Search Results (2)

The Easter controversy of the late second century unveiled a profound theological and cultural debate within early Christianity. Originating from differing practices regarding the calculation of Easter dates, the dispute pitted the churches of Asia Minor against the Roman Church. This paper primarily employs a method of documentary analysis. It analyzes the accounts provided by the fourth-century historian Eusebius of Caesarea in his work The History of the Church. It is also cross-referenced with the works of second-century Christian writers. Through this process, this paper seeks to reconstruct the situation of this Easter controversy. Furthermore, it aims to uncover the struggle for apostolic authority concealed beneath the surface of this debate over dates. Central figures like Victor I and Polycrates engaged in this struggle for Apostolic authority, responding to challenges posed by heresies. Victor I leveraged his position to convene religious conferences and issue excommunication decrees against dissenting churches, laying claim to the papal primacy. However, Polycrates invoked the apostolic succession and heritage from John the Apostle to assert the legitimacy of the churches in Asia Minor, challenging Victor I’s attempts at centralizing power within the Roman see. The controversy reflected broader debates over apostolic succession and ecclesiastical power structures. The Easter controversy serves as a case study of the Early Church’s engagement with practical theology and the integration of religious festival culture with social backgrounds, highlighting the significance of Easter as a symbol of Christian unity and collective memory. This debate highlighted theological nuances and underscored broader issues of communal identity and the power struggle within early Christian communities. Full article

The discovery and settlement of the tiny and remote Easter Island (Rapa Nui) has been a classical controversy for decades. Present-day aboriginal people and their culture are undoubtedly of Polynesian origin, but it has been debated whether Native Americans discovered the island before the Polynesian settlement. Until recently, the paradigm was that Easter Island was discovered and settled just once by Polynesians in their millennial-scale eastward migration across the Pacific. However, the evidence for cultivation and consumption of an American plant—the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas)—on the island before the European contact (1722 CE), even prior to the Europe-America contact (1492 CE), revived controversy. This paper reviews the classical archaeological, ethnological and paleoecological literature on the subject and summarizes the information into four main hypotheses to explain the sweet potato enigma: the long-distance dispersal hypothesis, the back-and-forth hypothesis, the Heyerdahl hypothesis, and the newcomers hypothesis. These hypotheses are evaluated in light of the more recent evidence (last decade), including molecular DNA phylogeny and phylogeography of humans and associated plants and animals, physical anthropology (craniometry and dietary analysis), and new paleoecological findings. It is concluded that, with the available evidence, none of the former hypotheses may be rejected and, therefore, all possibilities remain open. For future work, it is recommended to use the multiple working hypotheses framework and the strong inference method of hypothesis testing, rather than the ruling theory approach, very common in Easter Island research. Full article