Christianity

‘Little Jack’: Jack Hore and his playmates in East Africa, from The Graphic, 1890. The Print Collector/Heritage Images via Getty Images

The Death of Little Jack the Boy Missionary

On 5 April 1889 John Hore died aged only seven years old. His adventures in East Africa saw him immortalised by Victorian evangelicals as ‘the boy missionary’.

Gold Solidus of the Roman emperor Theodosius I, c.383-88. Art Institute of Chicago. Public Domain.

How Did Christianity Change the Roman Empire?

By 380, a small cult originating near the periphery of the Roman Empire had grown to become its official religion: Christianity. Things would change – but in what ways?

Bartolomé de las Casas in a 19th century etching. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Public Domain.

The Valladolid Debate on the Rights of Indigenous People

Was the subjugation of indigenous peoples a just means to expedite Christianity? On 15 August 1550, a humanist scholar and a Dominican friar debated.

Prester John on his throne in Ethiopia, from a map of East Africa in the Queen Mary Atlas, by Diogo Homem, Portuguese, 1558.

The King Who Wasn't There

Belief in Prester John, a lost Christian king ruling over a distant kingdom, gripped medieval Europe for half a millennium. Once seen as a saviour, he would become an adversary.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent, fresco at Suceviţa Monastery in Moldavia, Romania, 16th century.

How Angels Found their Wings

In the Bible, angels do not have wings. How did they come to take the form we know today?

Saint Thomas Becket curing a man in his sickbed, stained glass window (detail), Canterbury Cathedral, early 13th century.

Age of Doubt: Saints and Sceptics

The medieval period was a golden age of saints and miracles, but they were met with a healthy dose of scepticism.

Apocalypse Then: When The World Didn’t End

Despite the religious rupture caused by the Reformation, fear of the Apocalypse remained common to both sides of western Christendom. But older, classical ideas of an eternal return were at work, too.