The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Blog

  • Resurrection Bunny

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Let us agree to call the rabbits in this drawing: Witnesses of the resurrection. One perches atop the cross with his back to us, the other leaps forward into our space with a smile and with unavoidable eye contact. The black outlining can scarcely contain the ragged red-brown coloring that unites the bunnies and the…

  • Between Cross and Resurrection in Narnia

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    The day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is called Holy Saturday, and it’s hard to know exactly how you’re supposed to feel on this day. It’s not the day Christ died or the day he was raised, but the day on which he was dead. Most churches agree to be still on this day.…

  • Viewing the Crucifixion

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    A bolt of lightning splits the stormy sky and flashes toward a monumental cross. To one side stands a Roman soldier with a sword in one hand and a long spear in the other. He smiles smugly to have completed his dirty work. It’s not a good thing to do, but he’s good at doing…

  • Three Crosses Two Ways

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    The fact that Christ was crucified between thieves, one on his right and one on his left, was not lost on the writers of the gospels. They recognized it as a shockingly literal fulfilment of the prophecy that God’s servant would be “numbered among transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). The fact that one of the transgressors recognized…

  • Understanding and Engagement

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    Paul Spears
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    How does a parent know that their children are being educated? To say that someone is educated necessarily entails assessment but, often in today’s academic institutions much of what turns out to be an attempt at education and assessment turns out to be a mindless comportment to a set of dictated standards. Parents are often…

  • Council of Chalcedon

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Chalcedon means classic christology. Of course Chalcedon was a city near Constantinople, but the theological meeting held there in 451 was so important and influential that for the rest of Christian history the name “Chalcedon” has been a pointer to the right doctrine about Jesus Christ in distinction from errors. Chalcedon was a fifth-century council,…

  • On Envy and Temperance

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    Greg Peters
    in

    The medieval author Richard of St. Victor wrote, “The duty of the true preacher consists of two things; instruction in truth and exhortation to virtue” (The Mystical Ark, Appendix). In this post I hope to do the latter by continuing my musings on the vices and the virtues. Please recall that a virtue is a…

  • Let the Little Children Come (Old Karl Barth Comes Back to the Matter Itself)

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    Fred Sanders
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    How important is holy week, with its multiple church services and dramatic re-experiencing of the death and resurrection of Christ? How important is it to set aside time and attention for it? How important is it to walk your kids through it at whatever level is appropriate for their age? Consider Karl Barth (1886-1968). Somewhere…

  • Driveway Flat Cat

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    Fred Sanders
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    Three thoughts on “Driveway Flat Cat.” 1. The title may sound like a tragedy, but it’s actually a pretty happy thing: A sidewalk chalk sketch of a cheerful bipedal feline, possibly wearing clothes, possibly jumping up off of the curved blue line beneath him. 2. Art on paper is tame and easily warehoused, but this…

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

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    Scriptorium Admin
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    Read Part II here. Recently the topic of Hell has been in the news. In case you were entirely unaware, yes, Hell is in fact a real place (as Pope Benedict reminded us just last week). Hell, being an altogether unpleasant place, is not a destination where many desire to go, but is this desire…

  • The Theology of Homestar Runner

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    Fred Sanders
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    Back in the ’60s, Robert L. Short had a surprise bestseller with a book on The Gospel According to Peanuts. Short had a lot to work with in a strip like Peanuts, whose creator Charles Schulz was documentably preoccupied with spiritual matters. But finding the theology of Homestar Runner is another matter altogether. There isn’t…

  • Classic Car

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    Fred Sanders
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    Great attention has been paid to the contours of this car body. From the steep climb of the car’s snub nose to the semicircular arc of its rear, this car is one clean contour. In fact, if you start at the front you can see two lines that don’t quite come together. Those are actually…