The question of whether holy orders should be restricted to males arises from deeper theological principles, grounded in both creation and redemption. To understand the issue fully, we must examine the archetypal union of Christ and His Bride, the Church, and the corresponding reflection of this union in creation. As Scripture reveals, creation is not…
Introduction By presenting the work of contemporary scholarship and engaging in literary criticism, this essay will explain the nuanced and robust ecclesiology demonstrated across Matthew’s gospel and Luke-Acts. The scope of the essay will discuss in detail how each piece of literature demonstrates the church as the local community, as the institutional continuation of Christ’s…
A Walk in the Ancient Western LectionaryA Walk in the Ancient Western Lectionary: An Introduction Come Thou Long Expected Jesus – The First Sunday in Advent Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending – Second Sunday in Advent On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist Cries – Third Sunday in Advent O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – The…
’Twas forty-days of the journey long, long, long; dragging through the desert. Boots worn thin and tired from hurt. Sand between toes tires even the strong as they travel wearily cross the dunes. No food but Words, swirling within. A morsel of water to calm the gullet, and no bed but a mat, covered in…
“Christ our passover lamb is sacrificed for us.” At the heart of the Roman Catholic rejection of Anglican holy orders is the claim that Anglicans relinquished an adequate conception of the Eucharist as a sacrifice. While many have responded to this claim at length (including in my own forthcoming book Null and Void: The Catholic…
During the Trinitarian controversy of the 4th century, the label “Arian” was attached to those who espoused and defended the teaching of Arius of Alexandria. Arius denied that the Son of God was co-eternal with God the Father, and thus taught that the Son had been created by the Father before the creation of the…
A Walk in the Ancient Western LectionaryA Walk in the Ancient Western Lectionary: An Introduction Come Thou Long Expected Jesus – The First Sunday in Advent Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending – Second Sunday in Advent On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist Cries – Third Sunday in Advent O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – The…
Does receiving ashes on the forehead, a custom widely practiced on Ash Wednesday, go against Christ’s command to keep your fasting a secret (Matt. 6:16–18)? This command appears in the Sermon on the Mount. Christ’s teaching there on fasting is the last in a mini-series on spiritual disciplines which includes almsgiving and prayer. He opens this…
A Walk in the Ancient Western LectionaryA Walk in the Ancient Western Lectionary: An Introduction Come Thou Long Expected Jesus – The First Sunday in Advent Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending – Second Sunday in Advent On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist Cries – Third Sunday in Advent O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – The…
One step down, my back turned against pear groves As the perfume of orange blossoms drifts On the breeze, mixed memoirs of when we clove Tightly to each other. An anchor lifts, But casually, skirting the floor and primed To fall in the wake of first resistance, And I don’t know if its weight is…