08-07-2006, 03:48 AM
I agree with what John wrote above. Earlier, I guess I jumped the gun a bit since I thought maybe this discussion was eluding to the actual Liturgy of the Mass. The Liturgy seems to have originated in Antioch but was/is 100% Biblically based - in fact, most of it comes from the Old Testament.
In the bigger scope, (Latin) Roman Catholicism as it is known today originated mainly from North Africa - the area of and around Carthage, home to great Christians like Augustine and his followers. Ironically, that was the Christianity that took root in Western Europe whereas today those great men are forgotten in their own homelands where Christianity is practically non-existent. Remember that in Italy the Church was Greek-speaking for the first two-hundred years. Of course, the Greek-speaking East never studied Augustine and consider him to be a heretic b/c he wrote that the fate of the Church doesn't lie with the survival of any culture or nation - it stands on its own. For the Orthodox, the Empire was inseparably tied to the Christian faith. But that's another story.
I apologize if I seemed over-defensive earlier to anyone.
Theo
In the bigger scope, (Latin) Roman Catholicism as it is known today originated mainly from North Africa - the area of and around Carthage, home to great Christians like Augustine and his followers. Ironically, that was the Christianity that took root in Western Europe whereas today those great men are forgotten in their own homelands where Christianity is practically non-existent. Remember that in Italy the Church was Greek-speaking for the first two-hundred years. Of course, the Greek-speaking East never studied Augustine and consider him to be a heretic b/c he wrote that the fate of the Church doesn't lie with the survival of any culture or nation - it stands on its own. For the Orthodox, the Empire was inseparably tied to the Christian faith. But that's another story.
I apologize if I seemed over-defensive earlier to anyone.
Theo
Jaime
