Category: Blog
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Boethius according to C.S. Lewis
In 1962, C.S. Lewis made a “ten books that have influenced me most” list at the request of The Christian Century. Read it here. (He agreed to do this even though, in a letter to Clyde Kilby in 1958, he had worried that publishing anything whatsoever in the Century “may merely be putting up the…
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Kittens in the Air
Phoebe Age 7 combines word and image in this celebratory ode. That stylized text is: Kittens in the air Catnip in there lair Soreing over beare And you can see the beare over which they are soreing. The kittens are supported in their soreing project by a colorful assortment of birds. What with the catnip…
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Review of Peter Leithart’s Deep Exegesis
In 1841, John Henry Newman wrote the following in his Tract 90, Remarks on Certain Passages in the Thirty-Nine Articles: “Two important questions, however, [the 39 Articles] does not settle, viz. whether the Church judges, first, at her sole discretion; next, on her sole responsibility, i. e. first, what the media are by which the…
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Go To The Ant
Not long ago my whole family listened to a remarkable audio book. It’s a reading of Evelyn Sibley Lampman’s 1960 The City Under the Back Steps. It’s a great adventure story about two kids who get shrunk to bug size, and spend a few days working and fighting alongside the members of an ant colony.…
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Swinburne vs. The Pale Galilean
Today (April 5) is the birthday of Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909), an English poet who was famous in his day but hardly remembered in ours. One of his best-remembered lines is about this very changing of times, in which mighty figures of one age are forgotten by the next. But the mighty figure whose rise…
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Just As He Said
The crucifixion certainly seemed to be out of control. It didn’t seem like anybody was in charge: not the mob who changed their minds daily, not the politicians who wanted to escape responsibility, not the executioners who were just following orders, not even the religious leaders who were rushing to get everything done by sundown.…
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Ambrose Read Silently
Today (April 4) is the day when Ambrose of Milan died in 397. Ambrose is one of the biggest names in the history of the early church, one of the traditional “Four Doctors of the Western Church.” He was the bishop of Milan when Augustine came there, and he made a big impression on Augustine.…
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Trinitarian Litany: Hide Me
From pride’s self-circled center which Requires a crowd that can applaud Each word of mine, each move and twitch, Deliver me, O Father God! From sloth’s complacent settling in, Remaining still when called to run, Entangled and beset by sin, Deliver me, O risen Son! From lying to myself and others, Recounting words that hurt…
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19 Books on the Church
The last few years, I’ve been reading and writing on ecclesiology. It’s a funny topic, one capable of being at one moment dull, at the next incendiary. There’s plenty out there that merely re-hashes standard material and parses terms ever more finely. Here, though, are a few of my favorite reads – an idiosyncratic list,…
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My Favorite Theology Books
There’s a fun “favorite books” meme going around, and the bloggers at First Things’ Evangel blog made it look so fun that I decided to participate. Here is my contribution. Comments are turned on over there, in case you are interested in joining the conversation.
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Happy Birthday, Rudolf Stier
Today (March 17) Rudolf Ewald Stier (1800 – 1862) was born. Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of him, he is little noted nor much remembered these days. Partly because he was so awesome that our puny age cannot handle his sheer awesomeness. Stier did a lot of interesting things as a conservative Lutheran…
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I Am God’s Beloved
Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting…