Rebuild Spirit

Revelation, Presence, and the Question of Theurgy The Book of Revelation is often read as a book saturated with ritual imagery: thrones, incense, hymns, altars, priests, and heavenly liturgy. Because of this, some readers assume Revelation supports a theurgic logic; the idea that sacred actions, words, or rites function as mechanisms that mediate or even generate divine presence. Yet this assumption deserves closer scrutiny. The question is not whether Revelation is liturg

Very little of substance is known about the life of Iamblichus , and what we do possess comes primarily from the late fourth-century sophist Eunapius , whose portrait is deliberately reverential and often vague. Nevertheless, when his account is read carefully and supplemented with other evidence, a coherent picture emerges; one that helps explain why Iamblichus’s writings are so significant for understanding the spiritual logic of late pagan religion. Iamblichus was born in

In the modern world, time is treated as something to be used, optimized, and consumed. Productivity governs our days, and rest is tolerated only insofar as it restores us to usefulness. This outlook stands in sharp contrast to the biblical vision of time . As The Sabbath  observed, Judaism is not primarily a religion of space but of time; a faith centered on the sanctification of time itself. The Sabbath, in this vision, is not a mere pause in labor, but a recurring sanctuar

This work examines the deification of emperors alongside the recurring figure of Mother Earth , often described in ancient traditions as the mother of gods and of humankind. Across many cultures, Earth appears as a generative, enveloping power associated with dreams, visions, fertility, death, and the authorization of rule. Rulers are frequently portrayed as receiving legitimacy through symbolic or ritual contact with this maternal principle, especially through sleep, omens

The Roman Catholic Church grounds its claim to universal authority in a specific historical assertion: that the church in Rome was founded by the apostle Peter. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter’s successor, is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.” This statement assumes not merely that Peter was associated with Rome, but that he established t

This essay is grounded primarily in the historical work of Will Durant , especially The Story of Civilization, Volume III: Caesar and Christ . Durant was not a theologian, an apologist, or a polemicist. He wrote as a secular historian of civilizations, attentive to structure, power, psychology, and institutional continuity. Precisely for that reason, his analysis is invaluable for examining Christianity not as a creed to be defended, but as a historical movement that entered

Much of Western Christian theology assumes that humanity inherits sin or guilt from Adam. From this assumption flow doctrines such as juridical original sin, purgatory as penal satisfaction, indulgences, and the treasury of merit. This post argues that this assumption is neither patristic nor logically coherent. The early Church does not teach that Adam’s personal guilt is transmitted to his descendants. It teaches that what humanity inherits is death , corruption, and ontol

Today’s discussion centers on The Error of the Pagan Religions , a fourth-century Christian polemical work written by Firmicus Maternus , and preserved for us in the modern English translation and annotation by Clarence A. Forbes (Newman Press, 1970). Before engaging the book’s claims about Roman religion and the persistence of the mystery cults, it is necessary to establish the work’s credibility; both in terms of authorship and historical reliability. The explicit of the s

Andrea Alciato’s Emblemata   is often introduced as a Renaissance curiosity: a learned book of images, mottos, and classical references meant to train the reader in moral reflection and humanist eloquence. Yet beneath its elegant surface lies something far older and far darker. Alciato was not inventing symbols; he was cataloguing and systematizing an inheritance from the ancient world, one that reaches back into the mystery cults of Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Asia Minor. His

Jeremiah 10:3–4 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. Isaiah 40:19–20 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto h

History and Architecture of the Temple of Cybele In 204 B.C. , the Roman Senate assigned responsibility for constructing the temple to the censores . The building was formally inaugurated in 191 B.C.  by the praetor M. Iunius Brutus . Almost no physical remains of this earliest phase have survived. Approximately one century later, the sanctuary was destroyed by fire. A reconstruction followed in 110–109 B.C.  From this phase derive the architectural elements that are partiall

The account of Cyprian’s life and martyrdom comes to us not from a distant admirer or later legend, but from Pontius , a deacon who served directly under Cyprian and accompanied him during his exile. Pontius was not merely a clerical subordinate, but a close associate and eyewitness to the final period of Cyprian’s life. His proximity to Cyprian places his testimony among the earliest and most reliable sources for understanding both Cyprian’s character and the circumstances

Within the Christian tradition, truth has never been regarded as secondary to unity, nor faith as independent of historical fidelity. Christianity is grounded in the conviction that God has acted decisively in history through Jesus Christ, and that the content of this revelation matters. To confess Christ rightly therefore requires more than inherited loyalty to later formulations; it requires continual discernment of whether doctrine remains faithful to what was preached,

“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. ” — Revelation 17:5 From humanity’s earliest history, questions of origin, life, and death have driven religious inquiry. The ancient mystery cults taught that such knowledge was not available to all, but only to those admitted through initiation into an exclusive spiritual system. They claimed that understanding life’s deepest truths required se

This study is not intended as an attack on Catholics or a dismissal of the sincerity of those who hold to papal supremacy. Many faithful Catholics have embraced this doctrine with genuine devotion to Christ. The aim here is historical and theological clarity, not controversy. Within the Christian tradition, the pursuit of truth has always required careful examination of origins, developments, and assumptions, even when long-established institutions are involved. Much of the

History does not merely record belief; it records what belief authorizes . When reverence is genuine, it produces humility, restraint, and obedience to divine command . When reverence is false, it produces authority without mercy, and violence cloaked in sanctity. It is this latter phenomenon; piety weaponized, that demands examination. The gravest crimes committed under Holy pretense have never arisen from devotion to Christ’s teachings, but from the assertion of religio

This post analyzes ancient texts and historical claims in their original context. Descriptions of violence appear only as part of critical examination and do not reflect endorsement. Tertullian (c. 155–240 AD) was one of the earliest and most formidable Christian writers of the Latin West. A trained jurist and rhetorician from Roman Carthage, he wrote not as a theologian detached from public life, but as a man steeped in Roman law, fully aware of its principles, procedures,

Clement of Rome is traditionally identified as a leading presbyter of the Roman church in the late first century, commonly dated to the reign of Domitian (c. AD 90–100 ). He is widely regarded as the author of 1 Clement , a letter written from the church of Rome to the church at Corinth to address internal disorder and restore ecclesial harmony. The letter is among the earliest extant Christian writings outside the New Testament and was held in exceptionally high esteem by

Introduction The First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (AD 325) is often remembered almost exclusively for the Nicene Creed . Yet the council also issued twenty disciplinary canons which reveal, with remarkable clarity, how the early Church understood authority, governance, ministry, worship, and doctrine. These canons are not marginal; they are authoritative expressions of how the apostolic faith was lived and ordered in the fourth century, prior to the later medieval and mo

The very first deception recorded in Scripture sets the pattern for all human idolatry that followed. In Eden, the serpent whispered a promise that has echoed through every empire and every occult system in world history: “Ye shall be as gods.” At its core, this temptation united two forbidden desires; to become divine, and to gain hidden, forbidden knowledge. Across the ancient world, these two ambitions shaped the birth of false religion , priestly magic, imperial cults