Month: April 2011
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Gates of Adamant are Broken
An Easter poem by C. S. Lewis, only printed (so far as I know) in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950-1963 (HarperSan Francisco, 2007), p. 955. The poem is from a June 1958 letter to Francis Turner. It’s not the kind of thing that could stand on its…
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From Information to Wisdom
Counter-intuitive as it may seem, education is a college student’s job. You don’t get a salary, you don’t get health or retirement benefits or paid vacation, but it is still your job, and a peculiar one at that. You do not make things or sell things. You neither maintain nor fix things. You are a…
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Protestants, not Protesters
Today (April 19) is the anniversary of the 1529 Protestation of Speyer, which is generally regarded as the first time that the word “Protestant” was used to refer to a religious position distinct from Roman Catholicism. A coalition of German princes and leaders refused to abide by the imperial ban on Luther’s teachings, and called…
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Algernon Crapsey’s Heresy Trial
Algernon Crapsey worshiped telegraph poles, but that’s both better and worse than it sounds. It was April 18 in the year 1906 that Reverend Algernon Sidney Crapsey (1847-1927) was put on trial by the Episcopal Church in the state of New York for teaching, preaching and writing contrary to the Christian faith. He was found…
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Deficit Spirituality
When I learned how to drive a car, my dad made sure to start me out on the most primitive contraption that was street legal. It had a manual transmission, of course, and manual everything else as well: door locks, windows, seat adjustments, and all. You dimmed the headlights by stomping a switch on the…
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Kindle vs. "Real" Books: The Future of Education
What do new technology advances mean for education? How much can the Kindle and e-books replace? Are the brick-and-mortar campuses doomed? Tune in once again to hear Dr. John Mark Reynolds and Dr. Fred Sanders, professors at the Torrey Honors Institute, as they delve into this topic. You may be surprised to hear what they…
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Tenth Annual G. Campbell Morgan Theology Conference
Here is a chance to survey the entire scope of Christian doctrine: a brief enough summary to show the whole thing at a glance, but with enough detail to see the various parts and how they relate to each other. We’ve put the entire 2011 G. Campbell Morgan Theology Conference online at Biola’s YouTube channel.…
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Royal Duty: The King Behind the Speech
St. Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary and Foster-Father of Christ, has always fascinated me. He comes on the scene, plays his role, and then is never mentioned again in the gospel narratives. He is a man who is called to do one task, difficult, for sure, but one that does not win him any…
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Meet the Theologians: Basil the Great
This is a comic strip I did in 1998 introducing Basil of Caesarea, one of the Cappadocian Fathers.
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Pope Formosus, Dead and Sort of Buried
Pope Formosus (born around 816, died April 4, 896), only served for 5 years in the office of Pope, and they were troubled years. Formosus inherited an unstable political situation, and took the wrong side in the dispute between warring kings in a disintegrating Christendom. In 894, he asked King Arnulf of the Franks to…
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Elizabeth Johnson's Quest Controversy
Last week a controversial book of theology was condemned by well-established critics who cautioned the public that the book did not present Christian doctrine in an accurate, biblical, or traditional way. As news of the book’s official condemnation spread, book sales spiked. This has nothing to do with Rob Bell or Love Wins; that’s old…