Nevin Lectures, 2015
Noted Catholic patristic scholar, Robert Louis Wilken, delivered the second annual Nevin Lectures at Beeson Divinity School’s Hodges Chapel last Friday and Saturday, February 20-21, 2015. Wilken, the Emeritus William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Virginia, traced the influence of the writings Tertullian, Lactantius, and other church fathers on the development of ideas of religious liberty. According […]
50 Shades of Surprise
I confess that I’m surprised by the number of Christians who are surprised by the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey. Many are simply bewildered by the buzz the movie has generated. They shouldn’t be. This is the world we live in. More precisely, this is the country we live in. We live in a sex-crazed culture that can’t get enough of this sort of […]
Our New Task
The newer perspective on justification by faith advocated in various studies in Pauline Theology by N.T. Wright and others, is now utterly relevant to our historical situation. Such work cannot be merely avant garde theologizing. In Luther’s day, everyone was “in” as regards the Church and the faith. We were all a part of Christendom. The problem then was fundamentally vertical, and the question was “how […]
Keep the Fast, Keep the Feast
Over the centuries, Christians have fasted for many reasons. Sometimes, the reasons have been good. The apostles and their churches fasted and prayed before selecting elders or ordaining missionaries. Christians have fasted in mourning for their sins. They have fasted and prayed to combat demons and to plead with God for relief from disaster. Often they have fasted for bad reasons. They fasted because they […]
And He Gave Some To Be Parents
Standing in the narthex at the font, parents joyfully approach with their newborn child. The pastor asks the parents a series of questions that may include their renunciation of the devil and all his works, their faith in God the Father, Son, and Spirit as explained in the Apostles’ Creed, and their commitment to rear this child in the Faith. When the renunciations and professions […]
