Christians talk about “the Church” as the universal body of Christ, made up of all Christians. However, in a more practical, institutional sense, Christians are actually divided into thousands of different denominations, many of which consider their rivals heretical and even non-Christian. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will trace a brief history of Christian schism, outlining the major branches of the movement historically and in the present.

As countries around the world legalized same-sex marriage, many opponents of ending discrimination argued that the change would undermine “traditional marriage.” What is traditional marriage? John Hamer of Toronto Centre place will trace the origins of marriage customs in the western world and how the institution came to be regarded as a sacrament in Christianity.

Abelard and Heloise are among the great scholastic philosophers of the 12th century. Their affair led to their secret marriage, which was discovered with terrible consequences for them both. Nevertheless their letters have kept the romance alive for centuries, and Abelard's philosophical ideas helped change the course Western thought.

From nuclear war and super-plagues to asteroids and alien invasions, popular culture continues to obsess about the idea of the world's destruction. We're look at the first mythological predictions of the end and see how the popularity of apocalyptic writing influenced Judaism, Christianity, and the Western world ever since.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was one of the most brilliant theologians and philosophers of the Middle Ages and all of human history. Aquinas famously believed that the existence of God could be proved by reason alone and he provided five arguments to this effect. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at each of the five arguments alongside the counter-arguments and will also consider what Aquinas’ philosophy tells us about his conception of God.

Artistic expression and religion have been intertwined since prehistory. From Antiquity to the Modern era religion has provided both inspiration and patronage for artists. Paintings of animals and hunts in caves may have related to Animism: calling upon their spiritual power. Classical sculpture and painting were focussed on depicting the gods and the stories of Greek and Roman mythology. In much the same way that casting an actor for a role in a film adaptation of a book tends to overwrite a future reader’s picture of a character (e.g., try envisioning Gandalf without seeing Ian McKellen), having a statue or a picture of a god affects the way a worshipper envisions the divine. Perhaps for this reason, religious reformers at various points in history have objected to picturing the gods, or especially picturing God. Ancient Israelites forbid graven images of Yahweh, a prohibition that expanded to any depiction or even saying his name aloud. Likewise, Islam forbids depicting God (Allah) and the prohibition has expanded to depictions of God’s prophet, and in some interpretations any human or animal forms. Christians too have a complicated history with religious imagery from the Iconoclasm which divided the Byzantine Empire to the Protestant destruction of statues and imagery during the Reformation. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will explore why artwork has been such a charged issue within the religions of the West from Antiquity to the present.

The role of women in many historical and religious narratives can be downplayed or ignored. In this talk, you will get to know about the strong and spunky women who played a pivotal role in the early days of Islam.

The great Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas believed it was possible to prove that God exists by reason alone (i.e., without relying on scripture or revelation) and he assembled 5 arguments which he believed did just that. He was not alone. Christian theologians like Anselm of Bec and philosophers like René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz have been similarly confident. Medieval Muslim theologians including Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd) came to similar conclusions as did the Medieval Jewish theologian Maimonides. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will outline some of the major arguments proposed by these figures and consider their merits.

Shortly after Western Christians launched external crusades that successfully (if brutally) reconquered the Holy Lands, a new perceived enemy of the faith emerged in the south of France. The Cathars were a Christian sect that rejected Trinitarian theology to embrace dualism. Catharism taught that the New Testament God was the true and good God who had created our immaterial spirits, but that these had been trapped in this material world, which was created by the evil God of the Old Testament. The most powerful pope of the Middle Ages, took the novel approach of calling an internal crusade to defeat the Cathars militarily, but it was only with the foundation of the Medieval Inquisition that the religion was finally exterminated.

Why was Charles the Great King of the Franks crowned Roman Emperor in 800 ad, over three centuries after the Empire’s fall? What about the idea of the Roman Empire was so inspiring that German kings continued to be crowned as Holy Roman Emperors for a thousand years after Charlemagne’s death?

Jesus of Nazareth famously advised “if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also” and taught his followers to “love your enemies.” In the first centuries AD, Christians frequently questioned whether the role of soldier was compatible with their faith. Although the Emperor Constantine converted after winning a battle under the symbol of the cross, he delayed his baptism until his deathbed to wipe away the sins incurred as head of the Roman army. By the Middle Ages, however, Popes called upon Christian knights to attack the enemies of the faith: Muslims, pagans, Cathars, and Christian heretics alike. In the modern era, European Empires brutally conquered and colonized much of the world hand-in-hand with Christian missionaries. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at how Christianity got from point A to B and C and ask where Christians find themselves today?

Jesus taught his followers to love their enemies and declared “blessed are the peacemakers.” Nevertheless, Christianity has had an inconsistent relationship with war and peace, at times going so far as to sanctify wars such as the crusades as holy. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the history of pacifism and nonviolence within the Christian tradition and contrast it with justifications of Christian militancy.

The art of the theater died out in the West with the fall of the Roman Empire. But in the unlikely setting of Germany in the 10th century, a remarkable woman revived both comedy and drama. Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim was a secular canoness (a member of a religious community living a monastic life) who read the ancient Roman playwrights Plautus and Terrance and used them as models for her own plays. Produced for the edification and entertainment of her fellow sisters, Hrotsvitha's comedies featured the exploits of saintly heroines humiliating their lecherous pagan captors. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Palce read from Hrotsvitha's work (some of the humor is still funny today!) and look at her context and legacy.

Are some sins unforgivable? In the late stages of the pagan Roman Empire, Christians were often persecuted for failing to support the state religion. However, after being arrested, most Christians at any time could escape punishment by performing a brief pagan ritual, offering incense to the genius of the emperors. Many took this option and were released. Others refused and were thrown to the lions. After the persecutions ended, the Christians whose family members and leaders had been martyred, refused to forgive those who had conveniently renounced their faith. In North Africa, the issue led to a substantial division in the church, where the purist party, the Donatists, refused to recognize sacraments performed by priests and bishops who had failed the faith. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at this history of this ancient version of “cancel culture,” including its institutional and theological implications for Christians today.

In this early Centre Place lecture, John Hamer looks back at the history of England's queens regnant to consider interplay between gender roles and leadership. Mathilda almost became England's first reigning queen. When King Henry I's heir, William Adelin, died in the White Ship disaster, the English nobility swore oaths in support of Henry's daughter Mathilda as heiress. (Mathilda was widow of a Holy Roman Emperor and was known to contemporaries as "the Empress Mathilda.") Upon Henry's death, most of the English nobles preferred to forget their oaths and instead recognized Henry's nephew Stephen as king, plunging the realm into civil war. John Hamer looks at the steep hurdles Mathilda faced attempting to exercise authority over men in the Middle Ages and considers the extent to which these same gender biases continue to the present day.

"Here there be dragons": We'll look at how Medieval Christians understood their world from the maps they drew of it. Modern myth holds that people in the so-called "Dark Ages" believed the world was flat until Columbus proved otherwise. We'll learn about the actual Medieval worldview from a survey of dozens of Medieval maps.

The Bible is the best-selling book of all time and many people, including Christians, imagine that its authors were writing with a single voice with the final canon in mind. But, of course, the Bible is actually a library of texts written in different languages over the course of centuries, that reflect the diverse contexts of its authors, most of whom never imagined that their individual book would eventually be part of a “Bible.” While it’s often assumed that the final canon was approved at the Council of Nicaea, this is not the case. In fact, canonization was a slow and haphazard process, which resulted in different lists for different branches of Christianity (Catholic, Protestant/Anglican, Orthodox, and others). John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at criteria used to create the canon and the historical development of the Bible.

Have you ever heard that Joseph was an elderly widower, and that Jesus’ siblings were actually half-brothers and sisters that were children of Joseph and his first wife? Did you know that Mary’s parents’ names were Joachim and Anna? Have you seen pictures of the nativity taking place at a stable housed inside a cave? Have you heard that after Mary gave birth to Jesus, her midwife affirmed that she was still a virgin? None of these details is in the Bible, which gives us two different (and contradictory) nativity stories in Matthew and Luke’s gospels. Instead significant sources of Christian tradition regarding Jesus’ birth along with the life of his mother Mary come from a pseudepigraphic text that ancient Christians excluded from the New Testament. During this Christmas season, John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look that this non-canonical gospel, usually known as the “Protoevangelium of James” (or Pseudo-James), its contents, authorship, and influence.

The Rise and Fall of the Ostrogoths - Gothic barbarians took over Rome after the Empire’s fall. The story of what happened next. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogoths ruled a “barbarian” kingdom of Italy from 493 to 553, when their kingdom was conquered by the Byzantine Eastern Roman Empire. We’ll look at the continuity of the Roman state under the Ostrogoths and ask whether their fall wasn’t the true end of the Western Empire.

The historical Jesus and his disciples were all Jewish. In his lifetime and for decades after, the followers of Jesus did not see themselves as part of a religion separate from Judaism, at most they were a sect within Judaism, like other contemporary sects including the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots. That changed in the second half of the 1st century, as individuals and communities who continued to testify of Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, were expelled from synagogues. The groups, now calling themselves “Christians,” began to emerge as a new religion, which sought to separate itself from their former co-religionists. The New Testament’s gospels, written toward the end of the 1st century reflect this historical context (and not the context of Jesus’ lifetime). This is especially true in the Gospel of John where Jesus speaks of “the Jews” as if they were a separate group that he is not a part of. Unfortunately, the negative portrayal of Jews in the Gospel of John has informed attitudes among some Christians to this day, serving as a precedent for and a cause of Antisemitism. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will review the portrayal of Jews in the Gospel of John and its unfortunate legacies.

Magna Carta, the great charter issued by King John of England in 1215, is often cited as a core, foundational document of modern democracy. By contrast, King John who is regarded as one of England's worst kings (there has never been a John II) had no intention whatsoever of making monarchy constitutional. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at what King John and his nobles thought they were signing up for with Magna Carta.

As many as 200 million people died 700 years ago in the worst pandemic in history. What were the causes and consequences? Seven centuries ago, the world faced its greatest pandemic. Up to 200 million people died in Eurasia and North Africa, peaking in Europe in the middle of the 14th Century. Between 30% and 60% of Europe’s population perished. It took two centuries for the global population to recover to pre-plague levels. What caused the Black Death? What happens to society when so many people die? What was the effect on those who survived? What are the lessons of the Black Death?

Medieval Science and Sorcery - Back before there was a difference between astrology and astronomy or alchemy and chemistry, Medieval science looked significantly different than its Modern-day heir. We’ll look at the philosophical underpinnings that Medieval thinkers inherited from Antiquity and how their ideas about the natural world worked systematically.

The coronation of Charles III, King of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth Realms, has reminded people around the world of the ancient institution of monarchy. Why do some of the world’s leading democracies continue to have monarchs? What separates democracy from autocracy, monarchy from republic, and monarchs from dictators? John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at monarchies past and present to answer these questions and more.

Exploring Muslim sources in order to understand how Islam experienced the Crusades. Can we reconstruct a less biased, more accurate picture of these "holy wars"? Can we learn lessons we can apply in 21st century world?

How did the religion of the "Prince of Peace" triumph over the warrior gods of Asgard and Valhalla? Beginning in the 8th century AD, pagan Norsemen plundered the monasteries of the Frankish and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. How could warrior gods like Thor and Odin lose out to Jesus?

Pope Francis, the Bishop of Rome, is today the unchallenged, supreme head of the Catholic Church, which includes about 1.3 billion baptized adherents, which is about half of the world’s Christians. But while Francis and his predecessors claim an unbroken line extending all the way back to St. Peter, Jesus’ leading apostle, the bishops of Rome have not always enjoyed unchallenged control of Christendom. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will explore the development of the institution of the Papacy, how the bishops of Rome extended their authority over their fellow bishops through ideology and political savvy, and how the Papacy ultimately defeated alternatives heads of the church: Emperors, ecumenical councils, and ultimately the political leaders of modern nation states.

At the end of the 12th century, a wealthy merchant named Peter Waldo from the city of Lyon in the Kingdom of Burgundy, commissioned local monks to translate the Bible into the vernacular Franco-Provencal language --- the first time the Bible had been translated from Latin into a common tongue spoken in the West. Waldo became fascinated with the ideas of purity and perfection and decided to follow the example of Jesus by selling his possessions to give to the poor. He then travelled around the countryside begging and preaching about the value of poverty. By 1170, Waldo had gathered a large following that became known as the “Poor of Lyon.” Waldo’s focus on Biblical examples put him at odds with ecclesiastical tradition. Waldo rejected doctrines including transubstantiation and purgatory as non-Biblical and promoted a universal priesthood instead of specialized clergy. The church reacted by condemning Waldo’s ideas at church councils, and when he refused to recant, he was excommunicated and declared a heretic. In a lecture presented from Lyon, which is now in the Republic of France, John Hamer of Centre Place will look at the life of Peter Waldo in context, and consider the Waldensians as a precursor of the later Protestant Reformation.

Can philosophy or theology prove that God exists? Anselm of Bec, a leading Medieval thinker believed he could Can philosophy or theology prove that God exists? Anselm of Bec, a leading Medieval thinker believed he could using what's known as the "ontological argument." We'll examine the ontological argument and look at its critiques contemporary and present-day.

Among the philosophers who most influenced Medieval Christian theology whose work provided the inspiration for stained glass windows in churches is an ancient thinker who was not the person he pretended to be. Dionysius the Areopagite was a minor character in the Book of Acts. In the 5th century, a Christian Neoplatonist impersonated Dionysius as a way to give his philosophical writings the aura of apostolic authority. He was further confused with the patron saint of Paris, a completely different Dionysius or “Denis,” who had been bishop of Paris in the 3rd century. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will untangle the histories of the different Dionysiuses and explain the scope and influence of Pseudo-Dionysius’ works.

For 2,000 years prior to Copernicus, astronomers believed that the Earth was at the center of a cosmos, surrounded by a series of celestial spheres. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will outline how the Ptolemaic system worked (and did not work), why it proved so durable, and why the Catholic Church remained invested in the system even after scientists like Galileo began to argue in favor of heliocentrism.

The world’s religions have complex and often troubling relationships with the institution of slavery. Although some Christians fought for abolition of the slave trade based on their faith, others used the Bible to justify keeping other humans as property. The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam arose in an era of slave societies. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at their long, complex, and often unfortunate relationships with the institution.

How did faith healing and reported miracles work in Antiquity and the Middle Ages? Modern Western medicine has become very effective at healing injury and curing illness, but its history of effectiveness is very recent. Previously, those with chronic conditions had little alternative than hope of miracles (and physical magic). John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place looks at the history of belief in miracle healing in Ancient and Medieval times, the role it played in society, and its legacies today.

In the Biblical story, when Moses returns from Mt Sinai to find the Israelites worshiping a golden calf, he smashes the original tablets of the Ten Commandments. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will smash several misconceptions about these famous legal precepts, beginning with the actual list (there are actually three versions preserved in the Bible) and how they are numbered. The Apostle Paul taught that Christians should not follow Mosaic Law because Christ had fulfilled the Old Covenant and established a New Covenant. Nevertheless, Christian focus on the Ten Commandments continues to provoke confusion about the status of Old Testament law in Christianity.

“Is this not written in the Book of Jasher?” asks the author of the Biblical Book of Joshua. And in another reference in 2 Samuel, the author assures us that further details are “written in the Book of Jasher.” This intriguing book that pre-dates the Bible has been lost since ancient times. However, the name has inspired numerous forgeries. One such “Book of Jasher” was translated and published in English in 1840. Soon after it made its way to Nauvoo, Illinois, where it was accepted by the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith Jr. The book was reprinted in 1886 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and continues to circulate among Mormons to this day. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will trace the surprising origin of this obscure Book of Jasher.

Many religious fundamentalists read the Bible literally, insisting that its stories occurred historically as written. While some take this to the logical extreme forcing them to reject science in favor of alternative theories like young Earth creationism others look for naturalistic explanations to preserve a literalistic historicist reading of the text. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the modern development of these interpretative lenses and will consider how such readings radically distort the original stories and rob them of any meaning.

The Great Schism: Greek East vs Latin West. A look at the breakdown in the relationship between the churches of Rome and Constantinople, which included petty personality conflicts, diverging political interests, and a few fundamental disagreements. We'll also look at how and why the rift has never been healed despite repeated attempts for the past 1,000 years.

John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place explores how modern nationalism contrasts with ancient kin group and homeland traditional identities. He traces the origins of nationalism in the modern era and considers how this ideology — artificially constructed group identity based on language, religion, ethnicity, and race — led to the devastating wars and genocides of the 20th centuries.

The “Life of Adam and Eve” is an ancient expansion of the Genesis story after the first man and woman were driven out of Eden. Although the original (likely written in Hebrew) is lost, variations of the text survive in Latin, Greek, Armenian, and Slavonic --- showing its wide popularity. The biblical story of the Fall of the first humans and its effect has intrigued Jews, Christians, and Muslims from Antiquity to the present. Although it was not included in the Bible, the “Life of Adam and Eve” added biographical details and influenced later literary works as diverse as the Quran and Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will give an overview of the text, consider its provenance and date, and look at its role in literature and theology related to the Adam and Eve story.

When the Western Roman Empire fell in the 5th century, war chiefs of various Germanic tribal confederations carved up its territory into successor kingdoms. The kingdoms of the Ostrogoths in Italy and the Vandals in North Africa were subdued a century later by the Eastern Romans, while the Visigoths of Spain fell to the armies of Islam in the early 8th century. By the end of the 8th century, the Franks were the last great surviving power and their king, Charles the Great (Charlemagne) had incorporated most of the remnants of the west from Rome to the North Sea and from Catalonia to Austria into his realm when the pope crowned him Emperor of a revived Western Empire in the year 800. However, Frankish tradition operated differently from Roman law. Rather than passing the imperial to a single successor, Frankish royal families divided their territories among able members of the royal family. When Charlemagne died in 814, his sole surviving son Louis the Pious succeeded to his entire realm, but after Louis died the Empire was partitioned into three parts which were given to his three sons. Charles II “the Bald” was given West Francia --- the realm that would eventually become France. East Francia, which included lands that became Germany, was given to Louis II “the German.” The eldest son, Lothair, inherited the imperial crown and Middle Francia: a string of realms that included Rome and Italy, the Kingdoms of Provence and Burgundy, and the territory between France and Germany (which took their name from Lothar “Lothringia”/ “Lorraine”), including Charlemagne’s capital of Aachen. While the Middle Kingdom was short-lived, the partition changed the course of European history. Broadcasting from the city of Lyon, in the heart of what was once Middle Francia, John Hamer of Centre Place will consider the Middle Kingdom and its legacy.

While Muhammed is not considered a true prophet in the Christian religion, Muslims have a very positive view of Jesus. In the Quran, Jesus is described as the Messiah, is miraculously born of a virgin, performs miracles, and calls disciples. But the Muslim picture of Jesus diverges in key ways: he is not crucified or resurrected and he is not considered God incarnate or the Son of God. Instead, he is the penultimate prophet, preceded by John the Baptist and succeeded by Muhammed (God’s ultimate prophet). John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at how Jesus is understood in Islam, connecting the origins of these traditions within early Christianity’s diverse communities.

When Anglo-Saxon poets translated Genesis into the Old Saxon language, the reworked the text to include themes common to warrior epics like Beowulf. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place gives an overview of the text and discusses whether it was the inspiration for John Milton's great English epic, "Paradise Lost."

For centuries people have looked for King Arthur and his knights of the round table in history. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place looks at the origin of the legend, which was an almost instantaneous blockbuster sensation after the publication of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s “History of the Kings of Britain” in 1136.

In this lecture we explore the history of Venice and the evolution of its elaborate republican system. How did a lagoon village become the commercial centre that helped revive Europe and build the modern world? How influential this idiosyncratic form of government continues to be and what are its pros and cons?

The history of a religion that spread across the world from the Middle East to Europe and China before going extinct. Founded by the Iranian prophet Mani in the 3rd century AD, Manichaeism was a successful world religion for over a millennia and was briefly (before the founding of Islam) Christianity’s chief rival in the West. We’ll look at the teachings of Mani and the spread of his religion from Europe to China, along with its eventual decline and extermination.

The Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars fought between 1455 and 1487 by English nobles seeking to control the crown, was one of the inspirations for the fictional wars in the source novels for HBO’s popular “Game of Thrones” series. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will recount a brief history of the actual Wars of the Roses and draw lessons they may yet have for our own time.

The myth of Pope Joan and the real scandals of the medieval Church that led to the Gregorian Reform. According to a popular tale, a clever woman once secretly ascended St. Peter's throne and ruled as "Pope Joan." While this tale is a myth, the Medieval papacy devolved into even more interesting scandals which set the stage for the Gregorian Reform movement. We will look at the low point of Europe's oldest monarchy and its amazing rebound in the later Middle Ages.

In 1204, crusaders on route to the Holy Land sacked the city of Constantinople. The great capital of the Byzantine Empire was weakened and set on a path which led to its eventual fall to the Ottoman Turks while the schism between Eastern and Western Christianity was solidified. What went wrong? The Crusades are generally seen as a misguided outcome of Medieval Western Christian religious enthusiasm with few positive, lasting results. But even within the context of the times, the Fourth Crusade has stood out as a particularly dark chapter. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the context of Fourth Crusade, its events, and its legacies.

During the later 14th Century, Western Christianity was divided on the question of who was the legitimate successor to St. Peter: the Pope in Rome or the Pope in Avignon? An ecumenical council was called in Pisa to settle the question, which deposed both rivals and appointed a new Pope. However, neither pope recognized the council's authority and thus from 1378 onward, Western Christianity had three Popes: one in Rome, one in Avignon, and one in Pisa. We'll look at this interesting history but also talk about the background ideas of authority, divine monarchy vs. representative councils, and the division of church and state.

Transubstantiation is the doctrine of the Catholic Church which teaches that the substance of the bread in the sacrament of communion is changed into the substance of the Body of Christ (and the substance of the wine into the substance of the Blood of Christ). Nevertheless the “outward characteristics” of the bread and the wine (the “eucharistic species”) remain unaltered --- which means that “transubstantiation” is not the same as “transmaterializion.” The theological term “substance” is also critical to the Christian idea of the Trinity, where three distinct “persons” of God are said to be “consubstantial” as the One. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the development of these theological terms and propositions and consider what Catholics and other Christians mean when they talk about the “Body of Christ.

The term "saint" carries varied meanings across Christian traditions, from martyrs and miracle workers formally canonized by the Catholic Church to ordinary believers living holy lives in Protestant contexts. But where did the idea of saints originate, and how has it evolved? Saints are not unique to Christianity—Jewish traditions celebrate tzaddikim (righteous ones), Greco-Roman cultures honored heroic figures, and Buddhism envisions Bodhisattvas, enlightened beings who guide others on the spiritual path. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will explore the concept of sainthood in Christian tradition, its relationship to these broader religious and cultural frameworks, and its enduring significance in the modern world. In this lecture, we’ll consider what it means to be a saint and how these figures continue to inspire faith and devotion across cultures.

Why did Medieval Christian knights at the end of the 11th century march some 2,500 miles from France (and elsewhere in the Latin West) to Jerusalem and how were they able to conquer and create viable states in the Middle East? John Hamer of Toronto Centre place will look at the historical context of the First Crusade and its logistics and consider how Christian religious practices including the Peace of God, Truce of God, and pilgrimage resulted in indiscriminate massacres. How did the First Crusade succeed and why did the Crusades ultimately fail?

Many fundamentalist Christians anticipate that the world will end in their lifetime and they look for particular signs listed in the Book of Revelation. And it turns out that this has been true for almost a thousand years. As each generation’s belief has been proved false, the next generation simply updates the calculus and reads the signs in their own times. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will outline the actual context of the Book of Revelation, how it was meant to be understood by the generation for whom it was written, and how apocalypticists have come to so thoroughly misunderstand the text.

In the wake of the fire in Notre Dame cathedral, John Hamer of Centre Place puts Gothic architecture into its Medieval context. Modern people use the word “Gothic” to describe a kind of architecture from the Middle Ages, even though it has nothing to do with the barbarian Goths. When the architecture was new nine centuries ago, it was called “modern” and it represented something very new. Although people of the Modern Era disparaged their immediate predecessors with terms like “Medieval” and “Gothic,” the Middle Ages were anything but backward. In fact, they anticipated the Modern Era which followed.

A majority of Americans believe in angels, but what are they? Where did the idea of angels come from? John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place looks at the history of angels in the Western tradition. He will also take a deep dive into the way Medieval philosopher discussed angels. Although ridiculed by later thinkers in the Enlightenment for pondering abstruse questions like “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin,” Medieval thinkers actually used the idea of "angels" in thought experiments about philosophical questions like free will and determinism that are still relevant today.

Female perspectives of medieval mysticism through the writings of Julian of Norwich & Margery Kempe. In the years after the Black Death decimated Europe, many turned to mysticism to understand life’s questions. In an age where few women were afforded an education, we have the rare survival of two books written in Middle English by female authors: Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. Although they have very different backgrounds and perspectives, both women became Christian mystics. We’ll look at their works and what they tell us about the lives and ideas of women and mystics in the Middle Ages.