Category: Theology
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“A Crisis of Docility”
Nicholas Lash, in his 1993 book Believing Three Ways in One God: A Reading of the Apostles’ Creed, eases into some doctrinal reflections on “the question of revelation” with these remarks: The legacy of the Enlightenment left us with what we might call a crisis of docility. Unless we have the courage to work things…
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“Every Shepherd Soul” and the Invisible Mission of the Son
The Christmas carols have a peculiar way of talking about the birth of Jesus. A number of them –especially the Victorian ones, though earlier examples exist– talk about Bethlehem here and now, making room in the inn of your heart, hearing the angel’s message of peace and welcoming Jesus in. The most famous version of…
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Christmas Playlist 2015: Cambridge
It’s that time of year again: the Sanders family Christmas mixtape, which we’ve been making annually since they were actually mixtapes (’95?), is newly assembled and on heavy rotation. Last Christmas I put together a collection of grainy, monophonic Christmas music. This year, to save me from tears, the collection was made by someone special:…
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Theodicy of Woodworking: Hope in Change
I recently wrote about the theology of woodworking, giving a theological case for the joy we have in craftsmanship. Recently, however, I realized a rather grave omission on my part, which I would now like to remedy. In general terms, my omission had to do with the nature of sin: any theology that leaves sin,…
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Roger Lundin (1949-2015)
I remember him larger than life. He was a big man—tall, solidly built, with a voice that boomed and the occasional flair for the dramatic. To this day, nearly twenty years later, the lasting image I have of Roger Lundin finds him crawling across the long wooden table that filled our seminar room to make…
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Review of Atonement Theories: A Way Through the Maze, by Ben Pugh
Pugh, Ben. Atonement Theories: A Way through the Maze. Eugene: Cascade, 2014. Theology books serve different purposes: some offer cutting edge developments, others popularize such works. Some summarize the state of research, while others offer a critical and prophetic word. Ben Pugh’s Atonement Theories: A Way Through the Maze fills an interesting niche, offering an…
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Olivuccio de Ceccarello’s Works of Mercy (Part 1)
Not much is known about the late fourteenth century painter named Olivuccio di Ceccarello. What is known is that he worked in Ancona, a seaside town on the central eastern coast of Italy, from at least 1388 and was probably born before 1366, dying ca. June 3, 1439. His paintings are characterized by sharp definition…
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Pastoral Theologians Part 2: A Practical Theology
Read Part 1 here. At the core of the Christian faith is the belief that God did not rest content with using any effective means to save us from our sin, and creation from its ruin. Rather, God made himself the means of our salvation. The same one who brought us into existence brought us…
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Behold, One Poor Man Prays
What is this beautiful thing? It’s Augustine’s commentary on Psalm 102. He composed it in the fifth century, but this is a Carolingian copy that was written out in the twelfth century, owned by Thomas Cranmer in the sixteenth century (behold his signature at the top center), housed in the British Library since the eighteenth…
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How to Teach a Class on the Doctrine of Scripture this January
Here’s the deal. I’ve arranged for a whole lot of experts on the doctrine of Scripture to be in one place at one time this January, presenting papers and having public conversations about it. So if you’re a theology professor in southern California, you should take advantage of that by teaching a class on the…
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“Uninhibited Theology on the Grand Scale” (Webster on Torrance)
T. F. Torrance was a Fellow of the British Academy, and his fellow-Fellow John Webster recently published a 20-page biographical memoir of him: ‘Thomas Forsyth Torrance, 1913-2007,” in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy 13 (2014), pp. 417-36 (click here for automatic download of the pdf). The sketch of Torrance’s life is informative, but…
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Warfield’s “The Biblical Doctrine of the Trinity” Annotated
B. B. Warfield was commissioned to write the entry on the Trinity for the 1915 International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. The substantive entry (about 15,000 words, running for 20 columns in the ISBE) has been very influential, partly because it was incorporated into a well-regarded reference work, but mainly because of the high quality of Warfield’s writing.…