The Apostles' Creed has three articles, one for each person of the Trinity.
The first article, on God the Father Almighty, is very short. He created heaven and earth. Much more could be said, but it isn't said.
The second article is the longest, because it tells the story of Jesus: conceived by the Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified,...
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Today (October 27) is the birthday of Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, known simply as Erasmus, famous in his own time as Mr. Renaissance. He was "born to bring back literature," his contemporaries said of him: ad restituendas literas natus.
The Renaissance was a defining event in Western intellectual history, precisely because it looked back into antiquity for inspiration....
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Recently, Newt Gingrich teased voters by announcing he might run for President of the United States. This is exciting news only if the voters in the GOP get the Nobel Peace Prize Disease (NPPD).
NPPD is a rare condition where decision makers pick not the best candidate, but the one who wants it the most. NPPD occurs most frequently in elections for high school class presiden...
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In one comment thread on this blog, someone asked why I believe. Here is a short answer.
It is an odd thing to be called on to defend something you think you know. It is disturbing at first, because it makes you simultaneously wonder about your own mental clarity and that of your questioner. Why would he ask such a question? Isn’t the truth of the matter obvious?
Unfort...
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We don't know when Lewis Bayly was born, but he died on this day (October 26) in 1631.
Who was Lewis Bayly? It's a little sad that almost nobody knows anymore. Bayly is an unjustly forgotten spiritual treasure.
He was the author of a book called The Practice of Piety, one of the best-selling and most influential devotional books of all time. Its sub-title is Directing a...
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Last weekend Joe Carter, the founder of Evangelical Outpost and now the web editor of First Things, put together a group blog called Evangel.
Justin Taylor almost immediately declared it the best group blog in evangelicalism. And in its first week of existence it has logged 94 posts, 497 comments, over 30,000 visits, and a lot of linkage and buzz.
First Things is a vene...
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Today (October 24) in 1648 the Treaty of Münster was signed. Together with the signing of an earlier treaty, this event is known as the Peace of Westphalia. It brought a resolution to the terrible conflicts we call the "wars of religion," chiefly the Thirty Years' War.
Peace is good and war is bad --the Thirty Years' War was especially bad-- so it's hard to speak ill of the...
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Today, October 23, is the day the world was made, six thousand and thirteen years ago. It was a Saturday night. It happened late in the day, at the time of day we would call nightfall once there was a night to fall.
Archbishop James Ussher, Anglican Bishop of Armagh, is remembered these days chiefly for the world chronology in which he did a lot of things, including cipher o...
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The main reason the doctrine of the Trinity can be difficult for inquirers to grasp, or for believers to get comfortable with, is that it contains so many ideas within itself. It is a doctrine that summarizes vast stretches of biblical revelation, integrates them, and holds them together so they can be taken in at one mental glance. Trinity is a big, densely-packed doctrine. Th...
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Kitsch in the church can be a source of constant embarrassment or humor, not mutually exclusive categories, for my Christian students. Whenever they get too discouraged I point out to them that any large movement will attract all kinds of people.
One should be careful not to be a snob and merely sanctify one's own taste.Different message styles are needed for different audie...
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Today (October 22) is the day Paul Tillich (1886 – 1965) died. Tillich is one of America's most famous theologians, but he's co-owned by the Germans. He came to America in the 1930s after having spoken out decisively against Hitler. Tillich taught at Union Seminary, Harvard, and Chicago, and ruled the roost of academic theology in America with his existential philosophy, open...
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose birthday is today (October 21, in 1772), is remembered today as the poet who left us the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and the strange fragment Kubla Khan. But in his own time he made waves as an amateur theologian. And as he remarked to a friend, his reputation was different on different continents: "I am a poor poet in England, but I am a great ph...
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