The Scriptorium Daily

Author: Fred Sanders

  • Four Great African American Books

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Here are four books that Torrey Honors officially recommends, and by “officially” I mean that we have built them into the heart of our great books program. So we will be cycling through them every year with students, because they are proven masterpieces that bear careful reading and re-reading. Narrative of the Life of Frederick…

  • Gentle Correction

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    On at least two occasions, John Webster reviewed combative books with which he largely agreed, but slipped in some gentle reprimands along the way. I think of these reviews often, as instructive instances of how a theologian can be constructive and peaceable even while entering into a charged debate; even, in fact, taking sides. Even,…

  • Trauma and the Trinitarian “God of All Comfort” (Review)

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    In the latest issue of the Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care, I co-authored a book review with Chris Gibson, a PhD student at Gateway Seminary. Chris and I have been working on the doctrine of divine impassibility and how it relates to human suffering. So when we saw Scott Harrower’s book, God of…

  • Classical Theology Thesis

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    Fred Sanders
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    One year ago, Talbot School of Theology launched the Classical Theology Master of Arts. We’ve had a great first year: the right students, great collegiality, and a series of fascinating courses on Scripture (Sacred Page), great theologians (Master Practitioners), and major doctrines (Common Places). The program is so experimental, and our first batches of students…

  • Biblia Pauperum (Ascension)

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    There’s a particular type of late medieval document that we call a Biblia Pauperum. We call it that because at some point in the nineteenth century scholars started calling it that, but “Bible of the Poor” is not very descriptive: there’s nothing about these books that suggests the intended audience is either especially poor or…

  • The Joy of Psalmtooning

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Psalmtooning? Well, I haven’t heard that word in about ten years. But I made it up, and I used to do it all the time back when my kids were little. Psalmtooning is a form of Bible study that encourages children to use their natural love of cartooning to draw out the meaning from Scripture.…

  • Why It’s Hard to Trace “Trajectories and Continuities” (Muller)

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    In Richard Muller’s volume on the doctrine of God (vol. 3 of his Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics series), he sets himself the task of reconnecting some broken links in the history of theology, links without which the doctrine of God cannot be grasped. It is a complex task, and no wonder that it takes thousands of…

  • A Welcome to the Plague (Samuel Shaw)

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    The 2020 pandemic almost immediately brought out of obscurity a substantial library of historical Christian writing on plagues and mass illnesses. Lots of writing that we might call “plague spirituality” has been sitting on the shelves of the church, just waiting for moderns to get interested in it. There is some powerful plague theology out…

  • How It’s Supposed to End

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    When you make a plan to kill a public person, the kind of public person who is animated by a powerful inner force, you’d better make sure to kill him. But even if you succeed there’s that powerful inner force to deal with: what if, by killing him, you just let it out? The problem…

  • Godforsaken For Us

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Jesus calls out from the cross: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). Strong words of weakness. The very first hearers misunderstood them: “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” But he wasn’t calling on Elijah, of course, though the words sound similar: he was calling on…

  • Biola and the Flu, 1919

    Biola and the Flu, 1919

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    A few notes here on how the Bible Institute of Los Angeles experienced the devastating influenza pandemic (the “Spanish Flu”) one hundred years ago. Gleaned from online back issues of Biola’s classic old King’s Business magazine. Because the King’s Business was only a monthly magazine and had a long lag time between writing and publishing,…

  • Praying (Hard) Theology: Litany of the Summa

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Imagine studying the doctrinal theology of Thomas Aquinas and then turning it, in considerable detail, into praise.That’s what sixteenth-century Jesuit Francis Borgia did. He wrote a book which is basically key sections of the Summa Theologia cast into the form of prayers. Litanies, to be precise: sequences of requests, for liturgical recitation with a set…