Category: Blog
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The Monastic and Intellectual Ethos of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born on July 28, 1844 in Stratford, England into what we could consider a middle-class family. Perhaps not surprising given the shape of his poetry, Hopkins had a sensitive nature compared with his father’s demanding nature. As one of nine children, the Hopkins family was large and they were committed High…
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Speak Again (Torrey Convocation 2021)
In these first weeks together, we have experienced the joys and sometimes the challenges of building and renewing our community of friends with a common love and a common way of life together: reading, talking, and writing. That life has a rhythm, almost like music, shared by faculty and students alike, as we do what…
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The Gates of Linden Hills
A pilgrim and his poet-guide, side by side, gaze up at the gates and read the weather-beaten inscription: I am the way out of the city of woeI am the way to a prosperous peopleI am the way from eternal sorrow If you know your Dante, you recognize this as the sign over the Gates…
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Iliad: Why the Lattimore Translation
The curriculum of Torrey Honors College starts out with Homer’s Iliad. This means the book has a special place in the life of our program: students we have admitted into the program but haven’t met in person yet mostly read it in advance over the summer, and then show up on campus for our formative…
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Seismic Retrofit Apologia
“When the people in the pew ask the pastor to explain the Trinity, they do not want clever analogies or carefully worded creeds. They want to know what Scripture says about the Trinity.” Carl Beckwith says this in his book The Holy Trinity (Luther Academy, 2016, p. 113), and he’s exactly right. Beckwith goes on…
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The Joy of the Lord
Luke 3:21-22, the baptism of Christ: “the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove…” Brothers and sisters, we are reading here about the Holy Spirit, so what is there for me to say? Lift up your hearts: the Holy Spirit is as mysterious as the wind…
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Jesus Was Also Baptized
Luke 3:21: “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying…” Picture the scene: There was a big crowd at the river, and people were getting dunked in the water by John, who was so good at it that everybody called him the Baptizer, the Baptist (note:…
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Webster’s “Courses Charted but Not Taken”
A Companion to the Theology of John Webster is a great collection of essays on the development of Webster’s theology, and on major doctrines important in his work. The epilogue is unique, though: it’s a very helpful report and analysis of what Webster was working on at the time of his death. R. David Nelson…
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Jesse Hamm, Cartoonist’s Cartoonist
Comics artist Jesse Hamm has died. Jesse worked in comic books at all levels: from the self-published days of photocopied zines, up through small presses and indie/alternative publishers, to Marvel & DC. Click through to the obituary at comics.com for a list of his most notable projects, and see what names you recognize (currently, for…
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Torrey’s Two Houses (2009)
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Torrey Honors College, we’re looking back at some important moments in our history. One of those is the expansion and division of the College (then known as an Institute) into two distinct houses. To get the fell and the flavor of what that moment was like, we’re re-posting…
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Introducing Junius on the Trinity
Franciscus Junius (1545-1602) was an important theologian in the Protestant Orthodox tradition. He is most famous for his influential Treatise on True Theology, with its profound approach to theological method. Junius taught widely across all the major doctrines of Christian theology, but never published a system or compendium. What he did publish was a set…
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“To Him Belongs the Consummation of Things”
Petrus van Mastricht’s Theoretical-Practical Theology (volume 2, chapter 27) has an excellent treatment of the Holy Spirit. I just want to unpack a little something he says in the introductory paragraph, before he gets to the main body of the pneumatology (in parts exegetical, dogmatic, elenctic, and practical). Here’s a little picture of the Latin,…