What an exciting time to be alive in, eh?

Dear friends,

Don't you have this feeling that we live in a very exciting time spiritually? That's the feeling I've been filled with this morning while working on the layout for Ian Elmer's commentary this week. I suspect it's a time that might be similar to the sort of excitement tha was around in the early Church with enormous controversy over the meaning of what Jesus said, or meant — what is the meaning of all these signs — and the personality clashes between different individuals with their precious egos each fighting to assert "my view is the only truth about these matters there is!"

Ian's commentary today takes a look at the opinions of John Carroll in his recently published book, The Existential Jesus. My-oh-My, nobody ever questioned that all these disciples and apostles of Jesus were anything but "the perfect men" in the sort of Catholic theological paradigm most of us were brought up in who were born in the first half of the Twentieth Century. I find it really exciting, not off-putting, that today we are beginning to discern a far truer picture of who these men and women were who played such a critical role in leaving us the Scriptural legacy of Jesus. I simply don't have the fear that some seem to exhibit that all this questioning, and pulling these men down from uncritiseable hagiographies that had been erected around them poses any threat to religion and belief — or the Church. In time we will find it perhaps one of the best things that has happened as we will find we have a much more solid foundation for our beliefs and theology.

Just in the last few days, the section of Professor Leonard Swidler's book I have been reading has raised deep scholarly critiisms as to whether Peter was even the First Bishop of Rome. The evidence is actually scant that he ever was and there is a heck of a lot of evidence, it seems, that his main work was carried out at Antioch and his main Rome connection has been that he ended up being killed and buried there. (I'll take up Professor Swidler's arguments later today in our forum.)

Meanwhile I trust your day turns out with the sense of excitement that Ian Elmer seems to have instilled in my spirit this morning. <Read Ian's commentary>

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world,

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher