Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Of all of Jesus Christ's post-resurrection appearances, this one is, in many ways, the most intriguing: Meanwhile Mary was standing close outside the tomb, weeping. Still weeping, she leant forward into the tomb, And perceived two angels clothed in white sitting there, where the body of Jesus had been lying, one where the head and …
Continue reading "After the Resurrection, Did Our Lord Need Purification?"
If I had to pick a favourite Bible verse or passage, it would be this: The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought by the High Priest into the Sanctuary, as an offering for sin, are burnt outside the camp. And so Jesus, also, to purify the People by his own blood, suffered outside …
Continue reading "The Meaning of Outside the Camp: A Good Friday Reflection"
Today is Nowruz, the spring equinox festival of the Iranians. To my Iranian friends, who have meant so much, hope you've had a good festival season (it runs about two weeks back in the old country.) Last November I ran a piece about the Persian origin of the term "King of Kings," which most Christians …
Continue reading "Happy Nowruz to the People of the "King of Kings""
Long-time readers of this blog will recall my brief history of the French engineer Barré de Saint-Venant.  I recently gave a more complete treatment of the topic at the Holy Spirit, Science, and Theological Education Conference at Regent University.  You can download the paper here.
We're coming up on Holy Week. Churches will be rolling out their Easter musicals. Because people don't go to church on Good Friday like they used to, churches will also put the Passion narrative on Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday...what's that all about? It is, strictly speaking, the celebration of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, beginning …
The ACNA has released their "Texts for Common Prayer." It's something I've mentioned from time to time over the years. But it's obvious; if the ANCA plans to be a real church and a real Anglican province, they need to have a real prayer book. The danger has always been that liturgists who were clumsy, …
Continue reading "Dumping at Last the "Contract on the Episcopalians""
This election cycle has been a wild one, and we're not even halfway through the primary season. Both parties are seeing broad-based revolts in their bases. The Democrat establishment has done a better job of managing the upheaval, because they did what the Republicans did not: pick one candidate and get behind her. Bernie Sanders …
Continue reading "If the Country Doesn't Make It, Will You?"
This past weekend my wife and I got to see Lee University's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. It was a strange production; it was one of those things where the audience sat on the stage and the performers did their thing in the seats. The program regaled us with the usual politically correct …
GIA M/S-142 (1971) God Unlimited's earliest works were a hard act to follow. A group that, in some ways, set the pace for Episcopal/Catholic folk music sounds more "mainstream" than creative in this work. Part of that was the inclusion of a set of "Mass ordinaries" (use of the term "Mass" wasn't quite according to …
Continue reading "Tom Belt and the God Unlimited Singers: The Agape Factory"
Epoch VII EG100 (1974) "The old folk Mass" has become the phrase used by teary-eyed, nostalgic Catholics (and some who left the Church) for the liturgical events of the 1960's and 1970's, when the organ gathered dust and the guitars--six and twelve string--were unpacked for the celebration of the sacred mysteries. But was it really …
Positive Infinity 