Category: Blog
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Metathon 2012 – Dante’s Inferno
After about a decade of close readings, late-night discussions, pizza, cake, and camaraderie, the Torrey Metathon is in the last year of its current iteration, and we’re going out in style–with Dante for company. If you’ve never been to a Metathon, the formula’s pretty simple: get a bunch of people with a commitment to honest discussion,…
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It's Been Said.
There was a sweet, confusing couple of years when the Inklings et al. suddenly spoke straight at me, with megaphones. All my bookish Christian friends felt it too, at one time or another. We felt like they were pointing out our intellectual thirsts by quenching them. We felt like they had looked at our little…
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Catherine of Siena
Today (April 29) is the day Catherine of Siena died in 1380. Catherine was a Dominican Tertiary, that is, not a nun, but a layperson so associated with monastic life that she participated in many ways, and wore the habit. The Roman Catholic Church has identified her as a saint (1461), as a patron saint…
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Draco Haiku
Draco Haiku, by Freddy back when he was Freddy Age Ten: Cute Bearded dragon Or Pogona Various The best lizard pet This simple haiku floats on the page beside a drawing of its subject, Draco the bearded dragon. The drawing features a few long, powerful lines that trace the distinctive curves of the bearded dragon’s…
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Farewell, O Travel’d Goat
On this day, April 28, in 1772, a goat died. But not just any goat. This goat had traveled twice around the world, providing a steady supply of milk for the sailors on two long journeys. A good, well fed milk goat will give a quart or two of sweet milk per day, and this…
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Peter Böhler, who Witnessed to Wesley
Peter Böhler (b. 1712) died on this day (April 27) in 1775. Böhler was a pastor and missionary from the Protestant group called the Moravians. About the Moravians, and their founder Hus, and their leader Zinzendorf, and their ancient ecumenical entanglements, much could be said! But as for this particular Moravian, Peter Böhler, his theology and…
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Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation
Today (April 26) in 1518, Martin Luther engaged in a public debate now famous as the Heidelberg Disputation. The occasion was the General Chapter meeting of the Augustinian monastic order in Germany. It would have been just another meeting, but in late 1517, Luther had posted the 95 Theses for debate. The general meeting in…
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Mapping Modern Theology
I’m glad to see that Baker Academic has released Kelly Kapic and Bruce McCormack’s Mapping Modern Theology: A Thematic and Historical Introduction. This is a great textbook for understanding what’s happened in systematic theology over the last couple of centuries. I was honored to be invited to contribute a chapter (on the Trinity, of course). There’s…
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Happy Birthday, Charles E. Fuller
Today (April 25) is the day when Charles E. Fuller was born in 1887. Fuller is famous for the classic radio show The Old Fashioned Revival Hour, and for founding Fuller Theological Seminary. Charles Fuller started broadcasting in 1925, and the Revival Hour started in 1937, but it already sounded intentionally old-fashioned then. And Fuller…
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Ames' Very Concise Theology
Puritan theologian William Ames (1576-1633) wrote the Medulla Theologiae, which is available in English as The Marrow of Theology (trans. John Dykstra Eusden). It’s a fine little systematic theology for many reasons. But in this age of Twitter, I’m struck by how Ames chose to express his thought. He wrote out the whole system of doctrine…
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Learning from William Ames
They called him by the Latin name Guilliamus Amesius, but if we talk about this British-born theologian at all now, we call him William Ames (1576-1633). Dust him off and read him. Here are some lessons I learned from Ames years ago that have stuck with me ever since. Ames was educated at Cambridge…
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Happy Birthday, Alfred Edersheim (1825-1889)
Today (March 7) is the birthday of Alfred Edersheim, the nineteenth-century Bible scholar who really made the grand tour: He was born in Austria, converted from Judaism to evangelical Christianity in Hungary, studied theology in Edinburgh and Berlin, was a missionary to Jews in Romania and a preacher in Scotland. He was ordained in the…