A recent Gallup poll indicating that church attendance in the United States has fallen below 50% for the first time shocked many American Christians. Conversely, a random internet search of “most popular Christian books of all time” yielded exactly what I expected to find: C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity was on nearly every list, often…
I was born in a shadow country Of roofless temples smudged with smoke, Where even the roadside shrines Sat jilted, their chintzy dioramas Strung with strands of christmas lights That lit the paths of small tin soldiers Shouldering their guns into darkness To hollow drums and distant music. O sing, cicada, sing… I grew up…
I felt sick to my stomach. It was the middle of April 2020, and we had been shut down for a few weeks. In the chaos and isolation, I foolheartedly took to read the classic novel Kristen Lavransdatter. It is a sweeping story of faith, sin, redemption, and to my utter shock, the bubonic plague….
Yesterday we noted that Bishop Ryle had listed five points on what evangelical religion is. Here is the second point he makes on that subject. ( b ) The second leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the depth and prominence it assigns to the doctrine of human sinfulness and corruption. Its theory is that in consequence of Adam’s…
He moved the candle closer to the paper Whose clouded words escaped his failing sight. Blind anger rose again. He dropped the taper, Thought flickered low, and rage put out the light. Despair stood near at hand to shake its head, And bitterness reminded him that slaves Stood as unworthy masters in the stead Of…
I travel the old ways I am the Remembrancer. The forest knows me Hostile on my way. My steps are measured Meted three by thirteen. The phantoms cry out Hunger in their grasp. Words I repeat cast Silence on the spirits. The old path is worn But seldom traveled. Tread softly this way Remove thy…
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…
Aquinas and the Cry of Rachel: Thomistic Reflections on the Problem of Evil. By John F. X. Knasas. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2013. 328 pp. $69.95 (cloth), $34.95 (paper). It is not a stretch to say that the problem of evil is the single most popular argument against Christianity. Most famously…
For the next few days I am going to post some more thoughts from J.C. Ryle’s Knots Untied – these being from the very first chapter of the book, on “What Evangelical Religion is.” Bishop Ryle starts out by defining what “evangelical religion” is, what it is not, and what makes much religion not evangelical….
The question that continues to vex Anglicanism (perhaps since the time of the Reformation but even more so over the last 200 years) is whether she is “properly Catholic” or “properly Protestant”? Some will answer that she must simply be Protestant, because she is separated from Rome, and only those in union with Rome can…