These are theological essays written during my studies for a BA in Kingdom Theology at Westminster Theological Centre. They were written as a student and represent my thinking at that time, but they continue to find readers and I’ve left them here as background reading.
Every king of Israel and Judah was known as “anointed one”, which in Hebrew is “messiah”, because the prophet or high priest anointed him, usually with olive oil, at the time of his enthronement. However, the Old Testament writers had different ideas as to what sort of saviour this messiah would be.
Constantine was the first Roman emperor to be baptized as a Christian. The story of how he converted to Christianity and the impact that this had on Christianity has provided much debate ever since.
Monasticism can be traced back to the fourth century[1] and over the centuries there were several attempts to write a Rule by which the lives of monks would be ordered. In the sixth century Benedict took one such Rule by an Italian monk known as the Master[2] and developed it into, as Carolinne White comments,…