The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Blog

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

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    Fred Sanders
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    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

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    Fred Sanders
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    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,…

  • Q & A Grab Bag

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    R.A. Torrey
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    “In the January number of “The King’s Business” we read: ‘No pastor need any longer say that he does not know how to train his people for this work (that is for personal work in saving souls), for there are a number of books easily obtained which tell him just how to do it.’ What…

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

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    Fred Sanders
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    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)

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    Fred Sanders
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    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)

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    Fred Sanders
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    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…

  • 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:…

  • Today Jogaila of Lithuania was Baptized (1386)

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    Fred Sanders
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    “The last pagans of the Western world,” said Czeslaw Milosz of his Lithuanian ancestry, adding that “Europe too, had her redskins.” With that politically incorrect comment, Milosz underlined how late Lithuania was to join the rest of Europe as a national member of Christendom. It was 1386: As historian Stephen Neill points out, Dante was…

  • Today is Richard Allen’s Birthday (1760)

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    Fred Sanders
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    Richard Allen (1760-1831) was the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His life story is remarkable (born into slavery, he bought his own freedom; rejected by the religious establishment, he distinguished himself as a minister of the gospel), but the best thing is that his story is available in his own words: The Life,…

  • Today Hugh of St. Victor Died (1141)

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    Fred Sanders
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    Hugh (1096-1141) taught theology at St. Victor, which was the abbey of the Augustinian Canons Regular in Paris. Hugh began teaching there in 1125, just a dozen years after its founding by a disciple of Anselm of Canterbury. “Cathedra doctoris sacra Scriptura est,” said Hugh (an oft-quoted aphorism from his Miscellanies 1:75), which means literally…

  • Faith and Works Got Married (Hannah More)

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    Fred Sanders
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    Hannah More was a wildly popular author in her day because she had the common touch and a style that perfectly suited the tastes of her time. Here is one of her doctrinal poems (from volume 5 of her collected works), in which she carries out a homey reconciliation of faith and works in less…

  • Today Wesley Fell for His Wife Molly (1751)

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    Fred Sanders
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    He really fell for her, and I wish it were a wonderful love story, but it’s not. On February 10, 1751, John Wesley slipped on the ice on London Bridge, and hurt his ankle so badly that his next few sermons had to be delivered sitting down or kneeling. He chose to convalesce at the…