How can immortal pierce immortal through? This query wracked blind Milton; though he tried To write angelic combat, it was moot, For any wound would seal, all stakes denied. What was it then, that gave your blade the whet To cross and cleave and cast to earth beneath That seven-headed drake? And with what threat…
Set forth thy true and lively word, O Lord, Amidst this false and deadly earthen tongue With which we are surrounded. For a horde Of men with senseless syllables comes among Us, trampling down thy truth, to build a tower From which they think to wield confusion’s power. Send out thy tuneful sound to earth…
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity With every new Prayer Book comes a new set of controversies. The Anglican Church in North America’s 2019 Book of Common Prayer has proven to be no exception to this rule. Amidst the arguments over rubrics and ceremonial, questions of affinity to the…
“Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the…
Thank you, Jared Henderson, for engaging with my definition of Anglicanism. I appreciate the points you make about the apparent lack of appropriate norms. It was impossible, without composing a Faulknerian definition which included many semicolons, to include everything I wanted into one sentence. This is one of the reasons that the one-sentence definition was…
I saw a fellow praying by a sandwiched city church, his eyes screwed up and swaying on that sort-of parrot perch. A comic picture, nearly, he presented to me. Still he kept mouthing on sincerely, letting words in silence spill. Through the smelly candlesmoke I watched him, earnest, there, and, reaching deep for habit, spoke…
Tracts for the Times 2.0 I’m often asked the question, “What is Anglicanism?” To which I respond: “Do you want the two-word answer, the long one-sentence answer, or my book on Anglican identity? Avoiding having to answer the question of what Anglicanism is has been a favorite Anglican hobby for decades, and when we do…
Seeking to interpret the meaning of a text by sourcing it in the perceived intentions of the author(s) is the hermeneutical strategy called ‘Intentionalism.’ Pace, some of the overstatements of 20th century hermeneutical theorists, seeking to understand the intentions of an author remains a noble endeavor in the quest for understanding. Certainly, to enter the fray of competing Anglican narratives…
What is an “evangelical”? In the preface to Christian Faith: Dogmatics in Outline (2016) B. A. Gerrish explored the question as an exercise in self-identification: “[O]thers, whether approving or scornfully, have called me a “liberal,” whereas I have always considered myself an “evangelical” in the old, Reformation sense: one who holds that “the real treasure…
The first time I ever preached on Psalm 24, I was struck by John Calvin’s gloss on verse eight. He wrote, “Mount Sion, it is true, is not at this day the place appointed for the sanctuary, and the ark of the covenant is no longer the image or representation of God dwelling between the…
