Rogationtide rolls over us. An ancient call and reminder for us “to ask” (rogare in Latin, from which we derive the word, “Rogation”). Or as our Lord tells us, “Ask and it shall be given you.” (Matthew 7:7, KJV). Our Lord’s words should remind us to ask and ask in faith, as the Apostle James…
The Doctrine of God: A Defense of Classical Christian Theism. By Jordan Cooper. Weidner Institute, 2023. 236 pp. $32 (hardcover), $24 (paper). Attempting to write an entire systematic theology series grounded in the Protestant scholastic tradition is an ambitious undertaking, but Jordan Cooper is already a third of the way through accomplishing it. The first…
he first need of the soul is reverence. “Reverence is the attitude that can be designated as the mother of all moral life, for in it man first takes a position toward the world that opens his spiritual eyes and enables him to grasp values,” declares the twentieth century Catholic philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand.[1] It…
“As long as we remain divided, we grieve the Spirit of Jesus.” ~Peter Leithart, The End of Protestantism[1] The Church needs help. Low church Protestantism is not working. It is too commercial, too disassociated with the broader tradition of the church, and too isolated from other Christians. This line of criticism is a well-worn cliche….
In the previous commentary, it was established that some versions of the Book of Common Prayer still used by traditional Anglicans require (or at least allow) prayers for the dead, on the basis that the faithful departed are capable of spiritual growth and purification. It might initially appear that this belief in purification—that is to…
It becomes more readily apparent the longer I travel as an Anglican on the Christian Way, that we are indebted (or should be) to our ancestors. I hold no illusions about our Anglican forbears or even the Church Fathers being infallible, but they were wise. As we find ourselves traveling in times of uncertainties, illusions,…
A Sermon for Maundy Thursday 2024 The gospel of John has been described by some scholars as a swinging pendulum—it starts in heaven: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.” Then it comes down to earth: “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The True Light coming down into our…
Not the story(s) in a book but the story of a book. Those little personal details—dedications, monograms, perhaps scraps of notes—that tell something of the provenance of the book. I was raised by a father who had no fear of flea markets or antique stores and am blessed to live in an area (Southeast Ohio)…
C.S. Lewis wrote in the preface to The Screwtape Letters that there are two opposite errors we can make about demons: “One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”[1] We might add a third error: To believe in their existence but…
Article XXII—which condemns “the Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardons, worshipping and adoration, as well of images, as of reliques, and also invocation of saints”—does not mention prayer for the dead. Yet the practice of praying for the dead has historically been so intertwined with the doctrine of purgatory as it developed in the Church of…