Author: Fred Sanders
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Happy Birthday, J.B. Lightfoot
Today (April 13) was the birthday of J.B. Lightfoot (1828-1889), Bishop of Durham, New Testament commentator, historian of early Christianity, and Christian apologist. Lightfoot’s strict classical training (Trinity College, Cambridge) equipped him for what turned out to be his life’s work in an uncannily providential way. In all his scholarly work, it has been said…
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Happy Birthday, Samuel Zwemer
Samuel Marinus Zwemer (1867-1952) was born this day, April 12. Zwemer has been called “the Apostle to Islam” by many people, including a historian of missions as great Kenneth Scott Latourette. He worked in frontier missions in a variety of ways, willing to go anywhere there were Muslims and to use any technique that was…
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Happy Birthday James Orr
Scottish theologian James Orr (1844–1913) was born on this day, April 11. He was a prolific author and an important figure in conservative evangelicalism at the very beginning of the twentieth century. Orr wrote at a time when everything seemed to be flying apart: historical-critical studies of the Bible were reaching a sort of critical…
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The Life Book and High School Evangelism
You may have seen the little ad in our rightmost column, for “a quick way to change someone’s life forever,” with one hand taking a tract from another. That ad is for something called The Life Book, a remarkable little evangelistic tool designed for high school evangelism. The main thing about the Life Book is…
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Boethius according to C.S. Lewis
In 1962, C.S. Lewis made a “ten books that have influenced me most” list at the request of The Christian Century. Read it here. (He agreed to do this even though, in a letter to Clyde Kilby in 1958, he had worried that publishing anything whatsoever in the Century “may merely be putting up the…
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Kittens in the Air
Phoebe Age 7 combines word and image in this celebratory ode. That stylized text is: Kittens in the air Catnip in there lair Soreing over beare And you can see the beare over which they are soreing. The kittens are supported in their soreing project by a colorful assortment of birds. What with the catnip…
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Go To The Ant
Not long ago my whole family listened to a remarkable audio book. It’s a reading of Evelyn Sibley Lampman’s 1960 The City Under the Back Steps. It’s a great adventure story about two kids who get shrunk to bug size, and spend a few days working and fighting alongside the members of an ant colony.…
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Swinburne vs. The Pale Galilean
Today (April 5) is the birthday of Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909), an English poet who was famous in his day but hardly remembered in ours. One of his best-remembered lines is about this very changing of times, in which mighty figures of one age are forgotten by the next. But the mighty figure whose rise…
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Just As He Said
The crucifixion certainly seemed to be out of control. It didn’t seem like anybody was in charge: not the mob who changed their minds daily, not the politicians who wanted to escape responsibility, not the executioners who were just following orders, not even the religious leaders who were rushing to get everything done by sundown.…
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Ambrose Read Silently
Today (April 4) is the day when Ambrose of Milan died in 397. Ambrose is one of the biggest names in the history of the early church, one of the traditional “Four Doctors of the Western Church.” He was the bishop of Milan when Augustine came there, and he made a big impression on Augustine.…
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Trinitarian Litany: Hide Me
From pride’s self-circled center which Requires a crowd that can applaud Each word of mine, each move and twitch, Deliver me, O Father God! From sloth’s complacent settling in, Remaining still when called to run, Entangled and beset by sin, Deliver me, O risen Son! From lying to myself and others, Recounting words that hurt…
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My Favorite Theology Books
There’s a fun “favorite books” meme going around, and the bloggers at First Things’ Evangel blog made it look so fun that I decided to participate. Here is my contribution. Comments are turned on over there, in case you are interested in joining the conversation.