Review of Richard Fletcher’s *The Barbarian Conversion*

The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity by Richard Fletcher

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A truly extraordinary book. Working from very patchy and ambiguous documents and archeological remains, Fletcher goes region by region speaking to us of the conversion of Europe to Christianity. We meet noble missionaries and conniving bishops and reckless monks and much more.

The strength of the book is the author’s acceptance of complexity in the reality of conversion. The factors were many (economic, cultural, marital, military, spiritual, philosophical) but he resists the temptation to boil it all down to one simple answer. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand what we are able to know about the conversion of the barbarians and the slow creation of European Christendom.

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Kevin Prosch: Journeys of Life

Over the years an obscure Christian artist named Kevin Prosch blessed me in many ways. I recently re-encountered his music and learned that it was more or less impossible to access. I have uploaded this album of his for the blessing of the people of God. It combines improvised worship, nature sounds, and ethnographic recordings. No one has ever done anything like this ever, to the best of my knowledge.

Listen and worship, be edified and encouraged in your journey of life.

Contextualization, Theology and Pope Francis

Book: Living samong the Breakage: Contextual Theology-making and ex-Muslim Christians. Shoki Coe, 1973 and 1974, two articles in Theological Education.

Some context for those not in the know about the latest news:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Calling for a major push toward developing a “fundamentally contextual theology, capable of reading and interpreting the Gospel in the conditions in which men and women live each day,” Pope Francis has approved new statutes for the Pontifical Theological Academy.

The academy was founded in 1718 to train theologians; the last revision of its statutes, by St. John Paul II in 1999, asked members to pursue “the principal mission of theology today,” which, he said, “consists in promoting dialogue between Revelation and the doctrine of the faith, and in offering an ever deeper understanding of it.”

In an apostolic letter issued “motu proprio,” on his own initiative, Nov. 1, Pope Francis said that in a “synodal, missionary and outgoing church,” theologians must also dialogue with other sciences and with members of other religions and that helping Catholics have a deeper understanding of the faith will be possible only if theology grapples with their questions and concerns. […]

Read it all HERE.

Interview with Tat Stewart on *No Stranger*, his new book on life and ministry in Iran

The Reverend Ashton “Tat” Stewart has just published his memoir on his childhood growing up in Iran, his move back to the USA, and then God’s call for him and his wife to return to Iran. Get the book at Amazon in paperback or kindle format. The full title is: No Stranger: to Iran, its People, and its Church. Observations about how to work with Muslims and people in the Middle East.

Introduction to Early Church History

Some time ago, I gave six introductory lectures on the history of the early Christian Church. The topics ranged from the selection of the New Testament canon to the rise of monasticism, from the triumph of the monarchial episcopal ecclesiology to the incorporation of Jews and Gentiles into one religious community.

Please leave any questions on my YouTube channel and I will answer them all.

How the whole thing started
Origins of the Christian Church
Of elders and bishops
Council of Nicaea
Choosing the books in the New Testament
The rise of monasticism