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

31.4: 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

31.3: 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

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

008 :
24 Mar 2008

31.1: 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]