Author: Fred Sanders
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Cranmer Prays to the Trinity
Can you pray to the Trinity? Of course, the very definition of Christian prayer is that it is trinitarian: We pray to God the Father, in the name of Jesus the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s the logic of mediation that’s built into Christian prayer, no matter what words we use…
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Martin Hengel (1926-2009)
TheoBlog reports that Martin Hengel, New Testament scholar, has died in Tübingen at the age of 82. Hengel’s scholarly accomplishment was great. His 1973 inaugural lecture in Tübingen was published in English in expanded form as The Son of God (Fortress Press, 1976). In that programmatic work he declared some of the guiding principles that…
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Why I Don’t Pray for Celebrities
I don’t pray for celebrities because they aren’t real people. Celebrity deaths come in threes, they say, and recently Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson have died. There have been obituaries and retrospectives, and some scrambling to figure out how we are supposed to feel about these deaths of people we never met but…
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When in Doubt, Sing
When I was in graduate school, one of the most important groups I was involved with was a small group of doctoral students who were in the same phase of the program. We studied together, arranged special tutoring sessions on hard topics, and shared the burdens of life as PhD-wannabes. We were a pretty diverse…
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Review: Re-Thinking Rahner’s Rule and Revelation
In the current issue of the International Journal of Systematic Theology, you can read my review of Dennis Jowers’ recent book on the Trinity, Karl Rahner’s Trinitarian Axiom: ‘The Economic Trinity is the Immanent Trinity and Vice Versa’ (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006). The book itself (and consequently the review) is not for the…
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Czeslaw Milosz’ Birthday
Czeslaw Milosz, the Polish poet who lived his last decades in California, was born on this day, June 30, in 1911. I am told on good authority that we should pronounce his name “Chess-wov Mee-woash,” but I can’t get used to saying those L’s as W’s, so now I stumble over his name whenever I…
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning Was One Theological Poet
Elizabeth Barrett Browning died on this day, June 29, in 1861. She was the most famous female poet of the Victorian age, easily outpacing other luminaries like Christina Rossetti and Jean Ingelow (who?). During her lifetime, the rumor was that she only missed the post of poet laureate because that Tennyson fellow was an unstoppable…
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Holy Holy Holy
All Christians believe in the Trinity, but some Christians believe in the Trinity better than others. There are some Bible-believing Christians who have all the basic biblical materials for trinitarian theology stored in their minds, but who have never assembled those materials to make the doctrine of the Trinity. They believe there is only one…
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Cyril of Alexandria
June 27 is the day Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444) is remembered in the Western churches. For many years, he wasn’t widely remembered in the Western churches at all, at least in English-language theological circles. For example, in the 48-volume set of patristic writings of the Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene periods issued in the nineteenth…
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Doddridge Day
Philip Doddridge (born this day, June 26, 1702; died 1751) is remembered today, if at all, for his book The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. This book was very famous in its time, and was translated into seven languages. William Wilberforce pointed to it as the book that made him take Christianity…
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Everything You Think About Contentment is Wrong
Tim Challies hosts a “Reading Classics Together” blog event, and the book he’s working through now is The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, by Jeremiah Burroughs (1600-1646). This week’s reading is the second and third sermons in the book. In Philippians 4, Paul says “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content,”…
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Bernard Founded Clairvaux
June 25 is the day, according to tradition, that Bernard (1090-1153) founded a new Cistercian monastery in Clairvaux in the year 1115. The monastery was such a success, and he was so linked with it, that “of Clairvaux” is now his last name. He was not the first Cistercian, but he was the perfect one.…