Multiplying five loaves and two fish to feed 5,000 people instantly made Jesus a star in first-century Palestine. The satiated crowd endeavored to seize him to be the king of Israel and serve as the rallying point for a national rebellion against the Roman Empire. Word of this miracle spread swiftly throughout the region and…
Intellectually, one grasps that someone of 96 is at the close of their earthly life, but when someone who has been a comforting, familiar, and wise public figure not only for the whole of one’s own life but for a goodly number of years before, steps off the stage into eternity it still comes as…
Ryle here is approaching the conclusion of his text on the Articles of Religion. Here he is advocating reading them at least once a year: Such are the leading features, in my judgment, of the Thirty-nine Articles. I commend them to the attention of my readers, and ask that they may be carefully weighed. No…
The Openness of Being: Natural Theology Today. By E. L. Mascall. Nashotah, WI: Nashotah House Press, 2022. 288 pp. $15.25 (paper). Since their establishment in 1887, the Gifford Lectures have been devoted to the exploration of natural theology, defined on the lecture series website as “the attempt to prove the existence of God and divine…
The world is not so sideways in its luck as people say; there still are futures of a healthful gain; rain still rains. Lichens droop from spruces, wizard-gray, there are yet handsome gambles in the living game; rain still rains. Below the dust crust, we strike water in the hushing cave; crystals lengthen, treasuring the…
Browne: Exposition of the 39 ArticlesExposition of the Thirty-nine Articles – Introduction Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles – Article I (Part 1) Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles – Article I (Part 2) Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles – Article II Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles – Article III Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles – Article…
A few days ago I had the privilege of introducing the Anglican tradition to teachers at The Ecclesial School at St. Alban’s. The faculty are a mixed bunch — Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Baptists. Afterwards I had a wonderful conversation with a sincere and devout Baptist who wanted to understand more…
One of the doctrines that were always considered representative of the Old High Church school within Anglicanism, is that of Baptismal Regeneration. Whilst not usually controversial, there have been occasional flare-ups over it, of which the best known is the Gorham Case of 1848-50. The roots of this doctrine lie in Holy Scripture, for example,…
J.C. Ryle and Rowan Williams are not, we might reasonably think, natural bedfellows. What, other than beards, could the low church Victorian evangelical and the postmodern Anglo-Catholic possibly have in common? For both Ryle and Williams, Saint Bartholomew’s Day 1662 is a cause for lament. Ryle thundered his condemnation of the events of that Saint…
Contents: Prolegomena First Principles and Individual Judgement The Perspicuity of Scripture The Exclusive Infallibility of Scripture The Visible and Invisible Church The Fallibility of Ecumenical Councils The Protestant Reformation Conclusion 1. Prolegomena I have come to understand that my last article was deeply challenging to some people and forced them to grapple with questions they…