The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Blog

  • Two-Fisted Gun Monger with Knife Breath!!!

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Sure, movies are violent these days. But in between the violent bits, there’s always a bunch of dialogue and character development and stuff. What we really need is a movie designed for pure violence. What we need is a character who is designed for nothing but sheer violent mayhem. What we need is a hero…

  • Review of John Jefferson Davis' Worship and the Reality of God

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    Greg Peters
    in

    As an Anglican, what drew me to this book was Davis’ subtitle: An Evangelical Theology of Real Presence. I imagined that the book must be about the Eucharist (and it is) but as it turns out, it is so much more. The book is a kind of tour de force – a primer on pre-modern,…

  • Don Quixote’s Last Laugh

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    Robert Llizo
    in

    One of the most frustrating things about being a professor in a Great Books program is that there are so many books that can, and indeed should, be in any possible curriculum, but given the constraints related to time and space that we have to deal with in the Torrey Honors Institute, some of these…

  • Strong Medicine, Eventually: Boethius

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    My favorite fifth grader recently read the classic book Where the Red Fern Grows, and had the homework assignment of writing a letter to the main character, consoling him for the death of his beloved hound. (Oh, by the way, retroactive spoiler alert there; my bad.) The first draft said something like this: Dear Billy,…

  • Orchestral Evangelists

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    In a class on Matthew’s gospel, my students are learning how to hear the voice of Matthew the evangelist, to understand how he structures his arguments, how he tells his stories, and what his particular theological concerns are as he reports the words and actions of Jesus. After the initial rush of excitement about how…

  • The Good Book Blog

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Talbot School of Theology recently launched a faculty team blog called The Good Book Blog. It’s a well-designed site with more than thirty contributors. That list includes a few Big Important Names, accomplished scholars you didn’t think would ever condescend to appear in the tohuwabohu of the blogosphere. It also includes some profs whose names…

  • The Importance of Church History and the Christian Tradition

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    Greg Peters
    in

    When I’m asked what I teach or what my area of expertise is, I am often unsure of how to respond. I have a Ph.D. in theology but I focused on the medieval period. I teach in a great books program that includes texts in philosophy, theology, history, literature, etc. I often write books and…

  • The Structure of Matthew’s Gospel

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    The Gospel According to Matthew is intricately structured. A simple outline can capture the basic shape of the book well enough to assist a good reading, but a little more attention shows that this book has several layers of order, all helpful. Consider some of the layers of organization in Matthew, starting with the simplest…

  • Reading Habits at the Gospel Coalition

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    This week John Starke at The Gospel Coalition Blog ran a series of brief interviews about reading habits. They asked Carl Trueman, Bradley Green, and me to say a few words about what we read, how we pick books, what we’re reading, and so on. Here’s my key advice: The most important advice I can…

  • A Theology of California? (Call for Papers)

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Is there such a thing as a theology of California? I have long suspected that there is, or at least that Christians living in California need to be equipped with a functional theological account of what this state is and what it means for the human spirit. I don’t imagine that every state rises to…

  • What Happened in Thessalonica

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    The New Testament gives two different accounts of what happened when Paul and Silas preached the gospel in Thessalonica. One tells the external events, but the other gives the spiritual and theological meaning. Acts 17 has a fairly brief report (sandwiched in between the longer reports on the work in Philippi and Athens): Paul went…

  • Brief Notice: Scott Bessenecker's Living Mission

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    Greg Peters
    in

    I recently finished reading a new book edited by Scott A. Bessenecker entitled Living Mission: The Vision and Voices of New Friars (InterVarsity, 2010). Given my propensity toward all things monastic, I was mostly drawn to this book by its subtitle and was eager to read up on these so-called new “friars.” This designation is…