The Original Church
Spirituality/Belief
The Original Church, with Dr. James L. Papandrea, is an ecumenical Christian community exploring our common roots in the early Church for the purposes of spiritual growth and practicing the Christian faith. No politics, debates, or proselytizing, just "faith seeking understanding" from the perspective of the early (and medieval) Church and the Church fathers. Jim Papandrea is an author and Professor of Church History and Historical Theology.
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Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Here he is, the man himself - as I do every year - I give you...

the skull of St. Valentine, in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, in Rome

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Sneak Peek into my NEW OFFICE!

I'm back, up and running, and ready to go - I should have a new JOURNEY episode within the next week or so - and because you are my loyal peeps, here is an exclusive, just-for-you, behind the scenes SNEAK PEEK into my new office:

00:02:17
In case you missed it, here's my Gospel Reflection

This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App

00:02:57
The Journey is BACK!

Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.

Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.

Enjoy!

00:36:42
Here's another song... Come Let Us Climb the Lord's Mountain

I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:

In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

I hope you like the song!

Here's another song... Come Let Us Climb the Lord's Mountain
I recently had a great conversation with Michale Lofton

on his Reason and Theology show - this is to debunk some who say that the doctrine of the Trinity is a fourth century invention, or that it didn't exist before Tertullian coined the Latin word Trinitas or any number of those kinds of myths:

Here's' the New Way of the Fathers Episode
More on the topic of the Best (and worst) Bibles...

Here is the list of Bible versions I tell my students are UNACCEPTABLE for serious study of the Scriptures and the Early Church - for the most part it's always because these versions of English translations fail my test passages in serious ways - this is a quote from my syllabi:

[Note: The REB, CEB, GNT, KJV/New KJV, and NIV/New NIV versions are NOT adequate translations for the study of Scripture or early Christianity.]

I'd be happy to hear if anyone wants to try to change my mind on any of these, but note that I do not allow (and am constantly fighting against) the ever-popular NIV (which I call the Not Inspired Version).

Next up, I'll re-post a couple of my older videos on this topic...

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