Welcome to Litsy!

Sound like anyone else we‘ve talked about recently? #justinian #ashorthistoryofbyzantium #ohnjuliusnorwich #byzantineempire #easternromanempire #emperor #worldhistory #europeanhistory #history #failures #successes

Part 3 (finally): Doctrine was not necessarily questioned by the regular public back then, but I look at it now as an adult in 2025 and ask myself what was written solely for a political purpose, and if there is a God, what God would want us to believe? I am not a theologian by any means, but I still question doctrine to an extent, and I question the origins and motivations of fundamental beliefs because of these councils.

Part 2: In Catholic school, we learned that the councils were called by church leaders due to a fundamental question that needed to be answered, but it was solved peacefully and the church reinstated its authority…

But as we‘ve learned in A Short History of Byzantium, church councils were highly political, and the outcome often depended on how many people from each side attended the council.

Part 1: Let‘s talk about ecumenical councils, particularly what their purpose was, what Catholic school said they were, and what they actually were. Whenever there was a conflict in the church, someone in a position of power, many times the emperor, would decree an ecumenical council. The council was a meeting of bishops to discuss the question presented, and the Holy Spirit was supposed to come down and guide the council to the right answer…

We‘re going to pull a little bit from the last book we read because I see parallels: What parallels do you see between the hippodrome mob rebellion and the January 6 insurrection we read about in The Divider? I see parallels, but I want to know what you all think. #thedivider #ashorthistoryofbyzantium #johnjuliusnorwich #peterbaker #susanglasser #donaldtrump #joebiden #justinian #theodora #byzantium #byzantineempire #insurrection #rebellion

New word alert- Homooussios is used to describe Jesus and God as one. Constantine the Great inserted this word into Christian doctrine at the Council of Nicaea to counter Aries of Alexandria who told followers Jesus is not God. #ashorthistoryofbyzantium #johnjuliusnorwich #councilofnicaea #constantinethegreat #byzantineempire #homoousios #arianism #christianity #churchhistory #worldhistory #europeanhistory #history

I keep thinking about how Constantine created laws and legislation that was influenced by Christianity, but never mentioned it or Christ. It reminds me of my reversion to Islam and how I started doing things that were more in line with Islam before I started thinking about reverting. Constantine‘s decision was most likely political, but it makes me wonder if he was starting to adopt a Christian lifestyle before thinking about converting.

For 50+ days, Constantinople defended itself and its 1200+ years of history as the eastern-most bastion of Christendom against the Turkish Ottomans‘ assault. This is a very detailed account of the siege and battle, and some of the aftermath. Sultan Mehmet was only 21 when he felled the city that had withstood many previous attempts. I suspect age aided his endurance. But he was also a young military genius and had extraordinary control of the ⬇️

The author of the tagged book describes the sources he most trusted to write this historical account of the siege and fall of Constantinople, Doukas being one of them. How crazy that Doukas‘s account stops mid-sentence!

“If there is any moment at which it is possible to recognize a modern sensibility in a medieval event, it is here in the account of reactions to the news of the fall of Constantinople. Like the assassination of Kennedy or 9/11 it is clear that people throughout Europe could remember exactly where they were when they first heard the news.”