Guadalupe & the Flower World: an Interview with Joseph and Monique Gonzalez
Controversies in Church History is back! This time, I interview the husband and wife team of Joseph and Monique Gonzalez about their book, Guadalupe and the Flower World Prophecy: How God Prepared the Americas for Conversion Before the Lady Appeared. In our interview, they discuss the history and culture of the peoples of Mexico prior to the Spanish conquest, and how certain aspects of their culture prepared them to receive the revelation of Jesus Christ. They make the case that the apparition of the Virgin Mary to Juan Diego in 1531 led to the conversion of millions of native Mexican peoples because of this "preparatio evangelica" deposited within Nahua culture (Nahua is the native language of the peoples of Mexico the Spanish encountered). This is an enlightening discussion and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Cheers!
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Updates/Upcoming Episodes and Other Things
Hello! This is just a brief update on what's cooking for Controversies in Church History. Please take a listen, I have some good things in store for my followers. Cheers!
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Cloud of Witnesses: The Origins of the Cult of the Saints
When did the early Christians begin to seek the intercession of particularly holy people, such as the martyrs? Was this something they copied from Greco-Roman society? In the latest episode of Controversies in Church History, we take a look at the origins of the cult of the saints. In it, I discuss when and how the early Christians began to venerate Christian martyrs, and the evidence of this practice. I address the similarities and differences between the veneration of the saints and Greco-Roman religion, and why veneration of saints marked a radical departure from other religions in the ancient world.
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Church Musings: The Reformation as Elite Crisis
Hello! I thought I would drop a short, unscripted episode about something that has been on my mind recently, namely, elites. Inspired by an embarrassing situation in the Catholic Church in England, I muse on the theory of "elite overproduction" and how it might apply to the Protestant Reformation. Which means I geek out over the numbers of universities founded in late medieval Europe. If you like thinking about history, I hope this more speculative episode whets your appetites. Cheers!
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Christendom's Image Crisis: the Iconoclast Controversy, 724-843
In this episode of Controversies in Church History, we tackle the subject of iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire. In the eighth and ninth centuries, Byzantine emperors waged a campaign against the veneration of sacred images, destroying them and persecuting their defenders. Despite this, the practice persisted, and eventually supporters of icons proved victorious and the veneration of images was enshrined in Orthodox and Catholic teaching. In this episode, we will look at the historical context of this important period, discussing the motivation for iconoclasm, the arguments on both sides, and why the eventual triumph of icon veneration is important for the history of Catholicism and Christianity in general.
My name is Darrick Taylor, and I am the founder and proprietor of Controversies in Church History, a podcast that takes an in depth look at difficult, even disturbing, issues in the history of the Catholic Church. My perspective is unique, in that I am a faithful Roman Catholic, yet trained as a secular historian. Designed for Catholics but accessible for anyone interested in history, it balances storytelling with an academic sensibility.
Ireland