This is from a lecture by Dr. Christine Mangala Frost, a venerable resource person at the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies at Cambridge, UK. She is referring to the poetry of the hymns in the divine liturgy. In poetry, “faith” is standing happily among the angels and singing – whether in or out of harmony …
Month: June 2013
St. Cyprian of Carthage
Antiquity without truth is simply error grown old.
What’s a Recovering Libertarian?
At a recent family reunion, sitting over pizza at a Pizza Ranch – one of the great Iowa institutions where politicians come to meet Iowans before the Presidential Caucuses to explain their political views and aspirations – my niece asked me to explain my political leanings. (1) What is Communitarianism? (2) How does it differ from Libertarianism? …
Grace, Effort, and the Majesty of God
What is the glory and majesty of God? One of my favorite pictures of that glory is in Ps 93:1. “The Lord is king, he is robed in majesty.” Majesty is also a fearsome concept. Consider Job, for instance, “Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you?” Or Ex. …
Grace and Effort
So what is the relationship between divine grace and human effort? Let's start by imagining me as the quarterback of the Washington Redskins instead of Robert Griffin III … or not. It doesn't matter how much strength training, how much coaching, and how many years of practice I had, I could never be a NFL …
The Apostle Paul on Costly Grace
Bonhoeffer (in the previous post) was certainly passionate about costly grace. But isn't that at odds with the idea of “salvation by faith alone” (a phrase many folk assume the Apostle Paul said)? Three points on that: (1) Paul never said it; it's actually a post-Reformation era formula in response to Erasmus and is a …
Bonhoeffer on Cheap and Costly Grace
Dietrich Bonhoeffer begins The Cost of Discipleship with a rant. Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks' wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace …
Life is Hard
Life is hard. By this I don't mean to say it's full of drudgery (although it can be) or that it is beyond our means to cope (although it can be). “Hard,” in the opening sentence ought not carry a negative connotation. Basketball, when played seriously, is hard. It requires a great deal of sweat …
It’s Time for a Series!
Been thinking and writing over the last couple of weeks. The result is four new essays on salvation which I'll post over the next few days. A couple of them might seem a little odd outside the context of the set, but the four of them together were too long for a single essay. Thanks …
Spying
I am fascinated by the response to spy scandal. For the most part I'm neither surprised nor upset by it, although I admit I find the trends ominous. I wrote much more extensively about this a year ago, found here. What interests me in the current flap is our focus on the government as the …
Just Another Jim 