The Scriptorium Daily

Author: Fred Sanders

  • Today “Rabbi” Duncan Died (1870)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    John Duncan (1796 – February 26, 1870) was no Rabbi; he was a Scottish pastor who did missions work among the Jews in Hungary. Luminaries like Adolph Saphir (author of The Hidden Life) and Alfred Edersheim (author of The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah) were converted under his ministry. He was so involved…

  • “Come, Christian Triune God Who Lives” (Francis Schaeffer)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    Listen to Francis Schaeffer’s words from his 1972 book True Spirituality. In the chapter entitled “The Supernatural Universe,” he says: Little by little, many Christians in this generation find the reality slipping away. The reality tends to get covered by the barnacles of naturalistic thought. Indeed, I suppose this is one of half a dozen…

  • Today Oscar Cullmann was Born (1902)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Oscar Cullmann was born on February 25, 1902, and lived until 1999. His most influential work was the book Christ and Time, in which he presented the biblical view of time and contrasted it with other theological ideas about time. According to Cullmann, the flow of time really matters to God, and the only way…

  • Today Harry Ironside was Called to Church (1930)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    At 10:30 in the morning on February 24, 1930, Harry Ironside’s phone rang. It was the assistant pastor of Chicago’s Moody Church, telling him that the board was in unanimous agreement that he should be the next pastor. Ironside (1876-1951) eventually accepted the call, and it would be the only pastorate he would serve in…

  • Happy Birthday G.F. Handel (1685)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in , ,

    Georg Frideric Handel was born on February 23, 1685. He left us a body of musical work that is unsurpassed. His inescapable masterpiece is the sacred oratorio called Messiah, which is a comprehensive history of Western music and a singable systematic theology all wrapped up in one. G.K. Chesterton once said that popular misconceptions are…

  • Today is Sarah Fuller Flower Adams’ Birthday (1805)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    It’s really only for one hymn that we remember Sarah Adams (1805-1848), but what a hymn: “Nearer My God to Thee.” Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee! E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me; Still all my song shall be nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer…

  • Today is John Henry Newman’s Birthday (1801)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Today, February 21, is the day John Henry Newman was born. I will skip Newman’s biographical details and all the ways he makes my Protestant soul grumpy, and instead cut straight to a prayer that he published which I have always found very helpful. Here is the form I copied into a notebook several years…

  • Today is William Burt Pope’s Birthday (1822)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    William Burt Pope (1822-1903) was probably the finest theological mind the Methodist movement has ever produced. I have eulogized him elsewhere, and his major works are finally becoming available online (the three-volume compendium of theology can be downloaded from the internet archive, or in e-book form from this fan). Here are the top eight lessons…

  • Top Five Christian Comic Books

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in , ,

    I sometimes promote myself as the “world’s greatest systematic theologian cartoonist,” because it’s a pretty safe boast. If I ever meet another professional theologian who’s also a published cartoonist, I’ll have to adjust my bragging to something like “one of the two greatest.” But while I might be the only theology prof to publish cartoons,…

  • Today the Pilgrim’s Progress was Published (1678)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in , ,

    Today in 1678 John Bunyan brought out the first version of the Pilgrim’s Progress. He did make some revisions after that first edition, but the book was recognizably itself as soon as it was published. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, famously sophisticated, called this simple book “incomparably the best Summa Theologicae Evangelicae ever produced by a writer…

  • Today Finan of Lindisfarne Died (661)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Today is the day Finan, the second bishop of Lindisfarne, died. What is Lindisfarne? Well, go to the far North of England, the part that’s almost Scotland, called Northumbria. Now wait for low tide so you can walk out to the tiny tidal island: Lindisfarne, or Holy Island. What a place for a monastery, for…

  • Today is Philip Melanchthon’s Birthday (1497)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    He was born Philip Schwartzerd, a German name meaning “black earth.” But like many young scholars of the time, he showed his commitment to ancient learning by translating his name into Greek: melan = black, chthon = earth. Melanchthon intended to live the humanist scholarly dream, and had grand visions of fulfilling the Renaissance’s mission…