Can Men and Women Be “Just Friends”?

Last updated on: April 24, 2010 at 3:52 pm By Coleman Glenn

Jennica Nobre has a thought-provoking new essay over at New Church Perspective entitled “There is No Such Thing as ‘Just Friends’”. In it she proposes that there are three kinds of male/female relationships: Friendly Acquaintances: in which a man and woman see each other every so often due to circumstance, work, school, or other gatherings, enjoy each other’s company during these encounters, and do not spend much time thinking about the other person or anticipating the next encounter while not... Read more

Sacramone Responds – More on Predestination

Last updated on: April 22, 2010 at 1:35 pm By Coleman Glenn

Earlier this week I posted a link to a blog post by Anthony Sacramone condemning the idea of double predestination (i.e. that some people are born for heaven, others for hell). As you might expect, his post set off a firestorm of angry comments in response. Today Sacramone posted a response to some of the comments. Once again, it’s well worth reading. I really appreciate the way Sacramone repeats, “I don’t know the answer.” It’s a vital acknowledgment. In the... Read more

God Alone Acts

Last updated on: April 22, 2010 at 7:29 am By Coleman Glenn

“God alone acts; man permits himself to be acted upon, and cooperates to all appearance as if of himself, although interiorly from God.” (True Christian Religion n. 588) Read more

Swedenborgian Architects

Last updated on: April 21, 2010 at 4:10 pm By Coleman Glenn

Today as I was adding “Swedenborg” to my Google News page, I stumbled across a Culture24 article from a couple weeks ago about a new exhibition at the Brent Museum in Brent, London (England, not Ontario). The exhibition focuses on the architecture of Ernest Trobridge, an obscure (i.e., Wikipedia-entryless) Swedenborgian architect who designed several homes in North East London. Apparently he incorporated a lot from the Writings into his architectural philosophy. It’s hard to find out much about him on the... Read more

Does Marriage Make You Healthy?

Last updated on: April 19, 2010 at 4:28 pm By Coleman Glenn

There’s a fascinating article from yesterday’s New York Times about recent studies that give nuances to the long-held generalization that marriage tends to make people healthier. The article looks at a few different experiments and studies. The most interesting one to me measured short term effects of marital conflict on the body’s ability to heal: The experiment had two phases. Each married couple, after their forearms were subjected to [a] blistering procedure, were asked to talk together for a half-hour:... Read more

Anthony Sacramone on Predestination

Last updated on: April 19, 2010 at 2:11 pm By Coleman Glenn

Anthony Sacramone of the Evangel blog at First Things has a great post that tears down the Calvinist doctrine of double-predestination (i.e. that God chose some people to be born for heaven and some for hell and there’s nothing anyone can do about – God grants faith to some people, and if you’re not one of the lucky few, you’re out of luck). Here’s an excerpt that I particularly like: If Calvinism, especially in its supralapsarian form—which argues that God... Read more

“Pork, A Piece of Beef, Cheese, Beer and Fiery Wine”

Last updated on: April 15, 2010 at 3:25 pm By Coleman Glenn

Doing research for a doctrinal class, I was looking at Divine Providence n. 67, which says that Divine Providence not only leads a person to heaven, but leads them toward a specific place in heaven. I personally love this teaching, but I know for some people it seems to take away free will – and it does need to be balanced with the teaching that the Lord would raise everyone into heaven, and even to Himself, if He could (se... Read more

Sermon: “My Lord and My God”

Last updated on: April 14, 2010 at 8:19 am By Coleman Glenn

This is a sermon I gave at the Olivet New Church in Toronto on April 11, 2010. Readings: Isaiah 43:1-11; John 20:19-29; Apocalypse Revealed 469 MY LORD AND MY GOD A Sermon by Rev. Coleman S. Glenn “And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, Thomas, you have believed; blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed.’” (John 20:28, 29) “My Lord and my God.” ... Read more

Moving Blogs

Last updated on: January 11, 2010 at 2:28 pm By Coleman Glenn

I have too many blogs. I need to stop. Sigh. But I have a problem. I want to use this url – colemanglenn.wordpress.com – as a general purpose / pastoral blog, but I don’t want to get rid of my Lymphoma Blog, since I want it to be there after I’m done everything so that anyone who’s diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease can have some idea of what it was like for me. So, I’ve moved that blog to colemanlymphoma.wordpress.com. I’ll... Read more