Month: April 2006
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St. Augustine and the Mainstream Media
I admit it—I am a news junkie. The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is turn on the computer, and see what has been going on in the world since I last was awake. I often end my day pursuing the many news channels to see news and commentary on…
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Big Red Knight
Title: Untitled (#2,621 in a series) Artist: Freddy Size: 11″ x 17″ Medium: Marker on high-acid paper Provenance: Southern California, early 21st century Now in the collection of: Private owner The paintings of the artist known only as Freddy reflect, especially during his ongoing “knights” period, reflect the influence of the 11th century Bayeux tapestry…
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Updike Poke at Feckless Profs
From John Updike’s The Carpentered Hen, published 1958. Professor Varder handles Dante With wry respect; while one can see It’s all a lie, one must admit The “beauty” of the “imagery.” Professor Varder slyly smiles, Describing Hegel as a “sage;” But still, the man has value—he Reflects the “temper” of his “age.” Montaigne, Tom Paine,…
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Who is the Holy Spirit?
Who is the Holy Spirit? What is his characteristic personhood, which distinguishes him from the Father and the Son? How is it that he isn’t simply interchangeable with the ascended Jesus Christ, or on the other hand interchangeable with the invisible Father, or on the other other hand, identical with the one divine essence? He…
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Søren Tender from Fearen Trembling
Thoughts after six hours of discussing Søren Kierkegaard’s beautiful, terrible little book Fear and Trembling, which puts forward Abraham as “the knight of faith,” who is greater than all the wise and strong of the world: great with that power whose strength is powerlessness, great in that wisdom whose secret is folly, great in that…
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God Died on the Cross
Charles Wesley wrote: O Love divine, what has thou done! The immortal God hath died for me! —which is a bold thing to say, because it claims so much. “God…died.” The Bible itself says it that bluntly in a few places, such as Acts 20:28, “God purchased the church with his own blood.” This is…
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Teddy Bear Sunflower
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lean to me, Teddy, As brown as the line of earth, As I lean to you. The marker runs out Burnt umber, then sepia, At last, sienna. The negative space Into…
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Excellence: Expected in the NFL, Elitism in Education
As the NFL draft is almost upon us it is hard not to notice the focus sports fans and sports writers have on excellence. Potential professional football players are be scrutinized by owners, coaches, writers and fans about what they could bring to their respective teams. The NFL Combine is where those players are most…
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What the Resurrection Proves
What the resurrection proves is more important than proving the resurrection. R. A. Torrey (1856-1928), at the height of his fame as world-traveling evangelist, published a book called The Bible and its Christ. Of the book’s ten chapters, the first four provided reasons for believing the Bible to be God’s word, the next four were…
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The Divine What Now?
After posting about Cheynell’s 1650 Trinity book, I looked again at the title page and realized he didn’t publish it as a book about The Divine Triunity, but about the Divine TriNunity. As far as I can tell, he meant to spell it that way. Later readers who wrote about his book sometimes got the…
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Trinity Book Title
Back in the seventeenth century, you could write a book and give it a title that included most of the content. In fact, as far as I can tell, Cheynell’s Divine Triunity has a title page which is nearly a chapter long. If I were to assign this book in class, I’m sure the first…