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Ahn Byung-mu
[People]Ahn Byung-mu (1922–1996) was a Korean New Testament scholar and a leading founder of Minjung theology. He is known for interpreting the "crowd" (ochlos) in the Gospel of Mark as the minjung.
Helena
[People]Helena (c. 248 – c. 330) was the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine I. In her later years she made a pilgrimage to Palestine and sponsored the construction of churches. She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
Stumbling Block
[Bible]A stumbling block is a stone or obstacle that catches the foot and causes a person to fall. In the Bible, the term refers to anything that causes a person to fall into sin or unbelief. The New Testament also describes Christ as a stone that becomes a stumbling block to those who do not believe.
Nympha
[People]Nympha was an early Christian mentioned only once, in Colossians 4:15, who opened her home in the Laodicea region as a meeting place for the church. Depending on the manuscript, the name can be read as either masculine or feminine.
Crown
[Doctrine & Theology]In the Bible, a crown is placed on the head of one who has won a victory or endured faithfully. In Protestantism it is used chiefly as a symbol of the honor and reward God has promised to the saints.
Kyrie Eleison
[Worship & Rites]Kyrie eleison is a Greek prayer meaning "Lord, have mercy." Since early times it has been used in worship as a brief response asking God for mercy.
Shammai
[People]Shammai was a Jewish teacher of the law active from the late first century BC to the early first century AD. Together with his contemporary Hillel, he is regarded as a leading representative of Pharisaic legal interpretation, and he founded the "School of Shammai," known for its strict interpretation of the law.
First Vatican Council
[History]The First Vatican Council was a council of the Catholic Church convened by Pope Pius IX at the Vatican in Rome in 1869–1870. It is best known for defining papal primacy and papal infallibility as dogma.
Land-Treading Prayer
[Christian Life]Land-treading prayer is a devotional practice in which believers walk through a particular area or building and pray for it on site. Practitioners ground it in passages such as Joshua 1:3. Among Korean Protestant churches it is used in preparation for evangelism and mission, but prayer conducted at the sites of other religions has also provoked public controversy in South Korea.
Institutes of the Christian Religion
[Doctrine & Theology]The Institutes of the Christian Religion is a systematic work of Protestant theology by the Reformer John Calvin. First published in 1536, it was revised several times before the final edition was completed in 1559. It is regarded as a foundational text of Reformed and Presbyterian theology.
Ethan
[People]Ethan is the name of several Israelites in the Old Testament. It refers to "Ethan the Ezrahite," the wise man to whom Solomon is compared in 1 Kings; to the figure named as author in the superscription of Psalm 89; and to Ethan the Levite musician of 1 Chronicles.
Church History
[History]Church history is the history of the church, or the academic discipline that studies that history. Eusebius's fourth-century Ecclesiastical History is regarded as the beginning of systematic writing in the field. Today church history is taught in seminaries as a branch of historical theology.
Mesrop Mashtots
[People]Mesrop Mashtots (c. 362–440) was a monk and scholar who created the Armenian alphabet in the early fifth century and led the effort to translate the Bible into Armenian. The Armenian Apostolic Church venerates him as a saint.
Thomas Aquinas
[People]Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and the leading theologian of medieval Scholasticism. He wrote the Summa Theologiae and is venerated in the Catholic Church as a saint and Doctor of the Church.
Civil Disobedience
[Doctrine & Theology]Civil disobedience is the act of openly and nonviolently breaking a law or state order that one judges in conscience to be unjust, while accepting the resulting punishment. In Christianity it is treated as a question of what to do when obedience to the state conflicts with obedience to God.
Epistle of Barnabas
[History]The Epistle of Barnabas is an early Christian writing composed in Greek between the late first and early second centuries. It interprets the laws and institutions of the Old Testament as symbols pointing to Christ. It was not included in the New Testament canon.
Havruta
[Christian Life]Havruta is a method of study from the Jewish tradition in which two people pair up to study a text by questioning and debating each other. In Korean churches it is used mainly as a method for Bible study and church school education.
Wilderness of Ziph
[Bible]The Wilderness of Ziph is a tract of wilderness surrounding Ziph, a town in the hill country of Judah. It appears in 1 Samuel 23 and 26 as a place where David hid while fleeing from Saul.
Pachomius
[People]Pachomius (c. 292–346) was a fourth-century Egyptian monk. He is known as the first to organize cenobitic monasticism, in which a number of monks live together under a single rule.
Abihu
[People]Abihu, the second son of the high priest Aaron in the Old Testament, was consecrated as a priest along with his older brother Nadab. He died by fire that came out from before the LORD after offering incense with "strange fire," which the LORD had not commanded.