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Holly A.J.'s avatar

On Christianity colonizing Europe, it is not often recognized by the Western descendants of Europeans, but most of Europe came comparatively late to Christianity, and the missionary activity of the Western Christianity in recent centuries was retracing old ground in Asia and Africa. The Middle Eastern churches - Coptic, Melkite, Assyrian, etc. have a tradition of lineage back to the New Testament, as does Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Thomas Christians of Kerala State in India.

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Liz's avatar
2dEdited

Totally! Britain did get Christianity pretty early it appears, but had to be reintroduced via the Gregorian mission in 600 AD.

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Holly A.J.'s avatar

Yes, the Celtic church is older than the Anglo-Saxon church, but even the Celtic church isn't associated with an Apostolic figure; not in the way Philip the Evangelist baptized the first Ethiopian in the book of Acts, or Paul ministered in Antioch, or how tradition links John Mark to Alexandria, or Thomas to Kerala, India. Paul went to Athens and Rome, of course, and he planned to go to Spain (some think he made it there), but the rest of Europe waited. The first Celts to have a church, the Galatians, are in the New Testament, but they weren't in Europe, but in Asia, in Anatolia, now part of Turkiye.

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Joel J Miller's avatar

Yes! This is highly underappreciated by most of us.

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Daniel's avatar

No need for 'spoiler alerts', right? (LOL)

Thank you for settling on an Open Thread format. I've tried to join other discussions as Chats and find that interface too unruly. I think (hope) this will work out more smoothly.

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Joel J Miller's avatar

Yes. I don’t enjoy the Chat feature either. I think an Open Thread is more intuitive.

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Rose wilson's avatar

That’s good

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Rose wilson's avatar

How are you doing?

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Lucas's avatar

Maybe Kempis' Imitation of Christ, next?

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Joel J Miller's avatar

Good idea!

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Sara's avatar

Looking forward to the fellowship

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Joel J Miller's avatar

Yes, me too!

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Alternate Routes's avatar

I used ChatGPT to set up the schedule you suggested, using the ESV

It sends me an email every morning with a link.

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Joel J Miller's avatar

Fantastic use of ChatGPT. How do you trigger the reminders?

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Alternate Routes's avatar

That's a good question. I wasn't expecting it, but I got one. When I asked Chat, this is the reply:

When we created the daily Gospel reading automation, the system scheduled it as a task. By default, those task updates can also be sent to your email from noreply@tm.openai.com

The original prompt: Set up a daily schedule with verses from the Bible with the following dates and verses: I listed the dates and verses I wanted (The Gospels). Then asked Chat to post automatically each day using ESV. Apparently, the system set up the schedule as a daily task and sent me the email. Hopefully, it comes again tomorrow.

Not sure what's in store for next month, but I was thinking of setting up the same thing for Paul's Letters.

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Joel J Miller's avatar

Dude, that’s killer. Thanks for the tip! I’m going to try that myself.

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Leroy Jenkins's avatar

which translation?

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Joel J Miller's avatar

Whichever one you want!

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Leroy Jenkins's avatar

ha get ready for the crusades then 😂

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Joel J Miller's avatar

LOL. No holds barred!

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Virginia Postrel's avatar

Use the King James. Its influence on English goes beyond religion.

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Joel J Miller's avatar

Agreed. Robert Alter: “The King James Bible . . . remains an imposing achievement . . . It has been such a powerful presence for four centuries of English readers that a translation of the Bible that proceeds as though it simply didn’t exist becomes hard to read as a version of the Bible that has any literary standing.”

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