Featured Essay / On This Day
There must be some significance to Soren Kierkegaard's birthday falling on Cinco de Mayo, but it escapes me. An admonition from the great Dane, from his book For Self-Examination: If you are a scholar, remember that if you do not read God's Word in another way, it will turn out…
Essay / On This Day
Henry Barclay Swete (March 14, 1835 -1917) was an Anglican theologian whose long career took place during the decades when the waters of destructive liberal criticism were rising all around traditional Christianity, and seemed to be coming in right up to the soul of the
Essay / On This Day
Charles E. Cowman was the founder of an important missions organization, originally under the name Cowman-Kilbourne mission around 1902, then under the name Oriential Mission Society, and still thriving as OMS International. He was a whirlwind of a man, organizing a plan to take the
Essay / On This Day
Paul Gerhardt (12 March 1607-1676) is widely considered the greatest German hymn-writer. Some people reserve that title for Martin Luther, but Gerhardt is famous primarily for hymns, while Luther had some other accomplishments that boost his fame. As one scholar has argued, “Every Protestant hymn
Essay / On This Day
John Toland (born 1670, died March 11, 1722) was a philosopher most famous for his book Christianity Not Mysterious (1696). In that book, Toland scores some good points against obscurantism and mystery-mongering, but he gets greedy about it, puts God into his Locke-box, and demands
Essay / On This Day
Balthasar Hubmaier (born around 1480) was martyred on March 10, 1528. Hubmaier was trained in Roman Catholic theology on the eve of the Reformation, earning a doctorate with the Johann Eck who would later be on the front line of attacking Luther. He became convinced
Essay / On This Day
The theologian as kid brother: Gregory of Nyssa (circa 335-394) was the younger brother of Basil of Caesarea, and since we traditionally call Basil “the Great,” that leaves Gregory somewhat in the shadows. With a big brother like Basil the Great, you’d have to get
Essay / On This Day
Christian History magazine reports an unusual event in American religious history on this date: Evangelist Sam Jones took his crusade to Toledo, Ohio, with the permission of the Mayor of Toledo: another Sam Jones. How odd. Sam (evangelist) Jones scolded Toledo by saying that if
Essay / On This Day
Bernard Gilpin (1517-1583) was a English priest and theologian all through those years when it was hard to keep from being burned at the stake no matter what your theological views were. A man of peace born into a time of war, he had to
Essay / On This Day
A lot of people who use the perennially popular devotional book Streams in the Desert think it is by somebody named Charles, because the title page is signed “Mrs. Charles Cowman.” As an author, she successfully concealed herself under her married name, her late husband’s
Essay / On This Day
This is the day John Wesley died. Wesley’s influence was vast: Some historians have ventured the idea that he was instrumental in a revival movement that did so much good in England that it preserved the nation from suffering its own version of the French
Essay / Literature
March 1, 1633, George Herbert died of tuberculosis. He left as his major literary accomplishment a set of poems called The Temple, a nearly inexhaustible source of spiritual insight and guidance. Here is my favorite, The Bunch of Grapes. Joy, I did lock thee up:
Essay / On This Day
Lewis Sperry Chafer (February 27, 1871 – August 22, 1952) is famous for his role in promoting and consolidating dispensational theology. That pigeonholes him well enough, and he was happy enough to bear that label. In fact, he was proud to have been the first