While many in the Christian tradition prepare to celebrate Good Friday and Easter Sunday this week and next, we turn to consider the meaning of the gospel. Paul describes the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1–8 as a message of Jesus’…
The Origins of the Church Calendar
Now that Easter is over, this is a good opportunity to reflect on what just happened yesterday and to share some thoughts on the origin of the church calendar. As we noted in our previous post, Christians have been…
The Oldest Easter Sermon
The oldest extant Easter sermon from the ancient church is a sermon preached by Melito, the bishop of Sardis in Asia Minor at the end of the second century. This sermon gives us a taste of how Christians celebrated the feast…
