The Scriptorium Daily

Month: September 2007

  • On ECUSA’s House of Bishops Statement (I)

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    Greg Peters
    in

    Read Part 2 here. As an Episcopalian, I have a vested interest in what is going on in the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) and take great interest in the statement issued by the House of Bishops on September 25, 2007. This statement is the bishops’ response to a request by the Primates of the Anglican…

  • Dante’s Ante-Purgatory

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    Greg Peters
    in

    For many Protestant Christians today the doctrine of Purgatory (especially in its medieval articulation) is blatantly wrong. The need for such a place is mainly the result of the medieval concepts of debt, penalty and merit (of Christ and the saints). To a medieval theologian Purgatory was necessary, even desirable. Thus, when Dante Alighieri went…

  • How the Trinity Freed the Slaves (part II)

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    (Part I was here) A friend sends this photo from the west African country of Benin. The Benin coast is known as a slave coast, and has a fearsome monument known as The Gate of No Return marking the point of departure. A different monument, this one commemorates the coming of Christianity to Africa. I…

  • Horsemobile

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    An enormous horse carries seven people in comfortable seats with cushy backs. He is led by a helpful cowboy (note the hat and spurs) whose expressive lasso guides the beast and covers the vehicle. The people inside have a range of emotional responses.

  • Refuse to Choose

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Are you a heart Christian or a head Christian? Do you think the essence of Christianity is in holding to the right doctrines, or in feeling the right affections? Should we devote ourselves to defending the truth, or to reaching an experience of God’s presence that requires language of mysticism to describe? What’s more important,…

  • Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Hot off the presses from Broadman & Holman Publishing is my book Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Introductory Christology. In this book, Klaus Issler and I bring together six chapters by six authors who argue that “the savior who died on the cross and rose from the dead is the eternal second person of the…

  • Moby-Dick: Inscrutable Tides

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    (Spoiler alert: the whale is mean and the captain is crazy.) What a book is Melville’s Moby-Dick! Everyone knows that it’s a whopping leviathan of a novel. There are almost four hundred words just in the titles of the chapters. Melville, rarely subtle, spends more than enough pages making sure you know that it’s a…

  • Thank God for Dopamine

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    Paul Spears
    in ,

    As adults we realize that it is not socially acceptable to loudly complain. Parents realize that if they have a child who is constantly complaining their parental fitness will be called into question. Of course, parents want to look like they have their own house under control (yeah right) so they teach their children the…

  • God’s Glory, Triunity, and Attributes: After the Atonement

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    William Burt Pope (1822-1903) was a great British Methodist theologian of the 19th century. I’ve written an introduction to his thought and sung his praises here. One of Pope’s strengths as a theologian is that he pondered so thoroughly the way each doctrine relates to all the others. This man thought through his theology backwards…

  • Quoth the Raven: Peace!

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Just after three pm on February 3, 1691, a little boy was whittling on a piece of wood outside his house, when a raven landed on the steeple of the nearby church and said to him, “Look into Colossians 3:15.” The raven said this three times. So the boy, obedient lad that he was, went…

  • The Fifth Council: Trinitarian Christology

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Chalcedonian christology is hard enough: one person, two natures, three strikes you’re out. But post-chalcedonian christology? Who has time for that kind of thought project? Once you’ve decided that the theology of the early church can help you think through a biblical doctrine of who Jesus Christ is, you might be persuaded to study the…

  • What Did Jesus Believe About Scripture?

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    by

    Scriptorium Admin
    in ,

    As a part of our discipleship, we who seek to follow the Lord Jesus desire to believe what he believed. It would be odd for one to claim, on the one hand, to be devoted to Jesus as Lord, and, on the other hand, to simply set aside as false or irrelevant a view that…