We have concluded Chapter 17 and here are our submissions.

We had an interesting discussion on the validity of the doctrine of the Trinity, mostly around the question whether or not the Holy Spirit was a person or just a description of the power of God.  Even defining the word “person” is quite difficult when you come to think of it.

Again, we discussed how religious conflicts, especially the ones triggered by the Reformation and Calvinism in particular, across Europe could be indicative of the “true” or “invisible” church; in other words, how can we reconcile all the religious wars throughout history, purportedly fought for in the name of Christ, with the Christian message?  Can it be reconciled given the fact all the Christian vs. Christian violence that has happened throughout history?

There’s a tendency by some to attribute “spiritual” or Satan into the mix as a cause of all this violence amongst Christians, but I doubt serious historians would ever accept such a reason- not just because most would find that silly, but also most would find it to be a rather naive and easy-way of thinking about such things without analyzing and critically thinking about all the factors involved.

There’s a trend you see throughout history, even beginning with the early church, where the greatest enemy of Christianity were Christians themselves.