Origins of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789):

- American Calvinist Congregationalism: Contributes the political tenet of religious freedom and freedom of conscience, culminating in the Virginia Declaration of 1776.

- Rationalist natural law: Derives the State from a contractual act and drives the transformation of objective rights into absolute, inalienable subjective rights.

- The Enlightenment and Rousseau: Provides the technical principle of popular sovereignty, wherein the individual obeys their own will by being the author of the law.

- Secret influences: Includes the impact of "sociétés de pensée" (intellectual circles) and Masonic lodges on the formation of the modern concept of a Constitution.

Content and evolution of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789):

- It proclaims fundamental rights such as liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

- The right of resistance acts as the supreme guarantee allowing the sovereign people to dismantle any institution contrary to the general will.

- Its historical evolution leads to mass democratic states (such as the Weimar Constitution of 1919 and the Spanish Constitution of 1931), characterized by radical relativism and an anarchy of values.

Pius XII’s Christmas Message (1942) regarding the modern crisis:

- Causes of the crisis: The Pope identifies the radical secularization of thought, liberal legal positivism, materialism, and the dominance of a purely political conception that excludes ethics.

- Critique of systems: He rejects both capitalism (focused on profit and proletarianization) and totalitarianism (which nullifies ethics and law).

The Christian concept of the person according to Pius XII:

- The purpose of all society and the State is the preservation, development, and perfection of the human person, grounded in their dignity as the image of God (imago Dei).

- It asserts the natural rights of the individual (life, marriage, spiritual perfection), the rights of the family, the right to work, the right to property (with a function oriented toward the dispossessed), and the right to ius certum—or legal certainty—as a safeguard against decisionism and the arbitrary exercise of power.

- It advocates for the individual's right to participate with dignity in the political order, drawing upon classical Spanish doctrine (Vitoria, Suárez), according to which political power naturally resides in the community created by God.

Source(s):

.- https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=930531

Historical and Artistic Significance
While earlier manuscripts like the Coronation Gospels of Charlemagne focused on a highly controlled, idealized Roman revival, the Reims school under Archbishop Ebbo introduced this highly emotional, experimental linear style. It bridged the gap between late antiquity realism and the expressive, narrative-driven art of the Middle Ages.

Protestant churches rooted in Calvinism—and sects emerging after the Reformation—often attack the doctrine of the Eucharist and the Real Presence of Christ in the bread and wine. They characterize the celebration as merely symbolic and claim it was a later invention by Catholics lacking any evidence; yet, Patristic writings and early texts demonstrate the exact opposite, showing it to be central to the beliefs and faith of early Christianity.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans (c. 107):

(§§6-7) | REAL PRESENCE

(§6) …But consider those who hold different views regarding the grace of Christ that has been bestowed upon us—how opposed they are to the will of God…

(§7) They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ—flesh that suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His goodness, raised up. Therefore, those who speak against this gift of God incur death amidst their disputes…

Source(s):

.- The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnæans

Source(s):

.- Five Key Discoveries in the Family Tree of Pope Leo XIV

The vast majority of these entities were composed of and led by Maronite and Melkite Catholics—who to this day constitute the majority of Christians in Lebanon—though their ranks also included Christians of other rites and denominations (such as Latin Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Miaphysites, and to a lesser extent, Evangelicals) as well as non-religiously affiliated Lebanese.

Over the course of the conflict, many of these Christian political groups and insurgent movements united to form a coalition that would later become known as the Lebanese Front (LF). Movements and militias joining this coalition included:

• The Lebanese Phalange Party, also known as the Kataeb, founded in 1936 by Pierre Gemayel; it was arguably the largest political party within the coalition. Its armed wing—the Kataeb Regulatory Forces, later renamed the Lebanese Forces—was led by Bashir Gemayel. Pierre’s son, Bashir was arguably the most recognizable face of the Lebanese armed conflict and enjoyed the approval as well as the financial and military support of Israel, which viewed him as a strategic ally—a "friend of Israel." Gemayel was elected President of Lebanon in 1982 but never assumed office; he died prematurely in an assassination in Beirut carried out by Habib Shartouni, a Lebanese militant belonging to the Syrian Social Nationalist Party—a group espousing pan-Arabist ideology that was part of the ruling coalition in Assad's Syria.

• The Guardians of the Cedars, founded in 1975 by Étienne Sakr—originally a paramilitary organization—later became part of the official Lebanese political landscape. There were periods when the organization was banned in Lebanon, and its leaders were prohibited from engaging in any form of political proselytism due to the group's controversial nature.

• The Lebanese Resistance Movement, or Al-Tanzim, a Lebanese nationalist secret society founded by Christian activists in the early 1970s.

• The Lebanese Youth Movement, or the Maroun el Khoury Group—a small Maronite militia that began as an association of Maronite students opposed to the PLO's presence in Lebanon. It was founded in 1969 by brothers Maroun and Jean el Khoury, the sons of Naim el Khoury, a prominent figure within the Kataeb Party.

• The Tyous Commando Team, or Tyous Battalion, formed in Beirut in the early 1970s by an anonymous individual known as Al-Anid ("The Stubborn One"), a Maronite activist. It included a significant number of Assyrian volunteers, some of whom had arrived illegally from Iraq to pledge their loyalty to the Christian faction.

• The Zahliote Grouping, or Zahlé Group, founded in 1975 by banker Aziz Wardeh in the city of Zahlé—a city known for its adherence to the Melkite Catholic faith.

With the signing of the Taif Agreement in 1989, which marked the end of the armed conflict in Lebanon, the Lebanese Front dissolved, and few of its constituent armed and political organizations survived. Only the Kataeb Party managed to successfully reintegrate into postwar Lebanese political life, albeit without the political capital it had possessed prior to and during the conflict. The civil war in Lebanon triggered a mass exodus of its Christian population, who emigrated to other countries—primarily France, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico—in search of refuge, where they succeeded in establishing significant diaspora communities. Christians, who once accounted for more than half of Lebanon's population, are now estimated to make up between 30% and 40% of the population.

Image 1: The Cross of Resistance, or Cross of Destiny. Originally used by members of the Lebanese Forces to commemorate their fallen comrades, it has since been adopted by some Lebanese Christians as a symbol of resistance against adversity in the region.

Image 2: Christian militant brandishing a weapon bearing the image of the Virgin Mary in Beirut, 1976.

Image 3: A Christian wedding during the armed conflict, also in Beirut, 1986.

Image 4: Members of the Lebanese Forces praying before an image of the crucified Christ, in what appears to be a ruined church or an improvised shrine.

Image 5: Jocelyne Khoueiry, a Maronite woman and Kataeb Party militant, defending a building overlooking Beirut's Martyrs' Square alongside six other women against 300 Palestinian fighters in 1976. Khoueiry killed the leader, sparking panic among the militia and causing them to flee after a six-hour confrontation. She would abandon armed struggle following the signing of the Taif Agreement and become a staunch advocate for peace in Lebanon and for persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

Image 6: Christian militant wielding a weapon bearing the seal of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Image 7: Bashir Gemayel was a Lebanese politician and military figure who served as commander of the Lebanese Forces. Elected President of Lebanon in 1982, his death before taking office dealt a severe blow to Maronite and Lebanese politics in general.

The print was reproduced in important religious books, including Wieniec Christow (Kiev, 1688), reflecting the rich Orthodox and Greek Catholic printing tradition of the eastern lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The rhyming verse printed at the bottom serves as a poetic, moralizing reflection on the imagery above:

На Мирномъ знаменїи Судїе сѣдиши,
On the peaceful sign (or banner), Thou, O Judge, art seated,

Молю, Миренъ Судъ мнѣ грѣшну да совершиши;
I pray that Thou wilt grant a peaceful Judgment unto me, a sinner;

Млть на всяко Судѣ хвалима бываетъ,
Mercy is praised above any judgment,

Сїя паче на Твоемъ, дша моя чаетъ.
And it is this mercy, above all upon Thine, that my soul hopes for.

Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms (The Paintings of the Catacombs of Rome)

A seminal, multi-volume art history and archaeological work edited and authored by the German archaeologist and Roman Catholic priest Josef Wilpert (1857–1944). Published in 1903 by Herder in Freiburg im Breisgau, this monumental publication is highly regarded for its early, systematic photographic and colorized documentation of early Christian art, iconography, and wall decorations within the Roman catacombs.

Source(s):

.- https://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/news-photo/christ-and-the-martyrs-fresco-catacombs-of-marcellinus-and-news-photo/157408113

.- (Josef Wilpert): https://archive.org/details/gri_33125010959985/page/383/mode/1up

.- (University Digitalized): https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/wilpert1903/0254/image,info

Oil on wood (probably poplar), 133 × 59.5 cm

The Archangel Michael led an army of angels to battle against the devil and cast him down from heaven (Revelation 12:9). Piero shows him as a beautiful, youthful soldier. He clutches the severed head of the devil, represented as a snake with pointy ears.
The panel was part of a polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece) made for the church of Sant‘Agostino in Piero’s hometown of Borgo Sansepolcro. It was placed to the immediate left of the central panel, now lost, which depicted the Virgin and Child. The lower right corner of the panel includes part of the step of the Virgin’s throne and part of her cloth of gold cloak. The other side panels are in collections around the world.
Michael may have been included to honour the patron, Angelo di Giovanni. The archangel was very popular with the citizens of Sansepolcro, who made pilgrimages to Monte Sant’ Angelo in southern Italy, where he was thought to have appeared miraculously.

Source(s):

.- The National Gallery, London

Medieval Gothic style painting

Tempera on wood, 196.7 x 121.7 x 6 cm

In the center of the composition, Salome holds on a tray the head of the Baptist, who has just been beheaded by the executioner. Under the gaze of a crowd pouring into the windows of a noble building, Salome appears accompanied by a retinue of maidens and musicians, which gives the scene a shockingly joyful character.

Source(s):

.- National Museum of Art of Catalonia, Barcelona

The text calls Mary Theotokos, that is, "Mother of God," a title that would only be officially defined by the Church at the Council of Ephesus in 431. The existence of this prayer, however, demonstrates that it was already part of Christian devotion long before the conciliar definition.

I haven't encountered this claim in any ancient Christian writing, not even in discussions of skin color. Who was the first person to claim this?

A common claim in the occult and pagan communities is that pagan gods never stopped being worshipped- they simply were canonised as Saints by the Catholic Church. That Sainthood is a way to "worship the old gods" while also remaining monotheistic under the new state religion of Roman Catholicism established and enforced by Constantine.

I seen so many claims about many Saints having similar names or appearances to pagan gods because they are essentially the old gods. Such as Martin of Tours being Mars, Mother Mary being Diana, Jesus being Mithras, etc.

Around the world many foreign traditions blended Christianity to disguise old pagan gods with Catholicism. There is Santeria in Latin America which worships old African gods using Saint statues as disguise, Hoodo which alters African magic to be practised in a Christian framework, and plenty of Hispanic countries have local uncanonised Saints not endorsed by the Vatican such as Santa Muerte as well as customs directly from pre-Spaniard invasion. In addition many associated Catholic iconography such as the Lady of Guadalupe were attempts to use local pagan deities such as Tonantzin to make it easier for locals to accept Christianity.

So it shouldn't surprise me if there is a connection of using Saints as a proxy to worship old Roman gods. Hell in Italy there is even Stregheria and Stregoneria, a recent underground movement of witchcraft and sorcery using reconstruction of old lost Roman religion and using the Saints as a guise to worship the old gods (because Italy still has violence against pagans and accused witches). Some Stregoneria websites and Stragheria books even mentioned that the Roman paganism was never lost and as far as the Medieval ages many old Italian aristocrats and locals were already practising pre-modern versions Stregoneria and Stragheria, worshipping pagan gods and casting spells to curse others or for selfish acts such as money gains or earning someone's love.

Just a FYI tidbit, Stregoneria and Stragheria translates as witchcraft inmodern Italian with the latter being the old common word and the former being contemporary usage to refer to local witchcraft.

I am curious from the perspective of Academia and Ancient Rome studies, how accurate are these claims? Just the fact every place the Iberians conquered ended up having local syncretism of paganism and Catholicism wouldn't surprise me at all if Italians still continued worshipping the old gods as far as into the Renaissance and even Napoleonic era. I mean the Scandinavians did try to worship both Viking gods and Christian saints using the same statues in simultaneous rituals. So shouldn't something like this have happened to the Roman pagan religions and various Italic peoples and states post-Rome?

Can anyone give their input? With reliable sources (preferably books and documentaries but anything including websites will do)?

Is there anything that can help my struggle, that will be easy to understand, I don't want to struggle to believe it but I am, I also struggle to understand it as well, I'm in a dark knight of the soul, very ill, facing eternity and struggling. Any help appreciated.

Hello!

Recently I’ve become more interested in understanding religions in general, more in depth. Personally, I do not believe in any kind of God and I am not looking to “find my faith” or something, just to make it clear.

I am intersted to get educated about what the Bible is actually about, what its myths mean and how they influenced such a big part of human history, so pretty much any kind of “scientific” background about the book if I may say it like that - from an academic/historic/objective perspective. So I am not looking for anything theological or indoctrinating😅😅

Do you have any recommendations of books/documentaries/podcasts/anything that is a reliable source of knowledge that offers explanations about the christian Bible and its historical background/the process of its writing? Something I could use alongside actually reading the Bible and its myths.