050 :
06 Apr 2009

13.4: The Pagan Mystery Religions that challenged Christianity For Australian readers of Catholica who happened to watch the documentary on the religious affairs program Compass last night Tom Lee's commentary today might be particularly valuable. He's exploring the Pagan Mystery Religions that posed a threat to Christianity and in particular Mythraism which has many similarities to Christianity in rituals, beliefs and the mythic and other stories that formed the basis of the belief system. [more]

049 :
30 Mar 2009

13.3: Where did the idea of Purgatory spring from? Today's excerpt from Tom Lee's manuscript starts out unpromisingly by mentioning a Pope we know almost nothing about, Urban I. Don't be put off by that though, in this 1300 or so words he packs in some important history surrounding the name of Origen, Tertullian and Hippolytus. Where did we get our ideas about Purgatory from? Who left us a record of the earliest liturgies? Find out today. [more]

048 :
23 Mar 2009

13.2: How we came by the title "Pope"… The early decades of the third century were a time of some debauchery in Rome, particularly under the boy-Emperor Elagabalus. Surprisingly he seems to have been nice to the Christians — perhaps because of the liberal outlook of the Bishop at the time, Callistus. But Callistus earned the wrath of the more hardliners including Hippolytus and Tertullian. Included in Tom Lee's commentary today is the story of how we came to have the term "pope". Originally Tertullian used it as a term of derision against the liberal policies adopted by Callistus. [more]

047 :
16 Mar 2009

13.1: Controversy over the Trinity… We've now reached about the half-way point of Tom Lee's manuscript looking at the origins of Christianity. The story enters the third century and opens with a controversy over the meaning of the Trinitarian understanding of God. [more]

046 :
09 Mar 2009

12.2: Persecution & Heresy Reign… You might want to skip the first part of today's commentary where Tom Lee describes the character of Commodus, one of the most thoroughly distasteful of the Roman Emperors. Unless you're a bishop or a theologian though, don't miss the second part, which contains some interesting reflections on the roles of bishops and theologians. They might want to throw Tom Lee to the lions after what what he writes today. [more]

045 :
02 Mar 2009

12.1: Persecution & Heresy Reign… The stories of the Christians and the Lions has an enduring fascination. Today Tom Lee recounts some of that story in the persecution that began in Lyons around the year 177. But this first of a two-part extract from Chapter 12 of his manuscript contains other valuable little insights into the origins of Christianity. For example when did the belief of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist develop? When did someone first start listing the Apostolic succession? What was the route by which Christianity first made its way to the Britons? [more]

044 :
23 Feb 2009

11.4: The European Dimension… Tom Lee today brings to a close his chapter looking at the European dimension to early Christianity. Compared to the more recent commentaries in this series this will probably attract heightened interest because here Tom brings the commentaries that led up to this into focus. The identity of Christianity is becoming more defined. His section on the role played by Justin Martyr is particularly worthwhile reading. [more]

043 :
16 Feb 2009

11.3: The European Dimension… Tom Lee attracted some criticism when we first start publishing his manuscript — mainly from those sectors who "know all the answers" — for his use of the word "invention" in the title. Today's extract gives the reference where Tom Lee borrowed the term from. Tom Lee oughtn't be the one getting the blame at all but the ancient writer, Lucian of Samosata. His commentary today is largely discussing a peaceful period in Roman, Christian and European History. By this time though Christianity had lost almost all connection with its Jewish origins and the orginal Jewish-Christians had become a small sect rejected by both mainstream Judaism and mainstream Christianity. One wonders if that might happen again with our present remnant-lovers? [more]

042 :
09 Feb 2009

11.2: The European Dimension… Today's commentary from Tom Lee is a bit of a potpourri. It starts looking at Roman suspicions towards the early Christians and their religious beliefs and practices, moves into a discussion of Christian suspicion towards heretical beliefs in their own ranks and ends with a look at how the Christian attitude to Revelation changed over time. [more]

041 :
02 Feb 2009

11.1: The European Dimension… In our continuation of the serialisation of Tom Lee's mammoth exploration of the first 500 years of Christianity, we begin our new publishing year with a four-week examination of the chapter he entitles "The European Dimension". One of the fascinations of Christianity is that its origins were diverse and perhaps that is what helped it become the first global religion. Within the diversity of its origins though the European dimension was the strongest. [more]

040 :
22 Dec 2008

10.5: The name of Israel was expunged from all records… One of the great tragedies of human history has probably been the destruction of Jerusalem. Who do we blame, the Romans in general, Hadrian or his successors in particular, or Simon Bar-Cochba who led the Jewish revolt that was put down by the Romans? Who knows? What we do know is that Jerusalem was left a virtually wasteland for much of the Common Era up until the 20th Century — our "living memory". Tom Lee's commentary today looks briefly at what happened to Jerusalem under the Romans but ends with some valuable insights into what all this meant for the subsequent development of Christianity as well. This concludes Part 10 of his manuscript. [more]

039 :
15 Dec 2008

10.4: Christianity under Roman Emperors, Trajan and Hadrian… Before Constantine the Christians got a pretty raw deal under the Romans although how much attention they received from the Roman authorities seemed to differ Emperor to Emperor. Today's extract from Tom Lee's manuscript on the early history of Christianity is looking at the situation under Roman Emperors, Trajan and Hadrian. Perhaps not surprisingly during this period we tend to know more about the Romans than the Christians who were still marginal to civilisation and whose leaders seemed to be martyred at the drop of a hat. [more]

038 :
10 Dec 2008

10.3: Roman hedonism and brutality and the witness of Ignatius… The extract from Tom Lee's manuscript today is a bit of a mixed bag covering a number of topics but all broadly related to providing an insight into how the fledgling Christians interacted with the surrounding Roman culture. It will also be perhaps some of the most interesting reading to many providing insight into the brutality and hedonism of the Romans. At the end of the extract Tom introduces us to Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch — the first to use the term "Catholic Church" as far as we know and brutally martyred by the Romans. [more]

037 :
24 Nov 2008

10.2: Clement, Evaristus and Alexander… Today's extract from Tom Lee's manuscript is less taxing and more in the form of an interesting piece of early Church history. He looks at the contributions of the third, fourth and fifth leaders of the Church, Clement, Evaristus and Alexander and it is interesting looking at how the liturgical traditions developed and how some of our practices were borrowed and adapted from other religions and the pagans. [more]

036 :
17 Nov 2008

10.1: The Mass takes form… The chief interest Tom Lee's commentary today will more tha probably generate is in his discussion of the origins of the Catholic Mass. There is much else of interest though beginning with volcanoes, plagues, fires, licentious behaviour and wars in various parts of the Roman Empire. His commentary explores why our principal celebration occurs on Sundays and how the formal liturgy we celebrated today evolved. [more]

035 :
10 Nov 2008

9.3: The Gospels as Liturgy III… Today Tom Lee wraps up his Chapter that has been inviting us to read the Gospels in a completely different light — not as a history lesson as we traditionally understand history in the Western mind but as liturgy and history as seen from the Jewish perspective. He opines that we can discover an entirely different meaning when we do this. His commentary today begins by exploring how we (The Christian Church) lost contact with this original perspective out of which the Gospels were put together. [more]

034 :
03 Nov 2008

9.2: The Gospels as Liturgy II… It's probably a truism that all of us "believers" have tended to read Jesus as some kind of history lesson. The reality is that he wasn't a history lesson. He was a liturgical lesson. Liturgy, in a sense, is also history isn't it? but it is history read in a different way to how we were traditionally taught history at school. Tom Lee today in this short extract from his book looks at how, in recent times and mainly thanks to Biblical scholarship, we have begun to see "the Jesus story" in a new light — the light of liturgy. [more]

033 :
27 Oct 2008

9.1: The Gospels as Liturgy I… An introductory commentary from Tom Lee today from a short but fascinating chapter from his manuscript that introduces us to a new mindset from which to view the Gospels — reading them as liturgical documents rather than as historical documents. In fact it is not really a "new" mindset, it is a very ancient one. It comes from our Jewish brothers and sisters — the people who provided the crucible for Christian insight. [more]

032 :
20 Oct 2008

8.7: The Fourth Gospel… This week Tom Lee explores the Fourth Gospel which is so different in style to the Synoptic Gospels. The Gospel of John dates from the last decade of the first century or even the first decade of the second, and was probably written at Ephesus. It is a mystical interpretation of the life of Jesus, written for the third or fourth generation of Christians. It is less of an historical account than a theological commentary on the significance of Jesus. [more]

031 :
13 Oct 2008

8.6: The writings attributed to Luke… This week we have a shorter commentary from Tom Lee. In it he explores the Gospel of Luke, and also the Acts of the Apostles whose authorship is attributed to the authors of Luke. It might be short but one can expect plenty of vigorous discussion from the biblical experts and early Church history scholars in our Catholica community as Tom "brings to focus" some of the more contentious issues raising by the Lukean accounts that have peppered academic biblical studies in the last century. [more]

030 :
06 Oct 2008

8.5: The incarnation and birth narratives… Lock up your daughters, manacle your sons, and keep this episode of Tom Lee's commentary well out of their sight. Today Tom explores the foundational stories concerning the incarnation and birth of Jesus. Are these stories literally true? Or were they borrowed and adapted from similar foundational stories that had been used in other religions before Christianity? Where does the real truth in these matters reside? [more]

029 :
29 Sep 2008

8.4: The Gospel of Matthew… When anyone writes a book today we have the advantage of listening to interviews with the author on radio or television — or reading interviews in magazines — which give us some insight into the person who wrote what they wrote and why. We don't have that advantage with many of the authors of our Sacred texts. In many cases the real authors are completely anonymous to us. Today we publish the continuation of Tom Lee's mammoth personal endeavour where he set out to try and understand what he believes and why by examining the origins of Christianity. His focus today is on the writers of the Gospel of St Matthew. [more]

028 :
22 Sep 2008

8.3: Looking in more detail at the writing attributed to Paul and Mark… Over the next week or so Tom Lee is examining in more detail the origins and background to the New Testament writings that did become proclaimed as divinely inspired. Today the emphasis is on the writing of Paul and Mark. Next week he looks at Matthew. [more]

027 :
15 Sep 2008

8.2: How did they decide which stories were authentic? Who were "they"? This is possibly the most informative and provocative of all the extracts we have yet published from Tom Lee's manuscript searching for the origins of Christianity and the Papacy. Today he begins to get into the real nitty-gritty as to how the many stories circulating about Jesus and the first Apostles and followers in the early Church gradually came to be sorted into categories of authentic and non-authentic. [more]

026 :
08 Sep 2008

8.1: Which Gospel to Choose? To recap for newer readers of Catholica. this manuscript by actor, writer and broadcaster, Tom Lee, might be described as one man's long quest to better understand what he was brought up to believe. It took him nearly three decades to write it. Today we begin a lengthy part of his exploration in which Tom seeks to understand the origin of the Sacred Texts upon which Christianity is based. [more]

025 :
25 Aug 2008

7.2: Women and Leadership… Concluding Part 7 of Tom Lee's manuscript, today's excerpt examines the role accorded to women in the early Church and how it gradually became subverted at later points in history. It also has some valuable observations on the role played by the early community leaders — the bishops and presidents of the local communities. [more]

024 :
18 Aug 2008

7.1: The Mother Church moves from Jerusalem to Rome… We present Part 7 of Tom Lee's manuscript which explores the shift of the Mother Church from Jerusalem to Rome in two segments. Today's segment looks at the emergence of the early structure and leadership and leads into an exploration of the place of women in the early Church — a subject which Tom expands on in the second segment next week. [more]

023 :
04 Aug 2008

6.3: The impact of the destruction of the Temple (cont'd)… The new religion of Christianity faced considerable competition in its formative years. Tom Lee today concludes his examination of the impact of the destruction of the Temple and argues how "Christianity alone developed a system uniting philosophy and theology, sacrament and morality, a church and a private sense of God". [more]

022 :
28 Jul 2008

6.2: The impact of the destruction of the Temple… In the next part of the serialisation of Tom Lee's manuscript we take two excerpts from Part 6 in which Tom looks at the impact of the desfruction of the Temple in the year 70. This leads up the conclusion at the end of Part 6.3 that "Christianity alone developed a system uniting philosophy and theology, sacrament and morality, a church and a private sense of God". [more]

021 :
14 Jul 2008

5.5: The deaths of the foundation leaders, Peter and Paul… Today's commentary is the final section of Part 5 of Tom Lee's manuscript. Tom examines the events surounding the deaths of the foundation leaders of Christianity. We also see the place in history where the Christians were first delineated as separate to the Jews in the eyes of the Romans. [more]

020 :
07 Jul 2008

5.4: Paul's radical interpretation of the message of Jesus (cont'd)… Do yourself and favour and treat yourself to this fabulous exceprt from Tom Lee's book. Continuing the exploration of the radical new interpretation St Paul gave to the Jesus' story the excerpt today brings out in even sharper relief the sense of excitement Paul had for Jesus and perhaps why this excitement was infectious and made the missionary journeys of Paul as important as they were in giving Jesus appeal in the world of non-Jews. [more]

019 :
30 June 2008

5.3: Paul's radical interpretation of the message of Jesus… From Tom Lee's commentary today: "This equality was the mark of the Christian Eucharist for Paul, and why he fought so hard against dividing the church into Jewish and Gentile Christians and resisted hierarchies of men over women and clergy over laity. That Paul lost these battles doesn't dismiss their radical claim." [more]

018 :
23 June 2008

5.2: Enter the Gentiles and the first major dispute needing resolution through a Council… In this section of Tom Lee's manuscript that we publish today, the focus is on how Paul came to focus on the Gentiles in his missionary endeavours and how this in turn led to the first major dispute that needed resolution through a Council of Elders of the embryonic Christian community. Tom Lee examines the decision of the first Council held at Jerusalem under James, the brother of Jesus… [more]

017 :
16 June 2008

5.1: A virtue of necessity… Over the next few Monday commentaries we are going to spend some time looking at the detail of the early outreach efforts of the embryonic, still largely Jewish, Christian Church. Tom Lee argues today that much of the early outreach was a virtue forced of necessity as the early followers of Jesus faced various forms of persecution… [more]

016 :
02 June 2008

4.0: The new religion gets a name… We're skipping ahead a bit now. Part 3 of Tom Lee's manuscript and the opening of Part 4 explores some of the politics going on in the Roman Empire that played a part in the development of Christianity. In our excerpts for Catholica we pick up the story a little way into Part 4 where he looks at how the new religion got its name. This essay also helps set the scene for the Missionary Journeys which he explores in detail in Part 5 and which we will also look at in this series on Catholica… [more]

015 :
26 May 2008

2.4: Sorting the facts from the pious myths… Tom Lee today takes a look at what the emerging consensus is amongst historians and biblical scholars as to what are some of the facts and what are some of the pious myths concerning the trials and crucifixion of Jesus. [more]

014 :
19 May 2008

2.3: The origin and development of the Sacrament of the Eucharist… Catholics, indeed most Christians, have celebrated the Eucharistic meal as the central and most often ritually performed symbol and sacrament of their beliefs. In this extract from his manuscript looking at the First 500 Years of Christianity, Tom Lee, examines how this came to be and how, over time, the meaning changed through reasons of governance and other cultural influences of later periods in human and Church history… [more]

013 :
12 May 2008

2.2: The radical insights of The Sermon on the Mount… Being an extract from a larger work, the commentary today might be approached as a sort of "unfinished symphony". Many readers will be excited by the insights Tom Lee brings to this examination of the radical insights Jesus was driving at in what is perhaps his most acclaimed body of teaching — the Sermon on the Mount… [more]

012 :
05 May 2008

2.1: What did Jesus think he was doing? In this first of the more detailed excerpts from Tom Lee's book "The Invention of Christianity and the Papacy – the First 500 Years" we look at what we might discern of Jesus' self perception of his role and the perceptions of those around him… [more]

011 :
14 Apr 2008

30.4: Looking for positive alternatives... In this final extract from the conclusion to his book, Tom Lee shares some personal reflections on where his exploration has led him and his own beliefs today. [more]

010 :
07 Apr 2008

30.3: Looking for positive alternatives... In this penultimate extract from the conclusion to his book, Tom Lee turns his attention to looking at some alternatives that offer some hope for the future. [more]

009 :
31 Mar 2008

30.2: The future... Tom Lee explores some of the challenges the established churches face in our contemporary world — science, nature, fundamentalism, questions that were unknown to previous generations. [more]

008 :
24 Mar 2008

30.1: The future... For the next four or five weeks we rocket through to look at the final part of Tom Lee's manuscript. In looking to the future this may seem a major discontinuity to what we've been reading in this series so far but the introduction to this essay will hopefully provide a context for readers. [more]

007 :
17 Mar 2008

1.6: Conclusion to Part I... In his conclusion to part I, Tom Lee continues his focus in endeavouring to provide an overview as to how Jesus "fitted the cultural scene" of his time, and also how he "didn't fit". [more]

006 :
10 Mar 2008

1.5: Introducing Jesus into the discussion... In this further continuation of part I, Tom Lee's focus shifts to a closer examination of how Jesus fitted with the schema of his time — both in the ways in which he very much 'fitted in', as well as the places in which, or his followers, contemporary as well as later, offered radically different alternative. [more]

005 :
03 Mar 2008

1.4: The origin of some of the early Christian beliefs... Tom's essay today will be of much interest to readers of Catholica. He explores the origin of some of the beliefs that later became important in the Christian tradition. [more]

004 :
25 Feb 2008

1.3: The Jewish sects and other cultural influences in the time of Jesus... Tom Lee writes: "The spirit of revolt was abroad and it was at this time of ferment, shortly after his baptism that Jesus chose to proclaim in the synagogue a quotation from the Prophet Isaiah: 'The spirit of the Lord Yahweh has been given me, for Yahweh has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken; to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to those in prison; to proclaim a year of favor from Yahweh.'" [more]

003 :
18 Feb 2008

1.2: The Jews and the Romans... Still "setting the scene", in today's excerpt Tom Lee examines the relationship between the Jewish people and the Romans in the lead-up to the emergence of Christianity. [more]

002 :
11 Feb 2008

1.1: Setting the scene... Over the next three Mondays we serialise Part I of Tom Lee's manuscript. In Part I Tom explores the background politics, religious beliefs and outlook and the social conditions that existed in the parts of the world that would play a later part in the development of Christianity. [more]

001 :
04 Feb 2008

An introduction to a very special series... It is with great pleasure that that we introduce a special series written by Tom Lee exploring the First 500 Years of Christianity. This series will run on Mondays for the forseeable future. We predict it will lead to a "great wailing of the Banshees" from those sectors of the Church who believe they have all the answers and who self-righteously believe they're the only ones who are going to be saved. Within the Catholica community, and the circles our endeavour is seeking to reach and encourage, we expect it will lead to much fascinating discussion and self-critical analysis of what we believe and how we have come to believe it. This is adult faith education at its very best. [more]