The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Blog

  • The Prodigal Bride

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    Fred Sanders
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    Take the book of Hosea and re-tell it as a cryin’-in-my-beer tear-jerker country song. Cowboy Hosea ambles up to the jukebox, plunks in a couple quarters for that special song from their honeymoon, then turns to his honkeytonk gal and drawls, “You done me wrong, Gomer, but I still love you like you wuz the…

  • Hosea Calls it Quits

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    The book of Hosea is a fearsome thing. This prophet’s message is similar to any number of other prophets, but he means business in a way that makes his word to Israel uniquely unforgettable. He doesn’t just dust off Deuteronomy’s blessings and curses, check Israel’s current performance against them, and then issue the evaluation that…

  • How to Detect Answers to Prayer: The Discipline of Journaling

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    Scriptorium Admin
    in

    I want to take a look at the importance of identifying and remembering answers to prayer. In my more than thirty-five years as one of Jesus’ apprentices, I have experienced literally hundreds of specific, detailed answers to prayer. I have been strengthened considerably in my faith by their presence in my life. I, along with…

  • Desert Scene

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    Fred Sanders
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    You may think of the desert as an empty or lonely place, but this desert is a HOT SPOT in more ways than one. It not only sustains life, but a thriving community of many species living in harmony. The dominant figure is our host, a saguaro cactus (cereus giganteus) spreading out his four arms…

  • A Great Silence

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    Greg Peters
    in

    Perhaps you have heard about the movie/documentary that was recently in limited release in the United States entitled Die Große Stille, translated into English as Into Great Silence. The movie by German filmmaker Phillip Gröning was “in the works” for about twenty-one years before its European release in 2005. In 1984 Gröning asked the notoriously…

  • Bilateral Asymmetry in a Preiconoclastic Encaustic Pantocrator

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    The following remarks should be considered as an extrapolation of certain lines of thought suggested by Manolis Chatzidakis’s seminal article “An Encaustic Icon of Christ at Sinai” published in The Art Bulletin (Vol. 50, No. 1, 113. Mar. 1968), 197-208. My own modest contribution to the critical discussion does not proceed using the modes of…

  • Big Orange Cat Head

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Phoebe Age Four goes for uncharacteristically expansive forms in this assemblage of shapes. Perfect bilateral symmetry dominates the arrangement of the two ears, two eyes, two whatever you call those things on a cat’s muzzle. (Lips? Do cats have lips?) And exactly four whiskers on each side. But for all the symmetrical geometry, this drawing…

  • T. S. Eliot: Things That Can Just Barely Be Said

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    Fred Sanders
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    T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) is so hard to read that every class session on his poetry might just as well start with the question, “Why bother reading something so difficult?” I think you have to start by admitting that poetry this difficult actually might not be worth reading. Writing incomprehensible poetry is actually pretty easy.…

  • The Apostles Creed and Abortion

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    Fred Sanders
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    Presbyterians Pro-Life is an organization which is fighting the good fight within the Presbyterian Church USA. PPL is speaking out in defense of the unborn and addressing the whole host of sexuality issues that are rocking that denomination. It’s hard to keep up with the little renewal groups within all the mainline denominations, but it…

  • B.C. by Johnny Hart: “This Warm, Mischievous Feeling”

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    Fred Sanders
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    Johnny Hart (1931-2007) died this past weekend (Sat. Apr. 7). His comic strips will continue to be published indefinitely, which is possible because his unsigned collaborators live on. It’s hard to believe, but B.C. ran in daily papers for over fifty years (from Feb. of 1958). Hart belongs in that Charles Schulz pantheon of classic…

  • Is the Desire to Avoid Hell Egotistical? (Part II)

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    Scriptorium Admin
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    Read Part I here. Last week, JP Moreland began his discussion on whether or not the desire to avoid hell was egotistical. The following is the second part of his two part discussion. The second part begins with a summarization of the first part: In sum, it could be argued that Scripture can be understood…

  • Union with Christ and Two Types of Christians

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    It seems to me that there are basically two types of Christians. I know that’s a silly statement to make, since there must be dozens of meaningful categories to sort Christians into: doctrinal, denominational, sociological, temperamental, left-handed, and so on. But what I have in mind is the central issue of soteriology, the doctrine of…