The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study. By Alice C. Linsley. Self-published, 2023. 336 pp. $35 (cloth), $30 (paper). The narrative of the Bible, focused as it largely is on the ancient Hebrews, tells us a great deal about them, how they lived and functioned as a group. Yet much about the nature…
What could have been— Littlest life Measured in fruit? Holding a knife, I remember, As I slice a plum That was this week’s— And cut my thumb. Other bellies Swell around me While my blood still Comes like the sea. Nothing grows under My ribs—no teeth, No bones, no soul. Instead, beneath My heart, it’s…
Anglicans tend to worry about liturgy in the same way that cage-stage Calvinists worry about the Ordo Salutis – obsessively. This can blind them to the fact that the Eucharistic Rite of the Book of Common Prayer is not a unique creation, but the product of the widespread endeavor to reform the liturgy in accordance…
It is not by happenstance that the first mark of the visible church is said to be that “the pure word of God is preached.” To be sure, the sacraments must be “duly ministered,” but in the absence of sound doctrine, even Baptism and the Eucharist will avail only so much. Making doctrinal purity a…
In the previous post, we looked at the context in which Constantine ruled by highlighting the significant events of his rise and reign. Constantine’s Reforms Having set out the events that shaped Constantine’s historical context, the reforms and policies of his reign must be considered in this light. First, Constantine made reforms in the law…
Rounded shoulders loom over my chest, so tight burdened by my cross: is it like yours? Pressed nose-close the ground all light absorbs where darkness drowns already-strainéd sight. Jaundiced doldrums swallow dispirited hope, I look up the deep hole to see only the tiniest of light halos so very far above me. The best of…
The leaves have fallen and the air is finally crisp amidst the defiant, evergreen, Alabama pines. Advent is in the air. The chill as I walk through my neighborhood is a warm greeting within my soul. Walking the pavement of my street is a sort of beating of the bounds. My eyes assess the homes…
Give Us This Day Devotionals, Volume 5: Acts. By Charles Erlandson. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2023. 272 pp. $28.00 (e-book). The Give Us This Day Devotionals fill a niche that is not so common in Anglican or really most other circles: long form devotions. These are not three-paragraph pieces on some random Bible passage, but…
Constantine, Augustine, and the Legacy of Western Christendom The streets of Rome thronged with celebrants awaiting the advent of the victorious new emperor. Though it was typical for emperors or kings upon their ascension to be contrasted with their predecessors and praised as the ushers of a new era of peace and prosperity, on this…
Article XXXIV. Of the Traditions of the Church. It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, and utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word….