The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Blog

  • Standard Old-School Toolkit

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    This Easter season, my reading on the resurrection has included the relevant section from Isaac Ambrose (1604-1664)’s book Looking Unto Jesus. The resurrection portion of the 700-page book is about 80 pages long, and Ambrose takes his sweet time examining how Christ was “carrying on the great work of man’s salvation” in his rising from the…

  • Articles of Theology

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    Thomas Aquinas knew how to articulate theology, in the double sense of how to be clear about theology and also of how to divide it up into articles. What’s an article? Well, I distinguish two meanings of article in Thomas Aquinas. The most important meaning is that an article of faith is a revealed truth…

  • Every True Practitioner of Piety (Bayly)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    Lewis Bayly’s Practice of Piety is a classic work of doctrine and devotion that demolishes the idea that there’s any division between the two. Those of us who simply love to read theology, more or less for its own sake, sometimes need to be reminded that knowing  God has practical ends as well. And those…

  • On the Shoulders of Farmers

    —

    by

    Adam Johnson
    in ,

    Thucydides’ Revelation of Our Indebtedness Thucydides opens his “History of the Peloponnesian War” by tying the capability for a truly great war with the stable growth of a culture. He argues that the Peloponnesian was the greatest war because no cultures, to his knowledge, had attained sufficient stability and wealth to wage a greater war.…

  • When Mercy Looks Like Justice

    —

    by

    Adam Johnson
    in , , ,

    A friend of mine is involved in a lawsuit, alleging that she was sexually harassed at work. But she has “some extended family and close friends saying that she’s taking this too far and that justice and vengeance is for the Lord only.” She’s trying to figure out whether it is okay to sue someone –…

  • Stan Freberg: “My Little World Was Coming Unglued”

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    This is a note for people who know who Stan Freberg was. For those who don’t, he was a mid-century multimedia guerrilla satirist. Maybe think of him as the Weird Al of the 1950s, but with major influence on advertising and cartoons as well. Go look up songs like The World is Waiting for the…

  • Redefining Freedom on the Frontier

    —

    by

    Adam Johnson
    in ,

    If Western civilization as we know it were to collapse, I think I will last a week, month, or maybe even a year longer, simply for having read the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Pa and Ma are simply amazing. I’ve learned much “looking over their shoulders,” as it were, as they…

  • Union and Communion of the Trinity

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    Puritan theology makes a very helpful distinction between union and communion: “Union is the foundation of communion,” says Sibbes. A union is an underlying oneness of some kind, but communion is an ongoing set of  responses, actions, habits, and disciplines by which fellowship is cultivated and maintained. John Owen describes their relation this way: “Communion…

  • Lenten Reflections: The Temptation of Jesus

    —

    by

    Adam Johnson
    in , , ,

    Day 24 – Friday, March 9 Scripture: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.  And the devil said to…

  • Following and Sight: Lewis’ Retelling of “The Bacchae”

    —

    by

    Adam Johnson
    in ,

    “‘Till We Have Faces” is not the only myth Lewis retold. In fact, he loved retelling myths. And while you may have noted the conspicuous presence of Bacchus at the end of Prince Caspian and the amazing feast that follows, you may not have caught some of the other details Lewis wove into his retelling of the Bacchae.…

  • Father and Son and a Usage Note

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    When Jesus’ disciples asked him for instruction in prayer, he told them to begin, “Our Father in heaven.” As the Heidelberg Catechism points out (questions 120 and 121), there’s a tension built in to that opening gambit: “Father” indicates that God is like us in some way; “in heaven” indicates the opposite. By instructing us…

  • R.A. Torrey and Karl Barth vs. the Ninety-Three

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    In the February 1918 issue of Biola’s magazine The King’s Business, editor-in-chief R. A. Torrey published a piece called “Evolution Discredited Again.” By 1918 it didn’t take much for Torrey to critique evolution: his science professors at Yale back in the 1870s had treated Darwinism as empirically weak and conceptually extravagant, and during his lifetime he had…