The Scriptorium Daily

Author: Fred Sanders

  • Jesus Was Also Baptized

    Jesus Was Also Baptized

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Luke 3:21: “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying…” Picture the scene: There was a big crowd at the river, and people were getting dunked in the water by John, who was so good at it that everybody called him the Baptizer, the Baptist (note:…

  • Webster’s “Courses Charted but Not Taken”

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    Fred Sanders
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    A Companion to the Theology of John Webster is a great collection of essays on the development of Webster’s theology, and on major doctrines important in his work. The epilogue is unique, though: it’s a very helpful report and analysis of what Webster was working on at the time of his death. R. David Nelson…

  • Jesse Hamm, Cartoonist’s Cartoonist

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    Fred Sanders
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    Comics artist Jesse Hamm has died. Jesse worked in comic books at all levels: from the self-published days of photocopied zines, up through small presses and indie/alternative publishers, to Marvel & DC. Click through to the obituary at comics.com for a list of his most notable projects, and see what names you recognize (currently, for…

  • Torrey’s Two Houses (2009)

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Torrey Honors College, we’re looking back at some important moments in our history. One of those is the expansion and division of the College (then known as an Institute) into two distinct houses. To get the fell and the flavor of what that moment was like, we’re re-posting…

  • Introducing Junius on the Trinity

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    Fred Sanders
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    Franciscus Junius (1545-1602) was an important theologian in the Protestant Orthodox tradition. He is most famous for his influential Treatise on True Theology, with its profound approach to theological method. Junius taught widely across all the major doctrines of Christian theology, but never published a system or compendium. What he did publish was a set…

  • “To Him Belongs the Consummation of Things”

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Petrus van Mastricht’s Theoretical-Practical Theology (volume 2, chapter 27) has an excellent treatment of the Holy Spirit. I just want to unpack a little something he says in the introductory paragraph, before he gets to the main body of the pneumatology (in parts exegetical, dogmatic, elenctic, and practical). Here’s a little picture of the Latin,…

  • Polanus: Reformed Scholastic Piety and Commentary

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Having worked through Amandus Polanus’ axiomata on the Trinity, Ryan Hurd and I invited a guest, Dr. Ryan McGraw, to talk with us about his own encounters with the writings of Polanus. This conversation covers a few topic: First, we wanted to recommend Dr. McGraw’s 2019 book Reformed Scholasticism: Recovering the Tools of Reformed Theology,…

  • Ephesians (Classical Theology Course)

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    Fred Sanders
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    Talbot School of Theology’s Master of Arts in Classical Theology is mostly composed of three kinds of courses: Commonplaces (major doctrines); Master Practitioners (significant theologians); and Sacred Page (books of Scripture). Since the entire MA is designed to treat Scripture as “that toward which all studies in divinity move,” these Sacred Page courses are especially…

  • Shraga Weil’s Ram in the Thicket

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    Fred Sanders
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    Shraga Weil (1918-2009) was an Israeli painter who also did a lot of printmaking throughout his artistic career. I know he made prints because late in 2020 I came across one of them in an antique store at a deep discount price, and my family got it for me as a Christmas gift. This blog…

  • Christmas Trinity

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    Fred Sanders
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    Here’s something I wrote for Christmas 2020. I composed it to work best as a Twitter thread, and I’m not sure if it works as well as a blog post. But I wanted to make it available here at a more stable location for the non-Twitter readers. Christmas Trinity: Only the Son is incarnate, but…

  • “The Holy Spirit Teaches us to Die Faithfully.”

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    Fred Sanders
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    Dr. Ephraim Radner delivered a memorable paper at the 2020 Los Angeles Theology Conference last January. Those of us in the audience were struck by the depth and honesty of what he shared that day about how the modern world has come to think about the Holy Spirit. Fortunately, his paper has now been published…

  • Adding Eternal Generation

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    Fred Sanders
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    The publication of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, Second Edition presents an opportunity to consider the difference the doctrine of eternal generation can make in trinitarian theology. The opportunity arises from the fact that Grudem denied eternal generation in the first edition, but affirms it in the second. That’s a big change. The widely used first…