The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Culture

  • Sin Happens

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    Matt Jenson
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    I’ve just reviewed Alan Jacobs’ new book Original Sin: A Cultural History for Books & Culture. I’d like to recommend both to you. Jacobs writes beautiful, thoughtful books. (I’m finishing his other new book, on the nature of Christian testimony, now.) And if you haven’t looked at Books & Culture, think Christianity Today meets the…

  • Christian Ideas, Pagan Language

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    Fred Sanders
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    In the sixteenth century, Desiderius Erasmus found himself under intellectual attack from all sides. He probably deserved most of those attacks: he constantly criticized the medieval church, but when a real Reformation broke out, he decided he didn’t really mean it, or at least that he didn’t mean for anything to happen as a result…

  • Tangled Up in Blue

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    Matt Jenson
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    An hour ago I unloaded my things after a long drive down the 5, back from three weeks in Berkeley with two other faculty members, their families and thirty-some students. Every year, a crew of Torrey students and faculty live in Utopia, also known as the Westminster House in Berkeley. Mornings are for classes, afternoons…

  • Catholicity, Race and Sunday Morning

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    Matt Jenson
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    For the last 1600 years, Christians have confessed belief in the ‘one holy catholic and apostolic church’. The ‘catholic’ bit of that confession makes many Protestants fidgety, but it need not. Its etymology renders it simply ‘according to the whole’. Catholicity gets at the universal character of the church, and it does so by two…

  • Setting Goals for the New Year

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    Scriptorium Admin
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    It’s the time of year when we set New Year’s resolutions. However, before you do, I offer you something to ponder. Suppose I invited you over to play a game of Monopoly. When you arrive I announce that the game is going to be a bit different. Before us is the Monopoly board, a set…

  • The Times They Are A-Changin’

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    Melissa Schubert
    in

    As the newest contributor to the Scriptorium Daily I fittingly have been asked to wish you all a Happy New Year. As a matter of introduction, I am Melissa Schubert, a professor of literature in the Torrey Honors Institute. I am fascinated, especially at the turning of the year, by the ways that we keep,…

  • Christian Imagery

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    Fred Sanders
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    This is an article that appeared in the Christmas Day edition of the Orange County Register back in 2001. It was written by award-winning religion reporter Carol McGraw (now of the Colorado Springs Gazette) and featured a large illustration by the Register’s staff illustrator Lisa Mertins. It was a fun Christmas morning piece, and is…

  • The Happiest Time of the Year

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    Scriptorium Admin
    in ,

    Do you want to be happy? If you are an American, it is overwhelmingly likely that you do. Americans are preoccupied with being happy, especially during the Christmas holiday season. This creates false expectations and can easily lead to depression. People are also terribly confused about what happiness is and how it is obtained and,…

  • Thriller at 25

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    Matt Jenson
    in

    Okay, I know he’s a little weird. But at the beginning of his solo career, that Michael Jackson was unstoppable. His breathtaking Thriller turned 25 last week. He had already dropped a discofied Off the Wall, but Thriller was something else entirely. Take a look at the playlist: Wanna Be Startin’ Something’ Baby Be Mine…

  • Dying for Infamy

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    Greg Peters
    in

    There’s a song on the Canadian band Nickelback’s latest album, All the Right Reasons, entitled “Rockstar.” Front man, Chad Kroeger, sings, I want a brand new house on an episode of Cribs And a bathroom I can play baseball in I’ll need a credit card that’s got no limit And a big black jet with…

  • Praying on World AIDS Day

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    Matt Jenson
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    It’s World AIDS Day today. We tend to get faddish about issues. A buzz starts up about a particular need in the world, and many of us jump on a bandwagon of support, buying T-shirts and seeing movies and, sometimes, praying. Too often, our interest wanes as soon as the issue becomes ‘so last year.’…

  • On the Difficulty of Being Thankful

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    Greg Peters
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    We live in a plastic, disposable culture but to say that is merely to state the obvious. Many respond to this plasticity and disposability by becoming activists, either on the world stage or in their own communities and homes. Others have simply chosen to ignore this fact and to continue feeding the materialistic monster that…