Byzantine influence upon the Western world was most marked in Italy–not surpisingly, since the Italian peninsula was the wealthiest part of Western Europe, and was always close enough to the Byzantine Empire to feel its influence. Italian religious art was, until the early 14th century, ... More
“Why was it virtually impossible not to believe in God in 1500 in our Western society, while in 2000 many of us find this not only easy, but even inescapable?” This is the question Charles Taylor posits and (brilliantly) attempts to answer in the following 776 pages. Taylor rejects ... More
We have seen in the previous post some significant characteristics of the Gregorian reforms. Several observations can be made concerning these reforms, both in the three areas separately identified and as a whole. The first observation is that these reforms displaced a number of long-standing ... More
(An important source for this post is Karl F. Morrison’s “The Gregorian Reform” published in Christian Spirituality, Origins to the Twelfth Century, New York, 1988.) The Gregorian reform is an important event in the story of Western Christianity. The initial aim of these reforms ... More
These chants may sound both familiar and unfamiliar at first, but they date to a time when the Church Apostolic and Catholic was one, when Rome had not shaken off the Grace off of itself. Originally sung in Greek, the Church of Rome soon adopted Latin, the dominant tongue, as its liturgical ... More
