right before cain kills his brother, he is angry because his sacrifice was not accepted. and God says to him,

"Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it."

genesis 4:7


yet one chapter earlier, we find God telling eve:

"I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you."


genesis 3:16

sin is cain's wife. i think milton was quite on track to portray sin as a woman. the devil is definitely masculine, but sin seems to be attributed with feminine qualities. it hearkens back, of course, to lady folly in proverbs. this makes Christ's temptations all the more interesting, because you've got satan as the prospective father-in-law pimping out his daughter, sin, to the Son of Man, who instead chooses the other woman before Him: israel. 

Luther was not concerned to philosophize about the structure of Church and state; his insistence was simply that every man must answer for himself to God.

here i stand by roland bainton, ch.8 p.109

In 2003 Southern opposition found a visible face in Peter Jasper Akinola, the primate of the powerful Church of Nigeria, who expressed implacable opposition to Anglo-American sexual liberalism. At every point, he stressed that he was objecting not to specific policies or actions, but to what he viewed as a Northern betrayal of the most basic tenets of Christianity, a literally diabolical lurch into non-Christian heresy. Responding to the proposed elevation of Jeffrey John, Akinola thundered, "This is an attack on the Church of God -- a Satanic attack on God's Church." To the prospect of gay unions, he warned that "If England adopts a new faith, alien to what has been handed to us together, they can walk apart.... No Church can ignore the teaching of the Bible with impunity, and no Church is beyond discipline."

philip jenkins, the next Christendom, p.236-237

Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.

boniface viii, unam sanctam, 1302 a.D.

unam sanctam was a papal bull which, by every standard in a brief search of the interwebs, is ex cathedra and infallible. The document itself is prefaced in part:

"The statements concerning the relations between the spiritual and the secular power are of a purely historical character, so far as they do not refer to the nature of the spiritual power, and are based on the actual conditions of medieval Europe. 'Unam' is frequently quoted, and misquoted, by anti-Catholics trying to prove that Boniface VIII, and Popes in general, are arrogant and evil men, intent on extending their own power."

seriously people. remember innocent iii? just misquoted. the borgias? well, it's hard to misquote a slit throat, but you've definitely misinterpreted them. i have no problem with the brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic church. what i have a problem with is a man telling me i am going to hell unless i believe him to be the sole arbiter of the Word of God. that's called a Mediator, and i already have One.

The difference between scholastic theology and monastic theology corresponds to the differences between the two states of life: the state of Christian life in the world and the state of Christian life in the religious life. The latter was what was, in fact, until the end of the twelfth century, unanimously called the 'contemplative life.' It was contemplateive because of its organization and orientation, even if some of those who led it also took part - to a greater or lesser extent depending on the time and the region - in some active service for the Church.

leclercq, the love of learning, p.196

This undertaking of a natural history they thought possible because their college halls and libraries seemed firmly established in the shadow of revered institutions like Church and State. Little did they know that scholarship is based on a common bond between laity and scholars called the Church, and on a common law of freedom called the State, in our era. Before we can criticize at leisure, we must be at leisure. No science of man is truly scientific which remains ignorant of this, its own, premise.

rosenstock-heussy, fruit of lips, p.15

In 1912, working in an archive over a 13th century manuscript, I read this sentence on the parchment: 'Multi enim studio contradicendi amiserunt sensum.' 'Many in their eagerness to contradict at all costs lost the understanding.' I was impressed.

rosenstock-heussy, fruit of lips, p.12

But why did Jews persecute Christians? Were they not both in the same boat -- branded as atheists, regarded as the scum of the earth, scorned when doing badly and resented when doing well? The answer here clearly lies in the ferocity of polemic between different pressure-groups, parties and/or sects within the same parent body. Sibling rivalry is fiercest when the siblings have an inheritance to share, or when one feels that another is ruining the chances of any of them inheriting it at all.

bishop n.t. wright, new testament and the people of God, p.450

interesting. also why i think it likely that islam arose out of arian/jacobite heresy and is not simply a different religion than Christianity.

In other words, evangelicals seem to be inherently inconsistent, striking a pose at once adaptable and rigid, progressive and conservative, modern and old-fashioned, at ease and at odds with American ideals. The result of these apparent anomalies is a religion that on Sunday is comfortable with the church looking like the world (such as [Contemporary Christian Music]) and throughout the rest of the week insists that the world look like the church (as in family values.)

D.G. Hart

that old-time religion in modern america, pg. 215.