The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Theology

  • Council of Chalcedon

    —

    by

    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

    —

    by

    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)

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    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…

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

    —

    by

    Scriptorium Admin
    in ,

    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…

  • What Books Should I Read on the Trinity? A Top Ten List

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    Every few months I get e-mails from people asking what books I would recommend on the Trinity. These are not requests for the latest scholarly work. They’re not focused inquiries with specific topics in mind. Nor are they requests for the greatest books of all time on the doctrine of the Trinity, the kind of…

  • Council of Ephesus, 431

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    Theologians can say a lot about Jesus. The sub-topic within Christian theology known as christology is a big one. But from the simple faith of a new believer up through a scholar who has made christology the work of an academic lifetime, the central question is about the identity of Jesus. Who is this person?…

  • On Avarice and Benevolence

    —

    by

    Greg Peters
    in

    The Christian life is a battle between good (i.e., God) and bad (i.e., Satan). As Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:12, “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and…

  • For St. Patrick: Two Cheers for Trinity Analogies

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    My life is all about teaching the doctrine of the Trinity. And everywhere I go, the first question people ask me about the Trinity is “what’s a good analogy for the Trinity?” I usually make a sour face before I can catch myself, because in my opinion, the most important things to say about the…

  • On Anger and Justice

    —

    by

    Greg Peters
    in

    Regarding the vices and virtues, Athanasius of Alexandria writes, “It is required that not only with the body should we fast, but with the soul. Now the soul is humbled when it does not follow wicked opinions, but feeds on becoming virtues. For virtues and vices are the food of the soul and it can…

  • Peter the Fisherman Philosopher

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    I was invited to contribute to a Banned Book Colloquium in Biola’s library on September 25, 2006. I presented the following brief paper on the most important banned book in Biola’s history. In 1927, the second Dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, John Murdoch MacInnis, wrote a book called Peter the Fisherman Philosopher:…

  • Annie Dillard on a Total Eclipse

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Annie Dillard’s essay “Total Eclipse,” from the book Teaching a Stone to Talk, is a bit of a stunt. The February 26, 1979 solar eclipse lasted less than two minutes, and Dillard turns her Pulitzer-prize-winning prose loose on it for about 20 pages. If you’re in it for sheer descriptive power, there’s plenty of it…

  • Who Demonized John Calvin? Blame the Textbooks.

    —

    by

    Fred Sanders
    in

    Just how did John Calvin become the epitome of evil in the minds of so many? I suppose the full story is too long to tell, but here is one interesting chapter. American history textbooks for nearly two centuries portrayed him as evil. Historian Thomas Davis got this idea and then did all the patient…