title: Christian theology

text: The Church bases its belief in Heaven on some main biblical passages in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures (Old and New Testaments) and collected church wisdom. Heaven is the Realm of the Blessed Trinity, the angels and the saints.


title: Christian theology

text: The essential joy of heaven is called the beatific vision, which is derived from the vision of God's essence. The soul rests perfectly in God, and does not, or cannot desire anything else than God. After the Last Judgment, when the soul is reunited with its body, the body participates in the happiness of the soul. It becomes incorruptible, glorious and perfect. Any physical defects the body may have laboured under are erased. Heaven is also known as paradise in some cases. The Great Gulf separates heaven from hell.


title: Christian theology

text: Upon dying, each soul goes to what is called "the particular judgement" where its own afterlife is decided (i.e. Heaven after Purgatory, straight to Heaven, or Hell.) This is different from "the general judgement" also known as "the Last judgement" which will occur when Christ returns to judge all the living and the dead.


title: Christian theology

text: The term Heaven (which differs from "The Kingdom of Heaven" see note below) is applied by the biblical authors to the realm in which God currently resides. Eternal life, by contrast, occurs in a renewed, unspoilt and perfect creation, which can be termed Heaven since God will choose to dwell there permanently with his people, as seen in . There will no longer be any separation between God and man. The believers themselves will exist in incorruptible, resurrected and new bodies; there will be no sickness, no death and no tears. Some teach that death itself is not a natural part of life, but was allowed to happen after Adam and Eve disobeyed God (see original sin) so that mankind would not live forever in a state of sin and thus a state of separation from God.


title: Christian theology

text: Many evangelicals understand this future life to be divided into two distinct periods: first, the Millennial Reign of Christ (the one thousand years) on this earth, referred to in ; secondly, the New Heavens and New Earth, referred to in Revelation 21 and 22. This millennialism (or chiliasm) is a revival of a strong tradition in the Early Church that was dismissed by Saint Augustine of Hippo and the Roman Catholic Church after him.


title: Christian theology

text: Not only will the believers spend eternity with God, they will also spend it with each other. John's vision recorded in Revelation describes a New Jerusalem which comes from Heaven to the New Earth, which is seen to be a symbolic reference to the people of God living in community with one another. 'Heaven' will be the place where life will be lived to the full, in the way that the designer planned, each believer 'loving the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind' and 'loving their neighbour as themselves' (adapted from Matthew 22:37–38, the Great Commandment)—a place of great joy, without the negative aspects of earthly life. See also World to Come.


title: Christian theology

text: Purgatory is the condition or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven. This is a theological idea that has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian literature, while the poetic conception of purgatory as a geographically situated place is largely the creation of medieval Christian piety and imagination.


title: Christian theology

text: The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church (in the Eastern sui juris churches or rites it is a doctrine, though often without using the name "Purgatory"); Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to the belief. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed in an intermediate state between death and the final judgment and in the possibility of "continuing to grow in holiness there." The Eastern Orthodox Churches believe in the possibility of a change of situation for the souls of the dead through the prayers of the living and the offering of the Divine Liturgy, and many Eastern Orthodox, especially among ascetics, hope and pray for a general apocatastasis. A similar belief in at least the possibility of a final salvation for all is held by Mormonism. Judaism also believes in the possibility of after-death purification and may even use the word "purgatory" to present its understanding of the meaning of Gehenna. However, the concept of soul "purification" may be explicitly denied in these other faith traditions.


title: Christian theology

text: Hell in Christian beliefs, is a place or a state in which the souls of the unsaved will suffer the consequences of sin. The Christian doctrine of Hell derives from the teaching of the New Testament, where Hell is typically described using the Greek words "Gehenna" or "Tartarus". Unlike Hades, Sheol, or Purgatory it is eternal, and those damned to Hell are without hope. In the New Testament, it is described as the place or state of punishment after death or last judgment for those who have rejected Jesus. In many classical and popular depictions it is also the abode of Satan and of Demons.


title: Christian theology

text: Hell is generally defined as the eternal fate of unrepentant sinners after this life. Hell's character is inferred from biblical teaching, which has often been understood literally. Souls are said to pass into Hell by God's irrevocable judgment, either immediately after death (particular judgment) or in the general judgment. Modern theologians generally describe Hell as the logical consequence of the soul using its free will to reject the will of God. It is considered compatible with God's justice and mercy because God will not interfere with the soul's free choice.


title: Christian theology

text: Only in the King James Version of the bible is the word "Hell" used to translate certain words, such as "sheol" (Hebrew) and both "hades" and "Gehenna"(Greek). All other translations reserve Hell only for use when Gehenna is mentioned. It is generally agreed that both sheol and hades do not typically refer to the place of eternal punishment, but to the underworld or temporary abode of the dead.


title: Christian theology

text: Traditionally, the majority of Protestants have held that Hell will be a place of unending conscious torment, both physical and spiritual, although some recent writers (such as C. S. Lewis and J.P. Moreland) have cast Hell in terms of "eternal separation" from God. Certain biblical texts have led some theologians to the conclusion that punishment in Hell, though eternal and irrevocable, will be proportional to the deeds of each soul (e.g. , ).


title: Christian theology

text: Another area of debate is the fate of the unevangelized (i.e. those who have never had an opportunity to hear the Christian gospel), those who die in infancy, and mentally disabled people. Some Protestants agree with Augustine that people in these categories will be damned to Hell for original sin, while others believe that God will make an exception in these cases.


title: Christian theology

text: A "significant minority" believe in the doctrine of conditional immortality, which teaches that those sent to Hell will not experience eternal conscious punishment, but instead will be extinguished or annihilated after a period of "limited conscious punishment". Prominent evangelical theologians who have adopted conditionalist beliefs include John Wenham, Edward Fudge, Clark Pinnock and John Stott (although the latter has described himself as an "agnostic" on the issue of annihilationism). Conditionalists typically reject the traditional concept of the immortality of the soul.


title: Christian theology

text: Some Protestants (such as George MacDonald, Karl Randall, Keith DeRose and Thomas Talbott), also, however, in a minority, believe that after serving their sentence in Gehenna, all souls are reconciled to God and admitted to heaven, or ways are found at the time of death of drawing all souls to repentance so that no "hellish" suffering is experienced. This view is often called Christian universalism—its conservative branch is more specifically called 'Biblical or Trinitarian Universalism'—and is not to be confused with Unitarian Universalism. See universal reconciliation, "apocatastasis" and the problem of Hell.


title: Christian theology

text: Theodicy can be said to be defense of God's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil. Specifically, Theodicy is a specific branch of theology and philosophy which attempts to reconcile belief in God with the perceived existence of evil. As such, theodicy can be said to attempt to justify the behaviour of God (at least insofar as God allows evil).


title: Christian theology

text: Responses to the problem of evil have sometimes been classified as "defenses" or "theodicies". However, authors disagree on the exact definitions. Generally, a "defense" attempts to show that there is no logical incompatibility between the existence of evil and the existence of God. A defense need not argue that this is a probable or plausible explanation, only that the defense is logically possible. A defense attempts to answer the "logical" problem of evil.


title: Christian theology

text: A theodicy, on the other hand, is a more ambitious attempt to provide a plausible justification for the existence of evil. A theodicy attempts to answer the "evidential" problem of evil. Richard Swinburne maintains that it does not make sense to assume there are greater goods, unless we know what they are, i.e., we have a successful theodicy.


title: Christian theology

text: As an example, some authors see arguments including demons or the fall of man as not logically impossible but not very plausible considering our knowledge about the world. Thus they are seen as defenses but not good theodicies. C. S. Lewis writes in his book The Problem of Pain:


title: Christian theology

text: Another possible answer is that the world is corrupted due to the sin of mankind. Some answer that because of sin, the world has fallen from the grace of God, and is not perfect. Therefore, evils and imperfections persist because the world is fallen. William A. Dembski argues that the effects of Adam's sin recorded in the Book of Genesis were 'back-dated' by God, and hence applied to the earlier history of the universe.


title: Christian theology

text: Evil is sometimes seen as a test or trial for humans. Irenaeus of Lyons and more recently John Hick have argued that evil and suffering are necessary for spiritual growth. This is often combined with the free will argument by arguing that such spiritual growth requires free will decisions. A problem with this is that many evils do not seem to cause any kind of spiritual growth, or even permit it, as when a child is abused from birth and becomes, seemingly inevitably, a brutal adult.


title: Christian theology

text: The problem of evil is often phrased in the form: "Why do bad things happen to good people?". Christianity teach that all people are inherently sinful due to the fall of man and original sin; for example, Calvinist theology follows a doctrine called federal headship, which argues that the first man, Adam, was the legal representative of the entire human race. A counterargument to the basic version of this principle is that an omniscient God would have predicted this, when he created the world, and an omnipotent God could have prevented it.


title: Christian theology

text: The Book of Isaiah clearly claims that God is the source of at least some natural disasters, but Isaiah doesn't attempt to explain the motivation behind the creation of evil. In contrast, the Book of Job is one of the most widely known formulations of the problem of evil in Western thought. In it, Satan challenges God regarding his servant Job, claiming that Job only serves God for the blessings and protection that he receives from him. God allows Satan to plague Job and his family in a number of ways, with the limitation that Satan may not take Job's life (but his children are killed). Job discusses this with three friends and questions God regarding his suffering which he finds to be unjust. God responds in a speech and then more than restores Job's prior health, wealth, and gives him new children.


title: Christian theology

text: Bart D. Ehrman argues that different parts of the Bible give different answers. One example is evil as punishment for sin or as a consequence of sin. Ehrman writes that this seems to be based on some notion of free will although this argument is never explicitly mentioned in the Bible. Another argument is that suffering ultimately achieves a greater good, possibly for persons other than the sufferer, that would not have been possible otherwise. The Book of Job offers two different answers: suffering is a test, and you will be rewarded later for passing it; another that God in his might chooses not to reveal his reasons. Ecclesiastes sees suffering as beyond human abilities to comprehend. Apocalyptic parts, including the New Testament, see suffering as due to cosmic evil forces, that God for mysterious reasons has given power over the world, but which will soon be defeated and things will be set right.


title: Christian theology

text: The Greek word in the New Testament that is translated in English as "sin" is "hamartia", which literally means "missing the target". 1 John 3:4 states: "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness". Jesus clarified the law by defining its foundation: "Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." ()


title: Christian theology

text: Hamartiology (, "hamartia", "missing the mark," "sin," + -λογια, "-logia", "sayings" or "discourse") is the branch of Christian theology, more specifically, systematic theology, which is the study of sin with a view to articulating a doctrine of it.


title: Christian theology

text: Substantial branches of hamartiological understanding subscribe to the doctrine of original sin, which was taught by the Apostle Paul in Romans 5:12–19 and popularized by Saint Augustine. He taught that all the descendants of Adam and Eve are guilty of Adam's sin without their own personal choice.


title: Christian theology

text: In contrast, Pelagius argued that humans enter life as essentially "tabulae rasae". The fall that occurred when Adam and Eve disobeyed God was held by his group to have affected humankind only minimally. But few theologians continue to hold this hamartiological viewpoint.


title: Christian theology

text: A third branch of thinking takes an intermediate position, arguing that after the fall of Adam and Eve, humans are born impacted by sin such that they have very decided tendencies toward sinning (which by personal choice all accountable humans but Jesus soon choose to indulge).


title: Christian theology

text: The degree to which a Christian believes humanity is impacted by either a literal or metaphorical "fall" determines their understanding of related theological concepts like salvation, justification, and sanctification.


title: Christian theology

text: Christian views on sin are mostly understood as legal infraction or contract violation, and so salvation tends to be viewed in legal terms, similar to Jewish thinking.


title: Christian theology

text: In religion, sin is the concept of acts that violate a rule of God. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Commonly, the moral code of conduct is decreed by a divine entity, i.e. Divine law.


title: Christian theology

text: Sin is often used to mean an action that is prohibited or considered wrong; in some religions (notably some sects of Christianity), sin can refer not only to physical actions taken, but also to thoughts and internalized motivations and feelings. Colloquially, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, shameful, harmful, or alienating might be termed "sinful".


title: Christian theology

text: An elementary concept of "sin" regards such acts and elements of Earthly living that one cannot take with them into transcendental living. Food, for example is not of transcendental living and therefore its excessive savoring is considered a sin. A more developed concept of "sin" deals with a distinction between sins of death (mortal sin) and the sins of human living (venial sin). In that context, mortal sins are said to have the dire consequence of mortal penalty, while sins of living (food, casual or informal sexuality, play, inebriation) may be regarded as essential spice for transcendental living, even though these may be destructive in the context of human living (obesity, infidelity).


title: Christian theology

text: In Western Christianity, "sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4) and so salvation tends to be understood in legal terms, similar to Jewish law. Sin alienates the sinner from God. It has damaged, and completely severed, the relationship of humanity to God. That relationship can only be restored through acceptance of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross as a sacrifice for mankind's sin (see Salvation and Substitutionary atonement).


title: Christian theology

text: In Eastern Christianity, sin is viewed in terms of its effects on relationships, both among people and between people and God. Sin is seen as the refusal to follow God's plan, and the desire to be like God and thus in direct opposition to him (see the account of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis). To sin is to want control of one's destiny in opposition to the will of God,


title: Christian theology

text: In the Russian variant of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, sin sometimes is regarded as any mistake made by people in their life. From this point of view every person is sinful because every person makes mistakes during his life. When person accuses others in sins he always must remember that he is also sinner and so he must have mercy for others remembering that God is also merciful to him and to all humanity.


title: Christian theology

text: The fall of man or simply the fall refers in Christian doctrine to the transition of the first humans from a state of innocent obedience to God, to a state of guilty disobedience to God. In the Book of Genesis chapter 2, Adam and Eve live at first with God in a paradise, but are then deceived or tempted by the serpent to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which had been forbidden to them by God. After doing so they become ashamed of their nakedness, and God consequently expelled them from paradise. The fall is not mentioned by name in the Bible, but the story of disobedience and expulsion is recounted in both Testaments in different ways. The Fall can refer to the wider theological inferences for all humankind as a consequence of Eve and Adam's original sin. Examples include the teachings of Paul in and .


title: Christian theology

text: Some Christian denominations believe the fall corrupted the entire natural world, including human nature, causing people to be born into original sin, a state from which they cannot attain eternal life without the gracious intervention of God. Protestants hold that Jesus' death was a "ransom" by which humanity was offered freedom from the sin acquired at the fall. In other religions, such as Judaism, Islam, and Gnosticism, the term "the fall" is not recognized and varying interpretations of the Eden narrative are presented.


title: Christian theology

text: Christianity interprets the fall in a number of ways. Traditional Christian theology accepts the teaching of St Paul in his letter to the Romans "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and of St John's Gospel that "God so loved the world that he sent his only son (Jesus Christ) that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life".


title: Christian theology

text: The doctrine of original sin, as articulated by Augustine of Hippo's interpretation of Paul of Tarsus, provides that the fall caused a fundamental change in human nature, so that all descendants of Adam are born in sin, and can only be redeemed by divine grace. Sacrifice was the only means by which humanity could be redeemed after the fall. Jesus, who was without sin, died on the cross as the ultimate redemption for the sin of humankind.


title: Christian theology

text: Thus, the moment Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree—which God had commanded them not to do—sinful death was born; "it was an act of disobedience, thinking they could become like gods, that was the sin". Since Adam was the head of the human race, he is held responsible for the evil that took place, for which reason the fall of man is referred to as the "sin of Adam". This sin caused Adam and his descendants to lose unrestricted access to God Himself. The years of life were limited. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (). In Christian theology, the death of Jesus on the cross is the atonement to the sin of Adam. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (). As a result of that act of Christ, all who put their trust in Christ alone now have unrestricted access to God through prayer and in presence.


title: Christian theology

text: Original sin, which Eastern Christians usually refer to as ancestral sin, is, according to a doctrine proposed in Christian theology, humanity's state of sin resulting from the fall of man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a "sin nature," to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt by all humans through collective guilt.


title: Christian theology

text: Those who uphold the doctrine look to the teaching of Paul the Apostle in and for its scriptural base, and see it as perhaps implied in Old Testament passages such as and .


title: Christian theology

text: The Apostolic Fathers and the Apologists mostly dealt with topics other than original sin. The doctrine of original sin was first developed in 2nd-century Bishop of Lyon Irenaeus's struggle against Gnosticism. The Greek Fathers emphasized the cosmic dimension of the fall, namely that since Adam human beings are born into a fallen world, but held fast to belief that man, though fallen, is free. It was in the West that precise definition of the doctrine arose.


title: Christian theology

text: Augustine of Hippo taught that original sin was both an act of foolishness ("insipientia") and of pride and disobedience to the God of Adam and Eve. He thought it was a most subtle job to discern what came first: self-centeredness or failure in seeing truth. The sin would not have taken place, if satan hadn't sown into their senses ""the root of evil"" ("radix Mali"). The sin of Adam and Eve wounded their nature, affecting human intelligence and will, as well as affections and desires, including sexual desire. The consequences of the fall were transmitted to their descendants in the form of "concupiscence", which is a metaphysical term, and not a psychological one. Thomas Aquinas explained Augustine's doctrine pointing out that the "libido" ("concupiscence"), which makes the original sin pass from parents to children, is not a "libido actualis", i.e. sexual lust, but "libido habitualis", i.e. a wound of the whole of human nature. Augustine insisted that concupiscence was not "a being" but "bad quality", the privation of good or a wound. The bishop of Hippo admitted that sexual concupiscence ("libido") might have been present in the perfect human nature in the paradise, and that only later it had become disobedient to human will as a result of the first couple's disobedience to God's will in the original sin. The original sin have made humanity a "massa damnata" (mass of perdition, condemned crowd). In Augustine's view (termed "Realism"), all of humanity was really present in Adam when he sinned, and therefore all have sinned. Original sin, according to Augustine, consists of the guilt of Adam which all humans inherit. As sinners, humans are utterly depraved in nature, lack the freedom to do good, and cannot respond to the will of God without divine grace. Grace is irresistible, results in conversion, and leads to perseverance.


title: Christian theology

text: Augustine's formulation of original sin was popular among Protestant reformers, such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, and also, within Roman Catholicism, in the Jansenist movement, but this movement was declared heretical by the Catholic Church. There are wide-ranging disagreements among Christian groups as to the exact understanding of the doctrine about a state of sinfulness or absence of holiness affecting all humans, even children, with some Christian groups denying it altogether.


title: Christian theology

text: The notion of original sin as interpreted by Augustine of Hippo was affirmed by the Protestant Reformer John Calvin. Calvin believed that humans inherit Adamic guilt and are in a state of sin from the moment of conception. This inherently sinful nature (the basis for the Calvinistic doctrine of "total depravity") results in a complete alienation from God and the total inability of humans to achieve reconciliation with God based on their own abilities. Not only do individuals inherit a sinful nature due to Adam's fall, but since he was the federal head and representative of the human race, all whom he represented inherit the guilt of his sin by imputation.


title: Christian theology

text: The scriptural basis for the doctrine is found in two New Testament books by Paul the Apostle, Romans 5:12–21 and 1 Corinthians 15:22, in which he identifies Adam as the one man through whom death came into the world.


title: Christian theology

text: Total depravity (also called absolute inability and total corruption) is a theological doctrine that derives from the Augustinian concept of original sin. It is the teaching that, as a consequence of the fall of man, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin and, apart from the efficacious or prevenient grace of God, is utterly unable to choose to follow God or choose to accept salvation as it is freely offered.


title: Christian theology

text: It is also advocated to various degrees by many Protestant confessions of faith and catechisms, including those of Lutheranism, Arminianism, and Calvinism.


title: Christian theology

text: Total depravity is the fallen state of man as a result of original sin. The doctrine of total depravity asserts that people are by nature not inclined or even able to love God wholly with heart, mind, and strength, but rather all are inclined by nature to serve their own will and desires and to reject the rule of God. Even religion and philanthropy are wicked to God to the extent that these originate from a human imagination, passion, and will and are not done to the glory of God. Therefore, in Reformed theology, if God is to save anyone He must predestine, call, elect individuals to salvation since fallen man does not want to, indeed is incapable of choosing God.


title: Christian theology

text: Total depravity does not mean, however, that people are as evil as possible. Rather, it means that even the good which a person may intend is faulty in its premise, false in its motive, and weak in its implementation; and there is no mere refinement of natural capacities that can correct this condition. Thus, even acts of generosity and altruism are in fact egoist acts in disguise. All good, consequently, is derived from God alone, and in no way through man.


title: Christian theology

text: Christian soteriology is the branch of Christian theology that deals with one's salvation. It is derived from the Greek "sōtērion" (salvation) (from "sōtēr" savior, preserver) + English -logy.


title: Christian theology

text: Atonement is a doctrine that describes how human beings can be reconciled to God. In Christian theology the atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of one's sin through the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion, which made possible the reconciliation between God and creation. Within Christianity there are three main theories for how such atonement might work: the ransom theory, the satisfaction theory and the moral influence theory. Christian soteriology is unlike and not to be confused with collective salvation.


title: Christian theology

text: Christian soteriology traditionally focuses on how God ends the separation people have from him due to sin by reconciling them with himself. (Rom. 5:10–11). Many Christians believe they receive the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38), life (Rom. 8:11), and salvation (1 Thess. 5:9) bought by Jesus through his innocent suffering, death, and resurrection from the dead three days later (Matt. 28).


title: Christian theology

text: Christ's death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit, is called "The Paschal Mystery". Christ's human birth is called the "Incarnation". Either or both are considered in different versions of soteriology.


title: Christian theology

text: While not neglecting the "Paschal Mystery", many Christians believe salvation is brought through the "Incarnation" itself, in which God took on human nature so that humans could partake in the divine nature (2 Peter 1.4). As St. Athanasius put it, God became human so that we might become divine (St. Athanasius, De inc. 54, 3: PG 25, 192B.). This grace in Christ (1 Cor. 1:4) is received as a gift of God that cannot be merited by works done prior to one's conversion to Christianity (Eph. 2:8–9), which is brought about by hearing God's Word (Rom. 10:17) and harkening to it. This involves accepting Jesus Christ as the personal saviour and Lord over one's life.


title: Christian theology

text: Protestant teaching, originating with Martin Luther, teaches that salvation is received by grace alone and that one's sole necessary response to this grace is faith alone. Older Christian teaching, as found in Catholic and Orthodox theology, is that salvation is received by grace alone, but that one's necessary response to this grace comprises both faith and works (James 2:24, 26; Rom 2:6–7; Gal 5:6).


title: Christian theology

text: Human beings exists because God wanted to share His life with them. In this sense, every human being is God's child. In a fuller sense, to come to salvation is to be reconciled to God through Christ and to be united with His divine Essence via Theosis in the beatific vision of the Godhead. The graces of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection are found in the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church.


title: Christian theology

text: and , "-logia") is the study of the theological understanding of the Christian church, including the institutional structure, sacraments and practices (especially the worship of God) thereof. Specific areas of concern include the church's role in salvation, its origin, its relationship to the historical Christ, its discipline, its destiny, and its leadership. Ecclesiology is, therefore, the study of the church as a thing in, and of, itself.


title: Christian theology

text: Different ecclesiologies give shape to very different institutions. Thus, in addition to describing a broad discipline of theology, ecclesiology may be used in the specific sense of a particular church or denomination's character, self-described or otherwise. This is the sense of the word in such phrases as "Roman Catholic ecclesiology", "Lutheran ecclesiology", and "ecumenical ecclesiology".


title: Christian theology

text: Ecclesiastical polity is the operational and governance structure of a church or Christian denomination. It also denotes the ministerial structure of the church and the authority relationships between churches. Polity is closely related to Ecclesiology, the study of doctrine and theology relating to church organization.


title: Christian theology

text: Issues of church governance appear in the first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles; the first act recorded after the ascension is the election of Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot. Over the years a system of episcopal polity developed.


title: Christian theology

text: During the Protestant Reformation, arguments were made that the New Testament prescribed structures quite different from that of the Catholic Church of the day, and different Protestant bodies used different types of polity. It was during this period that Richard Hooker wrote "Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity" to defend the polity of the Church of England against the Puritans.


title: Christian theology

text: Episcopal polity is used in several closely related senses. Most commonly it refers to the field of church governance in the abstract, but it also can refer to the governance of a particular Christian body. In this sense it is used as a term in civil law. "Polity" is sometimes used as a shorthand for the church governance structure itself.


title: Christian theology

text: Though each church or denomination has its own characteristic structure, there are three general types of polity.


title: Christian theology

text: Churches having episcopal polity are governed by bishops. The title bishop comes from the Greek word "episkopos", which literally translates into "overseer". In regard to Catholicism, bishops have authority over the diocese, which is both sacramental and political; as well as performing ordinations, confirmations, and consecrations, the bishop supervises the clergy of the diocese and represents the diocese both secularly and in the hierarchy of church governance.


title: Christian theology

text: Bishops in this system may be subject to higher ranking bishops (variously called archbishops, metropolitans or patriarchs, depending upon the tradition; "see also Bishop for further explanation of the varieties of bishops".) They also meet in councils or synods. These synods, subject to presidency by higher ranking bishops, may govern the dioceses which are represented in the council, though the synod may also be purely advisory.


title: Christian theology

text: Note that the presence of the office of "bishop" within a church is not proof of episcopal polity. For example, in Mormonism, the "bishop" occupies the office that in an Anglican church would be occupied by a priest.


title: Christian theology

text: Instead, some authority may be held, not only by synods and colleges of bishops, but by lay and clerical councils. Further, patterns of authority are subject to a wide variety of historical rights and honors which may cut across simple lines of authority.


title: Christian theology

text: Episcopal polity is the predominant pattern in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Anglican churches. It is also common in Methodist and Lutheran churches. Among churches with episcopal polity, different theories of autonomy are expressed. So in Roman Catholicism the church is viewed as a single polity headed by the pope, but in Eastern Orthodoxy the various churches retain formal autonomy but are held to be unified by shared doctrine and conciliarity—that is, the authority of councils, such as ecumenical councils, Holy Synods and the former standing council, the Endemusa Synod.


title: Christian theology

text: Many Reformed churches, notably those in the Presbyterian and Continental Reformed traditions, are governed by a hierarchy of councils. The lowest level council governs a single local church and is called the "session" or "consistory"; its members are called "elders". The minister of the church (sometimes referred to as a "teaching elder") is a member of and presides over the session; lay representatives ("ruling elders" or, informally, just elders) are elected by the congregation. The session sends representatives to the next level higher council, called the "presbytery" or "classis". In some Presbyterian churches there are higher level councils (synods or general assemblies). Each council has authority over its constituents, and the representatives at each level are expected to use their own judgment. Hence higher level councils act as courts of appeal for church trials and disputes, and it is not uncommon to see rulings and decisions overturned.


title: Christian theology

text: Presbyterian polity is, of course, the characteristic governance of Presbyterian churches, and also of churches in the Continental Reformed tradition. Elements of presbyterian polity are also found in other churches. For example, in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America governance by bishops is paralleled by a system of deputies, who are lay and clerical representatives elected by parishes and, at the national level, by the dioceses. Legislation in the general convention requires the separate consent of the bishops and of the deputies.


title: Christian theology

text: Congregationalist polity dispenses with titled positions such as bishop as a requirement of church structure. The local congregation rules itself, though local leaders and councils may be appointed.


title: Christian theology

text: Members may be sent from the congregation to associations that are sometimes identified with the church bodies formed by Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and other non-congregational Protestants. The similarity is deceptive, however, because the congregationalist associations do not exercise control over their members (other than ending their membership in the association). Many congregationalist churches are completely independent in principle. One major exception is Ordination, where even congregationalist churches often invite members of the vicinage or association to ordain their called pastor.


title: Christian theology

text: It is a principle of congregationalism that ministers do not govern congregations by themselves. They may preside over the congregation, but it is the congregation which exerts its authority in the end.


title: Christian theology

text: Congregational polity is sometimes called "Baptist polity", as it is the characteristic polity of Baptist churches.


title: Christian theology

text: A sacrament, as defined in Hexam's "Concise Dictionary of Religion", is what Roman Catholics believe to be "a rite in which God is uniquely active". Augustine of Hippo defined a Christian sacrament as "a visible sign of an invisible reality". The Anglican Book of Common Prayer speaks of them as "an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible Grace." Examples of sacraments would be Baptism and the Eucharist." Therefore a sacrament is a religious symbol or often a rite which conveys divine grace, blessing, or sanctity upon the believer who participates in it, or a tangible symbol which represents an intangible reality. As defined above, an example would be baptism in water, representing (and conveying) the grace of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Forgiveness of Sins, and membership into the Church. Anointing with holy anointing oil is another example which is often synonymous with receiving the Holy Spirit and salvation. Another way of looking at Sacraments is that they are an external and physical sign of the conferral of Sanctifying Grace.


title: Christian theology

text: Throughout the Christian faith, views concerning which rites are sacramental, that is conferring sanctifying grace, and what it means for an external act to be sacramental vary widely. Other religious traditions also have what might be called "sacraments" in a sense, though not necessarily according to the Christian meaning of the term.


title: Christian theology

text: In the majority of Western Christianity, the generally accepted definition of a sacrament is that it is an outward sign that conveys spiritual grace through Christ. Christian churches, denominations, and sects are divided regarding the number and operation of the sacraments. Sacraments are generally held to have been instituted by Jesus Christ, although in some cases this point is debated. They are usually administered by the clergy to a recipient or recipients, and are generally understood to involve visible and invisible components. The invisible component (manifested inwardly) is understood to be brought about by the action of the Holy Spirit, God's grace working in the sacrament's participants, while the visible (or outward) component entails the use of such things as water, oil, and bread and wine that is blessed or consecrated; the laying-on-of-hands; or a particularly significant covenant that is marked by a public benediction (such as with marriage or absolution of sin in the reconciliation of a penitent).


title: Christian theology

text: As defined by the Roman Catholic Church, recognised by the Eastern Orthodox churches, Oriental Orthodox, (though these two do not categorically define the number), and Independent Catholic and Old Catholic Church.


title: Christian theology

text: The Orthodox Churches (Eastern and Oriental) typically do not limit the number of sacraments, viewing all encounters with reality in life as sacramental in some sense, and their acknowledgement of the number of sacraments at seven as an innovation of convenience not found in the Church Fathers. It came into use, although infrequently, later on from later encounters with the West and its Sacramental Theology. Other denominations and traditions, both in eastern and western Christianity may affirm only Baptism and Eucharist as sacraments, these include many of the Protestant denominations and some of the Old Believers in the Orthodox communion, some of whom reject all sacraments except Baptism.


title: Christian theology

text: Since some post-Reformation denominations do not regard clergy as having a classically sacerdotal or priestly function, they avoid the term "sacrament," preferring the terms "sacerdotal function," "ordinance," or "tradition." This belief invests the efficacy of the "ordinance" in the obedience and participation of the believer and the witness of the presiding minister and the congregation. This view stems from a highly developed concept of the priesthood of all believers. In this sense, the believer himself or herself performs the sacerdotal role .


title: Christian theology

text: Eucharist, also called Communion, or the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance, generally considered to be a re-enactment of the Last Supper, the final meal that Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before his arrest and eventual crucifixion. The consecration of bread and a cup within the rite recalls the moment at the Last Supper when Jesus gave his disciples bread, saying, "This is my body", and wine, saying, "This is my blood".


title: Christian theology

text: There are different interpretations of the significance of the Eucharist, but "there is more of a consensus among Christians about the meaning of the Eucharist than would appear from the confessional debates over the sacramental presence, the effects of the Eucharist, and the proper auspices under which it may be celebrated."


title: Christian theology

text: The phrase "the Eucharist" may refer not only to the rite but also to the consecrated bread (leavened or unleavened) and wine (or, in some Protestant denominations, unfermented grape juice) used in the rite, and, in this sense, communicants may speak of "receiving the Eucharist", as well as "celebrating the Eucharist".


title: Christian theology

text: "Eucharist" is from Greek εὐχαριστία ("eucharistia"), meaning thanksgiving. The verb εὐχαριστῶ, the usual word for "to thank" in the Septuagint and the New Testament, is found in the major texts concerning the Lord's Supper, including the earliest:


title: Christian theology

text: Communion is a translation; other translations are "participation", "sharing", "fellowship" of the Greek κοινωνία ("koinōnía") in . The King James Version has


title: Christian theology

text: The Last Supper appears in all three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke; and in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, while the last-named of these also indicates something of how early Christians celebrated what Paul the Apostle called the Lord's Supper. As well as the Eucharistic dialogue in John chapter 6.


title: Christian theology

text: In his First Epistle to the Corinthians (–55), Paul the Apostle gives the earliest recorded description of Jesus' Last Supper: "The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me'."


title: Christian theology

text: The synoptic gospels, first Mark, and then Matthew and Luke, depict Jesus as presiding over the Last Supper. References to Jesus' body and blood foreshadow his crucifixion, and he identifies them as a new covenant. In the gospel of John, the account of the Last Supper has no mention of Jesus taking bread and wine and speaking of them as his body and blood; instead it recounts his humble act of washing the disciples' feet, the prophecy of the betrayal, which set in motion the events that would lead to the cross, and his long discourse in response to some questions posed by his followers, in which he went on to speak of the importance of the unity of the disciples with him and each other.


title: Christian theology

text: The expression "The Lord's Supper", derived from St. Paul's usage in , may have originally referred to the Agape feast, the shared communal meal with which the Eucharist was originally associated. The Agape feast is mentioned in . But "The Lord's Supper" is now commonly used in reference to a celebration involving no food other than the sacramental bread and wine.


title: Christian theology

text: The Didache (Greek: teaching) is an early Church order, including, among other features, instructions for baptism and the Eucharist. Most scholars date it to the early 2nd century, and distinguish in it two separate Eucharistic traditions, the earlier tradition in chapter 10 and the later one preceding it in chapter 9. The Eucharist is mentioned again in chapter 14.


title: Christian theology

text: Ignatius of Antioch, one of the Apostolic Fathers and a direct disciple of the Apostle John, mentions the Eucharist as "the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ", and Justin Martyr speaks of it as more than a meal: "the food over which the prayer of thanksgiving, the word received from Christ, has been said ... is the flesh and blood of this Jesus who became flesh ... and the deacons carry some to those who are absent."


title: Christian theology

text: Many Christian denominations classify the Eucharist as a sacrament. Some Protestants prefer to call it an "ordinance", viewing it not as a specific channel of divine grace but as an expression of faith and of obedience to Christ.


title: Christian theology

text: Most Christians, even those who deny that there is any real change in the elements used, recognize a special presence of Christ in this rite, though they differ about exactly how, where, and when Christ is present. Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy teach that the consecrated elements truly become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Transubstantiation is the metaphysical explanation given by Roman Catholics as to how this transformation occurs. Lutherans believe that the body and blood of Jesus are present "in, with and under" the forms of bread and wine, a concept known as the sacramental union. The Reformed churches, following the teachings of John Calvin, believe in a spiritual (or "pneumatic") real presence of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and received by faith. Anglicans adhere to a range of views although the Anglican church officially teaches the real presence. Some Christians reject the concept of the real presence, believing that the Eucharist is only a memorial of the death of Christ.


title: Christian theology

text: The "Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry" document of the World Council of Churches, attempting to present the common understanding of the Eucharist on the part of the generality of Christians, describes it as "essentially the sacrament of the gift which God makes to us in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit", "Thanksgiving to the Father", "Anamnesis or Memorial of Christ", "the sacrament of the unique sacrifice of Christ, who ever lives to make intercession for us", "the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, the sacrament of his real presence", "Invocation of the Spirit", "Communion of the Faithful", and "Meal of the Kingdom".


title: Christian theology

text: Eschatology (derived from the Greek roots ἔσχατος "last" and λογία "discourse," "study") is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world. Broadly speaking, it is the study of the destiny of man as revealed in the Bible.


title: Christian theology

text: Eschatology is concerned with the afterlife, beginning with death and the personal judgment which follows the death of the individual, and which is followed by the destination of heaven or hell. (In Catholic theology, heaven is sometimes preceded by purgatory.) Eschatology also concerns itself with events which are said to happen at the end of this age: the return of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, the Rapture, the Tribulation, and following these things, the Millennium, or thousand years of peace, which has been interpreted both literally and symbolically. Finally, eschatology concerns itself with the end of the world and its associated events: the Last Judgment; the banishment of Death, Hades, and Satan and his followers to the Lake of Fire; and the creation of a new heaven and earth. Millenarianists, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other recently founded sects have been influential in the modern development of these doctrines, though their roots are biblical.


title: Christian theology

text: Eschatology is an ancient branch of study in Christian theology, with study of the "last things" and the Second Coming of Christ first touched on by Ignatius of Antioch (–107 AD), then given more consideration by the Christian apologist in Rome, Justin Martyr (–165). Treatment of eschatology continued in the West in the teachings of the influential theologian of Roman North Africa, Tertullian (–225), and was given fuller reflection and speculation soon after in the East by the master theologian, Origen (–254).


title: Christian theology

text: Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other 16th-century reformers wrote long tracts about the End Times, but interest in eschatology dwindled after the Reformation until the late 19th century, when it became popular in the Reformed, Pentecostal, and Evangelical sects. It was increasingly recognized as a formal division of theological study during the 20th century.


title: Christian theology

text: The second coming of Christ is the central event in Christian eschatology. Most Christians believe that death and suffering will continue to exist until Christ's return. Others believe that suffering will gradually be eliminated prior to his coming, and that the elimination of injustice is our part in preparing for that event. Needless to say, there are a variety of viewpoints concerning the order and significance of eschatological events.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Jovan Jordan Bridges (born August 22, 1993), known by the stage name Yvie Oddly, is an American drag queen, performer, fashion designer, rapper, and recording artist from Denver, Colorado who came to international attention in 2019 when she won the eleventh season of "RuPaul's Drag Race". She later returned to compete on the seventh season of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars", an all-winners season, in 2022. Oddly has been on the worldwide Werq the World drag concert tour since 2019. In addition to music videos and performances, she explores what she sees as a transformative power of drag by making thrift store finds into wearable art in "Yvie Oddly's Oddities" series on WOW Presents Plus. She released her debut album, "Drag Trap", in 2020.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Jovan Bridges was born on August 22, 1993, in Denver, Colorado. As a child, they played with their mother's makeup and dressed in their sister's clothes, "When I was a six-year-old boy playing dress-up in my sister's tutus and makeup, my parents were like, 'Take that off.' And I was like, 'Why?' I felt pretty and I'd sleep in a skirt every night." They participated in gymnastics and other strenuous extracurricular activities until they were diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome at age fifteen. They began musical theatre as an alternative.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Bridges describes their first exposure to drag as taking place in middle school, when a classmate dressed up as a hooker for Halloween and attracted significant attention. The following Halloween, Bridges dressed as a hooker and enjoyed both their peers' shock and admiration. Bridges attended East High School, and went to college at the Auraria Campus, both in Denver.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Oddly started her career as Avon Eve, performing for her first time at the Center in Denver, CO. before moving on to performing at Broadways Bar in a show hosted by Mile High Pinky Pie.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Oddly committed to drag after seeing Sharon Needles on the fourth season of "RuPaul's Drag Race" which aired in 2012, stating that "[Sharon Needles] was spooky. Her makeup was terrible. She was more dedicated to art and wit than being a glamorous female impersonator." Prior to this, Oddly did not embrace all the opportunities that being a drag artist offered, as she considered herself just a "skinny, black, gay guy."


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Oddly started doing drag during college in 2012 when Venus D'lite from "RuPaul's Drag Race" hosted a workshop on the college campus for Valentine's Day, stating that she "attempted some drag (or ghost) makeup, put on a super-cheap red wig and dress, and backflipped my way through "Scheiße" by Lady Gaga". Her first performances were at Denver's gay bar Tracks. The name 'Yvie Oddly' came from her pun to express "being even odder than anybody else"; Oddly soon developed a reputation for having "outrageous and unconventional looks on stage". Her ingenuity came from financial necessity as making the "most glamorous or the most expensive" looks was not an option, saying that "I’ve just always liked to work with the materials that I have around me." In 2014, Oddly was an extra in the music video for Sharon Needles's "Dressed to Kill."


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Oddly was the winner of the Ultimate Queen of Denver pageant in 2015. Later that summer, Oddly became a cast member of "Drag Nation"; opened for pop star Mya on the Main Stage for PrideFest; and performed in "Bohemia's" The Prohibition of Lust. She was also in the music video for Adore Delano's "Negative Nancy" in 2017.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: In 2017, Oddly stated that she used drag to confront gender roles. In 2018, when asked about her drag aesthetics, Oddly said that she liked to shock and surprise with something the audience had not seen before, including dramatic looks, even employing unconventional and found materials. In 2019, she described herself as a drag queen who blends "artistry, fashion, performance and concept". She draws inspiration from French fashion designer Thierry Mugler, British designer and haute couturier Alexander McQueen, and 'terrorist' drag queen Christeene.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: In 2018, Oddly was both the manager at her Denver home drag bar as well as a drag queen, and was looking to transform her drag into a full-time job. She felt the time to make a drastic life change was imminent even if her audition tape did not get her onto "RuPaul's Drag Race".


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Oddly was announced to be on season eleven of "RuPaul's Drag Race" in January 2019; it was her third time to apply as a contestant. She is the second queen from Denver to compete on "Drag Race", after Nina Flowers. During the competition Oddly was noted for her eccentric and conceptual looks, her performance ability and her quirky and outspoken personality, she quickly became a fan and judges favorite. Oddly said the time of the competition was somewhat lonely as she was unable to talk to friends or family. She spoke about her motives for competing on the show:


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Oddly was the winner of the second episode main challenge with Scarlet Envy. She spent six weeks in a row placing in the top of the competition which makes her the queen with the most times in a row placing in the top after Jinkx Monsoon with eight times. In the eighth episode, however, she and Brooke Lynn Hytes both "bombed" on "Snatch Game", the show's parody of celebrity-led "Match Game." Hytes, who was also doing very well up to then, and Oddly were the bottom two queens and had to lip-sync battle to Demi Lovato's "Sorry Not Sorry" widely seen as one of the best battles in the show's history, causing RuPaul to keep both competitors.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: During the show, she was in a constant rivalry with fellow competitor Silky Nutmeg Ganache. When asked by RuPaul who should go home Silky named Oddly because of her twisted ankle even though Oddly completed the choreography, Oddly named Silky as the one who should leave because she was resistant to critiques from RuPaul and the other judges. Entertainment site "Gold Derby" held a poll with 94% siding with Oddly. During the March 21 episode, while the queens were being taught some complex choreography for a live production of the political satire "," Oddly revealed she had to be careful about dropping to the ground as her joints often popped out of place. She has a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers–Danlos syndrome type 3 which means she doesn't produce as much collagen. Hers is a subtype that is known as hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS). Despite her explanation, Ehlers-Danlos syndromes are associated with faulty collagen production and collagen-modifying enzymes.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: In the penultimate episode, the final five queens wrote, recorded, danced, and performed a verse in a single-shot video hip-hop version of RuPaul's "Queens Everywhere". "Out" said Oddly's performance was the best with her work on point and well performed. They added, "Her risks, boldness, and weirdo ideas have often landed her harsh critiques and enemies on the show — but at least she's out here taking risks". Judge Todrick Hall later apologized for calling her choreography spastic, he was told by fans in the United Kingdom that it was a taboo thing to say in that country. The judges praised her performance, her verse and her final runway look, and she received the best critiques of the night making her the first queen to be named by RuPaul to move to the finale. Of the top four she was the only one without multiple challenge wins, but also had the fewest times landing in the bottom two, along with rival Silky Nutmeg Ganache.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: In the season finale, held in Los Angeles' Orpheum Theatre, Oddly was in the final three and lip-sync battled against A'keria Davenport to Rihanna's "SOS", which she won. For that she wore a dress decorated with stuffed animals toys and neon fake fur. Oddly then faced off in the final lip-sync against Brooke Lynn Hytes to Lady Gaga's "The Edge of Glory", which she also won. She had already shown she could deliver impressive physical performances, so refrained from stunts or gags, and worked to "connect to the song, and deliver a strong artistic performance that would hopefully still get my voice out as an artist."


title: Yvie Oddly

text: For the final battle Oddly wore a distinctive headpiece with mirrors that from the front made her look like she had three faces, and on the back was a second mask, the headpiece was made by Darrell Thorne, while Kristi Siedow-Thompson designed the dress. Her parents, who had not spoken to one another in years, sat together in the audience in support. Oddly was declared the winner of Season 11 of "Drag Race", and "America's Next Drag Superstar", on May 30, 2019. She encouraged the audience to "Follow your oddities and fly your freak flag!" Oddly also set a record with having the fewest challenge wins of any winner in "RuPaul's Drag Race" history, a record later tied by her drag sister and season 14 winner Willow Pill.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Oddly's win is the latest in a series of title wins by black queer and trans people in drag pageants and leather competitions, a turnaround for LGBTQ communities. She feels that queer people of color have not been credited enough for their contributions to queer culture. Oddly is "part Black, part Caucasian, and some part Native American." Additionally she says, "there's been so much debate on my race: whether or not I'm Black, whether or not colorism is at play." Her anger at being disrespected by the gay community because of being Black prompted her to get into drag.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: In Episode 1 of All Stars 5, Yvie made a guest appearance as a "Lip Sync Assassin", where she lip-synced against India Ferrah and won.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Oddly was criticized, especially on social media, for not elevating her looks to befit her title of Drag Queen Superstar, while also being awarded the $100,000 prize. She pointed out that she was a poor Black drag queen with no connections in the larger drag world with humble roots who put everything into her art when she won. By her first DragCon the only thing that had changed were the connections. She said, "so I spent the next nine months paying back the debt of being THE FIRST winner of my kind since the show's mainstream crossover." She was repeatedly called 'garbage' so decided to reclaim the concept with her looks. "If you refuse to see the ideals behind my choices then it's because you operate from a place of privilege where fashion and drag don't have to speak to your life circumstances, especially not socioeconomically".


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Oddly was a part of the 2019 North American leg of the Werq the World tour, a multi-year international drag concert tour hosted by Michelle Visage and featuring "RuPaul's Drag Race" queens. The tour visited seventeen cities throughout North America, including five in Canada. It began in Los Angeles during RuPaul's DragCon LA and ended in September in New York City during RuPaul's DragCon NYC. The tour continued to major cities in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, ending in November.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: In June 2019, Oddly performed at Denver's PrideFest, the city's annual LGBTQ pride parade and festival, and hosted "Drag Nation" at her home bar Tracks. Her first post-win U.K. performance was at Bournemouth's DYMK. As part of Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019, the world's largest LGBTQ event, Oddly will perform at the June 26th Opening Ceremony benefiting the Ali Forney Center, Immigration Equality, and Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), and at the LadyLand Festival June 28.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: In June 2019 World of Wonder, the production company behind "RuPaul's Drag Race", announced Oddly will star in her own reality show series, "Yvie Oddly's Oddities" aired worldwide on WOW Presents Plus. It follows the bargain-hunting queen to thrift stores where she shops for "throwaway items to turn one queen's trash into her jaw-dropping fashion treasures". Oddly explained that, "Drag is all about the power of transformation."


title: Yvie Oddly

text: In July 2019, she was criticized for no longer doing selfies after shows citing being physically exhausted; she later added that she had to set boundaries. Her genetic condition Hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (hEDS) results in chronic pain so she foregoes post-show selfies for more meaningful interactions. Appearing on "Drag Race", let alone winning, put Oddly on a steep learning curve to transform every aspect of her drag art into a business. It also forced her to re-evaluate what she could physically do—as contorting her body in performances takes a toll—while still delivering a drag experience for her audiences. Oddly stated,


title: Yvie Oddly

text: In September 2019, at RuPaul's DragCon NYC, Oddly was named as one of a rotating cast of a dozen "Drag Race" queens in "RuPaul's Drag Race Live!", a Las Vegas show residency at the Flamingo Las Vegas.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: When asked about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with its required social distancing and stay-at-home orders (starting in March 2020), Oddly remarked that it brought her back to her roots of being creative at home with her roommates. She also feels it frees her to tell more complete stories via video when she can layer performances atop one another, "[until now] I haven't really had a whole lot of time to invest back into the artistry of my drag and to do one-off performances and really throw my all into the creative concept."


title: Yvie Oddly

text: In April 2022, Oddly was announced as one of the eight returning winners that would be competing in seventh season of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars", the first ever all-winners season of "Drag Race".


title: Yvie Oddly

text: Oddly has been diagnosed with type 3 Hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (hEDS). With her heightened status, she has found a content community of people living with 'hEDS', and other invisible disabilities, who call themselves "zebras", as they have more exotic diseases than doctors would expect. The condition as well as the chronic pain of her "bones grinding" leave her depleted after performing so she foregoes post-show photo ops for more meaningful interactions.


title: Yvie Oddly

text: As a drag queen, she is the drag sister of Willow Pill, who won the fourteenth season of "RuPaul's Drag Race".


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 23 May 1992, Falcone was assassinated by the Corleonesi Mafia in the Capaci bombing, on the A29 motorway near the town of Capaci.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: His life parallels that of his close friend Paolo Borsellino. They both spent their early years in the same neighbourhood in Palermo. Though many of their childhood friends grew up in the Mafia background, both men fought on the other side of the war as prosecuting magistrates. They were both killed in 1992, a few months apart. In recognition of their tireless effort and sacrifice during the anti-mafia trials, they were both awarded the Gold Medal for Civil Valor and were acknowledged as martyrs of the Catholic Church. They were also named as heroes of the last 60 years in the 13 November 2006 issue of "Time".


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Falcone was born in 1939 to a middle-class family in the Via Castrofilippo near the seaport district La Kalsa, a neighbourhood of central Palermo that suffered extensive destruction by aerial attacks during the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. His father, Arturo Falcone, the director of a provincial chemical laboratory, was married to Luisa Bentivegna. Giovanni had two older sisters, Anna and Maria. Falcone's parents emphasised the importance of hard work, bravery and patriotism; he later said they 'expected the maximum' from him. At school Falcone would get into fights with larger children if he thought his friends were being picked on.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: The Mafia was present in the area but quiescent; Tommaso Spadaro, a boy with whom he played ping-pong in the neighbourhood Catholic Action recreation centre, would later become a notorious Mafia smuggler and killer, but mafiosi were not a major presence in his childhood. As boys, Falcone and Borsellino, who were born in the same neighbourhood, played soccer together on the Piazza Magione. Both had classmates who ended up as mafiosi. Falcone grew up at a time when Sicilians did not acknowledge the existence of the Mafia as a coherent organised group; assertions to the contrary by other Italians were often seen as 'attacks from the north'.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: After a classical education, Falcone studied law at the University of Palermo following a brief period of study at Livorno's naval academy. Falcone and Borsellino met again at Palermo University. While Falcone drifted away from his parents' middle-class conservative Catholicism towards communism, Borsellino was religious and conservative; in his youth he had been a member of the "" (FUAN), a right-wing university organisation affiliated with the neo-fascist MSI (Movimento Sociale Italiano). However, neither ever joined a political party, and although the ideologies of their political movements were diametrically opposed, they shared a history of opposing the Mafia. Their different political leanings did not thwart their friendship. Falcone wanted a naval career but his father thought him too independent-minded for the armed forces, and sent him to study law.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Graduating in 1961, Falcone began to practice law before being appointed a judge in 1964. Falcone eventually gravitated toward penal law after serving as a district magistrate. He was assigned to the prosecutor's office in Trapani and Marsala, and then in 1978 to the bankruptcy court in Palermo.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: In early 1980, Falcone joined the ‘Office of Instruction’ (Ufficio istruzione), the investigative branch of the Prosecution Office of Palermo. He started to work at a particularly tense moment (→ 'Years of Lead'). Judge Cesare Terranova, a former parliamentary deputy and Antimafia reformer who had been the main prosecutor of the Mafia in the 1960s, was to have headed this office, but he was killed on 25 September 1979. Only two months earlier, on 21 July 1979, Boris Giuliano had been assassinated; he headed the police investigation squad investigating heroin trafficking by the Mafia headed by and Salvatore Inzerillo. Taking Terranova's place was Rocco Chinnici, who was murdered by the Mafia in July 1983.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: On 5 May 1980, Giuliano's successor in investigating the heroin network, Carabinieri captain Emanuele Basile, was killed. The next day, the prosecuting judge Gaetano Costa signed 55 arrest warrants against the heroin-trafficking network of the Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino clan. From Sicily heroin was moved to the Gambino crime family in New York, who were related to the Inzerillos. Chinnici appointed Falcone to investigate the case, one of the biggest Antimafia operations in more than a decade. Costa signed the indictments after virtually all of the other prosecutors in his office had declined to do so – a fact that leaked out of the office and eventually cost him his life: he was murdered on 6 August 1980, on the orders of Inzerillo. Falcone was given bodyguards the next day.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: In this tense atmosphere, Falcone introduced an innovative investigative technique in the Spatola investigation, seizing bank records to follow "the money trail" created by heroin deals to build his case, applying the skills he had learned unravelling bankruptcies. He was probably among the first Sicilian magistrates to establish working relationships with colleagues from other countries, thus developing an early understanding of the global dimensions of heroin trafficking, while enhancing the meagre investigative resources of his office. A colleague was astonished to discover that Falcone, who had no computers at his disposal, was personally recording the details listed on printouts of transactions that he had requisitioned from every bank in Palermo province.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: He learned that the chemists of the French Connection had moved clandestine labs for refining heroin from Marseille to Sicily. At the end of 1980 he visited the United States and started to work with the U.S. Justice Department, resulting in “some of the biggest international law enforcement operations in history” such as the Pizza Connection. The inquiries extended to Turkey, an important stopover on the route of morphine base; to Switzerland, where bank secrecy laws facilitated money laundering; and to Naples where cigarette smuggling rings were being reconfigured as heroin operations. At the end of 1981, he finalised the Spatola case for trial, which enabled the prosecution to win 74 convictions, based on Falcone's “web of solid evidence, bank and travel records, seized heroin shipments, fingerprint and handwriting analyses, wiretapped conversations and firsthand testimony” that proved that “Sicily had replaced France as the principal gateway for refining and exporting heroin to the United States”.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Falcone was plagued by a chronic lack of resources in his capacity as magistrate. A law to create a new offence of Mafia conspiracy, and confiscate Mafia assets was introduced by Pio La Torre but it had been stalled in parliament for two years, La Torre was murdered 30 April 1982. In May 1982, the Italian government sent Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, a general of the Italian Carabinieri, to Sicily with orders to crush the Mafia. However, not long after arriving, on 3 September 1982, the General was gunned down in the city centre, his young wife by his side. Sicilians rose up in outrage. Outside the church, the politicians who attended were jeered and spat on, and blamed by Sicilians for tolerating the Mafia for so long. In response, the Italian government finally offered investigators the backing they needed, and Pio La Torre's law was passed 10 days later.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Falcone's responsibilities as a magistrate put tremendous strain on his personal life. In May 1986, he married his fiancée, Francesca Morvillo; Falcone had Mayor Leoluca Orlando himself conduct the private ceremony.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: He became part of Palermo's informal Antimafia Pool, created by Judge Rocco Chinnici. This was a group of investigating magistrates who closely worked together sharing information and developing new investigative and prosecutorial strategies. Most important, they assumed collective responsibility for carrying Mafia prosecutions forward: all the members of the pool signed prosecutorial orders to avoid exposing any one of them to particular risk, such as the one that had cost judge Gaetano Costa his life. Along with Falcone, the group included Paolo Borsellino, and .


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: The Antimafia pool laid the groundwork for the Maxi Trial against the Sicilian Mafia at the preliminary investigative phase. Following Chinnici's murder in July 1983, Antonino Caponnetto headed the pool. Falcone's friend Antonio Cassara (who headed the police squad hunting fugitives) was murdered in 1985. Falcone led the prosecution for the trial, which began 10 February 1986, and ended on 16 December 1987. Of the 475 defendants—both those present and those tried "in absentia"—338 were convicted. A total of 2,665 years of prison sentences was shared out between the guilty, not including the life sentences handed to the 19 leading Mafia bosses and killers, including Michele Greco, Giuseppe Marchese and—"in absentia"—Salvatore Riina, Giuseppe Lucchese and Bernardo Provenzano.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: One of the most important factors in the trial was the testimony of Tommaso Buscetta, the first ever Sicilian Mafiosi boss to become an informant (pentito). His assertion that the Mafia was not a collection of separate gangs but a single organisation led some magistrates and detectives to question his credibility. After an interview, Falcone became convinced that Buscetta was genuine and treated him with respect. Buscetta's key revelation was that a governing council, known as the Commission or "Cupula" headed a collective structure, thereby establishing that the top tier of Mafia members were complicit in all the organisation's crimes. This premise became known as the Buscetta theorem.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: When Falcone's record of success and high-profile led to resentment from some quarters, he was not given the job he coveted as chief prosecutor in Palermo. The new incumbent did not accept that the hierarchical Mafia structure revealed by the Maxi Trial actually existed, and he attempted to force Falcone to work on cases of wife beating and car theft. Falcone became so frustrated that he spoke of resigning. During 1988 Falcone collaborated with Rudolph Giuliani, at the time U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in operations against the Gambino and Inzerillo families. Rumours impugning his integrity deeply troubled Falcone during this period.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: On 20 June 1989, a sack filled with dynamite sticks was discovered near a beach house Falcone had rented in the town of Addaura by policeman Nino Agostino. Although Falcone had been threatened before, this failed attempt bothered him in the extreme because it had all the signs of an inside job. At the time, he was meeting Swiss prosecutors Carla Del Ponte and Claudio Lehman from Lugano who were helping to investigate the Mafia's financial holdings in Switzerland. Falcone believed that the assassination attempt not only involved the Mafia but some people in government as well. During the investigations into the money laundering networks of the Mafia, it became clear that former Palermo police chief Bruno Contrada, who had moved to the intelligence service SISDE, had warned a suspect about his impending arrest so that he could escape in time.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Falcone received an effusive congratulatory phone call from Giulio Andreotti after the narrow escape. Falcone privately thought it odd that Andreotti, who he had never spoken to, would suddenly contact him, and he mused about the significance of the incident to a friend. Unknown to Falcone the efforts to kill him were suspended while the Maxi trial verdicts went through the appeals process that had often set convicted Mafia members free. Later investigations into the murders of two police officers, Antonino Agostino and Emanuele Piazza, who worked for the secret service, revealed that they had secretly defused the bombs that had been placed by a Mafia commando aided by other secret service men. Agostino and his wife were killed on 5 August 1989 outside their home, and Piazza on 15 March 1990.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Exhausted and frustrated by the antagonism in Palermo, Falcone accepted a post in the Ministry of Justice in Rome offered to him by Claudio Martelli, the new minister of Justice in a new government of Giulio Andreotti in March 1991. The transfer was initially seen as a capitulation by Falcone, but he himself thought of it as a tactical move to better fight the Mafia. His first action was to prepare a decree to repair the disastrous sentence by Supreme Court judge Corrado Carnevale, known as the “sentence-killer”, that allowed most of the remaining defendants of the Maxi Trial to walk free from prison. The Martelli decree led to the immediate re-arrest of the Mafia bosses.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: While in Rome he started to restructure the Italian prosecution system, creating district offices to fight the Mafia and a national office to fight organised crime. Next was his move to prevent Carnevale from reviewing the sentence of the Maxi Trial. In a blow to the Mafia, the Maxi Trial convictions were upheld by the Supreme Court in January 1992. To the surprise of many, Falcone's move to Rome was very successful. He achieved a genuine revolution in the judiciary. The Mafia began to realize that Falcone was even more dangerous in Rome than he had been in Palermo.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: The Maxi trial sentences being upheld by the Supreme Court were a blow to the Mafia's prestige. The council of top bosses headed by Riina reacted by ordering the assassination of Salvatore Lima (on the grounds that he was an ally of Giulio Andreotti), and Falcone. Lima was shot dead on 12 March 1992.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Giovanni Brusca was tasked with killing Falcone. Riina wanted the murder carried out in Sicily in a demonstration of Mafia power; he instructed that the attack should be on Highway A29, which Falcone had to use to get from the airport to his home on his weekly visits. Four hundred kilograms (881 lbs.) of explosives were placed in a culvert under the highway between Palermo International Airport and the city of Palermo, near the town of Capaci. Brusca's men carried out test drives, using flashbulbs to simulate detonating the blast on a speeding car, and a concrete structure was specially created and destroyed in an experimental explosion to see if the bomb would be powerful enough. Leoluca Bagarella assisted at the scene during preparations.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Brusca detonated the device by remote control from a small outbuilding on a hill to the right of the highway on 23 May 1992. Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and police officers Rocco Dicillo, Antonio Montinaro and Vito Schifani were killed in the blast. The explosion was so powerful that it registered on local earthquake monitors. Riina reportedly threw a party, toasting Falcone's death with champagne, according to the pentito Salvatore Cancemi.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Thousands gathered at the Church of Saint Dominic for the funerals which were broadcast live on national TV. All regular television programs were suspended. Parliament declared a day of mourning. His colleague Paolo Borsellino was killed in another bombing 57 days later, along with five police officers: Agostino Catalano, Walter Cosina, Emanuela Loi, Vincenzo Li Muli, and Claudio Traina.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: In the major crackdown against the Mafia following Falcone and Borsellino's deaths, Riina was arrested on 15 January 1993, and was serving a life sentence, until his death in 2017, for sanctioning the murders of both magistrates as well as many other crimes. Brusca, also known as "lo scannacristiani" (the people slaughterer), was convicted of Falcone's murder. He was one of Riina's associates and admitted to detonating the explosives.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Reports in May 2019 indicated that a Cosa Nostra insider revealed that John Gotti of the Gambino crime family had sent one of their explosives experts to Sicily to work with the Corleonesi Mafia clan to help plan the bombing that would kill Falcone.


title: Giovanni Falcone

text: Palermo International Airport has been named "Falcone-Borsellino Airport" in honor of the two judges and hosts a memorial of the pair by the local sculptor Tommaso Geraci. Monuments commemorating Falcone and the other victims of the Capaci bombing were placed around Italy, including in Peschiera del Garda. Falcone was posthumously awarded the Train Foundation's Civil Courage Prize, which recognises "extraordinary heroes of conscience". A monument to Falcone stands also at the FBI's National Academy in Virginia to honour his contributions to the "Pizza Connection" case.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: "Smithereens" is the second episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction anthology series "Black Mirror". Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and directed by James Hawes, it premiered on Netflix on 5 June 2019, alongside "Striking Vipers" and "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too". In the episode, the rideshare driver Chris (Andrew Scott) takes hostage the intern Jaden (Damson Idris) of Smithereen, a large social media company, making a demand to contact the company's CEO Billy Bauer (Topher Grace).


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: The episode was inspired by an experience Brooker had in a car hired via Uber when the driver got out unexpectedly to get a bottle of water. He also began a story around how a person grieves the loss of a loved one differently when their life is permanently inscribed in social media. Smithereen is similar to the social media website Twitter and Bauer was compared to its CEO at the time, Jack Dorsey. Most filming took place in England, but Grace's scenes were filmed in Spain. Scenes were shot roughly in chronological order, at Scott's request, and his inability to drive was a challenge for the production.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: The major theme in "Smithereens" is the power of social media companies and their products' negative attributes, including addictivity. Critical reception was mixed: Scott's acting received widespread praise and a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award, but reviewers mostly criticised the episode's storyline and the simplicity of its message. It was ranked poorly in comparison to other "Black Mirror" instalments.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Chris Gillhaney (Andrew Scott) is a rideshare driver in London. He has sex with Hayley (Amanda Drew), a woman from his group therapy, who has been trying to guess the password to her late daughter's Persona account to find out what led to her suicide. One day, Chris picks up Jaden (Damson Idris), an employee at the social media company Smithereen. Chris abducts him at gunpoint but is furious upon discovering that he is a newly-joined intern. A police officer sees Jaden in the back seat with a bag over his head and pursues with her partner. In the chase, Chris veers to avoid two teenage cyclists and stalls the car in a field. An additional contingent of police arrive, led by CS Linda Grace (Monica Dolan).


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Chris is aiming to speak with Smithereen CEO Billy Bauer (Topher Grace). Chris sends a picture of Jaden at gunpoint to Jaden's superior. Word gets to COO Penelope Wu (Ruibo Qian) in the U.S., who puts Chris on hold. However, Billy is on a solitary retreat. As police visit Chris's listed address, Smithereen gather much more information through Chris's social media profiles. Formerly a teacher, Chris lost his fiancée Tamsin in a car accident with a drunk driver three years earlier and has been planning a kidnapping for weeks. The hostage negotiator David Gilkes (Daniel Ings) speaks to Chris, but Chris has researched negotiator tactics and leverages the hostage so that David leaves.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Smithereen are recording Chris while he is on hold. Chris works this out by pretending that the gun is fake and noticing the police's changing behaviour and social media posts from bystanders. He threatens to shoot Jaden in five minutes unless Billy calls him; despite Penelope and the FBI's protestations, Billy does so. Talking to him, Chris reveals that he was checking a Smithereen notification when the cars collided and blames himself for the deaths. Chris and Billy agree that Smithereen has been designed to be as addictive as possible and Billy says he was planning to quit as CEO. Chris implies he will now kill himself, but Billy begs Chris to let him help. Chris thinks of a last favour: ask Persona to give Hayley her daughter's password.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Chris tries to release Jaden, who urges Chris not to attempt suicide and then fights to take his gun off him. At Grace's orders, snipers fire into the car as the pair struggle. Around the world, people check their phones, then continue on with their lives.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: A fifth series of "Black Mirror" was commissioned by Netflix in March 2018, three months after the release of series four. Initially part of series five's production, the interactive work "" increased in scope to the point where it was separated from the series and released as a standalone film; it premiered on 28 December 2018. Although previous series of the programme produced under Netflix contained six episodes, series 5 comprises three episodes, as series creator Charlie Brooker viewed this as preferable to making viewers wait longer for the next series. The three episodes—"Striking Vipers", "Smithereens" and "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too"—were released on Netflix simultaneously on 5 June 2019. As "Black Mirror" is an anthology series, each instalment can be watched in any order.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: "Smithereens" was written by Brooker, who wanted the series to contain an episode without any futuristic technology, to remind viewers that "Black Mirror" is not solely a science fiction show. Previous such instalments include the first episode, "The National Anthem", and season three's "Shut Up and Dance". The two initial sparks for "Smithereens" were a question about how a person deals with the loss of a loved one whose life has been recorded in social media and an experience in a rideshare car booked through Uber. In the latter, the driver unexpectedly got out of the car and looked for something in the boot, while Brooker realised he was unaware of where they were. The driver was just getting some water.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: The former idea developed into a story where the protagonist was trying to get into the social media account of somebody who died by suicide, but Brooker thought it would be "extremely superficial and cheap, and also weirdly slightly intrusive" to give a "glib reason" for a character's suicide. In the final episode, the secondary character Hayley has this storyline, but the contents of her daughter's Persona account are not shown. Brooker said, "Really, she's probably just going to open another box of questions by going in there".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Executive producer Annabel Jones described Chris as "overwhelmed" and said that he "feels like an onlooker" over society. Discussing the psychological effects of technology, Brooker said that he used to "reach for a cigarette first thing in the morning" as a chain smoker, and now does the same thing with his smartphone for a "similar reward-feedback loop". Jones gave the example of a homescreen showing the number of unread emails as gamification, one of many features that witness how phones are "subtly and incrementally... designed to absorb you".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Billy Bauer was written to embody a Silicon Valley entrepreneur: Brooker said that Billy thinks himself a "switched on, liberal, hippy kind of guy". He was not written to be a "cartoon villain" or resemble any particular social media CEOs, though Brooker did take inspiration from a ten-day retreat taken by then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Jones commented that Billy is "as lost as" Chris and feels "out of control".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Brooker described the episode's ending, in which strangers are seen looking at their phones, as a message about how the characters' lives were "reduced to ephemeral confetti that just passes us by". The "most important day" of Chris's life and maybe Jaden's is "reduced to the level of a pop-up".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Having previously talked to Brooker about appearing, Scott joined the cast of "Smithereens" as he was "really gripped by [the main] character." He described himself as less interested in technology than "the idea of the vulnerability of people that a simple mistake can be made at any given moment and you can blame it on yourself or you can blame it the powers that be". Per Scott's request, most of the episode was shot in chronological order, so that he could "slowly reveal" more of Chris's character. He said he was "as playful as possible" when acting, aiming to perform "in as many different ways as possible". One difficulty in filming was that Scott did not know how to drive a car. Production mounted a car on top of a mobile platform and instructed Scott to mimic steering to go along with filming.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Topher Grace—who had recently filmed for "BlacKkKlansman" (2018)—played Billy Bauer. He had been looking to vary the types of characters he played and was a fan of the show, having particularly enjoyed season two's "Be Right Back" and other episodes which "are more emotional than technology-based". He was surprised while reading the script when he reached Billy's appearance, having built up an expectation that he would be more villainous. He said that similar tech company founders had "created their own legend" and that he expected Billy to stand out in a crowd and have a distinctive "relationship with spirituality". For this reason, Grace wanted Billy to be bald but after discussion he ended up with a bun. Grace told an interviewer that he was unsure of whether Billy was "as trapped as he says", but that he does not personally like "people like this". Damson Idris played the Smithereen intern Jaden. His first "Black Mirror" audition was for the series three episode "Men Against Fire".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Director James Hawes had previously directed "Hated in the Nation" in the third series. Most of the filming took place in England, overlapping with production of "Bandersnatch". Urban scenes were filmed in various downtown London locations. Some footage was shot in Harrietsham, Maidstone in Kent and in a field near Gravesend around June 2018. The Fairbourne Reservoir in Kent was used as a location for boardroom scenes. Grace flew to the UK to watch Scott's acting and briefly meet him before the filming of his scenes in Spain. To help Grace match the emotional intensity of Scott during the phone call, an actor was hired to read Chris's lines offscreen—usually the person in such a role is not a professional actor.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: The episode's music was composed by the Japanese artist Ryuichi Sakamoto, known for his electronic music and soundtracks. It incorporates synthesisers which, according to "Pitchfork" reviewer Daniel Martin-McCormick, create "rising tension", "a looming state of emergency" and are "steadfastly integrated" with the episode. The soundtrack was released as an album two days after the episode's premiere.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Charles Bramesco of "Vulture" and Matt Reynolds of "Wired" found the episode to have a police procedural style, similar to the third series episode "Hated in the Nation". Atypical for the genre, the gathering of intelligence is speedy, due to the power of the social media companies, rather than forming the majority of the episode's runtime. "Smithereens" is set in 2018; David Sims of "The Atlantic" said it "could've been pulled from today's headlines". He drew the connection that as with "The National Anthem", it showcases a news story which "begins to spiral out of control online". "Vox" reviewer Aja Romano found that it "blends a hefty mix of bleak nihilism and social satire" and "comes across like a thesis statement for the series as a whole". Louisa Mellor of "Den of Geek" saw a "black comedy of errors" in Chris's plan quickly going wrong in several ways, and Sims commented that the episode showcases "classic hostage tropes" including "the panicked cops, the slick negotiator [and] the snipers looking for a shot through their scopes". Stephanie Dube Dwilson, writing for "Heavy", noted an absence of an "unexpected" or "incredibly dark" twist, as many prior episodes employ.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: The episode suggests that social media companies are unaccountable and make people vulnerable and powerless. Chris Longo suggested in "Den of Geek" that the technology is "purposely designed to give us tiny hits of dopamine". The former Facebook president Sean Parker spoke in a 2017 event about the addictiveness of social media, saying that he, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram's Kevin Systrom "understood this consciously" but "did it anyway". Mellor said that it is "gently ironic" that Chris uses a meditation app on his phone "to escape the effects of other apps". The social psychologist Rosanna Guadagno highlighted that "research has shown that notifications from our phones have a negative impact on our stress levels, anxiety levels, and overall wellbeing". The 1967 song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", sung by Frankie Valli, occurs throughout the episode and plays in the closing credits; Mellor called the song choice "a gag about phone addiction".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: The episode shows social media companies as more powerful than law enforcement in profiling people. Guadagno saw Smithereen's information gathering on Chris as "both a violation of privacy" and a demonstration of "what you can learn about someone based on surveilling their digital activities". Victoria Turk of "Wired" saw it unrealistic that Smithereen choose to get involved with police activity, saying that such companies "seem to constantly distance themselves" from this "as they don't want that responsibility".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Critics most commonly compared Billy Bauer to Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter at the time. Thomas Gorton of "Dazed" and "Paste"s Jim Vorel made comparisons to Zuckerberg, and Vorel also saw an aspect of Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs in Billy. Smithereen was identified as similar to Twitter, and Persona to Facebook. Ed Cumming of "The Independent" commented of the name choice: "A smithereen is a tiny fragment of something, the debris of an explosion: the firm's users and also the information they post". Chris Longridge, writing for "Digital Spy", saw a "religious parable" in Billy, who could represent Jesus or a Christian God. Longridge described Billy as "effectively omniscient", with a "Renaissance-art Jesus vibe". However, he "turns out to be just a guy", which could symbolise an "existential crisis of humankind in a world that no longer has God".