of St. Francis.
M
asaccio (1401–1428)
Authors: Kurian George Thomas
Published: January 2012

Real name: Tommaso Giovanni di Mone. The greatest painter of the Italian Renaissance, who died very young. His fame rests on five surviving works. The first two are the triptych
Madonna and Child with the Saints
(1422), painted for the country church of San Giovenale in Cascia, and the
Madonna and Child with St. Anne
(1424–1425), both in Uffizi. Here Mary appears as
Theotokos
or Mother of God but the nude child highlights his human nature. The halo of the Madonna is the traditional plate behind her head but that of the child hovers over his head. The fresco of the Trinity implies that Adam was buried in Golgotha, below the Cross. It is the traditional form of the Seat of Mercy flanked by the Virgin and St. John. The fresco cycle in the Brancacci Chapel occupies both sides of the chapel and the altar wall on two levels. One of the scenes is the
Expulsion from Paradise.
The rest of the cycle is devoted to St. Peter. The
Tribute Money
in the upper left register is a perfect example of continuous representation. Below the
Tribute Money
is the
Raising of the Prefect's Son
and
St. Peter Enthroned
. On the upper right of the altar is the
Baptism of the Neophytes
and on the lower section on either side are
The Distribution of Goods
,
Death of Ananias
, and
Peter's Shadow Healing the Sick
. In addition to manipulating the viewer's perception of space and time, Masaccio introduced a mood of emotional intensity into his scenes. Among his contemporaries he was closest in spirit to Donatello.
M
ason,
C
.
H
. (1866–1961)
Authors: Weaver Elton H.
Published: January 2012

Charles Harrison Mason is the founder of North America's largest African American Pentecostal denomination; the Church of God in Christ (COGIC). He has been described as one of the “greatest African American organizers” of the 20th century. A son of emancipated slaves Jeremiah and Eliza Mason, Charles Mason was born September 8, 1866 in Bartlett, Tennessee, near Shelby County. Mason was raised in the African American Baptist church. His early religious preparation and experiences came from his mother, “mother Eliza”; she was a product of the slaves' “underground church” and the first spiritual person to impact his life. His mother's prayers, her spiritual power, and strong dedication to God allowed young Mason to witness the inner workings of black folk religion. In 1878, after a devastating yellow fever epidemic hit Shelby County, Mason's family moved to Plumerville, Arkansas where Mason and his brothers worked as sharecroppers with their father. In 1880 Mason fell sick with tuberculosis and later claimed that God miraculously healed him. Afterward Mason said he dedicated his life to the service of God. At age 14 Mason was baptized, ordained, and licensed to preach in the black Baptist church by his half brother Rev. Israel Nelson, a Baptist preacher pastoring Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist church near Plumerville, Arkansas. In the 1890s Mason and his colleague Charles Price Jones established a holiness association of churches. Mason and Jones' association later became the Church of God in Christ.
Matrimony
Authors: Köstenberger Andreas J.
Published: January 2012

There are three major views of the nature of marriage: 1) marriage as a sacrament; 2) marriage as a contract; and 3) marriage as a covenant or as a divine institution with covenantal features.
M
auriac,
F
rançois
C
harles (1885–1970)
Authors: Jeffrey David Lyle
Published: January 2012

Perhaps the premier French novelist and journalist, winner of the Grand Prize from
L'academie française
in 1925, elected member of the French Academy in 1933, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1952, François Mauriac is one of the leading Catholic writers of the 20th century. Among the four most widely read canonical authors in the French curriculum (the others are Camus, Sartre, and Ionesco), he stands out not so much as an existentialist but as a deeply troubled Christian moralist.
Medieval Christian Legends
Authors: Welty Kyle
Published: January 2012

Legends were commonplace in medieval Christendom. Of course, most medieval Christians would not have considered the numerous tales of heroes, saints, and strange creatures that imbued their world to be legendary. The veracity of these stories was obscured because the subjects were removed from medieval Christians by time or space, and in many cases by both.
Megachurches
Authors: Sobukwe Sharon Gramby
Published: January 2012

A megachurch is a church with 2,000 or more worshipers who attend weekly services. The rapid growth and proliferation of megachurches internationally, their common characteristics, and the networks of affiliation they form suggest that the world is witnessing a megachurch movement. Most research suggests that this church movement is encouraged, for good and bad, by the features of the globalization since the 20th century.
M
ercersburg Theology
Authors: Caldwell Robert W.
Published: January 2012

A school of theology originating at the German Reformed seminary, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania in the 1840s and 1850s, the Mercersburg Theology was a creative, high church, and Reformed response to American revivalistic Protestantism. Led by theologian John Williamson Nevin (1803–1886) and church historian Phillip Schaff (1819–1893), the Mercersburg Theology emphasized a “catholic” form of Reformed Protestantism, including a deeply christological understanding of the church, the centrality of the sacraments, a deep aversion to revivalism and sectarianism, and the importance of church history to church life.
M
erton,
T
homas (1915–1968)
Authors: S.J. Harvey D. Egan
Published: January 2012

Thomas Merton was born of a New Zealand father and an American mother in the Midi region (Prades) of France. Merton was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1938, while he was a student at Columbia. Three years later he became a Trappist monk at the abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky. His autobiography,
The Seven Storey Mountain
(1948), became an international success not only because of its significant statement about monastic spirituality but also because of its telling account of the spiritual condition of the times.
M
essiaen,
O
livier (1908–1992)
Authors: Watkins Daniel
Published: January 2012

Born in Avignon, France on December 10, 1908 as Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen and baptized into the Roman Catholic Church on December 25 of the same year, he was one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. Initially self‐taught on the piano, Messiaen eventually spent around a decade studying at the Paris Conservatoire under such notable professors as Jean Gallon and Paul Dukas. Upon completing his formal education in music, he accepted the substantial post of organist at the Église de la Saint‐Trinité in Paris. On June 22, 1932, he married Claire Delbos, the daughter of a notable professor at the Sorbonne, and five years later on July 14, 1937 they had a child whom they named Pascal.
Messianic Judaism
Authors: Yeats John M.
Published: January 2012

Attempts to recapture the religious practices of the first Jewish followers of Jesus through integrating Judaism and the teachings of Jesus while fulfilling Biblical prophecy and maintaining an evangelistic focus on the Jewish community. From early church movements such as the Ebionites and the Nazarenes, throughout the history of Christianity many groups attempted to maintain the Jewishness of Jesus and his followers within the practice of Christianity. Even the New Testament captures the strained dynamics between the first Jewish followers of Christ and the rapidly expanding Gentile population of the embryonic church as believers struggled to define exactly how Jewish the followers of Christ were supposed to be (see Acts 15; Gal. 5; Eph. 2; Col. 2–3; Heb.).
Methodism
Authors: Kurian George Thomas
Published: January 2012

Methodism represents one of the largest Protestant denominations in the world with an estimated 50 million members. It traces its origins back to John Wesley and the religious societies he founded during his crusades in the 18th century. It began as a movement in the Church of England for leading Christians toward the scriptural goal of holiness but became a denomination in 1797. According to John Wesley, a Methodist is one who lives according to the method laid down in the Bible.
Methodist Churches
Authors: Turner Michael K.
Published: January 2012

Methodism is one of the most widespread and influential Protestant groups in the world. The term Methodism does not refer to an individual denomination but to a large gathering of denominations sharing the same origins. At the present time, it is comprised of 76 denominations in 132 countries with 75 million members worldwide. The Methodists have been particularly influential in the United States; the Methodist church was the largest religious organization in that country until the Catholics displaced it in the 20th century.
M
exican Christianity
Authors: Castelo Daniel
Published: January 2012

Consistent with the Latin American experience, the history of Mexican Christianity began with conquest. Christianity arrived in Mexico at the hands of the
conquistadores
and priests associated with the subjugating Spanish culture. After the exploratory efforts of Francisco de Córdoba (1517) and Juan de Grijalva (1518), Hernán Cortés attempted a more extensive expedition in 1519, which saw him land on the island of Cozumel and subsequently the mainland, first on the Yucatan Peninsula, then Cholula, and finally the capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlán. During his first encounters with the Amerindian cultures, Cortés insisted that the natives accept Christianity; when they refused, Cortés and his men tore down their idols and replaced them with crosses and images of the Virgin Mary. Such demands stemmed partly from the idolatry the Europeans saw among the natives as well as the loathsome characteristics of some of their practices, especially human sacrifice. Given Spain's experience with the Moors, however, it is clear that Cortés was using the church to promote the kind of cultural hegemony that he thought necessary in the establishment of what would be known as “New Spain.” In short, Christianity became the default religion that went hand in hand with the experience of conquest for Mesoamerican life from the 16th century onwards.
M
eyendorff,
J
ohn (1926–1992)
Authors: Kenworthy Scott M.
Published: January 2012

A leading Orthodox theologian of the 20th century in the United States.
Miaphysitism
Authors: Farag Lois
Published: January 2012

Miaphysite means “one nature” (Greek,
mia
 =  one;
physite
 =  nature) and refers to the one‐nature Christology of Cyril of Alexandria articulated in his famous dictum, “one nature of God the Word Incarnate.” The miaphysites base their Christology on the theology of both Cyril and his predecessor Athanasius.
Michelangelo (1475–1564)
Authors: Thomas David Andrew
Published: January 2012

Italian. Born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti in Caprese, Republic of Florence, Tuscany, on March 6, 1475. The second of five sons, his father was Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarotti di Simoni, a local magistrate, and his mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena. A prodigy from his youth, Michelangelo came to embody the Renaissance ideal, mastering the disciplines of sculpture, painting, architecture, and poetry. The majority of his works are religious in nature and serve not only as the epitome of Renaissance beauty but also as the ideal representation of the biblical characters they portray.
Millenarianism
Authors: Yeats John M.
Published: January 2012

A movement of expectation within Christianity that anticipates the final consummation of history in the physical return of Christ. Millenarian movements have taken different forms at different periods of time reflecting cultural events and are frequently paired with dynamic personalities.
M
ilton,
J
ohn (1608–1674)
Authors: Kurian George Thomas
Published: January 2012

English poet, author of the last and greatest epic poem in English,
Paradise Lost
. Milton was born in Cheapside, London, as the son of John Milton, a successful scrivener. He was a precocious child, fluent in ancient and modern languages. He took his Master's from Cambridge in 1632. He planned to be a minister, but since he was a Puritan, did not want to serve the Anglican Church. While in school, Milton started writing poetry, mostly in Latin. In 1629, just after his 21st birthday, he wrote his first poem, “On the Morning of Christ's Nativity,” which signaled his promise as a poet.
Ministry to the Persecuted
Authors: Nettleton P. Todd
Published: January 2012

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me” (John 15:18–21).
Missiology
Authors: Klaus Byron D.
Published: January 2012

The term used to describe a discipline is no small matter. The term missiology is not new. With the Jesuit and Carmelite orders of monks in the 16th century, the term
missio
surfaces in the works of Ignatius Loyola and Jacob Loyenz. A great variety of names for what we now term missiology have been proposed. Gustav Warneck used the term
missionslehre
(theory of missions) to describe the course of study he led at Free University in Amsterdam. Abraham Kuyper used the word
prosthetics
, a derivative of the Greek verb
prostithestai
, “to add to the community” as used in Acts 2:41, 5:14 and 11:24. Other 19th century scholars like J. I. Doedes attempted to use the word
halieutics
, “to fish for men.” Nineteenth and 20th century Dutch scholars used the term theology of the apostolate or the science of missions. American Robert Speer used the descriptor “missionary principles and practice” in the early 20th century.
Monarchianism
Authors: Williams D. H.
Published: January 2012

The term represents a modern classification (by Adolf von Harnack) for several similar theological movements that stressed the indivisible unity of God as the primary way of understanding the mystery of the Trinity. The concept of God as
monarchia
(sole sovereignty), over against pagan polytheism and forms of Christian gnosticism, was a well‐established descriptor of the Divine Being among Pre‐Nicene writers. To think of God in monarchian terms was not regarded negatively, since it was necessary for Christians to emphasize God's unitary source and power — one divine spirit — as the basis for rendering the threefold operation of the divine economy in the world. No matter how the Trinity manifested itself in history, the full divinity of each in its earthly appearance is always asserted because Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one substance. Reference to God in terms of a single substance will have different connotations in the 4th century when the Council of Nicaea professed the Father and the Son as the “same substance.”
Monotheism
Authors: Laing Jacqueline
Published: January 2012

The term monotheism ordinarily suggests belief in one God and derives from the Greek
monos
meaning “one” and
theos
meaning “god.” In the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the one god is regarded as supreme lord and creator of the universe, almighty, all‐knowing, and all‐good. Traditionally, Christianity has taught that God revealed himself to our first parents, Adam and Eve, as the one true God in Genesis. The Old Testament reveals a jealous God who forbids the worship of strange and multifarious gods. God's chosen people, the Jews, are destined to prepare the way for the coming of the universal religion available not just to a privileged few.
Montanism
Authors: Hyatt Eddie L.
Published: January 2012

Montanism began around
ad
172 as a charismatic renewal movement in reaction to the growing formalism in the church. It began in the province of Phrygia of Asia Minor when Montanus, a convert from paganism, began to reassert the importance of spiritual gifts, particularly prophecy, and to insist that Christians live a morally strict lifestyle. Two prophetesses, Prisca and Maxmilla, soon joined Montanus and the movement spread from its native soil into North Africa and Europe, reaching even to Rome. In spite of extremes in both doctrine and practice, the movement gained widespread influence. In North Africa, for example, Montanism was embraced by the renowned church father, Tertullian, who also joined the movement around
ad
200.
M
ontanus (
c
.85–
c
.170)
Authors: Culpepper Scott
Published: January 2012

Montanus was the founder of a movement called Montanism or the “New Prophecy” which emerged in the mid 2nd century as a challenge to the authority of the Apostolic tradition of the mainstream church. Montanus and his followers embraced an ecstatic spiritual expression that included visionary trances, continuing revelation, eschatological fascination, and a strict code of ethical conduct. His associates, Priscilla and Maximilla, also raised questions concerning the proper role of women in ministry and church leadership. While the movement was eventually ruled heretical by the mainstream church, its status in relation to orthodox belief was not immediately defined. The most celebrated student of the “New Prophecy” was the North African theologian and apologist Tertullian, though the scholarly consensus today is that Tertullian did not become a Montanist himself.
Moravian Church
Authors: Atwood Craig D.
Published: January 2012

The Moravian Church's impact on Christianity and world culture is disproportionate to its size (about 750,000 members in 2007). In the 18th century, the church engaged in social experiments that challenged patriarchy, racism, and economic exploitation, and pioneered culturally sensitive missions to indigenous peoples in the Americas and Africa. It is also famous for its contributions to Protestant hymnody and liturgy, and its
Losungen
or daily “watchwords” remain one of the most popular resources for personal devotions in Germany. The most famous reader of the
Losungen
, was the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose Finkelwalde Seminary was modeled in part on the example of the Moravians.
More,
T
homas (1478–1535)
Authors: Hill Bracy V.
Published: January 2012

English attorney, humanist, author, statesman, martyr. Internationally famous as a statesman and humanist, More was immortalized by martyrdom. Executed as a traitor for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church in England, More was recognized by the Roman church as a martyr, beatified by Pope Leo XIII (1886), canonized by Pope Pius XI (1935), and named patron saint of politicians. More represented English humanism and principled resistance to 16th century changes in English politics and religion.
Motherhood of
G
od
Authors: Atwood Craig D.
Published: January 2012

In polytheistic religions, the gods often have feminine consorts, but in monotheism god exists as one. Though Christian theology has taught that God is beyond gender, the dominant metaphors for God in the Christian tradition have generally been masculine. The Trinity, for instance, includes two male images: the Father and Son. However, the Bible does include allusions to God as a hen protecting her chicks and as a woman groaning in labor. The book of Genesis states that God made men and women in the image of God, implying that the image of God includes both males and females. In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born from above,” which implicitly compares redemption to an act of divine birthing.
M
ott,
J
ohn
R
. (1865–1955)
Authors: Loyer Kenneth M.
Published: January 2012

John R. Mott, an American lay Methodist, was the world's leading Protestant missionary and ecumenical statesman during the first half of the 20th century. Born near Purvis in Sullivan County, NY, Mott moved with his family to Postville, IA, where he was raised. After studying at Upper Iowa University and Cornell University, he diligently pursued his life's work as an evangelist and a leader of the emerging ecumenical movement. Throughout his illustrious career, Mott occupied many leadership positions in mission organizations. He served as student secretary of the International Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in 1888, and that same year he helped organize the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions (SVM), a branch of the YMCA. He would go on to direct the SVM for three decades. By the time he spoke at the SVM's 1951 convention, over 20,000 volunteers had done mission work through its efforts. Mott was also instrumental in the formation and development of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), which sought to unite Christian students from all nations. In 1901 he was appointed the assistant general secretary of the YMCA, and in 1926 he became president of the World Alliance of YMCAs. He shared in the planning and leadership of the epochal Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910, which he also chaired. At Edinburgh, a follow‐up committee was formed (later called the International Missionary Council [IMC]). Mott was closely associated with the IMC for the rest of his life. A zealous proponent of Christian missions, he embraced and advanced the motto “the evangelization of the world in this generation.”
M
ühlen,
H
eribert (1927–2006)
Authors: Vondey Wolfgang
Published: January 2012

A German systematic theologian who focused on the work of the Holy Spirit in the church, Heribert Mühlen is regarded as one of the most significant Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century. Born April 27, 1927, he received a doctorate in philosophy in 1951 and a doctorate in theology in 1962. He was ordained in 1955, attended Vatican II as adviser to Cardinal Lorenz Jaeger, and served as professor of Dogmatic Theology and History at the Theological Faculty in Paderborn from 1964 to 1997.
M
uhlenberg,
H
enry
M
elchior (1711–1787)
Authors: Buss Dietrich Gotthilf
Published: January 2012

Born in Einbeck, Germany in 1711, Henry Muhlenberg is the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in the United States. His father served on the city council, while his mother, Anna Maria Kleinschmidt, was the daughter of an army officer. His father's untimely death forced Muhlenberg to go out to work to support the family. A basic education enabled him to become a school teacher in the Harz Mountains in 1733–1734. The following year Muhlenberg entered the newly founded Göttingen University. In collaboration with two of his fellow students, he established an orphanage. In 1738 Muhlenberg transferred to the University of Halle, a center of Pietistic teaching. Greatly influenced by the spiritual disciplines of Bible study, prayer, fellowship, and service, Muhlenberg was ordained into the Lutheran ministry at Leipzig the following year.
M
ullins,
E
.
Y
. (1860–1928)
Authors: Dockery David S.
Published: January 2012

Edgar Young Mullins was born in Franklin County, Mississippi on January 5, 1860. His father was a farmer, teacher, and a Baptist minister. His parents dedicated him to the Christian ministry when he was a child, a commitment about which the son was told for the first time on his thirty‐fifth birthday, after he had served as a minister for a decade.
Mystery of Suffering
Authors: Ryan Robin
Published: January 2012

The terrible scourge of human suffering has been a subject of reflection in virtually every school of philosophy and ancient religion. For Christians, the tragedy of innocent suffering has provoked intense questioning about the will of God and God's relationship to creation. In moments of personal and corporate suffering, people of faith often find themselves crying out with the psalmist, “How long, Lord? Will you utterly forget me? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Ps. 13:2). In such experiences, Christians stand before two great mysteries: the mystery of God and the mystery of human suffering.
Mystical Theology
Authors: Dawson Connie
Published: January 2012

Mystical theology is rooted in Scripture, especially John's Gospel (chapters 15 and 17) and emerged early in church history as witnessed in the lives of the Cappadocian fathers. Dionysius the Pseudo‐Areopagite was the first to use the term “mystical theology.” Mystical theology within the Christian tradition is the study of the individual experience of contemplative prayer which cultivates the interior life and leads to an ever increasing awareness of the soul's love for and union with God. Mystics often speak of ecstatic experiences, supernatural revelations, visions, and locutions which are seen through the inner eye or heard through the inner ear of the spirit. The goal of mysticism is not perfection in the sense of external works, but perfection which comes through union with God and the soul being filled with divine light and love. Experience is not the primary focus for the mystic but rather the transformation that occurs as the soul submits obediently to God.
Mystical Tradition
Authors: Egan Harvey
Published: January 2012

Adam and Eve
have been understood by many in the Christian mystical tradition as contemplative prototypes because of the direct and immediate consciousness of God that they enjoyed until they sinned.
Abraham
,
Jacob
,
Moses
,
Samuel
, and other patriarchs are also presented in the Hebrew scriptures as having a special God‐consciousness.
Moses
and
Jacob
, for example, claimed face‐to‐face meetings with God — with some qualifications as to how directly they gazed upon his face (Gen. 32:30; Exod. 33:11, 23; Num. 12:7; Deut. 34:10).
Jacob
wrestled with God, survived, and was left with an overwhelming sense of God's holiness (Gen. 32:24f.). Because
Job
saw God (Job 42:5), his agonizing questions ceased, and he repented “in dust and ashes.” Because the
prophets
had “stood in the council of the Lord” (Jer. 23:18), they were authenticated as mystics in action to speak forth God's word.
N
ag
H
ammadi
Authors: Bigalke Ron J.
Published: January 2012

In December 1945, a collection of Coptic texts was found near Nag Hammadi, a city in Upper Egypt. An Arab peasant named Muhammad ‘Ali al‐Samman uncovered a red earthenware jar in the desert while digging for
sabakh
(a soft soil) to fertilize his crops. Although he and his brothers originally feared releasing a
jihn
(an evil spirit), the feeling diminished with the hopeful prospect of finding gold within the jar. Within the jar were 13 soft leather‐bound papyrus books (codices), which contained 52 separate tractates, dating from approximately
ad
350. The household of Muhammad ‘Ali had been mourning the murder of their father and vowed to avenge his death, which they did viciously. Consequently, the brothers were reluctant to make their discovery public. Some of the scrolls were burned for kindling, but the few that were given to a local Coptic priest, Basiliyus ‘Abd al‐Masih, began the discovery of the texts for the world of biblical scholars. The Coptic Museum began publication, but the entire Nag Hammadi library was not made available in English until the James M. Robinson translation was published in 1977.
N
arsai (
c
.399–
c
.502)
Authors: Amar Joseph P.
Published: January 2012

Narsai (c.399–c.502) is one of the foremost poet‐theologians of the Syriac Church, perhaps equal in stature to Jacob of Sarug, but both second only to Ephrem the Syrian. He is the most important writer of the Church of the East, in which he is known as the “Harp of the Spirit.” Although many of his works have been lost, approximately 80 of his metrical homilies (
mîmrê
) are extant.
Nationalism and Ethnicity
Authors: Alexander Paul Nathan
Published: January 2012

Nationalism and ethnicity are integrally related. The word “ethnicity” developed from the Greek
ethnos
which means “people, nation” (Balz & Schneider 1990: 381–383). Members of an ethnic group conceive of themselves as being alike because of shared ancestry and they are viewed that way by others; they have “interrelated primordial bonds, kinship, affinity, attachment, and grounds for self‐esteem” (Committee on International Relations, Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry 1987: 19). The words “nation” and “nationalism” stem from the Latin
nasci
(to be born) and
natio
(birth). Nationalism is “devotion to the interests or culture of a particular nation [
ethnos
]” and racism is “the notion that one's own ethnic stock [
ethnos
] is superior” (Pickett 1985). Both nationalism and racism are forms of ethnocentrism, which holds the values of one's own ethnicity, nationality, or race as superior to others and views other collective groups negatively.
Natural Theology
Authors: Montgomery John Warwick
Published: January 2012

So‐called “natural” theology differs from “revealed” theology in that it endeavors to provide evidence for God's existence and for divine truths without reference to a special revelation from God (as claimed for the Bible or, outside the Christian tradition, for such writings as the Quran). The most influential exponent of natural theology in Western Christendom has been Thomas Aquinas, who held that a foundation for accepting special revelation can be found in Aristotle's classic arguments for God's existence. Natural and revealed theology operated largely in tandem until the advent of 18th century Deism — which endeavored to base ultimate principles upon Nature alone (as in Thomas Paine's
Age of Reason
) — and Immanuel Kant — who claimed that an ethical “categorical imperative” could be justified without recourse to a revelatory deity.