The Scriptorium Daily

Month: November 2009

  • Bringing One Another Along – A Wedding Homily for Jane and Alex Elmore

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    Greg Peters
    in ,

    This wedding homily was delivered at St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Oceanside, CA on June 26, 2009. Jane and Alex were students of mine in the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University and I had the privilege of performing, along with Jane’s father, their wedding this summer. A beautiful day with a wonderful couple. Jane…

  • The Christian Religion

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Last week I spoke at the annual Religious Diversity Forum at the University of California at Irvine. Most of my time there was spent in open discussion with a small group of people, including a rabbi and a nice Muslim woman who was fascinated by the idea of Baptist foot-washing services. But here are my…

  • Faculty Wise Words

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    Greg Peters
    in

    I wrote the following last month for Biola University’s weekly newspaper The Chimes. Perhaps it has something to say to readers of Scriptorium as well: Anyone who knows me knows that I like monks. Actually, I really like monks. I know a few monks (and nuns) personally and I like them as people but that’s…

  • Martin Bucer, Some Kind of Protestant

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Today (November 11) is the birthday of Martin Bucer (1491-1551). An important Reformer, he did his work in a no-man’s land between what would become the stable confessions and denominations of later decades. This is one of the reasons he is not frequently remembered. Though he influenced the Lutherans, the Reformed, and the Anglicans, he…

  • Claude Welch, 1922-2009

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Claude Welch, eminent historian of nineteenth-century theology, died on November 6. Claude was an institutional pillar of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where I got my PhD. In their obituary, the GTU lists his terms of service to the school. He was Dean and President from 1971 to 1982, and Dean from 1982 to…

  • Names for the Nameless

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    There is a delightfully quirky entry by Bruce Metzger in the Oxford Companion to the Bible, entitled “Names for the Nameless.” (pp. 546-548) It is a report on characters in the Bible whose names are not provided. Metzger notes that “through the ages, readers of the Bible have felt the need to identify some of…

  • How the Trinity Freed the Slaves (Happy Birthday Granville Sharp)

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    Fred Sanders
    in , ,

    Today (November 10) is the birthday of Granville Sharp (1735-1813). Sharp is remembered for two major accomplishments. First, you will find his name in every history of the abolition of the slave trade. His involvement began when he met a man named Jonathan Strong, a slave from Barbados who had been beaten so badly that…