[GoLightly]

Familiarity breeds contempt? When we stopped needing to fight for our faiths it became less dear. When all out persecution returns & the ground once again becomes watered with the blood of martyrs, fervor will return.

[AlbionGirl]

Maybe. But I think once the Empire became the Church and the Church became the Empire, something magnificent was gained, but something plain, but essential was lost, or at the very least, deeply buried.

I just finished reading The Life of Jesus, by Ernest Renan. It moved me a lot. He denied the Incarnation, the Trinity, etc., and at first I was worried about reading it, thinking it would adversely affect my Faith. But just the opposite happened -you can't be afraid to read things, that's a mark of fear and servility.

Anyway, he does a masteful job of bringing the human Jesus into the fore. But as he does it, the main thought that accompanies everything is this Human must needs be Divine.

It was also a sad read, because I sensed that he wanted to believe, but his logic forbade it. And because of that there was a melancholy strain through the whole thing.