The Velvet Reformation

Paul Elie’s article on Rowan Williams in this month’s Atlantic is a welcome exception to much of conflict-hungry headlines surrounding the appointment of the openly gay and non-celibate Gene Robinson to bishop of New Hampshire, and the ensuing escalation of tensions between conservatives and progressives in the Anglican Communion.
Elie, while he claims to have read [...]

Read Full Post »

The Church’s Judgment and the Reception of the Canon

I’m covering Text and Canon classes this morning for Ray Lubeck, the professor I grade for, and our topic for the day was the construction of the New Testament. I was pleasantly surprised that a class full of evangelicals didn’t put up much of an argument when I suggested that the Church’s judgment is [...]

Read Full Post »

Port-Royal and Jansenism in Post-Tridentine France

I have recently been very intrigued by the question of how the historical forces of individuation (the systematic break up of traditional communities, such as the church, trade guilds, etc.) cooperated with the rise of the centralized authority of the nation-state. Of course, my interest is in how these forces have been detrimental to [...]

Read Full Post »

Meditation on Ash Wednesday, For Edification

Remember, O mortal, from dust you come, and unto dust you shall return.
The Ash Wednesday service, kicking of Lent, which is the season between Christ’s coming and his death, poignantly demonstrates the dialectical nature of human existence. To be human is to be between birth and death. Yet life is not simply what precedes death, [...]

Read Full Post »

Ray Anderson’s Emergent Theology for Emergent Churches

Many thanks to InterVarsity Press for sending me the prolific Ray Anderson’s most recent book, An Emergent Theology for Emergent Churches (Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP, 2006). For a nice summary of the book by the author (who should be familiar to many in the blogosphere), check here.
After reading reviews by my friend Halden and [...]

Read Full Post »

Preaching and the Modern Man

This is Ryan, signing in from extremely cold room in which I spent all of the last week and will spend the duration of this one. It’s summer school and while I love the condensed look at the Scriptures (as I am currently taking Hebrews – Revelation), it causes me physical pain to sit in [...]

Read Full Post »

Church Education (Christian Life)

This week it was my turn to lead the Roots & Growth time after church. This is our fledgling attempt at doing Church education. What we’ve begun with is an overview of some of the common points of doctrine, devoting an hour each Sunday to discussing a given topic. An hour is [...]

Read Full Post »