Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
It's almost like the Illinois Family Association overlooked the most important detail in their lament over the course of at least one Evangelical Covenant Church: There’s something rotten in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). It’s rotting from the inside due to the presence of wolves in sheep’s clothing like Peter Hawkinson, pastor of Winnetka Covenant …
Continue reading "Drift, Like Real Estate, Is All About Location"
At this time of year I usually think of my mother, who passed at this time of year. But I heard this gem on Jradio Rewind this AM, had to share: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_AfMKuOB80
It's the classic hymn for the Second Sunday in Advent: "Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending," done in good Anglo-Catholic style here: https://youtu.be/RPmO75cXXcM?list=PL203B2568FF4CD221 The lyrics were written by Charles Wesley in 1758; more than one tune has been affixed to them, this is my favourite. It's about the Second Coming, which is really what Advent …
Continue reading "The Wesleyan Advent Hymn the Wesleyan Pentecostals Don't Sing"
Growing up--especially when we lived on Lookout Mountain, something of a fantasy land in itself--I always enjoyed the Disney movies and records I could take in or had. One of those that's stuck with me is the song "Very Good Advice" from Alice in Wonderland. The clip from the movie is below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srn0xkXTSgs Today is …
Continue reading "Not Much on Taking Advice: Pentecostals and Anglicanism"
Consider this nasty, self-righteous screed: Christianity has died in the hands of Evangelicals. Evangelicalism ceased being a religious faith tradition following Jesus’ teachings concerning justice for the betterment of humanity when it made a Faustian bargain for the sake of political influence. It's amazing that people can so lack self-reflection that they don't see they've …
Continue reading "It's All About Moving Up, Only the Ladder Changes"
Bossuet, in his History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches, I, 7, gets to the point: Justification is that grace which, remitting to us our sins, at the same time renders us agreeable to God. Till then, it had been believed that what wrought this effect proceeded indeed from God, but yet necessarily existed …
Continue reading "The Strange Consequence of Luther's Concept of Justification"
As a follow-up to my earlier post, an interesting parallel to Barth's situation, with Luther's solution, from The Reformation: A Narrative History Related by Contemporary Observers and Participants: None the less the Lutheran territories suffered an incisive setback, foreshadowing worse things to come. In 1540 the political bulwark of Protestantism, Langrave Philipp of Hesse, became …
Continue reading "How Martin Luther Would Solve Karl Barth's Mistress Problem"
A live-in mistress with their family, Barth first: I just read a disturbing, I mean for me personally, earth-shatteringly disturbing essay by Christiane Tietz about Karl Barth entitled: Karl Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum. As most of us know, who have spent any amount of time with Barth’s theology, his “secretary”, Kirschbaum was rumored to …
Continue reading "What Karl Barth and Karl Marx Had in Common"
I could not pass up this gem from Philo Judaeus, in his Life of a Man Occupied with Affairs of State, or on Joseph, I: Now, this man (Joseph) began from the time he was seventeen years of age to be occupied with the consideration of the business of a shepherd, which corresponds to political …
Continue reading "If You Can Lead Sheep, You're Ready for Politics"
A little over twenty years ago I received the following notification from Geocities, the free website provider: Sat Aug 23 13:59:46 1997... Welcome, DON, to GeoCities Personal Home Page Program! Please write down or save the following information for future use. Your Member Name is: penlay. Your Neighborhood is: Athens/Parthenon. Your Address is: 4799. Your …
Positive Infinity 