The Scriptorium Daily

Author: Matt Jenson

  • What is Grace?

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    Matt Jenson
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    What is grace? A word used so indiscriminately in casual conversation, and often enough in theological exposition, can threaten to lose all significance. Here is a simple, but comprehensive definition: Grace is the effective presence of the triune God to pardon and empower. Let’s unpack that a bit. First, grace is effective presence. That is,…

  • “G. K. Chesterton, We Love You!” – Brazil

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    Matt Jenson
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    There’s something funny about professors who teach old books being involved in new media. That’s what Scriptorium Daily is, of course — people talking about old stuff in a new venue. It’s funny because of what conventional wisdom leads us to believe – that the more old books we read, the more inclined we are…

  • Barth vs. Augustine

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    Matt Jenson
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    This is an excerpt from a longer article on Barth in A Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine, ed. Karla Pollmann and Willemien Otten (Oxford University Press, 2013). Benjamin Warfield once wrote that ‘the the Reformation, inwardly considered, was just the ultimate triumph of Augustine’s doctrine of grace over Augustine’s doctrine of the Church.’…

  • How to Be a Theologian, by Martin Luther

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    Matt Jenson
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    Oswald Bayer has written a really quite wonderful book, Theology the Lutheran Way, in which he makes much of Martin Luther’s sense that the theologian is one who interprets “and is interpreted by” Scripture. All Christians are theologians, according to Luther, and to be a theologian is simply to be one who hears God’s Word.…

  • He is Risen!

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    Matt Jenson
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    Christ is risen! This is the day for which we’ve been waiting these long Lenten weeks. We have been fasting and praying and lamenting, thinking so much–many of us would say far too much–about our sin and suffering and death. We entered into Lent with a certain somber joy, but that often lapsed into boredom…

  • Today Fred Sanders was Born (1968)

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    Matt Jenson
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    Fred Sanders (1968– ) is an American evangelical theologian known for his work on the doctrine of the Trinity and his Christian comic book series. (Seriously.) Raised in Kentucky, Sanders polymathically found his way into any number of intellectual huddles in the early part of his career. He began his formal post-secondary education training as…

  • Fasting from Facebook II

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    Matt Jenson
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    One other thing has surprised me as I’ve unplugged from Facebook, and that is the unsolicited accountability people have offered, at times nearing the neighborhood of righteous indignation. Let me explain. I borrowed a friend’s big, mean black sign that says ‘Off Facebook for Lent’ and put it where my profile picture normally goes. I…

  • Fasting from Facebook

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    Matt Jenson
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    I’m not yet two weeks into my Lenten fast from Facebook (or, FB to those in the know). I suppose I should tell you that I really like FB. Most days, most of the day it sits on the alert, standing post next to Gmail and my Biola email account in case I should need…

  • The Space of a Sonnet

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    Matt Jenson
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    Nuns fret not at their Convent’s narrow room; And Hermits are contented with their Cells; And Students with their pensive Citadels: Maids at the Wheel, the Weaver at his Loom, Sit blithe and happy; Bees that soar for bloom, High as the highest Peak of Furness Fells, Will murmur by the hour in Foxglove bells:…

  • Beyond Left and Right

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    Matt Jenson
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    I’ve just reviewed Amy Black’s utterly sane, entirely helpful Beyond Left and Right: Helping Christians Make Sense of American Politics over at The Other Journal. Check it, and this fun, provocative journal out here.

  • If You’re Not Much of a Hugger…

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    Matt Jenson
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    My colleague Joe Henderson has been in a cave writing a doctoral dissertation. But today, he poked his head out long enough to relay his hesitancy to hug. ‘I’m a handshaker, not a hugger,’ Joe tells me. He’s not alone. Fellow-blogger and colleague Fred Sanders is another non-hugger. For all of you non-huggers, then, and…

  • Leave it to a poet…

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    Matt Jenson
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    A selection from W. H. Auden, ‘The Poet & The City’, in The Dyer’s Hand and other essays (London: Faber and Faber, 1963), 86-87 …to speak sense into politics. ‘There are two kinds of political issues, Party issues and Revolutionary issues. In a party issue, all parties are agreed as to the nature and justice…