The Catholic Church and Cremation

For most of its 2,000-year history, cremation was forbidden by the Catholic Church. This teaching was born of historical context as well as biblical interpretation. In early times, Romans cremated their dead as a rejection of an afterlife, a direct contradiction to...

What is Monasticism?

The concept of monasticism is ancient and is found in many religions and philosophies. In the centuries immediately before Christ, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism all developed alternative styles of life which involved renouncing the world in some ways, in order to...