The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Theology

  • Gerald McDermott’s The Great Theologians

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    Greg Peters
    in

    Every now and then I run across a book where I say, “Wow, that will be really helpful for members of my church.” Gerald McDermott’s The Great Theologians: A Brief Guide (InterVarsity, 2010) is one of those books. As a theologians trained in church history I think that every Christian needs to know the history…

  • "For One Look at the Self, Take Ten Looks at Christ"

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    In Adolph Saphir’s classic book The Hidden Life, he passes along a piece of perfect evangelical advice: “for one look at the self, we ought to taken ten looks at Christ.” Saphir is exactly right: Too much attention to the state of your spiritual life can be poisonous for a Christian. Precisely in examining your own…

  • Seeing the Resurrected Son of God

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    Greg Peters
    in ,

    Easter is not a day, it is a season. Thus, instead of remembering our celebration of Easter a few weeks ago as we polish off the last remaining ear of the chocolate bunny or choke down that final Peep, we need to be continually living in the Easter moment. The Lord is risen, alleluia! In…

  • The Modern Doctrine of the Trinity

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    The Trinity is God, and God does not change. The Trinity doesn’t develop, mature, improve, shift around, wax or wane, or alter with the latest trends and fashions. But the doctrine of the Trinity is something theologians talk about, and theologians do change, and the way they talk changes. So it’s possible to describe the…

  • The Eternal Trinity

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Some time ago I got a note from a reader asking if a certain Baptist statement of faith was adequately trinitarian. I think the question came from somebody who didn’t know the Baptist heritage very well, and was just doing his best to understand the words of the words of the statement of faith. The…

  • Happy Birthday, J.B. Lightfoot

    Happy Birthday, J.B. Lightfoot

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Today (April 13) was the birthday of J.B. Lightfoot (1828-1889), Bishop of Durham, New Testament commentator, historian of early Christianity, and Christian apologist. Lightfoot’s strict classical training (Trinity College, Cambridge) equipped him for what turned out to be his life’s work in an uncannily providential way. In all his scholarly work, it has been said…

  • Happy Birthday, Samuel Zwemer

    Happy Birthday, Samuel Zwemer

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Samuel Marinus Zwemer (1867-1952) was born this day, April 12. Zwemer has been called “the Apostle to Islam” by many people, including a historian of missions as great Kenneth Scott Latourette. He worked in frontier missions in a variety of ways, willing to go anywhere there were Muslims and to use any technique that was…

  • Happy Birthday James Orr

    Happy Birthday James Orr

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Scottish theologian James Orr (1844–1913) was born on this day, April 11. He was a prolific author and an important figure in conservative evangelicalism at the very beginning of the twentieth century. Orr wrote at a time when everything seemed to be flying apart: historical-critical studies of the Bible were reaching a sort of critical…

  • The Life Book and High School Evangelism

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    You may have seen the little ad in our rightmost column, for “a quick way to change someone’s life forever,” with one hand taking a tract from another. That ad is for something called The Life Book, a remarkable little evangelistic tool designed for high school evangelism. The main thing about the Life Book is…

  • Boethius according to C.S. Lewis

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    Fred Sanders
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    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…

  • Review of Peter Leithart’s Deep Exegesis

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    Greg Peters
    in

    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…

  • Just As He Said

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    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.…