Whenever we at the Living Hour think about Russia and the Lord's Prayer, we can't help but also think about the work of Leo Tolstoy. You are likely familiar with Tolstoy's epic novel War & Peace, which many consider the best novel ever written. What you may not know is that Tolstoy is also a prominent figure in the history of progressive Christianity, having...
In today's Living Hour post, we are going to share a translation of the Lord's Prayer into Portuguese. In Portugal, the Lord's Prayer is known as the "Pai Nosso" (Our Father) prayer. Among Catholics, Portugal is well-known as the country of "Our Lady of Fátima," which refers to apparitions of the Virgin Mary which appeared to three, poor shepherd children (Lúcia Santos and...
There is a humorous story about an American congressman who, fighting for the sanctity of the English language, exclaimed that if English was good enough for Jesus Christ it's good enough for him! As most of us know, Jesus did not speak English. His native language was Aramaic. And the Gospel scriptures were written in Greek. One of the early great progressive Christians was...
It's a shame that in the United States, we no longer teach Latin in our schools, for Latin has a grace, beauty, and music that English has a difficult time rivaling. This is not to say that Latin is better than English, only that each language has different strong points; and gracefulness is one area where Latin usually triumphs. We should be thankful that...
The following is the Lord's Prayer from The King James Version (KJV) of the Holy Bible, the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him how to pray, the prayer which is the Rosetta Stone for understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The prayer appears twice in the KJV Holy Bible: in the Gospel of Matthew 6:9-13, and in the Gospel of...
Radical German theologians such as Paul Tillich and David Friedrich Strauss have had a tremendous impact on what we call the Progressive Christianity today, their works being as vital and contemporary now as when they were written. One of our favorite Paul Tillich quotes is: "The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety...
The Lord's Prayer played a strong role in the services and worship of the Germans who settled in Pennsylvania. In homage to them, we offer a Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch) translation of The Lord's Prayer, the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him how to pray. It is this prayer that Jesus advises us to pray instead of making requests for...
We have already shared the Lord's Prayer in Old English, so today we will follow that up with the Lord's Prayer in Middle English. The Old English (Anglo Saxon) literary period began around the middle of the 7th century, and Middle English slowly developed from there, with the classic work Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer) being written in the 1390s. A couple important things...
The Lord's Prayer in French is certainly one of the most beautiful versions of the "Our Father" (Notre Père') prayer. There have been many progressive Christian theologians and ministers among the French throughout history. If you aren't familiar of who the Living Hour considers to be progressive Christians, please see our post: Progressive Christianity Defined. One of our favorite progressive Christians among the French...
Today we would like to share a version of the Lord's Prayer in Old English (Anglo Saxon). For many of us, our only experience with Old English is reading the classic Old English book Beowulf. However, we also have a version of the Lord's Prayer in the West Saxon literary dialect. Old English itself is the earliest historical form of the English language, having...
In this Living Hour post, we'll share a Spanish translation of the Lord's Prayer (Padre Nuestro). Whenever one thinks about Spain and its contribution to progressive Christianity and theology, the works of Miguel de Unamuno come to mind—especially his book The Agony of Christianity. Don't let the title fool you, Unamuno's work isn't one of despair or depression but rather love and hope. In...