Category: On This Day

  • J. H. Sammis

    J. H. Sammis

    Today (July 6) is the birthday of John H. Sammis (1846-1919). Sammis is the author of one of the most famous gospel songs, Trust and Obey: When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, What a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with…

  • Cranmer Prays to the Trinity

    Cranmer Prays to the Trinity

    Can you pray to the Trinity? Of course, the very definition of Christian prayer is that it is trinitarian: We pray to God the Father, in the name of Jesus the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s the logic of mediation that’s built into Christian prayer, no matter what words we use…

  • Czeslaw Milosz’ Birthday

    Czeslaw Milosz, the Polish poet who lived his last decades in California, was born on this day, June 30, in 1911. I am told on good authority that we should pronounce his name “Chess-wov Mee-woash,” but I can’t get used to saying those L’s as W’s, so now I stumble over his name whenever I…

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning Was One Theological Poet

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning died on this day, June 29, in 1861. She was the most famous female poet of the Victorian age, easily outpacing other luminaries like Christina Rossetti and Jean Ingelow (who?). During her lifetime, the rumor was that she only missed the post of poet laureate because that Tennyson fellow was an unstoppable…

  • Cyril of Alexandria

    Cyril of Alexandria

    June 27 is the day Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444) is remembered in the Western churches. For many years, he wasn’t widely remembered in the Western churches at all, at least in English-language theological circles. For example, in the 48-volume set of patristic writings of the Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene periods issued in the nineteenth…

  • Doddridge Day

    Philip Doddridge (born this day, June 26, 1702; died 1751) is remembered today, if at all, for his book The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. This book was very famous in its time, and was translated into seven languages. William Wilberforce pointed to it as the book that made him take Christianity…

  • Bernard Founded Clairvaux

    June 25 is the day, according to tradition, that Bernard (1090-1153) founded a new Cistercian monastery in Clairvaux in the year 1115. The monastery was such a success, and he was so linked with it, that “of Clairvaux” is now his last name. He was not the first Cistercian, but he was the perfect one.…

  • Beza’s Birthday is Worth Celebrating, Too

    Not long ago, theology fans celebrated Calvin’s 500th birthday. But let us not overlook the birthday of Theodore Beza, born this day, June 24, 1519. Sure, a 490th anniversary isn’t as festive as a 500th, and Beza’s not Calvin. But since it’s his day, consider Beza for a moment. Beza carried out what John Calvin…

  • Ernest Renan’s Life of Jesus

    According to the Christian History Institute, June 23 was the very day in 1863 when French philosopher Ernest Renan (1823-1892) published his Vie de Jesus. Renan’s book was not the first attempt at a critical biography of Jesus, but it was the first best-seller in the genre. It is written in purple prose that nineteenth-century…

  • Jonathan Edwards, You’re FIRED

    Jonathan Edwards, You’re FIRED

    June 22 is the anniversary of Jonathan Edwards’ dismissal from his pastorate in 1750. The great awakening had gone through his town a few years before, but once it was over, plenty of people wanted to go back to sleep. Edwards had tried to raise the standards for church membership and communion in his town,…

  • Otterbein’s Birthday

    Today (June 3) is the day Philip William Otterbein was born in 1726. Otterbein was a German Reformed pastor who moved from Prussia to the American colonies in 1752, where he ministered until his death in 1813. Otterbein presided over a conference of ministers in 1800 which led to the formation of the United Brethren…

  • Alexander Cruden, Not Quite Correct

    Alexander Cruden, Not Quite Correct

    Alexander Cruden was born this day (May 31, 1700) and made his mark in history by producing a concordance of the Bible. Cruden’s Concordance was a revolutionary research tool in its day, as attested by the great excitement with which Jonathan Edwards ordered a copy and put it to use in his own studies. Though…