“It is said that he had naturally a very dull wit, and that he was upon the point of leaving the cloister, because he despaired of attaining what his friar’s habit required of him, but that the Holy Virgin appeared to him, and asked him in which he would chuse to excel, in philosophy or [...]
Archive for February, 2008
Albertus Magnus
Posted in Albertus Magnus, General, ass, philosopher on February 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Dying Season
Posted in General on February 28, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The death of William F. Buckley yesterday made me think – it seems like a lot of prominent people have died so far in this year. After a little checking around, it appears that I was right. In only two months we’ve seen an unusually large number (or so it seems to me) of well known folk [...]
Father Finn—from Purgatory
Posted in Flannery O\'Connor, Literature, Pastoral Care on February 25, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Flannery O’Connor’s story, “The Enduring Chill,” contains one of the most entertaining confrontations between the Church and the world in modern literature. In the story, Asbury, the spoiled son of a Southern farmer, has been forced to return home from New York City because of illness. Asbury fancied himself a highly sophisticated artist. In fact, [...]
Efficiency
Posted in General on February 22, 2008 | 2 Comments »
It seems like all my wife and I are doing these days is putting a bottle in my infant son’s mouth and then minutes later cleaning up the other end. Wash, rinse, repeat.
The other day I asked my dear wife if it wouldn’t be much more efficient for us to simply put the formula directly [...]
What is Regeneration?
Posted in General, Sacraments, Theology on February 21, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The word “regeneration” for most of us today refers to that one-time, unseen, inner moment when the Holy Spirit flips the switch and brings us from death to life. We’ve heard time and again, “Regeneration precedes faith. Regeneration precedes faith. Regeneration precedes faith.” And therefore if anyone should start using the word “regeneration” and “baptism” [...]
“No hope without it.”
Posted in Salvation, Theology on February 20, 2008 | 11 Comments »
Reformed people are familiar with J. Gresham Machen’s quote from his telegram to Dr. John Murray, “I’m so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.” We surely must be thankful for Jesus’ “active” obedience, but it is equally true (as Machen well understood) that this alone brings no hope. Unless our [...]
Keeping up With the Competition (pt. 3)
Posted in Liturgy, Preaching on February 19, 2008 | 4 Comments »
I’ve suggested that the various efforts of pastors and churches to ride the currents and model their worship in the image of pop culture are evidence that these Christians are essentially uneasy about the sufficiency of the Word of God and the sacraments. I’ve also pondered the question of whether unbelievers and the unchurched are [...]
Flannery on Education
Posted in Education, Flannery O\'Connor on February 18, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I’m going to make Mondays my “Flannery Day” — Duane says it’s ok with him — so here goes. Flannery was not bashful about expressing her opinions (especially in letters to friends). If you haven’t read her letters (published as The Habit of Being) you are missing a great treat. Here are a some of observations on education and [...]
Grief from “A” to “Z”
Posted in Eugene Peterson, Grief, Lamentations, Pastoral Care, Suffering on February 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Eugene Peterson in his book Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, makes an interesting observation about the fact that Lamentations is written in the form of an acrostic poem. Peterson observes that the acrostic form (as it goes through the Hebrew alphabet) both organizes and puts limits upon grief and suffering:
“In such ways does the acrostic function: [...]
Things I Should Probably Keep to Myself
Posted in General on February 15, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Anyone who complains about the itty-bitty bit of wine you get in the standard plastic communion cup has never spilled it all over their pants.
Jonah’s predicament comes down to this – which end of the whale was he going to come out?
Some words sound so much better than they actually are. Like supervision. Or food [...]
Pledging troth (in honor of St. Val’s)
Posted in Conversion, Faith, Henri de Lubac, Theology on February 14, 2008 | 2 Comments »
In The Christian Faith, Henri de Lubac makes this comment regarding the Patristic view of conversion:
“Becoming a Christian did not mean merely giving up erroneous beliefs in order to embrace the true teaching offered by the Church; it meant, essentially, renouncing Satan in order to adhere to Christ, or, as St. Justin put it, turning [...]
Keeping up With the Competition (pt. 2)
Posted in Liturgy, Preaching on February 13, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Last time I asserted that the modern evangelical trend of trying to make the worship experience similar to what one would find in the movie theater or on the cable network is evidence that we have a fundamental lack of confidence in the preaching of the word of God.
But let’s just suppose for a moment [...]
That’s the Game…
Posted in Leadership on February 12, 2008 | 4 Comments »
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it… There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is [...]
A sacramental world
Posted in Flannery O\'Connor, Literature, Sacraments on February 11, 2008 | 2 Comments »
(this is taken from a lecture given at the Bucer Institute on Flannery O’Connor; thanks to Doug Jones, Peter Leithart, and others who’ve helped me to appreciate her even more than I did already)
One of the things we see throughout Flannery O’Connor’s writings is the truth that God works in and through the physical and material. God works through fire [...]
Keeping up With the Competition
Posted in Liturgy, Preaching on February 10, 2008 | 5 Comments »
No matter how good a preacher or Bible teacher you may be, no matter how seriously you take the task of preparation and presentation—in the back of your mind, it is difficult not to have this haunting, nagging thought that you are competing for the minds of your hearers; competing against the polished news anchor [...]
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