Category: Misc.
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Dr. Johnson's Cat
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the literary giant behind Rasselas and the first truly great English dictionary, had a cat. He actually had several cats over the course of his life, actually, but the only one we have information about is a black cat named Hodge. Johnson’s biographer, Boswell, hated cats, but grudgingly reported on Johnson’s fondness…
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A Noble Risk: The Making of a Wheatstone Conference Theme
Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. 1 Peter 4:19 No sensible man would insist that these things are as I have described them, but I think it is fitting for a man to risk…
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What John Mark Founded
Today Biola held a special farewell reception for John Mark Reynolds, who is becoming provost of Houston Baptist University after 18 years as director of the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola. The Dean of Humanities emceed the university-wide event, at which the president gave Reynolds a genuine Jim Rice homerun baseball that he caught himself…
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Metathon 2012 – Dr. Geier: “It’s interesting that Satan’s uninteresting.”
The Metathon ended Sunday night, complete with its traditional climactic cake. Lots of us stayed up an hour or two after eating to follow loose conversational threads from the last few days (“So what did you mean that knowledge is an image?”) or to play with our newly-minted inside jokes. It’s amazing the sort of work…
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Metathon 2012 – Dante’s Inferno
After about a decade of close readings, late-night discussions, pizza, cake, and camaraderie, the Torrey Metathon is in the last year of its current iteration, and we’re going out in style–with Dante for company. If you’ve never been to a Metathon, the formula’s pretty simple: get a bunch of people with a commitment to honest discussion,…
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It's Been Said.
There was a sweet, confusing couple of years when the Inklings et al. suddenly spoke straight at me, with megaphones. All my bookish Christian friends felt it too, at one time or another. We felt like they were pointing out our intellectual thirsts by quenching them. We felt like they had looked at our little…
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5 Things I Learned at Torrey From John Mark Reynolds
In the previous post, John Mark announced that he was leaving the honors program he founded to become the new head of academics at Houston Baptist University. He’s continuing, of course, to be an essential member of the team at Wheatstone Ministries through insight at board meetings, speeches at conferences and events, his kind and…
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The Old Order Changes
Outside my family, Torrey Honors is the best thing to happen to me so far. The chance to start Torrey and work with the chums has been the greatest honor of my life. Jesus built Torrey and it was a miracle that I could be involved. I am so thankful to Biola University for taking…
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Finishing Up With "On This Day" In This Year
Since 2009 I’ve been noodling away at the “On This Day” essays here at Scriptorium Daily. I started them on a lark during Christmas break 2009, got around to describing my goals for the series sometime in March, and kept at it whenever time permitted. I wrote entries for about half the days of the…
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Christmas Playlists 2
The annual Sanders family playlist/mix tape/CD this year is advent-focused. But in previous years (see this post) we’ve done the genres of country, big band, and even new age. Here’s the new advent mix. And below that you’ll find three mixes from Christmas past: brass, CCM, and the dreaded lounge/crooner. I reckon this time next…
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Twelve Days of Christmas Jollification
For many, the famous English carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is lost on them. This became clear to me one rather cold evening on January 2 of last year, when I was at the checkout stand at a CVS drug store. After I made my purchase, the kind clerk wished me a “Happy New…
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Remembering the Honored Dead
They went with songs to the battle, they were young. Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the…