Category: Misc.

Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1343-1400) loved Boethius (480-524). Not only did Chaucer make a complete translation of “Boece’s Concolacione Philosophie,” he cited Boethius frequently. Partly to prove he was a learned man, Chaucer would haul out a few lines of Boethius anytime he needed a character to say something philosophical. So it’s no surprise that at…

In the fullness of time, the one God revealed that he eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the doctrine of the Trinity is a biblical doctrine. But if you ask where the Trinity is clearly declared in scripture, you should take care to avoid certain common errors. One error is to dive…

To ask about Chaucer’s religion is a little thickheaded, because the main thing about Chaucer is his distance from religion. He’s important in the history of English lit partly because he’s “the first great secular poet in English,” and if we wanted to read religious literature from the 14th century, we could go read that…

Last Friday I had the chance to get together with the other profs in my department, including adjuncts and a few teachers from Torrey Academy, and talk about King Lear for three hours. We call these meetings “High Table” meetings, because in them we do exactly what our students do, with the same texts for…

Gerald Bray once noted the sad situation that although evangelicals are doctrinally correct on the Trinity, the doctrine “has not played a very central part in their thinking.” Going way back to the period following the Reformation, Bray points out that although refuting Unitarianism was easy enough, evangelical arguments always “smacked more of defensiveness than…

See the other posts in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. George Muller (1805-1898) was a 19th-century pastor famous for trusting God to meet his daily needs, even when his daily needs grew to include caring for thousand of orphans. His life story has been told many times, but the classic version, approved…

John Mark Reynolds, 2005. Tonight almost a century ago the RMS Titanic sank. Thousands of people lost their lives in a disaster that came to symbolize the death of the false optimism that had marked the start of the century. Liberalism in 1900 felt it had at last escaped the chains of fundamentalism. Christianity would…

John Mark Reynolds, 2005. Last summer our dog, Aristotle, died. It had been my fourteen year old son’s boyhood companion. I can close my eyes and see L.D. being dragged around the block by a young Aristotle. The dog was bigger than the boy! One day, and it happened all at once, he was much…

Chris Leigh, 2005. Before beginning, I offer my apologies—I am hardly capable when it comes to blogs. I feel too much as if I am talking to myself, and though I have seen others write about really interesting things, without some response I have had a difficult time entering into the blogosphere. So, please forgive…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. I love holidays. Just hearing, “Happy holidays!” normally makes me happy. Not today. Who knows why? If blogs are supposed to be, at least partly, about self-reflection, then let me say that today is one of those days when I am tired of myself. Tired of my thoughts on politics. Tired…