UPDATED VERSION – 08/25/2017
The 12-15 minute introduction to our newest Christian Education Video series, The War on Christianity, has been uploaded to our You Tube site. The MP3 Podcast version is linked from the newly-created Podcast Archive page here on our web site.
The Introduction includes an explanation of the premise of the series and its organization, It includes an opening discussion of five examples of physical assaults on Christianity, or what I call the First Front, in the United States, Egypt, France and Germany in A.D. 2016 and 2017. The title art is The Beast With Seven Heads and Ten Horns, from The Bamberg Apocalypse, an 11th C. illuminated manuscript of Revelation at the Bamberg State Library, Bamberg, Germany. It illustrates Revelation 13:1 as it was used in the AIC Bookstore publication, Revelation: An Idealist Interpretation.
The balance of the series will be focused on what I have called the Second Front, the insidious, public and private war on Christianity that is being waged each and every day, 24 hours a day, somewhere in the world. The Second Front is being fought in classrooms, courtrooms, legislative bodies, social media posts, blogs, newspapers, magazines, television, radio and, regrettably, within the Church itself.
I had initially thought to offer only Episode One in video format, but upon reconsideration, having written the script for the next two episodes, I’ve decided the offer the entire series in both formats. The reason is that illustrating my points will be easier with the hundreds and hundreds of illustrations the AIC has acquired or gained permission to use in the various other Christian Education, Seasonal and Bible Study videos.
Episode Two will begin with a discussion of how Christianity was reduced to marginal status in parts of the world where it once was dominant, including the Middle East, Asia Minor and North Africa. The obvious message is that the new War on Christianity is simply repeating what has already happened. If it is not resisted, the new WOC will have the same result.
Next week (week of 8/28) I will release Episode Twenty-one in The Lives of the Saints – Second Series. Episode Twenty-one celebrates the life of St. Cyprian of Carthage, whose Feast Day is September 12. The illustration is a detail which I lifted from a 6th C. Byzantine mosaic frieze at the Basilica of St. Apollinare, Ravenna, Italy (image copyright RibieroAntonio/Can Stock Photo, Inc.). In the frieze the martyred saints stand in line to give their crowns to Jesus Christ, who is seated as Christ Pantokrator flanked by angels. In the original, St. Cyprian stands between St. Cornelius, Bishop of Rome when Cyprian was Bishop of Carthage, and St. John Cassian, one of the earliest Western Church chroniclers of the early Church.
As always, thanks for your interest in and support of The Anglican Internet Church ministry. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!
Episode Twenty includes four images of the great saint, including the oldest known representation of him, a late 6th C. fresco in a chapel on the lower level of the Lateran Palace, Rome (left, public domain), and Jaime Huguet’s egg tempera on wood panel, The Consecration of St. Augustine, painted for the Spanish monarchy in 1462 A.D. and now in the Catalan National Museum of Art, Barcelona, Spain. Another Huguet painting included in the episode is one of a collection of paintings of famous men in the Louvre Museum, Paris. There is also an illuminated letter from an 13th or 14th C. edition of his The City of God printed in Avignon, France, from a collection in the Episcopal Museum, Vic, Spain. and a color photograph of his tomb in the Basilica San Pietro d’Oro (St. Peter of the Golden Ceiling), Pavia, Italy. I tell the story of his wandering remains and how they ended up in Pavia (twice).
Episode 19 in The Lives of the Saints – Second Series, focused on the life of St. Joseph of Arimathea is now available in both video and podcast versions. Finding a good graphic for St. Joseph was a challenge, since there are so few icons, mosaics or paintings of him. The Byzantine icon, Descent from the Cross (14th C., Agia Marina, Kalapanagiotis, Cyprus shows the scene well. But the most striking is Lamentation Over the Dead Christ, painted in oil on canvas by Pietro Perugino in 1495 A.D. and which is now displayed at the Pitta Palace, Florence, Italy, provides the most famous depiction. From it many have extracted the head of St. Joseph, who kneels at the feet of Jesus.
Another image of Joseph of Arimathea is from the Life of Christ series of sketches in charcoal and watercolor by French artist James Tissot, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, which has made them available in the public domain. In Tissot’s work the subject is much more clearly of Semetic origins (compared to the Europeanized image painted by Perugino and typical of Western Church art).
This week I offer three new videos and one new podcast from the AIC’s digital library.
This coming week I expect to finish the first video produced on our new iMac laptop using the more advanced version of iMovie. It is a short preview with page images for the AIC Bookstore – Spring A.D. 2017 Preview. You’ll see the stylistic differences right away, with new page transitions not available in the iPad version used for all earlier videos. There will be information about all publications, including the pending revised edition of The Prayer Book Psalter. The revised version includes some design changes to type faces and content. Some of these include the first line in Latin for each Psalm and additional focus in the commentaries on how the same issues and verses are addressed in other AIC Publications, including books, videos and podcasts. The publication date depends upon completion of the proof-reading, but I hope it can be finished by early summer.
Episode Sixteen in The Lives of the Saints, Second Series, celebrating the life and remarkable contributions to the Church Universal of St. Athanasius of Alexandria, is now on line at our Web Site and through our You Tube channel. St. Athanasius is celebrated in the Western Church on May 2nd, the date of his death.
sode Fifteen in The Lives of the Saints – Second Series was uploaded to the Web last week. It celebrates the life of St. John Climacus, 7th C. abbot of St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, and includes many colorful illustrations on the author of The Ladder of Divine Ascent, one of the most important books of the early church in the realm of Christian Spirituality.
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