Category: Uncategorized

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. Tonight Book IX of Dante began to provoke thought in me about home. What is home? For Dante, the answer (at least in part) must be Rome. Rome is our home. We are products of Roman civilization if we are from the United States or any nation dominated by Western European…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. When Dante speaks of images, he is speaking of authentic images. It is an authentic image that can communicate truths to great for unmediated contact, such as the nature of God. Images require (for Dante) both the stamp and the wax that gets stamped. Dante often speaks of the need for…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. Today was the feast day of John Mark. John is a Hebrew name. Mark is a Roman one. The first name points to the God of Israel and the second to Mars, the pagan god of war. John Mark wrote a gospel, abandoned Paul on a missionary journey, but later proved…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. Torrey Honors Institute Biola – THI: “Apr 25 – Torrey Theatre Club Presents William Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’” If you are anywhere near Biola, you must come see this play. Simply a rollicking good time, with the kind of sincere “gee whiz” performances and direction that remind you that Judy…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. In John 11, I am reminded of the importance of Martha. She gets bad press for being too busy at one point in Scripture to sit at the feet of Jesus. But if there was a lesson she needed to learn by John 11, she has learned it. It is Martha…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. St. John Chrysostom: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN: “For while yet that blessed Body hung upon the tree, the sun turned away his rays, the whole earth was troubled and became dark, the graves were opened, the ground quaked, and an innumerable multitude of dead leaped forth, and went into…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. What can be done with Christian colleges? Parents need to learn to ask hard questions about their school of choice. You are paying for a Christian, Christ-centered, education. What does the school mean by this? Some of my favorite questions: 1. Do all your teachers believe the great saints of the…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. Dante continues to change me. Today the theme for me was the process of being “disillusioned.” The worst thing about being a professor and trying to be open to students is seeing the look in their eyes when they realize how fallible you really are. Of course, this should not be…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. Christian academics are paid decent money to work at faith based institutions. Many of these institutions have statements of faith that they ask their faculty to sign. Others ask their faculty to agree to codes of conduct. Of course, both ideas would cause system crashes in the operation of secular universities.…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. The Church calls marriage a bloodless martyrdom. I used to think this a rather gloomy way to talk, but that is only because I did not understand martyrdom. Think of all the martyr stories. They are full of joy. The early Christians had to be discouraged from seeking martyrdom, it was…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. St. John Chrysostom: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN: “Besides, even if any should be so poor, it is in their power, by means of the continual reading of the holy Scriptures which takes place here, to be ignorant of nothing contained in them. “This should give lie to the notion…

John Mark Reynolds, 2004. I am voyaging into Purgatory with two of the finest groups of students I have ever known. Several questions drive us forward. What can be done with the two eagles? How can church and state exist together? How can we see the things as the really are? For Dante, fundamentally the…