The Scriptorium Daily

Author: Fred Sanders

  • Un-knock-down-able Cat!

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    Fred Sanders
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    Why is the cat so happy? Whence his pleasing grin? This un-knock-down-able cat is composed of un-duplicate-able forms which only a five year old could assemble with such confidence and verve. No two legs alike! No two ears alike! A hint of symmetry about the ears and mouth, but no true symmetry! And a big…

  • Who Demonized John Calvin? Blame the Textbooks.

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    Fred Sanders
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    Just how did John Calvin become the epitome of evil in the minds of so many? I suppose the full story is too long to tell, but here is one interesting chapter. American history textbooks for nearly two centuries portrayed him as evil. Historian Thomas Davis got this idea and then did all the patient…

  • John Calvin’s Birthday: July 10

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    Fred Sanders
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    On July 10 in 1509, John Calvin was born. Why not celebrate with a birthday party? I am always astonished at the amount of anti-Calvin sentiment abroad in the world. I myself am a Wesleyan theologian, so there are a few key areas –maybe about 5– where I come into disagreement with Calvin. But that…

  • Professor Soundbite: Text Crit for the Masses

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    Fred Sanders
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    What’s a book about textual criticism, textual criticism of all things, doing on the NY Times bestseller list? Don’t get me wrong, I find textual criticism fascinating, but that’s because it’s already far too late to save me from bookwormhood. I’m also gripped by the history of concordances, and have been known to read etymological…

  • How they’re enemies

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    Fred Sanders
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    Transcription from the artist’s impromptu remarks about his own work: They are enemies because they have different armor. Actually, look: that plate metal guy doesn’t have anything on his shield, and that mail armor guy has a lion rampant on his shield. That’s how they’re enemies. Plate metal knight: “Hey knight, would you like to…

  • Dr. Torpedo’s Divinity Lectures

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    Fred Sanders
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    I can’t account for why this passage made me laugh so hard that my eyes teared up. It’s just funny. It’s from an early chapter in Robert Southey’s (1774-1843) sprawling and unclassifiable book The Doctor. The narrator, trying to fall asleep, tries one trick after another: I put my arms out of bed. I turned…

  • Sudden Heaven

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    Fred Sanders
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    “Sudden Heaven” describes an experience of glory, glory in the course of normal life. A moment of sudden heaven is not marked by any outward circumstances (it’s not sparked by graduation or a touchdown or falling in love), but is an unexpected, unexplainable epiphany in the middle of the commonplace. You’re just going on with…

  • Free Their Minds

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    Fred Sanders
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    The brilliant young Catholic theologian William T. Cavanaugh deflates some gassy notions about education. This has implications for all sorts of teaching, but it rings especially true for undergraduate education. [T]here is no good reason to suppose that authority of itself is a hindrance to academic freedom. Indeed, Christians argue the opposite: the very exercise…

  • Nature’s God, the Supreme Judge, etc.

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    Fred Sanders
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    There is an argument about the American founders which is always going on somewhere, and is never productive. First speaker: “This is a Christian nation, with a Christian founding, and the religion reflected in all of our founding documents is Christianity. None of our polity makes sense without the Judeo-Christian origins.” Second speaker: “This is…

  • The Declaration of Independence

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    Fred Sanders
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    There are many ways to celebrate the American brand of political freedom on this Independence Day weekend, and the bookish way is to take a moment to ponder the Declaration of Independence. Its words are so familiar that it can be hard to hear them at all, so try the mental trick of imagining what…

  • Storming the Battlements

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    Fred Sanders
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    Variation in mark-making: A minus. The passage where the slotted visor gives way to the billowing crest is especially strong. Could have used some punctiliar elements. There is only one dot in the whole composition. And the rectilinear elements are curvilinears in disguise. Contrast: A. Good decision to go with the blue marker and leave…

  • R. A. Torrey: Who You Callin’ Narrow?

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    Fred Sanders
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    Here is a piece of vintage R. A. Torrey (1856-1928), published in 1917. Everything you could love or hate about Torrey is right here in cold print: the quick wit, the principled stand, the willingness to embrace the social stigma of conservative orthodoxy, the vicious counter-attack on the cultured despisers of religion, the readiness to…