The Southern Cross

Anthony Egan

Bible / Church History / Series

Saint Paul and the Bible

When we think of St Paul on his many great journeys fearlessly preaching the gospel, do we imagine a street preacher proclaiming his message aloud, grasping and sometimes waving around a well-thumbed leather-bound copy of the Bible? When we think of Paul writing his letters, do we imagine him writing away surrounded by a stack of bibles, commentaries and works of theology? We would be mistaken.

Church

Religious Orders: Then and Now

Religious orders and congregations contributed heroically to the struggle against apartheid, but had a mixed record before then, as FR ANTHONY EGAN SJ explains in Part 2 of his brief history of the religious orders in South Africa.

Church / Saints / Series

Understanding St Paul’s Teachings

Pauls moral teaching often causes controversy. Scripture scholar Victor Paul Furnish, who tries to show how a more critical reading of Pauls ethics can retrieve the spirit of what he said, observes that when one treats Pauls teaching as if it were a sacred cow, one runs the risk of turning it into a white elephant.

Series

St Paul Today

As we study St Paul, we are faced with the almost inevitable question: what does a Jewish preacher of the Risen Christ who was executed in Rome in around 61 AD have to say to Christians today? After all, so much has changed since Paul’s death.

Series

Paul and Jesus

What did St Paul actually know about Jesus? Before his conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-6) Paul would have known very little about Jesus. Having never met the historical Jesus of Nazareth, he had to rely initially on what was being said about him in Jerusalem by Jesus’ disciples and detractors.

Church

St Paul’s Big Round-Trip

Even among those who have perhaps no knowledge of St Paul, some will have heard of his dramatic conversion and we often hear the phrase “the road to Damascus” or his “Damascus” moment.

Series

Paul and Salvation

It used to be a common joke to say that while Jesus was Catholic, Paul was Protestant. Of course we know that both Jesus and Paul were Torah-observing Jews but as with many jokes it has a core of truth.