The Scriptorium Daily

Search results for: “trinity”

  • Emergent Allergies: Boundaries

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    Matt Jenson
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    The problem with boundaries is that they serve too often to keep people out, rather than to keep people in. Insider/outsider, or ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ language too often threatens to undermine a gospel which is about an ever-expanding ‘us’ group. Furthermore, it tends to seduce us into thinking that ‘they’ are the problem, at which…

  • Interpreting Texts on Interpretation

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    Greg Peters
    in

    Does God withhold truth from believers? Now, I am not talking about the areas of physics, science, medicine, etc. Rather, my question is spiritual in nature: are there things about God and his creation that I cannot know while living on earth? Well, many Christians have already formed a response and, I am guessing, many…

  • One Step Beyond Chalcedon

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    The Chalcedonian definition draws boundaries which clearly mark the limits within which orthodox thinking on the incarnation can take place. I’ve written about the greatness of Chalcedon elsewhere. But it is one thing to praise Chalcedon for doing this boundary-drawing, and another thing to say that this is all Chalcedon does. There is no need…

  • A Day in the Life of Wu Oi Ying at B.I.O.L.A.

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    In 1921, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (later Biola College, now Biola University) published a story in its magazine The King’s Business, entitled “A Day in a Bible Institute.”    The editors wanted to describe for their readers a typical day at the downtown Bible Institute at the corner of 6th and Hope. They…

  • How to Read Karl Rahner

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Karl Rahner (1904-1984) is near the top of the list of most influential and important Roman Catholic theologians of the twentieth century. This Jesuit super-genius was one of the advising theological experts (periti) at Vatican II. Last year, Alvin Kimel over at the pontifications blog declared that “the theologians and clergy of the Catholic Church…

  • What’s New in Trinitarian Theology

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    God never changes, but theology can. The triune God never changes, but there’s always plenty to talk about and lots to learn in the field of trinitarian theology. Good books keep rolling off the presses on this central Christian doctrine (see my recs for intro books here), and there are also interesting things developing outside…

  • Council of Chalcedon

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Chalcedon means classic christology. Of course Chalcedon was a city near Constantinople, but the theological meeting held there in 451 was so important and influential that for the rest of Christian history the name “Chalcedon” has been a pointer to the right doctrine about Jesus Christ in distinction from errors. Chalcedon was a fifth-century council,…

  • The Theology of Homestar Runner

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Back in the ’60s, Robert L. Short had a surprise bestseller with a book on The Gospel According to Peanuts. Short had a lot to work with in a strip like Peanuts, whose creator Charles Schulz was documentably preoccupied with spiritual matters. But finding the theology of Homestar Runner is another matter altogether. There isn’t…

  • Trinitarian Evangelism: Sending, Filling, Following

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    An insight on the role of the Trinity in evangelism, from John Teter’s book Get the Word Out. Teter devotes the final three chapters to showing that “God is not distant in any dimension of our evangelism experience. He goes before us, he is behind us and he is even inside of us. We are…

  • Ephesians and the God-sized Gospel

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    There is one place in scripture where the sheer greatness of the gospel is most profusely described: the blessing with which Paul opens the epistle to the Ephesians. Paul begins by praising God for the gift of the gospel, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with…

  • Christ and the Spirit at Constantinople in 381

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    In the year 381, the second ecumenical council (also known as the First Council of Constantinople, or Constantinople I, to distinguish it from two later councils in the same city), met to make decisions on Christian doctrine and order. The main thing the fathers of the first Council of Constantinople would want us to say…

  • Map of the Theological Field

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    There are a lot of parts to theology, and although over-specialization is always bad, some division of labor makes a lot of sense unless you’re personally interested in earning degrees in everything from Hittite to Herodias to Haplography to Heidegger’s Hermeneutics of Hegel’s Historicism. Here’s how I see the labor divided. While the various theological…