The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Theology

  • California Literary Regionalism?

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    What is California literature? For a class about California in the great books tradition, I had to pick a half-dozen of the best books for students to read and discuss. Which raises the question, what counts as California literature? The most helpful discussion I’ve read on the subject is not exactly up to date, but…

  • How to Study One Book of the Bible

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    The first method of Bible study that we shall consider is the study of the Bible by individual books. This method of study is the most thorough, the most difficult, and the one that yields the largest and most permanent results. We take it up first because in the author’s opinion it should occupy the…

  • Let’s Get Classical: Reynolds’ New Book on Greek Thought

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    This is an occasion for celebration for anybody connected to the Torrey Honors Institute: John Mark Reynolds has published his long-awaited introduction to Greek thought for Christians. When Athens Met Jerusalem is now available from InterVarsity Press. As J. Budziszewski says on the back cover of the book, for anybody who suspects that “it must…

  • John R. Mott

    John R. Mott

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    John Raleigh Mott was born today (May 25) in 1865 and died in 1955. Mott had a motto: The Evangelization of the World in This Generation. The motto was controversial, and sounded far too optimistic and imperial to its critics. But as Mott patiently explained in numerous books and countless conference talks, he meant for…

  • John Wesley at Aldersgate

    John Wesley at Aldersgate

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    May 24 is the day in 1738 that John Wesley heard Scripture explained in a way that caused him to feel his heart “strangely warmed,” and knew himself to be a child of God. He was in a church service at Aldersgate, listening to somebody reading aloud from Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans. And it…

  • Tantalus and the Pelican

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    Greg Peters
    in

    I just finished reading Nicholas Buxton’s Tantalus and the Pelican: Exploring Monastic Spirituality Today. It is definitely a very interesting book. A mix between theology, biography and history, the book is mostly dedicated to an examination of themes from early Christian (and occasionally Buddhist) monasticism applied by the author to his own reflections on the…

  • William R. Newell on Paul’s Letters

    William R. Newell on Paul’s Letters

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    William R. Newell was born on this day, May 22, in 1868. He pastored a church in Chicago until Dwight Moody invited him to assist R. A. Torrey in supervising the great Bible Institute (later to be named after Moody). Newell wrote the hymn “At Calvary” (“Mercy there was great and grace was free…”) and…

  • Going to California with an Aching in my Heart

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    This month, I’m leading a class of Biola students who will try to understand California. We are undertaking a theological interpretation of California with the goal of knowing how to live wisely as Christians in this territory. There’s no guaranteed right way to do this, and we only have three weeks together. But this is…

  • Robert Murray M’Cheyne

    Robert Murray M’Cheyne

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Robert Murray M’Cheyne was born today, May 21, 1813, and died in 1843, having barely made it to age thirty, and having been in the ministry (at St. Peter’s Church in Dundee) for a little over six years. There are two reasons his short ministry is still with us. First, M’Cheyne was happily placed between…

  • What Happened at Nicaea

    What Happened at Nicaea

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    The Council of Nicaea opened on this day, May 20, 325. What happened at that first ecumenical council? What was at stake theologically? The narrative of events and players is available elsewhere, but here is an account of the doctrinal dynamics. The council of Nicaea was a response to the challenge of Arianism. In the…

  • Alcuin’s Epitaph

    Alcuin’s Epitaph

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Alcuin of York was born around 735 and died on this day, May 19, in the year 804. He got to write his own obituary, or rather epitaph, which goes like this: Hic, rogo, pauxillum veniens subsiste viator… Oops, I mean like this: Here, I beg thee, pause for a while, traveler, And ponder my…

  • Where You Go When You Die.

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    R.A. Torrey
    in

    Where are the saints of this dispensation while awaiting the return of their Lord and their resurrection body? This question is answered very plainly and explicitly in 2 Corinthians 5:1-8, For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands,…