The “Ascension of Isaiah” and the Martyrdom of St. Peter

September 25, 2022 By Nicholas Gulda

Background: According to tradition, the Apostle Peter eventually came to the imperial capital, labored there for a time, and was ultimately martyred there by the Roman authorities. From a strictly historical perspective, Peter’s martyrdom at Rome is so well attested to in the ancient literary sources that the Lutheran theologian Oscar Cullman concluded that, “were we to demand for all facts of ancient history a greater degree of probability, we should have to strike from our history books a... Read more

Rome, Babylon, and 1 Peter 5:13 Revisited

September 17, 2022 By Nicholas Gulda

“The church that is in Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you: and so doth my son Mark.” (1 Peter 5:13, DRB) Introduction: In an older post, I had discussed the meaning of the reference to ‘Babylon’ in 1 Peter 5:13, and included the three most common interpretations of the text. The first, that it is a cryptic reference to Rome, is the oldest, has the support of ancient writers, and is the one favored by the majority... Read more

September 11, a 1998 Fatwa, and an Unfortunate Comment

September 11, 2022 By Nicholas Gulda

Introduction: Today on the memorial of September 11, 2022 many Americans (as well as others) reflect upon a major tragedy that took the lives of many, and provoked a major paradigm shift with respect to U.S. foreign policy. The ripples of that horrible day still affect countless individuals, as well as the world as a whole. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on the “why”, to explore some of the religious rhetoric leading up to... Read more

The Origins of the Denial of Peter’s Roman Sojourn

September 4, 2022 By Nicholas Gulda

Background: For the first thirteen centuries of Christianity it was accepted as a given that the Apostle Peter, before the end of his life, came to Rome, labored there for a period, and ultimately was martyred there. It was not until the advent of the Waldensian sect in the High Middle Ages that the first doubts on this question were expressed, and this seemingly in connection with their assertion that the Sacred Scriptures were the only means for... Read more

Mary, Mother of God and the Council of Ephesus:

January 2, 2022 By Nicholas Gulda

St. Cyril of Alexandria at the Council of Ephesus, Francisco Meneses Osorio, Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville (Wikimedia Commons). Introduction: Today, January 1, marks the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, in the Catholic Church. It is beyond the scope of the present post to present the history of the feast day, as well as to detail the Christological debate associated with the title Theotokos (“God-bearer”), formally declared at the Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431. What follows then... Read more

Francis Dvornik on Canon XXVIII of Chalcedon

January 4, 2021 By Nicholas Gulda

Pope St. Leo the Great, by Francisco de Herrera el Mozo, Museo de Prada. (Wikimedia Commons) The Council of Chalcedon was convened in A.D. 451 in order to combat the heresy of Monophysitism. While Nestorianism – condemned at the previous Council of Ephesus twenty years prior and historically attributed to Nestorius – held that Christ is two persons (one Divine and one human), Monophysitism swung to the opposite extreme. It posited that the human nature of Christ was swallowed up... Read more

Political Polarization at the Dawn of the Spanish Civil War

December 23, 2020 By Nicholas Gulda

José María Gil Robles, 1933.(Wikimedia Commons) In his monograph on the Spanish Civil War, Stanley Payne dedicates a chapter to what he calls “the breakdown of democracy”, wherein he narrates the unravelling of the Spanish Second Republic. In it, he includes a number of citations from some of the key players which give significant insight into what they were witnessing and how they were processing it at the dawn of the civil war. This post seeks to introduce and contextualize... Read more

Rome, Babylon, and 1 Peter 5:13

August 9, 2020 By Nicholas Gulda

Madonna and Child with Saints Peter and Mark and Three Venetian Procurators, by Giovanni Bellini and Workshop, 16th c. (Wikimedia Commons). In wrapping up his First Epistle, the Apostle Peter makes a cryptic reference to his location, stating that, “The church that is in Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you: and so doth my son Mark.”[1] The “Mark” referenced here is the author of one of the four Gospels, and whom according to tradition, was a companion of the... Read more

Some Musings on Papal Infallibility

August 1, 2020 By Nicholas Gulda

Pope Innocent III (r. 1198-1216).(Wikimedia Commons) In his work Innocent III and the Crown of Aragon: The Limits of Papal Authority, Damian Smith shares the words that Giovanni Capocci is supposed to have said to that Pope: ‘Your words are God’s words, but your works are those of the Devil.’ As Smith notes, Innocent III (d. 1216) had his supporters and critics, and while I am unfamiliar with Capocci, he was obviously a critic.[1] The book is broadly concerned with... Read more

Sahih Muslim and the Immaculate Conception

December 9, 2019 By Nicholas Gulda

Inmaculada, Alonso Vázquez, Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla(Wikimedia Commons). This past summer, I was reading Jessica Coope’s monograph on the Martyrs of Córdoba. While discussing the religious climate in the ninth-century capital of al-Andalus, she says the following: “…[B]y the ninth century a hadith was generally accepted which states that all babies are squeezed at birth by Satan (that is why they cry), but that Mary and Jesus escaped this contact with the devil; behind this tradition seems to... Read more