bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
N
icholas of Myra (End of the 3rd Century–345 or 352)
Authors: Vlavianos Sotirios 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
Nicholas was a bishop who was recognized as a saint after his death. He was born in Patara of Lycia, a province of Asia Minor, in the end of the 3rd century and died in Myra of Lycia in 345 or 352. Although he is one of the most popular saints in the Eastern as well as the Western Church, there is scarcely anything historically certain about him, except that he was Bishop of Myra in the 4th century. According to various traditions, he was ordained a presbyter at an early age by his uncle Archbishop Nicholas. He was well known as an almsgiver and a pastor who took special care of the orphans from the early years of his ministry. Later he was elected bishop of Myra. He was imprisoned around 305, during the persecutions of Diocletian and Maximian. He is said to have participated in the First Ecumenical Synod, convened in Nicaea by Constantine the Great against the heresy of Arianism. However, there are doubts regarding his presence in the synod, since his name is not mentioned in any of the old lists of bishops that attended. He died in Myra and was buried in a basilica dedicated to his memory. In 1087 his relics were abducted and brought to Bari by crusaders of the First Crusade.
N
iebuhr,
H
.
R
ichard (1884–1962)
Authors: Patterson Brett Chandler 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
A notable 20th century Christian ethicist, H. Richard Niebuhr belongs to a theologically oriented family, which includes his brother Reinhold, who also became a well‐known Christian theologian in the United States, and his sister Hulda, who was a professor of Christian education. Richard grew up in Missouri, guided in theology by his father, Gustav Niebuhr, a German Evangelical Synod pastor, and in literature and music by his mother, Lydia Hosto Niebuhr, the daughter of an Evangelical pastor. Richard attended Elmhurst College (1908–1912) and Eden Theological Seminary (1912–1915). Ordained in 1916, he served a short term as pastor in Saint Louis. In 1919 he took a teaching position at Eden while also studying at Washington University and the University of Chicago, where he studied with G. H. Mead, a pragmatist philosopher. In 1920 he married Florence Marie Mittendorf; the couple would later have two children, Cynthia and Richard Reinhold. After completing doctoral studies at Yale (1922–1924) and tenures as president at Elmhurst College and academic dean at Eden, he in 1932 accepted an invitation from Yale Divinity School to teach Christian ethics. He served there over 30 years and influenced a number of students, including Paul Ramsey, Hans Frei, and James Gustafson — and indirectly influenced Yale's postliberal school of theology (George Lindbeck, Stanley Hauerwas, etc.).
N
iebuhr,
R
einhold (1892–1971)
Authors: Barre Elizabeth A. 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
American, Protestant theologian, social ethicist, and political theorist, Reinhold Niebuhr was born in 1892 in Wright City, Missouri. He was the son of first‐generation German immigrants and his father was an ordained minister in the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Niebuhr also prepared for the vocation of ministry, attending Elmhurst College, Eden Theological Seminary, and Yale Divinity School. After graduating from the latter in 1915, he assumed the pastorate of a small congregation in Detroit, Michigan. He remained in this position until 1928, when he left to teach Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary.
Ninth Century Christianity
Authors: Kurian George Thomas 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

By the 9th century Christianity had been pushed back from its original Mediterranean homelands in the Middle East and North Africa to Europe. The coronation of Charlemagne as the new patron of Christianity marked the beginning of what has been termed by historians the Carolingian Renaissance. This was the first time after the Age of Constantine that a state church became a force that shaped European culture for the next half a millennium. Charlemagne appointed Alcuin as his adviser to oversee the founding of schools and scriptoria. Throughout the ninth century the Carolingian empire was the dominant power in Europe. Charlemagne himself initiated reforms to improve standards of literacy and Latin throughout his realm, assisted in these efforts by not only Alcuin but also Theodulf of Orleans, Paul the Deacon, and Angilbert. In 789
Admonitio Generalis
decreed that schools should be established in every monastery and episcopal center where boys would learn psalms, music, arithmetic, and grammar. In 787 Charlemagne circulated a letter entitled “On the Cultivation of Letters” to all abbots and bishops stressing the importance of Christian learning including correct speech. The emperor noted the importance of good teachers in the transmission of knowledge. The long association of Christianity with education and learning began with Charlemagne, although Augustine and others had advocated learning as a handmaiden of faith.
Offices of Christ
Authors: Mueller Steven P. 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
A classic system of organizing the work of Christ, the term “office” refers to his official work: what the Father sent him to do. While there are many biblical descriptions of the work of Christ (e.g. teacher, Savior, shepherd), one system has been used more than any other. This classifies Christ's work as prophet, priest, and king. Priests and kings were anointed into office (e.g. Exod. 40:13, 2 Kings 9:3) and prophets were sometimes anointed (e.g. 1 Kings 19:16). Christ, literally “the anointed one,” was anointed with the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38). The prophetic office of Christ refers to his authoritative speaking of God's word. Old Testament prophecy indicated that he was to be a great prophet (Deut. 17:15); Hebrews 3:3–6 calls him the supreme prophet, speaking his own word. As priest, he offers himself as sacrifice (Rom. 3:25) and intercedes for his church (Heb. 7:25). The messiah was prophesied to be a son of David (Isa. 9:7), and now reigns over all as the king of kings (Rev. 17:14).
Old Believers in
R
ussia
Authors: Parsons William H. 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
The Russian Orthodox believers who refused to accept the liturgical reforms of Patriarch Nikon carried out from 1652 to 1658 were called “Old Believers.” Nikon tried to bring Russian Orthodox practices in line with the Greek practices of that time. With the support of the Muscovite state, he declared the Russian practices erroneous and subject to suppression. This created a schism in the church, with hundreds of thousands of Old Believers rejecting the changes and being persecuted by the official church and the state.
Opus Dei
Authors: Coulter Michael 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
Opus Dei, which is Latin for “Work of God,” is a Catholic organization whose purpose is to help people obtain sanctity through their work and daily activities. The formal name is the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei. In 1982 it was given the status of a personal prelature by Pope John Paul II. A prelature is a type of institution proposed at Vatican II that carries out a special pastoral mission. It is the only prelature recognized by Vatican authorities.
Orthodoxy
Authors: Köstenberger Andreas J. 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

The term “orthodoxy” is derived from two Greek words,
orthos
(straight, correct) and
dokeō
(think, believe). While the expression is not found in extant literature prior to the 2nd century
ad
(though see the use of the verb
orthodoxein
, e.g., in Aristotle's
Nichomachean Ethics
1151a.19; see also
orthotomein
in 2 Tim. 2:15), the notion of a standard for right belief is attested in the New Testament. In Christianity the question of orthodoxy is bound up primarily with correct teaching regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ. By contrast, “heresy” (from
hairesis
, faction or division) involves teaching regarding Jesus that deviates from standard norms of Christian doctrine (see 2 Pet. 2:1). Since its inception, Christianity has had to deal with questions concerning the nature, origin, and contours of orthodoxy, and throughout the history of the church councils and creeds have sought to define and guard the church's orthodox teaching, resulting in both schisms and reforms.
Oxford Movement
Authors: Hefling Charles 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

Named for the university in which it had its beginning, the Oxford Movement was a campaign to enhance and restore the “Catholic” character of Anglicanism. Its most outstanding leader was John Henry Newman (1801–1890), whose own account of its early years in his famous
Apologia pro Vita Sua
has until recently been the standard interpretation of its origins and aims. For Newman the movement was above all a reaction against liberalism, by which he meant an optimistic philosophy that subordinated revealed religious truth to human thought and feeling, and the life of the church to political expediency. Thus in the first of the
Tracts for the Times
(1833–1841) he stressed the supernatural basis of clerical authority and resisted the idea of bishops as mere officers of the state. Later tracts in the series ranged from pamphlets to treatises, and gave the alternative name “Tractarian” to the movement and its followers. Among the authors were John Keble and E. B. Pusey, the most prominent of those who remained loyal to the Church of England after Newman made his submission to Rome in 1845.
Packer, James Innell (
b
. 1926)
Authors: Bain‐Conkin Jeffrey L. 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
James Innell Packer came from humble origins to become one of the most recognized theologians of the second half of the 20th century. Theologian, author, speaker, and teacher are labels that approach but cannot sum up his contribution to evangelical Protestantism on two continents. Born in 1926 in England, Packer suffered a head injury as a child that, during his recuperation, fostered a love of reading and writing. A favorite author, with whom he was later to be compared, was C. S. Lewis.
P
alestine and
I
srael
Authors: Yeats John M. 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
Throughout history, the geographical land bridge known as Palestine has held significant physical and theological prominence for the Christian church. Within the boundaries of this small nation, Jesus ministered to the people in the region of Galilee and Jerusalem. After his death and resurrection, the early church established its first congregations in the city of Jerusalem by meeting in homes and in the temple courts (Acts 2). Jesus' final challenge to his disciples placed the city of Jerusalem as the center for the expansion of Christianity, proclaiming that the gospel would be known first, “in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world” (Acts 1:8).
P
astorius,
F
rancis
D
aniel
Authors: Schmidt Alvin J. 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
Born in 1651 in Sommerhausen, Bavaria, Germany, where he was baptized and reared by Lutheran parents, Pastorius studied classics and theology at several universities, eventually obtaining a doctor's degree in law from the University of Nuremberg in Bavaria. For a short time he lectured at the University of Frankfurt/Main. In 1683, he was asked by some German Quakers and Mennonites in western Germany about purchasing land in Pennsylvania where they would find religious freedom. He negotiated a contract for them and in June left for Pennsylvania ahead of them, arriving in August, 1683. The Quakers and Mennonites (13 families in all) left Krefeld, Germany, two months later, landing in Philadelphia on October 6, 1683. Pastorius and his group settled on a large tract of land (some reports say 15,000 acres) that had been purchased from William Penn (1644–1718). Here, near present‐day Philadelphia, they built a village they named Germanopolis, but the public soon changed it to Germantown. Pastorius' German immigrants were the harbingers of other German immigrants — millions of them — who came to America the next two‐hundred years.
P
elagius (
c
.354–
c
.420)
Authors: Thompson John 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
Pelagius was an ascetic monk and lay theologian in the early church who denied the doctrine of original sin from Adam. He was eventually declared a heretic by the Roman Catholic Church. His doctrine of a free will became commonly known as Pelagianism, which was strongly opposed by Augustine of Hippo.
Pentecost
Authors: Fatokun Samson Adetunji 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

The word “Pentecost,” from the Greek,
he Pentecoste hemera
(meaning “the 50th day”) is derived from the Greek translation of the Old Testament for the Jewish “Feast of Weeks” (also called Feast of Harvest and Feast of First Fruits). It followed the last day of the seven weeks reckoned from “the morrow of the Sabbath” (Lev. 23:5–6, 11, 15, 16). It was one of the major three Jewish pilgrim festivals (Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacle). Pentecost was celebrated on the 50th day after the Passover. And since the Feast of Passover fell on the 15th of Nisan (which was around the middle of April), the Feast of Pentecost thus fell on the 6th day of Sivan (which was possibly the first week in June).
Perpetua and Felicity, Passion of
Authors: Beiting Christopher J. 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity
, an account of the imprisonment, trials, and martyrdoms of several early 3rd century Christians, was in large part the product of one woman, who dies during the course of the narrative, making the work a kind of auto‐hagiography. Important for its accuracy and its unusual authorship, the
Passion
became a very popular document in the churches of north Africa, second only to the Gospels in importance, and the names of Perpetua and her fellows were added to the list of the saints in the canon of the Mass by the 4th century.
Peruvian Christianity
Authors: Kurian George Thomas 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
The diocese of Cuzco was set up in 1536, three years after Pizarro reached Peru. Lima became a diocese in 1541, and by 1546 it was the metropolitan see for the Pacific region. The 17th century was the golden age of Peruvian Christianity, when it produced two canonized saints. In 1845 Catholicism was made the official religion; foreigners were given permission to conduct Protestant services provided no Peruvians attended. In 1920 the new constitution severed the ties between Catholicism and the state. The 1933 constitution, however, accorded a special status to the Catholic Church.
Pilgrimage
Authors: Quantz Amanda D. 
Published: January 2012

AbstractIt has been said that mysticism is an interior pilgrimage whereas pilgrimage is externalized mysticism (Turner & Turner 1978). Throughout Christian history, pilgrimage has been a form of devotion shared by the faithful in the Greek East, the Latin West, and beyond. In 326ceEmperor Constantine's mother, St. Helen, fulfilled her desire to see the places associated with Christ and the saints by undertaking a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Although the details of her itinerary are speculative, the experience prompted Helen to pour money into building projects to celebrate the life of Christ. The most noteworthy of these monuments was the Church of the Holy Sepul‐cher. From the 4th through the 6th centuries there was a steady stream of pilgrims to the Holy Land, until Palestine began to suffer from Persian raids, followed by nearly five centuries of Muslim rule. This turn of events made it difficult for Christian pilgrims to move freely throughout the region. It was also during this period that it became customary for pilgrims both to collect mementos from their pilgrimages and to leave behindex‐votos(Latin, from the vow) as an act of gratitude. These objects might consist of jewelry, small statuary, or even a wax image of a body part that had been healed.
Plymouth Brethren
Authors: Lineham Peter 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
The Plymouth Brethren is a movement in Protestant Christianity which emerged in the third decade of the 19th century in southern Ireland and southern England. The name most strongly associated with it as founder is John Nelson Darby (1800–1882), a clergyman in the Church of Ireland, a passionate evangelical with a very high view of the church, who came to believe that ordained ministry was a sin against the Holy Ghost, and that the church should focus on being prepared for the future return of Christ. Alongside Darby were a number of other church reformers, mostly Anglican, but also including some discontented Nonconformists, troubled at the emergence of the age of denominationalism. They included Anthony Norris Groves (1795–1853), a dentist and missionary to Persia, famous for his views on discipleship, J. G. Bellett of Dublin, and Lady Powerscourt of Ireland. Their views were shaped by extremist Protestants at odds with establishment churches, including J. A. and Robert Haldane, radical evangelical renegades from the Church of Scotland, Edward Irving, the proto‐Pentecostal, and H. B. Bulteel, the high Calvinist. The movement was thus a protest against the cautious evangelical Anglicanism and Presbyterianism of the early 19th century. The movement practiced a weekly communion service conducted somewhat after the manner of the Quakers, waiting on the leadership of the Holy Spirit. It rejected ordained ministry in favor of the gifts of Christ disposed on the church. Early leaders were fascinated by futurist eschatology and the movement gradually developed the approach known as Dispensationalism, which has had great influence in America through the Scofield Bible and is sometimes called rapture theology because of its emphasis on a secret rapture of Christ prior to the second coming. By the 1840s the movement had made significant gains in the west of England but it was then rent by extreme tensions over eschatology, Christology, and ecclesiology. The largest of the earliest assemblies was at Raleigh Street in Plymouth, where Benjamin Wills Newton was the most prominent leader, but he was accused of heresy by Darby and a subsequent dispute about what to do with people contaminated by Newton's ideas led to a deep ecclesiological dispute about how far to take the demand for “purity” of belief and separation from the impure. The vision of Darby was both purist and sectarian, while on the other side, leaders like Anthony Norris Groves and George Muller argued for a nonsectarian abandonment of denominationalism. It was a tension that reappeared frequently in the history of the movement.
Poetry, Christian
Authors: Masson Scott 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

Broadly conceived, Christian poetry may include three distinct categories of writing: the poetry contained in holy scripture itself; the poetry evincing its influence; and the poetry written by Christians in general. While these are not mutually exclusive categories, there has always been a general sense in discussions on the subject that the scriptures ought to govern the others in the same way God does his creatures. The reason is theological. Human beings have been created by the Word of God
in imago Dei
(Gen. 1:26–27; Col. 1:15–20; Jas. 1:18); words thus seem intrinsic to human nature, while also subordinating it (and them) to God. Coleridge (1817: I, 13) perhaps expressed the relationship between the Word and words best, albeit somewhat cryptically, in his famous description of what he and his contemporaries deemed the poetic faculty
par excellence
, the primary imagination: “the living power and prime Agent of all human perception, and … a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM.” The understanding of the poet's art as essentially mimetic stretches back as far as Aristotle, the subordination of human poet to the materials furnished by the Divine Author as far back as there have been Christians to write on the subject.
Postliberal Theology
Authors: Mills D. E. “Gene” 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
Postliberal theology, begun in the 1970s and still somewhat influential, serves as an explicit reaction to the liberal theology in fashion at most prestigious universities. While there has been much recent dialogue between postliberal and evangelical theologians, it also serves as a response to more conservative theologies. As a loose system, it is most often associated with the work of Hans Frei and George Lindbeck of Yale. Others associated include Kathryn Tanner, Stanley Hauerwas, Ronald Thiemann, and Don Saliers, though each quite distinct from each other and emphasizing different characteristics of postliberal thought. It is also known as “narrative theology” and the “Yale school.”
Poulenc,Francis (1899–1963)
Authors: Kurian George Thomas 
Published: January 2012

AbstractFrench composer. The accidental death of a friend led to his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1935. Thereafter he composed a number of religious works of which the first wasLitanies to the Black Virgin of Rocamadour, 1936. His masterpiece was theDialogue of the Carmelites(1956), an opera in three acts on the martyrdom of a group of nuns during the French Revolution for refusing to abjure their vows. The depth of his spirituality may be seen in the unaccompanied mass in G and other choral works, while theStabat Mater(1950) andGloria(1959) are grandiose in their fervor. Other unaccompanied choral works for the church include four penitential motets (Timor et tremor,Tenebrae factae sunt,Vinea mea electa, andTristis est anima mea), anExultate Deo, and aSalve Regina(1941) and four Christmas motets,O Magnum Mysterium,Quem Vidistes Pastores,Videntes Stellam, andHodie Christus Natus est. His large‐scale compositions includeStabat Mater(1950) andSept Repons des Tenebres(Office for Holy Saturday, 1961).
Preaching
Authors: Moody Joshua 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
Since earliest days preaching has been central to the practice of Christianity. Jesus was, among other things, an itinerant preacher whose homespun parables have stuck in the memory of his disciples ever since, and whose more polemic utterances likewise in those who have disagreed with him. The first “Christian sermon,” it could be said, was delivered at Pentecost, where the apostle Peter stood up and carefully explained before the massed crowd how what they had seen in terms of the gift of the Spirit was being poured out because the promised Christ in the Jewish Scriptures had arrived in the death and resurrection of one Jesus of Nazareth. Luke, in his book of Acts, frequently refers to the progress of the Word or the message of the gospel as making progress and spreading, and records individuals, as well as the more official functionaries of apostles and deacons and evangelists, taking the gospel wherever they went.
Apologetics, Presuppositional
Authors: Oliphint Scott 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
The approach to apologetics sometimes labeled “presuppositionalism” was developed, over time, by Cornelius Van Til. Faced with the demise of apologetics in his own time, and armed with an education in Reformed theology and in philosophy, Van Til began his teaching career at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by applying the theology that came out of the Reformation to the philosophical objections to the Christian faith.
Priesthood
Authors: Hayes Patrick J. 
Published: January 2012

Abstract
The story is told of Jesus walking along the Sea of Galilee and there he spotted Simon Peter and his brother Andrew hauling in a catch of fish. “He said to them, ‘Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately, they dropped their nets and followed him” (Matt. 4:19–20). The “call” to priesthood is one that is radically sacrificial. The doctrinal nature of priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church and those Eastern churches in communion with it, the Orthodox, and the Anglican churches is such that all have insisted on ancient rites to obtain for their clergy an abiding sacredness, indelibly marked on the very character of the ordained. Because these rites are neither employed, nor frequently seen as necessary for other Christian clergy, the concept of priesthood in the technical sense does not pertain to them.